568 research outputs found
Navigating large-scale virtual environments: what differences occur between helmet-mounted and desk-top displays?
Participants used a helmet-mounted display (HMD) and a desk-top (monitor) display to learn the layouts of two large-scale virtual environments (VEs) through repeated, direct navigational experience. Both VEs were ââvirtual buildingsââ containing more than seventy rooms. Participants using the HMD navigated the buildings significantly more quickly and developed a significantly more accurate sense of relative straight-line distance.
There was no significant difference between the two types of display in terms of the distance that participants traveled or the mean accuracy of their direction estimates.
Behavioral analyses showed that participants took advantage of the natural, head-tracked interface provided by the HMD in ways that included ââlooking aroundââmore often while traveling through the VEs, and spending less time stationary in the VEs while choosing a direction in which to travel
Navigating large-scale ââdesk-topââ virtual buildings: effects of orientation aids and familiarity
Two experiments investigated components of participantsâ spatial knowledge when they navigated large-scale ââvirtual buildingsââ using ââdesk-topââ (i.e., nonimmersive) virtual
environments (VEs). Experiment 1 showed that participants could estimate directions with reasonable accuracy when they traveled along paths that contained one or two turns (changes of direction), but participantsâ estimates were significantly less accurate when the paths contained three turns. In Experiment 2 participants repeatedly navigated two more complex virtual buildings, one with and the other without a compass. The accuracy of participantsâ route-finding and their direction and relative straight-line distance estimates improved with experience, but there were no significant differences between the two compass conditions. However, participants did develop significantly more accurate spatial knowledge as they became more familiar with navigating VEs in general
Optical Spectra of SNR Candidates in NGC 300
We present moderate-resolution (<5A) long-slit optical spectra of 51 nebular
objects in the nearby Sculptor Group galaxy NGC 300 obtained with the 2.3 meter
Advanced Technology Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia. Adopting
the criterion of [SII]/Ha>=0.4 to confirm supernova remnants (SNRs) from
optical spectra, we find that of 28 objects previously proposed as SNRs from
optical observations, 22 meet this criterion with six showing [SII]/Ha of less
than 0.4. Of 27 objects suggested as SNRs from radio data, four are associated
with the 28 previously proposed SNRs. Of these four, three (included in the 22
above) meet the criterion. In all, 22 of the 51 nebular objects meet the
[SII]/Ha criterion as SNRs while the nature of the remaining 29 objects remains
undetermined by these observations.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc
When Does Eddy Viscosity Damp Subfilter Scales Sufficiently?
Large eddy simulation (LES) seeks to predict the dynamics of spatially filtered turbulent flows. The very essence is that the LES-solution contains only scales of size â„Î, where Î denotes some user-chosen length scale. This property enables us to perform a LES when it is not feasible to compute the full, turbulent solution of the Navier-Stokes equations. Therefore, in case the large eddy simulation is based on an eddy viscosity model we determine the eddy viscosity such that any scales of size <Î are dynamically insignificant. In this paper, we address the following two questions: how much eddy diffusion is needed to (a) balance the production of scales of size smaller than Î; and (b) damp any disturbances having a scale of size smaller than Î initially. From this we deduce that the eddy viscosity Îœe has to depend on the invariants q = Âœtr(S^2) and r =ââ
tr(S^3) of the (filtered) strain rate tensor S. The simplest model is then given by Îœe = 3/2(Î/Ï)^2|r|/q. This model is successfully tested for a turbulent channel flow (ReÏ = 590).
First Principles Calculation of Elastic Properties of Solid Argon at High Pressures
The density and the elastic stiffness coefficients of fcc solid argon at high
pressures from 1 GPa up to 80 GPa are computed by first-principles
pseudopotential method with plane-wave basis set and the generalized gradient
approximation (GGA). The result is in good agreement with the experimental
result recently obtained with the Brillouin spectroscopy by Shimizu et al.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 4568 (2001)]. The Cauchy condition was found to be
strongly violated as in the experimental result, indicating large contribution
from non-central many-body force. The present result has made it clear that the
standard density functional method with periodic boundary conditions can be
successfully applied for calculating elastic properties of rare gas solids at
high pressures in contrast to those at low pressures where dispersion forces
are important.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR
Improved tensor-product expansions for the two-particle density matrix
We present a new density-matrix functional within the recently introduced
framework for tensor-product expansions of the two-particle density matrix. It
performs well both for the homogeneous electron gas as well as atoms. For the
homogeneous electron gas, it performs significantly better than all previous
density-matrix functionals, becoming very accurate for high densities and
outperforming Hartree-Fock at metallic valence electron densities. For isolated
atoms and ions, it is on a par with previous density-matrix functionals and
generalized gradient approximations to density-functional theory. We also
present analytic results for the correlation energy in the low density limit of
the free electron gas for a broad class of such functionals.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
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Projecting Antarctic ice discharge using response functions from SeaRISE ice-sheet models
The largest uncertainty in projections of future sea-level change results from the potentially changing dynamical ice discharge from Antarctica. Basal ice-shelf melting induced by a warming ocean has been identified as a major cause for additional ice flow across the grounding line. Here we attempt to estimate the uncertainty range of future ice discharge from Antarctica by combining uncertainty in the climatic forcing, the oceanic response and the ice-sheet model response. The uncertainty in the global mean temperature increase is obtained from historically constrained emulations with the MAGICC-6.0 (Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse gas Induced Climate Change) model. The oceanic forcing is derived from scaling of the subsurface with the atmospheric warming from 19 comprehensive climate models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP-5) and two ocean models from the EU-project Ice2Sea. The dynamic ice-sheet response is derived from linear response functions for basal ice-shelf melting for four different Antarctic drainage regions using experiments from the Sea-level Response to Ice Sheet Evolution (SeaRISE) intercomparison project with five different Antarctic ice-sheet models. The resulting uncertainty range for the historic Antarctic contribution to global sea-level rise from 1992 to 2011 agrees with the observed contribution for this period if we use the three ice-sheet models with an explicit representation of ice-shelf dynamics and account for the time-delayed warming of the oceanic subsurface compared to the surface air temperature. The median of the additional ice loss for the 21st century is computed to 0.07 m (66% range: 0.02â0.14 m; 90% range: 0.0â0.23 m) of global sea-level equivalent for the low-emission RCP-2.6 (Representative Concentration Pathway) scenario and 0.09 m (66% range: 0.04â0.21 m; 90% range: 0.01â0.37 m) for the strongest RCP-8.5. Assuming no time delay between the atmospheric warming and the oceanic subsurface, these values increase to 0.09 m (66% range: 0.04â0.17 m; 90% range: 0.02â0.25 m) for RCP-2.6 and 0.15 m (66% range: 0.07â0.28 m; 90% range: 0.04â0.43 m) for RCP-8.5. All probability distributions are highly skewed towards high values. The applied ice-sheet models are coarse resolution with limitations in the representation of grounding-line motion. Within the constraints of the applied methods, the uncertainty induced from different ice-sheet models is smaller than that induced by the external forcing to the ice sheets
Stability and toxicity of Clostridium perfringens type D epsilon prototoxin treated by iodine
Infuence of the year and HMW glutenin subunits on end-use quality predictors if bread wheat waxy lines
The effects of environment and the high molecular weight glutenins on some quality properties (sedimentation volume, % protein content, and starch pasting viscosity) of bread wheat mutant waxy lines were evaluated. Thirty-eight 100% amylose-free F 2 derived F 6 and F 7 lines were used. The results indicated that the environment did not influence sedimentation volume, mixograph parameters and starch viscosity parameters of waxy flour. Variation in the % protein content was determined mainly by the environment. The sedimentation volume and the mixograph peak development time were influenced by the variation at over expression of Bx7 and the mixograph peak development time was influenced by the Glu-D1 locus. One starch viscosity parameter, time to peak viscosity, was influenced by variation at the Glu-A1 locus. This parameter is significantly lower in the waxy lines than the parent line, which shows the influence of the waxy loci. No significant correlation was observed for sedimentation volume, mixograph parameters, protein content and viscosity parameters of waxy line
Clinical and pathological study of an outbreak of obstructive urolithiasis in feedlot cattle in southern Brazil
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