264 research outputs found
LANNDD---A Massive Liquid Argon Detector for Proton Decay, Supernova and Solar Neutrino Studies, and a Neutrino Factory Detector
We describe a possible Liquid Argon Neutrino and Nuclear Decay Detector
(LANNDD) that consists of a 70kt magnetized liquid argon tracking detector. The
detector is being designed for the Carlsbad Underground Laboratory.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; for the Neutrino Facory Meeting at KEK-NUFACT '0
PC tools for project management: Programs and the state-of-the-practice
The use of microcomputer tools for NASA project management; which features are the most useful; the impact of these tools on job performance and individual style; and the prospects for new features in project management tools and related tools are addressed. High, mid, and low end PM tools are examined. The pro's and con's of the tools are assessed relative to various tasks. The strengths and weaknesses of the tools are presented through cases and demonstrations
Analyzing in situ gene expression in the mouse brain with image registration, feature extraction and block clustering
Background: Many important high throughput projects use in situ hybridization and may require the analysis of images of spatial cross sections of organisms taken with cellular level resolution. Projects creating gene expression atlases at unprecedented scales for the embryonic fruit fly as well as the embryonic and adult mouse already involve the analysis of hundreds of thousands of high resolution experimental images mapping mRNA expression patterns. Challenges include accurate registration of highly deformed tissues, associating cells with known anatomical regions, and identifying groups of genes whose expression is coordinately regulated with respect to both concentration and spatial location. Solutions to these and other challenges will lead to a richer understanding of the complex system aspects of gene regulation in heterogeneous tissue. Results: We present an end-to-end approach for processing raw in situ expression imagery and performing subsequent analysis. We use a non-linear, information theoretic based image registration technique specifically adapted for mapping expression images to anatomical annotations and a method for extracting expression information within an anatomical region. Our method consists of coarse registration, fine registration, and expression feature extraction steps. From this we obtain a matrix for expression characteristics with rows corresponding to genes and columns corresponding to anatomical sub-structures. We perform matrix block cluster analysis using a novel row-column mixture model and we relate clustered patterns to Gene Ontology (GO) annotations. Conclusion: Resulting registrations suggest that our method is robust over intensity levels and shape variations in ISH imagery. Functional enrichment studies from both simple analysis and block clustering indicate that gene relationships consistent with biological knowledge of neuronal gene functions can be extracted from large ISH image databases such as the Allen Brain Atlas [1] and the Max-Planck Institute [2] using our method. While we focus here on imagery and experiments of the mouse brain our approach should be applicable to a variety of in situ experiments
Impact of a cost containment program on the use of volatile anesthetics and neuromuscular blocking drugs
Study Objective:To determine the impact of a cost containment program on the use of volatile anesthetics and neuromuscular blocking drugs.Design:Historical, controlled, retrospective analysis.Setting:Main operating rooms of an adult general hospital at a university medical center.Patients:All patients undergoing anesthesia between July 1991 and November 1993.Measurements and Main Results:Cost per case was determined by dividing the monthly expediture for each class of drug by the caseload for that month. Cost per case of volatile anesthetic drugs decreased from 15.16 [plus-or-minus sign] 0.39 (p = 0.0034 by unpaired t-test). For neuromuscular blocking drugs, cost per case decreased from 12.23 [plus-or-minus sign] 0.66 (p = 0.003).Conclusions:Concerted educational efforts can decrease the per case expenditures for both volatile anesthetic drugs and neuromuscular blocking drugs.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31368/1/0000280.pd
Techniques and applications for persistent backgrounding in a humanoid torso robot
Abstract-One of the most basic capabilities for an agent with a vision system is to recognize its own surroundings. Yet surprisingly, despite the ease of doing so, many robots store little or no record of their own visual surroundings. This paper explores the utility of keeping the simplest possible persistent record of the environment of a stationary torso robot, in the form of a collection of images captured from various pan-tilt angles around the robot. We demonstrate that this particularly simple process of storing background images can be useful for a variety of tasks, and can relieve the system designer of certain requirements as well. We explore three uses for such a record: auto-calibration, novel object detection with a moving camera, and developing attentional saliency maps
The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe
The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the
dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for
life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront
of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early
evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The
Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed
plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE
is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity
neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream
of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed
as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research
Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in
Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at
Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino
charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet
cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can
accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional
combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and
potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility
for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around
the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program
of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of
LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics
worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will
possess.Comment: Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for
LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a
comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the
landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate
and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figure
The search for proton decay
Following a very brief description of the theoretical developments which motivated the search for proton decay, I shall describe one of these experiments (the IMB experiment) in some detail. Then I shall compare recent results from that experiment with those from other detectors.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87399/2/321_1.pd
ENCODE whole-genome data in the UCSC genome browser (2011 update)
The ENCODE project is an international consortium with a goal of cataloguing all the functional elements in the human genome. The ENCODE Data Coordination Center (DCC) at the University of California, Santa Cruz serves as the central repository for ENCODE data. In this role, the DCC offers a collection of high-throughput, genome-wide data generated with technologies such as ChIP-Seq, RNA-Seq, DNA digestion and others. This data helps illuminate transcription factor-binding sites, histone marks, chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation, RNA expression, RNA binding and other cell-state indicators. It includes sequences with quality scores, alignments, signals calculated from the alignments, and in most cases, element or peak calls calculated from the signal data. Each data set is available for visualization and download via the UCSC Genome Browser (http://genome.ucsc.edu/). ENCODE data can also be retrieved using a metadata system that captures the experimental parameters of each assay. The ENCODE web portal at UCSC (http://encodeproject.org/) provides information about the ENCODE data and links for access
Neutrinos from propagation of ultra-high energy protons
We present a calculation of the production of neutrinos during propagation of
ultra-high energy cosmic rays from their astrophysical sources to us.
Photoproduction interactions are modeled with the event generator SOPHIA that
represents very well the experimentally measured particle production cross
sections at accelerator energies. We give the fluxes expected from different
assumptions on cosmic ray source distributions, cosmic ray injection spectra,
cosmological evolution of the sources and different cosmologies, and compare
them to the Waxman-Bahcall limit on source neutrinos. We estimate rates for
detection of neutrino induced showers in a km3 water detector. The ratio of the
local high energy neutrino flux to the ultra-high energy cosmic ray flux is a
crucial parameter in distinguishing between astrophysical and cosmological
(top-down) scenarios of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray origin.Comment: 11 pages, revtex, 10 ps figures, extensively revised version, error
in numerical calculation corrected, author adde
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