A Comparative Study of Physical Cinematography that Influences Layouts in Animated Production

What makes good cinematography? There are many examples of cinematogra- phy that stand out in the minds of viewers, yet many cant exactly say with certainty why these shots are considered great. Is it because they convey the visual and emo- tional content of their stories successfully, the technical brilliance of the frame, or both? Whether realistic or exaggerated, the range of cinematography tools and tech- niques are proof that creativity and an eye for detail are the most important elements in great cinematography. Cinematography includes composition, movement, lighting, and other visual information within the frame. This is true in both live-action and animated productions. The purpose of this thesis is to study cinematography on a technical and creative level with an emphasis placed on composition and camera movement for animation-related layouts. To this end, techniques from two renowned, traditional cinematographers will be analyzed to figure out why they are effective, and then create a 3D scene within Maya with cinematography inspired by these two artists using 2-3 sets of scenes, cameras and lighting setups. This thesis will also discuss the physical aspects of these techniques, how to achieve them technically in a 3D environment, and what aesthetic purpose they fulfill

International and Interstate Approaches to Taxing Business Income

In the United States, many states have sought the objective of uni- formity by enacting the Uniform Division of Income for Tax Purposes Act (UDITPA). In addition, many of those same states have entered into the Multistate Tax Compact (MTC). The salutary objective of both the UDITPA and the MTC is to provide uniform rules for the allocation and apportionment of income, in order to facilitate both compliance and enforcement, as well as to reduce the likelihood of double taxation. The promised uniformity, however, has been at the same time both illusive and elusive. Experience with the UDITPA and the MTC in the United States has demonstrated that a multilateral treaty would not achieve uni- formity amongst the numerous sovereign countries of the world, primarily because there is no paramount supervisory body in the international arena. At the same time, uniformity could be achieved within the United States by pre-emptive federal legislation uniformly interpreted and ap- plied to all of the states. The uniform application of an apportionment formula to distribute the tax base of a multijurisdictional unitary enter- prise would avoid many of the problems of the separate entity approach, producing a fair, equitable determination of the tax base for state income taxes. Part II of this article will examine the treatment of business income of multinational enterprises under tax treaties, and Part III discusses the determination of the tax base of such enterprises. Part IV examines the evolution of the law pertaining to state imposed taxes on, or measured by, the net business income of multistate unitary enterprises, the issues of jurisdiction and the determination of the tax base. Part V addresses vari- ous attempts to achieve uniformity in state taxation. Part VI suggests that in the international setting, the goal of uniformity is unlikely to be achieved by a multilateral treaty, but that within the United States, pre- emptive federal legislation should be enacted

International and Interstate Approaches to Taxing Business Income

In the United States, many states have sought the objective of uni- formity by enacting the Uniform Division of Income for Tax Purposes Act (UDITPA). In addition, many of those same states have entered into the Multistate Tax Compact (MTC). The salutary objective of both the UDITPA and the MTC is to provide uniform rules for the allocation and apportionment of income, in order to facilitate both compliance and enforcement, as well as to reduce the likelihood of double taxation. The promised uniformity, however, has been at the same time both illusive and elusive. Experience with the UDITPA and the MTC in the United States has demonstrated that a multilateral treaty would not achieve uni- formity amongst the numerous sovereign countries of the world, primarily because there is no paramount supervisory body in the international arena. At the same time, uniformity could be achieved within the United States by pre-emptive federal legislation uniformly interpreted and ap- plied to all of the states. The uniform application of an apportionment formula to distribute the tax base of a multijurisdictional unitary enter- prise would avoid many of the problems of the separate entity approach, producing a fair, equitable determination of the tax base for state income taxes. Part II of this article will examine the treatment of business income of multinational enterprises under tax treaties, and Part III discusses the determination of the tax base of such enterprises. Part IV examines the evolution of the law pertaining to state imposed taxes on, or measured by, the net business income of multistate unitary enterprises, the issues of jurisdiction and the determination of the tax base. Part V addresses vari- ous attempts to achieve uniformity in state taxation. Part VI suggests that in the international setting, the goal of uniformity is unlikely to be achieved by a multilateral treaty, but that within the United States, pre- emptive federal legislation should be enacted

The relationship between lateralization patterns from sequence based motor tasks and hemispheric speech dominance

Objective: Skilled motor praxis and speech production display marked asymmetries at the individual and the population level, favouring the right hand and the left hemisphere respectively. Theories suggesting a common processing mechanism between praxis and speech are supported by evidence that shared neural architecture underlies both functions. Despite advances in understanding the neurobiology of this left-hemisphere specialisation the cortical networks linking these two functions are rarely investigated on a behavioural level. Method: This study deploys functional Transcranial Doppler (fTCD) ultrasound to directly measure hemispheric activation during skilled manual praxis tasks shown to be correlated to hemispheric speech lateralisation indices. In a new paradigm we test the hypothesis that praxis tasks are highly dependent on the left hemisphere's capacity for processing sequential information will be better correlated with direction and strength of hemispheric speech lateralisation Results: Across two experiments we firstly show that only certain praxis tasks (pegboard and coin-rotation) correlated with direct measurements of speech lateralisation despite shared properties across all tasks tested. Secondly, through novel imaging of hemispheric activation during praxis, results showed that the pegboard differed in the lateralisation pattern created and furthermore that it was significantly related to speech laterality indices, which was not the case for either of the other two tasks. Conclusion: These results are discussed in terms of a lateralised speech-praxis control mechanism and demonstrates that measurements of motor paradigms through the use of fTCD are reliable enough to provide a new insight to the behavioural relationship been speech and handedness

Pregnancy-associated cardiomyopathy in survivors of childhood cancer

Current information regarding pregnancy-associated cardiomyopathy among women treated for childhood cancer is insufficient to appropriately guide counseling and patient management. This study aims to characterize its prevalence within a large cohort of females exposed to cardiotoxic therapy

Seeking the Local Convergence Depth. V. Tully-Fisher Peculiar Velocities for 52 Abell Clusters

We have obtained I band Tully-Fisher (TF) measurements for 522 late-type galaxies in the fields of 52 rich Abell clusters distributed throughout the sky between 50 and 200\h Mpc. Here we estimate corrections to the data for various forms of observational bias, most notably Malmquist and cluster population incompleteness bias. The bias-corrected data are applied to the construction of an I band TF template, resulting in a relation with a dispersion of 0.38 magnitudes and a kinematical zero-point accurate to 0.02 magnitudes. This represents the most accurate TF template relation currently available. Individual cluster TF relations are referred to the average template relation to compute cluster peculiar motions. The line-of-sight dispersion in the peculiar motions is 341+/-93 km/s, in general agreement with that found for the cluster sample of Giovanelli and coworkers.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figures, uses AAS LaTeX; to appear in the Astronomical Journa

Density of states in d-wave superconductors disordered by extended impurities

The low-energy quasiparticle states of a disordered d-wave superconductor are investigated theoretically. A class of such states, formed via tunneling between the Andreev bound states that are localized around extended impurities (and result from scattering between pair-potential lobes that differ in sign) is identified. Its (divergent) contribution to the total density of states is determined by taking advantage of connections with certain one-dimensional random tight-binding models. The states under discussion should be distinguished from those associated with nodes in the pair potential.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Reliability and Validity of S3 Pressure Sensation as an Alternative to Deep Anal Pressure in Neurologic Classification of Persons With Spinal Cord Injury.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether pressure sensation at the S3 dermatome (a new test) could be used in place of deep anal pressure (DAP) to determine completeness of injury as part of the International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury. DESIGN: Prospective, multicenter observational study. SETTING: U.S. Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems. PARTICIPANTS: Persons (N=125) with acute traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), neurologic levels T12 and above, were serially examined at 1 month (baseline), 3, 6, and 12 months postinjury. There were 80 subjects with tetraplegia and 45 with paraplegia. INTERVENTIONS: S3 pressure sensation at all time points, with a retest at the 1-month time point. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Test-retest reliability and agreement (κ), sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values. RESULTS: Test-retest reliability of S3 pressure at 1 month was almost perfect (κ=.98). Agreement of S3 pressure with DAP was substantial both at 1 month (κ=.73) and for all time points combined (κ=.76). The positive predictive value of S3 pressure for DAP was 89.3% at baseline and 90.3% for all time points. No pattern in outcomes was seen in those cases where S3 pressure and DAP differed at 1 month. CONCLUSIONS: S3 pressure sensation is reliable and has substantial agreement with DAP in persons with SCI at least 1 month postinjury. We suggest S3 pressure as an alternative test of sensory sacral sparing for supraconus SCI, at least in cases where DAP cannot be tested. Further research is needed to determine whether S3 pressure could replace DAP for classification of SCI

Predicting human interruptibility with sensors, in

A person seeking someone else’s attention is normally able to quickly assess how interruptible they are. This assessment allows for behavior we perceive as natural, socially appropriate, or simply polite. On the other hand, today’s computer systems are almost entirely oblivious to the human world they operate in, and typically have no way to take into account the interruptibility of the user. This paper presents a Wizard of Oz study exploring whether, and how, robust sensor-based predictions of interruptibility might be constructed, which sensors might be most useful to such predictions, and how simple such sensors might be. The study simulates a range of possible sensors through human coding of audio and video recordings. Experience sampling is used to simultaneously collect randomly distributed self-reports of interruptibility. Based on these simulated sensors, we construct statistical models predicting human interruptibility and compare their predictions with the collected self-report data. The results of these models, although covering a demographically limited sample, are very promising, with the overall accuracy of several models reaching about 78%. Additionally, a model tuned to avoiding unwanted interruptions does so for 90 % of its predictions, while retaining 75 % overall accuracy

The Airn lncRNA does not require any DNA elements within its locus to silence distant imprinted genes

Long non-coding (lnc) RNAs are numerous and found throughout the mammalian genome, and many are thought to be involved in the regulation of gene expression. However, the majority remain relatively uncharacterised and of uncertain function making the use of model systems to uncover their mode of action valuable. Imprinted lncRNAs target and recruit epigenetic silencing factors to a cluster of imprinted genes on the same chromosome, making them one of the best characterized lncRNAs for silencing distant genes in cis. In this study we examined silencing of the distant imprinted gene Slc22a3 by the lncRNA Airn in the Igf2r imprinted cluster in mouse. Previously we proposed that imprinted lncRNAs may silence distant imprinted genes by disrupting promoter-enhancer interactions by being transcribed through the enhancer, which we called the enhancer interference hypothesis. Here we tested this hypothesis by first using allele-specific chromosome conformation capture (3C) to detect interactions between the Slc22a3 promoter and the locus of the Airn lncRNA that silences it on the paternal chromosome. In agreement with the model, we found interactions enriched on the maternal allele across the entire Airn gene consistent with multiple enhancer-promoter interactions. Therefore, to test the enhancer interference hypothesis we devised an approach to delete the entire Airn gene. However, the deletion showed that there are no essential enhancers for Slc22a2, Pde10a and Slc22a3 within the Airn gene, strongly indicating that the Airn RNA rather than its transcription is responsible for silencing distant imprinted genes. Furthermore, we found that silent imprinted genes were covered with large blocks of H3K27me3 on the repressed paternal allele. Therefore we propose an alternative hypothesis whereby the chromosome interactions may initially guide the lncRNA to target imprinted promoters and recruit repressive chromatin, and that these interactions are lost once silencing is established