Fabrication and characterization of cerium-doped barium titanate inverse opal by sol-gel method

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jin Yi; Zhu Yihua; Yang Xiaoling

Cerium-doped barium titanate inverted opal was synthesized from barium acetate contained cerous acetate and tetrabutyl titanate in the interstitial spaces of a polystyrene (PS) opal. This procedure involves infiltration of precursors into the interstices of the PS opal template followed by hydrolytic polycondensation of the precursors to amorphous barium titanate and removal of the PS opal by calcination. The morphologies of opal and inverse opal were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The pores were characterized by mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) investigation showed the doping structure of cerium, barium and titanium. And powder X-ray diffraction allowsmore » one to observe the influence of doping degree on the grain size. The lattice parameters, crystal size and lattice strain were calculated by the Rietveld refinement method. The synthesis of cerium-doped barium titanate inverted opals provides an opportunity to electrically and optically engineer the photonic band structure and the possibility of developing tunable three-dimensional photonic crystal devices. - Graphical abstract: Cerium-doped barium titanate inverted opal was synthesized from barium acetate acid contained cerous acetate and tetrabutyl titanate in the interstitial spaces of a PS opal, which involves infiltration of precursors into the interstices of the PS opal template and removal of the PS opal by calcination.« less

Method of determining dispersion dependence of refractive index of nanospheres building opals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kępińska, Mirosława; Starczewska, Anna; Duka, Piotr

2017-11-01

The method of determining dispersion dependence of refractive index of nanospheres building opals is presented. In this method basing on angular dependences of the spectral positions of Bragg diffraction minima on transmission spectra for opal series of known spheres diameter, the spectrum of effective refractive index for opals and then refractive index for material building opal's spheres is determined. The described procedure is used for determination of neff(λ) for opals and nsph(λ) for material which spheres building investigated opals are made of. The obtained results are compared with literature data of nSiO2(λ) considered in the analysis and interpretation of extremes related to the light diffraction at (hkl) SiO2 opal planes.

Diagenetic Microcrystalline Opal Varieties from the Monterey Formation, CA: HRTEM Study of Structures and Phase Transformation Mechanisms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cady, Sherry L.; Wenk, H.-R.; DeVincenzi, Don (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

Microcrystalline opal varieties form as intermediary precipitates during the diagenetic transformation of biogenically precipitated non-crystalline opal (opal-A) to microquartz. With regard to the Monterey Formation of California, X-ray powder diffraction studies have shown that a decrease in the primary d-spacing of opal-CT toward that of cristobalite occurs with increasing diagenesis. The initial timing of opal-CT/quartz formation and the value of the primary opal-CT d-spacing, are influenced by the sediment. lithology. Transmission electron microscopy methods (CTEM/HRTEM) were used to investigate the structure of the diagenetic phases and establish transformation mechanisms between the varieties of microcrystalline opals in charts and porcelanites from the Monterey Formation. HRTEM images revealed that the most common fibrous varieties of microcrystalline opals contain varying amounts of structural disorder. Finite lamellar units of cristobalite-and tridymite-type. layer sequences were found to be randomly stacked in a direction perpendicular to the fiber axis. Disordered and ordered fibers were found to have coprecipitated within the same radial fiber bundles that formed within the matrix of the Most siliceous samples. HRTEM images, which reveal that the fibers within radial and lepispheric fiber bundles branch non-crystallographically, support an earlier proposal that microspheres in chert grow via a spherulitic growth mechanism. A less common variety of opal-CT was found to be characterized by non-parallel (low-angle) stacking sequences that often contain twinned lamellae. Tabular-shaped crystals of orthorhombic tridymite (PO-2) were also identified in the porcelanite samples. A shift in the primary d-spacing of opal-CT has been interpreted as an indication of solid-state ordering g toward a predominantly cristobalite structure, (opal-C). Domains of opal-C were identified as topotactically-oriented overgrowths on discrete Sections of opal-CT fibers and as lamellar domains within relict opal-CT fibers. These findings indicate that the type of transformation mechanism depends upon the primary structural characteristics of the authigenic opaline. varieties that are in turn influenced by the sediment lithology.

Infiltrating a thin or single-layer opal with an atomic vapour: Sub-Doppler signals and crystal optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moufarej, Elias; Maurin, Isabelle; Zabkov, Ilya; Laliotis, Athanasios; Ballin, Philippe; Klimov, Vasily; Bloch, Daniel

2014-10-01

Artificial thin glass opals can be infiltrated with a resonant alkali-metal vapour, providing novel types of hybrid systems. The reflection at the interface between the substrate and the opal yields a resonant signal, which exhibits sub-Doppler structures in linear spectroscopy for a range of oblique incidences. This result is suspected to originate in an effect of the three-dimensional confinement of the vapour in the opal interstices. It is here extended to a situation where the opal is limited to a few- or even a single-layer opal film, which is a kind of bidimensional grating. We have developed a flexible one-dimensional layered optical model, well suited for a Langmuir-Blodgett opal. Once extended to the case of a resonant infiltration, the model reproduces quick variations of the lineshape with incidence angle or polarization. Alternately, for an opal limited to a single layer of identical spheres, a three-dimensional numerical calculation was developed. It predicts crystalline anisotropy, which is demonstrated through diffraction on an empty opal made of a single layer of polystyrene spheres.

OPAL Netlogo Land Condition Model

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-08-15

ER D C/ CE RL T R- 14 -1 2 Optimal Allocation of Land for Training and Non-training Uses ( OPAL ) OPAL Netlogo Land Condition Model...Fulton, Natalie Myers, Scott Tweddale, Dick Gebhart, Ryan Busby, Anne Dain-Owens, and Heidi Howard August 2014 OPAL team measuring above and...online library at http://acwc.sdp.sirsi.net/client/default. Optimal Allocation of Land for Training and Non-training Uses ( OPAL ) ERDC/CERL TR-14-12

Opal shell structures: direct assembly versus inversion approach.

PubMed

Deng, Tian-Song; Sharifi, Parvin; Marlow, Frank

2013-09-16

Opal shell structures can be fabricated in two ways: By direct assembly from hollow spheres (hs-opal) or by infiltration of precursors into opal templates and inversion. The resulting lattice disturbances were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical microscopy, and transmission spectra. The hs-opal system shows much lower disturbances, for example, a lower number of cracks and lattice deformations. The strong suppression of crack formation in one of these inverse opal structures can be considered as promising candidates for the fabrication of more perfect photonic crystals. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Rapid precipitation of silica (opal-A) disguises evidence of biogenicity in high-temperature geothermal deposits: Case study from Dagunguo hot spring, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Xiaotong; Jones, Brian

2012-06-01

Dagunguo Spring, located in the Tengchong geothermal area in the western part of Yunnan Province, China, is a very active spring with water temperatures of 78 to 97 °C and pH of 7.7 to 8.8. The vent pool, 5.6 m in diameter and up to 1.5 m deep, is lined with opal-A that was precipitated from the near-boiling spring waters. A glass suspended in the pool was coated with opal-A in two months and two PVC pipes that drained water from the pool in late 2010 became lined with opal-A precipitates in less than three months. The opal-A accumulated at rates of 0.5 to 0.75 mm/month in the spring pool and 2.5 to 3.5 mm/month in the PVC pipes. The opal-A precipitates, irrespective of where they developed, are formed primarily of silicified microbes and opal-A spheres along with minor amounts of native sulfur, detrital quartz, and clay (mainly kaolinite). The fabrics in these opal-A deposits were dictated largely by the growth patterns of the filamentous and rod-shaped microbes that dominate this low-diversity biota and the amount of opal-A that was precipitated around them. Many of the microbes were preserved as rapid opal-A was precipitated on and around them before the cells decayed. With continued precipitation, however, the microbes became quickly engulfed in the opal-A precipitates and morphological evidence of their presence was lost. In essence, the process that controls their preservation ultimately disguised them to the point where cannot be seen. Critically, this loss of morphological identity takes places even before opal-A starts its diagenetic transformation towards quartz.

What controls silicon isotope fractionation during dissolution of diatom opal?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wetzel, F.; de Souza, G. F.; Reynolds, B. C.

2014-04-01

The silicon isotope composition of opal frustules from photosynthesising diatoms is a promising tool for studying past changes in the marine silicon cycle, and indirectly that of carbon. Dissolution of this opal may be accompanied by silicon isotope fractionation that could disturb the pristine silicon isotope composition of diatom opal acquired in the surface ocean. It has previously been shown that dissolution of fresh and sediment trap diatom opal in seawater does fractionate silicon isotopes. However, as the mechanism of silicon isotope fractionation remained elusive, it is uncertain whether opal dissolution in general is associated with silicon isotope fractionation considering that opal chemistry and surface properties are spatially and temporally (i.e. opal of different age) diverse. In this study we dissolved sediment core diatom opal in 5 mM NaOH and found that this process is not associated with significant silicon isotope fractionation. Since no variability of the isotope effect was observed over a wide range of dissolution rates, we can rule out the suggestion that back-reactions had a significant influence on the net isotope effect. Similarly, we did not observe an impact of temperature, specific surface area, or degree of undersaturation on silicon isotope partitioning during dissolution, such that these can most likely also be ruled out as controlling factors. We discuss the potential impacts of the chemical composition of the dissolution medium and age of diatom opal on silicon isotope fractionation during dissolution. It appears most likely that the controlling mechanism of silicon isotope fractionation during dissolution is related to the reactivity, or potentially, aluminium content of the opal. Such a dependency would imply that silicon isotope fractionation during dissolution of diatom opal is spatially and temporally variable. However, since the isotope effects during dissolution are small, the silicon isotope composition of diatom opal appears to be robust against dissolution in the deep sea sedimentary environment.

High-quality substrate for fluorescence enhancement using agarose-coated silica opal film.

PubMed

Xu, Ming; Li, Juan; Sun, Liguo; Zhao, Yuanjin; Xie, Zhuoying; Lv, Linli; Zhao, Xiangwei; Xiao, Pengfeng; Hu, Jing; Lv, Mei; Gu, Zhongze

2010-08-01

To improve the sensitivity of fluorescence detection in biochip, a new kind of substrates was developed by agarose coating on silica opal film. In this study, silica opal film was fabricated on glass substrate using the vertical deposition technique. It can provide stronger fluorescence signals and thus improve the detection sensitivity. After coating with agarose, the hybrid film could provide a 3D support for immobilizing sample. Comparing with agarose-coated glass substrate, the agarose-coated opal substrates could selectively enhance particular fluorescence signals with high sensitivity when the stop band of the silica opal film in the agarose-coated opal substrate overlapped the fluorescence emission wavelength. A DNA hybridization experiment demonstrated that fluorescence intensity of special type of agarose-coated opal substrates was about four times that of agarose-coated glass substrate. These results indicate that the optimized agarose-coated opal substrate can be used for improving the sensitivity of fluorescence detection with high quality and selectivity.

Fabrication of titania inverse opals by multi-cycle dip-infiltration for optical sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiang, Chun-Chen; Tuyen, Le Dac; Ren, Ching-Rung; Chau, Lai-Kwan; Wu, Cheng Yi; Huang, Ping-Ji; Hsu, Chia Chen

2016-04-01

We have demonstrated a low-cost method to fabricate TiO2 inverse opal photonic crystals with high refractive index skeleton. The TiO2 inverse opal films were fabricated from a polystyrene opal template by multi-cycle dip-infiltration-coating method. The properties of the TiO2 inverse opal films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Bragg reflection spectroscopy. The reflection spectroscopic measurements of the TiO2 inverse opal films were compared with theories of photonic band calculations and Bragg law. The agreement between experiment and theory indicates that we can precisely predict the refractive index of the infiltrated liquid sample in the TiO2 inverse opal films from the measurement results. The red-shift of the peak wavelength in the Bragg reflection spectra for both alcohol mixtures and aqueous sucrose solutions of increasing refractive index was observed and respective refractive index sensitivities of 296 and 286 nm/RIU (refractive index unit) were achieved. As the fabrication of the TiO2 inverse opal films and reflection spectroscopic measurement are fairly easy, the TiO2 inverse opal films have potential applications in optical sensing.

Ornamental Stones and Gemstones: The limits of heritage stone designation: The case for and against Australian Precious Opal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cooper, Barry

2015-04-01

When the international designation of natural stone types was first mooted in 2007, stones that were utilised in building and construction were the primary focus of attention. However following public discussion it soon became apparent that sculptural stones, stone used for utilitarian purposes such as millstones, as well as archaeological materials including stones used by early man could all be positively assessed as a potential Global Heritage Stone Resource (GHSR). Over the past 2 years it has been realised there is also a range of ornamental and semi-precious stones that may also be considered in the same international context. Examples in this respect include Imperial Porphyry sourced from Egypt that was much prized in the ancient world and "Derbyshire Blue John" a variety of fluorspar from central England that was used for vases, chalices, urns, candle sticks, jars, bowls door, jewellery and fire-place surrounds, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is at this point that rock materials, sometimes used as gemstones, impinge on the domain of typical heritage stones. In Australia, the gemstone most identifiable with the country is precious opal formed by sedimentary processes in the Great Artesian Basin. In this paper the question is asked whether "Australian Precious Opal" could be or should be considered as a heritage stone of international significance. Immediately Australian Precious Opal satisfies several GHSR criteria including historic use for more than 50 years and wide-ranging utilisation for prestige jewellery around the world. It is also recognised as a cultural icon including association with national identity in Australia as it is legally defined as Australia's "National Gemstone" as well as being the "Gemstone Emblem" for the State of South Australia. Opal continues to be mined. Designation of Australian Precious Opal as a Global Heritage Stone Resource would likely involve formal international recognition of Australian opal in the geological arena for the first time. Arguments against the international designation of opal may be that the GHSR designation was meant primarily for building stone, not gemstones, even if it is possible to purchase tiles with embedded opal material. It may be argued that opal is also a mineral not a stone or rock however the precious quality of opal results from mineral impurities/ crystal irregularities and specimens of boulder Opal are best regarded as rock. The decision on this matter is best based on whether designating precious opal will beneficially facilitate increased professional, community, national and international awareness of opal especially through scientific investigation, whilst also assisting marketing of opal as a commercial commodity. In addition, the real benefit of grouping opal in a designation that includes building stone needs to be considered? It is likely that not all gemstones could beneficially be designated a heritage stone because the level of manufacturing or processing may be so great that most natural qualities of the material are lost. In addition, Australian opal should most likely be beneficially recognised in an "Australian Precious Opal Province" given the extent of regional opal variation in Australia coupled with the unusual sedimentary aspect of most occurrences.

Modified spontaneous emission of silicon nanocrystals embedded in artificial opals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Janda, Petr; Valenta, Jan; Rehspringer, Jean-Luc; Mafouana, Rodrigue R.; Linnros, Jan; Elliman, Robert G.

2007-10-01

Si nanocrystals (NCs) were embedded in synthetic silica opals by means of Si-ion implantation or opal impregnation with porous-Si suspensions. In both types of sample photoluminescence (PL) is strongly Bragg-reflection attenuated (up to 75%) at the frequency of the opal stop-band in a direction perpendicular to the (1 1 1) face of the perfect hcp opal structure. Time-resolved PL shows a rich distribution of decay rates, which contains both shorter and longer decay components compared with the ordinary stretched exponential decay of Si NCs. This effect reflects changes in the spontaneous emission rate of Si NCs due to variations in the local density of states of real opal containing defects.

Biocompatibility of crystalline opal nanoparticles.

PubMed

Hernández-Ortiz, Marlen; Acosta-Torres, Laura S; Hernández-Padrón, Genoveva; Mendieta, Alicia I; Bernal, Rodolfo; Cruz-Vázquez, Catalina; Castaño, Victor M

2012-10-22

Silica nanoparticles are being developed as a host of biomedical and biotechnological applications. For this reason, there are more studies about biocompatibility of silica with amorphous and crystalline structure. Except hydrated silica (opal), despite is presents directly and indirectly in humans. Two sizes of crystalline opal nanoparticles were investigated in this work under criteria of toxicology. In particular, cytotoxic and genotoxic effects caused by opal nanoparticles (80 and 120 nm) were evaluated in cultured mouse cells via a set of bioassays, methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium-bromide (MTT) and 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU). 3T3-NIH cells were incubated for 24 and 72 h in contact with nanocrystalline opal particles, not presented significant statistically difference in the results of cytotoxicity. Genotoxicity tests of crystalline opal nanoparticles were performed by the BrdU assay on the same cultured cells for 24 h incubation. The reduction of BrdU-incorporated cells indicates that nanocrystalline opal exposure did not caused unrepairable damage DNA. There is no relationship between that particles size and MTT reduction, as well as BrdU incorporation, such that the opal particles did not induce cytotoxic effect and genotoxicity in cultured mouse cells.

Results using the OPAL strategy in Mandarin speaking cochlear implant recipients.

PubMed

Vandali, Andrew E; Dawson, Pam W; Arora, Komal

2017-01-01

To evaluate the effectiveness of an experimental pitch-coding strategy for improving recognition of Mandarin lexical tone in cochlear implant (CI) recipients. Adult CI recipients were tested on recognition of Mandarin tones in quiet and speech-shaped noise at a signal-to-noise ratio of +10 dB; Mandarin sentence speech-reception threshold (SRT) in speech-shaped noise; and pitch discrimination of synthetic complex-harmonic tones in quiet. Two versions of the experimental strategy were examined: (OPAL) linear (1:1) mapping of fundamental frequency (F0) to the coded modulation rate; and (OPAL+) transposed mapping of high F0s to a lower coded rate. Outcomes were compared to results using the clinical ACE™ strategy. Five Mandarin speaking users of Nucleus® cochlear implants. A small but significant benefit in recognition of lexical tones was observed using OPAL compared to ACE in noise, but not in quiet, and not for OPAL+ compared to ACE or OPAL in quiet or noise. Sentence SRTs were significantly better using OPAL+ and comparable using OPAL to those using ACE. No differences in pitch discrimination thresholds were observed across strategies. OPAL can provide benefits to Mandarin lexical tone recognition in moderately noisy conditions and preserve perception of Mandarin sentences in challenging noise conditions.

Virgin Valley opal district, Humboldt County, Nevada

USGS Publications Warehouse

Staatz, Mortimer Hay; Bauer, Herman L.

1951-01-01

The Virgin Valley opal district, Humboldt County, Nevada, is near the Oregon-Nevada border in the Sheldon Game Refuge. Nineteen claims owned by Jack and Toni Crane were examined, sampled, and tested radiometrically for uranium. Numerous discontinuous layers of opal are interbedded with a gently-dipping series of vitric tuff and ash which is at least 300 ft thick. The tuff and ash are capped by a dark, vesicular basalt in the eastern part of the area and by a thin layer of terrace qravels in the area along the west side of Virgin Valley. Silicification of the ash and tuff has produced a rock that ranges from partly opalized rock that resembles silicified shale to completely altered rock that is entirely translucent, and consists of massive, brown and pale-green opal. Carnotite, the only identified uranium mineral, occurs as fracture coatings or fine layers in the opal; in places, no uranium minerals are visible in the radioactive opal. The opal layers are irregular in extent and thickness. The exposed length of the layers ranges from 8 to 1, 200 ft or more, and the thickness of the layers ranges from 0. 1 to 3. 9 ft. The uranium content of each opal layer, and of different parts of the same layer, differs widely. On the east side of Virgin Valley four of the seven observed opal layers, nos. 3, 4, 5, and 7, are more radioactive than the average; and the uranium content ranges from 0. 002 to 0. 12 percent. Two samples, taken 5 ft apart across opal layer no. 7, contained 0. 003 and 0. -049 percent uranium. On the west side of the valley only four of the fifteen observed opal layers, nos; 9, , 10, 14, and 15, are more radioactive than the average; and the uranium content ranges from 0. 004 to 0. 047 percent. Material of the highest grade was found in a small discontinuous layer of pale-green opal (no. 4) on the east side of Virgin Valley. The grade of this layer ranged from 0. 027 to 0. 12 percent uranium.

Three-dimensional Bragg diffraction in growth-disordered opals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baryshev, A. V.; Kaplyanskii, Alexander A.; Kosobukin, Vladimir A.; Limonov, M. F.; Samusev, K. B.; Usvyat, D. E.

2003-06-01

After artificial opals as well as opal-based infilled and inverted composites are considered to be promising representatives of photonic crystal materials. Earlier, photonic stop gaps in opals were studied mainly in transmission or specular reflection geometries corresponding to "one-dimensional" Bragg diffraction. On the contrary, this work was aimed at observing the typical patterns of optical Bragg diffraction in which phenomenon opal crystal structure acts as a three-dimensional diffraction grating. Although our experiments were performed for artificial opals possessing unavoidable imperfections a well-pronounced diffraction peaks were observed characteristic of a crystal structure. Each of the diffraction maxima reveals a photonic stop gap in the specified direction, while the spectral width of the peak is a measure of the photonic stop gap width.

Biocompatibility of crystalline opal nanoparticles

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Silica nanoparticles are being developed as a host of biomedical and biotechnological applications. For this reason, there are more studies about biocompatibility of silica with amorphous and crystalline structure. Except hydrated silica (opal), despite is presents directly and indirectly in humans. Two sizes of crystalline opal nanoparticles were investigated in this work under criteria of toxicology. Methods In particular, cytotoxic and genotoxic effects caused by opal nanoparticles (80 and 120 nm) were evaluated in cultured mouse cells via a set of bioassays, methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium-bromide (MTT) and 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU). Results 3T3-NIH cells were incubated for 24 and 72 h in contact with nanocrystalline opal particles, not presented significant statistically difference in the results of cytotoxicity. Genotoxicity tests of crystalline opal nanoparticles were performed by the BrdU assay on the same cultured cells for 24 h incubation. The reduction of BrdU-incorporated cells indicates that nanocrystalline opal exposure did not caused unrepairable damage DNA. Conclusions There is no relationship between that particles size and MTT reduction, as well as BrdU incorporation, such that the opal particles did not induce cytotoxic effect and genotoxicity in cultured mouse cells. PMID:23088559

Inverse opal photonic crystals with photonic band gaps in the visible and near-infrared

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jarvis, Brandon C.; Gilleland, Cody L.; Renfro, Tim; Gutierrez, Jose; Parikh, Kunjal; Glosser, R.; Landon, Preston B.

2005-08-01

Colloidal silica spheres with 200nm, 250nm, and 290nm diameters were self-assembled with single crystal crystallites 4-5mm wide and 10-15mm long. Larger spheres with diameters between 1000-2300nm were self-assembled with single crystal crystallites up to 1.5mm wide and 2mm long. The silica opals self-assembled vertically along the [100] direction of the face centered cubic lattice resulting in self-templated opals. Inverse opal photonic crystals with a partial band gap possessing a maximum in the near infrared at 3.8μm were constructed from opal templates composed of 2300nm diameter spheres with chalcogenide Ge33As12Se55 (AMTIR-1), a transparent glass in the near infrared with high refractive index. Inverse gold and gold/ polypropylene composite photonic crystals were fabricated from synthetic opal templates composed of 200-290nm silica spheres. The reflectance spectra and electrical conductance of the resulting structures is presented. Gold was infiltrated into opal templates as gold chloride and heat converted to metallic gold. Opals partially infiltrated with gold were co-infiltrated with polypropylene plastic for mechanical support prior to removal of the silica template with hydrofluoric acid.

Determination of the real structure of artificial and natural opals on the basis of three-dimensional reconstructions of reciprocal space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eliseev, A. A.; Gorozhankin, D. F.; Napolskii, K. S.; Petukhov, A. V.; Sapoletova, N. A.; Vasilieva, A. V.; Grigoryeva, N. A.; Mistonov, A. A.; Byelov, D. V.; Bouwman, W. G.; Kvashnina, K. O.; Chernyshov, D. Yu.; Bosak, A. A.; Grigoriev, S. V.

2009-10-01

The distribution of the scattering intensity in the reciprocal space for natural and artificial opals has been reconstructed from a set of small-angle X-ray diffraction patterns. The resulting three-dimensional intensity maps are used to analyze the defect structure of opals. The structure of artificial opals can be satisfactorily described in the Wilson probability model with the prevalence of layers in the fcc environment. The diffraction patterns observed for a natural opal confirm the presence of sufficiently long unequally occupied fcc domains.

Fabrication of Au- and Ag–SiO{sub 2} inverse opals having both localized surface plasmon resonance and Bragg diffraction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Erola, Markus O.A.; Philip, Anish; Ahmed, Tanzir

The inverse opal films of SiO{sub 2} containing metal nanoparticles can have both the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of metal nanoparticles and the Bragg diffraction of inverse opal crystals of SiO{sub 2}, which are very useful properties for applications, such as tunable photonic structures, catalysts and sensors. However, effective processes for fabrication of these films from colloidal particles have rarely been reported. In our study, two methods for preparation of inverse opal films of SiO{sub 2} with three different crystal sizes and containing gold or silver nanoparticles (NPs) via self-assembly using electrostatic interactions and capillary forces are reported. Themore » Bragg diffraction of inverse opal films of SiO{sub 2} in the presence and absence of the template was measured and predicted on the basis of with UV–vis spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The preparation methods used provided good-quality inverse opal SiO{sub 2} films containing highly dispersed, plasmonic AuNPs or AgNPs and having both Bragg diffractions and LSPRs. - Graphical abstract: For syntheses of SiO{sub 2} inverse opals containing Au/Ag nanoparticles two approaches and three template sizes were employed. Self-assembly of template molecules and metal nanoparticles occurred using electrostatic interactions and capillary forces. Both the Bragg diffraction of the photonic crystal and the localized surface plasmon resonance of Au/Ag nanoparticles were detected. - Highlights: • Fabrication methods of silica inverse opals containing metal nanoparticles studied. • Three template sizes used to produce SiO{sub 2} inverse opals with Au/Ag nanoparticles. • PS templates with Au nanoparticles adsorbed used in formation of inverse opals. • Ag particles infiltrated in inverse opals with capillary and electrostatic forces. • Bragg diffractions of IOs and surface plasmon resonances of nanoparticles observed.« less

OPALS Final Testing

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-07-24

Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science OPALS flight terminal undergoes final testing at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. OPALS was launched to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 18, 2014.

OPALS Final Inspection

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-07-24

The Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science OPALS undergoes final inspection prior to shipment to NASA Kennedy Space Center. OPALS was launched to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 18, 2014.

OPALS on the ISS Artist Concept

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-07-24

This artist rendition shows the Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science OPALS operating from the International Space Station. OPALS was launched to the station from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 18, 2014.

Photonic band gap in (Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O3 inverse opals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Bo; Zhou, Ji; Hao, Lifeng; Hu, Wei; Zong, Ruilong; Cai, Minmin; Fu, Min; Gui, Zhilun; Li, Longtu; Li, Qi

2003-05-01

(Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O3 (PLZT) inverse opal photonic crystals were synthesized by a process of self-assembly in combination with a sol-gel technique. In this process, PLZT precursors were infiltrated into the interstices of the opal template assembled by monodisperse submicron polystyrene spheres, and then gelled in a humid environment. Polystyrene template was removed by calcining the specimen at a final temperature of 700 °C accompanied with the crystallization of perovskite phase in PLZT inverse opal network. Scanning electron microscope images show that the inverse opals possess a fcc structure with a lattice constant of 250 nm. A wide photonic band gap in the visible range is observed from transmission spectra of the sample. Such PLZT inverse opals as photonic crystals should be of importance in device applications.

Enhanced photochemical catalysis of TiO2 inverse opals by modification with ZnO or Fe2O3 using ALD and the hydrothermal method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Jiatong; Sun, Cuifeng; Fu, Ming; Long, Jie; He, Dawei; Wang, Yongsheng

2018-02-01

The development of porous materials exhibiting photon regulation abilities for improved photoelectrochemical catalysis performance is always one of the important goals of solar energy harvesting. In this study, methods to improve the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 inverse opals were discussed. TiO2 inverse opals were prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) using colloidal crystal templates. In addition, TiO2 inverse opal heterostructures were fabricated using colloidal heterocrystals by repeated vertical deposition using different colloidal spheres. The hydrothermal method and ALD were used to prepare ZnO- or Fe2O3-modified TiO2 inverse opals on the internal surfaces of the TiO2 porous structures. Although the photonic reflection band was not significantly varied by oxide modification, the presence of Fe2O3 in the TiO2 inverse opals enhanced their visible absorption. The conformally modified oxides on the TiO2 inverse opals could also form energy barriers and avoid the recombination of electrons and holes. The fabrication of the TiO2 photonic crystal heterostructures and modification with ZnO or Fe2O3 can enhance the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 inverse opals.

Inverse opal carbons for counter electrode of dye-sensitized solar cells.

PubMed

Kang, Da-Young; Lee, Youngshin; Cho, Chang-Yeol; Moon, Jun Hyuk

2012-05-01

We investigated the fabrication of inverse opal carbon counter electrodes using a colloidal templating method for DSSCs. Specifically, bare inverse opal carbon, mesopore-incoporated inverse opal carbon, and graphitized inverse opal carbon were synthesized and stably dispersed in ethanol solution for spray coating on a FTO substrate. The thickness of the electrode was controlled by the number of coatings, and the average relative thickness was evaluated by measuring the transmittance spectrum. The effect of the counter electrode thickness on the photovoltaic performance of the DSSCs was investigated and analyzed by interfacial charge transfer resistance (R(CT)) under EIS measurement. The effect of the surface area and conductivity of the inverse opal was also investigated by considering the increase in surface area due to the mesopore in the inverse opal carbon and conductivity by graphitization of the carbon matrix. The results showed that the FF and thereby the efficiency of DSSCs were increased as the electrode thickness increased. Consequently, the larger FF and thereby the greater efficiency of the DSSCs were achieved for mIOC and gIOC compared to IOC, which was attributed to the lower R(CT). Finally, compared to a conventional Pt counter electrode, the inverse opal-based carbon showed a comparable efficiency upon application to DSSCs.

Superconductivity in Mesocrystalline Inverse Opal Structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lungu, Anca; Bleiweiss, Michael; Saygi, Salih; Amirzadeh, Jafar; Datta, Timir

2000-03-01

Mesocrystalline inverse opal structures were fabricated by the electrodeposition of metallic lead in synthetic opals. In these structures, the superconducting regions percolate in all directions through the voids in the artificial opals and their size is comparable to the coherence length for bulk lead. The inverse lead opals were proven superconducting, with a transition temperature close to that of bulk lead (between 7.2 K and 7.36 K) and broad transition regions. The magnetic behavior of the inverse opals was very different from that of bulk lead. Due to the reduced dimensonality of the superconducting regions, not surprisingly, the magnetic properties of our samples were found to be similar to those of type II superconductors. The critical magnetic field (or the field at which T_c<4.2 K) for these lead-opals was proven at least two times larger than that for bulk lead and (dT_c/dH) was observed 2.7 times smaller. We found a reversible ZFC-FC magnetic behavior in the temperature range between T* and T_c. We also performed magnetic relaxation measurements and studied the fluctuation diamagnetism above T_c.

Periodic order and defects in Ni-based inverse opal-like crystals on the mesoscopic and atomic scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chumakova, A. V.; Valkovskiy, G. A.; Mistonov, A. A.; Dyadkin, V. A.; Grigoryeva, N. A.; Sapoletova, N. A.; Napolskii, K. S.; Eliseev, A. A.; Petukhov, A. V.; Grigoriev, S. V.

2014-10-01

The structure of inverse opal crystals based on nickel was probed on the mesoscopic and atomic levels by a set of complementary techniques such as scanning electron microscopy and synchrotron microradian and wide-angle diffraction. The microradian diffraction revealed the mesoscopic-scale face-centered-cubic (fcc) ordering of spherical voids in the inverse opal-like structure with unit cell dimension of 750±10nm. The diffuse scattering data were used to map defects in the fcc structure as a function of the number of layers in the Ni inverse opal-like structure. The average lateral size of mesoscopic domains is found to be independent of the number of layers. 3D reconstruction of the reciprocal space for the inverse opal crystals with different thickness provided an indirect study of original opal templates in a depth-resolved way. The microstructure and thermal response of the framework of the porous inverse opal crystal was examined using wide-angle powder x-ray diffraction. This artificial porous structure is built from nickel crystallites possessing stacking faults and dislocations peculiar for the nickel thin films.

Out-Phased Array Linearized Signaling (OPALS): A Practical Approach to Physical Layer Encryption

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-10-26

Out-Phased Array Linearized Signaling ( OPALS ): A Practical Approach to Physical Layer Encryption Eric Tollefson, Bruce R. Jordan Jr., and Joseph D... OPALS ) which provides a practical approach to physical-layer encryption through spatial masking. Our approach modifies just the transmitter to employ...of the channel. With Out-Phased Array Linearized Signaling ( OPALS ), we propose a new masking technique that has some advantages of each of the

OPAL Land Condition Model

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-08-01

ER D C/ CE RL S R- 14 -7 Optimal Allocation of Land for Training and Non-training Uses OPAL Land Condition Model Co ns tr uc tio n En...Optimal Allocation of Land for Training and Non-training Uses ERDC/CERL SR-14-7 August 2014 OPAL Land Condition Model Daniel Koch, Scott Tweddale...programmer information supporting the Op- timal Programming of Army Lands ( OPAL ) model, which was designed for use by trainers, Integrated Training

Three-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals based on artificial opals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baryshev, A. V.; Kodama, T.; Nishimura, K.; Uchida, H.; Inoue, M.

2004-06-01

We fabricated and experimentally investigated three-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals (3D MPCs) based on artificial opals. Opal samples with three-dimensional dielectric lattices were impregnated with different types of magnetic material. Magnetic and structural properties of 3D MPCs were studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction analysis, and vibrating sample magnetometer. We have shown that magnetic materials synthesized in voids of opal lattices and the composites obtained have typical magnetic properties.

A thermally tunable inverse opal photonic crystal for monitoring glass transition.

PubMed

Sun, Liguo; Xie, Zhuoying; Xu, Hua; Xu, Ming; Han, Guozhi; Wang, Cheng; Bai, Xuduo; Gu, ZhongZe

2012-03-01

An optical method was developed to monitor the glass transition of the polymer by taking advantage of reflection spectrum change of the thermally tunable inverse opal photonic crystal. The thermally tunable photonic bands of the polymer inverse opal photonic crystal were traceable to the segmental motion of macromolecules, and the segmental motion was temperature dependent. By observing the reflection spectrum change of the polystyrene inverse opal photonic crystal during thermal treatment, the glass transition temperature of polystyrene was gotten. Both changes of the position and intensity of the reflection peak were observed during the glass transition process of the polystyrene inverse opal photonic crystal. The optical change of inverse opal photonic crystal was so large that the glass transition temperature could even be estimated by naked eyes. The glass transition temperature derived from this method was consistent with the values measured by differential scanning calorimeter.

Color Tunable and Upconversion Luminescence in Yb-Tm Co-Doped Yttrium Phosphate Inverse Opal Photonic Crystals.

PubMed

Wang, Siqin; Qiu, Jianbei; Wang, Qi; Zhou, Dacheng; Yang, Zhengwen

2016-04-01

For this paper, YPO4: Tm, Yb inverse opals with the photonic band gaps at 475 nm and 655 nm were prepared by polystyrene colloidal crystal templates. We investigated the influence of photonic band gaps on the Tm-Yb upconversion emission which was in the YPO4: Tm Yb inverse opal photonic crystals. Comparing with the reference sample, significant suppression of both the blue and red upconversion luminescence of Tm3+ ions were observed in the inverse opals. The color purity of the blue emission was improved in the inverse opal by the suppression of red upconversion emission. Additionally, mechanism of upconversion emission in the inverse opal was discussed. We believe that the present work will be valuable for not only the foundational study of upconversion emission modification but also the development of new optical devices in upconversion lighting and display.

Red photoluminescent property and modification of WO3:Eu3+ inverse opal for blue light converted LEDs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruan, Jiufeng; Yang, Zhengwen; Huang, Anjun; Chai, Zhuangzhuang; Qiu, Jianbei; Song, Zhiguo

2018-01-01

Blue light converted light-emitting diodes is of great significance as a candidate for next generation lighting. In this work, the WO3:Eu3+ inverse opal photonic crystals were prepared and their luminescence properties were studied. The results demonstrated that the main excitation peak of WO3:Eu3+ inverse opals were located at 465 nm. The red luminescence peak at the 613 nm was observed in the WO3:Eu3+ inverse opal upon 465 nm excitation, exhibiting better red color purity. The influence of photonic band gap on the photoluminescence of WO3:Eu3+ inverse opal was obtained. When the red luminescence peak is in the regions of the photonic band gap and the edge of the band-gap, the red luminescence suppression and enhancement was observed respectively. The WO3:Eu3+ inverse opals may be a promising candidate for the blue light converted LEDs.

Development of highly-ordered, ferroelectric inverse opal films using sol gel infiltration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsuura, N.; Yang, S.; Sun, P.; Ruda, H. E.

2005-07-01

Highly-ordered, ferroelectric, Pb-doped Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3, inverse opal films were fabricated by spin-coating a sol gel precursor into a polystyrene artificial opal template followed by heat treatment. Thin films of the ferroelectric were independently studied and were shown to exhibit good dielectric properties and high refractive indices. The excellent quality of the final inverse opal film using this spin-coating infiltration method was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy images and the good correspondence between optical reflection data and theoretical simulations. Using this method, the structural and material parameters of the final ferroelectric inverse opal film were easily adjusted by template heating and through repeated infiltrations, without changes in the initial template or precursor. Also, crack-free inverse opal thin films were fabricated over areas comparable to that of the initial crack-free polystyrene template (˜100 by 100 μm2).

Indium oxide inverse opal films synthesized by structure replication method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amrehn, Sabrina; Berghoff, Daniel; Nikitin, Andreas; Reichelt, Matthias; Wu, Xia; Meier, Torsten; Wagner, Thorsten

2016-04-01

We present the synthesis of indium oxide (In2O3) inverse opal films with photonic stop bands in the visible range by a structure replication method. Artificial opal films made of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) spheres are utilized as template. The opal films are deposited via sedimentation facilitated by ultrasonication, and then impregnated by indium nitrate solution, which is thermally converted to In2O3 after drying. The quality of the resulting inverse opal film depends on many parameters; in this study the water content of the indium nitrate/PMMA composite after drying is investigated. Comparison of the reflectance spectra recorded by vis-spectroscopy with simulated data shows a good agreement between the peak position and calculated stop band positions for the inverse opals. This synthesis is less complex and highly efficient compared to most other techniques and is suitable for use in many applications.

Measurement and modelization of silica opal reflection properties: Optical determination of the silica index

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Avoine, Amaury; Hong, Phan Ngoc; Frederich, Hugo; Frigerio, Jean-Marc; Coolen, Laurent; Schwob, Catherine; Nga, Pham Thu; Gallas, Bruno; Maître, Agnès

2012-10-01

Self-assembled artificial opals (in particular silica opals) constitute a model system to study the optical properties of three-dimensional photonic crystals. The silica optical index is a key parameter to correctly describe an opal but is difficult to measure at the submicrometer scale and usually treated as a free parameter. Here, we propose a method to extract the silica index from the opal reflection spectra and we validate it by comparison with two independent methods based on infrared measurements. We show that this index gives a correct description of the opal reflection spectra, either by a band structure or by a Bragg approximation. In particular, we are able to provide explanations in quantitative agreement with the measurements for two features : the observation of a second reflection peak in specular direction, and the quasicollapse of the p-polarized main reflection peak at a typical angle of 54∘.

Disruption of the Opal Stop Codon Attenuates Chikungunya Virus-Induced Arthritis and Pathology.

PubMed

Jones, Jennifer E; Long, Kristin M; Whitmore, Alan C; Sanders, Wes; Thurlow, Lance R; Brown, Julia A; Morrison, Clayton R; Vincent, Heather; Peck, Kayla M; Browning, Christian; Moorman, Nathaniel; Lim, Jean K; Heise, Mark T

2017-11-14

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus responsible for several significant outbreaks of debilitating acute and chronic arthritis and arthralgia over the past decade. These include a recent outbreak in the Caribbean islands and the Americas that caused more than 1 million cases of viral arthralgia. Despite the major impact of CHIKV on global health, viral determinants that promote CHIKV-induced disease are incompletely understood. Most CHIKV strains contain a conserved opal stop codon at the end of the viral nsP3 gene. However, CHIKV strains that encode an arginine codon in place of the opal stop codon have been described, and deep-sequencing analysis of a CHIKV isolate from the Caribbean identified both arginine and opal variants within this strain. Therefore, we hypothesized that the introduction of the arginine mutation in place of the opal termination codon may influence CHIKV virulence. We tested this by introducing the arginine mutation into a well-characterized infectious clone of a CHIKV strain from Sri Lanka and designated this virus Opal524R. This mutation did not impair viral replication kinetics in vitro or in vivo Despite this, the Opal524R virus induced significantly less swelling, inflammation, and damage within the feet and ankles of infected mice. Further, we observed delayed induction of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, as well as reduced CD4 + T cell and NK cell recruitment compared to those in the parental strain. Therefore, the opal termination codon plays an important role in CHIKV pathogenesis, independently of effects on viral replication. IMPORTANCE Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus that causes significant outbreaks of viral arthralgia. Studies with CHIKV and other alphaviruses demonstrated that the opal termination codon within nsP3 is highly conserved. However, some strains of CHIKV and other alphaviruses contain mutations in the opal termination codon. These mutations alter the virulence of related alphaviruses in mammalian and mosquito hosts. Here, we report that a clinical isolate of a CHIKV strain from the recent outbreak in the Caribbean islands contains a mixture of viruses encoding either the opal termination codon or an arginine mutation. Mutating the opal stop codon to an arginine residue attenuates CHIKV-induced disease in a mouse model. Compared to infection with the opal-containing parental virus, infection with the arginine mutant causes limited swelling and inflammation, as well as dampened recruitment of immune mediators of pathology, including CD4 + T cells and NK cells. We propose that the opal termination codon plays an essential role in the induction of severe CHIKV disease. Copyright © 2017 Jones et al.

Hierarchical opal grating films prepared by slide coating of colloidal dispersions in binary liquid media.

PubMed

Lee, Wonmok; Kim, Seulgi; Kim, Seulki; Kim, Jin-Ho; Lee, Hyunjung

2015-02-15

There are active researches on well ordered opal films due to their possible applications to various photonic devices. A recently developed slide coating method is capable of rapid fabrication of large area opal films from aqueous colloidal dispersion. In the current study, the slide coating of polystyrene colloidal dispersions in water/i-propanol (IPA) binary media is investigated. Under high IPA content in a dispersing medium, resulting opal film showed a deterioration of long range order, as well as a decreased film thickness due to dilution effect. From the binary liquid, the dried opal films exhibited the unprecedented topological groove patterns with varying periodic distances as a function of alcohol contents in the media. The groove patterns were consisted of the hierarchical structures of the terraced opal layers with periodic thickness variations. The origin of the groove patterns was attributed to a shear-induced periodic instability of colloidal concentration within a thin channel during the coating process which was directly converted to a groove patterns in a resulting opal film due to rapid evaporation of liquid. The groove periods of opal films were in the range of 50-500 μm, and the thickness differences between peak and valley of the groove were significantly large enough to be optically distinguishable, such that the coated films can be utilized as the optical grating film to disperse infra-red light. Utilizing a lowered hydrophilicity of water/IPA dispersant, an opal film could be successfully coated on a flexible Mylar film without significant dewetting problem. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Opal photonic crystals infiltrated with chalcogenide glasses

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Astratov, V. N.; Adawi, A. M.; Skolnick, M. S.

Composite opal structures for nonlinear applications are obtained by infiltration with chalcogenide glasses As{sub 2}S{sub 3} and AsSe by precipitation from solution. Analysis of spatially resolved optical spectra reveals that the glass aggregates into submillimeter areas inside the opal. These areas exhibit large shifts in the optical stop bands by up to 80 nm, and by comparison with modelling are shown to have uniform glass filling factors of opal pores up to 40%. Characterization of the domain structure of the opals prior to infiltration by large area angle-resolved spectroscopy is an important step in the analysis of the properties ofmore » the infiltrated regions. {copyright} 2001 American Institute of Physics.« less

Zinc oxide inverse opal enzymatic biosensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

You, Xueqiu; Pikul, James H.; King, William P.; Pak, James J.

2013-06-01

We report ZnO inverse opal- and nanowire (NW)-based enzymatic glucose biosensors with extended linear detection ranges. The ZnO inverse opal sensors have 0.01-18 mM linear detection range, which is 2.5 times greater than that of ZnO NW sensors and 1.5 times greater than that of other reported ZnO sensors. This larger range is because of reduced glucose diffusivity through the inverse opal geometry. The ZnO inverse opal sensors have an average sensitivity of 22.5 μA/(mM cm2), which diminished by 10% after 35 days, are more stable than ZnO NW sensors whose sensitivity decreased by 10% after 7 days.

On the controlled isotropic shrinkage induced fine-tuning of photo-luminescence in terbium ions embedded silica inverse opal films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shrivastava, Vishnu Prasad; Kumar, Jitendra; Sivakumar, Sri

2017-12-01

Tb3+ embedded silica inverse opal structures with different photonic stop bands have been fabricated by annealing the SiO2-polystyrene spheres (diameter 390 nm) opal template at 320-650 oC. The PSB tuning realized in the wavelength range 498 - 600 nm is shown to depend on annealing temperature and impending isotropic shrinkage of silica matrix. The impact of wide PSB shift on four Tb3+ ion emission bands (blue, green, yellow, and red at 486, 545, 580, and 620 nm, respectively) corresponding to 5D4→7Fj (j = 6,5,4,3) transitions have been investigated. The effect amounts to significant suppression of emission bands at 586, 545 and 486 nm in inverse opals, obtained by annealing opal template at 350, 400, and 650 oC, respectively. Further, luminescence lifetime of Tb3+ ion 5D4 state increases with shrinkage induced in inverse opal progressively and get enhanced up to 2.3 times vis-à-vis reference silica. The changes in refractive index caused by thermal annealing of opal template is found to be responsible for the observed improvement in 5D4 state lifetime.

Lithographically Encrypted Inverse Opals for Anti-Counterfeiting Applications.

PubMed

Heo, Yongjoon; Kang, Hyelim; Lee, Joon-Seok; Oh, You-Kwan; Kim, Shin-Hyun

2016-07-01

Colloidal photonic crystals possess inimitable optical properties of iridescent structural colors and unique spectral shape, which render them useful for security materials. This work reports a novel method to encrypt graphical and spectral codes in polymeric inverse opals to provide advanced security. To accomplish this, this study prepares lithographically featured micropatterns on the top surface of hydrophobic inverse opals, which serve as shadow masks against the surface modification of air cavities to achieve hydrophilicity. The resultant inverse opals allow rapid infiltration of aqueous solution into the hydrophilic cavities while retaining air in the hydrophobic cavities. Therefore, the structural color of inverse opals is regioselectively red-shifted, disclosing the encrypted graphical codes. The decoded inverse opals also deliver unique reflectance spectral codes originated from two distinct regions. The combinatorial code composed of graphical and optical codes is revealed only when the aqueous solution agreed in advance is used for decoding. In addition, the encrypted inverse opals are chemically stable, providing invariant codes with high reproducibility. In addition, high mechanical stability enables the transfer of the films onto any surfaces. This novel encryption technology will provide a new opportunity in a wide range of security applications. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Raman study of opal at high pressure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farfan, G.; Wang, S.; Mao, W. L.

2011-12-01

More commonly known for their beauty and lore as gemstones, opals are also intriguing geological materials which may have potential for materials science applications. Opal lacks a definite crystalline structure, and is composed of an amorphous packing of hydrated silica (SiO2) spheroids, which provides us with a unique nano-scaled mineraloid with properties unlike those of other amorphous materials like glass. Opals from different localities were studied at high pressure using a diamond anvil cell to apply pressure and Raman spectroscopy to look at changes in bonding as pressure was increased. We first tested different samples from Virgin Valley, NV, Spencer, ID, Juniper Ridge, OR, and Australia, which contain varying amounts of water at ambient conditions, using Raman spectroscopy to determine if they were opal-CT (semicrystalline cristobalite-trydimite volcanic origin) or opal-A (amorphous sedimentary origin). We then used x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy in a diamond anvil cell to see how their bonding and structure changed under compression and to determine what effect water content had on their high pressure behavior. Comparison of our results on opal to other high pressure studies of amorphous materials like glass has implications from a geological and materials science standpoint.

Chiral permselectivity in surface-modified nanoporous opal films.

PubMed

Cichelli, Julie; Zharov, Ilya

2006-06-28

Nanoporous 7 mum thin opal films comprising 35 layers of 200 nm diameter SiO2 spheres were assembled on Pt electrodes and modified with chiral selector moieties on the silica surface. Diffusion of chiral redox species through the opals was studied by cyclic voltammetry. The chiral opal films demonstrate high selectivity for transport of one enantiomer over the other. This chiral permselectivity is attributed to the surface-facilitated transport utilizing noncovalent interactions between the chiral permeant molecules and surface-bound chiral selectors.

Laser generation in opal-like single-crystal and heterostructure photonic crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuchyanov, A. S.; Plekhanov, A. I.

2016-11-01

This study describes the laser generation of a 6Zh rhodamine in artificial opals representing single-crystal and heterostructure films. The spectral and angular properties of emission and the threshold characteristics of generation are investigated. In the case where the 6Zh rhodamine was in a bulk opal, the so-called random laser generation was observed. In contrast to this, the laser generation caused by a distributed feedback inside the structure of the photonic bandgap was observed in photonic-crystal opal films.

Relationships between palaeogeography and opal occurrence in Australia: A data-mining approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Landgrebe, T. C. W.; Merdith, A.; Dutkiewicz, A.; Müller, R. D.

2013-07-01

Age-coded multi-layered geological datasets are becoming increasingly prevalent with the surge in open-access geodata, yet there are few methodologies for extracting geological information and knowledge from these data. We present a novel methodology, based on the open-source GPlates software in which age-coded digital palaeogeographic maps are used to “data-mine” spatio-temporal patterns related to the occurrence of Australian opal. Our aim is to test the concept that only a particular sequence of depositional/erosional environments may lead to conditions suitable for the formation of gem quality sedimentary opal. Time-varying geographic environment properties are extracted from a digital palaeogeographic dataset of the eastern Australian Great Artesian Basin (GAB) at 1036 opal localities. We obtain a total of 52 independent ordinal sequences sampling 19 time slices from the Early Cretaceous to the present-day. We find that 95% of the known opal deposits are tied to only 27 sequences all comprising fluvial and shallow marine depositional sequences followed by a prolonged phase of erosion. We then map the total area of the GAB that matches these 27 opal-specific sequences, resulting in an opal-prospective region of only about 10% of the total area of the basin. The key patterns underlying this association involve only a small number of key environmental transitions. We demonstrate that these key associations are generally absent at arbitrary locations in the basin. This new methodology allows for the simplification of a complex time-varying geological dataset into a single map view, enabling straightforward application for opal exploration and for future co-assessment with other datasets/geological criteria. This approach may help unravel the poorly understood opal formation process using an empirical spatio-temporal data-mining methodology and readily available datasets to aid hypothesis testing.

Donor states in inverse opals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mahan, G. D.

We calculate the binding energy of an electron bound to a donor in a semiconductor inverse opal. Inverse opals have two kinds of cavities, which we call octahedral and tetrahedral, according to their group symmetry. We put the donor in the center of each of these two cavities and obtain the binding energy. The binding energies become very large when the inverse opal is made from templates with small spheres. For spheres less than 50 nm in diameter, the donor binding can increase to several times its unconfined value. Then electrons become tightly bound to the donor and are unlikelymore » to be thermally activated to the semiconductor conduction band. This conclusion suggests that inverse opals will be poor conductors.« less

Comparative Analysis of Bracket Slot Dimensions Evaluating Different Manufacturing Techniques

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-04-24

Bracket 1 (Avex Suite, Opal ) .......................................... 39 Appendix B: Raw data—Bracket 2 (Victory Series, 3M...32 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Bracket 1 (Avex Suite, Opal ) ................................................................ 10...15 Figure 7: Example of points selected using Bracket 1 (Avex Suite, Opal

Particulate inverse opal carbon electrodes for lithium-ion batteries.

PubMed

Kang, Da-Young; Kim, Sang-Ok; Chae, Yu Jin; Lee, Joong Kee; Moon, Jun Hyuk

2013-01-29

Inverse opal carbon materials were used as anodes for lithium ion batteries. We applied particulate inverse opal structures and their dispersion in the formation of anode electrodes via solution casting. We prepared aminophenyl-grafted inverse opal carbons (a-IOC), inverse opal carbons with mesopores (mIOC), and bare inverse opal carbons (IOC) and investigated the electrochemical behavior of these samples as anode materials. Surface modification by aminophenyl groups was confirmed by XPS measurements. TEM images showed mesopores, and the specific area of mIOC was compared with that of IOC using BET analysis. A half-cell test was performed to compare a-IOC with IOC and mIOC with IOC. In the case of the a-IOC structure, the cell test revealed no improvement in the reversible specific capacity or the cycle performance. The mIOC cell showed a reversible specific capacity of 432 mAh/g, and the capacity was maintained at 88%-approximately 380 mAh/g-over 20 cycles.

Quantum Effects in Inverse Opal Structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bleiweiss, Michael; Datta, Timir; Lungu, Anca; Yin, Ming; Iqbal, Zafar; Palm, Eric; Brandt, Bruce

2002-03-01

Properties of bismuth inverse opals and carbon opal replicas were studied. The bismuth nanostructures were fabricated by pressure infiltration into porous artificial opal, while the carbon opal replicas were created via CVD. These structures form a regular three-dimensional network in which the bismuth and carbon regions percolate in all directions between the close packed spheres of SiO_2. The sizes of the conducting regions are of the order of tens of nanometers. Static susceptibility of the bismuth inverse opal showed clear deHaas-vanAlphen oscillations. Transport measurements, including Hall, were done using standard ac four and six probe techniques in fields up to 17 T* and temperatures between 4.2 and 200 K. Observations of Shubnikov-deHaas oscillations in magnetoresistance, one-dimensional weak localization, quantum Hall and other effects will be discussed. *Performed at the National High Magnetic Field Lab (NHMFL) FSU, Tallahassee, FL. This work was partially supported by grants from DARPA-nanothermoelectrics, NASA-EPSCOR and the USC nanocenter.

Potential Benefits of Manmade Opals Demonstrated for First Time (Fact Sheet)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

NREL experiments show that disordered inverse opals significantly scatter and trap near-infrared light, with possible impact on optoelectronic materials. Inverse opals, familiar in the form of brilliantly colored opal gemstones, are a class of materials that has astounding optical properties. Scientists have been exploring the ability of inverse opals to manipulate light in the hopes of harnessing this capacity for advanced technologies such as displays, detectors, lasers, and photovoltaics. A research group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) discovered that man-made inverse opal films containing significant morphological disorder exhibit substantial light scattering, consequently trapping wavelengths in the near-infrared (NIR),more » which is important to a number of technologies. This discovery is the first experimental evidence to validate a 2005 theoretical model predicting the confinement of light in such structures, and it holds great promise for improving the performance of technologies that rely on careful light control. This breakthrough also makes possible optoelectronic technologies that use a range of low-cost molecular and semiconductor species that otherwise absorb light too weakly to be useful. The disordered inverse opal architecture validates the theoretical model that predicts the diffusion and confinement of light in such structures. Electrochemically deposited CdSe inverse opal films containing significant morphological disorder exhibit substantial light scattering and consequent NIR light trapping. This discovery holds promise for NIR light management in optoelectronic technologies, particularly those involving weakly absorbing molecular and semiconductor photomaterials.« less

U-Pb (SHRIMP) Ages of Be and U-rich Opal in Tuffaceous Breccia at Spor Mountain, Utah: Interpreting a Record of Continuous Opal Formation, Episodic Be-U Mineralization, and Remobilization Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ayuso, R. A.; Vazquez, J. A.; Foley, N.; Lederer, G.; Jaskula, B.

2016-12-01

The Spor Mountain Fm. (SMF, ca. 21 Ma; Lindsey, 1977, Eco. Geol., v. 72, 219-232; Foley et al., 2012, USGS SIR 2010-5070-F, 1-43) hosts the largest deposit of volcanogenic-epithermal Be in the world (proven reserves 15,700 t/contained Be). Ore occurs mainly in cm-to-m-wide irregularly layered nodules of calcite, chalcedony, opal, fluorite, and bertrandite (Be4Si2O7(OH)2) in tuff breccias. U-Pb SHRIMP dating (adapted from Paces et al., 2004, GCA v. 68, 1591-1606; Neymark and Paces, 2013, EPSL v. 361, 98-109) of opal in nodules from SMF yielded 206Pb/238U ages coupled with multi-element analyses, e.g., Be, F, P, Si, Ti, REE, etc. The ages reveal periods of prolonged massive and fracture-filling opal formation that range from 55 Ma to 2 Ma. Age gaps are not prominent (a previous study of bulk samples identified opal ages of 21.8 Ma, 13-16 Ma, 8-9 Ma in SMF and 3.5 Ma in the overlying 6 Ma Topaz Mountain Fm.; Ludwig et al., 1980, EPSL, v. 46, 221-232). High values of Be/Si ( 5,000-20,000), Be/F, Be/P, and Be/U and oldest ages ( 55 to 28 Ma) occur in opal in nodule cores; outward, younger opal layers ( 28 to 7 Ma) decline in Be/Si but also include spikes of >5,000. A prominent U/Si spike (>300) occurs in opal between 6 Ma and 4 Ma, which may establish the age of U mineralization that occurs immediately east of Spor Mountain (the Yellow Chief U deposit). The occurrence of Be-rich opal older than 25 Ma in nodules within the 21 Ma (K-Ar date) tuff suggests that nodule formation may also be associated with older volcanism in the region. Opal that is younger than 21 Ma is thought to have formed by hydrothermal fluid interacting with Be-rich tuff. Geochemical modeling shows leaching of Be and other elements from volcanic glass and deposition of bertrandite upon reaction of the fluid with carbonate clasts in the tuff are viable mechanisms for the observed assemblages. Be concentrations in late nodular opal (<6 Ma) may reflect redistribution of earlier mineralization. The world-class deposits at Spor Mountain likely formed by prolonged magmatic-hydrothermal processes that include multiple Be mineralization and remobilization events.

High Pressure Response of Siliceous Materials

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-02-01

iron-containing soda lime silicate glass, opal (a hydrated silicate glass), ROBAX glass ceramic, and others were single crystal (α-quartz) and...10 2.6. Opal (hydrated amorphous silica...Raman spectrum as a function of stress for opal (hydrated silica) glass. ................... 29 4.9. Raman spectrum as a function of stress for

The OPALS Plan for Operations: Use of ISS Trajectory and Attitude Models in the OPALS Pointing Strategy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abrahamson, Matthew J.; Oaida, Bogdan; Erkmen, Baris

2013-01-01

This paper will discuss the OPALS pointing strategy, focusing on incorporation of ISS trajectory and attitude models to build pointing predictions. Methods to extrapolate an ISS prediction based on past data will be discussed and will be compared to periodically published ISS predictions and Two-Line Element (TLE) predictions. The prediction performance will also be measured against GPS states available in telemetry. The performance of the pointing products will be compared to the allocated values in the OPALS pointing budget to assess compliance with requirements.

Spontaneous emission of semiconductor quantum dots in inverse opal SiO2 photonic crystals at different temperatures.

PubMed

Yang, Peng; Yang, Yingshu; Wang, Yinghui; Gao, Jiechao; Sui, Ning; Chi, Xiaochun; Zou, Lu; Zhang, Han-Zhuang

2016-02-01

The photoluminescence (PL) characteristics of CdSe quantum dots (QDs) infiltrated into inverse opal SiO2 photonic crystals (PCs) are systemically studied. The special porous structure of inverse opal PCs enhanced the thermal exchange rate between the CdSe QDs and their surrounding environment. Finally, inverse opal SiO2 PCs suppressed the nonlinear PL enhancement of CdSe QDs in PCs excited by a continuum laser and effectively modulated the PL characteristics of CdSe QDs in PCs at high temperatures in comparison with that of CdSe QDs out of PCs. The final results are of benefit in further understanding the role of inverse opal PCs on the PL characteristics of QDs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

OPALS: Mission System Operations Architecture for an Optical Communications Demonstration on the ISS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abrahamson, Matthew J.; Sindiy, Oleg V.; Oaida, Bogdan V.; Fregoso, Santos; Bowles-Martinez, Jessica N.; Kokorowski, Michael; Wilkerson, Marcus W.; Konyha, Alexander L.

2014-01-01

In spring 2014, the Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) to demonstrate space-to-ground optical communications. During a 90-day baseline mission, OPALS will downlink high quality, short duration videos to the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) in Wrightwood, California. To achieve mission success, interfaces to the ISS payload operations infrastructure are established. For OPALS, the interfaces facilitate activity planning, hazardous laser operations, commanding, and telemetry transmission. In addition, internal processes such as pointing prediction and data processing satisfy the technical requirements of the mission. The OPALS operations team participates in Operational Readiness Tests (ORTs) with external partners to exercise coordination processes and train for the overall mission. The tests have provided valuable insight into operational considerations on the ISS.

Organic Light Emitting Diodes with Opal Photonic Crystal Layer and Carbon Nanotube Anode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ovalle Robles, Raquel; Del Rocio Nava, Maria; Williams, Christopher; Zhang, Mei; Fang, Shaoli; Lee, Sergey; Baughman, Ray; Zakhidov, Anvar

2007-03-01

We report electroluminescence intensity and spectral changes in light emission from organic light emitting diode (OLEDs) structures, which have thin transparent films of opal photonic crystal (PC). The anode in such PC-OLED is laminated on opal layer from free standing optically transparent multiwall carbon nanotubes (T-CNT) sheets made by dry spinning from CVD grown forests. Silica and polystyrene opal films were grown on glass substrates by vertical sedimentation in colloids in thermal baths and the particle size of opal spheres ranges from 300 nm to 450 nm. The use of T-CNTs, (coated by PEDOT-PSS to avoid shorting) as hole injector, allows to eliminate the use of vacuum deposition of metals and permits to achieve tunneling hole injection regime from CNT tips into Alq^3 emission layer

Smart photonic coating for civil engineering field: for a future inspection technology on concrete bridge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fudouzi, Hiroshi; Tsuchiya, Koichi; Todoroki, Shin-ichi; Hyakutake, Tsuyoshi; Nitta, Hiroyuki; Nishizaki, Itaru; Tanaka, Yoshikazu; Ohya, Takao

2017-04-01

Here we will propose the conceptual new idea of the inspection of concrete bridge using smart materials and mobile IoT system. We apply opal photonic crystal film to detect cracks on concrete infrastructures. High quality opal photonic crystal films were coated on black color PET sheet over 1000 cm2 area. The opal film sheet was cut and adhered to concrete or mortar test pieces by epoxy resin. In the tensile test, the structural color of the opal sheet was changed when the crack was formed. As a demonstration, we have installated the opal film sheet on the wall of the concrete bridge. Our final purpose is the color change will be recorded by portable CCD devices, and send to expert via IoT network.

Egg Component-Composited Inverse Opal Particles for Synergistic Drug Delivery.

PubMed

Liu, Yuxiao; Shao, Changmin; Bian, Feika; Yu, Yunru; Wang, Huan; Zhao, Yuanjin

2018-05-23

Microparticles have a demonstrated value in drug delivery systems. The attempts to develop this technology focus on the generation of functional microparticles by using innovative but accessible materials. Here, we present egg component-composited microparticles with a hybrid inverse opal structure for synergistic drug delivery. The egg component inverse opal particles were produced by using egg yolk to negatively replicate colloid crystal bead templates. Because of their huge specific surface areas, abundant nanopores, and complex nanochannels of the inverse opal structure, the resultant egg yolk particles could be loaded with different kinds of drugs, such as hydrophobic camptothecin (CPT), by simply immersing them into the corresponding drug solutions. Attractively, additional drugs, such as the hydrophilic doxorubicin (DOX), could also be encapsulated into the particles through the secondary filling of the drug-doped egg white hydrogel into the egg yolk inverse opal scaffolds, which realized the synergistic drug delivery for the particles. It was demonstrated that the egg-derived inverse opal particles were with large quantity and lasting releasing for the CPT and DOX codelivery, and thus could significantly reduce cell viability, and enhance therapeutic efficacy in treating cancer cells. These features of the egg component-composited inverse opal microparticles indicated that they are ideal microcarriers for drug delivery.

Capabilities of laser ablation mass spectrometry in the differentiation of natural and artificial opal gemstones.

PubMed

Erel, Eric; Aubriet, Frédéric; Finqueneisel, Gisèle; Muller, Jean-François

2003-12-01

The potentialities of laser ablation coupled to ion cyclotron resonance Fourier transform mass spectrometry are evaluated to distinguish natural and artificial opals. The detection of specific species in both ion detection modes leads us to obtain relevant criteria of differentiation. In positive ions, species including hafnium and large amounts of zirconium atoms are found to be specific for artificial opal. In contrast, aluminum, titanium, iron, and rubidium are systematically detected in the study of natural opals. Moreover, some ions allow us to distinguish between natural opal from Australia and from Mexico. Australian gemstone includes specifically strontium, cesium, and barium. Moreover, it is also found that the yield of (H2O)0-1(SiO2)nX- (X- = O-, OH-, KO-, NaO-, SiO2-, AlO1-2-, FeO2-, ZrO2-, and ZrO3-) and (Al2O3)(SiO2)nAlO2- ions depends on the composition of the sample when opals are laser ablated. Ions, which include zirconium oxide species, are characteristics of artificial gem. In contrast, natural opals lead us, after laser ablation, to the production of ions including H2O, Al2O3 motifs and AlO-, KO-, NaO-, and FeO2- species.

The Contribution of Opal-Associated Phosphorus to Bioavailable Phosphorus in Surface and Core Sediments in the East China Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Huanxin; He, Huijun; Yang, Shifeng; Liu, Yanli; Che, Hong; Li, Mujian; Zhang, Jing

2018-06-01

To improve the burial flux calculations of bioavailable phosphorus (P) and study opal-associated P (Opal-P) in the East China Sea (ECS), surface and core sediments were collected in the Changjiang Estuary (CE) and the south of the Cheju Island. In this study, sedimentary P was operationally divided into seven different forms using modified sedimentary extraction (SEDEX) technique: LSor-P (exchangeable or loosely sorbed P), Fe-P (easily reducible or reactive ferric Fe-bound P), CFA-P (authigenic carbonate fluorapatite and biogenic apatite and CaCO3-bound P), Detr-P (detrital apatite), Org-P (organic P), Opal-P and Ref-P (refractory P). The data revealed that the concentrations of the seven different P forms rank as Detr-P > CFA-P > Org-P > Ref-P > Opal-P > Fe-P > LSor-P in surface sediments and CFA-P > Detr-P > Org-P > Ref-P > Fe-P > Opal-P > LSor-P in core sediments. The distributions of the total phosphorus (TP), TIP, CFA-P, Detr-P are similar and decrease from the CE to the south of the Cheju Island. Meanwhile, Org-P and Opal-P exhibit different distribution trends; this may be affected by the grain size and TOM. The concentrations of potentially bioavailable P are 9.6-13.0 μmol g-1 and 10.0-13.6 μmol g-1, representing 61%-70% and 41%-64% of the TP in surface and core sediments, respectively. The concentrations of Opal-P are 0.6-2.3 μmol g-1 and 0.6-1.4 μmol g-1 in surface and core sediments, accounting for 5.3%-19.8% and 4.2%-10.6% of bioavailable P, respectively. The total burial fluxes of Opal-P and bioavailable P are 1.4×109 mol yr-1 and 1.1×1010 mol yr-1 in the ECS, respectively. Opal-P represents about 12.7% of potentially bioavailable P, which should be recognized when studying P cycling in marine ecosystems.

The effect of heating on mineral composition and grain size distribution of flux calcined porcelanites from the Gafsa-Metlaoui basin, southwestern Tunisia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saidi, Raja; Tlili, Ali; Jamoussi, Fakher

2016-12-01

The porcelanite rock of Ypresian phosphatic series of the Gafsa-Metlaoui basin (south-western Tunisia), is composed mainly of opal CT, and presents a variable percentage of carbonates and fibrous clays. This rock is treated with flux calcination at different temperatures in order to prepare a specific filter aid for cleaning melting sulfur which can be used for the production of sulfuric acid. This work presents the effect of heating on the mineralogy and grain size distribution of carbonate-rich porcelanite (Tm1) and clay-rich porcelanite (Gh) compared to flux calcined silica-rich porcelanite (CHM3) and diatomaceous filtration aids. The porcelanite samples used in this work come from three localities of the Gafsa-Metlaoui basin: Kef El Ghis (Gh), Tamarza (Tm1) and Mides (CHM3). Flux calcination at 1000 °C provokes a mineralogical transformation on carbonate-rich porcelanite samples. The opal CT transforms to opal C and becomes neater and more stable. The Thermal treatment of porcelanite (Tm1) incites also the apparition of new peaks of wollastonite. However, the structural change of opal CT to opal C by heat treatment is blocked for flux calcination of clay-rich porcelanite. The opal CT of fluxing clay-rich porcelanite becomes more ordered without significant change to opal C. The difference between fluxing carbonate-rich porcelanite (Tm1) and fluxing clay-rich porcelanite (Gh) appears also with granulometric distribution histogram of the tow heated samples. All raw samples have unimodal granulometric distribution (1-100 μm). After calcination with alkaline flux at 1000 °C fluxing carbonate-rich porcelanite displays bimodal granulometric distribution and a new mode appears systematically, between 0.1 μm and 1 μm. This occurs for fluxing silica-riche porcelanite and diatomaceous filtration aids as well and corresponds to the opal C formed after heat treatment. Whereas fluxing clay-rich porcelanite present trimodal granulometric distribution and a third mode appears (100-300 μm), which due to silica glass phase. Since, the granulometric rearrangement of porcelanite during thermal treatment may due to mineralogical transformation of opal CT to opal C and crystal grow.

Disruption of the Opal Stop Codon Attenuates Chikungunya Virus-Induced Arthritis and Pathology

PubMed Central

Jones, Jennifer E.; Long, Kristin M.; Whitmore, Alan C.; Sanders, Wes; Thurlow, Lance R.; Brown, Julia A.; Morrison, Clayton R.; Vincent, Heather; Browning, Christian; Moorman, Nathaniel; Lim, Jean K.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus responsible for several significant outbreaks of debilitating acute and chronic arthritis and arthralgia over the past decade. These include a recent outbreak in the Caribbean islands and the Americas that caused more than 1 million cases of viral arthralgia. Despite the major impact of CHIKV on global health, viral determinants that promote CHIKV-induced disease are incompletely understood. Most CHIKV strains contain a conserved opal stop codon at the end of the viral nsP3 gene. However, CHIKV strains that encode an arginine codon in place of the opal stop codon have been described, and deep-sequencing analysis of a CHIKV isolate from the Caribbean identified both arginine and opal variants within this strain. Therefore, we hypothesized that the introduction of the arginine mutation in place of the opal termination codon may influence CHIKV virulence. We tested this by introducing the arginine mutation into a well-characterized infectious clone of a CHIKV strain from Sri Lanka and designated this virus Opal524R. This mutation did not impair viral replication kinetics in vitro or in vivo. Despite this, the Opal524R virus induced significantly less swelling, inflammation, and damage within the feet and ankles of infected mice. Further, we observed delayed induction of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, as well as reduced CD4+ T cell and NK cell recruitment compared to those in the parental strain. Therefore, the opal termination codon plays an important role in CHIKV pathogenesis, independently of effects on viral replication. PMID:29138302

U-Pb SHRIMP dating of uraniferous opals

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nemchin, A.A.; Neymark, L.A.; Simons, S.L.

2006-01-01

U-Pb and U-series analyses of four U-rich opal samples using sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) demonstrate the potential of this technique for the dating of opals with ages ranging from several tens of thousand years to millions of years. The major advantages of the technique, compared to the conventional thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (TIMS), are the high spatial resolution (???20 ??m), the ability to analyse in situ all isotopes required to determine both U-Pb and U-series ages, and a relatively short analysis time which allows obtaining a growth rate of opal as a result of a single SHRIMP session. There are two major limitations to this method, determined by both current level of development of ion probes and understanding of ion sputtering processes. First, sufficient secondary ion beam intensities can only be obtained for opal samples with U concentrations in excess of ???20 ??g/g. However, this restriction still permits dating of a large variety of opals. Second, U-Pb ratios in all analyses drifted with time and were only weakly correlated with changes in other ratios (such as U/UO). This drift, which is difficult to correct for, remains the main factor currently limiting the precision and accuracy of the U-Pb SHRIMP opal ages. Nevertheless, an assumption of similar behaviour of standard and unknown opals under similar analytical conditions allowed successful determination of ages with precisions of ???10% for the samples investigated in this study. SHRIMP-based U-series and U-Pb ages are consistent with TIMS dating results of the same materials and known geological timeframes. ?? 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stable silicon isotope signatures of marine pore waters - Biogenic opal dissolution versus authigenic clay mineral formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ehlert, Claudia; Doering, Kristin; Wallmann, Klaus; Scholz, Florian; Sommer, Stefan; Grasse, Patricia; Geilert, Sonja; Frank, Martin

2016-10-01

Dissolved silicon isotope compositions have been analysed for the first time in pore waters (δ30SiPW) of three short sediment cores from the Peruvian margin upwelling region with distinctly different biogenic opal content in order to investigate silicon isotope fractionation behaviour during early diagenetic turnover of biogenic opal in marine sediments. The δ30SiPW varies between +1.1‰ and +1.9‰ with the highest values occurring in the uppermost part close to the sediment-water interface. These values are of the same order or higher than the δ30Si of the biogenic opal extracted from the same sediments (+0.3‰ to +1.2‰) and of the overlying bottom waters (+1.1‰ to +1.5‰). Together with dissolved silicic acid concentrations well below biogenic opal saturation, our collective observations are consistent with the formation of authigenic alumino-silicates from the dissolving biogenic opal. Using a numerical transport-reaction model we find that approximately 24% of the dissolving biogenic opal is re-precipitated in the sediments in the form of these authigenic phases at a relatively low precipitation rate of 56 μmol Si cm-2 yr-1. The fractionation factor between the precipitates and the pore waters is estimated at -2.0‰. Dissolved and solid cation concentrations further indicate that off Peru, where biogenic opal concentrations in the sediments are high, the availability of reactive terrigenous material is the limiting factor for the formation of authigenic alumino-silicate phases.

High Pressure Response of Siliceous Materials

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-02-01

quartz, Starphire soda lime silicate glass, hydrated Starphire, BOROFLOAT borosilicate glass, an iron-containing soda lime silicate glass, opal (a hydrated... Opal (hydrated amorphous silica). .............................................................................. 10 2.7. ROBAX glass ceramic...spectrum as a function of stress for BOROFLOAT borosilicate glass. .......... 29 4.8. Raman spectrum as a function of stress for opal (hydrated

Sol–gel preparation of well-adhered films and long range ordered inverse opal films of BaTiO{sub 3} and Bi{sub 2}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7}

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Al-Arjan, Wafa S.; King Faisal University, PO Box 380, Al Hofuf; Algaradah, Mohammed M.F.

Highlights: • Highly adaptable sols are presented for processing of the electroceramic materials BaTiO{sub 3} and Bi{sub 2}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7}. • High quality thin films are produced by dip coating with good phase control. • Infiltration of cross-linked polystyrene templates led to high quality inverse opals. - Abstract: Barium and bismuth titanate thin films and well-ordered inverse opal films are produced by dip coating from sols containing titanium alkoxides with acetic acid, acetylacetone, methoxyethanol and water. The inverse opal preparations used crosslinked polystyrene opal templates. Heat treatment in air produced tetragonal BaTiO{sub 3} or mixtures of the hexagonal and tetragonalmore » phases, or phase pure Bi{sub 2}Ti{sub 2}O{sub 7}. Good quality films were obtained with a thickness of 5 μm from a single dipping, and the thickness could be increased by dipping multiple times. Inverse opals were well ordered and exhibited opalescence and photonic stop band effects.« less

Functional Polymer Opals and Porous Materials by Shear-Induced Assembly of Tailor-Made Particles.

PubMed

Gallei, Markus

2018-02-01

Photonic band-gap materials attract enormous attention as potential candidates for a steadily increasing variety of applications. Based on the preparation of easily scalable monodisperse colloids, such optically attractive photonic materials can be prepared by an inexpensive and convenient bottom-up process. Artificial polymer opals can be prepared by shear-induced assembly of core/shell particles, yielding reversibly stretch-tunable materials with intriguing structural colors. This feature article highlights recent developments of core/shell particle design and shear-induced opal formation with focus on the combination of hard and soft materials as well as crosslinking strategies. Structure formation of opal materials relies on both the tailored core/shell architecture and the parameters for polymer processing. The emphasis of this feature article is on elucidating the particle design and incorporation of addressable moieties, i.e., stimuli-responsive polymers as well as elaborated crosslinking strategies for the preparation of smart (inverse) opal films, inorganic/organic opals, and ceramic precursors by shear-induced ordering. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Polymer sol-gel composite inverse opal structures.

PubMed

Zhang, Xiaoran; Blanchard, G J

2015-03-25

We report on the formation of composite inverse opal structures where the matrix used to form the inverse opal contains both silica, formed using sol-gel chemistry, and poly(ethylene glycol), PEG. We find that the morphology of the inverse opal structure depends on both the amount of PEG incorporated into the matrix and its molecular weight. The extent of organization in the inverse opal structure, which is characterized by scanning electron microscopy and optical reflectance data, is mediated by the chemical bonding interactions between the silica and PEG constituents in the hybrid matrix. Both polymer chain terminus Si-O-C bonding and hydrogen bonding between the polymer backbone oxygens and silanol functionalities can contribute, with the polymer mediating the extent to which Si-O-Si bonds can form within the silica regions of the matrix due to hydrogen-bonding interactions.

U-Pb ages of uraniferous opals and implications for the history of beryllium, fluorine, and uranium mineralization at Spor Mountain, Utah

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ludwig, K. R.; Lindsey, D.A.; Zielinski, R.A.; Simmons, K.R.

1980-01-01

The U-Pb isotope systematics of uraniferous opals from Spor Mountain, Utah, were investigated to determine the suitability of such material for geochronologic purposes, and to estimate the timing of uranium and associated beryllium and fluorine mineralization. The results indicate that uraniferous opals can approximate a closed system for uranium and uranium daughters, so that dating samples as young as ???1 m.y. should be possible. In addition, the expected lack of initial 230Th and 231Pa in opals permits valuable information on the initial 234U/238U to be obtained on suitable samples of ???10 m.y. age. The oldest 207Pb/235U apparent age observed, 20.8 ?? 1 m.y., was that of the opal-fluorite core of a nodule from a beryllium deposit in the Spor Mountain Formation. This age is indistinguishable from that of fission-track and K-Ar ages from the host rhyolite, and links the mineralization to the first episode of alkali rhyolite magmatism and related hydrothermal activity at Spor Mountain. Successively younger ages of 13 m.y. and 8-9 m.y. on concentric outer zones of the same nodule indicate that opal formed either episodically or continuously for over 10 m.y. Several samples of both fracture-filling and massive-nodule opal associated with beryllium deposits gave 207Pb/235U apparent ages of 13-16 m.y., which may reflect a restricted period of mineralization or perhaps an averaging of 21- and <13-m.y. periods of opal growth. Several samples of fracture-filling opal in volcanic rocks as young as 6 m.y. gave 207Pb/235U ages of 3.4-4.8 m.y. These ages may reflect hot-spring activity after the last major eruption of alkali rhyolite. ?? 1980.

Collisional Dynamics, Lasing and Stimulated Raman Scattering in Optically Pumped Cesium and Potassium Vapors

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-22

10 4. Three level energy diagram of an OPAL . N0 is a ground S1/2 state, and N1 and N2 are the 2P1/2 and 2P3/2 states, respectively...refer to these lasers by the more general term, OPAL for Optically-Pumped Alkali Laser. An OPAL is a three level laser where the ground state , N0, is...contains the buffer gas and alkali metal vapor. The temperature of OPAL lasers is typically in the range of 90 to 130 ◦C which amounts to a density of about

Fabrication and structural studies of opal-III nitride nanocomposites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davydov, V. Yu; Golubev, V. G.; Kartenko, N. F.; Kurdyukov, D. A.; Pevtsov, A. B.; Sharenkova, N. V.; Brogueira, P.; Schwarz, R.

2000-12-01

In this paper, regular three-dimensional systems of GaN, InN and InGaN nanoclusters have been fabricated for the first time in a void sublattice of artificial opal. The opal consisted of 220 nm diameter close packed amorphous silica spheres and had a regular sublattice of voids accessible to filling by other substances. GaN, InN and InGaN were synthesized directly in the opal voids from precursors such as metal salts and nitrogen hydrides. The composites' structures have been characterized using x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and optical measurements.

Uraniferous opal, Virgin Valley, Nevada: conditions of formation and implications for uranium exploration

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zielinski, R.A.

1982-01-01

Uraniferous, fluorescent opal, which occurs in tuffaceous sedimentary rocks at Virgin Valley, Nevada, records the temperature and composition of uranium-rich solutions as well as the time of uranium-silica coprecipitation. Results are integrated with previous geologic and geochronologic data for the area to produce a model for uranium mobility that may be used to explore for uranium deposits in similar geologic settings. Uraniferous opal occurs as replacements of diatomite, or silicic air-fall ash layers in tuffaceous lakebeds of the Virgin Valley Formation (Miocene) of Merriam (1907). Fission-track radiography shows uranium to be homogeneously dispersed throughout the opal structure, suggesting coprecipitation of dissolved uranium and silica gel. Fluid inclusions preserved within opal replacements of diatomite have homogenization temperatures in the epithermal range and are of low salinity. Four samples of opal from one locality all have U-Pb apparent ages which suggest uraniferous opal precipitation in late Pliocene time. These ages correspond to a period of local, normal faulting, and highangle faults may have served as vertical conduits for transport of deep, thermalized ground water to shallower levels. Lateral migration of rising solutions occurred at intersections of faults with permeable strata. Silica and some uranium were dissolved from silica-rich host strata of 5-20 ppm original uranium content and reprecipitated as the solutions cooled. The model predicts that in similar geologic settings, ore-grade concentrations of uranium will occur in permeable strata that intersect high-angle faults and that contain uranium source rocks as well as efficient reductant traps for uranium. In the absence of sufficient quantities of reductant materials, uranium will be flushed from the system or will accumulate in low-grade disseminated hosts such as uraniferous opal. ?? 1982.

Luminescence of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots infiltrated into an opal matrix

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gruzintsev, A. N.; Emelchenko, G. A.; Masalov, V. M.

The effect of the photonic band gap in the photonic crystal, the synthesized SiO{sub 2} opal with embedded CdSe/ZnS quantum dots, on its luminescence in the visible spectral region is studied. It is shown that the position of the photonic band gap in the luminescence and reflectance spectra for the infiltrated opal depends on the diameter of the constituent nanospheres and on the angle of recording the signal. The optimal conditions for embedding the CdSe/ZnS quantum dots from the solution into the opal matrix are determined. It is found that, for the opal-CdSe/ZnS nanocomposites, the emission intensity decreases and themore » luminescence decay time increases in the spatial directions, in which the spectral positions of the photonic band gap and the luminescence peak of the quantum dots coincide.« less

Ordered macroporous platinum electrode and enhanced mass transfer in fuel cells using inverse opal structure.

PubMed

Kim, Ok-Hee; Cho, Yong-Hun; Kang, Soon Hyung; Park, Hee-Young; Kim, Minhyoung; Lim, Ju Wan; Chung, Dong Young; Lee, Myeong Jae; Choe, Heeman; Sung, Yung-Eun

2013-01-01

Three-dimensional, ordered macroporous materials such as inverse opal structures are attractive materials for various applications in electrochemical devices because of the benefits derived from their periodic structures: relatively large surface areas, large voidage, low tortuosity and interconnected macropores. However, a direct application of an inverse opal structure in membrane electrode assemblies has been considered impractical because of the limitations in fabrication routes including an unsuitable substrate. Here we report the demonstration of a single cell that maintains an inverse opal structure entirely within a membrane electrode assembly. Compared with the conventional catalyst slurry, an ink-based assembly, this modified assembly has a robust and integrated configuration of catalyst layers; therefore, the loss of catalyst particles can be minimized. Furthermore, the inverse-opal-structure electrode maintains an effective porosity, an enhanced performance, as well as an improved mass transfer and more effective water management, owing to its morphological advantages.

Modulating light propagation in ZnO-Cu₂O-inverse opal solar cells for enhanced photocurrents.

PubMed

Yantara, Natalia; Pham, Thi Thu Trang; Boix, Pablo P; Mathews, Nripan

2015-09-07

The advantages of employing an interconnected periodic ZnO morphology, i.e. an inverse opal structure, in electrodeposited ZnO/Cu2O devices are presented. The solar cells are fabricated using low cost solution based methods such as spin coating and electrodeposition. The impact of inverse opal geometry, mainly the diameter and thickness, is scrutinized. By employing 3 layers of an inverse opal structure with a 300 nm pore diameter, higher short circuit photocurrents (∼84% improvement) are observed; however the open circuit voltages decrease with increasing interfacial area. Optical simulation using a finite difference time domain method shows that the inverse opal structure modulates light propagation within the devices such that more photons are absorbed close to the ZnO/Cu2O junction. This increases the collection probability resulting in improved short circuit currents.

Thermally Driven Photonic Actuator Based on Silica Opal Photonic Crystal with Liquid Crystal Elastomer.

PubMed

Xing, Huihui; Li, Jun; Shi, Yang; Guo, Jinbao; Wei, Jie

2016-04-13

We have developed a novel thermoresponsive photonic actuator based on three-dimensional SiO2 opal photonic crystals (PCs) together with liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs). In the process of fabrication of such a photonic actuator, the LCE precursor is infiltrated into the SiO2 opal PC followed by UV light-induced photopolymerization, thereby forming the SiO2 opal PC/LCE composite film with a bilayer structure. We find that this bilayer composite film simultaneously exhibits actuation behavior as well as the photonic band gap (PBG) response to external temperature variation. When the SiO2 opal PC/LCE composite film is heated, it exhibits a considerable bending deformation, and its PBG shifts to a shorter wavelength at the same time. In addition, this actuation is quite fast, reversible, and highly repeatable. The thermoresponsive behavior of the SiO2 opal PC/LCE composite films mainly derives from the thermal-driven change of nematic order of the LCE layer which leads to the asymmetric shrinkage/expansion of the bilayer structure. These results will be of interest in designing optical actuator systems for environment-temperature detection.

Fresh Exposures of Fe-Allophane/Opal in Association with Channels and Debris Aprons in Coprates Chasma, Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weitz, C. M.; Bishop, J. L.; Baker, L.; Berman, D. C.

2014-04-01

We have discovered relatively fresh deposits of a hydrated, amorphous material resembling Fe-rich allophane or opal along the wallrock slopes in Coprates Chasma, Mars (Fig. 1). The deposits appear similar to numerous mass wasting flows and debris aprons visible along the wallrock slopes. It is only with the aid of CRISM visible and near-infrared reflectance spectral data that these deposits appear distinct. Spectra extracted from the deposits exhibit broad absorptions at 1.42, 1.94, and ~2.25 μm. These broad absorptions and peaks shifted to longer wavelengths relative to spectra of allophane and opal are most consistent with Fe-allophane/opal produced synthetically in the laboratory. The three absorptions, especially the 1.4 μm, are very strong relative to most martian hydrated spectra, suggesting high water content that is relatively fresh and has not altered or lost water since formation/exposure. The confinement and concentration of Fe-allophane/opal into channels suggests that there was movement downslope, but the channels may have formed previously and could have been used as a conduit by the younger Fe-allophane/opal debris.

Opal-A in Glassy Pumice, Acid Alteration, and the 1817 Phreatomagmatic Eruption at Kawah Ijen (Java), Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lowenstern, Jacob B.; van Hinsberg, Vincent; Berlo, Kim; Liesegang, Moritz; Iacovino, Kayla; Bindeman, Ilya N.; Wright, Heather M.

2018-02-01

At Kawah Ijen (Indonesia), vigorous SO2 and HCl degassing sustains a hyperacid lake (pH 0) and intensely alters the subsurface, producing widespread residual silica and advanced argillic alteration products. In 1817, a VEI 2 phreatomagmatic eruption evacuated the lake, depositing a widespread layer of muddy ash fall, and sending lahars down river drainages. We discovered multiple types of opaline silica in juvenile low-silica dacite pumice and in particles within co-erupted laharic sediments. Most spectacular are opal-replaced phenocrysts of plagioclase and pyroxene adjacent to pristine matrix glass and melt inclusions. Opal-bearing pumice has been found at numerous sites, including where post-eruption infiltration of acid water is unlikely. Through detailed analyses of an initial sampling of 1817 eruption products, we find evidence for multiple origins of opaline materials in pumice and laharic sediments. Evidently, magma encountered acid-altered materials in the subsurface and triggered phreatomagmatic eruptions. Syn-eruptive incorporation of opal-alunite clasts, layered opal, and fragment-filled vesicles of opal and glass, all suggest magma-rock interactions in concert with vesiculation, followed by cooling within minutes. Our experiments at magmatic temperature confirm that the opaline materials would show noticeable degradation in time periods longer than a few tens of minutes. Some glassy laharic sedimentary grains are more andesitic than the main pumice type and may represent older volcanic materials that were altered beneath the lake bottom and were forcefully ejected during the 1817 eruption. A post-eruptive origin remains likely for most of the opal-replaced phenocrysts in pumice. Experiments at 25°C and 100°C reveal that when fresh pumice is bathed in Kawah Ijen hyperacid fluid for six weeks, plagioclase is replaced without altering either matrix glass or melt inclusions. Moreover, lack of evidence for high-temperature annealing of the opal suggests that post-eruption alteration of pumice is more likely than pre-eruption envelopment of euhedral opal-replaced phenocrysts in dacitic melt. At Ijen and elsewhere, the ascent of magma into hydrous acid-altered mineral assemblages (e.g., opal, kaolinite, alunite) could induce rapid dehydration of hydrous minerals and amorphous materials, generating considerable steam and contributing to magmatic-hydrothermal and phreatomagmatic explosions.

Ion-probe U–Pb dating of authigenic and detrital opal from Neogene-Quaternary alluvium

USGS Publications Warehouse

Neymark, Leonid; Paces, James B.

2013-01-01

Knowing depositional ages of alluvial fans is essential for many tectonic, paleoclimatic, and geomorphic studies in arid environments. The use of U–Pb dating on secondary silica to establish the age of Neogene-Quaternary clastic sediments was tested on samples of authigenic and detrital opal and chalcedony from depths of ∼25 to 53 m in boreholes at Midway Valley, Nevada. Dating of authigenic opal present as rinds on rock clasts and in calcite/silica cements establishes minimum ages of alluvium deposition; dating of detrital opal or chalcedony derived from the source volcanic rocks gives the maximum age of sediment deposition.Materials analyzed included 12 samples of authigenic opal, one sample of fracture-coating opal from bedrock, one sample of detrital opal, and two samples of detrital chalcedony. Uranium–lead isotope data were obtained by both thermal ionization mass spectrometry and ion-microprobe. Uranium concentrations ranged from tens to hundreds of μg/g. Relatively large U/Pb allowed calculation of 206Pb/238U ages that ranged from 1.64±0.36 (2σ) to 6.16±0.50 Ma for authigenic opal and from 8.34±0.28 to 11.2±1.3 Ma for detrital opal/chalcedony. Three samples with the most radiogenic Pb isotope compositions also allowed calculation of 207Pb/235U ages, which were concordant with 206Pb/238U ages from the same samples.These results indicate that basin development at Midway Valley was initiated between about 8 and 6 Ma, and that the basin was filled at long-term average deposition rates of less than 1 cm/ka. Because alluvium in Midway Valley was derived from adjacent highlands at Yucca Mountain, the low rates of deposition determined in this study may imply a slow rate of erosion of Yucca Mountain. Volcanic strata underlying the basin are offset by a number of buried faults to a greater degree than the relatively smooth-sloping bedrock/alluvium contact. These geologic relations indicate that movement on most faults ceased prior to erosional planation and burial. Therefore, ages of the authigenic opal from basal alluvium indicate that the last movement on buried faults was older than about 6 Ma.

Opal-A in glassy pumice, acid alteration, and the 1817 phreatomagmatic eruption at Kawah Ijen (Java), Indonesia

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lowenstern, Jacob B.; van Hinsberg, Vincent; Berlo, Kim; Liesegang, Moritz; Iacovino, Kayla D.; Bindeman, Ilya N.; Wright, Heather M.

2018-01-01

At Kawah Ijen (Indonesia), vigorous SO2 and HCl degassing sustains a hyperacid lake (pH ~0) and intensely alters the subsurface, producing widespread residual silica and advanced argillic alteration products. In 1817, a VEI 2 phreatomagmatic eruption evacuated the lake, depositing a widespread layer of muddy ash fall, and sending lahars down river drainages. We discovered multiple types of opaline silica in juvenile low-silica dacite pumice and in particles within co-erupted laharic sediments. Most spectacular are opal-replaced phenocrysts of plagioclase and pyroxene adjacent to pristine matrix glass and melt inclusions. Opal-bearing pumice has been found at numerous sites, including where post-eruption infiltration of acid water is unlikely. Through detailed analyses of an initial sampling of 1817 eruption products, we find evidence for multiple origins of opaline materials in pumice and laharic sediments. Evidently, magma encountered acid-altered materials in the subsurface and triggered phreatomagmatic eruptions. Syn-eruptive incorporation of opal-alunite clasts, layered opal, and fragment-filled vesicles of opal and glass, all suggest magma-rock interactions in concert with vesiculation, followed by cooling within minutes. Our experiments at magmatic temperature confirm that the opaline materials would show noticeable degradation in time periods longer than a few tens of minutes. Some glassy laharic sedimentary grains are more andesitic than the main pumice type and may represent older volcanic materials that were altered beneath the lake bottom and were forcefully ejected during the 1817 eruption. A post-eruptive origin remains likely for most of the opal-replaced phenocrysts in pumice. Experiments at 25°C and 100°C reveal that when fresh pumice is bathed in Kawah Ijen hyperacid fluid for 6 weeks, plagioclase is replaced without altering either matrix glass or melt inclusions. Moreover, lack of evidence for high-temperature annealing of the opal suggests that post-eruption alteration of pumice is more likely than pre-eruption envelopment of euhedral opal-replaced phenocrysts in dacitic melt. At Ijen and elsewhere, the ascent of magma into hydrous acid-altered mineral assemblages (e.g., opal, kaolinite, alunite) could induce rapid dehydration of hydrous minerals and amorphous materials, generating considerable steam and contributing to magmatic-hydrothermal and phreatomagmatic explosions.

Utilizing stretch-tunable thermochromic elastomeric opal films as novel reversible switchable photonic materials.

PubMed

Schäfer, Christian G; Lederle, Christina; Zentel, Kristina; Stühn, Bernd; Gallei, Markus

2014-11-01

In this work, the preparation of highly thermoresponsive and fully reversible stretch-tunable elastomeric opal films featuring switchable structural colors is reported. Novel particle architectures based on poly(diethylene glycol methylether methacrylate-co-ethyl acrylate) (PDEGMEMA-co-PEA) as shell polymer are synthesized via seeded and stepwise emulsion polymerization protocols. The use of DEGMEMA as comonomer and herein established synthetic strategies leads to monodisperse soft shell particles, which can be directly processed to opal films by using the feasible melt-shear organization technique. Subsequent UV crosslinking strategies open access to mechanically stable and homogeneous elastomeric opal films. The structural colors of the opal films feature mechano- and thermoresponsiveness, which is found to be fully reversible. Optical characterization shows that the combination of both stimuli provokes a photonic bandgap shift of more than 50 nm from 560 nm in the stretched state to 611 nm in the fully swollen state. In addition, versatile colorful patterns onto the colloidal crystal structure are produced by spatial UV-induced crosslinking by using a photomask. This facile approach enables the generation of spatially cross-linked switchable opal films with fascinating optical properties. Herein described strategies for the preparation of PDEGMEMA-containing colloidal architectures, application of the melt-shear ordering technique, and patterned crosslinking of the final opal films open access to novel stimuli-responsive colloidal crystal films, which are expected to be promising materials in the field of security and sensing applications. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Characterization and Biomimcry of Avian Nanostructured Tissues

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-19

fast-paced courtship displays in a dim environment. Keywords: Animal coloration, inverse- opal , iridescence, Lepidothrix, manakin, ultra-white...on their crown and rump feathers (figure 1), such as ultra- whites, vibrant blues, golds, and iridescent opal -like colours (Kirwan and Green, 2011...feathers of the blue-rumped manakin (L. isidorei); opalescent crown feathers of the opal -crowned manakin (L. iris); pinkish-white rump feathers of

Magnetophotonic crystals based on yttrium-iron-garnet infiltrated opals: Magnetization-induced second-harmonic generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murzina, T. V.; Kim, E. M.; Kapra, R. V.; Moshnina, I. V.; Aktsipetrov, O. A.; Kurdyukov, D. A.; Kaplan, S. F.; Golubev, V. G.; Bader, M. A.; Marowsky, G.

2006-01-01

Three-dimensional magnetophotonic crystals (MPCs) based on artificial opals infiltrated by yttrium iron garnet (YIG) are fabricated and their structural, optical, and nonlinear optical properties are studied. The formation of the crystalline YIG inside the opal matrix is checked by x-ray analysis. Two templates are used for the infiltration by YIG: bare opals and those covered by a thin platinum film. Optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) technique is used to study the magnetization-induced nonlinear-optical properties of the composed MPCs. A high nonlinear magneto-optical Kerr effect in the SHG intensity is observed at the edge of the photonic band gap of the MPCs.

The effects of lithium hydroxide solution on alkali silica reaction gels created with opal

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mitchell, Lyndon D.; Beaudoin, James J.; Grattan-Bellew, Patrick

The reaction of Nevada opal with calcium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide and lithium hydroxide solutions was investigated. In addition, opal was exposed to a combined solution of these three hydroxides. The progress of the three reactions was followed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), {sup 29}Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The XRD results indicated the presence of a low-angle peak exclusive to the lithium-based reactions. The NMR results suggested a change in the silicate structure in the presence of lithium. These techniques indicated that the reaction of the alkali with the opal starting material is inhibited and perhapsmore » stopped in the presence of lithium hydroxide. SEM revealed that the morphology of the reaction products on the surface of the reacted opal grains is markedly different invariably. It was concluded that evidence to support the theory of a protective layer exists and that the nature of the layer varies with ion type.« less

Graphene-embedded 3D TiO2 inverse opal electrodes for highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells: morphological characteristics and photocurrent enhancement.

PubMed

Kim, Hye-Na; Yoo, Haemin; Moon, Jun Hyuk

2013-05-21

We demonstrated the preparation of graphene-embedded 3D inverse opal electrodes for use in DSSCs. The graphene was incorporated locally into the top layers of the inverse opal structures and was embedded into the TiO2 matrix via post-treatment of the TiO2 precursors. DSSCs comprising the bare and 1-5 wt% graphene-incorporated TiO2 inverse opal electrodes were compared. We observed that the local arrangement of graphene sheets effectively enhanced electron transport without significantly reducing light harvesting by the dye molecules. A high efficiency of 7.5% was achieved in DSSCs prepared with the 3 wt% graphene-incorporated TiO2 inverse opal electrodes, constituting a 50% increase over the efficiencies of DSSCs prepared without graphene. The increase in efficiency was mainly attributed to an increase in J(SC), as determined by the photovoltaic parameters and the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis.

Synthesis and characterization of magnetic opal/Fe3O4 colloidal crystal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carmona-Carmona, A. J.; Palomino-Ovando, M. A.; Hernández-Cristobal, Orlando; Sánchez-Mora, E.; Toledo-Solano, M.

2017-03-01

We report an experimental study of colloidal crystals based on SiO2 artificial opals, infiltrated with 1.34(M1), 2.03(M2) and 24.4(M3) wt% Fe3O4 nanoparticles, using the co-assembly method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and Vibration sample magnetometer (VSM) were used to study the structural, magnetic and optical properties of the samples. At 300 K all the samples exhibit superparamagnetic behavior due to the magnetic coupling of Fe3O4 nanoparticles infiltrated into opal. However, for higher concentration of nanoparticles this strong coupling distorts the opal network. The UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and Kubelka-Munk theory were applied to determine that the energy band gap of the opal-magnetite composites can be adjusted by varying the concentration of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. This values are between the energy band gap of SiO2 and Fe3O4.

OPAL: An Open-Source MPI-IO Library over Cray XT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yu, Weikuan; Vetter, Jeffrey S; Canon, Richard Shane

Parallel IO over Cray XT is supported by a vendor-supplied MPI-IO package. This package contains a proprietary ADIO implementation built on top of the sysio library. While it is reasonable to maintain a stable code base for application scientists' convenience, it is also very important to the system developers and researchers to analyze and assess the effectiveness of parallel IO software, and accordingly, tune and optimize the MPI-IO implementation. A proprietary parallel IO code base relinquishes such flexibilities. On the other hand, a generic UFS-based MPI-IO implementation is typically used on many Linux-based platforms. We have developed an open-source MPI-IOmore » package over Lustre, referred to as OPAL (OPportunistic and Adaptive MPI-IO Library over Lustre). OPAL provides a single source-code base for MPI-IO over Lustre on Cray XT and Linux platforms. Compared to Cray implementation, OPAL provides a number of good features, including arbitrary specification of striping patterns and Lustre-stripe aligned file domain partitioning. This paper presents the performance comparisons between OPAL and Cray's proprietary implementation. Our evaluation demonstrates that OPAL achieves the performance comparable to the Cray implementation. We also exemplify the benefits of an open source package in revealing the underpinning of the parallel IO performance.« less

Water-dependent photonic bandgap in silica artificial opals.

PubMed

Gallego-Gómez, Francisco; Blanco, Alvaro; Canalejas-Tejero, Victor; López, Cefe

2011-07-04

Some characteristics of silica--based structures-like the photonic properties of artificial opals formed by silica spheres--can be greatly affected by the presence of adsorbed water. The reversible modification of the water content of an opal is investigated here by moderate heating (below 300 °C) and measuring in situ the changes in the photonic bandgap. Due to reversible removal of interstitial water, large blueshifts of 30 nm and a bandgap narrowing of 7% are observed. The latter is particularly surprising, because water desorption increases the refractive index contrast, which should lead instead to bandgap broadening. A quantitative explanation of this experiment is provided using a simple model for water distribution in the opal that assumes a nonclose-packed fcc structure. This model further predicts that, at room temperature, about 50% of the interstitial water forms necks between nearest-neighbor spheres, which are separated by 5% of their diameter. Upon heating, dehydration predominantly occurs at the sphere surfaces (in the opal voids), so that above 65 °C the remaining water resides exclusively in the necks. A near-close-packed fcc arrangement is only achieved above 200 °C. The high sensitivity to water changes exhibited by silica opals, even under gentle heating of few degrees, must be taken into account for practical applications. Remarkably, accurate control of the distance between spheres--from 16 to 1 nm--is obtained with temperature. In this study, novel use of the optical properties of the opal is made to infer quantitative information about water distribution within silica beads and dehydration phenomena from simple reflection spectra. Taking advantage of the well-defined opal morphology, this approach offers a simple tool for the straightforward investigation of generic adsorption-desorption phenomena, which might be extrapolated to many other fields involving capillary condensation. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Depth of Etch Comparison Between Self-limiting and Traditional Etchant Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-18

two different etchants (Ultradent’s Opal Etch 35%, a self-limiting phosphoric acid, or 34% Tooth Conditioning Gel by Dentsply) at varied time... Opal versus Dentsply and there was also a significant difference between etch time. There is no significant difference between the interaction of...etch material and etch time. Conclusion: The depth of etch of Opal etchant was consistently less than Dentsply etchant but continued to etch and

Deep Water Ambient Noise and Mode Processing

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-30

of the Church Opal data set showed that noise levels decreased substantially (on the order of 20 dB) below the critical depth [6]. This project is...experiment have comparable slopes, whereas the Church Opal experiment shows a much sharper decrease. This supports Shooter et al.’s hypothesis that the...Moonless Mountains shielded the Church Opal site from noise generated in the shipping lanes located primarily to the north of that underwater range [8

Using Simple Environmental Variables to Estimate Biomass Disturbance

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-08-01

ER D C/ CE RL T R- 14 -1 3 Optimal Allocation of Land for Training and Non-Training Uses ( OPAL ) Using Simple Environmental Variables to...Uses ( OPAL ) ERDC/CERL TR-14-13 August 2014 Using Simple Environmental Variables to Estimate Biomass Disturbance Natalie Myers, Daniel Koch...Development of the Optimal Allocation of Land for Training and Non-Training Uses ( OPAL ) Program was undertak- en to meet this need. This phase of work

Photonic crystal microprisms obtained by carving artificial opals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fenollosa, R.; Ibisate, M.; Rubio, S.; López, C.; Meseguer, F.; Sánchez-Dehesa, J.

2003-01-01

A method for fabrication of photonic crystal prisms is demonstrated. The procedure is based on micromanipulation techniques, here applied to artificial opals. By means of a microgrinder an opal prism comprising a single crystal (several tens of microns in size) has been carved with three different faces: (111), (110), and (100). The faces were morphologically characterized by scanning electron microscopy and their optical reflectance spectra measured and compared with the theoretical band structure.

Tuning and Freezing Disorder in Photonic Crystals using Percolation Lithography

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-21

The 3D photonic crystals used in this work were inverse -opal films (IOFs) made of silica, and were fabricated on silicon substrates using an...receding species become increasingly isolated defects that are homogeneously distributed in the film. Once the Figure 1. Tuning disorder in inverse -opal...angular distribution of Figure 2. Simulated evolution of disorder in inverse -opal films (IOFs) due to partial wetting and drying. (A,B) Percolation

Enzymatic Inverse Opal Hydrogel Particles for Biocatalyst.

PubMed

Wang, Huan; Gu, Hongcheng; Chen, Zhuoyue; Shang, Luoran; Zhao, Ze; Gu, Zhongze; Zhao, Yuanjin

2017-04-19

Enzymatic carriers have a demonstrated value for chemical reactions and industrial applications. Here, we present a novel kind of inverse opal hydrogel particles as the enzymatic carriers. The particles were negatively replicated from spherical colloidal crystal templates by using magnetic nanoparticles tagged acrylamide hydrogel. Thus, they were endowed with the features of monodispersity, small volume, complete penetrating structure, and controllable motion, which are all beneficial for improving the efficiency of biocatalysis. In addition, due to the ordered porous nanostructure, the inverse opal hydrogel particles were imparted with unique photonic band gaps (PBGs) and vivid structural colors for encoding varieties of immobilized enzymes and for constructing a multienzymes biocatalysis system. These features of the inverse opal hydrogel particles indicate that they are ideal enzymatic carriers for biocatalysis.

Opal-based photonic crystal with double photonic bandgap structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romanov, S. G.; Yates, H. M.; Pemble, M. E.; DeLa Rue, R. M.

2000-09-01

The interior surfaces of one part of a piece of artificial opal have been coated with GaP so that the remaining part of the opal crystal remains empty, thus forming a photonic heterostructure. Two Bragg resonances have been observed in the optical transmission and reflectance spectra. These two resonances were found to behave differently with changes in the polarization of the incident light and the angle of propagation of the light with respect to the (111) planes of opal. Depolarization of the light was observed to occur most effectively at frequencies within the stop-bands, apparently due to the re-coupling of the propagating electromagnetic wave to a different system of eigenmodes when it crosses the interface separating two parts of the double photonic crystal.

Transmission spectra changes produced by decreasing compactness of opal-like structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andueza, A.; Echeverría, R.; Morales, P.; Sevilla, J.

2009-01-01

Artificial opal-like structures based on spheres and colloidal particles have been fabricated in a controlled way, presenting optical band-gap properties in the optical frequency range. Nonclose packed artificial opals have also been fabricated and studied recently. In order to gain a better understanding of these phenomena, we have studied macroscopic models of nonclose packed fcc lattices using glass spheres (ɛ =7) of 8 mm diameter, and measuring in the microwave region (from 10 to 30 GHz). The results have shown a Bragg resonance tunable with filling factor of the opal, and a strong rejected band similar, also present in close packed samples, much less affected by compactness. The relation of this high order band with spheres single layer behavior is also discussed.

Thermochromic effect in synthetic opal/polyaniline composite structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahman, F.; Khokhar, A. Z.

2009-02-01

The design and construction of a novel storage/indicator bilayer system is described where ammonia gas stored in a porous material can be used to dope a colour-changing polyaniline film. Both reversible and irreversible colour change effects are possible. A thin synthetic opal film is coupled to a polyaniline film in a parallel plate glass cell with ammonia gas adsorbed on the silica balls that form the opal structure. When heated and cooled, ammonia reversibly exchanges between the opal and polyaniline films causing a very distinct change in the colour of the polyaniline film. This thermochromic effect is also electrically detectable because of the large concomitant change in the resistivity of the polyaniline film that accompanies its colour change.

Strong Photonic-Band-Gap Effect on the Spontaneous Emission in 3D Lead Halide Perovskite Photonic Crystals.

PubMed

Zhou, Xue; Li, Mingzhu; Wang, Kang; Li, Huizeng; Li, Yanan; Li, Chang; Yan, Yongli; Zhao, Yongsheng; Song, Yanlin

2018-03-25

Stimulated emission in perovskite-embedded polymer opal structures is investigated. A polymer opal structure is filled with a perovskite, and perovskite photonic crystals are prepared. The spontaneous emission of the perovskite embedded in the polymer opal structures exhibits clear signatures of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) via gain modulation. The difference in refractive-index contrast between the perovskite and the polymer opal is large enough for retaining photonic-crystals properties. The photonic band gap has a strong effect on the fluorescence emission intensity and lifetime. The stimulated emission spectrum exhibits a narrow ASE rather than a wide fluorescence peak in the thin film. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Assessment and Rehabilitation of Central Sensory Impairments for Balance in mTBI

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-01

place; 95% complete. ● Purchasing and testing software of Opals ; awaiting release of newer, updated sensor from APDM to determine need for more sensors...2016. ● Develop new algorithm to automatically quantify head movements from Opal sensor; 100% complete 23-Sep-2016. ● Set up and test gait paradigm...Interaction in Balance (mCTSIB), Modified Balance Error Scoring System (mBESS) and walking tests, subjects wear five Opal inertial sensors (APDM, Inc

Initial Effects of Heavy Vehicle Trafficking on Vegetated Soils

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-08-01

ER D C/ CR R EL T R -1 2 -6 Optimal Allocation of Land for Training and Non-training Uses ( OPAL ) Initial Effects of Heavy Vehicle...the outdoor loam test section. Optimal Allocation of Land for Training and Non-training Uses ( OPAL ) ERDC/CRREL TR-12-6 August 2012 Initial...mal Allocation of Land for Training and Non-Training Uses ( OPAL ) Pro- gram. The work was conducted by Nicole Buck and Sally Shoop of the Force

Amorphous silica maturation in chemically weathered clastic sediments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liesegang, Moritz; Milke, Ralf; Berthold, Christoph

2018-03-01

A detailed understanding of silica postdepositional transformation mechanisms is fundamental for its use as a palaeobiologic and palaeoenvironmental archive. Amorphous silica (opal-A) is an important biomineral, an alteration product of silicate rocks on the surface of Earth and Mars, and a precursor material for stable silica phases. During diagenesis, amorphous silica gradually and gradationally transforms to opal-CT, opal-C, and eventually quartz. Here we demonstrate the early-stage maturation of several million year old opal-A from deeply weathered Early Cretaceous and Ordovician sedimentary rocks of the Great Artesian Basin (central Australia). X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and electron probe microanalyses show that the mineralogical maturation of the nanosphere material is decoupled from its chemical properties and begins significantly earlier than micromorphology suggests. Non-destructive and locally highly resolved X-ray microdiffraction (μ-XRD2) reveals an almost linear positive correlation between the main peak position (3.97 to 4.06 Å) and a new asymmetry parameter, AP. Heating experiments and calculated diffractograms indicate that nucleation and growth of tridymite-rich nanodomains induce systematic peak shifts and symmetry variations in diffraction patterns of morphologically juvenile opal-A. Our results show that the asymmetry parameter traces the early-stage maturation of amorphous silica, and that the mineralogical opal-A/CT stage extends to smaller d-spacings and larger FWHM values than previously suggested.

Three-dimensional ordered titanium dioxide-zirconium dioxide film-based microfluidic device for efficient on-chip phosphopeptide enrichment.

PubMed

Zhao, De; He, Zhongyuan; Wang, Gang; Wang, Hongzhi; Zhang, Qinghong; Li, Yaogang

2016-09-15

Microfluidic technology plays a significant role in separating biomolecules, because of its miniaturization, integration, and automation. Introducing micro/nanostructured functional materials can improve the properties of microfluidic devices, and extend their application. Inverse opal has a three-dimensional ordered net-like structure. It possesses a large surface area and exhibits good mass transport, making it a good candidate for bio-separation. This study exploits inverse opal titanium dioxide-zirconium dioxide films for on-chip phosphopeptide enrichment. Titanium dioxide-zirconium dioxide inverse opal film-based microfluidic devices were constructed from templates of 270-, 340-, and 370-nm-diameter poly(methylmethacrylate) spheres. The phosphopeptide enrichments of these devices were determined by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. The device constructed from the 270-nm-diameter sphere template exhibited good comprehensive phosphopeptide enrichment, and was the best among these three devices. Because the size of opal template used in construction was the smallest, the inverse opal film therefore had the smallest pore sizes and the largest surface area. Enrichment by this device was also better than those of similar devices based on nanoparticle films and single component films. The titanium dioxide-zirconium dioxide inverse opal film-based device provides a promising approach for the efficient separation of various biomolecules. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Talc

MedlinePlus

... Shade % Asbestos by PLM % Asbestos by TEM Black Opal True Color Liquid Foundation Heavenly Honey NAD NAD ... Face Powder Translucent 070-24 NAD NAD Black Opal Color Fusion Powder Mosaic Raspberry Bronzer NAD NAD ...

Achieving Operational Two-Way Laser Acquisition for OPALS Payload on the International Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abrahamson, Matthew J.; Oaida, Bogdan V.; Sindiy, Oleg; Biswas, Abhijit

2015-01-01

The Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) experiment was installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in April 2014. Developed as a technology demonstration, its objective was to experiment with space-to-ground optical communications transmissions from Low Earth Orbit. More than a dozen successful optical links were established between a Wrightwood, California-based ground telescope and the OPALS flight terminal from June 2014 to September 2014. Each transmission required precise bi-directional pointing to be maintained between the space-based transmitter and ground-based receiver. This was accomplished by acquiring and tracking a laser beacon signal transmitted from the ground telescope to the OPALS flight terminal on the ISS. OPALS demonstrated the ability to nominally acquire the beacon within three seconds at 25deg elevation and maintain lock within 140 µrad (3(sigma)) for the full 150-second transmission duration while slewing at rates up to 1deg/sec. Additional acquisition attempts in low elevation and weather-challenged conditions provided valuable insight on the optical link robustness under off-nominal operational conditions.

Optical effects in artificial opals infiltrated with gold nanoparticles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Comoretto, Davide; Morandi, Valentina; Marabelli, Franco; Amendola, Vincenzo; Meneghetti, Moreno

2006-04-01

Polystyrene artificial opals are directly grown with embedded gold nanoparticles (NpAu) in their interstices. Reflectance spectra of samples having different sphere diameters and nanoparticles load clearly show a red shift of the photonic band gap as well as a reduction of its width without showing direct evidence of NpAu absorption. The case of transmission spectra is instead more complicated: here, overlapped to a broad NpAu absorption, a structure having unusual lineshape is detected. The infiltration of opal with NpAu removes the polarization dependence of the photonic band structure observed in bare opals. The lineshape of the absorption spectra suggest a spatial localization of the electromagnetic field in the volume where NpAu are confined thus enhancing its local intensity. This effect seems to be effective to stimulate optical nonlinearities of NpAu. Nanosecond transient absorption measurements on NpAu infiltrated opals indicate that a variation of transmission of about 10% is observed. Since this effect takes place within the pump pulse and since NpAu photoluminescence has been subtracted to the signal, we attribute it to an optical switching process.

Comparison of two different modes of molecular adsorbent recycling systems for liver dialysis.

PubMed

Soo, Euan; Sanders, Anja; Heckert, Karlheinz; Vinke, Tobias; Schaefer, Franz; Schmitt, Claus Peter

2016-11-01

In children acute liver failure is a rare but life-threatening condition from which two-thirds do not recover with supportive therapy. Treatment is limited by the availability of liver transplants. Molecular adsorbent recirculating system (MARS) dialysis is a bridge to transplantation that enhances the chances of survival during the waiting period for a transplant, although it cannot improve survival. Open albumin dialysis (OPAL) is a new mode of albumin dialysis developed to further improve dialysis efficiency. We report a paediatric case of acute-on-chronic liver failure and compare the two modes of albumin dialysis, namely, the MARS and OPAL, used to treat this patient's cholestatic pruritus. Removal of total and direct bilirubin, ammonia and bile acids were measured by serial blood tests. There was an increased removal of bile acids with the OPAL mode, whereas the removal of total and direct bilirubin and ammonia was similar in both modes. The patient reported better improvement in pruritus following OPAL compared to dialysis with the MARS. OPAL may offer a better solution than the MARS in the treatment of refractory pruritus in liver failure.

Three-dimensional artificial spin ice in nanostructured Co on an inverse opal-like lattice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mistonov, A. A.; Grigoryeva, N. A.; Chumakova, A. V.; Eckerlebe, H.; Sapoletova, N. A.; Napolskii, K. S.; Eliseev, A. A.; Menzel, D.; Grigoriev, S. V.

2013-06-01

The evolution of the magnetic structure for an inverse opal-like structure under an applied magnetic field is studied by small-angle neutron scattering. The samples were produced by filling the voids of an artificial opal film with Co. It is shown that the local configuration of magnetization is inhomogeneous over the basic element of the inverse opal-like lattice structure (IOLS) but follows its periodicity. Applying the “ice-rule” concept to the structure, we describe the local magnetization of this ferromagnetic three-dimensional lattice. We have developed a model of the remagnetization process predicting the occurrence of an unusual perpendicular component of the magnetization in the IOLS which is defined only by the direction and strength of the applied magnetic field.

A Combined EOF/Variational Approach for Mapping Radar-Derived Sea Surface Currents

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-01

Section 4 describes the results of experiments with the real observations off the Opal Coast of the Eastern English Channel. It is shown that the...To assess the method’s performance, we conducted twin-data experiments with simulated HFR data (Section 3) and real observations off the Opal Coast...the Opal coast of the Pas de Calais in northern France. 4.1. The data In May-June 2003. two HF radars were deployed to monitor surface currents

Time Resolved Efficiency Degradation in Potassium Diode Pumped Alkali Laser

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-08-07

study of the performance of a Potassium OPAL operating in pulsed mode with pulses up to 5 msec Jong at different pulse energies and cell...temperatures. The experiments showed the OPAL efficiency degradation in time with a characteristic time in the range from 0.5 msec to 4.5 msec. The recorded...Lasers", Optics Express, 19(8), 7894-7902 (20 I I) 1. Introduction There has been extensive research into Diode Pumped Alkali Lasers ( OPALs ) during the

Potential Energy Curves and Associated Line Shape of Alkali-Metal and Noble-Gas Interactions

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-20

spectrum of the diodes. This broadening will have the effect of making the device more efficient. In this text I will use the term OPAL for this type...of device, standing for Optically Pumped Alkali Laser. In the decade since the OPAL was proposed there have been many studies of these systems. For...example, see Beach et al. [2004], Zhdanov et al. [2006], Page et al. [2006], Zhdanov et al. [2008]. During operation of an OPAL an optical source will

SATCOM Supply Versus Demand and the Impact on Remotely Piloted Aircraft ISR

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-01

produced a laser transmitter called OPALS , which successfully transmitted both text and video from the International Space Station to a ground control...station. In one test, a video which took 12 hours to upload via traditional radio frequency was downloaded in a mere seven seconds using OPALS .52 ESA...enhanced Ku-band IntelsatEpic satellites to be launched in 2016 will provide 200Mbps downlink data rate, while OPALS and EDRS provide 1.8Gbps downlink

Impact of nanoconfinement on the diisopropylammonium chloride (C6H16ClN) organic ferroelectric

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baryshnikov, S. V.; Charnaya, E. V.; Milinskiy, A. Yu.; Parfenov, V. A.; Egorova, I. V.

2018-03-01

The dielectric studies of diisopropylammonium chloride (DIPAC) nanoparticles embedded into opal and MCM-41 silica matrices are presented. It is shown that the ferroelectric phase transition shifts to low temperatures and broadens for DIPAC within the opal pores compared to bulk. The thermal hysteresis of the transition increases under opal nanoconfinement. No anomalies of the permittivity relevant to the ferroelectric transition are observed for DIPAC within the MCM-41 molecular sieves likely due to formation of the amorphous phase.

A First Look at Oxygen and Silicon Isotope Variations in Diatom Silica from a Pliocene Antarctic Marine Sediment Core

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abbott, T.; Dodd, J. P.; Hackett, H.; Scherer, R. P.

2016-02-01

Coupled oxygen (δ18O) and silicon (δ30Si) isotope variations in diatom silica (opal-A) are increasingly used as a proxy to reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions (water temperatures, water mass mixing, nutrient cycling) in marine environments. Diatom silica is a particularly significant paleoenvironmental proxy in high latitude environments, such as the Southern Ocean, where diatom blooms are abundant and diatom frustules are well preserved in the sediment. The Andrill-1B (AND-1B) sediment core from the Ross Sea (Antarctica) preserves several Pliocene ( 4.5 Ma) age diatomite units. Here we present preliminary δ18O and δ30Si values for a diatomite subunit in the AND-1B sediment core. Initial isotope values for the AND-1B diatoms silica record relatively high variability (range δ18O: 36.3‰ to 39.9‰) that could be interpreted as large-scale changes in the water temperature and/or freshwater mixing in the Ross Sea; however, a significant concern with marine sediment of this age is isotope fractionation during diagenesis and the potential formation of opal-CT lepispheres. The effects of clay contamination on the diatom silica δ18O values have been addressed through sample purification and quantified through chemical and physical analyses of the diatom silica. The isotopic effects of opal-CT are not as clearly understood and more difficult to physically separate from the primary diatom silica. In order to better understand the isotope variations in the AND-1B diatoms, we also evaluated silicon and oxygen isotope fractionation during the transition from opal-A to opal-CT in a controlled laboratory experiment. Opal-A from cultured marine diatoms (Thalassiosira weissflogii) was subjected to elevated temperatures (150°C) in acid digestion vessels for 4 weeks to initiate opal-CT precipitation. Quantifying the effects of opal-CT formation on δ18O and δ30Si variations in biogenic silica improves our understanding of the use of diatom silica isotope values a paleoenvironmental proxy throughout the Cenozoic.

Ashley Gaulding | NREL

Science.gov Websites

inverse opal photonic crystals for CO2 reduction. Her Ph.D. work at the University of Pennsylvania (under , A.M.; Sharp, I.D.; et al., "Fabrication and optical characterization of polystyrene opal

50 CFR 223.301 - Special rules-marine and anadromous fishes.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... their behalf for the purpose of monitoring and evaluating the Opal Springs Hydroelectric Project (FERC... maintenance of the Opal Springs Hydroelectric Project (FERC Project No. 5891) as administered under a license...

An Automatic Web Service Composition Framework Using QoS-Based Web Service Ranking Algorithm.

PubMed

Mallayya, Deivamani; Ramachandran, Baskaran; Viswanathan, Suganya

2015-01-01

Web service has become the technology of choice for service oriented computing to meet the interoperability demands in web applications. In the Internet era, the exponential addition of web services nominates the "quality of service" as essential parameter in discriminating the web services. In this paper, a user preference based web service ranking (UPWSR) algorithm is proposed to rank web services based on user preferences and QoS aspect of the web service. When the user's request cannot be fulfilled by a single atomic service, several existing services should be composed and delivered as a composition. The proposed framework allows the user to specify the local and global constraints for composite web services which improves flexibility. UPWSR algorithm identifies best fit services for each task in the user request and, by choosing the number of candidate services for each task, reduces the time to generate the composition plans. To tackle the problem of web service composition, QoS aware automatic web service composition (QAWSC) algorithm proposed in this paper is based on the QoS aspects of the web services and user preferences. The proposed framework allows user to provide feedback about the composite service which improves the reputation of the services.

Switching of the photonic band gap in three-dimensional film photonic crystals based on opal-VO{sub 2} composites in the 1.3-1.6 {mu}m spectral range

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pevtsov, A. B., E-mail: pevtsov@gvg.ioffe.ru; Grudinkin, S. A.; Poddubny, A. N.

The parameters of three-dimensional photonic crystals based on opal-VO{sub 2} composite films in the 1.3-1.6 {mu}m spectral range important for practical applications (Telecom standard) are numerically calculated. For opal pores, the range of filling factors is established (0.25-0.6) wherein the composite exhibits the properties of a three-dimensional insulator photonic crystal. On the basis of the opal-VO{sub 2} composites, three-dimensional photonic film crystals are synthesized with specified parameters that provide a maximum shift of the photonic band gap in the vicinity of the wavelength {approx}1.5 {mu}m ({approx}170 meV) at the semiconductor-metal transition in VO{sub 2}.

Angle dependence in slow photon photocatalysis using TiO2 inverse opals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Curti, Mariano; Zvitco, Gonzalo; Grela, María Alejandra; Mendive, Cecilia B.

2018-03-01

The slow photon effect was studied by means of the photocatalytic degradation of stearic acid over TiO2 inverse opals. The comparison of the degradation rates over inverse opals with those obtained over disordered structures at different irradiation angles showed that the irradiation at the blue edge of the stopband leads to the activation of the effect, evidenced by an improvement factor of 1.8 ± 0.6 in the reaction rate for irradiation at 40°. The rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) method was employed to confirm the source of the enhancement; simulated spectra showed an enhancement in the absorption of the TiO2 matrix that composes the inverse opal at a 40° irradiation angle, owing to an appropriate position of the stopband in relation to the absorption onset of TiO2.

Opals: Mission System Operations Architecture for an Optical Communications Demonstration on the ISS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abrahamson, Matthew J.; Sindiy, Oleg V.; Oaida, Bogdan V.; Fregoso, Santos; Bowles-Martinez, Jessica N.; Kokorowski, Michael; Wilkerson, Marcus W.; Konyha, Alexander L.

2014-01-01

In April of 2014, the Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) Flight System (FS) launched to the International Space Station (ISS) to demonstrate space-to-ground optical communications. During a planned 90-day baseline mission, the OPALS FS will downlink high quality, short duration videos to the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) ground station in Wrightwood, California. Interfaces to the ISS payload operations infrastructure have been established to facilitate activity planning, hazardous laser operations, commanding, and telemetry transmission. In addition, internal processes, such as pointing prediction and data processing, satisfy the technical requirements of the mission. The OPALS operations team participates in Operational Readiness Tests (ORTs) with external partners to exercise coordination processes and train for the overall mission. The ORTs have provided valuable insight into operational considerations for the instrument on the ISS.

Morphology-Controlled Synthesis of Organometal Halide Perovskite Inverse Opals.

PubMed

Chen, Kun; Tüysüz, Harun

2015-11-09

The booming development of organometal halide perovskites in recent years has prompted the exploration of morphology-control strategies to improve their performance in photovoltaic, photonic, and optoelectronic applications. However, the preparation of organometal halide perovskites with high hierarchical architecture is still highly challenging and a general morphology-control method for various organometal halide perovskites has not been achieved. A mild and scalable method to prepare organometal halide perovskites in inverse opal morphology is presented that uses a polystyrene-based artificial opal as hard template. Our method is flexible and compatible with different halides and organic ammonium compositions. Thus, the perovskite inverse opal maintains the advantage of straightforward structure and band gap engineering. Furthermore, optoelectronic investigations reveal that morphology exerted influence on the conducting nature of organometal halide perovskites. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Practitioner insights on obesity prevention: the voice of South Australian OPAL workers.

PubMed

2016-06-01

Knowledge based on science has been central to implementing community-based childhood obesity prevention interventions. The art of practitioner wisdom is equally critical to ensure locally relevant responses. In South Australia (SA), the OPAL (Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle) program has been implemented to reduce childhood obesity across 20 communities reaching nearly one quarter of the state's population. Staff from across the State come together at regular intervals to share practice challenges and insights and refine the model of practice. Over a 3-year period 12 reflective practice workshops were held with OPAL staff (n = 46). OPAL staff were guided by an external facilitator using inquiring questions to reflect on their health promotion practice within local government. Three themes were identified as central within the reflections. The first theme is shared clarity through the OPAL obesity prevention model highlighting the importance of working to a clearly articulated, holistic obesity prevention model. The second theme is practitioner skill and sensitivity required to implement the model and deal with the 'politics' of obesity prevention. The final theme is the power of relationships as intrinsic to effective community based health promotion. Insights into the daily practices and reflections from obesity prevention practitioners are shared to shed light on the skills required to contribute to individual and social change. OPAL staff co-authored this paper. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Flexible Web services integration: a novel personalised social approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Metrouh, Abdelmalek; Mokhati, Farid

2018-05-01

Dynamic composition or integration remains one of the key objectives of Web services technology. This paper aims to propose an innovative approach of dynamic Web services composition based on functional and non-functional attributes and individual preferences. In this approach, social networks of Web services are used to maintain interactions between Web services in order to select and compose Web services that are more tightly related to user's preferences. We use the concept of Web services community in a social network of Web services to reduce considerably their search space. These communities are created by the direct involvement of Web services providers.

An Automatic Web Service Composition Framework Using QoS-Based Web Service Ranking Algorithm

PubMed Central

Mallayya, Deivamani; Ramachandran, Baskaran; Viswanathan, Suganya

2015-01-01

Web service has become the technology of choice for service oriented computing to meet the interoperability demands in web applications. In the Internet era, the exponential addition of web services nominates the “quality of service” as essential parameter in discriminating the web services. In this paper, a user preference based web service ranking (UPWSR) algorithm is proposed to rank web services based on user preferences and QoS aspect of the web service. When the user's request cannot be fulfilled by a single atomic service, several existing services should be composed and delivered as a composition. The proposed framework allows the user to specify the local and global constraints for composite web services which improves flexibility. UPWSR algorithm identifies best fit services for each task in the user request and, by choosing the number of candidate services for each task, reduces the time to generate the composition plans. To tackle the problem of web service composition, QoS aware automatic web service composition (QAWSC) algorithm proposed in this paper is based on the QoS aspects of the web services and user preferences. The proposed framework allows user to provide feedback about the composite service which improves the reputation of the services. PMID:26504894

Thermoelectric properties of highly doped n-type polysilicon inverse opals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ma, J; Sinha, S

Nanostructured single-crystal silicon exhibits a remarkable increase in the figure of merit for thermoelectric energy conversion. Here we theoretically investigate a similar enhancement for polycrystalline silicon inverse opals. An inverse opal provides nanoscale grains and a thin-film like geometry to scatter phonons preferentially over electrons. Using solutions to the Boltzmann transport equation for electrons and phonons, we show that the figure of merit at 300 K is fifteen times that of bulk single-crystal silicon. Our models predict that grain boundaries are more effective than surfaces in enhancing the figure of merit. We provide insight into this effect and show thatmore » preserving a grain size smaller than the shell thickness of the inverse opal increases the figure of merit by as much as 50% when the ratio between the two features is a third. At 600 K, the figure of merit is as high as 0.6 for a shell thickness of 10 nm. This work advances the fundamental understanding of charge and heat transport in nanostructured inverse opals. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4758382]« less

Two-dimensional inverse opal hydrogel for pH sensing.

PubMed

Xue, Fei; Meng, Zihui; Qi, Fenglian; Xue, Min; Wang, Fengyan; Chen, Wei; Yan, Zequn

2014-12-07

A novel hydrogel film with a highly ordered macropore monolayer on its surface was prepared by templated photo-polymerization of hydrogel monomers on a two-dimensional (2D) polystyrene colloidal array. The 2D inverse opal hydrogel has prominent advantages over traditional three-dimensional (3D) inverse opal hydrogels. First, the formation of the 2D array template through a self-assembly method is considerably faster and simpler. Second, the stable ordering structure of the 2D array template makes it easier to introduce the polymerization solution into the template. Third, a simple measurement, a Debye diffraction ring, is utilized to characterize the neighboring pore spacing of the 2D inverse opal hydrogel. Acrylic acid was copolymerized into the hydrogel; thus, the hydrogel responded to pH through volume change, which resulted from the formation of the Donnan potential. The 2D inverse opal hydrogel showed that the neighboring pore spacing increased by about 150 nm and diffracted color red-shifted from blue to red as the pH increased from pH 2 to 7. In addition, the pH response kinetics and ionic strength effect of this 2D mesoporous polymer film were also investigated.

Preparation and Optical Properties of Spherical Inverse Opals by Liquid Phase Deposition Using Spherical Colloidal Crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aoi, Y.; Tominaga, T.

2013-03-01

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) inverse opals in spherical shape were prepared by liquid phase deposition (LPD) using spherical colloidal crystals as templates. Spherical colloidal crystals were produced by ink-jet drying technique. Aqueous emulsion droplets that contain polystyrene latex particles were ejected into air and dried. Closely packed colloidal crystals with spherical shape were obtained. The obtained spherical colloidal crystals were used as templates for the LPD. The templates were dispersed in the deposition solution of the LPD, i.e. a mixed solution of ammonium hexafluorotitanate and boric acid and reacted for 4 h at 30 °C. After the LPD process, the interstitial spaces of the spherical colloidal crystals were completely filled with titanium oxide. Subsequent heat treatment resulted in removal of templates and spherical titanium dioxide inverse opals. The spherical shape of the template was retained. SEM observations indicated that the periodic ordered voids were surrounded by titanium dioxide. The optical reflectance spectra indicated that the optical properties of the spherical titanium dioxide inverse opals were due to Bragg diffractions from the ordered structure. Filling in the voids of the inverse opals with different solvents caused remarkable changes in the reflectance peak.

Power Systems Integration Laboratory | Energy Systems Integration Facility

Science.gov Websites

inverters. Key Infrastructure Grid simulator, load bank, Opal-RT, battery, inverter mounting racks, data , frequency-watt, and grid anomaly ride-through. Key Infrastructure House power, Opal-RT, PV simulator access

Proposal for a Web Encoding Service (wes) for Spatial Data Transactio

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siew, C. B.; Peters, S.; Rahman, A. A.

2015-10-01

Web services utilizations in Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) have been well established and standardized by Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Similar web services for 3D SDI are also being established in recent years, with extended capabilities to handle 3D spatial data. The increasing popularity of using City Geographic Markup Language (CityGML) for 3D city modelling applications leads to the needs for large spatial data handling for data delivery. This paper revisits the available web services in OGC Web Services (OWS), and propose the background concepts and requirements for encoding spatial data via Web Encoding Service (WES). Furthermore, the paper discusses the data flow of the encoder within web service, e.g. possible integration with Web Processing Service (WPS) or Web 3D Services (W3DS). The integration with available web service could be extended to other available web services for efficient handling of spatial data, especially 3D spatial data.

Memoir of the Long Range Acoustic Propagation Program (LRAPP)

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-04-01

75 Pacific Primarily Fleet exercise 21 Church Opal Sep–Oct 75 N of Hawaii 22 Fixed-Mobile Exercise ? 76 Pacific 23 CHURCH STROKE I Jun–Jul 77 NE of...Sea Dan Ramsdale, PI 66 ICEX 90 1990 N of Barrow AK 67 ICEX-90 1990 68 OUTPOST AREA 90 1990 North Pole 69 AREA 91 Ice Camps Opal , Crystal, Ruby 1991...AREA 93 1993 N of Greenland 75 OUTPOST AREA 94 1994 76 BLAKE TEST Atlantic 77 BOTTOM INTERACTION SE Pacific 78 CHURCH OPAL NE Pacific 79 CHURCH STROKE

Optical Properties of Metal-Dielectric Structures Based on Photon-Crystal Opal Matrices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanin, A. I.; Lukin, A. E.; Romanov, S. G.; Solovyev, V. G.; Khanin, S. D.; Yanikov, M. V.

2018-04-01

Optical properties of novel metal-dielectric nanocomposite materials based on opal matrices have been investigated. The position of optical resonances of nanocomposites, obtained by embedding of silver into the opal matrix by the electrothermodiffusion method, is explained by the Bragg diffraction, and an asymmetric form of resonance curves is attributed to the Fano resonance. An anomalous transmission and absorption of light by hybrid plasmon-photonic layered heterostructures, which is apparently associated with excitation of surface plasmon-polaritons, propagating along "metal-dielectric" interfaces, was revealed.

Opal instability: a relationship between water and microstructure?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chauviré, Boris; Thomas, Paul; Rondeau, Benjamin; Fritsch, Emmanuel

2017-04-01

Unlike other gem minerals, opals can suffer a change in their quality with time, resulting in a lack of confidence and hence marketability of this gemstone. The instability has been described and categorized into 2 main types (Aguilar et al., 2004; Aguilar-Reyes et al., 2005; Rondeau et al., 2011): cracking (development of a network of micro-fractures) and whitening (decrease of transparency). Available literature about opal instability, however, is restricted to its description. Although the process involved in the destabilization remains poorly understood, it has been proved, in at least one instance, to be associated with the release of water and a change of its speciation (Pearson, 1985; Paris et al, 2007). We propose 3 models to explain the cracking and/or whitening: (i) drying shrinkage of microstructural units, (ii) differential partial pressure between water enclosed in the opal and atmosphere and (iii) release of water yielding empty pores resulting in a strong light-scattering and hence opacity. In order to ascertain the model, a comprehensive set of opals from various origin and structure have been selected for investigation base on previous heating experiments which identified samples with a high susceptibility to crack or whiten. These samples will be investigated to identify the origins of the destabilization phenomena using infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal analysis (gravimetric (TG) and calorimetric (DSC)) and gas adsorption measurements. FTIR will allow the main species of water present in opals (molecular water and hydroxyl groups) and their proportion to be determined while TG will be used to accurately determine the total water content. Gas adsorption and thermoporosity (DSC) will be used to characterize the porosity (surface area, pore size and crystallizable water content). The characterization of water and microstructure for each opal may provide the potential link between the mobility of water in the microstructure and the observed instability. The identification of the main factors controlling the destabilization will lead to the development of a non-destructive method for the categorization of gem-stability, increasing confidence in this gemstone for dealers, cutters and the consumer. References Aguilar B., Fritsch E., Ostroumov M., Barreau A. (2004) Why do opal die? An investigation of destabilization by whitening. 32nd Inter. Geol. Congress, Florence, Italy, 20-28 Aôut. Poster. Aguilar Reyes B.O, Ostrooumov M., Fritsch E. (2005) Estudio mineralogico de la desestabilizacion de opalos mexicanos. Revista Mexicana de Ciencas Geologicas 22(3), 391-400. Paris M, Fritsch E, Aguilar Reyes BO (2007) 1H, 29Si and 27Al NMR study of the destabilization process of a paracrystalline opal from Mexico. J. Non Cryst. Solids 353, 1650-1656. Pearson G (1985) Role of Water in Cracking of Opal. The Aust. Gemol. 15, 435-445. Rondeau B., Fritsch E., Mazzero F., Gauthier J.-P. (2011) The craze for stability. InColor 18, 42-45.

Engineering three-dimensionally electrodeposited Si-on-Ni inverse opal structure for high volumetric capacity Li-ion microbattery anode.

PubMed

Liu, Hao; Cho, Hyung-Man; Meng, Ying Shirley; Li, Quan

2014-06-25

Aiming at improving the volumetric capacity of nanostructured Li-ion battery anode, an electrodeposited Si-on-Ni inverse opal structure has been proposed in the present work. This type of electrode provides three-dimensional bi-continuous pathways for ion/electron transport and high surface area-to-volume ratios, and thus exhibits lower interfacial resistance, but higher effective Li ions diffusion coefficients, when compared to the Si-on-Ni nanocable array electrode of the same active material mass. As a result, improved volumetric capacities and rate capabilities have been demonstrated in the Si-on-Ni inverse opal anode. We also show that optimization of the volumetric capacities and the rate performance of the inverse opal electrode can be realized by manipulating the pore size of the Ni scaffold and the thickness of the Si deposit.

Resonant infiltration of an opal: Reflection line shape and contribution from in-depth regions.

PubMed

Maurin, Isabelle; Bloch, Daniel

2015-06-21

We analyze the resonant variation of the optical reflection on an infiltrated artificial opal made of transparent nanospheres. The resonant infiltration is considered as a perturbation in the frame of a previously described one-dimensional model based upon a stratified effective index. We show that for a thin slice of resonant medium, the resonant response oscillates with the position of this slice. We derive that for adequate conditions of incidence angle, this spatially oscillating behavior matches the geometrical periodicity of the opal and hence the related density of resonant infiltration. Close to these matching conditions, the resonant response of the global infiltration varies sharply in amplitude and shape with the incidence angle and polarization. The corresponding resonant reflection originates from a rather deep infiltration, up to several wavelengths or layers of spheres. Finally, we discuss the relationship between the present predictions and our previous observations on an opal infiltrated with a resonant vapor.

Topographically induced homeotropic alignment of liquid crystals on self-assembled opal crystals.

PubMed

Kumar, Pankaj; Oh, Su Yeon; Baliyan, Vijay K; Kundu, Sudarshan; Lee, Seung Hee; Kang, Shin-Woong

2018-04-02

The surface of multilayered opal crystals resulted in homeotropic alignment of liquid crystal (LC), originated from the surface topography of opal crystals rather than a chemical nature of the nanoparticles. The polar anchoring energy (5.51 × 10 -5 J/m 2 ) of the crystal surface for nematic LC molecules was in a similar range to the conventional polyimide alignment layer (2.11 × 10 -5 J/m 2 ) used for commercial applications. The critical length scale for anchoring transition was approximately Lw = ~1 μm. If a diameter of particle d < 1 μm for opal crystals, LC molecules preferred to anchor vertically to the surface to minimize elastic free energy of bulk LCs. The LC favored a planar anchoring if d > 1 μm. The results provide crucial insights to understand the homeotropic alignment of LCs on solid surfaces and therefore offer opportunities to develop novel materials for a vertical alignment of LCs.

Optical properties and diffraction effects in opal photonic crystals.

PubMed

Balestreri, Alessandra; Andreani, Lucio Claudio; Agio, Mario

2006-09-01

Optical properties of fcc opals oriented along the [111] direction are calculated by means of a scattering-matrix approach based on approximating each sphere with cylindrical slices. The use of a plane-wave basis in each layer allows distinguishing zero-order reflection and transmission from higher-order (diffraction) spectra. Optical spectra at large values of the angle of incidence indicate the presence of diffraction effects and of polarization mixing along the LW orientation. Reflectance and transmittance in the high-energy region show a rich spectral dependence and compare reasonably well with recent experimental observations on polystyrene opals. Diffraction spectra as a function of the number of layers display an oscillatory behavior, pointing to the existence of a Pendellösung phenomenon, related to the exchange of energy between two propagating modes in the investigated three-dimensional photonic crystal. This phenomenon could be observed in transmittance experiments on high-quality opals with controlled thickness.

Optical analysis of the fine crystalline structure of artificial opal films.

PubMed

Lozano, G; Dorado, L A; Schinca, D; Depine, R A; Míguez, H

2009-11-17

Herein, we present a detailed analysis of the structure of artificial opal films. We demonstrate that, rather than the generally assumed face centered cubic lattice of spheres, opal films are better approximated by rhombohedral assemblies of distorted colloids. Detailed analysis of the optical response in a very wide spectral range (0.4 < or = a/lambda < or = 2, where a is the conventional lattice constant), as well as at perpendicular and off-normal directions, unambiguously shows that the interparticle distance coincides very approximately with the expected diameter only along directions contained in the same close-packed plane but differs significantly in directions oblique to the [111] one. A full description of the real and reciprocal lattices of actual opal films is provided, as well as of the photonic band structure of the proposed arrangement. The implications of this distortion in the optical response of the lattice are discussed.

The new program OPAL for molecular dynamics simulations and energy refinements of biological macromolecules.

PubMed

Luginbühl, P; Güntert, P; Billeter, M; Wüthrich, K

1996-09-01

A new program for molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and energy refinement of biological macromolecules, OPAL, is introduced. Combined with the supporting program TRAJEC for the analysis of MD trajectories, OPAL affords high efficiency and flexibility for work with different force fields, and offers a user-friendly interface and extensive trajectory analysis capabilities. Salient features are computational speeds of up to 1.5 GFlops on vector supercomputers such as the NEC SX-3, ellipsoidal boundaries to reduce the system size for studies in explicit solvents, and natural treatment of the hydrostatic pressure. Practical applications of OPAL are illustrated with MD simulations of pure water, energy minimization of the NMR structure of the mixed disulfide of a mutant E. coli glutaredoxin with glutathione in different solvent models, and MD simulations of a small protein, pheromone Er-2, using either instantaneous or time-averaged NMR restraints, or no restraints.

Dynamic selection mechanism for quality of service aware web services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Mello, Demian Antony; Ananthanarayana, V. S.

2010-02-01

A web service is an interface of the software component that can be accessed by standard Internet protocols. The web service technology enables an application to application communication and interoperability. The increasing number of web service providers throughout the globe have produced numerous web services providing the same or similar functionality. This necessitates the use of tools and techniques to search the suitable services available over the Web. UDDI (universal description, discovery and integration) is the first initiative to find the suitable web services based on the requester's functional demands. However, the requester's requirements may also include non-functional aspects like quality of service (QoS). In this paper, the authors define a QoS model for QoS aware and business driven web service publishing and selection. The authors propose a QoS requirement format for the requesters, to specify their complex demands on QoS for the web service selection. The authors define a tree structure called quality constraint tree (QCT) to represent the requester's variety of requirements on QoS properties having varied preferences. The paper proposes a QoS broker based architecture for web service selection, which facilitates the requesters to specify their QoS requirements to select qualitatively optimal web service. A web service selection algorithm is presented, which ranks the functionally similar web services based on the degree of satisfaction of the requester's QoS requirements and preferences. The paper defines web service provider qualities to distinguish qualitatively competitive web services. The paper also presents the modelling and selection mechanism for the requester's alternative constraints defined on the QoS. The authors implement the QoS broker based system to prove the correctness of the proposed web service selection mechanism.

The Effect of Network Geometry on Electron Transport in a Titanium Dioxide Photoanode of a Dye-sensitized Solar Cell

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mathew, Sonia Susan

The dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is a photoelectrochemical cell that has garnered considerable attention because of its high efficiencies and potentially low production costs. The technology is based on a layer of mesoscopic TiO 2 particles, which significantly increases the optical path of the incident light that is harvested by the surface-anchored sensitizer molecules, whilst keeping an efficient contact with the electrolytic solution. The solar cell configuration that first achieved a high efficiency (˜7.5%) had a randomly connected network of titania nanoparticles, ruthenium polypyridyl complexes as the sensitizer, and an iodide/triiodide redox couple dissolved in an organic electrolyte. While the disordered nanoparticle network has a high surface area which maximizes the photogenerated electron density, the nanostructure also has a large number of surface states. These surface states act as traps and are known to limit the transport of electrons within such electrodes thereby hindering progress in achieving higher efficiencies. The structural disorder at the contact between two crystalline nanoparticles leads to enhanced scattering of free electrons, thus reducing electron mobility. An interconnected photoanode architecture offers the potential for improved electron transport by reducing the degree of disorder. This Thesis investigates the effect of the TiO2 network geometry on electron movement within the DSSC. In this regard, inverse opal structures with hexagonally close-packed pores and macroscopic (˜microm) order are synthesized and evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively (via FFT) with respect to their degree of interconnectedness. An inverse opal TiO2 electrode possesses advantages that supplement those of current disordered electrodes: (a) high surface area for dye adhesion, (b) large area contact between the sensitizer and the electrolyte, which aids electron transfer reactions, and (c) scattering of incident radiation due to the inherent diffraction properties of the structures, which increases the path length. The TiO2 inverse opals are fabricated via self-assembly of colloidal particles and subsequent infiltration of the colloidal assembly with a TiO2 precursor. Heat treatment at elevated temperatures (450 °C) leads to crystalline TiO2 formation and removal of the templating colloids. Several methods of fabrication are evaluated to determine the best methods of fabrication for inverse opals of different pore sizes (0.5 microm to 10 microm). Optimum fabrication methods are determined for each particle size in the range studied. The TiO2 inverse opals (0.1 microm to 1 microm) are exposed to an aqueous electrolyte to evaluate their electrochemical behavior. The number of surface traps is found to scale with the surface area per unit volume of the inverse opal electrodes. Compared to the standard disordered nanoporous electrode, the inverse opals show better conductivity and are less prone to recombination. The TiO2 inverse opals (0.1 microm to 1 microm) are also tested within a DSSC configuration, and illuminated with light from a compact fluorescent bulb to mimic lighting conditions ranging from indoor to outdoor conditions. The power output of the inverse opal electrodes is almost three times higher than the nanoparticle analog at low-light intensities, indicating the advantage of the interconnected nanostructure of the inverse opal electrodes under indoor light conditions. In contrast, the disordered nanoporous electrode wins out in outdoor light conditions, providing evidence that inverse opal structured electrodes have their market in indoor applications.

76 FR 69766 - Petitions for Modification of Application of Existing Mandatory Safety Standards

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-09

... Opal Court, Suite 315, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740. Mines: Annapolis Mine, MSHA I.D. No. 23-00288, 1... existing standard. Docket Number: M-2011-011-M. Petitioner: ISP Granule Products, LLC, 1101 Opal Court...

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Fabrication and structure of an opal-gallium nitride nanocomposite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davydov, V. Yu; Dunin-Borkovski, R. E.; Golubev, V. G.; Hutchison, J. L.; Kartenko, N. F.; Kurdyukov, D. A.; Pevtsov, A. B.; Sharenkova, N. V.; Sloan, J.; Sorokin, L. M.

2001-02-01

A three-dimensional gallium nitride lattice has been synthesized within the void sublattice of an artificial opal. The composite structure has been characterized using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy.

Sci-Thur PM – Colourful Interactions: Highlights 05: Opal–the Oncology Patient Application

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Joseph, Ackeem; Herrera, David; Kildea, John

We describe Opal (Oncology portal and application), the mobile phone app and patient portal that we have developed and are deploying for Radiation Oncology patients at our cancer centre. Opal is a novel tool to empower patients with their own personal medical data, including appointment schedules, consultation notes, test results, radiotherapy treatment planning information and wait time management. Furthermore, due to its integration with our electronic medical record and treatment planning database, Opal will allow us to collect patient reported outcomes from consenting patients and link them directly with dose volume histograms and other treatment data.

Helium refrigerator maintenance and reliability at the OPAL cold neutron source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thiering, Russell; Taylor, David; Lu, Weijian

2012-06-01

Australia's first Cold Neutron Source (CNS) is a major asset to its nuclear research program. The CNS, and associated helium refrigerator, was commissioned in 2006 and is operated at the Open Pool Light Water nuclear Reactor (OPAL). The OPAL CNS operates a 20K, 5 kW Brayton cycle helium refrigerator. In this paper relevant experiences from helium refrigerator operation, maintenance and repair are presented along with the lessons learnt from a series of technical investigations. Turbine failure, due to volatile organic species, is discussed along with the related compressor oil degradation and oil separation efficiency.

Are artificial opals non-close-packed fcc structures?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García-Santamaría, F.; Braun, P. V.

2007-06-01

The authors report a simple experimental method to accurately measure the volume fraction of artificial opals. The results are modeled using several methods, and they find that some of the most common yield very inaccurate results. Both finite size and substrate effects play an important role in calculations of the volume fraction. The experimental results show that the interstitial pore volume is 4%-15% larger than expected for close-packed structures. Consequently, calculations performed in previous work relating the amount of material synthesized in the opal interstices with the optical properties may need revision, especially in the case of high refractive index materials.

Coupling of Ag Nanoparticle with Inverse Opal Photonic Crystals as a Novel Strategy for Upconversion Emission Enhancement of NaYF4: Yb(3+), Er(3+) Nanoparticles.

PubMed

Shao, Bo; Yang, Zhengwen; Wang, Yida; Li, Jun; Yang, Jianzhi; Qiu, Jianbei; Song, Zhiguo

2015-11-18

Rare-earth-ion-doped upconversion (UC) nanoparticles have generated considerable interest because of their potential application in solar cells, biological labeling, therapeutics, and imaging. However, the applications of UC nanoparticles were still limited because of their low emission efficiency. Photonic crystals and noble metal nanoparticles are applied extensively to enhance the UC emission of rare earth ions. In the present work, a novel substrate consisting of inverse opal photonic crystals and Ag nanoparticles was prepared by the template-assisted method, which was used to enhance the UC emission of NaYF4: Yb(3+), Er(3+) nanoparticles. The red or green UC emissions of NaYF4: Yb(3+), Er(3+) nanoparticles were selectively enhanced on the inverse opal substrates because of the Bragg reflection of the photonic band gap. Additionally, the UC emission enhancement of NaYF4: Yb(3+), Er(3+) nanoparticles induced by the coupling of metal nanoparticle plasmons and photonic crystal effects was realized on the Ag nanoparticles included in the inverse opal substrate. The present results demonstrated that coupling of Ag nanoparticle with inverse opal photonic crystals provides a useful strategy to enhance UC emission of rare-earth-ion-doped nanoparticles.

Overview of the commercial OPAL LiDAR optimized for rotorcraft platforms operating in degraded visual environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Church, Philip; Borribanbunpotkat, Kiatchai; Trickey, Evan; Iles, Peter; Sekerka, Mike

2014-06-01

Neptec has developed a family of obscurant-penetrating 3D laser scanners called OPAL 2.0 that are being adapted for rotorcraft platforms. Neptec and Boeing have been working on an integrated system utilizing the OPAL LiDAR to support operations in degraded visual environments. OPAL scanners incorporate Neptec's patented obscurantpenetrating LiDAR technology which was extensively tested in controlled dust environments and helicopters for brownout mitigation. The OPAL uses a scanning mechanism based on the Risley prism pair. Data acquisition rates can go as high as 200kHz for ranges within 200m and 25kHz for ranges exceeding 200m. The scan patterns are created by the rotation of two prisms under independent motor control. The geometry and material properties of the prisms will define the conical field-of-view of the sensor, which can be set up to 120 degrees. Through detailed simulations and analysis of mission profiles, the system can be tailored for applications to rotorcrafts. Examples of scan patterns and control schemes based on these simulations will be provided along with data density predictions versus acquisition time for applicable DVE scenarios. Preliminary 3D data acquired in clear and obscurant conditions will be presented.

Excitations in opal photonic crystals infiltrated with polarizable media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eradat, Nayer; Sivachenko, A. Y.; Raikh, Mikhail E.; Vardeny, Z. Valy; Zakhidov, Anvar A.; Li, S.; Baughman, Ray H.

2002-12-01

Photonic crystals (PC) are a class of artificial structures with a periodic dielectric function. PCs can be a laboratory for testing fundamental processes involving interactions of radiation with matter in novel conditions. We have studied the optical properties of opal PCs that are infiltrated with highly polarizable media such as j-aggregates of cyanine dyes. Opals are self-assembled structures of silica spheres. We report our studies on clarifying the relationship between a polaritonic gap and a photonic stop band (Bragg gap) when they resonantly coexist in the same structure. Infiltration of opal with polarizable molecules combines the polaritonic and Bragg diffractive effects. Both effects exist independently when the Bragg (at ω = ωB) and polaritonic (ω = ωT) resonances are well separated in frequency. A completely different situation occurs when ωT ~ωB. Such a condition was achieved in opals that were infiltrated with J-aggregates of cyanine dyes that have large Rabi frequency. Our measurements show some dramatic changes in the shape of the reflectivity plateaus, which are due to the interplay between the photonic band gap and the polaritonic gap. The experimental results on reflectivity and its dependence on the light propagation angle and concentration of the cyanie dyes are in agreement with the theoretical calculations.

Photonic slab heterostructures based on opals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palacios-Lidon, Elisa; Galisteo-Lopez, Juan F.; Juarez, Beatriz H.; Lopez, Cefe

2004-09-01

In this paper the fabrication of photonic slab heterostructures based on artificial opals is presented. The innovated method combines high-quality thin-films growing of opals and silica infiltration by Chemical Vapor Deposition through a multi-step process. By varying structure parameters, such as lattice constant, sample thickness or refractive index, different heterostructures have been obtained. The optical study of these systems, carried out by reflectance and transmittance measurements, shows that the prepared samples are of high quality further confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscopy micrographs. The proposed novel method for sample preparation allows a high control of the involved structure parameters, giving the possibility of tunning their photonic behavior. Special attention in the optical response of these materials has been addressed to the study of planar defects embedded in opals, due to their importance in different photonic fields and future technological applications. Reflectance and transmission measurements show a sharp resonance due to localized states associated with the presence of planar defects. A detailed study of the defect mode position and its dependance on defect thickness and on the surrounding photonic crystal is presented as well as evidence showing the scalability of the problem. Finally, it is also concluded that the proposed method is cheap and versatile allowing the preparation of opal-based complex structures.

Natural radionuclide mobility and its influence on U-Th-Pb dating of secondary minerals from the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

USGS Publications Warehouse

Neymark, L.A.; Amelin, Y.V.

2008-01-01

Extreme U and Pb isotope variations produced by disequilibrium in decay chains of 238U and 232Th are found in calcite, opal/chalcedony, and Mn-oxides occurring as secondary mineral coatings in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. These very slowly growing minerals (mm my-1) contain excess 206Pb and 208Pb formed from excesses of intermediate daughter isotopes and cannot be used as reliable 206Pb/238U geochronometers. The presence of excess intermediate daughter isotopes does not appreciably affect 207Pb/235U ages of U-enriched opal/chalcedony, which are interpreted as mineral formation ages. Opal and calcite from outer (younger) portions of coatings have 230Th/U ages from 94.6 ?? 3.7 to 361.3 ?? 9.8 ka and initial 234U/238U activity ratios (AR) from 4.351 ?? 0.070 to 7.02 ?? 0.12, which indicate 234U enrichment from percolating water. Present-day 234U/238U AR is ???1 in opal/chalcedony from older portions of the coatings. The 207Pb/235U ages of opal/chalcedony samples range from 0.1329 ?? 0.0080 to 9.10 ?? 0.21 Ma, increase with microstratigraphic depth, and define slow long-term average growth rates of about 1.2-2.0 mm my-1, in good agreement with previous results. Measured 234U/238U AR in Mn-oxides, which pre-date the oldest calcite and opal/chalcedony, range from 0.939 ?? 0.006 to 2.091 ?? 0.006 and are >1 in most samples. The range of 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.71156-0.71280) in Mn-oxides overlaps that in the late calcite. These data indicate that Mn-oxides exchange U and Sr with percolating water and cannot be used as a reliable dating tool. In the U-poor calcite samples, measured 206Pb/207Pb ratios have a wide range, do not correlate with Ba concentration as would be expected if excess Ra was present, and reach a value of about 1400, the highest ever reported for natural Pb. Calcite intergrown with opal contains excesses of both 206Pb and 207Pb derived from Rn diffusion and from direct ??-recoil from U-rich opal. Calcite from coatings devoid of opal/chalcedony contains 206Pb and 208Pb excesses, but no appreciable 207Pb excesses. Observed Pb isotope anomalies in calcite are explained by Rn-produced excess Pb. The Rn emanation may strongly affect 206Pb-238U ages of slow-growing U-poor calcite, but should be negligible for dating fast-growing U-enriched speleothem calcite.

Robust Constrained Blackbox Optimization with Surrogates

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-05-21

algorithms with OPAL . Mathematical Programming Computation, 6(3):233–254, 2014. 6. M.S. Ouali, H. Aoudjit, and C. Audet. Replacement scheduling of a fleet of...Orban. Optimization of Algorithms with OPAL . Mathematical Programming Computation, 6(3), 233-254, September 2014. DISTRIBUTION A: Distribution

Airborne Lidar Bathymetry: The SHOALS System

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-05-09

response. SHOALS’ first mission in this capacity was at East Pass, a tidal inlet located on the Florida Panhandle near Destin. Hurricane Opal , a...East Pass for example, the SHOALS survey following Hurricane Opal allowed precise determination of unsafe channel depths and allowed accurate

Personalization of Rule-based Web Services.

PubMed

Choi, Okkyung; Han, Sang Yong

2008-04-04

Nowadays Web users have clearly expressed their wishes to receive personalized services directly. Personalization is the way to tailor services directly to the immediate requirements of the user. However, the current Web Services System does not provide any features supporting this such as consideration of personalization of services and intelligent matchmaking. In this research a flexible, personalized Rule-based Web Services System to address these problems and to enable efficient search, discovery and construction across general Web documents and Semantic Web documents in a Web Services System is proposed. This system utilizes matchmaking among service requesters', service providers' and users' preferences using a Rule-based Search Method, and subsequently ranks search results. A prototype of efficient Web Services search and construction for the suggested system is developed based on the current work.

Radiolarian Indices of Paleoproductivity Variation in the late Pleistocene Benguela Upwelling System, ODP Site 1084

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bittniok, B. B.; Lazarus, D. B.; Diester-Haass, L.; Billups, K.; Meyers, P.

2006-12-01

Changes in export productivity play a significant role in ocean carbon budgets and global climate change. Proxies for export productivity can be difficult to interpret: benthic foraminifera accumulation rates (BFAR) can be affected by carbonate dissolution in organic-carbon rich sediments; bulk opal can be affected by silica limitation of source waters. Recent work (Lazarus et al. 2006; Mar. Micropal.) has shown that a new index based on radiolarian faunal changes (WADE ratio) correlates well to total organic carbon (TOC) values from the same samples over the long term (latest Miocene-Recent) history of productivity in the Benguela Upwelling System (BUS). We present new data on variation in export productivity proxies (WADE, TOC, carbonate, radiolarian opal, BFAR) for the last glacial-interglacial cycle from ODP Site 1084, located just offshore from the main coastal upwelling cells of the BUS. Our age model, from mean Quaternary sedimentation rates (Leg 175 Scientific Results), is in accordance with cyclic variation in other climate sensitive parameters (carbonate and color reflectance). Although opal content and radiolarian preservation is only moderate in our samples, WADE values vary significantly and suggest higher productivity during the last glacial, in accordance with current interpretations of BUS history. Radiolarian opal accumulation is also higher during the last glacial, suggesting that silica limitation (opal paradox) conditions did not dominate over this time period. Similar results for bulk opal have been reported from late Quaternary piston cores from the more northerly Congo upwelling region (Schneider et al, 1997; Paleoc.). We conclude that WADE ratios are a useful proxy for late Pleistocene productivity in the BUS at glacial- interglacial time scales.

The Optical Profiling of the Atmospheric Limb (OPAL) CubeSat Experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeppesen, M.; Miller, J.; Cox, W.; Taylor, M. J.; Swenson, C.; Neilsen, T. L.; Fish, C. S.; Scherliess, L.; Christensen, A. B.; Cleave, M.

2015-12-01

The Earth's lower thermosphere is an important interface region between the neutral atmosphere and the "space weather" environment. While the high-latitude region of the thermosphere responds promptly to energy inputs, relatively little is known about the global/regional response to these energy inputs. Global temperatures are predicted to respond within 3-6 hours, but the details of the thermal response of the atmosphere as energy transports away from high-latitude source regions is not well understood. The Optical Profiling of the Atmospheric Limb (OPAL) mission aims to characterize this thermal response through observation of the temperature structure of the lower thermosphere at mid- and low-latitudes. The OPAL instrument is designed to map global thermospheric temperature variability over the critical "thermospheric gap" region (~100-140 km altitude) by spectroscopic analysis of molecular oxygen A-band emission (758 - 768 nm). The OPAL instrument is a grating-based imaging spectrometer with refractive optics and a high-efficiency volume holographic grating (VHG). The scene is sampled by 7 parallel slits that form non-overlapping spectral profiles at the focal plane with resolution of 0.5 nm (spectral), 1.5 km (limb profiling), and 60 km (horizontal sampling). A CCD camera at the instrument focal plane delivers low noise and high sensitivity. The instrument is designed to strongly reject stray light from daylight regions of the earth. The OPAL mission is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) CubeSat-based Science Missions for Geospace and Atmospheric Research program. The OPAL instrument, CubeSat bus and mission are being designed, built and executed by a team comprised of students and professors from Utah State University, Dixie State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, with support from professional scientists and engineers from the Space Dynamics Laboratory and Hawk Institute for Space Science.

Distributed spatial information integration based on web service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tong, Hengjian; Zhang, Yun; Shao, Zhenfeng

2008-10-01

Spatial information systems and spatial information in different geographic locations usually belong to different organizations. They are distributed and often heterogeneous and independent from each other. This leads to the fact that many isolated spatial information islands are formed, reducing the efficiency of information utilization. In order to address this issue, we present a method for effective spatial information integration based on web service. The method applies asynchronous invocation of web service and dynamic invocation of web service to implement distributed, parallel execution of web map services. All isolated information islands are connected by the dispatcher of web service and its registration database to form a uniform collaborative system. According to the web service registration database, the dispatcher of web services can dynamically invoke each web map service through an asynchronous delegating mechanism. All of the web map services can be executed at the same time. When each web map service is done, an image will be returned to the dispatcher. After all of the web services are done, all images are transparently overlaid together in the dispatcher. Thus, users can browse and analyze the integrated spatial information. Experiments demonstrate that the utilization rate of spatial information resources is significantly raised thought the proposed method of distributed spatial information integration.

Distributed spatial information integration based on web service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tong, Hengjian; Zhang, Yun; Shao, Zhenfeng

2009-10-01

Spatial information systems and spatial information in different geographic locations usually belong to different organizations. They are distributed and often heterogeneous and independent from each other. This leads to the fact that many isolated spatial information islands are formed, reducing the efficiency of information utilization. In order to address this issue, we present a method for effective spatial information integration based on web service. The method applies asynchronous invocation of web service and dynamic invocation of web service to implement distributed, parallel execution of web map services. All isolated information islands are connected by the dispatcher of web service and its registration database to form a uniform collaborative system. According to the web service registration database, the dispatcher of web services can dynamically invoke each web map service through an asynchronous delegating mechanism. All of the web map services can be executed at the same time. When each web map service is done, an image will be returned to the dispatcher. After all of the web services are done, all images are transparently overlaid together in the dispatcher. Thus, users can browse and analyze the integrated spatial information. Experiments demonstrate that the utilization rate of spatial information resources is significantly raised thought the proposed method of distributed spatial information integration.

Providing Multi-Page Data Extraction Services with XWRAPComposer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, Ling; Zhang, Jianjun; Han, Wei

2008-04-30

Dynamic Web data sources – sometimes known collectively as the Deep Web – increase the utility of the Web by providing intuitive access to data repositories anywhere that Web access is available. Deep Web services provide access to real-time information, like entertainment event listings, or present a Web interface to large databases or other data repositories. Recent studies suggest that the size and growth rate of the dynamic Web greatly exceed that of the static Web, yet dynamic content is often ignored by existing search engine indexers owing to the technical challenges that arise when attempting to search the Deepmore » Web. To address these challenges, we present DYNABOT, a service-centric crawler for discovering and clustering Deep Web sources offering dynamic content. DYNABOT has three unique characteristics. First, DYNABOT utilizes a service class model of the Web implemented through the construction of service class descriptions (SCDs). Second, DYNABOT employs a modular, self-tuning system architecture for focused crawling of the Deep Web using service class descriptions. Third, DYNABOT incorporates methods and algorithms for efficient probing of the Deep Web and for discovering and clustering Deep Web sources and services through SCD-based service matching analysis. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the service class discovery, probing, and matching algorithms and suggest techniques for efficiently managing service discovery in the face of the immense scale of the Deep Web.« less

An Automated End-To Multi-Agent Qos Based Architecture for Selection of Geospatial Web Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shah, M.; Verma, Y.; Nandakumar, R.

2012-07-01

Over the past decade, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web services have gained wide popularity and acceptance from researchers and industries all over the world. SOA makes it easy to build business applications with common services, and it provides like: reduced integration expense, better asset reuse, higher business agility, and reduction of business risk. Building of framework for acquiring useful geospatial information for potential users is a crucial problem faced by the GIS domain. Geospatial Web services solve this problem. With the help of web service technology, geospatial web services can provide useful geospatial information to potential users in a better way than traditional geographic information system (GIS). A geospatial Web service is a modular application designed to enable the discovery, access, and chaining of geospatial information and services across the web that are often both computation and data-intensive that involve diverse sources of data and complex processing functions. With the proliferation of web services published over the internet, multiple web services may provide similar functionality, but with different non-functional properties. Thus, Quality of Service (QoS) offers a metric to differentiate the services and their service providers. In a quality-driven selection of web services, it is important to consider non-functional properties of the web service so as to satisfy the constraints or requirements of the end users. The main intent of this paper is to build an automated end-to-end multi-agent based solution to provide the best-fit web service to service requester based on QoS.

75 FR 12814 - Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans, Notice of Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-17

... will meet at the Westin San Diego, Opal Room, 400 West Broadway, from 8 a.m. each day until 6:30 p.m... Committee will then depart and reconvene at Westin San Diego--Opal Room to work on their report to the...

Oxygen Isotopes and Origin of Opal in an Antarctic Ureilite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Downes, H.; Beard, A. D.; Franchi, I. A.; Greenwood, R. C.

2016-08-01

Fragments of opal (SiO2.nH2O) in several internal chips of a single Antarctic polymict ureilite meteorite Elephant Moraine (EET) 83309 have been studied by NanoSIMS to determine their oxygen isotope compositions and hence constrain their origin.

Preparation of LiFePO{sub 4} with inverse opal structure and its satisfactory electrochemical properties

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu Junbiao; Tang Zilong; Zhang Zhongtai

Phase pure, well-crystallized and homogeneous LiFePO{sub 4} powder with inverse opal structure was obtained by calcining the precursors of Li{sup +}, Fe{sup 2+} and PO{sub 4} {sup 3-} in the presence of organic template of poly(styrene-methyl methacrylate-acrylic acid) latex micro-spheres under nitrogen atmosphere. The resultant products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), chemical titration, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Land 2001A electrochemical measurement system. Results indicated that after the decomposition of organic template, inverse opal structure and conductive carbon were left in the resultant products. With the large specific surface areamore » resulting from inverse opal structure and with the conductive carbon, the products delivered satisfactory capacity and superior rate capability at room temperature, i.e., over 100 mAh/g at the high current density of 5.9C.« less

Electroless plated maghemite for three-dimensional magneto photonic crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mito, Shinichiro; Kawashima, Takuya; Kawaguchi, Takuma; Sasano, Junji; Takagi, Hiroyuki; Inoue, Mitsuteru

2017-05-01

Three-dimensional magneto photonic crystals (3D-MPCs) are promising material for manipulating light in 3D space. In this study, we fabricated 3D-MPC that is filling the air-gap of opal photonic crystal with magnetic material by electroless plating. The electroless plating is an attractive film-forming method which provides magnetic material films on various substrates in aqueous solution at 24-90 °C. As magnetic material for filling the air-gap, maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) film was plated in opal photonic crystal. The plated maghemite film showed a Faraday rotation of 0.6 deg./μm at 440 nm and significantly lower absorption than magnetite. The plated opal showed photonic band gap and magneto-optic response. Faraday rotation of the plated opal was enhanced at the band edge. The photonic band gap and the Faraday rotation spectra were changed as a function of incident angle of light. Electroless plating of maghemite could be promising technique for fabricating 3D-MPCs.

MedlinePlus Connect: Web Service

MedlinePlus

... https://medlineplus.gov/connect/service.html MedlinePlus Connect: Web Service To use the sharing features on this ... if you implement MedlinePlus Connect by contacting us . Web Service Overview The parameters for the Web service ...

Seismological comparisons of solar models with element diffusion using the MHD, OPAL, and SIREFF equations of state

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Guzik, J.A.; Swenson, F.J.

We compare the thermodynamic and helioseismic properties of solar models evolved using three different equation of state (EOS) treatments: the Mihalas, D{umlt a}ppen & Hummer EOS tables (MHD); the latest Rogers, Swenson, & Iglesias EOS tables (OPAL), and a new analytical EOS (SIREFF) developed by Swenson {ital et al.} All of the models include diffusive settling of helium and heavier elements. The models use updated OPAL opacity tables based on the 1993 Grevesse & Noels solar element mixture, incorporating 21 elements instead of the 14 elements used for earlier tables. The properties of solar models that are evolved with themore » SIREFF EOS agree closely with those of models evolved using the OPAL or MHD tables. However, unlike the MHD or OPAL EOS tables, the SIREFF in-line EOS can readily account for variations in overall Z abundance and the element mixture resulting from nuclear processing and diffusive element settling. Accounting for Z abundance variations in the EOS has a small, but non-negligible, effect on model properties (e.g., pressure or squared sound speed), as much as 0.2{percent} at the solar center and in the convection zone. The OPAL and SIREFF equations of state include electron exchange, which produces models requiring a slightly higher initial helium abundance, and increases the convection zone depth compared to models using the MHD EOS. However, the updated OPAL opacities are as much as 5{percent} lower near the convection zone base, resulting in a small decrease in convection zone depth. The calculated low-degree nonadiabatic frequencies for all of the models agree with the observed frequencies to within a few microhertz (0.1{percent}). The SIREFF analytical calibrations are intended to work over a wide range of interior conditions found in stellar models of mass greater than 0.25M{sub {circle_dot}} and evolutionary states from pre-main-sequence through the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). It is significant that the SIREFF EOS produces solar models that both measure up to the stringent requirements imposed by solar oscillation observations and inferences, and are more versatile than EOS tables. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Astronomical Society}« less

Biogenic opal production changes in the Gulf of Alaska (IODP Expedition 341 Site U1417) during the Pliocene to Miocene

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khim, B. K.; Kim, S.; Asahi, H.

2016-12-01

IODP Expedition 341 Site U1417 (56o57.59'N, 147o6.59'W, 4200 m) is located in the distal Surveyor Fan in the Gulf of Alaska, Northeast Pacific. In this study, we documented biogenic opal content and its mass accumulation rate using a total of 445 sediments from Hole U1417D (below core 43X, 275 CSF-A m) and from Hole U1417E (below core 14R, 465 CSF-A m) which were assigned to Pliocene-Miocene epoch on the basis of shipboard age model. Biogenic opal content and MAR were generally low (<10% and 0.5 g/cm2/kyr, respectively) throughout the core. A significant offset of biogenic opal contents between Site U1417 and Site 887 (54o21.9'N, 148o26.8'W, 3633 m) is observed; much lower at Site U1417. However, biogenic opal content was distinctively high (20 to 40%) at 23 Ma, 15 Ma, 12 Ma, and 8 Ma, which correspond to the lithologic unit changes. These intervals are also characterized by low NGR, MS, and linear sedimentation rate (LSR), indicating the sediment deposition under warm climate/less glacier influence. Thus, the intervals seem to correspond to climatic optimums during the Miocene. Based on terrigenous MAR at Site 887, terrigenous materials supplied by glacial denudation increased greatly since the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG; 3.5-2.5 Ma). However, Site U1417 shows that high MS representing the terrestrial input occurred far earlier since 8 Ma. It may imply that the formation of glacier in the Gulf of Alaska began earlier or that terrestrial material input was enhanced by sea-ice or turbidite. Intermittent peaks of biogenic opal content and MAR after 8 Ma coincided with the occurrence of cold water/littoral and neritic diatoms and deep cold water radiolarian species, which is likely related to gradual glaciation. Biogenic opal productivity was high during the early Pliocene (5-3.5 Ma), and then it decreased during the NHG.

Focused Crawling of the Deep Web Using Service Class Descriptions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rocco, D; Liu, L; Critchlow, T

2004-06-21

Dynamic Web data sources--sometimes known collectively as the Deep Web--increase the utility of the Web by providing intuitive access to data repositories anywhere that Web access is available. Deep Web services provide access to real-time information, like entertainment event listings, or present a Web interface to large databases or other data repositories. Recent studies suggest that the size and growth rate of the dynamic Web greatly exceed that of the static Web, yet dynamic content is often ignored by existing search engine indexers owing to the technical challenges that arise when attempting to search the Deep Web. To address thesemore » challenges, we present DynaBot, a service-centric crawler for discovering and clustering Deep Web sources offering dynamic content. DynaBot has three unique characteristics. First, DynaBot utilizes a service class model of the Web implemented through the construction of service class descriptions (SCDs). Second, DynaBot employs a modular, self-tuning system architecture for focused crawling of the DeepWeb using service class descriptions. Third, DynaBot incorporates methods and algorithms for efficient probing of the Deep Web and for discovering and clustering Deep Web sources and services through SCD-based service matching analysis. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the service class discovery, probing, and matching algorithms and suggest techniques for efficiently managing service discovery in the face of the immense scale of the Deep Web.« less

Measurement and modelization of silica opal optical properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Avoine, Amaury; Hong, Phan Ngoc; Frederich, Hugo; Aregahegn, Kifle; Bénalloul, Paul; Coolen, Laurent; Schwob, Catherine; Thu Nga, Pham; Gallas, Bruno; Maître, Agnès

2014-03-01

We present the synthesis process and optical characterization of artificial silica opals. The specular reflection spectra are analyzed and compared to band structure calculations and finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations. The silica optical index is a key parameter to correctly describe an opal and is usually not known and treated as a free parameter. Here we propose a method to infer the silica index, as well as the silica spheres diameter, from the reflection spectra and we validate it by comparison with two independent infrared methods for the index and, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements for the spheres diameter.

Polymer-modified opal nanopores.

PubMed

Schepelina, Olga; Zharov, Ilya

2006-12-05

The surface of nanopores in opal films, assembled from 205 nm silica spheres, was modified with poly(acrylamide) brushes using surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization. The colloidal crystal lattice remained unperturbed by the polymerization. The polymer brush thickness was controlled by polymerization time and was monitored by measuring the flux of redox species across the opal film using cyclic voltammetry. The nanopore size and polymer brush thickness were calculated on the basis of the limiting current change. Polymer brush thickness increased over the course of 26 h of polymerization in a logarithmic manner from 1.3 to 8.5 nm, leading to nanopores as small as 7.5 nm.

Polarization Change in Face-Centered Cubic Opal Films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wolff, Christian; Romanov, Sergei; Küchenmeister, Jens; Peschel, Ulf; Busch, Kurt

2011-10-01

Artificial opals are a popular platform for investigating fundamental properties of Photonic Crystals (PhC). In this work, we provide a theoretical analysis of polarization-resolved transmission experiments through thin opal films. Despite the full cubic symmetry of the PhC, this system provides a very efficient mechanism for manipulating the polarization state of light. Based on band structure calculations and Bloch mode analysis, we find that this effect closely resembles classical birefringence. Due to the cubic symmetry, however, a description using tensorial quantities is not possible. This indicates fundamental limitations of effective material models for Photonic Crystals and demonstrates the importance of accurately modelling the microscopic geometry of such systems.

Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Nanostructures for Thermal Study

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-01

Cu2O Inverse Opal …………………………………24 3.4 X - ray Analysis of the Structure …………………………………………………….26 3.5 Discussion and Future Direction...2.3 Characterization of Silicon Inverse Opal The 80 nm and 40 nm silicon inverse opal material properties were characterized by x - ray diffraction... x - ray beam of 1 ° relative to the surface of the sample was used due to the low amounts silicon present in the thin porous structure to enhance the

Hospitalisation of older people before and after long-term care entry in Auckland, New Zealand.

PubMed

Boyd, Michal; Broad, Joanna B; Zhang, Tony Xian; Kerse, Ngaire; Gott, Merryn; Connolly, Martin J

2016-07-01

global population projections forecast large growth in demand for long-term care (LTC) and acute hospital services for older people. Few studies report changes in hospitalisation rates before and after entry into LTC. This study compares hospitalisation rates 1 year before and after LTC entry. the Older Persons' Ability Level (OPAL) study was a 2008 census-type survey of LTC facilities in Auckland, New Zealand. OPAL resident hospital admissions and deaths were obtained from routinely collected national databases. all 2,244 residents (66% = female) who entered LTC within 12 months prior to OPAL were included. There were 3,363 hospitalisations, 2,424 in 12 months before and 939 in 12 months after entry, and 364 deaths. In the 6 to 12 months before LTC entry, the hospitalisation rate/100 person-years was 67.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] 62.5-72.1). Weekly rates then rose steeply to over 450/100 person-years in the 6 months immediately before LTC entry. In the 6 months after LTC entry, the rate fell to 49.1 (CI 44.9-53.3; RR 0.73 (CI 0.65-0.82, P < 0.0001)) and decreased further 6 to 12 months after entry to 41.1 (CI 37.1-45.1; rate ratio [RR] 0.61 (CI 0.54-0.69, P < 0.0001)). increased hospitalisations a few months before LTC entry suggest functional and medical instability precipitates LTC entry. New residents utilise hospital beds less frequently than when at home before that unstable period. Further research is needed to determine effective interventions to avoid some hospitalisations and possibly also LTC entry. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Provenance-Based Approaches to Semantic Web Service Discovery and Usage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Narock, Thomas William

2012-01-01

The World Wide Web Consortium defines a Web Service as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network." Web Services have become increasingly important both within and across organizational boundaries. With the recent advent of the Semantic Web, web services have evolved into semantic…

Green Color Purification in Tb(3+) Ions through Silica Inverse Opal Heterostructure.

PubMed

Shrivastava, Vishnu Prasad; Sivakumar, Sri; Kumar, Jitendra

2015-06-10

The ordered SiO2:Tb(3+) inverse opal heterostructure films are fabricated through polystyrene spheres hetero-opal template using the convective self-assembly method to examine their potential for color purification. Their optical properties and photoluminescence have been investigated and compared with individual single inverse opals and reference (SiO2:Tb(3+) powder). The heterostructures are shown to possess two broad photonic stop bands separated by an effective pass band, causing suppression of blue, orange, and red emission bands corresponding to (5)D4 → (7)F(j); j = 6, 4, 3 transitions, respectively and an enhancement of green emission (i.e., (5)D4 → (7)F5). Although the suppression of various emission occurs because of its overlap with the photonic band gaps (PSBs), the enhancement of green radiation is observed because of its location matching with the pass band region. The Commission International de l'Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates of the emission spectrum of the heterostructure based on polystyrene sphere of 390 and 500 nm diameter are x = 0.2936, y = 0.6512 and lie closest to those of standard green color (wavelength 545 nm). In addition, a significant increase observed in luminescence lifetime for (5)D4 level of terbium in inverse opal heterostructures vis-à-vis reference (SiO2:Tb(3+) powder) is attributed to the change in the effective refractive index.

Partnerships in obesity prevention: maximising co-benefits.

PubMed

Jones, Michelle; Verity, Fiona

2017-03-01

Issue addressed Partnerships were used to increase healthy eating and active living in children for the Obesity Prevention and Lifestyle (OPAL) program, a systems-wide, community-based childhood obesity prevention program in South Australia. This part of the multi-component evaluation examines stakeholders' perceptions of how OPAL staff worked in partnership and factors contributing to strong partnerships. Methods Pre- and post-interviews and focus groups with multi-sector stakeholders (n=131) across six OPAL communities were analysed using NVivo8 qualitative data analysis software. Results Stakeholders reflected positively on projects developed in partnership with OPAL, reporting that staff worked to establish co-benefits. They identified several factors that contributed to the strengthening of partnerships: staff skills, visibility, resources and sustainability. Conclusions Rather than implementing projects with stakeholders with shared organisational goals, local shared projects were implemented that included a breadth of co-benefits, allowing multi-sector stakeholders to meet their own organisational goals. Practitioners who have the capacity to be flexible, persistent, knowledgeable and skilled communicators are required to negotiate projects, achieving benefit for both health and stakeholders' organisational goals. So what? Engaging in partnership practice to broker co-benefits at the micro or program level has been an effective model for community engagement and change in OPAL. It foregrounds the need for the inclusion of value to partners, which differs from situations in which organisations come together around common goals.

Interaction of the Bragg gap with polaritonic gap in opal photonic crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nayer, Eradat; Sivachenko, Andrey Yu; Li, Sergey; Raikh, Mikhail E.; Valy Vardeny, Z.

2001-03-01

Photonic crystals (PC) are a class of artificial structures with a periodic dielectric function. PCs can be a laboratory for testing fundamental processes involving interactions of radiation with matter in novel conditions. We have studied the optical properties of opal PCs that are infiltrated with highly polarizable media such as j-aggregates of cyanine dyes. Opals are self- assembled structures of silica (SiO_2) spheres. We report our studies on clarifying the relationship between a polaritonic gap and a photonic stop band (Bragg gap) when they resonantly coexist in the same structure. Infiltration of opal with polarizable molecules combines the polaritonic and Bragg diffractive effects. Both effects exist independently when the Bragg (at ω=ω_B) and polaritonic (at ω=ω_T) resonances are well separated in frequency. A completely different situation occurs when ωT =ω_B. Such a condition was achieved in opals that were infiltrated with J-aggregates of cyanine dyes that have large Rabi frequency. Our measurements show some dramatic changes in the shape of the reflectivity plateaus, which are due to the interplay between the photonic band gap and the polaritonic gap. The experimental results on reflectivity and its dependence on the light propagation angle and concentration of the cyanie dyes are in agreement with the theoretical calculations. (The work was supported in part by Army Research office DAAD19-00-1-0406.)

3D WO3 /BiVO4 /Cobalt Phosphate Composites Inverse Opal Photoanode for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting.

PubMed

Zhang, Haifeng; Zhou, Weiwei; Yang, Yaping; Cheng, Chuanwei

2017-04-01

A novel 3D WO 3 /BiVO 4 /cobalt phosphate composite inverse opal is designed for photoeletrochemical (PEC) water splitting, yielding a significantly improved PEC performance. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Israel: Background and U.S. Relations in Brief

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-16

above and below the $500 million mark from year to year. 32 Barbara Opall -Rome, “Israel Claims...at page 119-A, available at http://docs.house.gov/meetings/RU/RU00/20151216/104298/HMTG-114-RU00-20151216-SD004.pdf. 34 Barbara Opall -Rome, “Israel

Israel: Background and U.S. Relations in Brief

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-30

Hezbollah drones, anti-aircraft missiles destroyed in alleged IAF attack, says Syrian opposition,” jpost.com, December 8, 2014. 16 Barbara Opall ...border,” Times of Israel, December 30, 2015. 23 Barbara Opall -Rome, “Israel Invests Billions in Border Barricades,” Defense News, September 7, 2015. 24

Ni-NiO core-shell inverse opal electrodes for supercapacitors.

PubMed

Kim, Jae-Hun; Kang, Soon Hyung; Zhu, Kai; Kim, Jin Young; Neale, Nathan R; Frank, Arthur J

2011-05-14

A general template-assisted electrochemical approach was used to synthesize three-dimensional ordered Ni core-NiO shell inverse opals (IOs) as electrodes for supercapacitors. The Ni-NiO IO electrodes displayed pseudo-capacitor behavior, good rate capability and cycling performance. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011

Process model-based atomic service discovery and composition of composite semantic web services using web ontology language for services (OWL-S)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paulraj, D.; Swamynathan, S.; Madhaiyan, M.

2012-11-01

Web Service composition has become indispensable as a single web service cannot satisfy complex functional requirements. Composition of services has received much interest to support business-to-business (B2B) or enterprise application integration. An important component of the service composition is the discovery of relevant services. In Semantic Web Services (SWS), service discovery is generally achieved by using service profile of Ontology Web Languages for Services (OWL-S). The profile of the service is a derived and concise description but not a functional part of the service. The information contained in the service profile is sufficient for atomic service discovery, but it is not sufficient for the discovery of composite semantic web services (CSWS). The purpose of this article is two-fold: first to prove that the process model is a better choice than the service profile for service discovery. Second, to facilitate the composition of inter-organisational CSWS by proposing a new composition method which uses process ontology. The proposed service composition approach uses an algorithm which performs a fine grained match at the level of atomic process rather than at the level of the entire service in a composite semantic web service. Many works carried out in this area have proposed solutions only for the composition of atomic services and this article proposes a solution for the composition of composite semantic web services.

Automatic geospatial information Web service composition based on ontology interface matching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Xianbin; Wu, Qunyong; Wang, Qinmin

2008-10-01

With Web services technology the functions of WebGIS can be presented as a kind of geospatial information service, and helped to overcome the limitation of the information-isolated situation in geospatial information sharing field. Thus Geospatial Information Web service composition, which conglomerates outsourced services working in tandem to offer value-added service, plays the key role in fully taking advantage of geospatial information services. This paper proposes an automatic geospatial information web service composition algorithm that employed the ontology dictionary WordNet to analyze semantic distances among the interfaces. Through making matching between input/output parameters and the semantic meaning of pairs of service interfaces, a geospatial information web service chain can be created from a number of candidate services. A practice of the algorithm is also proposed and the result of it shows the feasibility of this algorithm and the great promise in the emerging demand for geospatial information web service composition.

Graph-Based Semantic Web Service Composition for Healthcare Data Integration.

PubMed

Arch-Int, Ngamnij; Arch-Int, Somjit; Sonsilphong, Suphachoke; Wanchai, Paweena

2017-01-01

Within the numerous and heterogeneous web services offered through different sources, automatic web services composition is the most convenient method for building complex business processes that permit invocation of multiple existing atomic services. The current solutions in functional web services composition lack autonomous queries of semantic matches within the parameters of web services, which are necessary in the composition of large-scale related services. In this paper, we propose a graph-based Semantic Web Services composition system consisting of two subsystems: management time and run time. The management-time subsystem is responsible for dependency graph preparation in which a dependency graph of related services is generated automatically according to the proposed semantic matchmaking rules. The run-time subsystem is responsible for discovering the potential web services and nonredundant web services composition of a user's query using a graph-based searching algorithm. The proposed approach was applied to healthcare data integration in different health organizations and was evaluated according to two aspects: execution time measurement and correctness measurement.

Graph-Based Semantic Web Service Composition for Healthcare Data Integration

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Within the numerous and heterogeneous web services offered through different sources, automatic web services composition is the most convenient method for building complex business processes that permit invocation of multiple existing atomic services. The current solutions in functional web services composition lack autonomous queries of semantic matches within the parameters of web services, which are necessary in the composition of large-scale related services. In this paper, we propose a graph-based Semantic Web Services composition system consisting of two subsystems: management time and run time. The management-time subsystem is responsible for dependency graph preparation in which a dependency graph of related services is generated automatically according to the proposed semantic matchmaking rules. The run-time subsystem is responsible for discovering the potential web services and nonredundant web services composition of a user's query using a graph-based searching algorithm. The proposed approach was applied to healthcare data integration in different health organizations and was evaluated according to two aspects: execution time measurement and correctness measurement. PMID:29065602

BioSWR – Semantic Web Services Registry for Bioinformatics

PubMed Central

Repchevsky, Dmitry; Gelpi, Josep Ll.

2014-01-01

Despite of the variety of available Web services registries specially aimed at Life Sciences, their scope is usually restricted to a limited set of well-defined types of services. While dedicated registries are generally tied to a particular format, general-purpose ones are more adherent to standards and usually rely on Web Service Definition Language (WSDL). Although WSDL is quite flexible to support common Web services types, its lack of semantic expressiveness led to various initiatives to describe Web services via ontology languages. Nevertheless, WSDL 2.0 descriptions gained a standard representation based on Web Ontology Language (OWL). BioSWR is a novel Web services registry that provides standard Resource Description Framework (RDF) based Web services descriptions along with the traditional WSDL based ones. The registry provides Web-based interface for Web services registration, querying and annotation, and is also accessible programmatically via Representational State Transfer (REST) API or using a SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language. BioSWR server is located at http://inb.bsc.es/BioSWR/and its code is available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/bioswr/under the LGPL license. PMID:25233118

BioSWR--semantic web services registry for bioinformatics.

PubMed

Repchevsky, Dmitry; Gelpi, Josep Ll

2014-01-01

Despite of the variety of available Web services registries specially aimed at Life Sciences, their scope is usually restricted to a limited set of well-defined types of services. While dedicated registries are generally tied to a particular format, general-purpose ones are more adherent to standards and usually rely on Web Service Definition Language (WSDL). Although WSDL is quite flexible to support common Web services types, its lack of semantic expressiveness led to various initiatives to describe Web services via ontology languages. Nevertheless, WSDL 2.0 descriptions gained a standard representation based on Web Ontology Language (OWL). BioSWR is a novel Web services registry that provides standard Resource Description Framework (RDF) based Web services descriptions along with the traditional WSDL based ones. The registry provides Web-based interface for Web services registration, querying and annotation, and is also accessible programmatically via Representational State Transfer (REST) API or using a SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language. BioSWR server is located at http://inb.bsc.es/BioSWR/and its code is available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/bioswr/under the LGPL license.

Reliable Execution Based on CPN and Skyline Optimization for Web Service Composition

PubMed Central

Ha, Weitao; Zhang, Guojun

2013-01-01

With development of SOA, the complex problem can be solved by combining available individual services and ordering them to best suit user's requirements. Web services composition is widely used in business environment. With the features of inherent autonomy and heterogeneity for component web services, it is difficult to predict the behavior of the overall composite service. Therefore, transactional properties and nonfunctional quality of service (QoS) properties are crucial for selecting the web services to take part in the composition. Transactional properties ensure reliability of composite Web service, and QoS properties can identify the best candidate web services from a set of functionally equivalent services. In this paper we define a Colored Petri Net (CPN) model which involves transactional properties of web services in the composition process. To ensure reliable and correct execution, unfolding processes of the CPN are followed. The execution of transactional composition Web service (TCWS) is formalized by CPN properties. To identify the best services of QoS properties from candidate service sets formed in the TCSW-CPN, we use skyline computation to retrieve dominant Web service. It can overcome that the reduction of individual scores to an overall similarity leads to significant information loss. We evaluate our approach experimentally using both real and synthetically generated datasets. PMID:23935431

Reliable execution based on CPN and skyline optimization for Web service composition.

PubMed

Chen, Liping; Ha, Weitao; Zhang, Guojun

2013-01-01

With development of SOA, the complex problem can be solved by combining available individual services and ordering them to best suit user's requirements. Web services composition is widely used in business environment. With the features of inherent autonomy and heterogeneity for component web services, it is difficult to predict the behavior of the overall composite service. Therefore, transactional properties and nonfunctional quality of service (QoS) properties are crucial for selecting the web services to take part in the composition. Transactional properties ensure reliability of composite Web service, and QoS properties can identify the best candidate web services from a set of functionally equivalent services. In this paper we define a Colored Petri Net (CPN) model which involves transactional properties of web services in the composition process. To ensure reliable and correct execution, unfolding processes of the CPN are followed. The execution of transactional composition Web service (TCWS) is formalized by CPN properties. To identify the best services of QoS properties from candidate service sets formed in the TCSW-CPN, we use skyline computation to retrieve dominant Web service. It can overcome that the reduction of individual scores to an overall similarity leads to significant information loss. We evaluate our approach experimentally using both real and synthetically generated datasets.

The Use of RESTful Web Services in Medical Informatics and Clinical Research and Its Implementation in Europe.

PubMed

Aerts, Jozef

2017-01-01

RESTful web services nowadays are state-of-the-art in business transactions over the internet. They are however not very much used in medical informatics and in clinical research, especially not in Europe. To make an inventory of RESTful web services that can be used in medical informatics and clinical research, including those that can help in patient empowerment in the DACH region and in Europe, and to develop some new RESTful web services for use in clinical research and regulatory review. A literature search on available RESTful web services has been performed and new RESTful web services have been developed on an application server using the Java language. Most of the web services found originate from institutes and organizations in the USA, whereas no similar web services could be found that are made available by European organizations. New RESTful web services have been developed for LOINC codes lookup, for UCUM conversions and for use with CDISC Standards. A comparison is made between "top down" and "bottom up" web services, the latter meant to answer concrete questions immediately. The lack of RESTful web services made available by European organizations in healthcare and medical informatics is striking. RESTful web services may in short future play a major role in medical informatics, and when localized for the German language and other European languages, can help to considerably facilitate patient empowerment. This however requires an EU equivalent of the US National Library of Medicine.

Study of the structure of 3D-ordered macroporous GaN-ZnS:Mn nanocomposite films

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kurdyukov, D. A., E-mail: kurd@gvg.ioffe.ru; Shishkin, I. I.; Grudinkin, S. A.

A film-type 3D-ordered macroporous GaN-ZnS:Mn nanocomposite with the structure of an inverted opal is fabricated. Structural studies of the nanocomposite are performed, and it is shown that GaN and ZnS:Mn introduced into the pores of the silica opal are nanocrystallites misoriented with respect to each other. It is shown that the nanocomposite is a structurally perfect 3D photonic crystal. The efficiency of using a buffer of GaN crystallites to preclude interaction between the surface of the spherical a-SiO{sub 2} particles forming the opal matrix and chemically active substances introduced into the pores is demonstrated.

Angular shaping of fluorescence from synthetic opal-based photonic crystal.

PubMed

Boiko, Vitalii; Dovbeshko, Galyna; Dolgov, Leonid; Kiisk, Valter; Sildos, Ilmo; Loot, Ardi; Gorelik, Vladimir

2015-01-01

Spectral, angular, and temporal distributions of fluorescence as well as specular reflection were investigated for silica-based artificial opals. Periodic arrangement of nanosized silica globules in the opal causes a specific dip in the defect-related fluorescence spectra and a peak in the reflectance spectrum. The spectral position of the dip coincides with the photonic stop band. The latter is dependent on the size of silica globules and the angle of observation. The spectral shape and intensity of defect-related fluorescence can be controlled by variation of detection angle. Fluorescence intensity increases up to two times at the edges of the spectral dip. Partial photobleaching of fluorescence was observed. Photonic origin of the observed effects is discussed.

Chemically Patterned Inverse Opal Created by a Selective Photolysis Modification Process.

PubMed

Tian, Tian; Gao, Ning; Gu, Chen; Li, Jian; Wang, Hui; Lan, Yue; Yin, Xianpeng; Li, Guangtao

2015-09-02

Anisotropic photonic crystal materials have long been pursued for their broad applications. A novel method for creating chemically patterned inverse opals is proposed here. The patterning technique is based on selective photolysis of a photolabile polymer together with postmodification on released amine groups. The patterning method allows regioselective modification within an inverse opal structure, taking advantage of selective chemical reaction. Moreover, combined with the unique signal self-reporting feature of the photonic crystal, the fabricated structure is capable of various applications, including gradient photonic bandgap and dynamic chemical patterns. The proposed method provides the ability to extend the structural and chemical complexity of the photonic crystal, as well as its potential applications.

Photonic bandgap of inverse opals prepared from core-shell spheres

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

In this study, we synthesized monodispersed polystyrene (PS)-silica core-shell spheres with various shell thicknesses for the fabrication of photonic crystals. The shell thickness of the spheres was controlled by various additions of tetraethyl orthosilicate during the shell growth process. The shrinkage ratio of the inverse opal photonic crystals prepared from the core-shell spheres was significantly reduced from 14.7% to within 3%. We suspected that the improvement resulted from the confinement of silica shell to the contraction of PS space during calcination. Due to the shell effect, the inverse opals prepared from the core-shell spheres have higher filling fraction and larger wavelength of stop band maximum. PMID:22894600

Nonenzymatic glucose detection by using a three-dimensionally ordered, macroporous platinum template.

PubMed

Song, Yan-Yan; Zhang, Dai; Gao, Wei; Xia, Xing-Hua

2005-03-18

A three-dimensionally ordered, macroporous, inverse-opal platinum film was synthesized electrochemically by the inverted colloidal-crystal template technique. The inverse-opal film that contains platinum nanoparticles showed improved electrocatalytic activity toward glucose oxidation with respect to the directly deposited platinum; this improvement is due to the interconnected porous structure and the greatly enhanced effective surface area. In addition, the inverse-opal Pt-film electrode responds more sensitively to glucose than to common interfering species of ascorbic acid, uric acid, and p-acetamidophenol due to their different electrochemical reaction mechanisms. Results showed that the ordered macroporous materials with enhanced selectivity and sensitivity are promising for fabrication of nonenzymatic glucose biosensors.

Web service module for access to g-Lite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goranova, R.; Goranov, G.

2012-10-01

G-Lite is a lightweight grid middleware for grid computing installed on all clusters of the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI). The middleware is partially service-oriented and does not provide well-defined Web services for job management. The existing Web services in the environment cannot be directly used by grid users for building service compositions in the EGI. In this article we present a module of well-defined Web services for job management in the EGI. We describe the architecture of the module and the design of the developed Web services. The presented Web services are composable and can participate in service compositions (workflows). An example of usage of the module with tools for service compositions in g-Lite is shown.

BOWS (bioinformatics open web services) to centralize bioinformatics tools in web services.

PubMed

Velloso, Henrique; Vialle, Ricardo A; Ortega, J Miguel

2015-06-02

Bioinformaticians face a range of difficulties to get locally-installed tools running and producing results; they would greatly benefit from a system that could centralize most of the tools, using an easy interface for input and output. Web services, due to their universal nature and widely known interface, constitute a very good option to achieve this goal. Bioinformatics open web services (BOWS) is a system based on generic web services produced to allow programmatic access to applications running on high-performance computing (HPC) clusters. BOWS intermediates the access to registered tools by providing front-end and back-end web services. Programmers can install applications in HPC clusters in any programming language and use the back-end service to check for new jobs and their parameters, and then to send the results to BOWS. Programs running in simple computers consume the BOWS front-end service to submit new processes and read results. BOWS compiles Java clients, which encapsulate the front-end web service requisitions, and automatically creates a web page that disposes the registered applications and clients. Bioinformatics open web services registered applications can be accessed from virtually any programming language through web services, or using standard java clients. The back-end can run in HPC clusters, allowing bioinformaticians to remotely run high-processing demand applications directly from their machines.

Departures from Axisymmetric Balance Dynamics during Secondary Eyewall Formation

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-01

tensification of Hurricane Opal as diagnosed from a GFDL model forecast. Mon. Wea. Rev., 130, 1866–1881, doi:10.1175/ 1520-0493(2002)130,1866:BCTTIO...2002: Environ- mental interactions in the GFDL hurricane model for Hurri- cane Opal . Mon. Wea. Rev., 130, 298–317, doi:10.1175/ 1520-0493(2002

Picture Books about Blacks: An Interview with Opal Moore.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacCann, Donnarae; Richard, Olga

1991-01-01

Presents an interview with Opal Moore, who discusses Black imagery in picture books published in the last four years and the institutions that circulate that imagery. Topics discussed include the issue of race pride; interracial themes; appropriate illustrations; African versus African-American books; and the roles of publishers, books reviewers,…

Conversion of the luminescence of laser dyes in opal matrices to stimulated emission

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Alimov, O K; Basiev, T T; Orlovskii, Yu V

The luminescence and laser characteristics of a synthetic opal matrix filled with organic dyes are studied upon excitation by nanosecond laser pulses. The appearance of stimulated emission in a partially ordered scattering medium is investigated. It is shown that if the luminescence spectrum of a dye (oxazine-17) is located far outside the photonic bandgap of the opal matrix, stimulated emission along a preferential direction in the (111) plane is observed when pumping exceeds a threshold even without an external optical cavity. The stimulated emission spectrum is considerably narrower than the luminescence spectrum and consists of several narrow lines located withinmore » the dye luminescence band. If the luminescence spectrum of a dye (rhodamine 6G) overlaps with the photonic bandgap of the opal matrix, a different picture is observed. The loss of radiation in the matrix leads to the red shift of the luminescence spectrum, while the stimulated emission as in the case of oxazine-17 lies is observed within the luminescence band. (active media, lasers, and amplifiers)« less

Estimation of past seepage volumes from calcite distribution in the Topopah Spring Tuff, Yucca Mountain, Nevada

USGS Publications Warehouse

Marshall, B.D.; Neymark, L.A.; Peterman, Z.E.

2003-01-01

Low-temperature calcite and opal record the past seepage of water into open fractures and lithophysal cavities in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, site of a proposed high-level radioactive waste repository. Systematic measurements of calcite and opal coatings in the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) tunnel at the proposed repository horizon are used to estimate the volume of calcite at each site of calcite and/or opal deposition. By estimating the volume of water required to precipitate the measured volumes of calcite in the unsaturated zone, seepage rates of 0.005 to 5 liters/year (l/year) are calculated at the median and 95th percentile of the measured volumes, respectively. These seepage rates are at the low end of the range of seepage rates from recent performance assessment (PA) calculations, confirming the conservative nature of the performance assessment. However, the distribution of the calcite and opal coatings indicate that a much larger fraction of the potential waste packages would be contacted by this seepage than is calculated in the performance assessment.

Silicon isotope fractionation by marine sponges and the reconstruction of the silicon isotope composition of ancient deep water

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de La Rocha, Christina L.

2003-05-01

The silicon isotope composition (δ30Si) of biogenic opal provides a view of the silica cycle at times in the past. Reconstructions require the knowledge of silicon isotope fractionation during opal biomineralization. The δ30Si of specimens of hexactinellid sponges and demosponges growing in the modern ocean ranged from -1.2‰ to -3.7‰ (n = 6), corresponding to the production of opal that has a δ30Si value 3.8‰ ± 0.8‰ more negative than seawater silicic acid and a fractionation factor (α) of 0.9964. This is three times the fractionation observed during opal formation by marine diatoms and terrestrial plants and is the largest fractionation of silicon isotopes observed for any natural process on Earth. The δ30Si values of sponge spicules across the Eocene-Oligocene boundary at Ocean Drilling Program Site 689 on Maud Rise range from -1.1‰ to -3.0‰, overlapping the range observed for sponges growing in modern seawater.

Optical and morphological study of disorder in opals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palacios-Lidón, E.; Juárez, B. H.; Castillo-Martínez, E.; López, C.

2005-03-01

An optical and morphological study has been carried out to understand the role of intrinsic defects in the optical properties of opal-based photonic crystals. By doping poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) thin-film opals with larger polystyrene (PS) spheres, structural disorder has being generated perturbing the PMMA matrix periodicity. It is shown that this disorder dramatically affects the optical response of the system worsening its photonic properties. It has been found that the effect of doping is highly dependent not only on the concentration but also on the relative size of the dopant with reference to the matrix. Through a detailed scanning electron microscopy inspection, the sort of structural defects involved, derived from the different particle size used, has been characterized. A direct relationship between the observed optical response with the different perturbations generated in the lattice has been found. In addition, from this study it can be concluded that it is possible to grow high quality alloyed photonic crystals, exhibiting intermediate photonic properties between pure PMMA and pure PS opals by simple sphere size matching and variation of the relative concentration of both components.

Silica phase changes: Diagenetic agent for oil entrapment, Lost Hills field, California

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Julander, D.R.; Szymanski, D.L.

1991-02-01

The siliceous shales of the Monterey Group are the primary development target at Lost Hills. Silica phase changes have influenced the distribution and entrapment of hydrocarbons. With increasing temperature, opal A phase diatomite is converted to opal CT and finally quartz phase rock. All phases are low in permeability. The opal A diatomite is characteristically high in oil saturation and productive saturation. Productivity from this phase is dependent on structural position and fieldwide variations in oil viscosity and biodegradation. The deeper chert reservoir coincides with the opal CT to quartz phase transition. Porosity is again reduced in this transition, butmore » saturations in the quartz phase rocks increase. Tests in the chert reservoir indicate a single, low-permeability system, suggesting the importance of matric contribution. resistivity and porosity in the diatomite, and resistivity and velocity in the chert, are the physical properties which best reflect saturation. Methods exploiting these properties (FMS, BHTV, borehole, and surface shear wave studies) should be helpful in further characterizing the reservoirs and identifying future pay.« less

Unique pathway of expression of an opal suppressor phosphoserine tRNA.

PubMed Central

Lee, B J; de la Peña, P; Tobian, J A; Zasloff, M; Hatfield, D

1987-01-01

An opal suppressor phosphoserine tRNA gene is present in single copy in the genomes of higher vertebrates. We have shown that the product of this gene functions as a suppressor in an in vitro assay, and we have proposed that it may donate a modified amino acid directly to protein in response to specific UGA codons. In this report, we show through in vitro and in vivo studies that the human and Xenopus opal suppressor phosphoserine tRNAs are synthesized by a pathway that is, to the best of our knowledge, unlike that of any known eukaryotic tRNA. The primary transcript of this gene does not contain a 5'-leader sequence; and, therefore, transcription of this suppressor is initiated at the first nucleotide within the coding sequence. The 5'-terminal triphosphate, present on the primary transcript, remains intact through 3'-terminal maturation and through subsequent transport of the tRNA to the cytoplasm. The unique biosynthetic pathway of this opal suppressor may underlie its distinctive role in eukaryotic cells. Images PMID:3114749

Web Services--A Buzz Word with Potentials

Treesearch

János T. Füstös

2006-01-01

The simplest definition of a web service is an application that provides a web API. The web API exposes the functionality of the solution to other applications. The web API relies on other Internet-based technologies to manage communications. The resulting web services are pervasive, vendor-independent, language-neutral, and very low-cost. The main purpose of a web API...

BioServices: a common Python package to access biological Web Services programmatically.

PubMed

Cokelaer, Thomas; Pultz, Dennis; Harder, Lea M; Serra-Musach, Jordi; Saez-Rodriguez, Julio

2013-12-15

Web interfaces provide access to numerous biological databases. Many can be accessed to in a programmatic way thanks to Web Services. Building applications that combine several of them would benefit from a single framework. BioServices is a comprehensive Python framework that provides programmatic access to major bioinformatics Web Services (e.g. KEGG, UniProt, BioModels, ChEMBLdb). Wrapping additional Web Services based either on Representational State Transfer or Simple Object Access Protocol/Web Services Description Language technologies is eased by the usage of object-oriented programming. BioServices releases and documentation are available at http://pypi.python.org/pypi/bioservices under a GPL-v3 license.

Research on the development and preliminary application of Beijing agricultural sci-tech service hotline WebApp in agricultural consulting services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Weishui; Luo, Changshou; Zheng, Yaming; Wei, Qingfeng; Cao, Chengzhong

2017-09-01

To deal with the “last kilometer” problem during the agricultural science and technology information service, we analyzed the feasibility, necessity and advantages of WebApp applied to agricultural information service and discussed the modes of WebApp used in agricultural information service based on the requirements analysis and the function of WebApp. To overcome the existing App’s defects of difficult installation and weak compatibility between the mobile operating systems, the Beijing Agricultural Sci-tech Service Hotline WebApp was developed based on the HTML and JAVA technology. The WebApp has greater compatibility and simpler operation than the Native App, what’s more, it can be linked to the WeChat public platform making it spread easily and run directly without setup process. The WebApp was used to provide agricultural expert consulting services and agriculture information push, obtained a good preliminary application achievement. Finally, we concluded the creative application of WebApp in agricultural consulting services and prospected the development of WebApp in agricultural information service.

Assembly of large-area, highly ordered, crack-free inverse opal films

PubMed Central

Hatton, Benjamin; Mishchenko, Lidiya; Davis, Stan; Sandhage, Kenneth H.; Aizenberg, Joanna

2010-01-01

Whereas considerable interest exists in self-assembly of well-ordered, porous “inverse opal” structures for optical, electronic, and (bio)chemical applications, uncontrolled defect formation has limited the scale-up and practicality of such approaches. Here we demonstrate a new method for assembling highly ordered, crack-free inverse opal films over a centimeter scale. Multilayered composite colloidal crystal films have been generated via evaporative deposition of polymeric colloidal spheres suspended within a hydrolyzed silicate sol-gel precursor solution. The coassembly of a sacrificial colloidal template with a matrix material avoids the need for liquid infiltration into the preassembled colloidal crystal and minimizes the associated cracking and inhomogeneities of the resulting inverse opal films. We discuss the underlying mechanisms that may account for the formation of large-area defect-free films, their unique preferential growth along the 〈110〉 direction and unusual fracture behavior. We demonstrate that this coassembly approach allows the fabrication of hierarchical structures not achievable by conventional methods, such as multilayered films and deposition onto patterned or curved surfaces. These robust SiO2 inverse opals can be transformed into various materials that retain the morphology and order of the original films, as exemplified by the reactive conversion into Si or TiO2 replicas. We show that colloidal coassembly is available for a range of organometallic sol-gel and polymer matrix precursors, and represents a simple, low-cost, scalable method for generating high-quality, chemically tailorable inverse opal films for a variety of applications. PMID:20484675

Impact of silica diagenesis on the porosity of fine-grained strata: An analysis of Cenozoic mudstones from the North Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wrona, Thilo; Taylor, Kevin G.; Jackson, Christopher A.-L.; Huuse, Mads; Najorka, Jens; Pan, Indranil

2017-04-01

Silica diagenesis has the potential to drastically change the physical and fluid flow properties of its host strata and therefore plays a key role in the development of sedimentary basins. The specific processes involved in silica diagenesis are, however, still poorly explained by existing models. This knowledge gap is addressed by investigating the effect of silica diagenesis on the porosity of Cenozoic mudstones of the North Viking Graben, northern North Sea through a multiple linear regression analysis. First, we identify and quantify the mineralogy of these rocks by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, respectively. Mineral contents and host rock porosity data inferred from wireline data of two exploration wells are then analyzed by multiple linear regressions. This robust statistical analysis reveals that biogenic opal-A is a significant control and authigenic opal-CT is a minor influence on the porosity of these rocks. These results suggest that the initial porosity of siliceous mudstones increases with biogenic opal-A production during deposition and that the porosity reduction during opal-A/CT transformation results from opal-A dissolution. These findings advance our understanding of compaction, dewatering, and lithification of siliceous sediments and rocks. Moreover, this study provides a recipe for the derivation of the key controls (e.g., composition) on a rock property (e.g., porosity) that can be applied to a variety of problems in rock physics.

Is Tridymite at Gale Crater Evidence for Silicic Volcanism on Mars?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morris, Richard V.; Vaniman, David T.; Ming, Douglas W.; Graff, Trevor G.; Downs, Robert T.; Fendrich, Kim; Mertzman, Stanley A.

2016-01-01

The X-ray diffraction (XRD) instrument (CheMin) onboard the MSL rover Curiosity detected 17 wt% of the SiO2 polymorph tridymite (relative to bulk sample) for the Buckskin drill sample (73 wt% SiO2) obtained from sedimentary rock in the Murray formation at Gale Crater, Mars. Other detected crystalline materials are plagioclase, sanidine, cristobalite, cation-deficient magnetite, and anhydrite. XRD amorphous material constitutes approx. 60 wt% of bulk sample, and the position of its broad diffraction peak near approx. 26 deg. 2-theta is consistent with opal-A. Tridymite is a lowpressure, high-temperature mineral (approx. 870 to 1670 deg. C) whose XRD-identified occurrence on the Earth is usually associated with silicic (e.g., rhyolitic) volcanism. High SiO2 deposits have been detected at Gale crater by remote sensing from martian orbit and interpreted as opal-A on the basis H2O and Si-OH spectral features. Proposed opal-A formation pathways include precipitation of silica from lake waters and high-SiO2 residues of acid-sulfate leaching. Tridymite is nominally anhydrous and would not exhibit these spectral features. We have chemically and spectrally analyzed rhyolitic samples from New Mexico and Iwodake volcano (Japan). The glassy (by XRD) NM samples have H2O spectral features similar to opal-A. The Iwodake sample, which has been subjected to high-temperature acid sulfate leaching, also has H2O spectral features similar to opal-A. The Iwodake sample has approx. 98 wt% SiO2 and 1% wt% TiO2 (by XRF), tridymite (>80 wt.% of crystalline material without detectable quartz by XRD), and H2O and Si-OH spectral features. These results open the working hypothesis that the opal-A-like high-SiO2 deposits at Gale crater detected from martian orbit are products of alteration associated with silicic volcanism. The presence or absence of tridymite will depend on lava crystallization temperatures (NM) and post crystallization alteration temperatures (Iwodake).

Nonstructural proteins nsP3 and nsP4 of Ross River and O'Nyong-nyong viruses: sequence and comparison with those of other alphaviruses.

PubMed

Strauss, E G; Levinson, R; Rice, C M; Dalrymple, J; Strauss, J H

1988-05-01

We have sequenced the nsP3 and nsP4 region of two alphaviruses, Ross River virus and O'Nyong-nyong virus, in order to examine these viruses for the presence or absence of an opal termination codon present between nsP3 and nsP4 in many alphaviruses. We found that Ross River virus possesses an in-phase opal termination codon between nsP3 and nsP4, whereas in O'Nyong-nyong virus this termination codon is replaced by an arginine codon. Previous studies have shown that two other alphaviruses, Sindbis virus and Middelburg virus, possess an opal termination codon separating nsP3 and nsP4 [E.G. Strauss, C.M. Rice, and J.H. Strauss (1983), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80, 5271-5275], whereas Semliki Forest virus possesses an arginine codon in lieu of the opal codon [K. Takkinen (1986), Nucleic Acids Res. 14, 5667-5682]. Thus, of the five alphaviruses examined to date, three possess the opal codon and two do not. Production of nsP4 requires readthrough of the opal codon in those alphaviruses that possess this termination codon and the function of the termination codon may be to regulate the amount of nsP4 produced. It is an open question then as to whether alphaviruses with no termination codon use other mechanisms to regulate the activity of this gene. The nsP4s of these five alphaviruses are highly conserved, sharing 71-76% amino acid sequence similarity, and all five contain the Gly-Asp-Asp motif found in many RNA virus replicases. The nsP3s are somewhat less conserved, sharing 52-73% amino acid sequence similarity throughout most of the protein, but each possesses a nonconserved C-terminal domain of 134 to 246 amino acids of unknown function.

Information Retrieval System for Japanese Standard Disease-Code Master Using XML Web Service

PubMed Central

Hatano, Kenji; Ohe, Kazuhiko

2003-01-01

Information retrieval system of Japanese Standard Disease-Code Master Using XML Web Service is developed. XML Web Service is a new distributed processing system by standard internet technologies. With seamless remote method invocation of XML Web Service, users are able to get the latest disease code master information from their rich desktop applications or internet web sites, which refer to this service. PMID:14728364

Millennial-scale variability in Holocene aquatic productivity from Burial Lake, Arctic Alaska

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finkenbinder, Matthew S.; Abbott, Mark B.; Stoner, Joseph S.; Ortiz, Joseph D.; Finney, Bruce P.; Dorfman, Jason M.; Stansell, Nathan D.

2018-05-01

Holocene records of lacustrine primary production are commonly used to reconstruct past changes in environmental and climatic conditions. While several methods exist to infer paleoproductivity trends, few studies to date have applied multiple geochemical indices in the same core sequence from Arctic lakes to evaluate their fidelity and sensitivity to specific climate variables over long (Holocene length) timescales. In this study, we evaluate sub-century to millennial-scale fluctuations in paleoproductivity over the Holocene using geochemical (biogenic opal and sedimentary chlorin) analyses of sediments from Burial Lake in the western Brooks Range, Alaska. Large fluctuations in opal and related proxies occur at millennial timescales over the last 10,000 years. We interpret the changes in opal to result from variability in diatom productivity, which is indirectly mediated by climate primarily through changes in the duration of the ice-free growing season and the availability of limiting nutrients at this oligotrophic, tundra lake. Comparison of the opal and sedimentary chlorin record, which is correlated with TOC, shows contrasting patterns on both short (century to multi-century) and relatively long (millennial) time scales. The concentration of opal far exceeds that of TOC and variations in sediment dry bulk density, driven by changes in the accumulation of opal, are likely responsible in part for the variations in sedimentary chlorin. Further, C/N ratio values indicate a mixed algal-terrestrial source of sedimentary organic matter. This result highlights the complexity in the climatic interpretation of sedimentary chlorin as an index of whole lake production, because the signal is prone to dilution/concentration from opal and also reflects a combination of aquatic and terrestrial production. Time series analysis of the productivity records indicates the presence of a significant ∼1500-yr oscillation in opal concentration, which has been found in North Atlantic Ocean proxy records and numerous other marine and terrestrial paleorecords. Comparison of diatom productivity against a sea-ice inferred reconstruction of the Arctic Oscillation (AO) from the Beaufort Sea (Darby et al., 2012) shows that periods of reduced productivity at Burial Lake coincide with inferred positive phases of the AO (AO+). Combined with modern observations of sea ice extent and meteorological data, we hypothesize that AO + conditions and a strengthened polar jet correspond with a shortened ice-free growing season, a decrease in the availability of limiting nutrients, and lower levels of diatom production at Burial Lake. Comparison of the spectral properties between opal and the AO reconstruction reveal similar millennial scale variations with ∼1500-yr variability during the middle Holocene that transition to ∼1000-yr variability during the late Holocene. In light of these findings, we suggest the possibility that millennial variations in diatom productivity observed in the Burial Lake record are related to millennial variability in high-latitude atmospheric circulation similar to the AO. These results shed light on the sensitivity of aquatic ecosystems in northern Alaska to changes in the duration of the ice-free growing season, the availability of limiting nutrients for phytoplankton growth, and Arctic-wide atmospheric circulation dynamics over the Holocene on millennial timescales.

Persistence and availability of Web services in computational biology.

PubMed

Schultheiss, Sebastian J; Münch, Marc-Christian; Andreeva, Gergana D; Rätsch, Gunnar

2011-01-01

We have conducted a study on the long-term availability of bioinformatics Web services: an observation of 927 Web services published in the annual Nucleic Acids Research Web Server Issues between 2003 and 2009. We found that 72% of Web sites are still available at the published addresses, only 9% of services are completely unavailable. Older addresses often redirect to new pages. We checked the functionality of all available services: for 33%, we could not test functionality because there was no example data or a related problem; 13% were truly no longer working as expected; we could positively confirm functionality only for 45% of all services. Additionally, we conducted a survey among 872 Web Server Issue corresponding authors; 274 replied. 78% of all respondents indicate their services have been developed solely by students and researchers without a permanent position. Consequently, these services are in danger of falling into disrepair after the original developers move to another institution, and indeed, for 24% of services, there is no plan for maintenance, according to the respondents. We introduce a Web service quality scoring system that correlates with the number of citations: services with a high score are cited 1.8 times more often than low-scoring services. We have identified key characteristics that are predictive of a service's survival, providing reviewers, editors, and Web service developers with the means to assess or improve Web services. A Web service conforming to these criteria receives more citations and provides more reliable service for its users. The most effective way of ensuring continued access to a service is a persistent Web address, offered either by the publishing journal, or created on the authors' own initiative, for example at http://bioweb.me. The community would benefit the most from a policy requiring any source code needed to reproduce results to be deposited in a public repository.

Persistence and Availability of Web Services in Computational Biology

PubMed Central

Schultheiss, Sebastian J.; Münch, Marc-Christian; Andreeva, Gergana D.; Rätsch, Gunnar

2011-01-01

We have conducted a study on the long-term availability of bioinformatics Web services: an observation of 927 Web services published in the annual Nucleic Acids Research Web Server Issues between 2003 and 2009. We found that 72% of Web sites are still available at the published addresses, only 9% of services are completely unavailable. Older addresses often redirect to new pages. We checked the functionality of all available services: for 33%, we could not test functionality because there was no example data or a related problem; 13% were truly no longer working as expected; we could positively confirm functionality only for 45% of all services. Additionally, we conducted a survey among 872 Web Server Issue corresponding authors; 274 replied. 78% of all respondents indicate their services have been developed solely by students and researchers without a permanent position. Consequently, these services are in danger of falling into disrepair after the original developers move to another institution, and indeed, for 24% of services, there is no plan for maintenance, according to the respondents. We introduce a Web service quality scoring system that correlates with the number of citations: services with a high score are cited 1.8 times more often than low-scoring services. We have identified key characteristics that are predictive of a service's survival, providing reviewers, editors, and Web service developers with the means to assess or improve Web services. A Web service conforming to these criteria receives more citations and provides more reliable service for its users. The most effective way of ensuring continued access to a service is a persistent Web address, offered either by the publishing journal, or created on the authors' own initiative, for example at http://bioweb.me. The community would benefit the most from a policy requiring any source code needed to reproduce results to be deposited in a public repository. PMID:21966383

Space Physics Data Facility Web Services

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Candey, Robert M.; Harris, Bernard T.; Chimiak, Reine A.

2005-01-01

The Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) Web services provides a distributed programming interface to a portion of the SPDF software. (A general description of Web services is available at http://www.w3.org/ and in many current software-engineering texts and articles focused on distributed programming.) The SPDF Web services distributed programming interface enables additional collaboration and integration of the SPDF software system with other software systems, in furtherance of the SPDF mission to lead collaborative efforts in the collection and utilization of space physics data and mathematical models. This programming interface conforms to all applicable Web services specifications of the World Wide Web Consortium. The interface is specified by a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file. The SPDF Web services software consists of the following components: 1) A server program for implementation of the Web services; and 2) A software developer s kit that consists of a WSDL file, a less formal description of the interface, a Java class library (which further eases development of Java-based client software), and Java source code for an example client program that illustrates the use of the interface.

The EMBRACE web service collection

PubMed Central

Pettifer, Steve; Ison, Jon; Kalaš, Matúš; Thorne, Dave; McDermott, Philip; Jonassen, Inge; Liaquat, Ali; Fernández, José M.; Rodriguez, Jose M.; Partners, INB-; Pisano, David G.; Blanchet, Christophe; Uludag, Mahmut; Rice, Peter; Bartaseviciute, Edita; Rapacki, Kristoffer; Hekkelman, Maarten; Sand, Olivier; Stockinger, Heinz; Clegg, Andrew B.; Bongcam-Rudloff, Erik; Salzemann, Jean; Breton, Vincent; Attwood, Teresa K.; Cameron, Graham; Vriend, Gert

2010-01-01

The EMBRACE (European Model for Bioinformatics Research and Community Education) web service collection is the culmination of a 5-year project that set out to investigate issues involved in developing and deploying web services for use in the life sciences. The project concluded that in order for web services to achieve widespread adoption, standards must be defined for the choice of web service technology, for semantically annotating both service function and the data exchanged, and a mechanism for discovering services must be provided. Building on this, the project developed: EDAM, an ontology for describing life science web services; BioXSD, a schema for exchanging data between services; and a centralized registry (http://www.embraceregistry.net) that collects together around 1000 services developed by the consortium partners. This article presents the current status of the collection and its associated recommendations and standards definitions. PMID:20462862

Peculiarities of the irisation in precious opals in view of their mosaic-cluster (frustumation) inner fabric

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Povarennykh, M. Yu.; Knot'ko, A. V.; Matvienko, E. N.; Plechov, P. Yu.; Burmistrov, A. A.; Luksha, V. L.

2016-04-01

A direct correlation was shown for the first time between mosaic irisation patterns in synthetic and natural precious opals (from Australia, Ethiopia, Honduras, Slovakia, and Russia) and their frustumational (lump or mosaic-cluster) inner structure by means of photoluminescence, X-ray phase analysis, IR and Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy.

KSC-2013-3031

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-07-11

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science, or OPALS, an optical technology demonstration experiment, sits on a pallet near the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. OPALS arrived from the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. NASA will use the International Space Station to test OPALS’ communications technology that could dramatically improve spacecraft communications, enhance commercial missions and strengthen transmission of scientific data. The experiment is slated to fly later this year aboard a SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply mission to the space station. The mission is expected to run 90 days after installation on the outside of the station. For more information about OPALS, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/10MMPDO. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

Cell orientation gradients on an inverse opal substrate.

PubMed

Lu, Jie; Zou, Xin; Zhao, Ze; Mu, Zhongde; Zhao, Yuanjin; Gu, Zhongze

2015-05-20

The generation of cell gradients is critical for understanding many biological systems and realizing the unique functionality of many implanted biomaterials. However, most previous work can only control the gradient of cell density and this has no effect on the gradient of cell orientation, which has an important role in regulating the functions of many connecting tissues. Here, we report on a simple stretched inverse opal substrate for establishing desired cell orientation gradients. It was demonstrated that tendon fibroblasts on the stretched inverse opal gradient showed a corresponding alignment along with the elongation gradient of the substrate. This "random-to-aligned" cell gradient reproduces the insertion part of many connecting tissues, and thus, will have important applications in tissue engineering.

KSC-2013-3034

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-07-11

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science, or OPALS, an optical technology demonstration experiment, sits on a pallet inside the air lock entrance to the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. OPALS arrived from the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. NASA will use the International Space Station to test OPALS’ communications technology that could dramatically improve spacecraft communications, enhance commercial missions and strengthen transmission of scientific data. The experiment is slated to fly later this year aboard a SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply mission to the space station. The mission is expected to run 90 days after installation on the outside of the station. For more information about OPALS, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/10MMPDO. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

Tofacitinib in psoriatic arthritis.

PubMed

Wang, Ting-Shun; Tsai, Tsen-Fang

2017-11-01

Psoriatic arthritis is a heterogeneous disease that has been difficult to manage until the recent advent of biologics. However, there are still unmet medical needs for newer agents. Tofacitinib is a Janus family of kinases inhibitor approved for treating rheumatoid arthritis in many countries and psoriasis in Russia. We reviewed the evidences of tofacitinib in psoriatic arthritis treatment. The efficacy and safety profiles result from Phase III clinical trials (OPAL BROADEN and OPAL BEYOND) and one open-label extension study (OPAL BALANCE). Both tofacitinib 5 or 10 mg twice a day were superior to placebo for American College of Rheumatology 20% improvement criteria response at 3 months and showed significant improvement of skin, enthesitis and dactylitis. Tofacitinib is a promising treatment option for psoriatic arthritis.

2D and 3D photonic crystal materials for photocatalysis and electrochemical energy storage and conversion.

PubMed

Collins, Gillian; Armstrong, Eileen; McNulty, David; O'Hanlon, Sally; Geaney, Hugh; O'Dwyer, Colm

2016-01-01

This perspective reviews recent advances in inverse opal structures, how they have been developed, studied and applied as catalysts, catalyst support materials, as electrode materials for batteries, water splitting applications, solar-to-fuel conversion and electrochromics, and finally as photonic photocatalysts and photoelectrocatalysts. Throughout, we detail some of the salient optical characteristics that underpin recent results and form the basis for light-matter interactions that span electrochemical energy conversion systems as well as photocatalytic systems. Strategies for using 2D as well as 3D structures, ordered macroporous materials such as inverse opals are summarized and recent work on plasmonic-photonic coupling in metal nanoparticle-infiltrated wide band gap inverse opals for enhanced photoelectrochemistry are provided.

Fabrication of photonic crystal microprisms based on artificial opals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fenollosa, Roberto; Ibisate, Marta; Rubio, Silvia; Lopez, Ceferino; Meseguer, Francisco; Sanchez-Dehesa, Jose

2002-04-01

This paper reports a new method for faceting artificial opals based on micromanipulation techniques. By this means it was possible to fabricate an opal prism in a single domain with different faces: (111), (110) and (100), which were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy and Optical Reflectance Spectroscopy. Their spectra exhibit different characteristics depending on the orientation of the facet. While (111)-oriented face gives rise to a high Bragg reflection peak at about a/(lambda) equals 0.66 (where a is the lattice parameter), (110) and (100) faces show much less intense peaks corresponding to features in the band structure at a/(lambda) equals 1.12 and a/(lambda) equals 1.07 respectively. Peaks at higher energies have less obvious explanation.

Study of the spectra of silica colloidal crystals with assembled silver obtained from a photolysis method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Wenjiang; He, Jinglong; He, Sailing

2005-02-01

The colorful artificial 3D silica colloidal crystals (opal) were prepared through self-assembly of silica spheres in the visible frequency range. We directly synthesized nano silver particles in the void of the silica artificial opal film using the photolysis of silver nitrate under UV light, nano silver particles were self-deposited around the surface of silica sphere. The shifts of the stop band of the artificial crystals after exposing different time under UV light were studied. Synthetic silica opal with three-dimensional (3D) structure is potentially useful for the development of diffractive optical devices, micro mechanical systems, and sensory elements because photonic band gaps obtained from self-assembled closely packed periodic structures.

Band structure and optical properties of opal photonic crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pavarini, E.; Andreani, L. C.; Soci, C.; Galli, M.; Marabelli, F.; Comoretto, D.

2005-07-01

A theoretical approach for the interpretation of reflectance spectra of opal photonic crystals with fcc structure and (111) surface orientation is presented. It is based on the calculation of photonic bands and density of states corresponding to a specified angle of incidence in air. The results yield a clear distinction between diffraction in the direction of light propagation by (111) family planes (leading to the formation of a stop band) and diffraction in other directions by higher-order planes (corresponding to the excitation of photonic modes in the crystal). Reflectance measurements on artificial opals made of self-assembled polystyrene spheres are analyzed according to the theoretical scheme and give evidence of diffraction by higher-order crystalline planes in the photonic structure.

2D and 3D photonic crystal materials for photocatalysis and electrochemical energy storage and conversion

PubMed Central

Collins, Gillian; Armstrong, Eileen; McNulty, David; O’Hanlon, Sally; Geaney, Hugh; O’Dwyer, Colm

2016-01-01

Abstract This perspective reviews recent advances in inverse opal structures, how they have been developed, studied and applied as catalysts, catalyst support materials, as electrode materials for batteries, water splitting applications, solar-to-fuel conversion and electrochromics, and finally as photonic photocatalysts and photoelectrocatalysts. Throughout, we detail some of the salient optical characteristics that underpin recent results and form the basis for light-matter interactions that span electrochemical energy conversion systems as well as photocatalytic systems. Strategies for using 2D as well as 3D structures, ordered macroporous materials such as inverse opals are summarized and recent work on plasmonic–photonic coupling in metal nanoparticle-infiltrated wide band gap inverse opals for enhanced photoelectrochemistry are provided. PMID:27877904

Real-time GIS data model and sensor web service platform for environmental data management.

PubMed

Gong, Jianya; Geng, Jing; Chen, Zeqiang

2015-01-09

Effective environmental data management is meaningful for human health. In the past, environmental data management involved developing a specific environmental data management system, but this method often lacks real-time data retrieving and sharing/interoperating capability. With the development of information technology, a Geospatial Service Web method is proposed that can be employed for environmental data management. The purpose of this study is to determine a method to realize environmental data management under the Geospatial Service Web framework. A real-time GIS (Geographic Information System) data model and a Sensor Web service platform to realize environmental data management under the Geospatial Service Web framework are proposed in this study. The real-time GIS data model manages real-time data. The Sensor Web service platform is applied to support the realization of the real-time GIS data model based on the Sensor Web technologies. To support the realization of the proposed real-time GIS data model, a Sensor Web service platform is implemented. Real-time environmental data, such as meteorological data, air quality data, soil moisture data, soil temperature data, and landslide data, are managed in the Sensor Web service platform. In addition, two use cases of real-time air quality monitoring and real-time soil moisture monitoring based on the real-time GIS data model in the Sensor Web service platform are realized and demonstrated. The total time efficiency of the two experiments is 3.7 s and 9.2 s. The experimental results show that the method integrating real-time GIS data model and Sensor Web Service Platform is an effective way to manage environmental data under the Geospatial Service Web framework.

Similarity Based Semantic Web Service Match

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Hui; Niu, Wenjia; Huang, Ronghuai

Semantic web service discovery aims at returning the most matching advertised services to the service requester by comparing the semantic of the request service with an advertised service. The semantic of a web service are described in terms of inputs, outputs, preconditions and results in Ontology Web Language for Service (OWL-S) which formalized by W3C. In this paper we proposed an algorithm to calculate the semantic similarity of two services by weighted averaging their inputs and outputs similarities. Case study and applications show the effectiveness of our algorithm in service match.

Boverhof's App Earns Honorable Mention in Amazon's Web Services

Science.gov Websites

» Boverhof's App Earns Honorable Mention in Amazon's Web Services Competition News & Publications News Publications Facebook Google+ Twitter Boverhof's App Earns Honorable Mention in Amazon's Web Services by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon officially announced the winners of its EC2 Spotathon on Monday

Biological Web Service Repositories Review

PubMed Central

Urdidiales‐Nieto, David; Navas‐Delgado, Ismael

2016-01-01

Abstract Web services play a key role in bioinformatics enabling the integration of database access and analysis of algorithms. However, Web service repositories do not usually publish information on the changes made to their registered Web services. Dynamism is directly related to the changes in the repositories (services registered or unregistered) and at service level (annotation changes). Thus, users, software clients or workflow based approaches lack enough relevant information to decide when they should review or re‐execute a Web service or workflow to get updated or improved results. The dynamism of the repository could be a measure for workflow developers to re‐check service availability and annotation changes in the services of interest to them. This paper presents a review on the most well‐known Web service repositories in the life sciences including an analysis of their dynamism. Freshness is introduced in this paper, and has been used as the measure for the dynamism of these repositories. PMID:27783459

A Method for Transforming Existing Web Service Descriptions into an Enhanced Semantic Web Service Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Xiaofeng; Song, William; Munro, Malcolm

Web Services as a new distributed system technology has been widely adopted by industries in the areas, such as enterprise application integration (EAI), business process management (BPM), and virtual organisation (VO). However, lack of semantics in the current Web Service standards has been a major barrier in service discovery and composition. In this chapter, we propose an enhanced context-based semantic service description framework (CbSSDF+) that tackles the problem and improves the flexibility of service discovery and the correctness of generated composite services. We also provide an agile transformation method to demonstrate how the various formats of Web Service descriptions on the Web can be managed and renovated step by step into CbSSDF+ based service description without large amount of engineering work. At the end of the chapter, we evaluate the applicability of the transformation method and the effectiveness of CbSSDF+ through a series of experiments.

Enhancing the AliEn Web Service Authentication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Jianlin; Saiz, Pablo; Carminati, Federico; Betev, Latchezar; Zhou, Daicui; Mendez Lorenzo, Patricia; Grigoras, Alina Gabriela; Grigoras, Costin; Furano, Fabrizio; Schreiner, Steffen; Vladimirovna Datskova, Olga; Sankar Banerjee, Subho; Zhang, Guoping

2011-12-01

Web Services are an XML based technology that allow applications to communicate with each other across disparate systems. Web Services are becoming the de facto standard that enable inter operability between heterogeneous processes and systems. AliEn2 is a grid environment based on web services. The AliEn2 services can be divided in three categories: Central services, deployed once per organization; Site services, deployed on each of the participating centers; Job Agents running on the worker nodes automatically. A security model to protect these services is essential for the whole system. Current implementations of web server, such as Apache, are not suitable to be used within the grid environment. Apache with the mod_ssl and OpenSSL only supports the X.509 certificates. But in the grid environment, the common credential is the proxy certificate for the purpose of providing restricted proxy and delegation. An Authentication framework was taken for AliEn2 web services to add the ability to accept X.509 certificates and proxy certificates from client-side to Apache Web Server. The authentication framework could also allow the generation of access control policies to limit access to the AliEn2 web services.

Magnetic topology of Co-based inverse opal-like structures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grigoryeva, N. A.; Mistonov, A. A.; Napolskii, K. S.; Sapoletova, N. A.; Eliseev, A. A.; Bouwman, W.; Byelov, D. V.; Petukhov, A. V.; Chernyshov, D. Yu.; Eckerlebe, H.; Vasilieva, A. V.; Grigoriev, S. V.

2011-08-01

The magnetic and structural properties of a cobalt inverse opal-like crystal have been studied by a combination of complementary techniques ranging from polarized neutron scattering and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry to x-ray diffraction. Microradian small-angle x-ray diffraction shows that the inverse opal-like structure (OLS) synthesized by the electrochemical method fully duplicates the three-dimensional net of voids of the template artificial opal. The inverse OLS has a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure with a lattice constant of 640±10 nm and with a clear tendency to a random hexagonal close-packed structure along the [111] axes. Wide-angle x-ray powder diffraction shows that the atomic cobalt structure is described by coexistence of 95% hexagonal close-packed and 5% fcc phases. The SQUID measurements demonstrate that the inverse OLS film possesses easy-plane magnetization geometry with a coercive field of 14.0 ± 0.5 mT at room temperature. The detailed picture of the transformation of the magnetic structure under an in-plane applied field was detected with the help of small-angle diffraction of polarized neutrons. In the demagnetized state the magnetic system consists of randomly oriented magnetic domains. A complex magnetic structure appears upon application of the magnetic field, with nonhomogeneous distribution of magnetization density within the unit element of the OLS. This distribution is determined by the combined effect of the easy-plane geometry of the film and the crystallographic geometry of the opal-like structure with respect to the applied field direction.

The impact of web services at the IRIS DMC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weekly, R. T.; Trabant, C. M.; Ahern, T. K.; Stults, M.; Suleiman, Y. Y.; Van Fossen, M.; Weertman, B.

2015-12-01

The IRIS Data Management Center (DMC) has served the seismological community for nearly 25 years. In that time we have offered data and information from our archive using a variety of mechanisms ranging from email-based to desktop applications to web applications and web services. Of these, web services have quickly become the primary method for data extraction at the DMC. In 2011, the first full year of operation, web services accounted for over 40% of the data shipped from the DMC. In 2014, over ~450 TB of data was delivered directly to users through web services, representing nearly 70% of all shipments from the DMC that year. In addition to handling requests directly from users, the DMC switched all data extraction methods to use web services in 2014. On average the DMC now handles between 10 and 20 million requests per day submitted to web service interfaces. The rapid adoption of web services is attributed to the many advantages they bring. For users, they provide on-demand data using an interface technology, HTTP, that is widely supported in nearly every computing environment and language. These characteristics, combined with human-readable documentation and existing tools make integration of data access into existing workflows relatively easy. For the DMC, the web services provide an abstraction layer to internal repositories allowing for concentrated optimization of extraction workflow and easier evolution of those repositories. Lending further support to DMC's push in this direction, the core web services for station metadata, timeseries data and event parameters were adopted as standards by the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN). We expect to continue enhancing existing services and building new capabilities for this platform. For example, the DMC has created a federation system and tools allowing researchers to discover and collect seismic data from data centers running the FDSN-standardized services. A future capability will leverage the DMC's MUSTANG project to select data based on data quality measurements. Within five years, the DMC's web services have proven to be a robust and flexible platform that enables continued growth for the DMC. We expect continued enhancements and adoption of web services.

Vegetation response to large scale disturbance in a southern Appalachian forest: Hurricane Opal and salvage logging

Treesearch

Katherine J. Elliott; Stephanie L. Hitchcock; Lisa Krueger

2002-01-01

Disturbance such as catastrophic windthrow can play a major role in the structure and composition of southern Appalachian forests. We report effects of Hurricane Opal followed by salvage logging on vegetation dynamics (regeneration, composition, and diversity) the first three years after disturbance at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in western North Carolina. The...

Multifunctional Inverse Opal-Like TiO2 Electron Transport Layer for Efficient Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells.

PubMed

Chen, Xiao; Yang, Shuang; Zheng, Yi Chu; Chen, Ying; Hou, Yu; Yang, Xiao Hua; Yang, Hua Gui

2015-09-01

A novel multifunctional inverse opal-like TiO 2 electron transport layer (IOT-ETL) is designed to replace the traditional compact layer and mesoporous scaffold layer in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Improved light harvesting efficiency and charge transporting performance in IOT-ETL based PSCs yield high power conversion efficiency of 13.11%.

Web service discovery among large service pools utilising semantic similarity and clustering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Fuzan; Li, Minqiang; Wu, Harris; Xie, Lingli

2017-03-01

With the rapid development of electronic business, Web services have attracted much attention in recent years. Enterprises can combine individual Web services to provide new value-added services. An emerging challenge is the timely discovery of close matches to service requests among large service pools. In this study, we first define a new semantic similarity measure combining functional similarity and process similarity. We then present a service discovery mechanism that utilises the new semantic similarity measure for service matching. All the published Web services are pre-grouped into functional clusters prior to the matching process. For a user's service request, the discovery mechanism first identifies matching services clusters and then identifies the best matching Web services within these matching clusters. Experimental results show that the proposed semantic discovery mechanism performs better than a conventional lexical similarity-based mechanism.

A verification strategy for web services composition using enhanced stacked automata model.

PubMed

Nagamouttou, Danapaquiame; Egambaram, Ilavarasan; Krishnan, Muthumanickam; Narasingam, Poonkuzhali

2015-01-01

Currently, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is becoming the most popular software architecture of contemporary enterprise applications, and one crucial technique of its implementation is web services. Individual service offered by some service providers may symbolize limited business functionality; however, by composing individual services from different service providers, a composite service describing the intact business process of an enterprise can be made. Many new standards have been defined to decipher web service composition problem namely Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). BPEL provides an initial work for forming an Extended Markup Language (XML) specification language for defining and implementing business practice workflows for web services. The problems with most realistic approaches to service composition are the verification of composed web services. It has to depend on formal verification method to ensure the correctness of composed services. A few research works has been carried out in the literature survey for verification of web services for deterministic system. Moreover the existing models did not address the verification properties like dead transition, deadlock, reachability and safetyness. In this paper, a new model to verify the composed web services using Enhanced Stacked Automata Model (ESAM) has been proposed. The correctness properties of the non-deterministic system have been evaluated based on the properties like dead transition, deadlock, safetyness, liveness and reachability. Initially web services are composed using Business Process Execution Language for Web Service (BPEL4WS) and it is converted into ESAM (combination of Muller Automata (MA) and Push Down Automata (PDA)) and it is transformed into Promela language, an input language for Simple ProMeLa Interpreter (SPIN) tool. The model is verified using SPIN tool and the results revealed better recital in terms of finding dead transition and deadlock in contrast to the existing models.

Inverse Opal Scaffolds and Their Biomedical Applications.

PubMed

Zhang, Yu Shrike; Zhu, Chunlei; Xia, Younan

2017-09-01

Three-dimensional porous scaffolds play a pivotal role in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine by functioning as biomimetic substrates to manipulate cellular behaviors. While many techniques have been developed to fabricate porous scaffolds, most of them rely on stochastic processes that typically result in scaffolds with pores uncontrolled in terms of size, structure, and interconnectivity, greatly limiting their use in tissue regeneration. Inverse opal scaffolds, in contrast, possess uniform pores inheriting from the template comprised of a closely packed lattice of monodispersed microspheres. The key parameters of such scaffolds, including architecture, pore structure, porosity, and interconnectivity, can all be made uniform across the same sample and among different samples. In conjunction with a tight control over pore sizes, inverse opal scaffolds have found widespread use in biomedical applications. In this review, we provide a detailed discussion on this new class of advanced materials. After a brief introduction to their history and fabrication, we highlight the unique advantages of inverse opal scaffolds over their non-uniform counterparts. We then showcase their broad applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, followed by a summary and perspective on future directions. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Mapping of ice, snow and water using aircraft-mounted LiDAR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Church, Philip; Matheson, Justin; Owens, Brett

2016-05-01

Neptec Technologies Corp. has developed a family of obscurant-penetrating 3D laser scanners (OPAL 2.0) that are being adapted for airborne platforms for operations in Degraded Visual Environments (DVE). The OPAL uses a scanning mechanism based on the Risley prism pair. Data acquisition rates can go as high as 200kHz for ranges within 240m and 25kHz for ranges exceeding 240m. The scan patterns are created by rotating two prisms under independent motor control producing a conical Field-Of-View (FOV). An OPAL laser scanner with 90° FOV was installed on a Navajo aircraft, looking down through an aperture in the aircraft floor. The rotation speeds of the Risley prisms were selected to optimize a uniformity of the data samples distribution on the ground. Flight patterns simulating a landing approach over snow and ice in an unprepared Arctic environment were also performed to evaluate the capability of the OPAL LiDAR to map snow and ice elevation distribution in real-time and highlight potential obstacles. Data was also collected to evaluate the detection of wires when flying over water, snow and ice. Main results and conclusions obtained from the flight data analysis are presented.

Photoelectrodes based on 2D opals assembled from Cu-delafossite double-shelled microspheres for an enhanced photoelectrochemical response.

PubMed

Oh, Yunjung; Yang, Wooseok; Tan, Jeiwan; Lee, Hyungsoo; Park, Jaemin; Moon, Jooho

2018-02-22

Although a unique light-harvesting property was recently demonstrated in a photocathode based on 2-dimensional (2D) opals of CuFeO 2 -shelled SiO 2 microspheres, the performance of a monolayer of ultra-thin CuFeO 2 -shelled microspheres is limited by ineffective charge separation. Herein, we propose an innovative design rule, in which an inner CuFeO 2 /outer CuAlO 2 double-shelled heterojunction is formed on each partially etched microsphere to obtain a hexagonally assembled 2D opal photoelectrode. Our Cu-delafossite double-shelled photocathode shows a dramatically improved charge separation capability, with a 9-fold increase in the photocurrent compared to that of the single-shelled counterpart. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy clearly confirms the reduced charge transport/transfer resistance associated with the Cu-delafossite double-shelled photocathode, while surface photovoltage spectra reveal enhanced polarization of the photogenerated carrier, indicating improved charge separation capability with the aid of the heterojunction. Our finding sheds light on the importance of heterojunction interfaces in achieving optimal charge separation in opal architectures as well as the inner-shell/electrolyte interface to expedite charge separation/transport.

Pragmatic Computing - A Semiotic Perspective to Web Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Kecheng

The web seems to have evolved from a syntactic web, a semantic web to a pragmatic web. This evolution conforms to the study of information and technology from the theory of semiotics. The pragmatics, concerning with the use of information in relation to the context and intended purposes, is extremely important in web service and applications. Much research in pragmatics has been carried out; but in the same time, attempts and solutions have led to some more questions. After reviewing the current work in pragmatic web, the paper presents a semiotic approach to website services, particularly on request decomposition and service aggregation.

Transition of lasing modes in polymeric opal photonic crystal resonating cavity.

PubMed

Shi, Lan-Ting; Zheng, Mei-Ling; Jin, Feng; Dong, Xian-Zi; Chen, Wei-Qiang; Zhao, Zhen-Sheng; Duan, Xuan-Ming

2016-06-10

We demonstrate the transition of lasing modes in the resonating cavity constructed by polystyrene opal photonic crystals and 7 wt. % tert-butyl Rhodamine B doped polymer film. Both single mode and multiple mode lasing emission are observed from the resonating cavity. The lasing threshold is determined to be 0.81  μJ/pulse for single mode lasing emission and 2.25  μJ/pulse for multiple mode lasing emission. The single mode lasing emission is attributed to photonic lasing resulting from the photonic bandgap effect of the opal photonic crystals, while the multiple mode lasing emission is assigned to random lasing due to the defects in the photonic crystals. The result would benefit the development of low threshold polymeric solid state photonic crystal lasers.

QoS measurement of workflow-based web service compositions using Colored Petri net.

PubMed

Nematzadeh, Hossein; Motameni, Homayun; Mohamad, Radziah; Nematzadeh, Zahra

2014-01-01

Workflow-based web service compositions (WB-WSCs) is one of the main composition categories in service oriented architecture (SOA). Eflow, polymorphic process model (PPM), and business process execution language (BPEL) are the main techniques of the category of WB-WSCs. Due to maturity of web services, measuring the quality of composite web services being developed by different techniques becomes one of the most important challenges in today's web environments. Business should try to provide good quality regarding the customers' requirements to a composed web service. Thus, quality of service (QoS) which refers to nonfunctional parameters is important to be measured since the quality degree of a certain web service composition could be achieved. This paper tried to find a deterministic analytical method for dependability and performance measurement using Colored Petri net (CPN) with explicit routing constructs and application of theory of probability. A computer tool called WSET was also developed for modeling and supporting QoS measurement through simulation.

Ceria based inverse opals for thermochemical fuel production: Quantification and prediction of high temperature behavior

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Casillas, Danielle Courtney

Solar energy has the potential to supply more than enough energy to meet humanity's energy demands. Here, a method for thermochemical solar energy storage through fuel production is presented. A porous non-stoichiometric oxide, ceria, undergoes partial thermal reduction and oxidation with concentrated solar energy as a heat source, and water as an oxidant. The resulting yields for hydrogen fuel and oxygen are produced in two discrete steps, while the starting material maintains its original phase. Ordered porosity has been shown superior to random porosity for thermochemical fuel production applications, but stability limits for these structures are currently undefined. Ceria-based inverse opals are currently being investigated to assess the architectural influence on thermochemical hydrogen production. Low tortuosity and continuous interconnected pore network allow for facile gas transport and improved reaction kinetics. Ceria-based ordered materials have recently been shown to increase maximum hydrogen production over non-ordered porous ceria. Thermal stability of ordered porosity was quantified using quantitative image analysis. Fourier analysis was applied to SEM images of the material. The algorithm results in an order parameter gamma that describes the degree of long range order maintained by these structures, where gamma>4 signifies ordered porosity. According to this metric, a minimum zirconium content of 20 atomic percent (at%) is necessary for these architectures to survive aggressive annealing up to 1000°C. Zirconium substituted ceria (ZSC) with Zr loadings in excess of 20at% developed undesired tetragonal phases. Through gamma, we were able to find a balance between the benefit of zirconium additions on structural stability and its negative impact on phase. This work demonstrates the stability of seemingly delicate architectures, and the operational limit for ceria based inverse opals to be 1000°C for 1microm pore size. Inverse opals having sub-micron pores did not sustain ordered structures after heating, and those larger than 1microm had reinforced structural stability. Furthermore, this analysis was applied to materials which underwent isothermal hydrogen/water redox cycles. ZDC20 inverse opals having 300, 650 and 1000nm pore sizes maintained ordered porosity at 800°C, indicating a novel opportunity for use at higher temperatures. The mechanism of inverse opal degradation was investigated. Both in situ and ex situ electron microscopy studies were performed on inverse opals subjected to high temperatures. Coarsening by surface diffusion was found to be the dominant grain growth mechanism. The inverse opal grain growth mechanism was found to deviate from that of porous materials due to the high porosity and an upper limit to grain size caused by structural confinement. Furthermore, in situ experiments enabled correlation of nano-scale grain growth to micro-scale feature changes, resulting in an empirical relationship. Lastly, this dissertation presents an investigation of the effect of ordered porosity on hydrogen production rate and quantity. These results differ from those presented in literature, and an opportunity for further investigation is proposed.

User Needs of Digital Service Web Portals: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heo, Misook; Song, Jung-Sook; Seol, Moon-Won

2013-01-01

The authors examined the needs of digital information service web portal users. More specifically, the needs of Korean cultural portal users were examined as a case study. The conceptual framework of a web-based portal is that it is a complex, web-based service application with characteristics of information systems and service agents. In…

206Pb-230Th-234U-238U and 207Pb-235U geochronology of Quaternary opal, Yucca Mountain, Nevada

USGS Publications Warehouse

Neymark, Leonid A.; Amelin, Yuri V.; Paces, James B.

2000-01-01

U–Th–Pb isotopic systems have been studied in submillimeter-thick outermost layers of Quaternary opal occurring in calcite–silica fracture and cavity coatings within Tertiary tuffs at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA. These coatings preserve a record of paleohydrologic conditions at this site, which is being evaluated as a potential high-level nuclear waste repository. The opal precipitated from groundwater is variably enriched in 234U (measured 234U/238U activity ratio 1.124–6.179) and has high U (30–313 ppm), low Th (0.008–3.7 ppm), and low common Pb concentrations (measured 206Pb/204Pb up to 11,370). It has been demonstrated that the laboratory acid treatment used in this study to clean sample surfaces and to remove adherent calcite, did not disturb U–Th–Pb isotopic systems in opal. The opal ages calculated from 206Pb∗/238U and 207Pb∗/235U ratios display strong reverse discordance because of excess radiogenic 206Pb∗ derived from the elevated initial 234U. The data are best interpreted using projections of a new four-dimensional concordia diagram defined by 206Pb∗/238U, 207Pb∗/235U, 234U/238Uactivity, and 230Th/238Uactivity. Ages and initial 234U/238U activity ratios have been calculated using different projections of this diagram and tested for concordance. The data are discordant, that is observed 207Pb∗/235U ages of 170 ± 32 (2σ) to 1772 ± 40 ka are systematically older than 230Th/U ages of 34.1 ± 0.6 to 452 ± 32 ka. The age discordance is not a result of migration of uranium and its decay products under the open system conditions, but a consequence of noninstantaneous growth of opal. Combined U–Pb and 230Th/U ages support the model of slow mineral deposition at the rates of millimeters per million years resulting in layering on a scale too fine for mechanical sampling. In this case, U–Pb ages provide more accurate estimates of the average age for mixed multiage samples than 230Th/U ages, because ages based on shorter-lived isotopes are nonlinearly biased by younger mineral additions. Use of the combined U–Th–Pb technique to date Yucca Mountain Quaternary opals significantly extends the age range beyond that of the 230Th/U dating method and shows that selected fracture pathways in the unsaturated zone felsic tuffs of Yucca Mountain have been active throughout the Quaternary.

Improvements in the equation of state for the partially ionized plasmas of the solar interior

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Aihua

2005-11-01

The three major material properties relevant for solar and stellar modeling are the equation of state (EOS), opacity and the nuclear reaction rate. Due to the nature of the equations of stellar structure and evolution, in most parts of a stars interior, the three material properties are entangled, and it is difficult to use astrophysics to constrain a single one. Luckily, thanks to the adiabatic stratification of the convection zone, there the structure only depends on the EOS, which is therefore largely disentangled from the other quantities. Our research, which aims at constraining the EOS using information from the Sun, is therefore most successful when data from the convection zone are used. Among the many solar equations of state that are being currently used there are two popular ones: Mihalas-Däppen-Hummer (MHD) EOS and OPAL EOS. Helioseismic inversion procedures, which have become standard to evaluate the accuracy of different solar models with respect to the real Sun, have revealed that except for the top 2%, the OPAL EOS matches the solar observations better than the MHD EOS. For this reason we have set our research goal to find a modification of the MHD EOS that can, in a first step, simulate the OPAL EOS, and ultimately, the real Sun. This goal has been attained. By construction, the OPAL EOS contains higher order correlation terms which are missing in the MHD EOS. Through an inversion procedure from the activity series expansion (ACTEX), upon which the OPAL EOS is based to the free energy expression of the MHD EOS, we have found out that the free particle assumption, used in the original version of the MHD EOS has indeed to be abandoned. We show that the two-body scattering terms of the Coulomb interaction, as well as electron degeneracy play a significant role in the difference between the original version of the MHD and OPAL EOS. During our interdisciplinary investigation, aiming at seeking an improved MHD EOS under the guidance of the OPAL EOS, we have performed a thorough systematic theoretical and numerical analysis, particularly on applicability of the static screened Coulomb potential (SSCP) as an intra-atomic potential and the physical meaning of the Planck-Larkin partition function (PLPF). We thereby clarified some misunderstandings and confusions. In particular, we have addressed the density dependence of the Planck-Larkin partition function, an issue that has been debated for more than 30 years.

Compression-based aggregation model for medical web services.

PubMed

Al-Shammary, Dhiah; Khalil, Ibrahim

2010-01-01

Many organizations such as hospitals have adopted Cloud Web services in applying their network services to avoid investing heavily computing infrastructure. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is the basic communication protocol of Cloud Web services that is XML based protocol. Generally,Web services often suffer congestions and bottlenecks as a result of the high network traffic that is caused by the large XML overhead size. At the same time, the massive load on Cloud Web services in terms of the large demand of client requests has resulted in the same problem. In this paper, two XML-aware aggregation techniques that are based on exploiting the compression concepts are proposed in order to aggregate the medical Web messages and achieve higher message size reduction.

A snapshot of 3649 Web-based services published between 1994 and 2017 shows a decrease in availability after 2 years.

PubMed

Osz, Ágnes; Pongor, Lorinc Sándor; Szirmai, Danuta; Gyorffy, Balázs

2017-12-08

The long-term availability of online Web services is of utmost importance to ensure reproducibility of analytical results. However, because of lack of maintenance following acceptance, many servers become unavailable after a short period of time. Our aim was to monitor the accessibility and the decay rate of published Web services as well as to determine the factors underlying trends changes. We searched PubMed to identify publications containing Web server-related terms published between 1994 and 2017. Automatic and manual screening was used to check the status of each Web service. Kruskall-Wallis, Mann-Whitney and Chi-square tests were used to evaluate various parameters, including availability, accessibility, platform, origin of authors, citation, journal impact factor and publication year. We identified 3649 publications in 375 journals of which 2522 (69%) were currently active. Over 95% of sites were running in the first 2 years, but this rate dropped to 84% in the third year and gradually sank afterwards (P < 1e-16). The mean half-life of Web services is 10.39 years. Working Web services were published in journals with higher impact factors (P = 4.8e-04). Services published before the year 2000 received minimal attention. The citation of offline services was less than for those online (P = 0.022). The majority of Web services provide analytical tools, and the proportion of databases is slowly decreasing. Conclusions. Almost one-third of Web services published to date went out of service. We recommend continued support of Web-based services to increase the reproducibility of published results. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

Analysis Tool Web Services from the EMBL-EBI.

PubMed

McWilliam, Hamish; Li, Weizhong; Uludag, Mahmut; Squizzato, Silvano; Park, Young Mi; Buso, Nicola; Cowley, Andrew Peter; Lopez, Rodrigo

2013-07-01

Since 2004 the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) has provided access to a wide range of databases and analysis tools via Web Services interfaces. This comprises services to search across the databases available from the EMBL-EBI and to explore the network of cross-references present in the data (e.g. EB-eye), services to retrieve entry data in various data formats and to access the data in specific fields (e.g. dbfetch), and analysis tool services, for example, sequence similarity search (e.g. FASTA and NCBI BLAST), multiple sequence alignment (e.g. Clustal Omega and MUSCLE), pairwise sequence alignment and protein functional analysis (e.g. InterProScan and Phobius). The REST/SOAP Web Services (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/webservices/) interfaces to these databases and tools allow their integration into other tools, applications, web sites, pipeline processes and analytical workflows. To get users started using the Web Services, sample clients are provided covering a range of programming languages and popular Web Service tool kits, and a brief guide to Web Services technologies, including a set of tutorials, is available for those wishing to learn more and develop their own clients. Users of the Web Services are informed of improvements and updates via a range of methods.

Analysis Tool Web Services from the EMBL-EBI

PubMed Central

McWilliam, Hamish; Li, Weizhong; Uludag, Mahmut; Squizzato, Silvano; Park, Young Mi; Buso, Nicola; Cowley, Andrew Peter; Lopez, Rodrigo

2013-01-01

Since 2004 the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) has provided access to a wide range of databases and analysis tools via Web Services interfaces. This comprises services to search across the databases available from the EMBL-EBI and to explore the network of cross-references present in the data (e.g. EB-eye), services to retrieve entry data in various data formats and to access the data in specific fields (e.g. dbfetch), and analysis tool services, for example, sequence similarity search (e.g. FASTA and NCBI BLAST), multiple sequence alignment (e.g. Clustal Omega and MUSCLE), pairwise sequence alignment and protein functional analysis (e.g. InterProScan and Phobius). The REST/SOAP Web Services (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/webservices/) interfaces to these databases and tools allow their integration into other tools, applications, web sites, pipeline processes and analytical workflows. To get users started using the Web Services, sample clients are provided covering a range of programming languages and popular Web Service tool kits, and a brief guide to Web Services technologies, including a set of tutorials, is available for those wishing to learn more and develop their own clients. Users of the Web Services are informed of improvements and updates via a range of methods. PMID:23671338

Biological Web Service Repositories Review.

PubMed

Urdidiales-Nieto, David; Navas-Delgado, Ismael; Aldana-Montes, José F

2017-05-01

Web services play a key role in bioinformatics enabling the integration of database access and analysis of algorithms. However, Web service repositories do not usually publish information on the changes made to their registered Web services. Dynamism is directly related to the changes in the repositories (services registered or unregistered) and at service level (annotation changes). Thus, users, software clients or workflow based approaches lack enough relevant information to decide when they should review or re-execute a Web service or workflow to get updated or improved results. The dynamism of the repository could be a measure for workflow developers to re-check service availability and annotation changes in the services of interest to them. This paper presents a review on the most well-known Web service repositories in the life sciences including an analysis of their dynamism. Freshness is introduced in this paper, and has been used as the measure for the dynamism of these repositories. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

The value of Web-based library services at Cedars-Sinai Health System.

PubMed

Halub, L P

1999-07-01

Cedars-Sinai Medical Library/Information Center has maintained Web-based services since 1995 on the Cedars-Sinai Health System network. In that time, the librarians have found the provision of Web-based services to be a very worthwhile endeavor. Library users value the services that they access from their desktops because the services save time. They also appreciate being able to access services at their convenience, without restriction by the library's hours of operation. The library values its Web site because it brings increased visibility within the health system, and it enables library staff to expand services when budget restrictions have forced reduced hours of operation. In creating and maintaining the information center Web site, the librarians have learned the following lessons: consider the design carefully; offer what services you can, but weigh the advantages of providing the services against the time required to maintain them; make the content as accessible as possible; promote your Web site; and make friends in other departments, especially information services.

The value of Web-based library services at Cedars-Sinai Health System.

PubMed Central

Halub, L P

1999-01-01

Cedars-Sinai Medical Library/Information Center has maintained Web-based services since 1995 on the Cedars-Sinai Health System network. In that time, the librarians have found the provision of Web-based services to be a very worthwhile endeavor. Library users value the services that they access from their desktops because the services save time. They also appreciate being able to access services at their convenience, without restriction by the library's hours of operation. The library values its Web site because it brings increased visibility within the health system, and it enables library staff to expand services when budget restrictions have forced reduced hours of operation. In creating and maintaining the information center Web site, the librarians have learned the following lessons: consider the design carefully; offer what services you can, but weigh the advantages of providing the services against the time required to maintain them; make the content as accessible as possible; promote your Web site; and make friends in other departments, especially information services. PMID:10427423

MedlinePlus Connect: How it Works

MedlinePlus

... it looks depends on how it is implemented. Web Application The Web application returns a formatted response ... for more examples of Web Application response pages. Web Service The MedlinePlus Connect REST-based Web service ...

Unifying Access to National Hydrologic Data Repositories via Web Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valentine, D. W.; Jennings, B.; Zaslavsky, I.; Maidment, D. R.

2006-12-01

The CUAHSI hydrologic information system (HIS) is designed to be a live, multiscale web portal system for accessing, querying, visualizing, and publishing distributed hydrologic observation data and models for any location or region in the United States. The HIS design follows the principles of open service oriented architecture, i.e. system components are represented as web services with well defined standard service APIs. WaterOneFlow web services are the main component of the design. The currently available services have been completely re-written compared to the previous version, and provide programmatic access to USGS NWIS. (steam flow, groundwater and water quality repositories), DAYMET daily observations, NASA MODIS, and Unidata NAM streams, with several additional web service wrappers being added (EPA STORET, NCDC and others.). Different repositories of hydrologic data use different vocabularies, and support different types of query access. Resolving semantic and structural heterogeneities across different hydrologic observation archives and distilling a generic set of service signatures is one of the main scalability challenges in this project, and a requirement in our web service design. To accomplish the uniformity of the web services API, data repositories are modeled following the CUAHSI Observation Data Model. The web service responses are document-based, and use an XML schema to express the semantics in a standard format. Access to station metadata is provided via web service methods, GetSites, GetSiteInfo and GetVariableInfo. The methdods form the foundation of CUAHSI HIS discovery interface and may execute over locally-stored metadata or request the information from remote repositories directly. Observation values are retrieved via a generic GetValues method which is executed against national data repositories. The service is implemented in ASP.Net, and other providers are implementing WaterOneFlow services in java. Reference implementation of WaterOneFlow web services is available. More information about the ongoing development of CUAHSI HIS is available from http://www.cuahsi.org/his/.

Potential Standards and Methods for the National Guard’s Homeland Response Force

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-09-01

rapidly determine a missile launch and probable impact area ( Opall -Rome, 2009). Since 2006, Color Red coverage has expanded throughout the country...Manportable Air Defense (MANPAD) systems, land mines , advanced communication systems, mortars, unmanned air systems (UAS), frequency-hopping...Consequence Management Response Force (CCMRF). Internal document. Opall -Rome, B. (2009, January19). In Israel: Anti-sniper gear spots rockets

DEMONSTRATING SLOW GROWTH RATES IN OPAL FROM Y.M.,NV, USING MICRODIGESTION AND ION-PROBE URANIUM-SERIES DATING

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

J. PACES; L. NEYMARK; H. PERSING

Thinly laminated (<0.01 mm) opal sheets and globules associated with calcite in fractures and cavities in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, have U concentrations of 50 to 300 ppm. Previous uranium-series thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) analyses of 0.2- to 1-mm-thick subsamples resulted in a model of slow mineral growth at rates of 0.5 to 5 mm/m.y. To test this growth model using finer sampling resolution, in situ microdigestions were performed by applying a drop of hydrofluoric acid directly to opal surfaces within a small area encircled by jeweler's wax. After several minutes, the liquid was removed, spikedmore » with a tracer solution, and analyzed by TIMS for both U and Th using a single rhenium filament with colloidal graphite. Solutions contained about 0.5 nanograms of U, equivalent to opal weights of 1 to 10 micrograms and dissolved-layer thicknesses less than 0.003 mm. Microdigested opal surfaces have Th-230/U ages of 5 to 10 thousand years (ka) in contrast to much older ages of 150 to 250 ka obtained previously from whole-globule digestions. Additional tests of the growth model were made on cross sections of identical opal globules using the sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) with a 0.04-mm-diameter O-minus primary beam. Counting rates for Tho-246 and U-234 varied between 5 and 70 counts per second with Th-230/Th-232 activity ratios typically much greater than a million. The Th-230/U ages in the outer 0.3 mm of the globules ranged from about 30 ka at the outer edge to 400 ka at depth. Ages correlate with microstratigraphic depths and indicate average growth rates between 0.5 and 0.7 mm/m.y. Current U-series data do not resolve differential growth rates related to climate changes during this time period. However, both microdigestion and SHRIMP results confirm the previous TIMS-based model of slow, uniform rates of mineral growth in a hydrologically stable environment.« less

Influence of persistent exchangeable oxygen on biogenic silica δ18O in deep sea cores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menicucci, A. J.; Spero, H. J.

2016-12-01

The removal of exchangeable oxygen from biogenic opal prior to IRMS analysis is critical during sample preparation. Exchangeable oxygen is found in the form of hydroxyl and between defects within the amorphous silicate lattice structure. Typical analytical procedures utilize a variety of dehydroxylation methods to eliminate this exchangeable oxygen, including vacuum dehydroxylation and prefluorination. Such methods are generally considered sufficient for elimination of non-lattice bound oxygen that would obfuscate environmental oxygen isotopic signals contained within the silicate tetrahedra. δ18O data that are then empirically calibrated against modern hydrographic data, and applied down core in paleoceanographic applications. We have conducted a suite of experiments on purified marine opal samples using the new microfluorination method (Menicucci et al., 2013). Our data demonstrate that the amount of exchangeable oxygen in biogenic opal decreases as sample age/depth in core increases. These changes are not accounted for by current researchers. Further, our experimental data indicate that vacuum dehydroxylation does not eliminate all exchangeable oxygen, even after hydroxyl is undetectable. We have conducted experiments to quantify the amount of time necessary to ensure vacuum dehydroxylation has eliminated exchangeable oxygen so that opal samples are stable prior to δ18Odiatom analysis. Our experiments suggest that previously generated opal δ18O data may contain a variable down-core offset due to the presence of exchangeable, non-lattice bound oxygen sources. Our experiments indicate that diatom silica requires dehydroxylation for ≥ 44 hours at 1060oC to quantitatively remove all non-lattice bound oxygen. Further, this variable amount of exchangeable oxygen may be responsible for some of the disagreement between existing empirical calibrations based on core-top diatom frustule remains. Analysis of δ18Odiatom values after this long vacuum dehydroxylation time is necessary for quantitative comparisons of stable isotopic values across geologic time periods. Menicucci, A. J., et al. (2013). "Oxygen isotope analyses of biogenic opal and quartz using a novel microfluorination technique." Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 27(16): 1873-1881

A Privacy Access Control Framework for Web Services Collaboration with Role Mechanisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Linyuan; Huang, Zhiqiu; Zhu, Haibin

With the popularity of Internet technology, web services are becoming the most promising paradigm for distributed computing. This increased use of web services has meant that more and more personal information of consumers is being shared with web service providers, leading to the need to guarantee the privacy of consumers. This paper proposes a role-based privacy access control framework for Web services collaboration, it utilizes roles to specify the privacy privileges of services, and considers the impact on the reputation degree of the historic experience of services in playing roles. Comparing to the traditional privacy access control approaches, this framework can make the fine-grained authorization decision, thus efficiently protecting consumers' privacy.

SIDECACHE: Information access, management and dissemination framework for web services.

PubMed

Doderer, Mark S; Burkhardt, Cory; Robbins, Kay A

2011-06-14

Many bioinformatics algorithms and data sets are deployed using web services so that the results can be explored via the Internet and easily integrated into other tools and services. These services often include data from other sites that is accessed either dynamically or through file downloads. Developers of these services face several problems because of the dynamic nature of the information from the upstream services. Many publicly available repositories of bioinformatics data frequently update their information. When such an update occurs, the developers of the downstream service may also need to update. For file downloads, this process is typically performed manually followed by web service restart. Requests for information obtained by dynamic access of upstream sources is sometimes subject to rate restrictions. SideCache provides a framework for deploying web services that integrate information extracted from other databases and from web sources that are periodically updated. This situation occurs frequently in biotechnology where new information is being continuously generated and the latest information is important. SideCache provides several types of services including proxy access and rate control, local caching, and automatic web service updating. We have used the SideCache framework to automate the deployment and updating of a number of bioinformatics web services and tools that extract information from remote primary sources such as NCBI, NCIBI, and Ensembl. The SideCache framework also has been used to share research results through the use of a SideCache derived web service.

Design for Connecting Spatial Data Infrastructures with Sensor Web (sensdi)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhattacharya, D.; M., M.

2016-06-01

Integrating Sensor Web With Spatial Data Infrastructures (SENSDI) aims to extend SDIs with sensor web enablement, converging geospatial and built infrastructure, and implement test cases with sensor data and SDI. It is about research to harness the sensed environment by utilizing domain specific sensor data to create a generalized sensor webframework. The challenges being semantic enablement for Spatial Data Infrastructures, and connecting the interfaces of SDI with interfaces of Sensor Web. The proposed research plan is to Identify sensor data sources, Setup an open source SDI, Match the APIs and functions between Sensor Web and SDI, and Case studies like hazard applications, urban applications etc. We take up co-operative development of SDI best practices to enable a new realm of a location enabled and semantically enriched World Wide Web - the "Geospatial Web" or "Geosemantic Web" by setting up one to one correspondence between WMS, WFS, WCS, Metadata and 'Sensor Observation Service' (SOS); 'Sensor Planning Service' (SPS); 'Sensor Alert Service' (SAS); a service that facilitates asynchronous message interchange between users and services, and between two OGC-SWE services, called the 'Web Notification Service' (WNS). Hence in conclusion, it is of importance to geospatial studies to integrate SDI with Sensor Web. The integration can be done through merging the common OGC interfaces of SDI and Sensor Web. Multi-usability studies to validate integration has to be undertaken as future research.

Description and testing of the Geo Data Portal: Data integration framework and Web processing services for environmental science collaboration

USGS Publications Warehouse

Blodgett, David L.; Booth, Nathaniel L.; Kunicki, Thomas C.; Walker, Jordan I.; Viger, Roland J.

2011-01-01

Interest in sharing interdisciplinary environmental modeling results and related data is increasing among scientists. The U.S. Geological Survey Geo Data Portal project enables data sharing by assembling open-standard Web services into an integrated data retrieval and analysis Web application design methodology that streamlines time-consuming and resource-intensive data management tasks. Data-serving Web services allow Web-based processing services to access Internet-available data sources. The Web processing services developed for the project create commonly needed derivatives of data in numerous formats. Coordinate reference system manipulation and spatial statistics calculation components implemented for the Web processing services were confirmed using ArcGIS 9.3.1, a geographic information science software package. Outcomes of the Geo Data Portal project support the rapid development of user interfaces for accessing and manipulating environmental data.

Dynamic Generation of Reduced Ontologies to Support Resource Constraints of Mobile Devices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schrimpsher, Dan

2011-01-01

As Web Services and the Semantic Web become more important, enabling technologies such as web service ontologies will grow larger. At the same time, use of mobile devices to access web services has doubled in the last year. The ability of these resource constrained devices to download and reason across these ontologies to support service discovery…

A Smart Modeling Framework for Integrating BMI-enabled Models as Web Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, P.; Elag, M.; Kumar, P.; Peckham, S. D.; Liu, R.; Marini, L.; Hsu, L.

2015-12-01

Serviced-oriented computing provides an opportunity to couple web service models using semantic web technology. Through this approach, models that are exposed as web services can be conserved in their own local environment, thus making it easy for modelers to maintain and update the models. In integrated modeling, the serviced-oriented loose-coupling approach requires (1) a set of models as web services, (2) the model metadata describing the external features of a model (e.g., variable name, unit, computational grid, etc.) and (3) a model integration framework. We present the architecture of coupling web service models that are self-describing by utilizing a smart modeling framework. We expose models that are encapsulated with CSDMS (Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System) Basic Model Interfaces (BMI) as web services. The BMI-enabled models are self-describing by uncovering models' metadata through BMI functions. After a BMI-enabled model is serviced, a client can initialize, execute and retrieve the meta-information of the model by calling its BMI functions over the web. Furthermore, a revised version of EMELI (Peckham, 2015), an Experimental Modeling Environment for Linking and Interoperability, is chosen as the framework for coupling BMI-enabled web service models. EMELI allows users to combine a set of component models into a complex model by standardizing model interface using BMI as well as providing a set of utilities smoothing the integration process (e.g., temporal interpolation). We modify the original EMELI so that the revised modeling framework is able to initialize, execute and find the dependencies of the BMI-enabled web service models. By using the revised EMELI, an example will be presented on integrating a set of topoflow model components that are BMI-enabled and exposed as web services. Reference: Peckham, S.D. (2014) EMELI 1.0: An experimental smart modeling framework for automatic coupling of self-describing models, Proceedings of HIC 2014, 11th International Conf. on Hydroinformatics, New York, NY.

The rheology and processing of “edge sheared” colloidal polymer opals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wong, Hon Sum; Mackley, Malcolm, E-mail: mrm5@cam.ac.uk; Butler, Simon

This paper is concerned with the rheology and processing of solvent-free core shell “polymer opals” that consist of a soft outer shell grafted to hard colloidal polymer core particles. Strong iridescent colors can be produced by shearing the material in a certain way that causes the initially disordered spheres to rearrange into ordered crystalline structures and produce colors by diffraction and interference of multiple light scattering, similar to gemstone opals. The basic linear viscoelastic rheology of a polymer opal sample was determined as a function of temperature, and the material was found to be highly viscoelastic at all tested temperatures.more » A Cambridge multipass rheometer was specifically modified in order to make controlled mechanical measurements of initially disordered polymer opal tapes that were sandwiched between protective polyethylene terephthalate sheets. Axial extension, simple shear, and a novel “edge shearing” geometry were all evaluated, and multiple successive experiments of the edge shearing test were carried out at different temperatures. The optical development of colloidal ordering, measured as optical opalescence, was quantified by spectroscopy using visible backscattered light. The development of opalescence was found to be sensitive to the geometry of deformation and a number of process variables suggesting a complex interaction of parameters that caused the opalescence. In order to identify aspects of the deformation mechanism of the edge shearing experiment, a separate series of in situ optical experiments were carried out and this helped indicate the extent of simple shear generated with each edge shear deformation. The results show that strong ordering can be induced by successive edge shearing deformation. The results are relevant to polymer opal rheology, processing, and mechanisms relating to ordering within complex viscoelastic fluids.« less

Initiating and continuing participation in citizen science for natural history.

PubMed

Everett, Glyn; Geoghegan, Hilary

2016-07-22

Natural history has a long tradition in the UK, dating back to before Charles Darwin. Developing from a principally amateur pursuit, natural history continues to attract both amateur and professional involvement. Within the context of citizen science and public engagement, we examine the motivations behind citizen participation in the national survey activities of the Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) programme, looking at: people's experiences of the surveys as 'project-based leisure'; their motivations for taking part and barriers to continued participation; where they feature on our continuum of engagement; and whether participation in an OPAL survey facilitated their movement between categories along this continuum. The paper focuses on a less-expected but very significant outcome regarding the participation of already-engaged amateur naturalists in citizen science. Our main findings relate to: first, how committed amateur naturalists (already-engaged) have also enjoyed contributing to OPAL and the need to respect and work with their interest to encourage broader and deeper involvement; and second, how new (previously-unengaged) and relatively new participants (casually-engaged) have gained confidence, renewed their interests, refocussed their activities and/or gained validation from participation in OPAL. Overall, we argue that engagement with and enthusiasm for the scientific process is a motivation shared by citizens who, prior to participating in the OPAL surveys, were previously-unengaged, casually-engaged or already-engaged in natural history activities. Citizen science has largely been written about by professional scientists for professional scientists interested in developing a project of their own. This study offers a qualitative example of how citizen science can be meaningful to participants beyond what might appear to be a public engagement data collection exercise.

Mixing of biogenic siliceous and terrigenous clastic sediments: South Belridge field and Beta field, California

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schwartz, D.E.

1990-05-01

The intermixing and interbedding of biogenically derived siliceous sediment with terrigenous clastic sediment in reservoirs of upper Miocene age provides both reservoir rock and seal and influences productivity by affecting porosity and permeability. Miocene reservoirs commonly contain either biogenic-dominated cyclic diatomite, porcelanite, or chert (classic Monterey Formation) or clastic-dominated submarine fan sequences with interbedded or intermixed siliceous members of biogenic origin. Biogenic-clastic cycles, 30-180 ft thick, at South Belridge field were formed by episodic influx of clastic sediment from distant submarine fans mixing with slowly accumulating diatomaceous ooze. The cycles consist of basal silt and pelletized massive diatomaceous mudstone, overlainmore » by burrowed, faintly bedded clayey diatomite and topped by laminated diatomite. Cycle tops have higher porosity and permeability, lower grain density, and higher oil saturation than clay and silt-rich portions of the cycles. Submarine fan sediments forming reservoirs at the Beta field are comprised of interbedded sands and silts deposited in a channelized middle fan to outer fan setting. Individual turbidites display fining-upward sequences, with oil-bearing sands capped by wet micaceous silts. Average sands are moderately to poorly sorted, fine- to medium-grained arkosic arenites. Sands contain pore-filling carbonate and porcelaneous cements. Porcelaneous cement consists of a mixture of opal-A, opal-CT, and chert with montmorillonite and minor zeolite. This cement is an authigenic material precipitated in intergranular pore space. The origin of the opal is biogenic, with recrystallization of diatom frustules (opal-A) into opal-CT lepispheres and quartz crystals. Porcelaneous cement comprises 4-21% of the bulk volume of the rock. Seventy percent of the bulk volume of the cement is micropore space.« less

Optical Profiling of the Atmospheric Limb CubeSat Experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeppesen, M.; Taylor, M. J.; Swenson, C.; Marchant, A.

2014-12-01

The Earth's lower thermosphere is an important interface region between the neutral atmosphere and the "space weather" environment. While the high-latitude region of the thermosphere responds promptly to energy inputs, relatively little is known about the global/regional response to these energy inputs. Global temperatures are predicted to respond within 3-6 hours, but the details of the thermal response of the atmosphere as energy transports away from high-latitude source regions is not well understood. The Optical Profiling of the Atmospheric Limb (OPAL) mission aims to characterize this thermal response through observation of the temperature structure of the lower thermosphere at mid- and low-latitudes. The OPAL instrument is designed to map global thermospheric temperature variability over the critical "thermospheric gap" region (~100-140 km altitude) by spectroscopic analysis of molecular oxygen A-band emission (758 - 768 nm). The OPAL instrument is a grating-based imaging spectrometer with refractive optics and a high-efficiency volume holographic grating (VHG). The scene is sampled by 7 parallel slits that form non-overlapping spectral profiles at the focal plane with resolution of 0.5 nm (spectral), 1.5 km (limb profiling), and 60 km (horizontal sampling). A CCD camera at the instrument focal plane delivers low noise and high sensitivity. The instrument is designed to strongly reject stray light from daylight regions of the earth. The OPAL mission is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) CubeSat-based Science Missions for Geospace and Atmospheric Research program. The OPAL instrument and mission will be designed, built and executed by a team comprised of students and professors from Utah State University, Dixie State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, with support from professional scientists and engineers from the Space Dynamics Laboratory and Hawk Institute for Space Science.

Managing the Web-Enhanced Geographic Information Service.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephens, Denise

1997-01-01

Examines key management issues involved in delivering geographic information services on the World Wide Web, using the Geographic Information Center (GIC) program at the University of Virginia Library as a reference. Highlights include integrating the Web into services; building collections for Web delivery; and evaluating spatial information…

Automated geospatial Web Services composition based on geodata quality requirements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cruz, Sérgio A. B.; Monteiro, Antonio M. V.; Santos, Rafael

2012-10-01

Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services technologies improve the performance of activities involved in geospatial analysis with a distributed computing architecture. However, the design of the geospatial analysis process on this platform, by combining component Web Services, presents some open issues. The automated construction of these compositions represents an important research topic. Some approaches to solving this problem are based on AI planning methods coupled with semantic service descriptions. This work presents a new approach using AI planning methods to improve the robustness of the produced geospatial Web Services composition. For this purpose, we use semantic descriptions of geospatial data quality requirements in a rule-based form. These rules allow the semantic annotation of geospatial data and, coupled with the conditional planning method, this approach represents more precisely the situations of nonconformities with geodata quality that may occur during the execution of the Web Service composition. The service compositions produced by this method are more robust, thus improving process reliability when working with a composition of chained geospatial Web Services.

BioCatalogue: a universal catalogue of web services for the life sciences

PubMed Central

Bhagat, Jiten; Tanoh, Franck; Nzuobontane, Eric; Laurent, Thomas; Orlowski, Jerzy; Roos, Marco; Wolstencroft, Katy; Aleksejevs, Sergejs; Stevens, Robert; Pettifer, Steve; Lopez, Rodrigo; Goble, Carole A.

2010-01-01

The use of Web Services to enable programmatic access to on-line bioinformatics is becoming increasingly important in the Life Sciences. However, their number, distribution and the variable quality of their documentation can make their discovery and subsequent use difficult. A Web Services registry with information on available services will help to bring together service providers and their users. The BioCatalogue (http://www.biocatalogue.org/) provides a common interface for registering, browsing and annotating Web Services to the Life Science community. Services in the BioCatalogue can be described and searched in multiple ways based upon their technical types, bioinformatics categories, user tags, service providers or data inputs and outputs. They are also subject to constant monitoring, allowing the identification of service problems and changes and the filtering-out of unavailable or unreliable resources. The system is accessible via a human-readable ‘Web 2.0’-style interface and a programmatic Web Service interface. The BioCatalogue follows a community approach in which all services can be registered, browsed and incrementally documented with annotations by any member of the scientific community. PMID:20484378

BioCatalogue: a universal catalogue of web services for the life sciences.

PubMed

Bhagat, Jiten; Tanoh, Franck; Nzuobontane, Eric; Laurent, Thomas; Orlowski, Jerzy; Roos, Marco; Wolstencroft, Katy; Aleksejevs, Sergejs; Stevens, Robert; Pettifer, Steve; Lopez, Rodrigo; Goble, Carole A

2010-07-01

The use of Web Services to enable programmatic access to on-line bioinformatics is becoming increasingly important in the Life Sciences. However, their number, distribution and the variable quality of their documentation can make their discovery and subsequent use difficult. A Web Services registry with information on available services will help to bring together service providers and their users. The BioCatalogue (http://www.biocatalogue.org/) provides a common interface for registering, browsing and annotating Web Services to the Life Science community. Services in the BioCatalogue can be described and searched in multiple ways based upon their technical types, bioinformatics categories, user tags, service providers or data inputs and outputs. They are also subject to constant monitoring, allowing the identification of service problems and changes and the filtering-out of unavailable or unreliable resources. The system is accessible via a human-readable 'Web 2.0'-style interface and a programmatic Web Service interface. The BioCatalogue follows a community approach in which all services can be registered, browsed and incrementally documented with annotations by any member of the scientific community.

Customer Decision Making in Web Services with an Integrated P6 Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Zhaohao; Sun, Junqing; Meredith, Grant

Customer decision making (CDM) is an indispensable factor for web services. This article examines CDM in web services with a novel P6 model, which consists of the 6 Ps: privacy, perception, propensity, preference, personalization and promised experience. This model integrates the existing 6 P elements of marketing mix as the system environment of CDM in web services. The new integrated P6 model deals with the inner world of the customer and incorporates what the customer think during the DM process. The proposed approach will facilitate the research and development of web services and decision support systems.

Confined stimuli-responsive polymer gel in inverse opal polymer membrane for colorimetric glucose sensor.

PubMed

Honda, Masaki; Kataoka, Kazunori; Seki, Takahiro; Takeoka, Yukikazu

2009-07-21

We developed a totally synthetic colorimetric glucose-sensing system that is composed of glucose-responsive hydrogel particles confined in an inverse opal polymer membrane. This system exhibits structural color on the basis of Bragg diffraction arising from the 3-D ordered structure with periodicity on the order of the wavelength of visible light. The volume of the hydrogel particles reversibly changes as the glucose concentration varies in the separated pores of the inverse opal polymer membrane; this system reveals a reversible change in the color appearance and the peak intensity of the reflection spectra with the variation in the glucose concentration. By careful design of the system, we can detect the important range of glucose concentration around the threshold value for diagnosing diabetes mellitus by using the colorimetric glucose-sensing system.

Ubiquitous Computing Services Discovery and Execution Using a Novel Intelligent Web Services Algorithm

PubMed Central

Choi, Okkyung; Han, SangYong

2007-01-01

Ubiquitous Computing makes it possible to determine in real time the location and situations of service requesters in a web service environment as it enables access to computers at any time and in any place. Though research on various aspects of ubiquitous commerce is progressing at enterprises and research centers, both domestically and overseas, analysis of a customer's personal preferences based on semantic web and rule based services using semantics is not currently being conducted. This paper proposes a Ubiquitous Computing Services System that enables a rule based search as well as semantics based search to support the fact that the electronic space and the physical space can be combined into one and the real time search for web services and the construction of efficient web services thus become possible.

Some Programs Should Not Run on Laptops - Providing Programmatic Access to Applications Via Web Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, V.; Gupta, N.; Gupta, S.; Field, E.; Maechling, P.

2003-12-01

Modern laptop computers, and personal computers, can provide capabilities that are, in many ways, comparable to workstations or departmental servers. However, this doesn't mean we should run all computations on our local computers. We have identified several situations in which it preferable to implement our seismological application programs in a distributed, server-based, computing model. In this model, application programs on the user's laptop, or local computer, invoke programs that run on an organizational server, and the results are returned to the invoking system. Situations in which a server-based architecture may be preferred include: (a) a program is written in a language, or written for an operating environment, that is unsupported on the local computer, (b) software libraries or utilities required to execute a program are not available on the users computer, (c) a computational program is physically too large, or computationally too expensive, to run on a users computer, (d) a user community wants to enforce a consistent method of performing a computation by standardizing on a single implementation of a program, and (e) the computational program may require current information, that is not available to all client computers. Until recently, distributed, server-based, computational capabilities were implemented using client/server architectures. In these architectures, client programs were often written in the same language, and they executed in the same computing environment, as the servers. Recently, a new distributed computational model, called Web Services, has been developed. Web Services are based on Internet standards such as XML, SOAP, WDSL, and UDDI. Web Services offer the promise of platform, and language, independent distributed computing. To investigate this new computational model, and to provide useful services to the SCEC Community, we have implemented several computational and utility programs using a Web Service architecture. We have hosted these Web Services as a part of the SCEC Community Modeling Environment (SCEC/CME) ITR Project (http://www.scec.org/cme). We have implemented Web Services for several of the reasons sited previously. For example, we implemented a FORTRAN-based Earthquake Rupture Forecast (ERF) as a Web Service for use by client computers that don't support a FORTRAN runtime environment. We implemented a Generic Mapping Tool (GMT) Web Service for use by systems that don't have local access to GMT. We implemented a Hazard Map Calculator Web Service to execute Hazard calculations that are too computationally intensive to run on a local system. We implemented a Coordinate Conversion Web Service to enforce a standard and consistent method for converting between UTM and Lat/Lon. Our experience developing these services indicates both strengths and weakness in current Web Service technology. Client programs that utilize Web Services typically need network access, a significant disadvantage at times. Programs with simple input and output parameters were the easiest to implement as Web Services, while programs with complex parameter-types required a significant amount of additional development. We also noted that Web services are very data-oriented, and adapting object-oriented software into the Web Service model proved problematic. Also, the Web Service approach of converting data types into XML format for network transmission has significant inefficiencies for some data sets.

The Organizational Role of Web Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitchell, Erik

2011-01-01

The workload of Web librarians is already split between Web-related and other library tasks. But today's technological environment has created new implications for existing services and new demands for staff time. It is time to reconsider how libraries can best allocate resources to provide effective Web services. Delivering high-quality services…

78 FR 60303 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Online Survey of Web Services Employers; New...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-01

...-NEW] Agency Information Collection Activities: Online Survey of Web Services Employers; New... Web site at http://www.Regulations.gov under e-Docket ID number USCIS-2013- 0003. When submitting... information collection. (2) Title of the Form/Collection: Online Survey of Web Services Employers. (3) Agency...

78 FR 42537 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Online Survey of Web Services Employers; New...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-16

...-NEW] Agency Information Collection Activities: Online Survey of Web Services Employers; New... Information Collection: New information collection. (2) Title of the Form/Collection: Online Survey of Web... sector. It is necessary that USCIS obtains data on the E-Verify Program Web Services. Gaining an...

Protecting Database Centric Web Services against SQL/XPath Injection Attacks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laranjeiro, Nuno; Vieira, Marco; Madeira, Henrique

Web services represent a powerful interface for back-end database systems and are increasingly being used in business critical applications. However, field studies show that a large number of web services are deployed with security flaws (e.g., having SQL Injection vulnerabilities). Although several techniques for the identification of security vulnerabilities have been proposed, developing non-vulnerable web services is still a difficult task. In fact, security-related concerns are hard to apply as they involve adding complexity to already complex code. This paper proposes an approach to secure web services against SQL and XPath Injection attacks, by transparently detecting and aborting service invocations that try to take advantage of potential vulnerabilities. Our mechanism was applied to secure several web services specified by the TPC-App benchmark, showing to be 100% effective in stopping attacks, non-intrusive and very easy to use.

A Web service substitution method based on service cluster nets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, YuYue; Gai, JunJing; Zhou, MengChu

2017-11-01

Service substitution is an important research topic in the fields of Web services and service-oriented computing. This work presents a novel method to analyse and substitute Web services. A new concept, called a Service Cluster Net Unit, is proposed based on Web service clusters. A service cluster is converted into a Service Cluster Net Unit. Then it is used to analyse whether the services in the cluster can satisfy some service requests. Meanwhile, the substitution methods of an atomic service and a composite service are proposed. The correctness of the proposed method is proved, and the effectiveness is shown and compared with the state-of-the-art method via an experiment. It can be readily applied to e-commerce service substitution to meet the business automation needs.

Paradigms for Tropical-Cyclone Intensification

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-01

Hurricane Opal (1995) using the Geo- physical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory hurricane prediction model, Möller and Shapiro (2002) found unbalanced flow...al. (2008) calculations on an f -plane, described in section 6.1. A specific aim was to deter- mine the separate contributions of diabatic heating and... Opal as diagnosed from a GFDL model forecast. Mon. Wea. Rev., 130, 1866-1881. Marks FD Shay LK. 1998: Landfalling tropical cyclones: Forecast

Results from {gamma}{gamma} collisions in OPAL

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Patt, Jochen

The production of charged hadrons and jets is measured in collisions of quasi-real photons. The data were taken with the OPAL detector at LEP at e{sup +}e{sup -} centre-of-mass energies {radical}(s{sub ee})=161 and 172 GeV. The measured cross-sections are compared to perturbative next-to-leading order QCD calculations. The separation of the direct and the resolved component of the photon is demonstrated.

Energy transfer and visible-infrared quantum cutting photoluminescence modification in Tm-Yb codoped YPO(4) inverse opal photonic crystals.

PubMed

Wang, Siqin; Qiu, Jianbei; Wang, Qi; Zhou, Dacheng; Yang, Zhengwen

2015-08-01

YPO₄:  Tm, Yb inverse opal photonic crystals were successfully synthesized by the colloidal crystal templates method, and the visible-infrared quantum cutting (QC) photoluminescence properties of YPO₄:  Tm, Yb inverse opal photonic crystals were investigated. We obtained tetragonal phase YPO₄ in all the samples when the samples sintered at 950°C for 5 h. The visible emission intensity of Tm³⁺ decreased significantly when the photonic bandgap was located at 650 nm under 480 nm excitation. On the contrary, the QC emission intensity of Yb³⁺ was enhanced as compared with the no photonic bandgap sample. When the photonic bandgap was located at 480 nm, the Yb³⁺ and Tm³⁺ light-emitting intensity weakened at the same time. We demonstrated that the energy transfer between Tm³⁺ and Yb³⁺ is enhanced by the suppression of the red emission of Tm³⁺. Additionally, the mechanisms for the influence of the photonic bandgap on the energy transfer process of the Tm³⁺, Yb³⁺ codoped YPO₄ inverse opal are discussed.

Preparation and drug release properties of chitosan/organomodified palygorskite microspheres.

PubMed

Wu, Jie; Ding, Shijie; Chen, Jing; Zhou, Suqin; Ding, Hongyan

2014-07-01

The novel composite microspheres, based on the hybridization of chitosan (CS) and organomodified palygorskite (OPAL), were prepared by emulsion cross-linking technique and applied as a drug carrier. Palygorskite, a kind of natural one-dimensional clay, was modified with hexadecyl betaine (BS-16) to improve the compatibility and affinity with chitosan matrix, and worked as a perfect micron-filler to enhance drug encapsulation and retard drug migration. The structure of the microspheres was characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The swelling behavior of the microspheres and the effect of the amount of OPAL and BS-16 on the properties of the drug loading and releasing have been investigated. Compared to the pure chitosan microspheres (CM), the composite one with 20wt% OPAL modified by 20mmol/100g BS-16 possessed the higher encapsulation efficiency and the slower and continuous cumulative release for diclofenac sodium (DS) in phosphate buffer solution (pH 6.8). The study of drug release kinetics in vitro found that the drug release mechanism of the microspheres changed from the simple diffusion-control to diffusion and dissolution-control as the OPAL content in matrix increased from 0 to 20wt%. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Extreme Soft Limit Observation of Quantum Hall Effect in a 3-d Semiconductor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bleiweiss, Michael; Yin, Ming; Amirzadeh, Jafar; Preston, Harry; Datta, Timir

2004-03-01

We report on the evidence for quantum hall effect at 38K and in magnetic fields (B) as low as 1k-Orsted. Our specimens were semiconducting, carbon replica opal (CRO) structures. CRO are three dimensional bulk systems where the carbon is grown by CVD into the porous regions in artificial silica opals. The carbon forms layers on top of the silica spheres as eggshells. The shells are of uneven thickness and are perforated at the contacts points of the opal spheres and form a closed packed, three dimensional crystal structure. Plateaus in inverse R_xy that are conjugated with well-defined Subnikov-deHass modulations in R_xx were observed. The quantum steps that are particularly prominent were the states with fill factors v = p/q (p,q are integers) were the well know fractions, 1/3, 1/2, 3/5, 1 and 5/2. QHE steps indicate that the carriers are localized in two-dimensional regions, which may be due to the extremely large surface to volume ratio associated with replica opal structure. From the B-1 vs v straight line, the effective surface carrier density, ns = 2.2 x 10^14 m-2. To the best of our knowledge, the current work is the first to report fractional quantum hall plateaus in a bulk system.

Hierarchical and Well-Ordered Porous Copper for Liquid Transport Properties Control.

PubMed

Pham, Quang N; Shao, Bowen; Kim, Yongsung; Won, Yoonjin

2018-05-09

Liquid delivery through interconnected pore network is essential for various interfacial transport applications ranging from energy storage to evaporative cooling. The liquid transport performance in porous media can be significantly improved through the use of hierarchical morphology that leverages transport phenomena at different length scales. Traditional surface engineering techniques using chemical or thermal reactions often show nonuniform surface nanostructuring within three-dimensional pore network due to uncontrollable diffusion and reactivity in geometrically complex porous structures. Here, we demonstrate hierarchical architectures on the basis of crystalline copper inverse opals using an electrochemistry approach, which offers volumetric controllability of structural and surface properties within the complex porous metal. The electrochemical process sequentially combines subtractive and additive steps-electrochemical polishing and electrochemical oxidation-to improve surface wetting properties without sacrificing structural permeability. We report the transport performance of the hierarchical inverse opals by measuring the capillary-driven liquid rise. The capillary performance parameter of hierarchically engineered inverse opal ( K/ R eff = ∼5 × 10 -3 μm) is shown to be higher than that of a typical crystalline inverse opal ( K/ R eff = ∼1 × 10 -3 μm) owing to the enhancement in fluid permeable and hydrophilic pathways. The new surface engineering method presented in this work provides a rational approach in designing hierarchical porous copper for transport performance enhancements.

Dynamic optical projection of acquired luminescence for aiding oncologic surgery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarder, Pinaki; Gullicksrud, Kyle; Mondal, Suman; Sudlow, Gail P.; Achilefu, Samuel; Akers, Walter J.

2013-12-01

Optical imaging enables real-time visualization of intrinsic and exogenous contrast within biological tissues. Applications in human medicine have demonstrated the power of fluorescence imaging to enhance visualization in dermatology, endoscopic procedures, and open surgery. Although few optical contrast agents are available for human medicine at this time, fluorescence imaging is proving to be a powerful tool in guiding medical procedures. Recently, intraoperative detection of fluorescent molecular probes that target cell-surface receptors has been reported for improvement in oncologic surgery in humans. We have developed a novel system, optical projection of acquired luminescence (OPAL), to further enhance real-time guidance of open oncologic surgery. In this method, collected fluorescence intensity maps are projected onto the imaged surface rather than via wall-mounted display monitor. To demonstrate proof-of-principle for OPAL applications in oncologic surgery, lymphatic transport of indocyanine green was visualized in live mice for intraoperative identification of sentinel lymph nodes. Subsequently, peritoneal tumors in a murine model of breast cancer metastasis were identified using OPAL after systemic administration of a tumor-selective fluorescent molecular probe. These initial results clearly show that OPAL can enhance adoption and ease-of-use of fluorescence imaging in oncologic procedures relative to existing state-of-the-art intraoperative imaging systems.

Characterization of the OPAL LiDAR under controlled obscurant conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Xiaoying; Church, Philip; Matheson, Justin

2016-05-01

Neptec Technologies' OPAL-120 3D LiDAR is optimized for obscurant penetration. The OPAL-120 uses a scanning mechanism based on the Risley prism pair. The scan patterns are created by rotating two prisms under independent motor control. The geometry and material properties of the prisms define the conical field-of-view of the sensor, which can be built to between 60 to 120 degrees. The OPAL-120 was recently evaluated using a controlled obscurant chamber capable of generating clouds of obscurants over a depth of 22m. Obscurants used in this investigation include: Arizona road dust, water fog, and fog-oil. The obscurant cloud optical densities were monitored with a transmissometer. Optical depths values ranged from an upper value of 6 and progressively decreased to 0. Targets were positioned at the back of the obscurant chamber at a distance of 60m from the LiDAR. The targets are made of a foreground array of equally spaced painted wood stripes in front of a solid background. Reflectivity contrasts were achieved with foreground/background combinations of white/white, white/black and black/white. Data analysis will be presented on the effect of optical densities on range and cross-range resolution, and accuracy. The analysis includes the combinations of all obscurant types and target reflectivity contrasts.

Web Services as Public Services: Are We Supporting Our Busiest Service Point?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riley-Huff, Debra A.

2009-01-01

This article is an analysis of academic library organizational culture, patterns, and processes as they relate to Web services. Data gathered in a research survey is examined in an attempt to reveal current departmental and administrative attitudes, practices, and support for Web services in the library research environment. (Contains 10 tables.)

Virtualization of open-source secure web services to support data exchange in a pediatric critical care research network

PubMed Central

Sward, Katherine A; Newth, Christopher JL; Khemani, Robinder G; Cryer, Martin E; Thelen, Julie L; Enriquez, Rene; Shaoyu, Su; Pollack, Murray M; Harrison, Rick E; Meert, Kathleen L; Berg, Robert A; Wessel, David L; Shanley, Thomas P; Dalton, Heidi; Carcillo, Joseph; Jenkins, Tammara L; Dean, J Michael

2015-01-01

Objectives To examine the feasibility of deploying a virtual web service for sharing data within a research network, and to evaluate the impact on data consistency and quality. Material and Methods Virtual machines (VMs) encapsulated an open-source, semantically and syntactically interoperable secure web service infrastructure along with a shadow database. The VMs were deployed to 8 Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network Clinical Centers. Results Virtual web services could be deployed in hours. The interoperability of the web services reduced format misalignment from 56% to 1% and demonstrated that 99% of the data consistently transferred using the data dictionary and 1% needed human curation. Conclusions Use of virtualized open-source secure web service technology could enable direct electronic abstraction of data from hospital databases for research purposes. PMID:25796596

An Architecture for Autonomic Web Service Process Planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, Colm; Xue Wang, Ming; Pahl, Claus

Web service composition is a technology that has received considerable attention in the last number of years. Languages and tools to aid in the process of creating composite Web services have been received specific attention. Web service composition is the process of linking single Web services together in order to accomplish more complex tasks. One area of Web service composition that has not received as much attention is the area of dynamic error handling and re-planning, enabling autonomic composition. Given a repository of service descriptions and a task to complete, it is possible for AI planners to automatically create a plan that will achieve this goal. If however a service in the plan is unavailable or erroneous the plan will fail. Motivated by this problem, this paper suggests autonomous re-planning as a means to overcome dynamic problems. Our solution involves automatically recovering from faults and creating a context-dependent alternate plan. We present an architecture that serves as a basis for the central activities autonomous composition, monitoring and fault handling.

Domain-specific Web Service Discovery with Service Class Descriptions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rocco, D; Caverlee, J; Liu, L

2005-02-14

This paper presents DynaBot, a domain-specific web service discovery system. The core idea of the DynaBot service discovery system is to use domain-specific service class descriptions powered by an intelligent Deep Web crawler. In contrast to current registry-based service discovery systems--like the several available UDDI registries--DynaBot promotes focused crawling of the Deep Web of services and discovers candidate services that are relevant to the domain of interest. It uses intelligent filtering algorithms to match services found by focused crawling with the domain-specific service class descriptions. We demonstrate the capability of DynaBot through the BLAST service discovery scenario and describe ourmore » initial experience with DynaBot.« less

Available, intuitive and free! Building e-learning modules using web 2.0 services.

PubMed

Tam, Chun Wah Michael; Eastwood, Anne

2012-01-01

E-learning is part of the mainstream in medical education and often provides the most efficient and effective means of engaging learners in a particular topic. However, translating design and content ideas into a useable product can be technically challenging, especially in the absence of information technology (IT) support. There is little published literature on the use of web 2.0 services to build e-learning activities. To describe the web 2.0 tools and solutions employed to build the GP Synergy evidence-based medicine and critical appraisal online course. We used and integrated a number of free web 2.0 services including: Prezi, a web-based presentation platform; YouTube, a video sharing service; Google Docs, a online document platform; Tiny.cc, a URL shortening service; and Wordpress, a blogging platform. The course consisting of five multimedia-rich, tutorial-like modules was built without IT specialist assistance or specialised software. The web 2.0 services used were free. The course can be accessed with a modern web browser. Modern web 2.0 services remove many of the technical barriers for creating and sharing content on the internet. When used synergistically, these services can be a flexible and low-cost platform for building e-learning activities. They were a pragmatic solution in our context.

76 FR 28439 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; NCI Cancer Genetics Services Directory Web-Based...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-17

...; Comment Request; NCI Cancer Genetics Services Directory Web-Based Application Form and Update Mailer... currently valid OMB control number. Proposed Collection: Title: NCI Cancer Genetics Services Directory Web... application form and the Web-based update mailer is to collect information about genetics professionals to be...

General Practitioners' Attitudes Toward a Web-Based Mental Health Service for Adolescents: Implications for Service Design and Delivery.

PubMed

Subotic-Kerry, Mirjana; King, Catherine; O'Moore, Kathleen; Achilles, Melinda; O'Dea, Bridianne

2018-03-23

Anxiety disorders and depression are prevalent among youth. General practitioners (GPs) are often the first point of professional contact for treating health problems in young people. A Web-based mental health service delivered in partnership with schools may facilitate increased access to psychological care among adolescents. However, for such a model to be implemented successfully, GPs' views need to be measured. This study aimed to examine the needs and attitudes of GPs toward a Web-based mental health service for adolescents, and to identify the factors that may affect the provision of this type of service and likelihood of integration. Findings will inform the content and overall service design. GPs were interviewed individually about the proposed Web-based service. Qualitative analysis of transcripts was performed using thematic coding. A short follow-up questionnaire was delivered to assess background characteristics, level of acceptability, and likelihood of integration of the Web-based mental health service. A total of 13 GPs participated in the interview and 11 completed a follow-up online questionnaire. Findings suggest strong support for the proposed Web-based mental health service. A wide range of factors were found to influence the likelihood of GPs integrating a Web-based service into their clinical practice. Coordinated collaboration with parents, students, school counselors, and other mental health care professionals were considered important by nearly all GPs. Confidence in Web-based care, noncompliance of adolescents and GPs, accessibility, privacy, and confidentiality were identified as potential barriers to adopting the proposed Web-based service. GPs were open to a proposed Web-based service for the monitoring and management of anxiety and depression in adolescents, provided that a collaborative approach to care is used, the feedback regarding the client is clear, and privacy and security provisions are assured. ©Mirjana Subotic-Kerry, Catherine King, Kathleen O'Moore, Melinda Achilles, Bridianne O'Dea. Originally published in JMIR Human Factors (http://humanfactors.jmir.org), 23.03.2018.

PaaS for web applications with OpenShift Origin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lossent, A.; Rodriguez Peon, A.; Wagner, A.

2017-10-01

The CERN Web Frameworks team has deployed OpenShift Origin to facilitate deployment of web applications and to improving efficiency in terms of computing resource usage. OpenShift leverages Docker containers and Kubernetes orchestration to provide a Platform-as-a-service solution oriented for web applications. We will review use cases and how OpenShift was integrated with other services such as source control, web site management and authentication services.

76 FR 14034 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request; NCI Cancer Genetics Services Directory Web-Based...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-15

... Request; NCI Cancer Genetics Services Directory Web-Based Application Form and Update Mailer Summary: In... Cancer Genetics Services Directory Web-based Application Form and Update Mailer. [[Page 14035

Building asynchronous geospatial processing workflows with web services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Peisheng; Di, Liping; Yu, Genong

2012-02-01

Geoscience research and applications often involve a geospatial processing workflow. This workflow includes a sequence of operations that use a variety of tools to collect, translate, and analyze distributed heterogeneous geospatial data. Asynchronous mechanisms, by which clients initiate a request and then resume their processing without waiting for a response, are very useful for complicated workflows that take a long time to run. Geospatial contents and capabilities are increasingly becoming available online as interoperable Web services. This online availability significantly enhances the ability to use Web service chains to build distributed geospatial processing workflows. This paper focuses on how to orchestrate Web services for implementing asynchronous geospatial processing workflows. The theoretical bases for asynchronous Web services and workflows, including asynchrony patterns and message transmission, are examined to explore different asynchronous approaches to and architecture of workflow code for the support of asynchronous behavior. A sample geospatial processing workflow, issued by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Service, Phase 6 (OWS-6), is provided to illustrate the implementation of asynchronous geospatial processing workflows and the challenges in using Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) to develop them.

OneGeology Web Services and Portal as a global geological SDI - latest standards and technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duffy, Tim; Tellez-Arenas, Agnes

2014-05-01

The global coverage of OneGeology Web Services (www.onegeology.org and portal.onegeology.org) achieved since 2007 from the 120 participating geological surveys will be reviewed and issues arising discussed. Recent enhancements to the OneGeology Web Services capabilities will be covered including new up to 5 star service accreditation scheme utilising the ISO/OGC Web Mapping Service standard version 1.3, core ISO 19115 metadata additions and Version 2.0 Web Feature Services (WFS) serving the new IUGS-CGI GeoSciML V3.2 geological web data exchange language standard (http://www.geosciml.org/) with its associated 30+ IUGS-CGI available vocabularies (http://resource.geosciml.org/ and http://srvgeosciml.brgm.fr/eXist2010/brgm/client.html). Use of the CGI simpelithology and timescale dictionaries now allow those who wish to do so to offer data harmonisation to query their GeoSciML 3.2 based Web Feature Services and their GeoSciML_Portrayal V2.0.1 (http://www.geosciml.org/) Web Map Services in the OneGeology portal (http://portal.onegeology.org). Contributing to OneGeology involves offering to serve ideally 1:1000,000 scale geological data (in practice any scale now is warmly welcomed) as an OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standard based WMS (Web Mapping Service) service from an available WWW server. This may either be hosted within the Geological Survey or a neighbouring, regional or elsewhere institution that offers to serve that data for them i.e. offers to help technically by providing the web serving IT infrastructure as a 'buddy'. OneGeology is a standards focussed Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and works to ensure that these standards work together and it is now possible for European Geological Surveys to register their INSPIRE web services within the OneGeology SDI (e.g. see http://www.geosciml.org/geosciml/3.2/documentation/cookbook/INSPIRE_GeoSciML_Cookbook%20_1.0.pdf). The Onegeology portal (http://portal.onegeology.org) is the first port of call for anyone wishing to discover the availability of global geological web services and has new functionality to view and use such services including multiple projection support. KEYWORDS : OneGeology; GeoSciML V 3.2; Data exchange; Portal; INSPIRE; Standards; OGC; Interoperability; GeoScience information; WMS; WFS; Cookbook.

Web Services and Other Enhancements at the Northern California Earthquake Data Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neuhauser, D. S.; Zuzlewski, S.; Allen, R. M.

2012-12-01

The Northern California Earthquake Data Center (NCEDC) provides data archive and distribution services for seismological and geophysical data sets that encompass northern California. The NCEDC is enhancing its ability to deliver rapid information through Web Services. NCEDC Web Services use well-established web server and client protocols and REST software architecture to allow users to easily make queries using web browsers or simple program interfaces and to receive the requested data in real-time rather than through batch or email-based requests. Data are returned to the user in the appropriate format such as XML, RESP, or MiniSEED depending on the service, and are compatible with the equivalent IRIS DMC web services. The NCEDC is currently providing the following Web Services: (1) Station inventory and channel response information delivered in StationXML format, (2) Channel response information delivered in RESP format, (3) Time series availability delivered in text and XML formats, (4) Single channel and bulk data request delivered in MiniSEED format. The NCEDC is also developing a rich Earthquake Catalog Web Service to allow users to query earthquake catalogs based on selection parameters such as time, location or geographic region, magnitude, depth, azimuthal gap, and rms. It will return (in QuakeML format) user-specified results that can include simple earthquake parameters, as well as observations such as phase arrivals, codas, amplitudes, and computed parameters such as first motion mechanisms, moment tensors, and rupture length. The NCEDC will work with both IRIS and the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN) to define a uniform set of web service specifications that can be implemented by multiple data centers to provide users with a common data interface across data centers. The NCEDC now hosts earthquake catalogs and waveforms from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) monitoring networks. These data can be accessed through the above web services and through special NCEDC web pages.

Research of three level match method about semantic web service based on ontology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, Jie; Cai, Fang

2011-10-01

An important step of Web service Application is the discovery of useful services. Keywords are used in service discovery in traditional technology like UDDI and WSDL, with the disadvantage of user intervention, lack of semantic description and low accuracy. To cope with these problems, OWL-S is introduced and extended with QoS attributes to describe the attribute and functions of Web Services. A three-level service matching algorithm based on ontology and QOS in proposed in this paper. Our algorithm can match web service by utilizing the service profile, QoS parameters together with input and output of the service. Simulation results shows that it greatly enhanced the speed of service matching while high accuracy is also guaranteed.

Interoperability And Value Added To Earth Observation Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gasperi, J.

2012-04-01

Geospatial web services technology has provided a new means for geospatial data interoperability. Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) services such as Web Map Service (WMS) to request maps on the Internet, Web Feature Service (WFS) to exchange vectors or Catalog Service for the Web (CSW) to search for geospatialized data have been widely adopted in the Geosciences community in general and in the remote sensing community in particular. These services make Earth Observation data available to a wider range of public users than ever before. The mapshup web client offers an innovative and efficient user interface that takes advantage of the power of interoperability. This presentation will demonstrate how mapshup can be effectively used in the context of natural disasters management.

SSWAP: A Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol for semantic web services

PubMed Central

Gessler, Damian DG; Schiltz, Gary S; May, Greg D; Avraham, Shulamit; Town, Christopher D; Grant, David; Nelson, Rex T

2009-01-01

Background SSWAP (Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol; pronounced "swap") is an architecture, protocol, and platform for using reasoning to semantically integrate heterogeneous disparate data and services on the web. SSWAP was developed as a hybrid semantic web services technology to overcome limitations found in both pure web service technologies and pure semantic web technologies. Results There are currently over 2400 resources published in SSWAP. Approximately two dozen are custom-written services for QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) and mapping data for legumes and grasses (grains). The remaining are wrappers to Nucleic Acids Research Database and Web Server entries. As an architecture, SSWAP establishes how clients (users of data, services, and ontologies), providers (suppliers of data, services, and ontologies), and discovery servers (semantic search engines) interact to allow for the description, querying, discovery, invocation, and response of semantic web services. As a protocol, SSWAP provides the vocabulary and semantics to allow clients, providers, and discovery servers to engage in semantic web services. The protocol is based on the W3C-sanctioned first-order description logic language OWL DL. As an open source platform, a discovery server running at (as in to "swap info") uses the description logic reasoner Pellet to integrate semantic resources. The platform hosts an interactive guide to the protocol at , developer tools at , and a portal to third-party ontologies at (a "swap meet"). Conclusion SSWAP addresses the three basic requirements of a semantic web services architecture (i.e., a common syntax, shared semantic, and semantic discovery) while addressing three technology limitations common in distributed service systems: i.e., i) the fatal mutability of traditional interfaces, ii) the rigidity and fragility of static subsumption hierarchies, and iii) the confounding of content, structure, and presentation. SSWAP is novel by establishing the concept of a canonical yet mutable OWL DL graph that allows data and service providers to describe their resources, to allow discovery servers to offer semantically rich search engines, to allow clients to discover and invoke those resources, and to allow providers to respond with semantically tagged data. SSWAP allows for a mix-and-match of terms from both new and legacy third-party ontologies in these graphs. PMID:19775460

39 CFR 3001.12 - Service of documents.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... or presiding officer has determined is unable to receive service through the Commission's Web site... presiding officer has determined is unable to receive service through the Commission Web site shall be by... service list for each current proceeding will be available on the Commission's Web site http://www.prc.gov...

Pathophysiology of Heat-Related Illnesses

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

Figure 10-4). deHydrATion And elecTrolyTe imBAlAnce Water requirements during heat exposure are primarily deter- mined by a person’s sweat losses. Water...the effect of cyclooxygenase inhibition, J Clin Invest 81:1162, 1988. 241. Opal SM, Fisher CJ Jr, Dhainaut JF, et al: Confirmatory interleukin-1...inhibition, J Clin Invest 81:1162, 1988. 241. Opal SM, Fisher CJ Jr, Dhainaut JF, et al: Confirmatory interleukin-1 receptor antagonist trial in severe

Photoinduced local heating in silica photonic crystals for fast and reversible switching.

PubMed

Gallego-Gómez, Francisco; Blanco, Alvaro; López, Cefe

2012-12-04

Fast and reversible photonic-bandgap tunability is achieved in silica artificial opals by local heating. The effect is fully reversible as heat rapidly dissipates through the non-irradiated structure without active cooling and water is readsorbed. The performance is strongly enhanced by decreasing the photoirradiated opal volume, allowing bandgap shifts of 12 nm and response times of 20 ms. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Inverse opal with an ultraviolet photonic gap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ni, Peigen; Cheng, Bingying; Zhang, Daozhong

2002-03-01

Photonic crystals composed of TiO2 and air voids fabricated by the template method exhibit an ultraviolet photonic stop band (˜380 nm) in the Γ-L direction. Scanning electron microscopy images show that the inverse opal possesses face-centered-cubic symmetry with a lattice constant of 240 nm. The transmission spectra show that the change in transmittance is one order of magnitude in the gap, which is in accord with the reflection spectrum.

ChemCalc: a building block for tomorrow's chemical infrastructure.

PubMed

Patiny, Luc; Borel, Alain

2013-05-24

Web services, as an aspect of cloud computing, are becoming an important part of the general IT infrastructure, and scientific computing is no exception to this trend. We propose a simple approach to develop chemical Web services, through which servers could expose the essential data manipulation functionality that students and researchers need for chemical calculations. These services return their results as JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) objects, which facilitates their use for Web applications. The ChemCalc project http://www.chemcalc.org demonstrates this approach: we present three Web services related with mass spectrometry, namely isotopic distribution simulation, peptide fragmentation simulation, and molecular formula determination. We also developed a complete Web application based on these three Web services, taking advantage of modern HTML5 and JavaScript libraries (ChemDoodle and jQuery).

Decadal and annual changes in biogenic opal and carbonate fluxes to the deep Sargasso Sea

USGS Publications Warehouse

Deuser, W.G.; Jickells, T.D.; Commeau, Judith A.

1995-01-01

Analyses of samples from a 14-year series of sediment-trap deployments in the deep Sargasso Sea reveal a significant trend in the ratio of the sinking fluxes of biogenic calcium carbonate and silica. Although there are pronounced seasonal cycles for both flux components, the overall opal/CaCO3 ratio changed by 50% from 1978 to 1991 (largely due to a decrease of opal flux), while total flux had no significant trend. These results suggest that plankton communities respond rapidly to subtle climate change, such as is evident in regional variations of wind speed, precipitation, wintertime ventilation and midwater temperatures. If the trends we observe in the makeup of sinking particulate matter occur on a large scale, they may in turn modify climate by modulating ocean-atmosphere CO2 exchange and albedo over the ocean.

Comparative pulsation calculations with OP and OPAL opacities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kanbur, Shashi M.; Simon, Norman R.

1994-01-01

Comparative linear nonadiabatic pulsation calculations are presented using the OPAL and Opacity Project opacities. The two sets of opacities include effects due to intermediate coupling and fine structure as well as new abundances. We used two mass luminosity (M-L) relations, one standard (BIT), and one employing substantial convective core overshoot (COV). The two sets of opacities cannot be differentiated on the basis of the stellar pulsation calculations presented here. The BIT relation can model the beat and bump Cepheids with masses between 4 and 7 solar mass, while if the overshoot relation is used, masses between 2 and 6 solar mass are required. In the RR Lyrae regime, we find the inferred masses of globular cluster RRd stars to be little influenced by the choice of OPAL or OP. Finally, the limited modeling we have done is not able to constrain the Cepheid M-L relation based upon period ratios observed in the beat and bump stars.

Compact 3D photonic crystals sensing platform with 45 degree angle polished fibers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Yuqing; Chen, Lu; Zhu, Jiali; Ni, Haibin; Xia, Wei; Wang, Ming

2017-07-01

Three dimensional photonic crystals are a kind of promising sensing materials in biology and chemistry. A compact structure, consists of planner colloidal crystals and 45 degree angle polished fiber, is proposed as a platform for accurate, fast, reliable three dimensional photonic crystals sensing in practice. This structure show advantages in compact size for integration and it is ease for large scale manufacture. Reflectivity of the 45 degree angle polished surface with and without a layer of Ag film are simulated by FDTD simulation. Refractive index sensing properties as well as mode distribution of this structure consists of both polystyrene opal and silica inverse opal film is investigated, and an experimental demonstration of silica inverse opal film is performed, which shows a sensitivity of 733 nm/RIU. Different kinds of three dimensional photonic crystals can also be applied in this structure for particular purpose.

Localization and Related Phenomena in Multiply Connected Nanostructured Inverse Opal Bismuth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bleiweiss, Michael; Saygi, Salih; Amirzadeh, Jafar; Datta, Timir; Lungu, Anca; Yin, Ming; Palm, Eric; Brandt, Bruce; Iqbal, Zafar

2001-03-01

The nanostructures were fabricated by pressure infiltration of bismuth into porous artificial opal and were characterized using SEM, EDX and XRD. These structures form a regular three-dimensional network in which the bismuth regions percolate in all directions between the close packed spheres of SiO_2. The sizes of the conducting regions are of the order of tens of nanometers. The static magnetic properties of both bismuth inverse opal and bulk bismuth were studied using a SQUID magnetometer. Transport measurements, including Hall, were done using standard ac four and six probe techniques in fields up to 17 T* and temperatures between 4.2 and 150 K. The results of these measurements, including the observation of localization phenomena, will be discussed. Comparisons will be made with published results on bismuth nanowires. *Performed at the National High Magnetic Field Lab (NHMFL) FSU, Tallahassee, FL. Partially supported by a grant from NASA.

Enhanced photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic activity in visible-light-driven Ag/BiVO{sub 4} inverse opals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fang, Liang, E-mail: lfang@suda.edu.cn, E-mail: dawei.cao@tu-ilmenau.de; Nan, Feng; Yang, Ying

2016-02-29

BiVO{sub 4} photonic crystal inverse opals (io-BiVO{sub 4}) with highly dispersed Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by the nanosphere lithography method combining the pulsed current deposition method. The incorporation of the Ag NPs can significantly improve the photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic activity of BiVO{sub 4} inverse opals in the visible light region. The photocurrent density of the Ag/io-BiVO{sub 4} sample is 4.7 times higher than that of the disordered sample without the Ag NPs, while the enhancement factor of the corresponding kinetic constant in photocatalytic experiment is approximately 3. The improved photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic activity is benefited from two reasons: onemore » is the enhanced light harvesting owing to the coupling between the slow light and localized surface plasmon resonance effect; the other is the efficient separation of charge carriers due to the Schottky barriers.« less

Can They Plan to Teach with Web 2.0? Future Teachers' Potential Use of the Emerging Web

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kale, Ugur

2014-01-01

This study examined pre-service teachers' potential use of Web 2.0 technologies for teaching. A coding scheme incorporating the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework guided the analysis of pre-service teachers' Web 2.0-enhanced learning activity descriptions. The results indicated that while pre-service teachers were able…

Mobile Cloud Computing with SOAP and REST Web Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ali, Mushtaq; Fadli Zolkipli, Mohamad; Mohamad Zain, Jasni; Anwar, Shahid

2018-05-01

Mobile computing in conjunction with Mobile web services drives a strong approach where the limitations of mobile devices may possibly be tackled. Mobile Web Services are based on two types of technologies; SOAP and REST, which works with the existing protocols to develop Web services. Both the approaches carry their own distinct features, yet to keep the constraint features of mobile devices in mind, the better in two is considered to be the one which minimize the computation and transmission overhead while offloading. The load transferring of mobile device to remote servers for execution called computational offloading. There are numerous approaches to implement computational offloading a viable solution for eradicating the resources constraints of mobile device, yet a dynamic method of computational offloading is always required for a smooth and simple migration of complex tasks. The intention of this work is to present a distinctive approach which may not engage the mobile resources for longer time. The concept of web services utilized in our work to delegate the computational intensive tasks for remote execution. We tested both SOAP Web services approach and REST Web Services for mobile computing. Two parameters considered in our lab experiments to test; Execution Time and Energy Consumption. The results show that RESTful Web services execution is far better than executing the same application by SOAP Web services approach, in terms of execution time and energy consumption. Conducting experiments with the developed prototype matrix multiplication app, REST execution time is about 200% better than SOAP execution approach. In case of energy consumption REST execution is about 250% better than SOAP execution approach.

Adopting and adapting a commercial view of web services for the Navy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Warner, Elizabeth; Ladner, Roy; Katikaneni, Uday; Petry, Fred

2005-05-01

Web Services are being adopted as the enabling technology to provide net-centric capabilities for many Department of Defense operations. The Navy Enterprise Portal, for example, is Web Services-based, and the Department of the Navy is promulgating guidance for developing Web Services. Web Services, however, only constitute a baseline specification that provides the foundation on which users, under current approaches, write specialized applications in order to retrieve data over the Internet. Application development may increase dramatically as the number of different available Web Services increases. Reasons for specialized application development include XML schema versioning differences, adoption/use of diverse business rules, security access issues, and time/parameter naming constraints, among others. We are currently developing for the US Navy a system which will improve delivery of timely and relevant meteorological and oceanographic (MetOc) data to the warfighter. Our objective is to develop an Advanced MetOc Broker (AMB) that leverages Web Services technology to identify, retrieve and integrate relevant MetOc data in an automated manner. The AMB will utilize a Mediator, which will be developed by applying ontological research and schema matching techniques to MetOc forms of data. The AMB, using the Mediator, will support a new, advanced approach to the use of Web Services; namely, the automated identification, retrieval and integration of MetOc data. Systems based on this approach will then not require extensive end-user application development for each Web Service from which data can be retrieved. Users anywhere on the globe will be able to receive timely environmental data that fits their particular needs.

Discovery Mechanisms for the Sensor Web

PubMed Central

Jirka, Simon; Bröring, Arne; Stasch, Christoph

2009-01-01

This paper addresses the discovery of sensors within the OGC Sensor Web Enablement framework. Whereas services like the OGC Web Map Service or Web Coverage Service are already well supported through catalogue services, the field of sensor networks and the according discovery mechanisms is still a challenge. The focus within this article will be on the use of existing OGC Sensor Web components for realizing a discovery solution. After discussing the requirements for a Sensor Web discovery mechanism, an approach will be presented that was developed within the EU funded project “OSIRIS”. This solution offers mechanisms to search for sensors, exploit basic semantic relationships, harvest sensor metadata and integrate sensor discovery into already existing catalogues. PMID:22574038

AdaFF: Adaptive Failure-Handling Framework for Composite Web Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Yuna; Lee, Wan Yeon; Kim, Kyong Hoon; Kim, Jong

In this paper, we propose a novel Web service composition framework which dynamically accommodates various failure recovery requirements. In the proposed framework called Adaptive Failure-handling Framework (AdaFF), failure-handling submodules are prepared during the design of a composite service, and some of them are systematically selected and automatically combined with the composite Web service at service instantiation in accordance with the requirement of individual users. In contrast, existing frameworks cannot adapt the failure-handling behaviors to user's requirements. AdaFF rapidly delivers a composite service supporting the requirement-matched failure handling without manual development, and contributes to a flexible composite Web service design in that service architects never care about failure handling or variable requirements of users. For proof of concept, we implement a prototype system of the AdaFF, which automatically generates a composite service instance with Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) according to the users' requirement specified in XML format and executes the generated instance on the ActiveBPEL engine.

A New Approach for Semantic Web Matching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zamanifar, Kamran; Heidary, Golsa; Nematbakhsh, Naser; Mardukhi, Farhad

In this work we propose a new approach for semantic web matching to improve the performance of Web Service replacement. Because in automatic systems we should ensure the self-healing, self-configuration, self-optimization and self-management, all services should be always available and if one of them crashes, it should be replaced with the most similar one. Candidate services are advertised in Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) all in Web Ontology Language (OWL). By the help of bipartite graph, we did the matching between the crashed service and a Candidate one. Then we chose the best service, which had the maximum rate of matching. In fact we compare two services' functionalities and capabilities to see how much they match. We found that the best way for matching two web services, is comparing the functionalities of them.

Climatological Data Option in My Weather Impacts Decision Aid (MyWIDA) Overview

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-07-18

rules. It consists of 2 databases, a data service server, a collection of web service, and web applications that show weather impacts on selected...3.1.2 ClimoDB 5 3.2 Data Service 5 3.2.1 Data Requestor 5 3.2.2 Data Decoder 6 3.2.3 Post Processor 6 3.2.4 Job Scheduler 6 3.3 Web Service 6...6.1 Additional Data Option 9 6.2 Impact Overlay Web Service 9 6.3 Graphical User Interface 9 7. References 10 List of Symbols, Abbreviations, and

Design and implementation of CUAHSI WaterML and WaterOneFlow Web Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valentine, D. W.; Zaslavsky, I.; Whitenack, T.; Maidment, D.

2007-12-01

WaterOneFlow is a term for a group of web services created by and for the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) community. CUAHSI web services facilitate the retrieval of hydrologic observations information from online data sources using the SOAP protocol. CUAHSI Water Markup Language (below referred to as WaterML) is an XML schema defining the format of messages returned by the WaterOneFlow web services. \

Processing biological literature with customizable Web services supporting interoperable formats.

PubMed

Rak, Rafal; Batista-Navarro, Riza Theresa; Carter, Jacob; Rowley, Andrew; Ananiadou, Sophia

2014-01-01

Web services have become a popular means of interconnecting solutions for processing a body of scientific literature. This has fuelled research on high-level data exchange formats suitable for a given domain and ensuring the interoperability of Web services. In this article, we focus on the biological domain and consider four interoperability formats, BioC, BioNLP, XMI and RDF, that represent domain-specific and generic representations and include well-established as well as emerging specifications. We use the formats in the context of customizable Web services created in our Web-based, text-mining workbench Argo that features an ever-growing library of elementary analytics and capabilities to build and deploy Web services straight from a convenient graphical user interface. We demonstrate a 2-fold customization of Web services: by building task-specific processing pipelines from a repository of available analytics, and by configuring services to accept and produce a combination of input and output data interchange formats. We provide qualitative evaluation of the formats as well as quantitative evaluation of automatic analytics. The latter was carried out as part of our participation in the fourth edition of the BioCreative challenge. Our analytics built into Web services for recognizing biochemical concepts in BioC collections achieved the highest combined scores out of 10 participating teams. Database URL: http://argo.nactem.ac.uk. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

Data partitioning enables the use of standard SOAP Web Services in genome-scale workflows.

PubMed

Sztromwasser, Pawel; Puntervoll, Pål; Petersen, Kjell

2011-07-26

Biological databases and computational biology tools are provided by research groups around the world, and made accessible on the Web. Combining these resources is a common practice in bioinformatics, but integration of heterogeneous and often distributed tools and datasets can be challenging. To date, this challenge has been commonly addressed in a pragmatic way, by tedious and error-prone scripting. Recently however a more reliable technique has been identified and proposed as the platform that would tie together bioinformatics resources, namely Web Services. In the last decade the Web Services have spread wide in bioinformatics, and earned the title of recommended technology. However, in the era of high-throughput experimentation, a major concern regarding Web Services is their ability to handle large-scale data traffic. We propose a stream-like communication pattern for standard SOAP Web Services, that enables efficient flow of large data traffic between a workflow orchestrator and Web Services. We evaluated the data-partitioning strategy by comparing it with typical communication patterns on an example pipeline for genomic sequence annotation. The results show that data-partitioning lowers resource demands of services and increases their throughput, which in consequence allows to execute in-silico experiments on genome-scale, using standard SOAP Web Services and workflows. As a proof-of-principle we annotated an RNA-seq dataset using a plain BPEL workflow engine.

Processing biological literature with customizable Web services supporting interoperable formats

PubMed Central

Rak, Rafal; Batista-Navarro, Riza Theresa; Carter, Jacob; Rowley, Andrew; Ananiadou, Sophia

2014-01-01

Web services have become a popular means of interconnecting solutions for processing a body of scientific literature. This has fuelled research on high-level data exchange formats suitable for a given domain and ensuring the interoperability of Web services. In this article, we focus on the biological domain and consider four interoperability formats, BioC, BioNLP, XMI and RDF, that represent domain-specific and generic representations and include well-established as well as emerging specifications. We use the formats in the context of customizable Web services created in our Web-based, text-mining workbench Argo that features an ever-growing library of elementary analytics and capabilities to build and deploy Web services straight from a convenient graphical user interface. We demonstrate a 2-fold customization of Web services: by building task-specific processing pipelines from a repository of available analytics, and by configuring services to accept and produce a combination of input and output data interchange formats. We provide qualitative evaluation of the formats as well as quantitative evaluation of automatic analytics. The latter was carried out as part of our participation in the fourth edition of the BioCreative challenge. Our analytics built into Web services for recognizing biochemical concepts in BioC collections achieved the highest combined scores out of 10 participating teams. Database URL: http://argo.nactem.ac.uk. PMID:25006225

Exploring NASA GES DISC Data with Interoperable Services

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhao, Peisheng; Yang, Wenli; Hegde, Mahabal; Wei, Jennifer C.; Kempler, Steven; Pham, Long; Teng, William; Savtchenko, Andrey

2015-01-01

Overview of NASA GES DISC (NASA Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Services Center) data with interoperable services: Open-standard and Interoperable Services Improve data discoverability, accessibility, and usability with metadata, catalogue and portal standards Achieve data, information and knowledge sharing across applications with standardized interfaces and protocols Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Data Services and Specifications Web Coverage Service (WCS) -- data Web Map Service (WMS) -- pictures of data Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) --- pictures of data tiles Styled Layer Descriptors (SLD) --- rendered styles.

31 CFR 515.578 - Exportation of certain services incident to Internet-based communications.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Internet, such as instant messaging, chat and email, social networking, sharing of photos and movies, web... direct or indirect exportation of web-hosting services that are for purposes other than personal communications (e.g., web-hosting services for commercial endeavors) or of domain name registration services. (4...

31 CFR 515.578 - Exportation of certain services incident to Internet-based communications.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Internet, such as instant messaging, chat and email, social networking, sharing of photos and movies, web... direct or indirect exportation of web-hosting services that are for purposes other than personal communications (e.g., web-hosting services for commercial endeavors) or of domain name registration services. (4...

REMORA: a pilot in the ocean of BioMoby web-services.

PubMed

Carrere, Sébastien; Gouzy, Jérôme

2006-04-01

Emerging web-services technology allows interoperability between multiple distributed architectures. Here, we present REMORA, a web server implemented according to the BioMoby web-service specifications, providing life science researchers with an easy-to-use workflow generator and launcher, a repository of predefined workflows and a survey system. Jerome.Gouzy@toulouse.inra.fr The REMORA web server is freely available at http://bioinfo.genopole-toulouse.prd.fr/remora, sources are available upon request from the authors.

jORCA: easily integrating bioinformatics Web Services.

PubMed

Martín-Requena, Victoria; Ríos, Javier; García, Maximiliano; Ramírez, Sergio; Trelles, Oswaldo

2010-02-15

Web services technology is becoming the option of choice to deploy bioinformatics tools that are universally available. One of the major strengths of this approach is that it supports machine-to-machine interoperability over a network. However, a weakness of this approach is that various Web Services differ in their definition and invocation protocols, as well as their communication and data formats-and this presents a barrier to service interoperability. jORCA is a desktop client aimed at facilitating seamless integration of Web Services. It does so by making a uniform representation of the different web resources, supporting scalable service discovery, and automatic composition of workflows. Usability is at the top of the jORCA agenda; thus it is a highly customizable and extensible application that accommodates a broad range of user skills featuring double-click invocation of services in conjunction with advanced execution-control, on the fly data standardization, extensibility of viewer plug-ins, drag-and-drop editing capabilities, plus a file-based browsing style and organization of favourite tools. The integration of bioinformatics Web Services is made easier to support a wider range of users. .

U-Pb Geochronology of Hydrous Silica (Siebengebirge, Germany)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomaschek, Frank; Nemchin, Alexander; Geisler, Thorsten; Heuser, Alexander; Merle, Renaud

2015-04-01

Low-temperature, hydrous weathering eventually leads to characteristic products such as silica indurations. Elevated U concentrations and the ability of silica to maintain a closed system permits silica to be dated by the U-Pb method, which, in turn, will potentially allow constraining the timing of near-surface processes. To test the feasibility of silica U-Pb geochronology, we sampled opal and chalcedony from the Siebengebirge, Germany. This study area is situated at the terminus of the Cenozoic Lower Rhine Basin on the Rhenish Massif. The investigated samples include silicified gravels from the Mittelbachtal locality, renowned for the embedded wood opal. Structural characterization of the silica phases (Raman spectroscopy) was combined with in situ isotopic analyses, using ion microprobe and LA-ICPMS techniques. In the Siebengebirge area fluviatile sediments of Upper Oligocene age were covered by an extended trachyte tuff at around 25 Ma. Silica is known to indurate some domains within the tuff and, in particular, certain horizons within the subjacent fluviatile sediments ('Tertiärquarzite'). Cementation of the gravels occurred during at least three successive growth stages: early paracrystalline silica (opal-CT), fibrous chalcedony, and late microcrystalline quartz. It has traditionally been assumed that this silica induration reflects intense weathering, more or less synchronous with the deposition of the volcanic ashes. Results from U-Pb geochronology returned a range of discrete 206Pb-238U ages, recording a protracted silicification history. For instance, we obtained 22 ± 1 Ma for opal-CT cement from a silicified tuff, 16.6 ± 0.5 Ma for silicified wood and opal-CT cement in the fluviatile gravels, as well as 11 ± 1 Ma for texturally late chalcedony. While silicification of the sampled tuff might be contemporaneous with late-stage basalts, opaline silicification of the subjacent sediments and their wood in the Mittelbachtal clearly postdates active Siebengebirge volcanism, and the clastic sedimentation by about 8 Myr. To account for the age discrepancies, opal-CT formation might be a local and episodic phenomenon, reflecting progressive denudation of the trachyte tuff cover. Alternatively, the dominant silicification event of the Mittelbachtal silcretes could be of regional significance (Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum). Our relatively fast approach by LA-ICPMS analysis will be used to further expand the database.

A multi-physics analysis for the actuation of the SSS in opal reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferraro, Diego; Alberto, Patricio; Villarino, Eduardo; Doval, Alicia

2018-05-01

OPAL is a 20 MWth multi-purpose open-pool type Research Reactor located at Lucas Heights, Australia. It was designed, built and commissioned by INVAP between 2000 and 2006 and it has been operated by the Australia Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO) showing a very good overall performance. On November 2016, OPAL reached 10 years of continuous operation, becoming one of the most reliable and available in its kind worldwide, with an unbeaten record of being fully operational 307 days a year. One of the enhanced safety features present in this state-of-art reactor is the availability of an independent, diverse and redundant Second Shutdown System (SSS), which consists in the drainage of the heavy water reflector contained in the Reflector Vessel. As far as high quality experimental data is available from reactor commissioning and operation stages and even from early component design validation stages, several models both regarding neutronic and thermo-hydraulic approaches have been developed during recent years using advanced calculations tools and the novel capabilities to couple them. These advanced models were developed in order to assess the capability of such codes to simulate and predict complex behaviours and develop highly detail analysis. In this framework, INVAP developed a three-dimensional CFD model that represents the detailed hydraulic behaviour of the Second Shutdown System for an actuation scenario, where the heavy water drainage 3D temporal profiles inside the Reflector Vessel can be obtained. This model was validated, comparing the computational results with experimental measurements performed in a real-size physical model built by INVAP during early OPAL design engineering stages. Furthermore, detailed 3D Serpent Monte Carlo models are also available, which have been already validated with experimental data from reactor commissioning and operating cycles. In the present work the neutronic and thermohydraulic models, available for OPAL reactor, are coupled by means of a shared unstructured mesh geometry definition of relevant zones inside the Reflector Vessel. Several scenarios, both regarding coupled and uncoupled neutronic & thermohydraulic behavior, are presented and analyzed, showing the capabilities to develop and manage advanced modelling that allows to predict multi-physics variables observed when an in-depth performance analysis of a Research Reactor like OPAL is carried out.

National Centers for Environmental Prediction

Science.gov Websites

. Government's official Web portal to all Federal, state and local government Web resources and services. MISSION Web Page [scroll down to "Verification" Section] HRRR Verification at NOAA ESRL HRRR Web Verification Web Page NOAA / National Weather Service National Centers for Environmental Prediction

Component, Context, and Manufacturing Model Library (C2M2L)

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-11-01

123 5.1 MML Population and Web Service Interface...104 Table 41. Relevant Questions with Associated Web Services...the models, and implementing web services that provide semantically aware programmatic access to the models, including implementing the MS&T

WebGLORE: a web service for Grid LOgistic REgression.

PubMed

Jiang, Wenchao; Li, Pinghao; Wang, Shuang; Wu, Yuan; Xue, Meng; Ohno-Machado, Lucila; Jiang, Xiaoqian

2013-12-15

WebGLORE is a free web service that enables privacy-preserving construction of a global logistic regression model from distributed datasets that are sensitive. It only transfers aggregated local statistics (from participants) through Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure to a trusted server, where the global model is synthesized. WebGLORE seamlessly integrates AJAX, JAVA Applet/Servlet and PHP technologies to provide an easy-to-use web service for biomedical researchers to break down policy barriers during information exchange. http://dbmi-engine.ucsd.edu/webglore3/. WebGLORE can be used under the terms of GNU general public license as published by the Free Software Foundation.

The Semantic Automated Discovery and Integration (SADI) Web service Design-Pattern, API and Reference Implementation

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background The complexity and inter-related nature of biological data poses a difficult challenge for data and tool integration. There has been a proliferation of interoperability standards and projects over the past decade, none of which has been widely adopted by the bioinformatics community. Recent attempts have focused on the use of semantics to assist integration, and Semantic Web technologies are being welcomed by this community. Description SADI - Semantic Automated Discovery and Integration - is a lightweight set of fully standards-compliant Semantic Web service design patterns that simplify the publication of services of the type commonly found in bioinformatics and other scientific domains. Using Semantic Web technologies at every level of the Web services "stack", SADI services consume and produce instances of OWL Classes following a small number of very straightforward best-practices. In addition, we provide codebases that support these best-practices, and plug-in tools to popular developer and client software that dramatically simplify deployment of services by providers, and the discovery and utilization of those services by their consumers. Conclusions SADI Services are fully compliant with, and utilize only foundational Web standards; are simple to create and maintain for service providers; and can be discovered and utilized in a very intuitive way by biologist end-users. In addition, the SADI design patterns significantly improve the ability of software to automatically discover appropriate services based on user-needs, and automatically chain these into complex analytical workflows. We show that, when resources are exposed through SADI, data compliant with a given ontological model can be automatically gathered, or generated, from these distributed, non-coordinating resources - a behaviour we have not observed in any other Semantic system. Finally, we show that, using SADI, data dynamically generated from Web services can be explored in a manner very similar to data housed in static triple-stores, thus facilitating the intersection of Web services and Semantic Web technologies. PMID:22024447

The Semantic Automated Discovery and Integration (SADI) Web service Design-Pattern, API and Reference Implementation.

PubMed

Wilkinson, Mark D; Vandervalk, Benjamin; McCarthy, Luke

2011-10-24

The complexity and inter-related nature of biological data poses a difficult challenge for data and tool integration. There has been a proliferation of interoperability standards and projects over the past decade, none of which has been widely adopted by the bioinformatics community. Recent attempts have focused on the use of semantics to assist integration, and Semantic Web technologies are being welcomed by this community. SADI - Semantic Automated Discovery and Integration - is a lightweight set of fully standards-compliant Semantic Web service design patterns that simplify the publication of services of the type commonly found in bioinformatics and other scientific domains. Using Semantic Web technologies at every level of the Web services "stack", SADI services consume and produce instances of OWL Classes following a small number of very straightforward best-practices. In addition, we provide codebases that support these best-practices, and plug-in tools to popular developer and client software that dramatically simplify deployment of services by providers, and the discovery and utilization of those services by their consumers. SADI Services are fully compliant with, and utilize only foundational Web standards; are simple to create and maintain for service providers; and can be discovered and utilized in a very intuitive way by biologist end-users. In addition, the SADI design patterns significantly improve the ability of software to automatically discover appropriate services based on user-needs, and automatically chain these into complex analytical workflows. We show that, when resources are exposed through SADI, data compliant with a given ontological model can be automatically gathered, or generated, from these distributed, non-coordinating resources - a behaviour we have not observed in any other Semantic system. Finally, we show that, using SADI, data dynamically generated from Web services can be explored in a manner very similar to data housed in static triple-stores, thus facilitating the intersection of Web services and Semantic Web technologies.

Semantic Web Services Challenge, Results from the First Year. Series: Semantic Web And Beyond, Volume 8.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrie, C.; Margaria, T.; Lausen, H.; Zaremba, M.

Explores trade-offs among existing approaches. Reveals strengths and weaknesses of proposed approaches, as well as which aspects of the problem are not yet covered. Introduces software engineering approach to evaluating semantic web services. Service-Oriented Computing is one of the most promising software engineering trends because of the potential to reduce the programming effort for future distributed industrial systems. However, only a small part of this potential rests on the standardization of tools offered by the web services stack. The larger part of this potential rests upon the development of sufficient semantics to automate service orchestration. Currently there are many different approaches to semantic web service descriptions and many frameworks built around them. A common understanding, evaluation scheme, and test bed to compare and classify these frameworks in terms of their capabilities and shortcomings, is necessary to make progress in developing the full potential of Service-Oriented Computing. The Semantic Web Services Challenge is an open source initiative that provides a public evaluation and certification of multiple frameworks on common industrially-relevant problem sets. This edited volume reports on the first results in developing common understanding of the various technologies intended to facilitate the automation of mediation, choreography and discovery for Web Services using semantic annotations. Semantic Web Services Challenge: Results from the First Year is designed for a professional audience composed of practitioners and researchers in industry. Professionals can use this book to evaluate SWS technology for their potential practical use. The book is also suitable for advanced-level students in computer science.

Bottom-up photonic crystal approach with top-down defect and heterostructure fine-tuning.

PubMed

Ding, Tao; Song, Kai; Clays, Koen; Tung, Chen-Ho

2010-03-16

We combine the most efficient (chemical) approach toward three-dimensional photonic crystals with the most convenient (physical) technique for creating non-close-packed crystalline structures. Self-assembly of colloidal particles in artificial opals is followed by a carefully tuned plasma etching treatment. By covering the resulting top layer of more open structure with original dense opal, embedded defect layers and heterostructures can be conveniently designed for advanced photonic band gap and band edge engineering.

Web-services-based spatial decision support system to facilitate nuclear waste siting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, L. Xinglai; Sheng, Grant

2006-10-01

The availability of spatial web services enables data sharing among managers, decision and policy makers and other stakeholders in much simpler ways than before and subsequently has created completely new opportunities in the process of spatial decision making. Though generally designed for a certain problem domain, web-services-based spatial decision support systems (WSDSS) can provide a flexible problem-solving environment to explore the decision problem, understand and refine problem definition, and generate and evaluate multiple alternatives for decision. This paper presents a new framework for the development of a web-services-based spatial decision support system. The WSDSS is comprised of distributed web services that either have their own functions or provide different geospatial data and may reside in different computers and locations. WSDSS includes six key components, namely: database management system, catalog, analysis functions and models, GIS viewers and editors, report generators, and graphical user interfaces. In this study, the architecture of a web-services-based spatial decision support system to facilitate nuclear waste siting is described as an example. The theoretical, conceptual and methodological challenges and issues associated with developing web services-based spatial decision support system are described.

Helioseismic Constraints on New Solar Models from the MoSEC Code

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elliott, J. R.

1998-01-01

Evolutionary solar models are computed using a new stellar evolution code, MOSEC (Modular Stellar Evolution Code). This code has been designed with carefully controlled truncation errors in order to achieve a precision which reflects the increasingly accurate determination of solar interior structure by helioseismology. A series of models is constructed to investigate the effects of the choice of equation of state (OPAL or MHD-E, the latter being a version of the MHD equation of state recalculated by the author), the inclusion of helium and heavy-element settling and diffusion, and the inclusion of a simple model of mixing associated with the solar tachocline. The neutrino flux predictions are discussed, while the sound speed of the computed models is compared to that of the sun via the latest inversion of SOI-NMI p-mode frequency data. The comparison between models calculated with the OPAL and MHD-E equations of state is particularly interesting because the MHD-E equation of state includes relativistic effects for the electrons, whereas neither MHD nor OPAL do. This has a significant effect on the sound speed of the computed model, worsening the agreement with the solar sound speed. Using the OPAL equation of state and including the settling and diffusion of helium and heavy elements produces agreement in sound speed with the helioseismic results to within about +.-0.2%; the inclusion of mixing slightly improves the agreement.

Limited hydrologic response to Pleistocene climate change in deep vadose zones - Yucca Mountain, Nevada

USGS Publications Warehouse

Paces, J.B.; Neymark, L.A.; Whelan, J.F.; Wooden, J.L.; Lund, S.P.; Marshall, B.D.

2010-01-01

Understanding the movement of water through thick vadose zones, especially on time scales encompassing long-term climate change, is increasingly important as societies utilize semi-arid environments for both water resources and sites viewed as favorable for long-term disposal or storage of hazardous waste. Hydrologic responses to Pleistocene climate change within a deep vadose zone in the eastern Mojave Desert at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, were evaluated by uranium-series dating of finely layered hyalitic opal using secondary ion mass spectrometry. Opal is present within cm-thick secondary hydrogenic mineral crusts coating floors of lithophysal cavities in fractured volcanic rocks at depths of 200 to 300 m below land surface. Uranium concentrations in opal fluctuate systematically between 5 and 550 μg/g. Age-calibrated profiles of uranium concentration correlate with regional climate records over the last 300,000 years and produce time-series spectral peaks that have distinct periodicities of 100- and 41-ka, consistent with planetary orbital parameters. These results indicate that the chemical compositions of percolating solutions varied in response to near-surface, climate-driven processes. However, slow (micrometers per thousand years), relatively uniform growth rates of secondary opal and calcite deposition spanning several glacial–interglacial climate cycles imply that water fluxes in the deep vadose zone remained low and generally buffered from the large fluctuations in available surface moisture during different climates.

Facile fabrication of highly controllable gating systems based on the combination of inverse opal structure and dynamic covalent chemistry.

PubMed

Wang, Chen; Yang, Haowei; Tian, Li; Wang, Shiqiang; Gao, Ning; Zhang, Wanlin; Wang, Peng; Yin, Xianpeng; Li, Guangtao

2017-06-01

A three-dimensional (3D) inverse opal with periodic and porous structures has shown great potential for applications not only in optics and optoelectronics, but also in functional membranes. In this work, the benzaldehyde group was initially introduced into a 3D nanoporous inverse opal, serving as a platform for fabricating functional membranes. By employing the dynamic covalent approach, a highly controllable gating system was facilely fabricated to achieve modulable and reversible transport features. It was found that the physical/chemical properties and pore size of the gating system could easily be regulated through post-modification with amines. As a demonstration, the gated nanopores were modified with three kinds of amines to control the wettability, surface charge and nanopore size which in turn was exploited to achieve selective mass transport, including hydrophobic molecules, cations and anions, and the transport with respect to the physical steric hindrance. In particular, the gating system showed extraordinary reversibility and could recover to its pristine state by simply changing pH values. Due to the unlimited variety provided by the Schiff base reaction, the inverse opal described here exhibits a significant extendibility and could be easily post-modified with stimuli-responsive molecules for special purposes. Furthermore, this work can be extended to employ other dynamic covalent routes, for example Diels-Alder, ester exchange and disulfide exchange-based routes.

Silk fibroin scaffolds with inverse opal structure for bone tissue engineering

PubMed Central

Sommer, Marianne R.; Vetsch, Jolanda R.; Leemann, Jessica; Müller, Ralph

2016-01-01

Abstract How scaffold porosity, pore diameter and geometry influence cellular behavior is‐although heavily researched ‐ merely understood, especially in 3D. This is mainly caused by a lack of suitable, reproducible scaffold fabrication methods, with processes such as gas foaming, lyophilization or particulate leaching still being the standard. Here we propose a method to generate highly porous silk fibroin scaffolds with monodisperse spherical pores, namely inverse opals, and study their effect on cell behavior. These silk fibroin inverse opal scaffolds were compared to salt‐leached silk fibroin scaffolds in terms of human mesenchymal stem cell response upon osteogenic differentiation signals. While cell number remained similar on both scaffold types, extracellular matrix mineralization nearly doubled on the newly developed scaffolds, suggesting a positive effect on cell differentiation. By using the very same material with comparable average pore diameters, this increase in mineral content can be attributed to either the differences in pore diameter distribution or the pore geometry. Although the exact mechanisms leading to enhanced mineralization in inverse opals are not yet fully understood, our results indicate that control over pore geometry alone can have a major impact on the bioactivity of a scaffold toward stem cell differentiation into bone tissue. © 2016 The Authors Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 105B: 2074–2084, 2017. PMID:27407014

In vitro incorporation of nonnatural amino acids into protein using tRNACys-derived opal, ochre, and amber suppressor tRNAs

PubMed Central

Gubbens, Jacob; Kim, Soo Jung; Yang, Zhongying; Johnson, Arthur E.; Skach, William R.

2010-01-01

Amber suppressor tRNAs are widely used to incorporate nonnatural amino acids into proteins to serve as probes of structure, environment, and function. The utility of this approach would be greatly enhanced if multiple probes could be simultaneously incorporated at different locations in the same protein without other modifications. Toward this end, we have developed amber, opal, and ochre suppressor tRNAs derived from Escherichia coli, and yeast tRNACys that incorporate a chemically modified cysteine residue with high selectivity at the cognate UAG, UGA, and UAA stop codons in an in vitro translation system. These synthetic tRNAs were aminoacylated in vitro, and the labile aminoacyl bond was stabilized by covalently attaching a fluorescent dye to the cysteine sulfhydryl group. Readthrough efficiency (amber > opal > ochre) was substantially improved by eRF1/eRF3 inhibition with an RNA aptamer, thus overcoming an intrinsic hierarchy in stop codon selection that limits UGA and UAA termination suppression in higher eukaryotic translation systems. This approach now allows concurrent incorporation of two different modified amino acids at amber and opal codons with a combined apparent readthrough efficiency of up to 25% when compared with the parent protein lacking a stop codon. As such, it significantly expands the possibilities for incorporating nonnative amino acids for protein structure/function studies. PMID:20581130

Availability of the OGC geoprocessing standard: March 2011 reality check

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez-Pellicer, Francisco J.; Rentería-Agualimpia, Walter; Béjar, Rubén; Muro-Medrano, Pedro R.; Zarazaga-Soria, F. Javier

2012-10-01

This paper presents an investigation about the servers available in March 2011 conforming to the Web Processing Service interface specification published by the geospatial standards organization Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) in 2007. This interface specification gives support to standard Web-based geoprocessing. The data used in this research were collected using a focused crawler configured for finding OGC Web services. The research goals are (i) to provide a reality check of the availability of Web Processing Service servers, (ii) to provide quantitative data about the use of different features defined in the standard that are relevant for a scalable Geoprocessing Web (e.g. long-running processes, Web-accessible data outputs), and (iii) to test if the advances in the use of search engines and focused crawlers for finding Web services can be applied for finding geoscience processing systems. Research results show the feasibility of the discovery approach and provide data about the implementation of the Web Processing Service specification. These results also show extensive use of features related to scalability, except for those related to technical and semantic interoperability.

Seahawk: moving beyond HTML in Web-based bioinformatics analysis.

PubMed

Gordon, Paul M K; Sensen, Christoph W

2007-06-18

Traditional HTML interfaces for input to and output from Bioinformatics analysis on the Web are highly variable in style, content and data formats. Combining multiple analyses can therefore be an onerous task for biologists. Semantic Web Services allow automated discovery of conceptual links between remote data analysis servers. A shared data ontology and service discovery/execution framework is particularly attractive in Bioinformatics, where data and services are often both disparate and distributed. Instead of biologists copying, pasting and reformatting data between various Web sites, Semantic Web Service protocols such as MOBY-S hold out the promise of seamlessly integrating multi-step analysis. We have developed a program (Seahawk) that allows biologists to intuitively and seamlessly chain together Web Services using a data-centric, rather than the customary service-centric approach. The approach is illustrated with a ferredoxin mutation analysis. Seahawk concentrates on lowering entry barriers for biologists: no prior knowledge of the data ontology, or relevant services is required. In stark contrast to other MOBY-S clients, in Seahawk users simply load Web pages and text files they already work with. Underlying the familiar Web-browser interaction is an XML data engine based on extensible XSLT style sheets, regular expressions, and XPath statements which import existing user data into the MOBY-S format. As an easily accessible applet, Seahawk moves beyond standard Web browser interaction, providing mechanisms for the biologist to concentrate on the analytical task rather than on the technical details of data formats and Web forms. As the MOBY-S protocol nears a 1.0 specification, we expect more biologists to adopt these new semantic-oriented ways of doing Web-based analysis, which empower them to do more complicated, ad hoc analysis workflow creation without the assistance of a programmer.

Seahawk: moving beyond HTML in Web-based bioinformatics analysis

PubMed Central

Gordon, Paul MK; Sensen, Christoph W

2007-01-01

Background Traditional HTML interfaces for input to and output from Bioinformatics analysis on the Web are highly variable in style, content and data formats. Combining multiple analyses can therfore be an onerous task for biologists. Semantic Web Services allow automated discovery of conceptual links between remote data analysis servers. A shared data ontology and service discovery/execution framework is particularly attractive in Bioinformatics, where data and services are often both disparate and distributed. Instead of biologists copying, pasting and reformatting data between various Web sites, Semantic Web Service protocols such as MOBY-S hold out the promise of seamlessly integrating multi-step analysis. Results We have developed a program (Seahawk) that allows biologists to intuitively and seamlessly chain together Web Services using a data-centric, rather than the customary service-centric approach. The approach is illustrated with a ferredoxin mutation analysis. Seahawk concentrates on lowering entry barriers for biologists: no prior knowledge of the data ontology, or relevant services is required. In stark contrast to other MOBY-S clients, in Seahawk users simply load Web pages and text files they already work with. Underlying the familiar Web-browser interaction is an XML data engine based on extensible XSLT style sheets, regular expressions, and XPath statements which import existing user data into the MOBY-S format. Conclusion As an easily accessible applet, Seahawk moves beyond standard Web browser interaction, providing mechanisms for the biologist to concentrate on the analytical task rather than on the technical details of data formats and Web forms. As the MOBY-S protocol nears a 1.0 specification, we expect more biologists to adopt these new semantic-oriented ways of doing Web-based analysis, which empower them to do more complicated, ad hoc analysis workflow creation without the assistance of a programmer. PMID:17577405

Maintenance and Exchange of Learning Objects in a Web Services Based e-Learning System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vossen, Gottfried; Westerkamp, Peter

2004-01-01

"Web services" enable partners to exploit applications via the Internet. Individual services can be composed to build new and more complex ones with additional and more comprehensive functionality. In this paper, we apply the Web service paradigm to electronic learning, and show how to exchange and maintain learning objects is a…

Developer Network

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

2012-08-21

NREL's Developer Network, developer.nrel.gov, provides data that users can access to provide data to their own analyses, mobile and web applications. Developers can retrieve the data through a Web services API (application programming interface). The Developer Network handles overhead of serving up web services such as key management, authentication, analytics, reporting, documentation standards, and throttling in a common architecture, while allowing web services and APIs to be maintained and managed independently.

API REST Web service and backend system Of Lecturer’s Assessment Information System on Politeknik Negeri Bali

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manuaba, I. B. P.; Rudiastini, E.

2018-01-01

Assessment of lecturers is a tool used to measure lecturer performance. Lecturer’s assessment variable can be measured from three aspects : teaching activities, research and community service. Broad aspect to measure the performance of lecturers requires a special framework, so that the system can be developed in a sustainable manner. Issues of this research is to create a API web service data tool, so the lecturer assessment system can be developed in various frameworks. The research was developed with web service and php programming language with the output of json extension data. The conclusion of this research is API web service data application can be developed using several platforms such as web, mobile application

Utilization of services in a randomized trial testing phone- and web-based interventions for smoking cessation.

PubMed

Zbikowski, Susan M; Jack, Lisa M; McClure, Jennifer B; Deprey, Mona; Javitz, Harold S; McAfee, Timothy A; Catz, Sheryl L; Richards, Julie; Bush, Terry; Swan, Gary E

2011-05-01

Phone counseling has become standard for behavioral smoking cessation treatment. Newer options include Web and integrated phone-Web treatment. No prior research, to our knowledge, has systematically compared the effectiveness of these three treatment modalities in a randomized trial. Understanding how utilization varies by mode, the impact of utilization on outcomes, and predictors of utilization across each mode could lead to improved treatments. One thousand two hundred and two participants were randomized to phone, Web, or combined phone-Web cessation treatment. Services varied by modality and were tracked using automated systems. All participants received 12 weeks of varenicline, printed guides, an orientation call, and access to a phone supportline. Self-report data were collected at baseline and 6-month follow-up. Overall, participants utilized phone services more often than the Web-based services. Among treatment groups with Web access, a significant proportion logged in only once (37% phone-Web, 41% Web), and those in the phone-Web group logged in less often than those in the Web group (mean = 2.4 vs. 3.7, p = .0001). Use of the phone also was correlated with increased use of the Web. In multivariate analyses, greater use of the phone- or Web-based services was associated with higher cessation rates. Finally, older age and the belief that certain treatments could improve success were consistent predictors of greater utilization across groups. Other predictors varied by treatment group. Opportunities for enhancing treatment utilization exist, particularly for Web-based programs. Increasing utilization more broadly could result in better overall treatment effectiveness for all intervention modalities.

Implementation of Sensor Twitter Feed Web Service Server and Client

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-01

ARL-TN-0807 ● DEC 2016 US Army Research Laboratory Implementation of Sensor Twitter Feed Web Service Server and Client by...Implementation of Sensor Twitter Feed Web Service Server and Client by Bhagyashree V Kulkarni University of Maryland Michael H Lee Computational...

AWSCS-A System to Evaluate Different Approaches for the Automatic Composition and Execution of Web Services Flows

PubMed Central

Tardiole Kuehne, Bruno; Estrella, Julio Cezar; Nunes, Luiz Henrique; Martins de Oliveira, Edvard; Hideo Nakamura, Luis; Gomes Ferreira, Carlos Henrique; Carlucci Santana, Regina Helena; Reiff-Marganiec, Stephan; Santana, Marcos José

2015-01-01

This paper proposes a system named AWSCS (Automatic Web Service Composition System) to evaluate different approaches for automatic composition of Web services, based on QoS parameters that are measured at execution time. The AWSCS is a system to implement different approaches for automatic composition of Web services and also to execute the resulting flows from these approaches. Aiming at demonstrating the results of this paper, a scenario was developed, where empirical flows were built to demonstrate the operation of AWSCS, since algorithms for automatic composition are not readily available to test. The results allow us to study the behaviour of running composite Web services, when flows with the same functionality but different problem-solving strategies were compared. Furthermore, we observed that the influence of the load applied on the running system as the type of load submitted to the system is an important factor to define which approach for the Web service composition can achieve the best performance in production. PMID:26068216

Virtualization of open-source secure web services to support data exchange in a pediatric critical care research network.

PubMed

Frey, Lewis J; Sward, Katherine A; Newth, Christopher J L; Khemani, Robinder G; Cryer, Martin E; Thelen, Julie L; Enriquez, Rene; Shaoyu, Su; Pollack, Murray M; Harrison, Rick E; Meert, Kathleen L; Berg, Robert A; Wessel, David L; Shanley, Thomas P; Dalton, Heidi; Carcillo, Joseph; Jenkins, Tammara L; Dean, J Michael

2015-11-01

To examine the feasibility of deploying a virtual web service for sharing data within a research network, and to evaluate the impact on data consistency and quality. Virtual machines (VMs) encapsulated an open-source, semantically and syntactically interoperable secure web service infrastructure along with a shadow database. The VMs were deployed to 8 Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network Clinical Centers. Virtual web services could be deployed in hours. The interoperability of the web services reduced format misalignment from 56% to 1% and demonstrated that 99% of the data consistently transferred using the data dictionary and 1% needed human curation. Use of virtualized open-source secure web service technology could enable direct electronic abstraction of data from hospital databases for research purposes. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

AWSCS-A System to Evaluate Different Approaches for the Automatic Composition and Execution of Web Services Flows.

PubMed

Tardiole Kuehne, Bruno; Estrella, Julio Cezar; Nunes, Luiz Henrique; Martins de Oliveira, Edvard; Hideo Nakamura, Luis; Gomes Ferreira, Carlos Henrique; Carlucci Santana, Regina Helena; Reiff-Marganiec, Stephan; Santana, Marcos José

2015-01-01

This paper proposes a system named AWSCS (Automatic Web Service Composition System) to evaluate different approaches for automatic composition of Web services, based on QoS parameters that are measured at execution time. The AWSCS is a system to implement different approaches for automatic composition of Web services and also to execute the resulting flows from these approaches. Aiming at demonstrating the results of this paper, a scenario was developed, where empirical flows were built to demonstrate the operation of AWSCS, since algorithms for automatic composition are not readily available to test. The results allow us to study the behaviour of running composite Web services, when flows with the same functionality but different problem-solving strategies were compared. Furthermore, we observed that the influence of the load applied on the running system as the type of load submitted to the system is an important factor to define which approach for the Web service composition can achieve the best performance in production.

Web services as applications' integration tool: QikProp case study.

PubMed

Laoui, Abdel; Polyakov, Valery R

2011-07-15

Web services are a new technology that enables to integrate applications running on different platforms by using primarily XML to enable communication among different computers over the Internet. Large number of applications was designed as stand alone systems before the concept of Web services was introduced and it is a challenge to integrate them into larger computational networks. A generally applicable method of wrapping stand alone applications into Web services was developed and is described. To test the technology, it was applied to the QikProp for DOS (Windows). Although performance of the application did not change when it was delivered as a Web service, this form of deployment had offered several advantages like simplified and centralized maintenance, smaller number of licenses, and practically no training for the end user. Because by using the described approach almost any legacy application can be wrapped as a Web service, this form of delivery may be recommended as a global alternative to traditional deployment solutions. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Using USNO's API to Obtain Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lesniak, Michael V.; Pozniak, Daniel; Punnoose, Tarun

2015-01-01

The U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) is in the process of modernizing its publicly available web services into APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Services configured as APIs offer greater flexibility to the user and allow greater usage. Depending on the particular service, users who implement our APIs will receive either a PNG (Portable Network Graphics) image or data in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format. This raw data can then be embedded in third-party web sites or in apps.Part of the USNO's mission is to provide astronomical and timing data to government agencies and the general public. To this end, the USNO provides accurate computations of astronomical phenomena such as dates of lunar phases, rise and set times of the Moon and Sun, and lunar and solar eclipse times. Users who navigate to our web site and select one of our 18 services are prompted to complete a web form, specifying parameters such as date, time, location, and object. Many of our services work for years between 1700 and 2100, meaning that past, present, and future events can be computed. Upon form submission, our web server processes the request, computes the data, and outputs it to the user.Over recent years, the use of the web by the general public has vastly changed. In response to this, the USNO is modernizing its web-based data services. This includes making our computed data easier to embed within third-party web sites as well as more easily querying from apps running on tablets and smart phones. To facilitate this, the USNO has begun converting its services into APIs. In addition to the existing web forms for the various services, users are able to make direct URL requests that return either an image or numerical data.To date, four of our web services have been configured to run with APIs. Two are image-producing services: "Apparent Disk of a Solar System Object" and "Day and Night Across the Earth." Two API data services are "Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day" and "Dates of Primary Phases of the Moon." Instructions for how to use our API services as well as examples of their use can be found on one of our explanatory web pages and will be discussed here.

SSWAP: A Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol for semantic web services.

PubMed

Gessler, Damian D G; Schiltz, Gary S; May, Greg D; Avraham, Shulamit; Town, Christopher D; Grant, David; Nelson, Rex T

2009-09-23

SSWAP (Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol; pronounced "swap") is an architecture, protocol, and platform for using reasoning to semantically integrate heterogeneous disparate data and services on the web. SSWAP was developed as a hybrid semantic web services technology to overcome limitations found in both pure web service technologies and pure semantic web technologies. There are currently over 2400 resources published in SSWAP. Approximately two dozen are custom-written services for QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) and mapping data for legumes and grasses (grains). The remaining are wrappers to Nucleic Acids Research Database and Web Server entries. As an architecture, SSWAP establishes how clients (users of data, services, and ontologies), providers (suppliers of data, services, and ontologies), and discovery servers (semantic search engines) interact to allow for the description, querying, discovery, invocation, and response of semantic web services. As a protocol, SSWAP provides the vocabulary and semantics to allow clients, providers, and discovery servers to engage in semantic web services. The protocol is based on the W3C-sanctioned first-order description logic language OWL DL. As an open source platform, a discovery server running at http://sswap.info (as in to "swap info") uses the description logic reasoner Pellet to integrate semantic resources. The platform hosts an interactive guide to the protocol at http://sswap.info/protocol.jsp, developer tools at http://sswap.info/developer.jsp, and a portal to third-party ontologies at http://sswapmeet.sswap.info (a "swap meet"). SSWAP addresses the three basic requirements of a semantic web services architecture (i.e., a common syntax, shared semantic, and semantic discovery) while addressing three technology limitations common in distributed service systems: i.e., i) the fatal mutability of traditional interfaces, ii) the rigidity and fragility of static subsumption hierarchies, and iii) the confounding of content, structure, and presentation. SSWAP is novel by establishing the concept of a canonical yet mutable OWL DL graph that allows data and service providers to describe their resources, to allow discovery servers to offer semantically rich search engines, to allow clients to discover and invoke those resources, and to allow providers to respond with semantically tagged data. SSWAP allows for a mix-and-match of terms from both new and legacy third-party ontologies in these graphs.

Consequences of slow growth for 230Th/U dating of Quaternary opals, Yucca Mountain, NV, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Neymark, L.A.; Paces, J.B.

2000-01-01

Thermal ionization mass-spectrometry 234U/238U and 230Th/238U data are reported for uranium-rich opals coating fractures and cavities within the silicic tuffs forming Yucca Mountain, NV, the potential site of a high-level radioactive waste repository. High uranium concentrations (up to 207 ppm) and extremely high 230Th/232Th activity ratios (up to about 106) make microsamples of these opals suitable for precise 230Th/U dating. Conventional 230Th/U ages range from 40 to greater than 600 ka, and initial 234U/238U activity ratios between 1.03 and 8.2. Isotopic evidence indicates that the opals have not experienced uranium mobility; however, wide variations in apparent ages and initial 234U/238U ratios for separate subsamples of the same outermost mineral surfaces, positive correlation between ages and sample weights, and negative correlation between 230Th/U ages and calculated initial 234U/238U are inconsistent with the assumption that all minerals in a given subsample was deposited instantaneously. The data are more consistent with a conceptual model of continuous deposition where secondary mineral growth has occurred at a constant, slow rate up to the present. This model assumes that individual subsamples represent mixtures of older and younger material, and that calculations using the resulting isotope ratios reflect an average age. Ages calculated using the continuous-deposition model for opals imply average mineral growth rates of less than 5 mm/m.y. The model of continuous deposition also predicts discordance between ages obtained using different radiometric methods for the same subsample. Differences in half-lives will result in younger apparent ages for the shorter-lived isotope due to the greater influence of younger materials continuously added to mineral surfaces. Discordant 14C, 230Th/U and U-Pb ages obtained from outermost mineral surfaces at Yucca Mountain support this model. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Improved spatial resolution for U-series dating of opal at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA, using ion-microprobe and microdigestion methods

USGS Publications Warehouse

Paces, J.B.; Neymark, L.A.; Wooden, J.L.; Persing, H.M.

2004-01-01

Two novel methods of in situ isotope analysis, ion microprobe and microdigestion, were used for 230Th/U and 234U/238U dating of finely laminated opal hemispheres formed in unsaturated felsic tuff at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, proposed site for a high-level radioactive waste repository. Both methods allow analysis of layers as many as several orders of magnitude thinner than standard methods using total hemisphere digestion that were reported previously. Average growth rates calculated from data at this improved spatial resolution verified that opal grew at extremely slow rates over the last million years. Growth rates of 0.58 and 0.69 mm/m.y. were obtained for the outer 305 and 740 ??m of two opal hemispheres analyzed by ion microprobe, and 0.68 mm/m.y. for the outer 22 ??m of one of these same hemispheres analyzed by sequential microdigestion. These Pleistocene growth rates are 2 to 10 times slower than those calculated for older secondary calcite and silica mineral coatings deposited over the last 5 to 10 m.y. dated by the U-Pb method and may reflect differences between Miocene and Pleistocene seepage flux. The microdigestion data also imply that opal growth rates may have varied over the last 40 k.y. These data are the first indication that growth rates and associated seepage in the proposed repository horizon may correlate with changes in late Pleistocene climate, involving faster growth during wetter, cooler climates (glacial maximum), slower growth during transition climates, and no growth during the most arid climate (modern). Data collected at this refined spatial scale may lead to a better understanding of the hydrologic variability expected within the thick unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain over the time scale of interest for radioactive waste isolation. ?? 2004 Elsevier Ltd.

WebGIS based on semantic grid model and web services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, WangFei; Yue, CaiRong; Gao, JianGuo

2009-10-01

As the combination point of the network technology and GIS technology, WebGIS has got the fast development in recent years. With the restriction of Web and the characteristics of GIS, traditional WebGIS has some prominent problems existing in development. For example, it can't accomplish the interoperability of heterogeneous spatial databases; it can't accomplish the data access of cross-platform. With the appearance of Web Service and Grid technology, there appeared great change in field of WebGIS. Web Service provided an interface which can give information of different site the ability of data sharing and inter communication. The goal of Grid technology was to make the internet to a large and super computer, with this computer we can efficiently implement the overall sharing of computing resources, storage resource, data resource, information resource, knowledge resources and experts resources. But to WebGIS, we only implement the physically connection of data and information and these is far from the enough. Because of the different understanding of the world, following different professional regulations, different policies and different habits, the experts in different field will get different end when they observed the same geographic phenomenon and the semantic heterogeneity produced. Since these there are large differences to the same concept in different field. If we use the WebGIS without considering of the semantic heterogeneity, we will answer the questions users proposed wrongly or we can't answer the questions users proposed. To solve this problem, this paper put forward and experienced an effective method of combing semantic grid and Web Services technology to develop WebGIS. In this paper, we studied the method to construct ontology and the method to combine Grid technology and Web Services and with the detailed analysis of computing characteristics and application model in the distribution of data, we designed the WebGIS query system driven by ontology based on Grid technology and Web Services.

Failure Analysis for Composition of Web Services Represented as Labeled Transition Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nadkarni, Dinanath; Basu, Samik; Honavar, Vasant; Lutz, Robyn

The Web service composition problem involves the creation of a choreographer that provides the interaction between a set of component services to realize a goal service. Several methods have been proposed and developed to address this problem. In this paper, we consider those scenarios where the composition process may fail due to incomplete specification of goal service requirements or due to the fact that the user is unaware of the functionality provided by the existing component services. In such cases, it is desirable to have a composition algorithm that can provide feedback to the user regarding the cause of failure in the composition process. Such feedback will help guide the user to re-formulate the goal service and iterate the composition process. We propose a failure analysis technique for composition algorithms that views Web service behavior as multiple sequences of input/output events. Our technique identifies the possible cause of composition failure and suggests possible recovery options to the user. We discuss our technique using a simple e-Library Web service in the context of the MoSCoE Web service composition framework.

WebGLORE: a Web service for Grid LOgistic REgression

PubMed Central

Jiang, Wenchao; Li, Pinghao; Wang, Shuang; Wu, Yuan; Xue, Meng; Ohno-Machado, Lucila; Jiang, Xiaoqian

2013-01-01

WebGLORE is a free web service that enables privacy-preserving construction of a global logistic regression model from distributed datasets that are sensitive. It only transfers aggregated local statistics (from participants) through Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure to a trusted server, where the global model is synthesized. WebGLORE seamlessly integrates AJAX, JAVA Applet/Servlet and PHP technologies to provide an easy-to-use web service for biomedical researchers to break down policy barriers during information exchange. Availability and implementation: http://dbmi-engine.ucsd.edu/webglore3/. WebGLORE can be used under the terms of GNU general public license as published by the Free Software Foundation. Contact: x1jiang@ucsd.edu PMID:24072732

Development of spatial density maps based on geoprocessing web services: application to tuberculosis incidence in Barcelona, Spain.

PubMed

Dominkovics, Pau; Granell, Carlos; Pérez-Navarro, Antoni; Casals, Martí; Orcau, Angels; Caylà, Joan A

2011-11-29

Health professionals and authorities strive to cope with heterogeneous data, services, and statistical models to support decision making on public health. Sophisticated analysis and distributed processing capabilities over geocoded epidemiological data are seen as driving factors to speed up control and decision making in these health risk situations. In this context, recent Web technologies and standards-based web services deployed on geospatial information infrastructures have rapidly become an efficient way to access, share, process, and visualize geocoded health-related information. Data used on this study is based on Tuberculosis (TB) cases registered in Barcelona city during 2009. Residential addresses are geocoded and loaded into a spatial database that acts as a backend database. The web-based application architecture and geoprocessing web services are designed according to the Representational State Transfer (REST) principles. These web processing services produce spatial density maps against the backend database. The results are focused on the use of the proposed web-based application to the analysis of TB cases in Barcelona. The application produces spatial density maps to ease the monitoring and decision making process by health professionals. We also include a discussion of how spatial density maps may be useful for health practitioners in such contexts. In this paper, we developed web-based client application and a set of geoprocessing web services to support specific health-spatial requirements. Spatial density maps of TB incidence were generated to help health professionals in analysis and decision-making tasks. The combined use of geographic information tools, map viewers, and geoprocessing services leads to interesting possibilities in handling health data in a spatial manner. In particular, the use of spatial density maps has been effective to identify the most affected areas and its spatial impact. This study is an attempt to demonstrate how web processing services together with web-based mapping capabilities suit the needs of health practitioners in epidemiological analysis scenarios.

Development of spatial density maps based on geoprocessing web services: application to tuberculosis incidence in Barcelona, Spain

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Health professionals and authorities strive to cope with heterogeneous data, services, and statistical models to support decision making on public health. Sophisticated analysis and distributed processing capabilities over geocoded epidemiological data are seen as driving factors to speed up control and decision making in these health risk situations. In this context, recent Web technologies and standards-based web services deployed on geospatial information infrastructures have rapidly become an efficient way to access, share, process, and visualize geocoded health-related information. Methods Data used on this study is based on Tuberculosis (TB) cases registered in Barcelona city during 2009. Residential addresses are geocoded and loaded into a spatial database that acts as a backend database. The web-based application architecture and geoprocessing web services are designed according to the Representational State Transfer (REST) principles. These web processing services produce spatial density maps against the backend database. Results The results are focused on the use of the proposed web-based application to the analysis of TB cases in Barcelona. The application produces spatial density maps to ease the monitoring and decision making process by health professionals. We also include a discussion of how spatial density maps may be useful for health practitioners in such contexts. Conclusions In this paper, we developed web-based client application and a set of geoprocessing web services to support specific health-spatial requirements. Spatial density maps of TB incidence were generated to help health professionals in analysis and decision-making tasks. The combined use of geographic information tools, map viewers, and geoprocessing services leads to interesting possibilities in handling health data in a spatial manner. In particular, the use of spatial density maps has been effective to identify the most affected areas and its spatial impact. This study is an attempt to demonstrate how web processing services together with web-based mapping capabilities suit the needs of health practitioners in epidemiological analysis scenarios. PMID:22126392

Modern Technologies aspects for Oceanographic Data Management and Dissemination : The HNODC Implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lykiardopoulos, A.; Iona, A.; Lakes, V.; Batis, A.; Balopoulos, E.

2009-04-01

The development of new technologies for the aim of enhancing Web Applications with Dynamically data access was the starting point for Geospatial Web Applications to developed at the same time as well. By the means of these technologies the Web Applications embed the capability of presenting Geographical representations of the Geo Information. The induction in nowadays, of the state of the art technologies known as Web Services, enforce the Web Applications to have interoperability among them i.e. to be able to process requests from each other via a network. In particular throughout the Oceanographic Community, modern Geographical Information systems based on Geospatial Web Services are now developed or will be developed shortly in the near future, with capabilities of managing the information itself fully through Web Based Geographical Interfaces. The exploitation of HNODC Data Base, through a Web Based Application enhanced with Web Services by the use of open source tolls may be consider as an ideal case of such implementation. Hellenic National Oceanographic Data Center (HNODC) as a National Public Oceanographic Data provider and at the same time a member of the International Net of Oceanographic Data Centers( IOC/IODE), owns a very big volume of Data and Relevant information about the Marine Ecosystem. For the efficient management and exploitation of these Data, a relational Data Base has been constructed with a storage of over 300.000 station data concerning, physical, chemical and biological Oceanographic information. The development of a modern Web Application for the End User worldwide to be able to explore and navigate throughout HNODC data via the use of an interface with the capability of presenting Geographical representations of the Geo Information, is today a fact. The application is constituted with State of the art software components and tools such as: • Geospatial and no Spatial Web Services mechanisms • Geospatial open source tools for the creation of Dynamic Geographical Representations. • Communication protocols (messaging mechanisms) in all Layers such as XML and GML together with SOAP protocol via Apache/Axis. At the same time the application may interact with any other SOA application either in sending or receiving Geospatial Data through Geographical Layers, since it inherits the big advantage of interoperability between Web Services systems. Roughly the Architecture can denoted as follows: • At the back End Open source PostgreSQL DBMS stands as the data storage mechanism with more than one Data Base Schemas cause of the separation of the Geospatial Data and the non Geospatial Data. • UMN Map Server and Geoserver are the mechanisms for: Represent Geospatial Data via Web Map Service (WMS) Querying and Navigating in Geospatial and Meta Data Information via Web Feature Service (WFS) oAnd in the near future Transacting and processing new or existing Geospatial Data via Web Processing Service (WPS) • Map Bender, a geospatial portal site management software for OGC and OWS architectures acts as the integration module between the Geospatial Mechanisms. Mapbender comes with an embedded data model capable to manage interfaces for displaying, navigating and querying OGC compliant web map and feature services (WMS and transactional WFS). • Apache and Tomcat stand again as the Web Service middle Layers • Apache Axis with it's embedded implementation of the SOAP protocol ("Simple Object Access Protocol") acts as the No spatial data Mechanism of Web Services. These modules of the platform are still under development but their implementation will be fulfilled in the near future. • And a new Web user Interface for the end user based on enhanced and customized version of a MapBender GUI, a powerful Web Services client. For HNODC the interoperability of Web Services is the big advantage of the developed platform since it is capable to act in the future as provider and consumer of Web Services in both ways: • Either as data products provider for external SOA platforms. • Or as consumer of data products from external SOA platforms for new applications to be developed or for existing applications to be enhanced. A great paradigm of Data Managenet integration and dissemination via the use of such technologies is the European's Union Research Project Seadatanet, with the main objective to develop a standardized distributed system for managing and disseminating the large and diverse data sets and to enhance the currently existing infrastructures with Web Services Further more and when the technology of Web Processing Service (WPS), will be mature enough and applicable for development, the derived data products will be able to have any kind of GIS functionality for consumers across the network. From this point of view HNODC, joins the global scientific community by providing and consuming application Independent data products.

SimulatorToFMU v0.1

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nouidui, Thierry; Wetter, Michael

SimulatorToFMU is a software package written in Python which allows users to export a memoryless Python-driven simulation program or script as a Functional Mock-up Unit (FMU) for model exchange or co-simulation.In CyDER (Cyber Physical Co-simulation Platform for Distributed Energy Resources in Smart Grids), SimulatorToFMU will allow exporting OPAL-RT as an FMU. This will enable OPAL-RT to be linked to CYMDIST and GridDyn FMUs through a standardized open source interface.

Community Dynamics and Soil Seed Bank Ecology of Lane Mountain Milkvetch (Astragalus jaegerianus Munz)

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-08-01

concentrated in four geographic areas (Coolgardie Mesa, Paradise Valley, Brinkman Wash-Montana Mine , and the Gemini Conservation Area; Fig. 1) that total...data for 2003, and from 2007 through 2009 were generated by the remote automated weather station (RAWS) at Opal Mountain CA (35°09´N; 117°10´W; 980...m.). This weather station is approximately 30 km SW of UCLA’s milkvetch study sites. Opal Mountain and Goldstone monthly precipitation from 1992

Iran’s Nuclear Future: Critical U.S. Policy Choices

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-01

embargo as an act of war, and it could respond by attempting to close the Strait of Hormuz, using mines , antiship cruise missiles, or fast patrol boats...even it means we have to compromise on sovereignty by having U.S. troops deployed here” (quoted in Barbara Opall -Rome, “U.S. to Deploy Radar, Troops...2009. As of January 13, 2011: http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA510110 Opall -Rome, Barbara, “U.S. to Deploy Radar, Troops in Israel,” Defense News, August

Focused Lens on Unmanned Aerial Systems: An Evaluation of Department of Defense’s Unmanned Aerial Vision 2011

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-13

Break Free of Regulations.” 69Barbara Opall -Rome, “ Israel Tackles The Last Frontier Of UAS Technology: Israel Moves Closer Toward Flying UASs In...with the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter once it comes online, or with helicopters aboard the Littoral Combat Ship. Unmanned mine hunters could operate...Office, 2002. ———. Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap 2005-2030. Washington, DC: Government Publishing Office, 2005. Opall -Rome, Barbra. “Israel

Development of an optical parallel logic device and a half-adder circuit for digital optical processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Athale, R. A.; Lee, S. H.

1978-01-01

The paper describes the fabrication and operation of an optical parallel logic (OPAL) device which performs Boolean algebraic operations on binary images. Several logic operations on two input binary images were demonstrated using an 8 x 8 device with a CdS photoconductor and a twisted nematic liquid crystal. Two such OPAL devices can be interconnected to form a half-adder circuit which is one of the essential components of a CPU in a digital signal processor.

Photo- and electroluminescence of sulfide and silicate phosphors embedded in synthetic opal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaplan, S. F.; Kartenko, N. F.; Kurdyukov, D. A.; Medvedev, A. V.; Badalyan, A. G.; Golubev, V. G.

2007-02-01

The sulfide (ZnS:Mn, Zn xCd 1 -xS:Mn, Zn xCd 1- xS:Ag) and silicate (Zn 2SiO 4:Mn) phosphors were synthesized directly inside the pores of synthetic opal by chemical bath deposition. These composites are perfect three-dimensional photonic crystals, which produce effective photo- and electroluminescence at room temperature. The emission spectra are considerably modified by the photonic crystal structure to become anisotropic in accordance with the photonic band gap angular dispersion.

Discontinuous/continuous metal films grown on photosensitive glass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trotter, D. M., Jr.; Smith, D. W.

1984-07-01

A new effect which allows direct formation of thin metal films of controlled morphology is described. Patterns of glass-ceramic opal are developed in photosensitive glass samples by UV irradiation and heat treatment. The samples are then ion exchanged in molten salt baths containing Ag+ or Cu+ ions. On subsequent firing in a hydrogen atmosphere, continuous films with typical thin metal films properties grow on the opal regions of the samples. Discontinuous films, characterized by activated resistivities and switching, grow on the glassy regions.

Pragmatic service development and customisation with the CEDA OGC Web Services framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pascoe, Stephen; Stephens, Ag; Lowe, Dominic

2010-05-01

The CEDA OGC Web Services framework (COWS) emphasises rapid service development by providing a lightweight layer of OGC web service logic on top of Pylons, a mature web application framework for the Python language. This approach gives developers a flexible web service development environment without compromising access to the full range of web application tools and patterns: Model-View-Controller paradigm, XML templating, Object-Relational-Mapper integration and authentication/authorization. We have found this approach useful for exploring evolving standards and implementing protocol extensions to meet the requirements of operational deployments. This paper outlines how COWS is being used to implement customised WMS, WCS, WFS and WPS services in a variety of web applications from experimental prototypes to load-balanced cluster deployments serving 10-100 simultaneous users. In particular we will cover 1) The use of Climate Science Modeling Language (CSML) in complex-feature aware WMS, WCS and WFS services, 2) Extending WMS to support applications with features specific to earth system science and 3) A cluster-enabled Web Processing Service (WPS) supporting asynchronous data processing. The COWS WPS underpins all backend services in the UK Climate Projections User Interface where users can extract, plot and further process outputs from a multi-dimensional probabilistic climate model dataset. The COWS WPS supports cluster job execution, result caching, execution time estimation and user management. The COWS WMS and WCS components drive the project-specific NCEO and QESDI portals developed by the British Atmospheric Data Centre. These portals use CSML as a backend description format and implement features such as multiple WMS layer dimensions and climatology axes that are beyond the scope of general purpose GIS tools and yet vital for atmospheric science applications.

Technical Services and the World Wide Web.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheschy, Virginia M.

The World Wide Web and browsers such as Netscape and Mosaic have simplified access to electronic resources. Today, technical services librarians can share in the wealth of information available on the Web. One of the premier Web sites for acquisitions librarians is AcqWeb, a cousin of the AcqNet listserv. In addition to interesting news items,…

Dumbing Down the Net

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jamison, Mark A.; Hauge, Janice A.

It is commonplace for sellers of goods and services to enhance the value of their products by paying extra for premium delivery service. For example, package delivery services such as Federal Express and the US Postal Service offer shippers a variety of delivery speeds and insurance programs. Web content providers such as Yahoo! and MSN Live Earth can purchase web-enhancing services from companies such as Akamai to speed the delivery of their web content to customers.1

Determinants of Corporate Web Services Adoption: A Survey of Companies in Korea

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Daekil

2010-01-01

Despite the growing interest and attention from Information Technology researchers and practitioners, empirical research on factors that influence an organization's likelihood of adoption of Web Services has been limited. This study identified the factors influencing Web Services adoption from the perspective of 151 South Korean firms. The…

Web 2.0 Strategy in Libraries and Information Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byrne, Alex

2008-01-01

Web 2.0 challenges libraries to change from their predominantly centralised service models with integrated library management systems at the hub. Implementation of Web 2.0 technologies and the accompanying attitudinal shifts will demand reconceptualisation of the nature of library and information service around a dynamic, ever changing, networked,…

WIWS: a protein structure bioinformatics Web service collection.

PubMed

Hekkelman, M L; Te Beek, T A H; Pettifer, S R; Thorne, D; Attwood, T K; Vriend, G

2010-07-01

The WHAT IF molecular-modelling and drug design program is widely distributed in the world of protein structure bioinformatics. Although originally designed as an interactive application, its highly modular design and inbuilt control language have recently enabled its deployment as a collection of programmatically accessible web services. We report here a collection of WHAT IF-based protein structure bioinformatics web services: these relate to structure quality, the use of symmetry in crystal structures, structure correction and optimization, adding hydrogens and optimizing hydrogen bonds and a series of geometric calculations. The freely accessible web services are based on the industry standard WS-I profile and the EMBRACE technical guidelines, and are available via both REST and SOAP paradigms. The web services run on a dedicated computational cluster; their function and availability is monitored daily.

Using EMBL-EBI services via Web interface and programmatically via Web Services

PubMed Central

Lopez, Rodrigo; Cowley, Andrew; Li, Weizhong; McWilliam, Hamish

2015-01-01

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) provides access to a wide range of databases and analysis tools that are of key importance in bioinformatics. As well as providing Web interfaces to these resources, Web Services are available using SOAP and REST protocols that enable programmatic access to our resources and allow their integration into other applications and analytical workflows. This unit describes the various options available to a typical researcher or bioinformatician who wishes to use our resources via Web interface or programmatically via a range of programming languages. PMID:25501941

BioPortal: enhanced functionality via new Web services from the National Center for Biomedical Ontology to access and use ontologies in software applications.

PubMed

Whetzel, Patricia L; Noy, Natalya F; Shah, Nigam H; Alexander, Paul R; Nyulas, Csongor; Tudorache, Tania; Musen, Mark A

2011-07-01

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO) is one of the National Centers for Biomedical Computing funded under the NIH Roadmap Initiative. Contributing to the national computing infrastructure, NCBO has developed BioPortal, a web portal that provides access to a library of biomedical ontologies and terminologies (http://bioportal.bioontology.org) via the NCBO Web services. BioPortal enables community participation in the evaluation and evolution of ontology content by providing features to add mappings between terms, to add comments linked to specific ontology terms and to provide ontology reviews. The NCBO Web services (http://www.bioontology.org/wiki/index.php/NCBO_REST_services) enable this functionality and provide a uniform mechanism to access ontologies from a variety of knowledge representation formats, such as Web Ontology Language (OWL) and Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) format. The Web services provide multi-layered access to the ontology content, from getting all terms in an ontology to retrieving metadata about a term. Users can easily incorporate the NCBO Web services into software applications to generate semantically aware applications and to facilitate structured data collection.

SSWAP: A Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol for Semantic Web Services

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

SSWAP (Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol) is an architecture, protocol, and platform for using reasoning to semantically integrate heterogeneous disparate data and services on the web. SSWAP is the driving technology behind the Virtual Plant Information Network, an NSF-funded semantic w...

Utilization of Services in a Randomized Trial Testing Phone- and Web-Based Interventions for Smoking Cessation

PubMed Central

Jack, Lisa M.; McClure, Jennifer B.; Deprey, Mona; Javitz, Harold S.; McAfee, Timothy A.; Catz, Sheryl L.; Richards, Julie; Bush, Terry; Swan, Gary E.

2011-01-01

Introduction: Phone counseling has become standard for behavioral smoking cessation treatment. Newer options include Web and integrated phone–Web treatment. No prior research, to our knowledge, has systematically compared the effectiveness of these three treatment modalities in a randomized trial. Understanding how utilization varies by mode, the impact of utilization on outcomes, and predictors of utilization across each mode could lead to improved treatments. Methods: One thousand two hundred and two participants were randomized to phone, Web, or combined phone–Web cessation treatment. Services varied by modality and were tracked using automated systems. All participants received 12 weeks of varenicline, printed guides, an orientation call, and access to a phone supportline. Self-report data were collected at baseline and 6-month follow-up. Results: Overall, participants utilized phone services more often than the Web-based services. Among treatment groups with Web access, a significant proportion logged in only once (37% phone–Web, 41% Web), and those in the phone–Web group logged in less often than those in the Web group (mean = 2.4 vs. 3.7, p = .0001). Use of the phone also was correlated with increased use of the Web. In multivariate analyses, greater use of the phone- or Web-based services was associated with higher cessation rates. Finally, older age and the belief that certain treatments could improve success were consistent predictors of greater utilization across groups. Other predictors varied by treatment group. Conclusions: Opportunities for enhancing treatment utilization exist, particularly for Web-based programs. Increasing utilization more broadly could result in better overall treatment effectiveness for all intervention modalities. PMID:21330267

Web Services Implementations at Land Process and Goddard Earth Sciences Distributed Active Archive Centers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cole, M.; Bambacus, M.; Lynnes, C.; Sauer, B.; Falke, S.; Yang, W.

2007-12-01

NASA's vast array of scientific data within its Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) is especially valuable to both traditional research scientists as well as the emerging market of Earth Science Information Partners. For example, the air quality science and management communities are increasingly using satellite derived observations in their analyses and decision making. The Air Quality Cluster in the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) uses web infrastructures of interoperability, or Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), to extend data exploration, use, and analysis and provides a user environment for DAAC products. In an effort to continually offer these NASA data to the broadest research community audience, and reusing emerging technologies, both NASA's Goddard Earth Science (GES) and Land Process (LP) DAACs have engaged in a web services pilot project. Through these projects both GES and LP have exposed data through the Open Geospatial Consortiums (OGC) Web Services standards. Reusing several different existing applications and implementation techniques, GES and LP successfully exposed a variety data, through distributed systems to be ingested into multiple end-user systems. The results of this project will enable researchers world wide to access some of NASA's GES & LP DAAC data through OGC protocols. This functionality encourages inter-disciplinary research while increasing data use through advanced technologies. This paper will concentrate on the implementation and use of OGC Web Services, specifically Web Map and Web Coverage Services (WMS, WCS) at GES and LP DAACs, and the value of these services within scientific applications, including integration with the DataFed air quality web infrastructure and in the development of data analysis web applications.

Integrating hydrologic modeling web services with online data sharing to prepare, store, and execute models in hydrology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gan, T.; Tarboton, D. G.; Dash, P. K.; Gichamo, T.; Horsburgh, J. S.

2017-12-01

Web based apps, web services and online data and model sharing technology are becoming increasingly available to support research. This promises benefits in terms of collaboration, platform independence, transparency and reproducibility of modeling workflows and results. However, challenges still exist in real application of these capabilities and the programming skills researchers need to use them. In this research we combined hydrologic modeling web services with an online data and model sharing system to develop functionality to support reproducible hydrologic modeling work. We used HydroDS, a system that provides web services for input data preparation and execution of a snowmelt model, and HydroShare, a hydrologic information system that supports the sharing of hydrologic data, model and analysis tools. To make the web services easy to use, we developed a HydroShare app (based on the Tethys platform) to serve as a browser based user interface for HydroDS. In this integration, HydroDS receives web requests from the HydroShare app to process the data and execute the model. HydroShare supports storage and sharing of the results generated by HydroDS web services. The snowmelt modeling example served as a use case to test and evaluate this approach. We show that, after the integration, users can prepare model inputs or execute the model through the web user interface of the HydroShare app without writing program code. The model input/output files and metadata describing the model instance are stored and shared in HydroShare. These files include a Python script that is automatically generated by the HydroShare app to document and reproduce the model input preparation workflow. Once stored in HydroShare, inputs and results can be shared with other users, or published so that other users can directly discover, repeat or modify the modeling work. This approach provides a collaborative environment that integrates hydrologic web services with a data and model sharing system to enable model development and execution. The entire system comprised of the HydroShare app, HydroShare and HydroDS web services is open source and contributes to capability for web based modeling research.

Ages and stable-isotope compositions of secondary calcite and opal in drill cores from Tertiary volcanic rocks of the Yucca Mountain area, Nevada

USGS Publications Warehouse

Szabo, B. J.; Kyser, T.K.

1990-01-01

Stable-isotope compositions of fracture- and cavity-filling calcite from the unsaturated zone of three drill cores at Yucca Mountain Tertiary volcanic complex indicate that the water from which the minerals precipitated was probably meteoric in origin. A decrease in 18O in the calcite with depth is interpreted as being due to the increase in temperature in drill holes corresponding to an estimated average geothermal gradient of 34?? per kilometer. A few of the calcite samples and all of the opal samples yielded uranium-series ages older than 400 000 yr, although most of the calcite samples yielded ages between 26 000 and 310 000 yr. The stable-isotope and uranium-series dates from precipitated calcite and opal of this reconnaissance study suggest a complex history of fluid movement through the volcanic pile, and episodes of fracture filling predominantly from meteoric water during at least the past 400 000 yr. -Authors

A Gem of a Find

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2008-01-01

[figure removed for brevity, see original site] Click on image for larger annotated version

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed Martian rocks containing a hydrated mineral similar to opal. The rocks are light-toned and appear cream-colored in this false-color image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. Images acquired by the orbiter reveal that different layers of rock have different properties and chemistry. The opal minerals are located in distinct beds of rock outside of the large Valles Marineris canyon system and are also found in rocks within the canyon. The presence of opal in these relatively young rocks tells scientists that water, possibly as rivers and small ponds, interacted with the surface as recently as two billion years ago, one billion years later than scientists had expected. The discovery of this new category of minerals spread across large regions of Mars suggests that liquid water played an important role in shaping the planet's surface and possibly hosting life.

Can citizen science produce good science? Testing the OPAL Air Survey methodology, using lichens as indicators of nitrogenous pollution.

PubMed

Tregidgo, Daniel J; West, Sarah E; Ashmore, Mike R

2013-11-01

Citizen science is having increasing influence on environmental monitoring as its advantages are becoming recognised. However methodologies are often simplified to make them accessible to citizen scientists. We tested whether a recent citizen science survey (the OPAL Air Survey) could detect trends in lichen community composition over transects away from roads. We hypothesised that the abundance of nitrophilic lichens would decrease with distance from the road, while that of nitrophobic lichens would increase. The hypothesised changes were detected along strong pollution gradients, but not where the road source was relatively weak, or background pollution relatively high. We conclude that the simplified OPAL methodology can detect large contrasts in nitrogenous pollution, but it may not be able to detect more subtle changes in pollution exposure. Similar studies are needed in conjunction with the ever-growing body of citizen science work to ensure that the limitations of these methods are fully understood. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Real-Time-Simulation of IEEE-5-Bus Network on OPAL-RT-OP4510 Simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Atul Bhandakkar, Anjali; Mathew, Lini, Dr.

2018-03-01

The Real-Time Simulator tools have high computing technologies, improved performance. They are widely used for design and improvement of electrical systems. The advancement of the software tools like MATLAB/SIMULINK with its Real-Time Workshop (RTW) and Real-Time Windows Target (RTWT), real-time simulators are used extensively in many engineering fields, such as industry, education, and research institutions. OPAL-RT-OP4510 is a Real-Time Simulator which is used in both industry and academia. In this paper, the real-time simulation of IEEE-5-Bus network is carried out by means of OPAL-RT-OP4510 with CRO and other hardware. The performance of the network is observed with the introduction of fault at various locations. The waveforms of voltage, current, active and reactive power are observed in the MATLAB simulation environment and on the CRO. Also, Load Flow Analysis (LFA) of IEEE-5-Bus network is computed using MATLAB/Simulink power-gui load flow tool.

Tubular inverse opal scaffolds for biomimetic vessels.

PubMed

Zhao, Ze; Wang, Jie; Lu, Jie; Yu, Yunru; Fu, Fanfan; Wang, Huan; Liu, Yuxiao; Zhao, Yuanjin; Gu, Zhongze

2016-07-14

There is a clinical need for tissue-engineered blood vessels that can be used to replace or bypass damaged arteries. The success of such grafts depends strongly on their ability to mimic native arteries; however, currently available artificial vessels are restricted by their complex processing, controversial integrity, or uncontrollable cell location and orientation. Here, we present new tubular scaffolds with specific surface microstructures for structural vessel mimicry. The tubular scaffolds are fabricated by rotationally expanding three-dimensional tubular inverse opals that are replicated from colloidal crystal templates in capillaries. Because of the ordered porous structure of the inverse opals, the expanded tubular scaffolds are imparted with circumferentially oriented elliptical pattern microstructures on their surfaces. It is demonstrated that these tailored tubular scaffolds can effectively make endothelial cells to form an integrated hollow tubular structure on their inner surface and induce smooth muscle cells to form a circumferential orientation on their outer surface. These features of our tubular scaffolds make them highly promising for the construction of biomimetic blood vessels.

Thermo-, photo-, and mechano-responsive liquid crystal networks enable tunable photonic crystals.

PubMed

Akamatsu, N; Hisano, K; Tatsumi, R; Aizawa, M; Barrett, C J; Shishido, A

2017-10-25

Tunable photonic crystals exhibiting optical properties that respond reversibly to external stimuli have been developed using liquid crystal networks (LCNs) and liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs). These tunable photonic crystals possess an inverse opal structure and are photo-responsive, but circumvent the usual requirement to contain dye molecules in the structure that often limit their applicability and cause optical degradation. Herein, we report tunable photonic crystal films that reversibly tune the reflection peak wavelength under thermo-, photo- and mechano-stimuli, through bilayering a stimuli-responsive LCN including azobenzene units with a colourless inverse opal film composed of non-responsive, flexible durable polymers. By mechanically deforming the azobenzene containing LCN via various stimuli, the reflection peak wavelength from the bilayered film assembly could be shifted on demand. We confirm that the reflection peak shift occurs due to the deformation of the stimuli-responsive layer propagating towards and into the inverse opal layer to change its shape in response, and this shift behaviour is repeatable without optical degradation.

Proof of Concept Integration of a Single-Level Service-Oriented Architecture into a Multi-Domain Secure Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-03-01

Machine [29]. OC4J applications support Java Servlets , Web services, and the following J2EE specific standards: Extensible Markup Language (XML...IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol IP Internet Protocol IT Information Technology xviii J2EE Java Enterprise Environment JSR 168 Java ...LDAP), World Wide Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDav), Java Specification Request 168 (JSR 168), and Web Services for Remote

Persistent identifiers for web service requests relying on a provenance ontology design pattern

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Car, Nicholas; Wang, Jingbo; Wyborn, Lesley; Si, Wei

2016-04-01

Delivering provenance information for datasets produced from static inputs is relatively straightforward: we represent the processing actions and data flow using provenance ontologies and link to stored copies of the inputs stored in repositories. If appropriate detail is given, the provenance information can then describe what actions have occurred (transparency) and enable reproducibility. When web service-generated data is used by a process to create a dataset instead of a static inputs, we need to use sophisticated provenance representations of the web service request as we can no longer just link to data stored in a repository. A graph-based provenance representation, such as the W3C's PROV standard, can be used to model the web service request as a single conceptual dataset and also as a small workflow with a number of components within the same provenance report. This dual representation does more than just allow simplified or detailed views of a dataset's production to be used where appropriate. It also allow persistent identifiers to be assigned to instances of a web service requests, thus enabling one form of dynamic data citation, and for those identifiers to resolve to whatever level of detail implementers think appropriate in order for that web service request to be reproduced. In this presentation we detail our reasoning in representing web service requests as small workflows. In outline, this stems from the idea that web service requests are perdurant things and in order to most easily persist knowledge of them for provenance, we should represent them as a nexus of relationships between endurant things, such as datasets and knowledge of particular system types, as these endurant things are far easier to persist. We also describe the ontology design pattern that we use to represent workflows in general and how we apply it to different types of web service requests. We give examples of specific web service requests instances that were made by systems at Australia's National Computing Infrastructure and show how one can 'click' through provenance interfaces to see the dual representations of the requests using provenance management tooling we have built.

A flexible geospatial sensor observation service for diverse sensor data based on Web service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Nengcheng; Di, Liping; Yu, Genong; Min, Min

Achieving a flexible and efficient geospatial Sensor Observation Service (SOS) is difficult, given the diversity of sensor networks, the heterogeneity of sensor data storage, and the differing requirements of users. This paper describes development of a service-oriented multi-purpose SOS framework. The goal is to create a single method of access to the data by integrating the sensor observation service with other Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) services — Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW), Transactional Web Feature Service (WFS-T) and Transactional Web Coverage Service (WCS-T). The framework includes an extensible sensor data adapter, an OGC-compliant geospatial SOS, a geospatial catalogue service, a WFS-T, and a WCS-T for the SOS, and a geospatial sensor client. The extensible sensor data adapter finds, stores, and manages sensor data from live sensors, sensor models, and simulation systems. Abstract factory design patterns are used during design and implementation. A sensor observation service compatible with the SWE is designed, following the OGC "core" and "transaction" specifications. It is implemented using Java servlet technology. It can be easily deployed in any Java servlet container and automatically exposed for discovery using Web Service Description Language (WSDL). Interaction sequences between a Sensor Web data consumer and an SOS, between a producer and an SOS, and between an SOS and a CSW are described in detail. The framework has been successfully demonstrated in application scenarios for EO-1 observations, weather observations, and water height gauge observations.

Accessing the SEED genome databases via Web services API: tools for programmers.

PubMed

Disz, Terry; Akhter, Sajia; Cuevas, Daniel; Olson, Robert; Overbeek, Ross; Vonstein, Veronika; Stevens, Rick; Edwards, Robert A

2010-06-14

The SEED integrates many publicly available genome sequences into a single resource. The database contains accurate and up-to-date annotations based on the subsystems concept that leverages clustering between genomes and other clues to accurately and efficiently annotate microbial genomes. The backend is used as the foundation for many genome annotation tools, such as the Rapid Annotation using Subsystems Technology (RAST) server for whole genome annotation, the metagenomics RAST server for random community genome annotations, and the annotation clearinghouse for exchanging annotations from different resources. In addition to a web user interface, the SEED also provides Web services based API for programmatic access to the data in the SEED, allowing the development of third-party tools and mash-ups. The currently exposed Web services encompass over forty different methods for accessing data related to microbial genome annotations. The Web services provide comprehensive access to the database back end, allowing any programmer access to the most consistent and accurate genome annotations available. The Web services are deployed using a platform independent service-oriented approach that allows the user to choose the most suitable programming platform for their application. Example code demonstrate that Web services can be used to access the SEED using common bioinformatics programming languages such as Perl, Python, and Java. We present a novel approach to access the SEED database. Using Web services, a robust API for access to genomics data is provided, without requiring large volume downloads all at once. The API ensures timely access to the most current datasets available, including the new genomes as soon as they come online.

The impact of a state-sponsored mass media campaign on use of telephone quitline and web-based cessation services.

PubMed

Duke, Jennifer C; Mann, Nathan; Davis, Kevin C; MacMonegle, Anna; Allen, Jane; Porter, Lauren

2014-12-24

Most US smokers do not use evidence-based interventions as part of their quit attempts. Quitlines and Web-based treatments may contribute to reductions in population-level tobacco use if successfully promoted. Currently, few states implement sustained media campaigns to promote services and increase adult smoking cessation. This study examines the effects of Florida's tobacco cessation media campaign and a nationally funded media campaign on telephone quitline and Web-based registrations for cessation services from November 2010 through September 2013. We conducted multivariable analyses of weekly media-market-level target rating points (TRPs) and weekly registrations for cessation services through the Florida Quitline (1-877-U-CAN-NOW) or its Web-based cessation service, Web Coach (www.quitnow.net/florida). During 35 months, 141,221 tobacco users registered for cessation services through the Florida Quitline, and 53,513 registered through Web Coach. An increase in 100 weekly TRPs was associated with an increase of 7 weekly Florida Quitline registrants (β = 6.8, P < .001) and 2 Web Coach registrants (β = 1.7, P = .003) in an average media market. An increase in TRPs affected registrants from multiple demographic subgroups similarly. When state and national media campaigns aired simultaneously, approximately one-fifth of Florida's Quitline registrants came from the nationally advertised portal (1-800-QUIT-NOW). Sustained, state-sponsored media can increase the number of registrants to telephone quitlines and Web-based cessation services. Federally funded media campaigns can further increase the reach of state-sponsored cessation services.

The Impact of a State-Sponsored Mass Media Campaign on Use of Telephone Quitline and Web-Based Cessation Services

PubMed Central

Mann, Nathan; Davis, Kevin C.; MacMonegle, Anna; Allen, Jane; Porter, Lauren

2014-01-01

Introduction Most US smokers do not use evidence-based interventions as part of their quit attempts. Quitlines and Web-based treatments may contribute to reductions in population-level tobacco use if successfully promoted. Currently, few states implement sustained media campaigns to promote services and increase adult smoking cessation. This study examines the effects of Florida’s tobacco cessation media campaign and a nationally funded media campaign on telephone quitline and Web-based registrations for cessation services from November 2010 through September 2013. Methods We conducted multivariable analyses of weekly media-market–level target rating points (TRPs) and weekly registrations for cessation services through the Florida Quitline (1-877-U-CAN-NOW) or its Web-based cessation service, Web Coach (www.quitnow.net/florida). Results During 35 months, 141,221 tobacco users registered for cessation services through the Florida Quitline, and 53,513 registered through Web Coach. An increase in 100 weekly TRPs was associated with an increase of 7 weekly Florida Quitline registrants (β = 6.8, P < .001) and 2 Web Coach registrants (β = 1.7, P = .003) in an average media market. An increase in TRPs affected registrants from multiple demographic subgroups similarly. When state and national media campaigns aired simultaneously, approximately one-fifth of Florida’s Quitline registrants came from the nationally advertised portal (1-800-QUIT-NOW). Conclusion Sustained, state-sponsored media can increase the number of registrants to telephone quitlines and Web-based cessation services. Federally funded media campaigns can further increase the reach of state-sponsored cessation services. PMID:25539129

Development of XML Schema for Broadband Digital Seismograms and Data Center Portal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takeuchi, N.; Tsuboi, S.; Ishihara, Y.; Nagao, H.; Yamagishi, Y.; Watanabe, T.; Yanaka, H.; Yamaji, H.

2008-12-01

There are a number of data centers around the globe, where the digital broadband seismograms are opened to researchers. Those centers use their own user interfaces and there are no standard to access and retrieve seismograms from different data centers using unified interface. One of the emergent technologies to realize unified user interface for different data centers is the concept of WebService and WebService portal. Here we have developed a prototype of data center portal for digital broadband seismograms. This WebService portal uses WSDL (Web Services Description Language) to accommodate differences among the different data centers. By using the WSDL, alteration and addition of data center user interfaces can be easily managed. This portal, called NINJA Portal, assumes three WebServices: (1) database Query service, (2) Seismic event data request service, and (3) Seismic continuous data request service. Current system supports both station search of database Query service and seismic continuous data request service. Data centers supported by this NINJA portal will be OHP data center in ERI and Pacific21 data center in IFREE/JAMSTEC in the beginning. We have developed metadata standard for seismological data based on QuakeML for parametric data, which has been developed by ETH Zurich, and XML-SEED for waveform data, which was developed by IFREE/JAMSTEC. The prototype of NINJA portal is now released through IFREE web page (http://www.jamstec.go.jp/pacific21/).

75 FR 75170 - APHIS User Fee Web Site

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-12-02

...] APHIS User Fee Web Site AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice... recover the costs of providing certain services. This notice announces the availability of a Web site that contains information about the Agency's user fees. ADDRESSES: The Agency's user fee Web site is located at...

Inverse Opal Photonic Crystals as an Optofluidic Platform for Fast Analysis of Hydrocarbon Mixtures.

PubMed

Xu, Qiwei; Mahpeykar, Seyed Milad; Burgess, Ian B; Wang, Xihua

2018-06-13

Most of the reported optofluidic devices analyze liquid by measuring its refractive index. Recently, the wettability of liquid on various substrates has also been used as a key sensing parameter in optofluidic sensors. However, the above-mentioned techniques face challenges in the analysis of the relative concentration of components in an alkane hydrocarbon mixture, as both refractive indices and wettabilities of alkane hydrocarbons are very close. Here, we propose to apply volatility of liquid as the key sensing parameter, correlate it to the optical property of liquid inside inverse opal photonic crystals, and construct powerful optofluidic sensors for alkane hydrocarbon identification and analysis. We have demonstrated that via evaporation of hydrocarbons inside the periodic structure of inverse opal photonic crystals and observation of their reflection spectra, an inverse opal film could be used as a fast-response optofluidic sensor to accurately differentiate pure hydrocarbon liquids and relative concentrations of their binary and ternary mixtures in tens of seconds. In these 3D photonic crystals, pure chemicals with different volatilities would have different evaporation rates and can be easily identified via the total drying time. For multicomponent mixtures, the same strategy is applied to determine the relative concentration of each component simply by measuring drying time under different temperatures. Using this optofluidic sensing platform, we have determined the relative concentrations of ternary hydrocarbon mixtures with the difference of only one carbon between alkane hydrocarbons, which is a big step toward detailed hydrocarbon analysis for practical use.

Persistent millennial-scale link between Greenland climate and northern Pacific Oxygen Minimum Zone under interglacial conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cartapanis, O.; Tachikawa, K.; Romero, O. E.; Bard, E.

2014-02-01

The intensity and/or extent of the northeastern Pacific Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ) varied in-phase with the Northern Hemisphere high latitude climate on millennial timescales during the last glacial period, indicating the occurrence of atmospheric and oceanic connections under glacial conditions. While millennial variability was reported for both the Greenland and the northern Atlantic Ocean during the last interglacial period, the climatic connections with the northeastern Pacific OMZ has not yet been observed under warm interglacial conditions. Here we present a new geochemical dataset, spanning the past 120 ka, for major components (terrigenous fraction, marine organic matter, biogenic opal, and carbonates) generated by X-ray fluorescence scanning alongside with biological productivity and redox sensitive trace element content (Mo, Ni, Cd) of sediment core MD02-2508 at 23° N, retrieved from the northern limit of the modern OMZ. Based on elemental ratios Si / Ti (proxy for opal), Cd / Al and Ni / Al, we suggest that biological productivity was high during the last interglacial (MIS5). Highly resolved opal reconstruction presents millennial variability corresponding to all the Dansgaard-Oeschger interstadial events over the last interglacial, while the Mo / Al ratio indicates reduced oxygenation during these events. Extremely high opal content during warm interstadials suggests high diatom productivity. Despite the different climatic and oceanic background between glacial and interglacial periods, rapid variability in the northeastern Pacific OMZ seems to be tightly related to Northern Hemisphere high latitude climate via atmospheric and possibly oceanic processes.

Silk fibroin scaffolds with inverse opal structure for bone tissue engineering.

PubMed

Sommer, Marianne R; Vetsch, Jolanda R; Leemann, Jessica; Müller, Ralph; Studart, André R; Hofmann, Sandra

2017-10-01

How scaffold porosity, pore diameter and geometry influence cellular behavior is-although heavily researched - merely understood, especially in 3D. This is mainly caused by a lack of suitable, reproducible scaffold fabrication methods, with processes such as gas foaming, lyophilization or particulate leaching still being the standard. Here we propose a method to generate highly porous silk fibroin scaffolds with monodisperse spherical pores, namely inverse opals, and study their effect on cell behavior. These silk fibroin inverse opal scaffolds were compared to salt-leached silk fibroin scaffolds in terms of human mesenchymal stem cell response upon osteogenic differentiation signals. While cell number remained similar on both scaffold types, extracellular matrix mineralization nearly doubled on the newly developed scaffolds, suggesting a positive effect on cell differentiation. By using the very same material with comparable average pore diameters, this increase in mineral content can be attributed to either the differences in pore diameter distribution or the pore geometry. Although the exact mechanisms leading to enhanced mineralization in inverse opals are not yet fully understood, our results indicate that control over pore geometry alone can have a major impact on the bioactivity of a scaffold toward stem cell differentiation into bone tissue. © 2016 The Authors Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 105B: 2074-2084, 2017. © 2016 The Authors Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

MedlinePlus Connect: Technical Information

MedlinePlus

... Service Technical Information Page MedlinePlus Connect Implementation Options Web Application How does it work? Responds to requests ... examples of MedlinePlus Connect Web Application response pages. Web Service How does it work? Responds to requests ...

Developing Web Services for Technology Education. The Graphic Communication Electronic Publishing Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanders, Mark

1999-01-01

Graphic Communication Electronic Publishing Project supports a Web site (http://TechEd.vt.edu/gcc/) for graphic communication teachers and students, providing links to Web materials, conversion of print materials to electronic formats, and electronic products and services including job listings, resume posting service, and a listserv. (SK)

Publication, discovery and interoperability of Clinical Decision Support Systems: A Linked Data approach.

PubMed

Marco-Ruiz, Luis; Pedrinaci, Carlos; Maldonado, J A; Panziera, Luca; Chen, Rong; Bellika, J Gustav

2016-08-01

The high costs involved in the development of Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) make it necessary to share their functionality across different systems and organizations. Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) have been proposed to allow reusing CDSS by encapsulating them in a Web service. However, strong barriers in sharing CDS functionality are still present as a consequence of lack of expressiveness of services' interfaces. Linked Services are the evolution of the Semantic Web Services paradigm to process Linked Data. They aim to provide semantic descriptions over SOA implementations to overcome the limitations derived from the syntactic nature of Web services technologies. To facilitate the publication, discovery and interoperability of CDS services by evolving them into Linked Services that expose their interfaces as Linked Data. We developed methods and models to enhance CDS SOA as Linked Services that define a rich semantic layer based on machine interpretable ontologies that powers their interoperability and reuse. These ontologies provided unambiguous descriptions of CDS services properties to expose them to the Web of Data. We developed models compliant with Linked Data principles to create a semantic representation of the components that compose CDS services. To evaluate our approach we implemented a set of CDS Linked Services using a Web service definition ontology. The definitions of Web services were linked to the models developed in order to attach unambiguous semantics to the service components. All models were bound to SNOMED-CT and public ontologies (e.g. Dublin Core) in order to count on a lingua franca to explore them. Discovery and analysis of CDS services based on machine interpretable models was performed reasoning over the ontologies built. Linked Services can be used effectively to expose CDS services to the Web of Data by building on current CDS standards. This allows building shared Linked Knowledge Bases to provide machine interpretable semantics to the CDS service description alleviating the challenges on interoperability and reuse. Linked Services allow for building 'digital libraries' of distributed CDS services that can be hosted and maintained in different organizations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Integrating geo web services for a user driven exploratory analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moncrieff, Simon; Turdukulov, Ulanbek; Gulland, Elizabeth-Kate

2016-04-01

In data exploration, several online data sources may need to be dynamically aggregated or summarised over spatial region, time interval, or set of attributes. With respect to thematic data, web services are mainly used to present results leading to a supplier driven service model limiting the exploration of the data. In this paper we propose a user need driven service model based on geo web processing services. The aim of the framework is to provide a method for the scalable and interactive access to various geographic data sources on the web. The architecture combines a data query, processing technique and visualisation methodology to rapidly integrate and visually summarise properties of a dataset. We illustrate the environment on a health related use case that derives Age Standardised Rate - a dynamic index that needs integration of the existing interoperable web services of demographic data in conjunction with standalone non-spatial secure database servers used in health research. Although the example is specific to the health field, the architecture and the proposed approach are relevant and applicable to other fields that require integration and visualisation of geo datasets from various web services and thus, we believe is generic in its approach.

Spatial Data Services for Interdisciplinary Applications from the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, R. S.; MacManus, K.; Vinay, S.; Yetman, G.

2016-12-01

The Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), one of 12 Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) in the NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS), has developed a variety of operational spatial data services aimed at providing online access, visualization, and analytic functions for geospatial socioeconomic and environmental data. These services include: open web services that implement Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) specifications such as Web Map Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS), and Web Coverage Service (WCS); spatial query services that support Web Processing Service (WPS) and Representation State Transfer (REST); and web map clients and a mobile app that utilize SEDAC and other open web services. These services may be accessed from a variety of external map clients and visualization tools such as NASA's WorldView, NOAA's Climate Explorer, and ArcGIS Online. More than 200 data layers related to population, settlements, infrastructure, agriculture, environmental pollution, land use, health, hazards, climate change and other aspects of sustainable development are available through WMS, WFS, and/or WCS. Version 2 of the SEDAC Population Estimation Service (PES) supports spatial queries through WPS and REST in the form of a user-defined polygon or circle. The PES returns an estimate of the population residing in the defined area for a specific year (2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, or 2020) based on SEDAC's Gridded Population of the World version 4 (GPWv4) dataset, together with measures of accuracy. The SEDAC Hazards Mapper and the recently released HazPop iOS mobile app enable users to easily submit spatial queries to the PES and see the results. SEDAC has developed an operational virtualized backend infrastructure to manage these services and support their continual improvement as standards change, new data and services become available, and user needs evolve. An ongoing challenge is to improve the reliability and performance of the infrastructure, in conjunction with external services, to meet both research and operational needs.

Web Services Provide Access to SCEC Scientific Research Application Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, N.; Gupta, V.; Okaya, D.; Kamb, L.; Maechling, P.

2003-12-01

Web services offer scientific communities a new paradigm for sharing research codes and communicating results. While there are formal technical definitions of what constitutes a web service, for a user community such as the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), we may conceptually consider a web service to be functionality provided on-demand by an application which is run on a remote computer located elsewhere on the Internet. The value of a web service is that it can (1) run a scientific code without the user needing to install and learn the intricacies of running the code; (2) provide the technical framework which allows a user's computer to talk to the remote computer which performs the service; (3) provide the computational resources to run the code; and (4) bundle several analysis steps and provide the end results in digital or (post-processed) graphical form. Within an NSF-sponsored ITR project coordinated by SCEC, we are constructing web services using architectural protocols and programming languages (e.g., Java). However, because the SCEC community has a rich pool of scientific research software (written in traditional languages such as C and FORTRAN), we also emphasize making existing scientific codes available by constructing web service frameworks which wrap around and directly run these codes. In doing so we attempt to broaden community usage of these codes. Web service wrapping of a scientific code can be done using a "web servlet" construction or by using a SOAP/WSDL-based framework. This latter approach is widely adopted in IT circles although it is subject to rapid evolution. Our wrapping framework attempts to "honor" the original codes with as little modification as is possible. For versatility we identify three methods of user access: (A) a web-based GUI (written in HTML and/or Java applets); (B) a Linux/OSX/UNIX command line "initiator" utility (shell-scriptable); and (C) direct access from within any Java application (and with the correct API interface from within C++ and/or C/Fortran). This poster presentation will provide descriptions of the following selected web services and their origin as scientific application codes: 3D community velocity models for Southern California, geocoordinate conversions (latitude/longitude to UTM), execution of GMT graphical scripts, data format conversions (Gocad to Matlab format), and implementation of Seismic Hazard Analysis application programs that calculate hazard curve and hazard map data sets.

Collaboratively Conceived, Designed and Implemented: Matching Visualization Tools with Geoscience Data Collections and Geoscience Data Collections with Visualization Tools via the ToolMatch Service.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoebelheinrich, N. J.; Lynnes, C.; West, P.; Ferritto, M.

2014-12-01

Two problems common to many geoscience domains are the difficulties in finding tools to work with a given dataset collection, and conversely, the difficulties in finding data for a known tool. A collaborative team from the Earth Science Information Partnership (ESIP) has gotten together to design and create a web service, called ToolMatch, to address these problems. The team began their efforts by defining an initial, relatively simple conceptual model that addressed the two uses cases briefly described above. The conceptual model is expressed as an ontology using OWL (Web Ontology Language) and DCterms (Dublin Core Terms), and utilizing standard ontologies such as DOAP (Description of a Project), FOAF (Friend of a Friend), SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) and DCAT (Data Catalog Vocabulary). The ToolMatch service will be taking advantage of various Semantic Web and Web standards, such as OpenSearch, RESTful web services, SWRL (Semantic Web Rule Language) and SPARQL (Simple Protocol and RDF Query Language). The first version of the ToolMatch service was deployed in early fall 2014. While more complete testing is required, a number of communities besides ESIP member organizations have expressed interest in collaborating to create, test and use the service and incorporate it into their own web pages, tools and / or services including the USGS Data Catalog service, DataONE, the Deep Carbon Observatory, Virtual Solar Terrestrial Observatory (VSTO), and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. In this session, presenters will discuss the inception and development of the ToolMatch service, the collaborative process used to design, refine, and test the service, and future plans for the service.

Design Drivers of Water Data Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valentine, D.; Zaslavsky, I.

2008-12-01

The CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System (HIS) is being developed as a geographically distributed network of hydrologic data sources and functions that are integrated using web services so that they function as a connected whole. The core of the HIS service-oriented architecture is a collection of water web services, which provide uniform access to multiple repositories of observation data. These services use SOAP protocols communicating WaterML (Water Markup Language). When a client makes a data or metadata request using a CUAHSI HIS web service, these requests are made in standard manner, following the CUAHSI HIS web service signatures - regardless of how the underlying data source may be organized. Also, regardless of the format in which the data are returned by the source, the web services respond to requests by returning the data in a standard format of WaterML. The goal of WaterML design has been to capture semantics of hydrologic observations discovery and retrieval and express the point observations information model as an XML schema. To a large extent, it follows the representation of the information model as adopted by the CUASHI Observations Data Model (ODM) relational design. Another driver of WaterML design is specifications and metadata adopted by USGS NWIS, EPA STORET, and other federal agencies, as it seeks to provide a common foundation for exchanging both agency data and data collected in multiple academic projects. Another WaterML design principle was to create, in version 1 of HIS in particular, a fairly rigid and simple XML schema which is easy to generate and parse, thus creating the least barrier for adoption by hydrologists. WaterML includes a series of elements that reflect common notions used in describing hydrologic observations, such as site, variable, source, observation series, seriesCatalog, and data values. Each of the three main request methods in the water web services - GetSiteInfo, GetVariableInfo, and GetValues - has a corresponding response element in WaterML: SitesResponse, VariableResponse, and TimeSeriesResponse. The WaterML specification is being adopted by federal agencies. The experimental USGS NWIS Daily Values web service returns WaterML-compliant TImeSeriesResponse. The National Climatic Data Center is also prototyping WaterML for data delivery, and has developed a REST-based service that generates WaterML- compliant output for the NCDC ASOS network. Such agency-supported web services coming online provide a much more efficient way to deliver agency data compared to the web site scraper services that the CUAHSI HIS project has developed initially. The CUAHSI water data web services will continue to serve as the main communication mechanism within CUAHSI HIS, connecting a variety of data sources with a growing set of web service clients being developed in both academia and the commercial sector. The driving forces for the development of web services continue to be: - Application experience and needs of the growing number of CUAHSI HIS users, who experiment with additional data types, analysis modes, data browsing and searching strategies, and provide feedback to WaterML developers; - Data description requirements posed by various federal and state agencies; - Harmonization with standards being adopted or developed in neighboring communities, in particular the relevant standards being explored within the Open Geospatial Consortium. CUAHSI WaterML is a standard output schema for CUAHSI HIS water web services. Its formal specification is available as OGC discussion paper at www.opengeospatial.org/standards/dp/ class="ab'>

Operational Use of OGC Web Services at the Met Office

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wright, Bruce

2010-05-01

The Met Office has adopted the Service-Orientated Architecture paradigm to deliver services to a range of customers through Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). The approach uses standard Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web services to provide information to web-based applications through a range of generic data services. "Invent", the Met Office beta site, is used to showcase Met Office future plans for presenting web-based weather forecasts, product and information to the public. This currently hosts a freely accessible Weather Map Viewer, written in JavaScript, which accesses a Web Map Service (WMS), to deliver innovative web-based visualizations of weather and its potential impacts to the public. The intention is to engage the public in the development of new web-based services that more accurately meet their needs. As the service is intended for public use within the UK, it has been designed to support a user base of 5 million, the analysed level of UK web traffic reaching the Met Office's public weather information site. The required scalability has been realised through the use of multi-tier tile caching: - WMS requests are made for 256x256 tiles for fixed areas and zoom levels; - a Tile Cache, developed in house, efficiently serves tiles on demand, managing WMS request for the new tiles; - Edge Servers, externally hosted by Akamai, provide a highly scalable (UK-centric) service for pre-cached tiles, passing new requests to the Tile Cache; - the Invent Weather Map Viewer uses the Google Maps API to request tiles from Edge Servers. (We would expect to make use of the Web Map Tiling Service, when it becomes an OGC standard.) The Met Office delivers specialist commercial products to market sectors such as transport, utilities and defence, which exploit a Web Feature Service (WFS) for data relating forecasts and observations to specific geographic features, and a Web Coverage Service (WCS) for sub-selections of gridded data. These are locally rendered as maps or graphs, and combined with the WMS pre-rendered images and text, in a FLEX application, to provide sophisticated, user impact-based view of the weather. The OGC web services supporting these applications have been developed in collaboration with commercial companies. Visual Weather was originally a desktop application for forecasters, but IBL have developed it to expose the full range of forecast and observation data through standard web services (WCS and WMS). Forecasts and observations relating to specific locations and geographic features are held in an Oracle Database, and exposed as a WFS using Snowflake Software's GO-Publisher application. The Met Office has worked closely with both IBL and Snowflake Software to ensure that the web services provided strike a balance between conformance to the standards and performance in an operational environment. This has proved challenging in areas where the standards are rapidly evolving (e.g. WCS) or do not allow adequate description of the Met-Ocean domain (e.g. multiple time coordinates and parametric vertical coordinates). It has also become clear that careful selection of the features to expose, based on the way in which you expect users to query those features, in necessary in order to deliver adequate performance. These experiences are providing useful 'real-world' input in to the recently launched OGC MetOcean Domain Working Group and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) initiatives in this area.

Web Services and Data Enhancements at the Northern California Earthquake Data Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neuhauser, D. S.; Zuzlewski, S.; Lombard, P. N.; Allen, R. M.

2013-12-01

The Northern California Earthquake Data Center (NCEDC) provides data archive and distribution services for seismological and geophysical data sets that encompass northern California. The NCEDC is enhancing its ability to deliver rapid information through Web Services. NCEDC Web Services use well-established web server and client protocols and REST software architecture to allow users to easily make queries using web browsers or simple program interfaces and to receive the requested data in real-time rather than through batch or email-based requests. Data are returned to the user in the appropriate format such as XML, RESP, simple text, or MiniSEED depending on the service and selected output format. The NCEDC offers the following web services that are compliant with the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN) web services specifications: (1) fdsn-dataselect: time series data delivered in MiniSEED format, (2) fdsn-station: station and channel metadata and time series availability delivered in StationXML format, (3) fdsn-event: earthquake event information delivered in QuakeML format. In addition, the NCEDC offers the the following IRIS-compatible web services: (1) sacpz: provide channel gains, poles, and zeros in SAC format, (2) resp: provide channel response information in RESP format, (3) dataless: provide station and channel metadata in Dataless SEED format. The NCEDC is also developing a web service to deliver timeseries from pre-assembled event waveform gathers. The NCEDC has waveform gathers for ~750,000 northern and central California events from 1984 to the present, many of which were created by the USGS NCSN prior to the establishment of the joint NCSS (Northern California Seismic System). We are currently adding waveforms to these older event gathers with time series from the UCB networks and other networks with waveforms archived at the NCEDC, and ensuring that the waveform for each channel in the event gathers have the highest quality waveform from the archive.

Using JavaScript and the FDSN web service to create an interactive earthquake information system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, Kasper D.

2015-04-01

The FDSN web service provides a web interface to access earthquake meta-data (e. g. event or station information) and waveform date over the internet. Requests are send to a server as URLs and the output is either XML or miniSEED. This makes it hard to read by humans but easy to process with different software. Different data centers are already supporting the FDSN web service, e. g. USGS, IRIS, ORFEUS. The FDSN web service is also part of the Seiscomp3 (http://www.seiscomp3.org) software. The Seismological Observatory of the Ruhr-University switched to Seiscomp3 as the standard software for the analysis of mining induced earthquakes at the beginning of 2014. This made it necessary to create a new web-based earthquake information service for the publication of results to the general public. This has be done by processing the output of a FDSN web service query by javascript running in a standard browser. The result is an interactive map presenting the observed events and further information of events and stations on a single web page as a table and on a map. In addition the user can download event information, waveform data and station data in different formats like miniSEED, quakeML or FDSNxml. The developed code and all used libraries are open source and freely available.

Factors that influence acceptance of web-based e-learning systems for the in-service education of junior high school teachers in Taiwan.

PubMed

Chen, Hong-Ren; Tseng, Hsiao-Fen

2012-08-01

Web-based e-learning is not restricted by time or place and can provide teachers with a learning environment that is flexible and convenient, enabling them to efficiently learn, quickly develop their professional expertise, and advance professionally. Many research reports on web-based e-learning have neglected the role of the teacher's perspective in the acceptance of using web-based e-learning systems for in-service education. We distributed questionnaires to 402 junior high school teachers in central Taiwan. This study used the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as our theoretical foundation and employed the Structure Equation Model (SEM) to examine factors that influenced intentions to use in-service training conducted through web-based e-learning. The results showed that motivation to use and Internet self-efficacy were significantly positively associated with behavioral intentions regarding the use of web-based e-learning for in-service training through the factors of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The factor of computer anxiety had a significantly negative effect on behavioral intentions toward web-based e-learning in-service training through the factor of perceived ease of use. Perceived usefulness and motivation to use were the primary reasons for the acceptance by junior high school teachers of web-based e-learning systems for in-service training. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Service-based analysis of biological pathways

PubMed Central

Zheng, George; Bouguettaya, Athman

2009-01-01

Background Computer-based pathway discovery is concerned with two important objectives: pathway identification and analysis. Conventional mining and modeling approaches aimed at pathway discovery are often effective at achieving either objective, but not both. Such limitations can be effectively tackled leveraging a Web service-based modeling and mining approach. Results Inspired by molecular recognitions and drug discovery processes, we developed a Web service mining tool, named PathExplorer, to discover potentially interesting biological pathways linking service models of biological processes. The tool uses an innovative approach to identify useful pathways based on graph-based hints and service-based simulation verifying user's hypotheses. Conclusion Web service modeling of biological processes allows the easy access and invocation of these processes on the Web. Web service mining techniques described in this paper enable the discovery of biological pathways linking these process service models. Algorithms presented in this paper for automatically highlighting interesting subgraph within an identified pathway network enable the user to formulate hypothesis, which can be tested out using our simulation algorithm that are also described in this paper. PMID:19796403

Tobacco cessation among users of telephone and web-based interventions--four states, 2011-2012.

PubMed

Puckett, Mary; Neri, Antonio; Thompson, Trevor; Underwood, J Michael; Momin, Behnoosh; Kahende, Jennifer; Zhang, Lei; Stewart, Sherri L

2015-01-02

Smoking caused an average of 480,000 deaths per year in the United States from 2005 to 2009, and three in 10 cancer deaths in the United States are tobacco related. Tobacco cessation is a high public health priority, and all states offer some form of tobacco cessation service. Quitlines provide telephone-based counseling services and are an effective intervention for tobacco cessation. In addition to telephone services, 96% of all U.S. quitlines offer Web-based cessation services. Evidence is limited on the number of tobacco users who use more than one type of service, and studies report mixed results on whether combined telephone and Web-based counseling improves long-term cessation compared with telephone alone. CDC conducted a survey of users of telephone and Web-based cessation services in four states to determine the cessation success of users of these interventions. After adjusting for multiple variables, persons who used both telephone and Web-based services were more likely to report abstinence from smoking for 30 days at follow up (odds ratio = 1.3) compared with telephone-only users and with Web-only users (odds ratio = 1.5). These findings suggest that states might consider offering both types of cessation services to increase cessation success.

CASAS: A tool for composing automatically and semantically astrophysical services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Louge, T.; Karray, M. H.; Archimède, B.; Knödlseder, J.

2017-07-01

Multiple astronomical datasets are available through internet and the astrophysical Distributed Computing Infrastructure (DCI) called Virtual Observatory (VO). Some scientific workflow technologies exist for retrieving and combining data from those sources. However selection of relevant services, automation of the workflows composition and the lack of user-friendly platforms remain a concern. This paper presents CASAS, a tool for semantic web services composition in astrophysics. This tool proposes automatic composition of astrophysical web services and brings a semantics-based, automatic composition of workflows. It widens the services choice and eases the use of heterogeneous services. Semantic web services composition relies on ontologies for elaborating the services composition; this work is based on Astrophysical Services ONtology (ASON). ASON had its structure mostly inherited from the VO services capacities. Nevertheless, our approach is not limited to the VO and brings VO plus non-VO services together without the need for premade recipes. CASAS is available for use through a simple web interface.

A Case Study in Web 2.0 Application Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marganian, P.; Clark, M.; Shelton, A.; McCarty, M.; Sessoms, E.

2010-12-01

Recent web technologies focusing on languages, frameworks, and tools are discussed, using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescopes (GBT) new Dynamic Scheduling System as the primary example. Within that example, we use a popular Python web framework, Django, to build the extensive web services for our users. We also use a second complimentary server, written in Haskell, to incorporate the core scheduling algorithms. We provide a desktop-quality experience across all the popular browsers for our users with the Google Web Toolkit and judicious use of JQuery in Django templates. Single sign-on and authentication throughout all NRAO web services is accomplished via the Central Authentication Service protocol, or CAS.

Using EMBL-EBI Services via Web Interface and Programmatically via Web Services.

PubMed

Lopez, Rodrigo; Cowley, Andrew; Li, Weizhong; McWilliam, Hamish

2014-12-12

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) provides access to a wide range of databases and analysis tools that are of key importance in bioinformatics. As well as providing Web interfaces to these resources, Web Services are available using SOAP and REST protocols that enable programmatic access to our resources and allow their integration into other applications and analytical workflows. This unit describes the various options available to a typical researcher or bioinformatician who wishes to use our resources via Web interface or programmatically via a range of programming languages. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Development of Virtual Resource Based IoT Proxy for Bridging Heterogeneous Web Services in IoT Networks.

PubMed

Jin, Wenquan; Kim, DoHyeun

2018-05-26

The Internet of Things is comprised of heterogeneous devices, applications, and platforms using multiple communication technologies to connect the Internet for providing seamless services ubiquitously. With the requirement of developing Internet of Things products, many protocols, program libraries, frameworks, and standard specifications have been proposed. Therefore, providing a consistent interface to access services from those environments is difficult. Moreover, bridging the existing web services to sensor and actuator networks is also important for providing Internet of Things services in various industry domains. In this paper, an Internet of Things proxy is proposed that is based on virtual resources to bridge heterogeneous web services from the Internet to the Internet of Things network. The proxy enables clients to have transparent access to Internet of Things devices and web services in the network. The proxy is comprised of server and client to forward messages for different communication environments using the virtual resources which include the server for the message sender and the client for the message receiver. We design the proxy for the Open Connectivity Foundation network where the virtual resources are discovered by the clients as Open Connectivity Foundation resources. The virtual resources represent the resources which expose services in the Internet by web service providers. Although the services are provided by web service providers from the Internet, the client can access services using the consistent communication protocol in the Open Connectivity Foundation network. For discovering the resources to access services, the client also uses the consistent discovery interface to discover the Open Connectivity Foundation devices and virtual resources.

Security and Efficiency Concerns With Distributed Collaborative Networking Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-09-01

have the ability to access Web communications services of the WebEx MediaTone Network from a single login. [24] WebEx provides a range of secure...Web. WebEx services enable secure data, voice and video communications through the browser and are supported by the WebEx MediaTone Network, a global...designed to host large-scale, structured events and conferences, featuring a Q&A Manager that allows multiple moderators to handle questions while

Finding, Browsing and Getting Data Easily Using SPDF Web Services

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Candey, R.; Chimiak, R.; Harris, B.; Johnson, R.; Kovalick, T.; Lal, N.; Leckner, H.; Liu, M.; McGuire, R.; Papitashvili, N.;

Web Services Security - Implementation and Evaluation Issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pimenidis, Elias; Georgiadis, Christos K.; Bako, Peter; Zorkadis, Vassilis

Web services development is a key theme in the utilization the commercial exploitation of the semantic web. Paramount to the development and offering of such services is the issue of security features and they way these are applied in instituting trust amongst participants and recipients of the service. Implementing such security features is a major challenge to developers as they need to balance these with performance and interoperability requirements. Being able to evaluate the level of security offered is a desirable feature for any prospective participant. The authors attempt to address the issues of security requirements and evaluation criteria, while they discuss the challenges of security implementation through a simple web service application case.

Knowledge-driven enhancements for task composition in bioinformatics.

PubMed

Sutherland, Karen; McLeod, Kenneth; Ferguson, Gus; Burger, Albert

2009-10-01

A key application area of semantic technologies is the fast-developing field of bioinformatics. Sealife was a project within this field with the aim of creating semantics-based web browsing capabilities for the Life Sciences. This includes meaningfully linking significant terms from the text of a web page to executable web services. It also involves the semantic mark-up of biological terms, linking them to biomedical ontologies, then discovering and executing services based on terms that interest the user. A system was produced which allows a user to identify terms of interest on a web page and subsequently connects these to a choice of web services which can make use of these inputs. Elements of Artificial Intelligence Planning build on this to present a choice of higher level goals, which can then be broken down to construct a workflow. An Argumentation System was implemented to evaluate the results produced by three different gene expression databases. An evaluation of these modules was carried out on users from a variety of backgrounds. Users with little knowledge of web services were able to achieve tasks that used several services in much less time than they would have taken to do this manually. The Argumentation System was also considered a useful resource and feedback was collected on the best way to present results. Overall the system represents a move forward in helping users to both construct workflows and analyse results by incorporating specific domain knowledge into the software. It also provides a mechanism by which web pages can be linked to web services. However, this work covers a specific domain and much co-ordinated effort is needed to make all web services available for use in such a way, i.e. the integration of underlying knowledge is a difficult but essential task.

Clever generation of rich SPARQL queries from annotated relational schema: application to Semantic Web Service creation for biological databases.

PubMed

Wollbrett, Julien; Larmande, Pierre; de Lamotte, Frédéric; Ruiz, Manuel

2013-04-15

In recent years, a large amount of "-omics" data have been produced. However, these data are stored in many different species-specific databases that are managed by different institutes and laboratories. Biologists often need to find and assemble data from disparate sources to perform certain analyses. Searching for these data and assembling them is a time-consuming task. The Semantic Web helps to facilitate interoperability across databases. A common approach involves the development of wrapper systems that map a relational database schema onto existing domain ontologies. However, few attempts have been made to automate the creation of such wrappers. We developed a framework, named BioSemantic, for the creation of Semantic Web Services that are applicable to relational biological databases. This framework makes use of both Semantic Web and Web Services technologies and can be divided into two main parts: (i) the generation and semi-automatic annotation of an RDF view; and (ii) the automatic generation of SPARQL queries and their integration into Semantic Web Services backbones. We have used our framework to integrate genomic data from different plant databases. BioSemantic is a framework that was designed to speed integration of relational databases. We present how it can be used to speed the development of Semantic Web Services for existing relational biological databases. Currently, it creates and annotates RDF views that enable the automatic generation of SPARQL queries. Web Services are also created and deployed automatically, and the semantic annotations of our Web Services are added automatically using SAWSDL attributes. BioSemantic is downloadable at http://southgreen.cirad.fr/?q=content/Biosemantic.

Clever generation of rich SPARQL queries from annotated relational schema: application to Semantic Web Service creation for biological databases

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background In recent years, a large amount of “-omics” data have been produced. However, these data are stored in many different species-specific databases that are managed by different institutes and laboratories. Biologists often need to find and assemble data from disparate sources to perform certain analyses. Searching for these data and assembling them is a time-consuming task. The Semantic Web helps to facilitate interoperability across databases. A common approach involves the development of wrapper systems that map a relational database schema onto existing domain ontologies. However, few attempts have been made to automate the creation of such wrappers. Results We developed a framework, named BioSemantic, for the creation of Semantic Web Services that are applicable to relational biological databases. This framework makes use of both Semantic Web and Web Services technologies and can be divided into two main parts: (i) the generation and semi-automatic annotation of an RDF view; and (ii) the automatic generation of SPARQL queries and their integration into Semantic Web Services backbones. We have used our framework to integrate genomic data from different plant databases. Conclusions BioSemantic is a framework that was designed to speed integration of relational databases. We present how it can be used to speed the development of Semantic Web Services for existing relational biological databases. Currently, it creates and annotates RDF views that enable the automatic generation of SPARQL queries. Web Services are also created and deployed automatically, and the semantic annotations of our Web Services are added automatically using SAWSDL attributes. BioSemantic is downloadable at http://southgreen.cirad.fr/?q=content/Biosemantic. PMID:23586394

Selecting a Free Web-Hosted Survey Tool for Student Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elbeck, Matt

2014-01-01

This study provides marketing educators a review of free web-based survey services and guidance for student use. A mixed methods approach started with online searches and metrics identifying 13 free web-hosted survey services, described as demonstration or project tools, and ranked using popularity and importance web-based metrics. For each…

About NOAA's National Weather Service

Science.gov Websites

official web portal to all federal, state and local government web resources and services. Follow the Field Offices are located across the country. Links to web sites of these components of the National that affect small businesses have established Web sites, e-mail addresses, and toll free phone numbers

Prediction of toxicity and comparison of alternatives using WebTEST (Web-services Toxicity Estimation Software Tool)

EPA Science Inventory

A Java-based web service is being developed within the US EPA’s Chemistry Dashboard to provide real time estimates of toxicity values and physical properties. WebTEST can generate toxicity predictions directly from a simple URL which includes the endpoint, QSAR method, and ...

Prediction of toxicity and comparison of alternatives using WebTEST (Web-services Toxicity Estimation Software Tool)(Bled Slovenia)

EPA Science Inventory

A Java-based web service is being developed within the US EPA’s Chemistry Dashboard to provide real time estimates of toxicity values and physical properties. WebTEST can generate toxicity predictions directly from a simple URL which includes the endpoint, QSAR method, and ...

A Community-Based Research Approach to Develop an Educational Web Portal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Preiser-Houy, Lara; Navarrete, Carlos J.

2011-01-01

Service-learning projects are becoming more prevalent in Information Systems education. This study explores the use of community-based research, a special kind of a service-learning strategy, in an Information Systems web development course. The paper presents a case study of a service-learning project to develop an educational web portal for a…

The Business Information Services: Old-Line Online Moves to the Web.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Leary, Mick

1997-01-01

Although the availability of free information on the World Wide Web has placed traditional, fee-based proprietary online services on the defensive, most major online business services are now on the Web. Highlights several business information providers: Profound, NewsNet and ProQuest Direct, Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition,…

Development of a Dynamic Web Mapping Service for Vegetation Productivity Using Earth Observation and in situ Sensors in a Sensor Web Based Approach

PubMed Central

Kooistra, Lammert; Bergsma, Aldo; Chuma, Beatus; de Bruin, Sytze

2009-01-01

This paper describes the development of a sensor web based approach which combines earth observation and in situ sensor data to derive typical information offered by a dynamic web mapping service (WMS). A prototype has been developed which provides daily maps of vegetation productivity for the Netherlands with a spatial resolution of 250 m. Daily available MODIS surface reflectance products and meteorological parameters obtained through a Sensor Observation Service (SOS) were used as input for a vegetation productivity model. This paper presents the vegetation productivity model, the sensor data sources and the implementation of the automated processing facility. Finally, an evaluation is made of the opportunities and limitations of sensor web based approaches for the development of web services which combine both satellite and in situ sensor sources. PMID:22574019

New Generation of Satellite-Derived Ocean Thermal Structure for the Western North Pacific Typhoon Intensity Forecasting

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-10-26

took 35% of error as a threshold to deter- mine whether the parameters derived by the REGWNP are of acceptable accuracy. Fig. 13 shows the applicable...2000. The interaction between Hurricane Opal (1995) and a warm core ring in the Gulf of Mexico. Monthly Weather Review 128, 1347–1365. Jacob, S.D...Hurricane Opal . Monthly Weather Review 128, 1366–1383. Stephens, C., Antonov, J.I., Boyer, T.P., Conkright, M.E., Locarnini, R.A., O’Brien, T.D., Carcia

Web scraping technologies in an API world.

PubMed

Glez-Peña, Daniel; Lourenço, Anália; López-Fernández, Hugo; Reboiro-Jato, Miguel; Fdez-Riverola, Florentino

2014-09-01

Web services are the de facto standard in biomedical data integration. However, there are data integration scenarios that cannot be fully covered by Web services. A number of Web databases and tools do not support Web services, and existing Web services do not cover for all possible user data demands. As a consequence, Web data scraping, one of the oldest techniques for extracting Web contents, is still in position to offer a valid and valuable service to a wide range of bioinformatics applications, ranging from simple extraction robots to online meta-servers. This article reviews existing scraping frameworks and tools, identifying their strengths and limitations in terms of extraction capabilities. The main focus is set on showing how straightforward it is today to set up a data scraping pipeline, with minimal programming effort, and answer a number of practical needs. For exemplification purposes, we introduce a biomedical data extraction scenario where the desired data sources, well-known in clinical microbiology and similar domains, do not offer programmatic interfaces yet. Moreover, we describe the operation of WhichGenes and PathJam, two bioinformatics meta-servers that use scraping as means to cope with gene set enrichment analysis. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Bootstrapping and Maintaining Trust in the Cloud

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-16

of infrastructure-as-a- service (IaaS) cloud computing services such as Ama- zon Web Services, Google Compute Engine, Rackspace, et. al. means that...Implementation We implemented keylime in ∼3.2k lines of Python in four components: registrar, node, CV, and tenant. The registrar offers a REST-based web ...bootstrap key K. It provides an unencrypted REST-based web service for these two functions. As described earlier, the pro- tocols for exchanging data

EnviroAtlas - Recreation, Culture, and Aesthetics Metrics for Conterminous United States

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This EnviroAtlas web service supports research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas). The Recreation, Culture, and Aesthetics category in this web service includes layers illustrating the ecosystems and natural resources that provide inherent cultural and aesthetic value or recreation opportunity, the need or demand for these amenities, the impacts associated with their presence and accessibility, and factors that place stress on the natural environment's capability to provide these benefits. EnviroAtlas allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the conterminous United States. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this web service is located within each web service layer (see Full Metadata hyperlink) or can be found in its associated EnviroAtlas Fact Sheet (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/enviroatlas-fact-sheets).

Remote Sensing Information Gateway: A free application and web service for fast, convenient, interoperable access to large repositories of atmospheric data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Plessel, T.; Szykman, J.; Freeman, M.

2012-12-01

EPA's Remote Sensing Information Gateway (RSIG) is a widely used free applet and web service for quickly and easily retrieving, visualizing and saving user-specified subsets of atmospheric data - by variable, geographic domain and time range. Petabytes of available data include thousands of variables from a set of NASA and NOAA satellites, aircraft, ground stations and EPA air-quality models. The RSIG applet is used by atmospheric researchers and uses the rsigserver web service to obtain data and images. The rsigserver web service is compliant with the Open Geospatial Consortium Web Coverage Service (OGC-WCS) standard to facilitate data discovery and interoperability. Since rsigserver is publicly accessible, it can be (and is) used by other applications. This presentation describes the architecture and technical implementation details of this successful system with an emphasis on achieving convenience, high-performance, data integrity and security.

Increasing the availability and usability of terrestrial ecology data through geospatial Web services and visualization tools (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santhana Vannan, S.; Cook, R. B.; Wilson, B. E.; Wei, Y.

2010-12-01

Terrestrial ecology data sets are produced from diverse data sources such as model output, field data collection, laboratory analysis and remote sensing observation. These data sets can be created, distributed, and consumed in diverse ways as well. However, this diversity can hinder the usability of the data, and limit data users’ abilities to validate and reuse data for science and application purposes. Geospatial web services, such as those described in this paper, are an important means of reducing this burden. Terrestrial ecology researchers generally create the data sets in diverse file formats, with file and data structures tailored to the specific needs of their project, possibly as tabular data, geospatial images, or documentation in a report. Data centers may reformat the data to an archive-stable format and distribute the data sets through one or more protocols, such as FTP, email, and WWW. Because of the diverse data preparation, delivery, and usage patterns, users have to invest time and resources to bring the data into the format and structure most useful for their analysis. This time-consuming data preparation process shifts valuable resources from data analysis to data assembly. To address these issues, the ORNL DAAC, a NASA-sponsored terrestrial ecology data center, has utilized geospatial Web service technology, such as Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS) and OGC Web Coverage Service (WCS) standards, to increase the usability and availability of terrestrial ecology data sets. Data sets are standardized into non-proprietary file formats and distributed through OGC Web Service standards. OGC Web services allow the ORNL DAAC to store data sets in a single format and distribute them in multiple ways and formats. Registering the OGC Web services through search catalogues and other spatial data tools allows for publicizing the data sets and makes them more available across the Internet. The ORNL DAAC has also created a Web-based graphical user interface called Spatial Data Access Tool (SDAT) that utilizes OGC Web services standards and allows data distribution and consumption for users not familiar with OGC standards. SDAT also allows for users to visualize the data set prior to download. Google Earth visualizations of the data set are also provided through SDAT. The use of OGC Web service standards at the ORNL DAAC has enabled an increase in data consumption. In one case, a data set had ~10 fold increase in download through OGC Web service in comparison to the conventional FTP and WWW method of access. The increase in download suggests that users are not only finding the data sets they need but also able to consume them readily in the format they need.

Global polar geospatial information service retrieval based on search engine and ontology reasoning

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chen, Nengcheng; E, Dongcheng; Di, Liping; Gong, Jianya; Chen, Zeqiang

2007-01-01

In order to improve the access precision of polar geospatial information service on web, a new methodology for retrieving global spatial information services based on geospatial service search and ontology reasoning is proposed, the geospatial service search is implemented to find the coarse service from web, the ontology reasoning is designed to find the refined service from the coarse service. The proposed framework includes standardized distributed geospatial web services, a geospatial service search engine, an extended UDDI registry, and a multi-protocol geospatial information service client. Some key technologies addressed include service discovery based on search engine and service ontology modeling and reasoning in the Antarctic geospatial context. Finally, an Antarctica multi protocol OWS portal prototype based on the proposed methodology is introduced.

Weaving Silos--A Leadership Challenge: A Cross-Functional Team Approach to Supporting Web-Based Student Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kleemann, Gary L.

2005-01-01

The author reviews the evolution of Web services--from information sharing to transactional to relationship building--and the progression from first-generation to fourth-generation Web sites. (Contains 3 figures.)

Combining Domain-driven Design and Mashups for Service Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iglesias, Carlos A.; Fernández-Villamor, José Ignacio; Del Pozo, David; Garulli, Luca; García, Boni

This chapter presents the Romulus project approach to Service Development using Java-based web technologies. Romulus aims at improving productivity of service development by providing a tool-supported model to conceive Java-based web applications. This model follows a Domain Driven Design approach, which states that the primary focus of software projects should be the core domain and domain logic. Romulus proposes a tool-supported model, Roma Metaframework, that provides an abstraction layer on top of existing web frameworks and automates the application generation from the domain model. This metaframework follows an object centric approach, and complements Domain Driven Design by identifying the most common cross-cutting concerns (security, service, view, ...) of web applications. The metaframework uses annotations for enriching the domain model with these cross-cutting concerns, so-called aspects. In addition, the chapter presents the usage of mashup technology in the metaframework for service composition, using the web mashup editor MyCocktail. This approach is applied to a scenario of the Mobile Phone Service Portability case study for the development of a new service.

Web service activities at the IRIS DMC to support federated and multidisciplinary access

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trabant, Chad; Ahern, Timothy K.

2013-04-01

At the IRIS Data Management Center (DMC) we have developed a suite of web service interfaces to access our large archive of, primarily seismological, time series data and related metadata. The goals of these web services include providing: a) next-generation and easily used access interfaces for our current users, b) access to data holdings in a form usable for non-seismologists, c) programmatic access to facilitate integration into data processing workflows and d) a foundation for participation in federated data discovery and access systems. To support our current users, our services provide access to the raw time series data and metadata or conversions of the raw data to commonly used formats. Our services also support simple, on-the-fly signal processing options that are common first steps in many workflows. Additionally, high-level data products derived from raw data are available via service interfaces. To support data access by researchers unfamiliar with seismic data we offer conversion of the data to broadly usable formats (e.g. ASCII text) and data processing to convert the data to Earth units. By their very nature, web services are programmatic interfaces. Combined with ubiquitous support for web technologies in programming & scripting languages and support in many computing environments, web services are very well suited for integrating data access into data processing workflows. As programmatic interfaces that can return data in both discipline-specific and broadly usable formats, our services are also well suited for participation in federated and brokered systems either specific to seismology or multidisciplinary. Working within the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks, the DMC collaborated on the specification of standardized web service interfaces for use at any seismological data center. These data access interfaces, when supported by multiple data centers, will form a foundation on which to build discovery and access mechanisms for data sets spanning multiple centers. To promote the adoption of these standardized services the DMC has developed portable implementations of the software needed to host these interfaces, minimizing the work required at each data center. Within the COOPEUS project framework, the DMC is working with EU partners to install web services implementations at multiple data centers in Europe.

Architecture of a spatial data service system for statistical analysis and visualization of regional climate changes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Titov, A. G.; Okladnikov, I. G.; Gordov, E. P.

2017-11-01

The use of large geospatial datasets in climate change studies requires the development of a set of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) elements, including geoprocessing and cartographical visualization web services. This paper presents the architecture of a geospatial OGC web service system as an integral part of a virtual research environment (VRE) general architecture for statistical processing and visualization of meteorological and climatic data. The architecture is a set of interconnected standalone SDI nodes with corresponding data storage systems. Each node runs a specialized software, such as a geoportal, cartographical web services (WMS/WFS), a metadata catalog, and a MySQL database of technical metadata describing geospatial datasets available for the node. It also contains geospatial data processing services (WPS) based on a modular computing backend realizing statistical processing functionality and, thus, providing analysis of large datasets with the results of visualization and export into files of standard formats (XML, binary, etc.). Some cartographical web services have been developed in a system’s prototype to provide capabilities to work with raster and vector geospatial data based on OGC web services. The distributed architecture presented allows easy addition of new nodes, computing and data storage systems, and provides a solid computational infrastructure for regional climate change studies based on modern Web and GIS technologies.

Enterprise Considerations for Ports and Protocols

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-21

selected communications. These protocols are restricted to specific ports or addresses in the receiving web service. HTTPS is familiarly restricted...in use by the web services and applications that are connected to the network are required for interoperability and security. Policies specify the...network or reside at the end-points (i.e., web services or clients). ____________________________ Manuscript received June 1, 2016; revised July

SOAP based web services and their future role in VO projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Topf, F.; Jacquey, C.; Génot, V.; Cecconi, B.; André, N.; Zhang, T. L.; Kallio, E.; Lammer, H.; Facsko, G.; Stöckler, R.; Khodachenko, M.

2011-10-01

Modern state-of-the-art web services are from crucial importance for the interoperability of different VO tools existing in the planetary community. SOAP based web services assure the interconnectability between different data sources and tools by providing a common protocol for communication. This paper will point out a best practice approach with the Automated Multi-Dataset Analysis Tool (AMDA) developed by CDPP, Toulouse and the provision of VEX/MAG data from a remote database located at IWF, Graz. Furthermore a new FP7 project IMPEx will be introduced with a potential usage example of AMDA web services in conjunction with simulation models.

A Generic Evaluation Model for Semantic Web Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shafiq, Omair

Semantic Web Services research has gained momentum over the last few Years and by now several realizations exist. They are being used in a number of industrial use-cases. Soon software developers will be expected to use this infrastructure to build their B2B applications requiring dynamic integration. However, there is still a lack of guidelines for the evaluation of tools developed to realize Semantic Web Services and applications built on top of them. In normal software engineering practice such guidelines can already be found for traditional component-based systems. Also some efforts are being made to build performance models for servicebased systems. Drawing on these related efforts in component-oriented and servicebased systems, we identified the need for a generic evaluation model for Semantic Web Services applicable to any realization. The generic evaluation model will help users and customers to orient their systems and solutions towards using Semantic Web Services. In this chapter, we have presented the requirements for the generic evaluation model for Semantic Web Services and further discussed the initial steps that we took to sketch such a model. Finally, we discuss related activities for evaluating semantic technologies.

Adding Processing Functionality to the Sensor Web

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stasch, Christoph; Pross, Benjamin; Jirka, Simon; Gräler, Benedikt

2017-04-01

The Sensor Web allows discovering, accessing and tasking different kinds of environmental sensors in the Web, ranging from simple in-situ sensors to remote sensing systems. However, (geo-)processing functionality needs to be applied to integrate data from different sensor sources and to generate higher level information products. Yet, a common standardized approach for processing sensor data in the Sensor Web is still missing and the integration differs from application to application. Standardizing not only the provision of sensor data, but also the processing facilitates sharing and re-use of processing modules, enables reproducibility of processing results, and provides a common way to integrate external scalable processing facilities or legacy software. In this presentation, we provide an overview on on-going research projects that develop concepts for coupling standardized geoprocessing technologies with Sensor Web technologies. At first, different architectures for coupling sensor data services with geoprocessing services are presented. Afterwards, profiles for linear regression and spatio-temporal interpolation of the OGC Web Processing Services that allow consuming sensor data coming from and uploading predictions to Sensor Observation Services are introduced. The profiles are implemented in processing services for the hydrological domain. Finally, we illustrate how the R software can be coupled with existing OGC Sensor Web and Geoprocessing Services and present an example, how a Web app can be built that allows exploring the results of environmental models in an interactive way using the R Shiny framework. All of the software presented is available as Open Source Software.

OntoGene web services for biomedical text mining.

PubMed

Rinaldi, Fabio; Clematide, Simon; Marques, Hernani; Ellendorff, Tilia; Romacker, Martin; Rodriguez-Esteban, Raul

2014-01-01

Text mining services are rapidly becoming a crucial component of various knowledge management pipelines, for example in the process of database curation, or for exploration and enrichment of biomedical data within the pharmaceutical industry. Traditional architectures, based on monolithic applications, do not offer sufficient flexibility for a wide range of use case scenarios, and therefore open architectures, as provided by web services, are attracting increased interest. We present an approach towards providing advanced text mining capabilities through web services, using a recently proposed standard for textual data interchange (BioC). The web services leverage a state-of-the-art platform for text mining (OntoGene) which has been tested in several community-organized evaluation challenges,with top ranked results in several of them.

OntoGene web services for biomedical text mining

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Text mining services are rapidly becoming a crucial component of various knowledge management pipelines, for example in the process of database curation, or for exploration and enrichment of biomedical data within the pharmaceutical industry. Traditional architectures, based on monolithic applications, do not offer sufficient flexibility for a wide range of use case scenarios, and therefore open architectures, as provided by web services, are attracting increased interest. We present an approach towards providing advanced text mining capabilities through web services, using a recently proposed standard for textual data interchange (BioC). The web services leverage a state-of-the-art platform for text mining (OntoGene) which has been tested in several community-organized evaluation challenges, with top ranked results in several of them. PMID:25472638

Integrating Multilevel Command and Control into a Service Oriented Architecture to Provide Cross Domain Capability

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-06-01

Horizontal Fusion, the JCDX team developed two web services, a Classification Policy Decision Service (cPDS), and a Federated Search Provider (FSP...The cPDS web service primarily provides other systems with methods for handling labeled data such as label comparison. The federated search provider...level domains. To provide defense-in-depth, cPDS and the Federated Search Provider are implemented on a separate server known as the JCDX Web

Designing Crop Simulation Web Service with Service Oriented Architecture Principle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chinnachodteeranun, R.; Hung, N. D.; Honda, K.

2015-12-01

Crop simulation models are efficient tools for simulating crop growth processes and yield. Running crop models requires data from various sources as well as time-consuming data processing, such as data quality checking and data formatting, before those data can be inputted to the model. It makes the use of crop modeling limited only to crop modelers. We aim to make running crop models convenient for various users so that the utilization of crop models will be expanded, which will directly improve agricultural applications. As the first step, we had developed a prototype that runs DSSAT on Web called as Tomorrow's Rice (v. 1). It predicts rice yields based on a planting date, rice's variety and soil characteristics using DSSAT crop model. A user only needs to select a planting location on the Web GUI then the system queried historical weather data from available sources and expected yield is returned. Currently, we are working on weather data connection via Sensor Observation Service (SOS) interface defined by Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Weather data can be automatically connected to a weather generator for generating weather scenarios for running the crop model. In order to expand these services further, we are designing a web service framework consisting of layers of web services to support compositions and executions for running crop simulations. This framework allows a third party application to call and cascade each service as it needs for data preparation and running DSSAT model using a dynamic web service mechanism. The framework has a module to manage data format conversion, which means users do not need to spend their time curating the data inputs. Dynamic linking of data sources and services are implemented using the Service Component Architecture (SCA). This agriculture web service platform demonstrates interoperability of weather data using SOS interface, convenient connections between weather data sources and weather generator, and connecting various services for running crop models for decision support.

MSL SAM-Like Evolved Gas Analyses of Si-rich Amorphous Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McAdam, Amy; Knudson, Christine; Sutter, Brad; Andrejkovicova, Slavka; Archer, P. Douglas; Franz, Heather; Eigenbrode, Jennifer; Morris, Richard; Ming, Douglas; Sun, Vivian;

Quality control in public participation assessments of water quality: the OPAL Water Survey.

PubMed

Rose, N L; Turner, S D; Goldsmith, B; Gosling, L; Davidson, T A

2016-07-22

Public participation in scientific data collection is a rapidly expanding field. In water quality surveys, the involvement of the public, usually as trained volunteers, generally includes the identification of aquatic invertebrates to a broad taxonomic level. However, quality assurance is often not addressed and remains a key concern for the acceptance of publicly-generated water quality data. The Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) Water Survey, launched in May 2010, aimed to encourage interest and participation in water science by developing a 'low-barrier-to-entry' water quality survey. During 2010, over 3000 participant-selected lakes and ponds were surveyed making this the largest public participation lake and pond survey undertaken to date in the UK. But the OPAL approach of using untrained volunteers and largely anonymous data submission exacerbates quality control concerns. A number of approaches were used in order to address data quality issues including: sensitivity analysis to determine differences due to operator, sampling effort and duration; direct comparisons of identification between participants and experienced scientists; the use of a self-assessment identification quiz; the use of multiple participant surveys to assess data variability at single sites over short periods of time; comparison of survey techniques with other measurement variables and with other metrics generally considered more accurate. These quality control approaches were then used to screen the OPAL Water Survey data to generate a more robust dataset. The OPAL Water Survey results provide a regional and national assessment of water quality as well as a first national picture of water clarity (as suspended solids concentrations). Less than 10 % of lakes and ponds surveyed were 'poor' quality while 26.8 % were in the highest water quality band. It is likely that there will always be a question mark over untrained volunteer generated data simply because quality assurance is uncertain, regardless of any post hoc data analyses. Quality control at all stages, from survey design, identification tests, data submission and interpretation can all increase confidence such that useful data can be generated by public participants.

Laboratory Evolved Gas Analyses of Si-rich Amorphous Materials: Implications for Analyses of Si-rich Amorphous Material in Gale Crater by the Mars Science Laboratory Sample Analysis at Mars Instrument

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McAdam, A.; Knudson, C. A.; Sutter, B.; Andrejkovicova, S. C.; Archer, P. D., Jr.; Franz, H. B.; Eigenbrode, J. L.; Morris, R. V.; Ming, D. W.; Sun, V. Z.; Milliken, R.; Wilhelm, M. B.; Mahaffy, P. R.; Navarro-Gonzalez, R.

2016-12-01

The Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover detected Si-rich amorphous or poorly ordered materials in several samples from Murray Formation mudstones and Stimson Formation sandstones. High-SiO2 amorphous materials such as opal-A or rhyolitic glass are candidate phases, but CheMin data cannot be used to distinguish between these possibilities. In the Buckskin (BS) sample from the upper Murray Formation, and the Big Sky (BY) and Greenhorn (GH) samples from the Stimson Formation, evolved gas analyses by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument showed very broad H2O evolutions during sample heating at temperatures >450-500°C, which had not been observed from previous samples. BS also had a significant broad evolution <450-500°C. We have undertaken a laboratory study targeted at understanding if the data from SAM analyses can be used to place constraints on the nature of the amorphous phases. SAM-like evolved gas analyses have been performed on several opal and rhyolitic glass samples. Opal-A samples exhibited wide <500°C H2O evolutions, with lesser H2O evolved above 500°C. H2O evolution traces from rhyolitic glasses varied, having either two broad H2O peaks, <300°C and >500°C, or a broad peak centered around 400°C. For samples that produced two evolutions, the lower temperature peak was more intense than the higher temperature peak, a trend also exhibited by opal-A. This trend is consistent with data from BS, but does not seem consistent with data from BY and GH which evolved most of their H2O >500°C. It may be that dehydration of opal-A and/or rhyolitic glass can result in some preferential loss of lower temperature H2O, to produce traces that more closely resemble BY and GH. This is currently under investigation and results will be reported.

Tubular inverse opal scaffolds for biomimetic vessels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Ze; Wang, Jie; Lu, Jie; Yu, Yunru; Fu, Fanfan; Wang, Huan; Liu, Yuxiao; Zhao, Yuanjin; Gu, Zhongze

2016-07-01

There is a clinical need for tissue-engineered blood vessels that can be used to replace or bypass damaged arteries. The success of such grafts depends strongly on their ability to mimic native arteries; however, currently available artificial vessels are restricted by their complex processing, controversial integrity, or uncontrollable cell location and orientation. Here, we present new tubular scaffolds with specific surface microstructures for structural vessel mimicry. The tubular scaffolds are fabricated by rotationally expanding three-dimensional tubular inverse opals that are replicated from colloidal crystal templates in capillaries. Because of the ordered porous structure of the inverse opals, the expanded tubular scaffolds are imparted with circumferentially oriented elliptical pattern microstructures on their surfaces. It is demonstrated that these tailored tubular scaffolds can effectively make endothelial cells to form an integrated hollow tubular structure on their inner surface and induce smooth muscle cells to form a circumferential orientation on their outer surface. These features of our tubular scaffolds make them highly promising for the construction of biomimetic blood vessels.There is a clinical need for tissue-engineered blood vessels that can be used to replace or bypass damaged arteries. The success of such grafts depends strongly on their ability to mimic native arteries; however, currently available artificial vessels are restricted by their complex processing, controversial integrity, or uncontrollable cell location and orientation. Here, we present new tubular scaffolds with specific surface microstructures for structural vessel mimicry. The tubular scaffolds are fabricated by rotationally expanding three-dimensional tubular inverse opals that are replicated from colloidal crystal templates in capillaries. Because of the ordered porous structure of the inverse opals, the expanded tubular scaffolds are imparted with circumferentially oriented elliptical pattern microstructures on their surfaces. It is demonstrated that these tailored tubular scaffolds can effectively make endothelial cells to form an integrated hollow tubular structure on their inner surface and induce smooth muscle cells to form a circumferential orientation on their outer surface. These features of our tubular scaffolds make them highly promising for the construction of biomimetic blood vessels. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c6nr03173k

Web-based health services and clinical decision support.

PubMed

Jegelevicius, Darius; Marozas, Vaidotas; Lukosevicius, Arunas; Patasius, Martynas

2004-01-01

The purpose of this study was the development of a Web-based e-health service for comprehensive assistance and clinical decision support. The service structure consists of a Web server, a PHP-based Web interface linked to a clinical SQL database, Java applets for interactive manipulation and visualization of signals and a Matlab server linked with signal and data processing algorithms implemented by Matlab programs. The service ensures diagnostic signal- and image analysis-sbased clinical decision support. By using the discussed methodology, a pilot service for pathology specialists for automatic calculation of the proliferation index has been developed. Physicians use a simple Web interface for uploading the pictures under investigation to the server; subsequently a Java applet interface is used for outlining the region of interest and, after processing on the server, the requested proliferation index value is calculated. There is also an "expert corner", where experts can submit their index estimates and comments on particular images, which is especially important for system developers. These expert evaluations are used for optimization and verification of automatic analysis algorithms. Decision support trials have been conducted for ECG and ophthalmology ultrasonic investigations of intraocular tumor differentiation. Data mining algorithms have been applied and decision support trees constructed. These services are under implementation by a Web-based system too. The study has shown that the Web-based structure ensures more effective, flexible and accessible services compared with standalone programs and is very convenient for biomedical engineers and physicians, especially in the development phase.

Sulfur cathodes with hydrogen reduced titanium dioxide inverse opal structure.

PubMed

Liang, Zheng; Zheng, Guangyuan; Li, Weiyang; Seh, Zhi Wei; Yao, Hongbin; Yan, Kai; Kong, Desheng; Cui, Yi

2014-05-27

Sulfur is a cathode material for lithium-ion batteries with a high specific capacity of 1675 mAh/g. The rapid capacity fading, however, presents a significant challenge for the practical application of sulfur cathodes. Two major approaches that have been developed to improve the sulfur cathode performance include (a) fabricating nanostructured conductive matrix to physically encapsulate sulfur and (b) engineering chemical modification to enhance binding with polysulfides and, thus, to reduce their dissolution. Here, we report a three-dimensional (3D) electrode structure to achieve both sulfur physical encapsulation and polysulfides binding simultaneously. The electrode is based on hydrogen reduced TiO2 with an inverse opal structure that is highly conductive and robust toward electrochemical cycling. The relatively enclosed 3D structure provides an ideal architecture for sulfur and polysulfides confinement. The openings at the top surface allow sulfur infusion into the inverse opal structure. In addition, chemical tuning of the TiO2 composition through hydrogen reduction was shown to enhance the specific capacity and cyclability of the cathode. With such TiO2 encapsulated sulfur structure, the sulfur cathode could deliver a high specific capacity of ∼1100 mAh/g in the beginning, with a reversible capacity of ∼890 mAh/g after 200 cycles of charge/discharge at a C/5 rate. The Coulombic efficiency was also maintained at around 99.5% during cycling. The results showed that inverse opal structure of hydrogen reduced TiO2 represents an effective strategy in improving lithium sulfur batteries performance.

Changes in biogenic and detrital fluxes across the last two glacial terminations at the Shatsky Rise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bradtmiller, L. I.; Kinsley, C. W.; McGee, D.; Ford, H. L.; Perala-Dewey, J.; Zhang, Y.

2017-12-01

The Shatsky Rise is located within strong gradients in SST and biological productivity between the subtropical and subarctic Pacific gyres. The region is highly sensitive to changes in atmospheric and oceanic circulation on glacial-interglacial timescales, which affect the delivery of Fe-bearing dust and other major nutrients, respectively. Here we use a range of proxies in an attempt to determine the effects of changes in westerly winds and gyre boundaries on dust delivery and biological productivity. We present 230Th-normalized fluxes of opal, Corg, CaCO3, and detrital material at ODP Site 1208 over the last two glacial terminations, extending to 145ka. Opal, Corg, and carbonate are products of surface biological productivity, while most detrital material at this site arrives in the form of windborne East Asian dust. In addition, we calculate the concentration of authigenic U as an indicator of relative oxygenation of the sediment water interface. We observe elevated opal and dust fluxes during the last two glacial maxima, and a decrease in both components during deglaciations. Authigenic U shows distinct peaks at the onset of both terminations. The peak at the penultimate deglaciation is also associated with a large peak in opal flux, while the peak in authigenic U during the last termination does not appear to be associated with any large changes in biogenic fluxes. We compare our records with other data from the subtropical-subarctic transition zone, and suggest that our data are consistent with northward shift of the mean position of the westerly jet and subarctic front during deglaciations.

Paleoenvironment of the Ogallala (Neogene) Formation in west-central Kansas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Twiss, P.C.; McCahon, T.J.; Oviatt, C.G.

At Lake Scott (Scott County) in west-central Kansas, the Ogallala Formation unconformably overlies the Niobrara Formation (Cretaceous) and forms the bluffs of the north-trending Ladder Creek valley. Two sections (Devil's Backbone, 23 m thick; Suicide Bluff, 45 m thick) contain fluvial sands that grade upward into probable eolian sands. The lower sections contain poorly cemented, moderately sorted, arkosic sand, some mud gravel, and poorly defined fluvial channels. In the lower part of Devil's Backbone, cross-bedded sand is capped by mud drapes. At Suicide Bluff, beds of cross-bedded and better sorted sand occur high in the section. Paleosols and secondary calcitemore » and opal dominate the sections. Pedogenic calcretes with more than 52% CaCO[sub 3] are especially abundant and range up to morphologic Stage VI. The [delta][sup 13]C and [delta][sup 18]O in the calcretes range from [minus]4.8 to [minus]6.5 and [minus]8.2 to [minus]6.7 per mil (PDB), respectively. Opal-A has replaced most rhizoliths of the Ogallala. Silicified fossil seeds (Celtis sp., Biorbia sp.) and probable fossil mammal burrows also occur in the sections. Rhyolitic tephra, about 10 Ma, occurs 12 m below the calcrete caprock of Suicide Bluff. A massive layer of opal occurs about 8 m above the tephra and below a diatomaceous bed. Siliceous cement occurs throughout each section, possibly originating from opal phytoliths, tephra, and/or diatoms. These sections afford the potential for understanding the stratigraphic succession and paleoclimate during the late Miocene to possibly early Pliocene in the central High Plains region.« less

Evaluation of Norwegian cancer hospitals' Web sites and explorative survey among cancer patients on their use of the Internet

PubMed Central

2001-01-01

Background Hospital homepages should provide comprehensive information on the hospital's services, such as departments and treatments available, prices, waiting time, leisure facilities, and other information important for patients and their relatives. Norway, with its population of approximately 4.3 million, ranks among the top countries globally for its ability to absorb and use technology. It is unclear to what degree Norwegian hospitals and patients use the Internet for information about health services. Objectives This study was undertaken to evaluate the quality of the biggest Norwegian cancer hospitals' Web sites and to gather some preliminary data on patients' use of the Internet. Methods In January 2001, we analyzed Web sites of 5 of the 7 biggest Norwegian hospitals treating cancer patients using a scoring system. The scoring instrument was based on recommendations developed by the Norwegian Central Information Service for Web sites and reflects the scope and depth of service information offered on hospital Web pages. In addition, 31 cancer patients visiting one hospital-based medical oncologist were surveyed about their use of the Internet. Results Of the 7 hospitals, 5 had a Web site. The Web sites differed markedly in quality. Types of information included - and number of Web sites that included each type of information - were, for example: search option, 1; interpreter service, 2; date of last update, 2; postal address, phone number, and e-mail service, 3; information in English, 2. None of the Web sites included information on waiting time or prices. Of the 31 patients surveyed, 12 had personal experience using the Internet and 4 had searched for medical information. The Internet users were significantly younger (mean age 47.8 years, range 28.4-66.8 years) than the nonusers (mean age 61.8 years, range 33.1-90.0 years) ( P= 0.007). Conclusions The hospitals' Web sites offer cancer patients and relatives useful information, but the Web sites were not impressive. PMID:11772545

Quality and Business Offer Driven Selection of Web Services for Compositions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Mello, Demian Antony; Ananthanarayana, V. S.

The service composition makes use of the existing services to produce a new value added service to execute the complex business process. The service discovery finds the suitable services (candidates) for the various tasks of the composition based on the functionality. The service selection in composition assigns the best candidate for each tasks of the pre-structured composition plan based on the non-functional properties. In this paper, we propose the broker based architecture for the QoS and business offer aware Web service compositions. The broker architecture facilitates the registration of a new composite service into three different registries. The broker publishes service information into the service registry and QoS into the QoS registry. The business offers of the composite Web service are published into a separate repository called business offer (BO) registry. The broker employs the mechanism for the optimal assignment of the Web services to the individual tasks of the composition. The assignment is based on the composite service providers’s (CSP) variety of requirements defined on the QoS and business offers. The broker also computes the QoS of resulting composition and provides the useful information for the CSP to publish thier business offers.

Obtaining P3P privacy policies for composite services.

PubMed

Sun, Yi; Huang, Zhiqiu; Ke, Changbo

2014-01-01

With the development of web services technology, web services have changed from single to composite services. Privacy protection in composite services is becoming an important issue. P3P (platform for privacy preferences) is a privacy policy language which was designed for single web services. It enables service providers to express how they will deal with the privacy information of service consumers. In order to solve the problem that P3P cannot be applied to composite services directly, we propose a method to obtain P3P privacy policies for composite services. In this method, we present the definitions of Purpose, Recipient, and Retention elements as well as Optional and Required attributes for P3P policies of composite services. We also provide an instantiation to illustrate the feasibility of the method.

Using secure web services to visualize poison center data for nationwide biosurveillance: a case study.

PubMed

Savel, Thomas G; Bronstein, Alvin; Duck, William; Rhodes, M Barry; Lee, Brian; Stinn, John; Worthen, Katherine

2010-01-01

Real-time surveillance systems are valuable for timely response to public health emergencies. It has been challenging to leverage existing surveillance systems in state and local communities, and, using a centralized architecture, add new data sources and analytical capacity. Because this centralized model has proven to be difficult to maintain and enhance, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been examining the ability to use a federated model based on secure web services architecture, with data stewardship remaining with the data provider. As a case study for this approach, the American Association of Poison Control Centers and the CDC extended an existing data warehouse via a secure web service, and shared aggregate clinical effects and case counts data by geographic region and time period. To visualize these data, CDC developed a web browser-based interface, Quicksilver, which leveraged the Google Maps API and Flot, a javascript plotting library. Two iterations of the NPDS web service were completed in 12 weeks. The visualization client, Quicksilver, was developed in four months. This implementation of web services combined with a visualization client represents incremental positive progress in transitioning national data sources like BioSense and NPDS to a federated data exchange model. Quicksilver effectively demonstrates how the use of secure web services in conjunction with a lightweight, rapidly deployed visualization client can easily integrate isolated data sources for biosurveillance.

SeWeR: a customizable and integrated dynamic HTML interface to bioinformatics services.

PubMed

Basu, M K

2001-06-01

Sequence analysis using Web Resources (SeWeR) is an integrated, Dynamic HTML (DHTML) interface to commonly used bioinformatics services available on the World Wide Web. It is highly customizable, extendable, platform neutral, completely server-independent and can be hosted as a web page as well as being used as stand-alone software running within a web browser.

BPELPower—A BPEL execution engine for geospatial web services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Genong (Eugene); Zhao, Peisheng; Di, Liping; Chen, Aijun; Deng, Meixia; Bai, Yuqi

2012-10-01

The Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) has become a popular choice for orchestrating and executing workflows in the Web environment. As one special kind of scientific workflow, geospatial Web processing workflows are data-intensive, deal with complex structures in data and geographic features, and execute automatically with limited human intervention. To enable the proper execution and coordination of geospatial workflows, a specially enhanced BPEL execution engine is required. BPELPower was designed, developed, and implemented as a generic BPEL execution engine with enhancements for executing geospatial workflows. The enhancements are especially in its capabilities in handling Geography Markup Language (GML) and standard geospatial Web services, such as the Web Processing Service (WPS) and the Web Feature Service (WFS). BPELPower has been used in several demonstrations over the decade. Two scenarios were discussed in detail to demonstrate the capabilities of BPELPower. That study showed a standard-compliant, Web-based approach for properly supporting geospatial processing, with the only enhancement at the implementation level. Pattern-based evaluation and performance improvement of the engine are discussed: BPELPower directly supports 22 workflow control patterns and 17 workflow data patterns. In the future, the engine will be enhanced with high performance parallel processing and broad Web paradigms.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Analysis Of Optical Payload For Lasercomm Science (OPALS) sealed enclosure module

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anderson, Kevin R.; Zayas, Daniel; Turner, Daniel

2012-01-01

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) using the commercial CFD package CFDesign has been performed at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in support of the Phaeton Early Career Hire Program's Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) mission. The OPALS project is one which involves an International Space Station payload that will be using forced convection cooling in a hermetically sealed enclosure at 1 atm of air to cool "off-the-shelf" vendor electronics. The CFD analysis was used to characterize the thermal and fluid flow environment within a complicated labyrinth of electronics boards, fans, instrumentation, harnessing, ductwork and heat exchanger fins. The paradigm of iteratively using CAD/CAE tools and CFD was followed in order to determine the optimum flow geometry and heat sink configuration to yield operational convective film coefficients and temperature survivability limits for the electronics payload. Results from this current CFD analysis and correlation of the CFD model against thermal test data will be presented. Lessons learned and coupled thermal / flow modeling strategies will be shared in this paper.

Charge Stabilized Crystalline Colloidal Arrays As Templates For Fabrication of Non-Close-Packed Inverted Photonic Crystals

PubMed Central

Bohn, Justin J.; Ben-Moshe, Matti; Tikhonov, Alexander; Qu, Dan; Lamont, Daniel N.

2010-01-01

We developed a straightforward method to form non close-packed highly ordered fcc direct and inverse opal silica photonic crystals. We utilize an electrostatically self assembled crystalline colloidal array (CCA) template formed by monodisperse, highly charged polystyrene particles. We then polymerize a hydrogel around the CCA (PCCA) and condense the silica to form a highly ordered silica impregnated (siPCCA) photonic crystal. Heating at 450 °C removes the organic polymer leaving a silica inverse opal structure. By altering the colloidal particle concentration we independently control the particle spacing and the wall thickness of the inverse opal photonic crystals. This allows us to control the optical dielectric constant modulation in order to optimize the diffraction; the dielectric constant modulation is controlled independently of the photonic crystal periodicity. These fcc photonic crystals are better ordered than typical close-packed photonic crystals because their self assembly utilizes soft electrostatic repulsive potentials. We show that colloidal particle size and charge polydispersity has modest impact on ordering, in contrast to that for close-packed crystals. PMID:20163800

Customizable scientific web-portal for DIII-D nuclear fusion experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abla, G.; Kim, E. N.; Schissel, D. P.

2010-04-01

Increasing utilization of the Internet and convenient web technologies has made the web-portal a major application interface for remote participation and control of scientific instruments. While web-portals have provided a centralized gateway for multiple computational services, the amount of visual output often is overwhelming due to the high volume of data generated by complex scientific instruments and experiments. Since each scientist may have different priorities and areas of interest in the experiment, filtering and organizing information based on the individual user's need can increase the usability and efficiency of a web-portal. DIII-D is the largest magnetic nuclear fusion device in the US. A web-portal has been designed to support the experimental activities of DIII-D researchers worldwide. It offers a customizable interface with personalized page layouts and list of services for users to select. Each individual user can create a unique working environment to fit his own needs and interests. Customizable services are: real-time experiment status monitoring, diagnostic data access, interactive data analysis and visualization. The web-portal also supports interactive collaborations by providing collaborative logbook, and online instant announcement services. The DIII-D web-portal development utilizes multi-tier software architecture, and Web 2.0 technologies and tools, such as AJAX and Django, to develop a highly-interactive and customizable user interface.

Reference Architecture for MNE 5 Technical System

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-05-30

of being available in most experiments. Core Services A core set of applications whi directories, web portal and collaboration applications etc. A...classifications Messages (xml, JMS, content level…) Meta data filtering, who can initiate services Web browsing Collaboration & messaging Border...Exchange Ref Architecture for MNE5 Tech System.doc 9 of 21 audit logging Person and machine Data lev objects, web services, messages rification el

Recent advancements on the development of web-based applications for the implementation of seismic analysis and surveillance systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Friberg, P. A.; Luis, R. S.; Quintiliani, M.; Lisowski, S.; Hunter, S.

2014-12-01

Recently, a novel set of modules has been included in the Open Source Earthworm seismic data processing system, supporting the use of web applications. These include the Mole sub-system, for storing relevant event data in a MySQL database (see M. Quintiliani and S. Pintore, SRL, 2013), and an embedded webserver, Moleserv, for serving such data to web clients in QuakeML format. These modules have enabled, for the first time using Earthworm, the use of web applications for seismic data processing. These can greatly simplify the operation and maintenance of seismic data processing centers by having one or more servers providing the relevant data as well as the data processing applications themselves to client machines running arbitrary operating systems.Web applications with secure online web access allow operators to work anywhere, without the often cumbersome and bandwidth hungry use of secure shell or virtual private networks. Furthermore, web applications can seamlessly access third party data repositories to acquire additional information, such as maps. Finally, the usage of HTML email brought the possibility of specialized web applications, to be used in email clients. This is the case of EWHTMLEmail, which produces event notification emails that are in fact simple web applications for plotting relevant seismic data.Providing web services as part of Earthworm has enabled a number of other tools as well. One is ISTI's EZ Earthworm, a web based command and control system for an otherwise command line driven system; another is a waveform web service. The waveform web service serves Earthworm data to additional web clients for plotting, picking, and other web-based processing tools. The current Earthworm waveform web service hosts an advanced plotting capability for providing views of event-based waveforms from a Mole database served by Moleserve.The current trend towards the usage of cloud services supported by web applications is driving improvements in JavaScript, css and HTML, as well as faster and more efficient web browsers, including mobile. It is foreseeable that in the near future, web applications are as powerful and efficient as native applications. Hence the work described here has been the first step towards bringing the Open Source Earthworm seismic data processing system to this new paradigm.

Web server for priority ordered multimedia services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Celenk, Mehmet; Godavari, Rakesh K.; Vetnes, Vermund

2001-10-01

In this work, our aim is to provide finer priority levels in the design of a general-purpose Web multimedia server with provisions of the CM services. The type of services provided include reading/writing a web page, downloading/uploading an audio/video stream, navigating the Web through browsing, and interactive video teleconferencing. The selected priority encoding levels for such operations follow the order of admin read/write, hot page CM and Web multicasting, CM read, Web read, CM write and Web write. Hot pages are the most requested CM streams (e.g., the newest movies, video clips, and HDTV channels) and Web pages (e.g., portal pages of the commercial Internet search engines). Maintaining a list of these hot Web pages and CM streams in a content addressable buffer enables a server to multicast hot streams with lower latency and higher system throughput. Cold Web pages and CM streams are treated as regular Web and CM requests. Interactive CM operations such as pause (P), resume (R), fast-forward (FF), and rewind (RW) have to be executed without allocation of extra resources. The proposed multimedia server model is a part of the distributed network with load balancing schedulers. The SM is connected to an integrated disk scheduler (IDS), which supervises an allocated disk manager. The IDS follows the same priority handling as the SM, and implements a SCAN disk-scheduling method for an improved disk access and a higher throughput. Different disks are used for the Web and CM services in order to meet the QoS requirements of CM services. The IDS ouput is forwarded to an Integrated Transmission Scheduler (ITS). The ITS creates a priority ordered buffering of the retrieved Web pages and CM data streams that are fed into an auto regressive moving average (ARMA) based traffic shaping circuitry before being transmitted through the network.

Enabling Real-time Water Decision Support Services Using Model as a Service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, T.; Minsker, B. S.; Lee, J. S.; Salas, F. R.; Maidment, D. R.; David, C. H.

2014-12-01

Through application of computational methods and an integrated information system, data and river modeling services can help researchers and decision makers more rapidly understand river conditions under alternative scenarios. To enable this capability, workflows (i.e., analysis and model steps) are created and published as Web services delivered through an internet browser, including model inputs, a published workflow service, and visualized outputs. The RAPID model, which is a river routing model developed at University of Texas Austin for parallel computation of river discharge, has been implemented as a workflow and published as a Web application. This allows non-technical users to remotely execute the model and visualize results as a service through a simple Web interface. The model service and Web application has been prototyped in the San Antonio and Guadalupe River Basin in Texas, with input from university and agency partners. In the future, optimization model workflows will be developed to link with the RAPID model workflow to provide real-time water allocation decision support services.

US Geoscience Information Network, Web Services for Geoscience Information Discovery and Access

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richard, S.; Allison, L.; Clark, R.; Coleman, C.; Chen, G.

2012-04-01

The US Geoscience information network has developed metadata profiles for interoperable catalog services based on ISO19139 and the OGC CSW 2.0.2. Currently data services are being deployed for the US Dept. of Energy-funded National Geothermal Data System. These services utilize OGC Web Map Services, Web Feature Services, and THREDDS-served NetCDF for gridded datasets. Services and underlying datasets (along with a wide variety of other information and non information resources are registered in the catalog system. Metadata for registration is produced by various workflows, including harvest from OGC capabilities documents, Drupal-based web applications, transformation from tabular compilations. Catalog search is implemented using the ESRI Geoportal open-source server. We are pursuing various client applications to demonstrated discovery and utilization of the data services. Currently operational applications allow catalog search and data acquisition from map services in an ESRI ArcMap extension, a catalog browse and search application built on openlayers and Django. We are developing use cases and requirements for other applications to utilize geothermal data services for resource exploration and evaluation.

Framework for Supporting Web-Based Collaborative Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dai, Wei

The article proposes an intelligent framework for supporting Web-based applications. The framework focuses on innovative use of existing resources and technologies in the form of services and takes the leverage of theoretical foundation of services science and the research from services computing. The main focus of the framework is to deliver benefits to users with various roles such as service requesters, service providers, and business owners to maximize their productivity when engaging with each other via the Web. The article opens up with research motivations and questions, analyses the existing state of research in the field, and describes the approach in implementing the proposed framework. Finally, an e-health application is discussed to evaluate the effectiveness of the framework where participants such as general practitioners (GPs), patients, and health-care workers collaborate via the Web.