2,473 research outputs found
Constrained Statistical Modelling of Knee Flexion from Multi-Pose Magnetic Resonance Imaging
© 1982-2012 IEEE.Reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) through arthroscopy is one of the most common procedures in orthopaedics. It requires accurate alignment and drilling of the tibial and femoral tunnels through which the ligament graft is attached. Although commercial computer-Assisted navigation systems exist to guide the placement of these tunnels, most of them are limited to a fixed pose without due consideration of dynamic factors involved in different knee flexion angles. This paper presents a new model for intraoperative guidance of arthroscopic ACL reconstruction with reduced error particularly in the ligament attachment area. The method uses 3D preoperative data at different flexion angles to build a subject-specific statistical model of knee pose. To circumvent the problem of limited training samples and ensure physically meaningful pose instantiation, homogeneous transformations between different poses and local-deformation finite element modelling are used to enlarge the training set. Subsequently, an anatomical geodesic flexion analysis is performed to extract the subject-specific flexion characteristics. The advantages of the method were also tested by detailed comparison to standard Principal Component Analysis (PCA), nonlinear PCA without training set enlargement, and other state-of-The-Art articulated joint modelling methods. The method yielded sub-millimetre accuracy, demonstrating its potential clinical value
Characterisation of large changes in wind power for the day-ahead market using a fuzzy logic approach
Wind power has become one of the renewable resources with a major growth in the electricity market. However, due to its inherent variability, forecasting techniques are necessary for the optimum scheduling of the electric grid, specially during ramp events. These large changes in wind power may not be captured by wind power point forecasts even with very high resolution Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. In this paper, a fuzzy approach for wind power ramp characterisation is presented. The main benefit of this technique is that it avoids the binary definition of ramp event, allowing to identify changes in power out- put that can potentially turn into ramp events when the total percentage of change to be considered a ramp event is not met. To study the application of this technique, wind power forecasts were obtained and their corresponding error estimated using Genetic Programming (GP) and Quantile Regression Forests. The error distributions were incorporated into the characterisation process, which according to the results, improve significantly the ramp capture. Results are presented using colour maps, which provide a useful way to interpret the characteristics of the ramp events
Recurrence relation for relativistic atomic matrix elements
Recurrence formulae for arbitrary hydrogenic radial matrix elements are
obtained in the Dirac form of relativistic quantum mechanics. Our approach is
inspired on the relativistic extension of the second hypervirial method that
has been succesfully employed to deduce an analogous relationship in non
relativistic quantum mechanics. We obtain first the relativistic extension of
the second hypervirial and then the relativistic recurrence relation.
Furthermore, we use such relation to deduce relativistic versions of the
Pasternack-Sternheimer rule and of the virial theorem.Comment: 10 pages, no figure
Tryptophan at the transmembrane-cytosolic junction modulates thrombopoietin receptor dimerization and activation
J/psi azimuthal anisotropy relative to the reaction plane in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon
The J/ azimuthal distribution relative to the reaction plane has been
measured by the NA50 experiment in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/nucleon. Various
physical mechanisms related to charmonium dissociation in the medium created in
the heavy ion collision are expected to introduce an anisotropy in the
azimuthal distribution of the observed J/ mesons at SPS energies. Hence,
the measurement of J/ elliptic anisotropy, quantified by the Fourier
coefficient v of the J/ azimuthal distribution relative to the
reaction plane, is an important tool to constrain theoretical models aimed at
explaining the anomalous J/ suppression observed in Pb-Pb collisions. We
present the measured J/ yields in different bins of azimuthal angle
relative to the reaction plane, as well as the resulting values of the Fourier
coefficient v as a function of the collision centrality and of the
J/ transverse momentum. The reaction plane has been estimated from the
azimuthal distribution of the neutral transverse energy detected in an
electromagnetic calorimeter. The analysis has been performed on a data sample
of about 100 000 events, distributed in five centrality or p
sub-samples. The extracted v values are significantly larger than zero
for non-central collisions and are seen to increase with p.Comment: proceedings of HP08 conference corrected a typo in one equatio
The dependence of the anomalous J/psi suppression on the number of participant nucleons
The observation of an anomalous J/psi suppression in Pb-Pb collisions by the NA50 Collaboration can be considered as the most striking indication for the deconfinement of quarks and gluons at SPS energies. In this Letter, we determine the J/psi suppression pattern as a function of the forward hadronic energy E-ZDC measured in a Zero Degree Calorimeter (ZDC). The direct connection between EZDC and the geometry of the collision allows us to calculate, within a Glauber approach, the precise relation between the number of participant nucleons N-part and E-ZDC. Then, we check if the experimental data can be better explained by a sudden or a smooth onset of the anomalous J/psi suppression as a function of the number of participants. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Single-particle Green's functions of the Calogero-Sutherland model at couplings \lambda = 1/2, 1, and 2
At coupling strengths lambda = 1/2, 1, or 2, the Calogero-Sutherland model
(CSM) is related to Brownian motion in a Wigner-Dyson random matrix ensemble
with orthogonal, unitary, or symplectic symmetry. Using this relation in
conjunction with superanalytic techniques developed in mesoscopic conductor
physics, we derive an exact integral representation for the CSM two-particle
Green's function in the thermodynamic limit. Simple closed expressions for the
single-particle Green's functions are extracted by separation of points. For
the advanced part, where a particle is added to the ground state and later
removed, a sum of two contributions is found: the expected one with just one
particle excitation present, plus an extra term arising from fractionalization
of the single particle into a number of elementary particle and hole
excitations.Comment: 19 REVTeX page
A new measurement of J/psi suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon
We present a new measurement of J/psi production in Pb-Pb collisions at 158
GeV/nucleon, from the data sample collected in year 2000 by the NA50
Collaboration, under improved experimental conditions with respect to previous
years. With the target system placed in vacuum, the setup was better adapted to
study, in particular, the most peripheral nuclear collisions with unprecedented
accuracy. The analysis of this data sample shows that the (J/psi)/Drell-Yan
cross-sections ratio measured in the most peripheral Pb-Pb interactions is in
good agreement with the nuclear absorption pattern extrapolated from the
studies of proton-nucleus collisions. Furthermore, this new measurement
confirms our previous observation that the (J/psi)/Drell-Yan cross-sections
ratio departs from the normal nuclear absorption pattern for semi-central Pb-Pb
collisions and that this ratio persistently decreases up to the most central
collisions.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to Eur. Phys. J.
Natural history of Arabidopsis thaliana and oomycete symbioses
Molecular ecology of plant–microbe interactions has immediate significance for filling a gap in knowledge between the laboratory discipline of molecular biology and the largely theoretical discipline of evolutionary ecology. Somewhere in between lies conservation biology, aimed at protection of habitats and the diversity of species housed within them. A seemingly insignificant wildflower called Arabidopsis thaliana has an important contribution to make in this endeavour. It has already transformed botanical research with deepening understanding of molecular processes within the species and across the Plant Kingdom; and has begun to revolutionize plant breeding by providing an invaluable catalogue of gene sequences that can be used to design the most precise molecular markers attainable for marker-assisted selection of valued traits. This review describes how A. thaliana and two of its natural biotrophic parasites could be seminal as a model for exploring the biogeography and molecular ecology of plant–microbe interactions, and specifically, for testing hypotheses proposed from the geographic mosaic theory of co-evolution
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