376,293 research outputs found
Estimation of the height of the first interaction in gamma-ray showers observed by Cherenkov telescopes
Very high energy gamma rays entering the atmosphere initiate Extensive Air
Showers (EAS). The Cherenkov light induced by an EAS can be observed by
ground-based telescopes to study the primary gamma rays. An important parameter
of an EAS, determining its evolution, is the height of the first interaction of
the primary particle. However, this variable cannot be directly measured by
Cherenkov telescopes. We study two simple, independent methods for the
estimation of the first interaction height. We test the methods using the Monte
Carlo simulations for the 4 Large Size Telescopes (LST) that are part of the
currently constructed Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory. We find that
using such an estimated parameter in the gamma/hadron separation can bring a
mild improvement (~10-20%) in the sensitivity in the energy range ~30-200 GeV.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic
LPMLE3 : a novel 1-D approach to study water flow in streambeds using heat as a tracer
We introduce LPMLE3, a new 1-D approach to quantify vertical water flow components at streambeds using temperature data collected in different depths. LPMLE3 solves the partial differential equation for coupled water flow and heat transport in the frequency domain. Unlike other 1-D approaches it does not assume a semi-infinite halfspace with the location of the lower boundary condition approaching infinity. Instead, it uses local upper and lower boundary conditions. As such, the streambed can be divided into finite subdomains bound at the top and bottom by a temperature-time series. Information from a third temperature sensor within each subdomain is then used for parameter estimation. LPMLE3 applies a low order local polynomial to separate periodic and transient parts (including the noise contributions) of a temperature-time series and calculates the frequency response of each subdomain to a known temperature input at the streambed top. A maximum-likelihood estimator is used to estimate the vertical component of water flow, thermal diffusivity, and their uncertainties for each streambed subdomain and provides information regarding model quality. We tested the method on synthetic temperature data generated with the numerical model STRIVE and demonstrate how the vertical flow component can be quantified for field data collected in a Belgian stream. We show that by using the results in additional analyses, nonvertical flow components could be identified and by making certain assumptions they could be quantified for each subdomain. LPMLE3 performed well on both simulated and field data and can be considered a valuable addition to the existing 1-D methods
Enabling Depth-driven Visual Attention on the iCub Humanoid Robot: Instructions for Use and New Perspectives
The importance of depth perception in the interactions that humans have
within their nearby space is a well established fact. Consequently, it is also
well known that the possibility of exploiting good stereo information would
ease and, in many cases, enable, a large variety of attentional and interactive
behaviors on humanoid robotic platforms. However, the difficulty of computing
real-time and robust binocular disparity maps from moving stereo cameras often
prevents from relying on this kind of cue to visually guide robots' attention
and actions in real-world scenarios. The contribution of this paper is
two-fold: first, we show that the Efficient Large-scale Stereo Matching
algorithm (ELAS) by A. Geiger et al. 2010 for computation of the disparity map
is well suited to be used on a humanoid robotic platform as the iCub robot;
second, we show how, provided with a fast and reliable stereo system,
implementing relatively challenging visual behaviors in natural settings can
require much less effort. As a case of study we consider the common situation
where the robot is asked to focus the attention on one object close in the
scene, showing how a simple but effective disparity-based segmentation solves
the problem in this case. Indeed this example paves the way to a variety of
other similar applications
Proton tracking in a high-granularity Digital Tracking Calorimeter for proton CT purposes
Radiation therapy with protons as of today utilizes information from x-ray CT
in order to estimate the proton stopping power of the traversed tissue in a
patient. The conversion from x-ray attenuation to proton stopping power in
tissue introduces range uncertainties of the order of 2-3% of the range,
uncertainties that are contributing to an increase of the necessary planning
margins added to the target volume in a patient. Imaging methods and
modalities, such as Dual Energy CT and proton CT, have come into consideration
in the pursuit of obtaining an as good as possible estimate of the proton
stopping power. In this study, a Digital Tracking Calorimeter is benchmarked
for proof-of-concept for proton CT purposes. The Digital Tracking Calorimeteris
applied for reconstruction of the tracks and energies of individual high energy
protons. The presented prototype forms the basis for a proton CT system using a
single technology for tracking and calorimetry. This advantage simplifies the
setup and reduces the cost of a proton CT system assembly, and it is a unique
feature of the Digital Tracking Calorimeter. Data from the AGORFIRM beamline at
KVI-CART in Groningen in the Netherlands and Monte Carlo simulation results are
used to in order to develop a tracking algorithm for the estimation of the
residual ranges of a high number of concurrent proton tracks. The range of the
individual protons can at present be estimated with a resolution of 4%. The
readout system for this prototype is able to handle an effective proton
frequency of 1 MHz by using 500 concurrent proton tracks in each readout frame,
which is at the high end range of present similar prototypes. A future further
optimized prototype will enable a high-speed and more accurate determination of
the ranges of individual protons in a therapeutic beam.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure
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