The AD Vacuum System: Construction and Commissioning

CERN has built a new experimental facility, called the Antiproton Decelerator (AD), by transforming two existing machines: the "Antiproton Collector" (AC) and the "Antiproton Accumulator" (AA). To achieve adequate beam performance once the antiproton beam is decelerated to its final value of 0.1 GeV/c, it was necessary to lower the average pressure by nearly two orders of magnitude. For this purpose, a large number of additional pumps were installed and a very careful preparation was applied to a variety of special machine equipment which, in its original construction, was not designed for ultra-high vacuum operation. An important improvement in the outgassing rates was achieved through an extended, mild bake-out of tanks and vacuum vessels containing large amounts of ferrite material and multi-layer thermal insulation. This paper describes the necessary modifications of the vacuum system and in more detail the various steps taken to obtain the required pressure in the low 10-10 mbar range. It will also report on the unexpected difficulties which were encountered by re-using vacuum components that were not initially designed for bake-out

Effects of Ground Manifold Modeling on the Accuracy of Stixel Calculations

This paper highlights the role of ground manifold modeling for stixel calculations; stixels are medium-level data representations used for the development of computer vision modules for self-driving cars. By using single-disparity maps and simplifying ground manifold models, calculated stixels may suffer from noise, inconsistency, and false-detection rates for obstacles, especially in challenging datasets. Stixel calculations can be improved with respect to accuracy and robustness by using more adaptive ground manifold approximations. A comparative study of stixel results, obtained for different ground-manifold models (e.g., plane-fitting, line-fitting in v-disparities or polynomial approximation, and graph cut), defines the main part of this paper. This paper also considers the use of trinocular stereo vision and shows that this provides options to enhance stixel results, compared with the binocular recording. Comprehensive experiments are performed on two publicly available challenging datasets. We also use a novel way for comparing calculated stixels with ground truth. We compare depth information, as given by extracted stixels, with ground-truth depth, provided by depth measurements using a highly accurate LiDAR range sensor (as available in one of the public datasets). We evaluate the accuracy of four different ground-manifold methods. The experimental results also include quantitative evaluations of the tradeoff between accuracy and run time. As a result, the proposed trinocular recording together with graph-cut estimation of ground manifolds appears to be a recommended way, also considering challenging weather and lighting conditions

Classifying the Arithmetical Complexity of Teaching Models

This paper classifies the complexity of various teaching models by their position in the arithmetical hierarchy. In particular, we determine the arithmetical complexity of the index sets of the following classes: (1) the class of uniformly r.e. families with finite teaching dimension, and (2) the class of uniformly r.e. families with finite positive recursive teaching dimension witnessed by a uniformly r.e. teaching sequence. We also derive the arithmetical complexity of several other decision problems in teaching, such as the problem of deciding, given an effective coding $\{\mathcal L_0,\mathcal L_1,\mathcal L_2,\ldots\}$ of all uniformly r.e. families, any $e$ such that $\mathcal L_e = \{L^e_0,L^e_1,\ldots,\}$, any $i$ and $d$, whether or not the teaching dimension of $L^e_i$ with respect to $\mathcal L_e$ is upper bounded by $d$.Comment: 15 pages in International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory, 201

PCA-based lung motion model

Organ motion induced by respiration may cause clinically significant targeting errors and greatly degrade the effectiveness of conformal radiotherapy. It is therefore crucial to be able to model respiratory motion accurately. A recently proposed lung motion model based on principal component analysis (PCA) has been shown to be promising on a few patients. However, there is still a need to understand the underlying reason why it works. In this paper, we present a much deeper and detailed analysis of the PCA-based lung motion model. We provide the theoretical justification of the effectiveness of PCA in modeling lung motion. We also prove that under certain conditions, the PCA motion model is equivalent to 5D motion model, which is based on physiology and anatomy of the lung. The modeling power of PCA model was tested on clinical data and the average 3D error was found to be below 1 mm.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. submitted to International Conference on the use of Computers in Radiation Therapy 201

A COMPARISON BETWEEN 1.5µm PHOTOLUMINESCENCE FROM Er-DOPED Si-RICH SiO2 FILMS AND (Er,Ge) CO-DOPED SiO2 FILMS

photoluminescence, nanoclusters, erbium, Transmission electron microscopyWe have studied the 1.5 µm photoluminescence (PL) from Er ions after annealing two different sample sets in the temperature range 500 °C to 1100 °C. The different sample sets were made by magnetron sputtering from composite targets of Si+SiO2+Er and Ge+SiO2+Er respectively for the different sample sets. The annealing induces Si - and Ge-nanoclusters respectively in the different film sets. The PL peak reaches its maximum intensity after annealing at 700 °C for samples with Ge nanoclusters and after annealing at 800 °C for samples with Si. No luminescence from nanoclusters was detected in neither sample sets. This is interpreted as an energy transfer from the nanocluster to Er atoms. Transmission electron microscopy shows that after annealing to the respective temperature yielding the maximum PL intensity both the Ge and Si clusters are non-crystalline. Here we mainly compare the spectral shape of Er luminescence emitted in these different nanostructured matrixes. The PL spectral shapes are clearly different and witness a different local environment for the Er ions

The innovation decision:an economic analysis

Studies of the determinants and effects of innovation commonly make an assumption about the way in which firms make the decision to innovate, but rarely test this assumption. Using a panel of Irish manufacturing firms we test the performance of two alternative models of the innovation decision, and find that a two-stage model (the firm decides whether to innovate, then whether to perform product only, process only or both) outperforms a one-stage, simultaneous model. We also find that external knowledge sourcing affects the innovation decision and the type of innovation undertaken in a way not previously recognised in the literature. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Evaluating the Impacts of Subsidies on Innovation Activities in Germany

Innovations are a key factor to ensure the competitiveness of establishments as well as to enhance the growth and wealth of nations. But more than any other economic activity, decisions about innovations are plagued by failures of the market mechanism. As a response, public instruments have been implemented to stimulate private innovation activities. The effectiveness of these measures, however, is ambiguous and calls for an empirical evaluation. In this paper we make use of the IAB Establishment Panel and apply various microeconometric methods to estimate the effect of public measures on innovation activities of German establishments. We find that neglecting sample selection due to observable as well as to unobservable characteristics leads to an overestimation of the treatment effect and that there are considerable differences with regard to size class and betweenWest and East German establishments

Theory and practice in Finnish teacher education : a rhetorical analysis of changing values from the 1960s to the present day

Our aim in this article is to examine the relationship between theory and practice in Finnish teacher education from the 1960s to the present. We identify four different periods to represent this relationship based on our analysis of national committee and evaluation reports. Theory and practice gradually converged, culminating in a research-based agenda that reflects the current situation. This relationship between theory and practice also reflects the ideal teacher of different times and what a teacher's working orientation should be. We use rhetorical analysis and the concept of a 'philosophical pair' introduced by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca to interpret this development.Peer reviewe

Thick Line Segment Detection with Fast Directional Tracking

International audienceThis paper introduces a fully discrete framework for a new straight line detector in gray-level images, where line segments are enriched with a thickness parameter intended to provide a quality criterion on the extracted feature. This study is based on a previous work on interactive line detection in gray-level images. At first, a better estimation of the segment thickness and orientation is achieved through two main improvements: adaptive directional scans and control of assigned thickness. Then, these advances are exploited for a complete unsupervised detection of all the line segments in an image. The new thick line detector is left available in an online demonstration