High-quality, real-time 3D video visualization in head mounted displays

The main goal of this thesis research was to develop the ability to visualize high- quality, three-dimensional (3D) data within a virtual reality head mounted display (HMD). High-quality, 3D data collection has become easier in past years due to the development of 3D scanning technologies such as structured light methods. Structured light scanning and modern 3D data compression techniques have improved to the point at which 3D data can be captured, processed, compressed, streamed across a network, decompressed, reconstructed, and visualized all in near real-time. Now the question becomes what can be done with this live 3D information? A web application allows for real-time visualization of and interaction with this 3D video on the web. Streaming this data to the web allows for greater ease of access by a larger population. In the past, only two-dimensional (2D) video streaming has been available to the public via the web or installed desktop software. Commonly, 2D video streaming technologies, such as Skype, FaceTime or Google Hangout, are used to connect people around the world for both business and recreational purposes. As the trend continues in which society conducts itself in online environments, improvements to these telecommunication and telecollaboration technologies must be made as current systems have reached their limitations. These improvements are to ensure that interactions are as natural and as user-friendly as possible. One resolution to the limitations imposed by 2D video streaming is to stream 3D video via the aforementioned technologies to a user in a virtual reality HMD. With 3D data, improvements such as eye-gaze correction, obtaining a natural angle of viewing, and more can be accomplished. One common advantage of using 3D data in lieu of 2D data is what can be done with it during redisplay. For example, when a viewer moves about their environment in a physical space while on Skype, the 2D image on their computer monitor does not change; however, via the use of an HMD, the user can naturally view and move about their partner in 3D space almost as if they were sitting directly across from them. With these improvements, increased user perception and level of immersion in the digital world has been achieved. This allows users to perform at an increased level of efficiency in telecollaboration and telecommunication environments due to the increased ability to visualize and communicate more naturally with another human being. This thesis will present some preliminary results which support the notion that users better perceive their environments and also have a greater sense of interpersonal communica- tion when immersed in a 3D video scenario as opposed to a 2D video scenario. This novel technology utilizes high-quality and real-time 3D scanning and 3D compression techniques which in turn allows the user to experience a realistic reconstruction within a virtual reality HMD

The effect of organic farming systems on aspects of the environment - desk study OF0123

Key Conclusions 1. The crop rotations of organic systems maintain landscape diversity and biodiversity whilst the maintenance of field boundaries on organic units produces benefits to a wide range of organisms. 2. Inorganic nitrogen fertilisation and herbicide treatments of conventionally managed grassland has reduced the floral diversity of permanent pastures and maintained the low diversity of re-seeded pastures, greatly reducing their value as wildlife habitats. 3. Pesticide use is responsible for the removal of food sourcesfor birds and mammals in the form of weeds and invertebrates, as well as removing whole populations of potentially beneficial insects. 4. The majority of water pollution incidents from farms are caused during storage and spreading of cattle and pig slurries. A higher proportion of organic cattle and virtually all organic pigs are kept on solid manure systems and therefore are les of a risk. 5. The nitrogen balance of individual 'conventional' and 'organic' systems will depend greatly on the circumstances and management practices of the individual farms. Consequently it is not possible to generalise that one system is always better than the other in terms of nitrate leaching risk. With this qualification the literature does indicate that generally, organic systems offer less risk of nitrate leaching. 6. Organic systems are less likely to cause loss of phosphate into surface and ground waters. Both leaching and loss in eroded soil are likely to be reduced. 7. Organic management practicess such as rotations, the regular use of manures and non-use of pesticides usually increase soil organic matter contents. 8. Organic practices are likely to increase earthworm numbers compared to conventional systems. The increased numbers are universally acknowledged to benefit soil fertility although such effects are difficult to quantify. 9. Soil erosion is less of a problem on organic units. 10. Accumulations of copper and zinc in soils are much reduced in organic systems because organic pig and poultry producers do not supplement feeds with these metals as growth promoters. Copper fungicides are more widely used on organic farms and their use should be carefully monitored to prevent harmful effects. 11. The practices adopted by organic farmers can reduce emissions of nitrous oxide and methane. Ammonia emissions will not necessarily be less in organic than in conventional farming. 12. Organic farmers adopt practices which benefit the landscape. They maintain and introduce features largely because they are required by the Organic Standards to do so. They introduce such management practices because they are technically necessary for successful organic production

CCD QE in the Soft X-ray Range

e2v has previously provided back-illuminated CCDs for several solar observation projects, resulting in a number of key articles on CCD QE in the soft X-ray region. To update these, e2v has arranged for tests on X-ray optimised EMCCDs at a synchrotron. These have shown QE of at least 45% from 40 eV to 2000 eV, with Enhanced process devices having significantly higher QE than Basic process. The measured values were similar to data published from the SDO SXI mission, showing that the e2v process has been stable over many years. The soft X-ray QE measurements show a reasonable fit to the simple layer model for energies > 600 eV. For energies < 100 eV, measurements show slightly lower QE than the model prediction for both Basic and Enhanced processes. For energies 100 eV to 600 eV, measurements show a reasonable fit to the model for the Basic process, but less improvement from the Enhanced process than the model predicts. Comparing the ~80% typical QE for UV-optimised CCDs at 385 nm with the 45% QE measured at 120 eV in this study, there is a discrepancy in QE for two photon energies with the same absorption length measured on CCDs from the same back-thinning process (one type with AR coating, one type without)

Interactive Model-Driven Cas e Adaptation for Instructional Software Design

Research in case-based design has demonstrated some capability to retrieve relevant designs and to adapt them automatically to satisfy new design constraints. However, some domains are less amenable to automated adaptation, particularly when the cases are very complex and when relationships among the design components are difficult to express formally. The design of interactive learning environments is one such domain. W e describe a case-based approach to instructional software design which utilizes interactive, model-driven case adaptation. Our model for computer-based instruction is Goal-Based Scenarios. W e describe a tool, Goal-Based Scenario Builder, which supports interactive adaptation of instructional software using the model, and illustrate its use in adapting an example case of a successful instructional software program, Sickle Cell Counselor

Buddy-motivational interviewing (buddy-MI) to Increase Physical Activity in Community Settings: Results of a Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial

This article describes the implementation and evaluation of a novel buddy-Motivational Interviewing intervention intended to help apparently healthy but relatively sedentary adults to adopt and maintain regular physical activity for health and fitness. This intervention is an adaptation of Motivational Interviewing which adds client-selected motivational-buddies who can provide in-session input as well as ongoing out-of-session support focused on strengthening client’s motivation for and movement toward their physical activity goals. A pragmatic parallel-group randomised controlled trial with 12-month follow-up was implemented to test the intervention. The trial demonstrated that buddy-MI was feasible and could be delivered with equivalent fidelity to standard MI and both groups demonstrated statistically significant changes across a range of behavioural and health-status outcomes. Moreover, the experimental group participants generally ‘outperformed’ the control group participants as shown by the consistent trends observed over three repeated measures out to 12-months (although these between-group differences were statistically non-significant). Qualitative data indicated participant acceptance of the programme as well as providing initial evidence of positive collateral health effects (‘ripple effects’ whereby buddies changed their behaviours also). Consideration for further development, evaluation and applications are also discussed

Buddy-Motivational Interviewing (buddy-MI) to Increase Physical Activity in Community Settings: Study Protocol for a Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial

This article describes the development and evaluation of a novel buddy-motivational interviewing intervention intended to help apparently healthy but relatively sedentary adults to adopt and maintain regular physical activity for health and fitness. Many people experience great difficulty in initiating physical activity (“the getting going problem”) and behavioural regression is common (“the keeping it going problem”). Typically there is a rather large gap between what people know to be healthy and what they actually do. This intervention is an adaptation of motivational interviewing in that it adds client-selected motivational-buddies who can provide in-session input as well as ongoing out-of-session support focused on strengthening clients’ motivation for and movement toward their physical activity goals. A pragmatic parallel group randomised controlled trial with 12-month follow-up aims to deliver and assess the effectiveness of the intervention in a format that could realistically be implemented within primary care, workplaces, schools or other similar setting. The study is due to report clinical effectiveness findings in 2014

A Bayesian approach to calibrating hydrogen flame kinetics using many experiments and parameters

First-principles Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling is used to investigate uncertainty quantification and uncertainty propagation in parameters describing hydrogen kinetics. Specifically, we sample the posterior distribution of thirty-one parameters focusing on the H2O2 and HO2 reactions resulting from conditioning on ninety-one experiments. Established literature values are used for the remaining parameters in the mechanism. The samples are computed using an affine invariant sampler starting with broad, noninformative priors. Autocorrelation analysis shows that O(1M) samples are sufficient to obtain a reasonable sampling of the posterior. The resulting distribution identifies strong positive and negative correlations and several non-Gaussian characteristics. Using samples drawn from the posterior, we investigate the impact of parameter uncertainty on the prediction of two more complex flames: a 2D premixed flame kernel and the ignition of a hydrogen jet issuing into a heated chamber. The former represents a combustion regime similar to the target experiments used to calibrate the mechanism and the latter represents a different combustion regime. For the premixed flame, the net amount of product after a given time interval has a standard deviation of less than 2% whereas the standard deviation of the ignition time for the jet is more than 10%. The samples used for these studies are posted online. These results indicate the degree to which parameters consistent with the target experiments constrain predicted behavior in different combustion regimes. This process provides a framework for both identifying reactions for further study from candidate mechanisms as well as combining uncertainty quantification and propagation to, ultimately, tie uncertainty in laboratory flame experiments to uncertainty in end-use numerical predictions of more complicated scenarios

The role of trained champions in sustaining and spreading nutrition care improvements in hospital: qualitative interviews following an implementation study.

BACKGROUND: Many patients are already malnourished when admitted to hospital. Barriers and facilitators to nutrition care in hospital have been identified and successful interventions developed; however, few studies have explored how to sustain and spread improvements. The More-2-Eat phase 1 study involved five hospitals across Canada implementing nutrition care improvements, while phase 2 implemented a scalable model using trained champions, audit and feedback, a community of practice with external mentorship and an implementation toolkit in 10 hospitals (four continuing from phase 1). Process measures showed that screening and assessment from phase 1 were sustained for at least 4 years. The objective of this study was to help explain how these nutrition care improvements were sustained and spread by understanding the role of the trained champions, and to confirm and expand on themes identified in phase 1. METHODS: Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with champions from each phase 2 hospital and recordings transcribed verbatim. To explore the champion role, transcripts were deductively coded to the 3C model of Concept, Competence and Capacity. Phase 2 transcripts were also deductively coded to themes identified in phase 1 interviews and focus groups. RESULTS: Ten interviews (n=14 champions) were conducted. To sustain and spread nutrition care improvements, champions needed to understand the Concepts of change management, implementation, adaptation, sustainability and spread in order to embed changes into routine practice. Champions also needed the Competence, including the skills to identify, support and empower new champions, thus sharing the responsibility. Capacity, including time, resources and leadership support, was the most important facilitator for staying engaged, and the most challenging. All themes identified in qualitative interviews in phase 1 were applicable 4 years later and were mentioned by new phase 2 hospitals. There was increased emphasis on audit and feedback, and the need for standardisation to support embedding into current practice. CONCLUSION: Trained local champions were required for implementation. By understanding key concepts, with appropriate and evolving competence and capacity, champions supported sustainability and spread of nutrition care improvements. Understanding the role of champions in supporting implementation, spread and sustainability of nutrition care improvements can help other hospitals when planning for and implementing these improvements. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02800304, NCT03391752

Preconception Counseling in Women With Diabetes: A population-based study in the North of England

To investigate the association of preconception counseling with markers of care and maternal characteristics in women with pregestational diabetes. The study includes data from a regional multi-center survey on 588 women with pregestational diabetes who delivered a singleton pregnancy between 2001 and 2004. Logistic regression was used to obtain crude and adjusted estimates of association. Preconception counseling was associated with better glycemic control 3 months preconception (odds ratio 1.91, 95% CI 1.10-3.04) and in the first trimester (2.05, 1.39-3.03), higher preconception folic acid intake (4.88, 3.26-7.30), and reduced risk of adverse pregnancy outcome (P = 0.027). Uptake of preconception counseling was positively associated with type 1 diabetes (1.87, 1.14-3.07) and White British ethnicity (2.56, 1.17-5.6) and negatively with deprivation score (0.78, 0.70-0.87). Efforts are needed to improve preconception counseling rates. Uptake is associated with maternal sociodemographic characteristics