Interactive Computer Tool Research Articles

Improving Public Communication in Environmental Impact Assessments

AbstractA recent research project investigated the potential application of computer‐aided tools as a means of improving and enhancing public communication of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) of federal facilities. This article focuses on one aspect of the research project: a survey that asked how environmental impacts should be measured and in what form the results should be presented in order to improve the communication process. The responses to the survey supported the importance of selecting appropriate environmental measures and presenting the results in a way that can easily be understood. The survey also provided insights on how EIAs could be expanded (e.g., in terms of how impacts should be quantified) and whether all needed information can be derived (and presented) using interactive computer tools. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Factors affecting patients’ and potential patients’ choices among anaesthetics for periodontal recall visits

Objectives: Dentinal hypersensitivity and recurrent disease may necessitate the use of anaesthetic during periodontal recall visits. However, an aversion to injections may affect patient compliance. The objectives of this study were to determine choices patients and ‘potential’ patients make when provided with information on the risks and benefits of alternative anaesthetic choices for root planing during periodontal recalls and to examine which factors influence these choices. Methods: Using an interactive computer tool, scenarios described the risks and benefits of root planing during periodontal maintenance and the anaesthetic alternatives (no anaesthetic, an experimental thermosetting gel anaesthetic and traditional local infiltration anaesthesia). Compliant patients for whom anaesthesia was recommended during recall cleanings were recruited from private periodontal practices ( n=97). General population subjects (potential patients) were recruited by random digit dialing ( n=196) Results: As dental insurance was one of the inclusion criteria, the sample was representative of a working population. Most subjects reported tooth sensitivity (recall 84.5%, general 59.9%). The majority of patients wanted some form of anaesthetic, either gel (recall 82.5%, general 81.0%) or local infiltration (recall 10.3%, general 16.4%). Fifty-five percent of subjects reported moderate or severe pain from their previous dental injection(s). Asked if they were to have a dental needle tomorrow, 52.5% would be somewhat or very anxious. Of those who chose gel, 63.47% would be more or much more willing to return for recall visits if the gel were available. Using multivariate logistic regression, concern about pain and anxiety associated with needles were the only statistically significant characteristics associated with anaesthetic preference. Conclusions: Concern about pain and anxiety associated with needles dominates preferences for dental anaesthesia. The overwhelming preference for a non-injectable anaesthetic reveals a strong clinical need for such alternatives.

An Interactive Graphical Tool for Fatigue Design in Steel Structures

Design of members in steel structures for fatigue loading is highly heuristics, and consequently, is normally performed manually. This paper describes an interactive graphical computer tool for the design of steel members for repeated loading and fatigue, according to the widely-used American Institute of Steel Construction design specifications. The software can be used as a self-tutoring tool for teaching the design of steel members for repeated loadings and fatigue. The advantage of such an educational computer program is that the user can design different types of members and details, trying out various options within a few minutes.

ESSA: an integrated and interactive computer tool for analysing RNA secondary structure.

With ESSA, we propose an approach of RNA secondary structure analysis based on extensive viewing within a friendly graphical interface. This computer program is organized around the display of folding models produced by two complementary methods suitable to draw long RNA molecules. Any feature of interest can be managed directly on the display and highlighted by a rich combination of colours and symbols with emphasis given to structural probe accessibilities. ESSA also includes a word searching procedure allowing easy visual identification of structural features even complex and degenerated. Analysis functions make it possible to calculate the thermodynamic stability of any part of a folding using several models and compare homologous aligned RNA both in primary and secondary structure. The predictive capacities of ESSA which brings together the experimental, thermodynamic and comparative methods, are increased by coupling it with a program dedicated to RNA folding prediction based on constraints management and propagation. The potentialities of ESSA are illustrated by the identification of a possible tertiary motif in the LSU rRNA and the visualization of a pseudoknot in S15 mRNA.

Slip-tendency analysis and fault reactivation

Slip-tendency analysis is a new technique that permits rapid assessment of stress states and related potential fault activity. The tendency of a surface to undergo slip in a given stress field depends on its frictional characteristics (primarily controlled by rock type) and the ratio of shear to normal stress acting on the surface, here defined as slip tendency (determined by orientation of the surface within the stress field). An interactive computer tool displays the stress tensor in terms of its associated slip-tendency distribution and the relative likelihood and direction of slip on surfaces of all orientations. The technique provides easy visualization and rapid evaluation of stress in terms of its potential for causing slip on individual faults or fault populations for use in seismic-risk and fault-rupture–risk assessment, exploration for high-risk and earthquake-prone blind faults, selection of likely earthquake focal mechanism solutions, and for use in analysis of compatibility of geologic structures.

BioSCAN: a network sharable computational resource for searching biosequence databases.

We describe a network sharable, interactive computational tool for rapid and sensitive search and analysis of biomolecular sequence databases such as GenBank, GenPept, Protein Identification Resource, and SWISS-PROT. The resource is accessible via the World Wide Web using popular client software such as Mosaic and Netscape. The client software is freely available on a number of computing platforms including Macintosh, IBM-PC, and Unix workstations.

Subsea ploughmen join engineering's major league

Loss-of-containment events on offshore installations can lead to complex escalation effects, especially in congested modules, where the close proximity of processing equipment and control systems creates the potential for very many different escalation paths. Conventional risk analysis tools are not well suited to deriving and evaluating the large number of possibilities, relying on the risk analyst to devise and quantify a ‘representative’ set of scenarios. The danger is that the ‘representative’ scenarios lack realism, may be insufficiently detailed to support upgrade decisions, and tend towards ‘generic’ risk analysis.A novel computer simulation technique has therefore been developed which starts from a list of initiating loss-of-containment events and utilizes physical rule sets and consequence models to generate consistent and detailed accident scenarios from a basic platform description, comprising a collection of equipment items, structural elements and protective systems. The program has proved stable on application to a variety of offshore installations, including simple gas platforms, a typical deep sea oil and gas platform, and a semi-submersible production vessel. It eliminates the manual drafting and analysis of event trees, which is very laborious even when aided by interactive computer tools; and, because the risk model comprises factual information, rather than abstract concepts, it is much more accessible and amenable to scrutiny by discipline engineers, allowing operators to derive and maintain a genuinely ‘living’ quantitative risk assessment.

Quantification of escalation effects in offshore quantitative risk assessment

Abstract Loss-of-containment events on offshore installations can lead to complex escalation effects, especially in congested modules, where the close proximity of processing equipment and control systems creates the potential for very many different escalation paths. Conventional risk analysis tools are not well suited to deriving and evaluating the large number of possibilities, relying on the risk analyst to devise and quantify a ‘representative’ set of scenarios. The danger is that the ‘representative’ scenarios lack realism, may be insufficiently detailed to support upgrade decisions, and tend towards ‘generic’ risk analysis. A novel computer simulation technique has therefore been developed which starts from a list of initiating loss-of-containment events and utilizes physical rule sets and consequence models to generate consistent and detailed accident scenarios from a basic platform description, comprising a collection of equipment items, structural elements and protective systems. The program has proved stable on application to a variety of offshore installations, including simple gas platforms, a typical deep sea oil and gas platform, and a semi-submersible production vessel. It eliminates the manual drafting and analysis of event trees, which is very laborious even when aided by interactive computer tools; and, because the risk model comprises factual information, rather than abstract concepts, it is much more accessible and amenable to scrutiny by discipline engineers, allowing operators to derive and maintain a genuinely ‘living’ quantitative risk assessment.

Object‐oriented animation system for seismic response of multistory structures

AbstractVisualizing the dynamic behavior of structures under earthquake loading is a challenge for students taking structural dynamics and earthquake engineering courses. A prototype animation system was developed for visualizing the dynamic response of multistory structures subjected to earthquake excitations, using the object‐oriented programming paradigm and implemented in Microsoft Windows and Borland C++ on a 33 MHz 80486‐based personal computer. At present, the animation system is limited to two‐dimensional multistory frames with rigid floors. The input can be any accelerogram (ground acceleration record) due to any real or artificial earthquake. The user of the system can change the input parameters of the structure or select the ground acceleration record and view their effect on the dynamic behavior of the structure. This object‐oriented animation model is an effective courseware or interactive computer tool that may be used in teaching structural dynamics and earthquake engineering courses.

An integrated MOLP method base package—A guided tour of tommix

An implementation of a MOLP interactive method base is presented in the form of a guided tour to a computer package. The MOLP method base (associated to a procedure toolbox) is a component of a decision support system framework which also integrates a dialogue base and a data management module. Besides providing the standard working of each method the interactive MOLP method base offers the possibility of method switching at any interaction with the decision maker (DM), in order to make the most of the potentialities of each method and support a “learning” process. Some key issues in the development of interactive MOLP approaches and computational tools are also discussed. Special attention is paid to the development of an user-friendly environment for interacting with the DM.

Computer-aided interactive filter design using templates

Particular properties of symmetric lattices provide a convenient basis for the development of an empirical approach, based on templates, to the design of analog filters. These templates can be used for the design of filters with demanding specifications for attenuation and phase responses, and also for the design of equalisers. This paper presents an effective interactive computer tool as part of a computer-aided approach to this problem, and presents significant extensions to the theory to enable the designer to determine the transfer function by specifying the desired attenuation at a number of points. The design leads to reactance functions that define the arms of a symmetric lattice. The transfer function of the filter is also produced, and can be used to give other realisations.

Interactive computer tools for image method room modeling

The image method for determining the source to receiver transfer function in an enclosure has been implemented on computers for some time now [J. Allen and D. Berkley, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 65, 943 (1979); J. Borish, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 75, 1827 (1984)]. However, it is sometimes difficult to apply the results of these models in terms of, for example, spatial hearing phenomena, simply by looking at the time domain impulse response. An interactive computer program that displays, in three dimensions, the source, the receiver, the enclosure, and several representations of the sound rays incident on the receiver, will be demonstrated. A real‐time stereo DSP system ,that processes sound with the simulated impulse response, so the results of the simulation may be heard, will also be demonstrated. Comparisons of the simulated results with experimental results will be available.

GENEVIEW and the DNACE data bus: computational tools for analysis, display and exchange of genetic information.

We describe an interactive computational tool, GENEVIEW, that allows the scientist to retrieve, analyze, display and exchange genetic information. The scientist may request a display of information from a GenBank locus, request that a restriction map be computed, stored and superimposed on GenBank information, and interactively view this information. GENEVIEW provides an interface between the GenBank data base and the programs of the Lilly DNA Computing Environment (DNACE). This interface stores genetic information in a simple, free format that has become the universal convention of DNACE; this format will serve as the convention for all future software development at Eli Lilly and Company, and could serve as a convention for genetic information exchange.

ANPLASMAP: a computational tool for the interactive display of restriction maps on alphanumeric terminal devices

We describe an interactive computational tool, ANPLASMAP, that allows the scientist to interactively retrieve and display DNA fragment or plasmid restriction maps. ANPLASMAP is fully compatible with the previously described color graphics plasmid storage, retrieval and display system, PLASMAP; however, ANPLASMAP will operate on commonly-available, inexpensive ANSI terminal devices and calls no other software packages.

PLASMAP: an interactive computational tool for storage, retrieval and device-independent graphic display of conventional restriction maps.

We describe an interactive computational tool, PLASMAP, which allows the user to electronically store, retrieve, and display circular restriction maps. PLASMAP permits users to construct libraries of plasmid restriction maps as a set of files which may be edited in the laboratory at any time. The display feature of PLASMAP quickly generates device-independent, artist-quality, full-color or monochrome, hard copies or CRT screens of complex, conventional circular restriction maps.