BENUTZERADÄQUATE NAVIGATIONS- UND RECHERCHETECHNOLOGIEN FÜR VERTEILTE DYNAMISCHE DIGITALE BAUWERKSMODELLE

Hinsichtlich der Integration einzelner Bauwerkslebensphasen und der verschiedenen Beteiligten, insbesondere innerhalb von Bauplanungs- und Revitalisierungsprozessen, bestehen aktuell entscheidende Defizite. Die generelle Zielstellung der in diesem Beitrag vorgestellten Forschungsarbeiten besteht in der Unterstützung und Verbesserung der Integration durch die disziplin- und lebensphasenübergreifende Bereitstellung sämtlicher bauwerksbezogener Informationen. Dies erfordert einerseits geeignete Ansätze zur Modellierung und Integration der vielfältigen disziplinspezifischen Daten, andererseits geeignete Lösungen, die einen globalen Zugriff, Navigation und Recherche im Gesamtdatenbestand ermöglichen. Die Modellierung und Verwaltung bauwerksbezogener Daten ist seit längerem Gegenstand diverser Forschungsarbeiten. Im Rahmen des SFB 524 wurde ein eigener Ansatz basierend auf einem laufzeitdynamischen Partialmodellverbund entwickelt. Dieser wird in den wesentlichen Grundzügen anderen Ansätzen gegenübergestellt. Den Schwerpunkt dieses Beitrags bildet jedoch die Entwicklung einer geeigneten flexiblen Navigations- und Rechercheschicht zu Realisierung projektglobaler Informationsrecherche. Aus der Sicht der Modellierung und Datenverwaltung wie auch aus der Sicht der Informationsrecherche und Informationspräsentation in Planungsprozessen ergeben sich verschiedene Anforderungen an derartige Recherchewerkzeuge, wobei der wesentlichste Grundsatz maximale Flexibilität hinsichtlich verfügbarer Darstellungstechniken und deren freie Kombination mit Techniken formaler Suchanfragen ist. Das entwickelte Systemkonzept basiert auf einem Framework, welches verschiedene Grundtypen von Recherchemodulen und deren Interaktionsprinzipien vorgibt. Einzelne Recherchemodule werden als Ausprägungen dieser Modultypen realisiert und können je nach Bedarf laufzeitdynamisch in die Navigationsschicht integriert werden. Die technische Realisierung des Systems erfolgt im Umfeld vorhandener Prototypen aus vorangegangenen Forschungsaktivitäten. Dieses technische Umfeld gibt verschiedene Rahmenbedingungen vor, welche im Vorfeld prototypischer Implementierungen verschiedene Adaptionen des generellen Systemkonzepts notwendig machen. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt den aktuellen Entwicklungsstand der Systemlösung aus konzeptioneller und technischer Sicht sowie erste prototypische Realisierungen von Recherchemodulen vor

HOPS: Automated detection and authentication of pathogen DNA in archaeological remains

High-throughput DNA sequencing enables large-scale metagenomic analyses of complex biological systems. Such analyses are not restricted to present day environmental or clinical samples, but can also be fruitfully applied to molecular data from archaeological remains (ancient DNA), and a focus on ancient bacteria can provide valuable information on the long-term evolutionary relationship between hosts and their pathogens. Here we present HOPS (Heuristic Operations for Pathogen Screening), an automated bacterial screening pipeline for ancient DNA sequence data that provides straightforward and reproducible information on species identification and authenticity. HOPS provides a versatile and fast pipeline for high-throughput screening of bacterial DNA from archaeological material to identify candidates for subsequent genomic-level analyses

Resonant forcing of select degrees of freedom of multidimensional chaotic map dynamics

We study resonances of multidimensional chaotic map dynamics. We use the calculus of variations to determine the additive forcing function that induces the largest response, that is, the greatest deviation from the unperturbed dynamics. We include the additional constraint that only select degrees of freedom be forced, corresponding to a very general class of problems in which not all of the degrees of freedom in an experimental system are accessible to forcing. We find that certain Lagrange multipliers take on a fundamental physical role as the efficiency of the forcing function and the effective forcing experienced by the degrees of freedom which are not forced directly. Furthermore, we find that the product of the displacement of nearby trajectories and the effective total forcing function is a conserved quantity. We demonstrate the efficacy of this methodology with several examples.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Memory difference control of unknown unstable fixed points: Drifting parameter conditions and delayed measurement

Difference control schemes for controlling unstable fixed points become important if the exact position of the fixed point is unavailable or moving due to drifting parameters. We propose a memory difference control method for stabilization of a priori unknown unstable fixed points by introducing a memory term. If the amplitude of the control applied in the previous time step is added to the present control signal, fixed points with arbitrary Lyapunov numbers can be controlled. This method is also extended to compensate arbitrary time steps of measurement delay. We show that our method stabilizes orbits of the Chua circuit where ordinary difference control fails.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures. See also chao-dyn/9810029 (Phys. Rev. E 70, 056225) and nlin.CD/0204031 (Phys. Rev. E 70, 046205

Chemical composition of air masses transported from Asia to the U.S. West coast during ITCT 2K2: Fossil fuel combustion versus biomass-burning signatures

As part of the Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation experiment in 2002 (ITCT 2K2), a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) WP-3D research aircraft was used to study the long-range transport of Asian air masses toward the west coast of North America. During research flights on 5 and 17 May, strong enhancements of carbon monoxide (CO) and other species were observed in air masses that had been transported from Asia. The hydrocarbon composition of the air masses indicated that the highest CO levels were related to fossil fuel use. During the flights on 5 and 17 May and other days, the levels of several biomass-buming indicators increased with altitude. This was true for acetonitrile (CH3CN), methyl chloride (CH3Cl), the ratio of acetylene (C2H2) to propane (C3H8), and, on May 5, the percentage of particles measured by the particle analysis by laser mass spectrometry (PALMS) instrument that were attributed to biomass burning based on their carbon and potassium content. An ensemble of back-trajectories, calculated from the U.S. west coast over a range of latitudes and altitudes for the entire ITCT 2K2 period, showed that air masses from Southeast Asia and China were generally observed at higher altitudes than air from Japan and Korea. Emission inventories estimate the contribution of biomass burning to the total emissions to be low for Japan and Korea, higher for China, and the highest for Southeast Asia. Combined with the origin of the air masses versus altitude, this qualitatively explains the increase with altitude, averaged over the whole ITCT 2K2 period, of the different biomass-burning indicators. Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union

SelenoDB 2.0: annotation of selenoprotein genes in animals and their genetic diversity in humans

SelenoDB (http://www.selenodb.org) aims to provide high-quality annotations of selenoprotein genes, proteins and SECIS elements. Selenoproteins are proteins that contain the amino acid selenocysteine (Sec) and the first release of the database included annotations for eight species. Since the release of SelenoDB 1.0 many new animal genomes have been sequenced. The annotations of selenoproteins in new genomes usually contain many errors in major databases. For this reason, we have now fully annotated selenoprotein genes in 58 animal genomes. We provide manually curated annotations for human selenoproteins, whereas we use an automatic annotation pipeline to annotate selenoprotein genes in other animal genomes. In addition, we annotate the homologous genes containing cysteine (Cys) instead of Sec. Finally, we have surveyed genetic variation in the annotated genes in humans. We use exon capture and resequencing approaches to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms in more than 50 human populations around the world. We thus present a detailed view of the genetic divergence of Sec- and Cys-containing genes in animals and their diversity in humans. The addition of these data sets into the second release of the database provides a valuable resource for addressing medical and evolutionary questions in selenium biology

Gas-phase chemical characteristics of Asian emission plumes observed during ITCT 2K2 over the eastern North Pacific Ocean

The gas-phase chemical characteristics of emission plumes transported from Asia across the Pacific Ocean observed during the Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation experiment in 2002 (ITCT 2K2) are described. Plumes measured in the troposphere from an aircraft were separated from the background air in data analysis using 1-s measurements of carbon monoxide (CO), total reactive nitrogen (NOy), and other gasphase species along with back trajectory analysis. On the basis of these measurements, Asian transport plumes with CO mixing ratios greater than 150 ppbv were observed on seven flights. Correlations between 1-s observations of CO, ozone (O3), and NOy are used to characterize the plumes. The NOy/CO ratios were similar in each plume and significantly lower than those derived from estimated Asian emission ratios, indicating substantial removal of soluble NOy species during transport. Observations of nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) nitric acid (HNO3) peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), peroxypropionyl nitrate (PPN), and alkyl nitrates are used with the NOy measurements to further distinguish the transport plumes by their NOy partitioning. NOy was primarily in the form of PAN in plumes that were transported in cold high-latitude and high-altitude regions, whereas in plumes transported in warmer, lower latitude and altitude regions, NOy was mainly HNO3. Additional gas-phase species enhanced in these plumes include sulfuric acid, methanol, acetone, propane, and ethane. The O3/CO ratio varied among the plumes and was affected by the mixing of anthropogenic and stratospheric influences. The complexity of this mixing prevents the determination of the relative contribution of anthropogenic and stratospheric influences to the observed O3 levels. Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union

Particle growth in urban and industrial plumes in Texas

Particle size distributions and gas-phase particle precursors and tracer species were measured aboard an aircraft in the plumes downwind from industrial and urban sources in the vicinity of Houston, TX during the daytime in late August and early September 2000. Plumes originating from the Parish gas-fired and coal-fired power plant, petrochemical industries along the Houston ship channel, the petrochemical facilities near the Gulf coast, and the urban center of Houston were studied. Most of the particle mass flux advected downwind of Houston came from the industries and electrical utilities at the periphery of the city rather than from sources in the urban core. In SO2-rich plumes that did not contain elevated concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particle volume increased with increasing plume oxidation (age) at a rate consistent with condensation and neutralization of the gas-phase oxidation products Of SO2. In plumes that were rich in both SO2 and VOCs, observed particle growth greatly exceeded that expected from SO2 oxidation, indicating the formation of organic particulate mass. In plumes that were enhanced in VOCs but not in SO2, and in the plume of the Houston urban center, no particle volume growth with increasing plume oxidation was detected. Since substantial particle volume growth was associated only with SO2-rich plumes, these results suggest that photochemical oxidation of SO2 is the key process regulating particle mass growth in all the studied plumes in this region. However, uptake of organic matter probably contributes substantially to particle mass in petrochemical plumes rich in both SO2 and VOCs. Quantitative studies of particle formation and growth in photochemical systems containing nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2 ), VOCs, and SO2 are recommended to extend those previously made in NOx-VOC systems

Ten millennia of hepatitis B virus evolution

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between ~10,500 and ~400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between ~20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene. After the European Neolithic transition, Mesolithic HBV strains were replaced by a lineage likely disseminated by early farmers that prevailed throughout western Eurasia for ~4000 years, declining around the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. The only remnant of this prehistoric HBV diversity is the rare genotype G, which appears to have reemerged during the HIV pandemic

How to increase technology transfers to developing countries: a synthesis of the evidence

The existing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has failed to deliver the rate of low-carbon technology transfer (TT) required to curb GHG emissions in developing countries. This failure has exposed the limitations of universalism and renewed interest in bilateral approaches to TT. Gaps are identified in the UNFCCC approach to climate change TT: missing links between international institutions and the national enabling environments that encourage private investment; a non-differentiated approach for (developing) country and technology characteristics; and a lack of clear measurements of the volume and effectiveness of TTs. Evidence from econometric literature and business experience on climate change TT is reviewed, so as to address the identified pitfalls of the UNFCCC process. Strengths and weaknesses of different methodological approaches are highlighted. International policy recommendations are offered aimed at improving the level of emission reductions achieved through TT