3D Scene Annotation for Efficient Rendering on Mobile Devices

This paper presents a new approach for efficient 3D rendering on mobile devices, where selective rendering can be achieved with the help of 3D scene annotation. By taking advantage of first person environments in most 3D applications, we are able to annotate the flooring details of the 3D space. This allows 3D environments to be interfaced using a higher level view of objects. With the higher level of scene understanding, it is possible to determine which 3D objects are not required for loading or rendering based on the viewer’s location and its surrounding constraints

Effect of heavy metal contamination on the DNA Mutation on Nepenthes plant from abandoned mine

Objective: Heavy metal contamination on water, soil, crops and including to the other living organisms, including their effects on DNA mutation in abandoned mine is highlighted in this study Methodology: In this study, 6 toxic metals, Zn, Pb, Fe, Cd, Cr and Mn in Nepenthes plants at an abandoned copper mine site were investigated. A total of 20 Nepenthes plants were collected from different sites of the abandoned mine. Metal concentration was determined using the Inductively Coupled Plasma/Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP/OES) technique and electrophoresis gel and Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) amplification processes for DNA mutation analysis. The total concentration trend of metal concentrations recorded with Cu (up to 88.797 mg kg–1)>Mn (39.018 mg kg–1)>Zn (30.260 mg kg–1)>Pb (8.206 mg kg–1)>Cd (0.168 mg kg–1). Results: The results also showed that concentration of heavy metals in Nepenthes plants collected from the abandoned mine were much higher than in control plants. However, the concentrations were still under the tolerance limit of heavy metals in plants except for Cu concentration. Besides, the concentration of heavy metals generally is higher in the flowers of the plants. For DNA analysis, based on the image obtained the result showed the DNA bands were located at the same location with the control Nepenthes which indicated there is no mutation occurred for the Nepenthes collected from the abandoned mine. Conclusion: From the result it is suggested that pitcher plant such Nepenthes may act as a potential phytoextraction of heavy metal from contaminated soil or water compounds at the abandoned mine

In silico-guided sequence modifications of K-ras epitopes improve immunological outcome against G12V and G13D mutant KRAS antigens

Background: Somatic point substitution mutations in the KRAS proto-oncogene primarily affect codons 12/13 where glycine is converted into other amino acids, and are highly prevalent in pancreatic, colorectal, and non-small cell lung cancers. These cohorts are non-responsive to anti-EGFR treatments, and are left with non-specific chemotherapy regimens as their sole treatment options. In the past, the development of peptide vaccines for cancer treatment was reported to have poor AT properties when inducing immune responses. Utilization of bioinformatics tools have since become an interesting approach in improving the design of peptide vaccines based on T- and B-cell epitope predictions. Methods: In this study, the region spanning exon 2 from the 4th to 18th codon within the peptide sequence of wtKRAS was chosen for sequence manipulation. Mutated G12V and G13D K-ras controls were generated in silico, along with additional single amino acid substitutions flanking the original codon 12/13 mutations. IEDB was used for assessing human and mouse MHC class I/II epitope predictions, as well as linear B-cell epitopes predictions, while RNA secondary structure prediction was performed via CENTROIDFOLD. A scoring and ranking system was established in order to shortlist top mimotopes whereby normalized and reducing weighted scores were assigned to peptide sequences based on seven immunological parameters. Among the top 20 ranked peptide sequences, peptides of three mimotopes were synthesized and subjected to in vitro and in vivo immunoassays. Mice PBMCs were treated in vitro and subjected to cytokine assessment using CBA assay. Thereafter, mice were immunized and sera were subjected to IgG-based ELISA. Results: In silico immunogenicity prediction using IEDB tools shortlisted one G12V mimotope (68-V) and two G13D mimotopes (164-D, 224-D) from a total of 1,680 candidates. Shortlisted mimotopes were predicted to promote high MHC-II and -I affinities with optimized B-cell epitopes. CBA assay indicated that: 224-D induced secretions of IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, IL-12p70, and IL-21; 164-D triggered IL-10 and TNF-α; while 68-V showed no immunological responses. Specific-IgG sera titers against mutated K-ras antigens from 164-D immunized Balb/c mice were also elevated post first and second boosters compared to wild-type and G12/G13 controls. Discussion: In silico-guided predictions of mutated K-ras T- and B-cell epitopes were successful in identifying two immunogens with high predictive scores, Th-bias cytokine induction and IgG-specific stimulation. Developments of such immunogens are potentially useful for future immunotherapeutic and diagnostic applications against KRAS(+) malignancies, monoclonal antibody production, and various other research and development initiatives

Location Aware Applications for Smart Cities with Google Maps and GIS Tools

The release of internet mapping API like Google maps had changed the way many location aware systems works, this paper will look into how location visualization tools can make use of this new way in providing location service. With the emergence of wireless broadband internet in increasing number of cities, digital cities are being developed all over the world where public services could be hosted for users with a fast connection. As part of an effort to enhance a digital city, we apply visualization tools to a real estate system as a study into the usefulness of Google maps and GIS. The result will probably be used to provide more services which will in turn form a better featured digital city. Location Aware Real estate agent (LARE), a real estate agent which uses the latest technology in GIS and internet mapping systems to become a very powerful agent based system. LARE uses different technologies like 3-d modeling with VRML, local maps with GIS shapefiles, and even online maps with Google maps. Thus it provides a map view of location with a GPS and mobile device, while providing geographical updates or even digital interactivity

Wireless Location Aware Applications for Mobile Commerce

This paper explores the emerging issues of future mobile computing, reliability, privacy, locality and context aware applications. Different location aware methods with technologies like Infrared Devices, WiFi, GPS and Landmark-based reporting are reviewed. Infrared Devices suffer line-of-sight problems and sunlight interference, GPS will incur connectivity problems for indoor readings, WiFi on the other hand does not share these problems and has the advantage of low cost with high accuracy. Preliminary studies on the role of WiFi in location awareness have been made and different driver platforms for detecting mobile clients are reviewed. Driver development for Microsoft DDK technologies and Linux-wlan kernel packages are explored in detail. The knowledge of location aids the efficiency of management system such as inventory control and customer information services. Services can then be aggregated in a timely and pertinent fashion, enhancing convenience and functionality for the user. WiFi location awareness method is adapted into an inventory control system and it demonstrates the applicability and usefulness of location awareness to e-business. Location awareness can also be adapted to numerous services like tourist systems, shopping assistant, chatting and dating services

Framework for Event Discrete Simulation (FEDS)

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have recently gained much momentum in research and development, its potential to provide valuable services in key areas like military surveillances and mobile applications have attracted much attention from government and commercial research organisations. Researchers however, might not have the resources to purchase large numbers of sensors to obtain concrete research findings. Thus simulators are being created in an attempt to mimic conditions in the real world, providing research conclusions with an acceptable level of accuracy. Discrete event simulation is one way of building up models to observe the time based (or dynamic) behavior of a system. Existing discrete event sensor simulators, e.g. ATEMU, JProwler, SNetSim and SensorSim, have a tendency to be specific to hardware, not platform portable or even lack information on the flow of events. Different simulators will be reviewed in this article, some simulators are build to accept only MICA2 sensors models while others are either incomplete or has insufficient visual impact. This article will introduce FEDS (Framework for Event Discrete Simulation) which is designed to simulate objects functioning in the real physical world, events occurred are treated like messages which are being sent to environment mediums (air or water) for processing and decision making. FEDS is a generic framework meant for discrete event simulations, it can be customised by developers to simulate many scenarios from shipping lines planning to sensor networks and the objects in FEDS themselves can be further customized. FEDS is also designed to allow easy tracing of events, users can easily trace the flow of events and better understand the details of operation. Being a java implementation, FEDs is designed to be scalable and portable. This article will also look at how we can adapt a sensor network test bed to the proposed framework, messages are being sent from a sensor to another sensor in a sensor bed. A trace is also being created to observe the flow of events and how sensors react when messages are received/sent, this will allow better understanding of what has happened and can be used to prove a routes performance over others

Multi-edge decimation in multi-modal 3D collaborative applications

Multi-resolution modelling has become essential as modern 3D applications demand 3D objects with higher LODs (LOD). Multi-modal devices such as PDAs and UMPCs do not have sufficient resources to handle the original 3D objects. The increased usage of collaborative applications has created many challenges for remote manipulation working with 3D objects of different quality. This paper studies how we can improve multi-resolution techniques by performing multiedge decimation and using annotative commands. It also investigates how devices with poorer quality 3D object can participate in collaborative actions

Dynamic lock synchronisation for collaborative 3D applications

In a typical collaborative application, users contends for common resources by mutual exclusion. The introduction of multi-modal environment, however, introduced problems such as frequent dropping of connection or limited connectivity speed of mobile users. This paper target 3D resources which require additional considerations such as dependency of users' manipulation command. This paper introduces Dynamic Locking Synchronisation technique to enable seamless and collaborative environment for large number of user, by combining the contention-free concepts of locking mechanism and the seamless nature of lockless design