Occlusion-based computational periscopy with consumer cameras

The ability to form images of scenes hidden from direct view would be advantageous in many applications – from improved motion planning and collision avoidance in autonomous navigation to enhanced danger anticipation for first-responders in search-and-rescue missions. Recent techniques for imaging around corners have mostly relied on time-of-flight measurements of light propagation, necessitating the use of expensive, specialized optical systems. In this work, we demonstrate how to form images of hidden scenes from intensity-only measurements of the light reaching a visible surface from the hidden scene. Our approach exploits the penumbra cast by an opaque occluding object onto a visible surface. Specifically, we present a physical model that relates the measured photograph to the radiosity of the hidden scene and the visibility function due to the opaque occluder. For a given scene–occluder setup, we characterize the parts of the hidden region for which the physical model is well-conditioned for inversion – i.e., the computational field of view (CFOV) of the imaging system. This concept of CFOV is further verified through the Cram´er–Rao bound of the hidden-scene estimation problem. Finally, we present a two-step computational method for recovering the occluder and the scene behind it. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method using both synthetic and experimentally measured data.Accepted manuscrip

Molecular mechanism of topoisomerase poisoning by the peptide antibiotic albicidin

The peptide antibiotic albicidin is a DNA topoisomerase inhibitor with low-nanomolar bactericidal activity towards fluoroquinolone-resistant Gram-negative pathogens. However, its mode of action is poorly understood. We determined a 2.6 Å resolution cryoelectron microscopy structure of a ternary complex between Escherichia coli topoisomerase DNA gyrase, a 217 bp double-stranded DNA fragment and albicidin. Albicidin employs a dual binding mechanism where one end of the molecule obstructs the crucial gyrase dimer interface, while the other intercalates between the fragments of cleaved DNA substrate. Thus, albicidin efficiently locks DNA gyrase, preventing it from religating DNA and completing its catalytic cycle. Two additional structures of this trapped state were determined using synthetic albicidin analogues that demonstrate improved solubility, and activity against a range of gyrase variants and E. coli topoisomerase IV. The extraordinary promiscuity of the DNA-intercalating region of albicidins and their excellent performance against fluoroquinolone-resistant bacteria holds great promise for the development of last-resort antibiotics

Two are better than one: Fundamental parameters of frame coherence

This paper investigates two parameters that measure the coherence of a frame: worst-case and average coherence. We first use worst-case and average coherence to derive near-optimal probabilistic guarantees on both sparse signal detection and reconstruction in the presence of noise. Next, we provide a catalog of nearly tight frames with small worst-case and average coherence. Later, we find a new lower bound on worst-case coherence; we compare it to the Welch bound and use it to interpret recently reported signal reconstruction results. Finally, we give an algorithm that transforms frames in a way that decreases average coherence without changing the spectral norm or worst-case coherence

Anti-Crusoes, Alternative Crusoes: Revisions of the Island Story in the Twentieth Century

In lieu of an abstract, here are the chapter\u27s first two paragraphs: Everyone thinks they know the plot of Robinson Crusoe. The story of the man who is shipwrecked on an island alone is ubiquitous and feels deeply familiar, even for those who have not read it. Robinson Crusoe has been plagiarized, cannibalized, and serialized almost since the moment it hit the streets of London in 1719. Here is a passage from an Argentinean novel by Victoria Slavuski published in 1993 that captures the sense of familiarity and also the distance twentieth-century readers have in their relationship to Robinson Crusoe: “On days like these we promised each other that at long last we would take the time to read the copy of Robinson (Crusoe) that each household kept alongside the Bible and Twenty-five Ways to Prepare Lobster, written on Juan Fernandez by Amelita Riera. Nobody got past page fifteen of Robinson and almost nobody opened the Bible.”1 Literary critics often treat the multitude of twentieth-century versions of Crusoe as antagonistic to Defoe’s character. They tend to consider contemporary novels or films or poems as entities in competition with Robinson Crusoe’s fictional world. However, these modern renderings are never so neatly drawn. More often than not, writers use these alternative Crusoes to forge lines of affiliation and empathy, between the eighteenth century and our own time as well as between different regions and languages. Argentinean, Caribbean, and African Crusoes are in conversation with one another as much as they are in dialogue with the historic Defoe. Writers around the globe adapt and transform Crusoe and Defoe’s novel to establish a literary web of connection that has come to define our own global moment where fiction travels beyond national and linguistic borders. In this chapter I will move through a few observations on nineteenth-century Crusoes before delving into the twentieth-century map of literary islands crisscrossing the globe

Quasi-Normal Modes of Stars and Black Holes

Perturbations of stars and black holes have been one of the main topics of relativistic astrophysics for the last few decades. They are of particular importance today, because of their relevance to gravitational wave astronomy. In this review we present the theory of quasi-normal modes of compact objects from both the mathematical and astrophysical points of view. The discussion includes perturbations of black holes (Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstr\"om, Kerr and Kerr-Newman) and relativistic stars (non-rotating and slowly-rotating). The properties of the various families of quasi-normal modes are described, and numerical techniques for calculating quasi-normal modes reviewed. The successes, as well as the limits, of perturbation theory are presented, and its role in the emerging era of numerical relativity and supercomputers is discussed.Comment: 74 pages, 7 figures, Review article for "Living Reviews in Relativity

Decreased pain sensitivity among people with schizophrenia: A meta-analysis of experimental pain induction studies

Patients with schizophrenia report reduced pain sensitivity in clinical studies, but experimental studies are required to establish pain sensitivity as a potential endophenotype. We conducted a systematic review of electronic databases from database inception until April 15, 2015, including experimental studies investigating pain among patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder vs healthy controls. A random-effect meta-analysis yielding Hedges' g ±95% confidence intervals (CIs) as the effect size (ES) measure was conducted. Primary outcome was a pooled composite of pain threshold and pain tolerance; secondary outcomes included these parameters individually, plus sensory threshold, physiological pain response, and pain intensity or unpleasantness. Across 17 studies, patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n = 387; age, 30.7 ± 6.9 years; females, 31.9%; illness duration, 7.0 ± 5.7 years) were compared with controls (n = 483; age, 29.5 ± 7.4 years; females, 31.0%). Patients had elevated pain threshold/pain tolerance vs controls (ES = 0.583; 95% CI, 0.212-0.954; P = 0.002; studies = 15). Results were similar in antipsychotic-free individuals (ES = 0.599; 95% CI, 0.291-0.907; P < 0.0001; studies = 8), with trend-level significance in antipsychotic-treated individuals (ES = 0.566; 95% CI, -0.007 to 1.125; P = 0.047; studies = 9). Likewise, patients with schizophrenia had increased pain tolerance (ES = 0.566; 95% CI, 0.235-0.897; P = 0.0001; studies = 6), sensory threshold (ES = 1.16; 95% CI, 0.505-1.727; P < 0.0001; studies = 5), and pain threshold (ES = 0.696; 95% CI, 0.407-0.986; P < 0.001; studies = 9), as well as reduced physiological response to noxious stimuli (ES = 0.456; 95% CI, 0.131-0.783; P = 0.006) and pain intensity/unpleasantness ratings (ES = 0.547; 95% CI, 0.146-0.949; P = 0.008). Findings were similarly significant in antipsychotic-free patients with schizophrenia (analysable parameters = 4) and antipsychotic-treated individuals (analysable parameters = 2). Finally, greater psychiatric symptoms moderated increased pain threshold, and younger patient age moderated increased pain tolerance. Decreased pain sensitivity seems to be an endophenotype of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. How this alteration links to other dimensions of schizophrenia and physical comorbidity-related help-seeking behaviour/morbidity/mortality requires further study

Axonal inclusions in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3

Protein aggregation is a major pathological hallmark of many neurodegenerative disorders including polyglutamine diseases. Aggregation of the mutated form of the disease protein ataxin-3 into neuronal nuclear inclusions is well described in the polyglutamine disorder spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3 or Machado–Joseph disease), although these inclusions are not thought to be directly pathogenic. Neuropil aggregates have not yet been described in SCA3. We performed a systematic immunohistochemical study of serial thick sections through brains of seven clinically diagnosed and genetically confirmed SCA3 patients. Using antibodies against ataxin-3, p62, ubiquitin, the polyglutamine marker 1C2 as well as TDP-43, we analyzed neuronal localization, composition and distribution of aggregates within SCA3 brains. The analysis revealed widespread axonal aggregates in fiber tracts known to undergo neurodegeneration in SCA3. Similar to neuronal nuclear inclusions, the axonal aggregates were ubiquitinated and immunopositive for the proteasome and autophagy associated shuttle protein p62, indicating involvement of neuronal protein quality control mechanisms. Rare TDP-43 positive axonal inclusions were also observed. Based on the correlation between affected fiber tracts and degenerating neuronal nuclei, we hypothesize that these novel axonal inclusions may be detrimental to axonal transport mechanisms and thereby contribute to degeneration of nerve cells in SCA3

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente