23 research outputs found
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Perception, Cognition, and Effectiveness of Visualizations with Applications in Science and Engineering
Visualization is a powerful tool for data exploration and analysis. With data ever-increasing in quantity and becoming integrated into our daily lives, having effective visualizations is necessary. But how does one design an effective visualization? To answer this question we need to understand how humans perceive, process, and understand visualizations. Through visualization evaluation studies we can gain deeper insight into the basic perception and cognition theory of visualizations, both through domain-specific case studies as well as generalized laboratory experiments.Engineering and Applied Science
The COMPLETE Survey of Outflows in Perseus
We present a study on the impact of molecular outflows in the Perseus
molecular cloud complex using the COMPLETE survey large-scale 12CO(1-0) and
13CO(1-0) maps. We used three-dimensional isosurface models generated in
RA-DEC-Velocity space to visualize the maps. This rendering of the molecular
line data allowed for a rapid and efficient way to search for molecular
outflows over a large (~ 16 sq. deg.) area. Our outflow-searching technique
detected previously known molecular outflows as well as new candidate outflows.
Most of these new outflow-related high-velocity features lie in regions that
have been poorly studied before. These new outflow candidates more than double
the amount of outflow mass, momentum, and kinetic energy in the Perseus cloud
complex. Our results indicate that outflows have significant impact on the
environment immediately surrounding localized regions of active star formation,
but lack the energy needed to feed the observed turbulence in the entire
Perseus complex. This implies that other energy sources, in addition to
protostellar outflows, are responsible for turbulence on a global cloud scale
in Perseus. We studied the impact of outflows in six regions with active star
formation within Perseus of sizes in the range of 1 to 4 pc. We find that
outflows have enough power to maintain the turbulence in these regions and
enough momentum to disperse and unbind some mass from them. We found no
correlation between outflow strength and star formation efficiency for the six
different regions we studied, contrary to results of recent numerical
simulations. The low fraction of gas that potentially could be ejected due to
outflows suggests that additional mechanisms other than cloud dispersal by
outflows are needed to explain low star formation efficiencies in clusters.Comment: Published in The Astrophysical Journa
Evaluation of Filesystem Provenance Visualization Tools
Having effective visualizations of filesystem provenance data is valuable for understanding its complex hierarchical structure. The most common visual representation of provenance data is the node-link diagram. While effective for understanding local activity, the node-link diagram fails to offer a high-level summary of activity and inter-relationships within the data. We present a new tool, InProv, which displays filesystem provenance with an interactive radial-based tree layout. The tool also utilizes a new time-based hierarchical node grouping method for filesystem provenance data we developed to match the user’s mental model and make data exploration more intuitive. We compared InProv to a conventional node-link based tool, Orbiter, in a quantitative evaluation with real users of filesystem provenance data including provenance data experts, IT professionals, and computational scientists. We also compared in the evaluation our new node grouping method to a conventional method. The results demonstrate that InProv results in higher accuracy in identifying system activity than Orbiter with large complex data sets. The results also show that our new time- based hierarchical node grouping method improves performance in both tools, and participants found both tools significantly easier to use with the new time-based node grouping method. Subjective measures show that participants found InProv to require less mental activity, less physical activity, less work, and is less stressful to use. Our study also reveals one of the first cases of gender differences in visualization; both genders had comparable performance with InProv, but women had a significantly lower average accuracy (56%) compared to men (70%) with Orbiter.Engineering and Applied Science
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Dense Cores in Perseus: The Influence of Stellar Content and Cluster Environment
We present the chemistry, temperature, and dynamical state of a sample of 193 dense cores or core candidates in the Perseus Molecular cloud and compare the properties of cores associated with young stars and clusters with those which are not. The combination of our NH3 and CCS observations with previous millimeter, submillimeter, and Spitzer data available for this cloud enables us both to determine core properties precisely and to accurately classify cores as starless or protostellar. The properties of cores in different cluster environments and before-and-after star formation provide important constraints on simulations of star formation, particularly under the paradigm that the essence of star formation is set by the turbulent formation of prestellar cores. We separate the influence of stellar content from that of the cluster environment and find that cores within clusters have (1) higher kinetic temperatures (12.9 K versus 10.8 K) and, (2) lower fractional abundances of CCS versus and versus . Cores associated with protostars have (1) slightly higher kinetic temperatures (11.9 K versus 10.6 K), (2) higher NH3 excitation temperatures (7.4 K versus 6.1 K), (3) are at higher column density versus , have (4) slightly more nonthermal/turbulent line widths versus , have (5) higher masses versus , and have (6) lower fractional abundance of CCS versus . All values are medians. We find that neither cluster environment nor protostellar content makes a significant difference to the dynamical state of cores as estimated by the virial parameter—most cores in each category are gravitationally bound. Only the high precision of our measurements and the size of our sample make such distinctions possible. Overall, cluster environment and protostellar content have a smaller influence on the properties of the cores than is typically assumed, and the variation within categories is larger than the differences between categories.AstronomyEngineering and Applied SciencesOther Research Uni
The COMPLETE Survey of Star-Forming Regions: Phase I Data
We present an overview of data available for the Ophiuchus and Perseus
molecular clouds from ``Phase I'' of the COMPLETE Survey of Star-Forming
Regions. This survey provides a range of data complementary to the Spitzer
Legacy Program ``From Molecular Cores to Planet Forming Disks.'' Phase I
includes: Extinction maps derived from 2MASS near-infrared data using the NICER
algorithm; extinction and temperature maps derived from IRAS 60 and 100um
emission; HI maps of atomic gas; 12CO and 13CO maps of molecular gas; and
submillimetre continuum images of emission from dust in dense cores. Not
unexpectedly, the morphology of the regions appears quite different depending
on the column-density tracer which is used, with IRAS tracing mainly warmer
dust and CO being biased by chemical, excitation and optical depth effects.
Histograms of column-density distribution are presented, showing that
extinction as derived from 2MASS/NICER gives the closest match to a log-normal
distribution as is predicted by numerical simulations. All the data presented
in this paper, and links to more detailed publications on their implications
are publically available at the COMPLETE website.Comment: Accepted by AJ. Full resolution version available from:
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/COMPLETE/papers/complete_phase1.pd