I Am Error

I Am Error is a platform study of the Nintendo Family Computer (or Famicom), a videogame console first released in Japan in July 1983 and later exported to the rest of the world as the Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES). The book investigates the underlying computational architecture of the console and its effects on the creative works (e.g. videogames) produced for the platform. I Am Error advances the concept of platform as a shifting configuration of hardware and software that extends even beyond its ‘native’ material construction. The book provides a deep technical understanding of how the platform was programmed and engineered, from code to silicon, including the design decisions that shaped both the expressive capabilities of the machine and the perception of videogames in general. The book also considers the platform beyond the console proper, including cartridges, controllers, peripherals, packaging, marketing, licensing, and play environments. Likewise, it analyzes the NES’s extension and afterlife in emulation and hacking, birthing new genres of creative expression such as ROM hacks and tool-assisted speed runs. I Am Error considers videogames and their platforms to be important objects of cultural expression, alongside cinema, dance, painting, theater and other media. It joins the discussion taking place in similar burgeoning disciplines—code studies, game studies, computational theory—that engage digital media with critical rigor and descriptive depth. But platform studies is not simply a technical discussion—it also keeps a keen eye on the cultural, social, and economic forces that influence videogames. No platform exists in a vacuum: circuits, code, and console alike are shaped by the currents of history, politics, economics, and culture—just as those currents are shaped in kind

Anomaly Detection on Wind Turbine Blades Using Aerial Imaging, Image Processing, And Deep Learning

In reaction to rising global temperatures and carbon dioxide emissions, many countries are looking to use energy sources other than fossil fuels. One such source of energy is wind energy, which can be harvested by wind turbines. By rotating at high speeds, the blades of these large turbines are able to convert wind energy to kinetic energy, which is then converted to electricity usable by the power grid. Traditional methods for inspecting these turbines for damages are expensive, unsafe, and susceptible to human error. These turbines are so tall and so large that inspectors run the risk of falling from large heights or being injured by falling turbine debris. It is also difficult to spot every damaged area on a blade so large. A solution to this problem is to have a drone fly up and take pictures of the blades. Afterwards, these pictures can be processed by a machine learning architecture, which is a specific type of AI (artificial intelligence). The AI will then tell the inspectors if damages exist on the blades. Wind turbines are normally turned off during inspection for the safety of the inspectors. If the turbines are left on during the inspection process to save money, the blades will likely be moving, so images of the blades may be blurry. This will make it more difficult for the AI to detect damages. This is why deblurring the images before further processing could be a great way to still have accurate results from the AI with rotating blades. In this study, the health of wind turbine blades is determined using specific machine architectures along with image deblurring techniques and a custom-made image set of wind turbine blades taken with a drone

Fast Timing Bi-Directional Charge Coupled Devices for Use in Gamma -Ray Astronomy.

A Charge Coupled Device (CCD) coupled with a pixellated inorganic scintillator (such as segmented CsI) can provide high position resolution (∼300 mum). However, standard CCDs are integrating devices typically operating no faster than video rates. For a balloon-borne gamma-ray telescope capable of measuring the energy of individual photons, the CCD must have a time resolution better than the average time interval between cosmic ray events on the veto shield (∼10 kHz). A Fast Timing Bi-Directional CCD has better than 10 mus time resolution and 50 mum position resolution. We describe the CCD readout architecture, the ASIC readout design, the present status of the development, and the application to a gamma-ray astronomy telescope suitable for a 100-day Ultra Long Duration Balloon mission

Cost-effectiveness analysis of brief and expanded evidence-based risk reduction interventions for HIV-infected people who inject drugs in the United States.

AIMS: Two behavioral HIV prevention interventions for people who inject drugs (PWID) infected with HIV include the Holistic Health Recovery Program for HIV+ (HHRP+), a comprehensive evidence-based CDC-supported program, and an abbreviated Holistic Health for HIV (3H+) Program, an adapted HHRP+ version in treatment settings. We compared the projected health benefits and cost-effectiveness of both programs, in addition to opioid substitution therapy (OST), to the status quo in the U.S. METHODS: A dynamic HIV transmission model calibrated to epidemic data of current US populations was created. Projected outcomes include future HIV incidence, HIV prevalence, and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained under alternative strategies. Total medical costs were estimated to compare the cost-effectiveness of each strategy. RESULTS: Over 10 years, expanding HHRP+ access to 80% of PWID could avert up to 29,000 HIV infections, or 6% of the projected total, at a cost of $7,777/QALY gained. Alternatively, 3H+ could avert 19,000 infections, but is slightly more cost-effective ($7,707/QALY), and remains so under widely varying effectiveness and cost assumptions. Nearly two-thirds of infections averted with either program are among non-PWIDs, due to reduced sexual transmission from PWID to their partners. Expanding these programs with broader OST coverage could avert up to 74,000 HIV infections over 10 years and reduce HIV prevalence from 16.5% to 14.1%, but is substantially more expensive than HHRP+ or 3H+ alone. CONCLUSIONS: Both behavioral interventions were effective and cost-effective at reducing HIV incidence among both PWID and the general adult population; however, 3H+, the economical HHRP+ version, was slightly more cost-effective than HHRP+

Integrated Models of Care for Individuals with Opioid Use Disorder: How Do We Prevent HIV and HCV?

Purpose of Review To describe models of integrated and co-located care for opioid use disorder (OUD), hepatitis C (HCV), and HIV. Recent Findings The design and scale-up of multidisciplinary care models that engage, retain, and treat individuals with HIV, HCV, and OUD are critical to preventing continued spread of HIV and HCV. We identified 17 models within primary care (N = 3), HIV specialty care (N = 5), opioid treatment programs (N = 6), transitional clinics (N = 2), and community-based harm reduction programs (N = 1), as well as two emerging models. Summary Key components of such models are the provision of (1) medication-assisted treatment for OUD, (2) HIV and HCV treatment, (3) HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, and (4) behavioral health services. Research is needed to understand differences in effectiveness between co-located and fully integrated care, combat the deleterious racial and ethnic legacies of the “War on Drugs,” and inform the delivery of psychiatric care. Increased access to harm reduction services is crucial

A qualitative assessment of an abstinence-oriented therapeutic community for prisoners with substance use disorders in Kyrgyzstan.

BACKGROUND: Kyrgyzstan, where HIV is concentrated in prisons and driven by injection drug use, provides a prison-based methadone maintenance therapy program as well as abstinence-oriented therapeutic community based on the 12-step model called the "Clean Zone." We aimed to qualitatively assess how prisoners navigate between these treatment options to understand the persistence of the Clean Zone despite a lack of evidence to support its effectiveness in treating opioid use disorders. METHODS: We conducted an analysis of policy documents and over 60 h of participant observation in February 2016, which included focus groups with a convenience sample of 20 therapeutic community staff members, 110 prisoners across three male and one female prisons, and qualitative interviews with two former Clean Zone participants. Field notes containing verbatim quotes from participants were analyzed through iterative reading and discussion to understand how participants generally perceive the program, barriers to entry and retention, and implications for future treatment within prisons. RESULTS: Our analyses discerned three themes: pride in the mission of the Clean Zone, idealism regarding addiction treatment outcomes against all odds, and the demonization of methadone. CONCLUSION: Despite low enrollment and lack of an evidence base, the therapeutic community is buttressed by the strong support of the prison administration and its clients as an "ordered" alternative to what is seen as chaotic life outside of the Clean Zone. The lack of services for Clean Zone patients after release likely contributes to high rates of relapse to drug use. The Clean Zone would benefit from integration of stabilized methadone patients combined with a post-release program

Charge-coupled devices with fast timing for astrophysics and space physics research

A charge coupled device is under development with fast timing capability (15 millisecond full frame readout, 30 microsecond resolution for measuring the time of individual pixel hits). The fast timing CCD will be used in conjunction with a CsI microfiber array or segmented scintillator matrix detector to detect x rays and gamma rays with submillimeter position resolution. The initial application will be in conjunction with a coded aperture hard x ray/gamma ray astronomy instrument. We describe the concept and the readout architecture of the device

Developing an Integrated, Brief Biobehavioral HIV Prevention Intervention for High-Risk Drug Users in Treatment: The Process and Outcome of Formative Research

To date, HIV prevention efforts have largely relied on singular strategies (e.g., behavioral or biomedical approaches alone) with modest HIV risk-reduction outcomes for people who use drugs (PWUD), many of whom experience a wide range of neurocognitive impairments (NCI). We report on the process and outcome of our formative research aimed at developing an integrated biobehavioral approach that incorporates innovative strategies to address the HIV prevention and cognitive needs of high-risk PWUD in drug treatment. Our formative work involved first adapting an evidence-based behavioral intervention—guided by the Assessment–Decision–Administration–Production–Topical experts–Integration–Training–Testing model—and then combining the behavioral intervention with an evidence-based biomedical intervention for implementation among the target population. This process involved eliciting data through structured focus groups (FGs) with key stakeholders—members of the target population (n = 20) and treatment providers (n = 10). Analysis of FG data followed a thematic analysis approach utilizing several qualitative data analysis techniques, including inductive analysis and cross-case analysis. Based on all information, we integrated the adapted community-friendly health recovery program—a brief evidence-based HIV prevention behavioral intervention—with the evidence-based biomedical component [i.e., preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP)], an approach that incorporates innovative strategies to accommodate individuals with NCI. This combination approach—now called the biobehavioral community-friendly health recovery program—is designed to address HIV-related risk behaviors and PrEP uptake and adherence as experienced by many PWUD in treatment. This study provides a complete example of the process of selecting, adapting, and integrating the evidence-based interventions—taking into account both empirical evidence and input from target population members and target organization stakeholders. The resultant brief evidence-based biobehavioral approach could significantly advance primary prevention science by cost-effectively optimizing PrEP adherence and HIV risk reduction within common drug treatment settings

Anomaly Detection on Small Wind Turbine Blades Using Deep Learning Algorithms

Wind turbine blade maintenance is expensive, dangerous, time-consuming, and prone to misdiagnosis. A potential solution to aid preventative maintenance is using deep learning and drones for inspection and early fault detection. In this research, five base deep learning architectures are investigated for anomaly detection on wind turbine blades, including Xception, Resnet-50, AlexNet, and VGG-19, along with a custom convolutional neural network. For further analysis, transfer learning approaches were also proposed and developed, utilizing these architectures as the feature extraction layers. In order to investigate model performance, a new dataset containing 6000 RGB images was created, making use of indoor and outdoor images of a small wind turbine with healthy and damaged blades. Each model was tuned using different layers, image augmentations, and hyperparameter tuning to achieve optimal performance. The results showed that the proposed Transfer Xception outperformed other architectures by attaining 99.92% accuracy on the test data of this dataset. Furthermore, the performance of the investigated models was compared on a dataset containing faulty and healthy images of large-scale wind turbine blades. In this case, our results indicated that the best-performing model was also the proposed Transfer Xception, which achieved 100% accuracy on the test data. These accuracies show promising results in the adoption of machine learning for wind turbine blade fault identification

Measurements of Compton Scattered Transition Radiation at High Lorentz Factors

X-ray transition radiation can be used to measure the Lorentz factor of relativistic particles. Standard transition radiation detectors (TRDs) typically incorporate thin plastic foil radiators and gas-filled x-ray detectors, and are sensitive up to \gamma ~ 10^4. To reach higher Lorentz factors (up to \gamma ~ 10^5), thicker, denser radiators can be used, which consequently produce x-rays of harder energies (>100 keV). At these energies, scintillator detectors are more efficient in detecting the hard x-rays, and Compton scattering of the x-rays out of the path of the particle becomes an important effect. The Compton scattering can be utilized to separate the transition radiation from the ionization background spatially. The use of conducting metal foils is predicted to yield enhanced signals compared to standard nonconducting plastic foils of the same dimensions. We have designed and built a Compton Scatter TRD optimized for high Lorentz factors and exposed it to high energy electrons at the CERN SPS. We present the results of the accelerator tests and comparisons to simulations, demonstrating 1) the effectiveness of the Compton Scatter TRD approach; 2) the performance of conducting aluminum foils; and 3) the ability of a TRD to measure energies approximately an order of magnitude higher than previously used in very high energy cosmic ray studies.X-ray transition radiation can be used to measure the Lorentz factor of relativistic particles. Standard transition radiation detectors (TRDs) typically incorporate thin plastic foil radiators and gas-filled x-ray detectors, and are sensitive up to \gamma ~ 10^4. To reach higher Lorentz factors (up to \gamma ~ 10^5), thicker, denser radiators can be used, which consequently produce x-rays of harder energies (>100 keV). At these energies, scintillator detectors are more efficient in detecting the hard x-rays, and Compton scattering of the x-rays out of the path of the particle becomes an important effect. The Compton scattering can be utilized to separate the transition radiation from the ionization background spatially. The use of conducting metal foils is predicted to yield enhanced signals compared to standard nonconducting plastic foils of the same dimensions. We have designed and built a Compton Scatter TRD optimized for high Lorentz factors and exposed it to high energy electrons at the CERN SPS. We present the results of the accelerator tests and comparisons to simulations, demonstrating 1) the effectiveness of the Compton Scatter TRD approach: 2) the performance of conducting aluminum foils: and 3) the ability of a TRD to measure energies approximately an order of magnitude higher than previously used in very high energy cosmic ray studies