Understanding Other Religions From a “Conservative Evangelical” Point of View

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruitspapers/1132/thumbnail.jp

Evaluation and Quantification of Diffractive Plenoptic Camera Algorithm Performance

A diffractive plenoptic camera is a novel approach to the traditional plenoptic camera which replaces the main optic with a Fresnel zone plate making the camera sensitive to wavelength instead of range. However, algorithms are necessary to reconstruct the image produced by plenoptic cameras. While many algorithms exist for traditional plenoptic cameras, their ability to create spectral images in a diffractive plenoptic camera is unknown. This paper evaluates digital refocusing, super resolution, and 3D deconvolution through a Richardson-Lucy algorithm as well as a new Gaussian smoothing algorithm. All of the algorithms worked well near the Fresnel zone plate design wavelength, but Gaussian smoothing provided better looking images at a cost of high computation time. For wavelengths off the design wavelength, 3D deconvolution produced the best images but also required more computation time. 3D deconvolution also had the best spectral resolution, which increased away from the design wavelength. These results, along with consideration of mission constraints and spectral content in the scene, can guide algorithm selection for future sensor designs

Optimization of Coronal Mass Ejection Ensemble Forecasting Using WSA-ENLIL with Coned Model

The combination of the Wang-Sheeley-Arge (WSA) coronal model, ENLIL version 2.7, and the Coned model version 1.4 was utilized to form ensemble forecast for 21 coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The Coned model was improved by adding a weight for the associated flare location to push the propagation axis towards the flare location and an additional image was used. Fifteen CMEs were used from previous research using the Coned model version 1.3 and the results were compared to determine the improvement. The model was used again with six additional CMEs and compared to the old Coned model version 1.3 to verify the results. The mean absolute forecast error of the median ensemble results from the original 15 CMEs was improved by 43% over the original Coned model version 1.3. The six additional CMEs verified the improvements. The model was used again to look at multiple CMEs at the same time to get a result where the multiple CMEs occurred over a short period of time. This resulted in an improvement in the error of a sample CME from 8.09 hours to 1.77 hours

An evaluation of SNOMED CT® in the domain of complex chronic conditions

<p style="margin: 0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><strong>Objective</strong>: To determine the content coverage in SNOMED CT<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">®</strong> to represent the multidisciplinary terms and concepts in the domain for complex chronic conditions</p><p style="margin: 0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><strong>Methods</strong>: An evaluation of the coverage of multidisciplinary health factors in SNOMED CT<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">®</strong> for the complex and chronic condition, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is conducted in the study. The methodology included a retrospective audit of patient charts and feedback from multidisciplinary clinicians in the creation of a controlled vocabulary used in the generation of patient profiles for MCS. Clinicians and experts in the field reviewed and tested the vocabulary for its usefulness (scope, specificity and structure) by re-coding 3 patient profiles using the vocabulary. Cohen's kappa analysis was conducted to determine inter-rater reliability. Cronbach's alpha analysis was conducted to determine the internal reliability of the survey questionnaire.</p><p style="margin: 0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><strong>Results</strong>: One hundred patient charts and 9 clinicians from varying health disciplines participated in the study. SNOMED CT<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">®</strong> was shown to capture nearly 82% of the concepts spanning multidisciplinary areas of health focus. The nutrition area of health focus had the highest level of exact matches Furthermore post-coordination was applied in an attempt to improve coverage of concepts to 75% ( of 45 terms) of the missing terms in SNOMED CT ® . Seventy-five percent (n=9) of the clinicians agreed on the overall usefulness of the vocabulary.</p><p style="margin: 0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><strong>Conclusions</strong>: SNOMED CT® had a reasonable coverage of the multidisciplinary health concepts required to describe a complex and chronic condition. Standardizing the multidisciplinary vocabulary with reference tag to a widely used reference terminology such as SNOMED CT® to discuss the terms and concepts used may improve the understanding across disciplines and communities of practice. Overall, based on the availability of concepts in SNOMED CT® and the feedback from clinicians, the approach looks promising and should be further explored.</p

Classical and quantum simulations of DNA/spermine systems

A study of the effects of the presence of multiple spermine molecules in the major groove of poly-d(A)_{20}.poly-d(T)_{20} on the A-B transition has been carried out, alongside a survey of the long-term effect of a single spermine molecule diffusing into various DNA sequences. The transition from A- to B-form was found to be slowed by spermine, and further slowed as more spermine was added. In some cases, the presence of spermine induced an unstable backbone shift away from both the canonical A- and B-forms, which eventually decayed rapidly into previously seen behaviour. The interactions between various sequences of DNA and spermine indicated that the strength of the interaction can be affected by the DNA sequence. The efficacy of the molecular dynamics force field was assessed using ab initio quantum mechanics as a reference. The classical approximation was found to give results which were consistently lower in magnitude than those from the quantum calculations, and in thymine a regular site of considerable inaccuracy was observed. This represents a novel finding and a target for future development of molecular dynamics techniques

Manipulating DNA with Magneto-Optical Tweezers and Multiscale Simulation

This thesis presents work to develop methods for a novel magneto-optical tweezing microscope used to interrogate DNA, as well as complementary multiscale molecular dynamics simulations

An overview of the planned CCAT software system

CCAT will be a 25m diameter sub-millimeter telescope capable of operating in the 0.2 to 2.1mm wavelength range. It will be located at an altitude of 5600m on Cerro Chajnantor in northern Chile near the ALMA site. The anticipated first generation instruments include large format (60,000 pixel) kinetic inductance detector (KID) cameras, a large format heterodyne array and a direct detection multi-object spectrometer. The paper describes the architecture of the CCAT software and the development strategy.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy III, Chiozzi & Radziwill (eds), Proc. SPIE 9152, paper ID 9152-10