Separating true range measurements from multi-path and scattering interference in commercial range cameras

Time-of-flight range cameras acquire a three-dimensional image of a scene simultaneously for all pixels from a single viewing location. Attempts to use range cameras for metrology applications have been hampered by the multi-path problem, which causes range distortions when stray light interferes with the range measurement in a given pixel. Correcting multi-path distortions by post-processing the three-dimensional measurement data has been investigated, but enjoys limited success because the interference is highly scene dependent. An alternative approach based on separating the strongest and weaker sources of light returned to each pixel, prior to range decoding, is more successful, but has only been demonstrated on custom built range cameras, and has not been suitable for general metrology applications. In this paper we demonstrate an algorithm applied to both the Mesa Imaging SR-4000 and Canesta Inc. XZ-422 Demonstrator unmodified off-the-shelf range cameras. Additional raw images are acquired and processed using an optimization approach, rather than relying on the processing provided by the manufacturer, to determine the individual component returns in each pixel. Substantial improvements in accuracy are observed, especially in the darker regions of the scene

An exactly solvable limit of low energy QCD

Starting from the QCD Hamiltonian, we derive a schematic Hamiltonian for low energy quark dynamics with quarks restricted to the lowest s-level. The resulting eigenvalue problem can be solved analytically. Even though the Hamiltonian exhibits explicit chiral symmetry the severe restriction of the number of degrees of freedom breaks the pattern of chiral symmetry breaking for finite quark masses.Comment: 7 page

Efficient CRISPR-rAAV engineering of endogenous genes to study protein function by allele-specific RNAi.

Gene knockout strategies, RNAi and rescue experiments are all employed to study mammalian gene function. However, the disadvantages of these approaches include: loss of function adaptation, reduced viability and gene overexpression that rarely matches endogenous levels. Here, we developed an endogenous gene knockdown/rescue strategy that combines RNAi selectivity with a highly efficient CRISPR directed recombinant Adeno-Associated Virus (rAAV) mediated gene targeting approach to introduce allele-specific mutations plus an allele-selective siRNA Sensitive (siSN) site that allows for studying gene mutations while maintaining endogenous expression and regulation of the gene of interest. CRISPR/Cas9 plus rAAV targeted gene-replacement and introduction of allele-specific RNAi sensitivity mutations in the CDK2 and CDK1 genes resulted in a >85% site-specific recombination of Neo-resistant clones versus ∼8% for rAAV alone. RNAi knockdown of wild type (WT) Cdk2 with siWT in heterozygotic knockin cells resulted in the mutant Cdk2 phenotype cell cycle arrest, whereas allele specific knockdown of mutant CDK2 with siSN resulted in a wild type phenotype. Together, these observations demonstrate the ability of CRISPR plus rAAV to efficiently recombine a genomic locus and tag it with a selective siRNA sequence that allows for allele-selective phenotypic assays of the gene of interest while it remains expressed and regulated under endogenous control mechanisms

Stellar Populations and Star Cluster Formation in Interacting Galaxies with the Advanced Camera for Surveys

Pixel-by-pixel colour-magnitude and colour-colour diagrams - based on a subset of the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys Early Release Observations - provide a powerful technique to explore and deduce the star and star cluster formation histories of the Mice and the Tadpole interacting galaxies. In each interacting system we find some 40 bright young star clusters (20 <= F606W (mag) <= 25, with a characteristic mass of ~3 x 10^6 Msun), which are spatially coincident with blue regions of active star formation in their tidal tails and spiral arms. We estimate that the main events triggering the formation of these clusters occurred ~(1.5-2.0) x 10^8 yr ago. We show that star cluster formation is a major mode of star formation in galaxy interactions, with >= 35% of the active star formation in encounters occurring in star clusters. This is the first time that young star clusters have been detected along the tidal tails in interacting galaxies. The tidal tail of the Tadpole system is dominated by blue star forming regions, which occupy some 60% of the total area covered by the tail and contribute ~70% of the total flux in the F475W filter (decreasing to ~40% in F814W). The remaining pixels in the tail have colours consistent with those of the main disk. The tidally triggered burst of star formation in the Mice is of similar strength in both interacting galaxies, but it has affected only relatively small, spatially coherent areas.Comment: 23 pages in preprint form, 6 (encapsulated) postscript figures; accepted for publication in New Astronomy; ALL figures (even the grey-scale ones) need to be printed on a colour printer style files included; for full-resolution paper, see http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/STELLARPOPS/ACSpaper

Human Performance on Visually Presented Traveling Salesperson Problems with Varying Numbers of Nodes

We investigated the properties of the distribution of human solution times for Traveling Salesperson Problems (TSPs) with increasing numbers of nodes. New experimental data are presented that measure solution times for carefully chosen representative problems with 10, 20, . . . 120 nodes. We compared the solution times predicted by the convex hull procedure proposed by MacGregor and Ormerod (1996), the hierarchical approach of Graham, Joshi, and Pizlo (2000), and by five algorithms drawn from the artificial intelligence and operations research literature. The most likely polynomial model for describing the relationship between mean solution time and the size of a TSP is linear or near-linear over the range of problem sizes tested, supporting the earlier finding of Graham et al. (2000). We argue the properties of the solution time distributions place strong constraints on the development of detailed models of human performance for TSPs, and provide some evaluation of previously proposed models in light of our findings