Automated Recording of Bridge Inspection Data in the Pontis Format Final Report, HR-364 April 1995

A large percentage of bridges in the state of Iowa are classified as structurally or fiinctionally deficient. These bridges annually compete for a share of Iowa's limited transportation budget. To avoid an increase in the number of deficient bridges, the state of Iowa decided to implement a comprehensive Bridge Management System (BMS) and selected the Pontis BMS software as a bridge management tool. This program will be used to provide a selection of maintenance, repair, and replacement strategies for the bridge networks to achieve an efficient and possibly optimal allocation of resources. The Pontis BMS software uses a new rating system to evaluate extensive and detailed inspection data gathered for all bridge elements. To manually collect these data would be a highly time-consuming job. The objective of this work was to develop an automated-computerized methodology for an integrated data base that includes the rating conditions as defined in the Pontis program. Several of the available techniques that can be used to capture inspection data were reviewed, and the most suitable method was selected. To accomplish the objectives of this work, two userfriendly programs were developed. One program is used in the field to collect inspection data following a step-by-step procedure without the need to refer to the Pontis user's manuals. The other program is used in the office to read the inspection data and prepare input files for the Pontis BMS software. These two programs require users to have very limited knowledge of computers. On-line help screens as well as options for preparing, viewing, and printing inspection reports are also available. The developed data collection software will improve and expedite the process of conducting bridge inspections and preparing the required input files for the Pontis program. In addition, it will eliminate the need for large storage areas and will simplify retrieval of inspection data. Furthermore, the approach developed herein will facilitate transferring these captured data electronically between offices within the Iowa DOT and across the state.

Three-dimensional portable document format: a simple way to present 3-dimensional data in an electronic publication

Three-dimensional (3D) models of teeth and soft and hard tissues are tessellated surfaces used for diagnosis, treatment planning, appliance fabrication, outcome evaluation, and research. In scientific publications or communications with colleagues, these 3D data are often reduced to 2-dimensional pictures or need special software for visualization. The portable document format (PDF) offers a simple way to interactively display 3D surface data without additional software other than a recent version of Adobe Reader (Adobe, San Jose, Calif). The purposes of this article were to give an example of how 3D data and their analyses can be interactively displayed in 3 dimensions in electronic publications, and to show how they can be exported from any software for diagnostic reports and communications among colleagues.

Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 results of model data with Community Climate System Model version 3 including the Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (CCSM3-DGVM) in NetCDF format at global and regional scale

The climate of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11, the interglacial roughly 400,000 years ago, is investigated for four time slices, 416, 410, 400, and 394 ka. The overall picture is that MIS 11 was a relatively warm interglacial in comparison to preindustrial, with Northern Hemisphere (NH) summer temperatures early in MIS 11 (416-410 ka) warmer than preindustrial, though winters were cooler. Later in MIS 11, especially around 400 ka, conditions were cooler in the NH summer, mainly in the high latitudes. Climate changes simulated by the models were mainly driven by insolation changes, with the exception of two local feedbacks that amplify climate changes. Here, the NH high latitudes, where reductions in sea ice cover lead to a winter warming early in MIS 11, as well as the tropics, where monsoon changes lead to stronger climate variations than one would expect on the basis of latitudinal mean insolation change alone, are especially prominent. The results support a northward expansion of trees at the expense of grasses in the high northern latitudes early during MIS 11, especially in northern Asia and North America.

High resolution bathymetric compilation for Potter Cove, WAP, Antarctica, with links to data in ArcGIS format

The bathymetry raster with a resolution of 5 m x 5 m was processed from unpublished single beam data from the Argentine Antarctica Institute (IAA, 2010) and multibeam data from the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO, 2012) with a cell size of 5 m x 5 m. A coastline digitized from a satellite image (DigitalGlobe, 2014) supplemented the interpolation process. The 'Topo to Raster' tool in ArcMap 10.3 was used to merge the three data sets, while the coastline represented the 0-m-contour to the interpolation process ('contour type option').

Objective Mapping of Argo data in the Weddell Gyre: a gridded dataset of upper ocean water properties, link to data files in NetCDF format

The Weddell Gyre plays a crucial role in the regulation of climate by transferring heat into the deep ocean through deep and bottom water mass formation. However, our understanding of Weddell Gyre water mass properties is limited to regions of data availability, primarily along the Prime Meridian. The aim is to provide a dataset of the upper water column properties of the entire Weddell Gyre. Objective mapping was applied to Argo float data in order to produce spatially gridded, time composite maps of temperature and salinity for fixed pressure levels ranging from 50 to 2000 dbar, as well as temperature, salinity and pressure at the level of the sub-surface temperature maximum. While the data are currently too limited to incorporate time into the gridded structure, the data are extensive enough to produce maps of the entire region across three time composite periods (2002-2005, 2006-2009 and 2010-2013), which can be used to determine how representative conclusions drawn from data collected along general RV transect lines are on a gyre scale perspective. The time composite data sets are provided as netCDF files; one for each time period. Mapped fields of conservative temperature, absolute salinity and potential density are provided for 41 vertical pressure levels. The above variables as well as pressure are provided at the level of the sub-surface temperature maximum. Corresponding mapping errors are also included in the netCDF files. Further details are provided in the global attributes, such as the unit variables and structure of the corresponding data array (i.e. latitude x longitude x vertical pressure level). In addition, all files ending in "_potTpSal" provide mapped fields of potential temperature and practical salinity.

Efficient RDF Interchange (ERI) format for RDF data streams

RDF streams are sequences of timestamped RDF statements or graphs, which can be generated by several types of data sources (sensors, social networks, etc.). They may provide data at high volumes and rates, and be consumed by applications that require real-time responses. Hence it is important to publish and interchange them efficiently. In this paper, we exploit a key feature of RDF data streams, which is the regularity of their structure and data values, proposing a compressed, efficient RDF interchange (ERI) format, which can reduce the amount of data transmitted when processing RDF streams. Our experimental evaluation shows that our format produces state-of-the-art streaming compression, remaining efficient in performance.

Microsatellite genotypic data of Euptelea pleiospermum in STRUCTURE format

We sampled leaves from 678 individuals in 21 natural populations (30-36 individuals per population), covering the entire distribution of Euptelea pleiospermum in China.Total DNA was isolated from about 50 mg powdered leaf tissue following the protocol of a DNA extraction kit (Tiangen Biotech Co., LTD., Beijing, China). We used seven fluorescence-labeled microsatellite loci (EP036, EP059, EP081, EP087, EP091, EP278 and EP294; Zhang et al., 2008) to genotype our 678 DNA samples.

Figure eight format for driver collision response data collection - feasibility study. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

About BLS data diskettes : for use with IBM-compatible microcomputers Lotus 1-2-3 or ASCII file format.

Mode of access: Internet.