GML-Based Data Management and Semantic World Modelling for a 4D Forest Simulation and Information System

Various types of 3D simulation applications benefit from realistic forest models. They range from flight simulators for entertainment to harvester simulators for training and tree growth simulations for research and planning. This paper's 4D forest simulation and information system integrates the necessary methods for data extraction, modelling and management. Using modern methods of semantic world modelling, tree data can efficiently be extracted from remote sensing data. The derived forest models contain position, height, crown volume, type and diameter of each tree. This data is modelled using GML-based data models to assure compatibility and exchangeability. ForestGML is the name of a new schema family developed to provide a common basis for forestry data. A flexible approach for database synchronization is used to manage the data and provide caching, persistence, a central communication hub for change distribution, and a versioning mechanism. Combining various simulation techniques and data versioning, the 4D forest simulation and information system can provide applications with “both directions” of the fourth dimension. This paper outlines the current state, new developments, and integration of tree extraction, data modelling, and data management. It also shows several applications realized with the system.

Schemas, grounds, meaning: On the emergence of musical concepts through conceptual blending

This article offers a new theoretical approach to the conceptualization of music, based on Conceptual Blending Theory, with a reinforced role ascribed to the constructs of generic space and the grounding box. Three analyses of typical conceptualizations of music from prior experiments with children and adults are provided to postulate that the ultimate linguistically reported concept comes from blending the intramusical Gestalt (input space 1) with a rich image from an appropriate experiential domain (input space 2). However, the mapping is not haphazard, but rather based on the invariant structure in the generic space, which takes the form of an image-schema family. In the blended space new conceptual elements emerge: one such typical resultant concept generates the idea that music “moves”, and in specifically articulated ways. While more basic verbal reports from experiments may be constrained by image-schema families alone, richer descriptions additionally require the theoretical notion of the grounding box, which hosts experiential information that participants add to the description as they progress in building musical meaning. The proposed model relativizes two common dichotomies in music cognition: (1) the distinction between “intramusical” and “extramusical” meaning, since both participate in the process of creating the ultimate blended concept; and (2) the strict divide between universalism and linguistic relativity in musical concept formation, since the present proposal has sufficient theoretical constructs to account for both schematic invariants and experiential diversity.

GML-Based Data Management and Semantic World Modelling for a 4D Forest Simulation and Information System

Various types of 3D simulation applications benefit from realistic forest models. They range from flight simulators for entertainment to harvester simulators for training and tree growth simulations for research and planning. This paper's 4D forest simulation and information system integrates the necessary methods for data extraction, modelling and management. Using modern methods of semantic world modelling, tree data can efficiently be extracted from remote sensing data. The derived forest models contain position, height, crown volume, type and diameter of each tree. This data is modelled using GML-based data models to assure compatibility and exchangeability. ForestGML is the name of a new schema family developed to provide a common basis for forestry data. A flexible approach for database synchronization is used to manage the data and provide caching, persistence, a central communication hub for change distribution, and a versioning mechanism. Combining various simulation techniques and data versioning, the 4D forest simulation and information system can provide applications with “both directions” of the fourth dimension. This paper outlines the current state, new developments, and integration of tree extraction, data modelling, and data management. It also shows several applications realized with the system.

Schema Discrimination without External Reinforcement

In two discrimination tasks, Ss readily learned to distinguish members of a schema family from non-members. This learning occurred in an insightful manner without external reinforcement.