Visualization Resources for Iowa State University and the Iowa DOT: An Automated Design Model to Simulator Converter, November 2012

This project developed an automatic conversion software tool that takes input a from an Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) MicroStation three-dimensional (3D) design file and converts it into a form that can be used by the University of Iowa’s National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) MiniSim. Once imported into the simulator, the new roadway has the identical geometric design features as in the Iowa DOT design file. The base roadway appears as a wireframe in the simulator software. Through additional software tools, textures and shading can be applied to the roadway surface and surrounding terrain to produce the visual appearance of an actual road. This tool enables Iowa DOT engineers to work with the universities to create drivable versions of prospective roadway designs. By driving the designs in the simulator, problems can be identified early in the design process. The simulated drives can also be used for public outreach and human factors driving research.

Development of a New Process for Determining Design Year Traffic Demands, TR-528, 2007

Researchers should continuously ask how to improve the models we rely on to make financial decisions in terms of the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of roadways. This project presents an alternative tool that will supplement local decision making but maintain a full appreciation of the complexity and sophistication of today’s regional model and local traffic impact study methodologies. This alternative method is tailored to the desires of local agencies, which requested a better, faster, and easier way to evaluate land uses and their impact on future traffic demands at the sub-area or project corridor levels. A particular emphasis was placed on scenario planning for currently undeveloped areas. The scenario planning tool was developed using actual land use and roadway information for the communities of Johnston and West Des Moines, Iowa. Both communities used the output from this process to make regular decisions regarding infrastructure investment, design, and land use planning. The City of Johnston case study included forecasting future traffic for the western portion of the city within a 2,600-acre area, which included 42 intersections. The City of West Des Moines case study included forecasting future traffic for the city’s western growth area covering over 30,000 acres and 331 intersections. Both studies included forecasting a.m. and p.m. peak-hour traffic volumes based upon a variety of different land use scenarios. The tool developed took goegraphic information system (GIS)-based parcel and roadway information, converted the data into a graphical spreadsheet tool, allowed the user to conduct trip generation, distribution, and assignment, and then to automatically convert the data into a Synchro roadway network which allows for capacity analysis and visualization. The operational delay outputs were converted back into a GIS thematic format for contrast and further scenario planning. This project has laid the groundwork for improving both planning and civil transportation decision making at the sub-regional, super-project level.

Selective in vivo visualization of immune-cell infiltration in a mouse model of autoimmune myocarditis by fluorine-19 cardiac magnetic resonance.

BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was to characterize the performance of fluorine-19 ((19)F) cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) for the specific detection of inflammatory cells in a mouse model of myocarditis. Intravenously administered perfluorocarbons are taken up by infiltrating inflammatory cells and can be detected by (19)F-CMR. (19)F-labeled cells should, therefore, generate an exclusive signal at the inflamed regions within the myocardium. METHODS AND RESULTS: Experimental autoimmune myocarditis was induced in BALB/c mice. After intravenous injection of 2×200 µL of a perfluorocarbon on day 19 and 20 (n=9) after immunization, in vivo (19)F-CMR was performed at the peak of myocardial inflammation (day 21). In 5 additional animals, perfluorocarbon combined with FITC (fluorescein isothiocyanate) was administered for postmortem immunofluorescence and flow-cytometry analyses. Control experiments were performed in 9 animals. In vivo (19)F-CMR detected myocardial inflammation in all experimental autoimmune myocarditis-positive animals. Its resolution was sufficient to identify even small inflammatory foci, that is, at the surface of the right ventricle. Postmortem immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry confirmed the presence of perfluorocarbon in macrophages, dendritic cells, and granulocytes, but not in lymphocytes. The myocardial volume of elevated (19)F signal (rs=0.96; P<0.001), the (19)F signal-to-noise ratio (rs=0.92; P<0.001), and the (19)F signal integral (rs=0.96; P<0.001) at day 21 correlated with the histological myocarditis severity score. CONCLUSIONS: In vivo (19)F-CMR was successfully used to visualize the inflammation specifically and robustly in experimental autoimmune myocarditis, and thus allowed for an unprecedented insight into the involvement of inflammatory cells in the disease process.

Visualization of communication system testing logs

During the past decades testing has matured from ad-hoc activity into being an integral part of the development process. The benefits of testing are obvious for modern communication systems, which operate in heterogeneous environments amongst devices from various manufacturers. The increased demand for testing also creates demand for tools and technologies that support and automate testing activities. This thesis discusses applicability of visualization techniques in the result analysis part of the testing process. Particularly, the primary focus of this work is visualization of test execution logs produced by a TTCN-3 test system. TTCN-3 is an internationally standardized test specification and implementation language. The TTCN-3 standard suite includes specification of a test logging interface and a graphical presentation format, but no immediate relationship between them. This thesis presents a technique for mapping the log events to the graphical presentation format along with a concrete implementation, which is integrated with the Eclipse Platform and the OpenTTCN Tester toolchain. Results of this work indicate that for majority of the log events, a visual representation may be derived from the TTCN-3 standard suite. The remaining events were analysed and three categories relevant in either log analysis or implementation of the visualization tool were identified: events indicating insertion of something into the incoming queue of a port, events indicating a mismatch and events describing the control flow during the execution. Applicability of the results is limited into the domain of TTCN-3, but the developed mapping and the implementation may be utilized with any TTCN-3 tool that is able to produce the execution log in the standardized XML format.

Enhanced Reality Visualization in a Surgical Environment

Enhanced reality visualization is the process of enhancing an image by adding to it information which is not present in the original image. A wide variety of information can be added to an image ranging from hidden lines or surfaces to textual or iconic data about a particular part of the image. Enhanced reality visualization is particularly well suited to neurosurgery. By rendering brain structures which are not visible, at the correct location in an image of a patient's head, the surgeon is essentially provided with X-ray vision. He can visualize the spatial relationship between brain structures before he performs a craniotomy and during the surgery he can see what's under the next layer before he cuts through. Given a video image of the patient and a three dimensional model of the patient's brain the problem enhanced reality visualization faces is to render the model from the correct viewpoint and overlay it on the original image. The relationship between the coordinate frames of the patient, the patient's internal anatomy scans and the image plane of the camera observing the patient must be established. This problem is closely related to the camera calibration problem. This report presents a new approach to finding this relationship and develops a system for performing enhanced reality visualization in a surgical environment. Immediately prior to surgery a few circular fiducials are placed near the surgical site. An initial registration of video and internal data is performed using a laser scanner. Following this, our method is fully automatic, runs in nearly real-time, is accurate to within a pixel, allows both patient and camera motion, automatically corrects for changes to the internal camera parameters (focal length, focus, aperture, etc.) and requires only a single image.

The effect of light exposure on the degradation of latent fingerprints on brass surfaces: the use of silver electroless deposition as a visualization technique

We have studied the degradation of sebaceous fingerprints on brass surfaces using silver electroless deposition (SED) as a visualization technique. We have stored fingerprints on brass squares either (i) in a locked dark cupboard or (ii) in glass-filtered natural daylight for periods of 3 h, 24 h, 1 week, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks. We find that fingerprints on brass surfaces degrade much more rapidly when kept in the light than they do under dark conditions with a much higher proportion of high-quality prints found after 3 or 6 weeks of aging when stored in the dark. This process is more marked than for similar fingerprints on black PVC surfaces. Identifiable prints can be achieved on brass surfaces using both SED and cyanoacrylate fuming (CFM). SED is quick and straightforward to perform. CFM is more time-consuming but is versatile and can be applied to a wider range of metal surfaces than SED, for example brass surfaces which have been coated by a lacquer.

Verifiable Visualization for Isosurface Extraction

Visual representations of isosurfaces are ubiquitous in the scientific and engineering literature. In this paper, we present techniques to assess the behavior of isosurface extraction codes. Where applicable, these techniques allow us to distinguish whether anomalies in isosurface features can be attributed to the underlying physical process or to artifacts from the extraction process. Such scientific scrutiny is at the heart of verifiable visualization - subjecting visualization algorithms to the same verification process that is used in other components of the scientific pipeline. More concretely, we derive formulas for the expected order of accuracy (or convergence rate) of several isosurface features, and compare them to experimentally observed results in the selected codes. This technique is practical: in two cases, it exposed actual problems in implementations. We provide the reader with the range of responses they can expect to encounter with isosurface techniques, both under ""normal operating conditions"" and also under adverse conditions. Armed with this information - the results of the verification process - practitioners can judiciously select the isosurface extraction technique appropriate for their problem of interest, and have confidence in its behavior.

Influence of pH on the phototransformation process of PhotogemA (R)

PhotogemA (R) is a hematoporphyrin derivative that has been used as a photosensitizer in experimental and clinical Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) in Brazil. Photosensitizers are degraded under illumination. This process, usually called photobleaching, can be monitored by decreasing in fluorescence intensities and includes the following photoprocesses: photodegradation, phototransformation, and photorelocalization. Photobleaching of hematoporphyrin-type sensitizers during illumination in aqueous solution is related not only to photodegradation but is also followed by the formation of photoproducts with a new fluorescence band at around 640-650 nm and with increased light absorption in the red spectral region at 640 nm. In this study, the influence of pH on the phototransformation process was investigated. PhotogemA (R) solutions, 40 mu g/ml, were irradiated at 514 nm with intensity of 100 mW/cm(2) for 20 min with different pH environments. The controls were performed with the samples in the absence of light. The PhotogemA (R) photodegradation is dependent on the pH. The behavior of photodegradation and photoproducts formation (monitored at 640 nm) is distinct and depends on the photosensitizer concentration. The processes of degradation and photoproducts formation were monitored with Photogemin the concentration of 40 mu g/mL since that demonstrated the best visualization of both processes. While below pH 5 the photodegradation occurred, there was no detectable presence of photoproducts. The increase of pH led to increase of photoproducts formation rate with photodegradation reaching the highest value at pH 10. The increase of photoproducts formation and instability of PhotogemA (R) from pH 6 to pH 10 are in agreement with the desired properties of an ideal photosensitizer since there are significant differences in pH between normal (7.0 < pH < 8.6) and tumor (5.8 < pH < 7.9) tissues. It is important to know the effect of pH in the process of phototransformation (degradation and photoproduct formation) of the molecule since low pH values promotes increase in the proportion of aggregates species in solution and high pH values promotes increase in the proportion of monomeric species. There must be an ideal pH interval which favors the phototransformation process that is correlated with the singlet oxygen formation responsible by the photodynamic effect. These differences in pH between normal and tumor cells can explain the presence of photosensitizers in target tumor cells, making PDT a selective therapy.

Narration, Visualization and Mind : Movies in everyday life as a resource for utopian self-reflection

The paper is analyzing how people in late modern society characterized by de-traditionalization, use moving images as a cultural resource for the construction of meaningful subjective world views. As a theoretical concept with several dimensions, “sacralization of the self” (Woodhead & Heelas 2000: 344), is related to media theory. With a critical focus on ‘the self’, as a core aspect in contemporary media society Eric W. Rothenbuhler labels the individual self as one of “the sacred objects of modern culture” (Rothenbuhler 2006: 31).I want to emphasize the need for case studies in order to undertake a critical investigation about ‘the self’ and how consumption of fiction film is interconnected to spectator´s creation of self images, but also to understand how film engagement elicits self-reflection (Giddens 1991, Axelson 2008, Vaage 2009a). The paper make use of empirical data to illustrate and theoretically develop perspectives on how the audience uses fiction film in every-day life for the construction of the self, as well for the construction of more profound and long-lasting ideas of being part of a moral community (Brereton 2005, Jerslev 2006, Klinger 2008, Mikkola et al. 2007, Vaage 2009b). Some empirical findings support a conclusion that moving images creates a transitional space for the human mind, with the capacity of transporting the spectator from real life to fiction and back to real life again, helping the individual with an ongoing process of transforming the self, dealing with who you actually are, and who you want to become (Axelson 2008, Vaage 2009b).

Visualization of spirography-based objective measures in Parkinson's disease

Objective: To investigate whether advanced visualizations of spirography-based objective measures are useful in differentiating drug-related motor dysfunctions between Off and dyskinesia in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Background: During the course of a 3 year longitudinal clinical study, in total 65 patients (43 males and 22 females with mean age of 65) with advanced PD and 10 healthy elderly (HE) subjects (5 males and 5 females with mean age of 61) were assessed. Both patients and HE subjects performed repeated and time-stamped assessments of their objective health indicators using a test battery implemented on a telemetry touch screen handheld computer, in their home environment settings. Among other tasks, the subjects were asked to trace a pre-drawn Archimedes spiral using the dominant hand and repeat the test three times per test occasion. Methods: A web-based framework was developed to enable a visual exploration of relevant spirography-based kinematic features by clinicians so they can in turn evaluate the motor states of the patients i.e. Off and dyskinesia. The system uses different visualization techniques such as time series plots, animation, and interaction and organizes them into different views to aid clinicians in measuring spatial and time-dependent irregularities that could be associated with the motor states. Along with the animation view, the system displays two time series plots for representing drawing speed (blue line) and displacement from ideal trajectory (orange line). The views are coordinated and linked i.e. user interactions in one of the views will be reflected in other views. For instance, when the user points in one of the pixels in the spiral view, the circle size of the underlying pixel increases and a vertical line appears in the time series views to depict the corresponding position. In addition, in order to enable clinicians to observe erratic movements more clearly and thus improve the detection of irregularities, the system displays a color-map which gives an idea of the longevity of the spirography task. Figure 2 shows single randomly selected spirals drawn by a: A) patient who experienced dyskinesias, B) HE subject, and C) patient in Off state. Results: According to a domain expert (DN), the spirals drawn in the Off and dyskinesia motor states are characterized by different spatial and time features. For instance, the spiral shown in Fig. 2A was drawn by a patient who showed symptoms of dyskinesia; the drawing speed was relatively high (cf. blue-colored time series plot and the short timestamp scale in the x axis) and the spatial displacement was high (cf. orange-colored time series plot) associated with smooth deviations as a result of uncontrollable movements. The patient also exhibited low amount of hesitation which could be reflected both in the animation of the spiral as well as time series plots. In contrast, the patient who was in the Off state exhibited different kinematic features, as shown in Fig. 2C. In the case of spirals drawn by a HE subject, there was a great precision during the drawing process as well as unchanging levels of time-dependent features over the test trial, as seen in Fig. 2B. Conclusions: Visualizing spirography-based objective measures enables identification of trends and patterns of drug-related motor dysfunctions at the patient’s individual level. Dynamic access of visualized motor tests may be useful during the evaluation of drug-related complications such as under- and over-medications, providing decision support to clinicians during evaluation of treatment effects as well as improve the quality of life of patients and their caregivers. In future, we plan to evaluate the proposed approach by assessing within- and between-clinician variability in ratings in order to determine its actual usefulness and then use these ratings as target outcomes in supervised machine learning, similarly as it was previously done in the study performed by Memedi et al. (2013).

Interactive music visualization: implementation, realization and evaluation

This thesis describes all process of the development of music visualization, starting with the implementation, followed by realization and then evaluation. The main goal is to have to knowledge of how the audience live performance experience can be enhanced through music visualization. With music visualization is possible to give a better understanding about the music feelings constructing an intensive atmosphere in the live music performance, which enhances the connection between the live music and the audience through visuals. These visuals have to be related to the live music, furthermore has to quickly respond to live music changes and introduce novelty into the visuals. The mapping between music and visuals is the focus of this project, in order to improve the relationship between the live performance and the spectators. The implementation of music visualization is based on the translation of music into graphic visualizations, therefore at the beginning the project was based on the existent works. Later on, it was decided to introduce new ways of conveying music into visuals. Several attempts were made in order to discover the most efficient mapping between music and visualization so people can fully connect with the performance. Throughout this project, those attempts resulted in several music visualizations created for four live music performances, afterwards it was produced an online survey to evaluate those live performances with music visualization. In the end, all conclusions are presented based on the results of the online survey, and also is explained which music elements should be depicted in the visuals, plus how those visuals should respond to the selected music elements.

Information Visualization to support decision making in the context of distance learning: A study with VLE TelEduc

Digital data sets constitute rich sources of information, which can be extracted and evaluated applying computational tools, for example, those ones for Information Visualization. Web-based applications, such as social network environments, forums and virtual environments for Distance Learning, are good examples for such sources. The great amount of data has direct impact on processing and analysis tasks. This paper presents the computational tool Mapper, defined and implemented to use visual representations - maps, graphics and diagrams - for supporting the decision making process by analyzing data stored in Virtual Learning Environment TelEduc-Unesp. © 2012 IEEE.

Visualization of Protein Folding Funnels in Lattice Models

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Tricot stitched carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite laminates manufactured by resin transfer molding process: C-scan and flexural analysis

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Teacher-learning process based on an immersive and interactive environment

This paper explores the benefits of using immersive and interactive multiprojection environments (CAVE) to visualize molecules, and how it improves users’ understanding. We have proposed and implemented a tool for teachers to manipulate molecules and another to edit molecules and assist students at home. The contribution of the present research project are these tool that allows investigating structures, properties and dynamics of a molecular system which are extremely complex and comprises millions of atoms. The experience is enriched through multimedia information associated with parts of the model; for example, videos and text can be linked to specific molecule, demonstrating some detail. This solution is based on a teaching-learning process.