SMIL State: an architecture and implementation for adaptive time-based web applications

In this paper we examine adaptive time-based web applications (or presentations). These are interactive presentations where time dictates which parts of the application are presented (providing the major structuring paradigm), and that require interactivity and other dynamic adaptation. We investigate the current technologies available to create such presentations and their shortcomings, and suggest a mechanism for addressing these shortcomings. This mechanism, SMIL State, can be used to add user-defined state to declarative time-based languages such as SMIL or SVG animation, thereby enabling the author to create control flows that are difficult to realize within the temporal containment model of the host languages. In addition, SMIL State can be used as a bridging mechanism between languages, enabling easy integration of external components into the web application. Finally, SMIL State enables richer expressions for content control. This paper defines SMIL State in terms of an introductory example, followed by a detailed specification of the State model. Next, the implementation of this model is discussed. We conclude with a set of potential use cases, including dynamic content adaptation and delayed insertion of custom content such as advertisements. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Brans-Dicke DGP Brane Cosmology

We consider a five dimensional DGP-brane scenario endowed with a non-minimally coupled scalar field within the context of Brans-Dicke theory. This theory predicts that the mass appearing in the gravitational potential is modified by the addition of the mass of the effective intrinsic curvature on the brane. We also derive the effective four dimensional field equations on a 3+1 dimensional brane where the fifth dimension is assumed to have an orbifold symmetry. Finally, we discuss the cosmological implications of this setup, predicting an accelerated expanding universe with a value of the Brans-Dicke parameter $\omega$ consistent with values resulting from the solar system observations.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, to appear in JCA

Integrated care and the working record

By default, many discussions and specifications of electronic health records or integrated care records often conceptualize the record as a passive information repository. This article presents data from a case study of work in a medical unit in a major metropolitan hospital. It shows how the clinicians tailored, re-presented and augmented clinical information to support their own roles in the delivery of care for individual patients. This is referred to as the working record: a set of complexly interrelated clinician-centred documents that are locally evolved, maintained and used to support delivery of care in conjunction with the more patient-centred chart that will be stored in the medical records department on the patient’s discharge. Implications are drawn for how an integrated care record could support the local tailorability and flexibility that underpin this working record and hence underpin practice

Management of a Case of Colovesical Fistula with Fecaluria as First Sign

Introduction. Fecaluria and pneumaturia are the patognomonic signs of an abnormal communication between the bladder and the intestinal tract. Therefore, when a history of digestive signs, symptoms or digestive diseases is missing, this borderline pathology leads the patients in the care of urologists. From diagnosis to treatment the management of these cases can be difficult and challenging. Materials and Methods. A 48 year old patient, without any significant medical history, presented to the emergency room for fecaluria, pneumaturia and an episode of haematuria. He had no prior digestive symptoms. The contrast enhanced abdominal and pelvic CT scan revealed a pelvic mass involving the sigmoid colon and the dome and the posterior wall of the bladder. The cystoscopy objectifies a tumor mass involving the right postero-lateral bladder wall, with extravasation of faeces. A biopsy was taken and the frozen section found mainly uncertain inflammatory type tissue. A colonoscopy couldn’t be done because of an impassable obstacle at 15 cm from the anus. Together with general surgeons we decided for en bloc resection of the tumor with partial cystectomy, right ureterocystoneostomy and rectosigmoid resection with mechanic end to end anastomosis. Results. The postoperative period was uneventful. The histopathological examination revealed an abscessed sigmoid diverticulum with vesico-sigmoid fistula and perilesional inflammatory tissue. Two years after the surgery the patient is asymptomatic with a normal function of the right kidney and restored bladder capacity. Conclusions. Being a borderline pathology, patients with fecaluria and pneumaturia and lack of digestive symptoms are referred and managed by the urologists. Despite extensive investigations, even when preoperative biopsies reveal inflammatory tissue the patients should be treated as oncologic cases. A close cooperation with general surgeons for en bloc multiorgan resection within oncologic safety margins is mandatory

Historical Forest Landscape Changes in the Buffalo River Sub-Basin in Arkansas

Forested areas in the United States have been altered since the time of European settlement. For this reason, research interests have increased in comparing present day vegetation with that of the preEuroamerican era to see what changes, if any, have occurred in some of our more outstanding natural areas. Such studies have been conducted in other parts of the United States but limited research has been done in Arkansas. The General Land Office (GLO) surveys of Arkansas were originally conducted between approximately 1815 and 1850 shortly after Arkansas was acquired from France by means of the Louisiana Purchase and provides the only systematic on-ground survey in Arkansas that predates most formal botanical investigations. The GLO surveys used witness trees to define the location of section corners and lines. Descriptions of witness trees included tree species and diameter along with distance and direction to the section corner or line. This historical GLO data was compared to United States Forest Service (USFS) Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data, which represent present vegetation conditions for 62 townships in the Buffalo River Sub-basin. Comparisons indicated that eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) increased from 0.7% to 7.8% of the total forest species in the sub-basin, hickory (Carya spp.) increased from 8.2% to 14.3%, while oak (Quercus spp.) species decreased from 43.0% to 30.1%. Based on this study it appears that postEuroamerican settlement fire suppression and agricultural practices in addition to other human activities has caused vegetation changes in this area

Some photometer results obtained on the NASA 1969 Airborne Auroral Expedition

The spectral features measured by a photometer onboard the Convair 990 Galileo, during the Auroral Expedition are given in tables. The measurements given cover flights 3 to 15

Curvature corrections in DGP brane cosmology

We consider a DGP inspired brane scenario where the action on the brane is augmented by a function of the Ricci scalar, ${\cal L}(R)$. The cosmological implications that such a scenario entails are examined for $R^{n}$ and shown to be consistent with a universe expanding with power-law acceleration. It is shown that two classes of solutions exist for the usual FRW metric and small Hubble radii. When the Hubble radius becomes larger, we either have a transition to a fully 5D regime or to a self-inflationary solution which produces a late accelerated expansion such that the radius becomes a function of $n$.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

A Comparison Of Late Lateral Energy (GLL) and Lateral Energy Fraction (LF) Measurements Using a Spherical Microphone Array and Conventional Methods

Late Lateral Energy Level (GLL) and Lateral Energy Fraction (LF) are two room acoustics measures that have both been shown to correlate with certain aspects of the spatial impression of a listening space. In order to obtain these quantities, the lateral energy must be measured, which is typically carried out using microphones with a figure-of-eight (figure-8) polar pickup pattern. However, most commercially available figure-8 microphones are intended for use in audio recording applications, and are not laboratory-grade or designed for room acoustics impulse response (IR) measurements. Such microphones may suffer from non-ideal frequency response and/or directivity patterns. This study compares measurements that were taken in a 2500 seat auditorium using an omni-directional and studio-grade figure-8 microphone pair versus the omni-directional and dipole components extracted from a 32 element spherical microphone array. The results show that the two measurement methods agree in the 500 Hz and higher octave bands, but differ at low frequencies due to differences in the directivity patterns. The difference of the LF average from 125 Hz to 1 kHz for the two methods was between 0.59 and 1.81 just noticeable differences (JNDs) at the six receiver locations. The difference of the GLL average from 125 Hz to 1 kHz for the two methods was between 0.02 and 0.48 JNDs (applying the JND for strength of 1 dB). It was also found that repeatability error was present at one of the six receiver locations for the LF measurements, but was very small for the GLL measurements

Gravity induced over a smooth soliton

I consider gravity induced over a smooth (finite thickness) soliton. Graviton kinetic term is coupled to bulk scalar that develops solitonic vacuum expectation value. Couplings of Kaluza-Klein modes to soliton-localized matter are suppressed, giving rise to crossover distance $r_c=M_{P}^2/M_{*}^3$ between 4D and 5D behavior. This system can be viewed as a finite thickness brane regularization of the model of Dvali, Gabadadze and Porrati.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure