Numerical modeling of microplastic interaction with fine sediment under estuarine conditions

Microplastic (MP) pollution is an important challenge for human life which has consequently affected the natural system of other organisms. Mismanagement and also careless handling of plastics in daily life has led to an accelerating contamination of air, water and soil compartments with MP. Under estuarine conditions, interactions with suspended particulate matter (SPM) like fine sediment in the water column play an important role on the fate of MP. Further studies to better understand the corresponding transport and accumulation mechanisms are required. This paper aims at providing a new modeling approach improving the MP settling velocity formulation based on higher suspended fine sediment concentrations, as i.e. existent in estuarine turbidity zones (ETZ). The capability of the suggested approach is examined through the modeling of released MP transport in water and their interactions with fine sediment (cohesive sediment/fluid mud). The model results suggest higher concentrations of MP in ETZ, both in the water column as well as the bed sediment, which is also supported by measurements. The key process in the modeling approach is the integration of small MP particles into estuarine fine sediment aggregates. This is realized by means of a threshold sediment concentration, above which the effective MP settling velocity increasingly approaches that of the sediment aggregates. The model results are in good agreement with measured MP mass concentrations. Moreover, the model results also show that lighter small MP particles can easier escape the ETZ towards the open sea

Inter-Destination Multimedia Synchronization; Schemes, Use Cases and Standardization

Traditionally, the media consumption model has been a passive and isolated activity. However, the advent of media streaming technologies, interactive social applications, and synchronous communications, as well as the convergence between these three developments, point to an evolution towards dynamic shared media experiences. In this new model, geographically distributed groups of consumers, independently of their location and the nature of their end-devices, can be immersed in a common virtual networked environment in which they can share multimedia services, interact and collaborate in real-time within the context of simultaneous media content consumption. In most of these multimedia services and applications, apart from the well-known intra and inter-stream synchronization techniques that are important inside the consumers playout devices, also the synchronization of the playout processes between several distributed receivers, known as multipoint, group or Inter-destination multimedia synchronization (IDMS), becomes essential. Due to the increasing popularity of social networking, this type of multimedia synchronization has gained in popularity in recent years. Although Social TV is perhaps the most prominent use case in which IDMS is useful, in this paper we present up to 19 use cases for IDMS, each one having its own synchronization requirements. Different approaches used in the (recent) past by researchers to achieve IDMS are described and compared. As further proof of the significance of IDMS nowadays, relevant organizations (such as ETSI TISPAN and IETF AVTCORE Group) efforts on IDMS standardization (in which authors have been and are participating actively), defining architectures and protocols, are summarized.This work has been financed, partially, by Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), under its R&D Support Program in PAID-05-11-002-331 Project and in PAID-01-10, and by TNO, under its Future Internet Use Research & Innovation Program. The authors also want to thank Kevin Gross for providing some of the use cases included in Sect. 1.2.Montagud, M.; Boronat Segui, F.; Stokking, H.; Van Brandenburg, R. (2012). Inter-Destination Multimedia Synchronization; Schemes, Use Cases and Standardization. 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High-affinity RNA binding by a hyperthermophilic single-stranded DNA-binding protein

Single-stranded DNA-binding proteins (SSBs), including replication protein A (RPA) in eukaryotes, play a central role in DNA replication, recombination, and repair. SSBs utilise an oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide-binding (OB) fold domain to bind DNA, and typically oligomerise in solution to bring multiple OB fold domains together in the functional SSB. SSBs from hyperthermophilic crenarchaea, such as Sulfolobus solfataricus, have an unusual structure with a single OB fold coupled to a flexible C-terminal tail. The OB fold resembles those in RPA, whilst the tail is reminiscent of bacterial SSBs and mediates interaction with other proteins. One paradigm in the field is that SSBs bind specifically to ssDNA and much less strongly to RNA, ensuring that their functions are restricted to DNA metabolism. Here, we use a combination of biochemical and biophysical approaches to demonstrate that the binding properties of S. solfataricus SSB are essentially identical for ssDNA and ssRNA. These features may represent an adaptation to a hyperthermophilic lifestyle, where DNA and RNA damage is a more frequent event.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Natural language processor for user driven free speech voice interaction in multimodal smart environments

The aim of the paper is to introduce a natural language processor enabling mobile multimodal interfaces to receive user driven free speech in order to enable more natural voice interaction with mobile applications and services to control devices in smart environments. Free speech of users is continuously analysed and matched against semantically defined device service commands. The concept and requirements of the language processor and the semantic description for application commands will be explained. Further the paper elaborates on how this concept was fitted into the general concept of a mobile multimodal interface and elaborates on implementation aspects of the language processor. The feasibility of the approach has been shown in a prototypical implementation. The work has been carried out as part of the research on mobile multimodal interfaces within the IST-FP6 MobiLife project. First order or main headings should commence at the left hand margin of each column, and should be in capitals and can be in bold. Except at the top of a new column the first order heading should be preceded by two lines of space and followed by two lines of space

Natural language processor for user driven free speech voice interaction in multimodal smart environments

The aim of the paper is to introduce a natural language processor enabling mobile multimodal interfaces to receive user driven free speech in order to enable more natural voice interaction with mobile applications and services to control devices in smart environments. Free speech of users is continuously analysed and matched against semantically defined device service commands. The concept and requirements of the language processor and the semantic description for application commands will be explained. Further the paper elaborates on how this concept was fitted into the general concept of a mobile multimodal interface and elaborates on implementation aspects of the language processor. The feasibility of the approach has been shown in a prototypical implementation. The work has been carried out as part of the research on mobile multimodal interfaces within the IST-FP6 MobiLife project. First order or main headings should commence at the left hand margin of each column, and should be in capitals and can be in bold. Except at the top of a new column the first order heading should be preceded by two lines of space and followed by two lines of space

Context-aware learning for intelligent mobile multimodal user interfaces

The paper presents an association rule mining based learning approach for multimodal user interface adaptation in mobile environments. High-level knowledge about user preferences in multimodal interaction is inferred, using data mining techniques based on context parameters of the environment. The current approach facilitates automatic selection of multimodality capable interaction devices and their according rendering facilities for media output streams. An overview of the learning subsystem being part of the Distributed Communication Sphere (DCS) management architecture, proposed within the EU IST-027617 project SPICE, will be introduced. Further the design of the learning approach will be discussed, including the definition and adaptation of snapshot data based on environment parameters. Frequent snapshots form the basis for learning, and therefore for the described association rule mining algorithm. Theoretical simulation results are presented and an outlook towards next research steps is given