238 research outputs found
Releasing The Power Within: Exploring The Magical Girl Transformation Sequence With Flash Animation
This studio-based thesis explores the universal theme of transformation within the Magical Girl genre of Animation. My research incorporates the viewing and analysis of Japanese animations and discusses the symbolism behind transformation sequences. In addition, this study discusses how this theme can be created using Flash software for animation and discusses its value as a teaching resource in the art classroom
The Natural History and Clinical Presentation of Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy
Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) refers to impaired function of the spinal cord caused by degenerative changes of the cervical spine resulting in spinal cord compression. It is the most common disorder in the United States causing dysfunction of the spinal cord. A literature review of the natural history of mild cervical myelopathy is undertaken. Clinical presentation and current concepts of pathophysiology are also discussed. While many patients with mild signs of CSM will stabilize or improve over time with conservative treatment, the clinical course of a specific individual patient cannot be predicted. Asymptomatic patients with cervical stenosis and abnormalities on electrophysiologic studies may be at higher risk for developing myelopathy
Postextubation pulmonary edema: A case series and review
SummaryWe report a series of patients with postextubation pulmonary edema who had no obvious risk factors for the development of this syndrome.MethodsPatients identified by the pulmonary consultation service at an academic medical center were reviewed.ResultsFourteen cases were collected and analyzed. The average age was 34.5 years; 12 patients were male. The average BMI was 25.5. None had documented previous lung disease. Most operations were scheduled as outpatient procedures, and the type of surgery ranged from an incision and drainage of a bite wound to an open reduction- internal fixation of the radius. None of the patients had upper airway surgery. The length of surgeries ranged from 27 to 335min. Laryngospasm was the most commonly identified obstructing event postextubation. Treatment involved airway support when needed, supplemental oxygen, and diuretics.ConclusionsIt would appear that all patients, especially young men, are at risk for the development of this syndrome and that the pathogenesis remains uncertain in many cases
Rapid Probing of Biological Surfaces with a Sparse-Matrix Peptide Library
Finding unique peptides to target specific biological surfaces is crucial to basic research and technology development, though methods based on biological arrays or large libraries limit the speed and ease with which these necessary compounds can be found. We reasoned that because biological surfaces, such as cell surfaces, mineralized tissues, and various extracellular matrices have unique molecular compositions, they present unique physicochemical signatures to the surrounding medium which could be probed by peptides with appropriately corresponding physicochemical properties. To test this hypothesis, a naïve pilot library of 36 peptides, varying in their hydrophobicity and charge, was arranged in a two-dimensional matrix and screened against various biological surfaces. While the number of peptides in the matrix library was very small, we obtained “hits” against all biological surfaces probed. Sequence refinement of the “hits” led to peptides with markedly higher specificity and binding activity against screened biological surfaces. Genetic studies revealed that peptide binding to bacteria was mediated, at least in some cases, by specific cell-surface molecules, while examination of human tooth sections showed that this method can be used to derive peptides with highly specific binding to human tissue
Design and construction of the MicroBooNE Cosmic Ray Tagger system
The MicroBooNE detector utilizes a liquid argon time projection chamber
(LArTPC) with an 85 t active mass to study neutrino interactions along the
Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) at Fermilab. With a deployment location near ground
level, the detector records many cosmic muon tracks in each beam-related
detector trigger that can be misidentified as signals of interest. To reduce
these cosmogenic backgrounds, we have designed and constructed a TPC-external
Cosmic Ray Tagger (CRT). This sub-system was developed by the Laboratory for
High Energy Physics (LHEP), Albert Einstein center for fundamental physics,
University of Bern. The system utilizes plastic scintillation modules to
provide precise time and position information for TPC-traversing particles.
Successful matching of TPC tracks and CRT data will allow us to reduce
cosmogenic background and better characterize the light collection system and
LArTPC data using cosmic muons. In this paper we describe the design and
installation of the MicroBooNE CRT system and provide an overview of a series
of tests done to verify the proper operation of the system and its components
during installation, commissioning, and physics data-taking
The role of genetic factors in predisposition to squamous cell cancer of the head and neck
© 1999 Cancer Research Campaig
Ionization Electron Signal Processing in Single Phase LArTPCs II. Data/Simulation Comparison and Performance in MicroBooNE
The single-phase liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) provides a
large amount of detailed information in the form of fine-grained drifted
ionization charge from particle traces. To fully utilize this information, the
deposited charge must be accurately extracted from the raw digitized waveforms
via a robust signal processing chain. Enabled by the ultra-low noise levels
associated with cryogenic electronics in the MicroBooNE detector, the precise
extraction of ionization charge from the induction wire planes in a
single-phase LArTPC is qualitatively demonstrated on MicroBooNE data with event
display images, and quantitatively demonstrated via waveform-level and
track-level metrics. Improved performance of induction plane calorimetry is
demonstrated through the agreement of extracted ionization charge measurements
across different wire planes for various event topologies. In addition to the
comprehensive waveform-level comparison of data and simulation, a calibration
of the cryogenic electronics response is presented and solutions to various
MicroBooNE-specific TPC issues are discussed. This work presents an important
improvement in LArTPC signal processing, the foundation of reconstruction and
therefore physics analyses in MicroBooNE.Comment: 54 pages, 36 figures; the first part of this work can be found at
arXiv:1802.0870
A Deep Neural Network for Pixel-Level Electromagnetic Particle Identification in the MicroBooNE Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber
We have developed a convolutional neural network (CNN) that can make a
pixel-level prediction of objects in image data recorded by a liquid argon time
projection chamber (LArTPC) for the first time. We describe the network design,
training techniques, and software tools developed to train this network. The
goal of this work is to develop a complete deep neural network based data
reconstruction chain for the MicroBooNE detector. We show the first
demonstration of a network's validity on real LArTPC data using MicroBooNE
collection plane images. The demonstration is performed for stopping muon and a
charged current neutral pion data samples
Ionization Electron Signal Processing in Single Phase LArTPCs I. Algorithm Description and Quantitative Evaluation with MicroBooNE Simulation
We describe the concept and procedure of drifted-charge extraction developed
in the MicroBooNE experiment, a single-phase liquid argon time projection
chamber (LArTPC). This technique converts the raw digitized TPC waveform to the
number of ionization electrons passing through a wire plane at a given time. A
robust recovery of the number of ionization electrons from both induction and
collection anode wire planes will augment the 3D reconstruction, and is
particularly important for tomographic reconstruction algorithms. A number of
building blocks of the overall procedure are described. The performance of the
signal processing is quantitatively evaluated by comparing extracted charge
with the true charge through a detailed TPC detector simulation taking into
account position-dependent induced current inside a single wire region and
across multiple wires. Some areas for further improvement of the performance of
the charge extraction procedure are also discussed.Comment: 60 pages, 36 figures. The second part of this work can be found at
arXiv:1804.0258
SN 2021fxy: Mid-Ultraviolet Flux Suppression is a Common Feature of Type Ia Supernovae
We present ultraviolet (UV) to near-infrared (NIR) observations and analysis
of the nearby Type Ia supernova SN 2021fxy. Our observations include UV
photometry from Swift/UVOT, UV spectroscopy from HST/STIS, and high-cadence
optical photometry with the Swope 1-m telescope capturing intra-night rises
during the early light curve. Early colours show SN 2021fxy is the first
"shallow-silicon" (SS) SN Ia to follow a red-to-blue evolution, compared to
other SS objects which show blue colours from the earliest observations.
Comparisons to other spectroscopically normal SNe Ia with HST UV spectra reveal
SN 2021fxy is one of several SNe Ia with flux suppression in the mid-UV. These
SNe also show blue-shifted mid-UV spectral features and strong high-velocity Ca
II features. One possible origin of this mid-UV suppression is the increased
effective opacity in the UV due to increased line blanketing from high velocity
material, but differences in the explosion mechanism cannot be ruled out. Among
SNe Ia with mid-UV suppression, SNe 2021fxy and 2017erp show substantial
similarities in their optical properties despite belonging to different Branch
subgroups, and UV flux differences of the same order as those found between SNe
2011fe and 2011by. Differential comparisons to multiple sets of synthetic SN Ia
UV spectra reveal this UV flux difference likely originates from a luminosity
difference between SNe 2021fxy and 2017erp, and not differing progenitor
metallicities as suggested for SNe 2011by and 2011fe. These comparisons
illustrate the complicated nature of UV spectral formation, and the need for
more UV spectra to determine the physical source of SNe Ia UV diversity.Comment: 26 pages, 19 figures, 9 tables; submitted to MNRAS, posted after
receiving referee comment
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