Situation Map Research Articles

NMR velocimetry of falling liquid films.

First results on NMR velocimetry of falling liquid films are presented. A film of average thickness 1 mm and width 40 mm is sustained by a continuous flow of silicon oil over a vertical plate made from PMMA. The spatial distribution of velocities is measured using a double spin--echo imaging pulse sequence supplemented by a bipolar velocity encoding gradient. Spin density and velocity images as well as two-dimensional velocity maps of different situations, i.e., undisturbed and disturbed falling film flow, are discussed. Experimental and theoretical velocity data for undisturbed film flow are compared.

Efficient design of ultrasound true-velocity flow mapping

The authors describe the general theory of the classical Doppler technique for flow mapping and show that its main assumptions do not generally hold for ultrasound imaging. They then develop a generalized model for frequency-domain flow mapping in practical ultrasound imaging situations. Using this model, the authors show that it is possible to compute the true velocity from single-aperture configurations. They discuss improving the resolution and velocity estimation accuracies and propose a novel approach based on a generalization of the radar ambiguity function model. They also consider the same problems for time-domain techniques. They propose a generalization of the correlation technique that takes into account the ultrasound field effect, and show that it is theoretically possible to obtain true-velocity flow maps from single-aperture configurations. Finally, the authors discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of both frequency-domain and time-domain techniques.

MAPPING ECOLOGICAL SITUATIONS: STATUS, METHODOLOGY, AND PROSPECTS

The authors survey the basic concepts and evolution of what is considered to be a new branch of thematic mapping—ecological mapping. Initial sections focus on the basic characteristics and types of ecological maps; this is followed by coverage of methodological problems that must be addressed in the generalization of initial data. Two algorithms are described for the compilation of maps of ecological situations, depending on the amount and type of information available to map compilers, and considerations of boundary delineation, scale, and GIS applications are addressed. Translated by Edward Torrey, Alexandria, VA 22308 from: Geografiya i prirodnyye resursy, 1995, No. 3, pp. 18-25.

Causal modelling as a tool for problem framing within a group decision support system: an object‐oriented approach

Abstract. This paper contributes toward the design of intelligent group decision support systems (GDSS). It suggests a GDSS architecture that would enable a group of managers to discuss, learn from each other and possibly develop consensus about decisions or their causes. It shows how an object‐oriented approach can be used in producing interactive software to support managerial debate about problem solving. The method uses comprehensive situation mapping causal mapping to represent each manager's perceptions of the relationships between key variables of a firm's strategic situation. The paper presents a prototype implementation and, based on experiences from it, discusses issues concerning future development and use.

Comprehensive Situation Mapping for Robot Evaluation and Selection

Selecting the best robot for various applications is further complicated by the impracticality of physically modelling available robots in order to make an educated choice. Various methods have been proposed in the literature for tackling the robot selection problem. Some of these methods have been evaluated for assembly applications, the most common being what we call the “evaluative hierarchy”. Introduces a robot selection tool based on comprehensive situation mapping (CSM), an advanced derivative of influence diagramming (ID). Proposes that CSM provides the most consistent results, is easy to use, and gives the decision maker better insights into how various process variables can be chosen to ensure that the best available robot for the money is acquired.

Mathematical Model for Piping

In the technical note, a two-dimensional mathematical model for piping under a dam on a granular material is reported. No details of the calculation are given, but the results are communicated. The key feature of the model is the treatment of a piping channel, thus incorporating and unifying apparently conflicting hypotheses made in the past by Lane and Koshla. The result is a map of steady-state equilibrium situations that are possible for the length of the piping channel under the dam as a function of the water-level difference on both sides of the dam and the particle grain size. The latter parameter arises because of the necessary treatment of the stability of the channel walls. The results show that stable states are possible as long as the piping channel does not exceed half the length of the structure. A formula linking the relevant parameters to obtain a necessary condition for equilibrium is presented. Implications for model tests and centrifuge tests are discussed.

A Return to History? The New Historicism and Its Agenda

The history of literary criticism, particularly any attempt to draw a map of the present situation, cannot quite do without labels in order to characterize theoretical positions, groups, and camps. of these labels that suddenly emerged in the critical discourse during the 1980s is that of the New History or, more properly, the New Historicism. The New Historicism has been referred to as a new movement or position that would replace the old historicism but also, and more important, supersede the prominent critical positions of the 1970s, notably deconstructionism and Marxism. Its proponents, among them Stephen Greenblatt and Louis Montrose, have hailed the New Historicism as a methodological Kehre steering literary criticism away from the formalism of the deconstructive approach and the positivism of the old historicism. Its critics have charged the New History with theoretical eclecticism that will ultimately lead to a position that is rather close to traditional historicism. Among the critical voices is that of Dominick LaCapra, who discusses the New Historians as a minor movement of small consequence. In Soundings in Critical Theory he argues that the New Historians tend to share much of the problems of traditional historicism, for instance, a flair for overcontextualization and theoretical relativism. There is a tendency to extend Clifford Geertz' valuable stress upon 'thick description' into the indiscriminate, unqualified rule: the thicker the description, the better.' To this LaCapra adds the somewhat unflattering statement: One may

Psychiatric assessment of globus pharyngis patients

A Part of a research programme in the ORL outpatient clinic, 22 (13 women, 9 men) patients with sensation of a lump in the throat, ‘a globus hystericus’ were referred for a psychiatric evaluation. The mean age of the patients was 48.2 years. The symptoms had been well tolerated by the patients, as the mean duration of the symptoms was 27 months. The overall psychopathology was not severe: by the DSM-IH-R only 5 of 22 received a diagnosis. In addition, narcissistic and rigid personality features were frequent. One-year follow-up showed that half of the patients were better or totally without symptoms. No correlation to history, psychologic mindedness, or the situation at the time of the interview could predict the outcome. A broad ‘life situation mapping’ is recommended as an integrated part of the general examinations.

Some techniques for building mathematical intelligent tutoring systems

Abstract Some techniques that are useful in building intelligent tutoring systems for mathematics are described. These techniques have been implemented in Integration-Kid, an intelligent tutoring system for integral calculus. Its production system is a language which helps the problem-solver to interact with students. For the mathematical problem-solver, we have adopted term-rewriting rules which represent basic mathematical knowledge. The situation map is a representation which lays out all possible situations in the process of solving a complex problem. We shall also describe an algorithm which transforms a linear mathematical expression to a readable, two-dimensional expression.

ECOLOGICAL MAPS: CONTENT AND REQUIREMENTS

The properties of ecological maps are examined, as well as the features which distinguish them from more traditional nature maps. Specific considerations entering into the mapping of geoecological situations are examined and attention is devoted to difficulties of integrating, during mapping, geoecological situations of variable character and intensity. The need for maps of geoecological situations is outlined, both as scientific documents and as a basis for making correct decisions. Translated by Jay Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005 from: Izvestiya AN SSSR, seriya geograficheskaya, 1990, No. 6, pp. 119–125.

An Aid for Improved Information Processing of High Density Computer Generated Visual Displays

Technological advances are increasing the availability of displays capable of portraying large amounts of computer generated graphic information. These displays are advantageous when substantial amounts of information have to be integrated as part of a decision making process. Examples of these high density displays include tactical situation maps used by the military and certain CAD/CAM applications. Unfortunately, a problem can arise when using these displays. This occurs when the quantity of information presented becomes great enough to cause a deterioration in the user's ability to effectively process it. The resulting situation is one in which decisions are based on an incomplete use of available data. The present study addresses this problem by evaluating an aid (selective deletion) designed to allow users to deal effectively with greater amounts of information. It is based on the assumption that, while the collective uses of a display may require a large amount of portrayed information, individual tasks often do not. Selective deletion allows users to temporarily remove information that is not necessary for solving the task under consideration. It was hypothesized that the lower display density would improve the speed and accuracy of problem solving. The displays used in the present study were computer generated tactical military maps containing various terrain features and symbols for three different types of military units (Infantry, Artillery and Armor). The display was generated on a high resolution (1024×1024) color CRT. Two variables were manipulated during the experiment: information density and task type. To vary information density the number of unit symbols on a map was varied. Two density levels were used for each of three tasks. The tasks were chosen as representative of simple components of the more complicated tasks performed by the tactical analyst. Each task was run as an independent experiment. The first was a counting task requiring subjects to determine the number of units of a specific type. The second, slightly more complicated task, required subjects to solve problems in which they had to take into account the spatial relationship between unit symbols. In the third task subjects had to recognize and use certain relationships between units and terrain features in solving problems. None of the tasks required the subject to use all three unit types. Thus, the density of information on the screen could be reduced by deleting the symbols for extraneous unit types. In the experimental condition subjects would delete these extraneous units before solving the problems. In the control condition they would work with screens at full density. Subjects served as their own controls, solving problems under both conditions with the order varied across subjects. Both accuracy and speed were measured. Results show: a) The selective deletion technique greatly increases the accuracy and speed with which subjects can deal with high density visual displays. b) The density level at which the technique begins to improve performance varies with type of task. c) All subjects were aided by the technique, but there were individual differences in the density level at which it became most useful. This study has shown the selective deletion technique to be highly useful in improving a subject's ability to process information presented in high density tactical map displays. It is felt that these results will also be useful in the design of other types of computer generated visual displays. Specific examples, provided in the presentation and a follow up paper, indicate the magnitude of the effect as a function of display density and type of task, and should help guide the use of selective deletion in the design of a wide range of displays.

Multiscale sources of spatial variation in soil. II. A non‐Brownian fractal model and its application in soil survey

SummaryStochastic fractals (for example, the fractional Brownian noises) model the often observed power law relation between the variance of a soil property and the length of transect sampled, but fail to account for abrupt changes of the mean (i.e. soil boundaries), for second‐order stationarity and for the non self‐similarity of variations at different scales that are observed in real data. This paper proposes a non‐Brownian, nested model to account for situations where differences of soil have been caused by superimposed, independently acting soil‐forming processes having different weights and acting at separate, discrete scales. The model is explained and theoretical examples of the semivariograms and confidence limits that arise from it are given. The model is applied to three sets of experimental data and is found to give a remarkably good fit where lateral mixing of soil has been negligible and soil boundaries are sharp. The implications for efficient mapping in situations where the soil results from a number of superimposed, independent causes are discussed.

Situation map of bryophyte recording in Britain and Ireland

Situation map of bryophyte recording in Britain and Ireland

Three Thoreaus (in One?)

Richard Lebeaux. Young Man Thoreau. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1977.1 262 + x pp. Michael Meyer. Several more lives to live: Thoreau's Political reputation in America. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977. + xii pp. Robert F. Sayre. Thoreau and the American Indians. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977. (240 + xx pp. In one widely-accepted map of the literary situation, there are four recognized coordinates: the work, the world, the artist, and the audience. M. H. Abrams links these four coordinates with four emphases in literary criticism: mimetic theories based on the world imitated; pragmatic theories based on the audience affected; expressive theories based on the artistic personality or identity; and objective theories, based on the art object itself.1 In our day, it has been usual to place the art object at the center of this map, relating centripetally and centrifugally to the less central coordinates of world, artist, and audience.2 For some modern critics of literature, however, the specific literary object almost disappears within a whirling total complex of world, work, audience, and artist, all four interacting, combining, even fusing into a single locus of meaning often called a "myth." To quote Leslie Fiedler, who elsewhere calls his work "a venture in literary anthropology": "There is no 'work itself,' no independent formal entity which is its own sole context; the poem is the sum total of many contexts, all of which must be known to know it and evaluate it."3 Thoreau obviously conceived and carried out his literary career with an intense awareness of all four coordinates of his literary terrain. The three books about Thoreau under review here fall almost perfectly under the three headings of audience, author, and world, respectively. Together, they pose two questions: how meaningfully can our Thoreau be considered in each of these contexts? how relevant can each context be made to the fourth and— for many of us, the most important object of our attention— to Thoreau's own formal published writings?

The Economic Theory of Index Numbers

Ti-iIS paper attempts a synthesis of what might be called the classical economic theory of index numbers, developed by Staehle and others,' with the later work of Hicks2 and Samuelson.:3 The problem can be expressed in its simplest form as follows. A given individual consumer is considered in two situations, i and z, usually (but not necessarily) two points of time. Complete price-quantity data are available for the consumer in each of the situations, i.e., the prices of (n + i) commodities, Pl, P', Pl . . P.1p(), and the quantities purchased, ql, ql', q1 . . . ql(n), at situation i, and the corresponding prices and quantities denoted with a suffix z at situation 2. A definite preference map, subject to the usual conditions of convexity, etc., is assumed for the consumer in each situation, but the map for situation i may be different from that for situation 2. The consumer is assumed to have free choice. In particular, nothing will be said about a situation in which there is rationing. Can we define an index of the change in prices and an index of the change in the volume of consumption from situation i to situation z ? If so, can we obtain a measure of each index or, at least, limits for each index ? We can start with the problem of the price index. A perfectly definite index of price change can be defined for the consumer for situation i, which has reference only to the indifference level I, on which the consumer finds himself at this situation. The index, P12 (situation i), is the income which leaves the consumer on the indifference level I, when expended optimally at prices (P2), divided by the actual income expended at prices (Pl). Here the prices (P2) can be regarded as a hypothetical alternative to the prices (Pl) in situation i. There is no reference to the behaviour of the consumer in situation 2 ; the index is independent of the preference map of situation z and of the purchases (q2) made in this situation. We know what purchases (ql) the consumer makes in situation i ; to derive the index we should need to know the purchases, call them (q), he would make if the prices had been (P2) to maintain the same indifference level. We are not interested in what the consumer actually does at prices (p2) in situation 2. By definition, then:

The Relation of the Local Community to the Principal Factors of Public Opinion

LOCALITY is a tangible fact with measurable metes and bounds. It is not so with the community and public opinion. These latter concepts are abstractions whose limits are set by arbitrary definitions and imperfect, semi-scientific analysis. Consequently generalization on the problem of the factors of public opinion and their relation to the community is likely to be unsatisfactory until sociology has either fixed upon dependable concepts whose meaning is unmistakable and has applied them for verifiable statistical interpretation or until concrete, detailed, specific, factual data on a given group behavior situation have been assembled and mapped in sufficient quantity that similar maps of other situations will almost of themselves reveal the essentials of understanding. It is not the purpose of this paper to attempt a critical analysis of concepts and definitions but rather to point a rough course which may promise a way out of the frustration of a too facile handling of the problem. There is no clear cut road to an understanding of any social phenomena-social science is too young to have marked many paths. Whatever public opinion may be, whatever the community may be, in any significant sense they must be placed as links in a chain of related facts, in a series of events, parts, aspects, or factors of collective behavior. The road to be followed is that series, those sequences. The basic factor of public opinion is the social mind. The local community may have a fairly distinct mind of its own but it is also part of the larger social mind. The relation is complex, for the larger whole is as varied and intricately constituted as humanity itself. What is the sort of content that may be discovered and classified for the purpose of filling out the vague outlines of the social mind? At the risk of seeming to propose merely another concept not much more precise than the former, there is justification in pointing to the possibilities of translation into refined concepts of cultural patterns. The concept of pattern as an aid to understanding of is coming into use not only by anthropologists but by students of several of the social sciences. The pattern is merely a fairly definite scheme of opinion in which the specific opinions tend to fall into associations or relations to each other because of semi-historical causes and because of the dominance of either traditional ideas or of interest grouping and are pushed about variously by the process of rationalization. There is a partial analogy implied, since patterns ordinarily suggest design for copy and orderly if not logical arrangements of units into wholes. But it is not an adequate analogy because it obscures for one thing the relatively unselfconscious action of social behavior, the lack of pre-conceived plan in forming opinion, and for another it over-emphasizes the role of imitation. The pattern, as I see it, is very simply a way of looking at certain objects, a way that in rough outlines is commonly taken by certain groups of persons more often than other ways by other groups. Application of the pattern concept has of course some precedent; it is foreshadowed in the folkways and mores of Sumner and in the term culture itself.