Association between hip abductor function, rear-foot dynamic alignment, and dynamic knee valgus during single-leg squats and drop landings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoshinori Kagaya

2015-06-01

Conclusion: Dynamic hip mal-alignment might be associated with both greater KID and HOD, whereas rear-foot eversion is associated only with greater KID. Hip abductor and rear-foot dysfunction are important factors for dynamic knee valgus and thus evaluating DTT and HFT will help to prevent dynamic knee valgus.

Dynamic Stark shift and alignment-to-orientation conversion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuntz, Matthew C.; Hilborn, Robert C.; Spencer, Alison M.

2002-01-01

We have observed alignment-to-orientation conversion in the (5d6p) 1 P state of atomic barium due to the combined effects of a static Zeeman shift and a dynamic Stark shift associated with the electric field of a pulsed laser beam. The measurements yield a value for the frequency-dependent tensor polarizability of the state in reasonable agreement with a simple perturbation theory calculation. With a tunable laser producing the dynamic Stark shift, we can both enhance the magnitude of the effect by tuning close to a resonance and reverse the sign of the orientation by tuning above or below the resonance. This method of producing an oriented atomic state is quite general, and with easily available field strengths can produce large orientations

Pareto optimal pairwise sequence alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

DeRonne, Kevin W; Karypis, George

2013-01-01

Sequence alignment using evolutionary profiles is a commonly employed tool when investigating a protein. Many profile-profile scoring functions have been developed for use in such alignments, but there has not yet been a comprehensive study of Pareto optimal pairwise alignments for combining multiple such functions. We show that the problem of generating Pareto optimal pairwise alignments has an optimal substructure property, and develop an efficient algorithm for generating Pareto optimal frontiers of pairwise alignments. All possible sets of two, three, and four profile scoring functions are used from a pool of 11 functions and applied to 588 pairs of proteins in the ce_ref data set. The performance of the best objective combinations on ce_ref is also evaluated on an independent set of 913 protein pairs extracted from the BAliBASE RV11 data set. Our dynamic-programming-based heuristic approach produces approximated Pareto optimal frontiers of pairwise alignments that contain comparable alignments to those on the exact frontier, but on average in less than 1/58th the time in the case of four objectives. Our results show that the Pareto frontiers contain alignments whose quality is better than the alignments obtained by single objectives. However, the task of identifying a single high-quality alignment among those in the Pareto frontier remains challenging.

Fast pairwise structural RNA alignments by pruning of the dynamical programming matrix.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jakob H Havgaard

2007-10-01

Full Text Available It has become clear that noncoding RNAs (ncRNA play important roles in cells, and emerging studies indicate that there might be a large number of unknown ncRNAs in mammalian genomes. There exist computational methods that can be used to search for ncRNAs by comparing sequences from different genomes. One main problem with these methods is their computational complexity, and heuristics are therefore employed. Two heuristics are currently very popular: pre-folding and pre-aligning. However, these heuristics are not ideal, as pre-aligning is dependent on sequence similarity that may not be present and pre-folding ignores the comparative information. Here, pruning of the dynamical programming matrix is presented as an alternative novel heuristic constraint. All subalignments that do not exceed a length-dependent minimum score are discarded as the matrix is filled out, thus giving the advantage of providing the constraints dynamically. This has been included in a new implementation of the FOLDALIGN algorithm for pairwise local or global structural alignment of RNA sequences. It is shown that time and memory requirements are dramatically lowered while overall performance is maintained. Furthermore, a new divide and conquer method is introduced to limit the memory requirement during global alignment and backtrack of local alignment. All branch points in the computed RNA structure are found and used to divide the structure into smaller unbranched segments. Each segment is then realigned and backtracked in a normal fashion. Finally, the FOLDALIGN algorithm has also been updated with a better memory implementation and an improved energy model. With these improvements in the algorithm, the FOLDALIGN software package provides the molecular biologist with an efficient and user-friendly tool for searching for new ncRNAs. The software package is available for download at http://foldalign.ku.dk.

Innovation, improvement and operations: an exploration of the management of alignment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Leede, Jan; Looise, Jan C.; Alders, B.C.M.; Alders, Ben C.M.

2002-01-01

Based on the assumption that the three functions of operations, improvement and innovation within companies need to be aligned to improve company performance, this article addresses two internal alignment mechanisms structural and social-dynamic alignment. A survey of 267 companies confirms that

Fast pairwise structural RNA alignments by pruning of the dynamical programming matrix

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Havgaard, Jakob Hull; Torarinsson, Elfar; Gorodkin, Jan

2007-01-01

and backtracked in a normal fashion. Finally, the FOLDALIGN algorithm has also been updated with a better memory implementation and an improved energy model. With these improvements in the algorithm, the FOLDALIGN software package provides the molecular biologist with an efficient and user-friendly tool...... the advantage of providing the constraints dynamically. This has been included in a new implementation of the FOLDALIGN algorithm for pairwise local or global structural alignment of RNA sequences. It is shown that time and memory requirements are dramatically lowered while overall performance is maintained....... Furthermore, a new divide and conquer method is introduced to limit the memory requirement during global alignment and backtrack of local alignment. All branch points in the computed RNA structure are found and used to divide the structure into smaller unbranched segments. Each segment is then realigned...

An improved Hough transform-based fingerprint alignment approach

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mlambo, CS

2014-11-01

Full Text Available An improved Hough Transform based fingerprint alignment approach is presented, which improves computing time and memory usage with accurate alignment parameter (rotation and translation) results. This is achieved by studying the strengths...

L-GRAAL: Lagrangian graphlet-based network aligner.

Science.gov (United States)

Malod-Dognin, Noël; Pržulj, Nataša

2015-07-01

Discovering and understanding patterns in networks of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) is a central problem in systems biology. Alignments between these networks aid functional understanding as they uncover important information, such as evolutionary conserved pathways, protein complexes and functional orthologs. A few methods have been proposed for global PPI network alignments, but because of NP-completeness of underlying sub-graph isomorphism problem, producing topologically and biologically accurate alignments remains a challenge. We introduce a novel global network alignment tool, Lagrangian GRAphlet-based ALigner (L-GRAAL), which directly optimizes both the protein and the interaction functional conservations, using a novel alignment search heuristic based on integer programming and Lagrangian relaxation. We compare L-GRAAL with the state-of-the-art network aligners on the largest available PPI networks from BioGRID and observe that L-GRAAL uncovers the largest common sub-graphs between the networks, as measured by edge-correctness and symmetric sub-structures scores, which allow transferring more functional information across networks. We assess the biological quality of the protein mappings using the semantic similarity of their Gene Ontology annotations and observe that L-GRAAL best uncovers functionally conserved proteins. Furthermore, we introduce for the first time a measure of the semantic similarity of the mapped interactions and show that L-GRAAL also uncovers best functionally conserved interactions. In addition, we illustrate on the PPI networks of baker's yeast and human the ability of L-GRAAL to predict new PPIs. Finally, L-GRAAL's results are the first to show that topological information is more important than sequence information for uncovering functionally conserved interactions. L-GRAAL is coded in C++. Software is available at: http://bio-nets.doc.ic.ac.uk/L-GRAAL/. n.malod-dognin@imperial.ac.uk Supplementary data are available at

Simulator for beam-based LHC collimator alignment

Science.gov (United States)

Valentino, Gianluca; Aßmann, Ralph; Redaelli, Stefano; Sammut, Nicholas

2014-02-01

In the CERN Large Hadron Collider, collimators need to be set up to form a multistage hierarchy to ensure efficient multiturn cleaning of halo particles. Automatic algorithms were introduced during the first run to reduce the beam time required for beam-based setup, improve the alignment accuracy, and reduce the risk of human errors. Simulating the alignment procedure would allow for off-line tests of alignment policies and algorithms. A simulator was developed based on a diffusion beam model to generate the characteristic beam loss signal spike and decay produced when a collimator jaw touches the beam, which is observed in a beam loss monitor (BLM). Empirical models derived from the available measurement data are used to simulate the steady-state beam loss and crosstalk between multiple BLMs. The simulator design is presented, together with simulation results and comparison to measurement data.

High dynamic range image acquisition based on multiplex cameras

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Hairui; Sun, Huayan; Zhang, Tinghua

2018-03-01

High dynamic image is an important technology of photoelectric information acquisition, providing higher dynamic range and more image details, and it can better reflect the real environment, light and color information. Currently, the method of high dynamic range image synthesis based on different exposure image sequences cannot adapt to the dynamic scene. It fails to overcome the effects of moving targets, resulting in the phenomenon of ghost. Therefore, a new high dynamic range image acquisition method based on multiplex cameras system was proposed. Firstly, different exposure images sequences were captured with the camera array, using the method of derivative optical flow based on color gradient to get the deviation between images, and aligned the images. Then, the high dynamic range image fusion weighting function was established by combination of inverse camera response function and deviation between images, and was applied to generated a high dynamic range image. The experiments show that the proposed method can effectively obtain high dynamic images in dynamic scene, and achieves good results.

Two-Stream Transformer Networks for Video-based Face Alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hao; Lu, Jiwen; Feng, Jianjiang; Zhou, Jie

2017-08-01

In this paper, we propose a two-stream transformer networks (TSTN) approach for video-based face alignment. Unlike conventional image-based face alignment approaches which cannot explicitly model the temporal dependency in videos and motivated by the fact that consistent movements of facial landmarks usually occur across consecutive frames, our TSTN aims to capture the complementary information of both the spatial appearance on still frames and the temporal consistency information across frames. To achieve this, we develop a two-stream architecture, which decomposes the video-based face alignment into spatial and temporal streams accordingly. Specifically, the spatial stream aims to transform the facial image to the landmark positions by preserving the holistic facial shape structure. Accordingly, the temporal stream encodes the video input as active appearance codes, where the temporal consistency information across frames is captured to help shape refinements. Experimental results on the benchmarking video-based face alignment datasets show very competitive performance of our method in comparisons to the state-of-the-arts.

Simulation of beamline alignment operations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Annese, C; Miller, M G.

1999-01-01

The CORBA-based Simulator was a Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project that applied simulation techniques to explore critical questions about distributed control systems. The simulator project used a three-prong approach that studied object-oriented distribution tools, computer network modeling, and simulation of key control system scenarios. The National Ignition Facility's (NIF) optical alignment system was modeled to study control system operations. The alignment of NIF's 192 beamlines is a large complex operation involving more than 100 computer systems and 8000 mechanized devices. The alignment process is defined by a detailed set of procedures; however, many of the steps are deterministic. The alignment steps for a poorly aligned component are similar to that of a nearly aligned component; however, additional operations/iterations are required to complete the process. Thus, the same alignment operations will require variable amounts of time to perform depending on the current alignment condition as well as other factors. Simulation of the alignment process is necessary to understand beamline alignment time requirements and how shared resources such as the Output Sensor and Target Alignment Sensor effect alignment efficiency. The simulation has provided alignment time estimates and other results based on documented alignment procedures and alignment experience gained in the laboratory. Computer communication time, mechanical hardware actuation times, image processing algorithm execution times, etc. have been experimentally determined and incorporated into the model. Previous analysis of alignment operations utilized average implementation times for all alignment operations. Resource sharing becomes rather simple to model when only average values are used. The time required to actually implement the many individual alignment operations will be quite dynamic. The simulation model estimates the time to complete an operation using

Curve aligning approach for gait authentication based on a wearable accelerometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sun, Hu; Yuao, Tao

2012-01-01

Gait authentication based on a wearable accelerometer is a novel biometric which can be used for identity identification, medical rehabilitation and early detection of neurological disorders. The method for matching gait patterns tells heavily on authentication performances. In this paper, curve aligning is introduced as a new method for matching gait patterns and it is compared with correlation and dynamic time warping (DTW). A support vector machine (SVM) is proposed to fuse pattern-matching methods in a decision level. Accelerations collected from ankles of 22 walking subjects are processed for authentications in our experiments. The fusion of curve aligning with backward–forward accelerations and DTW with vertical accelerations promotes authentication performances substantially and consistently. This fusion algorithm is tested repeatedly. Its mean and standard deviation of equal error rates are 0.794% and 0.696%, respectively, whereas among all presented non-fusion algorithms, the best one shows an EER of 3.03%. (paper)

A rank-based sequence aligner with applications in phylogenetic analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liviu P Dinu

Full Text Available Recent tools for aligning short DNA reads have been designed to optimize the trade-off between correctness and speed. This paper introduces a method for assigning a set of short DNA reads to a reference genome, under Local Rank Distance (LRD. The rank-based aligner proposed in this work aims to improve correctness over speed. However, some indexing strategies to speed up the aligner are also investigated. The LRD aligner is improved in terms of speed by storing [Formula: see text]-mer positions in a hash table for each read. Another improvement, that produces an approximate LRD aligner, is to consider only the positions in the reference that are likely to represent a good positional match of the read. The proposed aligner is evaluated and compared to other state of the art alignment tools in several experiments. A set of experiments are conducted to determine the precision and the recall of the proposed aligner, in the presence of contaminated reads. In another set of experiments, the proposed aligner is used to find the order, the family, or the species of a new (or unknown organism, given only a set of short Next-Generation Sequencing DNA reads. The empirical results show that the aligner proposed in this work is highly accurate from a biological point of view. Compared to the other evaluated tools, the LRD aligner has the important advantage of being very accurate even for a very low base coverage. Thus, the LRD aligner can be considered as a good alternative to standard alignment tools, especially when the accuracy of the aligner is of high importance. Source code and UNIX binaries of the aligner are freely available for future development and use at http://lrd.herokuapp.com/aligners. The software is implemented in C++ and Java, being supported on UNIX and MS Windows.

Unsupervised image matching based on manifold alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Pei, Yuru; Huang, Fengchun; Shi, Fuhao; Zha, Hongbin

2012-08-01

This paper challenges the issue of automatic matching between two image sets with similar intrinsic structures and different appearances, especially when there is no prior correspondence. An unsupervised manifold alignment framework is proposed to establish correspondence between data sets by a mapping function in the mutual embedding space. We introduce a local similarity metric based on parameterized distance curves to represent the connection of one point with the rest of the manifold. A small set of valid feature pairs can be found without manual interactions by matching the distance curve of one manifold with the curve cluster of the other manifold. To avoid potential confusions in image matching, we propose an extended affine transformation to solve the nonrigid alignment in the embedding space. The comparatively tight alignments and the structure preservation can be obtained simultaneously. The point pairs with the minimum distance after alignment are viewed as the matchings. We apply manifold alignment to image set matching problems. The correspondence between image sets of different poses, illuminations, and identities can be established effectively by our approach.

Base-By-Base: single nucleotide-level analysis of whole viral genome alignments.

Science.gov (United States)

Brodie, Ryan; Smith, Alex J; Roper, Rachel L; Tcherepanov, Vasily; Upton, Chris

2004-07-14

With ever increasing numbers of closely related virus genomes being sequenced, it has become desirable to be able to compare two genomes at a level more detailed than gene content because two strains of an organism may share the same set of predicted genes but still differ in their pathogenicity profiles. For example, detailed comparison of multiple isolates of the smallpox virus genome (each approximately 200 kb, with 200 genes) is not feasible without new bioinformatics tools. A software package, Base-By-Base, has been developed that provides visualization tools to enable researchers to 1) rapidly identify and correct alignment errors in large, multiple genome alignments; and 2) generate tabular and graphical output of differences between the genomes at the nucleotide level. Base-By-Base uses detailed annotation information about the aligned genomes and can list each predicted gene with nucleotide differences, display whether variations occur within promoter regions or coding regions and whether these changes result in amino acid substitutions. Base-By-Base can connect to our mySQL database (Virus Orthologous Clusters; VOCs) to retrieve detailed annotation information about the aligned genomes or use information from text files. Base-By-Base enables users to quickly and easily compare large viral genomes; it highlights small differences that may be responsible for important phenotypic differences such as virulence. It is available via the Internet using Java Web Start and runs on Macintosh, PC and Linux operating systems with the Java 1.4 virtual machine.

libgapmis: extending short-read alignments.

Science.gov (United States)

Alachiotis, Nikolaos; Berger, Simon; Flouri, Tomáš; Pissis, Solon P; Stamatakis, Alexandros

2013-01-01

A wide variety of short-read alignment programmes have been published recently to tackle the problem of mapping millions of short reads to a reference genome, focusing on different aspects of the procedure such as time and memory efficiency, sensitivity, and accuracy. These tools allow for a small number of mismatches in the alignment; however, their ability to allow for gaps varies greatly, with many performing poorly or not allowing them at all. The seed-and-extend strategy is applied in most short-read alignment programmes. After aligning a substring of the reference sequence against the high-quality prefix of a short read--the seed--an important problem is to find the best possible alignment between a substring of the reference sequence succeeding and the remaining suffix of low quality of the read--extend. The fact that the reads are rather short and that the gap occurrence frequency observed in various studies is rather low suggest that aligning (parts of) those reads with a single gap is in fact desirable. In this article, we present libgapmis, a library for extending pairwise short-read alignments. Apart from the standard CPU version, it includes ultrafast SSE- and GPU-based implementations. libgapmis is based on an algorithm computing a modified version of the traditional dynamic-programming matrix for sequence alignment. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the functions of the CPU version provided in this library accelerate the computations by a factor of 20 compared to other programmes. The analogous SSE- and GPU-based implementations accelerate the computations by a factor of 6 and 11, respectively, compared to the CPU version. The library also provides the user the flexibility to split the read into fragments, based on the observed gap occurrence frequency and the length of the read, thereby allowing for a variable, but bounded, number of gaps in the alignment. We present libgapmis, a library for extending pairwise short-read alignments. We

NN-align. An artificial neural network-based alignment algorithm for MHC class II peptide binding prediction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Morten; Lund, Ole

2009-01-01

this binding event. RESULTS: Here, we present a novel artificial neural network-based method, NN-align that allows for simultaneous identification of the MHC class II binding core and binding affinity. NN-align is trained using a novel training algorithm that allows for correction of bias in the training data...

Cryo-EM image alignment based on nonuniform fast Fourier transform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Zhengfan; Penczek, Pawel A.

2008-01-01

In single particle analysis, two-dimensional (2-D) alignment is a fundamental step intended to put into register various particle projections of biological macromolecules collected at the electron microscope. The efficiency and quality of three-dimensional (3-D) structure reconstruction largely depends on the computational speed and alignment accuracy of this crucial step. In order to improve the performance of alignment, we introduce a new method that takes advantage of the highly accurate interpolation scheme based on the gridding method, a version of the nonuniform fast Fourier transform, and utilizes a multi-dimensional optimization algorithm for the refinement of the orientation parameters. Using simulated data, we demonstrate that by using less than half of the sample points and taking twice the runtime, our new 2-D alignment method achieves dramatically better alignment accuracy than that based on quadratic interpolation. We also apply our method to image to volume registration, the key step in the single particle EM structure refinement protocol. We find that in this case the accuracy of the method not only surpasses the accuracy of the commonly used real-space implementation, but results are achieved in much shorter time, making gridding-based alignment a perfect candidate for efficient structure determination in single particle analysis

Cryo-EM image alignment based on nonuniform fast Fourier transform.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Zhengfan; Penczek, Pawel A

2008-08-01

In single particle analysis, two-dimensional (2-D) alignment is a fundamental step intended to put into register various particle projections of biological macromolecules collected at the electron microscope. The efficiency and quality of three-dimensional (3-D) structure reconstruction largely depends on the computational speed and alignment accuracy of this crucial step. In order to improve the performance of alignment, we introduce a new method that takes advantage of the highly accurate interpolation scheme based on the gridding method, a version of the nonuniform fast Fourier transform, and utilizes a multi-dimensional optimization algorithm for the refinement of the orientation parameters. Using simulated data, we demonstrate that by using less than half of the sample points and taking twice the runtime, our new 2-D alignment method achieves dramatically better alignment accuracy than that based on quadratic interpolation. We also apply our method to image to volume registration, the key step in the single particle EM structure refinement protocol. We find that in this case the accuracy of the method not only surpasses the accuracy of the commonly used real-space implementation, but results are achieved in much shorter time, making gridding-based alignment a perfect candidate for efficient structure determination in single particle analysis.

A Kalman Filter for SINS Self-Alignment Based on Vector Observation.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Xiang; Xu, Xiaosu; Zhang, Tao; Li, Yao; Tong, Jinwu

2017-01-29

In this paper, a self-alignment method for strapdown inertial navigation systems based on the q -method is studied. In addition, an improved method based on integrating gravitational apparent motion to form apparent velocity is designed, which can reduce the random noises of the observation vectors. For further analysis, a novel self-alignment method using a Kalman filter based on adaptive filter technology is proposed, which transforms the self-alignment procedure into an attitude estimation using the observation vectors. In the proposed method, a linear psuedo-measurement equation is adopted by employing the transfer method between the quaternion and the observation vectors. Analysis and simulation indicate that the accuracy of the self-alignment is improved. Meanwhile, to improve the convergence rate of the proposed method, a new method based on parameter recognition and a reconstruction algorithm for apparent gravitation is devised, which can reduce the influence of the random noises of the observation vectors. Simulations and turntable tests are carried out, and the results indicate that the proposed method can acquire sound alignment results with lower standard variances, and can obtain higher alignment accuracy and a faster convergence rate.

Selecting local constraint for alignment of batch process data with dynamic time warping

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Spooner, Max Peter; Kold, David; Kulahci, Murat

2017-01-01

” may be interpreted as a progress signature of the batch which may be appended to the aligned data for further analysis. For the warping function to be a realistic reflection of the progress of a batch, it is necessary to impose some constraints on the dynamic time warping algorithm, to avoid...

Base-By-Base: Single nucleotide-level analysis of whole viral genome alignments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tcherepanov Vasily

2004-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background With ever increasing numbers of closely related virus genomes being sequenced, it has become desirable to be able to compare two genomes at a level more detailed than gene content because two strains of an organism may share the same set of predicted genes but still differ in their pathogenicity profiles. For example, detailed comparison of multiple isolates of the smallpox virus genome (each approximately 200 kb, with 200 genes is not feasible without new bioinformatics tools. Results A software package, Base-By-Base, has been developed that provides visualization tools to enable researchers to 1 rapidly identify and correct alignment errors in large, multiple genome alignments; and 2 generate tabular and graphical output of differences between the genomes at the nucleotide level. Base-By-Base uses detailed annotation information about the aligned genomes and can list each predicted gene with nucleotide differences, display whether variations occur within promoter regions or coding regions and whether these changes result in amino acid substitutions. Base-By-Base can connect to our mySQL database (Virus Orthologous Clusters; VOCs to retrieve detailed annotation information about the aligned genomes or use information from text files. Conclusion Base-By-Base enables users to quickly and easily compare large viral genomes; it highlights small differences that may be responsible for important phenotypic differences such as virulence. It is available via the Internet using Java Web Start and runs on Macintosh, PC and Linux operating systems with the Java 1.4 virtual machine.

Progressive multiple sequence alignments from triplets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stadler Peter F

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The quality of progressive sequence alignments strongly depends on the accuracy of the individual pairwise alignment steps since gaps that are introduced at one step cannot be removed at later aggregation steps. Adjacent insertions and deletions necessarily appear in arbitrary order in pairwise alignments and hence form an unavoidable source of errors. Research Here we present a modified variant of progressive sequence alignments that addresses both issues. Instead of pairwise alignments we use exact dynamic programming to align sequence or profile triples. This avoids a large fractions of the ambiguities arising in pairwise alignments. In the subsequent aggregation steps we follow the logic of the Neighbor-Net algorithm, which constructs a phylogenetic network by step-wisely replacing triples by pairs instead of combining pairs to singletons. To this end the three-way alignments are subdivided into two partial alignments, at which stage all-gap columns are naturally removed. This alleviates the "once a gap, always a gap" problem of progressive alignment procedures. Conclusion The three-way Neighbor-Net based alignment program aln3nn is shown to compare favorably on both protein sequences and nucleic acids sequences to other progressive alignment tools. In the latter case one easily can include scoring terms that consider secondary structure features. Overall, the quality of resulting alignments in general exceeds that of clustalw or other multiple alignments tools even though our software does not included heuristics for context dependent (mismatch scores.

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

G.Gomez.

Since June of 2009, the muon alignment group has focused on providing new alignment constants and on finalizing the hardware alignment reconstruction. Alignment constants for DTs and CSCs were provided for CRAFT09 data reprocessing. For DT chambers, the track-based alignment was repeated using CRAFT09 cosmic ray muons and validated using segment extrapolation and split cosmic tools. One difference with respect to the previous alignment is that only five degrees of freedom were aligned, leaving the rotation around the local x-axis to be better determined by the hardware system. Similarly, DT chambers poorly aligned by tracks (due to limited statistics) were aligned by a combination of photogrammetry and hardware-based alignment. For the CSC chambers, the hardware system provided alignment in global z and rotations about local x. Entire muon endcap rings were further corrected in the transverse plane (global x and y) by the track-based alignment. Single chamber track-based alignment suffers from poor statistic...

Aligning Biomolecular Networks Using Modular Graph Kernels

Science.gov (United States)

Towfic, Fadi; Greenlee, M. Heather West; Honavar, Vasant

Comparative analysis of biomolecular networks constructed using measurements from different conditions, tissues, and organisms offer a powerful approach to understanding the structure, function, dynamics, and evolution of complex biological systems. We explore a class of algorithms for aligning large biomolecular networks by breaking down such networks into subgraphs and computing the alignment of the networks based on the alignment of their subgraphs. The resulting subnetworks are compared using graph kernels as scoring functions. We provide implementations of the resulting algorithms as part of BiNA, an open source biomolecular network alignment toolkit. Our experiments using Drosophila melanogaster, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Mus musculus and Homo sapiens protein-protein interaction networks extracted from the DIP repository of protein-protein interaction data demonstrate that the performance of the proposed algorithms (as measured by % GO term enrichment of subnetworks identified by the alignment) is competitive with some of the state-of-the-art algorithms for pair-wise alignment of large protein-protein interaction networks. Our results also show that the inter-species similarity scores computed based on graph kernels can be used to cluster the species into a species tree that is consistent with the known phylogenetic relationships among the species.

Interactive software tool to comprehend the calculation of optimal sequence alignments with dynamic programming.

Science.gov (United States)

Ibarra, Ignacio L; Melo, Francisco

2010-07-01

Dynamic programming (DP) is a general optimization strategy that is successfully used across various disciplines of science. In bioinformatics, it is widely applied in calculating the optimal alignment between pairs of protein or DNA sequences. These alignments form the basis of new, verifiable biological hypothesis. Despite its importance, there are no interactive tools available for training and education on understanding the DP algorithm. Here, we introduce an interactive computer application with a graphical interface, for the purpose of educating students about DP. The program displays the DP scoring matrix and the resulting optimal alignment(s), while allowing the user to modify key parameters such as the values in the similarity matrix, the sequence alignment algorithm version and the gap opening/extension penalties. We hope that this software will be useful to teachers and students of bioinformatics courses, as well as researchers who implement the DP algorithm for diverse applications. The software is freely available at: http:/melolab.org/sat. The software is written in the Java computer language, thus it runs on all major platforms and operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X and LINUX. All inquiries or comments about this software should be directed to Francisco Melo at fmelo@bio.puc.cl.

Moving State Marine SINS Initial Alignment Based on High Degree CKF

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yong-Gang Zhang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A new moving state marine initial alignment method of strap-down inertial navigation system (SINS is proposed based on high-degree cubature Kalman filter (CKF, which can capture higher order Taylor expansion terms of nonlinear alignment model than the existing third-degree CKF, unscented Kalman filter and central difference Kalman filter, and improve the accuracy of initial alignment under large heading misalignment angle condition. Simulation results show the efficiency and advantage of the proposed initial alignment method as compared with existing initial alignment methods for the moving state SINS initial alignment with large heading misalignment angle.

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

G.Gomez

2010-01-01

The main developments in muon alignment since March 2010 have been the production, approval and deployment of alignment constants for the ICHEP data reprocessing. In the barrel, a new geometry, combining information from both hardware and track-based alignment systems, has been developed for the first time. The hardware alignment provides an initial DT geometry, which is then anchored as a rigid solid, using the link alignment system, to a reference frame common to the tracker. The “GlobalPositionRecords” for both the Tracker and Muon systems are being used for the first time, and the initial tracker-muon relative positioning, based on the link alignment, yields good results within the photogrammetry uncertainties of the Tracker and alignment ring positions. For the first time, the optical and track-based alignments show good agreement between them; the optical alignment being refined by the track-based alignment. The resulting geometry is the most complete to date, aligning all 250 DTs, ...

Using Variable-Length Aligned Fragment Pairs and an Improved Transition Function for Flexible Protein Structure Alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Hu; Lu, Yonggang

2017-01-01

With the rapid growth of known protein 3D structures in number, how to efficiently compare protein structures becomes an essential and challenging problem in computational structural biology. At present, many protein structure alignment methods have been developed. Among all these methods, flexible structure alignment methods are shown to be superior to rigid structure alignment methods in identifying structure similarities between proteins, which have gone through conformational changes. It is also found that the methods based on aligned fragment pairs (AFPs) have a special advantage over other approaches in balancing global structure similarities and local structure similarities. Accordingly, we propose a new flexible protein structure alignment method based on variable-length AFPs. Compared with other methods, the proposed method possesses three main advantages. First, it is based on variable-length AFPs. The length of each AFP is separately determined to maximally represent a local similar structure fragment, which reduces the number of AFPs. Second, it uses local coordinate systems, which simplify the computation at each step of the expansion of AFPs during the AFP identification. Third, it decreases the number of twists by rewarding the situation where nonconsecutive AFPs share the same transformation in the alignment, which is realized by dynamic programming with an improved transition function. The experimental data show that compared with FlexProt, FATCAT, and FlexSnap, the proposed method can achieve comparable results by introducing fewer twists. Meanwhile, it can generate results similar to those of the FATCAT method in much less running time due to the reduced number of AFPs.

Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofiber based Biosensor Platform for Glucose Sensor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Al Mamun, Khandaker A.; Tulip, Fahmida S.; MacArthur, Kimberly; McFarlane, Nicole; Islam, Syed K.; Hensley, Dale

2014-03-01

Vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs) have recently become an important tool for biosensor design. Carbon nanofibers (CNF) have excellent conductive and structural properties with many irregularities and defect sites in addition to exposed carboxyl groups throughout their surfaces. These properties allow a better immobilization matrix compared to carbon nanotubes and offer better resolution when compared with the FET-based biosensors. VACNFs can be deterministically grown on silicon substrates allowing optimization of the structures for various biosensor applications. Two VACNF electrode architectures have been employed in this study and a comparison of their performances has been made in terms of sensitivity, sensing limitations, dynamic range, and response time. The usage of VACNF platform as a glucose sensor has been verified in this study by selecting an optimum architecture based on the VACNF forest density. Read More: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0129156414500062

Effect of the R dependence of laser-induced polarizability on molecular dynamic alignment in an intense femtosecond laser field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Jianxin; Cui Xiaomei; Huang Bomin; Wu Hongchun; Zhuo Shuangmu

2006-01-01

In the rotation equation of the angle θ between the molecular axis and the laser polarization direction, the dependence of laser-induced polarizability on the molecular internuclear distance R is considered. The effect of the R dependence of laser-induced polarizability on molecular dynamic alignment in an intense femtosecond laser field is investigated with 20 and 100 fs laser pulses for N 2 molecules and with 60 and 100 fs laser pulses for Br 2 molecules at intensities of 5x10 14 W cm -2 and 5x10 15 W cm -2 . This effect exists and only occurs during the dissociative process after the molecule is ionized. It enhances the degrees of molecular dynamic alignment and is more significant in reorienting the angular distributions of molecules towards the laser polarization direction in the conditions of high laser intensity and short pulse length. Compared with the N 2 molecule, the effect of the R dependence of laser-induced polarizability on molecular dynamic alignment for Br 2 is stronger. The reasons are presented and discussed

Using structure to explore the sequence alignment space of remote homologs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuziemko, Andrew; Honig, Barry; Petrey, Donald

2011-10-01

Protein structure modeling by homology requires an accurate sequence alignment between the query protein and its structural template. However, sequence alignment methods based on dynamic programming (DP) are typically unable to generate accurate alignments for remote sequence homologs, thus limiting the applicability of modeling methods. A central problem is that the alignment that is "optimal" in terms of the DP score does not necessarily correspond to the alignment that produces the most accurate structural model. That is, the correct alignment based on structural superposition will generally have a lower score than the optimal alignment obtained from sequence. Variations of the DP algorithm have been developed that generate alternative alignments that are "suboptimal" in terms of the DP score, but these still encounter difficulties in detecting the correct structural alignment. We present here a new alternative sequence alignment method that relies heavily on the structure of the template. By initially aligning the query sequence to individual fragments in secondary structure elements and combining high-scoring fragments that pass basic tests for "modelability", we can generate accurate alignments within a small ensemble. Our results suggest that the set of sequences that can currently be modeled by homology can be greatly extended.

Aligning with New Digital Strategy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yeow, Adrian; Soh, Christina; Hansen, Rina

2018-01-01

Prior IS research has not fully addressed the aligning process in the highly dynamic context of digital strategy. To address this gap, we conduct a longitudinal analysis of a B2B company's journey to enact its B2C digital strategy, using the dynamic capabilities approach. We found...... that as an organization shifts towards a digital strategy, misalignments between the emergent strategy and resources give rise to tension. Our study resulted in the development of an aligning process model that is comprised of three phases (exploratory, building, and extending) and generalizable organizational aligning...... actions that form the organization's sensing, seizing, and transforming capacities. These aligning actions iteratively reconfigured organizational resources and refined strategy in order to respond to both changes in the environment and internal tensions. We also recognized that there are challenges...

An Autonomous Coil Alignment System for the Dynamic Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicles to Minimize Lateral Misalignment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karam Hwang

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes an autonomous coil alignment system (ACAS for electric vehicles (EVs with dynamic wireless charging (DWC to mitigate the reduction in received power caused by lateral misalignment between the source and load coils. The key component of the ACAS is a novel sensor coil design, which can detect the load coil’s left or right position relative to the source coil by observing the change in voltage phase. This allows the lateral misalignment to be estimated through the wireless power transfer (WPT system alone, which is a novel tracking method for vehicular applications. Once misalignment is detected, the vehicle’s lateral position is self-adjusted by an autonomous steering function. The feasibility of the overall operation of the ACAS was verified through simulation and experiments. In addition, an analysis based on experimental results was conducted, demonstrating that 26% more energy can be transferred during DWC with the ACAS, just by keeping the vehicle’s load coil aligned with the source coil.

Cell Based Meniscal Repair Using an Aligned Bioactive Nanofibrous Sheath

Science.gov (United States)

2017-07-01

to subsequently guide tissue regeneration , for example, by seeded tissue progenitor cells . To achieve this objective, the first step is to develop...AWARD NUMBER: W81XWH-15-1-0104 TITLE: Cell -Based Meniscal Repair Using an Aligned Bioactive Nanofibrous Sheath PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR...SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER Cell -Based Meniscal Repair Using an Aligned Bioactive Nanofibrous Sheath 5b. GRANT NUMBER W81XWH-15-1-0104 5c. PROGRAM

A new correlation based alignment technique for use in electron tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, S.D.; Härting, M.

2013-01-01

In this paper we present a new correlation based method for the alignment of a single axis tilt series. Rather than performing the pairwise correlation procedure with the central image as the starting point, the method presented here calculates the optimal starting position within the tilt series and proceeds towards both ends. The starting position is determined by maximisation of a viability function, J, which rewards cumulative series correlation and penalises both cumulative series shift and distance from the centre of the image series. - Highlights: • Pairwise correlation based alignment is investigated as a function of seed position. • It is shown that the convention of using the central image as the seed is not optimal. • A function is proposed which improves alignment by finding the optimal seed position. • The method is found to produce alignment with lower residual scores with the phantom data. • Superior alignment is produced vs the standard method with the experimental data

GATA: A graphic alignment tool for comparative sequenceanalysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nix, David A.; Eisen, Michael B.

2005-01-01

Several problems exist with current methods used to align DNA sequences for comparative sequence analysis. Most dynamic programming algorithms assume that conserved sequence elements are collinear. This assumption appears valid when comparing orthologous protein coding sequences. Functional constraints on proteins provide strong selective pressure against sequence inversions, and minimize sequence duplications and feature shuffling. For non-coding sequences this collinearity assumption is often invalid. For example, enhancers contain clusters of transcription factor binding sites that change in number, orientation, and spacing during evolution yet the enhancer retains its activity. Dotplot analysis is often used to estimate non-coding sequence relatedness. Yet dot plots do not actually align sequences and thus cannot account well for base insertions or deletions. Moreover, they lack an adequate statistical framework for comparing sequence relatedness and are limited to pairwise comparisons. Lastly, dot plots and dynamic programming text outputs fail to provide an intuitive means for visualizing DNA alignments.

Relevance-based evaluation of alignment approaches: The OAEI2007 food task revisited

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hage, W.R. van; Kolb, H.; Schreiber, G.

2008-01-01

Current state-of-the-art ontology-alignment evaluation methods are based on the assumption that alignment relations come in two flavors: correct and incorrect. Some alignment systems find more correct mappings than others and hence, by this assumption, they perform better. In practical applications

SPARSE: quadratic time simultaneous alignment and folding of RNAs without sequence-based heuristics.

Science.gov (United States)

Will, Sebastian; Otto, Christina; Miladi, Milad; Möhl, Mathias; Backofen, Rolf

2015-08-01

RNA-Seq experiments have revealed a multitude of novel ncRNAs. The gold standard for their analysis based on simultaneous alignment and folding suffers from extreme time complexity of [Formula: see text]. Subsequently, numerous faster 'Sankoff-style' approaches have been suggested. Commonly, the performance of such methods relies on sequence-based heuristics that restrict the search space to optimal or near-optimal sequence alignments; however, the accuracy of sequence-based methods breaks down for RNAs with sequence identities below 60%. Alignment approaches like LocARNA that do not require sequence-based heuristics, have been limited to high complexity ([Formula: see text] quartic time). Breaking this barrier, we introduce the novel Sankoff-style algorithm 'sparsified prediction and alignment of RNAs based on their structure ensembles (SPARSE)', which runs in quadratic time without sequence-based heuristics. To achieve this low complexity, on par with sequence alignment algorithms, SPARSE features strong sparsification based on structural properties of the RNA ensembles. Following PMcomp, SPARSE gains further speed-up from lightweight energy computation. Although all existing lightweight Sankoff-style methods restrict Sankoff's original model by disallowing loop deletions and insertions, SPARSE transfers the Sankoff algorithm to the lightweight energy model completely for the first time. Compared with LocARNA, SPARSE achieves similar alignment and better folding quality in significantly less time (speedup: 3.7). At similar run-time, it aligns low sequence identity instances substantially more accurate than RAF, which uses sequence-based heuristics. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

G. Gomez and J. Pivarski

2011-01-01

Alignment efforts in the first few months of 2011 have shifted away from providing alignment constants (now a well established procedure) and focussed on some critical remaining issues. The single most important task left was to understand the systematic differences observed between the track-based (TB) and hardware-based (HW) barrel alignments: a systematic difference in r-φ and in z, which grew as a function of z, and which amounted to ~4-5 mm differences going from one end of the barrel to the other. This difference is now understood to be caused by the tracker alignment. The systematic differences disappear when the track-based barrel alignment is performed using the new “twist-free” tracker alignment. This removes the largest remaining source of systematic uncertainty. Since the barrel alignment is based on hardware, it does not suffer from the tracker twist. However, untwisting the tracker causes endcap disks (which are aligned ...

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

Gervasio Gomez

The main progress of the muon alignment group since March has been in the refinement of both the track-based alignment for the DTs and the hardware-based alignment for the CSCs. For DT track-based alignment, there has been significant improvement in the internal alignment of the superlayers inside the DTs. In particular, the distance between superlayers is now corrected, eliminating the residual dependence on track impact angles, and good agreement is found between survey and track-based corrections. The new internal geometry has been approved to be included in the forthcoming reprocessing of CRAFT samples. The alignment of DTs with respect to the tracker using global tracks has also improved significantly, since the algorithms use the latest B-field mapping, better run selection criteria, optimized momentum cuts, and an alignment is now obtained for all six degrees of freedom (three spatial coordinates and three rotations) of the aligned DTs. This work is ongoing and at a stage where we are trying to unders...

Using structure to explore the sequence alignment space of remote homologs.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew Kuziemko

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Protein structure modeling by homology requires an accurate sequence alignment between the query protein and its structural template. However, sequence alignment methods based on dynamic programming (DP are typically unable to generate accurate alignments for remote sequence homologs, thus limiting the applicability of modeling methods. A central problem is that the alignment that is "optimal" in terms of the DP score does not necessarily correspond to the alignment that produces the most accurate structural model. That is, the correct alignment based on structural superposition will generally have a lower score than the optimal alignment obtained from sequence. Variations of the DP algorithm have been developed that generate alternative alignments that are "suboptimal" in terms of the DP score, but these still encounter difficulties in detecting the correct structural alignment. We present here a new alternative sequence alignment method that relies heavily on the structure of the template. By initially aligning the query sequence to individual fragments in secondary structure elements and combining high-scoring fragments that pass basic tests for "modelability", we can generate accurate alignments within a small ensemble. Our results suggest that the set of sequences that can currently be modeled by homology can be greatly extended.

T-BAS: Tree-Based Alignment Selector toolkit for phylogenetic-based placement, alignment downloads and metadata visualization: an example with the Pezizomycotina tree of life.

Science.gov (United States)

Carbone, Ignazio; White, James B; Miadlikowska, Jolanta; Arnold, A Elizabeth; Miller, Mark A; Kauff, Frank; U'Ren, Jana M; May, Georgiana; Lutzoni, François

2017-04-15

High-quality phylogenetic placement of sequence data has the potential to greatly accelerate studies of the diversity, systematics, ecology and functional biology of diverse groups. We developed the Tree-Based Alignment Selector (T-BAS) toolkit to allow evolutionary placement and visualization of diverse DNA sequences representing unknown taxa within a robust phylogenetic context, and to permit the downloading of highly curated, single- and multi-locus alignments for specific clades. In its initial form, T-BAS v1.0 uses a core phylogeny of 979 taxa (including 23 outgroup taxa, as well as 61 orders, 175 families and 496 genera) representing all 13 classes of largest subphylum of Fungi-Pezizomycotina (Ascomycota)-based on sequence alignments for six loci (nr5.8S, nrLSU, nrSSU, mtSSU, RPB1, RPB2 ). T-BAS v1.0 has three main uses: (i) Users may download alignments and voucher tables for members of the Pezizomycotina directly from the reference tree, facilitating systematics studies of focal clades. (ii) Users may upload sequence files with reads representing unknown taxa and place these on the phylogeny using either BLAST or phylogeny-based approaches, and then use the displayed tree to select reference taxa to include when downloading alignments. The placement of unknowns can be performed for large numbers of Sanger sequences obtained from fungal cultures and for alignable, short reads of environmental amplicons. (iii) User-customizable metadata can be visualized on the tree. T-BAS Version 1.0 is available online at http://tbas.hpc.ncsu.edu . Registration is required to access the CIPRES Science Gateway and NSF XSEDE's large computational resources. icarbon@ncsu.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

Beam-based alignment of CLIC drive beam decelerator using girders movers

CERN Document Server

Sterbini, G

2011-01-01

The CLIC drive beams will provide the rf power to accelerate the colliding beams: in order to reach the design performance, an efficient transport of the drive beam has to be ensured in spite of its challenging energy spread and large current intensity. As shown in previous studies, the specifications can be met by coupling a convenient optics design with the state-of-the-art of pre-alignment and beambased alignment techniques. In this paper we consider a novel beam-based alignment scheme that does not require quadrupole movers or dipole correctors but uses the motors already foreseen for the pre-alignment system. This implies potential savings in terms of complexity and cost at the expense of the alignment flexibility: the performance, limitations and sensitivity to pre-alignment tolerances of this method are discussed.

Note: A simple image processing based fiducial auto-alignment method for sample registration.

Science.gov (United States)

Robertson, Wesley D; Porto, Lucas R; Ip, Candice J X; Nantel, Megan K T; Tellkamp, Friedjof; Lu, Yinfei; Miller, R J Dwayne

2015-08-01

A simple method for the location and auto-alignment of sample fiducials for sample registration using widely available MATLAB/LabVIEW software is demonstrated. The method is robust, easily implemented, and applicable to a wide variety of experiment types for improved reproducibility and increased setup speed. The software uses image processing to locate and measure the diameter and center point of circular fiducials for distance self-calibration and iterative alignment and can be used with most imaging systems. The method is demonstrated to be fast and reliable in locating and aligning sample fiducials, provided here by a nanofabricated array, with accuracy within the optical resolution of the imaging system. The software was further demonstrated to register, load, and sample the dynamically wetted array.

Pairagon: a highly accurate, HMM-based cDNA-to-genome aligner.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, David V; Brown, Randall H; Arumugam, Manimozhiyan; Brent, Michael R

2009-07-01

The most accurate way to determine the intron-exon structures in a genome is to align spliced cDNA sequences to the genome. Thus, cDNA-to-genome alignment programs are a key component of most annotation pipelines. The scoring system used to choose the best alignment is a primary determinant of alignment accuracy, while heuristics that prevent consideration of certain alignments are a primary determinant of runtime and memory usage. Both accuracy and speed are important considerations in choosing an alignment algorithm, but scoring systems have received much less attention than heuristics. We present Pairagon, a pair hidden Markov model based cDNA-to-genome alignment program, as the most accurate aligner for sequences with high- and low-identity levels. We conducted a series of experiments testing alignment accuracy with varying sequence identity. We first created 'perfect' simulated cDNA sequences by splicing the sequences of exons in the reference genome sequences of fly and human. The complete reference genome sequences were then mutated to various degrees using a realistic mutation simulator and the perfect cDNAs were aligned to them using Pairagon and 12 other aligners. To validate these results with natural sequences, we performed cross-species alignment using orthologous transcripts from human, mouse and rat. We found that aligner accuracy is heavily dependent on sequence identity. For sequences with 100% identity, Pairagon achieved accuracy levels of >99.6%, with one quarter of the errors of any other aligner. Furthermore, for human/mouse alignments, which are only 85% identical, Pairagon achieved 87% accuracy, higher than any other aligner. Pairagon source and executables are freely available at http://mblab.wustl.edu/software/pairagon/

Interest alignment and competitive advantage

OpenAIRE

Gottschalg, Oliver; Zollo, Mauricio

2006-01-01

This paper articulates a theory of the conditions under which the alignment between individual and collective interests generates sustainable competitive advantage. The theory is based on the influence of tacitness, context-specificity and casual ambiguity in the determinants of different types of motivation (extrinsic, normative intrinsic and hedonic intrinsic), under varying conditions of environmental dynamism. The analysis indicates the need to consider mitivational processes as a complem...

Alignment of process compliance and monitoring requirements in dynamic business collaborations

Science.gov (United States)

Comuzzi, Marco

2017-07-01

Dynamic business collaborations are intrinsically characterised by change because processes can be distributed or outsourced and partners may be substituted by new ones with enhanced or different capabilities. In this context, compliance requirements management becomes particularly challenging. Partners in a collaboration may join and leave dynamically and tasks over which compliance requirements are specified may be consequently distributed or delegated to new partners. This article considers the issue of aligning compliance requirements in a dynamic business collaboration with the monitoring requirements induced on the collaborating partners when change occurs. We first provide a conceptual model of business collaborations and their compliance requirements, introducing the concept of monitoring capabilities induced by compliance requirements. Then, we present a set of mechanisms to ensure consistency between monitoring and compliance requirements in the presence of change, e.g. when tasks are delegated or backsourced in-house. We also discuss a set of metrics to evaluate the status of a collaboration in respect of compliance monitorability. Finally, we discuss a prototype implementation of our framework.

SPARSE: quadratic time simultaneous alignment and folding of RNAs without sequence-based heuristics

Science.gov (United States)

Will, Sebastian; Otto, Christina; Miladi, Milad; Möhl, Mathias; Backofen, Rolf

2015-01-01

Motivation: RNA-Seq experiments have revealed a multitude of novel ncRNAs. The gold standard for their analysis based on simultaneous alignment and folding suffers from extreme time complexity of O(n6). Subsequently, numerous faster ‘Sankoff-style’ approaches have been suggested. Commonly, the performance of such methods relies on sequence-based heuristics that restrict the search space to optimal or near-optimal sequence alignments; however, the accuracy of sequence-based methods breaks down for RNAs with sequence identities below 60%. Alignment approaches like LocARNA that do not require sequence-based heuristics, have been limited to high complexity (≥ quartic time). Results: Breaking this barrier, we introduce the novel Sankoff-style algorithm ‘sparsified prediction and alignment of RNAs based on their structure ensembles (SPARSE)’, which runs in quadratic time without sequence-based heuristics. To achieve this low complexity, on par with sequence alignment algorithms, SPARSE features strong sparsification based on structural properties of the RNA ensembles. Following PMcomp, SPARSE gains further speed-up from lightweight energy computation. Although all existing lightweight Sankoff-style methods restrict Sankoff’s original model by disallowing loop deletions and insertions, SPARSE transfers the Sankoff algorithm to the lightweight energy model completely for the first time. Compared with LocARNA, SPARSE achieves similar alignment and better folding quality in significantly less time (speedup: 3.7). At similar run-time, it aligns low sequence identity instances substantially more accurate than RAF, which uses sequence-based heuristics. Availability and implementation: SPARSE is freely available at http://www.bioinf.uni-freiburg.de/Software/SPARSE. Contact: backofen@informatik.uni-freiburg.de Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:25838465

Statistical potential-based amino acid similarity matrices for aligning distantly related protein sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Yen Hock; Huang, He; Kihara, Daisuke

2006-08-15

Aligning distantly related protein sequences is a long-standing problem in bioinformatics, and a key for successful protein structure prediction. Its importance is increasing recently in the context of structural genomics projects because more and more experimentally solved structures are available as templates for protein structure modeling. Toward this end, recent structure prediction methods employ profile-profile alignments, and various ways of aligning two profiles have been developed. More fundamentally, a better amino acid similarity matrix can improve a profile itself; thereby resulting in more accurate profile-profile alignments. Here we have developed novel amino acid similarity matrices from knowledge-based amino acid contact potentials. Contact potentials are used because the contact propensity to the other amino acids would be one of the most conserved features of each position of a protein structure. The derived amino acid similarity matrices are tested on benchmark alignments at three different levels, namely, the family, the superfamily, and the fold level. Compared to BLOSUM45 and the other existing matrices, the contact potential-based matrices perform comparably in the family level alignments, but clearly outperform in the fold level alignments. The contact potential-based matrices perform even better when suboptimal alignments are considered. Comparing the matrices themselves with each other revealed that the contact potential-based matrices are very different from BLOSUM45 and the other matrices, indicating that they are located in a different basin in the amino acid similarity matrix space.

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

G.Gomez

2011-01-01

The Muon Alignment work now focuses on producing a new track-based alignment with higher track statistics, making systematic studies between the results of the hardware and track-based alignment methods and aligning the barrel using standalone muon tracks. Currently, the muon track reconstruction software uses a hardware-based alignment in the barrel (DT) and a track-based alignment in the endcaps (CSC). An important task is to assess the muon momentum resolution that can be achieved using the current muon alignment, especially for highly energetic muons. For this purpose, cosmic ray muons are used, since the rate of high-energy muons from collisions is very low and the event statistics are still limited. Cosmics have the advantage of higher statistics in the pT region above 100 GeV/c, but they have the disadvantage of having a mostly vertical topology, resulting in a very few global endcap muons. Only the barrel alignment has therefore been tested so far. Cosmic muons traversing CMS from top to bottom are s...

On the need for system alignment in large water infrastructure. Understanding infrastructure dynamics in Nairobi, Kenya

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pär Blomkvist

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In this article we contribute to the discussion of infrastructural change in Africa, and explore how a new theoretical perspective may offer a different, more comprehensive and historically informed understanding of the trend towards large water infrastructure in Africa. We examine the socio-technical dynamics of large water infrastructures in Nairobi, Kenya, in a longer historical perspective using two concepts that we call intra-systemic alignment and inter-level alignment. Our theoretical perspective is inspired by Large Technical Systems (LTS and Multi-Level Perspective (MLP. While inter-level alignment focuses on the process of aligning the technological system at the three levels of niche, regime and landscape, intra-systemic alignment deals with how components within the regime are harmonised and standardised to fit with each other. We pay special attention to intrasystemic alignment between the supply side and the demand side, or as we put it, upstream and downstream components of a system. In narrating the history of water supply in Nairobi, we look at both the upstream (largescale supply and downstream activities (distribution and payment, and compare the Nairobi case with European history of large infrastructures. We emphasise that regime actors in Nairobi have dealt with the issues of alignment mainly to facilitate and expand upstream activities, while concerning downstream activities they have remained incapable of expanding service and thus integrating the large segment of low-income consumers. We conclude that the present surge of large-scale water investment in Nairobi is the result of sector reforms that enabled the return to a long tradition – a 'Nairobi style' – of upstream investment mainly benefitting the highincome earners. Our proposition is that much more attention needs to be directed at inter-level alignment at the downstream end of the system, to allow the creation of niches aligned to the regime.

Beam based alignment at the KEK accelerator test facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ross, M.; Nelson, J.; Woodley, M.; Wolski, A.

2002-01-01

The KEK Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) damping ring is a prototype low emittance source for the NLC/JLC linear collider. To achieve the goal normalized vertical emittance gey = 20 nm-rad, magnet placement accuracy better than 30 mm must be achieved. Accurate beam-based alignment (BBA) is required. The ATF arc optics uses a FOBO cell with two horizontally focusing quadrupoles, two sextupoles and a horizontally defocusing gradient dipole, all of which must be aligned with BBA. BBA at ATF uses the quadrupole and sextupole trim windings to find the trajectory through the center of each magnet. The results can be interpreted to assess the accuracy of the mechanical alignment and the beam position monitor offsets

Laser-induced field-free alignment of the OCS molecule

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loriot, V; Tzallas, P; Benis, E P; Hertz, E; Lavorel, B; Charalambidis, D; Faucher, O

2007-01-01

We investigate the dynamical alignment of jet-cooled OCS molecules induced by a short laser pulse. The alignment is measured through the orientational contribution of the optical Kerr effect using a second weak laser pulse as a probe. Maximum alignment is observed at conditions close to saturation of ionization. The results are analysed with a quantum mechanical model solving for the rotational dynamics

Codebook-based interference alignment for uplink MIMO interference channels

KAUST Repository

Lee, Hyun Ho; Park, Kihong; Ko, Youngchai; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2014-01-01

In this paper, we propose a codebook-based interference alignment (IA) scheme in the constant multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) interference channel especially for the uplink scenario. In our proposed scheme, we assume cooperation among base

Alignment of symmetric top molecules by short laser pulses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hamilton, Edward; Seideman, Tamar; Ejdrup, Tine

2005-01-01

-resolved photofragment imaging. Using methyliodide and tert-butyliodide as examples, we calculate and measure the alignment dynamics, focusing on the temporal structure and intensity of the revival patterns, including their dependence on the pulse duration, and their behavior at long times, where centrifugal distortion......Nonadiabatic alignment of symmetric top molecules induced by a linearly polarized, moderately intense picosecond laser pulse is studied theoretically and experimentally. Our studies are based on the combination of a nonperturbative solution of the Schrodinger equation with femtosecond time...

TMRG studies on spin alignment in molecule-based ferrimagnetics [rapid communication

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Q. M.; Yao, K. L.; Liu, Z. L.

2005-05-01

A physical picture of spin alignment in organic molecule-based ferrimagnets is presented from studying the thermal effective magnetic moment of the sublattice by use of the transfer matrix renormalization group. We conclude that the classical antiparallel spin alignment is not the most stable state. The three-spin system tends to parallel alignment when the exchange interaction between the biradical and the monoradical molecules is much weaker than that within the biradical, which can result in the decrease of the effective magnetic moment upon lowering the temperature. More importantly, we give the theoretical evidence that even the antiparallel spin alignment in the biradical monoradical alternating chain does not necessarily lead to ferrimagnetic spin ordering due to the formation of the spin singlet pairs, which suppresses the ferrimagnetic spin alignment.

Specification and R and D Program on Magnet Alignment Tolerances for NSLS-II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kramer, S.L.; Jain, A.K.

2009-01-01

The NSLS-II light source is a proposed 3 GeV storage ring, with the potential for ultra-low emittance. Despite the reduced emittance goal for the bare lattice, the closed orbit amplification factors are on average >55 in both planes, for random quadrupole alignment errors. The high chromaticity will also require strong sextupoles and the low 3 GeV energy will require large dynamic and momentum aperture to insure adequate lifetime. This will require tight alignment tolerances (∼ 30(micro)m) on the multipole magnets during installation. By specifying tight alignment tolerances of the magnets on the support girders, the random alignment tolerances of the girders in the tunnel can be significantly relaxed. Using beam based alignment to find the golden orbit through the quadrupole centers, the closed orbit offsets in the multipole magnets will then be reduced to essentially the alignment errors of the magnets, restoring much of the dynamic aperture and lifetime of the bare lattice. Our R and D program to achieve these tight alignment tolerances of the magnets on the girders using a vibrating wire technique, will be discussed and initial results presented.

Improved accuracy of multiple ncRNA alignment by incorporating structural information into a MAFFT-based framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Toh Hiroyuki

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Structural alignment of RNAs is becoming important, since the discovery of functional non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs. Recent studies, mainly based on various approximations of the Sankoff algorithm, have resulted in considerable improvement in the accuracy of pairwise structural alignment. In contrast, for the cases with more than two sequences, the practical merit of structural alignment remains unclear as compared to traditional sequence-based methods, although the importance of multiple structural alignment is widely recognized. Results We took a different approach from a straightforward extension of the Sankoff algorithm to the multiple alignments from the viewpoints of accuracy and time complexity. As a new option of the MAFFT alignment program, we developed a multiple RNA alignment framework, X-INS-i, which builds a multiple alignment with an iterative method incorporating structural information through two components: (1 pairwise structural alignments by an external pairwise alignment method such as SCARNA or LaRA and (2 a new objective function, Four-way Consistency, derived from the base-pairing probability of every sub-aligned group at every multiple alignment stage. Conclusion The BRAliBASE benchmark showed that X-INS-i outperforms other methods currently available in the sum-of-pairs score (SPS criterion. As a basis for predicting common secondary structure, the accuracy of the present method is comparable to or rather higher than those of the current leading methods such as RNA Sampler. The X-INS-i framework can be used for building a multiple RNA alignment from any combination of algorithms for pairwise RNA alignment and base-pairing probability. The source code is available at the webpage found in the Availability and requirements section.

Formatt: Correcting protein multiple structural alignments by incorporating sequence alignment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniels Noah M

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The quality of multiple protein structure alignments are usually computed and assessed based on geometric functions of the coordinates of the backbone atoms from the protein chains. These purely geometric methods do not utilize directly protein sequence similarity, and in fact, determining the proper way to incorporate sequence similarity measures into the construction and assessment of protein multiple structure alignments has proved surprisingly difficult. Results We present Formatt, a multiple structure alignment based on the Matt purely geometric multiple structure alignment program, that also takes into account sequence similarity when constructing alignments. We show that Formatt outperforms Matt and other popular structure alignment programs on the popular HOMSTRAD benchmark. For the SABMark twilight zone benchmark set that captures more remote homology, Formatt and Matt outperform other programs; depending on choice of embedded sequence aligner, Formatt produces either better sequence and structural alignments with a smaller core size than Matt, or similarly sized alignments with better sequence similarity, for a small cost in average RMSD. Conclusions Considering sequence information as well as purely geometric information seems to improve quality of multiple structure alignments, though defining what constitutes the best alignment when sequence and structural measures would suggest different alignments remains a difficult open question.

Molecular-alignment dependence in the transfer excitation of H2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Y.D.; McGuire, J.H.; Weaver, O.L.; Corchs, S.E.; Rivarola, R.D.

1993-01-01

Molecular-alignment effects in the transfer excitation of H 2 by high-velocity heavy ions are studied using a two-step mechanism with amplitudes evaluated from first-order perturbation theory. Two-electron transfer excitation is treated as a result of two independent collision processes (excitation and electron transfer). Cross sections for each one-electron subprocess as well as the combined two-electron process are calculated as functions of the molecular-alignment angle. Within the independent-electron approximation, the dynamic roles of electron excitation and transfer in conjunction with molecular alignment are explored. While both excitation and transfer cross sections may strongly depend on molecular alignment, it is electron transfer that is largely responsible for the molecular-alignment dependence in the transfer excitation process. Interpretation of some experimental observations based on this model will also be discussed

Memory-efficient dynamic programming backtrace and pairwise local sequence alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Newberg, Lee A

2008-08-15

A backtrace through a dynamic programming algorithm's intermediate results in search of an optimal path, or to sample paths according to an implied probability distribution, or as the second stage of a forward-backward algorithm, is a task of fundamental importance in computational biology. When there is insufficient space to store all intermediate results in high-speed memory (e.g. cache) existing approaches store selected stages of the computation, and recompute missing values from these checkpoints on an as-needed basis. Here we present an optimal checkpointing strategy, and demonstrate its utility with pairwise local sequence alignment of sequences of length 10,000. Sample C++-code for optimal backtrace is available in the Supplementary Materials. Supplementary data is available at Bioinformatics online.

Incremental Ontology-Based Extraction and Alignment in Semi-structured Documents

Science.gov (United States)

Thiam, Mouhamadou; Bennacer, Nacéra; Pernelle, Nathalie; Lô, Moussa

SHIRIis an ontology-based system for integration of semi-structured documents related to a specific domain. The system’s purpose is to allow users to access to relevant parts of documents as answers to their queries. SHIRI uses RDF/OWL for representation of resources and SPARQL for their querying. It relies on an automatic, unsupervised and ontology-driven approach for extraction, alignment and semantic annotation of tagged elements of documents. In this paper, we focus on the Extract-Align algorithm which exploits a set of named entity and term patterns to extract term candidates to be aligned with the ontology. It proceeds in an incremental manner in order to populate the ontology with terms describing instances of the domain and to reduce the access to extern resources such as Web. We experiment it on a HTML corpus related to call for papers in computer science and the results that we obtain are very promising. These results show how the incremental behaviour of Extract-Align algorithm enriches the ontology and the number of terms (or named entities) aligned directly with the ontology increases.

Interest alignment rents and competitive advantage

OpenAIRE

M. ZOLLO; O. GOTTSCHALG

2007-01-01

This paper articulates a theory of the conditions under which the alignment between individual and collective interests generates sustainable competitive advantage. The theory is based on the influence of tacitness, context specificity, and causal ambiguity in the determinants of different types of motivation (extrinsic, normative intrinsic, and hedonic instinsic) under varying conditions of environmental dynamism. The analysis indicates the need to consider motivational processes as a comple...

Flexible Semitransparent Energy Harvester with High Pressure Sensitivity and Power Density Based on Laterally Aligned PZT Single-Crystal Nanowires.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Quan-Liang; He, Guang-Ping; Di, Jie-Jian; Song, Wei-Li; Hou, Zhi-Ling; Tan, Pei-Pei; Wang, Da-Wei; Cao, Mao-Sheng

2017-07-26

A flexible semitransparent energy harvester is assembled based on laterally aligned Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 (PZT) single-crystal nanowires (NWs). Such a harvester presents the highest open-circuit voltage and a stable area power density of up to 10 V and 0.27 μW/cm 2 , respectively. A high pressure sensitivity of 0.14 V/kPa is obtained in the dynamic pressure sensing, much larger than the values reported in other energy harvesters based on piezoelectric single-crystal NWs. Furthermore, theoretical and finite element analyses also confirm that the piezoelectric voltage constant g 33 of PZT NWs is competitive to the lead-based bulk single crystals and ceramics, and the enhanced pressure sensitivity and power density are substantially linked to the flexible structure with laterally aligned PZT NWs. The energy harvester in this work holds great potential in flexible and transparent sensing and self-powered systems.

Bi axially textured YBCO coated tape prepared using dynamic magnetic grain alignment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Genoud, Jean-Yves; Quinton, William

1999-01-01

A new magnetic grain alignment technique has been applied to produce bi axially aligned YBCO coated tapes. A bi axially aligned dispersion of orthorhombic Y 2 Ba 4 Cu 7 O 15 (Y-247) powder was settled on un textured silver substrates. The Y-247 tapes were then melt processed to achieve high critical current YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 (Y-123) tapes with CuO as a secondary phase. The biaxial alignment is preserved after the densification process and a clear enhancement of J c relative to identically prepared un textured or uniaxially textured samples is obtained. Critical current densities of up to 5000 A cm -2 at 77 K in self-field and 1500 A cm -2 in 0.5 T magnetic field at 65 K were obtained in films from 20 to 40 μm thick. Problems were experienced in achieving fully densified thick films while retaining biaxial texture. The initial grain size distribution was found to have a major influence on the final microstructure. Provided significant improvements in J c can be obtained this method offers an alternative to coated tape processes based on epitaxial growth which has the advantage that it does not require textured substrates. The biaxial alignment technique described here intrinsically acts on the bulk material rather than at surfaces. This offers the possibility of texturing without thickness limitations. (author)

Probing topology and dynamics of the second transmembrane domain (M2δ) of the acetyl choline receptor using magnetically aligned lipid bilayers (bicelles) and EPR spectroscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Sahu, Indra D; Mayo, Daniel J; Subbaraman, Nidhi; Inbaraj, Johnson J; McCarrick, Robert M; Lorigan, Gary A

2017-08-01

Characterizing membrane protein structure and dynamics in the lipid bilayer membrane is very important but experimentally challenging. EPR spectroscopy offers a unique set of techniques to investigate a membrane protein structure, dynamics, topology, and distance constraints in lipid bilayers. Previously our lab demonstrated the use of magnetically aligned phospholipid bilayers (bicelles) for probing topology and dynamics of the membrane peptide M2δ of the acetyl choline receptor (AchR) as a proof of concept. In this study, magnetically aligned phospholipid bilayers and rigid spin labels were further utilized to provide improved dynamic information and topology of M2δ peptide. Seven TOAC-labeled AchR M2δ peptides were synthesized to demonstrate the utility of a multi-labeling amino acid substitution alignment strategy. Our data revealed the helical tilts to be 11°, 17°, 9°, 17°, 16°, 11°, 9°±4° for residues I7TOAC, Q13TOAC, A14TOAC, V15TOAC, C16TOAC, L17TOAC, and L18TOAC, respectively. The average helical tilt of the M2δ peptide was determined to be ∼13°. This study also revealed that the TOAC labels were attached to the M2δ peptide with different dynamics suggesting that the sites towards the C-terminal end are more rigid when compared to the sites towards the N-terminus. The dynamics of the TOAC labeled sites were more resolved in the aligned samples when compared to the randomly disordered samples. This study highlights the use of magnetically aligned lipid bilayer EPR technique to determine a more accurate helical tilt and more resolved local dynamics of AchR M2δ peptide. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Aligning ERP systems with companies' real needs: an `Operational Model Based' method

Science.gov (United States)

Mamoghli, Sarra; Goepp, Virginie; Botta-Genoulaz, Valérie

2017-02-01

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems offer standard functionalities that have to be configured and customised by a specific company depending on its own requirements. A consistent alignment is therefore an essential success factor of ERP projects. To manage this alignment, an 'Operational Model Based' method is proposed. It is based on the design and the matching of models, and conforms to the modelling views and constructs of the ISO 19439 and 19440 enterprise-modelling standards. It is characterised by: (1) a predefined design and matching order of the models; (2) the formalisation, in terms of modelling constructs, of alignment and misalignment situations; and (3) their association with a set of decisions in order to mitigate the misalignment risk. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of the alignment management during ERP projects is given. Unlike existing methods, this one includes decisions related to the organisational changes an ERP system can induce, as well as criteria on which the best decision can be based. In this way, it provides effective support and guidance to companies implementing ERP systems, as the alignment process is detailed and structured. The method is applied on the ERP project of a Small and Medium Enterprise, showing that it can be used even in contexts where the ERP project expertise level is low.

A comprehensive method for evaluating precision of transfer alignment on a moving base

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Hongliang; Xu, Bo; Liu, Dezheng

2017-09-01

In this study, we propose the use of the Degree of Alignment (DOA) in engineering applications for evaluating the precision of and identifying the transfer alignment on a moving base. First, we derive the statistical formula on the basis of estimations. Next, we design a scheme for evaluating the transfer alignment on a moving base, for which the attitude error cannot be directly measured. Then, we build a mathematic estimation model and discuss Fixed Point Smoothing (FPS), Returns to Scale (RTS), Inverted Sequence Recursive Estimation (ISRE), and Kalman filter estimation methods, which can be used when evaluating alignment accuracy. Our theoretical calculations and simulated analyses show that the DOA reflects not only the alignment time and accuracy but also differences in the maneuver schemes, and is suitable for use as an integrated evaluation index. Furthermore, all four of these algorithms can be used to identify the transfer alignment and evaluate its accuracy. We recommend RTS in particular for engineering applications. Generalized DOAs should be calculated according to the tactical requirements.

A generalized global alignment algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Xiaoqiu; Chao, Kun-Mao

2003-01-22

Homologous sequences are sometimes similar over some regions but different over other regions. Homologous sequences have a much lower global similarity if the different regions are much longer than the similar regions. We present a generalized global alignment algorithm for comparing sequences with intermittent similarities, an ordered list of similar regions separated by different regions. A generalized global alignment model is defined to handle sequences with intermittent similarities. A dynamic programming algorithm is designed to compute an optimal general alignment in time proportional to the product of sequence lengths and in space proportional to the sum of sequence lengths. The algorithm is implemented as a computer program named GAP3 (Global Alignment Program Version 3). The generalized global alignment model is validated by experimental results produced with GAP3 on both DNA and protein sequences. The GAP3 program extends the ability of standard global alignment programs to recognize homologous sequences of lower similarity. The GAP3 program is freely available for academic use at http://bioinformatics.iastate.edu/aat/align/align.html.

Track based alignment of the Mu3e detector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hartenstein, Ulrich [Institut fuer Kernphysik, Universitaet Mainz (Germany)

2016-07-01

The Mu3e experiment searches for the lepton flavor violating decay μ{sup +} → e{sup +}e{sup -}e{sup +} with a sensitivity goal for the branching fraction of better than 10{sup -16}. This process is heavily supressed in the standard model of particle physics (BR < 10{sup -50}) which makes an observation of this decay a clear indication of new physics. For track reconstruction, four barrel shaped layers consisting of about 3000 high-voltage monolithic active pixel sensors (HV-MAPS) are used. The position, orientation and possible deformations of these sensors must be known to greater precision than the assembly tolerances. A track based alignment via the General Broken Lines fit and the Millepede-II algorithm will be used to achieve this precision in the final detector. The talk discusses a study of the required alignment precision and preparations for aligning the detector using a detailed simulation.

Alignment of CT images of skull dysmorphology using anatomy-based perpendicular axes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoo, Sun K; Kim, Yong O; Kim, Hee-Joung; Kim, Nam H; Jang, Young Beom; Kim, Kee-Deog; Lee, Hye-Yeon

2003-01-01

Rigid body registration of 3D CT scans, based on manual identification of homologous landmarks, is useful for the visual analysis of skull dysmorphology. In this paper, a robust and simple alignment method was proposed to allow for the comparison of skull morphologies, within and between individuals with craniofacial anomalies, based on 3D CT scans, and the minimum number of anatomical landmarks, under rigidity and uniqueness constraints. Three perpendicular axes, extracted from anatomical landmarks, define the absolute coordinate system, through a rigid body transformation, to align multiple CT images for different patients and acquisition times. The accuracy of the alignment method depends on the accuracy of the localized landmarks and target points. The numerical simulation generalizes the accuracy requirements of the alignment method. Experiments using a human dried skull specimen, and ten sets of skull CT images (the pre- and post-operative CT scans of four plagiocephaly, and one fibrous dysplasia patients), demonstrated the feasibility of the technique in clinical practice

Theory of the deformation of aligned polyethylene.

Science.gov (United States)

Hammad, A; Swinburne, T D; Hasan, H; Del Rosso, S; Iannucci, L; Sutton, A P

2015-08-08

Solitons are proposed as the agents of plastic and viscoelastic deformation in aligned polyethylene. Interactions between straight, parallel molecules are mapped rigorously onto the Frenkel-Kontorova model. It is shown that these molecular interactions distribute an applied load between molecules, with a characteristic transfer length equal to the soliton width. Load transfer leads to the introduction of tensile and compressive solitons at the chain ends to mark the onset of plasticity at a well-defined yield stress, which is much less than the theoretical pull-out stress. Interaction energies between solitons and an equation of motion for solitons are derived. The equation of motion is based on Langevin dynamics and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem and it leads to the rigorous definition of an effective mass for solitons. It forms the basis of a soliton dynamics in direct analogy to dislocation dynamics. Close parallels are drawn between solitons in aligned polymers and dislocations in crystals, including the configurational force on a soliton. The origins of the strain rate and temperature dependencies of the viscoelastic behaviour are discussed in terms of the formation energy of solitons. A failure mechanism is proposed involving soliton condensation under a tensile load.

Coarse Alignment Technology on Moving base for SINS Based on the Improved Quaternion Filter Algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Tao; Zhu, Yongyun; Zhou, Feng; Yan, Yaxiong; Tong, Jinwu

2017-06-17

Initial alignment of the strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS) is intended to determine the initial attitude matrix in a short time with certain accuracy. The alignment accuracy of the quaternion filter algorithm is remarkable, but the convergence rate is slow. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an improved quaternion filter algorithm for faster initial alignment based on the error model of the quaternion filter algorithm. The improved quaternion filter algorithm constructs the K matrix based on the principle of optimal quaternion algorithm, and rebuilds the measurement model by containing acceleration and velocity errors to make the convergence rate faster. A doppler velocity log (DVL) provides the reference velocity for the improved quaternion filter alignment algorithm. In order to demonstrate the performance of the improved quaternion filter algorithm in the field, a turntable experiment and a vehicle test are carried out. The results of the experiments show that the convergence rate of the proposed improved quaternion filter is faster than that of the tradition quaternion filter algorithm. In addition, the improved quaternion filter algorithm also demonstrates advantages in terms of correctness, effectiveness, and practicability.

Kinematic analysis and experimental verification of a eccentric wheel based precision alignment mechanism for LINAC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mundra, G.; Jain, V.; Singh, K.K.; Saxena, P.; Khare, R.K.; Bagre, M.

2011-01-01

Eccentric wheel based precision alignment system was designed for the remote motorized alignment of proposed proton injector LINAC (SFDTL). As a part of the further development for the alignment and monitoring scheme, a menu driven alignment system is being developed. The paper describes a general kinematic equation (with base line tilt correction) based on the various parameters of the mechanism like eccentricity, wheel diameter, distance between the wheels and the diameter of the cylindrical accelerator component. Based on this equation the extent of the alignment range for the 4 degree of freedom is evaluated and analysis on some of the parameters variation and the theoretical accuracy/resolution is computed. For the same a computer program is written which can compute the various points for the each discrete position of the two motor combinations. The paper also describes the experimentally evaluated values of these positions (for the full extent of area) and the matching/comparison of the two data. These data now can be used for the movement computation required for alignment of the four motors (two front and two rear motors of the support structure). (author)

Alignment of global supply networks based on strategic groups of supply chains

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nikos G. Moraitakis

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Background: From a supply chain perspective, often big differences exist between global raw material suppliers’ approaches to supply their respective local markets. The progressing complexity of large centrally managed global supply networks and their often-unknown upstream ramifications increase the likelihood of undetected bottlenecks and inefficiencies. It is therefore necessary to develop an approach to strategically master the upstream complexity of such networks from a holistic supply chain perspective in order to align regional competitive priorities and supply chain structures. The objective of this research is hence to develop an approach for the supply-chain-based alignment of complex global supply networks. Method: We review existing literature from the fields of supply chain and network management, strategic sourcing, and strategic management. Based on the literature review and theoretical and practical considerations we deduce a conceptual approach to consider upstream supply chain structures in supply network alignment initiatives. Results: On the basis of these considerations and current empirical literature we transfer strategic group theory to the supply network management context. The proposed approach introduces strategic groups of supply chains as a segmentation criterion for complex global supply networks which enables the network-wide alignment of competitive priorities. Conclusion: Supply-chain-based segmentation of global supply network structures can effectively reduce the complexity, firms face when aiming to strategically align their supply chains on a holistic level. The results of this research are applicable for certain types of global supply networks and can be used for network alignment and strategy development. The approach can furthermore generate insights useable for negotiation support with suppliers.

AlignMiner: a Web-based tool for detection of divergent regions in multiple sequence alignments of conserved sequences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claros M Gonzalo

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Multiple sequence alignments are used to study gene or protein function, phylogenetic relations, genome evolution hypotheses and even gene polymorphisms. Virtually without exception, all available tools focus on conserved segments or residues. Small divergent regions, however, are biologically important for specific quantitative polymerase chain reaction, genotyping, molecular markers and preparation of specific antibodies, and yet have received little attention. As a consequence, they must be selected empirically by the researcher. AlignMiner has been developed to fill this gap in bioinformatic analyses. Results AlignMiner is a Web-based application for detection of conserved and divergent regions in alignments of conserved sequences, focusing particularly on divergence. It accepts alignments (protein or nucleic acid obtained using any of a variety of algorithms, which does not appear to have a significant impact on the final results. AlignMiner uses different scoring methods for assessing conserved/divergent regions, Entropy being the method that provides the highest number of regions with the greatest length, and Weighted being the most restrictive. Conserved/divergent regions can be generated either with respect to the consensus sequence or to one master sequence. The resulting data are presented in a graphical interface developed in AJAX, which provides remarkable user interaction capabilities. Users do not need to wait until execution is complete and can.even inspect their results on a different computer. Data can be downloaded onto a user disk, in standard formats. In silico and experimental proof-of-concept cases have shown that AlignMiner can be successfully used to designing specific polymerase chain reaction primers as well as potential epitopes for antibodies. Primer design is assisted by a module that deploys several oligonucleotide parameters for designing primers "on the fly". Conclusions AlignMiner can be used

Optimal alignment of mirror based pentaprisms for scanning deflectometric devices

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barber, Samuel K.; Geckeler, Ralf D.; Yashchuk, Valeriy V.; Gubarev, Mikhail V.; Buchheim, Jana; Siewert, Frank; Zeschke, Thomas

2011-03-04

In the recent work [Proc. of SPIE 7801, 7801-2/1-12 (2010), Opt. Eng. 50(5) (2011), in press], we have reported on improvement of the Developmental Long Trace Profiler (DLTP), a slope measuring profiler available at the Advanced Light Source Optical Metrology Laboratory, achieved by replacing the bulk pentaprism with a mirror based pentaprism (MBPP). An original experimental procedure for optimal mutual alignment of the MBPP mirrors has been suggested and verified with numerical ray tracing simulations. It has been experimentally shown that the optimally aligned MBPP allows the elimination of systematic errors introduced by inhomogeneity of the optical material and fabrication imperfections of the bulk pentaprism. In the present article, we provide the analytical derivation and verification of easily executed optimal alignment algorithms for two different designs of mirror based pentaprisms. We also provide an analytical description for the mechanism for reduction of the systematic errors introduced by a typical high quality bulk pentaprism. It is also shown that residual misalignments of an MBPP introduce entirely negligible systematic errors in surface slope measurements with scanning deflectometric devices.

Design and fabrication of a eccentric wheels based motorised alignment mechanism for cylindrical accelerator components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mundra, G.; Jain, V.; Karmarkar, Mangesh; Kotaiah, S.

2006-01-01

Precision alignment mechanisms with long term stability are required for accelerator components. For some of the components motorised and remotely operable alignment mechanism are required. An eccentric wheel mechanism based alignment system is very much suitable for such application. One such alignment system is designed, a prototype is machined/fabricated for SFDTL type accelerating structure and preliminary trial experiments have been done. (author)

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

G. Gomez

2011-01-01

A new set of muon alignment constants was approved in August. The relative position between muon chambers is essentially unchanged, indicating good detector stability. The main changes concern the global positioning of the barrel and of the endcap rings to match the new Tracker geometry. Detailed studies of the differences between track-based and optical alignment of DTs have proven to be a valuable tool for constraining Tracker alignment weak modes, and this information is now being used as part of the alignment procedure. In addition to the “split-cosmic” analysis used to investigate the muon momentum resolution at high momentum, a new procedure based on reconstructing the invariant mass of di-muons from boosted Zs is under development. Both procedures show an improvement in the momentum precision of Global Muons with respect to Tracker-only Muons. Recent developments in track-based alignment include a better treatment of the tails of residual distributions and accounting for correla...

Coordination Analysis Using Global Structural Constraints and Alignment-based Local Features

Science.gov (United States)

Hara, Kazuo; Shimbo, Masashi; Matsumoto, Yuji

We propose a hybrid approach to coordinate structure analysis that combines a simple grammar to ensure consistent global structure of coordinations in a sentence, and features based on sequence alignment to capture local symmetry of conjuncts. The weight of the alignment-based features, which in turn determines the score of coordinate structures, is optimized by perceptron training on a given corpus. A bottom-up chart parsing algorithm efficiently finds the best scoring structure, taking both nested or non-overlapping flat coordinations into account. We demonstrate that our approach outperforms existing parsers in coordination scope detection on the Genia corpus.

Oriented Edge-Based Feature Descriptor for Multi-Sensor Image Alignment and Enhancement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Myung-Ho Ju

2013-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we present an efficient image alignment and enhancement method for multi-sensor images. The shape of the object captured in a multi-sensor images can be determined by comparing variability of contrast using corresponding edges across multi-sensor image. Using this cue, we construct a robust feature descriptor based on the magnitudes of the oriented edges. Our proposed method enables fast image alignment by identifying matching features in multi-sensor images. We enhance the aligned multi-sensor images through the fusion of the salient regions from each image. The results of stitching the multi-sensor images and their enhancement demonstrate that our proposed method can align and enhance multi-sensor images more efficiently than previous methods.

Some Alignment Considerations for the Next Linear Collider

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruland, R

2004-01-01

Next Linear Collider type accelerators require a new level of alignment quality. The relative alignment of these machines is to be maintained in an error envelope dimensioned in micrometers and for certain parts in nanometers. In the nanometer domain our terra firma cannot be considered monolithic but compares closer to jelly. Since conventional optical alignment methods cannot deal with the dynamics and cannot approach the level of accuracy, special alignment and monitoring techniques must be pursued

GapMis: a tool for pairwise sequence alignment with a single gap.

Science.gov (United States)

Flouri, Tomás; Frousios, Kimon; Iliopoulos, Costas S; Park, Kunsoo; Pissis, Solon P; Tischler, German

2013-08-01

Pairwise sequence alignment has received a new motivation due to the advent of recent patents in next-generation sequencing technologies, particularly so for the application of re-sequencing---the assembly of a genome directed by a reference sequence. After the fast alignment between a factor of the reference sequence and a high-quality fragment of a short read by a short-read alignment programme, an important problem is to find the alignment between a relatively short succeeding factor of the reference sequence and the remaining low-quality part of the read allowing a number of mismatches and the insertion of a single gap in the alignment. We present GapMis, a tool for pairwise sequence alignment with a single gap. It is based on a simple algorithm, which computes a different version of the traditional dynamic programming matrix. The presented experimental results demonstrate that GapMis is more suitable and efficient than most popular tools for this task.

GraphAlignment: Bayesian pairwise alignment of biological networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kolář Michal

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background With increased experimental availability and accuracy of bio-molecular networks, tools for their comparative and evolutionary analysis are needed. A key component for such studies is the alignment of networks. Results We introduce the Bioconductor package GraphAlignment for pairwise alignment of bio-molecular networks. The alignment incorporates information both from network vertices and network edges and is based on an explicit evolutionary model, allowing inference of all scoring parameters directly from empirical data. We compare the performance of our algorithm to an alternative algorithm, Græmlin 2.0. On simulated data, GraphAlignment outperforms Græmlin 2.0 in several benchmarks except for computational complexity. When there is little or no noise in the data, GraphAlignment is slower than Græmlin 2.0. It is faster than Græmlin 2.0 when processing noisy data containing spurious vertex associations. Its typical case complexity grows approximately as O(N2.6. On empirical bacterial protein-protein interaction networks (PIN and gene co-expression networks, GraphAlignment outperforms Græmlin 2.0 with respect to coverage and specificity, albeit by a small margin. On large eukaryotic PIN, Græmlin 2.0 outperforms GraphAlignment. Conclusions The GraphAlignment algorithm is robust to spurious vertex associations, correctly resolves paralogs, and shows very good performance in identification of homologous vertices defined by high vertex and/or interaction similarity. The simplicity and generality of GraphAlignment edge scoring makes the algorithm an appropriate choice for global alignment of networks.

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

Z. Szillasi and G. Gomez.

2013-01-01

When CMS is opened up, major components of the Link and Barrel Alignment systems will be removed. This operation, besides allowing for maintenance of the detector underneath, is needed for making interventions that will reinforce the alignment measurements and make the operation of the alignment system more reliable. For that purpose and also for their general maintenance and recalibration, the alignment components will be transferred to the Alignment Lab situated in the ISR area. For the track-based alignment, attention is focused on the determination of systematic uncertainties, which have become dominant, since now there is a large statistics of muon tracks. This will allow for an improved Monte Carlo misalignment scenario and updated alignment position errors, crucial for high-momentum muon analysis such as Z′ searches.

Enhanced spatio-temporal alignment of plantar pressure image sequences using B-splines.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira, Francisco P M; Tavares, João Manuel R S

2013-03-01

This article presents an enhanced methodology to align plantar pressure image sequences simultaneously in time and space. The temporal alignment of the sequences is accomplished using B-splines in the time modeling, and the spatial alignment can be attained using several geometric transformation models. The methodology was tested on a dataset of 156 real plantar pressure image sequences (3 sequences for each foot of the 26 subjects) that was acquired using a common commercial plate during barefoot walking. In the alignment of image sequences that were synthetically deformed both in time and space, an outstanding accuracy was achieved with the cubic B-splines. This accuracy was significantly better (p align real image sequences with unknown transformation involved, the alignment based on cubic B-splines also achieved superior results than our previous methodology (p alignment on the dynamic center of pressure (COP) displacement was also assessed by computing the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) before and after the temporal alignment of the three image sequence trials of each foot of the associated subject at six time instants. The results showed that, generally, the ICCs related to the medio-lateral COP displacement were greater when the sequences were temporally aligned than the ICCs of the original sequences. Based on the experimental findings, one can conclude that the cubic B-splines are a remarkable solution for the temporal alignment of plantar pressure image sequences. These findings also show that the temporal alignment can increase the consistency of the COP displacement on related acquired plantar pressure image sequences.

A Dynamic Alignment System for the Final Focus Test Beam

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruland, R.E.; Bressler, V.E.; Fischer, G.; Plouffe, D.; SLAC

2005-01-01

The Final Focus Test Beam (FFTB) was conceived as a technological stepping stone on the way to the next linear collider. Nowhere is this more evident than with the alignment subsystems. Alignment tolerances for components prior to beam turn are almost an order of magnitude smaller than for previous projects at SLAC. Position monitoring systems which operate independent of the beam are employed to monitor motions of the components locally and globally with unprecedented precision. An overview of the FFTB alignment system is presented herein

pyPaSWAS: Python-based multi-core CPU and GPU sequence alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Warris, Sven; Timal, N Roshan N; Kempenaar, Marcel; Poortinga, Arne M; van de Geest, Henri; Varbanescu, Ana L; Nap, Jan-Peter

2018-01-01

Our previously published CUDA-only application PaSWAS for Smith-Waterman (SW) sequence alignment of any type of sequence on NVIDIA-based GPUs is platform-specific and therefore adopted less than could be. The OpenCL language is supported more widely and allows use on a variety of hardware platforms. Moreover, there is a need to promote the adoption of parallel computing in bioinformatics by making its use and extension more simple through more and better application of high-level languages commonly used in bioinformatics, such as Python. The novel application pyPaSWAS presents the parallel SW sequence alignment code fully packed in Python. It is a generic SW implementation running on several hardware platforms with multi-core systems and/or GPUs that provides accurate sequence alignments that also can be inspected for alignment details. Additionally, pyPaSWAS support the affine gap penalty. Python libraries are used for automated system configuration, I/O and logging. This way, the Python environment will stimulate further extension and use of pyPaSWAS. pyPaSWAS presents an easy Python-based environment for accurate and retrievable parallel SW sequence alignments on GPUs and multi-core systems. The strategy of integrating Python with high-performance parallel compute languages to create a developer- and user-friendly environment should be considered for other computationally intensive bioinformatics algorithms.

Beam-based alignment at the KEK-ATF damping ring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woodley, Mark D.; Nelson, Janice; Ross, Marc; Turner, James; Wolski, A.; Kubo, Kiyoshi

2004-01-01

The damping rings of a future linear collider will have demanding alignment and stability requirements in order to achieve the low vertical emittance necessary for high luminosity. The Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) at KEK has successfully demonstrated the vertical emittance below 5 pm that is specified for the GLC/NLC Main Damping Rings. One contribution to this accomplishment has been the use of Beam Based Alignment (BBA) techniques. The mode of operation of the ATF presents particular challenges for BBA, and we describe here how we have deduced the offsets of the BPMs with respect to the quadrupoles. We also discuss a technique that allows for direct measurements of the beam-to-quad offsets

Biaxial magnetic grain alignment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Staines, M.; Genoud, J.-Y.; Mawdsley, A.; Manojlovic, V.

2000-01-01

Full text: We describe a dynamic magnetic grain alignment technique which can be used to produce YBCO thick films with a high degree of biaxial texture. The technique is, however, generally applicable to preparing ceramics or composite materials from granular materials with orthorhombic or lower crystal symmetry and is therefore not restricted to superconducting applications. Because magnetic alignment is a bulk effect, textured substrates are not required, unlike epitaxial coated tape processes such as RABiTS. We have used the technique to produce thick films of Y-247 on untextured silver substrates. After processing to Y-123 the films show a clear enhancement of critical current density relative to identically prepared untextured or uniaxially textured samples. We describe procedures for preparing materials using magnetic biaxial grain alignment with the emphasis on alignment in epoxy, which can give extremely high texture. X-ray rocking curves with FWHM of as little as 1-2 degrees have been measured

Dynamic knee alignment and collateral knee laxity and its variations in normal humans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kamal eDeep

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Alignment of normal, arthritic and replaced human knees is a much debated subject as is the collateral ligamentous laxity. Traditional quantitative values have been challenged. Methods used to measure these are also not without flaws. Authors review the recent literature and a novel method of measurement of these values has been included. This method includes use of computer navigation technique in clinic setting for assessment of the normal or affected knee before the surgery. Computer navigation has been known for achievement of alignment accuracy during knee surgery. Now its use in clinic setting has added to the inventory of measurement methods. Authors dispel the common myth of straight mechanical axis in normal knees and also look at quantification of amount of collateral knee laxity. Based on the scientific studies it has been shown that the mean alignment is in varus in normal knees. It changes from lying non weight bearing position to standing weight bearing position in both coronal and the sagittal planes. It also varies with gender and race. The collateral laxity is also different for males and females. Further studies are needed to define the ideal alignment and collateral laxity which the surgeon should aim for individual knees.

Sequential Optimization of Global Sequence Alignments Relative to Different Cost Functions

KAUST Repository

Odat, Enas M.

2011-05-01

The purpose of this dissertation is to present a methodology to model global sequence alignment problem as directed acyclic graph which helps to extract all possible optimal alignments. Moreover, a mechanism to sequentially optimize sequence alignment problem relative to different cost functions is suggested. Sequence alignment is mostly important in computational biology. It is used to find evolutionary relationships between biological sequences. There are many algo- rithms that have been developed to solve this problem. The most famous algorithms are Needleman-Wunsch and Smith-Waterman that are based on dynamic program- ming. In dynamic programming, problem is divided into a set of overlapping sub- problems and then the solution of each subproblem is found. Finally, the solutions to these subproblems are combined into a final solution. In this thesis it has been proved that for two sequences of length m and n over a fixed alphabet, the suggested optimization procedure requires O(mn) arithmetic operations per cost function on a single processor machine. The algorithm has been simulated using C#.Net programming language and a number of experiments have been done to verify the proved statements. The results of these experiments show that the number of optimal alignments is reduced after each step of optimization. Furthermore, it has been verified that as the sequence length increased linearly then the number of optimal alignments increased exponentially which also depends on the cost function that is used. Finally, the number of executed operations increases polynomially as the sequence length increase linearly.

RevTrans: multiple alignment of coding DNA from aligned amino acid sequences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wernersson, Rasmus; Pedersen, Anders Gorm

2003-01-01

The simple fact that proteins are built from 20 amino acids while DNA only contains four different bases, means that the 'signal-to-noise ratio' in protein sequence alignments is much better than in alignments of DNA. Besides this information-theoretical advantage, protein alignments also benefit...... proteins. It is therefore preferable to align coding DNA at the amino acid level and it is for this purpose we have constructed the program RevTrans. RevTrans constructs a multiple DNA alignment by: (i) translating the DNA; (ii) aligning the resulting peptide sequences; and (iii) building a multiple DNA...

Critical thresholds in flocking hydrodynamics with non-local alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Tadmor, Eitan; Tan, Changhui

2014-11-13

We study the large-time behaviour of Eulerian systems augmented with non-local alignment. Such systems arise as hydrodynamic descriptions of agent-based models for self-organized dynamics, e.g. Cucker & Smale (2007 IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 52, 852-862. (doi:10.1109/TAC.2007.895842)) and Motsch & Tadmor (2011 J. Stat. Phys. 144, 923-947. (doi:10.1007/s10955-011-0285-9)) models. We prove that, in analogy with the agent-based models, the presence of non-local alignment enforces strong solutions to self-organize into a macroscopic flock. This then raises the question of existence of such strong solutions. We address this question in one- and two-dimensional set-ups, proving global regularity for subcritical initial data. Indeed, we show that there exist critical thresholds in the phase space of the initial configuration which dictate the global regularity versus a finite-time blow-up. In particular, we explore the regularity of non-local alignment in the presence of vacuum. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Agent Based Model in SAS Environment for Rail Transit System Alignment Determination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I Made Indradjaja Brunner

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Transit system had been proposed for the urban area of Honolulu. One consideration to be determined is the alignment of the transit system. Decision to set the transit alignment will have influences on which areas will be served, who will be benefiting, as well as who will be impacted. Inputs for the decision usually conducted through public meetings, where community members are shown numbers of maps with pre-set routes. That approach could lead to a rather subjective decision by the community members. This paper attempts to discuss the utilization of grid map in determining the best alignment for rail transit system in Honolulu, Hawaii. It tries to use a more objective approach using various data derived from thematic maps. Overlaid maps are aggregated into a uniform 0.1-square mile vector based grid map system in GIS environment. The large dataset in the GIS environment is analyzed and manipulated using SAS software. The SAS procedure is applied to select the location of the alignment using a rational and deterministic approach. Grid cells that are superior compared to the others are selected based on several predefined criteria. Location of the dominant cells indicates possible transit alignment. The SAS procedure is designed to allow a transient vector called the GUIDE (Grid Unit with Intelligent Directional Expertise agent to analyze several cells at its vicinity and to move towards a cell with the highest value. Each time the agent landed on a cell, it left a mark. The chain of those marks shows location for the transit alignment. This study shows that the combination of ArcGIS and SAS allows a robust analysis of spatial data and manipulation of its datasets, which can be used to run a simulation mimicking the Agent-Based Modelling. This study also opens up further study possibilities by increasing number of factors analyzed by the agent, as well as creating a composite value of multi-factors.

Toward a view-oriented approach for aligning RDF-based biomedical repositories.

Science.gov (United States)

Anguita, A; García-Remesal, M; de la Iglesia, D; Graf, N; Maojo, V

2015-01-01

This article is part of the Focus Theme of METHODS of Information in Medicine on "Managing Interoperability and Complexity in Health Systems". The need for complementary access to multiple RDF databases has fostered new lines of research, but also entailed new challenges due to data representation disparities. While several approaches for RDF-based database integration have been proposed, those focused on schema alignment have become the most widely adopted. All state-of-the-art solutions for aligning RDF-based sources resort to a simple technique inherited from legacy relational database integration methods. This technique - known as element-to-element (e2e) mappings - is based on establishing 1:1 mappings between single primitive elements - e.g. concepts, attributes, relationships, etc. - belonging to the source and target schemas. However, due to the intrinsic nature of RDF - a representation language based on defining tuples -, one may find RDF elements whose semantics vary dramatically when combined into a view involving other RDF elements - i.e. they depend on their context. The latter cannot be adequately represented in the target schema by resorting to the traditional e2e approach. These approaches fail to properly address this issue without explicitly modifying the target ontology, thus lacking the required expressiveness for properly reflecting the intended semantics in the alignment information. To enhance existing RDF schema alignment techniques by providing a mechanism to properly represent elements with context-dependent semantics, thus enabling users to perform more expressive alignments, including scenarios that cannot be adequately addressed by the existing approaches. Instead of establishing 1:1 correspondences between single primitive elements of the schemas, we propose adopting a view-based approach. The latter is targeted at establishing mapping relationships between RDF subgraphs - that can be regarded as the equivalent of views in traditional

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

M. Dallavalle

2013-01-01

A new Muon misalignment scenario for 2011 (7 TeV) Monte Carlo re-processing was re-leased. The scenario is based on running of standard track-based reference-target algorithm (exactly as in data) using single-muon simulated sample (with the transverse-momentum spectrum matching data). It used statistics similar to what was used for alignment with 2011 data, starting from an initially misaligned Muon geometry from uncertainties of hardware measurements and using the latest Tracker misalignment geometry. Validation of the scenario (with muons from Z decay and high-pT simulated muons) shows that it describes data well. The study of systematic uncertainties (dominant by now due to huge amount of data collected by CMS and used for muon alignment) is finalised. Realistic alignment position errors are being obtained from the estimated uncertainties and are expected to improve the muon reconstruction performance. Concerning the Hardware Alignment System, the upgrade of the Barrel Alignment is in progress. By now, d...

Comparison of LHC collimator beam-based alignment to BPM-Interpolated centers

CERN Document Server

Valentino, G; Assmann, R W; Bruce, R; Muller, G J; Redaelli, S; Rossi, A; Lari, L

2012-01-01

The beam centers at the Large Hadron Collider collimators are determined by beam-based alignment, where both jaws of a collimator are moved in separately until a loss spike is detected on a Beam LossMonitor downstream. Orbit drifts of more than a few hundred micrometers cannot be tolerated, as they would compromise the performance of the collimation system. Beam Position Monitors (BPMs) are installed at various locations around the LHC ring, and a linear interpolation of the orbit can be obtained at the collimator positions. In this paper, the results obtained from beam-based alignment are compared with the orbit interpolated from the BPM data throughout the 2011 and 2012 LHC proton runs.

Track-Based Alignment of the Inner Detector of ATLAS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ovcharova Ana

2012-06-01

Full Text Available ATLAS is a multipurpose experiment at the LHC. The tracking system of ATLAS, embedded in a 2 T solenoidal field, is composed of different technologies: silicon planar sensors (pixel and microstrips and drift-tubes. The procedure used to align the ATLAS tracker and the results of the alignment using data recorded during 2010 and 2011 using LHC proton-proton collision runs at 7 TeV are presented. Validation of the alignment is performed by measuring the alignment observables as well as many other physics observables, notably resonance invariant masses in a wide mass range (KS, J/Ψ and Z. The E/p distributions for electrons from Z → ee and W → ev are also extensively used. The results indicate that, after the alignment with real data, the attained precision of the alignment constants is approximately 5 μm. The systematic errors due to the alignment that may affect physics results are under study.

Ontology Alignment Repair through Modularization and Confidence-Based Heuristics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emanuel Santos

Full Text Available Ontology Matching aims at identifying a set of semantic correspondences, called an alignment, between related ontologies. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in efficient and effective matching methods for large ontologies. However, alignments produced for large ontologies are often logically incoherent. It was only recently that the use of repair techniques to improve the coherence of ontology alignments began to be explored. This paper presents a novel modularization technique for ontology alignment repair which extracts fragments of the input ontologies that only contain the necessary classes and relations to resolve all detectable incoherences. The paper presents also an alignment repair algorithm that uses a global repair strategy to minimize both the degree of incoherence and the number of mappings removed from the alignment, while overcoming the scalability problem by employing the proposed modularization technique. Our evaluation shows that our modularization technique produces significantly small fragments of the ontologies and that our repair algorithm produces more complete alignments than other current alignment repair systems, while obtaining an equivalent degree of incoherence. Additionally, we also present a variant of our repair algorithm that makes use of the confidence values of the mappings to improve alignment repair. Our repair algorithm was implemented as part of AgreementMakerLight, a free and open-source ontology matching system.

Ontology Alignment Repair through Modularization and Confidence-Based Heuristics.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Emanuel; Faria, Daniel; Pesquita, Catia; Couto, Francisco M

2015-01-01

Ontology Matching aims at identifying a set of semantic correspondences, called an alignment, between related ontologies. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in efficient and effective matching methods for large ontologies. However, alignments produced for large ontologies are often logically incoherent. It was only recently that the use of repair techniques to improve the coherence of ontology alignments began to be explored. This paper presents a novel modularization technique for ontology alignment repair which extracts fragments of the input ontologies that only contain the necessary classes and relations to resolve all detectable incoherences. The paper presents also an alignment repair algorithm that uses a global repair strategy to minimize both the degree of incoherence and the number of mappings removed from the alignment, while overcoming the scalability problem by employing the proposed modularization technique. Our evaluation shows that our modularization technique produces significantly small fragments of the ontologies and that our repair algorithm produces more complete alignments than other current alignment repair systems, while obtaining an equivalent degree of incoherence. Additionally, we also present a variant of our repair algorithm that makes use of the confidence values of the mappings to improve alignment repair. Our repair algorithm was implemented as part of AgreementMakerLight, a free and open-source ontology matching system.

Accurate and robust brain image alignment using boundary-based registration.

Science.gov (United States)

Greve, Douglas N; Fischl, Bruce

2009-10-15

The fine spatial scales of the structures in the human brain represent an enormous challenge to the successful integration of information from different images for both within- and between-subject analysis. While many algorithms to register image pairs from the same subject exist, visual inspection shows that their accuracy and robustness to be suspect, particularly when there are strong intensity gradients and/or only part of the brain is imaged. This paper introduces a new algorithm called Boundary-Based Registration, or BBR. The novelty of BBR is that it treats the two images very differently. The reference image must be of sufficient resolution and quality to extract surfaces that separate tissue types. The input image is then aligned to the reference by maximizing the intensity gradient across tissue boundaries. Several lower quality images can be aligned through their alignment with the reference. Visual inspection and fMRI results show that BBR is more accurate than correlation ratio or normalized mutual information and is considerably more robust to even strong intensity inhomogeneities. BBR also excels at aligning partial-brain images to whole-brain images, a domain in which existing registration algorithms frequently fail. Even in the limit of registering a single slice, we show the BBR results to be robust and accurate.

Investigating conversational dynamics: Interactive alignment, Interpersonal synergy, and collective task performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fusaroli, Riccardo; Tylén, Kristian

2016-01-01

This study investigates interpersonal processes underlying dialog by comparing two approaches, interactive alignment and interpersonal synergy, and assesses how they predict collective performance in a joint task. While the interactive alignment approach highlights imitative patterns between...... and their impact on collective performance in a corpus of task-oriented conversations. The results show statistical presence of patterns relevant for both approaches. However, synergetic aspects of dialog provide the best statistical predictors of collective performance and adding aspects of the alignment approach...... does not improve the model. This suggests that structural organization at the level of the interaction plays a crucial role in task-oriented conversations, possibly constraining and integrating processes related to alignment....

Dynamic mechanical analysis and high strain-rate energy absorption characteristics of vertically aligned carbon nanotube reinforced woven fiber-glass composites

Science.gov (United States)

The dynamic mechanical behavior and energy absorption characteristics of nano-enhanced functionally graded composites, consisting of 3 layers of vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) forests grown on woven fiber-glass (FG) layer and embedded within 10 layers of woven FG, with polyester (PE) and...

Three-dimensional hindfoot alignment measurements based on biplanar radiographs: comparison with standard radiographic measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sutter, Reto; Pfirrmann, Christian W.A.; Buck, Florian M.; Espinosa, Norman

2013-01-01

To establish a hindfoot alignment measurement technique based on low-dose biplanar radiographs and compare with hindfoot alignment measurements on long axial view radiographs, which is the current reference standard. Long axial view radiographs and low-dose biplanar radiographs of a phantom consisting of a human foot skeleton embedded in acrylic glass (phantom A) and a plastic model of a human foot in three different hindfoot positions (phantoms B1-B3) were imaged in different foot positions (20 internal to 20 external rotation). Two independent readers measured hindfoot alignment on long axial view radiographs and performed 3D hindfoot alignment measurements based on biplanar radiographs on two different occasions. Time for three-dimensional (3D) measurements was determined. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated. Hindfoot alignment measurements on long axial view radiographs were characterized by a large positional variation, with a range of 14 /13 valgus to 22 /27 varus (reader 1/2 for phantom A), whereas the range of 3D hindfoot alignment measurements was 7.3 /6.0 to 9.0 /10.5 varus (reader 1/2 for phantom A), with a mean and standard deviation of 8.1 ± 0.6/8.7 ± 1.4 respectively. Interobserver agreement was high (ICC = 0.926 for phantom A, and ICC = 0.886 for phantoms B1-B3), and agreement between different readouts was high (ICC = 0.895-0.995 for reader 1, and ICC = 0.987-0.994 for reader 2) for 3D measurements. Mean duration of 3D measurements was 84 ± 15/113 ± 15 s for reader 1/2. Three-dimensional hindfoot alignment measurements based on biplanar radiographs were independent of foot positioning during image acquisition and reader independent. In this phantom study, the 3D measurements were substantially more precise than the standard radiographic measurements. (orig.)

A unified model for transfer alignment at random misalignment angles based on second-order EKF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cui, Xiao; Qin, Yongyuan; Yan, Gongmin; Liu, Zhenbo; Mei, Chunbo

2017-01-01

In the transfer alignment process of inertial navigation systems (INSs), the conventional linear error model based on the small misalignment angle assumption cannot be applied to large misalignment situations. Furthermore, the nonlinear model based on the large misalignment angle suffers from redundant computation with nonlinear filters. This paper presents a unified model for transfer alignment suitable for arbitrary misalignment angles. The alignment problem is transformed into an estimation of the relative attitude between the master INS (MINS) and the slave INS (SINS), by decomposing the attitude matrix of the latter. Based on the Rodriguez parameters, a unified alignment model in the inertial frame with the linear state-space equation and a second order nonlinear measurement equation are established, without making any assumptions about the misalignment angles. Furthermore, we employ the Taylor series expansions on the second-order nonlinear measurement equation to implement the second-order extended Kalman filter (EKF2). Monte-Carlo simulations demonstrate that the initial alignment can be fulfilled within 10 s, with higher accuracy and much smaller computational cost compared with the traditional unscented Kalman filter (UKF) at large misalignment angles. (paper)

A unified model for transfer alignment at random misalignment angles based on second-order EKF

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Xiao; Mei, Chunbo; Qin, Yongyuan; Yan, Gongmin; Liu, Zhenbo

2017-04-01

In the transfer alignment process of inertial navigation systems (INSs), the conventional linear error model based on the small misalignment angle assumption cannot be applied to large misalignment situations. Furthermore, the nonlinear model based on the large misalignment angle suffers from redundant computation with nonlinear filters. This paper presents a unified model for transfer alignment suitable for arbitrary misalignment angles. The alignment problem is transformed into an estimation of the relative attitude between the master INS (MINS) and the slave INS (SINS), by decomposing the attitude matrix of the latter. Based on the Rodriguez parameters, a unified alignment model in the inertial frame with the linear state-space equation and a second order nonlinear measurement equation are established, without making any assumptions about the misalignment angles. Furthermore, we employ the Taylor series expansions on the second-order nonlinear measurement equation to implement the second-order extended Kalman filter (EKF2). Monte-Carlo simulations demonstrate that the initial alignment can be fulfilled within 10 s, with higher accuracy and much smaller computational cost compared with the traditional unscented Kalman filter (UKF) at large misalignment angles.

Residual dipolar couplings: are multiple independent alignments always possible?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Higman, Victoria A.; Boyd, Jonathan; Smith, Lorna J.; Redfield, Christina

2011-01-01

RDCs for the 14 kDa protein hen egg-white lysozyme (HEWL) have been measured in eight different alignment media. The elongated shape and strongly positively charged surface of HEWL appear to limit the protein to four main alignment orientations. Furthermore, low levels of alignment and the protein’s interaction with some alignment media increases the experimental error. Together with heterogeneity across the alignment media arising from constraints on temperature, pH and ionic strength for some alignment media, these data are suitable for structure refinement, but not the extraction of dynamic parameters. For an analysis of protein dynamics the data must be obtained with very low errors in at least three or five independent alignment media (depending on the method used) and so far, such data have only been reported for three small 6–8 kDa proteins with identical folds: ubiquitin, GB1 and GB3. Our results suggest that HEWL is likely to be representative of many other medium to large sized proteins commonly studied by solution NMR. Comparisons with over 60 high-resolution crystal structures of HEWL reveal that the highest resolution structures are not necessarily always the best models for the protein structure in solution.

Constructive Alignment for Teaching Model-Based Design for Concurrency

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brabrand, Claus

2007-01-01

"How can we make sure our students learn what we want them to?" is the number one question in teaching. This paper is intended to provide the reader with: i) a general answer to this question based on the theory of constructive alignment by John Biggs; ii) relevant insights for bringing this answer...

Structure based alignment and clustering of proteins (STRALCP)

Science.gov (United States)

Zemla, Adam T.; Zhou, Carol E.; Smith, Jason R.; Lam, Marisa W.

2013-06-18

Disclosed are computational methods of clustering a set of protein structures based on local and pair-wise global similarity values. Pair-wise local and global similarity values are generated based on pair-wise structural alignments for each protein in the set of protein structures. Initially, the protein structures are clustered based on pair-wise local similarity values. The protein structures are then clustered based on pair-wise global similarity values. For each given cluster both a representative structure and spans of conserved residues are identified. The representative protein structure is used to assign newly-solved protein structures to a group. The spans are used to characterize conservation and assign a "structural footprint" to the cluster.

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

G. Gomez

Since December, the muon alignment community has focused on analyzing the data recorded so far in order to produce new DT and CSC Alignment Records for the second reprocessing of CRAFT data. Two independent algorithms were developed which align the DT chambers using global tracks, thus providing, for the first time, a relative alignment of the barrel with respect to the tracker. These results are an important ingredient for the second CRAFT reprocessing and allow, for example, a more detailed study of any possible mis-modelling of the magnetic field in the muon spectrometer. Both algorithms are constructed in such a way that the resulting alignment constants are not affected, to first order, by any such mis-modelling. The CSC chambers have not yet been included in this global track-based alignment due to a lack of statistics, since only a few cosmics go through the tracker and the CSCs. A strategy exists to align the CSCs using the barrel as a reference until collision tracks become available. Aligning the ...

Graphene as transmissive electrodes and aligning layers for liquid-crystal-based electro-optic devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Basu, Rajratan; Shalov, Samuel A

2017-07-01

In a conventional liquid crystal (LC) cell, polyimide layers are used to align the LC homogeneously in the cell, and transmissive indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes are used to apply the electric field to reorient the LC along the field. It is experimentally presented here that monolayer graphene films on the two glass substrates can function concurrently as the LC aligning layers and the transparent electrodes to fabricate an LC cell, without using the conventional polyimide and ITO substrates. This replacement can effectively decrease the thickness of all the alignment layers and electrodes from about 100 nm to less than 1 nm. The interaction between LC and graphene through π-π electron stacking imposes a planar alignment on the LC in the graphene-based cell-which is verified using a crossed polarized microscope. The graphene-based LC cell exhibits an excellent nematic director reorientation process from planar to homeotropic configuration through the application of an electric field-which is probed by dielectric and electro-optic measurements. Finally, it is shown that the electro-optic switching is significantly faster in the graphene-based LC cell than in a conventional ITO-polyimide LC cell.

Alignment and stability of future machines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shiltsev, V.D.

1996-06-01

Leading accelerator laboratories mount serious efforts in alignment and vibration studies concerning stability of future accelerator facilities such as photon and meson factories, future linear colliders (LCs), and hadron supercolliders (HCs). Some 200 publications covered the topic since late 80s, following pioneering works of G.E. Fischer. Four International workshops on accelerator alignment were held since 1989 at SLAC, DESY, CERN and KEK. The SSCL hosted the workshop on vibration control and dynamic alignment (1992). This article briefly covers some present achievements and issues in the field. We discuss major effects and tolerances for the future accelerators, results of measurements up-to-date, correction techniques and make some conclusions

Grasping Beer Mugs: On the Dynamics of Alignment Effects Induced by Handled Objects

Science.gov (United States)

Bub, Daniel N.; Masson, Michael E. J.

2010-01-01

We examined automatic spatial alignment effects evoked by handled objects. Using color as the relevant cue carried by an irrelevant handled object aligned or misaligned with the response hand, responses to color were faster when the handle aligned with the response hand. Alignment effects were observed only when the task was to make a reach and…

Dynamic social networks based on movement

Science.gov (United States)

Scharf, Henry; Hooten, Mevin B.; Fosdick, Bailey K.; Johnson, Devin S.; London, Joshua M.; Durban, John W.

2016-01-01

Network modeling techniques provide a means for quantifying social structure in populations of individuals. Data used to define social connectivity are often expensive to collect and based on case-specific, ad hoc criteria. Moreover, in applications involving animal social networks, collection of these data is often opportunistic and can be invasive. Frequently, the social network of interest for a given population is closely related to the way individuals move. Thus, telemetry data, which are minimally invasive and relatively inexpensive to collect, present an alternative source of information. We develop a framework for using telemetry data to infer social relationships among animals. To achieve this, we propose a Bayesian hierarchical model with an underlying dynamic social network controlling movement of individuals via two mechanisms: an attractive effect and an aligning effect. We demonstrate the model and its ability to accurately identify complex social behavior in simulation, and apply our model to telemetry data arising from killer whales. Using auxiliary information about the study population, we investigate model validity and find the inferred dynamic social network is consistent with killer whale ecology and expert knowledge.

A prototype distributed object-oriented architecture for image-based automatic laser alignment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stout, E.A.; Kamm, V.J.M.; Spann, J.M.; Van Arsdall, P.J.

1996-01-01

Designing a computer control system for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a complex undertaking because of the system's large size and its distributed nature. The controls team is addressing that complexity by adopting the object-oriented programming paradigm, designing reusable software frameworks, and using the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) for distribution. A prototype system for image-based automatic laser alignment has been developed to evaluate and gain experience with CORBA and OOP in a small distributed system. The prototype is also important in evaluating alignment concepts, image processing techniques, speed and accuracy of automatic alignment objectives for the NIF, and control hardware for aligment devices. The prototype system has met its inital objectives and provides a basis for continued development

Investigating Conversational Dynamics: Interactive Alignment, Interpersonal Synergy, and Collective Task Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Fusaroli, Riccardo; Tylén, Kristian

2016-01-01

This study investigates interpersonal processes underlying dialog by comparing two approaches, "interactive alignment" and "interpersonal synergy", and assesses how they predict collective performance in a joint task. While the interactive alignment approach highlights imitative patterns between interlocutors, the synergy…

The CMS Silicon Tracker Alignment

CERN Document Server

Castello, R

2008-01-01

The alignment of the Strip and Pixel Tracker of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment, with its large number of independent silicon sensors and its excellent spatial resolution, is a complex and challenging task. Besides high precision mounting, survey measurements and the Laser Alignment System, track-based alignment is needed to reach the envisaged precision.\\\\ Three different algorithms for track-based alignment were successfully tested on a sample of cosmic-ray data collected at the Tracker Integration Facility, where 15\\% of the Tracker was tested. These results, together with those coming from the CMS global run, will provide the basis for the full-scale alignment of the Tracker, which will be carried out with the first \\emph{p-p} collisions.

Synergistic Instance-Level Subspace Alignment for Fine-Grained Sketch-Based Image Retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ke; Pang, Kaiyue; Song, Yi-Zhe; Hospedales, Timothy M; Xiang, Tao; Zhang, Honggang

2017-08-25

We study the problem of fine-grained sketch-based image retrieval. By performing instance-level (rather than category-level) retrieval, it embodies a timely and practical application, particularly with the ubiquitous availability of touchscreens. Three factors contribute to the challenging nature of the problem: (i) free-hand sketches are inherently abstract and iconic, making visual comparisons with photos difficult, (ii) sketches and photos are in two different visual domains, i.e. black and white lines vs. color pixels, and (iii) fine-grained distinctions are especially challenging when executed across domain and abstraction-level. To address these challenges, we propose to bridge the image-sketch gap both at the high-level via parts and attributes, as well as at the low-level, via introducing a new domain alignment method. More specifically, (i) we contribute a dataset with 304 photos and 912 sketches, where each sketch and image is annotated with its semantic parts and associated part-level attributes. With the help of this dataset, we investigate (ii) how strongly-supervised deformable part-based models can be learned that subsequently enable automatic detection of part-level attributes, and provide pose-aligned sketch-image comparisons. To reduce the sketch-image gap when comparing low-level features, we also (iii) propose a novel method for instance-level domain-alignment, that exploits both subspace and instance-level cues to better align the domains. Finally (iv) these are combined in a matching framework integrating aligned low-level features, mid-level geometric structure and high-level semantic attributes. Extensive experiments conducted on our new dataset demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed method.

Pairwise Sequence Alignment Library

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2015-05-20

Vector extensions, such as SSE, have been part of the x86 CPU since the 1990s, with applications in graphics, signal processing, and scientific applications. Although many algorithms and applications can naturally benefit from automatic vectorization techniques, there are still many that are difficult to vectorize due to their dependence on irregular data structures, dense branch operations, or data dependencies. Sequence alignment, one of the most widely used operations in bioinformatics workflows, has a computational footprint that features complex data dependencies. The trend of widening vector registers adversely affects the state-of-the-art sequence alignment algorithm based on striped data layouts. Therefore, a novel SIMD implementation of a parallel scan-based sequence alignment algorithm that can better exploit wider SIMD units was implemented as part of the Parallel Sequence Alignment Library (parasail). Parasail features: Reference implementations of all known vectorized sequence alignment approaches. Implementations of Smith Waterman (SW), semi-global (SG), and Needleman Wunsch (NW) sequence alignment algorithms. Implementations across all modern CPU instruction sets including AVX2 and KNC. Language interfaces for C/C++ and Python.

The CMS Muon System Alignment

CERN Document Server

Martinez Ruiz-Del-Arbol, P

2009-01-01

The alignment of the muon system of CMS is performed using different techniques: photogrammetry measurements, optical alignment and alignment with tracks. For track-based alignment, several methods are employed, ranging from a hit and impact point (HIP) algorithm and a procedure exploiting chamber overlaps to a global fit method based on the Millepede approach. For start-up alignment as long as available integrated luminosity is still significantly limiting the size of the muon sample from collisions, cosmic muon and beam halo signatures play a very strong role. During the last commissioning runs in 2008 the first aligned geometries have been produced and validated with data. The CMS offline computing infrastructure has been used in order to perform improved reconstructions. We present the computational aspects related to the calculation of alignment constants at the CERN Analysis Facility (CAF), the production and population of databases and the validation and performance in the official reconstruction. Also...

Developmental long trace profiler using optimally aligned mirror based pentaprism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barber, Samuel K.; Morrison, Gregory Y.; Yashchuk, Valeriy V.; Gubarev, Mikhail V.; Geckeler, Ralf D.; Buchheim, Jana; Siewert, Frank; Zeschke, Thomas

2010-01-01

A low-budget surface slope measuring instrument, the Developmental Long Trace Profiler (DLTP), was recently brought into operation at the Advanced Light Source Optical Metrology Laboratory (Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 616, 212-223 (2010)). The instrument is based on a precisely calibrated autocollimator and a movable pentaprism. The capability of the DLTP to achieve sub-microradian surface slope metrology has been verified via cross-comparison measurements with other high-performance slope measuring instruments when measuring the same high-quality test optics. In the present work, a further improvement of the DLTP is achieved by replacing the existing bulk pentaprism with a specially designed mirror based pentaprism. A mirror based pentaprism offers the possibility to eliminate systematic errors introduced by inhomogeneity of the optical material and fabrication imperfections of a bulk pentaprism. We provide the details of the mirror based pentaprism design and describe an original experimental procedure for precision mutual alignment of the mirrors. The algorithm of the alignment procedure and its efficiency are verified with rigorous ray tracing simulations. Results of measurements of a spherically curved test mirror and a flat test mirror using the original bulk pentaprism are compared with measurements using the new mirror based pentaprism, demonstrating the improved performance.

A fast cross-validation method for alignment of electron tomography images based on Beer-Lambert law

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Rui; Edwards, Thomas J.; Pankratz, Logan M.; Kuhn, Richard J.; Lanman, Jason K.; Liu, Jun; Jiang, Wen

2015-01-01

In electron tomography, accurate alignment of tilt series is an essential step in attaining high-resolution 3D reconstructions. Nevertheless, quantitative assessment of alignment quality has remained a challenging issue, even though many alignment methods have been reported. Here, we report a fast and accurate method, tomoAlignEval, based on the Beer-Lambert law, for the evaluation of alignment quality. Our method is able to globally estimate the alignment accuracy by measuring the goodness of log-linear relationship of the beam intensity attenuations at different tilt angles. Extensive tests with experimental data demonstrated its robust performance with stained and cryo samples. Our method is not only significantly faster but also more sensitive than measurements of tomogram resolution using Fourier shell correlation method (FSCe/o). From these tests, we also conclude that while current alignment methods are sufficiently accurate for stained samples, inaccurate alignments remain a major limitation for high resolution cryo-electron tomography. PMID:26455556

A fast cross-validation method for alignment of electron tomography images based on Beer-Lambert law.

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Rui; Edwards, Thomas J; Pankratz, Logan M; Kuhn, Richard J; Lanman, Jason K; Liu, Jun; Jiang, Wen

2015-11-01

In electron tomography, accurate alignment of tilt series is an essential step in attaining high-resolution 3D reconstructions. Nevertheless, quantitative assessment of alignment quality has remained a challenging issue, even though many alignment methods have been reported. Here, we report a fast and accurate method, tomoAlignEval, based on the Beer-Lambert law, for the evaluation of alignment quality. Our method is able to globally estimate the alignment accuracy by measuring the goodness of log-linear relationship of the beam intensity attenuations at different tilt angles. Extensive tests with experimental data demonstrated its robust performance with stained and cryo samples. Our method is not only significantly faster but also more sensitive than measurements of tomogram resolution using Fourier shell correlation method (FSCe/o). From these tests, we also conclude that while current alignment methods are sufficiently accurate for stained samples, inaccurate alignments remain a major limitation for high resolution cryo-electron tomography. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

TotalReCaller: improved accuracy and performance via integrated alignment and base-calling.

Science.gov (United States)

Menges, Fabian; Narzisi, Giuseppe; Mishra, Bud

2011-09-01

Currently, re-sequencing approaches use multiple modules serially to interpret raw sequencing data from next-generation sequencing platforms, while remaining oblivious to the genomic information until the final alignment step. Such approaches fail to exploit the full information from both raw sequencing data and the reference genome that can yield better quality sequence reads, SNP-calls, variant detection, as well as an alignment at the best possible location in the reference genome. Thus, there is a need for novel reference-guided bioinformatics algorithms for interpreting analog signals representing sequences of the bases ({A, C, G, T}), while simultaneously aligning possible sequence reads to a source reference genome whenever available. Here, we propose a new base-calling algorithm, TotalReCaller, to achieve improved performance. A linear error model for the raw intensity data and Burrows-Wheeler transform (BWT) based alignment are combined utilizing a Bayesian score function, which is then globally optimized over all possible genomic locations using an efficient branch-and-bound approach. The algorithm has been implemented in soft- and hardware [field-programmable gate array (FPGA)] to achieve real-time performance. Empirical results on real high-throughput Illumina data were used to evaluate TotalReCaller's performance relative to its peers-Bustard, BayesCall, Ibis and Rolexa-based on several criteria, particularly those important in clinical and scientific applications. Namely, it was evaluated for (i) its base-calling speed and throughput, (ii) its read accuracy and (iii) its specificity and sensitivity in variant calling. A software implementation of TotalReCaller as well as additional information, is available at: http://bioinformatics.nyu.edu/wordpress/projects/totalrecaller/ fabian.menges@nyu.edu.

Alignment Condition-Based Robust Adaptive Iterative Learning Control of Uncertain Robot System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guofeng Tong

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes an adaptive iterative learning control strategy integrated with saturation-based robust control for uncertain robot system in presence of modelling uncertainties, unknown parameter, and external disturbance under alignment condition. An important merit is that it achieves adaptive switching of gain matrix both in conventional PD-type feedforward control and robust adaptive control in the iteration domain simultaneously. The analysis of convergence of proposed control law is based on Lyapunov's direct method under alignment initial condition. Simulation results demonstrate the faster learning rate and better robust performance with proposed algorithm by comparing with other existing robust controllers. The actual experiment on three-DOF robot manipulator shows its better practical effectiveness.

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

S. Szillasi

2013-01-01

The CMS detector has been gradually opened and whenever a wheel became exposed the first operation was the removal of the MABs, the sensor structures of the Hardware Barrel Alignment System. By the last days of June all 36 MABs have arrived at the Alignment Lab at the ISR where, as part of the Alignment Upgrade Project, they are refurbished with new Survey target holders. Their electronic checkout is on the way and finally they will be recalibrated. During LS1 the alignment system will be upgraded in order to allow more precise reconstruction of the MB4 chambers in Sector 10 and Sector 4. This requires new sensor components, so called MiniMABs (pictured below), that have already been assembled and calibrated. Image 6: Calibrated MiniMABs are ready for installation For the track-based alignment, the systematic uncertainties of the algorithm are under scrutiny: this study will enable the production of an improved Monte Carlo misalignment scenario and to update alignment position errors eventually, crucial...

Extended particle-based simulation for magnetic-aligned compaction of hard magnetic particles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Soda, Rikio; Takagi, Kenta; Ozaki, Kimihiro, E-mail: r-soda@aist.go.jp

2015-12-15

In order to understand the magnetic-aligned compaction process, we develop a three-dimensional (3D) discrete element method for simulating the motion of hard magnetic particles subjected to strong compression and magnetic fields. The proposed simulation model also considers the exact magnetic force involved via the calculation of the magnetic moment. First, to validate the simulation model, single-action compaction in the absence of a magnetic field was calculated. The calculated compaction curves are in good quantitative agreement with experimental ones. Based on this simulation model, the alignment behavior of Nd–Fe–B particles during compression under the application of a static magnetic field. The developed simulation model enables the visualization of particle behavior including the misorientation of the magnetization easy axis, which provided the quantitative relationships between applied pressure and particle misorientation. - Highlights: • A practical 3D DEM simulation technique for magnetic-aligned compaction was developed. • An extended simulation model was introduced for hard magnetic particles. • Magnetic-aligned compaction was simulated using the developed simulation model.

Alignment and orientation in ion/endash/atom collisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kimura, M.; Lane, N.F.

1987-01-01

Recent progress in the theoretical study of alignment and orientation in atom-atom and ion-atom collisions at intermediate energies is reviewed. Recent systematic studies of the alignment and orientation of electronic charge cloud distributions of excited states resulting from such collisions clearly have provided more detailed information about the underlying collision dynamics. However, since accurate determination of these parameters is quite difficult, both theoretically and experimentally, a close collaboration between theory and experiment is necessary for a deeper understanding of the collision dynamics. A more complete approach, where the full density matrix is determined, is also discussed

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

G. Gomez and Y. Pakhotin

2012-01-01

  A new track-based alignment for the DT chambers is ready for deployment: an offline tag has already been produced which will become part of the 52X Global Tag. This alignment was validated within the muon alignment group both at low and high momentum using a W/Z skim sample. It shows an improved mass resolution for pairs of stand-alone muons, improved curvature resolution at high momentum, and improved DT segment extrapolation residuals. The validation workflow for high-momentum muons used to depend solely on the “split cosmics” method, looking at the curvature difference between muon tracks reconstructed in the upper or lower half of CMS. The validation has now been extended to include energetic muons decaying from heavily boosted Zs: the di-muon invariant mass for global and stand-alone muons is reconstructed, and the invariant mass resolution is compared for different alignments. The main areas of development over the next few months will be preparing a new track-based C...

Alignment-Annotator web server: rendering and annotating sequence alignments.

Science.gov (United States)

Gille, Christoph; Fähling, Michael; Weyand, Birgit; Wieland, Thomas; Gille, Andreas

2014-07-01

Alignment-Annotator is a novel web service designed to generate interactive views of annotated nucleotide and amino acid sequence alignments (i) de novo and (ii) embedded in other software. All computations are performed at server side. Interactivity is implemented in HTML5, a language native to web browsers. The alignment is initially displayed using default settings and can be modified with the graphical user interfaces. For example, individual sequences can be reordered or deleted using drag and drop, amino acid color code schemes can be applied and annotations can be added. Annotations can be made manually or imported (BioDAS servers, the UniProt, the Catalytic Site Atlas and the PDB). Some edits take immediate effect while others require server interaction and may take a few seconds to execute. The final alignment document can be downloaded as a zip-archive containing the HTML files. Because of the use of HTML the resulting interactive alignment can be viewed on any platform including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android and iOS in any standard web browser. Importantly, no plugins nor Java are required and therefore Alignment-Anotator represents the first interactive browser-based alignment visualization. http://www.bioinformatics.org/strap/aa/ and http://strap.charite.de/aa/. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

NN-align. An artificial neural network-based alignment algorithm for MHC class II peptide binding prediction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lund Ole

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The major histocompatibility complex (MHC molecule plays a central role in controlling the adaptive immune response to infections. MHC class I molecules present peptides derived from intracellular proteins to cytotoxic T cells, whereas MHC class II molecules stimulate cellular and humoral immunity through presentation of extracellularly derived peptides to helper T cells. Identification of which peptides will bind a given MHC molecule is thus of great importance for the understanding of host-pathogen interactions, and large efforts have been placed in developing algorithms capable of predicting this binding event. Results Here, we present a novel artificial neural network-based method, NN-align that allows for simultaneous identification of the MHC class II binding core and binding affinity. NN-align is trained using a novel training algorithm that allows for correction of bias in the training data due to redundant binding core representation. Incorporation of information about the residues flanking the peptide-binding core is shown to significantly improve the prediction accuracy. The method is evaluated on a large-scale benchmark consisting of six independent data sets covering 14 human MHC class II alleles, and is demonstrated to outperform other state-of-the-art MHC class II prediction methods. Conclusion The NN-align method is competitive with the state-of-the-art MHC class II peptide binding prediction algorithms. The method is publicly available at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCII-2.0.

Sparse alignment for robust tensor learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Zhihui; Wong, Wai Keung; Xu, Yong; Zhao, Cairong; Sun, Mingming

2014-10-01

Multilinear/tensor extensions of manifold learning based algorithms have been widely used in computer vision and pattern recognition. This paper first provides a systematic analysis of the multilinear extensions for the most popular methods by using alignment techniques, thereby obtaining a general tensor alignment framework. From this framework, it is easy to show that the manifold learning based tensor learning methods are intrinsically different from the alignment techniques. Based on the alignment framework, a robust tensor learning method called sparse tensor alignment (STA) is then proposed for unsupervised tensor feature extraction. Different from the existing tensor learning methods, L1- and L2-norms are introduced to enhance the robustness in the alignment step of the STA. The advantage of the proposed technique is that the difficulty in selecting the size of the local neighborhood can be avoided in the manifold learning based tensor feature extraction algorithms. Although STA is an unsupervised learning method, the sparsity encodes the discriminative information in the alignment step and provides the robustness of STA. Extensive experiments on the well-known image databases as well as action and hand gesture databases by encoding object images as tensors demonstrate that the proposed STA algorithm gives the most competitive performance when compared with the tensor-based unsupervised learning methods.

CloudAligner: A fast and full-featured MapReduce based tool for sequence mapping

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shi Weisong

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Research in genetics has developed rapidly recently due to the aid of next generation sequencing (NGS. However, massively-parallel NGS produces enormous amounts of data, which leads to storage, compatibility, scalability, and performance issues. The Cloud Computing and MapReduce framework, which utilizes hundreds or thousands of shared computers to map sequencing reads quickly and efficiently to reference genome sequences, appears to be a very promising solution for these issues. Consequently, it has been adopted by many organizations recently, and the initial results are very promising. However, since these are only initial steps toward this trend, the developed software does not provide adequate primary functions like bisulfite, pair-end mapping, etc., in on-site software such as RMAP or BS Seeker. In addition, existing MapReduce-based applications were not designed to process the long reads produced by the most recent second-generation and third-generation NGS instruments and, therefore, are inefficient. Last, it is difficult for a majority of biologists untrained in programming skills to use these tools because most were developed on Linux with a command line interface. Results To urge the trend of using Cloud technologies in genomics and prepare for advances in second- and third-generation DNA sequencing, we have built a Hadoop MapReduce-based application, CloudAligner, which achieves higher performance, covers most primary features, is more accurate, and has a user-friendly interface. It was also designed to be able to deal with long sequences. The performance gain of CloudAligner over Cloud-based counterparts (35 to 80% mainly comes from the omission of the reduce phase. In comparison to local-based approaches, the performance gain of CloudAligner is from the partition and parallel processing of the huge reference genome as well as the reads. The source code of CloudAligner is available at http

CloudAligner: A fast and full-featured MapReduce based tool for sequence mapping.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Tung; Shi, Weisong; Ruden, Douglas

2011-06-06

Research in genetics has developed rapidly recently due to the aid of next generation sequencing (NGS). However, massively-parallel NGS produces enormous amounts of data, which leads to storage, compatibility, scalability, and performance issues. The Cloud Computing and MapReduce framework, which utilizes hundreds or thousands of shared computers to map sequencing reads quickly and efficiently to reference genome sequences, appears to be a very promising solution for these issues. Consequently, it has been adopted by many organizations recently, and the initial results are very promising. However, since these are only initial steps toward this trend, the developed software does not provide adequate primary functions like bisulfite, pair-end mapping, etc., in on-site software such as RMAP or BS Seeker. In addition, existing MapReduce-based applications were not designed to process the long reads produced by the most recent second-generation and third-generation NGS instruments and, therefore, are inefficient. Last, it is difficult for a majority of biologists untrained in programming skills to use these tools because most were developed on Linux with a command line interface. To urge the trend of using Cloud technologies in genomics and prepare for advances in second- and third-generation DNA sequencing, we have built a Hadoop MapReduce-based application, CloudAligner, which achieves higher performance, covers most primary features, is more accurate, and has a user-friendly interface. It was also designed to be able to deal with long sequences. The performance gain of CloudAligner over Cloud-based counterparts (35 to 80%) mainly comes from the omission of the reduce phase. In comparison to local-based approaches, the performance gain of CloudAligner is from the partition and parallel processing of the huge reference genome as well as the reads. The source code of CloudAligner is available at http://cloudaligner.sourceforge.net/ and its web version is at http

K2 and K2*: efficient alignment-free sequence similarity measurement based on Kendall statistics.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Jie; Adjeroh, Donald A; Jiang, Bing-Hua; Jiang, Yue

2018-05-15

Alignment-free sequence comparison methods can compute the pairwise similarity between a huge number of sequences much faster than sequence-alignment based methods. We propose a new non-parametric alignment-free sequence comparison method, called K2, based on the Kendall statistics. Comparing to the other state-of-the-art alignment-free comparison methods, K2 demonstrates competitive performance in generating the phylogenetic tree, in evaluating functionally related regulatory sequences, and in computing the edit distance (similarity/dissimilarity) between sequences. Furthermore, the K2 approach is much faster than the other methods. An improved method, K2*, is also proposed, which is able to determine the appropriate algorithmic parameter (length) automatically, without first considering different values. Comparative analysis with the state-of-the-art alignment-free sequence similarity methods demonstrates the superiority of the proposed approaches, especially with increasing sequence length, or increasing dataset sizes. The K2 and K2* approaches are implemented in the R language as a package and is freely available for open access (http://community.wvu.edu/daadjeroh/projects/K2/K2_1.0.tar.gz). yueljiang@163.com. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Physician-Hospital Alignment in Orthopedic Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Bushnell, Brandon D

2015-09-01

The concept of "alignment" between physicians and hospitals is a popular buzzword in the age of health care reform. Despite their often tumultuous histories, physicians and hospitals find themselves under increasing pressures to work together toward common goals. However, effective alignment is more than just simple cooperation between parties. The process of achieving alignment does not have simple, universal steps. Alignment will differ based on individual situational factors and the type of specialty involved. Ultimately, however, there are principles that underlie the concept of alignment and should be a part of any physician-hospital alignment efforts. In orthopedic surgery, alignment involves the clinical, administrative, financial, and even personal aspects of a surgeon's practice. It must be based on the principles of financial interest, clinical authority, administrative participation, transparency, focus on the patient, and mutual necessity. Alignment can take on various forms as well, with popular models consisting of shared governance and comanagement, gainsharing, bundled payments, accountable care organizations, and other methods. As regulatory and financial pressures continue to motivate physicians and hospitals to develop alignment relationships, new and innovative methods of alignment will also appear. Existing models will mature and evolve, with individual variability based on local factors. However, certain trends seem to be appearing as time progresses and alignment relationships deepen, including regional and national collaboration, population management, and changes in the legal system. This article explores the history, principles, and specific methods of physician-hospital alignment and its critical importance for the future of health care delivery. Copyright 2015, SLACK Incorporated.

RNA Structural Alignments, Part I

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Havgaard, Jakob Hull; Gorodkin, Jan

2014-01-01

Simultaneous alignment and secondary structure prediction of RNA sequences is often referred to as "RNA structural alignment." A class of the methods for structural alignment is based on the principles proposed by Sankoff more than 25 years ago. The Sankoff algorithm simultaneously folds and aligns...... is so high that it took more than a decade before the first implementation of a Sankoff style algorithm was published. However, with the faster computers available today and the improved heuristics used in the implementations the Sankoff-based methods have become practical. This chapter describes...... the methods based on the Sankoff algorithm. All the practical implementations of the algorithm use heuristics to make them run in reasonable time and memory. These heuristics are also described in this chapter....

Image-based quantification of fiber alignment within electrospun tissue engineering scaffolds is related to mechanical anisotropy.

Science.gov (United States)

Fee, Timothy; Downs, Crawford; Eberhardt, Alan; Zhou, Yong; Berry, Joel

2016-07-01

It is well documented that electrospun tissue engineering scaffolds can be fabricated with variable degrees of fiber alignment to produce scaffolds with anisotropic mechanical properties. Several attempts have been made to quantify the degree of fiber alignment within an electrospun scaffold using image-based methods. However, these methods are limited by the inability to produce a quantitative measure of alignment that can be used to make comparisons across publications. Therefore, we have developed a new approach to quantifying the alignment present within a scaffold from scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images. The alignment is determined by using the Sobel approximation of the image gradient to determine the distribution of gradient angles with an image. This data was fit to a Von Mises distribution to find the dispersion parameter κ, which was used as a quantitative measure of fiber alignment. We fabricated four groups of electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) + Gelatin scaffolds with alignments ranging from κ = 1.9 (aligned) to κ = 0.25 (random) and tested our alignment quantification method on these scaffolds. It was found that our alignment quantification method could distinguish between scaffolds of different alignments more accurately than two other published methods. Additionally, the alignment parameter κ was found to be a good predictor the mechanical anisotropy of our electrospun scaffolds. The ability to quantify fiber alignment within and make direct comparisons of scaffold fiber alignment across publications can reduce ambiguity between published results where cells are cultured on "highly aligned" fibrous scaffolds. This could have important implications for characterizing mechanics and cellular behavior on aligned tissue engineering scaffolds. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 1680-1686, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

G. Gomez

2012-01-01

  A new muon alignment has been produced for 2012 A+B data reconstruction. It uses the latest Tracker alignment and single-muon data samples to align both DTs and CSCs. Physics validation has been performed and shows a modest improvement in stand-alone muon momentum resolution in the barrel, where the alignment is essentially unchanged from the previous version. The reference-target track-based algorithm using only collision muons is employed for the first time to align the CSCs, and a substantial improvement in resolution is observed in the endcap and overlap regions for stand-alone muons. This new alignment is undergoing the approval process and is expected to be deployed as part of a new global tag in the beginning of December. The pT dependence of the φ-bias in curvature observed in Monte Carlo was traced to a relative vertical misalignment between the Tracker and barrel muon systems. Moving the barrel as a whole to match the Tracker cures this pT dependence, leaving only the &phi...

Pairagon: a highly accurate, HMM-based cDNA-to-genome aligner

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lu, David V; Brown, Randall H; Arumugam, Manimozhiyan

2009-01-01

MOTIVATION: The most accurate way to determine the intron-exon structures in a genome is to align spliced cDNA sequences to the genome. Thus, cDNA-to-genome alignment programs are a key component of most annotation pipelines. The scoring system used to choose the best alignment is a primary...... determinant of alignment accuracy, while heuristics that prevent consideration of certain alignments are a primary determinant of runtime and memory usage. Both accuracy and speed are important considerations in choosing an alignment algorithm, but scoring systems have received much less attention than...

Feasibility study of multipoint based laser alignment system for CLIC

CERN Document Server

Stern, G; Mainaud-Durand, H; Piedigrossi, D; Geiger, A

2012-01-01

CLIC (Compact LInear Collider) is a study for a future electron-positron collider that would allow physicists to explore a new energy region beyond the capabilities oftoday’s particle accelerators. Alignment is one of the major challenges within the CLIC study in order to achieve the high requirement of a multi-TeV center of mass colliding beam energy range (nominal 3 TeV). To reach this energy in a realistic and cost efficient scenario all accelerator components have to be aligned with an accuracy of 10 μm over a sliding window of 200 m. The demand for a straight line reference is so far based on stretched wires coupled with Wire Positioning Sensors (WPS). These solutions are currently further developed inorder to reduce the drawbacks which are mainly given by their costs and difficult implementation. However, it should be validated through inter-comparison with a solution ideally based on a different physical principle. Therefore, a new metrological approach is proposed using a laser beam as straight lin...

The AAG's ALIGNED Toolkit: A Place-based Approach to Fostering Diversity in the Geosciences

Science.gov (United States)

Rodrigue, C. M.

2012-12-01

Where do we look to attract a more diverse group of students to academic programs in geography and the geosciences? What do we do once we find them? This presentation introduces the ALIGNED Toolkit developed by the Association of American Geographers, with funding from the NSF's Opportunities to Enhance Diversity in the Geosciences (OEDG) Program. ALIGNED (Addressing Locally-tailored Information Infrastructure and Geoscience Needs for Enhancing Diversity) seeks to align the needs of university departments and underrepresented students by drawing upon the intellectual wealth of geography and spatial science to provide better informed, knowledge-based action to enhance diversity in higher education and the geoscience workforce. The project seeks to inform and transform the ways in which departments and programs envision and realize their own goals to enhance diversity, promote inclusion, and broaden participation. We also seek to provide the data, information, knowledge, and best practices needed in order to enhance the recruitment and retention of underrepresented students. The ALIGNED Toolkit is currently in a beta release, available to 13 pilot departments and 50 testing departments of geography/geosciences. It consolidates a variety of data from departments, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics to provide interactive, GIS-based visualizations across multiple scales. It also incorporates a place-based, geographic perspective to support departments in their efforts to enhance diversity. A member of ALIGNED's senior personnel, who is also a representative of one of the pilot departments, will provide an overview and preview of the tool while sharing her department's experiences in progressing toward its diversity goals. A brief discussion on how geoscience departments might benefit from the ALIGNED approach and resources will follow. Undergraduate advisors, graduate program directors, department

CLIC main beam quadrupole active pre-alignment based on cam movers

CERN Document Server

Kemppinen, J; Leuxe, R; Mainaud Durand, H; Sandomierski, J; Sosin, M

2012-01-01

Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a study for a future 48 km long linear electron-positron collider in the multi TeV range. Its target luminosity can only be reached if the main beam quadrupoles (MB quads) are actively pre-aligned within 17 µm in sliding windows of 200 m with respect to a straight reference line. In addition to the positioning requirement, the pre-alignment system has to provide a rigid support for the nano-stabilization system to ensure that the first eigenfrequency is above 100 Hz. Re-adjustment based on cam movers was chosen for detailed studies to meet the stringent pre-alignment requirements. There are four different types of MB quads in CLIC. Their lengths and masses vary so that at least two types of cam movers have to be developed. The validation of the cams with less stringent space restrictions has proceeded to a test setup in 5 degrees of freedom (DOF). Prototypes of the more demanding, smaller cams have been manufactured and they are under tests in 1 DOF. This paper describes the...

ChromAlign: A two-step algorithmic procedure for time alignment of three-dimensional LC-MS chromatographic surfaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Sadygov, Rovshan G; Maroto, Fernando Martin; Hühmer, Andreas F R

2006-12-15

We present an algorithmic approach to align three-dimensional chromatographic surfaces of LC-MS data of complex mixture samples. The approach consists of two steps. In the first step, we prealign chromatographic profiles: two-dimensional projections of chromatographic surfaces. This is accomplished by correlation analysis using fast Fourier transforms. In this step, a temporal offset that maximizes the overlap and dot product between two chromatographic profiles is determined. In the second step, the algorithm generates correlation matrix elements between full mass scans of the reference and sample chromatographic surfaces. The temporal offset from the first step indicates a range of the mass scans that are possibly correlated, then the correlation matrix is calculated only for these mass scans. The correlation matrix carries information on highly correlated scans, but it does not itself determine the scan or time alignment. Alignment is determined as a path in the correlation matrix that maximizes the sum of the correlation matrix elements. The computational complexity of the optimal path generation problem is reduced by the use of dynamic programming. The program produces time-aligned surfaces. The use of the temporal offset from the first step in the second step reduces the computation time for generating the correlation matrix and speeds up the process. The algorithm has been implemented in a program, ChromAlign, developed in C++ language for the .NET2 environment in WINDOWS XP. In this work, we demonstrate the applications of ChromAlign to alignment of LC-MS surfaces of several datasets: a mixture of known proteins, samples from digests of surface proteins of T-cells, and samples prepared from digests of cerebrospinal fluid. ChromAlign accurately aligns the LC-MS surfaces we studied. In these examples, we discuss various aspects of the alignment by ChromAlign, such as constant time axis shifts and warping of chromatographic surfaces.

Dynamics of capillary infiltration of liquids into a highly aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube film

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sławomir Boncel

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The physical compatibility of a highly aligned carbon nanotube (HACNT film with liquids was established using a fast and convenient experimental protocol. Two parameters were found to be decisive for the infiltration process. For a given density of nanotube packing, the thermodynamics of the infiltration process (wettability were described by the contact angle between the nanotube wall and a liquid meniscus (θ. Once the wettability criterion (θ < 90° was met, the HACNT film (of free volume equal to 91% was penetrated gradually by the liquid in a rate that can be linearly correlated to dynamic viscosity of the liquid (η. The experimental results follow the classical theory of capillarity for a steady process (Lucas–Washburn law, where the nanoscale capillary force, here supported by gravity, is compensated by viscous drag. This most general theory of capillarity can be applied in a prediction of both wettability of HACNT films and the dynamics of capillary rise in the intertube space in various technological applications.

Dynamic evaluation method of lower limbs joint alignment (MADAAMI for dancers during the plié

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kaanda Nabilla Souza Gontijo

Full Text Available Abstract In classical ballet, the joint misalignments during the plié can generate various injuries. To evaluate potential misalignments during the plié the aim of this study was to present a method for dynamic evaluation of lower limb alignment articulation (called MADAAMI. MADAAMI was validated by 12 experts, and for the evaluation of its reproducibility and for agreement with 3D kinematics, 20 dancers were assessed using a video recording of their plié. For statistical analysis we used the Kappa coefficient (k (p 0.40 and C > 80%, and it is a suitable and valid method for use by the same examiner.

Semiautomated improvement of RNA alignments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ebbe Sloth; Lind-Thomsen, Allan; Knudsen, Bjarne

2007-01-01

connects to external tools to provide a flexible semiautomatic editing environment. A new method, Pcluster, is introduced for dividing the sequences of an RNA alignment into subgroups with secondary structure differences. Pcluster was used to evaluate 574 seed alignments obtained from the Rfam database...... and we identified 71 alignments with significant prediction of inconsistent base pairs and 102 alignments with significant prediction of novel base pairs. Four RNA families were used to illustrate how SARSE can be used to manually or automatically correct the inconsistent base pairs detected by Pcluster......: the mir-399 RNA, vertebrate telomase RNA (vert-TR), bacterial transfer-messenger RNA (tmRNA), and the signal recognition particle (SRP) RNA. The general use of the method is illustrated by the ability to accommodate pseudoknots and handle even large and divergent RNA families. The open architecture...

Analysis of computational complexity for HT-based fingerprint alignment algorithms on java card environment

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mlambo, CS

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, implementations of three Hough Transform based fingerprint alignment algorithms are analyzed with respect to time complexity on Java Card environment. Three algorithms are: Local Match Based Approach (LMBA), Discretized Rotation Based...

Enhanced Dynamic Algorithm of Genome Sequence Alignments

OpenAIRE

Arabi E. keshk

2014-01-01

The merging of biology and computer science has created a new field called computational biology that explore the capacities of computers to gain knowledge from biological data, bioinformatics. Computational biology is rooted in life sciences as well as computers, information sciences, and technologies. The main problem in computational biology is sequence alignment that is a way of arranging the sequences of DNA, RNA or protein to identify the region of similarity and relationship between se...

A Novel Marker Based Method to Teeth Alignment in MRI

Science.gov (United States)

Luukinen, Jean-Marc; Aalto, Daniel; Malinen, Jarmo; Niikuni, Naoko; Saunavaara, Jani; Jääsaari, Päivi; Ojalammi, Antti; Parkkola, Riitta; Soukka, Tero; Happonen, Risto-Pekka

2018-04-01

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can precisely capture the anatomy of the vocal tract. However, the crowns of teeth are not visible in standard MRI scans. In this study, a marker-based teeth alignment method is presented and evaluated. Ten patients undergoing orthognathic surgery were enrolled. Supraglottal airways were imaged preoperatively using structural MRI. MRI visible markers were developed, and they were attached to maxillary teeth and corresponding locations on the dental casts. Repeated measurements of intermarker distances in MRI and in a replica model was compared using linear regression analysis. Dental cast MRI and corresponding caliper measurements did not differ significantly. In contrast, the marker locations in vivo differed somewhat from the dental cast measurements likely due to marker placement inaccuracies. The markers were clearly visible in MRI and allowed for dental models to be aligned to head and neck MRI scans.

Study and Development of a Laser Based Alignment System

CERN Multimedia

Stern, G

2014-01-01

CLIC (Compact Linear Collider) has tight requirements regarding pre-alignment of beam related components: 10 µm accuracy over a sliding window of 200 m along the 20 km of linac. To perform such an alignment, a new system is proposed combining laser beam as straight line reference and camera/shutter assemblies as sensors. The poster describes the alignment system and shows results regarding laser pointing stability with respect to time, shutter type, distance and environment. These results give a frame for future building and calibrating of sensors.

Rapid Transfer Alignment of MEMS SINS Based on Adaptive Incremental Kalman Filter.

Science.gov (United States)

Chu, Hairong; Sun, Tingting; Zhang, Baiqiang; Zhang, Hongwei; Chen, Yang

2017-01-14

In airborne MEMS SINS transfer alignment, the error of MEMS IMU is highly environment-dependent and the parameters of the system model are also uncertain, which may lead to large error and bad convergence of the Kalman filter. In order to solve this problem, an improved adaptive incremental Kalman filter (AIKF) algorithm is proposed. First, the model of SINS transfer alignment is defined based on the "Velocity and Attitude" matching method. Then the detailed algorithm progress of AIKF and its recurrence formulas are presented. The performance and calculation amount of AKF and AIKF are also compared. Finally, a simulation test is designed to verify the accuracy and the rapidity of the AIKF algorithm by comparing it with KF and AKF. The results show that the AIKF algorithm has better estimation accuracy and shorter convergence time, especially for the bias of the gyroscope and the accelerometer, which can meet the accuracy and rapidity requirement of transfer alignment.

Rapid Transfer Alignment of MEMS SINS Based on Adaptive Incremental Kalman Filter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hairong Chu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In airborne MEMS SINS transfer alignment, the error of MEMS IMU is highly environment-dependent and the parameters of the system model are also uncertain, which may lead to large error and bad convergence of the Kalman filter. In order to solve this problem, an improved adaptive incremental Kalman filter (AIKF algorithm is proposed. First, the model of SINS transfer alignment is defined based on the “Velocity and Attitude” matching method. Then the detailed algorithm progress of AIKF and its recurrence formulas are presented. The performance and calculation amount of AKF and AIKF are also compared. Finally, a simulation test is designed to verify the accuracy and the rapidity of the AIKF algorithm by comparing it with KF and AKF. The results show that the AIKF algorithm has better estimation accuracy and shorter convergence time, especially for the bias of the gyroscope and the accelerometer, which can meet the accuracy and rapidity requirement of transfer alignment.

Mathematical modeling of alignment dynamics in active motor-filament systems

Science.gov (United States)

Swaminathan, Sumanth

The formation of the cytoskeleton, via motor-mediated microtubule self-organization, is an important subject of study in the biological sciences as well as in nonequilibrium, soft matter physics. Accurate modeling of the dynamics is a formidable task as it involves intrinsic nonlinearities, structural anisotropies, nonequilibrium processes, and a broad window of time scales, length scales, and densities. In this thesis, we study the ordering dynamics and pattern formations arising from motor-mediated microtubule self-organization in dilute and semi-dilute filament solutions. In the dilute case, we use a probabilistic model in which microtubules interact through motor induced, inelastic binary collisions. This model shows that initially disordered filament solutions exhibit an ordering transition resulting in the emergence of well aligned rod bundles. We study the existence and dynamic interaction of microtubule bundles analytically and numerically. Our results show a long term attraction and coalescing of bundles indicating a clear coarsening in the system; microtubule bundles concentrate into fewer orientations on a slow logarithmic time scale. In the semi-dilute case, multiple motors can bind a filament to several others and, for a critical motor density, induce a transition to an ordered state with a nonzero mean orientation. We develop a spatially homogeneous, mean-field theory that explicitly accounts for motor forcing and thermal fluctuations which enter into the model as multiplicative and additive noises respectively. Our model further incorporates a force-dependent detachment rate of motors, which in turn affects the mean and the fluctuations of the net force acting on a filament. We demonstrate that the transition to the oriented state changes from second order to first order when the force-dependent detachment becomes important. In our final analysis, we add complex spatial inhomogeneities to our mean field theory. The revised model consists of a system

Development and preliminary evaluation of a new anatomically based prosthetic alignment method for below-knee prosthesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Tafti, Nahid; Karimlou, Masoud; Mardani, Mohammad Ali; Jafarpisheh, Amir Salar; Aminian, Gholam Reza; Safari, Reza

2018-04-20

The objectives of current study were to a) assess similarities and relationships between anatomical landmark-based angles and distances of lower limbs in unilateral transtibial amputees and b) develop and evaluate a new anatomically based static prosthetic alignment method. First sub-study assessed the anthropometrical differences and relationships between the lower limbs in the photographs taken from amputees. Data were analysed via paired t-test and regression analysis. Results show no significant differences in frontal and transverse planes. In the sagittal plane, the anthropometric parameters of the amputated limb were significantly correlated to the corresponding variables of the sound limb. The results served as bases for the development of a new prosthetic alignment method. The method was evaluated on a single subject study. Prosthetic alignment carried out by an experienced prosthetist was compared with such alignment adjusted by an inexperienced prosthetist but with the use of the developed method. In sagittal and frontal planes, the socket angle was tuned with respect to the shin angle, and the position of the prosthetic foot was tuned in relation to the pelvic landmarks. Further study is needed to assess the proposed method on a larger sample of amputees and prosthetists.

Tests of beam-based alignement at FACET

CERN Document Server

Latina, A; Schulte, D; Adli, E

2014-01-01

The performance of future linear colliders will depend critically on beam-based alignment (BBA) and feedback systems, which will play a crucial role in guaranteeing the low emittance transport throughout such machines. BBA algorithms designed to improve the beam transmission in a linac by simultaneously optimising the trajectory and minimising the residual dispersion, have thoughtfully been studied in theory over the last years, and successfully verified experimentally. One such technique is called Dispersion-Free Steering (DFS). A careful study of the DFS performance at the SLAC test facility FACET lead us to design a beam-based technique specifically targeted to reduce the impact of transverse short-range wakefields, rather than of the dispersion, being the wakefields the limiting factor to the FACET performance. This technique is called Wakefield-Free Steering (WFS). The results of the first tests of WFS at FACET are presented in this paper.

Value-based insurance design: aligning incentives and evidence in pulmonary medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Fendrick, A Mark; Zank, Daniel C

2013-11-01

When consumers are required to pay the same out-of-pocket amount for pulmonary services for which clinical benefits depend on patient characteristics, clinical indication, and provider choice, there is an enormous potential for both underutilization and overutilization. Unlike most current one-size-fits-all health plan designs, value-based insurance design (V-BID) explicitly acknowledges clinical heterogeneity across the continuum of care. By adding clinical nuance to benefit design, V-BID seeks to align consumer and provider incentives with value, encouraging the use of high-value services and discouraging the use of low-value interventions. This article describes the concept of V-BID; creates a framework for its development in pulmonary medicine; and outlines how this concept aligns with research, care delivery, and payment reform initiatives.

AlignerBoost: A Generalized Software Toolkit for Boosting Next-Gen Sequencing Mapping Accuracy Using a Bayesian-Based Mapping Quality Framework.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qi Zheng

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Accurate mapping of next-generation sequencing (NGS reads to reference genomes is crucial for almost all NGS applications and downstream analyses. Various repetitive elements in human and other higher eukaryotic genomes contribute in large part to ambiguously (non-uniquely mapped reads. Most available NGS aligners attempt to address this by either removing all non-uniquely mapping reads, or reporting one random or "best" hit based on simple heuristics. Accurate estimation of the mapping quality of NGS reads is therefore critical albeit completely lacking at present. Here we developed a generalized software toolkit "AlignerBoost", which utilizes a Bayesian-based framework to accurately estimate mapping quality of ambiguously mapped NGS reads. We tested AlignerBoost with both simulated and real DNA-seq and RNA-seq datasets at various thresholds. In most cases, but especially for reads falling within repetitive regions, AlignerBoost dramatically increases the mapping precision of modern NGS aligners without significantly compromising the sensitivity even without mapping quality filters. When using higher mapping quality cutoffs, AlignerBoost achieves a much lower false mapping rate while exhibiting comparable or higher sensitivity compared to the aligner default modes, therefore significantly boosting the detection power of NGS aligners even using extreme thresholds. AlignerBoost is also SNP-aware, and higher quality alignments can be achieved if provided with known SNPs. AlignerBoost's algorithm is computationally efficient, and can process one million alignments within 30 seconds on a typical desktop computer. AlignerBoost is implemented as a uniform Java application and is freely available at https://github.com/Grice-Lab/AlignerBoost.

AlignerBoost: A Generalized Software Toolkit for Boosting Next-Gen Sequencing Mapping Accuracy Using a Bayesian-Based Mapping Quality Framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Qi; Grice, Elizabeth A

2016-10-01

Accurate mapping of next-generation sequencing (NGS) reads to reference genomes is crucial for almost all NGS applications and downstream analyses. Various repetitive elements in human and other higher eukaryotic genomes contribute in large part to ambiguously (non-uniquely) mapped reads. Most available NGS aligners attempt to address this by either removing all non-uniquely mapping reads, or reporting one random or "best" hit based on simple heuristics. Accurate estimation of the mapping quality of NGS reads is therefore critical albeit completely lacking at present. Here we developed a generalized software toolkit "AlignerBoost", which utilizes a Bayesian-based framework to accurately estimate mapping quality of ambiguously mapped NGS reads. We tested AlignerBoost with both simulated and real DNA-seq and RNA-seq datasets at various thresholds. In most cases, but especially for reads falling within repetitive regions, AlignerBoost dramatically increases the mapping precision of modern NGS aligners without significantly compromising the sensitivity even without mapping quality filters. When using higher mapping quality cutoffs, AlignerBoost achieves a much lower false mapping rate while exhibiting comparable or higher sensitivity compared to the aligner default modes, therefore significantly boosting the detection power of NGS aligners even using extreme thresholds. AlignerBoost is also SNP-aware, and higher quality alignments can be achieved if provided with known SNPs. AlignerBoost's algorithm is computationally efficient, and can process one million alignments within 30 seconds on a typical desktop computer. AlignerBoost is implemented as a uniform Java application and is freely available at https://github.com/Grice-Lab/AlignerBoost.

High-speed all-optical DNA local sequence alignment based on a three-dimensional artificial neural network.

Science.gov (United States)

Maleki, Ehsan; Babashah, Hossein; Koohi, Somayyeh; Kavehvash, Zahra

2017-07-01

This paper presents an optical processing approach for exploring a large number of genome sequences. Specifically, we propose an optical correlator for global alignment and an extended moiré matching technique for local analysis of spatially coded DNA, whose output is fed to a novel three-dimensional artificial neural network for local DNA alignment. All-optical implementation of the proposed 3D artificial neural network is developed and its accuracy is verified in Zemax. Thanks to its parallel processing capability, the proposed structure performs local alignment of 4 million sequences of 150 base pairs in a few seconds, which is much faster than its electrical counterparts, such as the basic local alignment search tool.

Alignment analysis of urban railways based on passenger travel demand

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jonas Lohmann Elkjær; Landex, Alex

2010-01-01

Planning of urban railways like Metro and especially Light Rail Transit often result in multiple alignment alternatives from where it can be difficult to select the best one. Travel demand is a good foundation for evaluating a railway alignment for its ability to attract passengers. Therefore...... and can be applied as decision support in different stages of the urban railway alignment planning....

Quality measures for HRR alignment based ISAR imaging algorithms

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Janse van Rensburg, V

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Some Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) algorithms form the image in a two-step process of range alignment and phase conjugation. This paper discusses a comprehensive set of measures used to quantify the quality of range alignment, with the aim...

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

Gervasio Gomez

2012-01-01

  The new alignment for the DT chambers has been successfully used in physics analysis starting with the 52X Global Tag. The remaining main areas of development over the next few months will be preparing a new track-based CSC alignment and producing realistic APEs (alignment position errors) and MC misalignment scenarios to match the latest muon alignment constants. Work on these items has been delayed from the intended timeline, mostly due to a large involvement of the muon alignment man-power in physics analyses over the first half of this year. As CMS keeps probing higher and higher energies, special attention must be paid to the reconstruction of very-high-energy muons. Recent muon POG reports from mid-June show a φ-dependence in curvature bias in Monte Carlo samples. This bias is observed already at the tracker level, where it is constant with muon pT, while it grows with pT as muon chamber information is added to the tracks. Similar studies show a much smaller effect in data, at le...

Alignment and prediction of cis-regulatory modules based on a probabilistic model of evolution.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xin He

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Cross-species comparison has emerged as a powerful paradigm for predicting cis-regulatory modules (CRMs and understanding their evolution. The comparison requires reliable sequence alignment, which remains a challenging task for less conserved noncoding sequences. Furthermore, the existing models of DNA sequence evolution generally do not explicitly treat the special properties of CRM sequences. To address these limitations, we propose a model of CRM evolution that captures different modes of evolution of functional transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs and the background sequences. A particularly novel aspect of our work is a probabilistic model of gains and losses of TFBSs, a process being recognized as an important part of regulatory sequence evolution. We present a computational framework that uses this model to solve the problems of CRM alignment and prediction. Our alignment method is similar to existing methods of statistical alignment but uses the conserved binding sites to improve alignment. Our CRM prediction method deals with the inherent uncertainties of binding site annotations and sequence alignment in a probabilistic framework. In simulated as well as real data, we demonstrate that our program is able to improve both alignment and prediction of CRM sequences over several state-of-the-art methods. Finally, we used alignments produced by our program to study binding site conservation in genome-wide binding data of key transcription factors in the Drosophila blastoderm, with two intriguing results: (i the factor-bound sequences are under strong evolutionary constraints even if their neighboring genes are not expressed in the blastoderm and (ii binding sites in distal bound sequences (relative to transcription start sites tend to be more conserved than those in proximal regions. Our approach is implemented as software, EMMA (Evolutionary Model-based cis-regulatory Module Analysis, ready to be applied in a broad biological context.

Dynamical formation of spatially localized arrays of aligned nanowires in plastic films with magnetic anisotropy.

Science.gov (United States)

Fragouli, Despina; Buonsanti, Raffaella; Bertoni, Giovanni; Sangregorio, Claudio; Innocenti, Claudia; Falqui, Andrea; Gatteschi, Dante; Cozzoli, Pantaleo Davide; Athanassiou, Athanassia; Cingolani, Roberto

2010-04-27

We present a simple technique for magnetic-field-induced formation, assembling, and positioning of magnetic nanowires in a polymer film. Starting from a polymer/iron oxide nanoparticle casted solution that is allowed to dry along with the application of a weak magnetic field, nanocomposite films incorporating aligned nanocrystal-built nanowire arrays are obtained. The control of the dimensions of the nanowires and of their localization across the polymer matrix is achieved by varying the duration of the applied magnetic field, in combination with the evaporation dynamics. These multifunctional anisotropic free-standing nanocomposite films, which demonstrate high magnetic anisotropy, can be used in a wide field of technological applications, ranging from sensors to microfluidics and magnetic devices.

Nova laser alignment control system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Arsdall, P.J.; Holloway, F.W.; McGuigan, D.L.; Shelton, R.T.

1984-01-01

Alignment of the Nova laser requires control of hundreds of optical components in the ten beam paths. Extensive application of computer technology makes daily alignment practical. The control system is designed in a manner which provides both centralized and local manual operator controls integrated with automatic closed loop alignment. Menudriven operator consoles using high resolution color graphics displays overlaid with transport touch panels allow laser personnel to interact efficiently with the computer system. Automatic alignment is accomplished by using image analysis techniques to determine beam references points from video images acquired along the laser chain. A major goal of the design is to contribute substantially to rapid experimental turnaround and consistent alignment results. This paper describes the computer-based control structure and the software methods developed for aligning this large laser system

Markov random field based automatic image alignment for electron tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Amat, Fernando; Moussavi, Farshid; Comolli, Luis R; Elidan, Gal; Downing, Kenneth H; Horowitz, Mark

2008-03-01

We present a method for automatic full-precision alignment of the images in a tomographic tilt series. Full-precision automatic alignment of cryo electron microscopy images has remained a difficult challenge to date, due to the limited electron dose and low image contrast. These facts lead to poor signal to noise ratio (SNR) in the images, which causes automatic feature trackers to generate errors, even with high contrast gold particles as fiducial features. To enable fully automatic alignment for full-precision reconstructions, we frame the problem probabilistically as finding the most likely particle tracks given a set of noisy images, using contextual information to make the solution more robust to the noise in each image. To solve this maximum likelihood problem, we use Markov Random Fields (MRF) to establish the correspondence of features in alignment and robust optimization for projection model estimation. The resulting algorithm, called Robust Alignment and Projection Estimation for Tomographic Reconstruction, or RAPTOR, has not needed any manual intervention for the difficult datasets we have tried, and has provided sub-pixel alignment that is as good as the manual approach by an expert user. We are able to automatically map complete and partial marker trajectories and thus obtain highly accurate image alignment. Our method has been applied to challenging cryo electron tomographic datasets with low SNR from intact bacterial cells, as well as several plastic section and X-ray datasets.

EVIDENCE FOR H{sub 2} FORMATION DRIVEN DUST GRAIN ALIGNMENT IN IC 63

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andersson, B-G; De Buizer, J.; Charcos-Llorens, M. [SOFIA Science Center, USRA, NASA Ames Research Center, M.S. N211-3 Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Piirola, V. [Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO, University of Turku, Väisäläntie 20, FI-21500 Piikkiö (Finland); Clemens, D. P. [Institute for Astrophysical Research, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215 (United States); Uomoto, A. [Observatories of the Carnegie Institution, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 (United States); Geballe, T. R. [Gemini Observatory, Northern Operations Center, 670 N. A' ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States); Lazarian, A.; Hoang, T. [Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, 475 North Charter Street, Madison, WI 53706 (United States); Vornanen, T., E-mail: bg@sofia.usra.edu [Tuorla Observatory, University of Turku, Väisäläntie 20, FI-21500 Piikkiö (Finland)

2013-10-01

In the interstellar medium (ISM), molecular hydrogen is expected to form almost exclusively on the surfaces of dust grains. Due to that molecule's large formation energy (–4.5 eV), several dynamical effects are likely associated with the process, including the alignment of asymmetric dust grains with the ambient magnetic field. Such aligned dust grains are, in turn, believed to cause the broadband optical/infrared polarization observed in the ISM. Here, we present the first observational evidence for grain alignment driven by H{sub 2} formation, by showing that the polarization of the light from stars behind the reflection nebula IC 63 appears to correlate with the intensity of H{sub 2} fluorescence. While our results strongly suggest a role for 'Purcell rockets' in grain alignment, additional observations are needed to conclusively confirm their role. By showing a direct connection between H{sub 2} formation and a probe of the dust characteristics, these results also provide one of the first direct confirmations of the grain-surface formation of H{sub 2}. We compare our observations to ab initio modeling based on Radiative Torque Alignment (RAT) theory.

QUASAR--scoring and ranking of sequence-structure alignments.

Science.gov (United States)

Birzele, Fabian; Gewehr, Jan E; Zimmer, Ralf

2005-12-15

Sequence-structure alignments are a common means for protein structure prediction in the fields of fold recognition and homology modeling, and there is a broad variety of programs that provide such alignments based on sequence similarity, secondary structure or contact potentials. Nevertheless, finding the best sequence-structure alignment in a pool of alignments remains a difficult problem. QUASAR (quality of sequence-structure alignments ranking) provides a unifying framework for scoring sequence-structure alignments that aids finding well-performing combinations of well-known and custom-made scoring schemes. Those scoring functions can be benchmarked against widely accepted quality scores like MaxSub, TMScore, Touch and APDB, thus enabling users to test their own alignment scores against 'standard-of-truth' structure-based scores. Furthermore, individual score combinations can be optimized with respect to benchmark sets based on known structural relationships using QUASAR's in-built optimization routines.

Alignment methods: strategies, challenges, benchmarking, and comparative overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Löytynoja, Ari

2012-01-01

Comparative evolutionary analyses of molecular sequences are solely based on the identities and differences detected between homologous characters. Errors in this homology statement, that is errors in the alignment of the sequences, are likely to lead to errors in the downstream analyses. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic inference are tightly connected and many popular alignment programs use the phylogeny to divide the alignment problem into smaller tasks. They then neglect the phylogenetic tree, however, and produce alignments that are not evolutionarily meaningful. The use of phylogeny-aware methods reduces the error but the resulting alignments, with evolutionarily correct representation of homology, can challenge the existing practices and methods for viewing and visualising the sequences. The inter-dependency of alignment and phylogeny can be resolved by joint estimation of the two; methods based on statistical models allow for inferring the alignment parameters from the data and correctly take into account the uncertainty of the solution but remain computationally challenging. Widely used alignment methods are based on heuristic algorithms and unlikely to find globally optimal solutions. The whole concept of one correct alignment for the sequences is questionable, however, as there typically exist vast numbers of alternative, roughly equally good alignments that should also be considered. This uncertainty is hidden by many popular alignment programs and is rarely correctly taken into account in the downstream analyses. The quest for finding and improving the alignment solution is complicated by the lack of suitable measures of alignment goodness. The difficulty of comparing alternative solutions also affects benchmarks of alignment methods and the results strongly depend on the measure used. As the effects of alignment error cannot be predicted, comparing the alignments' performance in downstream analyses is recommended.

Generic accelerated sequence alignment in SeqAn using vectorization and multi-threading.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahn, René; Budach, Stefan; Costanza, Pascal; Ehrhardt, Marcel; Hancox, Jonny; Reinert, Knut

2018-05-03

Pairwise sequence alignment is undoubtedly a central tool in many bioinformatics analyses. In this paper, we present a generically accelerated module for pairwise sequence alignments applicable for a broad range of applications. In our module, we unified the standard dynamic programming kernel used for pairwise sequence alignments and extended it with a generalized inter-sequence vectorization layout, such that many alignments can be computed simultaneously by exploiting SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) instructions of modern processors. We then extended the module by adding two layers of thread-level parallelization, where we a) distribute many independent alignments on multiple threads and b) inherently parallelize a single alignment computation using a work stealing approach producing a dynamic wavefront progressing along the minor diagonal. We evaluated our alignment vectorization and parallelization on different processors, including the newest Intel® Xeon® (Skylake) and Intel® Xeon Phi™ (KNL) processors, and use cases. The instruction set AVX512-BW (Byte and Word), available on Skylake processors, can genuinely improve the performance of vectorized alignments. We could run single alignments 1600 times faster on the Xeon Phi™ and 1400 times faster on the Xeon® than executing them with our previous sequential alignment module. The module is programmed in C++ using the SeqAn (Reinert et al., 2017) library and distributed with version 2.4. under the BSD license. We support SSE4, AVX2, AVX512 instructions and included UME::SIMD, a SIMD-instruction wrapper library, to extend our module for further instruction sets. We thoroughly test all alignment components with all major C++ compilers on various platforms. rene.rahn@fu-berlin.de.

A Method for SINS Alignment with Large Initial Misalignment Angles Based on Kalman Filter with Parameters Resetting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xixiang Liu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In the initial alignment process of strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS, large initial misalignment angles always bring nonlinear problem, which causes alignment failure when the classical linear error model and standard Kalman filter are used. In this paper, the problem of large misalignment angles in SINS initial alignment is investigated, and the key reason for alignment failure is given as the state covariance from Kalman filter cannot represent the true one during the steady filtering process. According to the analysis, an alignment method for SINS based on multiresetting the state covariance matrix of Kalman filter is designed to deal with large initial misalignment angles, in which classical linear error model and standard Kalman filter are used, but the state covariance matrix should be multireset before the steady process until large misalignment angles are decreased to small ones. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by simulation and car test, and the results indicate that the proposed method can fulfill initial alignment with large misalignment angles effectively and the alignment accuracy of the proposed method is as precise as that of alignment with small misalignment angles.

Landmark matching based retinal image alignment by enforcing sparsity in correspondence matrix.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Yuanjie; Daniel, Ebenezer; Hunter, Allan A; Xiao, Rui; Gao, Jianbin; Li, Hongsheng; Maguire, Maureen G; Brainard, David H; Gee, James C

2014-08-01

Retinal image alignment is fundamental to many applications in diagnosis of eye diseases. In this paper, we address the problem of landmark matching based retinal image alignment. We propose a novel landmark matching formulation by enforcing sparsity in the correspondence matrix and offer its solutions based on linear programming. The proposed formulation not only enables a joint estimation of the landmark correspondences and a predefined transformation model but also combines the benefits of the softassign strategy (Chui and Rangarajan, 2003) and the combinatorial optimization of linear programming. We also introduced a set of reinforced self-similarities descriptors which can better characterize local photometric and geometric properties of the retinal image. Theoretical analysis and experimental results with both fundus color images and angiogram images show the superior performances of our algorithms to several state-of-the-art techniques. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

BinAligner: a heuristic method to align biological networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jialiang; Li, Jun; Grünewald, Stefan; Wan, Xiu-Feng

2013-01-01

The advances in high throughput omics technologies have made it possible to characterize molecular interactions within and across various species. Alignments and comparison of molecular networks across species will help detect orthologs and conserved functional modules and provide insights on the evolutionary relationships of the compared species. However, such analyses are not trivial due to the complexity of network and high computational cost. Here we develop a mixture of global and local algorithm, BinAligner, for network alignments. Based on the hypotheses that the similarity between two vertices across networks would be context dependent and that the information from the edges and the structures of subnetworks can be more informative than vertices alone, two scoring schema, 1-neighborhood subnetwork and graphlet, were introduced to derive the scoring matrices between networks, besides the commonly used scoring scheme from vertices. Then the alignment problem is formulated as an assignment problem, which is solved by the combinatorial optimization algorithm, such as the Hungarian method. The proposed algorithm was applied and validated in aligning the protein-protein interaction network of Kaposi's sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and that of varicella zoster virus (VZV). Interestingly, we identified several putative functional orthologous proteins with similar functions but very low sequence similarity between the two viruses. For example, KSHV open reading frame 56 (ORF56) and VZV ORF55 are helicase-primase subunits with sequence identity 14.6%, and KSHV ORF75 and VZV ORF44 are tegument proteins with sequence identity 15.3%. These functional pairs can not be identified if one restricts the alignment into orthologous protein pairs. In addition, BinAligner identified a conserved pathway between two viruses, which consists of 7 orthologous protein pairs and these proteins are connected by conserved links. This pathway might be crucial for virus packing and

Tensile Mechanical Properties and Dynamic Collagen Fiber Re-Alignment of the Murine Cervix are Dramatically Altered Throughout Pregnancy.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnum, Carrie E; Fey, Jennifer L; Weiss, Stephanie N; Barila, Guillermo; Brown, Amy G; Connizzo, Brianne K; Shetye, Snehal S; Elovitz, Michal A; Soslowsky, Louis J

2017-06-01

The cervix is a unique organ able to dramatically change its shape and function by serving as a physical barrier for the growing fetus and then undergoing dramatic dilation allowing for delivery of a term infant. As a result, the cervix endures changing mechanical forces from the growing fetus. There is an emerging concept that the cervix may change or remodel "early" in many cases of spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB). However, the mechanical role of the cervix in both normal and preterm birth remains unclear. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to determine the mechanical and structural responses of murine cervical tissue throughout a normal gestational time course. In this study, both tissue structural and material properties were determined via a quasi-static tensile load-to-failure test, while simultaneously obtaining dynamic collagen fiber re-alignment via cross-polarization imaging. This study demonstrated that the majority of the mechanical properties evaluated decreased at midgestation and not just at term, while collagen fiber re-alignment occurred earlier in the loading curve for cervices at term. This suggests that although structural changes in the cervix occur throughout gestation, the differences in material properties function in combination with collagen fiber re-alignment as mechanical precursors to regulate term gestation. This work lays a foundation for investigating cervical biomechanics and the role of the cervix in preterm birth.

Aligning the unalignable: bacteriophage whole genome alignments.

Science.gov (United States)

Bérard, Sèverine; Chateau, Annie; Pompidor, Nicolas; Guertin, Paul; Bergeron, Anne; Swenson, Krister M

2016-01-13

In recent years, many studies focused on the description and comparison of large sets of related bacteriophage genomes. Due to the peculiar mosaic structure of these genomes, few informative approaches for comparing whole genomes exist: dot plots diagrams give a mostly qualitative assessment of the similarity/dissimilarity between two or more genomes, and clustering techniques are used to classify genomes. Multiple alignments are conspicuously absent from this scene. Indeed, whole genome aligners interpret lack of similarity between sequences as an indication of rearrangements, insertions, or losses. This behavior makes them ill-prepared to align bacteriophage genomes, where even closely related strains can accomplish the same biological function with highly dissimilar sequences. In this paper, we propose a multiple alignment strategy that exploits functional collinearity shared by related strains of bacteriophages, and uses partial orders to capture mosaicism of sets of genomes. As classical alignments do, the computed alignments can be used to predict that genes have the same biological function, even in the absence of detectable similarity. The Alpha aligner implements these ideas in visual interactive displays, and is used to compute several examples of alignments of Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium bacteriophages, involving up to 29 genomes. Using these datasets, we prove that Alpha alignments are at least as good as those computed by standard aligners. Comparison with the progressive Mauve aligner - which implements a partial order strategy, but whose alignments are linearized - shows a greatly improved interactive graphic display, while avoiding misalignments. Multiple alignments of whole bacteriophage genomes work, and will become an important conceptual and visual tool in comparative genomics of sets of related strains. A python implementation of Alpha, along with installation instructions for Ubuntu and OSX, is available on bitbucket (https://bitbucket.org/thekswenson/alpha).

Alignment enhanced photoconductivity in single wall carbon nanotube films

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Ye; Lu Shaoxin; Panchapakesan, Balaji

2009-01-01

In this paper we report, for the first time, the alignment enhanced photoconductivity of single wall carbon nanotube films upon laser illumination. The photoconductivity exhibited an increase, decrease or even 'negative' values when the laser spot was on different positions between contact electrodes, showing a 'position' dependent photoconductivity of partially aligned films of carbon nanotubes. Photon induced charge carrier generation in single wall carbon nanotubes and subsequent charge separation across the metal-carbon nanotube contacts is believed to cause the photoconductivity changes. A net photovoltage of ∼4 mV and a photocurrent of ∼10 μA were produced under the laser intensity of ∼273 mW with a quantum efficiency of ∼7.8% in vacuum. The photocurrent was observed to be in the direction of nanotube alignment. Finally, there was a strong dependence of the polarization of the incident light on the photocurrent and the orientation of the films influenced the dynamics of the rise and fall of the photocurrent. All of these phenomena clearly have significance in the area of design and fabrication of solar cells, micro-opto-mechanical systems and photodetectors based on carbon nanotubes.

SU-E-J-33: Comparison Between Soft Tissue Alignment and Bony Alignment for Pancreatic Cancer Radiotherapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Suh, Y; Crane, C; Krishnan, S; Das, P; Koay, E; Beddar, S [UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States)

2015-06-15

Purpose An IGRT modality for pancreatic cancer treatment with dose escalation at our institution is in-room daily CT imaging. The purpose of this study is to assess the difference between soft tissue alignment and bony alignment for pancreatic tumor localization. Methods Eighteen patients with pancreatic tumors who underwent IMRT treatment with an inspiration breath-hold technique between July 2012 and February 2015 are included in this study. Prior to each treatment, a CT scan was acquired. The CT image guidance started with auto-alignment to either the bony anatomy (vertebral bodies) or fiducials (for the six patients with the stent in/near the tumor) and then, when necessary, manual adjustments were made based on soft tissue alignment using clinical software (CT-Assisted Targeting system). The difference between soft tissue alignment and bony/fiducial alignment was evaluated. Results Of all 380 treatments, manual adjustment was made in 225 treatments, ranging from 11% (3 treatments out of 28) to 96% (27 treatments out of 28) per patient. The mean of the difference between soft tissue alignment and bony/fiducial alignment per patient ranged from −3.6 to 0.3 mm, −1.5 to 2.8 mm, and −3.3 to 3.4 mm in the AP, SI, and RL directions, respectively. The maximum difference over all treatments was −9.5, −14.6, and −14.6 mm in the AP, SI, and RL directions, respectively. Conclusion About 60% of the time, manual adjustment based on soft tissue alignment was required. The extent of manual adjustment was usually small but varied significantly from patient to patient. The ultimate goal of the IGRT modality using daily CT imaging is not to fully cover the target but to spare organs-at-risk as much as possible to avoid them moving into higher dose gradients than accepted in the treatment plan. To this end, manual adjustment based on soft tissue alignment is critically important.

Tidal alignment of galaxies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blazek, Jonathan; Vlah, Zvonimir; Seljak, Uroš

2015-08-01

We develop an analytic model for galaxy intrinsic alignments (IA) based on the theory of tidal alignment. We calculate all relevant nonlinear corrections at one-loop order, including effects from nonlinear density evolution, galaxy biasing, and source density weighting. Contributions from density weighting are found to be particularly important and lead to bias dependence of the IA amplitude, even on large scales. This effect may be responsible for much of the luminosity dependence in IA observations. The increase in IA amplitude for more highly biased galaxies reflects their locations in regions with large tidal fields. We also consider the impact of smoothing the tidal field on halo scales. We compare the performance of this consistent nonlinear model in describing the observed alignment of luminous red galaxies with the linear model as well as the frequently used "nonlinear alignment model," finding a significant improvement on small and intermediate scales. We also show that the cross-correlation between density and IA (the "GI" term) can be effectively separated into source alignment and source clustering, and we accurately model the observed alignment down to the one-halo regime using the tidal field from the fully nonlinear halo-matter cross correlation. Inside the one-halo regime, the average alignment of galaxies with density tracers no longer follows the tidal alignment prediction, likely reflecting nonlinear processes that must be considered when modeling IA on these scales. Finally, we discuss tidal alignment in the context of cosmic shear measurements.

Electrostatically Induced Carbon Nanotube Alignment for Polymer Composite Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Chapkin, Wesley Aaron

We have developed a non-invasive technique utilizing polarized Raman spectroscopy to measure changes in carbon nanotube (CNT) alignment in situ and in real time in a polymer matrix. With this technique, we have confirmed the prediction of faster alignment for CNTs in higher electric fields. Real-time polarized Raman spectroscopy also allows us to demonstrate the loss of CNT alignment that occurs after the electric field is removed, which reveals the need for fast polymerization steps or the continued application of the aligning force during polymerization to lock in CNT alignment. Through a study on the effect of polymer viscosity on the rate of CNT alignment, we have determined that shear viscosity serves as the controlling mechanism for CNT rotation. This finding matches literature modeling of rigid rod mobility in a polymer melt and demonstrates that the rotational mobility of CNTs can be explained by a continuum model even though the diameters of single-walled CNTs are 1-2 nm. The viscosity dependence indicates that the manipulation of temperature (and indirectly viscosity) will have a direct effect on the rate of CNT alignment, which could prove useful in expediting the manufacturing of CNT-reinforced composites cured at elevated temperatures. Using real-time polarized Raman spectroscopy, we also demonstrate that electric fields of various strengths lead not only to different speeds of CNT rotation but also to different degrees of alignment. We hypothesize that this difference in achievable alignment results from discrete populations of nanotubes based on their length. The results are then explained by balancing the alignment energy for a given electric field strength with the randomizing thermal energy of the system. By studying the alignment dynamics of different CNT length distributions, we show that different degrees of alignment achieved as a function of the applied electric field strength are directly related to the square of the nanotube length. This

Reliability of lower limb alignment measures using an established landmark-based method with a customized computer software program

Science.gov (United States)

Sled, Elizabeth A.; Sheehy, Lisa M.; Felson, David T.; Costigan, Patrick A.; Lam, Miu; Cooke, T. Derek V.

2010-01-01

The objective of the study was to evaluate the reliability of frontal plane lower limb alignment measures using a landmark-based method by (1) comparing inter- and intra-reader reliability between measurements of alignment obtained manually with those using a computer program, and (2) determining inter- and intra-reader reliability of computer-assisted alignment measures from full-limb radiographs. An established method for measuring alignment was used, involving selection of 10 femoral and tibial bone landmarks. 1) To compare manual and computer methods, we used digital images and matching paper copies of five alignment patterns simulating healthy and malaligned limbs drawn using AutoCAD. Seven readers were trained in each system. Paper copies were measured manually and repeat measurements were performed daily for 3 days, followed by a similar routine with the digital images using the computer. 2) To examine the reliability of computer-assisted measures from full-limb radiographs, 100 images (200 limbs) were selected as a random sample from 1,500 full-limb digital radiographs which were part of the Multicenter Osteoarthritis (MOST) Study. Three trained readers used the software program to measure alignment twice from the batch of 100 images, with two or more weeks between batch handling. Manual and computer measures of alignment showed excellent agreement (intraclass correlations [ICCs] 0.977 – 0.999 for computer analysis; 0.820 – 0.995 for manual measures). The computer program applied to full-limb radiographs produced alignment measurements with high inter- and intra-reader reliability (ICCs 0.839 – 0.998). In conclusion, alignment measures using a bone landmark-based approach and a computer program were highly reliable between multiple readers. PMID:19882339

Quantitative conformational analysis of the core region of N-glycans using residual dipolar couplings, aqueous molecular dynamics, and steric alignment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Almond, Andrew; Duus, Jens O.

2001-01-01

A method is described for quantitatively investigating the dynamic conformation of small oligosaccharides containing an α(1 → 6) linkage. It was applied to the oligosaccharide Man-α(1 → 3) {Man-α (1 → 6)}Man-α-O-Me, which is a core region frequently observed in N-linked glycans. The approach tests an aqueous molecular dynamics simulation, capable of predicting microscopic dynamics, against experimental residual dipolar couplings, by assuming that alignment is caused purely by steric hindrance. The experimental constraints were heteronuclear and homonuclear residual dipolar couplings, and in particular those within the α(1 → 6) linkage itself. Powerful spin-state-selective pulse sequences and editing schemes were used to obtain the most relevant couplings for testing the model. Molecular dynamics simulations in water over a period of 50 ns were not able to predict the correct rotamer population at the α(1 → 6) linkage to agree with the experimental data. However, this sampling problem could be corrected using a simple maximum likelihood optimisation, indicating that the simulation was modelling local dynamics correctly. The maximum likelihood prediction of the residual dipolar couplings was found to be an almost equal population of the gg and gt rotamer conformations at the α(1 → 6) linkage, and the tg conformation was predicted to be unstable and unpopulated in aqueous solution. In this case all twelve measured residual dipolar couplings could be satisfied. This conformer population could also be used to make predictions of scalar couplings with the use of a previously derived empirical equation, and is qualitatively in agreement with previous predictions based on NMR, X-ray crystallography and optical data

Dynamic Aftershock Triggering Correlated with Cyclic Loading in the Slip Direction

Science.gov (United States)

Hardebeck, J.

2014-12-01

Dynamic stress changes have been shown to contribute to aftershock triggering, but the physical triggering mechanisms are not fully understood. Some proposed mechanisms are based on dynamic stress loading of the target fault in a direction that encourages earthquake slip (e.g. dynamic Coulomb stress triggering), while other mechanisms are based on fault weakening due to shaking. If dynamic stress loading in the fault slip direction plays a role in aftershock triggering, we would expect to see a relationship between the dynamic stress orientations and the aftershock focal mechanisms. Alternatively, if dynamic stress change triggering functions only through a fault weakening mechanism that is independent of the slip direction of the target fault, no such relationship is expected. I study aftershock sequences of 4 M≥6.7 mainshocks in southern California, and find a small but significant relationship between modeled dynamic stress direction and aftershock focal mechanisms. The mainshock dynamic stress changes have two observed impacts: changing the focal mechanisms in a given location to favor those aligned with the dynamic stress change, and changing the spatial distribution of seismicity to favor locations where the dynamic stress change aligns with the background stress. The aftershock focal mechanisms are significantly more aligned with the dynamic stress changes than the preshock mechanisms for only the first 0.5-1 year following most mainshocks, although for at least 10 years following Hector Mine. Dynamic stress effects on focal mechanisms are best observed at long periods (30-60 sec). Dynamic stress effects are only observed when using metrics based on repeated stress cycling in the same direction, for example considering the dominant stress orientation over the full time series, and not for the peak dynamic stress. These results imply that dynamic aftershock triggering operates at least in part through cyclic loading in the direction of fault slip, although

Accurate Alignment of Plasma Channels Based on Laser Centroid Oscillations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gonsalves, Anthony; Nakamura, Kei; Lin, Chen; Osterhoff, Jens; Shiraishi, Satomi; Schroeder, Carl; Geddes, Cameron; Toth, Csaba; Esarey, Eric; Leemans, Wim

2011-01-01

A technique has been developed to accurately align a laser beam through a plasma channel by minimizing the shift in laser centroid and angle at the channel outptut. If only the shift in centroid or angle is measured, then accurate alignment is provided by minimizing laser centroid motion at the channel exit as the channel properties are scanned. The improvement in alignment accuracy provided by this technique is important for minimizing electron beam pointing errors in laser plasma accelerators.

MANGO: a new approach to multiple sequence alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zefeng; Lin, Hao; Li, Ming

2007-01-01

Multiple sequence alignment is a classical and challenging task for biological sequence analysis. The problem is NP-hard. The full dynamic programming takes too much time. The progressive alignment heuristics adopted by most state of the art multiple sequence alignment programs suffer from the 'once a gap, always a gap' phenomenon. Is there a radically new way to do multiple sequence alignment? This paper introduces a novel and orthogonal multiple sequence alignment method, using multiple optimized spaced seeds and new algorithms to handle these seeds efficiently. Our new algorithm processes information of all sequences as a whole, avoiding problems caused by the popular progressive approaches. Because the optimized spaced seeds are provably significantly more sensitive than the consecutive k-mers, the new approach promises to be more accurate and reliable. To validate our new approach, we have implemented MANGO: Multiple Alignment with N Gapped Oligos. Experiments were carried out on large 16S RNA benchmarks showing that MANGO compares favorably, in both accuracy and speed, against state-of-art multiple sequence alignment methods, including ClustalW 1.83, MUSCLE 3.6, MAFFT 5.861, Prob-ConsRNA 1.11, Dialign 2.2.1, DIALIGN-T 0.2.1, T-Coffee 4.85, POA 2.0 and Kalign 2.0.

A value-based maturity model for IT alignment in networked businesses

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Santana Tapia, R.G.

Business-IT alignment can be achieved at various levels of maturity. Supposing that an organization has tried to achieve business-IT alignment, a question to face is: how is that organization going to know the level of maturity of its alignment situation in order to plan future ways of action? That

Mango: multiple alignment with N gapped oligos.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zefeng; Lin, Hao; Li, Ming

2008-06-01

Multiple sequence alignment is a classical and challenging task. The problem is NP-hard. The full dynamic programming takes too much time. The progressive alignment heuristics adopted by most state-of-the-art works suffer from the "once a gap, always a gap" phenomenon. Is there a radically new way to do multiple sequence alignment? In this paper, we introduce a novel and orthogonal multiple sequence alignment method, using both multiple optimized spaced seeds and new algorithms to handle these seeds efficiently. Our new algorithm processes information of all sequences as a whole and tries to build the alignment vertically, avoiding problems caused by the popular progressive approaches. Because the optimized spaced seeds have proved significantly more sensitive than the consecutive k-mers, the new approach promises to be more accurate and reliable. To validate our new approach, we have implemented MANGO: Multiple Alignment with N Gapped Oligos. Experiments were carried out on large 16S RNA benchmarks, showing that MANGO compares favorably, in both accuracy and speed, against state-of-the-art multiple sequence alignment methods, including ClustalW 1.83, MUSCLE 3.6, MAFFT 5.861, ProbConsRNA 1.11, Dialign 2.2.1, DIALIGN-T 0.2.1, T-Coffee 4.85, POA 2.0, and Kalign 2.0. We have further demonstrated the scalability of MANGO on very large datasets of repeat elements. MANGO can be downloaded at http://www.bioinfo.org.cn/mango/ and is free for academic usage.

pyPaSWAS : Python-based multi-core CPU and GPU sequence alignment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Warris, Sven; Timal, N Roshan N; Kempenaar, Marcel; Poortinga, Arne M; van de Geest, Henri; Varbanescu, Ana L; Nap, Jan-Peter

2018-01-01

BACKGROUND: Our previously published CUDA-only application PaSWAS for Smith-Waterman (SW) sequence alignment of any type of sequence on NVIDIA-based GPUs is platform-specific and therefore adopted less than could be. The OpenCL language is supported more widely and allows use on a variety of

MISTICA: Minimum Spanning Tree-Based Coarse Image Alignment for Microscopy Image Sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, Nilanjan; McArdle, Sara; Ley, Klaus; Acton, Scott T

2016-11-01

Registration of an in vivo microscopy image sequence is necessary in many significant studies, including studies of atherosclerosis in large arteries and the heart. Significant cardiac and respiratory motion of the living subject, occasional spells of focal plane changes, drift in the field of view, and long image sequences are the principal roadblocks. The first step in such a registration process is the removal of translational and rotational motion. Next, a deformable registration can be performed. The focus of our study here is to remove the translation and/or rigid body motion that we refer to here as coarse alignment. The existing techniques for coarse alignment are unable to accommodate long sequences often consisting of periods of poor quality images (as quantified by a suitable perceptual measure). Many existing methods require the user to select an anchor image to which other images are registered. We propose a novel method for coarse image sequence alignment based on minimum weighted spanning trees (MISTICA) that overcomes these difficulties. The principal idea behind MISTICA is to reorder the images in shorter sequences, to demote nonconforming or poor quality images in the registration process, and to mitigate the error propagation. The anchor image is selected automatically making MISTICA completely automated. MISTICA is computationally efficient. It has a single tuning parameter that determines graph width, which can also be eliminated by the way of additional computation. MISTICA outperforms existing alignment methods when applied to microscopy image sequences of mouse arteries.

Real-time high-resolution measurement of collagen alignment in dynamically loaded soft tissue.

Science.gov (United States)

York, Timothy; Kahan, Lindsey; Lake, Spencer P; Gruev, Viktor

2014-06-01

A technique for creating maps of the direction and strength of fiber alignment in collagenous soft tissues is presented. The method uses a division of focal plane polarimeter to measure circularly polarized light transmitted through the tissue. The architecture of the sensor allows measurement of the retardance and fiber alignment at the full frame rate of the sensor without any moving optics. The technique compares favorably to the standard method of using a rotating polarizer. How the new technique enables real-time capture of the full angular spread of fiber alignment and retardance under various cyclic loading conditions is illustrated.

Improving alignment in Tract-based spatial statistics: evaluation and optimization of image registration

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Groot, Marius; Vernooij, Meike W.; Klein, Stefan; Ikram, M. Arfan; Vos, Frans M.; Smith, Stephen M.; Niessen, Wiro J.; Andersson, Jesper L. R.

2013-01-01

Anatomical alignment in neuroimaging studies is of such importance that considerable effort is put into improving the registration used to establish spatial correspondence. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) is a popular method for comparing diffusion characteristics across subjects. TBSS

Improving alignment in Tract-based spatial statistics : Evaluation and optimization of image registration

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Groot, M.; Vernooij, M.W.; Klein, S.; Arfan Ikram, M.; Vos, F.M.; Smith, S.M.; Niessen, W.J.; Andersson, J.L.R.

2013-01-01

Anatomical alignment in neuroimaging studies is of such importance that considerable effort is put into improving the registration used to establish spatial correspondence. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) is a popular method for comparing diffusion characteristics across subjects. TBSS

Polymer chain alignment and transistor properties of nanochannel-templated poly(3-hexylthiophene) nanowires

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Seungjun; Hayakawa, Ryoma; Pan, Chengjun; Sugiyasu, Kazunori; Wakayama, Yutaka

2016-08-01

Nanowires of semiconducting poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) were produced by a nanochannel-template technique. Polymer chain alignment in P3HT nanowires was investigated as a function of nanochannel widths (W) and polymer chain lengths (L). We found that the ratio between chain length and channel width (L/W) was a key parameter as regards promoting polymer chain alignment. Clear dichroism was observed in polarized ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) absorption spectra only at a ratio of approximately L/W = 2, indicating that the L/W ratio must be optimized to achieve uniaxial chain alignment in the nanochannel direction. We speculate that an appropriate L/W ratio is effective in confining the geometries and conformations of polymer chains. This discussion was supported by theoretical simulations based on molecular dynamics. That is, the geometry of the polymer chains, including the distance and tilting angles of the chains in relation to the nanochannel surface, was dominant in determining the longitudinal alignment along the nanochannels. Thus prepared highly aligned polymer nanowire is advantageous for electrical carrier transport and has great potential for improving the device performance of field-effect transistors. In fact, a one-order improvement in carrier mobility was observed in a P3HT nanowire transistor.

Experimental image alignment system

Science.gov (United States)

Moyer, A. L.; Kowel, S. T.; Kornreich, P. G.

1980-01-01

A microcomputer-based instrument for image alignment with respect to a reference image is described which uses the DEFT sensor (Direct Electronic Fourier Transform) for image sensing and preprocessing. The instrument alignment algorithm which uses the two-dimensional Fourier transform as input is also described. It generates signals used to steer the stage carrying the test image into the correct orientation. This algorithm has computational advantages over algorithms which use image intensity data as input and is suitable for a microcomputer-based instrument since the two-dimensional Fourier transform is provided by the DEFT sensor.

Reducing beam shaper alignment complexity: diagnostic techniques for alignment and tuning

Science.gov (United States)

Lizotte, Todd E.

2011-10-01

Safe and efficient optical alignment is a critical requirement for industrial laser systems used in a high volume manufacturing environment. Of specific interest is the development of techniques to align beam shaping optics within a beam line; having the ability to instantly verify by a qualitative means that each element is in its proper position as the beam shaper module is being aligned. There is a need to reduce these types of alignment techniques down to a level where even a newbie to optical alignment will be able to complete the task. Couple this alignment need with the fact that most laser system manufacturers ship their products worldwide and the introduction of a new set of variables including cultural and language barriers, makes this a top priority for manufacturers. Tools and methodologies for alignment of complex optical systems need to be able to cross these barriers to ensure the highest degree of up time and reduce the cost of maintenance on the production floor. Customers worldwide, who purchase production laser equipment, understand that the majority of costs to a manufacturing facility is spent on system maintenance and is typically the largest single controllable expenditure in a production plant. This desire to reduce costs is driving the trend these days towards predictive and proactive, not reactive maintenance of laser based optical beam delivery systems [10]. With proper diagnostic tools, laser system developers can develop proactive approaches to reduce system down time, safe guard operational performance and reduce premature or catastrophic optics failures. Obviously analytical data will provide quantifiable performance standards which are more precise than qualitative standards, but each have a role in determining overall optical system performance [10]. This paper will discuss the use of film and fluorescent mirror devices as diagnostic tools for beam shaper module alignment off line or in-situ. The paper will also provide an overview

Stochastic sampling of the RNA structural alignment space.

Science.gov (United States)

Harmanci, Arif Ozgun; Sharma, Gaurav; Mathews, David H

2009-07-01

A novel method is presented for predicting the common secondary structures and alignment of two homologous RNA sequences by sampling the 'structural alignment' space, i.e. the joint space of their alignments and common secondary structures. The structural alignment space is sampled according to a pseudo-Boltzmann distribution based on a pseudo-free energy change that combines base pairing probabilities from a thermodynamic model and alignment probabilities from a hidden Markov model. By virtue of the implicit comparative analysis between the two sequences, the method offers an improvement over single sequence sampling of the Boltzmann ensemble. A cluster analysis shows that the samples obtained from joint sampling of the structural alignment space cluster more closely than samples generated by the single sequence method. On average, the representative (centroid) structure and alignment of the most populated cluster in the sample of structures and alignments generated by joint sampling are more accurate than single sequence sampling and alignment based on sequence alone, respectively. The 'best' centroid structure that is closest to the known structure among all the centroids is, on average, more accurate than structure predictions of other methods. Additionally, cluster analysis identifies, on average, a few clusters, whose centroids can be presented as alternative candidates. The source code for the proposed method can be downloaded at http://rna.urmc.rochester.edu.

Effects of the Hot Alignment of a Power Unit on Oil-Whip Instability Phenomena

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Vania

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This paper shows the results of the analysis of the dynamic behaviour of a power unit, whose shaft-train alignment was significantly influenced by the machine thermal state, that was affected in operating condition by high subsynchronous vibrations caused by oil-whip instability phenomena. The dynamic stiffness coefficients of the oil-film journal bearings of the generator were evaluated considering the critical average journal positions that caused the instability onsets. By including these bearing coefficients in a mathematical model of the fully assembled machine, the real part of the eigenvalue associated with the first balance resonance of the generator rotor became positive. This paper shows the successful results obtained by combining diagnostic techniques based on mathematical models of journal bearings and shaft train with detailed analyses of monitoring data aimed to investigate the effects of the hot alignment of rotating machines on the occurrence of oil-whip instability onsets.

Adaptive Processing for Sequence Alignment

KAUST Repository

Zidan, Mohammed A.; Bonny, Talal; Salama, Khaled N.

2012-01-01

Disclosed are various embodiments for adaptive processing for sequence alignment. In one embodiment, among others, a method includes obtaining a query sequence and a plurality of database sequences. A first portion of the plurality of database sequences is distributed to a central processing unit (CPU) and a second portion of the plurality of database sequences is distributed to a graphical processing unit (GPU) based upon a predetermined splitting ratio associated with the plurality of database sequences, where the database sequences of the first portion are shorter than the database sequences of the second portion. A first alignment score for the query sequence is determined with the CPU based upon the first portion of the plurality of database sequences and a second alignment score for the query sequence is determined with the GPU based upon the second portion of the plurality of database sequences.

Adaptive Processing for Sequence Alignment

KAUST Repository

Zidan, Mohammed A.

2012-01-26

Disclosed are various embodiments for adaptive processing for sequence alignment. In one embodiment, among others, a method includes obtaining a query sequence and a plurality of database sequences. A first portion of the plurality of database sequences is distributed to a central processing unit (CPU) and a second portion of the plurality of database sequences is distributed to a graphical processing unit (GPU) based upon a predetermined splitting ratio associated with the plurality of database sequences, where the database sequences of the first portion are shorter than the database sequences of the second portion. A first alignment score for the query sequence is determined with the CPU based upon the first portion of the plurality of database sequences and a second alignment score for the query sequence is determined with the GPU based upon the second portion of the plurality of database sequences.

Track based alignment of the CMS silicon tracker and its implication on physics performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Draeger, Jula

2011-08-01

In order to fully exploit the discovery potential of the CMS detector for new physics beyond the Standard Model at the high luminosity and centre-of-mass energy provided by the Large Hadron Collider, a careful calibration of the detector and profound understanding of its impact on physics performance are necessary to provide realistic uncertainties for the measurements of physics processes. This thesis describes the track-based alignment of the inner tracking system of CMS with the Millepede II algorithm. Using the combined information of tracks from cosmic rays and collisions taken in 2010, a remarkable local alignment precision has been reached that meets the design specification for most regions of the detector and takes into account instabilities of the detector geometry over time. In addition, the impact of the alignment of b tagging or the Z boson resonance are investigated. The latter is studied to investigate the impact of correlated detector distortions which hardly influence the overall solution of the minimisation problem but introduce biases in the track parameters and thus the derived physics quantities. The determination and constraint of these weak modes present the future challenge of the alignment task at CMS. (orig.)

Track based alignment of the CMS silicon tracker and its implication on physics performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Draeger, Jula

2011-08-15

In order to fully exploit the discovery potential of the CMS detector for new physics beyond the Standard Model at the high luminosity and centre-of-mass energy provided by the Large Hadron Collider, a careful calibration of the detector and profound understanding of its impact on physics performance are necessary to provide realistic uncertainties for the measurements of physics processes. This thesis describes the track-based alignment of the inner tracking system of CMS with the Millepede II algorithm. Using the combined information of tracks from cosmic rays and collisions taken in 2010, a remarkable local alignment precision has been reached that meets the design specification for most regions of the detector and takes into account instabilities of the detector geometry over time. In addition, the impact of the alignment of b tagging or the Z boson resonance are investigated. The latter is studied to investigate the impact of correlated detector distortions which hardly influence the overall solution of the minimisation problem but introduce biases in the track parameters and thus the derived physics quantities. The determination and constraint of these weak modes present the future challenge of the alignment task at CMS. (orig.)

AlignMe—a membrane protein sequence alignment web server

Science.gov (United States)

Stamm, Marcus; Staritzbichler, René; Khafizov, Kamil; Forrest, Lucy R.

2014-01-01

We present a web server for pair-wise alignment of membrane protein sequences, using the program AlignMe. The server makes available two operational modes of AlignMe: (i) sequence to sequence alignment, taking two sequences in fasta format as input, combining information about each sequence from multiple sources and producing a pair-wise alignment (PW mode); and (ii) alignment of two multiple sequence alignments to create family-averaged hydropathy profile alignments (HP mode). For the PW sequence alignment mode, four different optimized parameter sets are provided, each suited to pairs of sequences with a specific similarity level. These settings utilize different types of inputs: (position-specific) substitution matrices, secondary structure predictions and transmembrane propensities from transmembrane predictions or hydrophobicity scales. In the second (HP) mode, each input multiple sequence alignment is converted into a hydrophobicity profile averaged over the provided set of sequence homologs; the two profiles are then aligned. The HP mode enables qualitative comparison of transmembrane topologies (and therefore potentially of 3D folds) of two membrane proteins, which can be useful if the proteins have low sequence similarity. In summary, the AlignMe web server provides user-friendly access to a set of tools for analysis and comparison of membrane protein sequences. Access is available at http://www.bioinfo.mpg.de/AlignMe PMID:24753425

Spreadsheet-based program for alignment of overlapping DNA sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Anbazhagan, R; Gabrielson, E

1999-06-01

Molecular biology laboratories frequently face the challenge of aligning small overlapping DNA sequences derived from a long DNA segment. Here, we present a short program that can be used to adapt Excel spreadsheets as a tool for aligning DNA sequences, regardless of their orientation. The program runs on any Windows or Macintosh operating system computer with Excel 97 or Excel 98. The program is available for use as an Excel file, which can be downloaded from the BioTechniques Web site. Upon execution, the program opens a specially designed customized workbook and is capable of identifying overlapping regions between two sequence fragments and displaying the sequence alignment. It also performs a number of specialized functions such as recognition of restriction enzyme cutting sites and CpG island mapping without costly specialized software.

Field-free molecular alignment probed by the free electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnsson, P; Rouzee, A; Siu, W; Huismans, Y; Vrakking, M J J [FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF), Science Park 113, 1098 XG Amsterdam (Netherlands); Lepine, F [Universite Lyon 1, CNRS, LASIM, UMR 5579, 43 bvd. du 11 novembre 1918, F-69622 Villeurbanne (France); Marchenko, T [Laboratoire d' Optique Applique, ENSTA/Ecole Polytechnique, Chemin de la Huniere, 91761 Palaiseau (France); Duesterer, S; Tavella, F; Stojanovic, N; Azima, A; Treusch, R [Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungslabor (HASYLAB) at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) Notkestrasse 85, D-22607 Hamburg (Germany); Kling, M F [Max-Planck Institut fuer Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann Strasse 1, D-85748 Garching (Germany)], E-mail: per.johnsson@fysik.lth.se

2009-07-14

High flux extreme ultraviolet (XUV) sources like the free electron laser (FEL) in Hamburg (FLASH) offer the possibility of diffractive imaging of small objects. Irrespective of whether the diffraction is based on the detection of photons or photoelectrons, it is required that the measurement is done in the reference frame of the molecule meaning that, for a sample of several molecules, it is necessary to pre-align the molecules in the sample. As a step towards performing molecular frame diffraction experiments, we report experiments on field-free molecular alignment performed at FLASH. The impulsive alignment induced by a 100 fs near-infrared laser pulse in a rotationally cold CO{sub 2} sample is characterized by ionizing and dissociating the molecules with a time-delayed XUV-FEL pulse. The time-dependent angular distributions of ionic fragments measured by a velocity map imaging spectrometer exhibit rapid changes associated with the induced rotational dynamics. The experimental results show hints of a dissociation process that depends nonlinearly on the XUV intensity.

On the role of neutral flow in field-aligned currents

Science.gov (United States)

Mannucci, Anthony J.; Verkhoglyadova, Olga P.; Meng, Xing; McGranaghan, Ryan

2018-01-01

In this brief note we explore the role of the neutral atmosphere in magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. We analyze momentum balance in the ion rest frame to form hypotheses regarding the role of neutral momentum in the lower ionosphere during geomagnetic storms. Neutral momentum that appears in the ion rest frame is likely the result of momentum imparted to ionospheric ions by solar wind flow and the resultant magnetospheric dynamics. The resulting ion-neutral collisions lead to the existence of an electric field. Horizontal electron flow balances the momentum supplied by this electric field. We suggest a possible role played by the neutral atmosphere in generating field-aligned currents due to local auroral heating. Our physical interpretation suggests that thermospheric neutral dynamics plays a complementary role to the high-latitude field-aligned currents and electric fields resulting from magnetospheric dynamics.

Novel methods in track-based alignment to correct for time-dependent distortions of the ATLAS Inner Detector

CERN Document Server

Estrada Pastor, Oscar; The ATLAS collaboration

2017-01-01

ATLAS is a multipurpose experiment at the LHC proton-proton collider. Its physics goals require high resolution, unbiased measurement of all charged particle kinematic parameters. These critically depend on the layout and performance of the tracking system and the quality of its offline alignment. For the LHC Run II, the system has been upgraded with the installation of a new pixel layer, the Insertable B-layer (IBL). Offline track alignment of the ATLAS tracking system has to deal with about 700,000 degrees of freedom (DoF) defining its geometrical parameters, representing a considerable numerical challenge in terms of both CPU time and precision. An outline of the track based alignment approach and its implementation within the ATLAS software will be presented. Special attention will be paid to describe the techniques allowing to pinpoint and eliminate track parameters biases due to alignment. During Run-II, ATLAS Inner Detector Alignment framework has been adapted and upgraded to correct very short time sc...

Rapid shear alignment of sub-10 nm cylinder-forming block copolymer films based on thermal expansion mismatch

Science.gov (United States)

Nicaise, Samuel M.; Gadelrab, Karim R.; G, Amir Tavakkoli K.; Ross, Caroline A.; Alexander-Katz, Alfredo; Berggren, Karl K.

2018-01-01

Directed self-assembly of block copolymers (BCPs) provided by shear-stress can produce aligned sub-10 nm structures over large areas for applications in integrated circuits, next-generation data storage, and plasmonic structures. In this work, we present a fast, versatile BCP shear-alignment process based on coefficient of thermal expansion mismatch of the BCP film, a rigid top coat and a substrate. Monolayer and bilayer cylindrical microdomains of poly(styrene-b-dimethylsiloxane) aligned preferentially in-plane and orthogonal to naturally-forming or engineered cracks in the top coat film, allowing for orientation control over 1 cm2 substrates. Annealing temperatures, up to 275 °C, provided low-defect alignment up to 2 mm away from cracks for rapid (<1 min) annealing times. Finite-element simulations of the stress as a function of annealing time, annealing temperature, and distance from cracks showed that shear stress during the cooling phase of the thermal annealing was critical for the observed microdomain alignment.

Value-Based Business-IT Alignment in Networked Constellations of Enterprises

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gordijn, Jaap; van Eck, Pascal; Cox, K.; Dubois, E.; Pigneur, Y.; Bleistein, S.J.; Verner, J.; Davis, A.M.; Wieringa, Roelf J.

Business-ICT alignment is the problem of matching ICTservices with the requirements of the business. In businesses of any significant size, business-ICT alignment is a hard problem, which is currently not solved completely. With the advent of networked constellations of enterprises, the problem gets

Parallel algorithms for large-scale biological sequence alignment on Xeon-Phi based clusters.

Science.gov (United States)

Lan, Haidong; Chan, Yuandong; Xu, Kai; Schmidt, Bertil; Peng, Shaoliang; Liu, Weiguo

2016-07-19

Computing alignments between two or more sequences are common operations frequently performed in computational molecular biology. The continuing growth of biological sequence databases establishes the need for their efficient parallel implementation on modern accelerators. This paper presents new approaches to high performance biological sequence database scanning with the Smith-Waterman algorithm and the first stage of progressive multiple sequence alignment based on the ClustalW heuristic on a Xeon Phi-based compute cluster. Our approach uses a three-level parallelization scheme to take full advantage of the compute power available on this type of architecture; i.e. cluster-level data parallelism, thread-level coarse-grained parallelism, and vector-level fine-grained parallelism. Furthermore, we re-organize the sequence datasets and use Xeon Phi shuffle operations to improve I/O efficiency. Evaluations show that our method achieves a peak overall performance up to 220 GCUPS for scanning real protein sequence databanks on a single node consisting of two Intel E5-2620 CPUs and two Intel Xeon Phi 7110P cards. It also exhibits good scalability in terms of sequence length and size, and number of compute nodes for both database scanning and multiple sequence alignment. Furthermore, the achieved performance is highly competitive in comparison to optimized Xeon Phi and GPU implementations. Our implementation is available at https://github.com/turbo0628/LSDBS-mpi .

Alignment and integration of complex networks by hypergraph-based spectral clustering

Science.gov (United States)

Michoel, Tom; Nachtergaele, Bruno

2012-11-01

Complex networks possess a rich, multiscale structure reflecting the dynamical and functional organization of the systems they model. Often there is a need to analyze multiple networks simultaneously, to model a system by more than one type of interaction, or to go beyond simple pairwise interactions, but currently there is a lack of theoretical and computational methods to address these problems. Here we introduce a framework for clustering and community detection in such systems using hypergraph representations. Our main result is a generalization of the Perron-Frobenius theorem from which we derive spectral clustering algorithms for directed and undirected hypergraphs. We illustrate our approach with applications for local and global alignment of protein-protein interaction networks between multiple species, for tripartite community detection in folksonomies, and for detecting clusters of overlapping regulatory pathways in directed networks.

LHCb: Experience with LHCb alignment software on first data

CERN Multimedia

Deissenroth, M

2009-01-01

We report results obtained with different track-based algorithms for the alignment of the LHCb detector with first data. The large-area Muon Detector and Outer Tracker have been aligned with a large sample of tracks from cosmic rays. The three silicon detectors --- VELO, TT-station and Inner Tracker --- have been aligned with beam-induced events from the LHC injection line. We compare the results from the track-based alignment with expectations from detector survey.

Ancestral sequence alignment under optimal conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brown Daniel G

2005-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Multiple genome alignment is an important problem in bioinformatics. An important subproblem used by many multiple alignment approaches is that of aligning two multiple alignments. Many popular alignment algorithms for DNA use the sum-of-pairs heuristic, where the score of a multiple alignment is the sum of its induced pairwise alignment scores. However, the biological meaning of the sum-of-pairs of pairs heuristic is not obvious. Additionally, many algorithms based on the sum-of-pairs heuristic are complicated and slow, compared to pairwise alignment algorithms. An alternative approach to aligning alignments is to first infer ancestral sequences for each alignment, and then align the two ancestral sequences. In addition to being fast, this method has a clear biological basis that takes into account the evolution implied by an underlying phylogenetic tree. In this study we explore the accuracy of aligning alignments by ancestral sequence alignment. We examine the use of both maximum likelihood and parsimony to infer ancestral sequences. Additionally, we investigate the effect on accuracy of allowing ambiguity in our ancestral sequences. Results We use synthetic sequence data that we generate by simulating evolution on a phylogenetic tree. We use two different types of phylogenetic trees: trees with a period of rapid growth followed by a period of slow growth, and trees with a period of slow growth followed by a period of rapid growth. We examine the alignment accuracy of four ancestral sequence reconstruction and alignment methods: parsimony, maximum likelihood, ambiguous parsimony, and ambiguous maximum likelihood. Additionally, we compare against the alignment accuracy of two sum-of-pairs algorithms: ClustalW and the heuristic of Ma, Zhang, and Wang. Conclusion We find that allowing ambiguity in ancestral sequences does not lead to better multiple alignments. Regardless of whether we use parsimony or maximum likelihood, the

A cross-species alignment tool (CAT)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Heng; Guan, Liang; Liu, Tao

2007-01-01

BACKGROUND: The main two sorts of automatic gene annotation frameworks are ab initio and alignment-based, the latter splitting into two sub-groups. The first group is used for intra-species alignments, among which are successful ones with high specificity and speed. The other group contains more...... sensitive methods which are usually applied in aligning inter-species sequences. RESULTS: Here we present a new algorithm called CAT (for Cross-species Alignment Tool). It is designed to align mRNA sequences to mammalian-sized genomes. CAT is implemented using C scripts and is freely available on the web...... at http://xat.sourceforge.net/. CONCLUSIONS: Examined from different angles, CAT outperforms other extant alignment tools. Tested against all available mouse-human and zebrafish-human orthologs, we demonstrate that CAT combines the specificity and speed of the best intra-species algorithms, like BLAT...

Heuristics for multiobjective multiple sequence alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Abbasi, Maryam; Paquete, Luís; Pereira, Francisco B

2016-07-15

Aligning multiple sequences arises in many tasks in Bioinformatics. However, the alignments produced by the current software packages are highly dependent on the parameters setting, such as the relative importance of opening gaps with respect to the increase of similarity. Choosing only one parameter setting may provide an undesirable bias in further steps of the analysis and give too simplistic interpretations. In this work, we reformulate multiple sequence alignment from a multiobjective point of view. The goal is to generate several sequence alignments that represent a trade-off between maximizing the substitution score and minimizing the number of indels/gaps in the sum-of-pairs score function. This trade-off gives to the practitioner further information about the similarity of the sequences, from which she could analyse and choose the most plausible alignment. We introduce several heuristic approaches, based on local search procedures, that compute a set of sequence alignments, which are representative of the trade-off between the two objectives (substitution score and indels). Several algorithm design options are discussed and analysed, with particular emphasis on the influence of the starting alignment and neighborhood search definitions on the overall performance. A perturbation technique is proposed to improve the local search, which provides a wide range of high-quality alignments. The proposed approach is tested experimentally on a wide range of instances. We performed several experiments with sequences obtained from the benchmark database BAliBASE 3.0. To evaluate the quality of the results, we calculate the hypervolume indicator of the set of score vectors returned by the algorithms. The results obtained allow us to identify reasonably good choices of parameters for our approach. Further, we compared our method in terms of correctly aligned pairs ratio and columns correctly aligned ratio with respect to reference alignments. Experimental results show

Aligned, isotropic and patterned carbon nanotube substrates that control the growth and alignment of Chinese hamster ovary cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abdullah, Che Azurahanim Che; Asanithi, Piyapong; Brunner, Eric W; Jurewicz, Izabela; Bo, Chiara; Sear, Richard P; Dalton, Alan B [Department of Physics and Surrey Materials Institute, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH (United Kingdom); Azad, Chihye Lewis; Ovalle-Robles, Raquel; Fang Shaoli; Lima, Marcio D; Lepro, Xavier; Collins, Steve; Baughman, Ray H, E-mail: r.sear@surrey.ac.uk [Alan G MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080-3021 (United States)

2011-05-20

Here we culture Chinese hamster ovary cells on isotropic, aligned and patterned substrates based on multiwall carbon nanotubes. The nanotubes provide the substrate with nanoscale topography. The cells adhere to and grow on all substrates, and on the aligned substrate, the cells align strongly with the axis of the bundles of the multiwall nanotubes. This control over cell alignment is required for tissue engineering; almost all tissues consist of oriented cells. The aligned substrates are made using straightforward physical chemistry techniques from forests of multiwall nanotubes; no lithography is required to make inexpensive large-scale substrates with highly aligned nanoscale grooves. Interestingly, although the cells strongly align with the nanoscale grooves, only a few also elongate along this axis: alignment of the cells does not require a pronounced change in morphology of the cell. We also pattern the nanotube bundles over length scales comparable to the cell size and show that the cells follow this pattern.

Linear Fresnel zone plate based two-state alignment system for 0.25 micron x-ray lithography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, G.

1993-01-01

X-ray lithography has proven to be a cost effective and promising technique for fabricating Integrated Circuits (ICs) with minimum feature sizes of less than 0.25 μm. Since IC fabrication is a multilevel process, to preserve the functionality of devices, circuit patterns printed at each lithography level must match existing patterns on the wafer with an accuracy of less than 1/3 ∼ 1/5 of the minimum feature size. An alignment system is used to position the mask relative to the wafer so that mask circuit patterns can be printed on the wafer at the designed position. As the minimum printed feature size shrinks, the overlay requirements of a lithography tool become more stringent. A stepper for 0.25 μm feature device fabrication requires an overlay accuracy of 0.075 μm, of which only 0.05 μm (mean + 3σ) is allocated to its alignment system. This thesis presents the development of a linear Fresnel zone late based two-state alignment (TSA) method for a 0.25 μm x-ray lithography tool. The authors first analyze the overlay requirement in a lithography process and the error allocation to the alignment system for a 0.25 μ feature x-ray lithography tool. They then describe the principle of the two-state alignment, its computer simulation and the optimal alignment mark design. They carried out an optical bench test for the one-axes alignment setup and experimentally evaluated the performance of the system. They developed a three-axes TSA system and integrated the system with the ES-3 x-ray beamline to construct the CXrL aligner, an experimental x-ray exposure system in CXrL. They measured the alignment accuracy of the exposure system to be better than 0.035 μm (3σ) on both metal and dielectric alignment mark substrates. They also studied the effect of processing coatings on the alignment signal with different wafer mark substrates. They successfully printed the 0.5 μm gate level patterns for the first NMOS test chip at CXrL

Relationship between nanotopographical alignment and stem cell fate with live imaging and shape analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Newman, Peter; Galenano-Niño, Jorge Luis; Graney, Pamela; Razal, Joselito M.; Minett, Andrew I.; Ribas, João; Ovalle-Robles, Raquel; Biro, Maté; Zreiqat, Hala

2016-12-01

The topography of a biomaterial regulates cellular interactions and determine stem cell fate. A complete understanding of how topographical properties affect cell behavior will allow the rational design of material surfaces that elicit specified biological functions once placed in the body. To this end, we fabricate substrates with aligned or randomly organized fibrous nanostructured topographies. Culturing adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs), we explore the dynamic relationship between the alignment of topography, cell shape and cell differentiation to osteogenic and myogenic lineages. We show aligned topographies differentiate cells towards a satellite cell muscle progenitor state - a distinct cell myogenic lineage responsible for postnatal growth and repair of muscle. We analyze cell shape between the different topographies, using fluorescent time-lapse imaging over 21 days. In contrast to previous work, this allows the direct measurement of cell shape at a given time rather than defining the morphology of the underlying topography and neglecting cell shape. We report quantitative metrics of the time-based morphological behaviors of cell shape in response to differing topographies. This analysis offers insights into the relationship between topography, cell shape and cell differentiation. Cells differentiating towards a myogenic fate on aligned topographies adopt a characteristic elongated shape as well as the alignment of cells.

Beam-based alignment of C-shaped quadrupole magnets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Portmann, G.; Robin, D.

1998-06-01

Many storage rings have implemented a method of finding the positional offset between the electrical center of the beam position monitors (BPM) and the magnetic center of the adjacent quadrupole magnets. The algorithm for accomplishing this is usually based on modulating the current in the quadrupole magnet and finding the beam position that minimizes the orbit perturbation. When the quadrupole magnet is C-shaped, as it is for many light sources, the modulation method can produce an erroneous measurement of the magnetic center in the horizontal plane. When the current in a C-shaped quadrupole is changed, there is an additional dipole component in the vertical field. Due to nonlinearities in the hysteresis cycle of the C-magnet geometry, the beam-based alignment technique at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) deviated horizontally by .5 mm from the actual magnetic center. By modifying the technique, the offsets were measured to an accuracy of better than 50 microm

On the role of neutral flow in field-aligned currents

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. J. Mannucci

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In this brief note we explore the role of the neutral atmosphere in magnetosphere–ionosphere coupling. We analyze momentum balance in the ion rest frame to form hypotheses regarding the role of neutral momentum in the lower ionosphere during geomagnetic storms. Neutral momentum that appears in the ion rest frame is likely the result of momentum imparted to ionospheric ions by solar wind flow and the resultant magnetospheric dynamics. The resulting ion-neutral collisions lead to the existence of an electric field. Horizontal electron flow balances the momentum supplied by this electric field. We suggest a possible role played by the neutral atmosphere in generating field-aligned currents due to local auroral heating. Our physical interpretation suggests that thermospheric neutral dynamics plays a complementary role to the high-latitude field-aligned currents and electric fields resulting from magnetospheric dynamics.

PR2ALIGN: a stand-alone software program and a web-server for protein sequence alignment using weighted biochemical properties of amino acids.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuznetsov, Igor B; McDuffie, Michael

2015-05-07

Alignment of amino acid sequences is the main sequence comparison method used in computational molecular biology. The selection of the amino acid substitution matrix best suitable for a given alignment problem is one of the most important decisions the user has to make. In a conventional amino acid substitution matrix all elements are fixed and their values cannot be easily adjusted. Moreover, most existing amino acid substitution matrices account for the average (dis)similarities between amino acid types and do not distinguish the contribution of a specific biochemical property to these (dis)similarities. PR2ALIGN is a stand-alone software program and a web-server that provide the functionality for implementing flexible user-specified alignment scoring functions and aligning pairs of amino acid sequences based on the comparison of the profiles of biochemical properties of these sequences. Unlike the conventional sequence alignment methods that use 20x20 fixed amino acid substitution matrices, PR2ALIGN uses a set of weighted biochemical properties of amino acids to measure the distance between pairs of aligned residues and to find an optimal minimal distance global alignment. The user can provide any number of amino acid properties and specify a weight for each property. The higher the weight for a given property, the more this property affects the final alignment. We show that in many cases the approach implemented in PR2ALIGN produces better quality pair-wise alignments than the conventional matrix-based approach. PR2ALIGN will be helpful for researchers who wish to align amino acid sequences by using flexible user-specified alignment scoring functions based on the biochemical properties of amino acids instead of the amino acid substitution matrix. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no existing stand-alone software programs or web-servers analogous to PR2ALIGN. The software is freely available from http://pr2align.rit.albany.edu.

Business-IT alignment and service oriented architecture: a proposal of a service-oriented strategic alignment model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cuenca, L.; Boza, A.; Ortiz, A.; Trienekens, J.J.M.; Hammoudi, S.; Cordeiro, J.; Maciaszek, L

2014-01-01

Since its inception, SOA has been postulated as the solution to the problems of alignment between business and IT. However, these problems still remain, especially at external level where the business strategy should be aligned with the IT strategy. Based on the Henderson and Venkatraman’s strategic

A QoS-Based Dynamic Queue Length Scheduling Algorithm in Multiantenna Heterogeneous Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Verikoukis Christos

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The use of real-time delay-sensitive applications in wireless systems has significantly grown during the last years. Therefore the designers of wireless systems have faced a challenging issue to guarantee the required Quality of Service (QoS. On the other hand, the recent advances and the extensive use of multiple antennas have already been included in several commercial standards, where the multibeam opportunistic transmission beamforming strategies have been proposed to improve the performance of the wireless systems. A cross-layer-based dynamically tuned queue length scheduler is presented in this paper, for the Downlink of multiuser and multiantenna WLAN systems with heterogeneous traffic requirements. To align with modern wireless systems transmission strategies, an opportunistic scheduling algorithm is employed, while a priority to the different traffic classes is applied. A tradeoff between the maximization of the throughput of the system and the guarantee of the maximum allowed delay is obtained. Therefore, the length of the queue is dynamically adjusted to select the appropriate conditions based on the operator requirements.

Relationships between static foot alignment and dynamic plantar loads in runners with acute and chronic stages of plantar fasciitis: a cross-sectional study

Science.gov (United States)

Ribeiro, Ana P.; Sacco, Isabel C. N.; Dinato, Roberto C.; João, Silvia M. A.

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: The risk factors for the development of plantar fasciitis (PF) have been associated with the medial longitudinal arch (MLA), rearfoot alignment and calcaneal overload. However, the relationships between the biomechanical variables have yet to be determined. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to investigate the relationships between the MLA, rearfoot alignment, and dynamic plantar loads in runners with unilateral PF in acute and chronic phases. METHOD: Cross-sectional study which thirty-five runners with unilateral PF were evaluated: 20 in the acute phase (with pain) and 15 with previous chronic PF (without pain). The MLA index and rearfoot alignment were calculated using digital images. The contact area, maximum force, peak pressure, and force-time integral over three plantar areas were acquired with Pedar X insoles while running at 12 km/h, and the loading rates were calculated from the vertical forces. RESULTS: The multiple regression analyses indicated that both the force-time integral (R 2=0.15 for acute phase PF; R 2=0.17 for chronic PF) and maximum force (R 2=0.35 for chronic PF) over the forefoot were predicted by an elevated MLA index. The rearfoot valgus alignment predicted the maximum force over the rearfoot in both PF groups: acute (R 2=0.18) and chronic (R 2=0.45). The rearfoot valgus alignment also predicted higher loading rates in the PF groups: acute (R 2=0.19) and chronic (R 2=0.40). CONCLUSION: The MLA index and the rearfoot alignment were good predictors of plantar loads over the forefoot and rearfoot areas in runners with PF. However, rearfoot valgus was demonstrated to be an important clinical measure, since it was able to predict the maximum force and both loading rates over the rearfoot. PMID:26786073

INTRINSIC ALIGNMENT OF CLUSTER GALAXIES: THE REDSHIFT EVOLUTION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hao Jiangang; Kubo, Jeffrey M.; Feldmann, Robert; Annis, James; Johnston, David E.; Lin Huan; McKay, Timothy A.

2011-01-01

We present measurements of two types of cluster galaxy alignments based on a volume limited and highly pure (≥90%) sample of clusters from the GMBCG catalog derived from Data Release 7 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS DR7). We detect a clear brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) alignment (the alignment of major axis of the BCG toward the distribution of cluster satellite galaxies). We find that the BCG alignment signal becomes stronger as the redshift and BCG absolute magnitude decrease and becomes weaker as BCG stellar mass decreases. No dependence of the BCG alignment on cluster richness is found. We can detect a statistically significant (≥3σ) satellite alignment (the alignment of the major axes of the cluster satellite galaxies toward the BCG) only when we use the isophotal fit position angles (P.A.s), and the satellite alignment depends on the apparent magnitudes rather than the absolute magnitudes of the BCGs. This suggests that the detected satellite alignment based on isophotal P.A.s from the SDSS pipeline is possibly due to the contamination from the diffuse light of nearby BCGs. We caution that this should not be simply interpreted as non-existence of the satellite alignment, but rather that we cannot detect them with our current photometric SDSS data. We perform our measurements on both SDSS r-band and i-band data, but do not observe a passband dependence of the alignments.

Image-based overlay and alignment metrology through optically opaque media with sub-surface probe microscopy

Science.gov (United States)

van Es, Maarten H.; Mohtashami, Abbas; Piras, Daniele; Sadeghian, Hamed

2018-03-01

Nondestructive subsurface nanoimaging through optically opaque media is considered to be extremely challenging and is essential for several semiconductor metrology applications including overlay and alignment and buried void and defect characterization. The current key challenge in overlay and alignment is the measurement of targets that are covered by optically opaque layers. Moreover, with the device dimensions moving to the smaller nodes and the issue of the so-called loading effect causing offsets between between targets and product features, it is increasingly desirable to perform alignment and overlay on product features or so-called on-cell overlay, which requires higher lateral resolution than optical methods can provide. Our recently developed technique known as SubSurface Ultrasonic Resonance Force Microscopy (SSURFM) has shown the capability for high-resolution imaging of structures below a surface based on (visco-)elasticity of the constituent materials and as such is a promising technique to perform overlay and alignment with high resolution in upcoming production nodes. In this paper, we describe the developed SSURFM technique and the experimental results on imaging buried features through various layers and the ability to detect objects with resolution below 10 nm. In summary, the experimental results show that the SSURFM is a potential solution for on-cell overlay and alignment as well as detecting buried defects or voids and generally metrology through optically opaque layers.

Non-stationary condition monitoring through event alignment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pontoppidan, Niels Henrik; Larsen, Jan

2004-01-01

We present an event alignment framework which enables change detection in non-stationary signals. change detection. Classical condition monitoring frameworks have been restrained to laboratory settings with stationary operating conditions, which are not resembling real world operation....... In this paper we apply the technique for non-stationary condition monitoring of large diesel engines based on acoustical emission sensor signals. The performance of the event alignment is analyzed in an unsupervised probabilistic detection framework based on outlier detection with either Principal Component...... Analysis or Gaussian Processes modeling. We are especially interested in the true performance of the condition monitoring performance with mixed aligned and unaligned data, e.g. detection of fault condition of unaligned examples versus false alarms of aligned normal condition data. Further, we expect...

CAFE: aCcelerated Alignment-FrEe sequence analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Yang Young; Tang, Kujin; Ren, Jie; Fuhrman, Jed A; Waterman, Michael S; Sun, Fengzhu

2017-07-03

Alignment-free genome and metagenome comparisons are increasingly important with the development of next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Recently developed state-of-the-art k-mer based alignment-free dissimilarity measures including CVTree, $d_2^*$ and $d_2^S$ are more computationally expensive than measures based solely on the k-mer frequencies. Here, we report a standalone software, aCcelerated Alignment-FrEe sequence analysis (CAFE), for efficient calculation of 28 alignment-free dissimilarity measures. CAFE allows for both assembled genome sequences and unassembled NGS shotgun reads as input, and wraps the output in a standard PHYLIP format. In downstream analyses, CAFE can also be used to visualize the pairwise dissimilarity measures, including dendrograms, heatmap, principal coordinate analysis and network display. CAFE serves as a general k-mer based alignment-free analysis platform for studying the relationships among genomes and metagenomes, and is freely available at https://github.com/younglululu/CAFE. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

SU-F-J-44: Development of a Room Laser Based Real-Time Alignment Monitoring System Using An Array of Photodiodes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noh, Y; Kim, T; Kang, S; Kim, D; Cho, M; Kim, K; Shin, D; Suh, T; Kim, S

2016-01-01

Purpose: To develop a real-time alignment monitoring system (RAMS) to compensate for the limitations of the conventional room laser based alignment system, and to verify the feasibility of the RAMS. Methods: The RAMS was composed of a room laser sensing array (RLSA), an analog-todigital converter, and a control PC. In the RLSA, seven photodiodes (each in 1 mm width) are arranged in a pattern that the RAMS provides alignment in 1 mm resolution. It works based on detecting laser light aligned on one of photodiodes. When misaligned, the laser would match with different photodiode(s) giving signal at unexpected location. Thus, how much displaced can be determined. To verify the reproducibility of the system with respect to time as well as repeated set-ups, temporal reproducibility and repeatability test was conducted. The accuracy of the system was tested by obtaining detection signals with varying laser-match positions. Results: The signal of the RAMS was found to be stable with respect to time. The repeatability test resulted in a maximum coefficient of variance of 1.14%, suggesting that the signal of the RAMS was stable over repeated set-ups. In the accuracy test, signals between when the laser was aligned and notaligned with any of sensors could be distinguished by signal intensity. The signals of not-aligned sensors were always below 75% of the signal of the aligned sensor. It was confirmed that the system could detect 1 mm of movement by monitoring the pattern of signals, and could observe the movement of the system in real-time. Conclusion: We developed a room laser based alignment monitoring system. The feasibility test verified that the system is capable of quantitative alignment monitoring in real time. The system is relatively simple, not expensive, and considered to be easily incorporated into conventional room laser systems for real-time alignment monitoring. This research was supported by the Mid-career Researcher Program through NRF funded by the

Dynamic analysis of double-row self-aligning ball bearings due to applied loads, internal clearance, surface waviness and number of balls

Science.gov (United States)

Zhuo, Yaobin; Zhou, Xiaojun; Yang, Chenlong

2014-11-01

In this paper, a three degrees of freedom (dof) model was established for a double-row self-aligning ball bearing (SABB) system, and was applied to study the dynamic behavior of the system during starting process and constant speed rotating process. A mathematical model was developed concerning stiffness and damping characteristics of the bearing, as well as three-dimensional applied load, rotor centrifugal force, etc. Balls and races were all considered as nonlinear springs, and the contact force between ball and race was calculated based on classic Hertzian elastic contact deformation theory and deformation compatibility theory. The changes of each ball's contact force and loaded angle of each row were taken into account. In order to solve the nonlinear dynamical equilibrium equations of the system, these equations were rewritten as differential equations and the fourth order Runge-Kutta method was used to solve the equations iteratively. In order to verify accuracy of the dynamical model and correctness of the numerical solution method, a kind of SABB-BRF30 was chosen for case studies. The effects of several important governing parameters, such as radial and axial applied loads, normal internal, inner and outer races waviness, and number of balls were investigated. These parametric studies led to a complete characterization of the shaft-bearing system vibration transmission. The research provided a theoretical reference for new type bearing design, shaft-bearing system kinetic analysis, optimal design, etc.

AlignNemo: a local network alignment method to integrate homology and topology.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Ciriello

Full Text Available Local network alignment is an important component of the analysis of protein-protein interaction networks that may lead to the identification of evolutionary related complexes. We present AlignNemo, a new algorithm that, given the networks of two organisms, uncovers subnetworks of proteins that relate in biological function and topology of interactions. The discovered conserved subnetworks have a general topology and need not to correspond to specific interaction patterns, so that they more closely fit the models of functional complexes proposed in the literature. The algorithm is able to handle sparse interaction data with an expansion process that at each step explores the local topology of the networks beyond the proteins directly interacting with the current solution. To assess the performance of AlignNemo, we ran a series of benchmarks using statistical measures as well as biological knowledge. Based on reference datasets of protein complexes, AlignNemo shows better performance than other methods in terms of both precision and recall. We show our solutions to be biologically sound using the concept of semantic similarity applied to Gene Ontology vocabularies. The binaries of AlignNemo and supplementary details about the algorithms and the experiments are available at: sourceforge.net/p/alignnemo.

Quantitative phase microscopy for cellular dynamics based on transport of intensity equation.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ying; Di, Jianglei; Ma, Chaojie; Zhang, Jiwei; Zhong, Jinzhan; Wang, Kaiqiang; Xi, Teli; Zhao, Jianlin

2018-01-08

We demonstrate a simple method for quantitative phase imaging of tiny transparent objects such as living cells based on the transport of intensity equation. The experiments are performed using an inverted bright field microscope upgraded with a flipping imaging module, which enables to simultaneously create two laterally separated images with unequal defocus distances. This add-on module does not include any lenses or gratings and is cost-effective and easy-to-alignment. The validity of this method is confirmed by the measurement of microlens array and human osteoblastic cells in culture, indicating its potential in the applications of dynamically measuring living cells and other transparent specimens in a quantitative, non-invasive and label-free manner.

Modified compensation algorithm of lever-arm effect and flexural deformation for polar shipborne transfer alignment based on improved adaptive Kalman filter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Tongda; Cheng, Jianhua; Guan, Dongxue; Kang, Yingyao; Zhang, Wei

2017-01-01

Due to the lever-arm effect and flexural deformation in the practical application of transfer alignment (TA), the TA performance is decreased. The existing polar TA algorithm only compensates a fixed lever-arm without considering the dynamic lever-arm caused by flexural deformation; traditional non-polar TA algorithms also have some limitations. Thus, the performance of existing compensation algorithms is unsatisfactory. In this paper, a modified compensation algorithm of the lever-arm effect and flexural deformation is proposed to promote the accuracy and speed of the polar TA. On the basis of a dynamic lever-arm model and a noise compensation method for flexural deformation, polar TA equations are derived in grid frames. Based on the velocity-plus-attitude matching method, the filter models of polar TA are designed. An adaptive Kalman filter (AKF) is improved to promote the robustness and accuracy of the system, and then applied to the estimation of the misalignment angles. Simulation and experiment results have demonstrated that the modified compensation algorithm based on the improved AKF for polar TA can effectively compensate the lever-arm effect and flexural deformation, and then improve the accuracy and speed of TA in the polar region. (paper)

Flavor Alignment via Shining in RS

CERN Document Server

Csáki, Csaba; Surujon, Ze'ev; Weiler, Andreas

2010-01-01

We present a class of warped extra dimensional models whose flavor violating interactions are much suppressed compared to the usual anarchic case due to flavor alignment. Such suppression can be achieved in models where part of the global flavor symmetry is gauged in the bulk and broken in a controlled manner. We show that the bulk masses can be aligned with the down type Yukawa couplings by an appropriate choice of bulk flavon field representations and TeV brane dynamics. This alignment could reduce the flavor violating effects to levels which allow for a Kaluza-Klein scale as low as 2-3 TeV, making the model observable at the LHC. However, the up-type Yukawa couplings on the IR brane, which are bounded from below by recent bounds on CP violation in the D system, induce flavor misalignment radiatively. Off-diagonal down-type Yukawa couplings and kinetic mixings for the down quarks are both consequences of this effect. These radiative Yukawa corrections can be reduced by raising the flavon VEV on the IR brane...

A time warping approach to multiple sequence alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Arribas-Gil, Ana; Matias, Catherine

2017-04-25

We propose an approach for multiple sequence alignment (MSA) derived from the dynamic time warping viewpoint and recent techniques of curve synchronization developed in the context of functional data analysis. Starting from pairwise alignments of all the sequences (viewed as paths in a certain space), we construct a median path that represents the MSA we are looking for. We establish a proof of concept that our method could be an interesting ingredient to include into refined MSA techniques. We present a simple synthetic experiment as well as the study of a benchmark dataset, together with comparisons with 2 widely used MSA softwares.

Alignment of the ATLAS Inner Detector Tracking System

CERN Document Server

Lacuesta, V; The ATLAS collaboration

2010-01-01

ATLAS is a multipurpose experiment that records the LHC collisions. To reconstruct trajectories of charged particles produced in these collisions, ATLAS tracking system is equipped with silicon planar sensors and drift‐tube based detectors. They constitute the ATLAS Inner Detector. In order to achieve its scientific goals, the alignment of the ATLAS tracking system requires the determine accurately its almost 36000 degrees of freedom. Thus the demanded precision for the alignment of the silicon sensors is below 10 micrometers. This implies to use a large sample of high momentum and isolated charge particle tracks. The high level trigger selects those tracks online. Then the raw data with the hits information of the triggered tracks is stored in a calibration stream. Tracks from cosmic trigger during empty LHC bunches are also used as input for the alignment. The implementation of the track based alignment within the ATLAS software framework unifies different alignment approaches and allows the alignment of ...

Alignment of time-resolved data from high throughput experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Abidi, Nada; Franke, Raimo; Findeisen, Peter; Klawonn, Frank

2016-12-01

To better understand the dynamics of the underlying processes in cells, it is necessary to take measurements over a time course. Modern high-throughput technologies are often used for this purpose to measure the behavior of cell products like metabolites, peptides, proteins, [Formula: see text]RNA or mRNA at different points in time. Compared to classical time series, the number of time points is usually very limited and the measurements are taken at irregular time intervals. The main reasons for this are the costs of the experiments and the fact that the dynamic behavior usually shows a strong reaction and fast changes shortly after a stimulus and then slowly converges to a certain stable state. Another reason might simply be missing values. It is common to repeat the experiments and to have replicates in order to carry out a more reliable analysis. The ideal assumptions that the initial stimulus really started exactly at the same time for all replicates and that the replicates are perfectly synchronized are seldom satisfied. Therefore, there is a need to first adjust or align the time-resolved data before further analysis is carried out. Dynamic time warping (DTW) is considered as one of the common alignment techniques for time series data with equidistant time points. In this paper, we modified the DTW algorithm so that it can align sequences with measurements at different, non-equidistant time points with large gaps in between. This type of data is usually known as time-resolved data characterized by irregular time intervals between measurements as well as non-identical time points for different replicates. This new algorithm can be easily used to align time-resolved data from high-throughput experiments and to come across existing problems such as time scarcity and existing noise in the measurements. We propose a modified method of DTW to adapt requirements imposed by time-resolved data by use of monotone cubic interpolation splines. Our presented approach

Magnetic Alignment of Block Copolymer Microdomains by Intrinsic Chain Anisotropy.

Science.gov (United States)

Rokhlenko, Yekaterina; Gopinadhan, Manesh; Osuji, Chinedum O; Zhang, Kai; O'Hern, Corey S; Larson, Steven R; Gopalan, Padma; Majewski, Paweł W; Yager, Kevin G

2015-12-18

We examine the role of intrinsic chain susceptibility anisotropy in magnetic field directed self-assembly of a block copolymer using in situ x-ray scattering. Alignment of a lamellar mesophase is observed on cooling across the disorder-order transition with the resulting orientational order inversely proportional to the cooling rate. We discuss the origin of the susceptibility anisotropy, Δχ, that drives alignment and calculate its magnitude using coarse-grained molecular dynamics to sample conformations of surface-tethered chains, finding Δχ≈2×10^{-8}. From field-dependent scattering data, we estimate that grains of ≈1.2  μm are present during alignment. These results demonstrate that intrinsic anisotropy is sufficient to support strong field-induced mesophase alignment and suggest a versatile strategy for field control of orientational order in block copolymers.

Sequence comparison alignment-free approach based on suffix tree and L-words frequency.

Science.gov (United States)

Soares, Inês; Goios, Ana; Amorim, António

2012-01-01

The vast majority of methods available for sequence comparison rely on a first sequence alignment step, which requires a number of assumptions on evolutionary history and is sometimes very difficult or impossible to perform due to the abundance of gaps (insertions/deletions). In such cases, an alternative alignment-free method would prove valuable. Our method starts by a computation of a generalized suffix tree of all sequences, which is completed in linear time. Using this tree, the frequency of all possible words with a preset length L-L-words--in each sequence is rapidly calculated. Based on the L-words frequency profile of each sequence, a pairwise standard Euclidean distance is then computed producing a symmetric genetic distance matrix, which can be used to generate a neighbor joining dendrogram or a multidimensional scaling graph. We present an improvement to word counting alignment-free approaches for sequence comparison, by determining a single optimal word length and combining suffix tree structures to the word counting tasks. Our approach is, thus, a fast and simple application that proved to be efficient and powerful when applied to mitochondrial genomes. The algorithm was implemented in Python language and is freely available on the web.

Laser shaft alignment measurement model

Science.gov (United States)

Mo, Chang-tao; Chen, Changzheng; Hou, Xiang-lin; Zhang, Guoyu

2007-12-01

Laser beam's track which is on photosensitive surface of the a receiver will be closed curve, when driving shaft and the driven shaft rotate with same angular velocity and rotation direction. The coordinate of arbitrary point which is on the curve is decided by the relative position of two shafts. Basing on the viewpoint, a mathematic model of laser alignment is set up. By using a data acquisition system and a data processing model of laser alignment meter with single laser beam and a detector, and basing on the installation parameter of computer, the state parameter between two shafts can be obtained by more complicated calculation and correction. The correcting data of the four under chassis of the adjusted apparatus moving on the level and the vertical plane can be calculated. This will instruct us to move the apparatus to align the shafts.

Development of an Eccentric CAM Based Active Pre-Alignment System for the CLIC Main Beam Quadrupole Magnet

CERN Document Server

Lackner, F; Collette, C; Mainaud Durand, H; Hauviller, C; Kemppinen, J; Leuxe, R

2010-01-01

CLIC (Compact Linear Collider) is a study for a future electron-positron collider that would allow physicists to explore a new energy region beyond the capabilities of today's particle accelerators. The demanding transverse and vertical beam sizes and emittance specifications are resulting in stringent alignment and a nanometre stability requirement. In the current feasibility study, the main beam quadrupole magnets have to be actively pre-aligned with a precision of 1 µm in 5 degrees of freedom (d.o.f.) before being mechanically stabilized to the nm scale above 1 Hz. This contribution describes the approach of performing this active pre-alignment based on an eccentric cam system. In order to limit the amplification of the vibration sources at resonant frequencies a sufficiently high Eigenfrequency is required. Therefore the contact region between cam and support was optimized for adequate stiffness based on the Hertzian theory. Furthermore, practical tests performed on a single degree of freedom mock-up wil...

Initial experience with megavoltage (MV) CT guidance for daily prostate alignments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Langen, Katja M.; Zhang Yashan; Andrews, Rhonda D.; Hurley, Monica E.; Meeks, Sanford L.; Poole, Darrell O.; Willoughby, Twyla R.; Kupelian, Patrick A.

2005-01-01

Purpose: The on-board megavoltage (MV) computed tomography (CT) capabilities of a TomoTherapy Hi*ART unit were used to obtain daily MVCT images of prostate cancer patients. For patient alignment the daily MVCT image needs to be registered with the planning CT image to calculate couch shifts. Three manual techniques of registering the MVCT images with the planning kilovoltage (kV) CT images were evaluated. The techniques are based on visual alignment of (1) fiducial prostate markers (2) CT anatomy, and (3) kVCT contours. Methods and Materials: One hundred and twelve alignments from 3 patients were available for analysis. The radiation therapists visually registered the MVCT images with the planning kVCT images based on fiducial markers for actual patient alignment. Retrospectively, the therapists registered each image set using anatomy and contour-based techniques. In addition to the therapists, a physician retrospectively registered each image set based on each of the three techniques. For each MVCT to kVCT image pair a reference alignment was computed from the center-of-mass (COM) of the three fiducial markers. All registration results were compared with these reference alignments. The physician's image registrations were compared with the radiation therapists' registrations to assess the user variability of the different techniques. Results: The marker-based registration results agree best with the reference alignments, while the contour-based registrations show the least degree of agreement. Using anatomy and contour-based registrations, the radiation therapist's alignments differed by ≥ 3 mm from the reference alignments in 24%, 33%, and 3% and 55%, 48%, and 21% of all registrations in the anterior-posterior, superior-inferior, and lateral directions, respectively. The respective values for the marker-based alignments were 3%, 6%, and 3%. The physician's registrations showed the same general trend. The marker-based registrations showed the least amount of

Unscented Kalman filter for SINS alignment

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Zhou Zhanxin; Gao Yanan; Chen Jiabin

2007-01-01

In order to improve the filter accuracy for the nonlinear error model of strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS) alignment, Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) is presented for simulation with stationary base and moving base of SINS alignment.Simulation results show the superior performance of this approach when compared with classical suboptimal techniques such as extended Kalman filter in cases of large initial misalignment.The UKF has good performance in case of small initial misalignment.

Fine-tuning structural RNA alignments in the twilight zone

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Schirmer Stefanie

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A widely used method to find conserved secondary structure in RNA is to first construct a multiple sequence alignment, and then fold the alignment, optimizing a score based on thermodynamics and covariance. This method works best around 75% sequence similarity. However, in a "twilight zone" below 55% similarity, the sequence alignment tends to obscure the covariance signal used in the second phase. Therefore, while the overall shape of the consensus structure may still be found, the degree of conservation cannot be estimated reliably. Results Based on a combination of available methods, we present a method named planACstar for improving structure conservation in structural alignments in the twilight zone. After constructing a consensus structure by alignment folding, planACstar abandons the original sequence alignment, refolds the sequences individually, but consistent with the consensus, aligns the structures, irrespective of sequence, by a pure structure alignment method, and derives an improved sequence alignment from the alignment of structures, to be re-submitted to alignment folding, etc.. This circle may be iterated as long as structural conservation improves, but normally, one step suffices. Conclusions Employing the tools ClustalW, RNAalifold, and RNAforester, we find that for sequences with 30-55% sequence identity, structural conservation can be improved by 10% on average, with a large variation, measured in terms of RNAalifold's own criterion, the structure conservation index.

Business-IT alignment in PSS value networks : a capability-based framework

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bagheri, S.; Kusters, R.J.; Trienekens, J.J.M.; Camarinha-Matos, L.M.; Afsarmanesh, H.

2014-01-01

Advanced information technology (IT) is regarded as a foundation for the operation of product-service system (PSS) value networks. This requires alignment between IT and PSS business strategy. Business‐IT alignment (BIA) in a value network can raise the ability of partners to collaborate effectively

Evaluation of an image-based tracking workflow with Kalman filtering for automatic image plane alignment in interventional MRI.

Science.gov (United States)

Neumann, M; Cuvillon, L; Breton, E; de Matheli, M

2013-01-01

Recently, a workflow for magnetic resonance (MR) image plane alignment based on tracking in real-time MR images was introduced. The workflow is based on a tracking device composed of 2 resonant micro-coils and a passive marker, and allows for tracking of the passive marker in clinical real-time images and automatic (re-)initialization using the microcoils. As the Kalman filter has proven its benefit as an estimator and predictor, it is well suited for use in tracking applications. In this paper, a Kalman filter is integrated in the previously developed workflow in order to predict position and orientation of the tracking device. Measurement noise covariances of the Kalman filter are dynamically changed in order to take into account that, according to the image plane orientation, only a subset of the 3D pose components is available. The improved tracking performance of the Kalman extended workflow could be quantified in simulation results. Also, a first experiment in the MRI scanner was performed but without quantitative results yet.

Novel methods in track-based alignment to correct for time-dependent distortions of the ATLAS Inner Detector

CERN Document Server

Estrada Pastor, Oscar; The ATLAS collaboration

2017-01-01

ATLAS is a multipurpose experiment at the LHC proton-proton collider. Its physics goals require high resolution and unbiased measurement of all charged particle kinematic parameters. These critically depend on the layout and performance of the tracking system and the quality of its alignment. For the LHC Run II, the system has been upgraded with the installation of a new pixel layer, the Insertable B-layer (IBL). The offline track alignment of the ATLAS tracking system has to deal with about 700,000 degrees of freedom (DoF) defining its geometrical parameters, representing a considerable numerical challenge in terms of both CPU time and precision. An outline of the track based alignment approach and its implementation within the ATLAS software is presented. Special attention is paid to describe the techniques allowing to pinpoint and eliminate track parameters biases. During Run-II, ATLAS Inner Detector Alignment framework has been adapted and upgraded to correct very short time scale movements of the sub-det...

Optimizing multiple sequence alignments using a genetic algorithm based on three objectives: structural information, non-gaps percentage and totally conserved columns.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortuño, Francisco M; Valenzuela, Olga; Rojas, Fernando; Pomares, Hector; Florido, Javier P; Urquiza, Jose M; Rojas, Ignacio

2013-09-01

Multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) are widely used approaches in bioinformatics to carry out other tasks such as structure predictions, biological function analyses or phylogenetic modeling. However, current tools usually provide partially optimal alignments, as each one is focused on specific biological features. Thus, the same set of sequences can produce different alignments, above all when sequences are less similar. Consequently, researchers and biologists do not agree about which is the most suitable way to evaluate MSAs. Recent evaluations tend to use more complex scores including further biological features. Among them, 3D structures are increasingly being used to evaluate alignments. Because structures are more conserved in proteins than sequences, scores with structural information are better suited to evaluate more distant relationships between sequences. The proposed multiobjective algorithm, based on the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm, aims to jointly optimize three objectives: STRIKE score, non-gaps percentage and totally conserved columns. It was significantly assessed on the BAliBASE benchmark according to the Kruskal-Wallis test (P algorithm also outperforms other aligners, such as ClustalW, Multiple Sequence Alignment Genetic Algorithm (MSA-GA), PRRP, DIALIGN, Hidden Markov Model Training (HMMT), Pattern-Induced Multi-sequence Alignment (PIMA), MULTIALIGN, Sequence Alignment Genetic Algorithm (SAGA), PILEUP, Rubber Band Technique Genetic Algorithm (RBT-GA) and Vertical Decomposition Genetic Algorithm (VDGA), according to the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (P 0.05) with the advantage of being able to use less structures. Structural information is included within the objective function to evaluate more accurately the obtained alignments. The source code is available at http://www.ugr.es/~fortuno/MOSAStrE/MO-SAStrE.zip.

Alignment performance monitoring for ASML systems

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Woong-Jae; Temchenko, Vlad; Hauck, Tarja; Schmidt, Sebastian

2006-03-01

In today's semiconductor industry downscaling of the IC design puts a stringent requirement on pattern overlay control. Tighter overlay requirements lead to exceedingly higher rework rates, meaning additional costs to manufacturing. Better alignment control became a target of engineering efforts to decrease rework rate for high-end technologies. Overlay performance is influenced by known parameters such as "Shift, Scaling, Rotation, etc", and unknown parameters defined as "Process Induced Variation", which are difficult to control by means of a process automation system. In reality, this process-induced variation leads to a strong wafer to wafer, or lot to lot variation, which are not easy to detect in the mass-production environment which uses sampling overlay measurements for only several wafers in a lot. An engineering task of finding and correcting a root cause for Process Induced Variations of overlay performance will be greatly simplified if the unknown parameters could be tracked for each wafer. This paper introduces an alignment performance monitoring method based on analysis of automatically generated "AWE" files for ASML scanner systems. Because "AWE" files include alignment results for each aligned wafer, it is possible to use them for monitoring, controlling and correcting the causes of "process induced" overlay performance without requiring extra measurement time. Since "AWE" files include alignment information for different alignment marks, it is also possible to select and optimize the best alignment recipe for each alignment strategy. Several case studies provided in our paper will demonstrate how AWE file analysis can be used to assist engineer in interpreting pattern alignment data. Since implementing our alignment data monitoring method, we were able to achieve significant improvement of alignment and overlay performance without additional overlay measurement time. We also noticed that the rework rate coming from alignment went down and

Proposal for an alignment method of the CLIC linear accelerator - From geodesic networks to the active pre-alignment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Touze, T.

2011-01-01

The compact linear collider (CLIC) is the particle accelerator project proposed by the european organization for nuclear research (CERN) for high energy physics after the large hadron collider (LHC). Because of the nano-metric scale of the CLIC leptons beams, the emittance growth budget is very tight. It induces alignment tolerances on the positions of the CLIC components that have never been achieved before. The last step of the CLIC alignment will be done according to the beam itself. It falls within the competence of the physicists. However, in order to implement the beam-based feedback, a challenging pre-alignment is required: 10 μm at 3σ along a 200 m sliding window. For such a precision, the proposed solution must be compatible with a feedback between the measurement and repositioning systems. The CLIC pre-alignment will have to be active. This thesis does not demonstrate the feasibility of the CLIC active pre-alignment but shows the way to the last developments that have to be done for that purpose. A method is proposed. Based on the management of the Helmert transformations between Euclidean coordinate systems, from the geodetic networks to the metrological measurements, this method is likely to solve the CLIC pre-alignment problem. Large scale facilities have been built and Monte-Carlo simulations have been made in order to validate the mathematical modeling of the measurement systems and of the alignment references. When this is done, it will be possible to extrapolate the modeling to the entire CLIC length. It will be the last step towards the demonstration of the CLIC pre-alignment feasibility. (author)

Bidirectional composition on lie groups for gradient-based image alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Mégret, Rémi; Authesserre, Jean-Baptiste; Berthoumieu, Yannick

2010-09-01

In this paper, a new formulation based on bidirectional composition on Lie groups (BCL) for parametric gradient-based image alignment is presented. Contrary to the conventional approaches, the BCL method takes advantage of the gradients of both template and current image without combining them a priori. Based on this bidirectional formulation, two methods are proposed and their relationship with state-of-the-art gradient based approaches is fully discussed. The first one, i.e., the BCL method, relies on the compositional framework to provide the minimization of the compensated error with respect to an augmented parameter vector. The second one, the projected BCL (PBCL), corresponds to a close approximation of the BCL approach. A comparative study is carried out dealing with computational complexity, convergence rate and frequence of convergence. Numerical experiments using a conventional benchmark show the performance improvement especially for asymmetric levels of noise, which is also discussed from a theoretical point of view.

Photoresist thin-film effects on alignment process capability

Science.gov (United States)

Flores, Gary E.; Flack, Warren W.

1993-08-01

Two photoresists were selected for alignment characterization based on their dissimilar coating properties and observed differences on alignment capability. The materials are Dynachem OFPR-800 and Shipley System 8. Both photoresists were examined on two challenging alignment levels in a submicron CMOS process, a nitride level and a planarized second level metal. An Ultratech Stepper model 1500 which features a darkfield alignment system with a broadband green light for alignment signal detection was used for this project. Initially, statistically designed linear screening experiments were performed to examine six process factors for each photoresist: viscosity, spin acceleration, spin speed, spin time, softbake time, and softbake temperature. Using the results derived from the screening experiments, a more thorough examination of the statistically significant process factors was performed. A full quadratic experimental design was conducted to examine viscosity, spin speed, and spin time coating properties on alignment. This included a characterization of both intra and inter wafer alignment control and alignment process capability. Insight to the different alignment behavior is analyzed in terms of photoresist material properties and the physical nature of the alignment detection system.

Fractal MapReduce decomposition of sequence alignment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Almeida Jonas S

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The dramatic fall in the cost of genomic sequencing, and the increasing convenience of distributed cloud computing resources, positions the MapReduce coding pattern as a cornerstone of scalable bioinformatics algorithm development. In some cases an algorithm will find a natural distribution via use of map functions to process vectorized components, followed by a reduce of aggregate intermediate results. However, for some data analysis procedures such as sequence analysis, a more fundamental reformulation may be required. Results In this report we describe a solution to sequence comparison that can be thoroughly decomposed into multiple rounds of map and reduce operations. The route taken makes use of iterated maps, a fractal analysis technique, that has been found to provide a "alignment-free" solution to sequence analysis and comparison. That is, a solution that does not require dynamic programming, relying on a numeric Chaos Game Representation (CGR data structure. This claim is demonstrated in this report by calculating the length of the longest similar segment by inspecting only the USM coordinates of two analogous units: with no resort to dynamic programming. Conclusions The procedure described is an attempt at extreme decomposition and parallelization of sequence alignment in anticipation of a volume of genomic sequence data that cannot be met by current algorithmic frameworks. The solution found is delivered with a browser-based application (webApp, highlighting the browser's emergence as an environment for high performance distributed computing. Availability Public distribution of accompanying software library with open source and version control at http://usm.github.com. Also available as a webApp through Google Chrome's WebStore http://chrome.google.com/webstore: search with "usm".

Phase Retrieval Using a Genetic Algorithm on the Systematic Image-Based Optical Alignment Testbed

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Jaime R.

2003-01-01

NASA s Marshall Space Flight Center s Systematic Image-Based Optical Alignment (SIBOA) Testbed was developed to test phase retrieval algorithms and hardware techniques. Individuals working with the facility developed the idea of implementing phase retrieval by breaking the determination of the tip/tilt of each mirror apart from the piston motion (or translation) of each mirror. Presented in this report is an algorithm that determines the optimal phase correction associated only with the piston motion of the mirrors. A description of the Phase Retrieval problem is first presented. The Systematic Image-Based Optical Alignment (SIBOA) Testbeb is then described. A Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is necessary to transfer the incoming wavefront (or estimate of phase error) into the spatial frequency domain to compare it with the image. A method for reducing the DFT to seven scalar/matrix multiplications is presented. A genetic algorithm is then used to search for the phase error. The results of this new algorithm on a test problem are presented.

High-performance supercapacitors based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes and nonaqueous electrolytes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Byungwoo; Kim, Woong; Chung, Haegeun

2012-01-01

We demonstrate the high performance of supercapacitors fabricated with vertically aligned carbon nanotubes and nonaqueous electrolytes such as ionic liquids and conventional organic electrolytes. Specific capacitance, maximum power and energy density of the supercapacitor measured in ionic liquid were ∼75 F g −1 , ∼987 kW kg −1 and ∼27 W h kg −1 , respectively. The high power performance was consistently indicated by a fast relaxation time constant of 0.2 s. In addition, electrochemical oxidation of the carbon nanotubes improved the specific capacitance (∼158 F g −1 ) and energy density (∼53 W h kg −1 ). Both high power and energy density could be attributed to the fast ion transport realized by the alignment of carbon nanotubes and the wide operational voltage defined by the ionic liquid. The demonstrated carbon-nanotube- and nonaqueous-electrolyte-based supercapacitors show great potential for the development of high-performance energy storage devices. (paper)

High-performance supercapacitors based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes and nonaqueous electrolytes.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Byungwoo; Chung, Haegeun; Kim, Woong

2012-04-20

We demonstrate the high performance of supercapacitors fabricated with vertically aligned carbon nanotubes and nonaqueous electrolytes such as ionic liquids and conventional organic electrolytes. Specific capacitance, maximum power and energy density of the supercapacitor measured in ionic liquid were ~75 F g(-1), ~987 kW kg(-1) and ~27 W h kg(-1), respectively. The high power performance was consistently indicated by a fast relaxation time constant of 0.2 s. In addition, electrochemical oxidation of the carbon nanotubes improved the specific capacitance (~158 F g(-1)) and energy density (~53 W h kg(-1)). Both high power and energy density could be attributed to the fast ion transport realized by the alignment of carbon nanotubes and the wide operational voltage defined by the ionic liquid. The demonstrated carbon-nanotube- and nonaqueous-electrolyte-based supercapacitors show great potential for the development of high-performance energy storage devices. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd

High-performance supercapacitors based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes and nonaqueous electrolytes

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Byungwoo; Chung, Haegeun; Kim, Woong

2012-04-01

We demonstrate the high performance of supercapacitors fabricated with vertically aligned carbon nanotubes and nonaqueous electrolytes such as ionic liquids and conventional organic electrolytes. Specific capacitance, maximum power and energy density of the supercapacitor measured in ionic liquid were ˜75 F g-1, ˜987 kW kg-1 and ˜27 W h kg-1, respectively. The high power performance was consistently indicated by a fast relaxation time constant of 0.2 s. In addition, electrochemical oxidation of the carbon nanotubes improved the specific capacitance (˜158 F g-1) and energy density (˜53 W h kg-1). Both high power and energy density could be attributed to the fast ion transport realized by the alignment of carbon nanotubes and the wide operational voltage defined by the ionic liquid. The demonstrated carbon-nanotube- and nonaqueous-electrolyte-based supercapacitors show great potential for the development of high-performance energy storage devices.

Aligned carbon nanotube based ultrasonic microtransducers for durability monitoring in civil engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Lebental, B; Chainais, P; Chenevier, P; Chevalier, N; Delevoye, E; Fabbri, J-M; Nicoletti, S; Renaux, P; Ghis, A

2011-09-30

Structural health monitoring of porous materials such as concrete is becoming a major component in our resource-limited economy, as it conditions durable exploitation of existing facilities. Durability in porous materials depends on nanoscale features which need to be monitored in situ with nanometric resolution. To address this problem, we put forward an approach based on the development of a new nanosensor, namely a capacitive micrometric ultrasonic transducer whose vibrating membrane is made of aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT). Such sensors are meant to be embedded in large numbers within a porous material in order to provide information on its durability by monitoring in situ neighboring individual micropores. In the present paper, we report on the feasibility of the key building block of the proposed sensor: we have fabricated well-aligned, ultra-thin, dense SWNT membranes that show above-nanometer amplitudes of vibration over a large range of frequencies spanning from 100 kHz to 5 MHz.

Development and Validation of a Multipoint Based Laser Alignment System for CLIC

CERN Document Server

Stern, G; Lackner, F; Mainaud-Durand, H; Piedigrossi, D; Sandomierski, J; Sosin, M; Geiger, A; Guillaume, S

2013-01-01

Alignment is one of the major challenges within CLIC study, since all accelerator components have to be aligned with accuracy up to 10 μm over sliding windows of 200 m. So far, the straight line reference concept has been based on stretched wires coupled with Wire Positioning Sensors. This concept should be validated through inter-comparison with an alternative solution. This paper proposes an alternative concept where laser beam acts as straight line reference and optical shutters coupled with cameras visualise the beam. The principle was first validated by a series of tests using low-cost components. Yet, in order to further decrease measurement uncertainty in this validation step, a high-precision automatised micrometric table and reference targets have been added to the setup. The paper presents the results obtained with this new equipment, in terms of measurement precision. In addition, the paper gives an overview of first tests done at long distance (up to 53 m), having emphasis on beam divergence

Simulation based assembly and alignment process ability analysis for line replaceable units of the high power solid state laser facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Junfeng; Lu, Cong; Li, Shiqi

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Discrete event simulation is applied to analyze the assembly and alignment process ability of LRUs in SG-III facility. • The overall assembly and alignment process of LRUs with specific characteristics is described. • An extended-directed graph is proposed to express the assembly and alignment process of LRUs. • Different scenarios have been simulated to evaluate assembling process ability of LRUs and decision making is supported to ensure the construction millstone. - Abstract: Line replaceable units (LRUs) are important components of the very large high power solid state laser facilities. The assembly and alignment process ability of LRUs will impact the construction milestone of facilities. This paper describes the use of discrete event simulation method for assembly and alignment process analysis of LRUs in such facilities. The overall assembly and alignment process for LRUs is presented based on the layout of the optics assembly laboratory and the process characteristics are analyzed. An extended-directed graph is proposed to express the assembly and alignment process of LRUs. Taking the LRUs of disk amplifier system in Shen Guang-III (SG-III) facility as the example, some process simulation models are built based on the Quest simulation platform. The constraints, such as duration, equipment, technician and part supply, are considered in the simulation models. Different simulation scenarios have been carried out to evaluate the assembling process ability of LRUs. The simulation method can provide a valuable decision making and process optimization tool for the optics assembly laboratory layout and the process working out of such facilities.

Simulation based assembly and alignment process ability analysis for line replaceable units of the high power solid state laser facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Junfeng; Lu, Cong; Li, Shiqi, E-mail: sqli@hust.edu.cn

2016-11-15

Highlights: • Discrete event simulation is applied to analyze the assembly and alignment process ability of LRUs in SG-III facility. • The overall assembly and alignment process of LRUs with specific characteristics is described. • An extended-directed graph is proposed to express the assembly and alignment process of LRUs. • Different scenarios have been simulated to evaluate assembling process ability of LRUs and decision making is supported to ensure the construction millstone. - Abstract: Line replaceable units (LRUs) are important components of the very large high power solid state laser facilities. The assembly and alignment process ability of LRUs will impact the construction milestone of facilities. This paper describes the use of discrete event simulation method for assembly and alignment process analysis of LRUs in such facilities. The overall assembly and alignment process for LRUs is presented based on the layout of the optics assembly laboratory and the process characteristics are analyzed. An extended-directed graph is proposed to express the assembly and alignment process of LRUs. Taking the LRUs of disk amplifier system in Shen Guang-III (SG-III) facility as the example, some process simulation models are built based on the Quest simulation platform. The constraints, such as duration, equipment, technician and part supply, are considered in the simulation models. Different simulation scenarios have been carried out to evaluate the assembling process ability of LRUs. The simulation method can provide a valuable decision making and process optimization tool for the optics assembly laboratory layout and the process working out of such facilities.

MUON DETECTORS: ALIGNMENT

CERN Multimedia

G.Gomez

2010-01-01

Most of the work in muon alignment since December 2009 has focused on the geometry reconstruction from the optical systems and improvements in the internal alignment of the DT chambers. The barrel optical alignment system has progressively evolved from reconstruction of single active planes to super-planes (December 09) to a new, full barrel reconstruction. Initial validation studies comparing this full barrel alignment at 0T with photogrammetry provide promising results. In addition, the method has been applied to CRAFT09 data, and the resulting alignment at 3.8T yields residuals from tracks (extrapolated from the tracker) which look smooth, suggesting a good internal barrel alignment with a small overall offset with respect to the tracker. This is a significant improvement, which should allow the optical system to provide a start-up alignment for 2010. The end-cap optical alignment has made considerable progress in the analysis of transfer line data. The next set of alignment constants for CSCs will there...

Improving your target-template alignment with MODalign

OpenAIRE

Barbato, Alessandro; Benkert, Pascal; Schwede, Torsten; Tramontano, Anna; Kosinski, Jan

2012-01-01

Summary: MODalign is an interactive web-based tool aimed at helping protein structure modelers to inspect and manually modify the alignment between the sequences of a target protein and of its template(s). It interactively computes, displays and, upon modification of the target-template alignment, updates the multiple sequence alignments of the two protein families, their conservation score, secondary structure and solvent accessibility values, and local quality scores of the implied three-di...

High-performance field emission device utilizing vertically aligned carbon nanotubes-based pillar architectures

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, Bipin Kumar; Kedawat, Garima; Gangwar, Amit Kumar; Nagpal, Kanika; Kashyap, Pradeep Kumar; Srivastava, Shubhda; Singh, Satbir; Kumar, Pawan; Suryawanshi, Sachin R.; Seo, Deok Min; Tripathi, Prashant; More, Mahendra A.; Srivastava, O. N.; Hahm, Myung Gwan; Late, Dattatray J.

2018-01-01

The vertical aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-based pillar architectures were created on laminated silicon oxide/silicon (SiO2/Si) wafer substrate at 775 °C by using water-assisted chemical vapor deposition under low pressure process condition. The lamination was carried out by aluminum (Al, 10.0 nm thickness) as a barrier layer and iron (Fe, 1.5 nm thickness) as a catalyst precursor layer sequentially on a silicon wafer substrate. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images show that synthesized CNTs are vertically aligned and uniformly distributed with a high density. The CNTs have approximately 2-30 walls with an inner diameter of 3-8 nm. Raman spectrum analysis shows G-band at 1580 cm-1 and D-band at 1340 cm-1. The G-band is higher than D-band, which indicates that CNTs are highly graphitized. The field emission analysis of the CNTs revealed high field emission current density (4mA/cm2 at 1.2V/μm), low turn-on field (0.6 V/μm) and field enhancement factor (6917) with better stability and longer lifetime. Emitter morphology resulting in improved promising field emission performances, which is a crucial factor for the fabrication of pillared shaped vertical aligned CNTs bundles as practical electron sources.

High-performance field emission device utilizing vertically aligned carbon nanotubes-based pillar architectures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bipin Kumar Gupta

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The vertical aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs-based pillar architectures were created on laminated silicon oxide/silicon (SiO2/Si wafer substrate at 775 °C by using water-assisted chemical vapor deposition under low pressure process condition. The lamination was carried out by aluminum (Al, 10.0 nm thickness as a barrier layer and iron (Fe, 1.5 nm thickness as a catalyst precursor layer sequentially on a silicon wafer substrate. Scanning electron microscope (SEM images show that synthesized CNTs are vertically aligned and uniformly distributed with a high density. The CNTs have approximately 2–30 walls with an inner diameter of 3–8 nm. Raman spectrum analysis shows G-band at 1580 cm−1 and D-band at 1340 cm−1. The G-band is higher than D-band, which indicates that CNTs are highly graphitized. The field emission analysis of the CNTs revealed high field emission current density (4mA/cm2 at 1.2V/μm, low turn-on field (0.6 V/μm and field enhancement factor (6917 with better stability and longer lifetime. Emitter morphology resulting in improved promising field emission performances, which is a crucial factor for the fabrication of pillared shaped vertical aligned CNTs bundles as practical electron sources.

Sequence Comparison Alignment-Free Approach Based on Suffix Tree and L-Words Frequency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inês Soares

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The vast majority of methods available for sequence comparison rely on a first sequence alignment step, which requires a number of assumptions on evolutionary history and is sometimes very difficult or impossible to perform due to the abundance of gaps (insertions/deletions. In such cases, an alternative alignment-free method would prove valuable. Our method starts by a computation of a generalized suffix tree of all sequences, which is completed in linear time. Using this tree, the frequency of all possible words with a preset length L—L-words—in each sequence is rapidly calculated. Based on the L-words frequency profile of each sequence, a pairwise standard Euclidean distance is then computed producing a symmetric genetic distance matrix, which can be used to generate a neighbor joining dendrogram or a multidimensional scaling graph. We present an improvement to word counting alignment-free approaches for sequence comparison, by determining a single optimal word length and combining suffix tree structures to the word counting tasks. Our approach is, thus, a fast and simple application that proved to be efficient and powerful when applied to mitochondrial genomes. The algorithm was implemented in Python language and is freely available on the web.

Genomic multiple sequence alignments: refinement using a genetic algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lefkowitz Elliot J

2005-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Genomic sequence data cannot be fully appreciated in isolation. Comparative genomics – the practice of comparing genomic sequences from different species – plays an increasingly important role in understanding the genotypic differences between species that result in phenotypic differences as well as in revealing patterns of evolutionary relationships. One of the major challenges in comparative genomics is producing a high-quality alignment between two or more related genomic sequences. In recent years, a number of tools have been developed for aligning large genomic sequences. Most utilize heuristic strategies to identify a series of strong sequence similarities, which are then used as anchors to align the regions between the anchor points. The resulting alignment is globally correct, but in many cases is suboptimal locally. We describe a new program, GenAlignRefine, which improves the overall quality of global multiple alignments by using a genetic algorithm to improve local regions of alignment. Regions of low quality are identified, realigned using the program T-Coffee, and then refined using a genetic algorithm. Because a better COFFEE (Consistency based Objective Function For alignmEnt Evaluation score generally reflects greater alignment quality, the algorithm searches for an alignment that yields a better COFFEE score. To improve the intrinsic slowness of the genetic algorithm, GenAlignRefine was implemented as a parallel, cluster-based program. Results We tested the GenAlignRefine algorithm by running it on a Linux cluster to refine sequences from a simulation, as well as refine a multiple alignment of 15 Orthopoxvirus genomic sequences approximately 260,000 nucleotides in length that initially had been aligned by Multi-LAGAN. It took approximately 150 minutes for a 40-processor Linux cluster to optimize some 200 fuzzy (poorly aligned regions of the orthopoxvirus alignment. Overall sequence identity increased only

A user-friendly nano-CT image alignment and 3D reconstruction platform based on LabVIEW

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Shenghao; Wang Zhili; Gao Kun; Wu Zhao; Zhang Kai; Zhu Peiping; Wu Ziyu

2015-01-01

X-ray computed tomography at the nanometer scale (nano-CT) offers a wide range of applications in scientific and industrial areas. Here we describe a reliable, user-friendly, and fast software package based on LabVIEW that may allow us to perform all procedures after the acquisition of raw projection images in order to obtain the inner structure of the investigated sample. A suitable image alignment process to address misalignment problems among image series due to mechanical manufacturing errors, thermal expansion, and other external factors has been considered, together with a novel fast parallel beam 3D reconstruction procedure that was developed ad hoc to perform the tomographic reconstruction. We have obtained remarkably improved reconstruction results at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility after the image calibration, the fundamental role of this image alignment procedure was confirmed, which minimizes the unwanted blurs and additional streaking artifacts that are always present in reconstructed slices. Moreover, this nano-CT image alignment and its associated 3D reconstruction procedure are fully based on LabVIEW routines, significantly reducing the data post-processing cycle, thus making the activity of the users faster and easier during experimental runs. (authors)

Systematic Image Based Optical Alignment and Tensegrity

Science.gov (United States)

Zeiders, Glenn W.; Montgomery, Edward E, IV (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

This presentation will review the objectives and current status of two Small Business Innovative Research being performed by the Sirius Group, under the direction of MSFC. They all relate to the development of advanced optical systems technologies for automated segmented mirror alignment techniques and fundamental design methodologies for ultralight structures. These are important to future astronomical missions in space.

Cascaded face alignment via intimacy definition feature

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Hailiang; Lam, Kin-Man; Chiu, Man-Yau; Wu, Kangheng; Lei, Zhibin

2017-09-01

Recent years have witnessed the emerging popularity of regression-based face aligners, which directly learn mappings between facial appearance and shape-increment manifolds. We propose a random-forest based, cascaded regression model for face alignment by using a locally lightweight feature, namely intimacy definition feature. This feature is more discriminative than the pose-indexed feature, more efficient than the histogram of oriented gradients feature and the scale-invariant feature transform feature, and more compact than the local binary feature (LBF). Experimental validation of our algorithm shows that our approach achieves state-of-the-art performance when testing on some challenging datasets. Compared with the LBF-based algorithm, our method achieves about twice the speed, 20% improvement in terms of alignment accuracy and saves an order of magnitude on memory requirement.

Mechanical alignment based on beam diagnostics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farvacque, L.; Martin, D.; Nagaoka, R.

1999-01-01

This article studies the consequences of misalignment of the different components on the displacement of the beam. 3 types of motion have been investigated: quadrupole vertical displacement, quadrupole tilt and sextupole vertical displacement. For each shift a response matrix has been designed and from this formulation, aligning quadrupoles means inverting this matrix. The strategy for correction depends on the accuracy of the response matrix and on the quality of the beam position measurements. A modelling of the corrections is proposed. (A.C.)

Propagation and stability characteristics of a 500-m-long laser-based fiducial line for high-precision alignment of long-distance linear accelerators.

Science.gov (United States)

Suwada, Tsuyoshi; Satoh, Masanori; Telada, Souichi; Minoshima, Kaoru

2013-09-01

A laser-based alignment system with a He-Ne laser has been newly developed in order to precisely align accelerator units at the KEKB injector linac. The laser beam was first implemented as a 500-m-long fiducial straight line for alignment measurements. We experimentally investigated the propagation and stability characteristics of the laser beam passing through laser pipes in vacuum. The pointing stability at the last fiducial point was successfully obtained with the transverse displacements of ±40 μm level in one standard deviation by applying a feedback control. This pointing stability corresponds to an angle of ±0.08 μrad. This report contains a detailed description of the experimental investigation for the propagation and stability characteristics of the laser beam in the laser-based alignment system for long-distance linear accelerators.

A three-dimensional vertically aligned functionalized multilayer graphene architecture: an approach for graphene-based thermal interfacial materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Qizhen; Yao, Xuxia; Wang, Wei; Liu, Yan; Wong, Ching Ping

2011-03-22

Thermally conductive functionalized multilayer graphene sheets (fMGs) are efficiently aligned in large-scale by a vacuum filtration method at room temperature, as evidenced by SEM images and polarized Raman spectroscopy. A remarkably strong anisotropy in properties of aligned fMGs is observed. High electrical (∼386 S cm(-1)) and thermal conductivity (∼112 W m(-1) K(-1) at 25 °C) and ultralow coefficient of thermal expansion (∼-0.71 ppm K(-1)) in the in-plane direction of A-fMGs are obtained without any reduction process. Aligned fMGs are vertically assembled between contacted silicon/silicon surfaces with pure indium as a metallic medium. Thus-constructed three-dimensional vertically aligned fMG thermal interfacial material (VA-fMG TIM) architecture has significantly higher equivalent thermal conductivity (75.5 W m(-1) K(-1)) and lower contact thermal resistance (5.1 mm2 K W(-1)), compared with their counterpart from A-fMGs that are recumbent between silicon surfaces. This finding provides a throughout approach for a graphene-based TIM assembly as well as knowledge of vertically aligned graphene architectures, which may not only facilitate graphene's application in current demanding thermal management but also promote its widespread applications in electrodes of energy storage devices, conductive polymeric composites, etc.

Probing the liquid crystal alignment interface and switching dynamics in a slab waveguide architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Gotjen, Henry G.; Kolacz, Jakub; Myers, Jason D.; Frantz, Jesse A.; Bekele, Robel Y.; Naciri, Jawad; Spillmann, Christopher M.

2018-02-01

A non-mechanical refractive laser beam steering device has been developed to provide continuous, two-dimensional steering of infrared beams. The technology implements a dielectric slab waveguide architecture with a liquid crystal (LC) cladding. With voltage control, the birefringence of the LC can be leveraged to tune the effective index of the waveguide under an electrode. With a clever prism electrode design a beam coupled into the waveguide can be deflected continuously in two dimensions as it is coupled out into free space. The optical interaction with LC in this beamsteerer is unique from typical LC applications: only the thin layer of LC (100s of nm) near the alignment interface interacts with the beam's evanescent field. Whereas most LC interactions take place over short path lengths (microns) in the bulk of the material, here we can interrogate the behavior of LC near the alignment interface over long path lengths (centimeters). In this work the beamsteerer is leveraged as a tool to study the behavior of LC near the alignment layer in contrast to the bulk material. We find that scattering is substantially decreased near the alignment interface due to the influence of the surface anchoring energy to suppress thermal fluctuations. By tracking the position of the deflected beam with a high speed camera, we measure response times of the LC near the interface in off-to-on switching ( ms) and on-to-off switching ( 100ms). Combined, this work will provide a path for improved alignment techniques, greater optical throughput, and faster response times in this unique approach to non-mechanical beamsteering.

Aligning observed and modelled behaviour based on workflow decomposition

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lu; Du, YuYue; Liu, Wei

2017-09-01

When business processes are mostly supported by information systems, the availability of event logs generated from these systems, as well as the requirement of appropriate process models are increasing. Business processes can be discovered, monitored and enhanced by extracting process-related information. However, some events cannot be correctly identified because of the explosion of the amount of event logs. Therefore, a new process mining technique is proposed based on a workflow decomposition method in this paper. Petri nets (PNs) are used to describe business processes, and then conformance checking of event logs and process models is investigated. A decomposition approach is proposed to divide large process models and event logs into several separate parts that can be analysed independently; while an alignment approach based on a state equation method in PN theory enhances the performance of conformance checking. Both approaches are implemented in programmable read-only memory (ProM). The correctness and effectiveness of the proposed methods are illustrated through experiments.

ACCELERATORS: Beam based alignment of the SSRF storage ring

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Man-Zhou; Li, Hao-Hu; Jiang, Bo-Cheng; Liu, Gui-Min; Li, De-Ming

2009-04-01

There are 140 beam position monitors (BPMs) in the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) storage ring used for measuring the closed orbit. As the BPM pickup electrodes are assembled directly on the vacuum chamber, it is important to calibrate the electrical center offset of the BPM to an adjacent quadrupole magnetic center. A beam based alignment (BBA) method which varies individual quadrupole magnet strength and observes its effects on the orbit is used to measure the BPM offsets in both the horizontal and vertical planes. It is a completely automated technique with various data processing methods. There are several parameters such as the strength change of the correctors and the quadrupoles which should be chosen carefully in real measurement. After several rounds of BBA measurement and closed orbit correction, these offsets are set to an accuracy better than 10 μm. In this paper we present the method of beam based calibration of BPMs, the experimental results of the SSRF storage ring, and the error analysis.

Sensing Characteristics of A Precision Aligner Using Moire Gratings for Precision Alignment System

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

ZHOU Lizhong; Hideo Furuhashi; Yoshiyuki Uchida

2001-01-01

Sensing characteristics of a precision aligner using moire gratings for precision alignment sysem has been investigated. A differential moire alignment system and a modified alignment system were used. The influence of the setting accuracy of the gap length and inclination of gratings on the alignment accuracy has been studied experimentally and theoretically. Setting accuracy of the gap length less than 2.5μm is required in modified moire alignment. There is no influence of the gap length on the alignment accuracy in the differential alignment system. The inclination affects alignment accuracies in both differential and modified moire alignment systems.

SDT: a virus classification tool based on pairwise sequence alignment and identity calculation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brejnev Muhizi Muhire

Full Text Available The perpetually increasing rate at which viral full-genome sequences are being determined is creating a pressing demand for computational tools that will aid the objective classification of these genome sequences. Taxonomic classification approaches that are based on pairwise genetic identity measures are potentially highly automatable and are progressively gaining favour with the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV. There are, however, various issues with the calculation of such measures that could potentially undermine the accuracy and consistency with which they can be applied to virus classification. Firstly, pairwise sequence identities computed based on multiple sequence alignments rather than on multiple independent pairwise alignments can lead to the deflation of identity scores with increasing dataset sizes. Also, when gap-characters need to be introduced during sequence alignments to account for insertions and deletions, methodological variations in the way that these characters are introduced and handled during pairwise genetic identity calculations can cause high degrees of inconsistency in the way that different methods classify the same sets of sequences. Here we present Sequence Demarcation Tool (SDT, a free user-friendly computer program that aims to provide a robust and highly reproducible means of objectively using pairwise genetic identity calculations to classify any set of nucleotide or amino acid sequences. SDT can produce publication quality pairwise identity plots and colour-coded distance matrices to further aid the classification of sequences according to ICTV approved taxonomic demarcation criteria. Besides a graphical interface version of the program for Windows computers, command-line versions of the program are available for a variety of different operating systems (including a parallel version for cluster computing platforms.

Beam alignment based on two-dimensional power spectral density of a near-field image.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Shenzhen; Yuan, Qiang; Zeng, Fa; Zhang, Xin; Zhao, Junpu; Li, Kehong; Zhang, Xiaolu; Xue, Qiao; Yang, Ying; Dai, Wanjun; Zhou, Wei; Wang, Yuanchen; Zheng, Kuixing; Su, Jingqin; Hu, Dongxia; Zhu, Qihua

2017-10-30

Beam alignment is crucial to high-power laser facilities and is used to adjust the laser beams quickly and accurately to meet stringent requirements of pointing and centering. In this paper, a novel alignment method is presented, which employs data processing of the two-dimensional power spectral density (2D-PSD) for a near-field image and resolves the beam pointing error relative to the spatial filter pinhole directly. Combining this with a near-field fiducial mark, the operation of beam alignment is achieved. It is experimentally demonstrated that this scheme realizes a far-field alignment precision of approximately 3% of the pinhole size. This scheme adopts only one near-field camera to construct the alignment system, which provides a simple, efficient, and low-cost way to align lasers.

NIF pointing and centering systems and target alignment using a 351 nm laser source

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boege, S.J.; Bliss, E.S.; Chocol, C.J.; Holdener, F.R.; Miller, J.L.; Toeppen, J.S.; Vann, C.S.; Zacharias, R.A.

1996-10-01

The operational requirements of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) place tight constraints upon its alignment system. In general, the alignment system must establish and maintain the correct relationships between beam position, beam angle, laser component clear apertures, and the target. At the target, this includes adjustment of beam focus to obtain the correct spot size. This must be accomplished for all beamlines in a time consistent with planned shot rates and yet, in the front end and main laser, beam control functions cannot be initiated until the amplifiers have sufficiently cooled so as to minimize dynamic thermal distortions during and after alignment and wavefront optimization. The scope of the task dictates an automated system that implements parallel processes. We describe reticle choices and other alignment references, insertion of alignment beams, principles of operation of the Chamber Center Reference System 2048 and Target Alignment Sensor, and the anticipated alignment sequence that will occur between shots

Desktop aligner for fabrication of multilayer microfluidic devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xiang; Yu, Zeta Tak For; Geraldo, Dalton; Weng, Shinuo; Alve, Nitesh; Dun, Wu; Kini, Akshay; Patel, Karan; Shu, Roberto; Zhang, Feng; Li, Gang; Jin, Qinghui; Fu, Jianping

2015-07-01

Multilayer assembly is a commonly used technique to construct multilayer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based microfluidic devices with complex 3D architecture and connectivity for large-scale microfluidic integration. Accurate alignment of structure features on different PDMS layers before their permanent bonding is critical in determining the yield and quality of assembled multilayer microfluidic devices. Herein, we report a custom-built desktop aligner capable of both local and global alignments of PDMS layers covering a broad size range. Two digital microscopes were incorporated into the aligner design to allow accurate global alignment of PDMS structures up to 4 in. in diameter. Both local and global alignment accuracies of the desktop aligner were determined to be about 20 μm cm(-1). To demonstrate its utility for fabrication of integrated multilayer PDMS microfluidic devices, we applied the desktop aligner to achieve accurate alignment of different functional PDMS layers in multilayer microfluidics including an organs-on-chips device as well as a microfluidic device integrated with vertical passages connecting channels located in different PDMS layers. Owing to its convenient operation, high accuracy, low cost, light weight, and portability, the desktop aligner is useful for microfluidic researchers to achieve rapid and accurate alignment for generating multilayer PDMS microfluidic devices.

Aligning the CMS Muon Chambers with the Muon Alignment System during an Extended Cosmic Ray Run

CERN Document Server

Chatrchyan, S; Sirunyan, A M; Adam, W; Arnold, B; Bergauer, H; Bergauer, T; Dragicevic, M; Eichberger, M; Erö, J; Friedl, M; Frühwirth, R; Ghete, V M; Hammer, J; Hänsel, S; Hoch, M; Hörmann, N; Hrubec, J; Jeitler, M; Kasieczka, G; Kastner, K; Krammer, M; Liko, D; Magrans de Abril, I; Mikulec, I; Mittermayr, F; Neuherz, B; Oberegger, M; Padrta, M; Pernicka, M; Rohringer, H; Schmid, S; Schöfbeck, R; Schreiner, T; Stark, R; Steininger, H; Strauss, J; Taurok, A; Teischinger, F; Themel, T; Uhl, D; Wagner, P; Waltenberger, W; Walzel, G; Widl, E; Wulz, C E; Chekhovsky, V; Dvornikov, O; Emeliantchik, I; Litomin, A; Makarenko, V; Marfin, I; Mossolov, V; Shumeiko, N; Solin, A; Stefanovitch, R; Suarez Gonzalez, J; Tikhonov, A; Fedorov, A; Karneyeu, A; Korzhik, M; Panov, V; Zuyeuski, R; Kuchinsky, P; Beaumont, W; Benucci, L; Cardaci, M; De Wolf, E A; Delmeire, E; Druzhkin, D; Hashemi, M; Janssen, X; Maes, T; Mucibello, L; Ochesanu, S; Rougny, R; Selvaggi, M; Van Haevermaet, H; Van Mechelen, P; Van Remortel, N; Adler, V; Beauceron, S; Blyweert, S; D'Hondt, J; De Weirdt, S; Devroede, O; Heyninck, J; Kalogeropoulos, A; Maes, J; Maes, M; Mozer, M U; Tavernier, S; Van Doninck, W; Van Mulders, P; Villella, I; Bouhali, O; Chabert, E C; Charaf, O; Clerbaux, B; De Lentdecker, G; Dero, V; Elgammal, S; Gay, A P R; Hammad, G H; Marage, P E; Rugovac, S; Vander Velde, C; Vanlaer, P; Wickens, J; Grunewald, M; Klein, B; Marinov, A; Ryckbosch, D; Thyssen, F; Tytgat, M; Vanelderen, L; Verwilligen, P; Basegmez, S; Bruno, G; Caudron, J; Delaere, C; Demin, P; Favart, D; Giammanco, A; Grégoire, G; Lemaitre, V; Militaru, O; Ovyn, S; Piotrzkowski, K; Quertenmont, L; Schul, N; Beliy, N; Daubie, E; Alves, G A; Pol, M E; Souza, M H G; Carvalho, W; De Jesus Damiao, D; De Oliveira Martins, C; Fonseca De Souza, S; Mundim, L; Oguri, V; Santoro, A; Silva Do Amaral, S M; Sznajder, A; Fernandez Perez Tomei, T R; Ferreira Dias, M A; Gregores, E M; Novaes, S F; Abadjiev, K; Anguelov, T; Damgov, J; Darmenov, N; Dimitrov, L; Genchev, V; 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Gomez Ceballos, G; Hahn, K A; Harris, P; Jaditz, S; Kim, Y; Klute, M; Lee, Y J; Li, W; Loizides, C; Ma, T; Miller, M; Nahn, S; Paus, C; Roland, C; Roland, G; Rudolph, M; Stephans, G; Sumorok, K; Sung, K; Vaurynovich, S; Wenger, E A; Wyslouch, B; Xie, S; Yilmaz, Y; Yoon, A S; Bailleux, D; Cooper, S I; Cushman, P; Dahmes, B; De Benedetti, A; Dolgopolov, A; Dudero, P R; Egeland, R; Franzoni, G; Haupt, J; Inyakin, A; Klapoetke, K; Kubota, Y; Mans, J; Mirman, N; Petyt, D; Rekovic, V; Rusack, R; Schroeder, M; Singovsky, A; Zhang, J; Cremaldi, L M; Godang, R; Kroeger, R; Perera, L; Rahmat, R; Sanders, D A; Sonnek, P; Summers, D; Bloom, K; Bockelman, B; Bose, S; Butt, J; Claes, D R; Dominguez, A; Eads, M; Keller, J; Kelly, T; Kravchenko, I; Lazo-Flores, J; Lundstedt, C; Malbouisson, H; Malik, S; Snow, G R; Baur, U; Iashvili, I; Kharchilava, A; Kumar, A; Smith, K; Strang, M; Alverson, G; Barberis, E; Boeriu, O; Eulisse, G; Govi, G; McCauley, T; Musienko, Y; Muzaffar, S; Osborne, I; Paul, T; Reucroft, S; 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Yoo, H D; Zheng, Y; Jindal, P; Parashar, N; Cuplov, V; Ecklund, K M; Geurts, F J M; Liu, J H; Maronde, D; Matveev, M; Padley, B P; Redjimi, R; Roberts, J; Sabbatini, L; Tumanov, A; Betchart, B; Bodek, A; Budd, H; Chung, Y S; de Barbaro, P; Demina, R; Flacher, H; Gotra, Y; Harel, A; Korjenevski, S; Miner, D C; Orbaker, D; Petrillo, G; Vishnevskiy, D; Zielinski, M; Bhatti, A; Demortier, L; Goulianos, K; Hatakeyama, K; Lungu, G; Mesropian, C; Yan, M; Atramentov, O; Bartz, E; Gershtein, Y; Halkiadakis, E; Hits, D; Lath, A; Rose, K; Schnetzer, S; Somalwar, S; Stone, R; Thomas, S; Watts, T L; Cerizza, G; Hollingsworth, M; Spanier, S; Yang, Z C; York, A; Asaadi, J; Aurisano, A; Eusebi, R; Golyash, A; Gurrola, A; Kamon, T; Nguyen, C N; Pivarski, J; Safonov, A; Sengupta, S; Toback, D; Weinberger, M; Akchurin, N; Berntzon, L; Gumus, K; Jeong, C; Kim, H; Lee, S W; Popescu, S; Roh, Y; Sill, A; Volobouev, I; Washington, E; Wigmans, R; Yazgan, E; Engh, D; Florez, C; Johns, W; Pathak, S; Sheldon, P; Andelin, D; Arenton, M W; Balazs, M; Boutle, S; Buehler, M; Conetti, S; Cox, B; Hirosky, R; Ledovskoy, A; Neu, C; Phillips II, D; Ronquest, M; Yohay, R; Gollapinni, S; Gunthoti, K; Harr, R; Karchin, P E; Mattson, M; Sakharov, A; Anderson, M; Bachtis, M; Bellinger, J N; Carlsmith, D; Crotty, I; Dasu, S; Dutta, S; Efron, J; Feyzi, F; Flood, K; Gray, L; Grogg, K S; Grothe, M; Hall-Wilton, R; Jaworski, M; Klabbers, P; Klukas, J; Lanaro, A; Lazaridis, C; Leonard, J; Loveless, R; Magrans de Abril, M; Mohapatra, A; Ott, G; Polese, G; Reeder, D; Savin, A; Smith, W H; Sourkov, A; Swanson, J; Weinberg, M; Wenman, D; Wensveen, M; White, A

2010-01-01

The alignment system for the muon spectrometer of the CMS detector comprises three independent subsystems of optical and analog position sensors. It aligns muon chambers with respect to each other and to the central silicon tracker. System commissioning at full magnetic field began in 2008 during an extended cosmic ray run. The system succeeded in tracking muon detector movements of up to 18 mm and rotations of several milliradians under magnetic forces. Depending on coordinate and subsystem, the system achieved chamber alignment precisions of 140-350 microns and 30-200 microradians. Systematic errors on displacements are estimated to be 340-590 microns based on comparisons with independent photogrammetry measurements.

Resolution and systematic limitations in beam based alignment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tenenbaum, P.G.

2000-03-15

Beam based alignment of quadrupoles by variation of quadrupole strength is a widely-used technique in accelerators today. The authors describe the dominant systematic limitation of this technique, which arises from the change in the center position of the quadrupole as the strength is varied, and derive expressions for the resulting error. In addition, the authors derive an expression for the statistical resolution of such techniques in a periodic transport line, given knowledge of the line's transport matrices, the resolution of the beam position monitor system, and the details of the strength variation procedure. These results are applied to the Next Linear Collider main linear accelerator, an 11 kilometer accelerator containing 750 quadrupoles and 5,000 accelerator structures. The authors find that in principle a statistical resolution of 1 micron is easily achievable but the systematic error due to variation of the magnetic centers could be several times larger.

Multiple sequence alignment accuracy and phylogenetic inference.

Science.gov (United States)

Ogden, T Heath; Rosenberg, Michael S

2006-04-01

Phylogenies are often thought to be more dependent upon the specifics of the sequence alignment rather than on the method of reconstruction. Simulation of sequences containing insertion and deletion events was performed in order to determine the role that alignment accuracy plays during phylogenetic inference. Data sets were simulated for pectinate, balanced, and random tree shapes under different conditions (ultrametric equal branch length, ultrametric random branch length, nonultrametric random branch length). Comparisons between hypothesized alignments and true alignments enabled determination of two measures of alignment accuracy, that of the total data set and that of individual branches. In general, our results indicate that as alignment error increases, topological accuracy decreases. This trend was much more pronounced for data sets derived from more pectinate topologies. In contrast, for balanced, ultrametric, equal branch length tree shapes, alignment inaccuracy had little average effect on tree reconstruction. These conclusions are based on average trends of many analyses under different conditions, and any one specific analysis, independent of the alignment accuracy, may recover very accurate or inaccurate topologies. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian, in general, outperformed neighbor joining and maximum parsimony in terms of tree reconstruction accuracy. Results also indicated that as the length of the branch and of the neighboring branches increase, alignment accuracy decreases, and the length of the neighboring branches is the major factor in topological accuracy. Thus, multiple-sequence alignment can be an important factor in downstream effects on topological reconstruction.

Application of vertex and mass constraints in track-based alignment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amoraal, J.; Blouw, J.; Blusk, S.; Borghi, S.; Cattaneo, M.; Chiapolini, N.; Conti, G.; Deissenroth, M.; Dupertuis, F.; Eijk, R. van der; Fave, V.; Gersabeck, M.; Hicheur, A.; Hulsbergen, W.; Hutchcroft, D.; Kozlinskiy, A.; Lambert, R.W.

2013-01-01

The software alignment of planar tracking detectors using samples of charged particle trajectories may lead to global detector distortions that affect vertex and momentum resolution. We present an alignment procedure that constrains such distortions by making use of samples of decay vertices reconstructed from two or more trajectories and putting constraints on their invariant mass. We illustrate the method by using a sample of invariant-mass constrained vertices from D 0 →K − π + decays to remove a curvature bias in the LHCb spectrometer

Anti-drift and auto-alignment mechanism for an astigmatic atomic force microscope system based on a digital versatile disk optical head.

Science.gov (United States)

Hwu, E-T; Illers, H; Wang, W-M; Hwang, I-S; Jusko, L; Danzebrink, H-U

2012-01-01

In this work, an anti-drift and auto-alignment mechanism is applied to an astigmatic detection system (ADS)-based atomic force microscope (AFM) for drift compensation and cantilever alignment. The optical path of the ADS adopts a commercial digital versatile disc (DVD) optical head using the astigmatic focus error signal. The ADS-based astigmatic AFM is lightweight, compact size, low priced, and easy to use. Furthermore, the optical head is capable of measuring sub-atomic displacements of high-frequency AFM probes with a sub-micron laser spot (~570 nm, FWHM) and a high-working bandwidth (80 MHz). Nevertheless, conventional DVD optical heads suffer from signal drift problems. In a previous setup, signal drifts of even thousands of nanometers had been measured. With the anti-drift and auto-alignment mechanism, the signal drift is compensated by actuating a voice coil motor of the DVD optical head. A nearly zero signal drift was achieved. Additional benefits of this mechanism are automatic cantilever alignment and simplified design.

Improving your target-template alignment with MODalign.

KAUST Repository

Barbato, Alessandro

2012-02-04

SUMMARY: MODalign is an interactive web-based tool aimed at helping protein structure modelers to inspect and manually modify the alignment between the sequences of a target protein and of its template(s). It interactively computes, displays and, upon modification of the target-template alignment, updates the multiple sequence alignments of the two protein families, their conservation score, secondary structure and solvent accessibility values, and local quality scores of the implied three-dimensional model(s). Although it has been designed to simplify the target-template alignment step in modeling, it is suitable for all cases where a sequence alignment needs to be inspected in the context of other biological information. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Freely available on the web at http://modorama.biocomputing.it/modalign. Website implemented in HTML and JavaScript with all major browsers supported. CONTACT: jan.kosinski@uniroma1.it.

100 nm scale low-noise sensors based on aligned carbon nanotube networks: overcoming the fundamental limitation of network-based sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Minbaek; Lee, Joohyung; Kim, Tae Hyun; Lee, Hyungwoo; Lee, Byung Yang; Park, June; Jhon, Young Min; Seong, Maeng-Je; Hong, Seunghun

2010-02-01

Nanoscale sensors based on single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) networks have been considered impractical due to several fundamental limitations such as a poor sensitivity and small signal-to-noise ratio. Herein, we present a strategy to overcome these fundamental problems and build highly-sensitive low-noise nanoscale sensors simply by controlling the structure of the SWNT networks. In this strategy, we prepared nanoscale width channels based on aligned SWNT networks using a directed assembly strategy. Significantly, the aligned network-based sensors with narrower channels exhibited even better signal-to-noise ratio than those with wider channels, which is opposite to conventional random network-based sensors. As a proof of concept, we demonstrated 100 nm scale low-noise sensors to detect mercury ions with the detection limit of ~1 pM, which is superior to any state-of-the-art portable detection system and is below the allowable limit of mercury ions in drinking water set by most government environmental protection agencies. This is the first demonstration of 100 nm scale low-noise sensors based on SWNT networks. Considering the increased interests in high-density sensor arrays for healthcare and environmental protection, our strategy should have a significant impact on various industrial applications.

100 nm scale low-noise sensors based on aligned carbon nanotube networks: overcoming the fundamental limitation of network-based sensors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Minbaek; Lee, Joohyung; Kim, Tae Hyun; Lee, Hyungwoo; Lee, Byung Yang; Hong, Seunghun [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Shilim-Dong, Kwanak-Gu, Seoul 151-742 (Korea, Republic of); Park, June; Seong, Maeng-Je [Department of Physics, Chung-Ang University, Heukseok-Dong, Dongjak-Gu, Seoul 156-756 (Korea, Republic of); Jhon, Young Min, E-mail: mseong@cau.ac.kr, E-mail: shong@phya.snu.ac.kr [Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Hawolgok-Dong, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul 136-791 (Korea, Republic of)

2010-02-05

Nanoscale sensors based on single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) networks have been considered impractical due to several fundamental limitations such as a poor sensitivity and small signal-to-noise ratio. Herein, we present a strategy to overcome these fundamental problems and build highly-sensitive low-noise nanoscale sensors simply by controlling the structure of the SWNT networks. In this strategy, we prepared nanoscale width channels based on aligned SWNT networks using a directed assembly strategy. Significantly, the aligned network-based sensors with narrower channels exhibited even better signal-to-noise ratio than those with wider channels, which is opposite to conventional random network-based sensors. As a proof of concept, we demonstrated 100 nm scale low-noise sensors to detect mercury ions with the detection limit of {approx}1 pM, which is superior to any state-of-the-art portable detection system and is below the allowable limit of mercury ions in drinking water set by most government environmental protection agencies. This is the first demonstration of 100 nm scale low-noise sensors based on SWNT networks. Considering the increased interests in high-density sensor arrays for healthcare and environmental protection, our strategy should have a significant impact on various industrial applications.

100 nm scale low-noise sensors based on aligned carbon nanotube networks: overcoming the fundamental limitation of network-based sensors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Minbaek; Lee, Joohyung; Kim, Tae Hyun; Lee, Hyungwoo; Lee, Byung Yang; Hong, Seunghun; Park, June; Seong, Maeng-Je; Jhon, Young Min

2010-01-01

Nanoscale sensors based on single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) networks have been considered impractical due to several fundamental limitations such as a poor sensitivity and small signal-to-noise ratio. Herein, we present a strategy to overcome these fundamental problems and build highly-sensitive low-noise nanoscale sensors simply by controlling the structure of the SWNT networks. In this strategy, we prepared nanoscale width channels based on aligned SWNT networks using a directed assembly strategy. Significantly, the aligned network-based sensors with narrower channels exhibited even better signal-to-noise ratio than those with wider channels, which is opposite to conventional random network-based sensors. As a proof of concept, we demonstrated 100 nm scale low-noise sensors to detect mercury ions with the detection limit of ∼1 pM, which is superior to any state-of-the-art portable detection system and is below the allowable limit of mercury ions in drinking water set by most government environmental protection agencies. This is the first demonstration of 100 nm scale low-noise sensors based on SWNT networks. Considering the increased interests in high-density sensor arrays for healthcare and environmental protection, our strategy should have a significant impact on various industrial applications.

Time Alignment as a Necessary Step in the Analysis of Sleep Probabilistic Curves

Science.gov (United States)

Rošt'áková, Zuzana; Rosipal, Roman

2018-02-01

Sleep can be characterised as a dynamic process that has a finite set of sleep stages during the night. The standard Rechtschaffen and Kales sleep model produces discrete representation of sleep and does not take into account its dynamic structure. In contrast, the continuous sleep representation provided by the probabilistic sleep model accounts for the dynamics of the sleep process. However, analysis of the sleep probabilistic curves is problematic when time misalignment is present. In this study, we highlight the necessity of curve synchronisation before further analysis. Original and in time aligned sleep probabilistic curves were transformed into a finite dimensional vector space, and their ability to predict subjects' age or daily measures is evaluated. We conclude that curve alignment significantly improves the prediction of the daily measures, especially in the case of the S2-related sleep states or slow wave sleep.

A Case Study of the Alignment between Curriculum and Assessment in the New York State Earth Science Standards-Based System

Science.gov (United States)

Contino, Julie

2013-01-01

In a standards-based system, it is important for all components of the system to align in order to achieve the intended goals. No Child Left Behind law mandates that assessments be fully aligned with state standards, be valid, reliable and fair, be reported to all stakeholders, and provide evidence that all students in the state are meeting the…

Semantics of agent-based service delegation and alignment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Balsters, H; Huitema, GB; Szirbik, NB; Meersman, R; Tari, Z; Herrero, P; Mendez, G; Cavedon, L; Martin, D; Hinze, A; Buchanan, G; Perez, MS; Robles,; Humble, J; Albani, A; Dietz, JLG; Panetto, H; Scannapieco, M; Halpin, T; Spyns, P; Zaha, JM; Zimanyi, E; Stefanakis, E; Dillon, T; Feng, L; Jarrar, M; Lehmann, J; DeMoor, A; Duval, E; Aroyo, L

2005-01-01

In this paper we concentrate on conceptual modeling and semantics of service delegation and alignment in information systems. In delegation, a source company wishes to hand over parts of its functionality together with related responsibilities to a supplying party. From the side of the outsourcer

Spatial and Temporal Dynamics and Value of Nature-Based Recreation, Estimated via Social Media.

Science.gov (United States)

Sonter, Laura J; Watson, Keri B; Wood, Spencer A; Ricketts, Taylor H

2016-01-01

Conserved lands provide multiple ecosystem services, including opportunities for nature-based recreation. Managing this service requires understanding the landscape attributes underpinning its provision, and how changes in land management affect its contribution to human wellbeing over time. However, evidence from both spatially explicit and temporally dynamic analyses is scarce, often due to data limitations. In this study, we investigated nature-based recreation within conserved lands in Vermont, USA. We used geotagged photographs uploaded to the photo-sharing website Flickr to quantify visits by in-state and out-of-state visitors, and we multiplied visits by mean trip expenditures to show that conserved lands contributed US $1.8 billion (US $0.18-20.2 at 95% confidence) to Vermont's tourism industry between 2007 and 2014. We found eight landscape attributes explained the pattern of visits to conserved lands; visits were higher in larger conserved lands, with less forest cover, greater trail density and more opportunities for snow sports. Some of these attributes differed from those found in other locations, but all aligned with our understanding of recreation in Vermont. We also found that using temporally static models to inform conservation decisions may have perverse outcomes for nature-based recreation. For example, static models suggest conserved land with less forest cover receive more visits, but temporally dynamic models suggest clearing forests decreases, rather than increases, visits to these sites. Our results illustrate the importance of understanding both the spatial and temporal dynamics of ecosystem services for conservation decision-making.

Sagittal alignment after single cervical disc arthroplasty.

Science.gov (United States)

Guérin, Patrick; Obeid, Ibrahim; Gille, Olivier; Bourghli, Anouar; Luc, Stéphane; Pointillart, Vincent; Vital, Jean-Marc

2012-02-01

Prospective study. To analyze the sagittal balance after single-level cervical disc replacement (CDR) and range of motion (ROM). To define clinical and radiologic parameters those have a significant correlation with segmental and overall cervical curvature after CDR. Clinical outcomes and ROM after CDR with Mobi-C (LDR, Troyes, France) prosthesis have been documented in few studies. No earlier report of this prosthesis has studied correlations between static and dynamic parameters or those between static parameters and clinical outcomes. Forty patients were evaluated. Clinical outcome was assessed using the Short Form-36 questionnaire, Neck Disability Index, and a Visual Analog Scale. Spineview software (Surgiview, Paris, France) was used to investigate sagittal balance parameters and ROM. The mean follow-up was 24.3 months (range: 12 to 36 mo). Clinical outcomes were satisfactory. There was a significant improvement of Short Form-36, Neck Disability Index, and Visual Analog Scale scores. Mean ROM was 8.3 degrees preoperatively and 11.0 degrees postoperatively (P=0.013). Mean preoperative C2C7 curvature was 12.8 and 16.0 degrees at last follow-up (P=0.001). Mean preoperative functional spinal unit (FSU) angle was 2.3 and 5.3 degrees postoperatively (P<0.0001). Mean postoperative shell angle was 5.5 degrees. There was a significant correlation between postoperative C2C7 alignment and preoperative C2C7 alignment, change of C2C7 alignment, preoperative and postoperative FSU angle, and prosthesis shell angle. There was also a significant correlation between postoperative FSU angle and preoperative C2C7 alignment, preoperative FSU angle, change of FSU angle, and prosthesis shell angle. Regression analysis showed that prosthesis shell angle and preoperative FSU angle contributed significantly to postoperative FSU angle. Moreover, preoperative C2C7 alignment, preoperative FSU angle, postoperative FSU angle, and prosthesis shell angle contributed significantly to

Stakeholder Alignment and Changing Geospatial Information Capabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Winter, S.; Cutcher-Gershenfeld, J.; King, J. L.

2015-12-01

Changing geospatial information capabilities can have major economic and social effects on activities such as drought monitoring, weather forecasts, agricultural productivity projections, water and air quality assessments, the effects of forestry practices and so on. Whose interests are served by such changes? Two common mistakes are assuming stability in the community of stakeholders and consistency in stakeholder behavior. Stakeholder communities can reconfigure dramatically as some leave the discussion, others enter, and circumstances shift — all resulting in dynamic points of alignment and misalignment . New stakeholders can bring new interests, and existing stakeholders can change their positions. Stakeholders and their interests need to be be considered as geospatial information capabilities change, but this is easier said than done. New ways of thinking about stakeholder alignment in light of changes in capability are presented.

High-resolution accelerator alignment using x-ray optics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bingxin Yang

2006-03-01

Full Text Available We propose a novel alignment technique utilizing the x-ray beam of an undulator in conjunction with pinholes and position-sensitive detectors for positioning components of the accelerator, undulator, and beam line in an x-ray free-electron laser. Two retractable pinholes at each end of the undulator define a stable and reproducible x-ray beam axis (XBA. Targets are precisely positioned on the XBA using a pinhole camera technique. Position-sensitive detectors responding to both x-ray and electron beams enable direct transfer of the position setting from the XBA to the electron beam. This system has the potential to deliver superior alignment accuracy (1–3   μm for target pinholes in the transverse directions over a long distance (200 m or longer. It can be used to define the beam axis of the electron-beam–based alignment, enabling high reproducibility of the latter. This x-ray–based concept should complement the electron-beam–based alignment and the existing survey methods to raise the alignment accuracy of long accelerators to an unprecedented level. Further improvement of the transverse accuracy using x-ray zone plates will be discussed. We also propose a concurrent measurement scheme during accelerator operation to allow real-time feedback for transverse position correction.

A statistically harmonized alignment-classification in image space enables accurate and robust alignment of noisy images in single particle analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kawata, Masaaki; Sato, Chikara

2007-06-01

In determining the three-dimensional (3D) structure of macromolecular assemblies in single particle analysis, a large representative dataset of two-dimensional (2D) average images from huge number of raw images is a key for high resolution. Because alignments prior to averaging are computationally intensive, currently available multireference alignment (MRA) software does not survey every possible alignment. This leads to misaligned images, creating blurred averages and reducing the quality of the final 3D reconstruction. We present a new method, in which multireference alignment is harmonized with classification (multireference multiple alignment: MRMA). This method enables a statistical comparison of multiple alignment peaks, reflecting the similarities between each raw image and a set of reference images. Among the selected alignment candidates for each raw image, misaligned images are statistically excluded, based on the principle that aligned raw images of similar projections have a dense distribution around the correctly aligned coordinates in image space. This newly developed method was examined for accuracy and speed using model image sets with various signal-to-noise ratios, and with electron microscope images of the Transient Receptor Potential C3 and the sodium channel. In every data set, the newly developed method outperformed conventional methods in robustness against noise and in speed, creating 2D average images of higher quality. This statistically harmonized alignment-classification combination should greatly improve the quality of single particle analysis.

Highly efficient growth of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes on Fe-Ni based metal alloy foils for supercapacitors

Science.gov (United States)

Amalina Raja Seman, Raja Noor; Asyadi Azam, Mohd; Ambri Mohamed, Mohd

2016-12-01

Supercapacitors are highly promising energy devices with superior charge storage performance and a long lifecycle. Construction of the supercapacitor cell, especially electrode fabrication, is critical to ensure good performance in applications. This work demonstrates direct growth of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on Fe-Ni based metal alloy foils, namely SUS 310S, Inconel 600 and YEF 50, and their use in symmetric vertically aligned CNT supercapacitor electrodes. Alumina and cobalt thin film catalysts were deposited onto the foils, and then CNT growth was performed using alcohol catalytic chemical vapour deposition. By this method, vertically aligned CNTs were successfully grown and used directly as a binder-free supercapacitor electrode to deliver excellent electrochemical performance. The device showed relatively good specific capacitance, a superior rate capability and excellent cycle stability, maintaining about 96% capacitance up to 1000 cycles.

Evaluation of GMI and PMI diffeomorphic-based demons algorithms for aligning PET and CT Images.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Juan; Wang, Hongjun; Zhang, You; Yin, Yong

2015-07-08

Fusion of anatomic information in computed tomography (CT) and functional information in 18F-FDG positron emission tomography (PET) is crucial for accurate differentiation of tumor from benign masses, designing radiotherapy treatment plan and staging of cancer. Although current PET and CT images can be acquired from combined 18F-FDG PET/CT scanner, the two acquisitions are scanned separately and take a long time, which may induce potential positional errors in global and local caused by respiratory motion or organ peristalsis. So registration (alignment) of whole-body PET and CT images is a prerequisite for their meaningful fusion. The purpose of this study was to assess the performance of two multimodal registration algorithms for aligning PET and CT images. The proposed gradient of mutual information (GMI)-based demons algorithm, which incorporated the GMI between two images as an external force to facilitate the alignment, was compared with the point-wise mutual information (PMI) diffeomorphic-based demons algorithm whose external force was modified by replacing the image intensity difference in diffeomorphic demons algorithm with the PMI to make it appropriate for multimodal image registration. Eight patients with esophageal cancer(s) were enrolled in this IRB-approved study. Whole-body PET and CT images were acquired from a combined 18F-FDG PET/CT scanner for each patient. The modified Hausdorff distance (d(MH)) was used to evaluate the registration accuracy of the two algorithms. Of all patients, the mean values and standard deviations (SDs) of d(MH) were 6.65 (± 1.90) voxels and 6.01 (± 1.90) after the GMI-based demons and the PMI diffeomorphic-based demons registration algorithms respectively. Preliminary results on oncological patients showed that the respiratory motion and organ peristalsis in PET/CT esophageal images could not be neglected, although a combined 18F-FDG PET/CT scanner was used for image acquisition. The PMI diffeomorphic-based demons

XUV ionization of aligned molecules

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kelkensberg, F.; Siu, W.; Gademann, G. [FOM Institute AMOLF, Science Park 104, NL-1098 XG Amsterdam (Netherlands); Rouzee, A.; Vrakking, M. J. J. [FOM Institute AMOLF, Science Park 104, NL-1098 XG Amsterdam (Netherlands); Max-Born-Institut, Max-Born Strasse 2A, D-12489 Berlin (Germany); Johnsson, P. [FOM Institute AMOLF, Science Park 104, NL-1098 XG Amsterdam (Netherlands); Department of Physics, Lund University, Post Office Box 118, SE-221 00 Lund (Sweden); Lucchini, M. [Department of Physics, Politecnico di Milano, Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie CNR-IFN, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano (Italy); Lucchese, R. R. [Department of Chemistry, Texas A and M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3255 (United States)

2011-11-15

New extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) light sources such as high-order-harmonic generation (HHG) and free-electron lasers (FELs), combined with laser-induced alignment techniques, enable novel methods for making molecular movies based on measuring molecular frame photoelectron angular distributions. Experiments are presented where CO{sub 2} molecules were impulsively aligned using a near-infrared laser and ionized using femtosecond XUV pulses obtained by HHG. Measured electron angular distributions reveal contributions from four orbitals and the onset of the influence of the molecular structure.

XUV ionization of aligned molecules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelkensberg, F.; Siu, W.; Gademann, G.; Rouzee, A.; Vrakking, M. J. J.; Johnsson, P.; Lucchini, M.; Lucchese, R. R.

2011-01-01

New extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) light sources such as high-order-harmonic generation (HHG) and free-electron lasers (FELs), combined with laser-induced alignment techniques, enable novel methods for making molecular movies based on measuring molecular frame photoelectron angular distributions. Experiments are presented where CO 2 molecules were impulsively aligned using a near-infrared laser and ionized using femtosecond XUV pulses obtained by HHG. Measured electron angular distributions reveal contributions from four orbitals and the onset of the influence of the molecular structure.

A comprehensive evaluation of alignment algorithms in the context of RNA-seq.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert Lindner

Full Text Available Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq overcomes limitations of previously used RNA quantification methods and provides one experimental framework for both high-throughput characterization and quantification of transcripts at the nucleotide level. The first step and a major challenge in the analysis of such experiments is the mapping of sequencing reads to a transcriptomic origin including the identification of splicing events. In recent years, a large number of such mapping algorithms have been developed, all of which have in common that they require algorithms for aligning a vast number of reads to genomic or transcriptomic sequences. Although the FM-index based aligner Bowtie has become a de facto standard within mapping pipelines, a much larger number of possible alignment algorithms have been developed also including other variants of FM-index based aligners. Accordingly, developers and users of RNA-seq mapping pipelines have the choice among a large number of available alignment algorithms. To provide guidance in the choice of alignment algorithms for these purposes, we evaluated the performance of 14 widely used alignment programs from three different algorithmic classes: algorithms using either hashing of the reference transcriptome, hashing of reads, or a compressed FM-index representation of the genome. Here, special emphasis was placed on both precision and recall and the performance for different read lengths and numbers of mismatches and indels in a read. Our results clearly showed the significant reduction in memory footprint and runtime provided by FM-index based aligners at a precision and recall comparable to the best hash table based aligners. Furthermore, the recently developed Bowtie 2 alignment algorithm shows a remarkable tolerance to both sequencing errors and indels, thus, essentially making hash-based aligners obsolete.

Real-time driver fatigue detection based on face alignment

Science.gov (United States)

Tao, Huanhuan; Zhang, Guiying; Zhao, Yong; Zhou, Yi

2017-07-01

The performance and robustness of fatigue detection largely decrease if the driver with glasses. To address this issue, this paper proposes a practical driver fatigue detection method based on face alignment at 3000 FPS algorithm. Firstly, the eye regions of the driver are localized by exploiting 6 landmarks surrounding each eye. Secondly, the HOG features of the extracted eye regions are calculated and put into SVM classifier to recognize the eye state. Finally, the value of PERCLOS is calculated to determine whether the driver is drowsy or not. An alarm will be generated if the eye is closed for a specified period of time. The accuracy and real-time on testing videos with different drivers demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is robust and obtain better accuracy for driver fatigue detection compared with some previous method.

Effects of Matrix Alignment and Mechanical Constraints on Cellular Behavior in 3D Engineered Microtissues

Science.gov (United States)

Bose, Prasenjit; Eyckmans, Jeroen; Chen, Christopher; Reich, Daniel

The adhesion of cells to the extracellular matrix (ECM) plays a crucial role in a variety of cellular functions. The main building blocks of the ECM are 3D networks of fibrous proteins whose structure and alignments varies with tissue type. However, the impact of ECM alignment on cellular behaviors such as cell adhesion, spreading, extension and mechanics remains poorly understood. We present results on the development of a microtissue-based system that enables control of the structure, orientation, and degree of fibrillar alignment in 3D fibroblast-populated collagen gels. The tissues self-assemble from cell-laden collagen gels placed in micro-fabricated wells containing sets of elastic pillars. The contractile action of the cells leads to controlled alignment of the fibrous collagen, depending on the number and location of the pillars in each well. The pillars are elastic, and are utilized to measure the contractile forces of the microtissues, and by incorporating magnetic material in selected pillars, time-varying forces can be applied to the tissues for dynamic stimulation and measurement of mechanical properties. Results on the effects of varying pillar shape, spacing, location, and stiffness on microtissue organization and contractility will be presented. This work is supported by NSF CMMI-1463011.

Biologically inspired EM image alignment and neural reconstruction.

Science.gov (United States)

Knowles-Barley, Seymour; Butcher, Nancy J; Meinertzhagen, Ian A; Armstrong, J Douglas

2011-08-15

Three-dimensional reconstruction of consecutive serial-section transmission electron microscopy (ssTEM) images of neural tissue currently requires many hours of manual tracing and annotation. Several computational techniques have already been applied to ssTEM images to facilitate 3D reconstruction and ease this burden. Here, we present an alternative computational approach for ssTEM image analysis. We have used biologically inspired receptive fields as a basis for a ridge detection algorithm to identify cell membranes, synaptic contacts and mitochondria. Detected line segments are used to improve alignment between consecutive images and we have joined small segments of membrane into cell surfaces using a dynamic programming algorithm similar to the Needleman-Wunsch and Smith-Waterman DNA sequence alignment procedures. A shortest path-based approach has been used to close edges and achieve image segmentation. Partial reconstructions were automatically generated and used as a basis for semi-automatic reconstruction of neural tissue. The accuracy of partial reconstructions was evaluated and 96% of membrane could be identified at the cost of 13% false positive detections. An open-source reference implementation is available in the Supplementary information. seymour.kb@ed.ac.uk; douglas.armstrong@ed.ac.uk Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Market Reform, Programmatic (DeAlignment and Party System Stability in Latin America

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kenneth M. ROBERTS

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Although democratic regimes in Latin America since the early 1980s have been surprisingly durable, party systems in much of the region continue to experience very high levels of electoral instability. A critical juncture approach to institutional change suggests that variation in party system stability is related to the impact of market liberalization in the 1980s and 90s on the programmatic alignment –or (dealignment– of partisan competition. Market reforms that were adopted by conservative leaders and opposed by a major leftist rival aligned party systems programmatically, allowing societal opposition to be channeled into institutionalized forms of competition that were highly stable in the post-adjustment era. By contrast, «bait-and-switch» reforms adopted by populist or leftist leaders were programmatically de-aligning for party systems, leaving them vulnerable to highly destabilizing reactive sequences in the aftermath to the reform process-including mass social protests, the demise of historic conservative parties, and the outflanking of traditional populist or leftist parties by more radical, anti-neoliberal outsiders. The political dynamics of market-based economic adjustment thus heavily conditioned the ways in which party systems would process the post-adjustment revival of populist and leftist alternatives in the region.

Research on localization and alignment technology for transfer cask

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Jingchuan, E-mail: jchwang@sjtu.edu.cn [Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai (China); Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China, Shanghai (China); Yang, Ming; Chen, Weidong [Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai (China); Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China, Shanghai (China)

2015-10-15

Highlights: • A method for the alignment between TB and HCB based on localizability is proposed. • A localization method based on the localizability estimation is proposed to realize the cask's localization accurately and ensures the transfer cask's accurate docking in the front of the window of Tokmak Building. • The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm works well in the indoor simulation environment. This system will be test in EAST of China. - Abstract: According to the long length characteristics of transfer cask compared to the environment space between Tokmak Building (TB) and HCB (Hot Cell Building), this paper proposes an autonomous localization and alignment method for the internal components transportation and replacement. A localization method based on the localizability estimation is used to realize the cask's localization and navigation accurately. Once the cask arrives at the front of the TB window, the position and attitude measurement system is used to detect the relative alignment error between the seal door of pallet and the window of TB real-time. The alignment between seal door and TB window could be realized based on this offset. The simulation experiment based on the real model is designed according to the real TB situation. The experiment results show that the proposed localization and alignment method can be used for transfer cask.

Impulsive Laser Induced Alignment of Molecules Dissolved in Helium Nanodroplets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pentlehner, Dominik; H. Nielsen, Jens; Slenczka, Alkwin

2013-01-01

We show that a 450 fs nonresonant, moderately intense, linearly polarized laser pulse can induce field-free molecular axis alignment of methyliodide (CH3I) molecules dissolved in a helium nanodroplet. Time-resolved measurements reveal rotational dynamics much slower than that of isolated molecules...

Use artificial neural network to align biological ontologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jingshan; Dang, Jiangbo; Huhns, Michael N; Zheng, W Jim

2008-09-16

Being formal, declarative knowledge representation models, ontologies help to address the problem of imprecise terminologies in biological and biomedical research. However, ontologies constructed under the auspices of the Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) group have exhibited a great deal of variety, because different parties can design ontologies according to their own conceptual views of the world. It is therefore becoming critical to align ontologies from different parties. During automated/semi-automated alignment across biological ontologies, different semantic aspects, i.e., concept name, concept properties, and concept relationships, contribute in different degrees to alignment results. Therefore, a vector of weights must be assigned to these semantic aspects. It is not trivial to determine what those weights should be, and current methodologies depend a lot on human heuristics. In this paper, we take an artificial neural network approach to learn and adjust these weights, and thereby support a new ontology alignment algorithm, customized for biological ontologies, with the purpose of avoiding some disadvantages in both rule-based and learning-based aligning algorithms. This approach has been evaluated by aligning two real-world biological ontologies, whose features include huge file size, very few instances, concept names in numerical strings, and others. The promising experiment results verify our proposed hypothesis, i.e., three weights for semantic aspects learned from a subset of concepts are representative of all concepts in the same ontology. Therefore, our method represents a large leap forward towards automating biological ontology alignment.

Application of a clustering-based peak alignment algorithm to analyze various DNA fingerprinting data.

Science.gov (United States)

Ishii, Satoshi; Kadota, Koji; Senoo, Keishi

2009-09-01

DNA fingerprinting analysis such as amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA), repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR (rep-PCR), ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (RISA), and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) are frequently used in various fields of microbiology. The major difficulty in DNA fingerprinting data analysis is the alignment of multiple peak sets. We report here an R program for a clustering-based peak alignment algorithm, and its application to analyze various DNA fingerprinting data, such as ARDRA, rep-PCR, RISA, and DGGE data. The results obtained by our clustering algorithm and by BioNumerics software showed high similarity. Since several R packages have been established to statistically analyze various biological data, the distance matrix obtained by our R program can be used for subsequent statistical analyses, some of which were not previously performed but are useful in DNA fingerprinting studies.

IMU-to-Segment Assignment and Orientation Alignment for the Lower Body Using Deep Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Zimmermann, Tobias; Taetz, Bertram; Bleser, Gabriele

2018-01-19

Human body motion analysis based on wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) receives a lot of attention from both the research community and the and industrial community. This is due to the significant role in, for instance, mobile health systems, sports and human computer interaction. In sensor based activity recognition, one of the major issues for obtaining reliable results is the sensor placement/assignment on the body. For inertial motion capture (joint kinematics estimation) and analysis, the IMU-to-segment (I2S) assignment and alignment are central issues to obtain biomechanical joint angles. Existing approaches for I2S assignment usually rely on hand crafted features and shallow classification approaches (e.g., support vector machines), with no agreement regarding the most suitable features for the assignment task. Moreover, estimating the complete orientation alignment of an IMU relative to the segment it is attached to using a machine learning approach has not been shown in literature so far. This is likely due to the high amount of training data that have to be recorded to suitably represent possible IMU alignment variations. In this work, we propose online approaches for solving the assignment and alignment tasks for an arbitrary amount of IMUs with respect to a biomechanical lower body model using a deep learning architecture and windows of 128 gyroscope and accelerometer data samples. For this, we combine convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for local filter learning with long-short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent networks as well as generalized recurrent units (GRUs) for learning time dynamic features. The assignment task is casted as a classification problem, while the alignment task is casted as a regression problem. In this framework, we demonstrate the feasibility of augmenting a limited amount of real IMU training data with simulated alignment variations and IMU data for improving the recognition/estimation accuracies. With the proposed

IMU-to-Segment Assignment and Orientation Alignment for the Lower Body Using Deep Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tobias Zimmermann

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Human body motion analysis based on wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs receives a lot of attention from both the research community and the and industrial community. This is due to the significant role in, for instance, mobile health systems, sports and human computer interaction. In sensor based activity recognition, one of the major issues for obtaining reliable results is the sensor placement/assignment on the body. For inertial motion capture (joint kinematics estimation and analysis, the IMU-to-segment (I2S assignment and alignment are central issues to obtain biomechanical joint angles. Existing approaches for I2S assignment usually rely on hand crafted features and shallow classification approaches (e.g., support vector machines, with no agreement regarding the most suitable features for the assignment task. Moreover, estimating the complete orientation alignment of an IMU relative to the segment it is attached to using a machine learning approach has not been shown in literature so far. This is likely due to the high amount of training data that have to be recorded to suitably represent possible IMU alignment variations. In this work, we propose online approaches for solving the assignment and alignment tasks for an arbitrary amount of IMUs with respect to a biomechanical lower body model using a deep learning architecture and windows of 128 gyroscope and accelerometer data samples. For this, we combine convolutional neural networks (CNNs for local filter learning with long-short-term memory (LSTM recurrent networks as well as generalized recurrent units (GRUs for learning time dynamic features. The assignment task is casted as a classification problem, while the alignment task is casted as a regression problem. In this framework, we demonstrate the feasibility of augmenting a limited amount of real IMU training data with simulated alignment variations and IMU data for improving the recognition/estimation accuracies. With the

Codebook-based interference alignment for uplink MIMO interference channels

KAUST Repository

Lee, Hyun Ho

2014-02-01

In this paper, we propose a codebook-based interference alignment (IA) scheme in the constant multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) interference channel especially for the uplink scenario. In our proposed scheme, we assume cooperation among base stations (BSs) through reliable backhaul links so that global channel knowledge is available for all BSs, which enables BS to compute the transmit precoder and inform its quantized index to the associated user via limited rate feedback link.We present an upper bound on the rate loss of the proposed scheme and derive the scaling law of the feedback load tomaintain a constant rate loss relative to IA with perfect channel knowledge. Considering the impact of overhead due to training, cooperation, and feedback, we address the effective degrees of freedom (DOF) of the proposed scheme and derive the maximization of the effective DOF. From simulation results, we verify our analysis on the scaling law to preserve the multiplexing gain and confirm that the proposed scheme is more effective than the conventional IA scheme in terms of the effective DOF. © 2014 KICS.

Alignment-free Transcriptomic and Metatranscriptomic Comparison Using Sequencing Signatures with Variable Length Markov Chains.

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Weinan; Ren, Jie; Wang, Kun; Wang, Shun; Zeng, Feng; Wang, Ying; Sun, Fengzhu

2016-11-23

The comparison between microbial sequencing data is critical to understand the dynamics of microbial communities. The alignment-based tools analyzing metagenomic datasets require reference sequences and read alignments. The available alignment-free dissimilarity approaches model the background sequences with Fixed Order Markov Chain (FOMC) yielding promising results for the comparison of microbial communities. However, in FOMC, the number of parameters grows exponentially with the increase of the order of Markov Chain (MC). Under a fixed high order of MC, the parameters might not be accurately estimated owing to the limitation of sequencing depth. In our study, we investigate an alternative to FOMC to model background sequences with the data-driven Variable Length Markov Chain (VLMC) in metatranscriptomic data. The VLMC originally designed for long sequences was extended to apply to high-throughput sequencing reads and the strategies to estimate the corresponding parameters were developed. The flexible number of parameters in VLMC avoids estimating the vast number of parameters of high-order MC under limited sequencing depth. Different from the manual selection in FOMC, VLMC determines the MC order adaptively. Several beta diversity measures based on VLMC were applied to compare the bacterial RNA-Seq and metatranscriptomic datasets. Experiments show that VLMC outperforms FOMC to model the background sequences in transcriptomic and metatranscriptomic samples. A software pipeline is available at https://d2vlmc.codeplex.com.

Improving scanner wafer alignment performance by target optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Leray, Philippe; Jehoul, Christiane; Socha, Robert; Menchtchikov, Boris; Raghunathan, Sudhar; Kent, Eric; Schoonewelle, Hielke; Tinnemans, Patrick; Tuffy, Paul; Belen, Jun; Wise, Rich

2016-03-01

In the process nodes of 10nm and below, the patterning complexity along with the processing and materials required has resulted in a need to optimize alignment targets in order to achieve the required precision, accuracy and throughput performance. Recent industry publications on the metrology target optimization process have shown a move from the expensive and time consuming empirical methodologies, towards a faster computational approach. ASML's Design for Control (D4C) application, which is currently used to optimize YieldStar diffraction based overlay (DBO) metrology targets, has been extended to support the optimization of scanner wafer alignment targets. This allows the necessary process information and design methodology, used for DBO target designs, to be leveraged for the optimization of alignment targets. In this paper, we show how we applied this computational approach to wafer alignment target design. We verify the correlation between predictions and measurements for the key alignment performance metrics and finally show the potential alignment and overlay performance improvements that an optimized alignment target could achieve.

GateKeeper: a new hardware architecture for accelerating pre-alignment in DNA short read mapping.

Science.gov (United States)

Alser, Mohammed; Hassan, Hasan; Xin, Hongyi; Ergin, Oguz; Mutlu, Onur; Alkan, Can

2017-11-01

High throughput DNA sequencing (HTS) technologies generate an excessive number of small DNA segments -called short reads- that cause significant computational burden. To analyze the entire genome, each of the billions of short reads must be mapped to a reference genome based on the similarity between a read and 'candidate' locations in that reference genome. The similarity measurement, called alignment, formulated as an approximate string matching problem, is the computational bottleneck because: (i) it is implemented using quadratic-time dynamic programming algorithms and (ii) the majority of candidate locations in the reference genome do not align with a given read due to high dissimilarity. Calculating the alignment of such incorrect candidate locations consumes an overwhelming majority of a modern read mapper's execution time. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a fast and effective filter that can detect incorrect candidate locations and eliminate them before invoking computationally costly alignment algorithms. We propose GateKeeper, a new hardware accelerator that functions as a pre-alignment step that quickly filters out most incorrect candidate locations. GateKeeper is the first design to accelerate pre-alignment using Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), which can perform pre-alignment much faster than software. When implemented on a single FPGA chip, GateKeeper maintains high accuracy (on average >96%) while providing, on average, 90-fold and 130-fold speedup over the state-of-the-art software pre-alignment techniques, Adjacency Filter and Shifted Hamming Distance (SHD), respectively. The addition of GateKeeper as a pre-alignment step can reduce the verification time of the mrFAST mapper by a factor of 10. https://github.com/BilkentCompGen/GateKeeper. mohammedalser@bilkent.edu.tr or onur.mutlu@inf.ethz.ch or calkan@cs.bilkent.edu.tr. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press

IVisTMSA: Interactive Visual Tools for Multiple Sequence Alignments.

Science.gov (United States)

Pervez, Muhammad Tariq; Babar, Masroor Ellahi; Nadeem, Asif; Aslam, Naeem; Naveed, Nasir; Ahmad, Sarfraz; Muhammad, Shah; Qadri, Salman; Shahid, Muhammad; Hussain, Tanveer; Javed, Maryam

2015-01-01

IVisTMSA is a software package of seven graphical tools for multiple sequence alignments. MSApad is an editing and analysis tool. It can load 409% more data than Jalview, STRAP, CINEMA, and Base-by-Base. MSA comparator allows the user to visualize consistent and inconsistent regions of reference and test alignments of more than 21-MB size in less than 12 seconds. MSA comparator is 5,200% efficient and more than 40% efficient as compared to BALiBASE c program and FastSP, respectively. MSA reconstruction tool provides graphical user interfaces for four popular aligners and allows the user to load several sequence files at a time. FASTA generator converts seven formats of alignments of unlimited size into FASTA format in a few seconds. MSA ID calculator calculates identity matrix of more than 11,000 sequences with a sequence length of 2,696 base pairs in less than 100 seconds. Tree and Distance Matrix calculation tools generate phylogenetic tree and distance matrix, respectively, using neighbor joining% identity and BLOSUM 62 matrix.

ALIGNING THE BRAND IDENTITY AND BRAND IMAGE AFTER REBRANDING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cătălin Mihail BARBU

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The brand identity and brand image are two concepts used extensively in positioning. Many brands underwent a rebranding process attempting to improve their positioning. The rebranding process can bring minor changes or substantial changes. Following the substantial changes, there can appear a mismatch between the desired identity and brand image. Brand image is persistent and it takes time to change it. This paper explores the challenges involved by the calibration of the identity and of the image in the process of rebranding. The alignment process is a dynamic one, an interactive and not a normative one. The results of this study highlight the elements that support the brand identity and image alignment: marketing communication, product characteristics and internal brand strength. On the other side, the efforts to align the brand identity and brand image are negatively affected by the attitudes of the consumers and their past experience with the brand.

CHSalign: A Web Server That Builds upon Junction-Explorer and RNAJAG for Pairwise Alignment of RNA Secondary Structures with Coaxial Helical Stacking.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lei Hua

Full Text Available RNA junctions are important structural elements of RNA molecules. They are formed when three or more helices come together in three-dimensional space. Recent studies have focused on the annotation and prediction of coaxial helical stacking (CHS motifs within junctions. Here we exploit such predictions to develop an efficient alignment tool to handle RNA secondary structures with CHS motifs. Specifically, we build upon our Junction-Explorer software for predicting coaxial stacking and RNAJAG for modelling junction topologies as tree graphs to incorporate constrained tree matching and dynamic programming algorithms into a new method, called CHSalign, for aligning the secondary structures of RNA molecules containing CHS motifs. Thus, CHSalign is intended to be an efficient alignment tool for RNAs containing similar junctions. Experimental results based on thousands of alignments demonstrate that CHSalign can align two RNA secondary structures containing CHS motifs more accurately than other RNA secondary structure alignment tools. CHSalign yields a high score when aligning two RNA secondary structures with similar CHS motifs or helical arrangement patterns, and a low score otherwise. This new method has been implemented in a web server, and the program is also made freely available, at http://bioinformatics.njit.edu/CHSalign/.

RNA structure alignment by a unit-vector approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Capriotti, Emidio; Marti-Renom, Marc A

2008-08-15

The recent discovery of tiny RNA molecules such as microRNAs and small interfering RNA are transforming the view of RNA as a simple information transfer molecule. Similar to proteins, the native three-dimensional structure of RNA determines its biological activity. Therefore, classifying the current structural space is paramount for functionally annotating RNA molecules. The increasing numbers of RNA structures deposited in the PDB requires more accurate, automatic and benchmarked methods for RNA structure comparison. In this article, we introduce a new algorithm for RNA structure alignment based on a unit-vector approach. The algorithm has been implemented in the SARA program, which results in RNA structure pairwise alignments and their statistical significance. The SARA program has been implemented to be of general applicability even when no secondary structure can be calculated from the RNA structures. A benchmark against the ARTS program using a set of 1275 non-redundant pairwise structure alignments results in inverted approximately 6% extra alignments with at least 50% structurally superposed nucleotides and base pairs. A first attempt to perform RNA automatic functional annotation based on structure alignments indicates that SARA can correctly assign the deepest SCOR classification to >60% of the query structures. The SARA program is freely available through a World Wide Web server http://sgu.bioinfo.cipf.es/services/SARA/. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Enzyme activity assays within microstructured optical fibers enabled by automated alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Warren-Smith, Stephen C; Nie, Guiying; Schartner, Erik P; Salamonsen, Lois A; Monro, Tanya M

2012-12-01

A fluorescence-based enzyme activity assay has been demonstrated within a small-core microstructured optical fiber (MOF) for the first time. To achieve this, a reflection-based automated alignment system has been developed, which uses feedback and piezoelectric actuators to maintain optical alignment. The auto-alignment system provides optical stability for the time required to perform an activity assay. The chosen assay is based on the enzyme proprotein convertase 5/6 (PC6) and has important applications in women's health.

Beam based alignment of the SLC final focus sextupoles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Emma, P.; Irwin, J.; Phinney, N.; Raimondi, P.; Toge, N.; Walker, N.J.; Ziemann, V.

1993-05-01

The strong demagnification inherent in final focus systems requires local cancellation of the resulting chromaticty. Strong sextupole pair separated by a -I transform are positioned π/2 in the betatron phase away from the Interaction Point (IP) in order to cancel chromatic aberrations primarily due to the final quadrupoles. Sextupole alignment is critical in order to provide orthogonal tuning of the chromaticty and, in the case of the SLC, to limit the third and higher order optical aberrations generated from misaligned and 'nested' horizontal and vertical sextupole pairs. Reported here is a novel technique for aligning the beam centroid to the sextupole centers, which uses measurements of the criticality dependent parameter - the beam size at the IP. Results for the SLC final focus sextupoles are presented, where a resolution of <50 μm is achieved

Automatic multimodal real-time tracking for image plane alignment in interventional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neumann, Markus

2014-01-01

Interventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) aims at performing minimally invasive percutaneous interventions, such as tumor ablations and biopsies, under MRI guidance. During such interventions, the acquired MR image planes are typically aligned to the surgical instrument (needle) axis and to surrounding anatomical structures of interest in order to efficiently monitor the advancement in real-time of the instrument inside the patient's body. Object tracking inside the MRI is expected to facilitate and accelerate MR-guided interventions by allowing to automatically align the image planes to the surgical instrument. In this PhD thesis, an image-based work-flow is proposed and refined for automatic image plane alignment. An automatic tracking work-flow was developed, performing detection and tracking of a passive marker directly in clinical real-time images. This tracking work-flow is designed for fully automated image plane alignment, with minimization of tracking-dedicated time. Its main drawback is its inherent dependence on the slow clinical MRI update rate. First, the addition of motion estimation and prediction with a Kalman filter was investigated and improved the work-flow tracking performance. Second, a complementary optical sensor was used for multi-sensor tracking in order to decouple the tracking update rate from the MR image acquisition rate. Performance of the work-flow was evaluated with both computer simulations and experiments using an MR compatible test bed. Results show a high robustness of the multi-sensor tracking approach for dynamic image plane alignment, due to the combination of the individual strengths of each sensor. (author)

Image correlation method for DNA sequence alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Curilem Saldías, Millaray; Villarroel Sassarini, Felipe; Muñoz Poblete, Carlos; Vargas Vásquez, Asticio; Maureira Butler, Iván

2012-01-01

The complexity of searches and the volume of genomic data make sequence alignment one of bioinformatics most active research areas. New alignment approaches have incorporated digital signal processing techniques. Among these, correlation methods are highly sensitive. This paper proposes a novel sequence alignment method based on 2-dimensional images, where each nucleic acid base is represented as a fixed gray intensity pixel. Query and known database sequences are coded to their pixel representation and sequence alignment is handled as object recognition in a scene problem. Query and database become object and scene, respectively. An image correlation process is carried out in order to search for the best match between them. Given that this procedure can be implemented in an optical correlator, the correlation could eventually be accomplished at light speed. This paper shows an initial research stage where results were "digitally" obtained by simulating an optical correlation of DNA sequences represented as images. A total of 303 queries (variable lengths from 50 to 4500 base pairs) and 100 scenes represented by 100 x 100 images each (in total, one million base pair database) were considered for the image correlation analysis. The results showed that correlations reached very high sensitivity (99.01%), specificity (98.99%) and outperformed BLAST when mutation numbers increased. However, digital correlation processes were hundred times slower than BLAST. We are currently starting an initiative to evaluate the correlation speed process of a real experimental optical correlator. By doing this, we expect to fully exploit optical correlation light properties. As the optical correlator works jointly with the computer, digital algorithms should also be optimized. The results presented in this paper are encouraging and support the study of image correlation methods on sequence alignment.

Automated whole-genome multiple alignment of rat, mouse, and human

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brudno, Michael; Poliakov, Alexander; Salamov, Asaf; Cooper, Gregory M.; Sidow, Arend; Rubin, Edward M.; Solovyev, Victor; Batzoglou, Serafim; Dubchak, Inna

2004-07-04

We have built a whole genome multiple alignment of the three currently available mammalian genomes using a fully automated pipeline which combines the local/global approach of the Berkeley Genome Pipeline and the LAGAN program. The strategy is based on progressive alignment, and consists of two main steps: (1) alignment of the mouse and rat genomes; and (2) alignment of human to either the mouse-rat alignments from step 1, or the remaining unaligned mouse and rat sequences. The resulting alignments demonstrate high sensitivity, with 87% of all human gene-coding areas aligned in both mouse and rat. The specificity is also high: <7% of the rat contigs are aligned to multiple places in human and 97% of all alignments with human sequence > 100kb agree with a three-way synteny map built independently using predicted exons in the three genomes. At the nucleotide level <1% of the rat nucleotides are mapped to multiple places in the human sequence in the alignment; and 96.5% of human nucleotides within all alignments agree with the synteny map. The alignments are publicly available online, with visualization through the novel Multi-VISTA browser that we also present.

A MEMORY EFFICIENT HARDWARE BASED PATTERN MATCHING AND PROTEIN ALIGNMENT SCHEMES FOR HIGHLY COMPLEX DATABASES

OpenAIRE

Bennet, M.Anto; Sankaranarayanan, S.; Deepika, M.; Nanthini, N.; Bhuvaneshwari, S.; Priyanka, M.

2017-01-01

Protein sequence alignment to find correlation between different species, or genetic mutations etc. is the most computational intensive task when performing protein comparison. To speed-up the alignment, Systolic Arrays (SAs) have been used. In order to avoid the internal-loop problem which reduces the performance, pipeline interleaving strategy has been presented. This strategy is applied to an SA for Smith Waterman (SW) algorithm which is an alignment algorithm to locally align two proteins...

Polar transfer alignment of shipborne SINS with a large misalignment angle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheng, Jianhua; Wang, Tongda; Guan, Dongxue; Li, Meiling

2016-01-01

Existing polar transfer alignment (TA) algorithms are designed based on linear Kalman filters (KF) to estimate misalignment angles. In the case of a large misalignment angle, these algorithms cannot be applied in order to achieve accurate TA. In this paper, a TA algorithm based on an unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is proposed to solve the problem of the large misalignment angle in the polar region. Based on a large misalignment angle, nonlinear navigation error equations, which are the UKF dynamic models, are derived under grid frames. This paper chooses the velocity plus attitude matching method as the TA matching method and errors of velocity and attitude as observations. The misalignment angle can be estimated by the designed UKF. The simulation results have demonstrated that the polar TA algorithm can be effective in improving the TA accuracy, especially when large misalignment angles occur. (paper)

Hydrodynamic Equations for Flocking Models without Velocity Alignment

Science.gov (United States)

Peruani, Fernando

2017-10-01

The spontaneous emergence of collective motion patterns is usually associated with the presence of a velocity alignment mechanism that mediates the interactions among the moving individuals. Despite of this widespread view, it has been shown recently that several flocking behaviors can emerge in the absence of velocity alignment and as a result of short-range, position-based, attractive forces that act inside a vision cone. Here, we derive the corresponding hydrodynamic equations of a microscopic position-based flocking model, reviewing and extending previous reported results. In particular, we show that three distinct macroscopic collective behaviors can be observed: i) the coarsening of aggregates with no orientational order, ii) the emergence of static, elongated nematic bands, and iii) the formation of moving, locally polar structures, which we call worms. The derived hydrodynamic equations indicate that active particles interacting via position-based interactions belong to a distinct class of active systems fundamentally different from other active systems, including velocity-alignment-based flocking systems.

Spatial and Temporal Dynamics and Value of Nature-Based Recreation, Estimated via Social Media

Science.gov (United States)

Watson, Keri B.; Wood, Spencer A.; Ricketts, Taylor H.

2016-01-01

Conserved lands provide multiple ecosystem services, including opportunities for nature-based recreation. Managing this service requires understanding the landscape attributes underpinning its provision, and how changes in land management affect its contribution to human wellbeing over time. However, evidence from both spatially explicit and temporally dynamic analyses is scarce, often due to data limitations. In this study, we investigated nature-based recreation within conserved lands in Vermont, USA. We used geotagged photographs uploaded to the photo-sharing website Flickr to quantify visits by in-state and out-of-state visitors, and we multiplied visits by mean trip expenditures to show that conserved lands contributed US $1.8 billion (US $0.18–20.2 at 95% confidence) to Vermont’s tourism industry between 2007 and 2014. We found eight landscape attributes explained the pattern of visits to conserved lands; visits were higher in larger conserved lands, with less forest cover, greater trail density and more opportunities for snow sports. Some of these attributes differed from those found in other locations, but all aligned with our understanding of recreation in Vermont. We also found that using temporally static models to inform conservation decisions may have perverse outcomes for nature-based recreation. For example, static models suggest conserved land with less forest cover receive more visits, but temporally dynamic models suggest clearing forests decreases, rather than increases, visits to these sites. Our results illustrate the importance of understanding both the spatial and temporal dynamics of ecosystem services for conservation decision-making. PMID:27611325

An Elaboration of a Strategic Alignment Model of University Information Systems based on SAM Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Ahriz

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Information system is a guarantee of the universities' ability to anticipate the essential functions to their development and durability. The alignment of information system, one of the pillars of IT governance, has become a necessity. In this paper, we consider the problem of strategic alignment model implementation in Moroccan universities. Literature revealed that few studies have examined strategic alignment in the public sector, particularly in higher education institutions. Hence we opted for an exploratory approach that aims to better understanding the strategic alignment and to evaluate the degree of its use within Moroccan universities. The data gained primarily through interviews with top managers and IT managers reveal that the alignment is not formalized and that it would be appropriate to implement an alignment model. It is found that the implementation of our proposed model can help managers to maximize returns of IT investment and to increase their efficiency.

Dimensionality Reduction for Hyperspectral Data Based on Class-Aware Tensor Neighborhood Graph and Patch Alignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Yang; Wang, Xuesong; Cheng, Yuhu; Wang, Z Jane

2015-08-01

To take full advantage of hyperspectral information, to avoid data redundancy and to address the curse of dimensionality concern, dimensionality reduction (DR) becomes particularly important to analyze hyperspectral data. Exploring the tensor characteristic of hyperspectral data, a DR algorithm based on class-aware tensor neighborhood graph and patch alignment is proposed here. First, hyperspectral data are represented in the tensor form through a window field to keep the spatial information of each pixel. Second, using a tensor distance criterion, a class-aware tensor neighborhood graph containing discriminating information is obtained. In the third step, employing the patch alignment framework extended to the tensor space, we can obtain global optimal spectral-spatial information. Finally, the solution of the tensor subspace is calculated using an iterative method and low-dimensional projection matrixes for hyperspectral data are obtained accordingly. The proposed method effectively explores the spectral and spatial information in hyperspectral data simultaneously. Experimental results on 3 real hyperspectral datasets show that, compared with some popular vector- and tensor-based DR algorithms, the proposed method can yield better performance with less tensor training samples required.

Implementation of a Parallel Protein Structure Alignment Service on Cloud

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Che-Lun Hung

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Protein structure alignment has become an important strategy by which to identify evolutionary relationships between protein sequences. Several alignment tools are currently available for online comparison of protein structures. In this paper, we propose a parallel protein structure alignment service based on the Hadoop distribution framework. This service includes a protein structure alignment algorithm, a refinement algorithm, and a MapReduce programming model. The refinement algorithm refines the result of alignment. To process vast numbers of protein structures in parallel, the alignment and refinement algorithms are implemented using MapReduce. We analyzed and compared the structure alignments produced by different methods using a dataset randomly selected from the PDB database. The experimental results verify that the proposed algorithm refines the resulting alignments more accurately than existing algorithms. Meanwhile, the computational performance of the proposed service is proportional to the number of processors used in our cloud platform.

Alignment between galaxies and large-scale structure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faltenbacher, A.; Li Cheng; White, Simon D. M.; Jing, Yi-Peng; Mao Shude; Wang Jie

2009-01-01

Based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR6 (SDSS) and the Millennium Simulation (MS), we investigate the alignment between galaxies and large-scale structure. For this purpose, we develop two new statistical tools, namely the alignment correlation function and the cos(2θ)-statistic. The former is a two-dimensional extension of the traditional two-point correlation function and the latter is related to the ellipticity correlation function used for cosmic shear measurements. Both are based on the cross correlation between a sample of galaxies with orientations and a reference sample which represents the large-scale structure. We apply the new statistics to the SDSS galaxy catalog. The alignment correlation function reveals an overabundance of reference galaxies along the major axes of red, luminous (L ∼ * ) galaxies out to projected separations of 60 h- 1 Mpc. The signal increases with central galaxy luminosity. No alignment signal is detected for blue galaxies. The cos(2θ)-statistic yields very similar results. Starting from a MS semi-analytic galaxy catalog, we assign an orientation to each red, luminous and central galaxy, based on that of the central region of the host halo (with size similar to that of the stellar galaxy). As an alternative, we use the orientation of the host halo itself. We find a mean projected misalignment between a halo and its central region of ∼ 25 deg. The misalignment decreases slightly with increasing luminosity of the central galaxy. Using the orientations and luminosities of the semi-analytic galaxies, we repeat our alignment analysis on mock surveys of the MS. Agreement with the SDSS results is good if the central orientations are used. Predictions using the halo orientations as proxies for central galaxy orientations overestimate the observed alignment by more than a factor of 2. Finally, the large volume of the MS allows us to generate a two-dimensional map of the alignment correlation function, which shows the reference

MaxAlign: maximizing usable data in an alignment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Oliveira, Rodrigo Gouveia; Sackett, Peter Wad; Pedersen, Anders Gorm

2007-01-01

Align. In this paper we also introduce a new simple measure of tree similarity, Normalized Symmetric Similarity (NSS) that we consider useful for comparing tree topologies. CONCLUSION: We demonstrate how MaxAlign is helpful in detecting misaligned or defective sequences without requiring manual inspection. We also...

Evaluation of GMI and PMI diffeomorphic‐based demons algorithms for aligning PET and CT Images

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Juan; Zhang, You; Yin, Yong

2015-01-01

Fusion of anatomic information in computed tomography (CT) and functional information in F18‐FDG positron emission tomography (PET) is crucial for accurate differentiation of tumor from benign masses, designing radiotherapy treatment plan and staging of cancer. Although current PET and CT images can be acquired from combined F18‐FDG PET/CT scanner, the two acquisitions are scanned separately and take a long time, which may induce potential positional errors in global and local caused by respiratory motion or organ peristalsis. So registration (alignment) of whole‐body PET and CT images is a prerequisite for their meaningful fusion. The purpose of this study was to assess the performance of two multimodal registration algorithms for aligning PET and CT images. The proposed gradient of mutual information (GMI)‐based demons algorithm, which incorporated the GMI between two images as an external force to facilitate the alignment, was compared with the point‐wise mutual information (PMI) diffeomorphic‐based demons algorithm whose external force was modified by replacing the image intensity difference in diffeomorphic demons algorithm with the PMI to make it appropriate for multimodal image registration. Eight patients with esophageal cancer(s) were enrolled in this IRB‐approved study. Whole‐body PET and CT images were acquired from a combined F18‐FDG PET/CT scanner for each patient. The modified Hausdorff distance (dMH) was used to evaluate the registration accuracy of the two algorithms. Of all patients, the mean values and standard deviations (SDs) of dMH were 6.65 (± 1.90) voxels and 6.01 (± 1.90) after the GMI‐based demons and the PMI diffeomorphic‐based demons registration algorithms respectively. Preliminary results on oncological patients showed that the respiratory motion and organ peristalsis in PET/CT esophageal images could not be neglected, although a combined F18‐FDG PET/CT scanner was used for image acquisition. The PMI

Intrinsic alignments in redMaPPer clusters – I. Central galaxy alignments and angular segregation of satellites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Hung-Jin; Mandelbaum, Rachel; Freeman, Peter E.; Chen, Yen-Chi

2016-01-01

The shapes of cluster central galaxies are not randomly oriented, but rather exhibit coherent alignments with the shapes of their parent clusters as well as with the surrounding large-scale structures. In this work, we aim to identify the galaxy and cluster quantities that most strongly predict the central galaxy alignment phenomenon among a large parameter space with a sample of 8237 clusters and 94 817 members within 0.1 < z < 0.35, based on the red-sequence Matched-filter Probabilistic Percolation cluster catalogue constructed from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We first quantify the alignment between the projected central galaxy shapes and the distribution of member satellites, to understand what central galaxy and cluster properties most strongly correlate with these alignments. Next, we investigate the angular segregation of satellites with respect to their central galaxy major axis directions, to identify the satellite properties that most strongly predict their angular segregation. We find that central galaxies are more aligned with their member galaxy distributions in clusters that are more elongated and have higher richness, and for central galaxies with larger physical size, higher luminosity and centring probability, and redder colour. Satellites with redder colour, higher luminosity, located closer to the central galaxy, and with smaller ellipticity show a stronger angular segregation towards their central galaxy major axes. Lastly, we provide physical explanations for some of the identified correlations, and discuss the connection to theories of central galaxy alignments, the impact of primordial alignments with tidal fields, and the importance of anisotropic accretion.

Aligning for Innovation - Alignment Strategy to Drive Innovation

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Hurel; Teltschik, David; Bussey, Horace, Jr.; Moy, James

2010-01-01

With the sudden need for innovation that will help the country achieve its long-term space exploration objectives, the question of whether NASA is aligned effectively to drive the innovation that it so desperately needs to take space exploration to the next level should be entertained. Authors such as Robert Kaplan and David North have noted that companies that use a formal system for implementing strategy consistently outperform their peers. They have outlined a six-stage management systems model for implementing strategy, which includes the aligning of the organization towards its objectives. This involves the alignment of the organization from the top down. This presentation will explore the impacts of existing U.S. industrial policy on technological innovation; assess the current NASA organizational alignment and its impacts on driving technological innovation; and finally suggest an alternative approach that may drive the innovation needed to take the world to the next level of space exploration, with NASA truly leading the way.

A study of Hough Transform-based fingerprint alignment algorithms

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mlambo, CS

2014-10-01

Full Text Available the implementation of each algorithm. The comparison is performed by considering the alignment results computed using each group of algorithms when varying number of minutiae points, rotation angle, and translation. In addition, the memory usage, computing time...

Mechanical devices for aligning optical fibers using elastic metal-deformation techniques

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Zantvoort, J.H.C.; Plukker, S.G.L.; Kuindersma, P.I.; Mekonnen, K.A.; de Waardt, H.

2016-01-01

We designed and realized two different mechanical devices for aligning standard lensed telecom fibers to indium-phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The first device (Device A) can align one fiber in three degrees of freedom, while the second device (Device B) can align two fiber

Optimization of bicelle lipid composition and temperature for EPR spectroscopy of aligned membranes.

Science.gov (United States)

McCaffrey, Jesse E; James, Zachary M; Thomas, David D

2015-01-01

We have optimized the magnetic alignment of phospholipid bilayered micelles (bicelles) for EPR spectroscopy, by varying lipid composition and temperature. Bicelles have been extensively used in NMR spectroscopy for several decades, in order to obtain aligned samples in a near-native membrane environment and take advantage of the intrinsic sensitivity of magnetic resonance to molecular orientation. Recently, bicelles have also seen increasing use in EPR, which offers superior sensitivity and orientational resolution. However, the low magnetic field strength (less than 1 T) of most conventional EPR spectrometers results in homogeneously oriented bicelles only at a temperature well above physiological. To optimize bicelle composition for magnetic alignment at reduced temperature, we prepared bicelles containing varying ratios of saturated (DMPC) and unsaturated (POPC) phospholipids, using EPR spectra of a spin-labeled fatty acid to assess alignment as a function of lipid composition and temperature. Spectral analysis showed that bicelles containing an equimolar mixture of DMPC and POPC homogeneously align at 298 K, 20 K lower than conventional DMPC-only bicelles. It is now possible to perform EPR studies of membrane protein structure and dynamics in well-aligned bicelles at physiological temperatures and below. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Control rod housing alignment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dixon, R.C.; Deaver, G.A.; Punches, J.R.; Singleton, G.E.; Erbes, J.G.; Offer, H.P.

1990-01-01

This patent describes a process for measuring the vertical alignment between a hole in a core plate and the top of a corresponding control rod drive housing within a boiling water reactor. It comprises: providing an alignment apparatus. The alignment apparatus including a lower end for fitting to the top of the control rod drive housing; an upper end for fitting to the aperture in the core plate, and a leveling means attached to the alignment apparatus to read out the difference in angularity with respect to gravity, and alignment pin registering means for registering to the alignment pin on the core plate; lowering the alignment device on a depending support through a lattice position in the top guide through the hole in the core plate down into registered contact with the top of the control rod drive housing; registering the upper end to the sides of the hole in the core plate; registering the alignment pin registering means to an alignment pin on the core plate to impart to the alignment device the required angularity; and reading out the angle of the control rod drive housing with respect to the hole in the core plate through the leveling devices whereby the angularity of the top of the control rod drive housing with respect to the hole in the core plate can be determined

Nonlinear dynamics based digital logic and circuits.

Science.gov (United States)

Kia, Behnam; Lindner, John F; Ditto, William L

2015-01-01

We discuss the role and importance of dynamics in the brain and biological neural networks and argue that dynamics is one of the main missing elements in conventional Boolean logic and circuits. We summarize a simple dynamics based computing method, and categorize different techniques that we have introduced to realize logic, functionality, and programmability. We discuss the role and importance of coupled dynamics in networks of biological excitable cells, and then review our simple coupled dynamics based method for computing. In this paper, for the first time, we show how dynamics can be used and programmed to implement computation in any given base, including but not limited to base two.

Shapes and alignments at high spin in some rare-earth nuclei

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deleplanque, M.A.; Diamond, R.M.; Stephens, F.S.; Macchiavelli, A.O.; Doessing, T.; Draper, J.E.; Dines, E.L.

1985-01-01

The structure of nuclei at high spins is dominated by an interplay between deformation and alignment effects. Cranking models predict various shapes but at the highest spins, there is a tendency towards large triaxial deformations and sometimes towards very large prolate deformations (superdeformations). Directly involved in the shape changes are aligned orbitals which come down to the Fermi level as the nucleus rotates more rapidly. At a certain frequency, they become populated and cause large alignments. The mechanism of these changes has been explored by looking at a series of rare earth quasirotational nuclei from Dy to W in the transition region around N = 90 neutrons. The continuum spectra, corrected for incomplete population (feeding) of the high spins, are directly proportional to dynamic effective moments of inertia which describe how much spin is generated at each rotational frequency

Nanostructured pillars based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes as the stationary phase in micro-CEC.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Ren-Guei; Yang, Chung-Shi; Wang, Pen-Cheng; Tseng, Fan-Gang

2009-06-01

We present a micro-CEC chip carrying out a highly efficient separation of dsDNA fragments through vertically aligned multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in a microchannel. The vertically aligned MWCNTs were grown directly in the microchannel to form straight nanopillar arrays as ordered and directional chromatographic supports. 1-Pyrenedodecanoic acid was employed for the surface modification of the MWCNTs' stationary phase to adsorb analytes by hydrophobic interactions. This device was used for separating dsDNA fragments of three different lengths (254, 360, and 572 bp), and fluorescence detection was employed to verify the electrokinetic transport in the MWCNT array. The micro-CEC separation of the three compounds was achieved in less than 300 s at a field strength of 66 V/cm due to superior laminar flow patterns and a lower flow resistance resulting from the vertically aligned MWCNTs being used as the stationary phase medium. In addition, a fivefold reduction of band broadening was obtained when the analyte was separated by the chromatographic MWCNT array channel instead of the CE channel. From all of the results, we suggest that an in situ grown and directional MWCNT array can potentially be useful for preparing more diversified forms of stationary phases for vertically efficient chip-based electrochromatography.

High-performance Supercapacitors Based on Electrochemical-induced Vertical-aligned Carbon Nanotubes and Polyaniline Nanocomposite Electrodes

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Guan; Tan, Pengfeng; Wang, Dongxing; Li, Zhe; Peng, Lu; Hu, Ying; Wang, Caifeng; Zhu, Wei; Chen, Su; Chen, Wei

2017-03-01

Supercapacitors, which store electrical energy through reversible ion on the surface of conductive electrodes have gained enormous attention for variously portable energy storage devices. Since the capacitive performance is mainly determined by the structural and electrochemical properties of electrodes, the electrodes become more crucial to higher performance. However, due to the disordered microstructure and low electrochemical activity of electrode for ion tortuous migration and accumulation, the supercapacitors present relatively low capacitance and energy density. Here we report a high-performance supercapacitor based on polyaniline/vertical-aligned carbon nanotubes (PANI/VA-CNTs) nanocomposite electrodes where the vertical-aligned-structure is formed by the electrochemical-induction (0.75 V). The supercapacitor displays large specific capacitance of 403.3 F g-1, which is 6 times higher than disordered CNTs in HClO4 electrolyte. Additionally, the supercapacitor can also present high specific capacitance (314.6 F g-1), excellent cycling stability (90.2% retention after 3000 cycles at 4 A g-1) and high energy density (98.1 Wh kg-1) in EMIBF4 organic electrolyte. The key to high-performance lies in the vertical-aligned-structure providing direct path channel for ion faster diffusion and high electrochemical capacitance of polyaniline for ion more accommodation.

High-performance Supercapacitors Based on Electrochemical-induced Vertical-aligned Carbon Nanotubes and Polyaniline Nanocomposite Electrodes.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Guan; Tan, Pengfeng; Wang, Dongxing; Li, Zhe; Peng, Lu; Hu, Ying; Wang, Caifeng; Zhu, Wei; Chen, Su; Chen, Wei

2017-03-08

Supercapacitors, which store electrical energy through reversible ion on the surface of conductive electrodes have gained enormous attention for variously portable energy storage devices. Since the capacitive performance is mainly determined by the structural and electrochemical properties of electrodes, the electrodes become more crucial to higher performance. However, due to the disordered microstructure and low electrochemical activity of electrode for ion tortuous migration and accumulation, the supercapacitors present relatively low capacitance and energy density. Here we report a high-performance supercapacitor based on polyaniline/vertical-aligned carbon nanotubes (PANI/VA-CNTs) nanocomposite electrodes where the vertical-aligned-structure is formed by the electrochemical-induction (0.75 V). The supercapacitor displays large specific capacitance of 403.3 F g -1 , which is 6 times higher than disordered CNTs in HClO 4 electrolyte. Additionally, the supercapacitor can also present high specific capacitance (314.6 F g -1 ), excellent cycling stability (90.2% retention after 3000 cycles at 4 A g -1 ) and high energy density (98.1 Wh kg -1 ) in EMIBF 4 organic electrolyte. The key to high-performance lies in the vertical-aligned-structure providing direct path channel for ion faster diffusion and high electrochemical capacitance of polyaniline for ion more accommodation.

Dynamic Capabilities and Performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wilden, Ralf; Gudergan, Siegfried P.; Nielsen, Bo Bernhard

2013-01-01

are contingent on the competitive intensity faced by firms. Our findings demonstrate the performance effects of internal alignment between organizational structure and dynamic capabilities, as well as the external fit of dynamic capabilities with competitive intensity. We outline the advantages of PLS...

A new prosthetic alignment device to read and record prosthesis alignment data.

Science.gov (United States)

Pirouzi, Gholamhossein; Abu Osman, Noor Azuan; Ali, Sadeeq; Davoodi Makinejad, Majid

2017-12-01

Prosthetic alignment is an essential process to rehabilitate patients with amputations. This study presents, for the first time, an invented device to read and record prosthesis alignment data. The digital device consists of seven main parts: the trigger, internal shaft, shell, sensor adjustment button, digital display, sliding shell, and tip. The alignment data were read and recorded by the user or a computer to replicate prosthesis adjustment for future use or examine the sequence of changes in alignment and its effect on the posture of the patient. Alignment data were recorded at the anterior/posterior and medial/lateral positions for five patients. Results show the high level of confidence to record alignment data and replicate adjustments. Therefore, the device helps patients readjust their prosthesis by themselves, or prosthetists to perform adjustment for patients and analyze the effects of malalignment.

Energy Level Alignment at Aqueous GaN and ZnO Interfaces

Science.gov (United States)

Hybertsen, Mark S.; Kharche, Neerav; Muckerman, James T.

2014-03-01

Electronic energy level alignment at semiconductor-electrolyte interfaces is fundamental to electrochemical activity. Motivated in particular by the search for new materials that can be more efficient for photocatalysis, we develop a first principles method to calculate this alignment at aqueous interfaces and demonstrate it for the specific case of non-polar GaN and ZnO interfaces with water. In the first step, density functional theory (DFT) based molecular dynamics is used to sample the physical interface structure and to evaluate the electrostatic potential step at the interface. In the second step, the GW approach is used to evaluate the reference electronic energy level separately in the bulk semiconductor (valence band edge energy) and in bulk water (the 1b1 energy level), relative to the internal electrostatic energy reference. Use of the GW approach naturally corrects for errors inherent in the use of Kohn-Sham energy eigenvalues to approximate the electronic excitation energies in each material. With this predicted interface alignment, specific redox levels in water, with potentials known relative to the 1b1 level, can then be compared to the semiconductor band edge positions. Our results will be discussed in the context of experiments in which photoexcited GaN and ZnO drive the hydrogen evolution reaction. Research carried out at Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886 with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Effects of variable attachment shapes and aligner material on aligner retention.

Science.gov (United States)

Dasy, Hiltrud; Dasy, Andreas; Asatrian, Greg; Rózsa, Noémi; Lee, Hao-Fu; Kwak, Jin Hee

2015-11-01

To evaluate the retention of four types of aligners on a dental arch with various attachments. For this study, three casts were manufactured, two of which contained attachments (ellipsoid and beveled), and one without any attachments to serve as a control. Four types of aligners were thermoformed: Clear-Aligner (CA)-soft, CA-medium, and CA-hard, with various thicknesses, and Essix ACE. Measurements of vertical displacement force during aligner removal were performed with the Gabo Qualimeter Eplexor. Means and standard deviations were next compared between different aligner thicknesses and attachment shapes. CA-soft, CA-medium, and CA-hard did not present a significant increase in retention, except when used in the presence of attachments. Additionally, CA-medium and CA-hard required significantly more force for removal. Essix ACE demonstrated a significant decrease in retention when used with ellipsoid attachments. The force value for Essix ACE removal from the cast with beveled attachments was comparable to that of CA-medium. Forces for aligner removal from the model without attachments showed a linear trend. Essix ACE did not show a continuous increase in retention for each model. Overall, ellipsoid attachments did not present a significant change in retention. In contrast, beveled attachments improved retention. Ellipsoid attachments had no significant influence on the force required for aligner removal and hence on aligner retention. Essix ACE showed significantly less retention than CA-hard on the models with attachments. Furthermore, beveled attachments were observed to increase retention significantly, compared with ellipsoid attachments and when using no attachments.

Alignment of the drift tube detector at the neutrino oscillation experiment OPERA; Alignment des Driftroehrendetektors am Neutrino-Oszillationsexperiment OPERA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goellnitz, Christoph

2012-09-15

The present thesis was composed during the course of the OPERA experiment, which aims to give a direct evidence for neutrino oscillations in the channel {nu}{sub {mu}} {yields} {nu}{sub {tau}}. The OPERA detector is designed to observe the appearance of tau neutrinos in an originally pure muon neutrino beam, the CNGS beam. As important part of the detector the precision tracker (PT), a drift tube detector, consists of 9504 drift tubes in 198 modules. In this thesis, several parts of the slow control of the PT are developed and implemented to ensure operation during data taking over several years. The main part is the geometric calibration, the alignment of the detector. The alignment procedure contains both hardware and software parts, the software methods are developed and applied. Using straight particle tracks, the detector components are geometrically corrected. A special challenge for the alignment for the PT is the fact that at this kind of low-rate experiment only a small number of particle tracks is available. With software-based corrections of the module rotation, a systematic error of 0.2 mrad has been attained, for corrections of translation, a systematic error of 32 {mu}m is reached. For the alignment between two adjacent PT walls, the statistical error is less than 8 {mu}m. All results of the position monitoring system are considered. All developed methods are tested with Monte Carlo simulations. The detector requirements ({Delta}p/p {<=} 0.25 below 25 GeV) are met. The analysis of the momentum measurement for high energies above 25 GeV demonstrates the resulting improvement. The mean momentum is falling significantly using the new alignment values. The significance of the detector alignment becomes most evident in the analysis of cosmic particles. The muon charge ratio R{sub {mu}} is expected not to be angular dependent. The {chi}{sup 2} probability of the measured distribution improves up to 58%. The muon charge ratio was also investigated in

Electrochemical Capacitors Based on Aligned Carbon Nanotubes Directly Synthesized on Tantalum Substrates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Byung Woo; Chung, Hae Geun; Kim, Woong; Min, Byoung Koun; Kim, Hong Gon

2010-01-01

We demonstrate that vertically aligned carbon nanotubes can be synthesized directly on tantalum substrate via waterassisted chemical vapor deposition and evaluate their properties as electrochemical capacitors. The mean diameter of the carbon nanotubes was 7.1 ± 1.5 nm, and 70% of them had double walls. The intensity ratio of G-band to D-band in Raman spectra was as high as 5, indicating good quality of the carbon nanotubes. Owing to the alignment and low equivalent series resistance, the carbon nanotube based supercapacitors showed good rate performance. Rectangular shape of cyclic voltammogram was maintained even at the scan rate of > 1 V/s in 1 M sulfuric acid aqueous solution. Specific capacitance was well-retained (∼94%) even when the discharging current density dramatically increased up to 145 A/g. Consequently, specific power as high as 60 kW/kg was obtained from as-grown carbon nanotubes in aqueous solution. Maximum specific energy of ∼20 Wh/kg was obtained when carbon nanotubes were electrochemically oxidized and operated in organic solution. Demonstration of direct synthesis of carbon nanotubes on tantalum current collectors and their applications as supercapacitors could be an invaluable basis for fabrication of high performance carbon nanotube supercapacitors

Validation of the CLIC alignment strategy on short range

CERN Document Server

Mainaud Durand, H; Griffet, S; Kemppinen, J; Rude, V; Sosin, M

2012-01-01

The pre-alignment of CLIC consists of aligning the components of linacs and beam delivery systems (BDS) in the most accurate possible way, so that a first pilot beam can circulate and allow the implementation of the beam based alignment. Taking into account the precision and accuracy needed: 10 µm rms over sliding windows of 200m, this pre-alignment must be active and it can be divided into two parts: the determination of a straight reference over 20 km, thanks to a metrological network and the determination of the component positions with respect to this reference, and their adjustment. The second part is the object of the paper, describing the steps of the proposed strategy: firstly the fiducialisation of the different components of CLIC; secondly, the alignment of these components on common supports and thirdly the active alignment of these supports using sensors and actuators. These steps have been validated on a test setup over a length of 4m, and the obtained results are analysed.

Self-Aligned van der Waals Heterojunction Diodes and Transistors.

Science.gov (United States)

Sangwan, Vinod K; Beck, Megan E; Henning, Alex; Luo, Jiajia; Bergeron, Hadallia; Kang, Junmo; Balla, Itamar; Inbar, Hadass; Lauhon, Lincoln J; Hersam, Mark C

2018-02-14

A general self-aligned fabrication scheme is reported here for a diverse class of electronic devices based on van der Waals materials and heterojunctions. In particular, self-alignment enables the fabrication of source-gated transistors in monolayer MoS 2 with near-ideal current saturation characteristics and channel lengths down to 135 nm. Furthermore, self-alignment of van der Waals p-n heterojunction diodes achieves complete electrostatic control of both the p-type and n-type constituent semiconductors in a dual-gated geometry, resulting in gate-tunable mean and variance of antiambipolar Gaussian characteristics. Through finite-element device simulations, the operating principles of source-gated transistors and dual-gated antiambipolar devices are elucidated, thus providing design rules for additional devices that employ self-aligned geometries. For example, the versatility of this scheme is demonstrated via contact-doped MoS 2 homojunction diodes and mixed-dimensional heterojunctions based on organic semiconductors. The scalability of this approach is also shown by fabricating self-aligned short-channel transistors with subdiffraction channel lengths in the range of 150-800 nm using photolithography on large-area MoS 2 films grown by chemical vapor deposition. Overall, this self-aligned fabrication method represents an important step toward the scalable integration of van der Waals heterojunction devices into more sophisticated circuits and systems.

Mask alignment system for semiconductor processing

Science.gov (United States)

Webb, Aaron P.; Carlson, Charles T.; Weaver, William T.; Grant, Christopher N.

2017-02-14

A mask alignment system for providing precise and repeatable alignment between ion implantation masks and workpieces. The system includes a mask frame having a plurality of ion implantation masks loosely connected thereto. The mask frame is provided with a plurality of frame alignment cavities, and each mask is provided with a plurality of mask alignment cavities. The system further includes a platen for holding workpieces. The platen may be provided with a plurality of mask alignment pins and frame alignment pins configured to engage the mask alignment cavities and frame alignment cavities, respectively. The mask frame can be lowered onto the platen, with the frame alignment cavities moving into registration with the frame alignment pins to provide rough alignment between the masks and workpieces. The mask alignment cavities are then moved into registration with the mask alignment pins, thereby shifting each individual mask into precise alignment with a respective workpiece.

Dynamic tensile loading improves the functional properties of mesenchymal stem cell-laden nanofiber-based fibrocartilage.

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Brendon M; Shah, Roshan P; Huang, Alice H; Mauck, Robert L

2011-05-01

Fibrocartilaginous tissues such as the meniscus serve critical load-bearing roles, relying on arrays of collagen fibers to resist tensile loads experienced with normal activity. As these structures are frequently injured and possess limited healing capacity, there exists great demand for tissue-engineered replacements. Toward recreating the structural features of these anisotropic tissues in vitro, we employ scaffolds composed of co-aligned nanofibers that direct mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) orientation and the formation of organized extracellular matrix (ECM). Concomitant with ECM synthesis, the mechanical properties of constructs increase with free-swelling culture, but ultimately failed to achieve equivalence with meniscal fibrocartilage. As mechanical forces are essential to the development and maintenance of musculoskeletal tissues, this work examined the effect of cyclic tensile loading on MSC-laden nanofibrous constructs. We hypothesized that loading would modulate the transcriptional behavior of MSCs, spur the deposition of ECM, and lead to enhancements in construct mechanical properties compared to free-swelling controls. Fiber-aligned scaffolds were seeded with MSCs and dynamically loaded daily in tension or maintained as nonloaded controls for 4 weeks. With mechanical stimulation, fibrous gene expression increased, collagen deposition increased, and the tensile modulus increased by 16% relative to controls. These results show that dynamic tensile loading enhances the maturation of MSC-laden aligned nanofibrous constructs, suggesting that recapitulation of the structural and mechanical environment of load-bearing tissues results in increases in functional properties that can be exploited for tissue engineering applications.

Fabrication of Aligned Nanofibers by Manipulated Rotating Drum Method and Studying the Effective Parameters on Fibers Alignment by Image Processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zohreh Hadi

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Electrospinning is a known process to produce nanofibers through electrostatic forces. In a typical process, an electrical potential is applied between droplets of polymer solution or melt, held through a syringe needle and a grounded target. In general electrospinning fibers are collected on the grounded target as a random oriented web of nanofiber. Various research projects are attempted to obtain aligned electrospun fibers. This modified electrospinning method can be developed and used in a variety of nanofiber-based applications such as making of nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering. In this study, an effective method has been developed to fabricate aligned nanofibers by manipulation of electrospinning system using two nozzles with opposite charges. Moreover, the effect of some parameters including take-up velocity, applied voltage and polymer solution concentration on alignment of produced nanofibers is investigated. The comparison of fibers alignment was carried out by programming and image processing in MATLAB. It is shown that take-up velocity and polymer solution concentration have significant effect on increasing the fibers alignment. Also, the alignment is increased with applied voltage at first and then, it is decreased. The analytical results and optical microscopic images are clear evidence of showing the maximum alignment of nanofibers obtained at 15% polymer solution concentration with take-up velocity of 600 rpm and 11 kV voltage.

THE APPARATUS FOR ALIGNMENT OF THE PHOTOMETRIC LAMP FILAMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. A. Dlugunovich

2015-01-01

Full Text Available During photometric measurements involving the use of photometric lamps it is necessary that the filament of lamp takes a strictly predetermined position with respect to the photodetector and the optical axis of the photometric setup. The errors in positioning of alignment filament with respect to the optical axis of the measuring system lead to increase the uncertainty of measurement of the photometric characteristics of the light sources. A typical method for alignment of filament of photometric lamps is based on the use a diopter tubes (telescopes. Using this method, the mounting of filament to the required position is carried out by successive approximations, which requires special concentration and a lot of time. The aim of this work is to develop an apparatus for alignment which allows simultaneous alignment of the filament of lamps in two mutually perpendicular planes. The method and apparatus for alignment of the photometric lamp filament during measurements of the photometric characteristics of light sources based on two digital video cameras is described in this paper. The apparatus allows to simultaneously displaying the image of lamps filament on the computer screen in two mutually perpendicular planes. The apparatus eliminates a large number of functional units requiring elementwise alignment and reduces the time required to carry out the alignment. The apparatus also provides the imaging of lamps filament with opaque coated on the bulb. The apparatus is used at the National standard of light intensity and illuminance units of the Republic of Belarus. 

Predicting areas of sustainable error growth in quasigeostrophic flows using perturbation alignment properties

Science.gov (United States)

Rivière, G.; Hua, B. L.

2004-10-01

A new perturbation initialization method is used to quantify error growth due to inaccuracies of the forecast model initial conditions in a quasigeostrophic box ocean model describing a wind-driven double gyre circulation. This method is based on recent analytical results on Lagrangian alignment dynamics of the perturbation velocity vector in quasigeostrophic flows. More specifically, it consists in initializing a unique perturbation from the sole knowledge of the control flow properties at the initial time of the forecast and whose velocity vector orientation satisfies a Lagrangian equilibrium criterion. This Alignment-based Initialization method is hereafter denoted as the AI method.In terms of spatial distribution of the errors, we have compared favorably the AI error forecast with the mean error obtained with a Monte-Carlo ensemble prediction. It is shown that the AI forecast is on average as efficient as the error forecast initialized with the leading singular vector for the palenstrophy norm, and significantly more efficient than that for total energy and enstrophy norms. Furthermore, a more precise examination shows that the AI forecast is systematically relevant for all control flows whereas the palenstrophy singular vector forecast leads sometimes to very good scores and sometimes to very bad ones.A principal component analysis at the final time of the forecast shows that the AI mode spatial structure is comparable to that of the first eigenvector of the error covariance matrix for a "bred mode" ensemble. Furthermore, the kinetic energy of the AI mode grows at the same constant rate as that of the "bred modes" from the initial time to the final time of the forecast and is therefore characterized by a sustained phase of error growth. In this sense, the AI mode based on Lagrangian dynamics of the perturbation velocity orientation provides a rationale of the "bred mode" behavior.

Efficient alignment-free DNA barcode analytics.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuksa, Pavel; Pavlovic, Vladimir

2009-11-10

In this work we consider barcode DNA analysis problems and address them using alternative, alignment-free methods and representations which model sequences as collections of short sequence fragments (features). The methods use fixed-length representations (spectrum) for barcode sequences to measure similarities or dissimilarities between sequences coming from the same or different species. The spectrum-based representation not only allows for accurate and computationally efficient species classification, but also opens possibility for accurate clustering analysis of putative species barcodes and identification of critical within-barcode loci distinguishing barcodes of different sample groups. New alignment-free methods provide highly accurate and fast DNA barcode-based identification and classification of species with substantial improvements in accuracy and speed over state-of-the-art barcode analysis methods. We evaluate our methods on problems of species classification and identification using barcodes, important and relevant analytical tasks in many practical applications (adverse species movement monitoring, sampling surveys for unknown or pathogenic species identification, biodiversity assessment, etc.) On several benchmark barcode datasets, including ACG, Astraptes, Hesperiidae, Fish larvae, and Birds of North America, proposed alignment-free methods considerably improve prediction accuracy compared to prior results. We also observe significant running time improvements over the state-of-the-art methods. Our results show that newly developed alignment-free methods for DNA barcoding can efficiently and with high accuracy identify specimens by examining only few barcode features, resulting in increased scalability and interpretability of current computational approaches to barcoding.

Alignment of Ion Accelerator for Surface Analysis using Theodolite and Laser Tracker

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ahn, Tae Sung; Seo, Dong Hyuk; Kim, Dae Il; Kim, Han Sung; Kwon, Hyeok Jung; Cho, Yong Sub [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-05-15

The method of ion accelerator alignment is used two ways which are a theodolite and laser tracker. For the alignment and maintenance of the proton linear accelerator, the laser tracker is typically used at KOMAC. While the device for alignment by using laser tracker is not installed in all ion accelerator components, it was used in parallel in two methods. In this paper, alignment methods are introduced and the result and comparison of each alignment method are presented. The ion accelerator for surface analysis has aligned using theodolite and laser tracker. The two ways for alignment have advantage as well as weakness. But alignment using laser tracker is stronger than using theodolite. Because it is based on alignment and position data and it is more detailed. Also since the beam distribution is smaller than accelerator component that is direction of beam progress, main component (ex. Magnet, Chamber, Pelletron tank, etc.) alignment using laser tracker is enough to align the ion accelerator.

Coupling SIMD and SIMT architectures to boost performance of a phylogeny-aware alignment kernel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alachiotis Nikolaos

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Aligning short DNA reads to a reference sequence alignment is a prerequisite for detecting their biological origin and analyzing them in a phylogenetic context. With the PaPaRa tool we introduced a dedicated dynamic programming algorithm for simultaneously aligning short reads to reference alignments and corresponding evolutionary reference trees. The algorithm aligns short reads to phylogenetic profiles that correspond to the branches of such a reference tree. The algorithm needs to perform an immense number of pairwise alignments. Therefore, we explore vector intrinsics and GPUs to accelerate the PaPaRa alignment kernel. Results We optimized and parallelized PaPaRa on CPUs and GPUs. Via SSE 4.1 SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data intrinsics for x86 SIMD architectures and multi-threading, we obtained a 9-fold acceleration on a single core as well as linear speedups with respect to the number of cores. The peak CPU performance amounts to 18.1 GCUPS (Giga Cell Updates per Second using all four physical cores on an Intel i7 2600 CPU running at 3.4 GHz. The average CPU performance (averaged over all test runs is 12.33 GCUPS. We also used OpenCL to execute PaPaRa on a GPU SIMT (Single Instruction, Multiple Threads architecture. A NVIDIA GeForce 560 GPU delivered peak and average performance of 22.1 and 18.4 GCUPS respectively. Finally, we combined the SIMD and SIMT implementations into a hybrid CPU-GPU system that achieved an accumulated peak performance of 33.8 GCUPS. Conclusions This accelerated version of PaPaRa (available at http://www.exelixis-lab.org/software.html provides a significant performance improvement that allows for analyzing larger datasets in less time. We observe that state-of-the-art SIMD and SIMT architectures deliver comparable performance for this dynamic programming kernel when the “competing programmer approach” is deployed. Finally, we show that overall performance can be substantially increased

Interference Alignment-based Precoding and User Selection with Limited Feedback in Two-cell Downlink Multi-user MIMO Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yin Zhu

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Interference alignment (IA is a new approach to address interference in modern multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO cellular networks in which interference is an important factor that limits the system throughput. System throughput in most IA implementation schemes is significantly improved only with perfect channel state information and in a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR region. Designing a simple IA scheme for the system with limited feedback and investigating system performance at a low-to-medium SNR region is important and practical. This paper proposed a precoding and user selection scheme based on partial interference alignment in two-cell downlink multi-user MIMO systems under limited feedback. This scheme aligned inter-cell interference to a predefined direction by designing user’s receive antenna combining vectors. A modified singular value decomposition (SVD-based beamforming method and a corresponding user-selection algorithm were proposed for the system with low rate limited feedback to improve sum rate performance. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves a higher sum rate than traditional schemes without IA. The modified SVD-based beamforming scheme is also superior to the traditional zero-forcing beamforming scheme in low-rate limited feedback systems. The proposed partial IA scheme does not need to collaborate between transmitters and joint design between the transmitter and the users. The scheme can be implemented with low feedback overhead in current MIMO cellular networks.

Revisiting the Relationship of CSR and Corporate Philanthropy by Using Alignment Theory

OpenAIRE

von Schnurbein, Georg; Stühlinger, Sara

2015-01-01

Both, CSR and corporate philanthropy are expressions of the interferences between the company and its societal environment. However, the question of the relationship between CSR and corporate philanthropy remains unclear. We apply alignment theory to shed light on the interdependencies of CSR and corporate philanthropy. The relationship may be based on alignment, misalignment, or non-alignment. Our research is based on an empiric analysis of the sustainability rating of U.S. companies and it...

Mobile and replicated alignment of arrays in data-parallel programs

Science.gov (United States)

Chatterjee, Siddhartha; Gilbert, John R.; Schreiber, Robert

1993-01-01

When a data-parallel language like FORTRAN 90 is compiled for a distributed-memory machine, aggregate data objects (such as arrays) are distributed across the processor memories. The mapping determines the amount of residual communication needed to bring operands of parallel operations into alignment with each other. A common approach is to break the mapping into two stages: first, an alignment that maps all the objects to an abstract template, and then a distribution that maps the template to the processors. We solve two facets of the problem of finding alignments that reduce residual communication: we determine alignments that vary in loops, and objects that should have replicated alignments. We show that loop-dependent mobile alignment is sometimes necessary for optimum performance, and we provide algorithms with which a compiler can determine good mobile alignments for objects within do loops. We also identify situations in which replicated alignment is either required by the program itself (via spread operations) or can be used to improve performance. We propose an algorithm based on network flow that determines which objects to replicate so as to minimize the total amount of broadcast communication in replication. This work on mobile and replicated alignment extends our earlier work on determining static alignment.

The Harvest suite for rapid core-genome alignment and visualization of thousands of intraspecific microbial genomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Treangen, Todd J; Ondov, Brian D; Koren, Sergey; Phillippy, Adam M

2014-01-01

Whole-genome sequences are now available for many microbial species and clades, however existing whole-genome alignment methods are limited in their ability to perform sequence comparisons of multiple sequences simultaneously. Here we present the Harvest suite of core-genome alignment and visualization tools for the rapid and simultaneous analysis of thousands of intraspecific microbial strains. Harvest includes Parsnp, a fast core-genome multi-aligner, and Gingr, a dynamic visual platform. Together they provide interactive core-genome alignments, variant calls, recombination detection, and phylogenetic trees. Using simulated and real data we demonstrate that our approach exhibits unrivaled speed while maintaining the accuracy of existing methods. The Harvest suite is open-source and freely available from: http://github.com/marbl/harvest.

BFAST: an alignment tool for large scale genome resequencing.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nils Homer

2009-11-01

Full Text Available The new generation of massively parallel DNA sequencers, combined with the challenge of whole human genome resequencing, result in the need for rapid and accurate alignment of billions of short DNA sequence reads to a large reference genome. Speed is obviously of great importance, but equally important is maintaining alignment accuracy of short reads, in the 25-100 base range, in the presence of errors and true biological variation.We introduce a new algorithm specifically optimized for this task, as well as a freely available implementation, BFAST, which can align data produced by any of current sequencing platforms, allows for user-customizable levels of speed and accuracy, supports paired end data, and provides for efficient parallel and multi-threaded computation on a computer cluster. The new method is based on creating flexible, efficient whole genome indexes to rapidly map reads to candidate alignment locations, with arbitrary multiple independent indexes allowed to achieve robustness against read errors and sequence variants. The final local alignment uses a Smith-Waterman method, with gaps to support the detection of small indels.We compare BFAST to a selection of large-scale alignment tools -- BLAT, MAQ, SHRiMP, and SOAP -- in terms of both speed and accuracy, using simulated and real-world datasets. We show BFAST can achieve substantially greater sensitivity of alignment in the context of errors and true variants, especially insertions and deletions, and minimize false mappings, while maintaining adequate speed compared to other current methods. We show BFAST can align the amount of data needed to fully resequence a human genome, one billion reads, with high sensitivity and accuracy, on a modest computer cluster in less than 24 hours. BFAST is available at (http://bfast.sourceforge.net.

Differential evolution-simulated annealing for multiple sequence alignment

Science.gov (United States)

Addawe, R. C.; Addawe, J. M.; Sueño, M. R. K.; Magadia, J. C.

2017-10-01

Multiple sequence alignments (MSA) are used in the analysis of molecular evolution and sequence structure relationships. In this paper, a hybrid algorithm, Differential Evolution - Simulated Annealing (DESA) is applied in optimizing multiple sequence alignments (MSAs) based on structural information, non-gaps percentage and totally conserved columns. DESA is a robust algorithm characterized by self-organization, mutation, crossover, and SA-like selection scheme of the strategy parameters. Here, the MSA problem is treated as a multi-objective optimization problem of the hybrid evolutionary algorithm, DESA. Thus, we name the algorithm as DESA-MSA. Simulated sequences and alignments were generated to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of DESA-MSA using different indel sizes, sequence lengths, deletion rates and insertion rates. The proposed hybrid algorithm obtained acceptable solutions particularly for the MSA problem evaluated based on the three objectives.

Wire alignment system for ATF LINAC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hayano, H.; Takeda, S.; Matsumoto, H.; Matsui, T.

1994-01-01

A wire based alignment system is adopted to make less than 40μm precision alignment for injector linac of Accelerator Test Facility (ATF). The system consists of two stretched SUS wires, pickup coils and active mover stages. The position of pickup coils in a mount which will be installed into LINAC stages is set to the calculated wire position prior to installation. All of LINAC stages are then moved to keep the calculated position by the active mover. The test results of wire position detection in a long term are described. (author)

Improved production of Br atoms near zero speed by photodissociating laser aligned Br2 molecules.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, L Z; Yin, J P

2014-10-28

We theoretically investigated the improvement on the production rate of the decelerated bromine (Br) atoms near zero speed by photodissociating laser aligned Br2 precursors. Adiabatic alignment of Br2 precursors exposed to long laser pulses with duration on the order of nanoseconds was investigated by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The dynamical fragmentation of adiabatically aligned Br2 precursors was simulated and velocity distribution of the Br atoms produced was analyzed. Our study shows that the larger the degree of the precursor alignment, ⟨cos(2) θ⟩, the higher the production rate of the decelerated Br atoms near zero speed. For Br2 molecules with an initial rotational temperature of ~1 K, a ⟨cos(2) θ⟩ value of ~0.88 can result in an improvement factor of over ~20 on the production rate of the decelerated Br atoms near zero speed, requiring a laser intensity of only ~1 × 10(12) W/cm(2) for alignment.

Fast global sequence alignment technique

KAUST Repository

Bonny, Mohamed Talal; Salama, Khaled N.

2011-01-01

fast alignment algorithm, called 'Alignment By Scanning' (ABS), to provide an approximate alignment of two DNA sequences. We compare our algorithm with the wellknown sequence alignment algorithms, the 'GAP' (which is heuristic) and the 'Needleman

Intellectual Capital and Organizational Renewal: Building Dynamic Capabilities through People

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabio de Biazzi

2012-05-01

Full Text Available This paper seeks to deepen the understanding of management practices adopted by organizations characterizedby significant levels of participation and influence from their employees. Based on the assumption that thesuccessful utilization of such practices is circumstantial, a conceptual framework is proposed identifying theessential elements that should be dynamically aligned to allow organizational success in the long term. Differenttypes of work & participation practices – that arise from the adoption of the dimensions locus of knowledge andlocus of power – support the reasoning on how to align these elements and, consequently, how to lead theorganizational renewal and survival in the long run.

A large-scale application of the Kalman alignment algorithm to the CMS tracker

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Widl, E; Fruehwirth, R

2008-01-01

The Kalman alignment algorithm has been specifically developed to cope with the demands that arise from the specifications of the CMS Tracker. The algorithmic concept is based on the Kalman filter formalism and is designed to avoid the inversion of large matrices. Most notably, the algorithm strikes a balance between conventional global and local track-based alignment algorithms, by restricting the computation of alignment parameters not only to alignable objects hit by the same track, but also to all other alignable objects that are significantly correlated. Nevertheless, this feature also comes with various trade-offs: Mechanisms are needed that affect which alignable objects are significantly correlated and keep track of these correlations. Due to the large amount of alignable objects involved at each update (at least compared to local alignment algorithms), the time spent for retrieving and writing alignment parameters as well as the required user memory becomes a significant factor. The large-scale test presented here applies the Kalman alignment algorithm to the (misaligned) CMS Tracker barrel, and demonstrates the feasibility of the algorithm in a realistic scenario. It is shown that both the computation time and the amount of required user memory are within reasonable bounds, given the available computing resources, and that the obtained results are satisfactory

Dynamic programming algorithms for biological sequence comparison.

Science.gov (United States)

Pearson, W R; Miller, W

1992-01-01

Efficient dynamic programming algorithms are available for a broad class of protein and DNA sequence comparison problems. These algorithms require computer time proportional to the product of the lengths of the two sequences being compared [O(N2)] but require memory space proportional only to the sum of these lengths [O(N)]. Although the requirement for O(N2) time limits use of the algorithms to the largest computers when searching protein and DNA sequence databases, many other applications of these algorithms, such as calculation of distances for evolutionary trees and comparison of a new sequence to a library of sequence profiles, are well within the capabilities of desktop computers. In particular, the results of library searches with rapid searching programs, such as FASTA or BLAST, should be confirmed by performing a rigorous optimal alignment. Whereas rapid methods do not overlook significant sequence similarities, FASTA limits the number of gaps that can be inserted into an alignment, so that a rigorous alignment may extend the alignment substantially in some cases. BLAST does not allow gaps in the local regions that it reports; a calculation that allows gaps is very likely to extend the alignment substantially. Although a Monte Carlo evaluation of the statistical significance of a similarity score with a rigorous algorithm is much slower than the heuristic approach used by the RDF2 program, the dynamic programming approach should take less than 1 hr on a 386-based PC or desktop Unix workstation. For descriptive purposes, we have limited our discussion to methods for calculating similarity scores and distances that use gap penalties of the form g = rk. Nevertheless, programs for the more general case (g = q+rk) are readily available. Versions of these programs that run either on Unix workstations, IBM-PC class computers, or the Macintosh can be obtained from either of the authors.

Intermolecular dynamics studied by paramagnetic tagging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xu Xingfu; Keizers, Peter H. J. [Leiden University, Institute of Chemistry (Netherlands); Reinle, Wolfgang; Hannemann, Frank; Bernhardt, Rita [Universitaet des Saarlandes, Naturwissenschaftlich-Technische Fakultaet III, Institut fuer Biochemie (Germany); Ubbink, Marcellus [Leiden University, Institute of Chemistry (Netherlands)], E-mail: m.ubbink@chem.leidenuniv.nl

2009-04-15

Yeast cytochrome c and bovine adrenodoxin form a dynamic electron transfer complex, which is a pure encounter complex. It is demonstrated that the dynamic nature of the interaction can readily be probed by using a rigid lanthanide tag attached to cytochrome c. The tag, Caged Lanthanide NMR Probe 5, induces pseudocontact shifts and residual dipolar couplings and does not perturb the binding interface. Due to the dynamics in the complex, residual dipolar couplings in adrenodoxin are very small. Simulation shows that cytochrome c needs to sample a large part of the surface of adrenodoxin to explain the small degree of alignment observed for adrenodoxin. The applied method provides a simple and straightforward way to observe dynamics in protein complexes or domain-domain mobility without the need for external alignment media.

Intermolecular dynamics studied by paramagnetic tagging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu Xingfu; Keizers, Peter H. J.; Reinle, Wolfgang; Hannemann, Frank; Bernhardt, Rita; Ubbink, Marcellus

2009-01-01

Yeast cytochrome c and bovine adrenodoxin form a dynamic electron transfer complex, which is a pure encounter complex. It is demonstrated that the dynamic nature of the interaction can readily be probed by using a rigid lanthanide tag attached to cytochrome c. The tag, Caged Lanthanide NMR Probe 5, induces pseudocontact shifts and residual dipolar couplings and does not perturb the binding interface. Due to the dynamics in the complex, residual dipolar couplings in adrenodoxin are very small. Simulation shows that cytochrome c needs to sample a large part of the surface of adrenodoxin to explain the small degree of alignment observed for adrenodoxin. The applied method provides a simple and straightforward way to observe dynamics in protein complexes or domain-domain mobility without the need for external alignment media

Improving the quality of biomarker candidates in untargeted metabolomics via peak table-based alignment of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry data

Science.gov (United States)

Bean, Heather D.; Hill, Jane E.; Dimandja, Jean-Marie D.

2015-01-01

The potential of high-resolution analytical technologies like GC×GC/TOF MS in untargeted metabolomics and biomarker discovery has been limited by the development of fully automated software that can efficiently align and extract information from multiple chromatographic data sets. In this work we report the first investigation on a peak-by-peak basis of the chromatographic factors that impact GC×GC data alignment. A representative set of 16 compounds of different chromatographic characteristics were followed through the alignment of 63 GC×GC chromatograms. We found that varying the mass spectral match parameter had a significant influence on the alignment for poorly- resolved peaks, especially those at the extremes of the detector linear range, and no influence on well- chromatographed peaks. Therefore, optimized chromatography is required for proper GC×GC data alignment. Based on these observations, a workflow is presented for the conservative selection of biomarker candidates from untargeted metabolomics analyses. PMID:25857541

Improving the quality of biomarker candidates in untargeted metabolomics via peak table-based alignment of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry data.

Science.gov (United States)

Bean, Heather D; Hill, Jane E; Dimandja, Jean-Marie D

2015-05-15

The potential of high-resolution analytical technologies like GC×GC/TOF MS in untargeted metabolomics and biomarker discovery has been limited by the development of fully automated software that can efficiently align and extract information from multiple chromatographic data sets. In this work we report the first investigation on a peak-by-peak basis of the chromatographic factors that impact GC×GC data alignment. A representative set of 16 compounds of different chromatographic characteristics were followed through the alignment of 63 GC×GC chromatograms. We found that varying the mass spectral match parameter had a significant influence on the alignment for poorly-resolved peaks, especially those at the extremes of the detector linear range, and no influence on well-chromatographed peaks. Therefore, optimized chromatography is required for proper GC×GC data alignment. Based on these observations, a workflow is presented for the conservative selection of biomarker candidates from untargeted metabolomics analyses. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Controllable 3D architectures of aligned carbon nanotube arrays by multi-step processes

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Shaoming

2003-06-01

An effective way to fabricate large area three-dimensional (3D) aligned CNTs pattern based on pyrolysis of iron(II) phthalocyanine (FePc) by two-step processes is reported. The controllable generation of different lengths and selective growth of the aligned CNT arrays on metal-patterned (e.g., Ag and Au) substrate are the bases for generating such 3D aligned CNTs architectures. By controlling experimental conditions 3D aligned CNT arrays with different lengths/densities and morphologies/structures as well as multi-layered architectures can be fabricated in large scale by multi-step pyrolysis of FePc. These 3D architectures could have interesting properties and be applied for developing novel nanotube-based devices.

Automated alignment of optical components for high-power diode lasers

Science.gov (United States)

Brecher, C.; Pyschny, N.; Haag, S.; Guerrero Lule, V.

2012-03-01

Despite major progress in developing brilliant laser sources a huge potential for cost reductions can be found in simpler setups and automated assembly processes, especially for large volume applications. In this presentation, a concept for flexible automation in optics assembly is presented which is based on standard micro assembly systems with relatively large workspace and modular micromanipulators to enhance the system with additional degrees of freedom and a very high motion resolution. The core component is a compact flexure-based micromanipulator especially designed for the alignment of micro optical components which will be described in detail. The manipulator has been applied in different scenarios to develop and investigate automated alignment processes. This paper focuses on the automated alignment of fast axis collimation (FAC) lenses which is a crucial step during the production of diode lasers. The handling and positioning system, the measuring arrangement for process feedback during active alignment as well as the alignment strategy will be described. The fine alignment of the FAC lens is performed with the micromanipulator under concurrent analysis of the far and the near field intensity distribution. An optimization of the image processing chains for the alignment of a FAC in front of a diode bar led to cycle times of less than 30 seconds. An outlook on other applications and future work regarding the development of automated assembly processes as well as new ideas for flexible assembly systems with desktop robots will close the talk.

Automatic Image Alignment and Stitching of Medical Images with Seam Blending

OpenAIRE

Abhinav Kumar; Raja Sekhar Bandaru; B Madhusudan Rao; Saket Kulkarni; Nilesh Ghatpande

2010-01-01

This paper proposes an algorithm which automatically aligns and stitches the component medical images (fluoroscopic) with varying degrees of overlap into a single composite image. The alignment method is based on similarity measure between the component images. As applied here the technique is intensity based rather than feature based. It works well in domains where feature based methods have difficulty, yet more robust than traditional correlation. Component images are stitched together usin...

Clear aligners in orthodontic treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Weir, T

2017-03-01

Since the introduction of the Tooth Positioner (TP Orthodontics) in 1944, removable appliances analogous to clear aligners have been employed for mild to moderate orthodontic tooth movements. Clear aligner therapy has been a part of orthodontic practice for decades, but has, particularly since the introduction of Invisalign appliances (Align Technology) in 1998, become an increasingly common addition to the orthodontic armamentarium. An internet search reveals at least 27 different clear aligner products currently on offer for orthodontic treatment. The present paper will highlight the increasing popularity of clear aligner appliances, as well as the clinical scope and the limitations of aligner therapy in general. Further, the paper will outline the differences between the various types of clear aligner products currently available. © 2017 Australian Dental Association.

Vacuum mechatronic laser alignment system on the Nova laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holliday, M.; Wong, K.; Shelton, R.

1991-11-01