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In the course of monitoring interplanetary scintillations of a large number of sources using the Big Scanning Antenna of the Lebedev Physical Institute, a search for pulsars with periods >0.4 s at declinations −9CR < d < 42CR and right ascensions 0h < a < 24h was simultaneously carried out. The search was conducted using four years of observations carried out at 110.25MHz in six frequency channels making up a 2.5 MHz band and having a time resolution of 100 ms. The initial identification of pulsar candidates was done using Fourier power spectra averaged over the entire observational period; the pulsar candidates were then verified using observations with higher frequency and time resolution: 32 frequency channels and a time resolution of 12.5 ms. Eighteen new pulsars were discovered in the studied area, whose main characteristics are presented.

In this paper we describe a semantic approach to visualization of 3D cyberspace of scientific papers and their research front using web-based 3D graphic. The most cited and significant documents in this cyberspace are represented by spheres of a large size and the distance between documents is proportional to their semantic similarity. A new measure of semantic similarity of documents is proposed that is determined by the maximum correlation between explicit and implicit connectivity of the documents. A new science contextual citation index (SCCI) that is defined by a correlation maximum with a science citation index (SCI) is proposed and implemented. SCCI can more accurately measure scientific impact, find significant documents and evaluate new articles with zero SCI. Significant similar articles confirm each other and form clusters in the cyberspace. Research front exists as a set of such clusters. The proposed cyberspace implemented by WebVR and interactive 3D graphics can be considered as a dynamic learning environment that is convenient for discovering new significant articles, ideas and trends. It can be a powerful tool of information integration, because it allows you to visualize documents of different languages in a single space.

Gesture Recognition is a technology that makes devices such as a computer capable of recognizing and responding to different gestures produced by the human body. With the recent growth of 3D virtual world applications, the demand to improve the gesture recognition method, especially hand gesture recognition, has increased. In this paper, we propose a novel vision-based gesture recognition system for controlling the 3D virtual world based on depth images obtained from the 3D camera device. For the proposed system, we used mix spatial space features consisting of 3D and 2D space features. The finger position in the point cloud represents the 3D space feature and the contour of hand from the images as 2D space feature. To investigate the robustness of our system, we designed 9 gestures including 6 static and 3 dynamic varieties. During experiments, we instruct people to display those gestures and calculate the recognition rate. Our results demonstrate that the proposed system was able to recognize the 9 gestures very well with the average accuracy of 95% for static gestures and 81.34% for dynamic ones.

The problem of accident prevention for complex structures is considered as multifactor forecasting problem, covering the tasks of Structural Health Monitoring, Non-Destructive Testing, situational modelling for joint behaviour of the object and multi sensor system in extreme cases, risk and residual life time evaluation. This task is considered as an inverse problem being solved in the Bayesian formulation. We introduce three principal characteristics of object behaviour, namely: impact, risk of direct consequences (vulnerability), and risk of indirect consequences. Interaction of the object under observation and monitoring system respectively is displayed in the form of graph, described with a matrix of transition probabilities, given opportunity to evaluate condition probability. The example is given for the calculation of residual life time for the steel cable roof of large sport building, basing on the estimate of operating reliability as a probability integral of critical parameters of detected defects.

We present StarWatch, our application for real-time analysis of radio astronomical data in Virtual Environment. Serving as an interface to radio astronomical databases or being applied to live data from the radio telescopes, the application supports various data filters measuring signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), Doppler's drift, degree of signal localization on celestial sphere and other useful tools for signal extraction and classification. Originally designed for the database of narrow band signals from SETI Institute (setilive.org), the application has been recently extended for the detection of wide band periodic signals, necessary for the search of pulsars. We will also address the detection of week signals possessing arbitrary waveforms and present several data filters suitable for this purpose.

We present a generic approach for focused ultrasonic therapy planning on the basis of numerical simulation, multi-objective optimization, stochastic analysis and visualization in virtual environments. A realistic test case is used to demonstrate the approach. RBF metamodeling of simulation results is performed for continuous representation of two optimization objectives. The non-convex Pareto front of the objectives is determined by means of non-dominated set and local improvement algorithms. Uncertainties of metamodeling are estimated by means of a cross-validation procedure. The 3D visualization in virtual environment framework Avango allows detailed inspection of MRT images, the corresponding material model and spatial distribution of the resulting thermal dose.

We extend our system for radio astronomical monitoring by a module for numerical modeling of real antennas, based on the laws of wave optics. We use far field approximation, suitable for phased array radio telescopes, searching deep space signals. We have implemented the main computation on GPU, achieving acceleration factor 52 and providing real time performance of the module. Visualization of the resulting wave patterns helps to separate true deep space signals from the near Earth satellite radio interference. In particular, we model in detail a scenario of a satellite signal coming through the side lobe of SETI ATA-42 telescope. Such signals can be responsible for the false alarms in monitoring procedures, used in searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. We also analyze a scenario of searching pulsar signals with BSA/LPI radio telescope and their separation from background radio interference.

In this paper we describe a cyberspace of scientific papers, in which the most cited and significant documents are represented by a large size and the distance between documents is proportional to their semantic similarity. A new measure of semantic similarity of documents is proposed that is determined by the maximum correlation between explicit and implicit connectivity of the documents. A new science contextual citation index (SCCI) that is defined by a correlation maximum with a science citation index (SCI) is proposed and implemented. SCCI can more accurately measure scientific impact, find significant documents and evaluate new articles with zero SCI. SCCI also can be used in subject areas that do not have formal references. The proposed cyberspace more accurately displays semantic similarity between significant articles.

Individual handwriting is an important feature of a person, reflecting his personality, cultural and intellectual level. The possibility of using in the cyberspace a unique manner of writing the text, which is inherent in every person, promotes the strengthening of the personal principle, emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual. The article deals with the problem of constructing individual digital fonts based on handwriting samples. To describe the font, a "trajectory format" is used, in which characters of the font are represented by fat curves. A fat curve is a family of circles centered on a smooth curve. To build a font for a given pattern, we solve the problem of fitting the fat curves to the bitmap image of handwritten text. The article proposes the solution of this problem, based on the continuous medial representation of the object shape in binary images.

In this study, we applied Speech-to-Text Recognition (STR) and Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) technologies in combination during lectures in English to facilitate Russian speaking students' comprehension of lecture content. The instructor lectured in English, the STR system generated texts from the voice input, and the CAT system then simultaneously translated the STR-texts into Russian. We aimed to test the feasibility of applying STR and CAT technologies in combination to support learning of Russian speaking students during lectures in English. To this end, we designed an experiment. Three groups with twenty students in each were formed and all students attended the same lectures. Students in a control group attended lectures without any support, students in an experimental group 1 attended lectures with STR support (i.e. they were presented with texts in English generated from the instructor's speech), and students in an experimental group 2 attended lectures with STR and CAT support (i.e. they were presented with texts in Russian translated from English). We compared language ability and post-test results of students in three groups and we surveyed perceptions of students in the experimental group 2 about usefulness of translated texts for their learning. Our results showed that applying STR and CAT technologies was a useful approach; translated texts helped improve learning performance of the experimental group 2 students compared to the control condition significantly. More specifically, translated texts were beneficial both for low and high ability students in the experimental group 2, so that their scores of the tests were much better compared to those of students in the control condition. When students got used to translated texts and found their strength and limitations, they better utilized these texts for their learning. This is why learning progress of students was increasing from Lecture 1 to Lecture 2. Our results also showed that low ability students benefit from translated texts the most; their language ability was lower than that of high ability students before the experiment but after it, learning performance had no significant difference. Finally, most of the students in the experimental group 2 perceived translated texts as useful for their learning and they intended to use them in the future for learning.

We study a static spherically symmetric problem with a black hole and radially directed geodesic flows of dark matter. The obtained solutions have the following properties. At large distances, the gravitational field produces constant velocities of circular motion, i.e. flat rotation curves. At smaller distances, the field switches to Newtonian regime, then to Schwarzschild regime. Deviations from Schwarzschild regime start below the gravitational radius. The dark matter prevents the creation of event horizon, instead, a spherical region possessing extremely large redshift is created. The structure of space-time for the obtained solutions is investigated and the implications for the models of the galaxies are discussed.

In this paper we will consider a problem of registration of radio signals from distant sources, natural pulsars or artificial SETI signals. These signals possess a number of common properties, i.e. they are weak, almost indistinguishable from the background noise, are strongly localized on celestial sphere, have spectral characteristics smeared by dispersion on interstellar medium and Doppler drift, suffer from near-Earth electromagnetic interference. In this paper we will overview existing methods for registration of such signals and discuss some alternatives. We implement selected methods as data filters connected to data processing workflow, with 3D Virtual Environment as a frontend, integrate the methods into a system for radio astronomical monitoring StarWatch and apply them for detection of pulsar signals from BSA telescope at Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory and narrow band signals in SETI database setilive.org.

Numerical simulations of river bed evolution (morphodynamics) can be used for evaluating river engineering concepts and efficient operation of waterways. Reliability analysis is used to detect the origin of uncertainties, to track their propagation in the model and to evaluate their contribution to the result of the modeling. We have developed a new approach for the reliability analysis of morphohydrodynamical simulations, including a fast interpolation of simulation results with radial basis functions (RBF) and an efficient quantile estimator based on quasi-Monte Carlo sampling. Realistic examples are used to test the efficiency of the approach. An interactive 3D virtual environment has been employed for visual exploration of the results. The developed virtual environment application allows for a detailed inspection of the numerical model, including the evolution of the water level, river bed profiles and their quantiles. In this way one achieves a full immersion into the model space and an understanding of morphohydrodynamical processes in an intuitive way.

New technologies introduced into medicine necessitate training of medical personnel to operate new equipment and techniques. For this purpose, training simulators and educational materials should be provided to the medical staff involved. This work concerns creating 3D model of surgical field for simulators to promote minimally invasive surgery. The paper reports the modes of constructing a photorealistic model of surgical field from endoscopic video streams, SFM, SLAM methods, as well as the problem of surface reconstruction from a point cloud and texture mapping on the constructed model.

Recently, cancelable biometrics emerged as one of the highly effective methods of template protection. The concept behind the cancelable biometrics or cancelability is a transformation of a biometric data or extracted feature into an alternative form, which cannot be used by the imposter or intruder easily, and can be revoked if compromised. In this paper, we present a novel architecture for template generation in the context of situation awareness system in real and virtual applications. We develop a novel cancelable biometric template generation algorithm utilizing random biometric fusion, random projection and selection. Proposed random cross-folding method generate cancelable biometric template from multiple biometric traits. We further validate the performance of the proposed algorithm using a virtual multimodal face and ear database.

Building resilient infrastructures is cross-disciplinary topic which is important in systems engineering, network security, transportation systems, etc. This paper describes dynamic quantitative model for estimating infrastructure resilience and it potential costs. Currently there are no models that could describe dynamic effects of threat impact on infrastructure and estimate costs of different prevention strategies. This work defines multi-layered graph model that describes threat impact through system interdependencies at every moment of time and chooses optimal response strategy in the terms of system performance and resilience strategy costs.

We extend our system for radio astronomical monitoring by a cross-validation filter, separating near Earth radio frequency interference (RFI) from deep space signals. The filter searches for similar signals in a nearby frequency band, coming from a different spatial direction than the tested signal. The filter passes the signals which do not have such duplicates. We apply this technique to a database of SETI Institute (setilive.org), containing 1.5 millions of sky observations in a frequency range 0.5-11.2~GHz, where our primary selection identified 28 strong signals possessing extraterrestrial (ET) signature. Cross-validation allows to filter out 24 of those signals as satellite RFI. We present parameters for the remaining 4 signals and discuss statistical significance of these findings.

An object surface extraction from a set of point clouds extracted using a Kinect V2 sensor is presented here. First several point clouds are extracted from different angles around the object. Second point clouds are registered with each other using the Iterative Closest Point algorithm. If the angle between two camera positions is large, point clouds are manually rough aligned. Then iterative closest point algorithm provides a finer alignment. Next the object boundary is found enclosing all the points in the aligned and merged point cloud. After that a triangular mesh is created with the boundary points. Finally colors acquired from the original point cloud are applied on the triangular surface generated. For a better visual effect colors of the points are interpolated on the triangular mesh generated.

Traditional bibliometrics such as citation counts and Science Citation Index are often used to find most influential and quality scientific articles. Modern methods of analysis of citation graph take into account the content of the articles. Topical influence measures a tendency of an article to influence the ideas of citing articles. The presented method estimates the information content and ideas of scientific articles based on linguistic approach. The method can measure "idea-based" influence and how ideas propagate between articles. Idea is presented very precisely as a set of phrases with similar meaning. Phrases representing the ideas in the texts of the articles form together a system of implicit references/links. Implicit link is a reference to the author or his ideas in the text. Bibliometric indicators which in addition to bibliographic references also take into account the implicit links can more accurately measure scientific impact and the quality of the articles.

One of the important tasks in Mechanical Engineering is to increase the safety of the vehicle and decrease its production costs. This task is typically solved by means of Multiobjective Optimization, which formulates the problem as a mapping from the space of design variables to the space of target criteria and tries to find an optimal region in these multidimensional spaces. Due to high computational costs of numerical simulations, the sampling of this mapping is usually very sparse and scattered. Combining design of experiments methods, metamodeling, new interpolation schemes and innovative graphics methods, we enable the user to interact with simulation parameters, optimization criteria, and come to a new interpolated crash result within seconds. We denote this approach as Simulated Reality, a new concept for the interplay between simulation, optimization and interactive visualization. In this paper we show the application of Simulated Reality for solution of real life car design optimization problems.

New types of trees of structure and linked lists with variable order relations (RTR-trees and RTR-lists) are discussed. Using them enables application of the direct kinematic scheme for simulation of 3D-objects with reorderable structure, making the logic of behavior simulation more natural

An application of Virtual Environment for real-time analysis of radio astronomical data is presented. Serving as an interface to radio astronomical databases or being applied to live data from the radio telescope, the application supports various data filters measuring signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), Doppler's drift, degree of signal localization on celestial sphere and other useful tools for signal extraction and classification. The application is created using Avango VE framework (avango.com). The application has been used for analysis of radio astronomical data from SETI Institute (setilive.org).

Recently, new interactive devices such as hap tic devices became available for game development. 6DOF hap tic devices give the user an opportunity "to feel" the simulated virtual environment in the way similar to the real world. Hap tic-based interaction can add a new dimension to "serious games" development. The user can "feel" objects surfaces and complex objects interaction forces in a 3D virtual environment. In this paper, we propose two hap tic-based serious games. In the first "T Puzzle" game, the user can "feel" the weight of objects, rotate and move the 3D puzzle pieces in the virtual world. This game can be used to improve the user's spatial abilities. In the second "Mol Docking" game, the player can feel interaction forces between molecular systems and learn the process of molecular docking in collaborative virtual environment.

This work is dedicated to detailed analysis of fire dispatchers activity. The main question is how to detect locations, which require immediate dispatching of fire brigades. In other words, every minute dispatcher should choose location, order and quantity of fire brigades to be dispatched. Article considers several factors, which could influence fire locations priority decision and proposes a heuristics that computes priority of fire locations based on those factors. Also, this article briefly touches visualization techniques of fire location factors with the help of emergency management ontology.

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to search for protein-protein complementary pairs in collaborative virtual environment. This method employs visual and force feedback tools to search for the optimal interaction between proteins. The search is manual with force feedback consisting of a repulsion or attraction force. We developed a prototype system that allows real-time interactive visualization and manipulation of molecules with force feedback in virtual collaborative environment. In our system, we implemented haptic interface to facilitate the exploration and analysis of molecular docking. Haptic device enables both users to manipulate the molecules and feel its interaction during the docking process in collaborative virtual experiment on computer. In future, these techniques could help the user to understand molecular interactions, and could be used both in research and e-learning.

Numerical methods for solution of differential equations with deviating arguments describing 1-dimensional ultra-relativistic scattering of 2 identical charged particles in classical electrodynamics with half-retarded/halfadvanced interaction (Wheeler and Feynman, 1949) are developed. A bifurcation of solutions and violation of their reflectional symmetries in the region of velocities v>0.937c are found in numerical analysis.

The tools for visualization of relativistic string dynamics in various topological classes are developed. New theoretical results, obtained with the aid of these tools, are described.

Numerical methods for solutions of differential equations with deviating arguments describing one-dimensional ultra-relativistic scattering of two identical charged particles in Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics with half-retarded/half-advanced interaction are developed. Utilization of the methods for the physical problem analysis leads to the discovery of a bifurcation of solutions and breaking of their reflectional symmetry for particles asymptotic velocity v>0.937c in their center-of-mass frame.

The paper presents a personal view of Russian (former Soviet Union) computer science based on the author's experience during 1965-1995. The outline of Russian computer science's vertical integration structure as well as a cursory look at the regional structure are described. The research topics under investigation of Russian computer science institutions are listed. A detailed picture of computer development starting from the 1950s and of the characteristics of the major development teams is given. Special attention is paid to finding the factors that led to the crash of the computer industry. The strategy blunders are noted.

The problem of 1-dimensional ultra-relativistic scattering of 2 identical charged particles in classical electrodynamics with retarded and advanced interactions is investigated., Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures

The main article focus is creating of machine and human readable vocabulary describing emergencies. Vocabulary tends to solve problem of low interoperability and technological and semantic incompatibility of departmental information systems. Vocabulary is developed in the form of OWL ontology. Proposed ontology could help to establish shared situation awareness between all participants of crisis management (emergency services, medical services, police, population exposed to risk). Article describes all stages for creating such ontology, from creating high level conceptual metamodel to development of formal ontology and it evaluation in real information system prototype. Ontology depicts all phases of emergency management, from mitigation and preparedness to recovery. Developed ontology is deployed to public access and could be freely used in information systems, it could serve as semantic foundation for information exchange within "system-of-systems".

A new engineering paradigm of integrated safety and security provision for built environment is proposed. Evolution and limits of former safety paradigms are described. Definition of building/structure resilience is introduced. Differentiation of building/structure resilience from community resilience and organizational resilience are delineated. Main hypotheses for multi-hazard resilience paradigm development are introduced.

This report describes an ongoing Russian research program, which aimed at development of a methodological framework for a nation-wide multi-hazard crisis management «system of systems» (SoS) for built environment. In addition to a currently available system of separate departmental legacy cyber systems, targeted, mainly, at disaster response and recovery only, the proposed SoS shall provide a shared situational awareness of the stakeholders (operators and authorities, responsible for built environment - municipalities, Ministry of Emergency, Fire Brigades, Ambulance, Police, etc.) and the citizens under risk during at a whole life-cycle of hypothetical crisis, especially at pre-crisis and crisis stages. One of the cornerstone of crisis management SoS development is a common core ontology for conceptualization of risk-related activities within SoS framework. This article is focused on a proposed shared situation awareness meta-model and its distinctions from the prior art and concurrent developments.

The main article focus is leveraging power of human-oriented modelling paradigms such as UML and concept maps frameworks for creating upper levels of crisis management ontology. Domain experts, which are involved in ontology creation process, usually are not comfortable with direct ontology creation. From the other side, ontology engineers may not know modelled domain as deeply as experts. Utilization of intermediate modelling techniques such as UML and concept maps removes gap between domain experts and ontology engineers. This work includes detailed research of workflow for transforming UML and concept maps model to OWL ontology which is ready for further formalization. Comparison of UML and concept maps workflows for creating upper levels of crisis ontology is provided.

Visual perception of 3D space is a major source of information for a person. The role of athlete’s visual perception and corresponding psychomotor actions is very important for adequate actions in sport. Taking into account our team specialization (the virtual environment technology), we decided to investigate the impact of visual 3D perception different parameters on sport results of alpine skiing athletes.

Visual perception of 3D space is a major source of information for a person. The role of athlete's visual perception in movement behaviour is very important for adequate action in sport. Given the specialization of our team (virtual environment technology), we decided to investigate the impact of visual 3Dperception different parameters on the results of the virtual alpine skiing.

Virtual 3D model of the Valley of Geysers, Kamchatka provides virtual travelling and interactive storytelling in the cyberspace and serves for scientific visualization, geodynamical processes modeling, disaster preparedness and response, environmental studies, ecological education, and virtual ecotourism.

Resilience of the civil built environment is an ultimate mean for protecting the human lives, the private or public assets and biogeocenosis environment during natural catastrophe, major industrial accident or terrorist calamity. This paper outlines a theoretical framework of a new paradigm - "risk-informed, multi-hazard resilience of built environment" and gives a sketch of concept map for a minimal set of the shared (between different scientific and engineering cyber worlds) computational and analytic resources, which can facilitate a designing and maintaining of a higher level of the real built environment resilience.

The presented work is related to the problem of repairing incomplete reconstructed (damaged) CAD-models. To solute this problem, a general concept of the repairing, that uses various types of mathematical fields, is proposed. This concept provides an open framework to use together various methods of missing surface estimation. Many of existing ones can be embedded in this framework by defining the corresponding fields. The concept provides that during the repairing process the embedded methods supplement each other to achieve the best result. Ability of the concept to be effectively used to repair even heavy damaged CAD-models has been proved.

This paper is dedicated to the idea of studying in virtual worlds and discusses how virtual storytelling technology (VST) can provide an educational process. We try to answer the question — is it possible to substitute a real learning environment with a fully immersive 3D virtual space? And if so, what role should a virtual teacher play and what skills should he have? We describe several advantages that virtual environment (VE) has as compared to an ordinary classroom. It enables children to explore a phenomenon involved and gives them a strong incentive to study. Further, in VE we can transfer a lesson to inaccessible places and carry out demonstrations and experiments that are unrealizable on Earth. We consider the relationship between VST and game-like environments. We present some particular educational applications developed at our institute on the basis of Avango VR-system. Finally, we discuss the future of educational virtual environments and virtual storytelling.

In this paper, we review application of virtual environment systems to emergency management. Section 1 describes new possibilities that virtual environment technology offers. In Section 2, we analyze application of virtual environment technology to simulation and first responders training during the preparedness phase of an emergency. Section 3 discusses mobile augmented reality systems for first responders’ equipment, navigation and three-dimensional (3D) geographic information representation, damage evaluation and reconstruction of buildings. Section 4 explains how virtual environment technologies provide visualization and decision support for management personnel. In the last section, we make some conclusions about current research in this field, present systems and future trends.

A method to estimate interpolation properties of a given point concerning a given surface to be interpolated is introduced. Benefit of using this method for mesh repairing and mesh decimation is highlighted.

In this paper we introduce Simulated Reality (SR) as a new concept for the interplay between simulation, optimization and interactive visualization. We see SR as a new metaphor for the interactive visual exploration of simulation and optimization results. The vision of Simulated Reality implies interactive behavior of simulations. Fact is today that simulations might still need hours of computation time, especially in crash worthiness. This paper shows approaches to come closer to the vision of SR. Combining design of experiments methods, metamodeling, new interpolation schemes and innovative graphics methods, we enable to user to interact with simulation parameters, optimization criteria and come to a new interpolated crash result within seconds. The approaches have been successfully applied for solution of real life car design optimization problems.

This paper considers the representation of an induced virtual environment (IVE) system as a distributed system with remote supervision of real objects (first of all - space vehicles) according to telemetry data. The general approach of middleware and client layer software implementation and peculiarities of such software are described