Data Visualization for ESM and ELINT: Visualizing 3D and Hyper Dimensional Data

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-01

technique to present multiple 2D views was devised by D. Asimov . He assembled multiple two dimensional scatter plot views of the hyper dimensional...Viewing Multidimensional Data”, D. Asimov , DIAM Journal on Scientific and Statistical Computing, vol.61, pp.128-143, 1985. [2] “High-Dimensional

The Conceptual Understanding of Sound by Students with Visual Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wild, Tiffany A.; Hilson, Margilee P.; Hobson, Sally M.

2013-01-01

Introduction: The purpose of the study presented here was to understand and describe the misconceptions of students with visual impairments about sound and instructional techniques that may help them to develop a scientific understanding. Methods: Semistructured interview-centered pre-and posttests were used to identify the students' conceptual…

Visualization of Earth and Space Science Data at JPL's Science Data Processing Systems Section

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, William B.

1996-01-01

This presentation will provide an overview of systems in use at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for processing data returned by space exploration and earth observations spacecraft. Graphical and visualization techniques used to query and retrieve data from large scientific data bases will be described.

3D Feature Extraction for Unstructured Grids

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Silver, Deborah

1996-01-01

Visualization techniques provide tools that help scientists identify observed phenomena in scientific simulation. To be useful, these tools must allow the user to extract regions, classify and visualize them, abstract them for simplified representations, and track their evolution. Object Segmentation provides a technique to extract and quantify regions of interest within these massive datasets. This article explores basic algorithms to extract coherent amorphous regions from two-dimensional and three-dimensional scalar unstructured grids. The techniques are applied to datasets from Computational Fluid Dynamics and those from Finite Element Analysis.

Geoscience Through the Lens of Art: a collaborative course of science and art for undergraduates of various disciplines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellins, K. K.; Eriksson, S. C.; Samsel, F.; Lavier, L.

2017-12-01

A new undergraduate, upper level geoscience course was developed and taught by faculty and staff of the UT Austin Jackson School of Geosciences, the Center for Agile Technology, and the Texas Advanced Computational Center. The course examined the role of the visual arts in placing the scientific process and knowledge in a broader context and introduced students to innovations in the visual arts that promote scientific investigation through collaboration between geoscientists and artists. The course addressed (1) the role of the visual arts in teaching geoscience concepts and promoting geoscience learning; (2) the application of innovative visualization and artistic techniques to large volumes of geoscience data to enhance scientific understanding and to move scientific investigation forward; and (3) the illustrative power of art to communicate geoscience to the public. In-class activities and discussions, computer lab instruction on the application of Paraview software, reading assignments, lectures, and group projects with presentations comprised the two-credit, semester-long "special topics" course, which was taken by geoscience, computer science, and engineering students. Assessment of student learning was carried out by the instructors and course evaluation was done by an external evaluator using rubrics, likert-scale surveys and focus goups. The course achieved its goals of students' learning the concepts and techniques of the visual arts. The final projects demonstrated this, along with the communication of geologic concepts using what they had learned in the course. The basic skill of sketching for learning and using best practices in visual communication were used extensively and, in most cases, very effectively. The use of an advanced visualization tool, Paraview, was received with mixed reviews because of the lack of time to really learn the tool and the fact that it is not a tool used routinely in geoscience. Those senior students with advanced computer skills saw the importance of this tool. Students worked in teams, more or less effectively, and made suggestions for improving future offerings of the course.

Three-dimensional user interfaces for scientific visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vandam, Andries

1995-01-01

The main goal of this project is to develop novel and productive user interface techniques for creating and managing visualizations of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) datasets. We have implemented an application framework in which we can visualize computational fluid dynamics user interfaces. This UI technology allows users to interactively place visualization probes in a dataset and modify some of their parameters. We have also implemented a time-critical scheduling system which strives to maintain a constant frame-rate regardless of the number of visualization techniques. In the past year, we have published parts of this research at two conferences, the research annotation system at Visualization 1994, and the 3D user interface at UIST 1994. The real-time scheduling system has been submitted to SIGGRAPH 1995 conference. Copies of these documents are included with this report.

Visualization techniques to aid in the analysis of multispectral astrophysical data sets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brugel, E. W.; Domik, Gitta O.; Ayres, T. R.

1993-01-01

The goal of this project was to support the scientific analysis of multi-spectral astrophysical data by means of scientific visualization. Scientific visualization offers its greatest value if it is not used as a method separate or alternative to other data analysis methods but rather in addition to these methods. Together with quantitative analysis of data, such as offered by statistical analysis, image or signal processing, visualization attempts to explore all information inherent in astrophysical data in the most effective way. Data visualization is one aspect of data analysis. Our taxonomy as developed in Section 2 includes identification and access to existing information, preprocessing and quantitative analysis of data, visual representation and the user interface as major components to the software environment of astrophysical data analysis. In pursuing our goal to provide methods and tools for scientific visualization of multi-spectral astrophysical data, we therefore looked at scientific data analysis as one whole process, adding visualization tools to an already existing environment and integrating the various components that define a scientific data analysis environment. As long as the software development process of each component is separate from all other components, users of data analysis software are constantly interrupted in their scientific work in order to convert from one data format to another, or to move from one storage medium to another, or to switch from one user interface to another. We also took an in-depth look at scientific visualization and its underlying concepts, current visualization systems, their contributions and their shortcomings. The role of data visualization is to stimulate mental processes different from quantitative data analysis, such as the perception of spatial relationships or the discovery of patterns or anomalies while browsing through large data sets. Visualization often leads to an intuitive understanding of the meaning of data values and their relationships by sacrificing accuracy in interpreting the data values. In order to be accurate in the interpretation, data values need to be measured, computed on, and compared to theoretical or empirical models (quantitative analysis). If visualization software hampers quantitative analysis (which happens with some commercial visualization products), its use is greatly diminished for astrophysical data analysis. The software system STAR (Scientific Toolkit for Astrophysical Research) was developed as a prototype during the course of the project to better understand the pragmatic concerns raised in the project. STAR led to a better understanding on the importance of collaboration between astrophysicists and computer scientists. Twenty-one examples of the use of visualization for astrophysical data are included with this report. Sixteen publications related to efforts performed during or initiated through work on this project are listed at the end of this report.

Scientific Visualization Using the Flow Analysis Software Toolkit (FAST)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bancroft, Gordon V.; Kelaita, Paul G.; Mccabe, R. Kevin; Merritt, Fergus J.; Plessel, Todd C.; Sandstrom, Timothy A.; West, John T.

1993-01-01

Over the past few years the Flow Analysis Software Toolkit (FAST) has matured into a useful tool for visualizing and analyzing scientific data on high-performance graphics workstations. Originally designed for visualizing the results of fluid dynamics research, FAST has demonstrated its flexibility by being used in several other areas of scientific research. These research areas include earth and space sciences, acid rain and ozone modelling, and automotive design, just to name a few. This paper describes the current status of FAST, including the basic concepts, architecture, existing functionality and features, and some of the known applications for which FAST is being used. A few of the applications, by both NASA and non-NASA agencies, are outlined in more detail. Described in the Outlines are the goals of each visualization project, the techniques or 'tricks' used lo produce the desired results, and custom modifications to FAST, if any, done to further enhance the analysis. Some of the future directions for FAST are also described.

Seminar in Flow Visualization at Lafayette College: Variations on the Hertzberg Effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rossmann, Jenn Stroud

2013-11-01

Flow visualization reveals an invisible world of fluid dynamics, blending scientific investigation and artistic exploration. The resulting images have inspired, and in some cases themselves become appreciated as, art. At Lafayette College, a sophomore-level seminar in The Art and Science of Flow Visualization exposes students to these techniques and the science of fluid mechanics, and to the photographic methods needed to create effective images that are successful both scientifically and artistically. Unlike other courses in flow visualization, this course assumes no a priori familiarity with fluid flow or with photography. The fundamentals of both are taught and practiced in a studio setting. Students are engaged in an interdisciplinary discourse about fluids and physics, photography, scientific ethics, and historical societal responses to science and art. Relevant texts from several disciplines are read, discussed, and responded to in student writing. This seminar approach makes flow visualization and fluid dynamics a natural part of a liberal education. The development, implementation, and assessment of this team-taught course at Lafayette College will be discussed. Support provided by National Science Foundation.

Printing Space: Using 3D Printing of Digital Terrain Models in Geosciences Education and Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horowitz, Seth S.; Schultz, Peter H.

2014-01-01

Data visualization is a core component of every scientific project; however, generation of physical models previously depended on expensive or labor-intensive molding, sculpting, or laser sintering techniques. Physical models have the advantage of providing not only visual but also tactile modes of inspection, thereby allowing easier visual…

Scientific Visualization & Modeling for Earth Systems Science Education

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chaudhury, S. Raj; Rodriguez, Waldo J.

2003-01-01

Providing research experiences for undergraduate students in Earth Systems Science (ESS) poses several challenges at smaller academic institutions that might lack dedicated resources for this area of study. This paper describes the development of an innovative model that involves students with majors in diverse scientific disciplines in authentic ESS research. In studying global climate change, experts typically use scientific visualization techniques applied to remote sensing data collected by satellites. In particular, many problems related to environmental phenomena can be quantitatively addressed by investigations based on datasets related to the scientific endeavours such as the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE). Working with data products stored at NASA's Distributed Active Archive Centers, visualization software specifically designed for students and an advanced, immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment, students engage in guided research projects during a structured 6-week summer program. Over the 5-year span, this program has afforded the opportunity for students majoring in biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, physics, engineering and science education to work collaboratively in teams on research projects that emphasize the use of scientific visualization in studying the environment. Recently, a hands-on component has been added through science student partnerships with school-teachers in data collection and reporting for the GLOBE Program (GLobal Observations to Benefit the Environment).

Integrating advanced visualization technology into the planetary Geoscience workflow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huffman, John; Forsberg, Andrew; Loomis, Andrew; Head, James; Dickson, James; Fassett, Caleb

2011-09-01

Recent advances in computer visualization have allowed us to develop new tools for analyzing the data gathered during planetary missions, which is important, since these data sets have grown exponentially in recent years to tens of terabytes in size. As part of the Advanced Visualization in Solar System Exploration and Research (ADVISER) project, we utilize several advanced visualization techniques created specifically with planetary image data in mind. The Geoviewer application allows real-time active stereo display of images, which in aggregate have billions of pixels. The ADVISER desktop application platform allows fast three-dimensional visualization of planetary images overlain on digital terrain models. Both applications include tools for easy data ingest and real-time analysis in a programmatic manner. Incorporation of these tools into our everyday scientific workflow has proved important for scientific analysis, discussion, and publication, and enabled effective and exciting educational activities for students from high school through graduate school.

Using Visualization Science to Evaluate Effective Communication of Climate Indicators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gerst, M.; Kenney, M. A.; Wolfinger, F.; Lloyd, A.

2015-12-01

Indicators are observations or calculations that are used to track social and environmental conditions over time. For a large coupled system such as the economy and environment, the choice of indicators requires a structured process that involves co-production among facilitators, subject-matter experts, decision-makers, and the general public. This co-production is needed in part because such indicators serve a duel role of scientifically tracking change and of communicating to non-scientists important changes and information that may be useful in decision contexts. Because the goal is to communicate and inform decisions it is critical that indicators be understood by non-scientific audiences, which may require different visualization techniques than for scientific audiences. Here we describe a process of rigorously evaluating visual communication efficacy by using a simplified taxonomy of visualization design problems and trade-offs to assess existing and redesigned indicator images. The experimental design is three-part. It involves testing non-scientific audiences' understandability of scientific images found in the literature along with similar information shaped by a partial co-production process that informed the U.S. Global Change Research Program prototype indicators system, released in Spring 2015. These recommendations for physical, natural, and societal indicators of changes and impacts involved input from over 200 subject-matter experts, organized into 13 technical teams. Using results from the first two parts, we then explore visualization design improvements that may increase understandability to non-scientific audiences. We anticipate that this work will highlight important trade-offs in visualization design when moving between audiences that will be of great use to scientists who wish to communicate their results broader audiences.

Visibility Equalizer Cutaway Visualization of Mesoscopic Biological Models.

PubMed

Le Muzic, M; Mindek, P; Sorger, J; Autin, L; Goodsell, D; Viola, I

2016-06-01

In scientific illustrations and visualization, cutaway views are often employed as an effective technique for occlusion management in densely packed scenes. We propose a novel method for authoring cutaway illustrations of mesoscopic biological models. In contrast to the existing cutaway algorithms, we take advantage of the specific nature of the biological models. These models consist of thousands of instances with a comparably smaller number of different types. Our method constitutes a two stage process. In the first step, clipping objects are placed in the scene, creating a cutaway visualization of the model. During this process, a hierarchical list of stacked bars inform the user about the instance visibility distribution of each individual molecular type in the scene. In the second step, the visibility of each molecular type is fine-tuned through these bars, which at this point act as interactive visibility equalizers. An evaluation of our technique with domain experts confirmed that our equalizer-based approach for visibility specification was valuable and effective for both, scientific and educational purposes.

Visibility Equalizer Cutaway Visualization of Mesoscopic Biological Models

PubMed Central

Le Muzic, M.; Mindek, P.; Sorger, J.; Autin, L.; Goodsell, D.; Viola, I.

2017-01-01

In scientific illustrations and visualization, cutaway views are often employed as an effective technique for occlusion management in densely packed scenes. We propose a novel method for authoring cutaway illustrations of mesoscopic biological models. In contrast to the existing cutaway algorithms, we take advantage of the specific nature of the biological models. These models consist of thousands of instances with a comparably smaller number of different types. Our method constitutes a two stage process. In the first step, clipping objects are placed in the scene, creating a cutaway visualization of the model. During this process, a hierarchical list of stacked bars inform the user about the instance visibility distribution of each individual molecular type in the scene. In the second step, the visibility of each molecular type is fine-tuned through these bars, which at this point act as interactive visibility equalizers. An evaluation of our technique with domain experts confirmed that our equalizer-based approach for visibility specification was valuable and effective for both, scientific and educational purposes. PMID:28344374

Web-based Visual Analytics for Extreme Scale Climate Science

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

Steed, Chad A; Evans, Katherine J; Harney, John F

In this paper, we introduce a Web-based visual analytics framework for democratizing advanced visualization and analysis capabilities pertinent to large-scale earth system simulations. We address significant limitations of present climate data analysis tools such as tightly coupled dependencies, ineffi- cient data movements, complex user interfaces, and static visualizations. Our Web-based visual analytics framework removes critical barriers to the widespread accessibility and adoption of advanced scientific techniques. Using distributed connections to back-end diagnostics, we minimize data movements and leverage HPC platforms. We also mitigate system dependency issues by employing a RESTful interface. Our framework embraces the visual analytics paradigm via newmore » visual navigation techniques for hierarchical parameter spaces, multi-scale representations, and interactive spatio-temporal data mining methods that retain details. Although generalizable to other science domains, the current work focuses on improving exploratory analysis of large-scale Community Land Model (CLM) and Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) simulations.« less

"Whoa! We're Going Deep in the Trees!": Patterns of Collaboration around an Interactive Information Visualization Exhibit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Pryce; Horn, Michael; Block, Florian; Phillips, Brenda; Evans, E. Margaret; Diamond, Judy; Shen, Chia

2015-01-01

In this paper we present a qualitative analysis of natural history museum visitor interaction around a multi-touch tabletop exhibit called "DeepTree" that we designed around concepts of evolution and common descent. DeepTree combines several large scientific datasets and an innovative visualization technique to display a phylogenetic…

Correlative visualization techniques for multidimensional data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Treinish, Lloyd A.; Goettsche, Craig

1989-01-01

Critical to the understanding of data is the ability to provide pictorial or visual representation of those data, particularly in support of correlative data analysis. Despite the advancement of visualization techniques for scientific data over the last several years, there are still significant problems in bringing today's hardware and software technology into the hands of the typical scientist. For example, there are other computer science domains outside of computer graphics that are required to make visualization effective such as data management. Well-defined, flexible mechanisms for data access and management must be combined with rendering algorithms, data transformation, etc. to form a generic visualization pipeline. A generalized approach to data visualization is critical for the correlative analysis of distinct, complex, multidimensional data sets in the space and Earth sciences. Different classes of data representation techniques must be used within such a framework, which can range from simple, static two- and three-dimensional line plots to animation, surface rendering, and volumetric imaging. Static examples of actual data analyses will illustrate the importance of an effective pipeline in data visualization system.

Make it fun for everyone: visualization techniques in geoscience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Portnov, A.; Sojtaric, M.

2017-12-01

We live on a planet that mostly consists of oceans, but most people cannot picture what the surface and the subsurface of the ocean floor looks like. Marine geophysics has traditionally been difficult to explain to general public as most of what we do happens beyond the visual realm of an average audience. However, recent advances in 3D visualization of scientific data is one of the tools we can employ to better explain complex systems through gripping visual content. Coupled with a narrative approach, this type of visualization can open up a whole new and relatively little known world of science to general public. Up-to-date remote-sensing methods provide unique data of surface of seabed and subsurface all over the planet. Modern software can present this data in a spectacular way and with great scientific accuracy, making it attractive both for specialists and non-specialists in geoscience. As an example, we present several visualizations, which in simple way tell stories of various research in the remote parts of the World, such as Arctic regions and deep ocean in the Gulf of Mexico. Diverse datasets: multibeam echosounding; hydrographic survey; seismic and borehole data are put together to build up perfectly geo-referenced environment, showing the complexity of geological processes on our planet. Some of the data was collected 10-15 years ago, but acquired its new life with the help of new data visualization techniques. Every digital object with assigned coordinates, including 2D pictures and 3D models may become a part of this virtual geologic environment, limiting the potential of geo-visualization only by the imagination of a scientist. Presented videos have an apparent scientific focus on marine geology and geophysics, since the data was collected by several research and petroleum organizations, specialized in this field. The stories which we tell in this way may, for example, provide the public with further insight in complexities surrounding natural subsea gas storage and release.

Visual cues for data mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogowitz, Bernice E.; Rabenhorst, David A.; Gerth, John A.; Kalin, Edward B.

1996-04-01

This paper describes a set of visual techniques, based on principles of human perception and cognition, which can help users analyze and develop intuitions about tabular data. Collections of tabular data are widely available, including, for example, multivariate time series data, customer satisfaction data, stock market performance data, multivariate profiles of companies and individuals, and scientific measurements. In our approach, we show how visual cues can help users perform a number of data mining tasks, including identifying correlations and interaction effects, finding clusters and understanding the semantics of cluster membership, identifying anomalies and outliers, and discovering multivariate relationships among variables. These cues are derived from psychological studies on perceptual organization, visual search, perceptual scaling, and color perception. These visual techniques are presented as a complement to the statistical and algorithmic methods more commonly associated with these tasks, and provide an interactive interface for the human analyst.

Engineering and Scientific Applications: Using MatLab(Registered Trademark) for Data Processing and Visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sen, Syamal K.; Shaykhian, Gholam Ali

2011-01-01

MatLab(TradeMark)(MATrix LABoratory) is a numerical computation and simulation tool that is used by thousands Scientists and Engineers in many countries. MatLab does purely numerical calculations, which can be used as a glorified calculator or interpreter programming language; its real strength is in matrix manipulations. Computer algebra functionalities are achieved within the MatLab environment using "symbolic" toolbox. This feature is similar to computer algebra programs, provided by Maple or Mathematica to calculate with mathematical equations using symbolic operations. MatLab in its interpreter programming language form (command interface) is similar with well known programming languages such as C/C++, support data structures and cell arrays to define classes in object oriented programming. As such, MatLab is equipped with most of the essential constructs of a higher programming language. MatLab is packaged with an editor and debugging functionality useful to perform analysis of large MatLab programs and find errors. We believe there are many ways to approach real-world problems; prescribed methods to ensure foregoing solutions are incorporated in design and analysis of data processing and visualization can benefit engineers and scientist in gaining wider insight in actual implementation of their perspective experiments. This presentation will focus on data processing and visualizations aspects of engineering and scientific applications. Specifically, it will discuss methods and techniques to perform intermediate-level data processing covering engineering and scientific problems. MatLab programming techniques including reading various data files formats to produce customized publication-quality graphics, importing engineering and/or scientific data, organizing data in tabular format, exporting data to be used by other software programs such as Microsoft Excel, data presentation and visualization will be discussed.

Final Report. Institute for Ultralscale Visualization

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

Ma, Kwan-Liu; Galli, Giulia; Gygi, Francois

The SciDAC Institute for Ultrascale Visualization brought together leading experts from visualization, high-performance computing, and science application areas to make advanced visualization solutions for SciDAC scientists and the broader community. Over the five-year project, the Institute introduced many new enabling visualization techniques, which have significantly enhanced scientists’ ability to validate their simulations, interpret their data, and communicate with others about their work and findings. This Institute project involved a large number of junior and student researchers, who received the opportunities to work on some of the most challenging science applications and gain access to the most powerful high-performance computing facilitiesmore » in the world. They were readily trained and prepared for facing the greater challenges presented by extreme-scale computing. The Institute’s outreach efforts, through publications, workshops and tutorials, successfully disseminated the new knowledge and technologies to the SciDAC and the broader scientific communities. The scientific findings and experience of the Institute team helped plan the SciDAC3 program.« less

Software for visualization, analysis, and manipulation of laser scan images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burnsides, Dennis B.

1997-03-01

The recent introduction of laser surface scanning to scientific applications presents a challenge to computer scientists and engineers. Full utilization of this two- dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) data requires advances in techniques and methods for data processing and visualization. This paper explores the development of software to support the visualization, analysis and manipulation of laser scan images. Specific examples presented are from on-going efforts at the Air Force Computerized Anthropometric Research and Design (CARD) Laboratory.

Development of visual programming techniques to integrate theoretical modeling into the scientific planning and instrument operations environment of ISTP

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goodrich, Charles C.

1993-01-01

The goal of this project is to investigate the use of visualization software based on the visual programming and data-flow paradigms to meet the needs of the SPOF and through it the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) science community. Specific needs we address include science planning, data interpretation, comparisons of data with simulation and model results, and data acquisition. Our accomplishments during the twelve month grant period are discussed below.

Simulation of the visual effects of power plant plumes

Treesearch

Evelyn F. Treiman; David B. Champion; Mona J. Wecksung; Glenn H. Moore; Andrew Ford; Michael D. Williams

1979-01-01

The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory has developed a computer-assisted technique that can predict the visibility effects of potential energy sources in advance of their construction. This technique has been employed in an economic and environmental analysis comparing a single 3000 MW coal-fired power plant with six 500 MW coal-fired power plants located at hypothetical...

A Lightweight Remote Parallel Visualization Platform for Interactive Massive Time-varying Climate Data Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, J.; Zhang, T.; Huang, Q.; Liu, Q.

2014-12-01

Today's climate datasets are featured with large volume, high degree of spatiotemporal complexity and evolving fast overtime. As visualizing large volume distributed climate datasets is computationally intensive, traditional desktop based visualization applications fail to handle the computational intensity. Recently, scientists have developed remote visualization techniques to address the computational issue. Remote visualization techniques usually leverage server-side parallel computing capabilities to perform visualization tasks and deliver visualization results to clients through network. In this research, we aim to build a remote parallel visualization platform for visualizing and analyzing massive climate data. Our visualization platform was built based on Paraview, which is one of the most popular open source remote visualization and analysis applications. To further enhance the scalability and stability of the platform, we have employed cloud computing techniques to support the deployment of the platform. In this platform, all climate datasets are regular grid data which are stored in NetCDF format. Three types of data access methods are supported in the platform: accessing remote datasets provided by OpenDAP servers, accessing datasets hosted on the web visualization server and accessing local datasets. Despite different data access methods, all visualization tasks are completed at the server side to reduce the workload of clients. As a proof of concept, we have implemented a set of scientific visualization methods to show the feasibility of the platform. Preliminary results indicate that the framework can address the computation limitation of desktop based visualization applications.

AI applications to conceptual aircraft design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chalfan, Kathryn M.

1990-01-01

This paper presents in viewgraph form several applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to the conceptual design of aircraft, including: an access manager for automated data management, AI techniques applied to optimization, and virtual reality for scientific visualization of the design prototype.

Tools for 3D scientific visualization in computational aerodynamics at NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bancroft, Gordon; Plessel, Todd; Merritt, Fergus; Watson, Val

1989-01-01

Hardware, software, and techniques used by the Fluid Dynamics Division (NASA) for performing visualization of computational aerodynamics, which can be applied to the visualization of flow fields from computer simulations of fluid dynamics about the Space Shuttle, are discussed. Three visualization techniques applied, post-processing, tracking, and steering, are described, as well as the post-processing software packages used, PLOT3D, SURF (Surface Modeller), GAS (Graphical Animation System), and FAST (Flow Analysis software Toolkit). Using post-processing methods a flow simulation was executed on a supercomputer and, after the simulation was complete, the results were processed for viewing. It is shown that the high-resolution, high-performance three-dimensional workstation combined with specially developed display and animation software provides a good tool for analyzing flow field solutions obtained from supercomputers.

Novel Scientific Visualization Interfaces for Interactive Information Visualization and Sharing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demir, I.; Krajewski, W. F.

2012-12-01

As geoscientists are confronted with increasingly massive datasets from environmental observations to simulations, one of the biggest challenges is having the right tools to gain scientific insight from the data and communicate the understanding to stakeholders. Recent developments in web technologies make it easy to manage, visualize and share large data sets with general public. Novel visualization techniques and dynamic user interfaces allow users to interact with data, and modify the parameters to create custom views of the data to gain insight from simulations and environmental observations. This requires developing new data models and intelligent knowledge discovery techniques to explore and extract information from complex computational simulations or large data repositories. Scientific visualization will be an increasingly important component to build comprehensive environmental information platforms. This presentation provides an overview of the trends and challenges in the field of scientific visualization, and demonstrates information visualization and communication tools in the Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS), developed within the light of these challenges. The IFIS is a web-based platform developed by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) to provide access to and visualization of flood inundation maps, real-time flood conditions, flood forecasts both short-term and seasonal, and other flood-related data for communities in Iowa. The key element of the system's architecture is the notion of community. Locations of the communities, those near streams and rivers, define basin boundaries. The IFIS provides community-centric watershed and river characteristics, weather (rainfall) conditions, and streamflow data and visualization tools. Interactive interfaces allow access to inundation maps for different stage and return period values, and flooding scenarios with contributions from multiple rivers. Real-time and historical data of water levels, gauge heights, and rainfall conditions are available in the IFIS. 2D and 3D interactive visualizations in the IFIS make the data more understandable to general public. Users are able to filter data sources for their communities and selected rivers. The data and information on IFIS is also accessible through web services and mobile applications. The IFIS is optimized for various browsers and screen sizes to provide access through multiple platforms including tablets and mobile devices. Multiple view modes in the IFIS accommodate different user types from general public to researchers and decision makers by providing different level of tools and details. River view mode allows users to visualize data from multiple IFC bridge sensors and USGS stream gauges to follow flooding condition along a river. The IFIS will help communities make better-informed decisions on the occurrence of floods, and will alert communities in advance to help minimize damage of floods.

Oceans of Data: In what ways can learning research inform the development of electronic interfaces and tools for use by students accessing large scientific databases?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krumhansl, R. A.; Foster, J.; Peach, C. L.; Busey, A.; Baker, I.

2012-12-01

The practice of science and engineering is being revolutionized by the development of cyberinfrastructure for accessing near real-time and archived observatory data. Large cyberinfrastructure projects have the potential to transform the way science is taught in high school classrooms, making enormous quantities of scientific data available, giving students opportunities to analyze and draw conclusions from many kinds of complex data, and providing students with experiences using state-of-the-art resources and techniques for scientific investigations. However, online interfaces to scientific data are built by scientists for scientists, and their design can significantly impede broad use by novices. Knowledge relevant to the design of student interfaces to complex scientific databases is broadly dispersed among disciplines ranging from cognitive science to computer science and cartography and is not easily accessible to designers of educational interfaces. To inform efforts at bridging scientific cyberinfrastructure to the high school classroom, Education Development Center, Inc. and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography conducted an NSF-funded 2-year interdisciplinary review of literature and expert opinion pertinent to making interfaces to large scientific databases accessible to and usable by precollege learners and their teachers. Project findings are grounded in the fundamentals of Cognitive Load Theory, Visual Perception, Schemata formation and Universal Design for Learning. The Knowledge Status Report (KSR) presents cross-cutting and visualization-specific guidelines that highlight how interface design features can address/ ameliorate challenges novice high school students face as they navigate complex databases to find data, and construct and look for patterns in maps, graphs, animations and other data visualizations. The guidelines present ways to make scientific databases more broadly accessible by: 1) adjusting the cognitive load imposed by the user interface and visualizations so that it doesn't exceed the amount of information the learner can actively process; 2) drawing attention to important features and patterns; and 3) enabling customization of visualizations and tools to meet the needs of diverse learners.

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

Spong, D.A.

The design techniques and physics analysis of modern stellarator configurations for magnetic fusion research rely heavily on high performance computing and simulation. Stellarators, which are fundamentally 3-dimensional in nature, offer significantly more design flexibility than more symmetric devices such as the tokamak. By varying the outer boundary shape of the plasma, a variety of physics features, such as transport, stability, and heating efficiency can be optimized. Scientific visualization techniques are an important adjunct to this effort as they provide a necessary ergonomic link between the numerical results and the intuition of the human researcher. The authors have developed a varietymore » of visualization techniques for stellarators which both facilitate the design optimization process and allow the physics simulations to be more readily understood.« less

Visualization of Computational Fluid Dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gerald-Yamasaki, Michael; Hultquist, Jeff; Bryson, Steve; Kenwright, David; Lane, David; Walatka, Pamela; Clucas, Jean; Watson, Velvin; Lasinski, T. A. (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

Scientific visualization serves the dual purpose of exploration and exposition of the results of numerical simulations of fluid flow. Along with the basic visualization process which transforms source data into images, there are four additional components to a complete visualization system: Source Data Processing, User Interface and Control, Presentation, and Information Management. The requirements imposed by the desired mode of operation (i.e. real-time, interactive, or batch) and the source data have their effect on each of these visualization system components. The special requirements imposed by the wide variety and size of the source data provided by the numerical simulation of fluid flow presents an enormous challenge to the visualization system designer. We describe the visualization system components including specific visualization techniques and how the mode of operation and source data requirements effect the construction of computational fluid dynamics visualization systems.

Integrating a geographic information system, a scientific visualization system and an orographic precipitation model

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hay, L.; Knapp, L.

1996-01-01

Investigating natural, potential, and man-induced impacts on hydrological systems commonly requires complex modelling with overlapping data requirements, and massive amounts of one- to four-dimensional data at multiple scales and formats. Given the complexity of most hydrological studies, the requisite software infrastructure must incorporate many components including simulation modelling, spatial analysis and flexible, intuitive displays. There is a general requirement for a set of capabilities to support scientific analysis which, at this time, can only come from an integration of several software components. Integration of geographic information systems (GISs) and scientific visualization systems (SVSs) is a powerful technique for developing and analysing complex models. This paper describes the integration of an orographic precipitation model, a GIS and a SVS. The combination of these individual components provides a robust infrastructure which allows the scientist to work with the full dimensionality of the data and to examine the data in a more intuitive manner.

Graphical programming interface: A development environment for MRI methods.

PubMed

Zwart, Nicholas R; Pipe, James G

2015-11-01

To introduce a multiplatform, Python language-based, development environment called graphical programming interface for prototyping MRI techniques. The interface allows developers to interact with their scientific algorithm prototypes visually in an event-driven environment making tasks such as parameterization, algorithm testing, data manipulation, and visualization an integrated part of the work-flow. Algorithm developers extend the built-in functionality through simple code interfaces designed to facilitate rapid implementation. This article shows several examples of algorithms developed in graphical programming interface including the non-Cartesian MR reconstruction algorithms for PROPELLER and spiral as well as spin simulation and trajectory visualization of a FLORET example. The graphical programming interface framework is shown to be a versatile prototyping environment for developing numeric algorithms used in the latest MR techniques. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Big, Deep, and Smart Data in Scanning Probe Microscopy.

PubMed

Kalinin, Sergei V; Strelcov, Evgheni; Belianinov, Alex; Somnath, Suhas; Vasudevan, Rama K; Lingerfelt, Eric J; Archibald, Richard K; Chen, Chaomei; Proksch, Roger; Laanait, Nouamane; Jesse, Stephen

2016-09-27

Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques have opened the door to nanoscience and nanotechnology by enabling imaging and manipulation of the structure and functionality of matter at nanometer and atomic scales. Here, we analyze the scientific discovery process in SPM by following the information flow from the tip-surface junction, to knowledge adoption by the wider scientific community. We further discuss the challenges and opportunities offered by merging SPM with advanced data mining, visual analytics, and knowledge discovery technologies.

Techniques for animation of CFD results. [computational fluid dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Horowitz, Jay; Hanson, Jeffery C.

1992-01-01

Video animation is becoming increasingly vital to the computational fluid dynamics researcher, not just for presentation, but for recording and comparing dynamic visualizations that are beyond the current capabilities of even the most powerful graphic workstation. To meet these needs, Lewis Research Center has recently established a facility to provide users with easy access to advanced video animation capabilities. However, producing animation that is both visually effective and scientifically accurate involves various technological and aesthetic considerations that must be understood both by the researcher and those supporting the visualization process. These considerations include: scan conversion, color conversion, and spatial ambiguities.

6D Visualization of Multidimensional Data by Means of Cognitive Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vitkovskiy, V.; Gorohov, V.; Komarinskiy, S.

2010-12-01

On the basis of the cognitive graphics concept, we worked out the SW-system for visualization and analysis. It allows to train and to aggravate intuition of researcher, to raise his interest and motivation to the creative, scientific cognition, to realize process of dialogue with the very problems simultaneously. The Space Hedgehog system is the next step in the cognitive means of the multidimensional data analyze. The technique and technology cognitive 6D visualization of the multidimensional data is developed on the basis of the cognitive visualization research and technology development. The Space Hedgehog system allows direct dynamic visualization of 6D objects. It is developed with use of experience of the program Space Walker creation and its applications.

50 Years of renal physiology from one man and the perfused tubule: Maurice B. Burg.

PubMed

Hamilton, Kirk L; Moore, Antoni B

2016-08-01

Technical advancements in research techniques in science are made in slow increments. Even so, large advances from insight and hard work of an individual with a single technique can have astonishing ramifications. Here, we examine the impact of Dr. Maurice B. Burg and the isolated perfused renal tubule technique and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication by Dr. Burg and his colleagues of their landmark paper in the American Journal of Physiology in 1966. In this study, we have taken a scientific visualization approach to study the scientific contributions of Dr. Burg and the isolated perfused tubule preparation as determining research impact by the number of research students, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scientists, and national and international collaborators. Additionally, we have examined the research collaborations (first and second generation scientists), established the migrational visualization of the first generation scientists who worked directly with Dr. Burg, quantified the metrics indices, identified and quantified the network of coauthorship of the first generation scientists with their second generation links, and determined the citations analyses of outputs of Dr. Burg and/or his first generation collaborators as coauthors. We also review the major advances in kidney physiology that have been made with the isolated perfused tubule technique. Finally, we are all waiting for the discoveries that the isolated perfused preparation technique will bring during the next 50 years. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

3D visualization techniques for the STEREO-mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiegelmann, T.; Podlipnik, B.; Inhester, B.; Feng, L.; Ruan, P.

The forthcoming STEREO-mission will observe the Sun from two different viewpoints We expect about 2GB data per day which ask for suitable data presentation techniques A key feature of STEREO is that it will provide for the first time a 3D-view of the Sun and the solar corona In our normal environment we see objects three dimensional because the light from real 3D objects needs different travel times to our left and right eye As a consequence we see slightly different images with our eyes which gives us information about the depth of objects and a corresponding 3D impression Techniques for the 3D-visualization of scientific and other data on paper TV computer screen cinema etc are well known e g two colour anaglyph technique shutter glasses polarization filters and head-mounted displays We discuss advantages and disadvantages of these techniques and how they can be applied to STEREO-data The 3D-visualization techniques are not limited to visual images but can be also used to show the reconstructed coronal magnetic field and energy and helicity distribution In the advent of STEREO we test the method with data from SOHO which provides us different viewpoints by the solar rotation This restricts the analysis to structures which remain stationary for several days Real STEREO-data will not be affected by these limitations however

Applied Information Systems Research Program (AISRP) Workshop 3 meeting proceedings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1993-01-01

The third Workshop of the Applied Laboratory Systems Research Program (AISRP) met at the Univeristy of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in August of 1993. The presentations were organized into four sessions: Artificial Intelligence Techniques; Scientific Visualization; Data Management and Archiving; and Research and Technology.

Evaluation of techniques for ocular measurement as an index of fatigue and as the basis for alertness management

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1998-04-01

This final report establishes the scientific validity of the ocular measure "Perclose" as a generally useful and reliable index of lapses in visual attention, i.e. the percentage of eyelid closure over the pupil. Perclose was previously specified as ...

Py-SPHViewer: Cosmological simulations using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benítez-Llambay, Alejandro

2017-12-01

Py-SPHViewer visualizes and explores N-body + Hydrodynamics simulations. The code interpolates the underlying density field (or any other property) traced by a set of particles, using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) interpolation scheme, thus producing not only beautiful but also useful scientific images. Py-SPHViewer enables the user to explore simulated volumes using different projections. Py-SPHViewer also provides a natural way to visualize (in a self-consistent fashion) gas dynamical simulations, which use the same technique to compute the interactions between particles.

Ambiguous science and the visual representation of the real

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newbold, Curtis Robert

The emergence of visual media as prominent and even expected forms of communication in nearly all disciplines, including those scientific, has raised new questions about how the art and science of communication epistemologically affect the interpretation of scientific phenomena. In this dissertation I explore how the influence of aesthetics in visual representations of science inevitably creates ambiguous meanings. As a means to improve visual literacy in the sciences, I call awareness to the ubiquity of visual ambiguity and its importance and relevance in scientific discourse. To do this, I conduct a literature review that spans interdisciplinary research in communication, science, art, and rhetoric. Furthermore, I create a paradoxically ambiguous taxonomy, which functions to exploit the nuances of visual ambiguities and their role in scientific communication. I then extrapolate the taxonomy of visual ambiguity and from it develop an ambiguous, rhetorical heuristic, the Tetradic Model of Visual Ambiguity. The Tetradic Model is applied to a case example of a scientific image as a demonstration of how scientific communicators may increase their awareness of the epistemological effects of ambiguity in the visual representations of science. I conclude by demonstrating how scientific communicators may make productive use of visual ambiguity, even in communications of objective science, and I argue how doing so strengthens scientific communicators' visual literacy skills and their ability to communicate more ethically and effectively.

Streaming simplification of tetrahedral meshes.

PubMed

Vo, Huy T; Callahan, Steven P; Lindstrom, Peter; Pascucci, Valerio; Silva, Cláudio T

2007-01-01

Unstructured tetrahedral meshes are commonly used in scientific computing to represent scalar, vector, and tensor fields in three dimensions. Visualization of these meshes can be difficult to perform interactively due to their size and complexity. By reducing the size of the data, we can accomplish real-time visualization necessary for scientific analysis. We propose a two-step approach for streaming simplification of large tetrahedral meshes. Our algorithm arranges the data on disk in a streaming, I/O-efficient format that allows coherent access to the tetrahedral cells. A quadric-based simplification is sequentially performed on small portions of the mesh in-core. Our output is a coherent streaming mesh which facilitates future processing. Our technique is fast, produces high quality approximations, and operates out-of-core to process meshes too large for main memory.

IDP camp evolvement analysis in Darfur using VHSR optical satellite image time series and scientific visualization on virtual globes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tiede, Dirk; Lang, Stefan

2010-11-01

In this paper we focus on the application of transferable, object-based image analysis algorithms for dwelling extraction in a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in Darfur, Sudan along with innovative means for scientific visualisation of the results. Three very high spatial resolution satellite images (QuickBird: 2002, 2004, 2008) were used for: (1) extracting different types of dwellings and (2) calculating and visualizing added-value products such as dwelling density and camp structure. The results were visualized on virtual globes (Google Earth and ArcGIS Explorer) revealing the analysis results (analytical 3D views,) transformed into the third dimension (z-value). Data formats depend on virtual globe software including KML/KMZ (keyhole mark-up language) and ESRI 3D shapefiles streamed as ArcGIS Server-based globe service. In addition, means for improving overall performance of automated dwelling structures using grid computing techniques are discussed using examples from a similar study.

Visualization of system dynamics using phasegrams

PubMed Central

Herbst, Christian T.; Herzel, Hanspeter; Švec, Jan G.; Wyman, Megan T.; Fitch, W. Tecumseh

2013-01-01

A new tool for visualization and analysis of system dynamics is introduced: the phasegram. Its application is illustrated with both classical nonlinear systems (logistic map and Lorenz system) and with biological voice signals. Phasegrams combine the advantages of sliding-window analysis (such as the spectrogram) with well-established visualization techniques from the domain of nonlinear dynamics. In a phasegram, time is mapped onto the x-axis, and various vibratory regimes, such as periodic oscillation, subharmonics or chaos, are identified within the generated graph by the number and stability of horizontal lines. A phasegram can be interpreted as a bifurcation diagram in time. In contrast to other analysis techniques, it can be automatically constructed from time-series data alone: no additional system parameter needs to be known. Phasegrams show great potential for signal classification and can act as the quantitative basis for further analysis of oscillating systems in many scientific fields, such as physics (particularly acoustics), biology or medicine. PMID:23697715

Discovering Communicable Scientific Knowledge from Spatio-Temporal Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schwabacher, Mark; Langley, Pat; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

This paper describes how we used regression rules to improve upon a result previously published in the Earth science literature. In such a scientific application of machine learning, it is crucially important for the learned models to be understandable and communicable. We recount how we selected a learning algorithm to maximize communicability, and then describe two visualization techniques that we developed to aid in understanding the model by exploiting the spatial nature of the data. We also report how evaluating the learned models across time let us discover an error in the data.

Integrating Visualization Applications, such as ParaView, into HEP Software Frameworks for In-situ Event Displays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyon, A. L.; Kowalkowski, J. B.; Jones, C. D.

2017-10-01

ParaView is a high performance visualization application not widely used in High Energy Physics (HEP). It is a long standing open source project led by Kitware and involves several Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Defense (DOD) laboratories. Futhermore, it has been adopted by many DOE supercomputing centers and other sites. ParaView is unique in speed and efficiency by using state-of-the-art techniques developed by the academic visualization community that are often not found in applications written by the HEP community. In-situ visualization of events, where event details are visualized during processing/analysis, is a common task for experiment software frameworks. Kitware supplies Catalyst, a library that enables scientific software to serve visualization objects to client ParaView viewers yielding a real-time event display. Connecting ParaView to the Fermilab art framework will be described and the capabilities it brings discussed.

Designing a visualization system for hydrological data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fuhrmann, Sven

2000-02-01

The field of hydrology is, as any other scientific field, strongly affected by a massive technological evolution. The spread of modern information and communication technology within the last three decades has led to an increased collection, availability and use of spatial and temporal digital hydrological data. In a two-year research period a working group in Muenster applied and developed methods for the visualization of digital hydrological data and the documentation of hydrological models. A low-cost multimedial, hydrological visualization system (HydroVIS) for the Weser river catchment was developed. The research group designed HydroVIS under freeware constraints and tried to show what kind of multimedia visualization techniques can be effectively used with a nonprofit hydrological visualization system. The system's visual components include features such as electronic maps, temporal and nontemporal cartographic animations, the display of geologic profiles, interactive diagrams and hypertext, including photographs and tables.

High Performance Real-Time Visualization of Voluminous Scientific Data Through the NOAA Earth Information System (NEIS).

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stewart, J.; Hackathorn, E. J.; Joyce, J.; Smith, J. S.

2014-12-01

Within our community data volume is rapidly expanding. These data have limited value if one cannot interact or visualize the data in a timely manner. The scientific community needs the ability to dynamically visualize, analyze, and interact with these data along with other environmental data in real-time regardless of the physical location or data format. Within the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's), the Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) is actively developing the NOAA Earth Information System (NEIS). Previously, the NEIS team investigated methods of data discovery and interoperability. The recent focus shifted to high performance real-time visualization allowing NEIS to bring massive amounts of 4-D data, including output from weather forecast models as well as data from different observations (surface obs, upper air, etc...) in one place. Our server side architecture provides a real-time stream processing system which utilizes server based NVIDIA Graphical Processing Units (GPU's) for data processing, wavelet based compression, and other preparation techniques for visualization, allows NEIS to minimize the bandwidth and latency for data delivery to end-users. Client side, users interact with NEIS services through the visualization application developed at ESRL called TerraViz. Terraviz is developed using the Unity game engine and takes advantage of the GPU's allowing a user to interact with large data sets in real time that might not have been possible before. Through these technologies, the NEIS team has improved accessibility to 'Big Data' along with providing tools allowing novel visualization and seamless integration of data across time and space regardless of data size, physical location, or data format. These capabilities provide the ability to see the global interactions and their importance for weather prediction. Additionally, they allow greater access than currently exists helping to foster scientific collaboration and new ideas. This presentation will provide an update of the recent enhancements of the NEIS architecture and visualization capabilities, challenges faced, as well as ongoing research activities related to this project.

Scientific Visualization, Seeing the Unseeable

ScienceCinema

LBNL

2017-12-09

June 24, 2008 Berkeley Lab lecture: Scientific visualization transforms abstract data into readily comprehensible images, provide a vehicle for "seeing the unseeable," and play a central role in bo... June 24, 2008 Berkeley Lab lecture: Scientific visualization transforms abstract data into readily comprehensible images, provide a vehicle for "seeing the unseeable," and play a central role in both experimental and computational sciences. Wes Bethel, who heads the Scientific Visualization Group in the Computational Research Division, presents an overview of visualization and computer graphics, current research challenges, and future directions for the field.

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

Li, Song

CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) is a widely used technique in engineering design field. It uses mathematical methods to simulate and predict flow characteristics in a certain physical space. Since the numerical result of CFD computation is very hard to understand, VR (virtual reality) and data visualization techniques are introduced into CFD post-processing to improve the understandability and functionality of CFD computation. In many cases CFD datasets are very large (multi-gigabytes), and more and more interactions between user and the datasets are required. For the traditional VR application, the limitation of computing power is a major factor to prevent visualizing largemore » dataset effectively. This thesis presents a new system designing to speed up the traditional VR application by using parallel computing and distributed computing, and the idea of using hand held device to enhance the interaction between a user and VR CFD application as well. Techniques in different research areas including scientific visualization, parallel computing, distributed computing and graphical user interface designing are used in the development of the final system. As the result, the new system can flexibly be built on heterogeneous computing environment, dramatically shorten the computation time.« less

Hybrid 2-D and 3-D Immersive and Interactive User Interface for Scientific Data Visualization

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-08-01

visualization, 3-D interactive visualization, scientific visualization, virtual reality, real -time ray tracing 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17...scientists to employ in the real world. Other than user-friendly software and hardware setup, scientists also need to be able to perform their usual...and scientific visualization communities mostly have different research priorities. For the VR community, the ability to support real -time user

Visualization Techniques in Space and Atmospheric Sciences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Szuszczewicz, E. P. (Editor); Bredekamp, Joseph H. (Editor)

1995-01-01

Unprecedented volumes of data will be generated by research programs that investigate the Earth as a system and the origin of the universe, which will in turn require analysis and interpretation that will lead to meaningful scientific insight. Providing a widely distributed research community with the ability to access, manipulate, analyze, and visualize these complex, multidimensional data sets depends on a wide range of computer science and technology topics. Data storage and compression, data base management, computational methods and algorithms, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and high-resolution display are just a few of the topics addressed. A unifying theme throughout the papers with regards to advanced data handling and visualization is the need for interactivity, speed, user-friendliness, and extensibility.

Visualizing the Big (and Large) Data from an HPC Resource

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sisneros, R.

2015-10-01

Supercomputers are built to endure painfully large simulations and contend with resulting outputs. These are characteristics that scientists are all too willing to test the limits of in their quest for science at scale. The data generated during a scientist's workflow through an HPC center (large data) is the primary target for analysis and visualization. However, the hardware itself is also capable of generating volumes of diagnostic data (big data); this presents compelling opportunities to deploy analogous analytic techniques. In this paper we will provide a survey of some of the many ways in which visualization and analysis may be crammed into the scientific workflow as well as utilized on machine-specific data.

The climate visualizer: Sense-making through scientific visualization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gordin, Douglas N.; Polman, Joseph L.; Pea, Roy D.

1994-12-01

This paper describes the design of a learning environment, called the Climate Visualizer, intended to facilitate scientific sense-making in high school classrooms by providing students the ability to craft, inspect, and annotate scientific visualizations. The theoretical back-ground for our design presents a view of learning as acquiring and critiquing cultural practices and stresses the need for students to appropriate the social and material aspects of practice when learning an area. This is followed by a description of the design of the Climate Visualizer, including detailed accounts of its provision of spatial and temporal context and the quantitative and visual representations it employs. A broader context is then explored by describing its integration into the high school science classroom. This discussion explores how visualizations can promote the creation of scientific theories, especially in conjunction with the Collaboratory Notebook, an embedded environment for creating and critiquing scientific theories and visualizations. Finally, we discuss the design trade-offs we have made in light of our theoretical orientation, and our hopes for further progress.

Journey to the centre of the cell: Virtual reality immersion into scientific data.

PubMed

Johnston, Angus P R; Rae, James; Ariotti, Nicholas; Bailey, Benjamin; Lilja, Andrew; Webb, Robyn; Ferguson, Charles; Maher, Sheryl; Davis, Thomas P; Webb, Richard I; McGhee, John; Parton, Robert G

2018-02-01

Visualization of scientific data is crucial not only for scientific discovery but also to communicate science and medicine to both experts and a general audience. Until recently, we have been limited to visualizing the three-dimensional (3D) world of biology in 2 dimensions. Renderings of 3D cells are still traditionally displayed using two-dimensional (2D) media, such as on a computer screen or paper. However, the advent of consumer grade virtual reality (VR) headsets such as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive means it is now possible to visualize and interact with scientific data in a 3D virtual world. In addition, new microscopic methods provide an unprecedented opportunity to obtain new 3D data sets. In this perspective article, we highlight how we have used cutting edge imaging techniques to build a 3D virtual model of a cell from serial block-face scanning electron microscope (SBEM) imaging data. This model allows scientists, students and members of the public to explore and interact with a "real" cell. Early testing of this immersive environment indicates a significant improvement in students' understanding of cellular processes and points to a new future of learning and public engagement. In addition, we speculate that VR can become a new tool for researchers studying cellular architecture and processes by populating VR models with molecular data. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Tools for 3D scientific visualization in computational aerodynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bancroft, Gordon; Plessel, Todd; Merritt, Fergus; Watson, Val

1989-01-01

The purpose is to describe the tools and techniques in use at the NASA Ames Research Center for performing visualization of computational aerodynamics, for example visualization of flow fields from computer simulations of fluid dynamics about vehicles such as the Space Shuttle. The hardware used for visualization is a high-performance graphics workstation connected to a super computer with a high speed channel. At present, the workstation is a Silicon Graphics IRIS 3130, the supercomputer is a CRAY2, and the high speed channel is a hyperchannel. The three techniques used for visualization are post-processing, tracking, and steering. Post-processing analysis is done after the simulation. Tracking analysis is done during a simulation but is not interactive, whereas steering analysis involves modifying the simulation interactively during the simulation. Using post-processing methods, a flow simulation is executed on a supercomputer and, after the simulation is complete, the results of the simulation are processed for viewing. The software in use and under development at NASA Ames Research Center for performing these types of tasks in computational aerodynamics is described. Workstation performance issues, benchmarking, and high-performance networks for this purpose are also discussed as well as descriptions of other hardware for digital video and film recording.

Characterization of the peer review network at the Center for Scientific Review, National Institutes of Health.

PubMed

Boyack, Kevin W; Chen, Mei-Ching; Chacko, George

2014-01-01

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the largest source of funding for biomedical research in the world. This funding is largely effected through a competitive grants process. Each year the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) at NIH manages the evaluation, by peer review, of more than 55,000 grant applications. A relevant management question is how this scientific evaluation system, supported by finite resources, could be continuously evaluated and improved for maximal benefit to the scientific community and the taxpaying public. Towards this purpose, we have created the first system-level description of peer review at CSR by applying text analysis, bibliometric, and graph visualization techniques to administrative records. We identify otherwise latent relationships across scientific clusters, which in turn suggest opportunities for structural reorganization of the system based on expert evaluation. Such studies support the creation of monitoring tools and provide transparency and knowledge to stakeholders.

Investigation of the sensitivity of a cross-polarized light visualization system to detect subclinical erythema and dryness in women with vulvovaginitis.

PubMed

Farage, Miranda A; Singh, Mukul; Ledger, William J

2009-07-01

An enhanced visualization technique using polarized light (Syris v600 enhanced visualization system; Syris Scientific LLC, Gray, ME) detects surface and subsurface ( approximately 1 mm depth) inflammation. We sought to compare the Syris v600 system with unaided visual inspection and colposcopy of the female genitalia. Erythema and dryness of the vulva, introitus, vagina, and cervix were visualized and scored by each method in patients with and without vulvitis. Subsurface visualization was more sensitive in detecting genital erythema and dryness at all sites whether or not symptoms were present. Subsurface inflammation of the introitus, vagina, and cervix only was detected uniquely in women with vulvar vestibulitis syndrome (VVS). A subset of women presenting with VVS exhibited subclinical inflammation of the vulva vestibule and vagina (designated VVS/lichen sclerosus subgroup). Enhanced visualization of the genital epithelial subsurface with cross-polarized light may assist in diagnosing subclinical inflammation in vulvar conditions heretofore characterized as sensory syndromes.

A main path domain map as digital library interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demaine, Jeffrey

2009-01-01

The shift to electronic publishing of scientific journals is an opportunity for the digital library to provide non-traditional ways of accessing the literature. One method is to use citation metadata drawn from a collection of electronic journals to generate maps of science. These maps visualize the communication patterns in the collection, giving the user an easy-tograsp view of the semantic structure underlying the scientific literature. For this visualization to be understandable the complexity of the citation network must be reduced through an algorithm. This paper describes the Citation Pathfinder application and its integration into a prototype digital library. This application generates small-scale citation networks that expand upon the search results of the digital library. These domain maps are linked to the collection, creating an interface that is based on the communication patterns in science. The Main Path Analysis technique is employed to simplify these networks into linear, sequential structures. By identifying patterns that characterize the evolution of the research field, Citation Pathfinder uses citations to give users a deeper understanding of the scientific literature.

Real-time colouring and filtering with graphics shaders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vohl, D.; Fluke, C. J.; Barnes, D. G.; Hassan, A. H.

2017-11-01

Despite the popularity of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) for general purpose computing, one should not forget about the practicality of the GPU for fast scientific visualization. As astronomers have increasing access to three-dimensional (3D) data from instruments and facilities like integral field units and radio interferometers, visualization techniques such as volume rendering offer means to quickly explore spectral cubes as a whole. As most 3D visualization techniques have been developed in fields of research like medical imaging and fluid dynamics, many transfer functions are not optimal for astronomical data. We demonstrate how transfer functions and graphics shaders can be exploited to provide new astronomy-specific explorative colouring methods. We present 12 shaders, including four novel transfer functions specifically designed to produce intuitive and informative 3D visualizations of spectral cube data. We compare their utility to classic colour mapping. The remaining shaders highlight how common computation like filtering, smoothing and line ratio algorithms can be integrated as part of the graphics pipeline. We discuss how this can be achieved by utilizing the parallelism of modern GPUs along with a shading language, letting astronomers apply these new techniques at interactive frame rates. All shaders investigated in this work are included in the open source software shwirl (Vohl 2017).

Building a Data Science capability for USGS water research and communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Appling, A.; Read, E. K.

2015-12-01

Interpreting and communicating water issues in an era of exponentially increasing information requires a blend of domain expertise, computational proficiency, and communication skills. The USGS Office of Water Information has established a Data Science team to meet these needs, providing challenging careers for diverse domain scientists and innovators in the fields of information technology and data visualization. Here, we detail the experience of building a Data Science capability as a bridging element between traditional water resources analyses and modern computing tools and data management techniques. This approach includes four major components: 1) building reusable research tools, 2) documenting data-intensive research approaches in peer reviewed journals, 3) communicating complex water resources issues with interactive web visualizations, and 4) offering training programs for our peers in scientific computing. These components collectively improve the efficiency, transparency, and reproducibility of USGS data analyses and scientific workflows.

From the EEL to the EGO: psychoanalysis and the remnants of Freud's early scientific practice.

PubMed

Wieser, Martin

2013-01-01

While numerous historiographical works have been written to shed light on Freud's early theoretical education in biology, physiology, and medicine and on the influence of that education on psychoanalysis, this paper approaches Freud's basic comprehension of science and methodology by focusing on his early research practice in physiology and neuranatomy. This practice, taking place in the specific context of Ernst Brücke's physiological laboratory in Vienna, was deeply concerned with problems of visuality and the revelation of hidden organic structures by use of proper preparation techniques and optical instruments. The paper explores the connection between such visualizing practices, shaped by a physiological context as they were, and Freud's later convictions of the scientific status of psychoanalysis and the function of its method as means to unveil the concealed structure of the "psychical apparatus". © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

3D Scientific Visualization with Blender

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kent, Brian R.

2015-03-01

This is the first book written on using Blender (an open source visualization suite widely used in the entertainment and gaming industries) for scientific visualization. It is a practical and interesting introduction to Blender for understanding key parts of 3D rendering and animation that pertain to the sciences via step-by-step guided tutorials. 3D Scientific Visualization with Blender takes you through an understanding of 3D graphics and modelling for different visualization scenarios in the physical sciences.

A component-based software environment for visualizing large macromolecular assemblies.

PubMed

Sanner, Michel F

2005-03-01

The interactive visualization of large biological assemblies poses a number of challenging problems, including the development of multiresolution representations and new interaction methods for navigating and analyzing these complex systems. An additional challenge is the development of flexible software environments that will facilitate the integration and interoperation of computational models and techniques from a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In this paper, we present a component-based software development strategy centered on the high-level, object-oriented, interpretive programming language: Python. We present several software components, discuss their integration, and describe some of their features that are relevant to the visualization of large molecular assemblies. Several examples are given to illustrate the interoperation of these software components and the integration of structural data from a variety of experimental sources. These examples illustrate how combining visual programming with component-based software development facilitates the rapid prototyping of novel visualization tools.

3D Scientific Visualization with Blender

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kent, Brian R.

2015-03-01

This is the first book written on using Blender for scientific visualization. It is a practical and interesting introduction to Blender for understanding key parts of 3D rendering and animation that pertain to the sciences via step-by-step guided tutorials. 3D Scientific Visualization with Blender takes you through an understanding of 3D graphics and modelling for different visualization scenarios in the physical sciences.

Scientific Visualization: The Modern Oscilloscope for "Seeing the Unseeable" (LBNL Summer Lecture Series)

ScienceCinema

Bethel, E. Wes [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Computational Research Division and Scientific Visualization Group

2018-05-07

Summer Lecture Series 2008: Scientific visualization transforms abstract data into readily comprehensible images, provide a vehicle for "seeing the unseeable," and play a central role in both experimental and computational sciences. Wes Bethel, who heads the Scientific Visualization Group in the Computational Research Division, presents an overview of visualization and computer graphics, current research challenges, and future directions for the field.

Integrating Visualization Applications, such as ParaView, into HEP Software Frameworks for In-situ Event Displays

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

Lyon, A. L.; Kowalkowski, J. B.; Jones, C. D.

ParaView is a high performance visualization application not widely used in High Energy Physics (HEP). It is a long standing open source project led by Kitware and involves several Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Defense (DOD) laboratories. Futhermore, it has been adopted by many DOE supercomputing centers and other sites. ParaView is unique in speed and efficiency by using state-of-the-art techniques developed by the academic visualization community that are often not found in applications written by the HEP community. In-situ visualization of events, where event details are visualized during processing/analysis, is a common task for experiment software frameworks.more » Kitware supplies Catalyst, a library that enables scientific software to serve visualization objects to client ParaView viewers yielding a real-time event display. Connecting ParaView to the Fermilab art framework will be described and the capabilities it brings discussed.« less

Practical strategies for effective lectures.

PubMed

Lenz, Peter H; McCallister, Jennifer W; Luks, Andrew M; Le, Tao T; Fessler, Henry E

2015-04-01

Lecturing is an essential teaching skill for scientists and health care professionals in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. However, few medical or scientific educators have received training in contemporary techniques or technology for large audience presentation. Interactive lecturing outperforms traditional, passive-style lecturing in educational outcomes, and is being increasingly incorporated into large group presentations. Evidence-based techniques range from the very simple, such as inserting pauses for audience discussion, to more technologically advanced approaches such as electronic audience response systems. Alternative software platforms such as Prezi can overcome some of the visual limits that the ubiquitous PowerPoint imposes on complex scientific narratives, and newer technology formats can help foster the interactive learning environment. Regardless of the technology, adherence to good principles of instructional design, multimedia learning, visualization of quantitative data, and informational public speaking can improve any lecture. The storyline must be clear, logical, and simplified compared with how it might be prepared for scientific publication. Succinct outline and summary slides can provide a roadmap for the audience. Changes of pace, and summaries or other cognitive breaks inserted every 15-20 minutes can renew attention. Graphics that emphasize clear, digestible data graphs or images over tables, and simple, focused tables over text slides, are more readily absorbed. Text slides should minimize words, using simple fonts in colors that contrast to a plain background. Adherence to these well-established principles and addition of some new approaches and technologies will yield an engaging lecture worth attending.

Adapting line integral convolution for fabricating artistic virtual environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Jiunn-Shyan; Wang, Chung-Ming

2003-04-01

Vector field occurs not only extensively in scientific applications but also in treasured art such as sculptures and paintings. Artist depicts our natural environment stressing valued directional feature besides color and shape information. Line integral convolution (LIC), developed for imaging vector field in scientific visualization, has potential of producing directional image. In this paper we present several techniques of exploring LIC techniques to generate impressionistic images forming artistic virtual environment. We take advantage of directional information given by a photograph, and incorporate many investigations to the work including non-photorealistic shading technique and statistical detail control. In particular, the non-photorealistic shading technique blends cool and warm colors into the photograph to imitate artists painting convention. Besides, we adopt statistical technique controlling integral length according to image variance to preserve details. Furthermore, we also propose method for generating a series of mip-maps, which revealing constant strokes under multi-resolution viewing and achieving frame coherence in an interactive walkthrough system. The experimental results show merits of emulating satisfyingly and computing efficiently, as a consequence, relying on the proposed technique successfully fabricates a wide category of non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) application such as interactive virtual environment with artistic perception.

Animated computer graphics models of space and earth sciences data generated via the massively parallel processor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Treinish, Lloyd A.; Gough, Michael L.; Wildenhain, W. David

1987-01-01

The capability was developed of rapidly producing visual representations of large, complex, multi-dimensional space and earth sciences data sets via the implementation of computer graphics modeling techniques on the Massively Parallel Processor (MPP) by employing techniques recently developed for typically non-scientific applications. Such capabilities can provide a new and valuable tool for the understanding of complex scientific data, and a new application of parallel computing via the MPP. A prototype system with such capabilities was developed and integrated into the National Space Science Data Center's (NSSDC) Pilot Climate Data System (PCDS) data-independent environment for computer graphics data display to provide easy access to users. While developing these capabilities, several problems had to be solved independently of the actual use of the MPP, all of which are outlined.

EDITORIAL: Focus on Visualization in Physics FOCUS ON VISUALIZATION IN PHYSICS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanders, Barry C.; Senden, Tim; Springel, Volker

2008-12-01

Advances in physics are intimately connected with developments in a new technology, the telescope, precision clocks, even the computer all have heralded a shift in thinking. These landmark developments open new opportunities accelerating research and in turn new scientific directions. These technological drivers often correspond to new instruments, but equally might just as well flag a new mathematical tool, an algorithm or even means to visualize physics in a new way. Early on in this twenty-first century, scientific communities are just starting to explore the potential of digital visualization. Whether visualization is used to represent and communicate complex concepts, or to understand and interpret experimental data, or to visualize solutions to complex dynamical equations, the basic tools of visualization are shared in each of these applications and implementations. High-performance computing exemplifies the integration of visualization with leading research. Visualization is an indispensable tool for analyzing and interpreting complex three-dimensional dynamics as well as to diagnose numerical problems in intricate parallel calculation algorithms. The effectiveness of visualization arises by exploiting the unmatched capability of the human eye and visual cortex to process the large information content of images. In a brief glance, we recognize patterns or identify subtle features even in noisy data, something that is difficult or impossible to achieve with more traditional forms of data analysis. Importantly, visualizations guide the intuition of researchers and help to comprehend physical phenomena that lie far outside of direct experience. In fact, visualizations literally allow us to see what would otherwise remain completely invisible. For example, artificial imagery created to visualize the distribution of dark matter in the Universe has been instrumental to develop the notion of a cosmic web, and for helping to establish the current standard model of cosmology wherein this (in principle invisible) dark matter dominates the cosmic matter content. The advantages of visualization found for simulated data also hold for real world data as well. With the application of computerized acquisition many scientific disciplines are witnessing exponential growth rates of the volume of accumulated raw data, which often makes it daunting to condense the information into a manageable form, a challenge that can be addressed by modern visualization techniques. Such visualizations are also often an enticing way to communicate scientific results to the general public. This need for visualization is especially true in basic science, with its reliance on a benevolent and interested general public that drives the need for high-quality visualizations. Despite the widespread use of visualization, this technology has suffered from a lack of the unifying influence of shared common experiences. As with any emerging technology practitioners have often independently found solutions to similar problems. It is the aim of this focus issue to celebrate the importance of visualization, report on its growing use by the broad community of physicists, including biophysics, chemical physics, geophysics, astrophysics, and medical physics, and provide an opportunity for the diverse community of scientists using visualization to share work in one issue of a journal that itself is in the vanguard of supporting visualization and multimedia. A remarkable breadth and diversity of visualization in physics is to be found in this issue spanning fundamental aspects of relativity theory to computational fluid dynamics. The topics span length scales that are as small as quantum phenomena to the entire observable Universe. We have been impressed by the quality of the submissions and hope that this snap-shot will introduce, inform, motivate and maybe even help to unify visualization in physics. Readers are also directed to the December issue of Physics World which includes the following features highlighting work in this collection and other novel uses of visualization techniques: 'A feast of visualization' Physics World December 2008 pp 20 23 'Seeing the quantum world' by Barry Sanders Physics World December 2008 pp 24 27 'A picture of the cosmos' by Mark SubbaRao and Miguel Aragon-Calvo Physics World December 2008 pp 29 32 'Thinking outside the cube' by César A Hidalgo Physics World December 2008 pp 34 37 Focus on Visualization in Physics Contents Visualization of spiral and scroll waves in simulated and experimental cardiac tissue E M Cherry and F H Fenton Visualization of large scale structure from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey M U SubbaRao, M A Aragón-Calvo, H W Chen, J M Quashnock, A S Szalay and D G York How computers can help us in creating an intuitive access to relativity Hanns Ruder, Daniel Weiskopf, Hans-Peter Nollert and Thomas Müller Lagrangian particle tracking in three dimensions via single-camera in-line digital holography Jiang Lu, Jacob P Fugal, Hansen Nordsiek, Ewe Wei Saw, Raymond A Shaw and Weidong Yang Quantifying spatial heterogeneity from images Andrew E Pomerantz and Yi-Qiao Song Disaggregation and scientific visualization of earthscapes considering trends and spatial dependence structures S Grunwald Strength through structure: visualization and local assessment of the trabecular bone structure C Räth, R Monetti, J Bauer, I Sidorenko, D Müller, M Matsuura, E-M Lochmüller, P Zysset and F Eckstein Thermonuclear supernovae: a multi-scale astrophysical problem challenging numerical simulations and visualization F K Röpke and R Bruckschen Visualization needs and techniques for astrophysical simulations W Kapferer and T Riser Flow visualization and field line advection in computational fluid dynamics: application to magnetic fields and turbulent flows Pablo Mininni, Ed Lee, Alan Norton and John Clyne Splotch: visualizing cosmological simulations K Dolag, M Reinecke, C Gheller and S Imboden Visualizing a silicon quantum computer Barry C Sanders, Lloyd C L Hollenberg, Darran Edmundson and Andrew Edmundson Colliding galaxies, rotating neutron stars and merging black holes—visualizing high dimensional datasets on arbitrary meshes Werner Benger A low complexity visualization tool that helps to perform complex systems analysis M G Beiró, J I Alvarez-Hamelin and J R Busch Visualizing astrophysical N-body systems John Dubinski

Neural network based visualization of collaborations in a citizen science project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morais, Alessandra M. M.; Santos, Rafael D. C.; Raddick, M. Jordan

2014-05-01

Citizen science projects are those in which volunteers are asked to collaborate in scientific projects, usually by volunteering idle computer time for distributed data processing efforts or by actively labeling or classifying information - shapes of galaxies, whale sounds, historical records are all examples of citizen science projects in which users access a data collecting system to label or classify images and sounds. In order to be successful, a citizen science project must captivate users and keep them interested on the project and on the science behind it, increasing therefore the time the users spend collaborating with the project. Understanding behavior of citizen scientists and their interaction with the data collection systems may help increase the involvement of the users, categorize them accordingly to different parameters, facilitate their collaboration with the systems, design better user interfaces, and allow better planning and deployment of similar projects and systems. Users behavior can be actively monitored or derived from their interaction with the data collection systems. Records of the interactions can be analyzed using visualization techniques to identify patterns and outliers. In this paper we present some results on the visualization of more than 80 million interactions of almost 150 thousand users with the Galaxy Zoo I citizen science project. Visualization of the attributes extracted from their behaviors was done with a clustering neural network (the Self-Organizing Map) and a selection of icon- and pixel-based techniques. These techniques allows the visual identification of groups of similar behavior in several different ways.

International Halley watch amateur observers' manual for scientific comet studies. Part 1: Methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edberg, S. J.

1983-01-01

The International Halley Watch is described as well as comets and observing techniques. Information on periodic Comet Halley's apparition for its 1986 perihelion passage is provided. Instructions are given for observation projects valuable to the International Halley Watch in six areas of study: (1) visual observations; (2) photography; (3) astrometry; (4) spectroscopic observations; (5) photoelectric photometry; and (6) meteor observations.

What Google Maps can do for biomedical data dissemination: examples and a design study.

PubMed

Jianu, Radu; Laidlaw, David H

2013-05-04

Biologists often need to assess whether unfamiliar datasets warrant the time investment required for more detailed exploration. Basing such assessments on brief descriptions provided by data publishers is unwieldy for large datasets that contain insights dependent on specific scientific questions. Alternatively, using complex software systems for a preliminary analysis may be deemed as too time consuming in itself, especially for unfamiliar data types and formats. This may lead to wasted analysis time and discarding of potentially useful data. We present an exploration of design opportunities that the Google Maps interface offers to biomedical data visualization. In particular, we focus on synergies between visualization techniques and Google Maps that facilitate the development of biological visualizations which have both low-overhead and sufficient expressivity to support the exploration of data at multiple scales. The methods we explore rely on displaying pre-rendered visualizations of biological data in browsers, with sparse yet powerful interactions, by using the Google Maps API. We structure our discussion around five visualizations: a gene co-regulation visualization, a heatmap viewer, a genome browser, a protein interaction network, and a planar visualization of white matter in the brain. Feedback from collaborative work with domain experts suggests that our Google Maps visualizations offer multiple, scale-dependent perspectives and can be particularly helpful for unfamiliar datasets due to their accessibility. We also find that users, particularly those less experienced with computer use, are attracted by the familiarity of the Google Maps API. Our five implementations introduce design elements that can benefit visualization developers. We describe a low-overhead approach that lets biologists access readily analyzed views of unfamiliar scientific datasets. We rely on pre-computed visualizations prepared by data experts, accompanied by sparse and intuitive interactions, and distributed via the familiar Google Maps framework. Our contributions are an evaluation demonstrating the validity and opportunities of this approach, a set of design guidelines benefiting those wanting to create such visualizations, and five concrete example visualizations.

What google maps can do for biomedical data dissemination: examples and a design study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Biologists often need to assess whether unfamiliar datasets warrant the time investment required for more detailed exploration. Basing such assessments on brief descriptions provided by data publishers is unwieldy for large datasets that contain insights dependent on specific scientific questions. Alternatively, using complex software systems for a preliminary analysis may be deemed as too time consuming in itself, especially for unfamiliar data types and formats. This may lead to wasted analysis time and discarding of potentially useful data. Results We present an exploration of design opportunities that the Google Maps interface offers to biomedical data visualization. In particular, we focus on synergies between visualization techniques and Google Maps that facilitate the development of biological visualizations which have both low-overhead and sufficient expressivity to support the exploration of data at multiple scales. The methods we explore rely on displaying pre-rendered visualizations of biological data in browsers, with sparse yet powerful interactions, by using the Google Maps API. We structure our discussion around five visualizations: a gene co-regulation visualization, a heatmap viewer, a genome browser, a protein interaction network, and a planar visualization of white matter in the brain. Feedback from collaborative work with domain experts suggests that our Google Maps visualizations offer multiple, scale-dependent perspectives and can be particularly helpful for unfamiliar datasets due to their accessibility. We also find that users, particularly those less experienced with computer use, are attracted by the familiarity of the Google Maps API. Our five implementations introduce design elements that can benefit visualization developers. Conclusions We describe a low-overhead approach that lets biologists access readily analyzed views of unfamiliar scientific datasets. We rely on pre-computed visualizations prepared by data experts, accompanied by sparse and intuitive interactions, and distributed via the familiar Google Maps framework. Our contributions are an evaluation demonstrating the validity and opportunities of this approach, a set of design guidelines benefiting those wanting to create such visualizations, and five concrete example visualizations. PMID:23642009

XVIS: Visualization for the Extreme-Scale Scientific-Computation Ecosystem Final Scientific/Technical Report

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

Geveci, Berk; Maynard, Robert

The XVis project brings together the key elements of research to enable scientific discovery at extreme scale. Scientific computing will no longer be purely about how fast computations can be performed. Energy constraints, processor changes, and I/O limitations necessitate significant changes in both the software applications used in scientific computation and the ways in which scientists use them. Components for modeling, simulation, analysis, and visualization must work together in a computational ecosystem, rather than working independently as they have in the past. The XVis project brought together collaborators from predominant DOE projects for visualization on accelerators and combining their respectivemore » features into a new visualization toolkit called VTK-m.« less

Magic and Misdirection: The Influence of Social Cues on the Allocation of Visual Attention While Watching a Cups-and-Balls Routine

PubMed Central

Hergovich, Andreas; Oberfichtner, Bernhard

2016-01-01

In recent years, a body of research that regards the scientific study of magic performances as a promising method of investigating psychological phenomena in an ecologically valid setting has emerged. Seemingly contradictory findings concerning the ability of social cues to strengthen a magic trick’s effectiveness have been published. In this experiment, an effort was made to disentangle the unique influence of different social and physical triggers of attentional misdirection on observers’ overt and covert attention. The ability of 120 participants to detect the mechanism of a cups-and-balls trick was assessed, and their visual fixations were recorded using an eye-tracker while they were watching the routine. All the investigated techniques of misdirection, including sole usage of social cues, were shown to increase the probability of missing the trick mechanism. Depending on the technique of misdirection used, very different gaze patterns were observed. A combination of social and physical techniques of misdirection influenced participants’ overt attention most effectively. PMID:27303327

Engineering and Scientific Applications: Using MatLab(Registered Trademark) for Data Processing and Visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sen, Syamal K.; Shaykhian, Gholam Ali

2011-01-01

MatLab(R) (MATrix LABoratory) is a numerical computation and simulation tool that is used by thousands Scientists and Engineers in many cou ntries. MatLab does purely numerical calculations, which can be used as a glorified calculator or interpreter programming language; its re al strength is in matrix manipulations. Computer algebra functionalities are achieved within the MatLab environment using "symbolic" toolbo x. This feature is similar to computer algebra programs, provided by Maple or Mathematica to calculate with mathematical equations using s ymbolic operations. MatLab in its interpreter programming language fo rm (command interface) is similar with well known programming languag es such as C/C++, support data structures and cell arrays to define c lasses in object oriented programming. As such, MatLab is equipped with most ofthe essential constructs of a higher programming language. M atLab is packaged with an editor and debugging functionality useful t o perform analysis of large MatLab programs and find errors. We belie ve there are many ways to approach real-world problems; prescribed methods to ensure foregoing solutions are incorporated in design and ana lysis of data processing and visualization can benefit engineers and scientist in gaining wider insight in actual implementation of their perspective experiments. This presentation will focus on data processing and visualizations aspects of engineering and scientific applicati ons. Specifically, it will discuss methods and techniques to perform intermediate-level data processing covering engineering and scientifi c problems. MatLab programming techniques including reading various data files formats to produce customized publication-quality graphics, importing engineering and/or scientific data, organizing data in tabu lar format, exporting data to be used by other software programs such as Microsoft Excel, data presentation and visualization will be discussed. The presentation will emphasize creating practIcal scripts (pro grams) that extend the basic features of MatLab TOPICS mclude (1) Ma trix and vector analysis and manipulations (2) Mathematical functions (3) Symbolic calculations & functions (4) Import/export data files (5) Program lOgic and flow control (6) Writing function and passing parameters (7) Test application programs

Visualization of bioelectric phenomena.

PubMed

Palmer, T C; Simpson, E V; Kavanagh, K M; Smith, W M

1992-01-01

Biomedical investigators are currently able to acquire and analyze physiological and anatomical data from three-dimensional structures in the body. Often, multiple kinds of data can be recorded simultaneously. The usefulness of this information, either for exploratory viewing or for presentation to others, is limited by the lack of techniques to display it in intuitive, accessible formats. Unfortunately, the complexity of scientific visualization techniques and the inflexibility of commercial packages deter investigators from using sophisticated visualization methods that could provide them added insight into the mechanisms of the phenomena under study. Also, the sheer volume of such data is a problem. High-performance computing resources are often required for storage and processing, in addition to visualization. This chapter describes a novel, language-based interface that allows scientists with basic programming skills to classify and render multivariate volumetric data with a modest investment in software training. The interface facilitates data exploration by enabling experimentation with various algorithms to compute opacity and color from volumetric data. The value of the system is demonstrated using data from cardiac mapping studies, in which multiple electrodes are placed in an on the heart to measure the cardiac electrical activity intrinsic to the heart and its response to external stimulation.

Experimenter's laboratory for visualized interactive science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hansen, Elaine R.; Klemp, Marjorie K.; Lasater, Sally W.; Szczur, Marti R.; Klemp, Joseph B.

1992-01-01

The science activities of the 1990's will require the analysis of complex phenomena and large diverse sets of data. In order to meet these needs, we must take advantage of advanced user interaction techniques: modern user interface tools; visualization capabilities; affordable, high performance graphics workstations; and interoperable data standards and translator. To meet these needs, we propose to adopt and upgrade several existing tools and systems to create an experimenter's laboratory for visualized interactive science. Intuitive human-computer interaction techniques have already been developed and demonstrated at the University of Colorado. A Transportable Applications Executive (TAE+), developed at GSFC, is a powerful user interface tool for general purpose applications. A 3D visualization package developed by NCAR provides both color shaded surface displays and volumetric rendering in either index or true color. The Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) data access library developed by Unidata supports creation, access and sharing of scientific data in a form that is self-describing and network transparent. The combination and enhancement of these packages constitutes a powerful experimenter's laboratory capable of meeting key science needs of the 1990's. This proposal encompasses the work required to build and demonstrate this capability.

Experimenter's laboratory for visualized interactive science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hansen, Elaine R.; Klemp, Marjorie K.; Lasater, Sally W.; Szczur, Marti R.; Klemp, Joseph B.

1993-01-01

The science activities of the 1990's will require the analysis of complex phenomena and large diverse sets of data. In order to meet these needs, we must take advantage of advanced user interaction techniques: modern user interface tools; visualization capabilities; affordable, high performance graphics workstations; and interoperatable data standards and translator. To meet these needs, we propose to adopt and upgrade several existing tools and systems to create an experimenter's laboratory for visualized interactive science. Intuitive human-computer interaction techniques have already been developed and demonstrated at the University of Colorado. A Transportable Applications Executive (TAE+), developed at GSFC, is a powerful user interface tool for general purpose applications. A 3D visualization package developed by NCAR provides both color-shaded surface displays and volumetric rendering in either index or true color. The Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) data access library developed by Unidata supports creation, access and sharing of scientific data in a form that is self-describing and network transparent. The combination and enhancement of these packages constitutes a powerful experimenter's laboratory capable of meeting key science needs of the 1990's. This proposal encompasses the work required to build and demonstrate this capability.

Web-based Data Visualization of the MGClimDeX Climate Model Output: An Integrated Perspective of Climate Change Impact on Natural Resources in Highly Vulnerable Regions.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martinez-Rey, J.; Brockmann, P.; Cadule, P.; Nangini, C.

2016-12-01

Earth System Models allow us to understand the interactions between climate and biogeological processes. These models generate a very large amount of data. These data are usually reduced to a few number of static figures shown in highly specialized scientific publications. However, the potential impacts of climate change demand a broader perspective regarding the ways in which climate model results of this kind are disseminated, particularly in the amount and variety of data, and the target audience. This issue is of great importance particularly for scientific projects that seek a large broadcast with different audiences on their key results. The MGClimDeX project, which assesses the climate change impact on La Martinique island in the Lesser Antilles, will provide tools and means to help the key stakeholders -responsible for addressing the critical social, economic, and environmental issues- to take the appropriate adaptation and mitigation measures in order to prevent future risks associated with climate variability and change, and its role on human activities. The MGClimDeX project will do so by using model output and data visualization techniques within the next year, showing the cross-connected impacts of climate change on various sectors (agriculture, forestry, ecosystems, water resources and fisheries). To address this challenge of representing large sets of data from model output, we use back-end data processing and front-end web-based visualization techniques, going from the conventional netCDF model output stored on hub servers to highly interactive web-based data-powered visualizations on browsers. We use the well-known javascript library D3.js extended with DC.js -a dimensional charting library for all the front-end interactive filtering-, in combination with Bokeh, a Python library to synthesize the data, all framed in the essential HTML+CSS scripts. The resulting websites exist as standalone information units or embedded into journals or scientific-related information hubs. These visualizations encompass all the relevant findings, allowing individual model intercomparisons in the context of observations and socioeconomic references. In this way, the full spectrum of results of the MGClimDeX project is available to the public in general and policymakers in particular.

Dynamic Visualization of Co-expression in Systems Genetics Data

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

New, Joshua Ryan; Huang, Jian; Chesler, Elissa J

2008-01-01

Biologists hope to address grand scientific challenges by exploring the abundance of data made available through modern microarray technology and other high-throughput techniques. The impact of this data, however, is limited unless researchers can effectively assimilate such complex information and integrate it into their daily research; interactive visualization tools are called for to support the effort. Specifically, typical studies of gene co-expression require novel visualization tools that enable the dynamic formulation and fine-tuning of hypotheses to aid the process of evaluating sensitivity of key parameters. These tools should allow biologists to develop an intuitive understanding of the structure of biologicalmore » networks and discover genes which reside in critical positions in networks and pathways. By using a graph as a universal data representation of correlation in gene expression data, our novel visualization tool employs several techniques that when used in an integrated manner provide innovative analytical capabilities. Our tool for interacting with gene co-expression data integrates techniques such as: graph layout, qualitative subgraph extraction through a novel 2D user interface, quantitative subgraph extraction using graph-theoretic algorithms or by querying an optimized b-tree, dynamic level-of-detail graph abstraction, and template-based fuzzy classification using neural networks. We demonstrate our system using a real-world workflow from a large-scale, systems genetics study of mammalian gene co-expression.« less

Trend-Centric Motion Visualization: Designing and Applying a New Strategy for Analyzing Scientific Motion Collections.

PubMed

Schroeder, David; Korsakov, Fedor; Knipe, Carissa Mai-Ping; Thorson, Lauren; Ellingson, Arin M; Nuckley, David; Carlis, John; Keefe, Daniel F

2014-12-01

In biomechanics studies, researchers collect, via experiments or simulations, datasets with hundreds or thousands of trials, each describing the same type of motion (e.g., a neck flexion-extension exercise) but under different conditions (e.g., different patients, different disease states, pre- and post-treatment). Analyzing similarities and differences across all of the trials in these collections is a major challenge. Visualizing a single trial at a time does not work, and the typical alternative of juxtaposing multiple trials in a single visual display leads to complex, difficult-to-interpret visualizations. We address this problem via a new strategy that organizes the analysis around motion trends rather than trials. This new strategy matches the cognitive approach that scientists would like to take when analyzing motion collections. We introduce several technical innovations making trend-centric motion visualization possible. First, an algorithm detects a motion collection's trends via time-dependent clustering. Second, a 2D graphical technique visualizes how trials leave and join trends. Third, a 3D graphical technique, using a median 3D motion plus a visual variance indicator, visualizes the biomechanics of the set of trials within each trend. These innovations are combined to create an interactive exploratory visualization tool, which we designed through an iterative process in collaboration with both domain scientists and a traditionally-trained graphic designer. We report on insights generated during this design process and demonstrate the tool's effectiveness via a validation study with synthetic data and feedback from expert musculoskeletal biomechanics researchers who used the tool to analyze the effects of disc degeneration on human spinal kinematics.

Interactive Learning System "VisMis" for Scientific Visualization Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhu, Xiaoming; Sun, Bo; Luo, Yanlin

2018-01-01

Now visualization courses have been taught at universities around the world. Keeping students motivated and actively engaged in this course can be a challenging task. In this paper we introduce our developed interactive learning system called VisMis (Visualization and Multi-modal Interaction System) for postgraduate scientific visualization course…

Virtual Reality: Visualization in Three Dimensions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLellan, Hilary

Virtual reality is a newly emerging tool for scientific visualization that makes possible multisensory, three-dimensional modeling of scientific data. While the emphasis is on visualization, the other senses are added to enhance what the scientist can visualize. Researchers are working to extend the sensory range of what can be perceived in…

Visual Discourse in Scientific Conference Papers: A Genre-based Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rowley-Jolivet, Elizabeth

2002-01-01

Investigates the role of visual communication in a spoken research genre: the scientific research paper. Analyzes 2,048 visuals projected during 90 papers given at five international conferences in three fields (Geology, medicine, physics), in order to bring out the recurrent features of the visual dimension. (Author/VWL)

VizioMetrics: Mining the Scientific Visual Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Po-Shen

2017-01-01

Scientific results are communicated visually in the literature through diagrams, visualizations, and photographs. In this thesis, we developed a figure processing pipeline to classify more than 8 million figures from PubMed Central into different figure types and study the resulting patterns of visual information as they relate to scholarly…

Living Liquid: Design and Evaluation of an Exploratory Visualization Tool for Museum Visitors.

PubMed

Ma, J; Liao, I; Ma, Kwan-Liu; Frazier, J

2012-12-01

Interactive visualizations can allow science museum visitors to explore new worlds by seeing and interacting with scientific data. However, designing interactive visualizations for informal learning environments, such as museums, presents several challenges. First, visualizations must engage visitors on a personal level. Second, visitors often lack the background to interpret visualizations of scientific data. Third, visitors have very limited time at individual exhibits in museums. This paper examines these design considerations through the iterative development and evaluation of an interactive exhibit as a visualization tool that gives museumgoers access to scientific data generated and used by researchers. The exhibit prototype, Living Liquid, encourages visitors to ask and answer their own questions while exploring the time-varying global distribution of simulated marine microbes using a touchscreen interface. Iterative development proceeded through three rounds of formative evaluations using think-aloud protocols and interviews, each round informing a key visualization design decision: (1) what to visualize to initiate inquiry, (2) how to link data at the microscopic scale to global patterns, and (3) how to include additional data that allows visitors to pursue their own questions. Data from visitor evaluations suggests that, when designing visualizations for public audiences, one should (1) avoid distracting visitors from data that they should explore, (2) incorporate background information into the visualization, (3) favor understandability over scientific accuracy, and (4) layer data accessibility to structure inquiry. Lessons learned from this case study add to our growing understanding of how to use visualizations to actively engage learners with scientific data.

Scientific Visualization to Study Flux Transfer Events at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rastatter, Lutz; Kuznetsova, Maria M.; Sibeck, David G.; Berrios, David H.

2011-01-01

In this paper we present results of modeling of reconnection at the dayside magnetopause with subsequent development of flux transfer event signatures. The tools used include new methods that have been added to the suite of visualization methods that are used at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC). Flux transfer events result from localized reconnection that connect magnetosheath magnetic field and plasma with magnetospheric fields and plasma and results in flux rope structures that span the dayside magnetopause. The onset of flux rope formation and the three-dimensional structure of flux ropes are studied as they have been modeled by high-resolution magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the dayside magnetosphere of the Earth. We show that flux transfer events are complex three-dimensional structures that require modern visualization and analysis techniques. Two suites of visualization methods are presented and we demonstrate the usefulness of those methods through the CCMC web site to the general science user.

Perceptual and Physiological Responses to Jackson Pollock's Fractals

PubMed Central

Taylor, Richard P.; Spehar, Branka; Van Donkelaar, Paul; Hagerhall, Caroline M.

2011-01-01

Fractals have been very successful in quantifying the visual complexity exhibited by many natural patterns, and have captured the imagination of scientists and artists alike. Our research has shown that the poured patterns of the American abstract painter Jackson Pollock are also fractal. This discovery raises an intriguing possibility – are the visual characteristics of fractals responsible for the long-term appeal of Pollock's work? To address this question, we have conducted 10 years of scientific investigation of human response to fractals and here we present, for the first time, a review of this research that examines the inter-relationship between the various results. The investigations include eye tracking, visual preference, skin conductance, and EEG measurement techniques. We discuss the artistic implications of the positive perceptual and physiological responses to fractal patterns. PMID:21734876

19 CFR 10.121 - Visual or auditory materials of an educational, scientific, or cultural character.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... educational, scientific, or cultural character. (a) Where photographic film and other articles described in... the articles are visual or auditory materials of an educational, scientific, or cultural character..., scientific, or cultural character. 10.121 Section 10.121 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION...

19 CFR 10.121 - Visual or auditory materials of an educational, scientific, or cultural character.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... educational, scientific, or cultural character. (a) Where photographic film and other articles described in... the articles are visual or auditory materials of an educational, scientific, or cultural character..., scientific, or cultural character. 10.121 Section 10.121 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION...

Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging.

PubMed

Carhart-Harris, Robin L; Muthukumaraswamy, Suresh; Roseman, Leor; Kaelen, Mendel; Droog, Wouter; Murphy, Kevin; Tagliazucchi, Enzo; Schenberg, Eduardo E; Nest, Timothy; Orban, Csaba; Leech, Robert; Williams, Luke T; Williams, Tim M; Bolstridge, Mark; Sessa, Ben; McGonigle, John; Sereno, Martin I; Nichols, David; Hellyer, Peter J; Hobden, Peter; Evans, John; Singh, Krish D; Wise, Richard G; Curran, H Valerie; Feilding, Amanda; Nutt, David J

2016-04-26

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is the prototypical psychedelic drug, but its effects on the human brain have never been studied before with modern neuroimaging. Here, three complementary neuroimaging techniques: arterial spin labeling (ASL), blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) measures, and magnetoencephalography (MEG), implemented during resting state conditions, revealed marked changes in brain activity after LSD that correlated strongly with its characteristic psychological effects. Increased visual cortex cerebral blood flow (CBF), decreased visual cortex alpha power, and a greatly expanded primary visual cortex (V1) functional connectivity profile correlated strongly with ratings of visual hallucinations, implying that intrinsic brain activity exerts greater influence on visual processing in the psychedelic state, thereby defining its hallucinatory quality. LSD's marked effects on the visual cortex did not significantly correlate with the drug's other characteristic effects on consciousness, however. Rather, decreased connectivity between the parahippocampus and retrosplenial cortex (RSC) correlated strongly with ratings of "ego-dissolution" and "altered meaning," implying the importance of this particular circuit for the maintenance of "self" or "ego" and its processing of "meaning." Strong relationships were also found between the different imaging metrics, enabling firmer inferences to be made about their functional significance. This uniquely comprehensive examination of the LSD state represents an important advance in scientific research with psychedelic drugs at a time of growing interest in their scientific and therapeutic value. The present results contribute important new insights into the characteristic hallucinatory and consciousness-altering properties of psychedelics that inform on how they can model certain pathological states and potentially treat others.

Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging

PubMed Central

Carhart-Harris, Robin L.; Muthukumaraswamy, Suresh; Roseman, Leor; Kaelen, Mendel; Droog, Wouter; Murphy, Kevin; Tagliazucchi, Enzo; Schenberg, Eduardo E.; Nest, Timothy; Orban, Csaba; Leech, Robert; Williams, Luke T.; Williams, Tim M.; Bolstridge, Mark; Sessa, Ben; McGonigle, John; Sereno, Martin I.; Nichols, David; Hobden, Peter; Evans, John; Singh, Krish D.; Wise, Richard G.; Curran, H. Valerie; Feilding, Amanda; Nutt, David J.

2016-01-01

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is the prototypical psychedelic drug, but its effects on the human brain have never been studied before with modern neuroimaging. Here, three complementary neuroimaging techniques: arterial spin labeling (ASL), blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) measures, and magnetoencephalography (MEG), implemented during resting state conditions, revealed marked changes in brain activity after LSD that correlated strongly with its characteristic psychological effects. Increased visual cortex cerebral blood flow (CBF), decreased visual cortex alpha power, and a greatly expanded primary visual cortex (V1) functional connectivity profile correlated strongly with ratings of visual hallucinations, implying that intrinsic brain activity exerts greater influence on visual processing in the psychedelic state, thereby defining its hallucinatory quality. LSD’s marked effects on the visual cortex did not significantly correlate with the drug’s other characteristic effects on consciousness, however. Rather, decreased connectivity between the parahippocampus and retrosplenial cortex (RSC) correlated strongly with ratings of “ego-dissolution” and “altered meaning,” implying the importance of this particular circuit for the maintenance of “self” or “ego” and its processing of “meaning.” Strong relationships were also found between the different imaging metrics, enabling firmer inferences to be made about their functional significance. This uniquely comprehensive examination of the LSD state represents an important advance in scientific research with psychedelic drugs at a time of growing interest in their scientific and therapeutic value. The present results contribute important new insights into the characteristic hallucinatory and consciousness-altering properties of psychedelics that inform on how they can model certain pathological states and potentially treat others. PMID:27071089

Smartphone schlieren and shadowgraph imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Settles, Gary S.

2018-05-01

Schlieren and shadowgraph techniques are used throughout the realm of scientific experimentation to reveal transparent refractive phenomena, but the requirement of large precise optics has kept them mostly out of reach of the public. New developments, including the ubiquity of smartphones with high-resolution digital cameras and the Background-Oriented Schlieren technique (BOS), which replaces the precise optics with digital image processing, have changed these circumstances. This paper demonstrates a number of different schlieren and shadowgraph setups and image examples based only on a smartphone, its software applications, and some inexpensive accessories. After beginning with a simple traditional schlieren system the emphasis is placed on what can be visualized and measured using BOS and digital slit-scan imaging on the smartphone. Thermal plumes, liquid mixing and glass are used as subjects of investigation. Not only recreational and experimental photography, but also serious scientific imaging can be done.

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

Springmeyer, R R; Brugger, E; Cook, R

The Data group provides data analysis and visualization support to its customers. This consists primarily of the development and support of VisIt, a data analysis and visualization tool. Support ranges from answering questions about the tool, providing classes on how to use the tool, and performing data analysis and visualization for customers. The Information Management and Graphics Group supports and develops tools that enhance our ability to access, display, and understand large, complex data sets. Activities include applying visualization software for large scale data exploration; running video production labs on two networks; supporting graphics libraries and tools for end users;more » maintaining PowerWalls and assorted other displays; and developing software for searching and managing scientific data. Researchers in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC) work on various projects including the development of visualization techniques for large scale data exploration that are funded by the ASC program, among others. The researchers also have LDRD projects and collaborations with other lab researchers, academia, and industry. The IMG group is located in the Terascale Simulation Facility, home to Dawn, Atlas, BGL, and others, which includes both classified and unclassified visualization theaters, a visualization computer floor and deployment workshop, and video production labs. We continued to provide the traditional graphics group consulting and video production support. We maintained five PowerWalls and many other displays. We deployed a 576-node Opteron/IB cluster with 72 TB of memory providing a visualization production server on our classified network. We continue to support a 128-node Opteron/IB cluster providing a visualization production server for our unclassified systems and an older 256-node Opteron/IB cluster for the classified systems, as well as several smaller clusters to drive the PowerWalls. The visualization production systems includes NFS servers to provide dedicated storage for data analysis and visualization. The ASC projects have delivered new versions of visualization and scientific data management tools to end users and continue to refine them. VisIt had 4 releases during the past year, ending with VisIt 2.0. We released version 2.4 of Hopper, a Java application for managing and transferring files. This release included a graphical disk usage view which works on all types of connections and an aggregated copy feature for quickly transferring massive datasets quickly and efficiently to HPSS. We continue to use and develop Blockbuster and Telepath. Both the VisIt and IMG teams were engaged in a variety of movie production efforts during the past year in addition to the development tasks.« less

Image Analysis via Fuzzy-Reasoning Approach: Prototype Applications at NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dominguez, Jesus A.; Klinko, Steven J.

2004-01-01

A set of imaging techniques based on Fuzzy Reasoning (FR) approach was built for NASA at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to perform complex real-time visual-related safety prototype tasks, such as detection and tracking of moving Foreign Objects Debris (FOD) during the NASA Space Shuttle liftoff and visual anomaly detection on slidewires used in the emergency egress system for Space Shuttle at the launch pad. The system has also proved its prospective in enhancing X-ray images used to screen hard-covered items leading to a better visualization. The system capability was used as well during the imaging analysis of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident. These FR-based imaging techniques include novel proprietary adaptive image segmentation, image edge extraction, and image enhancement. Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) scheme available from NeuroShell(TM) Classifier and optimized via Genetic Algorithm (GA) was also used along with this set of novel imaging techniques to add powerful learning and image classification capabilities. Prototype applications built using these techniques have received NASA Space Awards, including a Board Action Award, and are currently being filed for patents by NASA; they are being offered for commercialization through the Research Triangle Institute (RTI), an internationally recognized corporation in scientific research and technology development. Companies from different fields, including security, medical, text digitalization, and aerospace, are currently in the process of licensing these technologies from NASA.

Creativity, visualization abilities, and visual cognitive style.

PubMed

Kozhevnikov, Maria; Kozhevnikov, Michael; Yu, Chen Jiao; Blazhenkova, Olesya

2013-06-01

Despite the recent evidence for a multi-component nature of both visual imagery and creativity, there have been no systematic studies on how the different dimensions of creativity and imagery might interrelate. The main goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between different dimensions of creativity (artistic and scientific) and dimensions of visualization abilities and styles (object and spatial). In addition, we compared the contributions of object and spatial visualization abilities versus corresponding styles to scientific and artistic dimensions of creativity. Twenty-four undergraduate students (12 females) were recruited for the first study, and 75 additional participants (36 females) were recruited for an additional experiment. Participants were administered a number of object and spatial visualization abilities and style assessments as well as a number of artistic and scientific creativity tests. The results show that object visualization relates to artistic creativity and spatial visualization relates to scientific creativity, while both are distinct from verbal creativity. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that style predicts corresponding dimension of creativity even after removing shared variance between style and visualization ability. The results suggest that styles might be a more ecologically valid construct in predicting real-life creative behaviour, such as performance in different professional domains. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Provenance Storage, Querying, and Visualization in PBase

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

Kianmajd, Parisa; Ludascher, Bertram; Missier, Paolo

2015-01-01

We present PBase, a repository for scientific workflows and their corresponding provenance information that facilitates the sharing of experiments among the scientific community. PBase is interoperable since it uses ProvONE, a standard provenance model for scientific workflows. Workflows and traces are stored in RDF, and with the support of SPARQL and the tree cover encoding, the repository provides a scalable infrastructure for querying the provenance data. Furthermore, through its user interface, it is possible to: visualize workflows and execution traces; visualize reachability relations within these traces; issue SPARQL queries; and visualize query results.

High Performance Visualization using Query-Driven Visualizationand Analytics

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

Bethel, E. Wes; Campbell, Scott; Dart, Eli

2006-06-15

Query-driven visualization and analytics is a unique approach for high-performance visualization that offers new capabilities for knowledge discovery and hypothesis testing. The new capabilities akin to finding needles in haystacks are the result of combining technologies from the fields of scientific visualization and scientific data management. This approach is crucial for rapid data analysis and visualization in the petascale regime. This article describes how query-driven visualization is applied to a hero-sized network traffic analysis problem.

Case studies identify savings of up to $40,000 for academic research laboratories with the use of video journals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pritsker, Moshe

2015-04-01

Recent studies indicate that 70% to 90% of results published in science journals are not reproducible, which presents troubling uncertainty about the future of scientific research. In contrast to the text format of traditional journals, novel video-based journals allow for systematic, step-by-step visualized demonstrations of research experiments. Video articles produce a more efficient transfer of knowledge between laboratories and therefore offer a viable solution to the issue of reproducibility. To quantify the savings of time and money generated by this alternative mode of scientific communication, we conducted a number of case studies among academic laboratories who use the peer-reviewed video journal JoVE. One study determined that using video as a guide to learn a new dissection technique saved a bioengineering lab at the University of Washington 40,000. A second case study found that a laboratory at Cornell University studying muscular dystrophy eliminated 6 months of experimentation by learning a new complex stem cell injection technique from the video journal. Results from a third study indicated that a laboratory at the University of Helsinki shortened the time to learn a surgical technique from 1 year to 2 weeks. Together, these studies indicate that video publication significantly enhances the reproducibility and productivity of scientific research.

Trend-Centric Motion Visualization: Designing and Applying a new Strategy for Analyzing Scientific Motion Collections

PubMed Central

Schroeder, David; Korsakov, Fedor; Knipe, Carissa Mai-Ping; Thorson, Lauren; Ellingson, Arin M.; Nuckley, David; Carlis, John; Keefe, Daniel F

2017-01-01

In biomechanics studies, researchers collect, via experiments or simulations, datasets with hundreds or thousands of trials, each describing the same type of motion (e.g., a neck flexion-extension exercise) but under different conditions (e.g., different patients, different disease states, pre- and post-treatment). Analyzing similarities and differences across all of the trials in these collections is a major challenge. Visualizing a single trial at a time does not work, and the typical alternative of juxtaposing multiple trials in a single visual display leads to complex, difficult-to-interpret visualizations. We address this problem via a new strategy that organizes the analysis around motion trends rather than trials. This new strategy matches the cognitive approach that scientists would like to take when analyzing motion collections. We introduce several technical innovations making trend-centric motion visualization possible. First, an algorithm detects a motion collection’s trends via time-dependent clustering. Second, a 2D graphical technique visualizes how trials leave and join trends. Third, a 3D graphical technique, using a median 3D motion plus a visual variance indicator, visualizes the biomechanics of the set of trials within each trend. These innovations are combined to create an interactive exploratory visualization tool, which we designed through an iterative process in collaboration with both domain scientists and a traditionally-trained graphic designer. We report on insights generated during this design process and demonstrate the tool’s effectiveness via a validation study with synthetic data and feedback from expert musculoskeletal biomechanics researchers who used the tool to analyze the effects of disc degeneration on human spinal kinematics. PMID:26356978

Rethinking Visual Analytics for Streaming Data Applications

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

Crouser, R. Jordan; Franklin, Lyndsey; Cook, Kris

In the age of data science, the use of interactive information visualization techniques has become increasingly ubiquitous. From online scientific journals to the New York Times graphics desk, the utility of interactive visualization for both storytelling and analysis has become ever more apparent. As these techniques have become more readily accessible, the appeal of combining interactive visualization with computational analysis continues to grow. Arising out of a need for scalable, human-driven analysis, primary objective of visual analytics systems is to capitalize on the complementary strengths of human and machine analysis, using interactive visualization as a medium for communication between themore » two. These systems leverage developments from the fields of information visualization, computer graphics, machine learning, and human-computer interaction to support insight generation in areas where purely computational analyses fall short. Over the past decade, visual analytics systems have generated remarkable advances in many historically challenging analytical contexts. These include areas such as modeling political systems [Crouser et al. 2012], detecting financial fraud [Chang et al. 2008], and cybersecurity [Harrison et al. 2012]. In each of these contexts, domain expertise and human intuition is a necessary component of the analysis. This intuition is essential to building trust in the analytical products, as well as supporting the translation of evidence into actionable insight. In addition, each of these examples also highlights the need for scalable analysis. In each case, it is infeasible for a human analyst to manually assess the raw information unaided, and the communication overhead to divide the task between a large number of analysts makes simple parallelism intractable. Regardless of the domain, visual analytics tools strive to optimize the allocation of human analytical resources, and to streamline the sensemaking process on data that is massive, complex, incomplete, and uncertain in scenarios requiring human judgment.« less

Using Scientific Visualizations to Enhance Scientific Thinking In K-12 Geoscience Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robeck, E.

2016-12-01

The same scientific visualizations, animations, and images that are powerful tools for geoscientists can serve an important role in K-12 geoscience education by encouraging students to communicate in ways that help them develop habits of thought that are similar to those used by scientists. Resources such as those created by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS), which are intended to inform researchers and the public about NASA missions, can be used in classrooms to promote thoughtful, engaged learning. Instructional materials that make use of those visualizations have been developed and are being used in K-12 classrooms in ways that demonstrate the vitality of the geosciences. For example, the Center for Geoscience and Society at the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) helped to develop a publication that outlines an inquiry-based approach to introducing students to the interpretation of scientific visualizations, even when they have had little to no prior experience with such media. To facilitate these uses, the SVS team worked with Center staff and others to adapt the visualizations, primarily by removing most of the labels and annotations. Engaging with these visually compelling resources serves as an invitation for students to ask questions, interpret data, draw conclusions, and make use of other processes that are key components of scientific thought. This presentation will share specific resources for K-12 teaching (all of which are available online, from NASA, and/or from AGI), as well as the instructional principles that they incorporate.

Scientific Process Flowchart Assessment (SPFA): A Method for Evaluating Changes in Understanding and Visualization of the Scientific Process in a Multidisciplinary Student Population

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Kristy J.; Rigakos, Bessie

2016-01-01

The scientific process is nonlinear, unpredictable, and ongoing. Assessing the nature of science is difficult with methods that rely on Likert-scale or multiple-choice questions. This study evaluated conceptions about the scientific process using student-created visual representations that we term "flowcharts." The methodology,…

Big, Deep, and Smart Data in Scanning Probe Microscopy

DOE PAGES

Kalinin, Sergei V.; Strelcov, Evgheni; Belianinov, Alex; ...

2016-09-27

Scanning probe microscopy techniques open the door to nanoscience and nanotechnology by enabling imaging and manipulation of structure and functionality of matter on nanometer and atomic scales. We analyze the discovery process by SPM in terms of information flow from tip-surface junction to the knowledge adoption by scientific community. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges and opportunities offered by merging of SPM and advanced data mining, visual analytics, and knowledge discovery technologies.

Modern Scientific Visualization is more than Just Pretty Pictures

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

Bethel, E Wes; Rubel, Oliver; Wu, Kesheng

2008-12-05

While the primary product of scientific visualization is images and movies, its primary objective is really scientific insight. Too often, the focus of visualization research is on the product, not the mission. This paper presents two case studies, both that appear in previous publications, that focus on using visualization technology to produce insight. The first applies"Query-Driven Visualization" concepts to laser wakefield simulation data to help identify and analyze the process of beam formation. The second uses topological analysis to provide a quantitative basis for (i) understanding the mixing process in hydrodynamic simulations, and (ii) performing comparative analysis of data frommore » two different types of simulations that model hydrodynamic instability.« less

Atomic Detail Visualization of Photosynthetic Membranes with GPU-Accelerated Ray Tracing

PubMed Central

Vandivort, Kirby L.; Barragan, Angela; Singharoy, Abhishek; Teo, Ivan; Ribeiro, João V.; Isralewitz, Barry; Liu, Bo; Goh, Boon Chong; Phillips, James C.; MacGregor-Chatwin, Craig; Johnson, Matthew P.; Kourkoutis, Lena F.; Hunter, C. Neil

2016-01-01

The cellular process responsible for providing energy for most life on Earth, namely photosynthetic light-harvesting, requires the cooperation of hundreds of proteins across an organelle, involving length and time scales spanning several orders of magnitude over quantum and classical regimes. Simulation and visualization of this fundamental energy conversion process pose many unique methodological and computational challenges. We present, in two accompanying movies, light-harvesting in the photosynthetic apparatus found in purple bacteria, the so-called chromatophore. The movies are the culmination of three decades of modeling efforts, featuring the collaboration of theoretical, experimental, and computational scientists. We describe the techniques that were used to build, simulate, analyze, and visualize the structures shown in the movies, and we highlight cases where scientific needs spurred the development of new parallel algorithms that efficiently harness GPU accelerators and petascale computers. PMID:27274603

[The nursing and the attention to the child who is victim of familiar violence].

PubMed

da Cunha, Janice Machado; de Assis, Simone Gonçalves; Pacheco, Sandra Teixeira de Araújo

2005-01-01

Bibliographic study that aimed to reflect about the nursing care to the child who is victim of familiar violence from the analysis of scientific production concerning this subject. Thirty-seven indexed publications were analyzed (08 national and 29 international) using the following bibliographic databases: BDENF; LILACS and MEDLINE. Estalishing the period of 1993-2003 as limit time. The results were analyzed applying the technique of content analysis becoming possible the distinction of knowledge in three topical cores: diagnostic, qualification of the nurse, and nursing care to the child victim of familiar violence. An increase of significant nursing scientific production focalizing this subject was not visualized in the last years.

The Rising Landscape: A Visual Exploration of Superstring Revolutions in Physics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chaomei; Kuljis, Jasna

2003-01-01

Discussion of knowledge domain visualization focuses on practical issues concerning modeling and visualizing scientific revolutions. Studies growth patterns of specialties derived from citation and cocitation data on string theory in physics, using the general framework of Thomas Kuhn's structure of scientific revolutions. (Author/LRW)

Narratives in Mind and Media: A Cognitive Semiotic Account of Novices Interpreting Visual Science Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matuk, Camillia Faye

Visual representations are central to expert scientific thinking. Meanwhile, novices tend toward narrative conceptions of scientific phenomena. Until recently, however, relationships between visual design, narrative thinking, and their impacts on learning science have only been theoretically pursued. This dissertation first synthesizes different disciplinary perspectives, then offers a mixed-methods investigation into interpretations of scientific representations. Finally, it considers design issues associated with narrative and visual imagery, and explores the possibilities of a pedagogical notation to scaffold the understanding of a standard scientific notation. Throughout, I distinguish two categories of visual media by their relation to narrative: Narrative visual media, which convey content via narrative structure, and Conceptual visual media, which convey states of relationships among objects. Given the role of narrative in framing conceptions of scientific phenomena and perceptions of its representations, I suggest that novices are especially prone to construe both kinds of media in narrative terms. To illustrate, I first describe how novices make meaning of the science conveyed in narrative visual media. Vignettes of an undergraduate student's interpretation of a cartoon about natural selection; and of four 13-year olds' readings of a comic book about human papillomavirus infection, together demonstrate conditions under which designed visual narrative elements facilitate or hinder understanding. I next consider the interpretation of conceptual visual media with an example of an expert notation from evolutionary biology, the cladogram. By combining clinical interview methods with experimental design, I show how undergraduate students' narrative theories of evolution frame perceptions of the diagram (Study 1); I demonstrate the flexibility of symbolic meaning, both with the content assumed (Study 2A), and with alternate manners of presenting the diagram (Study 2B); finally, I show the effects of content assumptions on the diagrams students invent of phylogenetic data (Study 3A), and how first inventing a diagram influences later interpretations of the standard notation (Study 3B). Lastly, I describe the prototype design and pilot test of an interactive diagram to scaffold biology students' understanding of this expert scientific notation. Insights from this dissertation inform the design of more pedagogically useful representations that might support students' developing fluency with expert scientific representations.

Scientific Notation Watercolor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linford, Kyle; Oltman, Kathleen; Daisey, Peggy

2016-01-01

(Purpose) The purpose of this paper is to describe visual literacy, an adapted version of Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS), and an art-integrated middle school mathematics lesson about scientific notation. The intent of this lesson was to provide students with a real life use of scientific notation and exponents, and to motivate them to apply their…

Program Supports Scientific Visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keith, Stephan

1994-01-01

Primary purpose of General Visualization System (GVS) computer program is to support scientific visualization of data generated by panel-method computer program PMARC_12 (inventory number ARC-13362) on Silicon Graphics Iris workstation. Enables user to view PMARC geometries and wakes as wire frames or as light shaded objects. GVS is written in C language.

Using Scientific Visualization to Represent Soil Hydrology Dynamics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dolliver, H. A. S.; Bell, J. C.

2006-01-01

Understanding the relationships between soil, landscape, and hydrology is important for making sustainable land management decisions. In this study, scientific visualization was explored as a means to visually represent the complex spatial and temporal variations in the hydrologic status of soils. Soil hydrology data was collected at seven…

Scientific Visualization: A Synthesis of Historical Data.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polland, Mark

Visualization is the process by which one is able to create and sustain mental images for observation, analysis, and experimentation. This study consists of a compilation of evidence from historical examples that were collected in order to document the importance and the uses of visualization within the realm of scientific investigation.…

LOD map--A visual interface for navigating multiresolution volume visualization.

PubMed

Wang, Chaoli; Shen, Han-Wei

2006-01-01

In multiresolution volume visualization, a visual representation of level-of-detail (LOD) quality is important for us to examine, compare, and validate different LOD selection algorithms. While traditional methods rely on ultimate images for quality measurement, we introduce the LOD map--an alternative representation of LOD quality and a visual interface for navigating multiresolution data exploration. Our measure for LOD quality is based on the formulation of entropy from information theory. The measure takes into account the distortion and contribution of multiresolution data blocks. A LOD map is generated through the mapping of key LOD ingredients to a treemap representation. The ordered treemap layout is used for relative stable update of the LOD map when the view or LOD changes. This visual interface not only indicates the quality of LODs in an intuitive way, but also provides immediate suggestions for possible LOD improvement through visually-striking features. It also allows us to compare different views and perform rendering budget control. A set of interactive techniques is proposed to make the LOD adjustment a simple and easy task. We demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach on large scientific and medical data sets.

Field: a new meta-authoring platform for data-intensive scientific visualization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Downie, M.; Ameres, E.; Fox, P. A.; Goebel, J.; Graves, A.; Hendler, J.

2012-12-01

This presentation will demonstrate a new platform for data-intensive scientific visualization, called Field, that rethinks the problem of visual data exploration. Several new opportunities for scientific visualization present themselves here at this moment in time. We believe that when taken together they may catalyze a transformation of the practice of science and to begin to seed a technical culture within science that fuses data analysis, programming and myriad visual strategies. It is at integrative levels that the principle challenges exist, for many fundamental technical components of our field are now well understood and widely available. File formats from CSV through HDF all have broad library support; low-level high-performance graphics APIs (OpenGL) are in a period of stable growth; and a dizzying ecosystem of analysis and machine learning libraries abound. The hardware of computer graphics offers unprecedented computing power within commodity components; programming languages and platforms are coalescing around a core set of umbrella runtimes. Each of these trends are each set to continue — computer graphics hardware is developing at a super-Moore-law rate, and trends in publication and dissemination point only towards an increasing amount of access to code and data. The critical opportunity here for scientific visualization is, we maintain, not a in developing a new statistical library, nor a new tool centered on a particular technique, but rather new visual, "live" programming environment that is promiscuous in its scope. We can identify the necessarily methodological practice and traditions required here not in science or engineering but in the "live-coding" practices prevalent in the fields of digital art and design. We can define this practice as an approach to programming that is live, iterative, integrative, speculative and exploratory. "Live" because it is exclusively practiced in real-time (often during performance); "iterative", because intermediate programs and this visual results are constantly being made and remade en route; "speculative", because these programs and images result out of mode of inquiry into image-making not unlike that of hypothesis formation and testing; "integrative" because this style draws deeply upon the libraries of algorithms and materials available online today; and "exploratory" because the results of these speculations are inherently open to the data and unforeseen out the outset. To this end our development environment — Field — comprises a minimal core and a powerful plug-in system that can be extended from within the environment itself. By providing a hybrid text editor that can incorporate text-based programming at the same time with graphical user-interface elements, its flexible and extensible interface provides space as necessary for notation, visualization, interface construction, and introspection. In addition, it provides an advanced GPU-accelerated graphics system ideal for large-scale data visualization. Since Field was created in the context of widely divergent interdisciplinary projects, its aim is to give its users not only the ability to work rapidly, but to shape their Field environment extensively and flexibly for their own demands.

Discovering new methods of data fusion, visualization, and analysis in 3D immersive environments for hyperspectral and laser altimetry data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, C. A.; Gertman, V.; Olsoy, P.; Mitchell, J.; Glenn, N. F.; Joshi, A.; Norpchen, D.; Shrestha, R.; Pernice, M.; Spaete, L.; Grover, S.; Whiting, E.; Lee, R.

2011-12-01

Immersive virtual reality environments such as the IQ-Station or CAVE° (Cave Automated Virtual Environment) offer new and exciting ways to visualize and explore scientific data and are powerful research and educational tools. Combining remote sensing data from a range of sensor platforms in immersive 3D environments can enhance the spectral, textural, spatial, and temporal attributes of the data, which enables scientists to interact and analyze the data in ways never before possible. Visualization and analysis of large remote sensing datasets in immersive environments requires software customization for integrating LiDAR point cloud data with hyperspectral raster imagery, the generation of quantitative tools for multidimensional analysis, and the development of methods to capture 3D visualizations for stereographic playback. This study uses hyperspectral and LiDAR data acquired over the China Hat geologic study area near Soda Springs, Idaho, USA. The data are fused into a 3D image cube for interactive data exploration and several methods of recording and playback are investigated that include: 1) creating and implementing a Virtual Reality User Interface (VRUI) patch configuration file to enable recording and playback of VRUI interactive sessions within the CAVE and 2) using the LiDAR and hyperspectral remote sensing data and GIS data to create an ArcScene 3D animated flyover, where left- and right-eye visuals are captured from two independent monitors for playback in a stereoscopic player. These visualizations can be used as outreach tools to demonstrate how integrated data and geotechnology techniques can help scientists see, explore, and more adequately comprehend scientific phenomena, both real and abstract.

Garbage Patch Visualization Experiment

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-08-20

Goddard visualizers show us how five garbage patches formed in the world's oceans using 35 years of data. Read more: 1.usa.gov/1Lnj7xV Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

USGS Scientific Visualization Laboratory

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

1995-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Scientific Visualization Laboratory at the National Center in Reston, Va., provides a central facility where USGS employees can use state-of-the-art equipment for projects ranging from presentation graphics preparation to complex visual representations of scientific data. Equipment including color printers, black-and-white and color scanners, film recorders, video equipment, and DOS, Apple Macintosh, and UNIX platforms with software are available for both technical and nontechnical users. The laboratory staff provides assistance and demonstrations in the use of the hardware and software products.

Scientific Computing for Chemists: An Undergraduate Course in Simulations, Data Processing, and Visualization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiss, Charles J.

2017-01-01

The Scientific Computing for Chemists course taught at Wabash College teaches chemistry students to use the Python programming language, Jupyter notebooks, and a number of common Python scientific libraries to process, analyze, and visualize data. Assuming no prior programming experience, the course introduces students to basic programming and…

Visual representation of scientific information.

PubMed

Wong, Bang

2011-02-15

Great technological advances have enabled researchers to generate an enormous amount of data. Data analysis is replacing data generation as the rate-limiting step in scientific research. With this wealth of information, we have an opportunity to understand the molecular causes of human diseases. However, the unprecedented scale, resolution, and variety of data pose new analytical challenges. Visual representation of data offers insights that can lead to new understanding, whether the purpose is analysis or communication. This presentation shows how art, design, and traditional illustration can enable scientific discovery. Examples will be drawn from the Broad Institute's Data Visualization Initiative, aimed at establishing processes for creating informative visualization models.

Preparing for in situ processing on upcoming leading-edge supercomputers

DOE PAGES

Kress, James; Churchill, Randy Michael; Klasky, Scott; ...

2016-10-01

High performance computing applications are producing increasingly large amounts of data and placing enormous stress on current capabilities for traditional post-hoc visualization techniques. Because of the growing compute and I/O imbalance, data reductions, including in situ visualization, are required. These reduced data are used for analysis and visualization in a variety of different ways. Many of he visualization and analysis requirements are known a priori, but when they are not, scientists are dependent on the reduced data to accurately represent the simulation in post hoc analysis. The contributions of this paper is a description of the directions we are pursuingmore » to assist a large scale fusion simulation code succeed on the next generation of supercomputers. Finally, these directions include the role of in situ processing for performing data reductions, as well as the tradeoffs between data size and data integrity within the context of complex operations in a typical scientific workflow.« less

Science & Art in Motion: Visualizing the X-ray Universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hobart, A. J.; Arcand, K. K.; Edmonds, P. D.; Tucker, W. H.

2005-12-01

Since its launch in 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has probed regions around black holes, traced the debris of exploded stars, and helped to elucidate the formation of galaxy clusters, the largest bound structures in the Universe. Conveying Chandra's exciting, though often complicated, high-energy results to the public and the media poses certain visual challenges, such as photon-starved observational data, spectra, and esoteric concepts. This poster will demonstrate some of the techniques developed to present visuals by way of motion graphics in X-ray astronomy. Some tricks of the trade will be highlighted, including establishing texture libraries, using particle or paint effects, and modeling stock objects. Topics unique to animating scientific concepts for public consumption will also be discussed, such as addressing public perception versus scientists' findings, keeping a high standard of accuracy while leaving room for visual excitement, communicating with scientists for revisions, and creative ways to interact with and educate the public. Developed with funding from NASA under Contract NAS8-39073.

Innovative Climate Communication Strategies: What Sticks?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fitzpatrick, M. F.; Heid, M.; Spanger-Siegfried, E.; Sideris, J.; Sanford, T. J.; Nurnberger, L.; Huertas, A.; Ekwurzel, B.; Cleetus, R.; Cell, K.

2013-12-01

A unique aspect of our work at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is the melding of scientific research and a robust communications initiative to bring salient information to decision makers and the public. Over the years, we have tried many different strategies to convey complex scientific information in an effective and appealing way, from movie stars to hope psychology, from dire warnings to academic appeals. But now that we are seeing climate impacts locally and climate change is no longer a future reality, what new vision do we need to support ongoing education? In this session we will present some of the techniques we have used to convey climate science concepts including our use of metaphors, data visualization, photography, blogs, social media, video, and public outreach events. Realizing that messages that stick are those that contain powerful narrative and speak to the emotional centers of our brains, we use innovative infographics as well as personal stories to encourage people to care about creating a healthier, cleaner planet. Reaching new audiences using unexpected messengers is a key focus. Some of the questions we will explore are: What metrics can we use to determine the efficacy of these tools? What are the best ways to convey urgency without a sense of hopelessness? How can we improve our communication at a time when action on climate is a necessity? Research shows infographics convey concepts much more easily and quickly than text alone, as our brains are wired to process visual scenes. Making complex scientific information accessible to the non-specialist public involves creativity and excellent data visualization.

Effectiveness of the use of question-driven levels of inquiry based instruction (QD-LOIBI) assisted visual multimedia supported teaching material on enhancing scientific explanation ability senior high school students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suhandi, A.; Muslim; Samsudin, A.; Hermita, N.; Supriyatman

2018-05-01

In this study, the effectiveness of the use of Question-Driven Levels of Inquiry Based Instruction (QD-LOIBI) assisted visual multimedia supported teaching materials on enhancing senior high school students scientific explanation ability has been studied. QD-LOIBI was designed by following five-levels of inquiry proposed by Wenning. Visual multimedia used in teaching materials included image (photo), virtual simulation and video phenomena. QD-LOIBI assisted teaching materials supported by visual multimedia were tried out on senior high school students at one high school in one district in West Java. A quasi-experiment method with design one experiment group (n = 31) and one control group (n = 32) were used. Experimental group were given QD-LOIBI assisted teaching material supported by visual multimedia, whereas the control group were given QD-LOIBI assisted teaching materials not supported visual multimedia. Data on the ability of scientific explanation in both groups were collected by scientific explanation ability test in essay form concerning kinetic gas theory concept. The results showed that the number of students in the experimental class that has increased the category and quality of scientific explanation is greater than in the control class. These results indicate that the use of multimedia supported instructional materials developed for implementation of QD-LOIBI can improve students’ ability to provide explanations supported by scientific evidence gained from practicum activities and applicable concepts, laws, principles or theories.

Atomic detail visualization of photosynthetic membranes with GPU-accelerated ray tracing

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

Stone, John E.; Sener, Melih; Vandivort, Kirby L.

The cellular process responsible for providing energy for most life on Earth, namely, photosynthetic light-harvesting, requires the cooperation of hundreds of proteins across an organelle, involving length and time scales spanning several orders of magnitude over quantum and classical regimes. Simulation and visualization of this fundamental energy conversion process pose many unique methodological and computational challenges. In this paper, we present, in two accompanying movies, light-harvesting in the photosynthetic apparatus found in purple bacteria, the so-called chromatophore. The movies are the culmination of three decades of modeling efforts, featuring the collaboration of theoretical, experimental, and computational scientists. Finally, we describemore » the techniques that were used to build, simulate, analyze, and visualize the structures shown in the movies, and we highlight cases where scientific needs spurred the development of new parallel algorithms that efficiently harness GPU accelerators and petascale computers.« less

Atomic detail visualization of photosynthetic membranes with GPU-accelerated ray tracing

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

Stone, John E.; Sener, Melih; Vandivort, Kirby L.

The cellular process responsible for providing energy for most life on Earth, namely, photosynthetic light-harvesting, requires the cooperation of hundreds of proteins across an organelle, involving length and time scales spanning several orders of magnitude over quantum and classical regimes. Simulation and visualization of this fundamental energy conversion process pose many unique methodological and computational challenges. We present, in two accompanying movies, light-harvesting in the photosynthetic apparatus found in purple bacteria, the so-called chromatophore. The movies are the culmination of three decades of modeling efforts, featuring the collaboration of theoretical, experimental, and computational scientists. We describe the techniques that weremore » used to build, simulate, analyze, and visualize the structures shown in the movies, and we highlight cases where scientific needs spurred the development of new parallel algorithms that efficiently harness GPU accelerators and petascale computers.« less

Atomic detail visualization of photosynthetic membranes with GPU-accelerated ray tracing

DOE PAGES

Stone, John E.; Sener, Melih; Vandivort, Kirby L.; ...

2015-12-12

The cellular process responsible for providing energy for most life on Earth, namely, photosynthetic light-harvesting, requires the cooperation of hundreds of proteins across an organelle, involving length and time scales spanning several orders of magnitude over quantum and classical regimes. Simulation and visualization of this fundamental energy conversion process pose many unique methodological and computational challenges. In this paper, we present, in two accompanying movies, light-harvesting in the photosynthetic apparatus found in purple bacteria, the so-called chromatophore. The movies are the culmination of three decades of modeling efforts, featuring the collaboration of theoretical, experimental, and computational scientists. Finally, we describemore » the techniques that were used to build, simulate, analyze, and visualize the structures shown in the movies, and we highlight cases where scientific needs spurred the development of new parallel algorithms that efficiently harness GPU accelerators and petascale computers.« less

Effects of VR system fidelity on analyzing isosurface visualization of volume datasets.

PubMed

Laha, Bireswar; Bowman, Doug A; Socha, John J

2014-04-01

Volume visualization is an important technique for analyzing datasets from a variety of different scientific domains. Volume data analysis is inherently difficult because volumes are three-dimensional, dense, and unfamiliar, requiring scientists to precisely control the viewpoint and to make precise spatial judgments. Researchers have proposed that more immersive (higher fidelity) VR systems might improve task performance with volume datasets, and significant results tied to different components of display fidelity have been reported. However, more information is needed to generalize these results to different task types, domains, and rendering styles. We visualized isosurfaces extracted from synchrotron microscopic computed tomography (SR-μCT) scans of beetles, in a CAVE-like display. We ran a controlled experiment evaluating the effects of three components of system fidelity (field of regard, stereoscopy, and head tracking) on a variety of abstract task categories that are applicable to various scientific domains, and also compared our results with those from our prior experiment using 3D texture-based rendering. We report many significant findings. For example, for search and spatial judgment tasks with isosurface visualization, a stereoscopic display provides better performance, but for tasks with 3D texture-based rendering, displays with higher field of regard were more effective, independent of the levels of the other display components. We also found that systems with high field of regard and head tracking improve performance in spatial judgment tasks. Our results extend existing knowledge and produce new guidelines for designing VR systems to improve the effectiveness of volume data analysis.

PubMed Central

Hackethal, Andreas; Hirschburger, Markus; Eicker, Sven Oliver; Mücke, Thomas; Lindner, Christoph; Buchweitz, Olaf

2018-01-01

Modern surgical strategies aim to reduce trauma by using functional imaging to improve surgical outcomes. This reviews considers and evaluates the importance of the fluorescent dye indocyanine green (ICG) to visualize lymph nodes, lymphatic pathways and vessels and tissue borders in an interdisciplinary setting. The work is based on a selective search of the literature in PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar and the authorsʼ own clinical experience. Because of its simple, radiation-free and uncomplicated application, ICG has become an important clinical indicator in recent years. In oncologic surgery ICG is used extensively to identify sentinel lymph nodes with promising results. In some studies, the detection rates with ICG have been better than the rates obtained with established procedures. When ICG is used for visualization and the quantification of tissue perfusion, it can lead to fewer cases of anastomotic insufficiency or transplant necrosis. The use of ICG for the imaging of organ borders, flap plasty borders and postoperative vascularization has also been scientifically evaluated. Combining the easily applied ICG dye with technical options for intraoperative and interventional visualization has the potential to create new functional imaging procedures which, in future, could expand or even replace existing established surgical techniques, particularly the techniques used for sentinel lymph node and anastomosis imaging. PMID:29375146

Virtual Environments in Scientific Visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryson, Steve; Lisinski, T. A. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

Virtual environment technology is a new way of approaching the interface between computers and humans. Emphasizing display and user control that conforms to the user's natural ways of perceiving and thinking about space, virtual environment technologies enhance the ability to perceive and interact with computer generated graphic information. This enhancement potentially has a major effect on the field of scientific visualization. Current examples of this technology include the Virtual Windtunnel being developed at NASA Ames Research Center. Other major institutions such as the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and SRI International are also exploring this technology. This talk will be describe several implementations of virtual environments for use in scientific visualization. Examples include the visualization of unsteady fluid flows (the virtual windtunnel), the visualization of geodesics in curved spacetime, surface manipulation, and examples developed at various laboratories.

The Spectral Image Processing System (SIPS) - Interactive visualization and analysis of imaging spectrometer data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kruse, F. A.; Lefkoff, A. B.; Boardman, J. W.; Heidebrecht, K. B.; Shapiro, A. T.; Barloon, P. J.; Goetz, A. F. H.

1993-01-01

The Center for the Study of Earth from Space (CSES) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has developed a prototype interactive software system called the Spectral Image Processing System (SIPS) using IDL (the Interactive Data Language) on UNIX-based workstations. SIPS is designed to take advantage of the combination of high spectral resolution and spatial data presentation unique to imaging spectrometers. It streamlines analysis of these data by allowing scientists to rapidly interact with entire datasets. SIPS provides visualization tools for rapid exploratory analysis and numerical tools for quantitative modeling. The user interface is X-Windows-based, user friendly, and provides 'point and click' operation. SIPS is being used for multidisciplinary research concentrating on use of physically based analysis methods to enhance scientific results from imaging spectrometer data. The objective of this continuing effort is to develop operational techniques for quantitative analysis of imaging spectrometer data and to make them available to the scientific community prior to the launch of imaging spectrometer satellite systems such as the Earth Observing System (EOS) High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (HIRIS).

Comparing the quality of accessing medical literature using content-based visual and textual information retrieval

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Müller, Henning; Kalpathy-Cramer, Jayashree; Kahn, Charles E., Jr.; Hersh, William

2009-02-01

Content-based visual information (or image) retrieval (CBIR) has been an extremely active research domain within medical imaging over the past ten years, with the goal of improving the management of visual medical information. Many technical solutions have been proposed, and application scenarios for image retrieval as well as image classification have been set up. However, in contrast to medical information retrieval using textual methods, visual retrieval has only rarely been applied in clinical practice. This is despite the large amount and variety of visual information produced in hospitals every day. This information overload imposes a significant burden upon clinicians, and CBIR technologies have the potential to help the situation. However, in order for CBIR to become an accepted clinical tool, it must demonstrate a higher level of technical maturity than it has to date. Since 2004, the ImageCLEF benchmark has included a task for the comparison of visual information retrieval algorithms for medical applications. In 2005, a task for medical image classification was introduced and both tasks have been run successfully for the past four years. These benchmarks allow an annual comparison of visual retrieval techniques based on the same data sets and the same query tasks, enabling the meaningful comparison of various retrieval techniques. The datasets used from 2004-2007 contained images and annotations from medical teaching files. In 2008, however, the dataset used was made up of 67,000 images (along with their associated figure captions and the full text of their corresponding articles) from two Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) scientific journals. This article describes the results of the medical image retrieval task of the ImageCLEF 2008 evaluation campaign. We compare the retrieval results of both visual and textual information retrieval systems from 15 research groups on the aforementioned data set. The results show clearly that, currently, visual retrieval alone does not achieve the performance necessary for real-world clinical applications. Most of the common visual retrieval techniques have a MAP (Mean Average Precision) of around 2-3%, which is much lower than that achieved using textual retrieval (MAP=29%). Advanced machine learning techniques, together with good training data, have been shown to improve the performance of visual retrieval systems in the past. Multimodal retrieval (basing retrieval on both visual and textual information) can achieve better results than purely visual, but only when carefully applied. In many cases, multimodal retrieval systems performed even worse than purely textual retrieval systems. On the other hand, some multimodal retrieval systems demonstrated significantly increased early precision, which has been shown to be a desirable behavior in real-world systems.

Rapid development of medical imaging tools with open-source libraries.

PubMed

Caban, Jesus J; Joshi, Alark; Nagy, Paul

2007-11-01

Rapid prototyping is an important element in researching new imaging analysis techniques and developing custom medical applications. In the last ten years, the open source community and the number of open source libraries and freely available frameworks for biomedical research have grown significantly. What they offer are now considered standards in medical image analysis, computer-aided diagnosis, and medical visualization. A cursory review of the peer-reviewed literature in imaging informatics (indeed, in almost any information technology-dependent scientific discipline) indicates the current reliance on open source libraries to accelerate development and validation of processes and techniques. In this survey paper, we review and compare a few of the most successful open source libraries and frameworks for medical application development. Our dual intentions are to provide evidence that these approaches already constitute a vital and essential part of medical image analysis, diagnosis, and visualization and to motivate the reader to use open source libraries and software for rapid prototyping of medical applications and tools.

JoVE: the Journal of Visualized Experiments.

PubMed

Vardell, Emily

2015-01-01

The Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) is the world's first scientific video journal and is designed to communicate research and scientific methods in an innovative, intuitive way. JoVE includes a wide range of biomedical videos, from biology to immunology and bioengineering to clinical and translation medicine. This column describes the browsing and searching capabilities of JoVE, as well as its additional features (including the JoVE Scientific Education Database designed for students in scientific fields).

Korean consumers' perceptions of health/functional food claims according to the strength of scientific evidence

PubMed Central

Kim, Ji Yeon; Kang, Eun Jin; Kwon, Oran

2010-01-01

In this study, we investigated that consumers could differentiate between levels of claims and clarify how a visual aid influences consumer understanding of the different claim levels. We interviewed 2,000 consumers in 13 shopping malls on their perception of and confidence in different levels of health claims using seven point scales. The average confidence scores given by participants were 4.17 for the probable level and 4.07 for the possible level; the score for the probable level was significantly higher than that for the possible level (P < 0.05). Scores for confidence in claims after reading labels with and without a visual aid were 5.27 and 4.43, respectively; the score for labeling with a visual aid was significantly higher than for labeling without a visual aid (P < 0.01). Our results provide compelling evidence that providing health claims with qualifying language differentiating levels of scientific evidence can help consumers understand the strength of scientific evidence behind those claims. Moreover, when a visual aid was included, consumers perceived the scientific levels more clearly and had greater confidence in their meanings than when a visual aid was not included. Although this result suggests that consumers react differently to different claim levels, it is not yet clear whether consumers understand the variations in the degree of scientific support. PMID:21103090

Exploring Verbal, Visual and Schematic Learners' Static and Dynamic Mental Images of Scientific Species and Processes in Relation to Their Spatial Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Balushi, Sulaiman M.; Coll, Richard Kevin

2013-01-01

The current study compared different learners' static and dynamic mental images of unseen scientific species and processes in relation to their spatial ability. Learners were classified into verbal, visual and schematic. Dynamic images were classified into: appearing/disappearing, linear-movement, and rotation. Two types of scientific entities and…

Data-Proximate Analysis and Visualization in the Cloud using Cloudstream, an Open-Source Application Streaming Technology Stack

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fisher, W. I.

2017-12-01

The rise in cloud computing, coupled with the growth of "Big Data", has lead to a migration away from local scientific data storage. The increasing size of remote scientific data sets increase, however, makes it difficult for scientists to subject them to large-scale analysis and visualization. These large datasets can take an inordinate amount of time to download; subsetting is a potential solution, but subsetting services are not yet ubiquitous. Data providers may also pay steep prices, as many cloud providers meter data based on how much data leaves their cloud service. The solution to this problem is a deceptively simple one; move data analysis and visualization tools to the cloud, so that scientists may perform data-proximate analysis and visualization. This results in increased transfer speeds, while egress costs are lowered or completely eliminated. Moving standard desktop analysis and visualization tools to the cloud is enabled via a technique called "Application Streaming". This technology allows a program to run entirely on a remote virtual machine while still allowing for interactivity and dynamic visualizations. When coupled with containerization technology such as Docker, we are able to easily deploy legacy analysis and visualization software to the cloud whilst retaining access via a desktop, netbook, a smartphone, or the next generation of hardware, whatever it may be. Unidata has created a Docker-based solution for easily adapting legacy software for Application Streaming. This technology stack, dubbed Cloudstream, allows desktop software to run in the cloud with little-to-no effort. The docker container is configured by editing text files, and the legacy software does not need to be modified in any way. This work will discuss the underlying technologies used by Cloudstream, and outline how to use Cloudstream to run and access an existing desktop application to the cloud.

Expanding the use of Scientific Data through Maps and Apps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shrestha, S. R.; Zimble, D. A.; Herring, D.; Halpert, M.

2014-12-01

The importance of making scientific data more available can't be overstated. There is a wealth of useful scientific data available and demand for this data is only increasing; however, applying scientific data towards practical uses poses several technical challenges. These challenges can arise from difficulty in handling the data due largely to 1) the complexity, variety and volume of scientific data and 2) applying and operating the techniques and tools needed to visualize and analyze the data. As a result, the combined knowledge required to take advantage of these data requires highly specialized skill sets that in total, limit the ability of scientific data from being used in more practical day-to-day decision making activities. While these challenges are daunting, information technologies do exist that can help mitigate some of these issues. Many organizations for years have already been enjoying the benefits of modern service oriented architectures (SOAs) for everyday enterprise tasks. We can use this approach to modernize how we share and access our scientific data where much of the specialized tools and techniques needed to handle and present scientific data can be automated and executed by servers and done so in an appropriate way. We will discuss and show an approach for preparing file based scientific data (e.g. GRIB, netCDF) for use in standard based scientific web services. These scientific web services are able to encapsulate the logic needed to handle and describe scientific data through a variety of service types including, image, map, feature, geoprocessing, and their respective service methods. By combining these types of services and leveraging well-documented and modern web development APIs, we can afford to focus our attention on the design and development of user-friendly maps and apps. Our scenario will include developing online maps through these services by integrating various forecast data from the Climate Forecast System (CFSv2). This presentation showcases a collaboration between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate.gov portal, Climate Prediction Center and Esri, Inc. on the implementation of the ArcGIS platform, which is aimed at helping modernize scientific data access through a service oriented architecture.

cellVIEW: a Tool for Illustrative and Multi-Scale Rendering of Large Biomolecular Datasets

PubMed Central

Le Muzic, Mathieu; Autin, Ludovic; Parulek, Julius; Viola, Ivan

2017-01-01

In this article we introduce cellVIEW, a new system to interactively visualize large biomolecular datasets on the atomic level. Our tool is unique and has been specifically designed to match the ambitions of our domain experts to model and interactively visualize structures comprised of several billions atom. The cellVIEW system integrates acceleration techniques to allow for real-time graphics performance of 60 Hz display rate on datasets representing large viruses and bacterial organisms. Inspired by the work of scientific illustrators, we propose a level-of-detail scheme which purpose is two-fold: accelerating the rendering and reducing visual clutter. The main part of our datasets is made out of macromolecules, but it also comprises nucleic acids strands which are stored as sets of control points. For that specific case, we extend our rendering method to support the dynamic generation of DNA strands directly on the GPU. It is noteworthy that our tool has been directly implemented inside a game engine. We chose to rely on a third party engine to reduce software development work-load and to make bleeding-edge graphics techniques more accessible to the end-users. To our knowledge cellVIEW is the only suitable solution for interactive visualization of large bimolecular landscapes on the atomic level and is freely available to use and extend. PMID:29291131

Enhancements to VTK enabling Scientific Visualization in Immersive Environments

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

O'Leary, Patrick; Jhaveri, Sankhesh; Chaudhary, Aashish

Modern scientific, engineering and medical computational sim- ulations, as well as experimental and observational data sens- ing/measuring devices, produce enormous amounts of data. While statistical analysis provides insight into this data, scientific vi- sualization is tactically important for scientific discovery, prod- uct design and data analysis. These benefits are impeded, how- ever, when scientific visualization algorithms are implemented from scratch—a time-consuming and redundant process in im- mersive application development. This process can greatly ben- efit from leveraging the state-of-the-art open-source Visualization Toolkit (VTK) and its community. Over the past two (almost three) decades, integrating VTK with a virtual reality (VR)more » environment has only been attempted to varying degrees of success. In this pa- per, we demonstrate two new approaches to simplify this amalga- mation of an immersive interface with visualization rendering from VTK. In addition, we cover several enhancements to VTK that pro- vide near real-time updates and efficient interaction. Finally, we demonstrate the combination of VTK with both Vrui and OpenVR immersive environments in example applications.« less

Modeling human comprehension of data visualizations

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

Matzen, Laura E.; Haass, Michael Joseph; Divis, Kristin Marie

This project was inspired by two needs. The first is a need for tools to help scientists and engineers to design effective data visualizations for communicating information, whether to the user of a system, an analyst who must make decisions based on complex data, or in the context of a technical report or publication. Most scientists and engineers are not trained in visualization design, and they could benefit from simple metrics to assess how well their visualization's design conveys the intended message. In other words, will the most important information draw the viewer's attention? The second is the need formore » cognition-based metrics for evaluating new types of visualizations created by researchers in the information visualization and visual analytics communities. Evaluating visualizations is difficult even for experts. However, all visualization methods and techniques are intended to exploit the properties of the human visual system to convey information efficiently to a viewer. Thus, developing evaluation methods that are rooted in the scientific knowledge of the human visual system could be a useful approach. In this project, we conducted fundamental research on how humans make sense of abstract data visualizations, and how this process is influenced by their goals and prior experience. We then used that research to develop a new model, the Data Visualization Saliency Model, that can make accurate predictions about which features in an abstract visualization will draw a viewer's attention. The model is an evaluation tool that can address both of the needs described above, supporting both visualization research and Sandia mission needs.« less

Earthquakes in Action: Incorporating Multimedia, Internet Resources, Large-scale Seismic Data, and 3-D Visualizations into Innovative Activities and Research Projects for Today's High School Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith-Konter, B.; Jacobs, A.; Lawrence, K.; Kilb, D.

2006-12-01

The most effective means of communicating science to today's "high-tech" students is through the use of visually attractive and animated lessons, hands-on activities, and interactive Internet-based exercises. To address these needs, we have developed Earthquakes in Action, a summer high school enrichment course offered through the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) Program at the University of California, San Diego. The summer course consists of classroom lectures, lab experiments, and a final research project designed to foster geophysical innovations, technological inquiries, and effective scientific communication (http://topex.ucsd.edu/cosmos/earthquakes). Course content includes lessons on plate tectonics, seismic wave behavior, seismometer construction, fault characteristics, California seismicity, global seismic hazards, earthquake stress triggering, tsunami generation, and geodetic measurements of the Earth's crust. Students are introduced to these topics through lectures-made-fun using a range of multimedia, including computer animations, videos, and interactive 3-D visualizations. These lessons are further enforced through both hands-on lab experiments and computer-based exercises. Lab experiments included building hand-held seismometers, simulating the frictional behavior of faults using bricks and sandpaper, simulating tsunami generation in a mini-wave pool, and using the Internet to collect global earthquake data on a daily basis and map earthquake locations using a large classroom map. Students also use Internet resources like Google Earth and UNAVCO/EarthScope's Jules Verne Voyager Jr. interactive mapping tool to study Earth Science on a global scale. All computer-based exercises and experiments developed for Earthquakes in Action have been distributed to teachers participating in the 2006 Earthquake Education Workshop, hosted by the Visualization Center at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (http://siovizcenter.ucsd.edu/workshop). In addition to daily lecture and lab exercises, COSMOS students also conduct a mini-research project of their choice that uses data ranging from the 2004 Parkfield Earthquake, to Southern California seismicity, to global seismicity. Students collect seismic data from the Internet and evaluate earthquake locations, magnitudes, temporal sequence of seismic activity, active fault planes, and plate tectonic boundaries using research quality techniques. Students are given the opportunity to build 3-D visualizations of their research data sets and archive these at the SIO Visualization Center's online library, which is globally accessible to students, teachers, researchers, and the general public (http://www.siovizcenter.ucsd.edu/library.php). These student- generated visualizations have become a practical resource for not only students and teachers, but also geophysical researchers that use the visual objects as research tools to better explore and understand their data. Through Earthquakes in Action, we offer both the tools for scientific exploration and the thrills of scientific discovery, providing students with valuable knowledge, novel research experience, and a unique sense of scientific contribution.

Identification and visualization of the intellectual structure and the main research lines in nanoscience and nanotechnology at the worldwide level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muñoz-Écija, Teresa; Vargas-Quesada, Benjamín; Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Zaida

2017-02-01

The aim of this paper is to make manifest the intellectual and cognitive structure of nanoscience and nanotechnology (NST) by means of visualization techniques. To this end, we used data from the Web of Science (WoS), delimiting the data to the category NST during the period of 2000-2013, retrieving a total of 198,275 documents. Through direct author citation of these works, we identified their origins and the seminal papers, and through word co-occurrence extracted from the titles and abstracts, the main lines of research were identified. In view of both structures, we may affirm that NST is a young scientific discipline in constant expansion, needing time to establish its foundations but showing a strongly interdisciplinary character; its development is furthermore dependent upon knowledge from other disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, or material sciences. We believe that this information may be very useful for the NST scientific community, as it reflects a large-scale analysis of the research lines of NST and how research has changed over time in the diverse areas of NST. This study is moreover intended to offer a useful tool for the NST scientific community, revealing at a glance the main research lines and landmark papers. Finally, the methodology used in this study can be replicated in any other field of science to explore its intellectual and cognitive structure.

magHD: a new approach to multi-dimensional data storage, analysis, display and exploitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Angleraud, Christophe

2014-06-01

The ever increasing amount of data and processing capabilities - following the well- known Moore's law - is challenging the way scientists and engineers are currently exploiting large datasets. The scientific visualization tools, although quite powerful, are often too generic and provide abstract views of phenomena, thus preventing cross disciplines fertilization. On the other end, Geographic information Systems allow nice and visually appealing maps to be built but they often get very confused as more layers are added. Moreover, the introduction of time as a fourth analysis dimension to allow analysis of time dependent phenomena such as meteorological or climate models, is encouraging real-time data exploration techniques that allow spatial-temporal points of interests to be detected by integration of moving images by the human brain. Magellium is involved in high performance image processing chains for satellite image processing as well as scientific signal analysis and geographic information management since its creation (2003). We believe that recent work on big data, GPU and peer-to-peer collaborative processing can open a new breakthrough in data analysis and display that will serve many new applications in collaborative scientific computing, environment mapping and understanding. The magHD (for Magellium Hyper-Dimension) project aims at developing software solutions that will bring highly interactive tools for complex datasets analysis and exploration commodity hardware, targeting small to medium scale clusters with expansion capabilities to large cloud based clusters.

Explore the virtual side of earth science

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

1998-01-01

Scientists have always struggled to find an appropriate technology that could represent three-dimensional (3-D) data, facilitate dynamic analysis, and encourage on-the-fly interactivity. In the recent past, scientific visualization has increased the scientist's ability to visualize information, but it has not provided the interactive environment necessary for rapidly changing the model or for viewing the model in ways not predetermined by the visualization specialist. Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML 2.0) is a new environment for visualizing 3-D information spaces and is accessible through the Internet with current browser technologies. Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are using VRML as a scientific visualization tool to help convey complex scientific concepts to various audiences. Kevin W. Laurent, computer scientist, and Maura J. Hogan, technical information specialist, have created a collection of VRML models available through the Internet at Virtual Earth Science (virtual.er.usgs.gov).

Standardization of Color Palettes for Scientific Visualization

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

Kulesza, Joel A.; Spencer, Joshua Bradly; Sood, Avneet

The purpose of this white paper is to demonstrate the importance of color palette choice in scientific visualizations and to promote an effort to convene an interdisciplinary team of researchers to study and recommend color palettes based on intended application(s) and audience(s).

Interactive 3D visualization for theoretical virtual observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dykes, T.; Hassan, A.; Gheller, C.; Croton, D.; Krokos, M.

2018-06-01

Virtual observatories (VOs) are online hubs of scientific knowledge. They encompass a collection of platforms dedicated to the storage and dissemination of astronomical data, from simple data archives to e-research platforms offering advanced tools for data exploration and analysis. Whilst the more mature platforms within VOs primarily serve the observational community, there are also services fulfilling a similar role for theoretical data. Scientific visualization can be an effective tool for analysis and exploration of data sets made accessible through web platforms for theoretical data, which often contain spatial dimensions and properties inherently suitable for visualization via e.g. mock imaging in 2D or volume rendering in 3D. We analyse the current state of 3D visualization for big theoretical astronomical data sets through scientific web portals and virtual observatory services. We discuss some of the challenges for interactive 3D visualization and how it can augment the workflow of users in a virtual observatory context. Finally we showcase a lightweight client-server visualization tool for particle-based data sets, allowing quantitative visualization via data filtering, highlighting two example use cases within the Theoretical Astrophysical Observatory.

On Establishing Big Data Wave Breakwaters with Analytics (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riedel, M.

2013-12-01

The Research Data Alliance Big Data Analytics (RDA-BDA) Interest Group seeks to develop community based recommendations on feasible data analytics approaches to address scientific community needs of utilizing large quantities of data. RDA-BDA seeks to analyze different scientific domain applications and their potential use of various big data analytics techniques. A systematic classification of feasible combinations of analysis algorithms, analytical tools, data and resource characteristics and scientific queries will be covered in these recommendations. These combinations are complex since a wide variety of different data analysis algorithms exist (e.g. specific algorithms using GPUs of analyzing brain images) that need to work together with multiple analytical tools reaching from simple (iterative) map-reduce methods (e.g. with Apache Hadoop or Twister) to sophisticated higher level frameworks that leverage machine learning algorithms (e.g. Apache Mahout). These computational analysis techniques are often augmented with visual analytics techniques (e.g. computational steering on large-scale high performance computing platforms) to put the human judgement into the analysis loop or new approaches with databases that are designed to support new forms of unstructured or semi-structured data as opposed to the rather tradtional structural databases (e.g. relational databases). More recently, data analysis and underpinned analytics frameworks also have to consider energy footprints of underlying resources. To sum up, the aim of this talk is to provide pieces of information to understand big data analytics in the context of science and engineering using the aforementioned classification as the lighthouse and as the frame of reference for a systematic approach. This talk will provide insights about big data analytics methods in context of science within varios communities and offers different views of how approaches of correlation and causality offer complementary methods to advance in science and engineering today. The RDA Big Data Analytics Group seeks to understand what approaches are not only technically feasible, but also scientifically feasible. The lighthouse Goal of the RDA Big Data Analytics Group is a classification of clever combinations of various Technologies and scientific applications in order to provide clear recommendations to the scientific community what approaches are technicalla and scientifically feasible.

[Visualizing Research Lines in Public Health: An analysis Based on Bibliometric Maps Applied to the Revista Española de Salud Pública (2006-2015)].

PubMed

Gálvez, Carmen

2016-12-01

Identifying research lines is essential to understand the knowledge structure of a scientific domain. The aim of this study was to identify the main research topics of within the domain of public health, in the Revista Española de Saslud Pública during 2006-2015. Original articles included in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) database, available online through the Web of Science (WoS), were selected. The analysis units used were the keywords, KeyWords Plus (KW+), extracted automatically by SSCI. With KW+ obtained bibliometric, maps were created using a methodology based on the combination of co-word analysis, co-word analysis, clustering techniques and visualization techniques. We analyzed 512 documents, of which 176 KW+ were obtained with a frequency greater than or equal to 3. The results were bidimensional bibliometric maps with thematic groupings of KW+, representing the main research fronts: i) epidemiology, risk control programs disease and, in general, service organization and health policies; ii) infectious diseases, principally HIV; iii) a progressive increase in several lines interrelated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD); iv) a line multidimensional dedicated to different aspects associated to the quality of life related to health (HRQoL); and v) an emerging line linked to binge drinking. For the multidisciplinary and multidimensional nature of public health, the construction of bibliometric maps is an appropriate methodology to understand the knowledge structure of this scientific domain.

Teaching children the structure of science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Börner, Katy; Palmer, Fileve; Davis, Julie M.; Hardy, Elisha; Uzzo, Stephen M.; Hook, Bryan J.

2009-01-01

Maps of the world are common in classroom settings. They are used to teach the juxtaposition of natural and political functions, mineral resources, political, cultural and geographical boundaries; occurrences of processes such as tectonic drift; spreading of epidemics; and weather forecasts, among others. Recent work in scientometrics aims to create a map of science encompassing our collective scholarly knowledge. Maps of science can be used to see disciplinary boundaries; the origin of ideas, expertise, techniques, or tools; the birth, evolution, merging, splitting, and death of scientific disciplines; the spreading of ideas and technology; emerging research frontiers and bursts of activity; etc. Just like the first maps of our planet, the first maps of science are neither perfect nor correct. Today's science maps are predominantly generated based on English scholarly data: Techniques and procedures to achieve local and global accuracy of these maps are still being refined, and a visual language to communicate something as abstract and complex as science is still being developed. Yet, the maps are successfully used by institutions or individuals who can afford them to guide science policy decision making, economic decision making, or as visual interfaces to digital libraries. This paper presents the process and results of creating hands-on science maps for kids that teaches children ages 4-14 about the structure of scientific disciplines. The maps were tested in both formal and informal science education environments. The results show that children can easily transfer their (world) map and concept map reading skills to utilize maps of science in interesting ways.

The Visual Geophysical Exploration Environment: A Multi-dimensional Scientific Visualization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pandya, R. E.; Domenico, B.; Murray, D.; Marlino, M. R.

2003-12-01

The Visual Geophysical Exploration Environment (VGEE) is an online learning environment designed to help undergraduate students understand fundamental Earth system science concepts. The guiding principle of the VGEE is the importance of hands-on interaction with scientific visualization and data. The VGEE consists of four elements: 1) an online, inquiry-based curriculum for guiding student exploration; 2) a suite of El Nino-related data sets adapted for student use; 3) a learner-centered interface to a scientific visualization tool; and 4) a set of concept models (interactive tools that help students understand fundamental scientific concepts). There are two key innovations featured in this interactive poster session. One is the integration of concept models and the visualization tool. Concept models are simple, interactive, Java-based illustrations of fundamental physical principles. We developed eight concept models and integrated them into the visualization tool to enable students to probe data. The ability to probe data using a concept model addresses the common problem of transfer: the difficulty students have in applying theoretical knowledge to everyday phenomenon. The other innovation is a visualization environment and data that are discoverable in digital libraries, and installed, configured, and used for investigations over the web. By collaborating with the Integrated Data Viewer developers, we were able to embed a web-launchable visualization tool and access to distributed data sets into the online curricula. The Thematic Real-time Environmental Data Distributed Services (THREDDS) project is working to provide catalogs of datasets that can be used in new VGEE curricula under development. By cataloging this curricula in the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE), learners and educators can discover the data and visualization tool within a framework that guides their use.

Using Tablet for visual exploration of second-generation sequencing data.

PubMed

Milne, Iain; Stephen, Gordon; Bayer, Micha; Cock, Peter J A; Pritchard, Leighton; Cardle, Linda; Shaw, Paul D; Marshall, David

2013-03-01

The advent of second-generation sequencing (2GS) has provided a range of significant new challenges for the visualization of sequence assemblies. These include the large volume of data being generated, short-read lengths and different data types and data formats associated with the diversity of new sequencing technologies. This article illustrates how Tablet-a high-performance graphical viewer for visualization of 2GS assemblies and read mappings-plays an important role in the analysis of these data. We present Tablet, and through a selection of use cases, demonstrate its value in quality assurance and scientific discovery, through features such as whole-reference coverage overviews, variant highlighting, paired-end read mark-up, GFF3-based feature tracks and protein translations. We discuss the computing and visualization techniques utilized to provide a rich and responsive graphical environment that enables users to view a range of file formats with ease. Tablet installers can be freely downloaded from http://bioinf.hutton.ac.uk/tablet in 32 or 64-bit versions for Windows, OS X, Linux or Solaris. For further details on the Tablet, contact tablet@hutton.ac.uk.

Visual-spatial thinking: An aspect of science overlooked by educators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mathewson, James H.

1999-01-01

Thinking with images plays a central role in scientific creativity and communication but is neglected in science classrooms. This article reviews the fundamental role of imagery in science and technology and our current knowledge of visual-spatial cognition. A novel analogic and thematic organization of images and visualization within science and technology is proposed that can help in the generation and evaluation of classroom activities and materials, and serve as a focus for professional development programs in visual-spatial thinking for science teachers. Visual-spatial thinking includes vision - using the eyes to identify, locate, and think about objects and ourselves in the world, and imagery - the formation, inspection, transformation, and maintenance of images in the mind's eye in the absence of a visual stimulus. A spatial image preserves relationships among a complex set of ideas as a single chunk in working memory, increasing the amount of information that can be maintained in consciousness at a given moment. Vision and imagery are fundamental cognitive processes using specialized pathways in the brain and rely on our memory of prior experience. Visual-spatial thinking develops from birth, together with language and other specialized abilities, through interactions between inherited capabilities and experience. Scientific creativity can be considered as an amalgam of three closely allied mental formats: images; metaphors; and unifying ideas (themes). Combinations of images, analogies, and themes pervade science in the form of master images and visualization techniques. A critique of current practice in education contrasts the subservient role of visual-spatial learning with the dominance of the alphanumeric encoding skills in classroom and textbooks. The lack of coherence in curriculum, pedagogy, and learning theory requires reform that addresses thinking skills, including imagery. Successful integration of information, skills and attitudes into cohesive mental schemata employed by self-aware human beings is a basic goal of education. The current attempt to impose integration using themes is criticized on the grounds that the required underpinning in cognitive skills and content knowledge by teachers and students may be absent. Teaching strategies that employ visual-spatial thinking are reviewed. Master images are recommended as a novel point of departure for a systematic development of programs on visual-spatial thinking in research, teacher education, curriculum, and classroom practice.

Volume rendering based on magnetic resonance imaging: advances in understanding the three-dimensional anatomy of the human knee

PubMed Central

Anastasi, Giuseppe; Bramanti, Placido; Di Bella, Paolo; Favaloro, Angelo; Trimarchi, Fabio; Magaudda, Ludovico; Gaeta, Michele; Scribano, Emanuele; Bruschetta, Daniele; Milardi, Demetrio

2007-01-01

The choice of medical imaging techniques, for the purpose of the present work aimed at studying the anatomy of the knee, derives from the increasing use of images in diagnostics, research and teaching, and the subsequent importance that these methods are gaining within the scientific community. Medical systems using virtual reality techniques also offer a good alternative to traditional methods, and are considered among the most important tools in the areas of research and teaching. In our work we have shown some possible uses of three-dimensional imaging for the study of the morphology of the normal human knee, and its clinical applications. We used the direct volume rendering technique, and created a data set of images and animations to allow us to visualize the single structures of the human knee in three dimensions. Direct volume rendering makes use of specific algorithms to transform conventional two-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging sets of slices into see-through volume data set images. It is a technique which does not require the construction of intermediate geometric representations, and has the advantage of allowing the visualization of a single image of the full data set, using semi-transparent mapping. Digital images of human structures, and in particular of the knee, offer important information about anatomical structures and their relationships, and are of great value in the planning of surgical procedures. On this basis we studied seven volunteers with an average age of 25 years, who underwent magnetic resonance imaging. After elaboration of the data through post-processing, we analysed the structure of the knee in detail. The aim of our investigation was the three-dimensional image, in order to comprehend better the interactions between anatomical structures. We believe that these results, applied to living subjects, widen the frontiers in the areas of teaching, diagnostics, therapy and scientific research. PMID:17645453

Perceptual issues in scientific visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaiser, Mary K.; Proffitt, Dennis R.

1989-01-01

In order to develop effective tools for scientific visulaization, consideration must be given to the perceptual competencies, limitations, and biases of the human operator. Perceptual psychology has amassed a rich body of research on these issues and can lend insight to the development of visualization tehcniques. Within a perceptual psychological framework, the computer display screen can best be thought of as a special kind of impoverished visual environemnt. Guidelines can be gleaned from the psychological literature to help visualization tool designers avoid ambiguities and/or illusions in the resulting data displays.

Scientific Visualization and Simulation for Multi-dimensional Marine Environment Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Su, T.; Liu, H.; Wang, W.; Song, Z.; Jia, Z.

2017-12-01

As higher attention on the ocean and rapid development of marine detection, there are increasingly demands for realistic simulation and interactive visualization of marine environment in real time. Based on advanced technology such as GPU rendering, CUDA parallel computing and rapid grid oriented strategy, a series of efficient and high-quality visualization methods, which can deal with large-scale and multi-dimensional marine data in different environmental circumstances, has been proposed in this paper. Firstly, a high-quality seawater simulation is realized by FFT algorithm, bump mapping and texture animation technology. Secondly, large-scale multi-dimensional marine hydrological environmental data is virtualized by 3d interactive technologies and volume rendering techniques. Thirdly, seabed terrain data is simulated with improved Delaunay algorithm, surface reconstruction algorithm, dynamic LOD algorithm and GPU programming techniques. Fourthly, seamless modelling in real time for both ocean and land based on digital globe is achieved by the WebGL technique to meet the requirement of web-based application. The experiments suggest that these methods can not only have a satisfying marine environment simulation effect, but also meet the rendering requirements of global multi-dimension marine data. Additionally, a simulation system for underwater oil spill is established by OSG 3D-rendering engine. It is integrated with the marine visualization method mentioned above, which shows movement processes, physical parameters, current velocity and direction for different types of deep water oil spill particle (oil spill particles, hydrates particles, gas particles, etc.) dynamically and simultaneously in multi-dimension. With such application, valuable reference and decision-making information can be provided for understanding the progress of oil spill in deep water, which is helpful for ocean disaster forecasting, warning and emergency response.

High Resolution Ultrasonic Method for 3D Fingerprint Recognizable Characteristics in Biometrics Identification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maev, R. Gr.; Bakulin, E. Yu.; Maeva, A.; Severin, F.

Biometrics is a rapidly evolving scientific and applied discipline that studies possible ways of personal identification by means of unique biological characteristics. Such identification is important in various situations requiring restricted access to certain areas, information and personal data and for cases of medical emergencies. A number of automated biometric techniques have been developed, including fingerprint, hand shape, eye and facial recognition, thermographic imaging, etc. All these techniques differ in the recognizable parameters, usability, accuracy and cost. Among these, fingerprint recognition stands alone since a very large database of fingerprints has already been acquired. Also, fingerprints are key evidence left at a crime scene and can be used to indentify suspects. Therefore, of all automated biometric techniques, especially in the field of law enforcement, fingerprint identification seems to be the most promising. We introduce a newer development of the ultrasonic fingerprint imaging. The proposed method obtains a scan only once and then varies the C-scan gate position and width to visualize acoustic reflections from any appropriate depth inside the skin. Also, B-scans and A-scans can be recreated from any position using such data array, which gives the control over the visualization options. By setting the C-scan gate deeper inside the skin, distribution of the sweat pores (which are located along the ridges) can be easily visualized. This distribution should be unique for each individual so this provides a means of personal identification, which is not affected by any changes (accidental or intentional) of the fingers' surface conditions. This paper discusses different setups, acoustic parameters of the system, signal and image processing options and possible ways of 3-dimentional visualization that could be used as a recognizable characteristic in biometric identification.

Mapping longitudinal scientific progress, collaboration and impact of the Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative.

PubMed

Yao, Xiaohui; Yan, Jingwen; Ginda, Michael; Börner, Katy; Saykin, Andrew J; Shen, Li

2017-01-01

Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative (ADNI) is a landmark imaging and omics study in AD. ADNI research literature has increased substantially over the past decade, which poses challenges for effectively communicating information about the results and impact of ADNI-related studies. In this work, we employed advanced information visualization techniques to perform a comprehensive and systematic mapping of the ADNI scientific growth and impact over a period of 12 years. Citation information of ADNI-related publications from 01/01/2003 to 05/12/2015 were downloaded from the Scopus database. Five fields, including authors, years, affiliations, sources (journals), and keywords, were extracted and preprocessed. Statistical analyses were performed on basic publication data as well as journal and citations information. Science mapping workflows were conducted using the Science of Science (Sci2) Tool to generate geospatial, topical, and collaboration visualizations at the micro (individual) to macro (global) levels such as geospatial layouts of institutional collaboration networks, keyword co-occurrence networks, and author collaboration networks evolving over time. During the studied period, 996 ADNI manuscripts were published across 233 journals and conference proceedings. The number of publications grew linearly from 2008 to 2015, so did the number of involved institutions. ADNI publications received much more citations than typical papers from the same set of journals. Collaborations were visualized at multiple levels, including authors, institutions, and research areas. The evolution of key ADNI research topics was also plotted over the studied period. Both statistical and visualization results demonstrate the increasing attention of ADNI research, strong citation impact of ADNI publications, the expanding collaboration networks among researchers, institutions and ADNI core areas, and the dynamic evolution of ADNI research topics. The visualizations presented here can help improve daily decision making based on a deep understanding of existing patterns and trends using proven and replicable data analysis and visualization methods. They have great potential to provide new insights and actionable knowledge for helping translational research in AD.

Mapping longitudinal scientific progress, collaboration and impact of the Alzheimer’s disease neuroimaging initiative

PubMed Central

Yao, Xiaohui; Yan, Jingwen; Ginda, Michael; Börner, Katy; Saykin, Andrew J.

2017-01-01

Background Alzheimer’s disease neuroimaging initiative (ADNI) is a landmark imaging and omics study in AD. ADNI research literature has increased substantially over the past decade, which poses challenges for effectively communicating information about the results and impact of ADNI-related studies. In this work, we employed advanced information visualization techniques to perform a comprehensive and systematic mapping of the ADNI scientific growth and impact over a period of 12 years. Methods Citation information of ADNI-related publications from 01/01/2003 to 05/12/2015 were downloaded from the Scopus database. Five fields, including authors, years, affiliations, sources (journals), and keywords, were extracted and preprocessed. Statistical analyses were performed on basic publication data as well as journal and citations information. Science mapping workflows were conducted using the Science of Science (Sci2) Tool to generate geospatial, topical, and collaboration visualizations at the micro (individual) to macro (global) levels such as geospatial layouts of institutional collaboration networks, keyword co-occurrence networks, and author collaboration networks evolving over time. Results During the studied period, 996 ADNI manuscripts were published across 233 journals and conference proceedings. The number of publications grew linearly from 2008 to 2015, so did the number of involved institutions. ADNI publications received much more citations than typical papers from the same set of journals. Collaborations were visualized at multiple levels, including authors, institutions, and research areas. The evolution of key ADNI research topics was also plotted over the studied period. Conclusions Both statistical and visualization results demonstrate the increasing attention of ADNI research, strong citation impact of ADNI publications, the expanding collaboration networks among researchers, institutions and ADNI core areas, and the dynamic evolution of ADNI research topics. The visualizations presented here can help improve daily decision making based on a deep understanding of existing patterns and trends using proven and replicable data analysis and visualization methods. They have great potential to provide new insights and actionable knowledge for helping translational research in AD. PMID:29095836

Proceedings of the XXII A.I.VE.LA. National Meeting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Primo Tomasini, Enrico

2015-11-01

A.I.VE.LA. - the Italian Association of Laser Velocimetry and non-invasive diagnostics - is a non-profit cultural association whose objective is to promote and support research in the field of non-contact or minimally invasive measurement techniques, particularly electromagnetic-based techniques and optical techniques. Through its Annual Meeting, AIVELA aims to create an active and stimulating forum where current research results and technical advances can be exchanged and the development of new systems for laboratory use, field testing and industrial application can be promoted. The techniques covered include Laser Doppler Anemometry - LDA, Phase Doppler Anemometry - PDA, Image Velocimetry - PIV, Flow visualization techniques, Spectroscopic measurement techniques (LIF, Raman, etc.), Laser Doppler Vibrometry - LDV, Speckle Pattern Interferometry - ESPI, Holographic techniques, Shearography, Digital Image Correlation - DIC, Moiré techniques, Structured light techniques, Infrared imaging, Photoelasticity, Image based measurement techniques, Ultrasonic sensing, Acoustic and Aeroacoustic measurements, etc. The first Annual Meeting was held back in October 1992 and since then there has been a large consensus among the research and scientific communities that the papers presented at the event are of a high scientific interest. The XXII AIVELA Annual Meeting was held at the Faculty of Engineering of University of Rome Tor Vergata on 15-16 December 2014 and was organised in collaboration with the International Master Courses in "Protection Against CBRNe Events". This volume contains a selection of the papers presented at the event. The detailed Programme of the Meeting can be found at: http://www.aivela.org/XXII_Convegno/index.html Trusting our Association and its initiatives will meet your interest, I wish to thank you in advance for your kind attention and hope to meet you soon at one of our events.

On the Treatment of Field Quantities and Elemental Continuity in FEM Solutions.

PubMed

Jallepalli, Ashok; Docampo-Sanchez, Julia; Ryan, Jennifer K; Haimes, Robert; Kirby, Robert M

2018-01-01

As the finite element method (FEM) and the finite volume method (FVM), both traditional and high-order variants, continue their proliferation into various applied engineering disciplines, it is important that the visualization techniques and corresponding data analysis tools that act on the results produced by these methods faithfully represent the underlying data. To state this in another way: the interpretation of data generated by simulation needs to be consistent with the numerical schemes that underpin the specific solver technology. As the verifiable visualization literature has demonstrated: visual artifacts produced by the introduction of either explicit or implicit data transformations, such as data resampling, can sometimes distort or even obfuscate key scientific features in the data. In this paper, we focus on the handling of elemental continuity, which is often only continuous or piecewise discontinuous, when visualizing primary or derived fields from FEM or FVM simulations. We demonstrate that traditional data handling and visualization of these fields introduce visual errors. In addition, we show how the use of the recently proposed line-SIAC filter provides a way of handling elemental continuity issues in an accuracy-conserving manner with the added benefit of casting the data in a smooth context even if the representation is element discontinuous.

A Framework for the Design of Effective Graphics for Scientific Visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miceli, Kristina D.

1992-01-01

This proposal presents a visualization framework, based on a data model, that supports the production of effective graphics for scientific visualization. Visual representations are effective only if they augment comprehension of the increasing amounts of data being generated by modern computer simulations. These representations are created by taking into account the goals and capabilities of the scientist, the type of data to be displayed, and software and hardware considerations. This framework is embodied in an assistant-based visualization system to guide the scientist in the visualization process. This will improve the quality of the visualizations and decrease the time the scientist is required to spend in generating the visualizations. I intend to prove that such a framework will create a more productive environment for tile analysis and interpretation of large, complex data sets.

High performance geospatial and climate data visualization using GeoJS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chaudhary, A.; Beezley, J. D.

2015-12-01

GeoJS (https://github.com/OpenGeoscience/geojs) is an open-source library developed to support interactive scientific and geospatial visualization of climate and earth science datasets in a web environment. GeoJS has a convenient application programming interface (API) that enables users to harness the fast performance of WebGL and Canvas 2D APIs with sophisticated Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) features in a consistent and convenient manner. We started the project in response to the need for an open-source JavaScript library that can combine traditional geographic information systems (GIS) and scientific visualization on the web. Many libraries, some of which are open source, support mapping or other GIS capabilities, but lack the features required to visualize scientific and other geospatial datasets. For instance, such libraries are not be capable of rendering climate plots from NetCDF files, and some libraries are limited in regards to geoinformatics (infovis in a geospatial environment). While libraries such as d3.js are extremely powerful for these kinds of plots, in order to integrate them into other GIS libraries, the construction of geoinformatics visualizations must be completed manually and separately, or the code must somehow be mixed in an unintuitive way.We developed GeoJS with the following motivations:• To create an open-source geovisualization and GIS library that combines scientific visualization with GIS and informatics• To develop an extensible library that can combine data from multiple sources and render them using multiple backends• To build a library that works well with existing scientific visualizations tools such as VTKWe have successfully deployed GeoJS-based applications for multiple domains across various projects. The ClimatePipes project funded by the Department of Energy, for example, used GeoJS to visualize NetCDF datasets from climate data archives. Other projects built visualizations using GeoJS for interactively exploring data and analysis regarding 1) the human trafficking domain, 2) New York City taxi drop-offs and pick-ups, and 3) the Ebola outbreak. GeoJS supports advanced visualization features such as picking and selecting, as well as clustering. It also supports 2D contour plots, vector plots, heat maps, and geospatial graphs.

MSL: Facilitating automatic and physical analysis of published scientific literature in PDF format.

PubMed

Ahmed, Zeeshan; Dandekar, Thomas

2015-01-01

Published scientific literature contains millions of figures, including information about the results obtained from different scientific experiments e.g. PCR-ELISA data, microarray analysis, gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry data, DNA/RNA sequencing, diagnostic imaging (CT/MRI and ultrasound scans), and medicinal imaging like electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), echocardiography  (ECG), positron-emission tomography (PET) images. The importance of biomedical figures has been widely recognized in scientific and medicine communities, as they play a vital role in providing major original data, experimental and computational results in concise form. One major challenge for implementing a system for scientific literature analysis is extracting and analyzing text and figures from published PDF files by physical and logical document analysis. Here we present a product line architecture based bioinformatics tool 'Mining Scientific Literature (MSL)', which supports the extraction of text and images by interpreting all kinds of published PDF files using advanced data mining and image processing techniques. It provides modules for the marginalization of extracted text based on different coordinates and keywords, visualization of extracted figures and extraction of embedded text from all kinds of biological and biomedical figures using applied Optimal Character Recognition (OCR). Moreover, for further analysis and usage, it generates the system's output in different formats including text, PDF, XML and images files. Hence, MSL is an easy to install and use analysis tool to interpret published scientific literature in PDF format.

Ambiguous Science and the Visual Representation of the Real

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newbold, Curtis Robert

2012-01-01

The emergence of visual media as prominent and even expected forms of communication in nearly all disciplines, including those scientific, has raised new questions about how the art and science of communication epistemologically affect the interpretation of scientific phenomena. In this dissertation I explore how the influence of aesthetics in…

Visual Invention and the Composition of Scientific Research Graphics: A Topological Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Lynda

2018-01-01

This report details the second phase of an ongoing research project investigating the visual invention and composition processes of scientific researchers. In this phase, four academic researchers completed think-aloud protocols as they composed graphics for research presentations; they also answered follow-up questions about their visual…

A Screen Space GPGPU Surface LIC Algorithm for Distributed Memory Data Parallel Sort Last Rendering Infrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loring, B.; Karimabadi, H.; Rortershteyn, V.

2015-10-01

The surface line integral convolution(LIC) visualization technique produces dense visualization of vector fields on arbitrary surfaces. We present a screen space surface LIC algorithm for use in distributed memory data parallel sort last rendering infrastructures. The motivations for our work are to support analysis of datasets that are too large to fit in the main memory of a single computer and compatibility with prevalent parallel scientific visualization tools such as ParaView and VisIt. By working in screen space using OpenGL we can leverage the computational power of GPUs when they are available and run without them when they are not. We address efficiency and performance issues that arise from the transformation of data from physical to screen space by selecting an alternate screen space domain decomposition. We analyze the algorithm's scaling behavior with and without GPUs on two high performance computing systems using data from turbulent plasma simulations.

Machine Detection of Enhanced Electromechanical Energy Conversion in PbZr 0.2Ti 0.8O 3 Thin Films

DOE PAGES

Agar, Joshua C.; Cao, Ye; Naul, Brett; ...

2018-05-28

Many energy conversion, sensing, and microelectronic applications based on ferroic materials are determined by the domain structure evolution under applied stimuli. New hyperspectral, multidimensional spectroscopic techniques now probe dynamic responses at relevant length and time scales to provide an understanding of how these nanoscale domain structures impact macroscopic properties. Such approaches, however, remain limited in use because of the difficulties that exist in extracting and visualizing scientific insights from these complex datasets. Using multidimensional band-excitation scanning probe spectroscopy and adapting tools from both computer vision and machine learning, an automated workflow is developed to featurize, detect, and classify signatures ofmore » ferroelectric/ferroelastic switching processes in complex ferroelectric domain structures. This approach enables the identification and nanoscale visualization of varied modes of response and a pathway to statistically meaningful quantification of the differences between those modes. Lastly, among other things, the importance of domain geometry is spatially visualized for enhancing nanoscale electromechanical energy conversion.« less

A Screen Space GPGPU Surface LIC Algorithm for Distributed Memory Data Parallel Sort Last Rendering Infrastructures

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

Loring, Burlen; Karimabadi, Homa; Rortershteyn, Vadim

2014-07-01

The surface line integral convolution(LIC) visualization technique produces dense visualization of vector fields on arbitrary surfaces. We present a screen space surface LIC algorithm for use in distributed memory data parallel sort last rendering infrastructures. The motivations for our work are to support analysis of datasets that are too large to fit in the main memory of a single computer and compatibility with prevalent parallel scientific visualization tools such as ParaView and VisIt. By working in screen space using OpenGL we can leverage the computational power of GPUs when they are available and run without them when they are not.more » We address efficiency and performance issues that arise from the transformation of data from physical to screen space by selecting an alternate screen space domain decomposition. We analyze the algorithm's scaling behavior with and without GPUs on two high performance computing systems using data from turbulent plasma simulations.« less

Machine Detection of Enhanced Electromechanical Energy Conversion in PbZr 0.2Ti 0.8O 3 Thin Films

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

Agar, Joshua C.; Cao, Ye; Naul, Brett

Many energy conversion, sensing, and microelectronic applications based on ferroic materials are determined by the domain structure evolution under applied stimuli. New hyperspectral, multidimensional spectroscopic techniques now probe dynamic responses at relevant length and time scales to provide an understanding of how these nanoscale domain structures impact macroscopic properties. Such approaches, however, remain limited in use because of the difficulties that exist in extracting and visualizing scientific insights from these complex datasets. Using multidimensional band-excitation scanning probe spectroscopy and adapting tools from both computer vision and machine learning, an automated workflow is developed to featurize, detect, and classify signatures ofmore » ferroelectric/ferroelastic switching processes in complex ferroelectric domain structures. This approach enables the identification and nanoscale visualization of varied modes of response and a pathway to statistically meaningful quantification of the differences between those modes. Lastly, among other things, the importance of domain geometry is spatially visualized for enhancing nanoscale electromechanical energy conversion.« less

Visiting the Gödel universe.

PubMed

Grave, Frank; Buser, Michael

2008-01-01

Visualization of general relativity illustrates aspects of Einstein's insights into the curved nature of space and time to the expert as well as the layperson. One of the most interesting models which came up with Einstein's theory was developed by Kurt Gödel in 1949. The Gödel universe is a valid solution of Einstein's field equations, making it a possible physical description of our universe. It offers remarkable features like the existence of an optical horizon beyond which time travel is possible. Although we know that our universe is not a Gödel universe, it is interesting to visualize physical aspects of a world model resulting from a theory which is highly confirmed in scientific history. Standard techniques to adopt an egocentric point of view in a relativistic world model have shortcomings with respect to the time needed to render an image as well as difficulties in applying a direct illumination model. In this paper we want to face both issues to reduce the gap between common visualization standards and relativistic visualization. We will introduce two techniques to speed up recalculation of images by means of preprocessing and lookup tables and to increase image quality through a special optimization applicable to the Gödel universe. The first technique allows the physicist to understand the different effects of general relativity faster and better by generating images from existing datasets interactively. By using the intrinsic symmetries of Gödel's spacetime which are expressed by the Killing vector field, we are able to reduce the necessary calculations to simple cases using the second technique. This even makes it feasible to account for a direct illumination model during the rendering process. Although the presented methods are applied to Gödel's universe, they can also be extended to other manifolds, for example light propagation in moving dielectric media. Therefore, other areas of research can benefit from these generic improvements.

Quad-Tree Visual-Calculus Analysis of Satellite Coverage

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lo, Martin W.; Hockney, George; Kwan, Bruce

2003-01-01

An improved method of analysis of coverage of areas of the Earth by a constellation of radio-communication or scientific-observation satellites has been developed. This method is intended to supplant an older method in which the global-coverage-analysis problem is solved from a ground-to-satellite perspective. The present method provides for rapid and efficient analysis. This method is derived from a satellite-to-ground perspective and involves a unique combination of two techniques for multiresolution representation of map features on the surface of a sphere.

Scheduling time-critical graphics on multiple processors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meyer, Tom W.; Hughes, John F.

1995-01-01

This paper describes an algorithm for the scheduling of time-critical rendering and computation tasks on single- and multiple-processor architectures, with minimal pipelining. It was developed to manage scientific visualization scenes consisting of hundreds of objects, each of which can be computed and displayed at thousands of possible resolution levels. The algorithm generates the time-critical schedule using progressive-refinement techniques; it always returns a feasible schedule and, when allowed to run to completion, produces a near-optimal schedule which takes advantage of almost the entire multiple-processor system.

Discovering Communicable Models from Earth Science Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schwabacher, Mark; Langley, Pat; Potter, Christopher; Klooster, Steven; Torregrosa, Alicia

2002-01-01

This chapter describes how we used regression rules to improve upon results previously published in the Earth science literature. In such a scientific application of machine learning, it is crucially important for the learned models to be understandable and communicable. We recount how we selected a learning algorithm to maximize communicability, and then describe two visualization techniques that we developed to aid in understanding the model by exploiting the spatial nature of the data. We also report how evaluating the learned models across time let us discover an error in the data.

Toward Mixed Method Evaluations of Scientific Visualizations and Design Process as an Evaluation Tool.

PubMed

Jackson, Bret; Coffey, Dane; Thorson, Lauren; Schroeder, David; Ellingson, Arin M; Nuckley, David J; Keefe, Daniel F

2012-10-01

In this position paper we discuss successes and limitations of current evaluation strategies for scientific visualizations and argue for embracing a mixed methods strategy of evaluation. The most novel contribution of the approach that we advocate is a new emphasis on employing design processes as practiced in related fields (e.g., graphic design, illustration, architecture) as a formalized mode of evaluation for data visualizations. To motivate this position we describe a series of recent evaluations of scientific visualization interfaces and computer graphics strategies conducted within our research group. Complementing these more traditional evaluations our visualization research group also regularly employs sketching, critique, and other design methods that have been formalized over years of practice in design fields. Our experience has convinced us that these activities are invaluable, often providing much more detailed evaluative feedback about our visualization systems than that obtained via more traditional user studies and the like. We believe that if design-based evaluation methodologies (e.g., ideation, sketching, critique) can be taught and embraced within the visualization community then these may become one of the most effective future strategies for both formative and summative evaluations.

Toward Mixed Method Evaluations of Scientific Visualizations and Design Process as an Evaluation Tool

PubMed Central

Jackson, Bret; Coffey, Dane; Thorson, Lauren; Schroeder, David; Ellingson, Arin M.; Nuckley, David J.

2017-01-01

In this position paper we discuss successes and limitations of current evaluation strategies for scientific visualizations and argue for embracing a mixed methods strategy of evaluation. The most novel contribution of the approach that we advocate is a new emphasis on employing design processes as practiced in related fields (e.g., graphic design, illustration, architecture) as a formalized mode of evaluation for data visualizations. To motivate this position we describe a series of recent evaluations of scientific visualization interfaces and computer graphics strategies conducted within our research group. Complementing these more traditional evaluations our visualization research group also regularly employs sketching, critique, and other design methods that have been formalized over years of practice in design fields. Our experience has convinced us that these activities are invaluable, often providing much more detailed evaluative feedback about our visualization systems than that obtained via more traditional user studies and the like. We believe that if design-based evaluation methodologies (e.g., ideation, sketching, critique) can be taught and embraced within the visualization community then these may become one of the most effective future strategies for both formative and summative evaluations. PMID:28944349

Creating a Vision Channel for Observing Deep-Seated Anatomy in Medical Augmented Reality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wimmer, Felix; Bichlmeier, Christoph; Heining, Sandro M.; Navab, Nassir

The intent of medical Augmented Reality (AR) is to augment the surgeon's real view on the patient with the patient's interior anatomy resulting from a suitable visualization of medical imaging data. This paper presents a fast and user-defined clipping technique for medical AR allowing for cutting away any parts of the virtual anatomy and images of the real part of the AR scene hindering the surgeon's view onto the deepseated region of interest. Modeled on cut-away techniques from scientific illustrations and computer graphics, the method creates a fixed vision channel to the inside of the patient. It enables a clear view on the focussed virtual anatomy and moreover improves the perception of spatial depth.

DEVELOPMENTS IN GRworkbench

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moylan, Andrew; Scott, Susan M.; Searle, Anthony C.

2006-02-01

The software tool GRworkbench is an ongoing project in visual, numerical General Relativity at The Australian National University. Recently, GRworkbench has been significantly extended to facilitate numerical experimentation in analytically-defined space-times. The numerical differential geometric engine has been rewritten using functional programming techniques, enabling objects which are normally defined as functions in the formalism of differential geometry and General Relativity to be directly represented as function variables in the C++ code of GRworkbench. The new functional differential geometric engine allows for more accurate and efficient visualisation of objects in space-times and makes new, efficient computational techniques available. Motivated by the desire to investigate a recent scientific claim using GRworkbench, new tools for numerical experimentation have been implemented, allowing for the simulation of complex physical situations.

Bridging Theory with Practice: An Exploratory Study of Visualization Use and Design for Climate Model Comparison

DOE PAGES

Dasgupta, Aritra; Poco, Jorge; Wei, Yaxing; ...

2015-03-16

Evaluation methodologies in visualization have mostly focused on how well the tools and techniques cater to the analytical needs of the user. While this is important in determining the effectiveness of the tools and advancing the state-of-the-art in visualization research, a key area that has mostly been overlooked is how well established visualization theories and principles are instantiated in practice. This is especially relevant when domain experts, and not visualization researchers, design visualizations for analysis of their data or for broader dissemination of scientific knowledge. There is very little research on exploring the synergistic capabilities of cross-domain collaboration between domainmore » experts and visualization researchers. To fill this gap, in this paper we describe the results of an exploratory study of climate data visualizations conducted in tight collaboration with a pool of climate scientists. The study analyzes a large set of static climate data visualizations for identifying their shortcomings in terms of visualization design. The outcome of the study is a classification scheme that categorizes the design problems in the form of a descriptive taxonomy. The taxonomy is a first attempt for systematically categorizing the types, causes, and consequences of design problems in visualizations created by domain experts. We demonstrate the use of the taxonomy for a number of purposes, such as, improving the existing climate data visualizations, reflecting on the impact of the problems for enabling domain experts in designing better visualizations, and also learning about the gaps and opportunities for future visualization research. We demonstrate the applicability of our taxonomy through a number of examples and discuss the lessons learnt and implications of our findings.« less

Bridging Theory with Practice: An Exploratory Study of Visualization Use and Design for Climate Model Comparison

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

Dasgupta, Aritra; Poco, Jorge; Wei, Yaxing

Evaluation methodologies in visualization have mostly focused on how well the tools and techniques cater to the analytical needs of the user. While this is important in determining the effectiveness of the tools and advancing the state-of-the-art in visualization research, a key area that has mostly been overlooked is how well established visualization theories and principles are instantiated in practice. This is especially relevant when domain experts, and not visualization researchers, design visualizations for analysis of their data or for broader dissemination of scientific knowledge. There is very little research on exploring the synergistic capabilities of cross-domain collaboration between domainmore » experts and visualization researchers. To fill this gap, in this paper we describe the results of an exploratory study of climate data visualizations conducted in tight collaboration with a pool of climate scientists. The study analyzes a large set of static climate data visualizations for identifying their shortcomings in terms of visualization design. The outcome of the study is a classification scheme that categorizes the design problems in the form of a descriptive taxonomy. The taxonomy is a first attempt for systematically categorizing the types, causes, and consequences of design problems in visualizations created by domain experts. We demonstrate the use of the taxonomy for a number of purposes, such as, improving the existing climate data visualizations, reflecting on the impact of the problems for enabling domain experts in designing better visualizations, and also learning about the gaps and opportunities for future visualization research. We demonstrate the applicability of our taxonomy through a number of examples and discuss the lessons learnt and implications of our findings.« less

Implications on visual apperception: energy, duration, structure and synchronization.

PubMed

Bókkon, I; Vimal, Ram Lakhan Pandey

2010-07-01

Although primary visual cortex (V1 or striate) activity per se is not sufficient for visual apperception (normal conscious visual experiences and conscious functions such as detection, discrimination, and recognition), the same is also true for extrastriate visual areas (such as V2, V3, V4/V8/VO, V5/M5/MST, IT, and GF). In the lack of V1 area, visual signals can still reach several extrastriate parts but appear incapable of generating normal conscious visual experiences. It is scarcely emphasized in the scientific literature that conscious perceptions and representations must have also essential energetic conditions. These energetic conditions are achieved by spatiotemporal networks of dynamic mitochondrial distributions inside neurons. However, the highest density of neurons in neocortex (number of neurons per degree of visual angle) devoted to representing the visual field is found in retinotopic V1. It means that the highest mitochondrial (energetic) activity can be achieved in mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase-rich V1 areas. Thus, V1 bear the highest energy allocation for visual representation. In addition, the conscious perceptions also demand structural conditions, presence of adequate duration of information representation, and synchronized neural processes and/or 'interactive hierarchical structuralism.' For visual apperception, various visual areas are involved depending on context such as stimulus characteristics such as color, form/shape, motion, and other features. Here, we focus primarily on V1 where specific mitochondrial-rich retinotopic structures are found; we will concisely discuss V2 where smaller riches of these structures are found. We also point out that residual brain states are not fully reflected in active neural patterns after visual perception. Namely, after visual perception, subliminal residual states are not being reflected in passive neural recording techniques, but require active stimulation to be revealed.

VTK-m: Accelerating the Visualization Toolkit for Massively Threaded Architectures

DOE PAGES

Moreland, Kenneth; Sewell, Christopher; Usher, William; ...

2016-05-09

Here, one of the most critical challenges for high-performance computing (HPC) scientific visualization is execution on massively threaded processors. Of the many fundamental changes we are seeing in HPC systems, one of the most profound is a reliance on new processor types optimized for execution bandwidth over latency hiding. Our current production scientific visualization software is not designed for these new types of architectures. To address this issue, the VTK-m framework serves as a container for algorithms, provides flexible data representation, and simplifies the design of visualization algorithms on new and future computer architecture.

VTK-m: Accelerating the Visualization Toolkit for Massively Threaded Architectures

DOE PAGES

Moreland, Kenneth; Sewell, Christopher; Usher, William; ...

2016-05-09

Execution on massively threaded processors is one of the most critical challenges for high-performance computing (HPC) scientific visualization. Of the many fundamental changes we are seeing in HPC systems, one of the most profound is a reliance on new processor types optimized for execution bandwidth over latency hiding. Moreover, our current production scientific visualization software is not designed for these new types of architectures. In order to address this issue, the VTK-m framework serves as a container for algorithms, provides flexible data representation, and simplifies the design of visualization algorithms on new and future computer architecture.

The growth and evolution of cardiovascular magnetic resonance: a 20-year history of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) annual scientific sessions.

PubMed

Lee, Daniel C; Markl, Michael; Dall'Armellina, Erica; Han, Yuchi; Kozerke, Sebastian; Kuehne, Titus; Nielles-Vallespin, Sonia; Messroghli, Daniel; Patel, Amit; Schaeffter, Tobias; Simonetti, Orlando; Valente, Anne Marie; Weinsaft, Jonathan W; Wright, Graham; Zimmerman, Stefan; Schulz-Menger, Jeanette

2018-01-31

The purpose of this work is to summarize cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) research trends and highlights presented at the annual Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) scientific sessions over the past 20 years. Scientific programs from all SCMR Annual Scientific Sessions from 1998 to 2017 were obtained. SCMR Headquarters also provided data for the number and the country of origin of attendees and the number of accepted abstracts according to type. Data analysis included text analysis (key word extraction) and visualization by 'word clouds' representing the most frequently used words in session titles for 5-year intervals. In addition, session titles were sorted into 17 major subject categories to further evaluate research and clinical CMR trends over time. Analysis of SCMR annual scientific sessions locations, attendance, and number of accepted abstracts demonstrated substantial growth of CMR research and clinical applications. As an international field of study, significant growth of CMR was documented by a strong increase in SCMR scientific session attendance (> 500%, 270 to 1406 from 1998 to 2017, number of accepted abstracts (> 700%, 98 to 701 from 1998 to 2018) and number of international participants (42-415% increase for participants from Asia, Central and South America, Middle East and Africa in 2004-2017). 'Word clouds' based evaluation of research trends illustrated a shift from early focus on 'MRI technique feasibility' to new established techniques (e.g. late gadolinium enhancement) and their clinical applications and translation (key words 'patient', 'disease') and more recently novel techniques and quantitative CMR imaging (key words 'mapping', 'T1', 'flow', 'function'). Nearly every topic category demonstrated an increase in the number of sessions over the 20-year period with 'Clinical Practice' leading all categories. Our analysis identified three growth areas 'Congenital', 'Clinical Practice', and 'Structure/function/flow'. The analysis of the SCMR historical archives demonstrates a healthy and internationally active field of study which continues to undergo substantial growth and expansion into new and emerging CMR topics and clinical application areas.

A Virtual Rock Physics Laboratory Through Visualized and Interactive Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanorio, T.; Di Bonito, C.; Clark, A. C.

2014-12-01

As new scientific challenges demand more comprehensive and multidisciplinary investigations, laboratory experiments are not expected to become simpler and/or faster. Experimental investigation is an indispensable element of scientific inquiry and must play a central role in the way current and future generations of scientist make decisions. To turn the complexity of laboratory work (and that of rocks!) into dexterity, engagement, and expanded learning opportunities, we are building an interactive, virtual laboratory reproducing in form and function the Stanford Rock Physics Laboratory, at Stanford University. The objective is to combine lectures on laboratory techniques and an online repository of visualized experiments consisting of interactive, 3-D renderings of equipment used to measure properties central to the study of rock physics (e.g., how to saturate rocks, how to measure porosity, permeability, and elastic wave velocity). We use a game creation system together with 3-D computer graphics, and a narrative voice to guide the user through the different phases of the experimental protocol. The main advantage gained in employing computer graphics over video footage is that students can virtually open the instrument, single out its components, and assemble it. Most importantly, it helps describe the processes occurring within the rock. These latter cannot be tracked while simply recording the physical experiment, but computer animation can efficiently illustrate what happens inside rock samples (e.g., describing acoustic waves, and/or fluid flow through a porous rock under pressure within an opaque core-holder - Figure 1). The repository of visualized experiments will complement lectures on laboratory techniques and constitute an on-line course offered through the EdX platform at Stanford. This will provide a virtual laboratory for anyone, anywhere to facilitate teaching/learning of introductory laboratory classes in Geophysics and expand the number of courses that can be offered for curricula in Earth Sciences. The primary goal is to open up a research laboratory such as the one available at Stanford to promising students worldwide who are currently left out of such educational resources.

Decision trees in epidemiological research.

PubMed

Venkatasubramaniam, Ashwini; Wolfson, Julian; Mitchell, Nathan; Barnes, Timothy; JaKa, Meghan; French, Simone

2017-01-01

In many studies, it is of interest to identify population subgroups that are relatively homogeneous with respect to an outcome. The nature of these subgroups can provide insight into effect mechanisms and suggest targets for tailored interventions. However, identifying relevant subgroups can be challenging with standard statistical methods. We review the literature on decision trees, a family of techniques for partitioning the population, on the basis of covariates, into distinct subgroups who share similar values of an outcome variable. We compare two decision tree methods, the popular Classification and Regression tree (CART) technique and the newer Conditional Inference tree (CTree) technique, assessing their performance in a simulation study and using data from the Box Lunch Study, a randomized controlled trial of a portion size intervention. Both CART and CTree identify homogeneous population subgroups and offer improved prediction accuracy relative to regression-based approaches when subgroups are truly present in the data. An important distinction between CART and CTree is that the latter uses a formal statistical hypothesis testing framework in building decision trees, which simplifies the process of identifying and interpreting the final tree model. We also introduce a novel way to visualize the subgroups defined by decision trees. Our novel graphical visualization provides a more scientifically meaningful characterization of the subgroups identified by decision trees. Decision trees are a useful tool for identifying homogeneous subgroups defined by combinations of individual characteristics. While all decision tree techniques generate subgroups, we advocate the use of the newer CTree technique due to its simplicity and ease of interpretation.

Exploring Scientific Information for Policy Making under Deep Uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Forni, L.; Galaitsi, S.; Mehta, V. K.; Escobar, M.; Purkey, D. R.; Depsky, N. J.; Lima, N. A.

2016-12-01

Each actor evaluating potential management strategies brings her/his own distinct set of objectives to a complex decision space of system uncertainties. The diversity of these objectives require detailed and rigorous analyses that responds to multifaceted challenges. However, the utility of this information depends on the accessibility of scientific information to decision makers. This paper demonstrates data visualization tools for presenting scientific results to decision makers in two case studies, La Paz/ El Alto, Bolivia, and Yuba County,California. Visualization output from the case studies combines spatiotemporal, multivariate and multirun/multiscenario information to produce information corresponding to the objectives defined by key actors and stakeholders. These tools can manage complex data and distill scientific information into accessible formats. Using the visualizations, scientists and decision makers can navigate the decision space and potential objective trade-offs to facilitate discussion and consensus building. These efforts can support identifying stable negotiatedagreements between different stakeholders.

Images of Earth and Space: The Role of Visualization in NASA Science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

Fly through the ocean at breakneck speed. Tour the moon. Even swim safely in the boiling sun. You can do these things and more in a 17 minute virtual journey through Earth and space. The trek is by way of colorful scientific visualizations developed by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center's Scientific Visualization Studio and the NASA HPCC Earth and Space Science Project investigators. Various styles of electronic music and lay-level narration provide the accompaniment.

Comparison of scientific CMOS camera and webcam for monitoring cardiac pulse after exercise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Yu; Papin, Charlotte; Azorin-Peris, Vicente; Kalawsky, Roy; Greenwald, Stephen; Hu, Sijung

2011-09-01

In light of its capacity for remote physiological assessment over a wide range of anatomical locations, imaging photoplethysmography has become an attractive research area in biomedical and clinical community. Amongst recent iPPG studies, two separate research directions have been revealed, i.e., scientific camera based imaging PPG (iPPG) and webcam based imaging PPG (wPPG). Little is known about the difference between these two techniques. To address this issue, a dual-channel imaging PPG system (iPPG and wPPG) using ambient light as the illumination source has been introduced in this study. The performance of the two imaging PPG techniques was evaluated through the measurement of cardiac pulse acquired from the face of 10 male subjects before and after 10 min of cycling exercise. A time-frequency representation method was used to visualize the time-dependent behaviour of the heart rate. In comparison to the gold standard contact PPG, both imaging PPG techniques exhibit comparable functional characteristics in the context of cardiac pulse assessment. Moreover, the synchronized ambient light intensity recordings in the present study can provide additional information for appraising the performance of the imaging PPG systems. This feasibility study thereby leads to a new route for non-contact monitoring of vital signs, with clear applications in triage and homecare.

A framework for visual communication at Nature.

PubMed

Krause, Kelly

2016-04-25

The scientific journal Nature, published weekly since 1869, serves as an excellent case study in visual communication. While journals are becoming increasingly specialist, Nature remains firmly multidisciplinary; and unlike many scientific journals, it contains original journalism, opinion pieces, and expert analysis in addition to peer-reviewed research papers. This variety of content types-covering an extensive range of scientific disciplines-translates into a wide and varied audience, and the need to employ an equally wide variety of communication styles.For example, a research paper may employ technical language to communicate to a highly specialized audience in that field, whereas a news story on the same subject will explain the science to an educated lay audience, often adding a wider context and stripping out acronyms. Each type of piece will use a communication approach tailored for its intended audience.This is true for visual content as well: the intended audience of a scientific figure, illustration or data visualization will determine the design approach to that visual. At Nature, given the high volume of content plus high quality standards, this process is applied in a fairly systematic way, using a framework to guide creative decision-making. That framework is described here, along with a discussion of best practices for the design of research figures and graphics by context. © The Author(s) 2016.

Research issues of geometry-based visual languages and some solutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Green, Thorn G.

This dissertation addresses the problem of how to design visual language systems that are based upon Geometric Algebra, and provide a visual coupling of algebraic expressions and geometric depictions. This coupling of algebraic expressions and geometric depictions provides a new means for expressing both mathematical and geometric relationships present in mathematics, physics, and Computer-Aided Geometric Design (CAGD). Another significant feature of such a system is that the result of changing a parameter (by dragging the mouse) can be seen immediately in the depiction(s) of all expressions that use that parameter. This greatly aides the cognition of the relationships between variables. Systems for representing such a coupling of algebra and geometry have characteristics of both visual language systems, and systems for scientific visualization. Instead of using a parsing or dataflow paradigm for the visual language representation, the systems instead represent equations as manipulatible constrained diagrams for their visualization. This requires that the design of such a system have (but is not limited to) a means for parsing equations entered by the user, a scheme for producing a visual representation of these equations; techniques for maintaining the coupling between the expressions entered and the diagrams displayed; algorithms for maintaining the consistency of the diagrams; and, indexing capabilities that are efficient enough to allow diagrams to be created, and manipulated in a short enough period of time. The author proposes solutions for how such a design can be realized.

Information Management for a Large Multidisciplinary Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Kennie H.; Randall, Donald P.; Cronin, Catherine K.

1992-01-01

In 1989, NASA's Langley Research Center (LaRC) initiated the High-Speed Airframe Integration Research (HiSAIR) Program to develop and demonstrate an integrated environment for high-speed aircraft design using advanced multidisciplinary analysis and optimization procedures. The major goals of this program were to evolve the interactions among disciplines and promote sharing of information, to provide a timely exchange of information among aeronautical disciplines, and to increase the awareness of the effects each discipline has upon other disciplines. LaRC historically has emphasized the advancement of analysis techniques. HiSAIR was founded to synthesize these advanced methods into a multidisciplinary design process emphasizing information feedback among disciplines and optimization. Crucial to the development of such an environment are the definition of the required data exchanges and the methodology for both recording the information and providing the exchanges in a timely manner. These requirements demand extensive use of data management techniques, graphic visualization, and interactive computing. HiSAIR represents the first attempt at LaRC to promote interdisciplinary information exchange on a large scale using advanced data management methodologies combined with state-of-the-art, scientific visualization techniques on graphics workstations in a distributed computing environment. The subject of this paper is the development of the data management system for HiSAIR.

Research and development of web oriented remote sensing image publication system based on Servlet technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Juanle, Wang; Shuang, Li; Yunqiang, Zhu

2005-10-01

According to the requirements of China National Scientific Data Sharing Program (NSDSP), the research and development of web oriented RS Image Publication System (RSIPS) is based on Java Servlet technique. The designing of RSIPS framework is composed of 3 tiers, which is Presentation Tier, Application Service Tier and Data Resource Tier. Presentation Tier provides user interface for data query, review and download. For the convenience of users, visual spatial query interface is included. Served as a middle tier, Application Service Tier controls all actions between users and databases. Data Resources Tier stores RS images in file and relationship databases. RSIPS is developed with cross platform programming based on Java Servlet tools, which is one of advanced techniques in J2EE architecture. RSIPS's prototype has been developed and applied in the geosciences clearinghouse practice which is among the experiment units of NSDSP in China.

Exploring Students' Visual Conception of Matter: Towards Developing a Teaching Framework Using Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Espinosa, Allen A.; Marasigan, Arlyne C.; Datukan, Janir T.

2016-01-01

This study explored how students visualise the states and classifications of matter with the use of scientific models. Misconceptions of students in using scientific models were also identified to formulate a teaching framework. To elicit data in the study, a Visual Conception Questionnaire was administered to thirty-four (34), firstyear, general…

XVis: Visualization for the Extreme-Scale Scientific-Computation Ecosystem: Mid-year report FY17 Q2

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

Moreland, Kenneth D.; Pugmire, David; Rogers, David

The XVis project brings together the key elements of research to enable scientific discovery at extreme scale. Scientific computing will no longer be purely about how fast computations can be performed. Energy constraints, processor changes, and I/O limitations necessitate significant changes in both the software applications used in scientific computation and the ways in which scientists use them. Components for modeling, simulation, analysis, and visualization must work together in a computational ecosystem, rather than working independently as they have in the past. This project provides the necessary research and infrastructure for scientific discovery in this new computational ecosystem by addressingmore » four interlocking challenges: emerging processor technology, in situ integration, usability, and proxy analysis.« less

XVis: Visualization for the Extreme-Scale Scientific-Computation Ecosystem: Year-end report FY17.

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

Moreland, Kenneth D.; Pugmire, David; Rogers, David

The XVis project brings together the key elements of research to enable scientific discovery at extreme scale. Scientific computing will no longer be purely about how fast computations can be performed. Energy constraints, processor changes, and I/O limitations necessitate significant changes in both the software applications used in scientific computation and the ways in which scientists use them. Components for modeling, simulation, analysis, and visualization must work together in a computational ecosystem, rather than working independently as they have in the past. This project provides the necessary research and infrastructure for scientific discovery in this new computational ecosystem by addressingmore » four interlocking challenges: emerging processor technology, in situ integration, usability, and proxy analysis.« less

XVis: Visualization for the Extreme-Scale Scientific-Computation Ecosystem. Mid-year report FY16 Q2

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

Moreland, Kenneth D.; Sewell, Christopher; Childs, Hank

The XVis project brings together the key elements of research to enable scientific discovery at extreme scale. Scientific computing will no longer be purely about how fast computations can be performed. Energy constraints, processor changes, and I/O limitations necessitate significant changes in both the software applications used in scientific computation and the ways in which scientists use them. Components for modeling, simulation, analysis, and visualization must work together in a computational ecosystem, rather than working independently as they have in the past. This project provides the necessary research and infrastructure for scientific discovery in this new computational ecosystem by addressingmore » four interlocking challenges: emerging processor technology, in situ integration, usability, and proxy analysis.« less

XVis: Visualization for the Extreme-Scale Scientific-Computation Ecosystem: Year-end report FY15 Q4.

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

Moreland, Kenneth D.; Sewell, Christopher; Childs, Hank

The XVis project brings together the key elements of research to enable scientific discovery at extreme scale. Scientific computing will no longer be purely about how fast computations can be performed. Energy constraints, processor changes, and I/O limitations necessitate significant changes in both the software applications used in scientific computation and the ways in which scientists use them. Components for modeling, simulation, analysis, and visualization must work together in a computational ecosystem, rather than working independently as they have in the past. This project provides the necessary research and infrastructure for scientific discovery in this new computational ecosystem by addressingmore » four interlocking challenges: emerging processor technology, in situ integration, usability, and proxy analysis.« less

Visualizing without Vision at the Microscale: Students with Visual Impairments Explore Cells with Touch

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, M. Gail; Minogue, James; Oppewal, Tom; Cook, Michelle P.; Broadwell, Bethany

2006-01-01

Science instruction is typically highly dependent on visual representations of scientific concepts that are communicated through textbooks, teacher presentations, and computer-based multimedia materials. Little is known about how students with visual impairments access and interpret these types of visually-dependent instructional materials. This…

Stepping Into Science Data: Data Visualization in Virtual Reality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skolnik, S.

2017-12-01

Have you ever seen people get really excited about science data? Navteca, along with the Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), within the Earth Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate have been exploring virtual reality (VR) technology for the next generation of Earth science technology information systems. One of their first joint experiments was visualizing climate data from the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) in VR, and the resulting visualizations greatly excited the scientific community. This presentation will share the value of VR for science, such as the capability of permitting the observer to interact with data rendered in real-time, make selections, and view volumetric data in an innovative way. Using interactive VR hardware (headset and controllers), the viewer steps into the data visualizations, physically moving through three-dimensional structures that are traditionally displayed as layers or slices, such as cloud and storm systems from NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM). Results from displaying this precipitation and cloud data show that there is interesting potential for scientific visualization, 3D/4D visualizations, and inter-disciplinary studies using VR. Additionally, VR visualizations can be leveraged as 360 content for scientific communication and outreach and VR can be used as a tool to engage policy and decision makers, as well as the public.

Web-based interactive visualization in a Grid-enabled neuroimaging application using HTML5.

PubMed

Siewert, René; Specovius, Svenja; Wu, Jie; Krefting, Dagmar

2012-01-01

Interactive visualization and correction of intermediate results are required in many medical image analysis pipelines. To allow certain interaction in the remote execution of compute- and data-intensive applications, new features of HTML5 are used. They allow for transparent integration of user interaction into Grid- or Cloud-enabled scientific workflows. Both 2D and 3D visualization and data manipulation can be performed through a scientific gateway without the need to install specific software or web browser plugins. The possibilities of web-based visualization are presented along the FreeSurfer-pipeline, a popular compute- and data-intensive software tool for quantitative neuroimaging.

Ultra-scale Visualization Climate Data Analysis Tools (UV-CDAT)

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

Williams, Dean N.; Silva, Claudio

2013-09-30

For the past three years, a large analysis and visualization effort—funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—has brought together a wide variety of industry-standard scientific computing libraries and applications to create Ultra-scale Visualization Climate Data Analysis Tools (UV-CDAT) to serve the global climate simulation and observational research communities. To support interactive analysis and visualization, all components connect through a provenance application–programming interface to capture meaningful history and workflow. Components can be loosely coupled into the framework for fast integrationmore » or tightly coupled for greater system functionality and communication with other components. The overarching goal of UV-CDAT is to provide a new paradigm for access to and analysis of massive, distributed scientific data collections by leveraging distributed data architectures located throughout the world. The UV-CDAT framework addresses challenges in analysis and visualization and incorporates new opportunities, including parallelism for better efficiency, higher speed, and more accurate scientific inferences. Today, it provides more than 600 users access to more analysis and visualization products than any other single source.« less

Simulating Earthquakes for Science and Society: Earthquake Visualizations Ideal for use in Science Communication and Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Groot, R.

2008-12-01

The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) has been developing groundbreaking computer modeling capabilities for studying earthquakes. These visualizations were initially shared within the scientific community but have recently gained visibility via television news coverage in Southern California. Computers have opened up a whole new world for scientists working with large data sets, and students can benefit from the same opportunities (Libarkin & Brick, 2002). For example, The Great Southern California ShakeOut was based on a potential magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the southern San Andreas fault. The visualization created for the ShakeOut was a key scientific and communication tool for the earthquake drill. This presentation will also feature SCEC Virtual Display of Objects visualization software developed by SCEC Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology interns. According to Gordin and Pea (1995), theoretically visualization should make science accessible, provide means for authentic inquiry, and lay the groundwork to understand and critique scientific issues. This presentation will discuss how the new SCEC visualizations and other earthquake imagery achieve these results, how they fit within the context of major themes and study areas in science communication, and how the efficacy of these tools can be improved.

My recollections of Hubel and Wiesel and a brief review of functional circuitry in the visual pathway

PubMed Central

Alonso, Jose-Manuel

2009-01-01

The first paper of Hubel and Wiesel in The Journal of Physiology in 1959 marked the beginning of an exciting chapter in the history of visual neuroscience. Through a collaboration that lasted 25 years, Hubel and Wiesel described the main response properties of visual cortical neurons, the functional architecture of visual cortex and the role of visual experience in shaping cortical architecture. The work of Hubel and Wiesel transformed the field not only through scientific discovery but also by touching the life and scientific careers of many students. Here, I describe my personal experience as a postdoctoral student with Torsten Wiesel and how this experience influenced my own work. PMID:19525563

Prioritizing Scientific Data for Transmission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Castano, Rebecca; Anderson, Robert; Estlin, Tara; DeCoste, Dennis; Gaines, Daniel; Mazzoni, Dominic; Fisher, Forest; Judd, Michele

2004-01-01

A software system has been developed for prioritizing newly acquired geological data onboard a planetary rover. The system has been designed to enable efficient use of limited communication resources by transmitting the data likely to have the most scientific value. This software operates onboard a rover by analyzing collected data, identifying potential scientific targets, and then using that information to prioritize data for transmission to Earth. Currently, the system is focused on the analysis of acquired images, although the general techniques are applicable to a wide range of data modalities. Image prioritization is performed using two main steps. In the first step, the software detects features of interest from each image. In its current application, the system is focused on visual properties of rocks. Thus, rocks are located in each image and rock properties, such as shape, texture, and albedo, are extracted from the identified rocks. In the second step, the features extracted from a group of images are used to prioritize the images using three different methods: (1) identification of key target signature (finding specific rock features the scientist has identified as important), (2) novelty detection (finding rocks we haven t seen before), and (3) representative rock sampling (finding the most average sample of each rock type). These methods use techniques such as K-means unsupervised clustering and a discrimination-based kernel classifier to rank images based on their interest level.

Scientific Assistant Virtual Laboratory (SAVL)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alaghband, Gita; Fardi, Hamid; Gnabasik, David

2007-03-01

The Scientific Assistant Virtual Laboratory (SAVL) is a scientific discovery environment, an interactive simulated virtual laboratory, for learning physics and mathematics. The purpose of this computer-assisted intervention is to improve middle and high school student interest, insight and scores in physics and mathematics. SAVL develops scientific and mathematical imagination in a visual, symbolic, and experimental simulation environment. It directly addresses the issues of scientific and technological competency by providing critical thinking training through integrated modules. This on-going research provides a virtual laboratory environment in which the student directs the building of the experiment rather than observing a packaged simulation. SAVL: * Engages the persistent interest of young minds in physics and math by visually linking simulation objects and events with mathematical relations. * Teaches integrated concepts by the hands-on exploration and focused visualization of classic physics experiments within software. * Systematically and uniformly assesses and scores students by their ability to answer their own questions within the context of a Master Question Network. We will demonstrate how the Master Question Network uses polymorphic interfaces and C# lambda expressions to manage simulation objects.

Linking Automated Data Analysis and Visualization with Applications in Developmental Biology and High-Energy Physics

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

Ruebel, Oliver

2009-11-20

Knowledge discovery from large and complex collections of today's scientific datasets is a challenging task. With the ability to measure and simulate more processes at increasingly finer spatial and temporal scales, the increasing number of data dimensions and data objects is presenting tremendous challenges for data analysis and effective data exploration methods and tools. Researchers are overwhelmed with data and standard tools are often insufficient to enable effective data analysis and knowledge discovery. The main objective of this thesis is to provide important new capabilities to accelerate scientific knowledge discovery form large, complex, and multivariate scientific data. The research coveredmore » in this thesis addresses these scientific challenges using a combination of scientific visualization, information visualization, automated data analysis, and other enabling technologies, such as efficient data management. The effectiveness of the proposed analysis methods is demonstrated via applications in two distinct scientific research fields, namely developmental biology and high-energy physics.Advances in microscopy, image analysis, and embryo registration enable for the first time measurement of gene expression at cellular resolution for entire organisms. Analysis of high-dimensional spatial gene expression datasets is a challenging task. By integrating data clustering and visualization, analysis of complex, time-varying, spatial gene expression patterns and their formation becomes possible. The analysis framework MATLAB and the visualization have been integrated, making advanced analysis tools accessible to biologist and enabling bioinformatic researchers to directly integrate their analysis with the visualization. Laser wakefield particle accelerators (LWFAs) promise to be a new compact source of high-energy particles and radiation, with wide applications ranging from medicine to physics. To gain insight into the complex physical processes of particle acceleration, physicists model LWFAs computationally. The datasets produced by LWFA simulations are (i) extremely large, (ii) of varying spatial and temporal resolution, (iii) heterogeneous, and (iv) high-dimensional, making analysis and knowledge discovery from complex LWFA simulation data a challenging task. To address these challenges this thesis describes the integration of the visualization system VisIt and the state-of-the-art index/query system FastBit, enabling interactive visual exploration of extremely large three-dimensional particle datasets. Researchers are especially interested in beams of high-energy particles formed during the course of a simulation. This thesis describes novel methods for automatic detection and analysis of particle beams enabling a more accurate and efficient data analysis process. By integrating these automated analysis methods with visualization, this research enables more accurate, efficient, and effective analysis of LWFA simulation data than previously possible.« less

MSL: Facilitating automatic and physical analysis of published scientific literature in PDF format

PubMed Central

Ahmed, Zeeshan; Dandekar, Thomas

2018-01-01

Published scientific literature contains millions of figures, including information about the results obtained from different scientific experiments e.g. PCR-ELISA data, microarray analysis, gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry data, DNA/RNA sequencing, diagnostic imaging (CT/MRI and ultrasound scans), and medicinal imaging like electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), echocardiography  (ECG), positron-emission tomography (PET) images. The importance of biomedical figures has been widely recognized in scientific and medicine communities, as they play a vital role in providing major original data, experimental and computational results in concise form. One major challenge for implementing a system for scientific literature analysis is extracting and analyzing text and figures from published PDF files by physical and logical document analysis. Here we present a product line architecture based bioinformatics tool ‘Mining Scientific Literature (MSL)’, which supports the extraction of text and images by interpreting all kinds of published PDF files using advanced data mining and image processing techniques. It provides modules for the marginalization of extracted text based on different coordinates and keywords, visualization of extracted figures and extraction of embedded text from all kinds of biological and biomedical figures using applied Optimal Character Recognition (OCR). Moreover, for further analysis and usage, it generates the system’s output in different formats including text, PDF, XML and images files. Hence, MSL is an easy to install and use analysis tool to interpret published scientific literature in PDF format. PMID:29721305

Use of computational modeling combined with advanced visualization to develop strategies for the design of crop ideotypes to address food security

DOE PAGES

Christensen, A. J.; Srinivasan, V.; Hart, J. C.; ...

2018-03-17

Sustainable crop production is a contributing factor to current and future food security. Innovative technologies are needed to design strategies that will achieve higher crop yields on less land and with fewer resources. Computational modeling coupled with advanced scientific visualization enables researchers to explore and interact with complex agriculture, nutrition, and climate data to predict how crops will respond to untested environments. These virtual observations and predictions can direct the development of crop ideotypes designed to meet future yield and nutritional demands. This review surveys modeling strategies for the development of crop ideotypes and scientific visualization technologies that have ledmore » to discoveries in “big data” analysis. Combined modeling and visualization approaches have been used to realistically simulate crops and to guide selection that immediately enhances crop quantity and quality under challenging environmental conditions. Lastly, this survey of current and developing technologies indicates that integrative modeling and advanced scientific visualization may help overcome challenges in agriculture and nutrition data as large-scale and multidimensional data become available in these fields.« less

Use of computational modeling combined with advanced visualization to develop strategies for the design of crop ideotypes to address food security

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

Christensen, A. J.; Srinivasan, V.; Hart, J. C.

Sustainable crop production is a contributing factor to current and future food security. Innovative technologies are needed to design strategies that will achieve higher crop yields on less land and with fewer resources. Computational modeling coupled with advanced scientific visualization enables researchers to explore and interact with complex agriculture, nutrition, and climate data to predict how crops will respond to untested environments. These virtual observations and predictions can direct the development of crop ideotypes designed to meet future yield and nutritional demands. This review surveys modeling strategies for the development of crop ideotypes and scientific visualization technologies that have ledmore » to discoveries in “big data” analysis. Combined modeling and visualization approaches have been used to realistically simulate crops and to guide selection that immediately enhances crop quantity and quality under challenging environmental conditions. Lastly, this survey of current and developing technologies indicates that integrative modeling and advanced scientific visualization may help overcome challenges in agriculture and nutrition data as large-scale and multidimensional data become available in these fields.« less

Use of computational modeling combined with advanced visualization to develop strategies for the design of crop ideotypes to address food security.

PubMed

Christensen, A J; Srinivasan, Venkatraman; Hart, John C; Marshall-Colon, Amy

2018-05-01

Sustainable crop production is a contributing factor to current and future food security. Innovative technologies are needed to design strategies that will achieve higher crop yields on less land and with fewer resources. Computational modeling coupled with advanced scientific visualization enables researchers to explore and interact with complex agriculture, nutrition, and climate data to predict how crops will respond to untested environments. These virtual observations and predictions can direct the development of crop ideotypes designed to meet future yield and nutritional demands. This review surveys modeling strategies for the development of crop ideotypes and scientific visualization technologies that have led to discoveries in "big data" analysis. Combined modeling and visualization approaches have been used to realistically simulate crops and to guide selection that immediately enhances crop quantity and quality under challenging environmental conditions. This survey of current and developing technologies indicates that integrative modeling and advanced scientific visualization may help overcome challenges in agriculture and nutrition data as large-scale and multidimensional data become available in these fields.

Use of computational modeling combined with advanced visualization to develop strategies for the design of crop ideotypes to address food security

PubMed Central

Christensen, A J; Srinivasan, Venkatraman; Hart, John C; Marshall-Colon, Amy

2018-01-01

Abstract Sustainable crop production is a contributing factor to current and future food security. Innovative technologies are needed to design strategies that will achieve higher crop yields on less land and with fewer resources. Computational modeling coupled with advanced scientific visualization enables researchers to explore and interact with complex agriculture, nutrition, and climate data to predict how crops will respond to untested environments. These virtual observations and predictions can direct the development of crop ideotypes designed to meet future yield and nutritional demands. This review surveys modeling strategies for the development of crop ideotypes and scientific visualization technologies that have led to discoveries in “big data” analysis. Combined modeling and visualization approaches have been used to realistically simulate crops and to guide selection that immediately enhances crop quantity and quality under challenging environmental conditions. This survey of current and developing technologies indicates that integrative modeling and advanced scientific visualization may help overcome challenges in agriculture and nutrition data as large-scale and multidimensional data become available in these fields. PMID:29562368

The path to COVIS: A review of acoustic imaging of hydrothermal flow regimes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bemis, Karen G.; Silver, Deborah; Xu, Guangyu; Light, Russ; Jackson, Darrell; Jones, Christopher; Ozer, Sedat; Liu, Li

2015-11-01

Acoustic imaging of hydrothermal flow regimes started with the incidental recognition of a plume on a routine sonar scan for obstacles in the path of the human-occupied submersible ALVIN. Developments in sonar engineering, acoustic data processing and scientific visualization have been combined to develop technology which can effectively capture the behavior of focused and diffuse hydrothermal discharge. This paper traces the development of these acoustic imaging techniques for hydrothermal flow regimes from their conception through to the development of the Cabled Observatory Vent Imaging Sonar (COVIS). COVIS has monitored such flow eight times a day for several years. Successful acoustic techniques for estimating plume entrainment, bending, vertical rise, volume flux, and heat flux are presented as is the state-of-the-art in diffuse flow detection.

Parallelization and Visual Analysis of Multidimensional Fields: Application to Ozone Production, Destruction, and Transport in Three Dimensions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schwan, Karsten

1997-01-01

This final report has four sections. We first describe the actual scientific results attained by our research team, followed by a description of the high performance computing research enhancing those results and prompted by the scientific tasks being undertaken. Next, we describe our research in data and program visualization motivated by the scientific research and also enabling it. Last, we comment on the indirect effects this research effort has had on our work, in terms of follow up or additional funding, student training, etc.

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

Moreland, Kenneth; Sewell, Christopher; Usher, William

Here, one of the most critical challenges for high-performance computing (HPC) scientific visualization is execution on massively threaded processors. Of the many fundamental changes we are seeing in HPC systems, one of the most profound is a reliance on new processor types optimized for execution bandwidth over latency hiding. Our current production scientific visualization software is not designed for these new types of architectures. To address this issue, the VTK-m framework serves as a container for algorithms, provides flexible data representation, and simplifies the design of visualization algorithms on new and future computer architecture.

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

Moreland, Kenneth; Sewell, Christopher; Usher, William

Execution on massively threaded processors is one of the most critical challenges for high-performance computing (HPC) scientific visualization. Of the many fundamental changes we are seeing in HPC systems, one of the most profound is a reliance on new processor types optimized for execution bandwidth over latency hiding. Moreover, our current production scientific visualization software is not designed for these new types of architectures. In order to address this issue, the VTK-m framework serves as a container for algorithms, provides flexible data representation, and simplifies the design of visualization algorithms on new and future computer architecture.

Visualizers, Visualizations, and Visualizees: Differences in Meaning-Making by Scientific Experts and Novices from Global Visualizations of Ocean Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stofer, Kathryn A.

2013-01-01

Data visualizations designed for academic scientists are not immediately meaningful to everyday scientists. Communicating between a specialized, expert audience and a general, novice public is non-trivial; it requires careful translation. However, more widely available visualization technologies and platforms, including new three-dimensional…

Automated detection of diabetic retinopathy: barriers to translation into clinical practice.

PubMed

Abramoff, Michael D; Niemeijer, Meindert; Russell, Stephen R

2010-03-01

Automated identification of diabetic retinopathy (DR), the primary cause of blindness and visual loss for those aged 18-65 years, from color images of the retina has enormous potential to increase the quality, cost-effectiveness and accessibility of preventative care for people with diabetes. Through advanced image analysis techniques, retinal images are analyzed for abnormalities that define and correlate with the severity of DR. Translating automated DR detection into clinical practice will require surmounting scientific and nonscientific barriers. Scientific concerns, such as DR detection limits compared with human experts, can be studied and measured. Ethical, legal and political issues can be addressed, but are difficult or impossible to measure. The primary objective of this review is to survey the methods, potential benefits and limitations of automated detection in order to better manage translation into clinical practice, based on extensive experience with the systems we have developed.

GLO-STIX: Graph-Level Operations for Specifying Techniques and Interactive eXploration

PubMed Central

Stolper, Charles D.; Kahng, Minsuk; Lin, Zhiyuan; Foerster, Florian; Goel, Aakash; Stasko, John; Chau, Duen Horng

2015-01-01

The field of graph visualization has produced a wealth of visualization techniques for accomplishing a variety of analysis tasks. Therefore analysts often rely on a suite of different techniques, and visual graph analysis application builders strive to provide this breadth of techniques. To provide a holistic model for specifying network visualization techniques (as opposed to considering each technique in isolation) we present the Graph-Level Operations (GLO) model. We describe a method for identifying GLOs and apply it to identify five classes of GLOs, which can be flexibly combined to re-create six canonical graph visualization techniques. We discuss advantages of the GLO model, including potentially discovering new, effective network visualization techniques and easing the engineering challenges of building multi-technique graph visualization applications. Finally, we implement the GLOs that we identified into the GLO-STIX prototype system that enables an analyst to interactively explore a graph by applying GLOs. PMID:26005315

Sub-diffraction nano manipulation using STED AFM.

PubMed

Chacko, Jenu Varghese; Canale, Claudio; Harke, Benjamin; Diaspro, Alberto

2013-01-01

In the last two decades, nano manipulation has been recognized as a potential tool of scientific interest especially in nanotechnology and nano-robotics. Contemporary optical microscopy (super resolution) techniques have also reached the nanometer scale resolution to visualize this and hence a combination of super resolution aided nano manipulation ineluctably gives a new perspective to the scenario. Here we demonstrate how specificity and rapid determination of structures provided by stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope can aid another microscopic tool with capability of mechanical manoeuvring, like an atomic force microscope (AFM) to get topological information or to target nano scaled materials. We also give proof of principle on how high-resolution real time visualization can improve nano manipulation capability within a dense sample, and how STED-AFM is an optimal combination for this job. With these evidences, this article points to future precise nano dissections and maybe even to a nano-snooker game with an AFM tip and fluorospheres.

Data, Analysis, and Visualization | Computational Science | NREL

Science.gov Websites

Data, Analysis, and Visualization Data, Analysis, and Visualization Data management, data analysis . At NREL, our data management, data analysis, and scientific visualization capabilities help move the approaches to image analysis and computer vision. Data Management and Big Data Systems, software, and tools

Beyond Ball-and-Stick: Students' Processing of Novel STEM Visualizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hinze, Scott R.; Rapp, David N.; Williamson, Vickie M.; Shultz, Mary Jane; Deslongchamps, Ghislain; Williamson, Kenneth C.

2013-01-01

Students are frequently presented with novel visualizations introducing scientific concepts and processes normally unobservable to the naked eye. Despite being unfamiliar, students are expected to understand and employ the visualizations to solve problems. Domain experts exhibit more competency than novices when using complex visualizations, but…

How Scientists Develop Competence in Visual Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ostergren, Marilyn

2013-01-01

Visuals (maps, charts, diagrams and illustrations) are an important tool for communication in most scientific disciplines, which means that scientists benefit from having strong visual communication skills. This dissertation examines the nature of competence in visual communication and the means by which scientists acquire this competence. This…

Envision: An interactive system for the management and visualization of large geophysical data sets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Searight, K. R.; Wojtowicz, D. P.; Walsh, J. E.; Pathi, S.; Bowman, K. P.; Wilhelmson, R. B.

1995-01-01

Envision is a software project at the University of Illinois and Texas A&M, funded by NASA's Applied Information Systems Research Project. It provides researchers in the geophysical sciences convenient ways to manage, browse, and visualize large observed or model data sets. Envision integrates data management, analysis, and visualization of geophysical data in an interactive environment. It employs commonly used standards in data formats, operating systems, networking, and graphics. It also attempts, wherever possible, to integrate with existing scientific visualization and analysis software. Envision has an easy-to-use graphical interface, distributed process components, and an extensible design. It is a public domain package, freely available to the scientific community.

Visualizando el desarrollo de la nanomedicina en México.

PubMed

Robles-Belmont, Eduardo; Gortari-Rabiela, Rebeca de; Galarza-Barrios, Pilar; Siqueiros-García, Jesús Mario; Ruiz-León, Alejandro Arnulfo

2017-01-01

In this article we present a set of different visualizations of Mexico's nanomedicine scientific production data. Visualizations were developed using different methodologies for data analysis and visualization such as social network analysis, geography of science maps, and complex network communities analysis. Results are a multi-dimensional overview of the evolution of nanomedicine in Mexico. Moreover, visualizations allowed to identify trends and patterns of collaboration at the national and international level. Trends are also found in the knowledge structure of themes and disciplines. Finally, we identified the scientific communities in Mexico that are responsible for the new knowledge production in this emergent field of science. Copyright: © 2017 SecretarÍa de Salud

[Constructing images and territories: thinking on the visuality and materiality of remote sensing].

PubMed

Monteiro, Marko

2015-01-01

This article offers a reflection on the question of the image in science, thinking about how visual practices contribute towards the construction of knowledge and territories. The growing centrality of the visual in current scientific practices shows the need for reflection that goes beyond the image. The object of discussion will be the scientific images used in the monitoring and visualization of territory. The article looks into the relations between visuality and a number of other factors: the researchers that construct it; the infrastructure involved in the construction; and the institutions and policies that monitor the territory. It is argued that such image-relations do not just visualize but help to construct the territory based on specific forms. Exploring this process makes it possible to develop a more complex understanding of the forms through which sciences and technology help to construct realities.

An Examination of the Effects of Collaborative Scientific Visualization via Model-Based Reasoning on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Learning within an Immersive 3D World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soleimani, Ali

2013-01-01

Immersive 3D worlds can be designed to effectively engage students in peer-to-peer collaborative learning activities, supported by scientific visualization, to help with understanding complex concepts associated with learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Previous research studies have shown STEM learning benefits…

Wavelet-Based Interpolation and Representation of Non-Uniformly Sampled Spacecraft Mission Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bose, Tamal

2000-01-01

A well-documented problem in the analysis of data collected by spacecraft instruments is the need for an accurate, efficient representation of the data set. The data may suffer from several problems, including additive noise, data dropouts, an irregularly-spaced sampling grid, and time-delayed sampling. These data irregularities render most traditional signal processing techniques unusable, and thus the data must be interpolated onto an even grid before scientific analysis techniques can be applied. In addition, the extremely large volume of data collected by scientific instrumentation presents many challenging problems in the area of compression, visualization, and analysis. Therefore, a representation of the data is needed which provides a structure which is conducive to these applications. Wavelet representations of data have already been shown to possess excellent characteristics for compression, data analysis, and imaging. The main goal of this project is to develop a new adaptive filtering algorithm for image restoration and compression. The algorithm should have low computational complexity and a fast convergence rate. This will make the algorithm suitable for real-time applications. The algorithm should be able to remove additive noise and reconstruct lost data samples from images.

Art on the Nanoscale and Beyond.

PubMed

Yetisen, Ali K; Coskun, Ahmet F; England, Grant; Cho, Sangyeon; Butt, Haider; Hurwitz, Jonty; Kolle, Mathias; Khademhosseini, Ali; Hart, A John; Folch, Albert; Yun, Seok Hyun

2016-03-02

Methods of forming and patterning materials at the nano- and microscales are finding increased use as a medium of artistic expression, and as a vehicle for communicating scientific advances to a broader audience. While sharing many attributes of other art forms, miniaturized art enables the direct engagement of sensory aspects such as sight and touch for materials and structures that are otherwise invisible to the eye. The historical uses of nano-/microscale materials and imaging techniques in arts and sciences are presented. The motivations to create artwork at small scales are discussed, and representations in scientific literature and exhibitions are explored. Examples are presented using semiconductors, microfluidics, and nanomaterials as the artistic media; these utilized techniques including micromachining, focused ion beam milling, two-photon polymerization, and bottom-up nanostructure growth. Finally, the technological factors that limit the implementation of artwork at miniature scales are identified, and potential future directions are discussed. As research marches toward even smaller length scales, innovative and engaging visualizations and artistic endeavors will have growing implications on education, communication, policy making, media activism, and public perception of science and technology. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Thermal Imaging in the Science Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Short, Daniel B.

2012-01-01

Thermal cameras are useful tools for use in scientific investigation and for teaching scientific concepts to students in the classroom. Demonstrations of scientific phenomena can be greatly enhanced visually by the use of this cutting-edge technology. (Contains 7 figures.)

Visualizing driving forces of spatially extended systems using the recurrence plot framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riedl, Maik; Marwan, Norbert; Kurths, Jürgen

2017-12-01

The increasing availability of highly resolved spatio-temporal data leads to new opportunities as well as challenges in many scientific disciplines such as climatology, ecology or epidemiology. This allows more detailed insights into the investigated spatially extended systems. However, this development needs advanced techniques of data analysis which go beyond standard linear tools since the more precise consideration often reveals nonlinear phenomena, for example threshold effects. One of these tools is the recurrence plot approach which has been successfully applied to the description of complex systems. Using this technique's power of visualization, we propose the analysis of the local minima of the underlying distance matrix in order to display driving forces of spatially extended systems. The potential of this novel idea is demonstrated by the analysis of the chlorophyll concentration and the sea surface temperature in the Southern California Bight. We are able not only to confirm the influence of El Niño events on the phytoplankton growth in this region but also to confirm two discussed regime shifts in the California current system. This new finding underlines the power of the proposed approach and promises new insights into other complex systems.

Authoring Tours of Geospatial Data With KML and Google Earth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barcay, D. P.; Weiss-Malik, M.

2008-12-01

As virtual globes become widely adopted by the general public, the use of geospatial data has expanded greatly. With the popularization of Google Earth and other platforms, GIS systems have become virtual reality platforms. Using these platforms, a casual user can easily explore the world, browse massive data-sets, create powerful 3D visualizations, and share those visualizations with millions of people using the KML language. This technology has raised the bar for professionals and academics alike. It is now expected that studies and projects will be accompanied by compelling, high-quality visualizations. In this new landscape, a presentation of geospatial data can be the most effective form of advertisement for a project: engaging both the general public and the scientific community in a unified interactive experience. On the other hand, merely dumping a dataset into a virtual globe can be a disorienting, alienating experience for many users. To create an effective, far-reaching presentation, an author must take care to make their data approachable to a wide variety of users with varying knowledge of the subject matter, expertise in virtual globes, and attention spans. To that end, we present techniques for creating self-guided interactive tours of data represented in KML and visualized in Google Earth. Using these methods, we provide the ability to move the camera through the world while dynamically varying the content, style, and visibility of the displayed data. Such tours can automatically guide users through massive, complex datasets: engaging a broad user-base, and conveying subtle concepts that aren't immediately apparent when viewing the raw data. To the casual user these techniques result in an extremely compelling experience similar to watching video. Unlike video though, these techniques maintain the rich interactive environment provided by the virtual globe, allowing users to explore the data in detail and to add other data sources to the presentation.

The NAS Computational Aerosciences Archive

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miceli, Kristina D.; Globus, Al; Lasinski, T. A. (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

In order to further the state-of-the-art in computational aerosciences (CAS) technology, researchers must be able to gather and understand existing work in the field. One aspect of this information gathering is studying published work available in scientific journals and conference proceedings. However, current scientific publications are very limited in the type and amount of information that they can disseminate. Information is typically restricted to text, a few images, and a bibliography list. Additional information that might be useful to the researcher, such as additional visual results, referenced papers, and datasets, are not available. New forms of electronic publication, such as the World Wide Web (WWW), limit publication size only by available disk space and data transmission bandwidth, both of which are improving rapidly. The Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center is in the process of creating an archive of CAS information on the WWW. This archive will be based on the large amount of information produced by researchers associated with the NAS facility. The archive will contain technical summaries and reports of research performed on NAS supercomputers, visual results (images, animations, visualization system scripts), datasets, and any other supporting meta-information. This information will be available via the WWW through the NAS homepage, located at http://www.nas.nasa.gov/, fully indexed for searching. The main components of the archive are technical summaries and reports, visual results, and datasets. Technical summaries are gathered every year by researchers who have been allotted resources on NAS supercomputers. These summaries, together with supporting visual results and references, are browsable by interested researchers. Referenced papers made available by researchers can be accessed through hypertext links. Technical reports are in-depth accounts of tools and applications research projects performed by NAS staff members and collaborators. Visual results, which may be available in the form of images, animations, and/or visualization scripts, are generated by researchers with respect to a certain research project, depicting dataset features that were determined important by the investigating researcher. For example, script files for visualization systems (e.g. FAST, PLOT3D, AVS) are provided to create visualizations on the user's local workstation to elucidate the key points of the numerical study. Users can then interact with the data starting where the investigator left off. Datasets are intended to give researchers an opportunity to understand previous work, 'mine' solutions for new information (for example, have you ever read a paper thinking "I wonder what the helicity density looks like?"), compare new techniques with older results, collaborate with remote colleagues, and perform validation. Supporting meta-information associated with the research projects is also important to provide additional context for research projects. This may include information such as the software used in the simulation (e.g. grid generators, flow solvers, visualization). In addition to serving the CAS research community, the information archive will also be helpful to students, visualization system developers and researchers, and management. Students (of any age) can use the data to study fluid dynamics, compare results from different flow solvers, learn about meshing techniques, etc., leading to better informed individuals. For these users it is particularly important that visualization be integrated into dataset archives. Visualization researchers can use dataset archives to test algorithms and techniques, leading to better visualization systems, Management can use the data to figure what is really going on behind the viewgraphs. All users will benefit from fast, easy, and convenient access to CFD datasets. The CAS information archive hopes to serve as a useful resource to those interested in computational sciences. At present, only information that may be distributed internationally is made available via the archive. Studies are underway to determine security requirements and solutions to make additional information available. By providing access to the archive via the WWW, the process of information gathering can be more productive and fruitful due to ease of access and ability to manage many different types of information. As the archive grows, additional resources from outside NAS will be added, providing a dynamic source of research results.

Benefits, challenges, and best practices for involving audiences in the development of interactive coastal risk communication tools: Professional communicators' experiences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stephens, S. H.; DeLorme, D.

2017-12-01

To make scientific information useful and usable to audiences, communicators must understand audience needs, expectations, and future applications. This presentation synthesizes benefits, challenges, and best practices resulting from a qualitative social science interview study of nine professionals on their experiences developing interactive visualization tools for communicating about coastal environmental risks. Online interactive risk visualization tools, such as flooding maps, are used to provide scientific information about the impacts of coastal hazards. These tools have a wide range of audiences and purposes, including time-sensitive emergency communication, infrastructure and natural resource planning, and simply starting a community conversation about risks. Thus, the science, purposes, and audiences of these tools require a multifaceted communication strategy. In order to make these tools useable and accepted by their audiences, many professional development teams solicit target end-user input or incorporate formal user-centered design into the development process. This presentation will share results of seven interviews with developers of U.S. interactive coastal risk communication tools, ranging from state-level to international in scope. Specific techniques and procedures for audience input that were used in these projects will be discussed, including ad-hoc conversations with users, iterative usability testing with project stakeholder groups, and other participatory mechanisms. The presentation will then focus on benefits, challenges, and recommendations for best practice that the interviewees disclosed about including audiences in their development projects. Presentation attendees will gain an understanding of different procedures and techniques that professionals employ to involve end-users in risk tool development projects, as well as important considerations and recommendations for effectively involving audiences in science communication design.

The Aesthetics of Astrophysics: How to Make Appealing Color-composite Images that Convey the Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rector, Travis A.; Levay, Zoltan G.; Frattare, Lisa M.; Arcand, Kimberly K.; Watzke, Megan

2017-05-01

Astronomy has a rich tradition of using color photography and imaging, for visualization in research as well as for sharing scientific discoveries in formal and informal education settings (i.e., for “public outreach”). In the modern era, astronomical research has benefitted tremendously from electronic cameras that allow data and images to be generated and analyzed in a purely digital form with a level of precision that previously was not possible. Advances in image-processing software have also enabled color-composite images to be made in ways that are much more complex than with darkroom techniques, not only at optical wavelengths but across the electromagnetic spectrum. The Internet has made it possible to rapidly disseminate these images to eager audiences. Alongside these technological advances, there have been gains in understanding how to make images that are scientifically illustrative as well as aesthetically pleasing. Studies have also given insights on how the public interprets astronomical images and how that can be different than professional astronomers. An understanding of these differences will help in the creation of images that are meaningful to both groups. In this invited review, we discuss the techniques behind making color-composite images as well as examine the factors one should consider when doing so, whether for data visualization or public consumption. We also provide a brief history of astronomical imaging with a focus on the origins of the "modern era" during which distribution of high-quality astronomical images to the public is a part of nearly every professional observatory's public outreach. We review relevant research into the expectations and misconceptions that often affect the public's interpretation of these images.

Ecoacoustic Music for Geoscience: Sonic Physiographies and Sound Casting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burtner, M.

2017-12-01

The author describes specific ecoacoustic applications in his original compositions, Sonic Physiography of a Time-Stretched Glacier (2015), Catalog of Roughness (2017), Sound Cast of Matanuska Glacier (2016) and Ecoacoustic Concerto (Eagle Rock) (2014). Ecoacoustic music uses technology to map systems from nature into music through techniques such as sonification, material amplification, and field recording. The author aspires for this music to be descriptive of the data (as one would expect from a visualization) and also to function as engaging and expressive music/sound art on its own. In this way, ecoacoustic music might provide a fitting accompaniment to a scientific presentation (such as music for a science video) while also offering an exemplary concert hall presentation for a dedicated listening public. The music can at once support the communication of scientific research, and help science make inroads into culture. The author discusses how music created using the data, sounds and methods derived from earth science can recast this research into a sonic art modality. Such music can amplify the communication and dissemination of scientific knowledge by broadening the diversity of methods and formats we use to bring excellent scientific research to the public. Music can also open the public's imagination to science, inspiring curiosity and emotional resonance. Hearing geoscience as music may help a non-scientist access scientific knowledge in new ways, and it can greatly expand the types of venues in which this work can appear. Anywhere music is played - concert halls, festivals, galleries, radio, etc - become a venue for scientific discovery.

Development of a 3-D X-ray system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, James Paul Owain

The interpretation of standard two-dimensional x-ray images by humans is often very difficult. This is due to the lack of visual cues to depth in an image which has been produced by transmitted radiation. The solution put forward in this research is to introduce binocular parallax, a powerful physiological depth cue, into the resultant shadowgraph x-ray image. This has been achieved by developing a binocular stereoscopic x-ray imaging technique, which can be used for both visual inspection by human observers and also for the extraction of three-dimensional co-ordinate information. The technique is implemented in the design and development of two experimental x-ray systems and also the development of measurement algorithms. The first experimental machine is based on standard linear x-ray detector arrays and was designed as an optimum configuration for visual inspection by human observers. However, it was felt that a combination of the 3-D visual inspection capability together with a measurement facility would enhance the usefulness of the technique. Therefore, both a theoretical and an empirical analysis of the co-ordinate measurement capability of the machine has been carried out. The measurement is based on close-range photogrammetric techniques. The accuracy of the measurement has been found to be of the order of 4mm in x, 3mm in y and 6mm in z. A second experimental machine was developed and based on the same technique as that used for the first machine. However, a major departure has been the introduction of a dual energy linear x-ray detector array which will allow, in general, the discrimination between organic and inorganic substances. The second design is a compromise between ease of visual inspection for human observers and optimum three-dimensional co-ordinate measurement capability. The system is part of an on going research programme into the possibility of introducing psychological depth cues into the resultant x-ray images. The research presented in this thesis was initiated to enhance the visual interpretation of complex x-ray images, specifically in response to problems encountered in the routine screening of freight by HM. Customs and Excise. This phase of the work culminated in the development of the first experimental machine. During this work the security industry was starting to adopt a new type of x-ray detector, namely the dual energy x-ray sensor. The Department of Transport made available funding to the Police Scientific Development Branch (P.S.D.B.), part of The Home Office Science and Technology Group, to investigate the possibility of utilising the dual energy sensor in a 3-D x-ray screening system. This phase of the work culminated in the development of the second experimental machine.

Visualizing Time-Varying Phenomena In Numerical Simulations Of Unsteady Flows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lane, David A.

1996-01-01

Streamlines, contour lines, vector plots, and volume slices (cutting planes) are commonly used for flow visualization. These techniques are sometimes referred to as instantaneous flow visualization techniques because calculations are based on an instant of the flowfield in time. Although instantaneous flow visualization techniques are effective for depicting phenomena in steady flows,they sometimes do not adequately depict time-varying phenomena in unsteady flows. Streaklines and timelines are effective visualization techniques for depicting vortex shedding, vortex breakdown, and shock waves in unsteady flows. These techniques are examples of time-dependent flow visualization techniques, which are based on many instants of the flowfields in time. This paper describes the algorithms for computing streaklines and timelines. Using numerically simulated unsteady flows, streaklines and timelines are compared with streamlines, contour lines, and vector plots. It is shown that streaklines and timelines reveal vortex shedding and vortex breakdown more clearly than instantaneous flow visualization techniques.

The Visualization Toolkit (VTK): Rewriting the rendering code for modern graphics cards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanwell, Marcus D.; Martin, Kenneth M.; Chaudhary, Aashish; Avila, Lisa S.

2015-09-01

The Visualization Toolkit (VTK) is an open source, permissively licensed, cross-platform toolkit for scientific data processing, visualization, and data analysis. It is over two decades old, originally developed for a very different graphics card architecture. Modern graphics cards feature fully programmable, highly parallelized architectures with large core counts. VTK's rendering code was rewritten to take advantage of modern graphics cards, maintaining most of the toolkit's programming interfaces. This offers the opportunity to compare the performance of old and new rendering code on the same systems/cards. Significant improvements in rendering speeds and memory footprints mean that scientific data can be visualized in greater detail than ever before. The widespread use of VTK means that these improvements will reap significant benefits.

Distributed visualization of gridded geophysical data: the Carbon Data Explorer, version 0.2.3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Endsley, K. A.; Billmire, M. G.

2016-01-01

Due to the proliferation of geophysical models, particularly climate models, the increasing resolution of their spatiotemporal estimates of Earth system processes, and the desire to easily share results with collaborators, there is a genuine need for tools to manage, aggregate, visualize, and share data sets. We present a new, web-based software tool - the Carbon Data Explorer - that provides these capabilities for gridded geophysical data sets. While originally developed for visualizing carbon flux, this tool can accommodate any time-varying, spatially explicit scientific data set, particularly NASA Earth system science level III products. In addition, the tool's open-source licensing and web presence facilitate distributed scientific visualization, comparison with other data sets and uncertainty estimates, and data publishing and distribution.

Interactive Design and Visualization of Branched Covering Spaces.

PubMed

Roy, Lawrence; Kumar, Prashant; Golbabaei, Sanaz; Zhang, Yue; Zhang, Eugene

2018-01-01

Branched covering spaces are a mathematical concept which originates from complex analysis and topology and has applications in tensor field topology and geometry remeshing. Given a manifold surface and an -way rotational symmetry field, a branched covering space is a manifold surface that has an -to-1 map to the original surface except at the ramification points, which correspond to the singularities in the rotational symmetry field. Understanding the notion and mathematical properties of branched covering spaces is important to researchers in tensor field visualization and geometry processing, and their application areas. In this paper, we provide a framework to interactively design and visualize the branched covering space (BCS) of an input mesh surface and a rotational symmetry field defined on it. In our framework, the user can visualize not only the BCSs but also their construction process. In addition, our system allows the user to design the geometric realization of the BCS using mesh deformation techniques as well as connecting tubes. This enables the user to verify important facts about BCSs such as that they are manifold surfaces around singularities, as well as the Riemann-Hurwitz formula which relates the Euler characteristic of the BCS to that of the original mesh. Our system is evaluated by student researchers in scientific visualization and geometry processing as well as faculty members in mathematics at our university who teach topology. We include their evaluations and feedback in the paper.

Visual Literacy in Bloom: Using Bloom's Taxonomy to Support Visual Learning Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arneson, Jessie B.; Offerdahl, Erika G.

2018-01-01

"Vision and Change" identifies science communication as one of the core competencies in undergraduate biology. Visual representations are an integral part of science communication, allowing ideas to be shared among and between scientists and the public. As such, development of scientific visual literacy should be a desired outcome of…

Visual Organizers as Scaffolds in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Yu-Liang

2006-01-01

This thesis deals with using visual organizers as scaffolds in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). Based on the findings of scientific researches, the review of literature explicates the effectiveness and fruitfulness in employing visuals organizers in EFL instructions. It includes the five following components. First, visual organizers…

Application of Andrew's Plots to Visualization of Multidimensional Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grinshpun, Vadim

2016-01-01

Importance: The article raises a point of visual representation of big data, recently considered to be demanded for many scientific and real-life applications, and analyzes particulars for visualization of multi-dimensional data, giving examples of the visual analytics-related problems. Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to study application…

General Analytical Schemes for the Characterization of Pectin-Based Edible Gelled Systems

PubMed Central

Haghighi, Maryam; Rezaei, Karamatollah

2012-01-01

Pectin-based gelled systems have gained increasing attention for the design of newly developed food products. For this reason, the characterization of such formulas is a necessity in order to present scientific data and to introduce an appropriate finished product to the industry. Various analytical techniques are available for the evaluation of the systems formulated on the basis of pectin and the designed gel. In this paper, general analytical approaches for the characterization of pectin-based gelled systems were categorized into several subsections including physicochemical analysis, visual observation, textural/rheological measurement, microstructural image characterization, and psychorheological evaluation. Three-dimensional trials to assess correlations among microstructure, texture, and taste were also discussed. Practical examples of advanced objective techniques including experimental setups for small and large deformation rheological measurements and microstructural image analysis were presented in more details. PMID:22645484

Automating Geospatial Visualizations with Smart Default Renderers for Data Exploration Web Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ekenes, K.

2017-12-01

This presentation will outline the process of creating a web application for exploring large amounts of scientific geospatial data using modern automated cartographic techniques. Traditional cartographic methods, including data classification, may inadvertently hide geospatial and statistical patterns in the underlying data. This presentation demonstrates how to use smart web APIs that quickly analyze the data when it loads, and provides suggestions for the most appropriate visualizations based on the statistics of the data. Since there are just a few ways to visualize any given dataset well, it is imperative to provide smart default color schemes tailored to the dataset as opposed to static defaults. Since many users don't go beyond default values, it is imperative that they are provided with smart default visualizations. Multiple functions for automating visualizations are available in the Smart APIs, along with UI elements allowing users to create more than one visualization for a dataset since there isn't a single best way to visualize a given dataset. Since bivariate and multivariate visualizations are particularly difficult to create effectively, this automated approach removes the guesswork out of the process and provides a number of ways to generate multivariate visualizations for the same variables. This allows the user to choose which visualization is most appropriate for their presentation. The methods used in these APIs and the renderers generated by them are not available elsewhere. The presentation will show how statistics can be used as the basis for automating default visualizations of data along continuous ramps, creating more refined visualizations while revealing the spread and outliers of the data. Adding interactive components to instantaneously alter visualizations allows users to unearth spatial patterns previously unknown among one or more variables. These applications may focus on a single dataset that is frequently updated, or configurable for a variety of datasets from multiple sources.

Bringing "Scientific Expeditions" Into the Schools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, Val; Lasinski, T. A. (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

Two new technologies, the FASTexpedition and Remote FAST, have been developed that provide remote, 3D, high resolution, dynamic, interactive viewing of scientific data (such as simulations or measurements of fluid dynamics). The FASTexpedition permits one to access scientific data from the World Wide Web, take guided expeditions through the data, and continue with self controlled expeditions through the data. Remote FAST permits collaborators at remote sites to simultaneously view an analysis of scientific data being controlled by one of the collaborators. Control can be transferred between sites. These technologies are now being used for remote collaboration in joint university, industry, and NASA projects in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel testing. Also, NASA Ames Research Center has initiated a project to make scientific data and guided expeditions through the data available as FASTexpeditions on the World Wide Web for educational purposes. Previously, remote visualiZation of dynamic data was done using video format (transmitting pixel information) such as video conferencing or MPEG movies on the Internet. The concept for this new technology is to send the raw data (e.g., grids, vectors, and scalars) along with viewing scripts over the Internet and have the pixels generated by a visualization tool running on the viewer's local workstation. The visualization tool that is currently used is FAST (Flow Analysis Software Toolkit). The advantages of this new technology over using video format are: 1. The visual is much higher in resolution (1280xl024 pixels with 24 bits of color) than typical video format transmitted over the network. 2. The form of the visualization can be controlled interactively (because the viewer is interactively controlling the visualization tool running on his workstation). 3. A rich variety of guided expeditions through the data can be included easily. 4. A capability is provided for other sites to see a visual analysis of one site as the analysis is interactively performed. Control of the analysis can be passed from site to site. 5. The scenes can be viewed in 3D using stereo vision. 6. The network bandwidth used for the visualization using this new technology is much smaller than when using video format. (The measured peak bandwidth used was 1 Kbit/sec whereas the measured bandwidth for a small video picture was 500 Kbits/sec.)

Fast 3D Net Expeditions: Tools for Effective Scientific Collaboration on the World Wide Web

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, Val; Chancellor, Marisa K. (Technical Monitor)

1996-01-01

Two new technologies, the FASTexpedition and Remote FAST, have been developed that provide remote, 3D (three dimensional), high resolution, dynamic, interactive viewing of scientific data. The FASTexpedition permits one to access scientific data from the World Wide Web, take guided expeditions through the data, and continue with self controlled expeditions through the data. Remote FAST permits collaborators at remote sites to simultaneously view an analysis of scientific data being controlled by one of the collaborators. Control can be transferred between sites. These technologies are now being used for remote collaboration in joint university, industry, and NASA projects. Also, NASA Ames Research Center has initiated a project to make scientific data and guided expeditions through the data available as FASTexpeditions on the World Wide Web for educational purposes. Previously, remote visualization of dynamic data was done using video format (transmitting pixel information) such as video conferencing or MPEG (Motion Picture Expert Group) movies on the Internet. The concept for this new technology is to send the raw data (e.g., grids, vectors, and scalars) along with viewing scripts over the Internet and have the pixels generated by a visualization tool running on the viewers local workstation. The visualization tool that is currently used is FAST (Flow Analysis Software Toolkit). The advantages of this new technology over using video format are: (1) The visual is much higher in resolution (1280x1024 pixels with 24 bits of color) than typical video format transmitted over the network. (2) The form of the visualization can be controlled interactively (because the viewer is interactively controlling the visualization tool running on his workstation). (3) A rich variety of guided expeditions through the data can be included easily. (4) A capability is provided for other sites to see a visual analysis of one site as the analysis is interactively performed. Control of the analysis can be passed from site to site. (5) The scenes can be viewed in 3D using stereo vision. (6) The network bandwidth for the visualization using this new technology is much smaller than when using video format. (The measured peak bandwidth used was 1 Kbit/sec whereas the measured bandwidth for a small video picture was 500 Kbits/sec.) This talk will illustrate the use of these new technologies and present a proposal for using these technologies to improve science education.

Bring NASA Scientific Data into GIS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, H.

2016-12-01

NASA's Earth Observation System (EOS) and many other missions produce data of huge volume and near real time which drives the research and understanding of climate change. Geographic Information System (GIS) is a technology used for the management, visualization and analysis of spatial data. Since it's inception in the 1960s, GIS has been applied to many fields at the city, state, national, and world scales. People continue to use it today to analyze and visualize trends, patterns, and relationships from the massive datasets of scientific data. There is great interest in both the scientific and GIS communities in improving technologies that can bring scientific data into a GIS environment, where scientific research and analysis can be shared through the GIS platform to the public. Most NASA scientific data are delivered in the Hierarchical Data Format (HDF), a format is both flexible and powerful. However, this flexibility results in challenges when trying to develop supported GIS software - data stored with HDF formats lack a unified standard and convention among these products. The presentation introduces an information model that enables ArcGIS software to ingest NASA scientific data and create a multidimensional raster - univariate and multivariate hypercubes - for scientific visualization and analysis. We will present the framework how ArcGIS leverages the open source GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstract Library) to support its raster data access, discuss how we overcame the GDAL drivers limitations in handing scientific products that are stored with HDF4 and HDF5 formats and how we improve the way in modeling the multidimensionality with GDAL. In additional, we will talk about the direction of ArcGIS handling NASA products and demonstrate how the multidimensional information model can help scientists work with various data products such as MODIS, MOPPIT, SMAP as well as many data products in a GIS environment.

22 CFR 61.3 - Certification and authentication criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS § 61.3 Certification and authentication criteria. (a) The Department shall certify or authenticate audio-visual materials submitted for review as educational, scientific and... of the material. (b) The Department will not certify or authenticate any audio-visual material...

22 CFR 61.3 - Certification and authentication criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS § 61.3 Certification and authentication criteria. (a) The Department shall certify or authenticate audio-visual materials submitted for review as educational, scientific and... of the material. (b) The Department will not certify or authenticate any audio-visual material...

22 CFR 61.3 - Certification and authentication criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS § 61.3 Certification and authentication criteria. (a) The Department shall certify or authenticate audio-visual materials submitted for review as educational, scientific and... of the material. (b) The Department will not certify or authenticate any audio-visual material...

A study of the laminar separation bubble on an airfoil at low Reynolds numbers using flow visualization techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidt, Gordon S.; Mueller, Thomas J.

1987-01-01

The use of flow visualization to study separation bubbles is evaluated. The wind tunnel, two NACA 66(3)-018 airfoil models, and kerosene vapor, titanium tetrachloride, and surface flow visualizations techniques are described. The application of the three visualization techniques to the two airfoil models reveals that the smoke and vapor techniques provide data on the location of laminar separation and the onset of transition, and the surface method produces information about the location of turbulent boundary layer separation. The data obtained with the three flow visualization techniques are compared to pressure distribution data and good correlation is detected. It is noted that flow visualization is an effective technique for examining separation bubbles.

An Interactive Visual Analytics Framework for Multi-Field Data in a Geo-Spatial Context

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

Zhang, Zhiyuan; Tong, Xiaonan; McDonnell, Kevin T.

2013-04-01

Climate research produces a wealth of multivariate data. These data often have a geospatial reference and so it is of interest to show them within their geospatial context. One can consider this configuration as a multi field visualization problem, where the geospace provides the expanse of the field. However, there is a limit on the amount of multivariate information that can be fit within a certain spatial location, and the use of linked multivari ate information displays has previously been devised to bridge this gap. In this paper we focus on the interactions in the geographical display, present an implementationmore » that uses Google Earth, and demonstrate it within a tightly linked parallel coordinates display. Several other visual representations, such as pie and bar charts are integrated into the Google Earth display and can be interactively manipulated. Further, we also demonstrate new brushing and visualization techniques for parallel coordinates, such as fixedwindow brushing and correlationenhanced display. We conceived our system with a team of climate researchers, who already made a few important discov eries using it. This demonstrates our system’s great potential to enable scientific discoveries, possibly also in oth er domains where data have a geospatial reference.« less

Effects of ensemble and summary displays on interpretations of geospatial uncertainty data.

PubMed

Padilla, Lace M; Ruginski, Ian T; Creem-Regehr, Sarah H

2017-01-01

Ensemble and summary displays are two widely used methods to represent visual-spatial uncertainty; however, there is disagreement about which is the most effective technique to communicate uncertainty to the general public. Visualization scientists create ensemble displays by plotting multiple data points on the same Cartesian coordinate plane. Despite their use in scientific practice, it is more common in public presentations to use visualizations of summary displays, which scientists create by plotting statistical parameters of the ensemble members. While prior work has demonstrated that viewers make different decisions when viewing summary and ensemble displays, it is unclear what components of the displays lead to diverging judgments. This study aims to compare the salience of visual features - or visual elements that attract bottom-up attention - as one possible source of diverging judgments made with ensemble and summary displays in the context of hurricane track forecasts. We report that salient visual features of both ensemble and summary displays influence participant judgment. Specifically, we find that salient features of summary displays of geospatial uncertainty can be misunderstood as displaying size information. Further, salient features of ensemble displays evoke judgments that are indicative of accurate interpretations of the underlying probability distribution of the ensemble data. However, when participants use ensemble displays to make point-based judgments, they may overweight individual ensemble members in their decision-making process. We propose that ensemble displays are a promising alternative to summary displays in a geospatial context but that decisions about visualization methods should be informed by the viewer's task.

Visualization and characterization of users in a citizen science project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morais, Alessandra M. M.; Raddick, Jordan; Coelho dos Santos, Rafael D.

2013-05-01

Recent technological advances allowed the creation and use of internet-based systems where many users can collaborate gathering and sharing information for specific or general purposes: social networks, e-commerce review systems, collaborative knowledge systems, etc. Since most of the data collected in these systems is user-generated, understanding of the motivations and general behavior of users is a very important issue. Of particular interest are citizen science projects, where users without scientific training are asked for collaboration labeling and classifying information (either automatically by giving away idle computer time or manually by actually seeing data and providing information about it). Understanding behavior of users of those types of data collection systems may help increase the involvement of the users, categorize users accordingly to different parameters, facilitate their collaboration with the systems, design better user interfaces, and allow better planning and deployment of similar projects and systems. Behavior of those users could be estimated through analysis of their collaboration track: registers of which user did what and when can be easily and unobtrusively collected in several different ways, the simplest being a log of activities. In this paper we present some results on the visualization and characterization of almost 150.000 users with more than 80.000.000 collaborations with a citizen science project - Galaxy Zoo I, which asked users to classify galaxies' images. Basic visualization techniques are not applicable due to the number of users, so techniques to characterize users' behavior based on feature extraction and clustering are used.

Conceptual-level workflow modeling of scientific experiments using NMR as a case study

PubMed Central

Verdi, Kacy K; Ellis, Heidi JC; Gryk, Michael R

2007-01-01

Background Scientific workflows improve the process of scientific experiments by making computations explicit, underscoring data flow, and emphasizing the participation of humans in the process when intuition and human reasoning are required. Workflows for experiments also highlight transitions among experimental phases, allowing intermediate results to be verified and supporting the proper handling of semantic mismatches and different file formats among the various tools used in the scientific process. Thus, scientific workflows are important for the modeling and subsequent capture of bioinformatics-related data. While much research has been conducted on the implementation of scientific workflows, the initial process of actually designing and generating the workflow at the conceptual level has received little consideration. Results We propose a structured process to capture scientific workflows at the conceptual level that allows workflows to be documented efficiently, results in concise models of the workflow and more-correct workflow implementations, and provides insight into the scientific process itself. The approach uses three modeling techniques to model the structural, data flow, and control flow aspects of the workflow. The domain of biomolecular structure determination using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy is used to demonstrate the process. Specifically, we show the application of the approach to capture the workflow for the process of conducting biomolecular analysis using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Conclusion Using the approach, we were able to accurately document, in a short amount of time, numerous steps in the process of conducting an experiment using NMR spectroscopy. The resulting models are correct and precise, as outside validation of the models identified only minor omissions in the models. In addition, the models provide an accurate visual description of the control flow for conducting biomolecular analysis using NMR spectroscopy experiment. PMID:17263870

Conceptual-level workflow modeling of scientific experiments using NMR as a case study.

PubMed

Verdi, Kacy K; Ellis, Heidi Jc; Gryk, Michael R

2007-01-30

Scientific workflows improve the process of scientific experiments by making computations explicit, underscoring data flow, and emphasizing the participation of humans in the process when intuition and human reasoning are required. Workflows for experiments also highlight transitions among experimental phases, allowing intermediate results to be verified and supporting the proper handling of semantic mismatches and different file formats among the various tools used in the scientific process. Thus, scientific workflows are important for the modeling and subsequent capture of bioinformatics-related data. While much research has been conducted on the implementation of scientific workflows, the initial process of actually designing and generating the workflow at the conceptual level has received little consideration. We propose a structured process to capture scientific workflows at the conceptual level that allows workflows to be documented efficiently, results in concise models of the workflow and more-correct workflow implementations, and provides insight into the scientific process itself. The approach uses three modeling techniques to model the structural, data flow, and control flow aspects of the workflow. The domain of biomolecular structure determination using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy is used to demonstrate the process. Specifically, we show the application of the approach to capture the workflow for the process of conducting biomolecular analysis using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Using the approach, we were able to accurately document, in a short amount of time, numerous steps in the process of conducting an experiment using NMR spectroscopy. The resulting models are correct and precise, as outside validation of the models identified only minor omissions in the models. In addition, the models provide an accurate visual description of the control flow for conducting biomolecular analysis using NMR spectroscopy experiment.

CONTROLLING STUDENT RESPONSES DURING VISUAL PRESENTATIONS--STUDIES IN TELEVISED INSTRUCTION, THE ROLE OF VISUALS IN VERBAL LEARNING, REPORT 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

GROPPER, GEORGE L.

THIS IS A REPORT OF TWO STUDIES IN WHICH PRINCIPLES OF PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION WERE ADAPTED FOR VISUAL PRESENTATIONS. SCIENTIFIC DEMONSTRATIONS WERE PREPARED WITH A VISUAL PROGRAM AND A VERBAL PROGRAM ON--(1) ARCHIMEDES' LAW AND (2) FORCE AND PRESSURE. RESULTS SUGGESTED THAT RESPONSES ARE MORE READILY BROUGHT UNDER THE CONTROL OF VISUAL PRESENTATION…

Adjustable lossless image compression based on a natural splitting of an image into drawing, shading, and fine-grained components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Novik, Dmitry A.; Tilton, James C.

1993-01-01

The compression, or efficient coding, of single band or multispectral still images is becoming an increasingly important topic. While lossy compression approaches can produce reconstructions that are visually close to the original, many scientific and engineering applications require exact (lossless) reconstructions. However, the most popular and efficient lossless compression techniques do not fully exploit the two-dimensional structural links existing in the image data. We describe here a general approach to lossless data compression that effectively exploits two-dimensional structural links of any length. After describing in detail two main variants on this scheme, we discuss experimental results.

A Critique of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature of the Use of Diagrams, Graphs, and Other Visual Aids in the Learning of Scientific-Technical Content from Expository Texts and Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carifio, James; Perla, Rocco J.

2009-01-01

This article presents a critical review and analysis of key studies that have been done in science education and other areas on the effects and effectiveness of using diagrams, graphs, photographs, illustrations, and concept maps as "adjunct visual aids" in the learning of scientific-technical content. It also summarizes and reviews those studies…

[Visual representation of biological structures in teaching material].

PubMed

Morato, M A; Struchiner, M; Bordoni, E; Ricciardi, R M

1998-01-01

Parameters must be defined for presenting and handling scientific information presented in the form of teaching materials. Through library research and consultations with specialists in the health sciences and in graphic arts and design, this study undertook a comparative description of the first examples of scientific illustrations of anatomy and the evolution of visual representations of knowledge on the cell. The study includes significant examples of illustrations which served as elements of analysis.

New NASA 3D Animation Shows Seven Days of Simulated Earth Weather

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-08-11

This visualization shows early test renderings of a global computational model of Earth's atmosphere based on data from NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5). This particular run, called Nature Run 2, was run on a supercomputer, spanned 2 years of simulation time at 30 minute intervals, and produced Petabytes of output. The visualization spans a little more than 7 days of simulation time which is 354 time steps. The time period was chosen because a simulated category-4 typhoon developed off the coast of China. The 7 day period is repeated several times during the course of the visualization. Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio Read more or download here: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4180 NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Observation and visualization: reflections on the relationship between science, visual arts, and the evolution of the scientific image.

PubMed

Kolijn, Eveline

2013-10-01

The connections between biological sciences, art and printed images are of great interest to the author. She reflects on the historical relevance of visual representations for science. She argues that the connection between art and science seems to have diminished during the twentieth century. However, this connection is currently growing stronger again through digital media and new imaging methods. Scientific illustrations have fuelled art, while visual modeling tools have assisted scientific research. As a print media artist, she explores the relationship between art and science in her studio practice and will present this historical connection with examples related to evolution, microbiology and her own work. Art and science share a common source, which leads to scrutiny and enquiry. Science sets out to reveal and explain our reality, whereas art comments and makes connections that don't need to be tested by rigorous protocols. Art and science should each be evaluated on their own merit. Allowing room for both in the quest to understand our world will lead to an enriched experience.

Visualization and Enabling Science at PO.DAAC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tauer, E.; To, C.

2017-12-01

Facilitating the identification of appropriate data for scientific inquiry is important for efficient progress, but mechanisms for that identification vary, as does the effectiveness of those mechanisms. Appropriately crafted visualizations provide the means to quickly assess science data and scientific features, but providing the right visualization to the right application can present challenges. Even greater is the challenge of generating and/or re-constituting visualizations on the fly, particularly for large datasets. One avenue to mitigate the challenge is to arrive at an optimized intermediate data format that is tuned for rapid processing without sacrificing the provenance trace back to the original source data. This presentation will discuss the results of trading several current approaches towards an intermediate data format, and suggest a list of key attributes that will facilitate rapid visualization, and in the process, facilitate the identification of the right data for a given application.

Word aligned bitmap compression method, data structure, and apparatus

DOEpatents

Wu, Kesheng; Shoshani, Arie; Otoo, Ekow

2004-12-14

The Word-Aligned Hybrid (WAH) bitmap compression method and data structure is a relatively efficient method for searching and performing logical, counting, and pattern location operations upon large datasets. The technique is comprised of a data structure and methods that are optimized for computational efficiency by using the WAH compression method, which typically takes advantage of the target computing system's native word length. WAH is particularly apropos to infrequently varying databases, including those found in the on-line analytical processing (OLAP) industry, due to the increased computational efficiency of the WAH compressed bitmap index. Some commercial database products already include some version of a bitmap index, which could possibly be replaced by the WAH bitmap compression techniques for potentially increased operation speed, as well as increased efficiencies in constructing compressed bitmaps. Combined together, this technique may be particularly useful for real-time business intelligence. Additional WAH applications may include scientific modeling, such as climate and combustion simulations, to minimize search time for analysis and subsequent data visualization.

Scaffolding Learning from Molecular Visualizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Hsin-Yi; Linn, Marcia C.

2013-01-01

Powerful online visualizations can make unobservable scientific phenomena visible and improve student understanding. Instead, they often confuse or mislead students. To clarify the impact of molecular visualizations for middle school students we explored three design variations implemented in a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) unit on…

22 CFR 61.1 - Purpose.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... DEPARTMENT OF STATE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND EXCHANGES WORLD-WIDE FREE FLOW OF AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS § 61.1... educational, scientific and cultural audio-visual materials between nations by providing favorable import... issuance or authentication of a certificate that the audio-visual material for which favorable treatment is...

22 CFR 61.1 - Purpose.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... DEPARTMENT OF STATE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND EXCHANGES WORLD-WIDE FREE FLOW OF AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS § 61.1... educational, scientific and cultural audio-visual materials between nations by providing favorable import... issuance or authentication of a certificate that the audio-visual material for which favorable treatment is...

22 CFR 61.1 - Purpose.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... DEPARTMENT OF STATE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND EXCHANGES WORLD-WIDE FREE FLOW OF AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS § 61.1... educational, scientific and cultural audio-visual materials between nations by providing favorable import... issuance or authentication of a certificate that the audio-visual material for which favorable treatment is...

Supporting Students' Knowledge Integration with Technology-Enhanced Inquiry Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiu, Jennifer Lopseen

2010-01-01

Dynamic visualizations of scientific phenomena have the potential to transform how students learn and understand science. Dynamic visualizations enable interaction and experimentation with unobservable atomic-level phenomena. A series of studies clarify the conditions under which embedding dynamic visualizations in technology-enhanced inquiry…

Communicating Science Concepts to Individuals with Visual Impairments Using Short Learning Modules

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stender, Anthony S.; Newell, Ryan; Villarreal, Eduardo; Swearer, Dayne F.; Bianco, Elisabeth; Ringe, Emilie

2016-01-01

Of the 6.7 million individuals in the United States who are visually impaired, 63% are unemployed, and 59% have not attained an education beyond a high school diploma. Providing a basic science education to children and adults with visual disabilities can be challenging because most scientific learning relies on visual demonstrations. Creating…

Empirical Analysis of the Subjective Impressions and Objective Measures of Domain Scientists’ Analytical Judgment Using Visualizations

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

Dasgupta, Aritra; Burrows, Susannah M.; Han, Kyungsik

Scientists working in a particular domain often adhere to conventional data analysis and presentation methods and this leads to familiarity with these methods over time. But does high familiarity always lead to better analytical judgment? This question is especially relevant when visualizations are used in scientific tasks, as there can be discrepancies between visualization best practices and domain conventions. However, there is little empirical evidence of the relationships between scientists’ subjective impressions about familiar and unfamiliar visualizations and objective measures of their effect on scientific judgment. To address this gap and to study these factors, we focus on the climatemore » science domain, specifically on visualizations used for comparison of model performance. We present a comprehensive user study with 47 climate scientists where we explored the following factors: i) relationships between scientists’ familiarity, their perceived levels of com- fort, confidence, accuracy, and objective measures of accuracy, and ii) relationships among domain experience, visualization familiarity, and post-study preference.« less

Learning Science Through Visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chaudhury, S. Raj

2005-01-01

In the context of an introductory physical science course for non-science majors, I have been trying to understand how scientific visualizations of natural phenomena can constructively impact student learning. I have also necessarily been concerned with the instructional and assessment approaches that need to be considered when focusing on learning science through visually rich information sources. The overall project can be broken down into three distinct segments : (i) comparing students' abilities to demonstrate proportional reasoning competency on visual and verbal tasks (ii) decoding and deconstructing visualizations of an object falling under gravity (iii) the role of directed instruction to elicit alternate, valid scientific visualizations of the structure of the solar system. Evidence of student learning was collected in multiple forms for this project - quantitative analysis of student performance on written, graded assessments (tests and quizzes); qualitative analysis of videos of student 'think aloud' sessions. The results indicate that there are significant barriers for non-science majors to succeed in mastering the content of science courses, but with informed approaches to instruction and assessment, these barriers can be overcome.

Reducing the Analytical Bottleneck for Domain Scientists: Lessons from a Climate Data Visualization Case Study

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

Dasgupta, Aritra; Poco, Jorge; Bertini, Enrico

2016-01-01

The gap between large-scale data production rate and the rate of generation of data-driven scientific insights has led to an analytical bottleneck in scientific domains like climate, biology, etc. This is primarily due to the lack of innovative analytical tools that can help scientists efficiently analyze and explore alternative hypotheses about the data, and communicate their findings effectively to a broad audience. In this paper, by reflecting on a set of successful collaborative research efforts between with a group of climate scientists and visualization researchers, we introspect how interactive visualization can help reduce the analytical bottleneck for domain scientists.

Science From Beyond: NASA's Pioneer Plaque and the History of Interstellar Communication, 1957- 1972

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macauley, William

2012-05-01

In the late twentieth century, science and technology facilitated exploration beyond the Solar System and extended human knowledge through messages comprised of pictures and mathematical symbols, transmitted from radio telescopes and inscribed on material artifacts attached to spacecraft. ‘Interstellar communication' refers to collective efforts by scientists and co-workers to detect and transmit intelligible messages between humans and supposed extraterrestrial intelligence in remote star systems. Interstellar messages are designed to communicate universal knowledge without recourse to text, human linguistic systems or anthropomorphic content because it is assumed that recipients have no prior knowledge of humankind or the planet we inhabit. Scientists must therefore imagine how extraterrestrials will relate to human knowledge and culture. The production and transmission of interstellar messages became interdisciplinary design problems that involved collaboration and exchange of ideas between scientists, visual artists, and others. My proposed paper will review sociocultural aspects of interstellar communication since the late 1950s and focus on key issues regarding conception, design and production of a specific interstellar message launched into space during the early 1970s - NASA's Pioneer plaque. The paper will explore how research on the history of interstellar communication relates to previous historical and sociological studies on rhetorical aspects of visual representation and mathematics in scientific practice. In particular, I will explain how the notion of ‘inscription' is an appropriate conceptual tool for analyzing how scientists have used pictures to articulate and validate knowledge claims and scientific facts. I argue that scientific knowledge carried on interstellar messages such as the Pioneer plaque is constituted in material practices and inscription technologies that translate natural objects, agency and culture into legible forms. Graphical techniques for creating pictorial interstellar messages are enmeshed with contemporaneous methods for creating displays and images in routine scientific work, in fields such as radio astronomy and planetary science.

Visual-area coding technique (VACT): optical parallel implementation of fuzzy logic and its visualization with the digital-halftoning process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Konishi, Tsuyoshi; Tanida, Jun; Ichioka, Yoshiki

1995-06-01

A novel technique, the visual-area coding technique (VACT), for the optical implementation of fuzzy logic with the capability of visualization of the results is presented. This technique is based on the microfont method and is considered to be an instance of digitized analog optical computing. Huge amounts of data can be processed in fuzzy logic with the VACT. In addition, real-time visualization of the processed result can be accomplished.

Ocean Drilling Program: Publication Services

Science.gov Websites

before each cruise. Preliminary Report: A summary of the shipboard scientific results and technical detailed summary the scientific and engineering results from each leg including visual core descriptions

Visualization of planetary subsurface radar sounder data in three dimensions using stereoscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frigeri, A.; Federico, C.; Pauselli, C.; Ercoli, M.; Coradini, A.; Orosei, R.

2010-12-01

Planetary subsurface sounding radar data extend the knowledge of planetary surfaces to a third dimension: the depth. The interpretation of delays of radar echoes converted into depth often requires the comparative analysis with other data, mainly topography, and radar data from different orbits can be used to investigate the spatial continuity of signals from subsurface geologic features. This scenario requires taking into account spatially referred information in three dimensions. Three dimensional objects are generally easier to understand if represented into a three dimensional space, and this representation can be improved by stereoscopic vision. Since its invention in the first half of 19th century, stereoscopy has been used in a broad range of application, including scientific visualization. The quick improvement of computer graphics and the spread of graphic rendering hardware allow to apply the basic principles of stereoscopy in the digital domain, allowing the stereoscopic projection of complex models. Specialized system for stereoscopic view of scientific data have been available in the industry, and proprietary solutions were affordable only to large research institutions. In the last decade, thanks to the GeoWall Consortium, the basics of stereoscopy have been applied for setting up stereoscopic viewers based on off-the shelf hardware products. Geowalls have been spread and are now used by several geo-science research institutes and universities. We are exploring techniques for visualizing planetary subsurface sounding radar data in three dimensions and we are developing a hardware system for rendering it in a stereoscopic vision system. Several Free Open Source Software tools and libraries are being used, as their level of interoperability is typically high and their licensing system offers the opportunity to implement quickly new functionalities to solve specific needs during the progress of the project. Visualization of planetary radar data in three dimensions represents a challenging task, and the exploration of different strategies will bring to the selection of the most appropriate ones for a meaningful extraction of information from the products of these innovative instruments.

Fitting the Jigsaw of Citation: Information Visualization in Domain Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chaomei; Paul, Ray J.; O'Keefe, Bob

2001-01-01

Discusses the role of information visualization in modeling and representing intellectual structures associated with scientific disciplines and visualizes the domain of computer graphics based on bibliographic data from author cocitation patterns. Highlights include author cocitation maps, citation time lines, animation of a high-dimensional…

Improving Visual Communication.

PubMed

Singh, Gary

2018-01-01

A tool that creates realtime interactive color maps for scientific visualization helped enhance the dynamics of a major research project for the Climate, Ocean, and Sea Ice Modeling team at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Undergraduate Labs for Biological Physics: Brownian Motion and Optical Trapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, Kelvin; Laughney, A.; Williams, J.

2006-12-01

We describe a set of case-study driven labs for an upper-division biological physics course. These labs are motivated by case-studies and consist of inquiry-driven investigations of Brownian motion and optical-trapping experiments. Each lab incorporates two innovative educational techniques to drive the process and application aspects of scientific learning. Case studies are used to encourage students to think independently and apply the scientific method to a novel lab situation. Student input from this case study is then used to decide how to best do the measurement, guide the project and ultimately evaluate the success of the program. Where appropriate, visualization and simulation using VPython is used. Direct visualization of Brownian motion allows students to directly calculate Avogadro's number or the Boltzmann constant. Following case-study driven discussion, students use video microscopy to measure the motion of latex spheres in different viscosity fluids arrive at a good approximation of NA or kB. Optical trapping (laser tweezer) experiments allow students to investigate the consequences of 100-pN forces on small particles. The case study consists of a discussion of the Boltzmann distribution and equipartition theorem followed by a consideration of the shape of the potential. Students can then use video capture to measure the distribution of bead positions to determine the shape and depth of the trap. This work supported by NSF DUE-0536773.

Stereoscopy in Static Scientific Imagery in an Informal Education Setting: Does It Matter?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Price, C. Aaron; Lee, H.-S.; Malatesta, K.

2014-12-01

Stereoscopic technology (3D) is rapidly becoming ubiquitous across research, entertainment and informal educational settings. Children of today may grow up never knowing a time when movies, television and video games were not available stereoscopically. Despite this rapid expansion, the field's understanding of the impact of stereoscopic visualizations on learning is rather limited. Much of the excitement of stereoscopic technology could be due to a novelty effect, which will wear off over time. This study controlled for the novelty factor using a variety of techniques. On the floor of an urban science center, 261 children were shown 12 photographs and visualizations of highly spatial scientific objects and scenes. The images were randomly shown in either traditional (2D) format or in stereoscopic format. The children were asked two questions of each image—one about a spatial property of the image and one about a real-world application of that property. At the end of the test, the child was asked to draw from memory the last image they saw. Results showed no overall significant difference in response to the questions associated with 2D or 3D images. However, children who saw the final slide only in 3D drew more complex representations of the slide than those who did not. Results are discussed through the lenses of cognitive load theory and the effect of novelty on engagement.

Cognitive Foundations for Visual Analytics

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

Greitzer, Frank L.; Noonan, Christine F.; Franklin, Lyndsey

In this report, we provide an overview of scientific/technical literature on information visualization and VA. Topics discussed include an update and overview of the extensive literature search conducted for this study, the nature and purpose of the field, major research thrusts, and scientific foundations. We review methodologies for evaluating and measuring the impact of VA technologies as well as taxonomies that have been proposed for various purposes to support the VA community. A cognitive science perspective underlies each of these discussions.

Scientific Data Management Center for Enabling Technologies

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

Vouk, Mladen A.

Managing scientific data has been identified by the scientific community as one of the most important emerging needs because of the sheer volume and increasing complexity of data being collected. Effectively generating, managing, and analyzing this information requires a comprehensive, end-to-end approach to data management that encompasses all of the stages from the initial data acquisition to the final analysis of the data. Fortunately, the data management problems encountered by most scientific domains are common enough to be addressed through shared technology solutions. Based on community input, we have identified three significant requirements. First, more efficient access to storage systemsmore » is needed. In particular, parallel file system and I/O system improvements are needed to write and read large volumes of data without slowing a simulation, analysis, or visualization engine. These processes are complicated by the fact that scientific data are structured differently for specific application domains, and are stored in specialized file formats. Second, scientists require technologies to facilitate better understanding of their data, in particular the ability to effectively perform complex data analysis and searches over extremely large data sets. Specialized feature discovery and statistical analysis techniques are needed before the data can be understood or visualized. Furthermore, interactive analysis requires techniques for efficiently selecting subsets of the data. Finally, generating the data, collecting and storing the results, keeping track of data provenance, data post-processing, and analysis of results is a tedious, fragmented process. Tools for automation of this process in a robust, tractable, and recoverable fashion are required to enhance scientific exploration. The SDM center was established under the SciDAC program to address these issues. The SciDAC-1 Scientific Data Management (SDM) Center succeeded in bringing an initial set of advanced data management technologies to DOE application scientists in astrophysics, climate, fusion, and biology. Equally important, it established collaborations with these scientists to better understand their science as well as their forthcoming data management and data analytics challenges. Building on our early successes, we have greatly enhanced, robustified, and deployed our technology to these communities. In some cases, we identified new needs that have been addressed in order to simplify the use of our technology by scientists. This report summarizes our work so far in SciDAC-2. Our approach is to employ an evolutionary development and deployment process: from research through prototypes to deployment and infrastructure. Accordingly, we have organized our activities in three layers that abstract the end-to-end data flow described above. We labeled the layers (from bottom to top): a) Storage Efficient Access (SEA), b) Data Mining and Analysis (DMA), c) Scientific Process Automation (SPA). The SEA layer is immediately on top of hardware, operating systems, file systems, and mass storage systems, and provides parallel data access technology, and transparent access to archival storage. The DMA layer, which builds on the functionality of the SEA layer, consists of indexing, feature identification, and parallel statistical analysis technology. The SPA layer, which is on top of the DMA layer, provides the ability to compose scientific workflows from the components in the DMA layer as well as application specific modules. NCSU work performed under this contract was primarily at the SPA layer.« less

Can Dynamic Visualizations Improve Middle School Students' Understanding of Energy in Photosynthesis?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryoo, Kihyun; Linn, Marcia C.

2012-01-01

Dynamic visualizations have the potential to make abstract scientific phenomena more accessible and visible to students, but they can also be confusing and difficult to comprehend. This research investigates how dynamic visualizations, compared to static illustrations, can support middle school students in developing an integrated understanding of…

The Elicitation Interview Technique: Capturing People's Experiences of Data Representations.

PubMed

Hogan, Trevor; Hinrichs, Uta; Hornecker, Eva

2016-12-01

Information visualization has become a popular tool to facilitate sense-making, discovery and communication in a large range of professional and casual contexts. However, evaluating visualizations is still a challenge. In particular, we lack techniques to help understand how visualizations are experienced by people. In this paper we discuss the potential of the Elicitation Interview technique to be applied in the context of visualization. The Elicitation Interview is a method for gathering detailed and precise accounts of human experience. We argue that it can be applied to help understand how people experience and interpret visualizations as part of exploration and data analysis processes. We describe the key characteristics of this interview technique and present a study we conducted to exemplify how it can be applied to evaluate data representations. Our study illustrates the types of insights this technique can bring to the fore, for example, evidence for deep interpretation of visual representations and the formation of interpretations and stories beyond the represented data. We discuss general visualization evaluation scenarios where the Elicitation Interview technique may be beneficial and specify what needs to be considered when applying this technique in a visualization context specifically.

FUn: a framework for interactive visualizations of large, high-dimensional datasets on the web.

PubMed

Probst, Daniel; Reymond, Jean-Louis

2018-04-15

During the past decade, big data have become a major tool in scientific endeavors. Although statistical methods and algorithms are well-suited for analyzing and summarizing enormous amounts of data, the results do not allow for a visual inspection of the entire data. Current scientific software, including R packages and Python libraries such as ggplot2, matplotlib and plot.ly, do not support interactive visualizations of datasets exceeding 100 000 data points on the web. Other solutions enable the web-based visualization of big data only through data reduction or statistical representations. However, recent hardware developments, especially advancements in graphical processing units, allow for the rendering of millions of data points on a wide range of consumer hardware such as laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Similar to the challenges and opportunities brought to virtually every scientific field by big data, both the visualization of and interaction with copious amounts of data are both demanding and hold great promise. Here we present FUn, a framework consisting of a client (Faerun) and server (Underdark) module, facilitating the creation of web-based, interactive 3D visualizations of large datasets, enabling record level visual inspection. We also introduce a reference implementation providing access to SureChEMBL, a database containing patent information on more than 17 million chemical compounds. The source code and the most recent builds of Faerun and Underdark, Lore.js and the data preprocessing toolchain used in the reference implementation, are available on the project website (http://doc.gdb.tools/fun/). daniel.probst@dcb.unibe.ch or jean-louis.reymond@dcb.unibe.ch.

New trend in electron holography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanigaki, Toshiaki; Harada, Ken; Murakami, Yasukazu; Niitsu, Kodai; Akashi, Tetsuya; Takahashi, Yoshio; Sugawara, Akira; Shindo, Daisuke

2016-06-01

Electron holography using a coherent electron wave is a promising technique for high-resolution visualization of electromagnetic fields in and around objects. The capability of electron holography has been enhanced by the development of new technologies and has thus become an even more powerful tool for exploring scientific frontiers. This review introduces these technologies including split-illumination electron holography and vector-field electron tomography. Split-illumination electron holography, which uses separated coherent waves, overcomes the limits imposed by the lateral coherence requirement for electron waves in electron holography. Areas that are difficult to observe using conventional electron holography are now observable. Exemplified applications include observing a singular magnetic domain wall in electrical steel sheets, local magnetizations at anti-phase boundaries, and electrostatic potentials in metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors. Vector-field electron tomography can be used to visualize magnetic vectors in three dimensions. Two components of the vectors are reconstructed using dual-axis tomography, and the remaining one is calculated using div B   =  0. A high-voltage electron microscope can be used to achieve precise magnetic reconstruction. For example, magnetic vortices have been visualized using a 1 MV holography electron microscope.

What precision-protein-tuning and nano-resolved single molecule sciences can do for each other.

PubMed

Milles, Sigrid; Lemke, Edward A

2013-01-01

While innovations in modern microscopy, spectroscopy, and nanoscopy techniques have made single molecule observation a standard in many laboratories, the actual design of meaningful fluorescence reporter systems now hinders major scientific breakthroughs. Even though the field of chemical biology is supercharging the fluorescence toolbox, surprisingly few strategies exist that make the transition from model systems to biologically relevant applications. At the same time, the number of microscopy techniques is growing dramatically. We explain our view on how the impact of modern technologies is influenced not only by further hard- and software developments, but also by the availability and suitability of protein-engineering tools. We identify how the largely independent research fields of chemical biology and fluorescence nanoscopy can influence each other to synergistically drive future technology that can visualize the localization, structure, and dynamics of molecular function without constraints. Copyright © 2013 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.

Nondestructive Analysis of Apollo Samples by Micro-CT and Micro-XRF Analysis: A PET Style Examination

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zeigler, Ryan A.

2014-01-01

An integral part of any sample return mission is the initial description and classification of returned samples by the preliminary examination team (PET). The goal of a PET is to characterize and classify the returned samples, making this information available to the general research community who can then conduct more in-depth studies on the samples. A PET strives to minimize the impact their work has on the sample suite, which often limits the PET work to largely visual measurements and observations like optical microscopy. More modern techniques can also be utilized by future PET to nondestructively characterize astromaterials in a more rigorous way. Here we present our recent analyses of Apollo samples 14321 and 14305 by micro-CT and micro-XRF (respectively), assess the potential for discovery of "new" Apollo samples for scientific study, and evaluate the usefulness of these techniques in future PET efforts.

BEYOND THE PRINT—VIRTUAL PALEONTOLOGY IN SCIENCE PUBLISHING, OUTREACH, AND EDUCATION

PubMed Central

LAUTENSCHLAGER, STEPHAN; RÜCKLIN, MARTIN

2015-01-01

Virtual paleontology unites a variety of computational techniques and methods for the visualization and analysis of fossils. Due to their great potential and increasing availability, these methods have become immensely popular in the last decade. However, communicating the wealth of digital information and results produced by the various techniques is still exacerbated by traditional methods of publication. Transferring and processing three-dimensional information, such as interactive models or animations, into scientific publications still poses a challenge. Here, we present different methods and applications to communicate digital data in academia, outreach and education. Three-dimensional PDFs, QR codes, anaglyph stereo imaging, and rapid prototyping—methods routinely used in the engineering, entertainment, or medical industries—are outlined and evaluated for their potential in science publishing and public engagement. Although limitations remain, these are simple, mostly cost-effective, and powerful tools to create novel and innovative resources for education, public engagement, or outreach. PMID:26306051

Molecular expressions: exploring the world of optics and microscopy. http://microscopy.fsu.edu.

PubMed

Eliceiri, Kevin W

2004-08-01

Our knowledge of the structure, dynamics and physiology of a cell has increased significantly in the last ten years through the emergence of new optical imaging modalities such as optical sectioning microscopy, computer- enhanced video microscopy and laser-scanning microscopy. These techniques together with the use of genetically engineered fluorophores have helped scientists visualize the 3-dimensional dynamic processes of living cells. However as powerful as these imaging tools are, they can often be difficult to understand and fully utilize. Below I will discuss my favorite website: The Molecular Expressions Web Site that endeavors to present the power of microscopy to its visitors. The Molecular Expressions group does a remarkable job of not only clearly presenting the principles behind these techniques in a manner approachable by lay and scientific audiences alike but also provides representative data from each as well.

Five scientists at Johns Hopkins in the modern evolution of neuroscience.

PubMed

Harrison, T S

2000-08-01

Neuroscience's evolution at Johns Hopkins, from neurophysiology to the new field of neurobiology, though unplanned, was rapid and important. Beginning in 1933 when Philip Bard became professor of physiology at Johns Hopkins, members of his department concentrated initially on neuroanatomical control of placing reactions and sexual activity. Vernon Mountcastle, extending available techniques, discovered vertical somato-sensory columns in the 1950's. Stephen Kuffler, who arrived at Hopkins in 1947, was a pioneer in single unit microelectrode recording techniques. He soon attracted scientists from all over the world to his laboratory. Among them, Torsten Wiesel and David Hubel discovered vertical neuronal columns in the visual cortex. During several decades at Johns Hopkins, these five scientists set extremely high scientific standards and established a climate of inquiry in which ideas were shared and young scientists encouraged. They contributed significantly to the emerging discipline of neuroscience.

Relevance of tissue Doppler in the quantification of stress echocardiography for the detection of myocardial ischemia in clinical practice

PubMed Central

Sicari, Rosa

2005-01-01

In the present article we review the main published data on the application of Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) to stress echocardiography for the detection of myocardial ischemia. TDI has been applied to stress echocardiography in order to overcome the limitations of visual analysis for myocardial ischemia. The introduction of a new technology for clinical routine use should pass through the different phases of scientific assessment from feasibility studies to large multicenter studies, from efficacy to effectiveness studies. Nonetheless the pro-technology bias plays a major role in medicine and expensive and sophisticated techniques are accepted before their real usefulness and incremental value to the available ones is assessed. Apparently, TDI is not exempted by this approach : its applications are not substantiated by strong and sound results. Nonetheless, conventional stress echocardiography for myocardial ischemia detection is heavily criticized on the basis of its subjectivity. Stress echocardiography has a long lasting history and the evidence collected over 20 years positioned it as an established tool for the detection and prognostication of coronary artery disease. The quantitative assessment of myocardial ischemia remains a scientific challenge and a clinical goal but time has not come for these newer ultrasonographic techniques which should be restricted to research laboratories. PMID:15679889

Accessing and visualizing scientific spatiotemporal data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Katz, Daniel S.; Bergou, Attila; Berriman, G. Bruce; Block, Gary L.; Collier, Jim; Curkendall, David W.; Good, John; Husman, Laura; Jacob, Joseph C.; Laity, Anastasia;

Sculpting in cyberspace: Parallel processing the development of new software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fisher, Rob

1993-01-01

Stimulating creativity in problem solving, particularly where software development is involved, is applicable to many disciplines. Metaphorical thinking keeps the problem in focus but in a different light, jarring people out of their mental ruts and sparking fresh insights. It forces the mind to stretch to find patterns between dissimilar concepts, in the hope of discovering unusual ideas in odd associations (Technology Review January 1993, p. 37). With a background in Engineering and Visual Design from MIT, I have for the past 30 years pursued a career as a sculptor of interdisciplinary monumental artworks that bridge the fields of science, engineering and art. Since 1979, I have pioneered the application of computer simulation to solve the complex problems associated with these projects. A recent project for the roof of the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh made particular use of the metaphoric creativity technique described above. The problem-solving process led to the creation of hybrid software combining scientific, architectural and engineering visualization techniques. David Steich, a Doctoral Candidate in Electrical Engineering at Penn State, was commissioned to develop special software that enabled me to create innovative free-form sculpture. This paper explores the process of inventing the software through a detailed analysis of the interaction between an artist and a computer programmer.

Caroline Furness and the Evolution of Visual Variable Star Observing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Larsen, Kristine

2017-01-01

An Introduction to the Study of Variable Stars by Dr. Caroline Ellen Furness (1869-1936), Director of the Vassar College Observatory, was published in October 2015. Issued in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Vassar College, the work was meant to fill a void in the literature, namely as both an introduction to the topic of variable stars as well as a manual explaining how they should be observed and the resulting data analyzed. It was judged to be one of the hundred best books written by an American woman in the last hundred years at the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. The book covers the relevant history of and background on types of variable stars, star charts, catalogs, and the magnitude scale, then describes observing techniques, including visual, photographic, and photoelectric photometry. The work finishes with a discussion of light curves and patterns of variability, with a special emphasis on eclipsing binaries and long period variables. Furness’s work is therefore a valuable snapshot of the state of astronomical knowledge, technology, and observing techniques from a century ago. Furness’s book and its reception in the scientific community are analyzed, and parallels with (and departures from) the current advice given by the AAVSO to beginning variable star observers today are highlighted.

Training the intelligent eye: understanding illustrations in early modern astronomy texts.

PubMed

Crowther, Kathleen M; Barker, Peter

2013-09-01

Throughout the early modern period, the most widely read astronomical textbooks were Johannes de Sacrobosco's De sphaera and the Theorica planetarum, ultimately in the new form introduced by Georg Peurbach. This essay argues that the images in these texts were intended to develop an "intelligent eye." Students were trained to transform representations of specific heavenly phenomena into moving mental images of the structure of the cosmos. Only by learning the techniques of mental visualization and manipulation could the student "see" in the mind's eye the structure and motions of the cosmos. While anyone could look up at the heavens, only those who had acquired the intelligent eye could comprehend the divinely created order of the universe. Further, the essay demonstrates that the visual program of the Sphaera and Theorica texts played a significant and hitherto unrecognized role in later scientific work. Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler all utilized the same types of images in their own texts to explicate their ideas about the cosmos.

Attention, automaticity, and awareness in synesthesia.

PubMed

Mattingley, Jason B

2009-03-01

The phenomenon of synesthesia has occupied the thoughts of philosophers and artists for decades. With the advent modern behavioral and brain imaging techniques, scientific research on synesthesia has also moved into the mainstream of thought. Here I provide a cognitive neuroscience perspective on the condition, with a particular emphasis on grapheme-color synesthesia, the most common variant, in which individuals report vivid and consistent experiences of color in association with numerals, letters, and words. Behavioral studies have revealed several fundamental properties of induced synesthetic colors. First, although they seem to arise automatically, without the need for voluntary control, they are strongly modulated by selective attention. Second, they attain salience relatively early in visual processing, and so can influence perceptual judgments and guide focal attention in cluttered, achromatic displays. Third, brain activity during synesthetic color experiences arises from within the ventral temporal lobe, including color-selective area V4. It has been speculated that grapheme-color synesthesia arises from disinhibited feedback or abnormal cross-wiring between brain regions involved in extracting visual form and color.

Workshop on Molecular Animation

PubMed Central

Bromberg, Sarina; Chiu, Wah; Ferrin, Thomas E.

2011-01-01

Summary February 25–26, 2010, in San Francisco, the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization and Informatics (RBVI) and the National Center for Macromolecular Imaging (NCMI) hosted a molecular animation workshop for 21 structural biologists, molecular animators, and creators of molecular visualization software. Molecular animation aims to visualize scientific understanding of biomolecular processes and structures. The primary goal of the workshop was to identify the necessary tools for: producing high quality molecular animations, understanding complex molecular and cellular structures, creating publication supplementary materials and conference presentations, and teaching science to students and the public. Another use of molecular animation emerged in the workshop: helping to focus scientific inquiry about the motions of molecules and enhancing informal communication within and between laboratories. PMID:20947014

Three-dimensional user interfaces for scientific visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanDam, Andries (Principal Investigator)

1996-01-01

The focus of this grant was to experiment with novel user interfaces for scientific visualization applications using both desktop and virtual reality (VR) systems, and thus to advance the state of the art of user interface technology for this domain. This technology has been transferred to NASA via periodic status reports and papers relating to this grant that have been published in conference proceedings. This final report summarizes the research completed over the past three years, and subsumes all prior reports.

Visualizing time: how linguistic metaphors are incorporated into displaying instruments in the process of interpreting time-varying signals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia-Belmonte, Germà

2017-06-01

Spatial visualization is a well-established topic of education research that has allowed improving science and engineering students' skills on spatial relations. Connections have been established between visualization as a comprehension tool and instruction in several scientific fields. Learning about dynamic processes mainly relies upon static spatial representations or images. Visualization of time is inherently problematic because time can be conceptualized in terms of two opposite conceptual metaphors based on spatial relations as inferred from conventional linguistic patterns. The situation is particularly demanding when time-varying signals are recorded using displaying electronic instruments, and the image should be properly interpreted. This work deals with the interplay between linguistic metaphors, visual thinking and scientific instrument mediation in the process of interpreting time-varying signals displayed by electronic instruments. The analysis draws on a simplified version of a communication system as example of practical signal recording and image visualization in a physics and engineering laboratory experience. Instrumentation delivers meaningful signal representations because it is designed to incorporate a specific and culturally favored time view. It is suggested that difficulties in interpreting time-varying signals are linked with the existing dual perception of conflicting time metaphors. The activation of specific space-time conceptual mapping might allow for a proper signal interpretation. Instruments play then a central role as visualization mediators by yielding an image that matches specific perception abilities and practical purposes. Here I have identified two ways of understanding time as used in different trajectories through which students are located. Interestingly specific displaying instruments belonging to different cultural traditions incorporate contrasting time views. One of them sees time in terms of a dynamic metaphor consisting of a static observer looking at passing events. This is a general and widespread practice common in the contemporary mass culture, which lies behind the process of making sense to moving images usually visualized by means of movie shots. In contrast scientific culture favored another way of time conceptualization (static time metaphor) that historically fostered the construction of graphs and the incorporation of time-dependent functions, as represented on the Cartesian plane, into displaying instruments. Both types of cultures, scientific and mass, are considered highly technological in the sense that complex instruments, apparatus or machines participate in their visual practices.

Developing Scientific Reasoning Through Drawing Cross-Sections

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hannula, K. A.

2012-12-01

Cross-sections and 3D models of subsurface geology are typically based on incomplete information (whether surface geologic mapping, well logs, or geophysical data). Creating and evaluating those models requires spatial and quantitative thinking skills (including penetrative thinking, understanding of horizontality, mental rotation and animation, and scaling). However, evaluating the reasonableness of a cross-section or 3D structural model also requires consideration of multiple possible geometries and geologic histories. Teaching students to create good models requires application of the scientific methods of the geosciences (such as evaluation of multiple hypotheses and combining evidence from multiple techniques). Teaching these critical thinking skills, especially combined with teaching spatial thinking skills, is challenging. My Structural Geology and Advanced Structural Geology courses have taken two different approaches to developing both the abilities to visualize and to test multiple models. In the final project in Structural Geology (a 3rd year course with a pre-requisite sophomore mapping course), students create a viable cross-section across part of the Wyoming thrust belt by hand, based on a published 1:62,500 geologic map. The cross-section must meet a number of geometric criteria (such as the template constraint), but is not required to balance. Each student tries many potential geometries while trying to find a viable solution. In most cases, the students don't visualize the implications of the geometries that they try, but have to draw them and then erase their work if it does not meet the criteria for validity. The Advanced Structural Geology course used Midland Valley's Move suite to test the cross-sections that they made in Structural Geology, mostly using the flexural slip unfolding algorithm and testing whether the resulting line lengths balanced. In both exercises, students seemed more confident in the quality of their cross-sections when the sections were easy to visualize. Students in Structural Geology are proud of their cross-sections once they were inked and colored. Students in Advanced Structural Geology were confident in their digitized cross-sections, even before they had tried to balance them or had tested whether they were kinematically plausible. In both cases, visually attractive models seemed easier to believe. Three-dimensional models seemed even more convincing: if students could visualize the model, they also thought it should work geometrically and kinematically, whether they had tested it or not. Students were more inclined to test their models when they had a clear set of criteria that would indicate success or failure. However, future development of new ideas about the kinematic and/or mechanical development of structures may force the students to also decide which criteria fit their problem the best. Combining both kinds of critical thinking (evaluating techniques and evaluating their results) in the same assignment may be challenging.

SOCR "Motion Charts": An Efficient, Open-Source, Interactive and Dynamic Applet for Visualizing Longitudinal Multivariate Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Aziz, Jameel; Christou, Nicolas; Dinov, Ivo D.

2010-01-01

The amount, complexity and provenance of data have dramatically increased in the past five years. Visualization of observed and simulated data is a critical component of any social, environmental, biomedical or scientific quest. Dynamic, exploratory and interactive visualization of multivariate data, without preprocessing by dimensionality…

Visualization as an Aid to Problem-Solving: Examples from History.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rieber, Lloyd P.

This paper presents a historical overview of visualization as a human problem-solving tool. Visualization strategies, such as mental imagery, pervade historical accounts of scientific discovery and invention. A selected number of historical examples are presented and discussed on a wide range of topics such as physics, aviation, and the science of…

76 FR 51914 - Duty-Free Treatment of Certain Visual and Auditory Materials

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-19

...(b) that the proposed amendments, if adopted, will not have a significant economic impact on a... CFR Parts 10 and 163 [USCBP-2011-0030] RIN 1515-AD75 Duty-Free Treatment of Certain Visual and... required for duty-free treatment of certain visual and auditory materials of an educational, scientific, or...

Accommodating Scientific Illiteracy: Award-Winning Visualizations on the Covers of "Science"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gigante, Maria E.

2012-01-01

The International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, recently established by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is an alleged attempt at public outreach. The NSF encourages scientists to submit visualizations that would appeal to non-expert audiences by displaying their work in an annual "special feature" in "Science" magazine,…

[Recent developments on the scientific research in optometry and visual science in China].

PubMed

Qu, Jia

2010-10-01

The current text reviewed the situation of the scientific research in the field of Optometry and visual sciences in the recent 5 to 6 years in our country. It showed the advancement and achievement in the myopic fundamental research and the application research of visual science. In addition, it also analyzed the guidance of research in solving the clinical visual issues and the significance of community service of research in eye care in public. This text indicated by the concrete current situation and the result data of research that the biology and optics, the double property of the eye endowed the distinguished feature to the research in Ophthalmology and Optometry, and that the cross cooperation of multidisciplinary promoted the innovation in the fields of Optometry and visual research. In future, the fields of Optometry and visual science in China will face up to more and more anticipations of the original and systematic research. The prophylaxis and treatment of myopia would be still a long-term and rough exploration theme in these fields.

Art-Science-Technology collaboration through immersive, interactive 3D visualization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kellogg, L. H.

2014-12-01

At the W. M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in Earth Sciences (KeckCAVES), a group of geoscientists and computer scientists collaborate to develop and use of interactive, immersive, 3D visualization technology to view, manipulate, and interpret data for scientific research. The visual impact of immersion in a CAVE environment can be extremely compelling, and from the outset KeckCAVES scientists have collaborated with artists to bring this technology to creative works, including theater and dance performance, installations, and gamification. The first full-fledged collaboration designed and produced a performance called "Collapse: Suddenly falling down", choreographed by Della Davidson, which investigated the human and cultural response to natural and man-made disasters. Scientific data (lidar scans of disaster sites, such as landslides and mine collapses) were fully integrated into the performance by the Sideshow Physical Theatre. This presentation will discuss both the technological and creative characteristics of, and lessons learned from the collaboration. Many parallels between the artistic and scientific process emerged. We observed that both artists and scientists set out to investigate a topic, solve a problem, or answer a question. Refining that question or problem is an essential part of both the creative and scientific workflow. Both artists and scientists seek understanding (in this case understanding of natural disasters). Differences also emerged; the group noted that the scientists sought clarity (including but not limited to quantitative measurements) as a means to understanding, while the artists embraced ambiguity, also as a means to understanding. Subsequent art-science-technology collaborations have responded to evolving technology for visualization and include gamification as a means to explore data, and use of augmented reality for informal learning in museum settings.

Presentation-Oriented Visualization Techniques.

PubMed

Kosara, Robert

2016-01-01

Data visualization research focuses on data exploration and analysis, yet the vast majority of visualizations people see were created for a different purpose: presentation. Whether we are talking about charts showing data to help make a presenter's point, data visuals created to accompany a news story, or the ubiquitous infographics, many more people consume charts than make them. Traditional visualization techniques treat presentation as an afterthought, but are there techniques uniquely suited to data presentation but not necessarily ideal for exploration and analysis? This article focuses on presentation-oriented techniques, considering their usefulness for presentation first and any other purposes as secondary.

Porting the AVS/Express scientific visualization software to Cray XT4.

PubMed

Leaver, George W; Turner, Martin J; Perrin, James S; Mummery, Paul M; Withers, Philip J

2011-08-28

Remote scientific visualization, where rendering services are provided by larger scale systems than are available on the desktop, is becoming increasingly important as dataset sizes increase beyond the capabilities of desktop workstations. Uptake of such services relies on access to suitable visualization applications and the ability to view the resulting visualization in a convenient form. We consider five rules from the e-Science community to meet these goals with the porting of a commercial visualization package to a large-scale system. The application uses message-passing interface (MPI) to distribute data among data processing and rendering processes. The use of MPI in such an interactive application is not compatible with restrictions imposed by the Cray system being considered. We present details, and performance analysis, of a new MPI proxy method that allows the application to run within the Cray environment yet still support MPI communication required by the application. Example use cases from materials science are considered.

Enabling scientific workflows in virtual reality

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kreylos, O.; Bawden, G.; Bernardin, T.; Billen, M.I.; Cowgill, E.S.; Gold, R.D.; Hamann, B.; Jadamec, M.; Kellogg, L.H.; Staadt, O.G.; Sumner, D.Y.

2006-01-01

To advance research and improve the scientific return on data collection and interpretation efforts in the geosciences, we have developed methods of interactive visualization, with a special focus on immersive virtual reality (VR) environments. Earth sciences employ a strongly visual approach to the measurement and analysis of geologic data due to the spatial and temporal scales over which such data ranges, As observations and simulations increase in size and complexity, the Earth sciences are challenged to manage and interpret increasing amounts of data. Reaping the full intellectual benefits of immersive VR requires us to tailor exploratory approaches to scientific problems. These applications build on the visualization method's strengths, using both 3D perception and interaction with data and models, to take advantage of the skills and training of the geological scientists exploring their data in the VR environment. This interactive approach has enabled us to develop a suite of tools that are adaptable to a range of problems in the geosciences and beyond. Copyright ?? 2008 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.

The Heliosphere in Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frisch, P. C.; Hanson, A. J.; Fu, P. C.

2008-12-01

A scientifically accurate visualization of the Journey of the Sun through deep space has been created in order to share the excitement of heliospheric physics and scientific discovery with the non-expert. The MHD heliosphere model of Linde (1998) displays the interaction of the solar wind with the interstellar medium for a supersonic heliosphere traveling through a low density magnetized interstellar medium. The camera viewpoint follows the solar motion through a virtual space of the Milky Way Galaxy. This space is constructed from real data placed in the three-dimensional solar neighborhood, and populated with Hipparcos stars in front of a precisely aligned image of the Milky Way itself. The celestial audio track of this three minute movie includes the music of the heliosphere, heard by the two Voyager satellites as 3 kHz emissions from the edge of the heliosphere. This short heliosphere visualization can be downloaded from http://www.cs.indiana.edu/~soljourn/pub/AstroBioScene7Sound.mov, and the full scientific data visualization of the Solar Journey is available commercially.

Scientific Visualization Tools for Enhancement of Undergraduate Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez, W. J.; Chaudhury, S. R.

2001-05-01

Undergraduate research projects that utilize remote sensing satellite instrument data to investigate atmospheric phenomena pose many challenges. A significant challenge is processing large amounts of multi-dimensional data. Remote sensing data initially requires mining; filtering of undesirable spectral, instrumental, or environmental features; and subsequently sorting and reformatting to files for easy and quick access. The data must then be transformed according to the needs of the investigation(s) and displayed for interpretation. These multidimensional datasets require views that can range from two-dimensional plots to multivariable-multidimensional scientific visualizations with animations. Science undergraduate students generally find these data processing tasks daunting. Generally, researchers are required to fully understand the intricacies of the dataset and write computer programs or rely on commercially available software, which may not be trivial to use. In the time that undergraduate researchers have available for their research projects, learning the data formats, programming languages, and/or visualization packages is impractical. When dealing with large multi-dimensional data sets appropriate Scientific Visualization tools are imperative in allowing students to have a meaningful and pleasant research experience, while producing valuable scientific research results. The BEST Lab at Norfolk State University has been creating tools for multivariable-multidimensional analysis of Earth Science data. EzSAGE and SAGE4D have been developed to sort, analyze and visualize SAGE II (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment) data with ease. Three- and four-dimensional visualizations in interactive environments can be produced. EzSAGE provides atmospheric slices in three-dimensions where the researcher can change the scales in the three-dimensions, color tables and degree of smoothing interactively to focus on particular phenomena. SAGE4D provides a navigable four-dimensional interactive environment. These tools allow students to make higher order decisions based on large multidimensional sets of data while diminishing the level of frustration that results from dealing with the details of processing large data sets.

Auralization of CFD Vorticity Using an Auditory Illusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Volpe, C. R.

2005-12-01

One way in which scientists and engineers interpret large quantities of data is through a process called visualization, i.e. generating graphical images that capture essential characteristics and highlight interesting relationships. Another approach, which has received far less attention, is to present complex information with sound. This approach, called ``auralization" or ``sonification", is the auditory analog of visualization. Early work in data auralization frequently involved directly mapping some variable in the data to a sound parameter, such as pitch or volume. Multi-variate data could be auralized by mapping several variables to several sound parameters simultaneously. A clear drawback of this approach is the limited practical range of sound parameters that can be presented to human listeners without exceeding their range of perception or comfort. A software auralization system built upon an existing visualization system is briefly described. This system incorporates an aural presentation synchronously and interactively with an animated scientific visualization, so that alternate auralization techniques can be investigated. One such alternate technique involves auditory illusions: sounds which trick the listener into perceiving something other than what is actually being presented. This software system will be used to present an auditory illusion, known for decades among cognitive psychologists, which produces a sound that seems to ascend or descend endlessly in pitch. The applicability of this illusion for presenting Computational Fluid Dynamics data will be demonstrated. CFD data is frequently visualized with thin stream-lines, but thicker stream-ribbons and stream-tubes can also be used, which rotate to convey fluid vorticity. But a purely graphical presentation can yield drawbacks of its own. Thicker stream-tubes can be self-obscuring, and can obscure other scene elements as well, thus motivating a different approach, such as using sound. Naturally, the simple approach of mapping clockwise and counterclockwise rotations to actual pitch increases and decreases, eventually results in sounds that the listener cannot hear. In this alternate presentation using an auditory illusion, repeated rotations of a stream-tube are replaced with continual increases or decreases in apparent pitch. These apparent pitch changes can continue without bound, yet never exceed the range of frequencies that the listener can hear. The effectiveness of this presentation technique has been studied, and empirical results, obtained through formal user testing and statistical analysis, are presented. These results demonstrate that an aural data presentation using an auditory illusion can improve performance in locating key data characteristics, a task that demonstrates a certain level of understanding of the data. The experiments show that this holds true even when the user expresses a subjective preference and greater confidence in a visual presentation. The CFD data used in the research comes from a number of different industrial domains, but the advantages of this technique could be equally applicable to the study of earth sciences involving fluid mechanics, such as atmospheric or ocean sciences. Furthermore, the approach is applicable not only to CFD data, but to any type of data in which a quantity that is cyclic in nature, such as orientation, needs to be presented. Although the techniques and tools were originally developed with scientists and engineers in mind, they can also be used to aid students, particularly those who are visually impaired or who have difficulty interpreting certain spatial relationships visually.

Estimating Starch Content in Roots of Deciduous Trees--A Visual Technique

Treesearch

Philip M. Wargo; Philip M. Wargo

1975-01-01

A visual technique for determining starch content in roots of forest trees, based onz iodine-staining of starch granules, was compared with a chemical method. Although the chemical method was more precise, roots could be sorted with the visual method into groups that are probably biologically important. The visual technique is simple and can be adapted for use in the...

[Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy - short form of the German guideline].

PubMed

Lindner, O; Burchert, W; Hacker, M; Schaefer, W; Schmidt, M; Schober, O; Schwaiger, M; vom Dahl, J; Zimmermann, R; Schäfers, M

2013-01-01

This guideline is a short summary of the guideline for myocardial perfusion scintigraphy published by the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Ger-many (AWMF). The purpose of this guideline is to provide practical assistance for indication and examination procedures as well as image analysis and to present the state-of-the-art of myocardial-perfusion-scintigraphy. After a short introduction on the fundamentals of imaging, precise and detailed information is given on the indications, patient preparation, stress testing, radiopharmaceuticals, examination protocols and techniques, radiation exposure, data reconstruction as well as information on visual and quantitative image analysis and interpretation. In addition possible pitfalls, artefacts and key elements of reporting are described.

Scientific Process Flowchart Assessment (SPFA): A Method for Evaluating Changes in Understanding and Visualization of the Scientific Process in a Multidisciplinary Student Population

PubMed Central

Wilson, Kristy J.; Rigakos, Bessie

2016-01-01

The scientific process is nonlinear, unpredictable, and ongoing. Assessing the nature of science is difficult with methods that rely on Likert-scale or multiple-choice questions. This study evaluated conceptions about the scientific process using student-created visual representations that we term “flowcharts.” The methodology, Scientific Process Flowchart Assessment (SPFA), consisted of a prompt and rubric that was designed to assess students’ understanding of the scientific process. Forty flowcharts representing a multidisciplinary group without intervention and 26 flowcharts representing pre- and postinstruction were evaluated over five dimensions: connections, experimental design, reasons for doing science, nature of science, and interconnectivity. Pre to post flowcharts showed a statistically significant improvement in the number of items and ratings for the dimensions. Comparison of the terms used and connections between terms on student flowcharts revealed an enhanced and more nuanced understanding of the scientific process, especially in the areas of application to society and communication within the scientific community. We propose that SPFA can be used in a variety of circumstances, including in the determination of what curricula or interventions would be useful in a course or program, in the assessment of curriculum, or in the evaluation of students performing research projects. PMID:27856551

Determination of efficacy of fingermark enhancement reagents; the use of propyl chloroformate for the derivatization of fingerprint amino acids extracted from paper.

PubMed

Mink, Tineke; Voorhaar, Annelies; Stoel, Reinoud; de Puit, Marcel

2013-09-01

The analysis of the constituents of fingerprints has been described numerous times, mainly with the purpose of determining the aging effect on fingerprints or showing the differences between donors or groups of donors. In this paper we describe the use of derivatized amino acids to determine the efficacy of the visualization reagents 1,8-diazafluoren-9-one (DFO) and ninhydrin. At present certain conditions are used for the application of these reagents, as determined by trial-and-error investigations, to the effect on fingerprints. The recovery of amino acids from a porous surface can be used as a measure for the efficacy of a visualization agent. In this paper we describe a method for the determination of the amount of amino acid left after reaction with well known fingerprint visualization reagents. This will allow a more scientific approach to method development for fingermark enhancement techniques. Furthermore, investigations on the influence of the concentration of fingermark amino acids, the order of application of and exposure time to reagents and the influence of age of the amino acids were carried out. These studies have resulted in a broader understanding of the mechanism involved in visualization of fingermarks using DFO and ninhydrin. Copyright © 2013 Forensic Science Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reviewing and visualizing the interactions of natural hazards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gill, Joel C.; Malamud, Bruce D.

2014-12-01

This paper presents a broad overview, characterization, and visualization of the interaction relationships between 21 natural hazards, drawn from six hazard groups (geophysical, hydrological, shallow Earth, atmospheric, biophysical, and space hazards). A synthesis is presented of the identified interaction relationships between these hazards, using an accessible visual format particularly suited to end users. Interactions considered are primarily those where a primary hazard triggers or increases the probability of secondary hazards occurring. In this paper we do the following: (i) identify, through a wide-ranging review of grey- and peer-review literature, 90 interactions; (ii) subdivide the interactions into three levels, based on how well we can characterize secondary hazards, given information about the primary hazard; (iii) determine the spatial overlap and temporal likelihood of the triggering relationships occurring; and (iv) examine the relationship between primary and secondary hazard intensities for each identified hazard interaction and group these into five possible categories. In this study we have synthesized, using accessible visualization techniques, large amounts of information drawn from many scientific disciplines. We outline the importance of constraining hazard interactions and reinforce the importance of a holistic (or multihazard) approach to natural hazard assessment. This approach allows those undertaking research into single hazards to place their work within the context of other hazards. It also communicates important aspects of hazard interactions, facilitating an effective analysis by those working on reducing and managing disaster risk within both the policy and practitioner communities.

The Astronomy Workshop: Scientific Notation and Solar System Visualizer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deming, Grace; Hamilton, D.; Hayes-Gehrke, M.

2008-09-01

The Astronomy Workshop (http://janus.astro.umd.edu) is a collection of interactive World Wide Web tools that were developed under the direction of Doug Hamilton for use in undergraduate classes and by the general public. The philosophy of the site is to foster student interest in astronomy by exploiting their fascination with computers and the internet. We have expanded the "Scientific Notation” tool from simply converting decimal numbers into and out of scientific notation to adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers expressed in scientific notation. Students practice these skills and when confident they may complete a quiz. In addition, there are suggestions on how instructors may use the site to encourage students to practice these basic skills. The Solar System Visualizer animates orbits of planets, moons, and rings to scale. Extrasolar planetary systems are also featured. This research was sponsored by NASA EPO grant NNG06GGF99G.

Interactive access and management for four-dimensional environmental data sets using McIDAS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hibbard, William L.; Tripoli, Gregory J.

1995-01-01

This grant has fundamentally changed the way that meteorologists look at the output of their atmospheric models, through the development and wide distribution of the Vis5D system. The Vis5D system is also gaining acceptance among oceanographers and atmospheric chemists. Vis5D gives these scientists an interactive three-dimensional movie of their very large data sets that they can use to understand physical mechanisms and to trace problems to their sources. This grant has also helped to define the future direction of scientific visualization through the development of the VisAD system and its lattice data model. The VisAD system can be used to interactively steer and visualize scientific computations. A key element of this capability is the flexibility of the system's data model to adapt to a wide variety of scientific data, including the integration of several forms of scientific metadata.

National Laboratory for Advanced Scientific Visualization at UNAM - Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manea, Marina; Constantin Manea, Vlad; Varela, Alfredo

2016-04-01

In 2015, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) joined the family of Universities and Research Centers where advanced visualization and computing plays a key role to promote and advance missions in research, education, community outreach, as well as business-oriented consulting. This initiative provides access to a great variety of advanced hardware and software resources and offers a range of consulting services that spans a variety of areas related to scientific visualization, among which are: neuroanatomy, embryonic development, genome related studies, geosciences, geography, physics and mathematics related disciplines. The National Laboratory for Advanced Scientific Visualization delivers services through three main infrastructure environments: the 3D fully immersive display system Cave, the high resolution parallel visualization system Powerwall, the high resolution spherical displays Earth Simulator. The entire visualization infrastructure is interconnected to a high-performance-computing-cluster (HPCC) called ADA in honor to Ada Lovelace, considered to be the first computer programmer. The Cave is an extra large 3.6m wide room with projected images on the front, left and right, as well as floor walls. Specialized crystal eyes LCD-shutter glasses provide a strong stereo depth perception, and a variety of tracking devices allow software to track the position of a user's hand, head and wand. The Powerwall is designed to bring large amounts of complex data together through parallel computing for team interaction and collaboration. This system is composed by 24 (6x4) high-resolution ultra-thin (2 mm) bezel monitors connected to a high-performance GPU cluster. The Earth Simulator is a large (60") high-resolution spherical display used for global-scale data visualization like geophysical, meteorological, climate and ecology data. The HPCC-ADA, is a 1000+ computing core system, which offers parallel computing resources to applications that requires large quantity of memory as well as large and fast parallel storage systems. The entire system temperature is controlled by an energy and space efficient cooling solution, based on large rear door liquid cooled heat exchangers. This state-of-the-art infrastructure will boost research activities in the region, offer a powerful scientific tool for teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels, and enhance association and cooperation with business-oriented organizations.

Application-Controlled Demand Paging for Out-of-Core Visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cox, Michael; Ellsworth, David; Kutler, Paul (Technical Monitor)

1997-01-01

In the area of scientific visualization, input data sets are often very large. In visualization of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in particular, input data sets today can surpass 100 Gbytes, and are expected to scale with the ability of supercomputers to generate them. Some visualization tools already partition large data sets into segments, and load appropriate segments as they are needed. However, this does not remove the problem for two reasons: 1) there are data sets for which even the individual segments are too large for the largest graphics workstations, 2) many practitioners do not have access to workstations with the memory capacity required to load even a segment, especially since the state-of-the-art visualization tools tend to be developed by researchers with much more powerful machines. When the size of the data that must be accessed is larger than the size of memory, some form of virtual memory is simply required. This may be by segmentation, paging, or by paged segments. In this paper we demonstrate that complete reliance on operating system virtual memory for out-of-core visualization leads to poor performance. We then describe a paged segment system that we have implemented, and explore the principles of memory management that can be employed by the application for out-of-core visualization. We show that application control over some of these can significantly improve performance. We show that sparse traversal can be exploited by loading only those data actually required. We show also that application control over data loading can be exploited by 1) loading data from alternative storage format (in particular 3-dimensional data stored in sub-cubes), 2) controlling the page size. Both of these techniques effectively reduce the total memory required by visualization at run-time. We also describe experiments we have done on remote out-of-core visualization (when pages are read by demand from remote disk) whose results are promising.

When a Picture Isn't Worth 1000 Words: Learners Struggle to Find Meaning in Data Visualizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stofer, Kathryn A.

2016-01-01

The oft-repeated phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" supposes that an image can replace a profusion of words to more easily express complex ideas. For scientific visualizations that represent profusions of numerical data, however, an untranslated academic visualization suffers the same pitfalls untranslated jargon does. Previous…

Visualizing Time: How Linguistic Metaphors Are Incorporated into Displaying Instruments in the Process of Interpreting Time-Varying Signals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia-Belmonte, Germà

2017-01-01

Spatial visualization is a well-established topic of education research that has allowed improving science and engineering students' skills on spatial relations. Connections have been established between visualization as a comprehension tool and instruction in several scientific fields. Learning about dynamic processes mainly relies upon static…

Visualizing projected Climate Changes - the CMIP5 Multi-Model Ensemble

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Böttinger, Michael; Eyring, Veronika; Lauer, Axel; Meier-Fleischer, Karin

2017-04-01

Large ensembles add an additional dimension to climate model simulations. Internal variability of the climate system can be assessed for example by multiple climate model simulations with small variations in the initial conditions or by analyzing the spread in large ensembles made by multiple climate models under common protocols. This spread is often used as a measure of uncertainty in climate projections. In the context of the fifth phase of the WCRP's Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), more than 40 different coupled climate models were employed to carry out a coordinated set of experiments. Time series of the development of integral quantities such as the global mean temperature change for all models visualize the spread in the multi-model ensemble. A similar approach can be applied to 2D-visualizations of projected climate changes such as latitude-longitude maps showing the multi-model mean of the ensemble by adding a graphical representation of the uncertainty information. This has been demonstrated for example with static figures in chapter 12 of the last IPCC report (AR5) using different so-called stippling and hatching techniques. In this work, we focus on animated visualizations of multi-model ensemble climate projections carried out within CMIP5 as a way of communicating climate change results to the scientific community as well as to the public. We take a closer look at measures of robustness or uncertainty used in recent publications suitable for animated visualizations. Specifically, we use the ESMValTool [1] to process and prepare the CMIP5 multi-model data in combination with standard visualization tools such as NCL and the commercial 3D visualization software Avizo to create the animations. We compare different visualization techniques such as height fields or shading with transparency for creating animated visualization of ensemble mean changes in temperature and precipitation including corresponding robustness measures. [1] Eyring, V., Righi, M., Lauer, A., Evaldsson, M., Wenzel, S., Jones, C., Anav, A., Andrews, O., Cionni, I., Davin, E. L., Deser, C., Ehbrecht, C., Friedlingstein, P., Gleckler, P., Gottschaldt, K.-D., Hagemann, S., Juckes, M., Kindermann, S., Krasting, J., Kunert, D., Levine, R., Loew, A., Mäkelä, J., Martin, G., Mason, E., Phillips, A. S., Read, S., Rio, C., Roehrig, R., Senftleben, D., Sterl, A., van Ulft, L. H., Walton, J., Wang, S., and Williams, K. D.: ESMValTool (v1.0) - a community diagnostic and performance metrics tool for routine evaluation of Earth system models in CMIP, Geosci. Model Dev., 9, 1747-1802, doi:10.5194/gmd-9-1747-2016, 2016.

76 FR 28441 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-17

...: Vision, Cognition and Pain. Date: June 29-30, 2011. Time: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Agenda: To review and evaluate...: Center for Scientific Review Special Emphasis Panel; Member Conflict: Cognition and Central Visual...

Immersive visualization of rail simulation data.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-01-01

The prime objective of this project was to create scientific, immersive visualizations of a Rail-simulation. This project is a part of a larger initiative that consists of three distinct parts. The first step consists of performing a finite element a...

Comprehensive Non-Destructive Conservation Documentation of Lunar Samples Using High-Resolution Image-Based 3D Reconstructions and X-Ray CT Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blumenfeld, E. H.; Evans, C. A.; Oshel, E. R.; Liddle, D. A.; Beaulieu, K.; Zeigler, R. A.; Hanna, R. D.; Ketcham, R. A.

2015-01-01

Established contemporary conservation methods within the fields of Natural and Cultural Heritage encourage an interdisciplinary approach to preservation of heritage material (both tangible and intangible) that holds "Outstanding Universal Value" for our global community. NASA's lunar samples were acquired from the moon for the primary purpose of intensive scientific investigation. These samples, however, also invoke cultural significance, as evidenced by the millions of people per year that visit lunar displays in museums and heritage centers around the world. Being both scientifically and culturally significant, the lunar samples require a unique conservation approach. Government mandate dictates that NASA's Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office develop and maintain protocols for "documentation, preservation, preparation and distribution of samples for research, education and public outreach" for both current and future collections of astromaterials. Documentation, considered the first stage within the conservation methodology, has evolved many new techniques since curation protocols for the lunar samples were first implemented, and the development of new documentation strategies for current and future astromaterials is beneficial to keeping curation protocols up to date. We have developed and tested a comprehensive non-destructive documentation technique using high-resolution image-based 3D reconstruction and X-ray CT (XCT) data in order to create interactive 3D models of lunar samples that would ultimately be served to both researchers and the public. These data enhance preliminary scientific investigations including targeted sample requests, and also provide a new visual platform for the public to experience and interact with the lunar samples. We intend to serve these data as they are acquired on NASA's Astromaterials Acquisistion and Curation website at http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/. Providing 3D interior and exterior documentation of astromaterial samples addresses the increasing demands for accessability to data and contemporary techniques for documentation, which can be realized for both current collections as well as future sample return missions.

[Orofacial alterations and surface electromyography in neurodevelopmental disorders].

PubMed

Rosell-Clari, V

2017-02-24

Surface electromyography has become a widely used technique for measuring the activity of different muscle groups. Although the reliability and validity of the technique are discussed, there is an important body of scientific literature that defends the use of this technique. To present through a case study, the two basic uses of surface electromyography: the measurement of orofacial muscular activity and use it as biofeedback modulator of the muscular activity itself. A 10 years-old girl with a dolichocephalic and prognosis facial profile, anterior open bite and bilateral cross bite, bilateral Angle class II occlusion and atypical swallowing with lingual interposition. The MioTool Face by Miotec Suite 1.0, it could use until 8-channel bipolar surface electromyography. Surface electrodes were placed in the orofacial musculature and the results obtained were measured and visualized through the software Miograph and Biotrainer. The results confirm those obtained through the clinical exploration of the patient and support the use of these measurements for the estimation and validation of mechanical models of the masticatory and swallowing system. Electromyographic biofeedback is shown as an effective technique to self-control the force performed in key muscle groups by performing primary activities such as chewing and swallowing.

Visual Occlusion During Minimally Invasive Surgery: A Contemporary Review of Methods to Reduce Laparoscopic and Robotic Lens Fogging and Other Sources of Optical Loss.

PubMed

Manning, Todd G; Perera, Marlon; Christidis, Daniel; Kinnear, Ned; McGrath, Shannon; O'Beirne, Richard; Zotov, Paul; Bolton, Damien; Lawrentschuk, Nathan

2017-04-01

Maintenance of optimal vision during minimally invasive surgery is crucial to maintaining operative awareness, efficiency, and safety. Hampered vision is commonly caused by laparoscopic lens fogging (LLF), which has prompted the development of various antifogging fluids and warming devices. However, limited comparative evidence exists in contemporary literature. Despite technologic advancements there remains no consensus as to superior methods to prevent LLF or restore visual acuity once LLF has occurred. We performed a review of literature to present the current body of evidence supporting the use of numerous techniques. A standardized Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis review was performed, and PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched. Articles pertaining to mechanisms and prevention of LLF were reviewed. We applied no limit to year of publication or publication type and all articles encountered were included in final review. Limited original research and heterogenous outcome measures precluded meta-analytical assessment. Vision loss has a multitude of causes and although scientific theory can be applied to in vivo environments, no authors have completely characterized this complex problem. No method to prevent or correct LLF was identified as superior to others and comparative evidence is minimal. Robotic LLF was poorly investigated and aside from a single analysis has not been directly compared to standard laparoscopic fogging in any capacity. Obscured vision during surgery is hazardous and typically caused by LLF. The etiology of LLF despite application of scientific theory is yet to be definitively proven in the in vivo environment. Common methods of prevention of LLF or restoration of vision due to LLF have little evidence-based data to support their use. A multiarm comparative in vivo analysis is required to formally assess these commonly used techniques in both standard and robotic laparoscopes.

Students' Communicative Resources in Relation to Their Conceptual Understanding—The Role of Non-Conventionalized Expressions in Making Sense of Visualizations of Protein Function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rundgren, Carl-Johan; Hirsch, Richard; Chang Rundgren, Shu-Nu; Tibell, Lena A. E.

2012-10-01

This study examines how students explain their conceptual understanding of protein function using visualizations. Thirteen upper secondary students, four tertiary students (studying chemical biology), and two experts were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. The interviews were structured around 2D illustrations of proteins and an animated representation of water transport through a channel in the cell membrane. In the analysis of the transcripts, a score, based on the SOLO-taxonomy, was given to each student to indicate the conceptual depth achieved in their explanations. The use of scientific terms and non-conventionalized expressions in the students' explanations were investigated based upon a semiotic approach. The results indicated that there was a positive relationship between use of scientific terms and level of education. However, there was no correlation between students' use of scientific terms and conceptual depth. In the interviews, we found that non-conventionalized expressions were used by several participants to express conceptual understanding and played a role in making sense of the visualizations of protein function. Interestingly, also the experts made use of non-conventionalized expressions. The results of our study imply that more attention should be drawn to students' use of scientific and non-conventionalized terms in relation to their conceptual understanding.

Scientific Computing Paradigm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanZandt, John

1994-01-01

The usage model of supercomputers for scientific applications, such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), has changed over the years. Scientific visualization has moved scientists away from looking at numbers to looking at three-dimensional images, which capture the meaning of the data. This change has impacted the system models for computing. This report details the model which is used by scientists at NASA's research centers.

Development of a Web-Based Visualization Platform for Climate Research Using Google Earth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sun, Xiaojuan; Shen, Suhung; Leptoukh, Gregory G.; Wang, Panxing; Di, Liping; Lu, Mingyue

2011-01-01

Recently, it has become easier to access climate data from satellites, ground measurements, and models from various data centers, However, searching. accessing, and prc(essing heterogeneous data from different sources are very tim -consuming tasks. There is lack of a comprehensive visual platform to acquire distributed and heterogeneous scientific data and to render processed images from a single accessing point for climate studies. This paper. documents the design and implementation of a Web-based visual, interoperable, and scalable platform that is able to access climatological fields from models, satellites, and ground stations from a number of data sources using Google Earth (GE) as a common graphical interface. The development is based on the TCP/IP protocol and various data sharing open sources, such as OPeNDAP, GDS, Web Processing Service (WPS), and Web Mapping Service (WMS). The visualization capability of integrating various measurements into cE extends dramatically the awareness and visibility of scientific results. Using embedded geographic information in the GE, the designed system improves our understanding of the relationships of different elements in a four dimensional domain. The system enables easy and convenient synergistic research on a virtual platform for professionals and the general public, gr$tly advancing global data sharing and scientific research collaboration.

The Evolution of Three Dimensional Visualization for Commanding the Mars Rovers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartman, Frank R.; Wright, John; Cooper, Brian

2014-01-01

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has built and operated four rovers on the surface of Mars. Two and three dimensional visualization has been extensively employed to command both the mobility and robotic arm operations of these rovers. Stereo visualization has been an important component in this set of visualization techniques. This paper discusses the progression of the implementation and use of visualization techniques for in-situ operations of these robotic missions. Illustrative examples will be drawn from the results of using these techniques over more than ten years of surface operations on Mars.

NCI Visuals Online

Cancer.gov

NCI Visuals Online contains images from the collections of the National Cancer Institute's Office of Communications and Public Liaison, including general biomedical and science-related images, cancer-specific scientific and patient care-related images, and portraits of directors and staff of the National Cancer Institute.

Visualizing planetary data by using 3D engines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elgner, S.; Adeli, S.; Gwinner, K.; Preusker, F.; Kersten, E.; Matz, K.-D.; Roatsch, T.; Jaumann, R.; Oberst, J.

2017-09-01

We examined 3D gaming engines for their usefulness in visualizing large planetary image data sets. These tools allow us to include recent developments in the field of computer graphics in our scientific visualization systems and present data products interactively and in higher quality than before. We started to set up the first applications which will take use of virtual reality (VR) equipment.

Interactive Exploration of Cosmological Dark-Matter Simulation Data.

PubMed

Scherzinger, Aaron; Brix, Tobias; Drees, Dominik; Volker, Andreas; Radkov, Kiril; Santalidis, Niko; Fieguth, Alexander; Hinrichs, Klaus H

2017-01-01

The winning entry of the 2015 IEEE Scientific Visualization Contest, this article describes a visualization tool for cosmological data resulting from dark-matter simulations. The proposed system helps users explore all aspects of the data at once and receive more detailed information about structures of interest at any time. Moreover, novel methods for visualizing and interactively exploring dark-matter halo substructures are proposed.

Using machine learning techniques to automate sky survey catalog generation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fayyad, Usama M.; Roden, J. C.; Doyle, R. J.; Weir, Nicholas; Djorgovski, S. G.

1993-01-01

We describe the application of machine classification techniques to the development of an automated tool for the reduction of a large scientific data set. The 2nd Palomar Observatory Sky Survey provides comprehensive photographic coverage of the northern celestial hemisphere. The photographic plates are being digitized into images containing on the order of 10(exp 7) galaxies and 10(exp 8) stars. Since the size of this data set precludes manual analysis and classification of objects, our approach is to develop a software system which integrates independently developed techniques for image processing and data classification. Image processing routines are applied to identify and measure features of sky objects. Selected features are used to determine the classification of each object. GID3* and O-BTree, two inductive learning techniques, are used to automatically learn classification decision trees from examples. We describe the techniques used, the details of our specific application, and the initial encouraging results which indicate that our approach is well-suited to the problem. The benefits of the approach are increased data reduction throughput, consistency of classification, and the automated derivation of classification rules that will form an objective, examinable basis for classifying sky objects. Furthermore, astronomers will be freed from the tedium of an intensely visual task to pursue more challenging analysis and interpretation problems given automatically cataloged data.

The visual theology of Victorian popularizers of science. From reverent eye to chemical retina.

PubMed

Lightman, B

2000-12-01

This essay examines the use of visual images during the latter half of the nineteenth century in the work of three important popularizers of science. J. G. Wood, Richard Proctor, and Agnes Clerke skillfully used illustrations and photographs to establish their credibility as trustworthy guides to scientific, moral, and religious truths. All three worked within the natural theology tradition, despite the powerful critique of William Paley's argument from design set forth in Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (1859). Wood, Proctor, and Clerke recognized that in order to reach a popular audience with their message of divine wonder in nature, they would have to take advantage of the developing mass visual culture embodied in the new pictorial magazines, spectacles, and entertaining toys based on scientific gadgets emblematic of the reorganization of vision. But in drawing on different facets of the emerging visual culture and in looking to the images produced by the new visual technologies to find the hand of God in nature, these popularizers subtly transformed the natural theology tradition.

Visualizing inequality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eliazar, Iddo

2016-07-01

The study of socioeconomic inequality is of substantial importance, scientific and general alike. The graphic visualization of inequality is commonly conveyed by Lorenz curves. While Lorenz curves are a highly effective statistical tool for quantifying the distribution of wealth in human societies, they are less effective a tool for the visual depiction of socioeconomic inequality. This paper introduces an alternative to Lorenz curves-the hill curves. On the one hand, the hill curves are a potent scientific tool: they provide detailed scans of the rich-poor gaps in human societies under consideration, and are capable of accommodating infinitely many degrees of freedom. On the other hand, the hill curves are a powerful infographic tool: they visualize inequality in a most vivid and tangible way, with no quantitative skills that are required in order to grasp the visualization. The application of hill curves extends far beyond socioeconomic inequality. Indeed, the hill curves are highly effective 'hyperspectral' measures of statistical variability that are applicable in the context of size distributions at large. This paper establishes the notion of hill curves, analyzes them, and describes their application in the context of general size distributions.

Development of an Overview Display to Allow Advanced Outage Control Center Management to Quickly Evaluate Outage Status

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

St Germain, Shawn Walter; Hugo, Jacques Victor

This report describes recent advances made in developing a framework for the design of visual outage information presentation, as well as an overview of the scientific principles that informed the development of the visualizations.

MyGeoHub: A Collaborative Geospatial Research and Education Platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalyanam, R.; Zhao, L.; Biehl, L. L.; Song, C. X.; Merwade, V.; Villoria, N.

2017-12-01

Scientific research is increasingly collaborative and globally distributed; research groups now rely on web-based scientific tools and data management systems to simplify their day-to-day collaborative workflows. However, such tools often lack seamless interfaces, requiring researchers to contend with manual data transfers, annotation and sharing. MyGeoHub is a web platform that supports out-of-the-box, seamless workflows involving data ingestion, metadata extraction, analysis, sharing and publication. MyGeoHub is built on the HUBzero cyberinfrastructure platform and adds general-purpose software building blocks (GABBs), for geospatial data management, visualization and analysis. A data management building block iData, processes geospatial files, extracting metadata for keyword and map-based search while enabling quick previews. iData is pervasive, allowing access through a web interface, scientific tools on MyGeoHub or even mobile field devices via a data service API. GABBs includes a Python map library as well as map widgets that in a few lines of code, generate complete geospatial visualization web interfaces for scientific tools. GABBs also includes powerful tools that can be used with no programming effort. The GeoBuilder tool provides an intuitive wizard for importing multi-variable, geo-located time series data (typical of sensor readings, GPS trackers) to build visualizations supporting data filtering and plotting. MyGeoHub has been used in tutorials at scientific conferences and educational activities for K-12 students. MyGeoHub is also constantly evolving; the recent addition of Jupyter and R Shiny notebook environments enable reproducible, richly interactive geospatial analyses and applications ranging from simple pre-processing to published tools. MyGeoHub is not a monolithic geospatial science gateway, instead it supports diverse needs ranging from just a feature-rich data management system, to complex scientific tools and workflows.

Development of a GIS-based integrated framework for coastal seiches monitoring and forecasting: A North Jiangsu shoal case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Rufu; Lin, Liangzhao

2017-06-01

Coastal seiches have become an increasingly important issue in coastal science and present many challenges, particularly when attempting to provide warning services. This paper presents the methodologies, techniques and integrated services adopted for the design and implementation of a Seiches Monitoring and Forecasting Integration Framework (SMAF-IF). The SMAF-IF is an integrated system with different types of sensors and numerical models and incorporates the Geographic Information System (GIS) and web techniques, which focuses on coastal seiche events detection and early warning in the North Jiangsu shoal, China. The in situ sensors perform automatic and continuous monitoring of the marine environment status and the numerical models provide the meteorological and physical oceanographic parameter estimates. A model outputs processing software was developed in C# language using ArcGIS Engine functions, which provides the capabilities of automatically generating visualization maps and warning information. Leveraging the ArcGIS Flex API and ASP.NET web services, a web based GIS framework was designed to facilitate quasi real-time data access, interactive visualization and analysis, and provision of early warning services for end users. The integrated framework proposed in this study enables decision-makers and the publics to quickly response to emergency coastal seiche events and allows an easy adaptation to other regional and scientific domains related to real-time monitoring and forecasting.

Image-Processing Techniques for the Creation of Presentation-Quality Astronomical Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rector, Travis A.; Levay, Zoltan G.; Frattare, Lisa M.; English, Jayanne; Pu'uohau-Pummill, Kirk

2007-02-01

The quality of modern astronomical data and the agility of current image-processing software enable the visualization of data in a way that exceeds the traditional definition of an astronomical image. Two developments in particular have led to a fundamental change in how astronomical images can be assembled. First, the availability of high-quality multiwavelength and narrowband data allow for images that do not correspond to the wavelength sensitivity of the human eye, thereby introducing ambiguity in the usage and interpretation of color. Second, many image-processing software packages now use a layering metaphor that allows for any number of astronomical data sets to be combined into a color image. With this technique, images with as many as eight data sets have been produced. Each data set is intensity-scaled and colorized independently, creating an immense parameter space that can be used to assemble the image. Since such images are intended for data visualization, scaling and color schemes must be chosen that best illustrate the science. A practical guide is presented on how to use the layering metaphor to generate publication-ready astronomical images from as many data sets as desired. A methodology is also given on how to use intensity scaling, color, and composition to create contrasts in an image that highlight the scientific detail. Examples of image creation are discussed.

Exploring Metacogntive Visual Literacy Tasks for Teaching Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slater, Timothy F.; Slater, S.; Dwyer, W.

2010-01-01

Undoubtedly, astronomy is a scientific enterprise which often results in colorful and inspirational images of the cosmos that naturally capture our attention. Students encountering astronomy in the college classroom are often bombarded with images, movies, simulations, conceptual cartoons, graphs, and charts intended to convey the substance and technological advancement inherent in astronomy. For students who self-identify themselves as visual learners, this aspect can make the science of astronomy come alive. For students who naturally attend to visual aesthetics, this aspect can make astronomy seem relevant. In other words, the visual nature that accompanies much of the scientific realm of astronomy has the ability to connect a wide range of students to science, not just those few who have great abilities and inclinations toward the mathematical analysis world. Indeed, this is fortunate for teachers of astronomy, who actively try to find ways to connect and build astronomical understanding with a broad range of student interests, motivations, and abilities. In the context of learning science, metacognition describes students’ self-monitoring, -regulation, and -awareness when thinking about learning. As such, metacognition is one of the foundational pillars supporting what we know about how people learn. Yet, the astronomy teaching and learning community knows very little about how to operationalize and support students’ metacognition in the classroom. In response, the Conceptual Astronomy, Physics and Earth sciences Research (CAPER) Team is developing and pilot-testing metacogntive tasks in the context of astronomy that focus on visual literacy of astronomical phenomena. In the initial versions, students are presented with a scientifically inaccurate narrative supposedly describing visual information, including images and graphical information, and asked to assess and correct the narrative, in the form of peer evaluation. To guide student thinking, students are provided with a scaffolded series of multiple-choice questions highlighting conceptual aspects of the prompt.

Measuring Visual Double Stars with Robotic Telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boyce, Pat; Boyce, Grady; Genet, Russell M.; Faisal Al-Zaben, Dewei Li, Yongyao Li, Aren Dennis, Zhixin Cao, Junyao Li, Steven Qu, Jeff Li, Michael Fene, Allen Priest, Stephen Priest, Rex Qiu, , and, Bill Riley

2016-06-01

The Astronomy Research Seminars introduce students to scientific research by carrying out the entire process: planning a scientific research project, writing a research proposal, gathering and analyzing observational data, drawing conclusions, and presenting the research results in a published paper and presentation.In 2015 Cuesta College and Russell Genet sponsored a new hybrid format for the seminar enabling distance learning. Boyce Research Initiatives and Education Foundation (BRIEF) conducted the course at The Army and Navy Academy (ANA) in Carlsbad, California, in the spring and fall of 2015.The course objective is to complete the research and publish the paper within one semester. Our program schedule called for observations to be performed within a two week period. Measurement of visual binary stars was chosen because sufficient observations could be made in just two evenings of good weather. We quickly learned that our location by the ocean did not provide reliable weather to use local telescopes.The iTelescope network of robotic telescopes located in Australia, Spain and the U.S. solved the problem. Reservations for these systems are booked online and include date, time, exposure and filters. The high quality telescopes range from 4" to 27" in size with excellent cameras. By watching the weather forecasts for the sites, we were able to schedule our observations within the two week time frame required.Timely and reliable data reduction was the next hurdle. The students were using widely varying equipment (PCs, MACs, tablets, smart phones) with incompatible software. After wasting time trying to be computer technicians, we settled a on standard set of software relying on Mirametrics' Mira Pro x64. We installed the software on an old laptop, downloaded the iTelescope data files, gave the students remote access using GoToMyPC.These efficiencies enabled us to meet the demanding one semester schedule and assure a better learning experience. We have been able to produce four published research papers on seven visual double star systems and have our data added to the Washington Double Star Catalog. A school can adopt these techniques to do visual double star research with a minimal investment.

A survey of visualization systems for network security.

PubMed

Shiravi, Hadi; Shiravi, Ali; Ghorbani, Ali A

2012-08-01

Security Visualization is a very young term. It expresses the idea that common visualization techniques have been designed for use cases that are not supportive of security-related data, demanding novel techniques fine tuned for the purpose of thorough analysis. Significant amount of work has been published in this area, but little work has been done to study this emerging visualization discipline. We offer a comprehensive review of network security visualization and provide a taxonomy in the form of five use-case classes encompassing nearly all recent works in this area. We outline the incorporated visualization techniques and data sources and provide an informative table to display our findings. From the analysis of these systems, we examine issues and concerns regarding network security visualization and provide guidelines and directions for future researchers and visual system developers.

The Generation of Novel MR Imaging Techniques to Visualize Inflammatory/Degenerative Mechanisms and the Correlation of MR Data with 3D Microscopic Changes

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-01

existing MR scanning systems providing the ability to visualize structures that are impossible with current methods . Using techniques to concurrently...and unique system for analysis of affected brain regions and coupled with other imaging techniques and molecular measurements holds significant...scanning systems providing the ability to visualize structures that are impossible with current methods . Using techniques to concurrently stain

Sciologer: Visualizing and Exploring Scientific Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bales, Michael Eliot

2009-01-01

Despite the recognized need to increase interdisciplinary collaboration, there are few information resources available to provide researchers with an overview of scientific communities--topics under investigation by various groups, and patterns of collaboration among groups. The tools that are available are designed for expert social network…

The VIS-AD data model: Integrating metadata and polymorphic display with a scientific programming language

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hibbard, William L.; Dyer, Charles R.; Paul, Brian E.

1994-01-01

The VIS-AD data model integrates metadata about the precision of values, including missing data indicators and the way that arrays sample continuous functions, with the data objects of a scientific programming language. The data objects of this data model form a lattice, ordered by the precision with which they approximate mathematical objects. We define a similar lattice of displays and study visualization processes as functions from data lattices to display lattices. Such functions can be applied to visualize data objects of all data types and are thus polymorphic.

The Methods of Cognitive Visualization for the Astronomical Databases Analyzing Tools Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vitkovskiy, V.; Gorohov, V.

2008-08-01

There are two kinds of computer graphics: the illustrative one and the cognitive one. Appropriate the cognitive pictures not only make evident and clear the sense of complex and difficult scientific concepts, but promote, --- and not so very rarely, --- a birth of a new knowledge. On the basis of the cognitive graphics concept, we worked out the SW-system for visualization and analysis. It allows to train and to aggravate intuition of researcher, to raise his interest and motivation to the creative, scientific cognition, to realize process of dialogue with the very problems simultaneously.

Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) Software for the Visualization of Large Data Sets on a Video Wall

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jedlovec, Gary; Srikishen, Jayanthi; Edwards, Rita; Cross, David; Welch, Jon; Smith, Matt

2013-01-01

The use of collaborative scientific visualization systems for the analysis, visualization, and sharing of "big data" available from new high resolution remote sensing satellite sensors or four-dimensional numerical model simulations is propelling the wider adoption of ultra-resolution tiled display walls interconnected by high speed networks. These systems require a globally connected and well-integrated operating environment that provides persistent visualization and collaboration services. This abstract and subsequent presentation describes a new collaborative visualization system installed for NASA's Shortterm Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) program at Marshall Space Flight Center and its use for Earth science applications. The system consists of a 3 x 4 array of 1920 x 1080 pixel thin bezel video monitors mounted on a wall in a scientific collaboration lab. The monitors are physically and virtually integrated into a 14' x 7' for video display. The display of scientific data on the video wall is controlled by a single Alienware Aurora PC with a 2nd Generation Intel Core 4.1 GHz processor, 32 GB memory, and an AMD Fire Pro W600 video card with 6 mini display port connections. Six mini display-to-dual DVI cables are used to connect the 12 individual video monitors. The open source Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) windowing and media control framework, running on top of the Ubuntu 12 Linux operating system, allows several users to simultaneously control the display and storage of high resolution still and moving graphics in a variety of formats, on tiled display walls of any size. The Ubuntu operating system supports the open source Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) software which provides a common environment, or framework, enabling its users to access, display and share a variety of data-intensive information. This information can be digital-cinema animations, high-resolution images, high-definition video-teleconferences, presentation slides, documents, spreadsheets or laptop screens. SAGE is cross-platform, community-driven, open-source visualization and collaboration middleware that utilizes shared national and international cyberinfrastructure for the advancement of scientific research and education.

Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) Software for the Visualization of Large Data Sets on a Video Wall

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jedlovec, G.; Srikishen, J.; Edwards, R.; Cross, D.; Welch, J. D.; Smith, M. R.

2013-12-01

The use of collaborative scientific visualization systems for the analysis, visualization, and sharing of 'big data' available from new high resolution remote sensing satellite sensors or four-dimensional numerical model simulations is propelling the wider adoption of ultra-resolution tiled display walls interconnected by high speed networks. These systems require a globally connected and well-integrated operating environment that provides persistent visualization and collaboration services. This abstract and subsequent presentation describes a new collaborative visualization system installed for NASA's Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) program at Marshall Space Flight Center and its use for Earth science applications. The system consists of a 3 x 4 array of 1920 x 1080 pixel thin bezel video monitors mounted on a wall in a scientific collaboration lab. The monitors are physically and virtually integrated into a 14' x 7' for video display. The display of scientific data on the video wall is controlled by a single Alienware Aurora PC with a 2nd Generation Intel Core 4.1 GHz processor, 32 GB memory, and an AMD Fire Pro W600 video card with 6 mini display port connections. Six mini display-to-dual DVI cables are used to connect the 12 individual video monitors. The open source Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) windowing and media control framework, running on top of the Ubuntu 12 Linux operating system, allows several users to simultaneously control the display and storage of high resolution still and moving graphics in a variety of formats, on tiled display walls of any size. The Ubuntu operating system supports the open source Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment (SAGE) software which provides a common environment, or framework, enabling its users to access, display and share a variety of data-intensive information. This information can be digital-cinema animations, high-resolution images, high-definition video-teleconferences, presentation slides, documents, spreadsheets or laptop screens. SAGE is cross-platform, community-driven, open-source visualization and collaboration middleware that utilizes shared national and international cyberinfrastructure for the advancement of scientific research and education.

The Role of Visual Representations in Scientific Practices: From Conceptual Understanding and Knowledge Generation to 'Seeing' How Science Works

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evagorou, Maria; Erduran, Sibel; Mäntylä, Terhi

2015-01-01

Background: The use of visual representations (i.e., photographs, diagrams, models) has been part of science, and their use makes it possible for scientists to interact with and represent complex phenomena, not observable in other ways. Despite a wealth of research in science education on visual representations, the emphasis of such research has…

Ionospheric Simulation System for Satellite Observations and Global Assimilative Model Experiments - ISOGAME

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pi, Xiaoqing; Mannucci, Anthony J.; Verkhoglyadova, Olga; Stephens, Philip; Iijima, Bryron A.

2013-01-01

Modeling and imaging the Earth's ionosphere as well as understanding its structures, inhomogeneities, and disturbances is a key part of NASA's Heliophysics Directorate science roadmap. This invention provides a design tool for scientific missions focused on the ionosphere. It is a scientifically important and technologically challenging task to assess the impact of a new observation system quantitatively on our capability of imaging and modeling the ionosphere. This question is often raised whenever a new satellite system is proposed, a new type of data is emerging, or a new modeling technique is developed. The proposed constellation would be part of a new observation system with more low-Earth orbiters tracking more radio occultation signals broadcast by Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) than those offered by the current GPS and COSMIC observation system. A simulation system was developed to fulfill this task. The system is composed of a suite of software that combines the Global Assimilative Ionospheric Model (GAIM) including first-principles and empirical ionospheric models, a multiple- dipole geomagnetic field model, data assimilation modules, observation simulator, visualization software, and orbit design, simulation, and optimization software.

The challenge of cardiac modeling--interaction and integration.

PubMed

Sideman, Samuel

2006-10-01

The goal of clinical cardiology is to obtain an integrated picture of the interacting parameters of muscle and vessel mechanics, blood circulation and myocardial perfusion, oxygen consumption and energy metabolism, and electrical activation and heart rate, thus relating to the true physiological and pathophysiological characteristics of the heart. Scientific insight into the cardiac physiology and performance is achieved by utilizing life sciences, for example, molecular biology, genetics and related intra- and intercellular phenomena, as well as the exact sciences, for example, mathematics, computer science, and related imaging and visualization techniques. The tools to achieve these goals are based on the intimate interactions between engineering science and medicine and the developments of modern, medically oriented technology. Most significant is the beneficiary effect of the globalization of science, the Internet, and the unprecedented international interaction and scientific cooperation in facing difficult multidisciplined challenges. This meeting aims to explore some important interactions in the cardiac system and relate to the integration of spatial and temporal interacting system parameters, so as to gain better insight into the structure and function of the cardiac system, thus leading to better therapeutic modalities.

A collection of flow visualization techniques used in the Aerodynamic Research Branch

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1984-01-01

Theoretical and experimental research on unsteady aerodynamic flows is discussed. Complex flow fields that involve separations, vortex interactions, and transonic flow effects were investigated. Flow visualization techniques are used to obtain a global picture of the flow phenomena before detailed quantitative studies are undertaken. A wide variety of methods are used to visualize fluid flow and a sampling of these methods is presented. It is emphasized that the visualization technique is a thorough quantitative analysis and subsequent physical understanding of these flow fields.

Reorganization of Visual Callosal Connections Following Alterations of Retinal Input and Brain Damage

PubMed Central

Restani, Laura; Caleo, Matteo

2016-01-01

Vision is a very important sensory modality in humans. Visual disorders are numerous and arising from diverse and complex causes. Deficits in visual function are highly disabling from a social point of view and in addition cause a considerable economic burden. For all these reasons there is an intense effort by the scientific community to gather knowledge on visual deficit mechanisms and to find possible new strategies for recovery and treatment. In this review, we focus on an important and sometimes neglected player of the visual function, the corpus callosum (CC). The CC is the major white matter structure in the brain and is involved in information processing between the two hemispheres. In particular, visual callosal connections interconnect homologous areas of visual cortices, binding together the two halves of the visual field. This interhemispheric communication plays a significant role in visual cortical output. Here, we will first review the essential literature on the physiology of the callosal connections in normal vision. The available data support the view that the callosum contributes to both excitation and inhibition to the target hemisphere, with a dynamic adaptation to the strength of the incoming visual input. Next, we will focus on data showing how callosal connections may sense visual alterations and respond to the classical paradigm for the study of visual plasticity, i.e., monocular deprivation (MD). This is a prototypical example of a model for the study of callosal plasticity in pathological conditions (e.g., strabismus and amblyopia) characterized by unbalanced input from the two eyes. We will also discuss the findings of callosal alterations in blind subjects. Noteworthy, we will discuss data showing that inter-hemispheric transfer mediates recovery of visual responsiveness following cortical damage. Finally, we will provide an overview of how callosal projections dysfunction could contribute to pathologies such as neglect and occipital epilepsy. A particular focus will be on reviewing noninvasive brain stimulation techniques and optogenetic approaches that allow to selectively manipulate callosal function and to probe its involvement in cortical processing and plasticity. Overall, the data indicate that experience can potently impact on transcallosal connectivity, and that the callosum itself is crucial for plasticity and recovery in various disorders of the visual pathway. PMID:27895559

A Review of Intravascular Ultrasound–Based Multimodal Intravascular Imaging: The Synergistic Approach to Characterizing Vulnerable Plaques

PubMed Central

Ma, Teng; Zhou, Bill; Hsiai, Tzung K.; Shung, K. Kirk

2015-01-01

Catheter-based intravascular imaging modalities are being developed to visualize pathologies in coronary arteries, such as high-risk vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques known as thin-cap fibroatheroma, to guide therapeutic strategy at preventing heart attacks. Mounting evidences have shown three distinctive histopathological features—the presence of a thin fibrous cap, a lipid-rich necrotic core, and numerous infiltrating macrophages—are key markers of increased vulnerability in atherosclerotic plaques. To visualize these changes, the majority of catheter-based imaging modalities used intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) as the technical foundation and integrated emerging intravascular imaging techniques to enhance the characterization of vulnerable plaques. However, no current imaging technology is the unequivocal “gold standard” for the diagnosis of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques. Each intravascular imaging technology possesses its own unique features that yield valuable information although encumbered by inherent limitations not seen in other modalities. In this context, the aim of this review is to discuss current scientific innovations, technical challenges, and prospective strategies in the development of IVUS-based multi-modality intravascular imaging systems aimed at assessing atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability. PMID:26400676

Interactive archives of scientific data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Treinish, Lloyd A.

1994-01-01

A focus on qualitative methods of presenting data shows that visualization provides a mechanism for browsing independent of the source of data and is an effective alternative to traditional image-based browsing of image data. To be generally applicable, such visualization methods, however, must be based upon an underlying data model with support for a broad class of data types and structures. Interactive, near-real-time browsing for data sets of interesting size today requires a browse server of considerable power. A symmetric multi-processor with very high internal and external bandwidth demonstrates the feasibility of this concept. Although this technology is likely to be available on the desktop within a few years, the increase in the size and complexity of achieved data will continue to exceed the capacity of 'worksation' systems. Hence, a higher class of performance, especially in bandwidth, will generally be required for on-demand browsing. A few experiments with differing digital compression techniques indicates that a MPEG-1 implementation within the context of a high-performance browse server (i.e., parallized) is a practical method of converting a browse product to a form suitable for network or CD-ROM distribution.

Enhanced visualization of MR angiogram with modified MIP and 3D image fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, JongHyo; Yeon, Kyoung M.; Han, Man Chung; Lee, Dong Hyuk; Cho, Han I.

1997-05-01

We have developed a 3D image processing and display technique that include image resampling, modification of MIP, volume rendering, and fusion of MIP image with volumetric rendered image. This technique facilitates the visualization of the 3D spatial relationship between vasculature and surrounding organs by overlapping the MIP image on the volumetric rendered image of the organ. We applied this technique to a MR brain image data to produce an MRI angiogram that is overlapped with 3D volume rendered image of brain. MIP technique was used to visualize the vasculature of brain, and volume rendering was used to visualize the other structures of brain. The two images are fused after adjustment of contrast and brightness levels of each image in such a way that both the vasculature and brain structure are well visualized either by selecting the maximum value of each image or by assigning different color table to each image. The resultant image with this technique visualizes both the brain structure and vasculature simultaneously, allowing the physicians to inspect their relationship more easily. The presented technique will be useful for surgical planning for neurosurgery.

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

Bethel, W.

Building something which could be called {open_quotes}virtual reality{close_quotes} (VR) is something of a challenge, particularly when nobody really seems to agree on a definition of VR. The author wanted to combine scientific visualization with VR, resulting in an environment useful for assisting scientific research. He demonstrates the combination of VR and scientific visualization in a prototype application. The VR application constructed consists of a dataflow based system for performing scientific visualization (AVS), extensions to the system to support VR input devices and a numerical simulation ported into the dataflow environment. The VR system includes two inexpensive, off-the-shelf VR devices andmore » some custom code. A working system was assembled with about two man-months of effort. The system allows the user to specify parameters for a chemical flooding simulation as well as some viewing parameters using VR input devices, as well as view the output using VR output devices. In chemical flooding, there is a subsurface region that contains chemicals which are to be removed. Secondary oil recovery and environmental remediation are typical applications of chemical flooding. The process assumes one or more injection wells, and one or more production wells. Chemicals or water are pumped into the ground, mobilizing and displacing hydrocarbons or contaminants. The placement of the production and injection wells, and other parameters of the wells, are the most important variables in the simulation.« less

The disappearing third dimension.

PubMed

Rowe, Timothy; Frank, Lawrence R

2011-02-11

Three-dimensional computing is driving what many would call a revolution in scientific visualization. However, its power and advancement are held back by the absence of sustainable archives for raw data and derivative visualizations. Funding agencies, professional societies, and publishers each have unfulfilled roles in archive design and data management policy.

A New System To Support Knowledge Discovery: Telemakus.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Revere, Debra; Fuller, Sherrilynne S.; Bugni, Paul F.; Martin, George M.

2003-01-01

The Telemakus System builds on the areas of concept representation, schema theory, and information visualization to enhance knowledge discovery from scientific literature. This article describes the underlying theories and an overview of a working implementation designed to enhance the knowledge discovery process through retrieval, visual and…

Using a free software tool for the visualization of complicated electromagnetic fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murello, A.; Milotti, E.

2014-01-01

Here, we show how a readily available and free scientific visualization program—ParaView—can be used to display electric fields in interesting situations. We give a few examples and specify the individual steps that lead to highly educational representations of the fields.

A Technology-Enhanced Unit of Modeling Static Electricity: Integrating scientific explanations and everyday observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Ji; Linn, Marcia C.

2011-08-01

What trajectories do students follow as they connect their observations of electrostatic phenomena to atomic-level visualizations? We designed an electrostatics unit, using the knowledge integration framework to help students link observations and scientific ideas. We analyze how learners integrate ideas about charges, charged particles, energy, and observable events. We compare learning enactments in a typical school and a magnet school in the USA. We use pre-tests, post-tests, embedded notes, and delayed post-tests to capture the trajectories of students' knowledge integration. We analyze how visualizations help students grapple with abstract electrostatics concepts such as induction. We find that overall students gain more sophisticated ideas. They can interpret dynamic, interactive visualizations, and connect charge- and particle-based explanations to interpret observable events. Students continue to have difficulty in applying the energy-based explanation.

A Collaborative Education Network for Advancing Climate Literacy using Data Visualization Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDougall, C.; Russell, E. L.; Murray, M.; Bendel, W. B.

2013-12-01

One of the more difficult issues in engaging broad audiences with scientific research is to present it in a way that is intuitive, captivating and up-to-date. Over the past ten years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has made significant progress in this area through Science On a Sphere(R) (SOS). SOS is a room-sized, global display system that uses computers and video projectors to display Earth systems data onto a six-foot diameter sphere, analogous to a giant animated globe. This well-crafted data visualization system serves as a way to integrate and display global change phenomena; including polar ice melt, projected sea level rise, ocean acidification and global climate models. Beyond a display for individual data sets, SOS provides a holistic global perspective that highlights the interconnectedness of Earth systems, nations and communities. SOS is now a featured exhibit at more than 100 science centers, museums, universities, aquariums and other institutions around the world reaching more than 33 million visitors every year. To facilitate the development of how this data visualization technology and these visualizations could be used with public audiences, we recognized the need for the exchange of information among the users. To accomplish this, we established the SOS Users Collaborative Network. This network consists of the institutions that have an SOS system or partners who are creating content and educational programming for SOS. When we began the Network in 2005, many museums had limited capacity to both incorporate real-time, authentic scientific data about the Earth system and interpret global change visualizations. They needed not only the visualization platform and the scientific content, but also assistance with methods of approach. We needed feedback from these users on how to craft understandable visualizations and how to further develop the SOS platform to support learning. Through this Network and the collaboration among members, we have, collectively, been able to advance all of our efforts. The member institutions, through regular face-to-face workshops and an online community, share practices in creation and cataloging of datasets, new methods for delivering content via SOS, and updates on the SOS system and software. One hallmark of the SOS Users Collaborative Network is that it exemplifies an ideal partnership between federal science agencies and informal science education institutions. The science agencies (including NOAA, NASA, and the Department of Energy) provide continuously updated global datasets, scientific expertise, funding, and support. In turn, museums act as trusted public providers of scientific information, provide audience-appropriate presentations, localized relevance to global phenomena and a forum for discussing the complex science and repercussions of global change. We will discuss the characteristics of this Network that maximize collaboration and what we're learning as a community to improve climate literacy.

Stackable middleware services for advanced multimedia applications. Final report for period July 14, 1999 - July 14, 2001

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

Feng, Wu-chi; Crawfis, Roger, Weide, Bruce

2002-02-01

In this project, the authors propose the research, development, and distribution of a stackable component-based multimedia streaming protocol middleware service. The goals of this stackable middleware interface include: (1) The middleware service will provide application writers and scientists easy to use interfaces that support their visualization needs. (2) The middleware service will support a variety of image compression modes. Currently, many of the network adaptation protocols for video have been developed with DCT-based compression algorithms like H.261, MPEG-1, or MPEG-2 in mind. It is expected that with advanced scientific computing applications that the lossy compression of the image data willmore » be unacceptable in certain instances. The middleware service will support several in-line lossless compression modes for error-sensitive scientific visualization data. (3) The middleware service will support two different types of streaming video modes: one for interactive collaboration of scientists and a stored video streaming mode for viewing prerecorded animations. The use of two different streaming types will allow the quality of the video delivered to the user to be maximized. Most importantly, this service will happen transparently to the user (with some basic controls exported to the user for domain specific tweaking). In the spirit of layered network protocols (like ISO and TCP/IP), application writers should not have to know a large amount about lower level network details. Currently, many example video streaming players have their congestion management techniques tightly integrated into the video player itself and are, for the most part, ''one-off'' applications. As more networked multimedia and video applications are written in the future, a larger percentage of these programmers and scientist will most likely know little about the underlying networking layer. By providing a simple, powerful, and semi-transparent middleware layer, the successful completion of this project will help serve as a catalyst to support future video-based applications, particularly those of advanced scientific computing applications.« less

Anthropological film: a scientific and humanistic resource.

PubMed

Soren, E R

1974-12-20

More than a scientific endeavor but not strictly one of the humanities either, anthropology stands between these basic kinds of intellectual pursuit, bridging and contributing to both. Not limited to natural history, anthropology touches art, historical process, and human values, drawing from the materials and approaches of both science and humanities. This professional interest in a broad understanding of the human condition has led anthropologists to adapt and use modern cameras and films to inquire further into the variety of ways of life of mankind and to develop method and theory to prepare anthropological film as a permanent scientific and humanistic resource. Until quite recently the evolution of human culture and organization has diverged in the hitherto isolated regions of the world. Now this divergence has virtually ceased; we are witnessing an unprecedented period in human history-one where cultural divergence has turned to cultural convergence and where the varieties of independently evolved expressions of basic human potential are giving way to a single system of modern communications, transport, commerce, and manufacturing technology. Before the varieties of ways of life of the world disappear, they can be preserved in facsimile in anthropological films. As primary, undifferentiated visual information, these films facilitate that early step in the creation of new knowledge which is sometimes called humanistic and without which scientific application lies dormant, lacking an idea to test. In keeping with the two scholarly faces of anthropology, humanistic and scientific, anthropological films may provide material permitting both humanistic insight and the more controlled formulations of science. The lightweight filming equipment recently developed has been adapted by anthropologists as a tool of scholarly visual inquiry; methods of retrieving visual data from changing and vanishing ways of life have been developed; and new ways to reveal human beings to one another by using such visual resources have been explored. As a result, not only can anthropological film records permit continued reexamination of the past human conditions from which the present was shaped, but they also facilitate an ongoing public and scientific review of the dynamics of the human behavioral and social repertoire in relation to the contemporary conditions which pattern human responses and adaptation. How man fits into and copes with the changing world is of vital interest and concern. Visual data provide otherwise unobtainable information on human potential, behavior, and social organization. Such information, fed into the public media, facilitates informed consideration of alternative possibilities. By contributing to a better informed society, such films will help make our future more human and more humane.

Flow Charts: Visualization of Vector Fields on Arbitrary Surfaces

PubMed Central

Li, Guo-Shi; Tricoche, Xavier; Weiskopf, Daniel; Hansen, Charles

2009-01-01

We introduce a novel flow visualization method called Flow Charts, which uses a texture atlas approach for the visualization of flows defined over curved surfaces. In this scheme, the surface and its associated flow are segmented into overlapping patches, which are then parameterized and packed in the texture domain. This scheme allows accurate particle advection across multiple charts in the texture domain, providing a flexible framework that supports various flow visualization techniques. The use of surface parameterization enables flow visualization techniques requiring the global view of the surface over long time spans, such as Unsteady Flow LIC (UFLIC), particle-based Unsteady Flow Advection Convolution (UFAC), or dye advection. It also prevents visual artifacts normally associated with view-dependent methods. Represented as textures, Flow Charts can be naturally integrated into hardware accelerated flow visualization techniques for interactive performance. PMID:18599918

Profiling Oman education data using data visualization technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alalawi, Sultan Juma Sultan; Shaharanee, Izwan Nizal Mohd; Jamil, Jastini Mohd

2016-10-01

This research works presents an innovative data visualization technique to understand and visualize the information of Oman's education data generated from the Ministry of Education Oman "Educational Portal". The Ministry of Education in Sultanate of Oman have huge databases contains massive information. The volume of data in the database increase yearly as many students, teachers and employees enter into the database. The task for discovering and analyzing these vast volumes of data becomes increasingly difficult. Information visualization and data mining offer a better ways in dealing with large volume of information. In this paper, an innovative information visualization technique is developed to visualize the complex multidimensional educational data. Microsoft Excel Dashboard, Visual Basic Application (VBA) and Pivot Table are utilized to visualize the data. Findings from the summarization of the data are presented, and it is argued that information visualization can help related stakeholders to become aware of hidden and interesting information from large amount of data drowning in their educational portal.

NeuroTessMesh: A Tool for the Generation and Visualization of Neuron Meshes and Adaptive On-the-Fly Refinement.

PubMed

Garcia-Cantero, Juan J; Brito, Juan P; Mata, Susana; Bayona, Sofia; Pastor, Luis

2017-01-01

Gaining a better understanding of the human brain continues to be one of the greatest challenges for science, largely because of the overwhelming complexity of the brain and the difficulty of analyzing the features and behavior of dense neural networks. Regarding analysis, 3D visualization has proven to be a useful tool for the evaluation of complex systems. However, the large number of neurons in non-trivial circuits, together with their intricate geometry, makes the visualization of a neuronal scenario an extremely challenging computational problem. Previous work in this area dealt with the generation of 3D polygonal meshes that approximated the cells' overall anatomy but did not attempt to deal with the extremely high storage and computational cost required to manage a complex scene. This paper presents NeuroTessMesh, a tool specifically designed to cope with many of the problems associated with the visualization of neural circuits that are comprised of large numbers of cells. In addition, this method facilitates the recovery and visualization of the 3D geometry of cells included in databases, such as NeuroMorpho, and provides the tools needed to approximate missing information such as the soma's morphology. This method takes as its only input the available compact, yet incomplete, morphological tracings of the cells as acquired by neuroscientists. It uses a multiresolution approach that combines an initial, coarse mesh generation with subsequent on-the-fly adaptive mesh refinement stages using tessellation shaders. For the coarse mesh generation, a novel approach, based on the Finite Element Method, allows approximation of the 3D shape of the soma from its incomplete description. Subsequently, the adaptive refinement process performed in the graphic card generates meshes that provide good visual quality geometries at a reasonable computational cost, both in terms of memory and rendering time. All the described techniques have been integrated into NeuroTessMesh, available to the scientific community, to generate, visualize, and save the adaptive resolution meshes.

OpenSpace: From Data Visualization Research to Planetariums and Classrooms Worldwide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Emmart, C.; Ynnerman, A.; Bock, A.; Kuznetsova, M. M.; Kinzler, R. J.; Trakinski, V.; Mac Low, M. M.; Ebel, D. S. S.

2016-12-01

"OpenSpace" is a new NASA supported open source software that brings the latest techniques from data visualization research to the planetarium community and general public. The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), in collaboration with informal science institutions (ISI), academic partners, key vendors that support planetariums worldwide, and NASA mission teams and Subject Matter Experts (SME), is creating OpenSpace to enable STEM education and improve U.S. scientific literacy by engaging a broad spectrum of the American public and STEM learners in cutting-edge NASA science and engineering content. The project's primary focus is the interactive presentation of dynamic data from observations (image sequences), astrophysical simulation (volumetric rendering), and space missions (observation geometry visualization). Development of the software began several years ago in collaboration with NASA Goddard's space weather modeling center and in conjunction with academic support from Linköping University (LiU) in Sweden, and continued last year with visualizations of NASA's New Horizons mission and ESA's Rosetta mission. For the New Horizons Pluto encounter, a dozen sites around the world running OpenSpace networked simultaneously to view the close approach to Pluto as narrated in real time by mission control scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Subsequent image data from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imaging (LORRI) camera was released by NASA as it downloaded from the spacecraft in the following months. These images, along with post encounter navigation reconstruction data (NASA SPICE) were then used to update the OpenSpace New Horizons visualization, and create a February 2016 public program in which Deputy Project Scientist, Cathy Olkin, demonstrated these results visualized in OpenSpace to a sold out crowd in the AMNH Hayden Planetarium. As demonstrated with the New Horizons visualization in OpenSpace, the goals of the project are to make visible mission planning, discoveries and theoretical simulations within an evolving software designed for live demonstration accompanied by authoritative description.

Using JournalMap to improve discovery and visualization of rangeland scientific knowledge

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Most of the ecological research conducted around the world is tied to specific places; however, that location information is locked up in the text and figures of scientific articles in myriad forms that are not easily searchable. While access to ecological literature has improved dramatically in the...

Science Learning with Information Technologies as a Tool for "Scientific Thinking" in Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smirnov, Eugeny; Bogun, Vitali

2011-01-01

New methodologies in science (or mathematics) learning process and scientific thinking in the classroom activity of engineer students with ICT (information and communication technology), including graphic calculator are presented: visual modelling with ICT, action research with graphic calculator, insight in classroom and communications and…

SBOL Visual: A Graphical Language for Genetic Designs.

PubMed

Quinn, Jacqueline Y; Cox, Robert Sidney; Adler, Aaron; Beal, Jacob; Bhatia, Swapnil; Cai, Yizhi; Chen, Joanna; Clancy, Kevin; Galdzicki, Michal; Hillson, Nathan J; Le Novère, Nicolas; Maheshwari, Akshay J; McLaughlin, James Alastair; Myers, Chris J; P, Umesh; Pocock, Matthew; Rodriguez, Cesar; Soldatova, Larisa; Stan, Guy-Bart V; Swainston, Neil; Wipat, Anil; Sauro, Herbert M

2015-12-01

Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) Visual is a graphical standard for genetic engineering. It consists of symbols representing DNA subsequences, including regulatory elements and DNA assembly features. These symbols can be used to draw illustrations for communication and instruction, and as image assets for computer-aided design. SBOL Visual is a community standard, freely available for personal, academic, and commercial use (Creative Commons CC0 license). We provide prototypical symbol images that have been used in scientific publications and software tools. We encourage users to use and modify them freely, and to join the SBOL Visual community: http://www.sbolstandard.org/visual.

Visualization of 3D CT-based anatomical models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alaytsev, Innokentiy K.; Danilova, Tatyana V.; Manturov, Alexey O.; Mareev, Gleb O.; Mareev, Oleg V.

2018-04-01

Biomedical volumetric data visualization techniques for the exploration purposes are well developed. Most of the known methods are inappropriate for surgery simulation systems due to lack of realism. A segmented data visualization is a well-known approach for the visualization of the structured volumetric data. The research is focused on improvement of the segmented data visualization technique by the aliasing problems resolution and the use of material transparency modeling for better semitransparent structures rendering.

Advanced Visualization and Interactive Display Rapid Innovation and Discovery Evaluation Research (VISRIDER) Program Task 6: Point Cloud Visualization Techniques for Desktop and Web Platforms

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-04-01

ADVANCED VISUALIZATION AND INTERACTIVE DISPLAY RAPID INNOVATION AND DISCOVERY EVALUATION RESEARCH (VISRIDER) PROGRAM TASK 6: POINT CLOUD...To) OCT 2013 – SEP 2014 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE ADVANCED VISUALIZATION AND INTERACTIVE DISPLAY RAPID INNOVATION AND DISCOVERY EVALUATION RESEARCH...various point cloud visualization techniques for viewing large scale LiDAR datasets. Evaluate their potential use for thick client desktop platforms

Gendermetrics.NET: a novel software for analyzing the gender representation in scientific authoring.

PubMed

Bendels, Michael H K; Brüggmann, Dörthe; Schöffel, Norman; Groneberg, David A

2016-01-01

Imbalances in female career promotion are believed to be strong in the field of academic science. A primary parameter to analyze gender inequalities is the gender authoring in scientific publications. Since the presently available data on gender distribution is largely limited to underpowered studies, we here develop a new approach to analyze authors' genders in large bibliometric databases. A SQL-Server based multiuser software suite was developed that serves as an integrative tool for analyzing bibliometric data with a special emphasis on gender and topographical analysis. The presented system allows seamless integration, inspection, modification, evaluation and visualization of bibliometric data. By providing an adaptive and almost fully automatic integration and analysis process, the inter-individual variability of analysis is kept at a low level. Depending on the scientific question, the system enables the user to perform a scientometric analysis including its visualization within a short period of time. In summary, a new software suite for analyzing gender representations in scientific articles was established. The system is suitable for the comparative analysis of scientific structures on the level of continents, countries, cities, city regions, institutions, research fields and journals.

Building Stories about Sea Level Rise through Interactive Visualizations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stephens, S. H.; DeLorme, D. E.; Hagen, S. C.

2013-12-01

Digital media provide storytellers with dynamic new tools for communicating about scientific issues via interactive narrative visualizations. While traditional storytelling uses plot, characterization, and point of view to engage audiences with underlying themes and messages, interactive visualizations can be described as 'narrative builders' that promote insight through the process of discovery (Dove, G. & Jones, S. 2012, Proc. IHCI 2012). Narrative visualizations are used in online journalism to tell complex stories that allow readers to select aspects of datasets to explore and construct alternative interpretations of information (Segel, E. & Heer, J. 2010, IEEE Trans. Vis. Comp. Graph.16, 1139), thus enabling them to participate in the story-building process. Nevertheless, narrative visualizations also incorporate author-selected narrative elements that help guide and constrain the overall themes and messaging of the visualization (Hullman, J. & Diakopoulos, N. 2011, IEEE Trans. Vis. Comp. Graph. 17, 2231). One specific type of interactive narrative visualization that is used for science communication is the sea level rise (SLR) viewer. SLR viewers generally consist of a base map, upon which projections of sea level rise scenarios can be layered, and various controls for changing the viewpoint and scenario parameters. They are used to communicate the results of scientific modeling and help readers visualize the potential impacts of SLR on the coastal zone. Readers can use SLR viewers to construct personal narratives of the effects of SLR under different scenarios in locations that are important to them, thus extending the potential reach and impact of scientific research. With careful selection of narrative elements that guide reader interpretation, the communicative aspects of these visualizations may be made more effective. This presentation reports the results of a content analysis of a subset of existing SLR viewers selected in order to comprehensively identify and characterize the narrative elements that contribute to this storytelling medium. The results describe four layers of narrative elements in these viewers: data, visual representations, annotations, and interactivity; and explain the ways in which these elements are used to communicate about SLR. Most existing SLR viewers have been designed with attention to technical usability; however, careful design of narrative elements could increase their overall effectiveness as story-building tools. The analysis concludes with recommendations for narrative elements that should be considered when designing new SLR viewers, and offers suggestions for integrating these components to balance author-driven and reader-driven design features for more effective messaging.

In situ visualization for large-scale combustion simulations.

PubMed

Yu, Hongfeng; Wang, Chaoli; Grout, Ray W; Chen, Jacqueline H; Ma, Kwan-Liu

2010-01-01

As scientific supercomputing moves toward petascale and exascale levels, in situ visualization stands out as a scalable way for scientists to view the data their simulations generate. This full picture is crucial particularly for capturing and understanding highly intermittent transient phenomena, such as ignition and extinction events in turbulent combustion.

A Simple Model of Hox Genes: Bone Morphology Demonstration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shmaefsky, Brian

2008-01-01

Visual demonstrations of abstract scientific concepts are effective strategies for enhancing content retention (Shmaefsky 2004). The concepts associated with gene regulation of growth and development are particularly complex and are well suited for teaching with visual models. This demonstration provides a simple and accurate model of Hox gene…

The Language of Visualisation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wyatt, R.

2014-01-01

There is a visual language present in all images and this article explores the meaning of these languages, their importance, and what it means for the visualisation of science. Do we, as science communicators, confuse and confound our audiences by assuming the visual vernacular of the scientist or isolate our scientific audience by ignoring it?

Graphic Abilities in Relation to Mathematical and Scientific Ability in Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stavridou, Fotini; Kakana, Domna

2008-01-01

Background: The study investigated a small range of cognitive abilities, related to visual-spatial intelligence, in adolescents. This specific range of cognitive abilities was termed "graphic abilities" and defined as a range of abilities to visualise and think in three dimensions, originating in the domain of visual-spatial…

Six Myths about Spatial Thinking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newcombe, Nora S.; Stieff, Mike

2012-01-01

Visualizations are an increasingly important part of scientific education and discovery. However, users often do not gain knowledge from them in a complete or efficient way. This article aims to direct research on visualizations in science education in productive directions by reviewing the evidence for widespread assumptions that learning styles,…

Understanding Pictorial Information in Biology: Students' Cognitive Activities and Visual Reading Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandstetter, Miriam; Sandmann, Angela; Florian, Christine

2017-01-01

In classroom, scientific contents are increasingly communicated through visual forms of representations. Students' learning outcomes rely on their ability to read and understand pictorial information. Understanding pictorial information in biology requires cognitive effort and can be challenging to students. Yet evidence-based knowledge about…

Histochemical Seeing: Scientific Visualization and Art Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knochel, Aaron

2013-01-01

What are the capacities of visual arts curricula to engage learning within narrow frameworks of overly "scientistic" standards (Lather, 2007)? With growing emphasis in schools under STEM initiatives and evidence-based standards, the possible cross-pollination of effects that art education may have on a science-centric education may be a…

A "Thinking Journey" to the Planets Using Scientific Visualization Technologies: Implications to Astronomy Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yair, Yoav; Schur, Yaron; Mintz, Rachel

2003-01-01

Presents a novel approach to teaching astronomy and planetary sciences centered on visual images and simulations of planetary objects. Focuses on the study of the moon and the planet Mars by means of observations, interpretation, and comparison to planet Earth. (Contains 22 references.) (Author/YDS)

Visual and Spatial Modes in Science Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramadas, Jayashree

2009-01-01

This paper surveys some major trends from research on visual and spatial thinking coming from cognitive science, developmental psychology, science literacy, and science studies. It explores the role of visualisation in creativity, in building mental models, and in the communication of scientific ideas, in order to place these findings in the…

Identifying secondary-school students' difficulties when reading visual representations displayed in physics simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

López, Víctor; Pintó, Roser

2017-07-01

Computer simulations are often considered effective educational tools, since their visual and communicative power enable students to better understand physical systems and phenomena. However, previous studies have found that when students read visual representations some reading difficulties can arise, especially when these are complex or dynamic representations. We have analyzed how secondary-school students read the visual representations displayed in two PhET simulations (one addressing the friction-heating at microscopic level, and the other addressing the electromagnetic induction), and different typologies of reading difficulties have been identified: when reading the compositional structure of the representation, when giving appropriate relevance and semantic meaning to each visual element, and also when dealing with multiple representations and dynamic information. All students experienced at least one of these difficulties, and very similar difficulties appeared in the two groups of students, despite the different scientific content of the simulations. In conclusion, visualisation does not imply a full comprehension of the content of scientific simulations per se, and an effective reading process requires a set of reading skills, previous knowledge, attention, and external supports. Science teachers should bear in mind these issues in order to help students read images to take benefit of their educational potential.

Creative user-centered visualization design for energy analysts and modelers.

PubMed

Goodwin, Sarah; Dykes, Jason; Jones, Sara; Dillingham, Iain; Dove, Graham; Duffy, Alison; Kachkaev, Alexander; Slingsby, Aidan; Wood, Jo

2013-12-01

We enhance a user-centered design process with techniques that deliberately promote creativity to identify opportunities for the visualization of data generated by a major energy supplier. Visualization prototypes developed in this way prove effective in a situation whereby data sets are largely unknown and requirements open - enabling successful exploration of possibilities for visualization in Smart Home data analysis. The process gives rise to novel designs and design metaphors including data sculpting. It suggests: that the deliberate use of creativity techniques with data stakeholders is likely to contribute to successful, novel and effective solutions; that being explicit about creativity may contribute to designers developing creative solutions; that using creativity techniques early in the design process may result in a creative approach persisting throughout the process. The work constitutes the first systematic visualization design for a data rich source that will be increasingly important to energy suppliers and consumers as Smart Meter technology is widely deployed. It is novel in explicitly employing creativity techniques at the requirements stage of visualization design and development, paving the way for further use and study of creativity methods in visualization design.

NOAA's Science On a Sphere Education Program: Application of a Scientific Visualization System to Teach Earth System Science and Improve our Understanding About Creating Effective Visualizations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDougall, C.; McLaughlin, J.

2008-12-01

NOAA has developed several programs aimed at facilitating the use of earth system science data and data visualizations by formal and informal educators. One of them, Science On a Sphere, a visualization display tool and system that uses networked LCD projectors to display animated global datasets onto the outside of a suspended, 1.7-meter diameter opaque sphere, enables science centers, museums, and universities to display real-time and current earth system science data. NOAA's Office of Education has provided grants to such education institutions to develop exhibits featuring Science On a Sphere (SOS) and create content for and evaluate audience impact. Currently, 20 public education institutions have permanent Science On a Sphere exhibits and 6 more will be installed soon. These institutions and others that are working to create and evaluate content for this system work collaboratively as a network to improve our collective knowledge about how to create educationally effective visualizations. Network members include other federal agencies, such as, NASA and the Dept. of Energy, and major museums such as Smithsonian and American Museum of Natural History, as well as a variety of mid-sized and small museums and universities. Although the audiences in these institutions vary widely in their scientific awareness and understanding, we find there are misconceptions and lack of familiarity with viewing visualizations that are common among the audiences. Through evaluations performed in these institutions we continue to evolve our understanding of how to create content that is understandable by those with minimal scientific literacy. The findings from our network will be presented including the importance of providing context, real-world connections and imagery to accompany the visualizations and the need for audience orientation before the visualizations are viewed. Additionally, we will review the publicly accessible virtual library housing over 200 datasets for SOS and any other real or virtual globe. These datasets represent contributions from NOAA, NASA, Dept. of Energy, and the public institutions that are displaying the spheres.

Diderot: a Domain-Specific Language for Portable Parallel Scientific Visualization and Image Analysis.

PubMed

Kindlmann, Gordon; Chiw, Charisee; Seltzer, Nicholas; Samuels, Lamont; Reppy, John

2016-01-01

Many algorithms for scientific visualization and image analysis are rooted in the world of continuous scalar, vector, and tensor fields, but are programmed in low-level languages and libraries that obscure their mathematical foundations. Diderot is a parallel domain-specific language that is designed to bridge this semantic gap by providing the programmer with a high-level, mathematical programming notation that allows direct expression of mathematical concepts in code. Furthermore, Diderot provides parallel performance that takes advantage of modern multicore processors and GPUs. The high-level notation allows a concise and natural expression of the algorithms and the parallelism allows efficient execution on real-world datasets.

Manifold compositions, music visualization, and scientific sonification in an immersive virtual-reality environment.

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

Kaper, H. G.

1998-01-05

An interdisciplinary project encompassing sound synthesis, music composition, sonification, and visualization of music is facilitated by the high-performance computing capabilities and the virtual-reality environments available at Argonne National Laboratory. The paper describes the main features of the project's centerpiece, DIASS (Digital Instrument for Additive Sound Synthesis); ''A.N.L.-folds'', an equivalence class of compositions produced with DIASS; and application of DIASS in two experiments in the sonification of complex scientific data. Some of the larger issues connected with this project, such as the changing ways in which both scientists and composers perform their tasks, are briefly discussed.

Visualization analysis of author collaborations in schizophrenia research.

PubMed

Wu, Ying; Duan, Zhiguang

2015-02-19

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that levies a heavy medical toll and cost burden throughout the world. Scientific collaborations are necessary for progress in psychiatric research. However, there have been few publications on scientific collaborations in schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent of author collaborations in schizophrenia research. This study used 58,107 records on schizophrenia from 2003 to 2012 which were downloaded from Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI Expanded) via Web of Science. CiteSpace III, an information visualization and analysis software, was used to make a visual analysis. Collaborative author networks within the field of schizophrenia were determined using published documents. We found that external author collaboration networks were more scattered while potential author collaboration networks were more compact. Results from hierarchical clustering analysis showed that the main collaborative field was genetic research in schizophrenia. Based on the results, authors belonging to different institutions and in different countries should be encouraged to collaborate in schizophrenia research. This will help researchers focus their studies on key issues, and allow each other to offer reasonable suggestions for making polices and providing scientific evidence to effectively diagnose, prevent, and cure schizophrenia.

High speed digital holographic interferometry for hypersonic flow visualization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hegde, G. M.; Jagdeesh, G.; Reddy, K. P. J.

2013-06-01

Optical imaging techniques have played a major role in understanding the flow dynamics of varieties of fluid flows, particularly in the study of hypersonic flows. Schlieren and shadowgraph techniques have been the flow diagnostic tools for the investigation of compressible flows since more than a century. However these techniques provide only the qualitative information about the flow field. Other optical techniques such as holographic interferometry and laser induced fluorescence (LIF) have been used extensively for extracting quantitative information about the high speed flows. In this paper we present the application of digital holographic interferometry (DHI) technique integrated with short duration hypersonic shock tunnel facility having 1 ms test time, for quantitative flow visualization. Dynamics of the flow fields in hypersonic/supersonic speeds around different test models is visualized with DHI using a high-speed digital camera (0.2 million fps). These visualization results are compared with schlieren visualization and CFD simulation results. Fringe analysis is carried out to estimate the density of the flow field.

Motion parallax in immersive cylindrical display systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filliard, N.; Reymond, G.; Kemeny, A.; Berthoz, A.

2012-03-01

Motion parallax is a crucial visual cue produced by translations of the observer for the perception of depth and selfmotion. Therefore, tracking the observer viewpoint has become inevitable in immersive virtual (VR) reality systems (cylindrical screens, CAVE, head mounted displays) used e.g. in automotive industry (style reviews, architecture design, ergonomics studies) or in scientific studies of visual perception. The perception of a stable and rigid world requires that this visual cue be coherent with other extra-retinal (e.g. vestibular, kinesthetic) cues signaling ego-motion. Although world stability is never questioned in real world, rendering head coupled viewpoint in VR can lead to the perception of an illusory perception of unstable environments, unless a non-unity scale factor is applied on recorded head movements. Besides, cylindrical screens are usually used with static observers due to image distortions when rendering image for viewpoints different from a sweet spot. We developed a technique to compensate in real-time these non-linear visual distortions, in an industrial VR setup, based on a cylindrical screen projection system. Additionally, to evaluate the amount of discrepancies tolerated without perceptual distortions between visual and extraretinal cues, a "motion parallax gain" between the velocity of the observer's head and that of the virtual camera was introduced in this system. The influence of this artificial gain was measured on the gait stability of free-standing participants. Results indicate that, below unity, gains significantly alter postural control. Conversely, the influence of higher gains remains limited, suggesting a certain tolerance of observers to these conditions. Parallax gain amplification is therefore proposed as a possible solution to provide a wider exploration of space to users of immersive virtual reality systems.

Distributed GPU Computing in GIScience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Y.; Yang, C.; Huang, Q.; Li, J.; Sun, M.

2013-12-01

Geoscientists strived to discover potential principles and patterns hidden inside ever-growing Big Data for scientific discoveries. To better achieve this objective, more capable computing resources are required to process, analyze and visualize Big Data (Ferreira et al., 2003; Li et al., 2013). Current CPU-based computing techniques cannot promptly meet the computing challenges caused by increasing amount of datasets from different domains, such as social media, earth observation, environmental sensing (Li et al., 2013). Meanwhile CPU-based computing resources structured as cluster or supercomputer is costly. In the past several years with GPU-based technology matured in both the capability and performance, GPU-based computing has emerged as a new computing paradigm. Compare to traditional computing microprocessor, the modern GPU, as a compelling alternative microprocessor, has outstanding high parallel processing capability with cost-effectiveness and efficiency(Owens et al., 2008), although it is initially designed for graphical rendering in visualization pipe. This presentation reports a distributed GPU computing framework for integrating GPU-based computing within distributed environment. Within this framework, 1) for each single computer, computing resources of both GPU-based and CPU-based can be fully utilized to improve the performance of visualizing and processing Big Data; 2) within a network environment, a variety of computers can be used to build up a virtual super computer to support CPU-based and GPU-based computing in distributed computing environment; 3) GPUs, as a specific graphic targeted device, are used to greatly improve the rendering efficiency in distributed geo-visualization, especially for 3D/4D visualization. Key words: Geovisualization, GIScience, Spatiotemporal Studies Reference : 1. Ferreira de Oliveira, M. C., & Levkowitz, H. (2003). From visual data exploration to visual data mining: A survey. Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions on, 9(3), 378-394. 2. Li, J., Jiang, Y., Yang, C., Huang, Q., & Rice, M. (2013). Visualizing 3D/4D Environmental Data Using Many-core Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and Multi-core Central Processing Units (CPUs). Computers & Geosciences, 59(9), 78-89. 3. Owens, J. D., Houston, M., Luebke, D., Green, S., Stone, J. E., & Phillips, J. C. (2008). GPU computing. Proceedings of the IEEE, 96(5), 879-899.

Image fusion for visualization of hepatic vasculature and tumors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chou, Jin-Shin; Chen, Shiuh-Yung J.; Sudakoff, Gary S.; Hoffmann, Kenneth R.; Chen, Chin-Tu; Dachman, Abraham H.

1995-05-01

We have developed segmentation and simultaneous display techniques to facilitate the visualization of the three-dimensional spatial relationships between organ structures and organ vasculature. We concentrate on the visualization of the liver based on spiral computed tomography images. Surface-based 3-D rendering and maximal intensity projection algorithms are used for data visualization. To extract the liver in the serial of images accurately and efficiently, we have developed a user-friendly interactive program with a deformable-model segmentation. Surface rendering techniques are used to visualize the extracted structures, adjacent contours are aligned and fitted with a Bezier surface to yield a smooth surface. Visualization of the vascular structures, portal and hepatic veins, is achieved by applying a MIP technique to the extracted liver volume. To integrate the extracted structures they are surface-rendered and their MIP images are aligned and a color table is designed for simultaneous display of the combined liver/tumor and vasculature images. By combining the 3-D surface rendering and MIP techniques, portal veins, hepatic veins, and hepatic tumor can be inspected simultaneously and their spatial relationships can be more easily perceived. The proposed technique will be useful for visualization of both hepatic neoplasm and vasculature in surgical planning for tumor resection or living-donor liver transplantation.

Applications of CFD and visualization techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saunders, James H.; Brown, Susan T.; Crisafulli, Jeffrey J.; Southern, Leslie A.

1992-01-01

In this paper, three applications are presented to illustrate current techniques for flow calculation and visualization. The first two applications use a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, FLUENT, performed on a Cray Y-MP. The results are animated with the aid of data visualization software, apE. The third application simulates a particulate deposition pattern using techniques inspired by developments in nonlinear dynamical systems. These computations were performed on personal computers.

Visualization techniques to aid in the analysis of multi-spectral astrophysical data sets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Domik, Gitta; Alam, Salim; Pinkney, Paul

1992-01-01

This report describes our project activities for the period Sep. 1991 - Oct. 1992. Our activities included stabilizing the software system STAR, porting STAR to IDL/widgets (improved user interface), targeting new visualization techniques for multi-dimensional data visualization (emphasizing 3D visualization), and exploring leading-edge 3D interface devices. During the past project year we emphasized high-end visualization techniques, by exploring new tools offered by state-of-the-art visualization software (such as AVS3 and IDL4/widgets), by experimenting with tools still under research at the Department of Computer Science (e.g., use of glyphs for multidimensional data visualization), and by researching current 3D input/output devices as they could be used to explore 3D astrophysical data. As always, any project activity is driven by the need to interpret astrophysical data more effectively.

Augmented Reality in Scientific Publications-Taking the Visualization of 3D Structures to the Next Level.

PubMed

Wolle, Patrik; Müller, Matthias P; Rauh, Daniel

2018-03-16

The examination of three-dimensional structural models in scientific publications allows the reader to validate or invalidate conclusions drawn by the authors. However, either due to a (temporary) lack of access to proper visualization software or a lack of proficiency, this information is not necessarily available to every reader. As the digital revolution is quickly progressing, technologies have become widely available that overcome the limitations and offer to all the opportunity to appreciate models not only in 2D, but also in 3D. Additionally, mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets allow access to this information almost anywhere, at any time. Since access to such information has only recently become standard practice, we want to outline straightforward ways to incorporate 3D models in augmented reality into scientific publications, books, posters, and presentations and suggest that this should become general practice.

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

Sewell, Christopher Meyer

This is a set of slides from a guest lecture for a class at the University of Texas, El Paso on visualization and data analysis for high-performance computing. The topics covered are the following: trends in high-performance computing; scientific visualization, such as OpenGL, ray tracing and volume rendering, VTK, and ParaView; data science at scale, such as in-situ visualization, image databases, distributed memory parallelism, shared memory parallelism, VTK-m, "big data", and then an analysis example.

Analysis of Visual Illusions Using Multiresolution Wavelet Decomposition Based Models

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-12-01

1962). 22. Hubel , David H. "The Visual Cortex of The Brain," Scientific American, 209(5):54-62 (November 1963). 23. Hubel , David H. and Torsten N...model the visual system. In 1990, Oberndorf, a masters student at the Air Force Institrt, of Technology, tested the Gabor theo y on visual illusion...represento d by x2 + y2 = r 2 in Cartesian space is now more easily expressed by p = r in polar space. The coordinates x and y or p and 0 provide alternate

[Use of stimulation techniques in pain treatment].

PubMed

Rosted, Palle; Andersen, Claus

2006-05-15

Stimulation techniques (SB) include manipulation, acupuncture, acupressure, physiotherapy, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, reflexotherapy, laser treatment and epidural stimulation technique. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the scientific evidence for these techniques. The Cochrane Library and Medline were searched for all techniques from 2000 to date. Only randomised controlled studies written in English were included. Search words were used, such as; acupuncture and neck pain, shoulder pain, etc. In total 587 papers were identified for the following diseases; headache, neck pain, shoulder pain, elbow pain, low back pain and knee pain. 415 papers were excluded, and the remaining 172 papers, a total of 20,431 patients, are the basis for this study. The effect of acupuncture and epidural stimulation technique is scientifically well-supported. For the remaining techniques, the scientific evidence is dubious.

[To explain is to narrate. How to visualize scientific data].

PubMed

Hawtin, Nigel

2014-01-01

When you try to appeal a vast ranging audience, as it occurs at the New Scientist that addresses scientists as well as the general public, your scientific visual explainer must be succinct, clear, accurate and easily understandable. In order to reach this goal, your message should provide only the main data, the ones that allow you to balance information and clarity: information should be put into context and all the extra details should be cut down. It is very important, then, to know well both your audience and the subject you are going to describe, as graphic masters of the past, like William Playfair and Charles Minard, have taught us. Moreover, you should try to engage your reader connecting the storytelling power of words and the driving force of the graphics: colours, visual elements, typography. To be effective, in fact, an infographic should not only be truthful and functional, but also elegant, having style and legibility.

Visual analytics as a translational cognitive science.

PubMed

Fisher, Brian; Green, Tera Marie; Arias-Hernández, Richard

2011-07-01

Visual analytics is a new interdisciplinary field of study that calls for a more structured scientific approach to understanding the effects of interaction with complex graphical displays on human cognitive processes. Its primary goal is to support the design and evaluation of graphical information systems that better support cognitive processes in areas as diverse as scientific research and emergency management. The methodologies that make up this new field are as yet ill defined. This paper proposes a pathway for development of visual analytics as a translational cognitive science that bridges fundamental research in human/computer cognitive systems and design and evaluation of information systems in situ. Achieving this goal will require the development of enhanced field methods for conceptual decomposition of human/computer cognitive systems that maps onto laboratory studies, and improved methods for conducting laboratory investigations that might better map onto real-world cognitive processes in technology-rich environments. Copyright © 2011 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Final Technical Progress Report; Closeout Certifications; CSSV Newsletter Volume I; CSSV Newsletter Volume II; CSSV Activity Journal; CSSV Final Financial Report

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

Houston, Johnny L; Geter, Kerry

This Project?s third year of implementation in 2007-2008, the final year, as designated by Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), in cooperation with the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM) Inc., in an effort to promote research and research training programs in computational science ? scientific visualization (CSSV). A major goal of the Project was to attract the energetic and productive faculty, graduate and upper division undergraduate students of diverse ethnicities to a program that investigates science and computational science issues of long-term interest to the Department of Energy (DoE) and the nation. The breadth and depth of computational science?scientific visualization andmore » the magnitude of resources available are enormous for permitting a variety of research activities. ECSU?s Computational Science-Science Visualization Center will serve as a conduit for directing users to these enormous resources.« less

Revealing the face of an ancient Egyptian: synthesis of current and traditional approaches to evidence-based facial approximation.

PubMed

Lindsay, Kaitlin E; Rühli, Frank J; Deleon, Valerie Burke

2015-06-01

The technique of forensic facial approximation, or reconstruction, is one of many facets of the field of mummy studies. Although far from a rigorous scientific technique, evidence-based visualization of antemortem appearance may supplement radiological, chemical, histological, and epidemiological studies of ancient remains. Published guidelines exist for creating facial approximations, but few approximations are published with documentation of the specific process and references used. Additionally, significant new research has taken place in recent years which helps define best practices in the field. This case study records the facial approximation of a 3,000-year-old ancient Egyptian woman using medical imaging data and the digital sculpting program, ZBrush. It represents a synthesis of current published techniques based on the most solid anatomical and/or statistical evidence. Through this study, it was found that although certain improvements have been made in developing repeatable, evidence-based guidelines for facial approximation, there are many proposed methods still awaiting confirmation from comprehensive studies. This study attempts to assist artists, anthropologists, and forensic investigators working in facial approximation by presenting the recommended methods in a chronological and usable format. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Dipy, a library for the analysis of diffusion MRI data.

PubMed

Garyfallidis, Eleftherios; Brett, Matthew; Amirbekian, Bagrat; Rokem, Ariel; van der Walt, Stefan; Descoteaux, Maxime; Nimmo-Smith, Ian

2014-01-01

Diffusion Imaging in Python (Dipy) is a free and open source software project for the analysis of data from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) experiments. dMRI is an application of MRI that can be used to measure structural features of brain white matter. Many methods have been developed to use dMRI data to model the local configuration of white matter nerve fiber bundles and infer the trajectory of bundles connecting different parts of the brain. Dipy gathers implementations of many different methods in dMRI, including: diffusion signal pre-processing; reconstruction of diffusion distributions in individual voxels; fiber tractography and fiber track post-processing, analysis and visualization. Dipy aims to provide transparent implementations for all the different steps of dMRI analysis with a uniform programming interface. We have implemented classical signal reconstruction techniques, such as the diffusion tensor model and deterministic fiber tractography. In addition, cutting edge novel reconstruction techniques are implemented, such as constrained spherical deconvolution and diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) with deconvolution, as well as methods for probabilistic tracking and original methods for tractography clustering. Many additional utility functions are provided to calculate various statistics, informative visualizations, as well as file-handling routines to assist in the development and use of novel techniques. In contrast to many other scientific software projects, Dipy is not being developed by a single research group. Rather, it is an open project that encourages contributions from any scientist/developer through GitHub and open discussions on the project mailing list. Consequently, Dipy today has an international team of contributors, spanning seven different academic institutions in five countries and three continents, which is still growing.

Answering the right question - integration of InSAR with other datasets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holley, Rachel; McCormack, Harry; Burren, Richard

2014-05-01

The capabilities of satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) are well known, and utilized across a wide range of academic and commercial applications. However there is a tendency, particularly in commercial applications, for users to ask 'What can we study with InSAR?'. When establishing a new technique this approach is important, but InSAR has been possible for 20 years now and, even accounting for new and innovative algorithms, this ground has been thoroughly explored. Too many studies conclude 'We show the ground is moving here, by this much', and mention the wider context as an afterthought. The focus needs to shift towards first asking the right questions - in fields as diverse as hazard awareness, resource optimization, financial considerations and pure scientific enquiry - and then working out how to achieve the best possible answers. Depending on the question, InSAR (and ground deformation more generally) may provide a large or small contribution to the overall solution, and there are usually benefits to integrating a number of techniques to capitalize on the complementary capabilities and provide the most useful measurements. However, there is still a gap between measurements and answers, and unlocking the value of the data relies heavily on appropriate visualization, integrated analysis, communication between technique and application experts, and appropriate use of modelling. We present a number of application examples, and demonstrate how their usefulness can be transformed by moving from a focus on data to answers - integrating complementary geodetic, geophysical and geological datasets and geophysical modeling with appropriate visualization, to enable comprehensive solution-focused interpretation. It will also discuss how forthcoming developments are likely to further advance realisation of the full potential satellite InSAR holds.

Dipy, a library for the analysis of diffusion MRI data

PubMed Central

Garyfallidis, Eleftherios; Brett, Matthew; Amirbekian, Bagrat; Rokem, Ariel; van der Walt, Stefan; Descoteaux, Maxime; Nimmo-Smith, Ian

2014-01-01

Diffusion Imaging in Python (Dipy) is a free and open source software project for the analysis of data from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) experiments. dMRI is an application of MRI that can be used to measure structural features of brain white matter. Many methods have been developed to use dMRI data to model the local configuration of white matter nerve fiber bundles and infer the trajectory of bundles connecting different parts of the brain. Dipy gathers implementations of many different methods in dMRI, including: diffusion signal pre-processing; reconstruction of diffusion distributions in individual voxels; fiber tractography and fiber track post-processing, analysis and visualization. Dipy aims to provide transparent implementations for all the different steps of dMRI analysis with a uniform programming interface. We have implemented classical signal reconstruction techniques, such as the diffusion tensor model and deterministic fiber tractography. In addition, cutting edge novel reconstruction techniques are implemented, such as constrained spherical deconvolution and diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) with deconvolution, as well as methods for probabilistic tracking and original methods for tractography clustering. Many additional utility functions are provided to calculate various statistics, informative visualizations, as well as file-handling routines to assist in the development and use of novel techniques. In contrast to many other scientific software projects, Dipy is not being developed by a single research group. Rather, it is an open project that encourages contributions from any scientist/developer through GitHub and open discussions on the project mailing list. Consequently, Dipy today has an international team of contributors, spanning seven different academic institutions in five countries and three continents, which is still growing. PMID:24600385

The steady-state visual evoked potential in vision research: A review

PubMed Central

Norcia, Anthony M.; Appelbaum, L. Gregory; Ales, Justin M.; Cottereau, Benoit R.; Rossion, Bruno

2015-01-01

Periodic visual stimulation and analysis of the resulting steady-state visual evoked potentials were first introduced over 80 years ago as a means to study visual sensation and perception. From the first single-channel recording of responses to modulated light to the present use of sophisticated digital displays composed of complex visual stimuli and high-density recording arrays, steady-state methods have been applied in a broad range of scientific and applied settings.The purpose of this article is to describe the fundamental stimulation paradigms for steady-state visual evoked potentials and to illustrate these principles through research findings across a range of applications in vision science. PMID:26024451

The status of penile enhancement procedures.

PubMed

Vardi, Yoram; Gruenwald, Ilan

2009-11-01

Most men who request surgical penile enhancement have a normal-sized and fully functional penis but visualize their penises as small (psychological dysmorphism). This fact by itself leads to controversy regarding the true indications for penile enhancement procedures in men without micropenis. One of the typical aspects of penile enhancement is the lack of true methodological evaluation of the more commonly performed procedures. Even recently, only few solid scientific studies are available which can shed some light on results and outcome of these controversial procedures. Although some additional data has emerged during the past year, there is still no consensus in regard to indications and surgical techniques used for penile augmentation or penile girth enhancement. There is further need for more studies to provide a better overview of the value and worthiness of these procedures.

Scalable Data Management, Analysis, and Visualization

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

Shen, Han-Wei

This report is the entire final report for the SciDAC project authored by the whole team. OSU is part of the contributors to the report. This report is organized into sections and subsections, each covering an area of development and deployment of technologies applied to scientific applications of interest to the Department of Energy. Each sub-section includes: 1) a summary description of the research, development, and deployment carried out, the results and the extent to which the stated project objectives were met; 2) significant results, including major findings, developments, or conclusions; 3) products, such as publications and presentations, software developed,more » project website(s), technologies or techniques, inventions, awards, etc., and 4) conclusions of the projects and future directions for research, development, and deployment in this technology area.« less

Understanding valence-shell electron-pair repulsion (VSEPR) theory using origami molecular models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Endah Saraswati, Teguh; Saputro, Sulistyo; Ramli, Murni; Praseptiangga, Danar; Khasanah, Nurul; Marwati, Sri

2017-01-01

Valence-shell electron-pair repulsion (VSEPR) theory is conventionally used to predict molecular geometry. However, it is difficult to explore the full implications of this theory by simply drawing chemical structures. Here, we introduce origami modelling as a more accessible approach for exploration of the VSEPR theory. Our technique is simple, readily accessible and inexpensive compared with other sophisticated methods such as computer simulation or commercial three-dimensional modelling kits. This method can be implemented in chemistry education at both the high school and university levels. We discuss the example of a simple molecular structure prediction for ammonia (NH3). Using the origami model, both molecular shape and the scientific justification can be visualized easily. This ‘hands-on’ approach to building molecules will help promote understanding of VSEPR theory.

An intelligent ground operator support system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goerlach, Thomas; Ohlendorf, Gerhard; Plassmeier, Frank; Bruege, Uwe

1994-01-01

This paper presents first results of the project 'Technologien fuer die intelligente Kontrolle von Raumfahrzeugen' (TIKON). The TIKON objective was the demonstration of feasibility and profit of the application of artificial intelligence in the space business. For that purpose a prototype system has been developed and implemented for the operation support of the Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT), a scientific spacecraft designed to perform the first all-sky survey with a high-resolution X-ray telescope and to investigate the emission of specific celestial sources. The prototype integrates a scheduler and a diagnosis tool both based on artificial intelligence techniques. The user interface is menu driven and provides synoptic displays for the visualization of the system status. The prototype has been used and tested in parallel to an already existing operational system.

Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology: Christian N. L. Olivers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Psychologist, 2009

2009-01-01

Christian N. L. Olivers, winner of the Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology, is cited for outstanding research on visual attention and working memory. Olivers uses classic experimental designs in an innovative and sophisticated way to determine underlying mechanisms. He has formulated important theoretical…

An Interdisciplinary Guided Inquiry on Estuarine Transport Using a Computer Model in High School Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Kit Yu Karen; Yang, Sylvia; Maliska, Max E.; Grunbaum, Daniel

2012-01-01

The National Science Education Standards have highlighted the importance of active learning and reflection for contemporary scientific methods in K-12 classrooms, including the use of models. Computer modeling and visualization are tools that researchers employ in their scientific inquiry process, and often computer models are used in…

75 FR 57965 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-23

... Emphasis Panel; RFA Panel: Drug Discovery for the Nervous System. Date: October 14-15, 2010. Time: 8 a.m...: Center for Scientific Review Special Emphasis Panel; RFA Panel: Drug Discovery for the Nervous System... Review Special Emphasis Panel; Small Business: Visual Systems. Date: October 28, 2010. Time: 8 a.m. to 6...

Undergraduate Non-Science Majors' Descriptions and Interpretations of Scientific Data Visualizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swenson, Sandra Signe

2010-01-01

Professionally developed and freely accessible through the Internet, scientific data maps have great potential for teaching and learning with data in the science classroom. Solving problems or developing ideas while using data maps of Earth phenomena in the science classroom may help students to understand the nature and process of science. Little…

ScienceDesk Project Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keller, Richard M.; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

NASA's ScienceDesk Project at the Ames Research Center is responsible for scientific knowledge management which includes ensuring the capture, preservation, and traceability of scientific knowledge. Other responsibilities include: 1) Maintaining uniform information access which is achieved through intelligent indexing and visualization, 2) Collaborating both asynchronous and synchronous science teamwork, 3) Monitoring and controlling semi-autonomous remote experimentation.

Visual Language for the Expression of Scientific Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zender, Mike; Crutcher, Keith A.

2007-01-01

The accelerating rate of data generation and resulting publications are taxing the ability of scientific investigators to stay current with the emerging literature. This problem, acute in science, is not uncommon in other areas. New approaches to managing this explosion of information are needed. While it is only possible to read one paper or…

Cognitive Affordances of the Cyberinfrastructure for Science and Math Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinez, Michael E.; Peters Burton, Erin E.

2011-01-01

The "cyberinfrastucture" is a broad informational network that entails connections to real-time data sensors as well as tools that permit visualization and other forms of analysis, and that facilitates access to vast scientific databases. This multifaceted network, already a major boon to scientific discovery, now shows exceptional promise in…

Assessing Student Scientific Expression Using Media: The Media-Enhanced Science Presentation Rubric (MESPR)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mott, Michael S.; Chessin, Debby A.; Sumrall, William J.; Rutherford, Angela S.; Moore, Virginia J.

2011-01-01

The current study evaluated an assessment designed to dually promote student understanding of the experimental method and student ability to include digital and visual qualities in their presentations of scientific experiment results. The rubric, the Media-Enhanced Science Presentation Rubric (MESPR) focuses teacher-student dialogue along the…

Large Terrain Modeling and Visualization for Planets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Myint, Steven; Jain, Abhinandan; Cameron, Jonathan; Lim, Christopher

2011-01-01

Physics-based simulations are actively used in the design, testing, and operations phases of surface and near-surface planetary space missions. One of the challenges in realtime simulations is the ability to handle large multi-resolution terrain data sets within models as well as for visualization. In this paper, we describe special techniques that we have developed for visualization, paging, and data storage for dealing with these large data sets. The visualization technique uses a real-time GPU-based continuous level-of-detail technique that delivers multiple frames a second performance even for planetary scale terrain model sizes.

Are visual cue masking and removal techniques equivalent for studying perceptual skills in sport?

PubMed

Mecheri, Sami; Gillet, Eric; Thouvarecq, Regis; Leroy, David

2011-01-01

The spatial-occlusion paradigm makes use of two techniques (masking and removing visual cues) to provide information about the anticipatory cues used by viewers. The visual scene resulting from the removal technique appears to be incongruous, but the assumed equivalence of these two techniques is spreading. The present study was designed to address this issue by combining eye-movement recording with the two types of occlusion (removal versus masking) in a tennis serve-return task. Response accuracy and decision onsets were analysed. The results indicated that subjects had longer reaction times under the removal condition, with an identical proportion of correct responses. Also, the removal technique caused the subjects to rely on atypical search patterns. Our findings suggest that, when the removal technique was used, viewers were unable to systematically count on stored memories to help them accomplish the interception task. The persistent failure to question some of the assumptions about the removal technique in applied visual research is highlighted, and suggestions for continued use of the masking technique are advanced.

Designing Guidance for Interpreting Dynamic Visualizations: Generating versus Reading Explanations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryoo, Kihyun; Linn, Marcia C.

2014-01-01

We compared designs of guidance to support students while interacting with dynamic visualizations of complex scientific phenomena in inquiry instruction. Three hundred thirty-two 7th-grade students were randomly assigned to either a reading or a generating condition and completed a web-based inquiry unit focusing on energy concepts in…

Visual Criterion for Understanding the Notion of Convergence if Integrals in One Parameter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alves, Francisco Regis Vieira

2014-01-01

Admittedly, the notion of generalized integrals in one parameter has a fundamental role. En virtue that, in this paper, we discuss and characterize an approach for to promote the visualization of this scientific mathematical concept. We still indicate the possibilities of graphical interpretation of formal properties related to notion of…

Students' Reflections Using Visualized Learning Outcomes and E-Portfolios

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Narumi, Takatsune; Gotoh, Yasushi

2014-01-01

How to guarantee graduate attributes has become an urgent challenge amid the increasing progress in scientific and technological development and the globalization of economic activity. In order to solve these problems, a system is required which can visualize learning outcomes in relation to attainment targets, and store and sample records of the…

Developing Explanations and Developing Understanding: Students Explain the Phases of the Moon Using Visual Representations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parnafes, Orit

2012-01-01

This article presents a theoretical model of the process by which students construct and elaborate explanations of scientific phenomena using visual representations. The model describes progress in the underlying conceptual processes in students' explanations as a reorganization of fine-grained knowledge elements based on the Knowledge in Pieces…

eduSPIM: Light Sheet Microscopy in the Museum.

PubMed

Jahr, Wiebke; Schmid, Benjamin; Weber, Michael; Huisken, Jan

2016-01-01

Light sheet microscopy (or selective plane illumination microscopy) is an important imaging technique in the life sciences. At the same time, this technique is also ideally suited for community outreach projects, because it produces visually appealing, highly dynamic images of living organisms and its working principle can be understood with basic optics knowledge. Still, the underlying concepts are widely unknown to the non-scientific public. On the occasion of the UNESCO International Year of Light, a technical museum in Dresden, Germany, launched a special, interactive exhibition. We built a fully functional, educational selective plane illumination microscope (eduSPIM) to demonstrate how developments in microscopy promote discoveries in biology. To maximize educational impact, we radically reduced a standard light sheet microscope to its essential components without compromising functionality and incorporated stringent safety concepts beyond those needed in the lab. Our eduSPIM system features one illumination and one detection path and a sealed sample chamber. We image fixed zebrafish embryos with fluorescent vasculature, because the structure is meaningful to laymen and visualises the optical principles of light sheet microscopy. Via a simplified interface, visitors acquire fluorescence and transmission data simultaneously. The universal concepts presented here may also apply to other scientific approaches that are communicated to laymen in interactive settings. The specific eduSPIM design is adapted easily for various outreach and teaching activities. eduSPIM may even prove useful for labs needing a simple SPIM. A detailed parts list and schematics to rebuild eduSPIM are provided.

Real time visualization of dynamic magnetic fields with a nanomagnetic ferrolens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Markoulakis, Emmanouil; Rigakis, Iraklis; Chatzakis, John; Konstantaras, Antonios; Antonidakis, Emmanuel

2018-04-01

Due to advancements in nanomagnetism and latest nanomagnetic materials and devices, a new potential field has been opened up for research and applications which was not possible before. We herein propose a new research field and application for nanomagnetism for the visualization of dynamic magnetic fields in real-time. In short, Nano Magnetic Vision. A new methodology, technique and apparatus were invented and prototyped in order to demonstrate and test this new application. As an application example the visualization of the dynamic magnetic field on a transmitting antenna was chosen. Never seen before high-resolution, photos and real-time color video revealing the actual dynamic magnetic field inside a transmitting radio antenna rod has been captured for the first time. The antenna rod is fed with six hundred volts, orthogonal pulses. This unipolar signal is in the very low frequency (i.e. VLF) range. The signal combined with an extremely short electrical length of the rod, ensures the generation of a relatively strong fluctuating magnetic field, analogue to the signal transmitted, along and inside the antenna. This field is induced into a ferrolens and becomes visible in real-time within the normal human eyes frequency spectrum. The name we have given to the new observation apparatus is, SPIONs Superparamagnetic Ferrolens Microscope (SSFM), a powerful passive scientific observation tool with many other potential applications in the near future.

Venus Quadrangle Geological Mapping: Use of Geoscience Data Visualization Systems in Mapping and Training

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Head, James W.; Huffman, J. N.; Forsberg, A. S.; Hurwitz, D. M.; Basilevsky, A. T.; Ivanov, M. A.; Dickson, J. L.; Kumar, P. Senthil

2008-01-01

We are currently investigating new technological developments in computer visualization and analysis in order to assess their importance and utility in planetary geological analysis and mapping [1,2]. Last year we reported on the range of technologies available and on our application of these to various problems in planetary mapping [3]. In this contribution we focus on the application of these techniques and tools to Venus geological mapping at the 1:5M quadrangle scale. In our current Venus mapping projects we have utilized and tested the various platforms to understand their capabilities and assess their usefulness in defining units, establishing stratigraphic relationships, mapping structures, reaching consensus on interpretations and producing map products. We are specifically assessing how computer visualization display qualities (e.g., level of immersion, stereoscopic vs. monoscopic viewing, field of view, large vs. small display size, etc.) influence performance on scientific analysis and geological mapping. We have been exploring four different environments: 1) conventional desktops (DT), 2) semi-immersive Fishtank VR (FT) (i.e., a conventional desktop with head-tracked stereo and 6DOF input), 3) tiled wall displays (TW), and 4) fully immersive virtual reality (IVR) (e.g., "Cave Automatic Virtual Environment," or Cave system). Formal studies demonstrate that fully immersive Cave environments are superior to desktop systems for many tasks [e.g., 4].

Neural Network Machine Learning and Dimension Reduction for Data Visualization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liles, Charles A.

2014-01-01

Neural network machine learning in computer science is a continuously developing field of study. Although neural network models have been developed which can accurately predict a numeric value or nominal classification, a general purpose method for constructing neural network architecture has yet to be developed. Computer scientists are often forced to rely on a trial-and-error process of developing and improving accurate neural network models. In many cases, models are constructed from a large number of input parameters. Understanding which input parameters have the greatest impact on the prediction of the model is often difficult to surmise, especially when the number of input variables is very high. This challenge is often labeled the "curse of dimensionality" in scientific fields. However, techniques exist for reducing the dimensionality of problems to just two dimensions. Once a problem's dimensions have been mapped to two dimensions, it can be easily plotted and understood by humans. The ability to visualize a multi-dimensional dataset can provide a means of identifying which input variables have the highest effect on determining a nominal or numeric output. Identifying these variables can provide a better means of training neural network models; models can be more easily and quickly trained using only input variables which appear to affect the outcome variable. The purpose of this project is to explore varying means of training neural networks and to utilize dimensional reduction for visualizing and understanding complex datasets.

Visualization of grid-generated turbulence in He II using PTV

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mastracci, B.; Guo, W.

2017-12-01

Due to its low viscosity, cryogenic He II has potential use for simulating large-scale, high Reynolds number turbulent flow in a compact and efficient apparatus. To realize this potential, the behavior of the fluid in the simplest cases, such as turbulence generated by flow past a mesh grid, must be well understood. We have designed, constructed, and commissioned an apparatus to visualize the evolution of turbulence in the wake of a mesh grid towed through He II. Visualization is accomplished using the particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) technique, where μm-sized tracer particles are introduced to the flow, illuminated with a planar laser sheet, and recorded by a scientific imaging camera; the particles move with the fluid, and tracking their motion with a computer algorithm results in a complete map of the turbulent velocity field in the imaging region. In our experiment, this region is inside a carefully designed He II filled cast acrylic channel measuring approximately 16 × 16 × 330 mm. One of three different grids, which have mesh numbers M = 3, 3.75, or 5 mm, can be attached to the pulling system which moves it through the channel with constant velocity up to 600 mm/s. The consequent motion of the solidified deuterium tracer particles is used to investigate the energy statistics, effective kinematic viscosity, and quantized vortex dynamics in turbulent He II.

The ImageJ ecosystem: an open platform for biomedical image analysis

PubMed Central

Schindelin, Johannes; Rueden, Curtis T.; Hiner, Mark C.; Eliceiri, Kevin W.

2015-01-01

Technology in microscopy advances rapidly, enabling increasingly affordable, faster, and more precise quantitative biomedical imaging, which necessitates correspondingly more-advanced image processing and analysis techniques. A wide range of software is available – from commercial to academic, special-purpose to Swiss army knife, small to large–but a key characteristic of software that is suitable for scientific inquiry is its accessibility. Open-source software is ideal for scientific endeavors because it can be freely inspected, modified, and redistributed; in particular, the open-software platform ImageJ has had a huge impact on life sciences, and continues to do so. From its inception, ImageJ has grown significantly due largely to being freely available and its vibrant and helpful user community. Scientists as diverse as interested hobbyists, technical assistants, students, scientific staff, and advanced biology researchers use ImageJ on a daily basis, and exchange knowledge via its dedicated mailing list. Uses of ImageJ range from data visualization and teaching to advanced image processing and statistical analysis. The software's extensibility continues to attract biologists at all career stages as well as computer scientists who wish to effectively implement specific image-processing algorithms. In this review, we use the ImageJ project as a case study of how open-source software fosters its suites of software tools, making multitudes of image-analysis technology easily accessible to the scientific community. We specifically explore what makes ImageJ so popular, how it impacts life science, how it inspires other projects, and how it is self-influenced by coevolving projects within the ImageJ ecosystem. PMID:26153368

The ImageJ ecosystem: An open platform for biomedical image analysis.

PubMed

Schindelin, Johannes; Rueden, Curtis T; Hiner, Mark C; Eliceiri, Kevin W

2015-01-01

Technology in microscopy advances rapidly, enabling increasingly affordable, faster, and more precise quantitative biomedical imaging, which necessitates correspondingly more-advanced image processing and analysis techniques. A wide range of software is available-from commercial to academic, special-purpose to Swiss army knife, small to large-but a key characteristic of software that is suitable for scientific inquiry is its accessibility. Open-source software is ideal for scientific endeavors because it can be freely inspected, modified, and redistributed; in particular, the open-software platform ImageJ has had a huge impact on the life sciences, and continues to do so. From its inception, ImageJ has grown significantly due largely to being freely available and its vibrant and helpful user community. Scientists as diverse as interested hobbyists, technical assistants, students, scientific staff, and advanced biology researchers use ImageJ on a daily basis, and exchange knowledge via its dedicated mailing list. Uses of ImageJ range from data visualization and teaching to advanced image processing and statistical analysis. The software's extensibility continues to attract biologists at all career stages as well as computer scientists who wish to effectively implement specific image-processing algorithms. In this review, we use the ImageJ project as a case study of how open-source software fosters its suites of software tools, making multitudes of image-analysis technology easily accessible to the scientific community. We specifically explore what makes ImageJ so popular, how it impacts the life sciences, how it inspires other projects, and how it is self-influenced by coevolving projects within the ImageJ ecosystem. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[The facets of creativity in the light of bipolar mood alterations].

PubMed

Szakács, Réka

2018-01-30

The link between creativity, as the highest expression form of human achievement, and bipolar disorder came into focus of scientific investigations and research. Accomplished writers, composers and visual artists show a substantially higher rate of affective disorders, prodominantly bipolar mood disorders, comparing to the general population. Then again, patients afflicted with bipolar II subtype (hypomania and depression), as well as persons presenting the mildest form of bipolar mood swings (cyclothymia) possess higher creative skills. It evokes therefore that certain forms and mood states of bipolar disorder, notably hypomania might convey cognitive, emotional/affective, and motivational benefits to creativity. The aim of this paper is to display expression forms of creativity (writing, visual art, scientific work) as well as productivity (literary and scientific work output, number of artworks and exhibitions, awards) in the light of clinically diagnosed mood states at an eminent creative individual, treated for bipolar II disorder. Analysing the affective states, we found a striking relation between hypomanic episodes and visual artistic creativity and achievement, as well as scientific performance, whereas mild-moderate depressed mood promoted literary work. Severe depression and mixed states were not associated with creative activities, and intriguingly, long-term stabilised euthymic mood, exempted from marked affective lability, is disadvantageous regarding creativity. It seems, thereby, that mood functions as a sluice of creativity. Nevertheless, it is likely that there is a complex interaction between bipolar mood disorder spectrum and psychological factors promoting creativity, influenced also by individual variability due to medication, comorbid conditions, and course of disorder.

SBOL Visual: A Graphical Language for Genetic Designs

DOE PAGES

Quinn, Jacqueline Y.; Cox, Robert Sidney; Adler, Aaron; ...

2015-12-03

Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) Visual is a graphical standard for genetic engineering. We report that it consists of symbols representing DNA subsequences, including regulatory elements and DNA assembly features. These symbols can be used to draw illustrations for communication and instruction, and as image assets for computer-aided design. SBOL Visual is a community standard, freely available for personal, academic, and commercial use (Creative Commons CC0 license). We provide prototypical symbol images that have been used in scientific publications and software tools. We encourage users to use and modify them freely, and to join the SBOL Visual community: http://www.sbolstandard.org/visual.

SBOL Visual: A Graphical Language for Genetic Designs

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

Quinn, Jacqueline Y.; Cox, Robert Sidney; Adler, Aaron

Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) Visual is a graphical standard for genetic engineering. We report that it consists of symbols representing DNA subsequences, including regulatory elements and DNA assembly features. These symbols can be used to draw illustrations for communication and instruction, and as image assets for computer-aided design. SBOL Visual is a community standard, freely available for personal, academic, and commercial use (Creative Commons CC0 license). We provide prototypical symbol images that have been used in scientific publications and software tools. We encourage users to use and modify them freely, and to join the SBOL Visual community: http://www.sbolstandard.org/visual.

SBOL Visual: A Graphical Language for Genetic Designs

PubMed Central

Adler, Aaron; Beal, Jacob; Bhatia, Swapnil; Cai, Yizhi; Chen, Joanna; Clancy, Kevin; Galdzicki, Michal; Hillson, Nathan J.; Le Novère, Nicolas; Maheshwari, Akshay J.; McLaughlin, James Alastair; Myers, Chris J.; P, Umesh; Pocock, Matthew; Rodriguez, Cesar; Soldatova, Larisa; Stan, Guy-Bart V.; Swainston, Neil; Wipat, Anil; Sauro, Herbert M.

2015-01-01

Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) Visual is a graphical standard for genetic engineering. It consists of symbols representing DNA subsequences, including regulatory elements and DNA assembly features. These symbols can be used to draw illustrations for communication and instruction, and as image assets for computer-aided design. SBOL Visual is a community standard, freely available for personal, academic, and commercial use (Creative Commons CC0 license). We provide prototypical symbol images that have been used in scientific publications and software tools. We encourage users to use and modify them freely, and to join the SBOL Visual community: http://www.sbolstandard.org/visual. PMID:26633141

Adding intelligence to scientific data management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, William J.; Short, Nicholas M., Jr.; Treinish, Lloyd A.

1989-01-01

NASA plans to solve some of the problems of handling large-scale scientific data bases by turning to artificial intelligence (AI) are discussed. The growth of the information glut and the ways that AI can help alleviate the resulting problems are reviewed. The employment of the Intelligent User Interface prototype, where the user will generate his own natural language query with the assistance of the system, is examined. Spatial data management, scientific data visualization, and data fusion are discussed.

What can scientific practice look like in a classroom? Insights from scientists' critique of high school students' climate change argumentation practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walsh, E.; McGowan, V. C.

2015-12-01

The Next Generation Science Standards promote a vision in which learners engage in authentic knowledge in practice to tackle personally consequential science problems in the classroom. However, there is not yet a clear understanding amongst researchers and educators of what authentic practice looks like in a classroom and how this can be accomplished. This study explores these questions by examining interactions between scientists and students on a social media platform during two pilot enactments of a project-based curriculum focusing on the ecological impacts of climate change. During this unit, scientists provided feedback to students on infographics, visual representations of scientific information meant to communicate to an audience about climate change. We conceptualize the feedback and student work as boundary objects co-created by students and scientists moving between the school and scientific contexts, and analyze the structure and content of the scientists' feedback. We find that when giving feedback on a particular practice (e.g. argumentation), scientists would provide avenues, critiques and questions that incorporated many other practices (e.g. data analysis, visual communication); thus, scientists encouraged students to participate systemically in practices instead of isolating one particular practice. In addition, scientists drew attention to particular habits of mind that are valued in the scientific community and noted when students' work aligned with scientific values. In this way, scientists positioned students as capable of participating "scientifically." While traditionally, incorporating scientific inquiry in a classroom has emphasized student experimentation and data generation, in this work, we found that engaging with scientists around established scientific texts and data sets provided students with a platform for developing expertise in other important scientific practices during argment construction.

Developments in flow visualization methods for flight research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holmes, Bruce J.; Obara, Clifford J.; Manuel, Gregory S.; Lee, Cynthia C.

1990-01-01

With the introduction of modern airplanes utilizing laminar flow, flow visualization has become an important diagnostic tool in determining aerodynamic characteristics such as surface flow direction and boundary-layer state. A refinement of the sublimating chemical technique has been developed to define both the boundary-layer transition location and the transition mode. In response to the need for flow visualization at subsonic and transonic speeds and altitudes above 20,000 feet, the liquid crystal technique has been developed. A third flow visualization technique that has been used is infrared imaging, which offers non-intrusive testing over a wide range of test conditions. A review of these flow visualization methods and recent flight results is presented for a variety of modern aircraft and flight conditions.

Amira: Multi-Dimensional Scientific Visualization for the GeoSciences in the 21st Century

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bartsch, H.; Erlebacher, G.

2003-12-01

amira (www.amiravis.com) is a general purpose framework for 3D scientific visualization that meets the needs of the non-programmer, the script writer, and the advanced programmer alike. Provided modules may be visually assembled in an interactive manner to create complex visual displays. These modules and their associated user interfaces are controlled either through a mouse, or via an interactive scripting mechanism based on Tcl. We provide interactive demonstrations of the various features of Amira and explain how these may be used to enhance the comprehension of datasets in use in the Earth Sciences community. Its features will be illustrated on scalar and vector fields on grid types ranging from Cartesian to fully unstructured. Specialized extension modules developed by some of our collaborators will be illustrated [1]. These include a module to automatically choose values for salient isosurface identification and extraction, and color maps suitable for volume rendering. During the session, we will present several demonstrations of remote networking, processing of very large spatio-temporal datasets, and various other projects that are underway. In particular, we will demonstrate WEB-IS, a java-applet interface to Amira that allows script editing via the web, and selected data analysis [2]. [1] G. Erlebacher, D. A. Yuen, F. Dubuffet, "Case Study: Visualization and Analysis of High Rayleigh Number -- 3D Convection in the Earth's Mantle", Proceedings of Visualization 2002, pp. 529--532. [2] Y. Wang, G. Erlebacher, Z. A. Garbow, D. A. Yuen, "Web-Based Service of a Visualization Package 'amira' for the Geosciences", Visual Geosciences, 2003.

A systematic review of controlled trials on visual stress using Intuitive Overlays or the Intuitive Colorimeter.

PubMed

Evans, Bruce J W; Allen, Peter M

2016-01-01

Claims that coloured filters aid reading date back 200 years and remain controversial. Some claims, for example, that more than 10% of the general population and 50% of people with dyslexia would benefit from coloured filters lack sound evidence and face validity. Publications with such claims typically cite research using methods that have not been described in the scientific literature and lack a sound aetiological framework. Notwithstanding these criticisms, some researchers have used more rigorous selection criteria and methods of prescribing coloured filters that were developed at a UK Medical Research Council unit and which have been fully described in the scientific literature. We review this research and disconfirm many of the more extreme claims surrounding this topic. This literature indicates that a minority subset of dyslexics (circa 20%) may have a condition described as visual stress which most likely results from a hyperexcitability of the visual cortex. Visual stress is characterised by symptoms of visual perceptual distortions, headaches, and eyestrain when viewing repetitive patterns, including lines of text. This review indicates that visual stress is distinct from, although sometimes co-occurs with, dyslexia. Individually prescribed coloured filters have been shown to improve reading performance in people with visual stress, but are unlikely to influence the phonological and memory deficits associated with dyslexia and therefore are not a treatment for dyslexia. This review concludes that larger and rigorous randomised controlled trials of interventions for visual stress are required. Improvements in the diagnosis of the condition are also a priority. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U.

Simulating Earthquakes for Science and Society: New Earthquake Visualizations Ideal for Use in Science Communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Groot, R. M.; Benthien, M. L.

2006-12-01

The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) has been developing groundbreaking computer modeling capabilities for studying earthquakes. These visualizations were initially shared within the scientific community but have recently have gained visibility via television news coverage in Southern California. These types of visualizations are becoming pervasive in the teaching and learning of concepts related to earth science. Computers have opened up a whole new world for scientists working with large data sets, and students can benefit from the same opportunities (Libarkin &Brick, 2002). Earthquakes are ideal candidates for visualization products: they cannot be predicted, are completed in a matter of seconds, occur deep in the earth, and the time between events can be on a geologic time scale. For example, the southern part of the San Andreas fault has not seen a major earthquake since about 1690, setting the stage for an earthquake as large as magnitude 7.7 -- the "big one." Since no one has experienced such an earthquake, visualizations can help people understand the scale of such an event. Accordingly, SCEC has developed a revolutionary simulation of this earthquake, with breathtaking visualizations that are now being distributed. According to Gordin and Pea (1995), theoretically visualization should make science accessible, provide means for authentic inquiry, and lay the groundwork to understand and critique scientific issues. This presentation will discuss how the new SCEC visualizations and other earthquake imagery achieve these results, how they fit within the context of major themes and study areas in science communication, and how the efficacy of these tools can be improved.

Effectiveness of touch and feel (TAF) technique on first aid measures for visually challenged.

PubMed

Mary, Helen; Sasikalaz, D; Venkatesan, Latha

2013-01-01

There is a common perception that a blind person cannot even help his own self. In order to challenge that view, a workshop for visually-impaired people to develop the skills to be independent and productive members of society was conceived. An experimental study was conducted at National Institute of Visually Handicapped, Chennai with the objective to assess the effectiveness of Touch and Feel (TAF) technique on first aid measures for the visually challenged. Total 25 visually challenged people were selected by non-probability purposive sampling technique and data was collected using demographic variable and structured knowledge questionnaire. The score obtained was categorised into three levels: inadequate (0-8), moderately adequate (8 - 17), adequate (17 -25). The study revealed that most of the visually challenged (40%) had inadequate knowledge, and 56 percent had moderately adequate and only few (4%) had adequate knowledge in the pre-test, whereas most (68%) of them had adequate knowledge in the post-test which is statistically significant at p < 0.000 with t-value 6.779. This proves that TAF technique was effective for the visually challenged. There was no association between the demographic variables and their level of knowledge regarding first aid.

Scientific Visualization of Radio Astronomy Data using Gesture Interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mulumba, P.; Gain, J.; Marais, P.; Woudt, P.

2015-09-01

MeerKAT in South Africa (Meer = More Karoo Array Telescope) will require software to help visualize, interpret and interact with multidimensional data. While visualization of multi-dimensional data is a well explored topic, little work has been published on the design of intuitive interfaces to such systems. More specifically, the use of non-traditional interfaces (such as motion tracking and multi-touch) has not been widely investigated within the context of visualizing astronomy data. We hypothesize that a natural user interface would allow for easier data exploration which would in turn lead to certain kinds of visualizations (volumetric, multidimensional). To this end, we have developed a multi-platform scientific visualization system for FITS spectral data cubes using VTK (Visualization Toolkit) and a natural user interface to explore the interaction between a gesture input device and multidimensional data space. Our system supports visual transformations (translation, rotation and scaling) as well as sub-volume extraction and arbitrary slicing of 3D volumetric data. These tasks were implemented across three prototypes aimed at exploring different interaction strategies: standard (mouse/keyboard) interaction, volumetric gesture tracking (Leap Motion controller) and multi-touch interaction (multi-touch monitor). A Heuristic Evaluation revealed that the volumetric gesture tracking prototype shows great promise for interfacing with the depth component (z-axis) of 3D volumetric space across multiple transformations. However, this is limited by users needing to remember the required gestures. In comparison, the touch-based gesture navigation is typically more familiar to users as these gestures were engineered from standard multi-touch actions. Future work will address a complete usability test to evaluate and compare the different interaction modalities against the different visualization tasks.

NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services - Technologies for Visualizing Earth Science Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cechini, M. F.; Boller, R. A.; Baynes, K.; Schmaltz, J. E.; Thompson, C. K.; Roberts, J. T.; Rodriguez, J.; Wong, M. M.; King, B. A.; King, J.; De Luca, A. P.; Pressley, N. N.

2017-12-01

For more than 20 years, the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) has collected earth science data for thousands of scientific parameters now totaling nearly 15 Petabytes of data. In 2013, NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) formed its vision to "transform how end users interact and discover [EOS] data through visualizations." This vision included leveraging scientific and community best practices and standards to provide a scalable, compliant, and authoritative source for EOS earth science data visualizations. Since that time, GIBS has grown quickly and now services millions of daily requests for over 500 imagery layers representing hundreds of earth science parameters to a broad community of users. For many of these parameters, visualizations are available within hours of acquisition from the satellite. For others, visualizations are available for the entire mission of the satellite. The GIBS system is built upon the OnEarth and MRF open source software projects, which are provided by the GIBS team. This software facilitates standards-based access for compliance with existing GIS tools. The GIBS imagery layers are predominantly rasterized images represented in two-dimensional coordinate systems, though multiple projections are supported. The OnEarth software also supports the GIBS ingest pipeline to facilitate low latency updates to new or updated visualizations. This presentation will focus on the following topics: Overview of GIBS visualizations and user community Current benefits and limitations of the OnEarth and MRF software projects and related standards GIBS access methods and their in/compatibilities with existing GIS libraries and applications Considerations for visualization accuracy and understandability Future plans for more advanced visualization concepts including Vertical Profiles and Vector-Based Representations Future plans for Amazon Web Service support and deployments

Domino: Extracting, Comparing, and Manipulating Subsets across Multiple Tabular Datasets

PubMed Central

Gratzl, Samuel; Gehlenborg, Nils; Lex, Alexander; Pfister, Hanspeter; Streit, Marc

2016-01-01

Answering questions about complex issues often requires analysts to take into account information contained in multiple interconnected datasets. A common strategy in analyzing and visualizing large and heterogeneous data is dividing it into meaningful subsets. Interesting subsets can then be selected and the associated data and the relationships between the subsets visualized. However, neither the extraction and manipulation nor the comparison of subsets is well supported by state-of-the-art techniques. In this paper we present Domino, a novel multiform visualization technique for effectively representing subsets and the relationships between them. By providing comprehensive tools to arrange, combine, and extract subsets, Domino allows users to create both common visualization techniques and advanced visualizations tailored to specific use cases. In addition to the novel technique, we present an implementation that enables analysts to manage the wide range of options that our approach offers. Innovative interactive features such as placeholders and live previews support rapid creation of complex analysis setups. We introduce the technique and the implementation using a simple example and demonstrate scalability and effectiveness in a use case from the field of cancer genomics. PMID:26356916

An Empirical Comparison of Visualization Tools To Assist Information Retrieval on the Web.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heo, Misook; Hirtle, Stephen C.

2001-01-01

Discusses problems with navigation in hypertext systems, including cognitive overload, and describes a study that tested information visualization techniques to see which best represented the underlying structure of Web space. Considers the effects of visualization techniques on user performance on information searching tasks and the effects of…

What Does the Future Hold for Scientific Journals? Visual Abstracts and Other Tools for Communicating Research.

PubMed

Nikolian, Vahagn C; Ibrahim, Andrew M

2017-09-01

Journals fill several important roles within academic medicine, including building knowledge, validating quality of methods, and communicating research. This section provides an overview of these roles and highlights innovative approaches journals have taken to enhance dissemination of research. As journals move away from print formats and embrace web-based content, design-centered thinking will allow for engagement of a larger audience. Examples of recent efforts in this realm are provided, as well as simplified strategies for developing visual abstracts to improve dissemination via social media. Finally, we hone in on principles of learning and education which have driven these advances in multimedia-based communication in scientific research.

[Objects from scientific collections in demand: the value of the various collections of the Urologic History Center of the German Society of Urology for modern teaching purposes in urology].

PubMed

Moll, F H

2015-02-01

The use of artifacts and objects from scientific medical collections and museums for academic teaching purposes are one of the main qualifying tasks of those institutions. In recent years, this aspect of scientific collections has again become on focus within academics. The collections offer a unique chance for visual and haptic forms of teaching in many fields. Due to the potential of scientific collections, educators in all branches in academic learning should be familiar with handling objects for such purposes.

Noninvasive studies of human visual cortex using neuromagnetic techniques

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

Aine, C.J.; George, J.S.; Supek, S.

1990-01-01

The major goals of noninvasive studies of the human visual cortex are: to increase knowledge of the functional organization of cortical visual pathways; and to develop noninvasive clinical tests for the assessment of cortical function. Noninvasive techniques suitable for studies of the structure and function of human visual cortex include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission tomography (SPECT), scalp recorded event-related potentials (ERPs), and event-related magnetic fields (ERFs). The primary challenge faced by noninvasive functional measures is to optimize the spatial and temporal resolution of the measurement and analytic techniques in order to effectively characterizemore » the spatial and temporal variations in patterns of neuronal activity. In this paper we review the use of neuromagnetic techniques for this purpose. 8 refs., 3 figs.« less

76 FR 63315 - Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-12

... . Name of Committee: Center for Scientific Review Special Emphasis Panel, Drug Discovery for the Nervous System II. Date: November 2, 2011. Time: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Agenda: To review and evaluate grant... Panel, Small Business: Visual Systems. Date: November 3-4, 2011. Time: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Agenda: To...

78 FR 65344 - Center for Scientific Review; Amended Notice of Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-31

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review; Amended Notice of Meeting Notice is hereby given of a change in the meeting of the Biology of the Visual System Study Section, October 16, 2013, 08:00 a.m. to October 17, 2013, 05:30 p.m., Hyatt Regency...

Remote Infrared Thermography for In-Flight Flow Diagnostics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shiu, H. J.; vanDam, C. P.

1999-01-01

The feasibility of remote in-flight boundary layer visualization via infrared in incompressible flow was established in earlier flight experiments. The past year's efforts focused on refining and determining the extent and accuracy of this technique of remote in-flight flow visualization via infrared. Investigations were made into flow separation visualization, visualization at transonic conditions, shock visualization, post-processing to mitigate banding noise in the NITE Hawk's thermograms, and a numeric model to predict surface temperature distributions. Although further flight tests are recommended, this technique continues to be promising.

Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Complex Microbial Communities

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Conspectus In the two decades since mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) was first applied to visualize the distribution of peptides across biological tissues and cells, the technique has become increasingly effective and reliable. MSI excels at providing complementary information to existing methods for molecular analysis—such as genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics—and stands apart from other chemical imaging modalities through its capability to generate information that is simultaneously multiplexed and chemically specific. Today a diverse family of MSI approaches are applied throughout the scientific community to study the distribution of proteins, peptides, and small-molecule metabolites across many biological models. The inherent strengths of MSI make the technique valuable for studying microbial systems. Many microbes reside in surface-attached multicellular and multispecies communities, such as biofilms and motile colonies, where they work together to harness surrounding nutrients, fend off hostile organisms, and shield one another from adverse environmental conditions. These processes, as well as many others essential for microbial survival, are mediated through the production and utilization of a diverse assortment of chemicals. Although bacterial cells are generally only a few microns in diameter, the ecologies they influence can encompass entire ecosystems, and the chemical changes that they bring about can occur over time scales ranging from milliseconds to decades. Because of their incredible complexity, our understanding of and influence over microbial systems requires detailed scientific evaluations that yield both chemical and spatial information. MSI is well-positioned to fulfill these requirements. With small adaptations to existing methods, the technique can be applied to study a wide variety of chemical interactions, including those that occur inside single-species microbial communities, between cohabitating microbes, and between microbes and their hosts. In recognition of this potential for scientific advancement, researchers have adapted MSI methodologies for the specific needs of the microbiology research community. As a result, workflows exist for imaging microbial systems with many of the common MSI ionization methods. Despite this progress, there is substantial room for improvements in instrumentation, sample preparation, and data interpretation. This Account provides a brief overview of the state of technology in microbial MSI, illuminates selected applications that demonstrate the potential of the technique, and highlights a series of development challenges that are needed to move the field forward. In the coming years, as microbial MSI becomes easier to use and more universally applicable, the technique will evolve into a fundamental tool widely applied throughout many divisions of science, medicine, and industry. PMID:28001363

Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Complex Microbial Communities.

PubMed

Dunham, Sage J B; Ellis, Joseph F; Li, Bin; Sweedler, Jonathan V

2017-01-17

In the two decades since mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) was first applied to visualize the distribution of peptides across biological tissues and cells, the technique has become increasingly effective and reliable. MSI excels at providing complementary information to existing methods for molecular analysis-such as genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics-and stands apart from other chemical imaging modalities through its capability to generate information that is simultaneously multiplexed and chemically specific. Today a diverse family of MSI approaches are applied throughout the scientific community to study the distribution of proteins, peptides, and small-molecule metabolites across many biological models. The inherent strengths of MSI make the technique valuable for studying microbial systems. Many microbes reside in surface-attached multicellular and multispecies communities, such as biofilms and motile colonies, where they work together to harness surrounding nutrients, fend off hostile organisms, and shield one another from adverse environmental conditions. These processes, as well as many others essential for microbial survival, are mediated through the production and utilization of a diverse assortment of chemicals. Although bacterial cells are generally only a few microns in diameter, the ecologies they influence can encompass entire ecosystems, and the chemical changes that they bring about can occur over time scales ranging from milliseconds to decades. Because of their incredible complexity, our understanding of and influence over microbial systems requires detailed scientific evaluations that yield both chemical and spatial information. MSI is well-positioned to fulfill these requirements. With small adaptations to existing methods, the technique can be applied to study a wide variety of chemical interactions, including those that occur inside single-species microbial communities, between cohabitating microbes, and between microbes and their hosts. In recognition of this potential for scientific advancement, researchers have adapted MSI methodologies for the specific needs of the microbiology research community. As a result, workflows exist for imaging microbial systems with many of the common MSI ionization methods. Despite this progress, there is substantial room for improvements in instrumentation, sample preparation, and data interpretation. This Account provides a brief overview of the state of technology in microbial MSI, illuminates selected applications that demonstrate the potential of the technique, and highlights a series of development challenges that are needed to move the field forward. In the coming years, as microbial MSI becomes easier to use and more universally applicable, the technique will evolve into a fundamental tool widely applied throughout many divisions of science, medicine, and industry.

Teaching Argumentation through the Visual Models in a Resource-Based Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Shu-Nu

2007-01-01

Scientific literacy is the ultimate goal in science education world-wide; especially in this modern society of science and technology. How to help individuals to make good judgments and promote their skills of argumentation becomes an important issue. Meanwhile, in the Information Age, visual image is an important medium for conveying information.…

The Effects of Visual Illustrations on Learners' Achievement and Interest in PDA- (Personal Digital Assistant) Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Sanghoon; Kim, Minjeong; Lee, Youngmin; Son, Chanhee; Lee, Miyoung

2005-01-01

PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) have been used widely in educational settings. In this study, the visual illustration of a scientific text (cognitive-interest illustration, emotional-interest illustration, or no illustration) was manipulated to investigate its impact on student interest in instructional materials, achievement, and time spent on…

Mental Health among Children and Young Adults with Visual Impairments: A Systematic Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Augestad, Liv Berit

2017-01-01

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to summarize current scientific knowledge relating to the occurrence of mood disorders among children with visual impairments. Methods: A systematic review was conducted of articles published between January1998 and July 2016, inclusive. A total of 17 publications met the inclusion criteria, of which 15…

Art Therapy: The Visual Spatial Factor and the Hippocampus. 2nd Revision

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Del Giacco, Maureen

2010-01-01

In this writing related to neuro-plasticity, we are shown that changes in the brain can occur with repeated use of sensory stimuli, with both visual and motor interventions. Keeping these important scientific contributions in mind, I will briefly summarize why the choice of the arts-based DAT method of psychotherapy over traditional verbally based…

The visual attention saliency map for movie retrospection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogalska, Anna; Napieralski, Piotr

2018-04-01

The visual saliency map is becoming important and challenging for many scientific disciplines (robotic systems, psychophysics, cognitive neuroscience and computer science). Map created by the model indicates possible salient regions by taking into consideration face presence and motion which is essential in motion pictures. By combining we can obtain credible saliency map with a low computational cost.

Scientific & Intelligence Exascale Visualization Analysis System

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

Money, James H.

SIEVAS provides an immersive visualization framework for connecting multiple systems in real time for data science. SIEVAS provides the ability to connect multiple COTS and GOTS products in a seamless fashion for data fusion, data analysis, and viewing. It provides this capability by using a combination of micro services, real time messaging, and web service compliant back-end system.

Data-Intensive Scientific Management, Analysis and Visualization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goranova, Mariana; Shishedjiev, Bogdan; Juliana Georgieva, Juliana

2012-11-01

The proposed integrated system provides a suite of services for data-intensive sciences that enables scientists to describe, manage, analyze and visualize data from experiments and numerical simulations in distributed and heterogeneous environment. This paper describes the advisor and the converter services and presents an example from the monitoring of the slant column content of atmospheric minor gases.

The Effects of Visualizations on Linguistically Diverse Students' Understanding of Energy and Matter in Life Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryoo, Kihyun; Bedell, Kristin

2017-01-01

Although extensive research has shown the educational value of different types of interactive visualizations on students' science learning in general, how such technologies can contribute to English learners' (ELs) understanding of complex scientific concepts has not been sufficiently explored to date. This mixed-methods study investigated how…

New Perspective on Visual Communication Design Education: An Empirical Study of Applying Narrative Theory to Graphic Design Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Chao-Ming; Hsu, Tzu-Fan

2017-01-01

Visual communication design (VCD) is a form of nonverbal communication. The application of relevant linguistic or semiotic theories to VCD education renders graphic design an innovative and scientific discipline. In this study, actual teaching activities were examined to verify the feasibility of applying narrative theory to graphic design…

The Impact of Visualizations in Promoting Informed Natural Resource Decisions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turner, Sheldon

2013-01-01

The research in this dissertation was conducted in order to understand the ways in which scientific visualizations can influence the decision process of non-scientists. A wide variety of classical and novel methods were used in order to capture and analyze the decision process. Data were collected from non-scientists through role-play interviews…

Children's Understanding of Globes as a Model of the Earth: A Problem of Contextualizing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ehrlen, Karin

2008-01-01

Visual representations play an important role in science teaching. The way in which visual representations may help children to acquire scientific concepts is a crucial test in the debate between constructivist and socio-cultural oriented researchers. In this paper, the question is addressed as a problem of how to contextualize conceptions and…