Optical cements for interferometric applications

The wave front distortion introduced by optical cements is important in interferometric applications. We describe here tests performed to characterize two common cements, Epo-Tek 301 and Norland Optical Adhesive 61

Situ8: browsing and capturing geolocated user-created content

The idea behind Situ8 is a simple one: enable learners to browse and/or create their own content that is geolocated, i.e. somehow related to a physical place in the “real world” (FitzGerald, 2012a). It was inspired by the popular mScape platform (Stenton et al., 2007), that enabled users to attach multimedia content to a map and deploy it through a mobile device, with such media being ‘triggered’ by a user’s geographical position, as measured by GPS (Global Positioning System) technology. However, unlike mScape, Situ8 allows both the creation and delivery of geolocated media i.e. it is a two-process

Bilateral Harmonization of EC and U.S. Agricultural Policies

Agricultural policies in both Europe and the United States provide commodities with an excessively high and distorted pattern of support. The economic interdependencies of the policies give rise to adverse fiscal and economic costs, which are viewed as disharmonies in the existing policy measures both within and between the two regions. Unilateral and simultaneous EC and U.S. policy changes are simulated with an international trade model. They are carried in three steps: (1) grains and feeds, (2) beef and dairy, and (3) sugar. Both cross effects and own effects are examined on typical policy targets. Results suggest that while world prices are sometimes drastically altered, the magnitude of cross effects is small and sometimes ambiguous compared to own effects. Feed livestock linkages are dominant factors in the economic rationale behind the interactions between countries. The case for cooperation in this trade game is, however, supported by the evidence from at least a budget point of view.Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,

Mouse Simulation Using Two Coloured Tapes

In this paper, we present a novel approach for Human Computer Interaction (HCI) where, we control cursor movement using a real-time camera. Current methods involve changing mouse parts such as adding more buttons or changing the position of the tracking ball. Instead, our method is to use a camera and computer vision technology, such as image segmentation and gesture recognition, to control mouse tasks (left and right clicking, double-clicking, and scrolling) and we show how it can perform everything as current mouse devices can. The software will be developed in JAVA language. Recognition and pose estimation in this system are user independent and robust as we will be using colour tapes on our finger to perform actions. The software can be used as an intuitive input interface to applications that require multi-dimensional control e.g. computer games etc.Comment: 5 page

Summary of Knipes v State, 124 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 79

Appeal from a conviction of driving under the influence causing death on the basis that the district court failed to follow the procedural safeguards for juror questioning

Politically Acceptable Trade Compromises Between The EC and The US: A Game Theory Approach

A model is developed to quantify the special status of agriculture in the US and the EC trade negotiations. The role of special interests are measured by a policy goals function (PGF) whose weights are estimated for each special interest group. The analysis searches for mutually acceptable, mutually advantageous trade agreements between the US and the EC using a partial equilibrium world trade model coupled with game theory. Results suggest that it is in the best interest of the US (resp. EC) 'for the EC (resp. US) to liberalize whi1e the other follows the status quo policies of 1986. Mutual gains in PGF values to both countries pursuing "large" liberalizations are unlikely to exist, although "small" liberalizations may give rise to "small" mutual gains. Altering each country's action space, and permitting compensatory payments to the most influencial groups yields trade liberalization, but free trade does not result.game theory, trade liberalization, trade negotiations, International Relations/Trade,

Searching the World-Wide-Web using nucleotide and peptide sequences

*Background:* No approaches have yet been developed to allow instant searching of the World-Wide-Web by just entering a string of sequence data. Though general search engines can be tuned to accept ‘processed’ queries, the burden of preparing such ‘search strings’ simply defeats the purpose of quickly locating highly relevant information. Unlike ‘sequence similarity’ searches that employ dedicated algorithms (like BLAST) to compare an input sequence from defined databases, a direct ‘sequence based’ search simply locates quick and relevant information about a blunt piece of nucleotide or peptide sequence. This approach is particularly invaluable to all biomedical researchers who would often like to enter a sequence and quickly locate any pertinent information before proceeding to carry out detailed sequence alignment. 

*Results:* Here, we describe the theory and implementation of a web-based front-end for a search engine, like Google, which accepts sequence fragments and interactively retrieves a collection of highly relevant links and documents, in real-time. e.g. flat files like patent records, privately hosted sequence documents and regular databases. 

*Conclusions:* The importance of this simple yet highly relevant tool will be evident when with a little bit of tweaking, the tool can be engineered to carry out searches on all kinds of hosted documents in the World-Wide-Web.

*Availability:* Instaseq is free web based service that can be accessed by visiting the following hyperlink on the WWW
http://instaseq.georgetown.edu 
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P ORTOLAN: a Model-Driven Cartography Framework

Processing large amounts of data to extract useful information is an essential task within companies. To help in this task, visualization techniques have been commonly used due to their capacity to present data in synthesized views, easier to understand and manage. However, achieving the right visualization display for a data set is a complex cartography process that involves several transformation steps to adapt the (domain) data to the (visualization) data format expected by visualization tools. To maximize the benefits of visualization we propose Portolan, a generic model-driven cartography framework that facilitates the discovery of the data to visualize, the specification of view definitions for that data and the transformations to bridge the gap with the visualization tools. Our approach has been implemented on top of the Eclipse EMF modeling framework and validated on three different use cases

Quantitative Genetics and Functional-Structural Plant Growth Models: Simulation of Quantitative Trait Loci Detection for Model Parameters and Application to Potential Yield Optimization

Background and Aims: Prediction of phenotypic traits from new genotypes under untested environmental conditions is crucial to build simulations of breeding strategies to improve target traits. Although the plant response to environmental stresses is characterized by both architectural and functional plasticity, recent attempts to integrate biological knowledge into genetics models have mainly concerned specific physiological processes or crop models without architecture, and thus may prove limited when studying genotype x environment interactions. Consequently, this paper presents a simulation study introducing genetics into a functional-structural growth model, which gives access to more fundamental traits for quantitative trait loci (QTL) detection and thus to promising tools for yield optimization. Methods: The GreenLab model was selected as a reasonable choice to link growth model parameters to QTL. Virtual genes and virtual chromosomes were defined to build a simple genetic model that drove the settings of the species-specific parameters of the model. The QTL Cartographer software was used to study QTL detection of simulated plant traits. A genetic algorithm was implemented to define the ideotype for yield maximization based on the model parameters and the associated allelic combination. Key Results and Conclusions: By keeping the environmental factors constant and using a virtual population with a large number of individuals generated by a Mendelian genetic model, results for an ideal case could be simulated. Virtual QTL detection was compared in the case of phenotypic traits - such as cob weight - and when traits were model parameters, and was found to be more accurate in the latter case. The practical interest of this approach is illustrated by calculating the parameters (and the corresponding genotype) associated with yield optimization of a GreenLab maize model. The paper discusses the potentials of GreenLab to represent environment x genotype interactions, in particular through its main state variable, the ratio of biomass supply over demand

Calculation of design rainfall and runoff on the Bani basin (Mali): a study of the vulnerability of hydraulic structures and of the population since the drought

International audienc