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Sample records for fast internal motion

  1. ROBUST MOTION SEGMENTATION FOR HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO SEQUENCES USING A FAST MULTI-RESOLUTION MOTION ESTIMATION BASED ON SPATIO-TEMPORAL TUBES

    OpenAIRE

    Brouard , Olivier; Delannay , Fabrice; Ricordel , Vincent; Barba , Dominique

    2007-01-01

    4 pages; International audience; Motion segmentation methods are effective for tracking video objects. However, objects segmentation methods based on motion need to know the global motion of the video in order to back-compensate it before computing the segmentation. In this paper, we propose a method which estimates the global motion of a High Definition (HD) video shot and then segments it using the remaining motion information. First, we develop a fast method for multi-resolution motion est...

  2. Averaging, not internal noise, limits the development of coherent motion processing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catherine Manning

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The development of motion processing is a critical part of visual development, allowing children to interact with moving objects and navigate within a dynamic environment. However, global motion processing, which requires pooling motion information across space, develops late, reaching adult-like levels only by mid-to-late childhood. The reasons underlying this protracted development are not yet fully understood. In this study, we sought to determine whether the development of motion coherence sensitivity is limited by internal noise (i.e., imprecision in estimating the directions of individual elements and/or global pooling across local estimates. To this end, we presented equivalent noise direction discrimination tasks and motion coherence tasks at both slow (1.5°/s and fast (6°/s speeds to children aged 5, 7, 9 and 11 years, and adults. We show that, as children get older, their levels of internal noise reduce, and they are able to average across more local motion estimates. Regression analyses indicated, however, that age-related improvements in coherent motion perception are driven solely by improvements in averaging and not by reductions in internal noise. Our results suggest that the development of coherent motion sensitivity is primarily limited by developmental changes within brain regions involved in integrating motion signals (e.g., MT/V5.

  3. Internal Motion Estimation by Internal-external Motion Modeling for Lung Cancer Radiotherapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Haibin; Zhong, Zichun; Yang, Yiwei; Chen, Jiawei; Zhou, Linghong; Zhen, Xin; Gu, Xuejun

    2018-02-27

    The aim of this study is to develop an internal-external correlation model for internal motion estimation for lung cancer radiotherapy. Deformation vector fields that characterize the internal-external motion are obtained by respectively registering the internal organ meshes and external surface meshes from the 4DCT images via a recently developed local topology preserved non-rigid point matching algorithm. A composite matrix is constructed by combing the estimated internal phasic DVFs with external phasic and directional DVFs. Principle component analysis is then applied to the composite matrix to extract principal motion characteristics, and generate model parameters to correlate the internal-external motion. The proposed model is evaluated on a 4D NURBS-based cardiac-torso (NCAT) synthetic phantom and 4DCT images from five lung cancer patients. For tumor tracking, the center of mass errors of the tracked tumor are 0.8(±0.5)mm/0.8(±0.4)mm for synthetic data, and 1.3(±1.0)mm/1.2(±1.2)mm for patient data in the intra-fraction/inter-fraction tracking, respectively. For lung tracking, the percent errors of the tracked contours are 0.06(±0.02)/0.07(±0.03) for synthetic data, and 0.06(±0.02)/0.06(±0.02) for patient data in the intra-fraction/inter-fraction tracking, respectively. The extensive validations have demonstrated the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed model in motion tracking for both the tumor and the lung in lung cancer radiotherapy.

  4. SAD PROCESSOR FOR MULTIPLE MACROBLOCK MATCHING IN FAST SEARCH VIDEO MOTION ESTIMATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nehal N. Shah

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Motion estimation is a very important but computationally complex task in video coding. Process of determining motion vectors based on the temporal correlation of consecutive frame is used for video compression. In order to reduce the computational complexity of motion estimation and maintain the quality of encoding during motion compensation, different fast search techniques are available. These block based motion estimation algorithms use the sum of absolute difference (SAD between corresponding macroblock in current frame and all the candidate macroblocks in the reference frame to identify best match. Existing implementations can perform SAD between two blocks using sequential or pipeline approach but performing multi operand SAD in single clock cycle with optimized recourses is state of art. In this paper various parallel architectures for computation of the fixed block size SAD is evaluated and fast parallel SAD architecture is proposed with optimized resources. Further SAD processor is described with 9 processing elements which can be configured for any existing fast search block matching algorithm. Proposed SAD processor consumes 7% fewer adders compared to existing implementation for one processing elements. Using nine PE it can process 84 HD frames per second in worse case which is good outcome for real time implementation. In average case architecture process 325 HD frames per second.

  5. Electron spin echo studies of the internal motion of radicals in crystals: Phase memory vs correlation time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kispert, L.D.; Bowman, M.K.; Norris, J.R.; Brown, M.S.

    1982-01-01

    An electron spin echo (ESE) study of the internal motion of the CH 2 protons in irradiated zinc acetate dihydrate crystals shows that quantitative measurements of the motional correlation time can be obtained quite directly from pulsed measurements. In the slow motional limit, the motional correlation time is equal to the phase memory time determined by ESE. In the fast motional limit, the motional correlation time is proportional to the no motion spectral second moment divided by the ESE phase memory time. ESE offers a convenient method of studying motion, electron transfer, conductivity, etc. in a variety of systems too complicated for study by ordinary EPR. New systems for study by ESE include biological samples, organic polymers, liquid solutions of radicals with unresolved hyperfine, etc. When motion modulates large anisotropic hyperfine couplings, ESE measurements of the phase memory time are sensitive to modulation of pseudosecular hyperfine interactions

  6. Fast image interpolation for motion estimation using graphics hardware

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, Francis; Kokaram, Anil

    2004-05-01

    Motion estimation and compensation is the key to high quality video coding. Block matching motion estimation is used in most video codecs, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263 and H.26L. Motion estimation is also a key component in the digital restoration of archived video and for post-production and special effects in the movie industry. Sub-pixel accurate motion vectors can improve the quality of the vector field and lead to more efficient video coding. However sub-pixel accuracy requires interpolation of the image data. Image interpolation is a key requirement of many image processing algorithms. Often interpolation can be a bottleneck in these applications, especially in motion estimation due to the large number pixels involved. In this paper we propose using commodity computer graphics hardware for fast image interpolation. We use the full search block matching algorithm to illustrate the problems and limitations of using graphics hardware in this way.

  7. An externally and internally deformable, programmable lung motion phantom

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cheung, Yam; Sawant, Amit, E-mail: amit.sawant@utsouthwestern.edu [UT Southwestern Medical Center, University of Texas, Dallas, Texas 75390 (United States)

    2015-05-15

    Purpose: Most clinically deployed strategies for respiratory motion management in lung radiotherapy (e.g., gating and tracking) use external markers that serve as surrogates for tumor motion. However, typical lung phantoms used to validate these strategies are based on a rigid exterior and a rigid or a deformable-interior. Such designs do not adequately represent respiration because the thoracic anatomy deforms internally as well as externally. In order to create a closer approximation of respiratory motion, the authors describe the construction and experimental testing of an externally as well as internally deformable, programmable lung phantom. Methods: The outer shell of a commercially available lung phantom (RS-1500, RSD, Inc.) was used. The shell consists of a chest cavity with a flexible anterior surface, and embedded vertebrae, rib-cage and sternum. A custom-made insert was designed using a piece of natural latex foam block. A motion platform was programmed with sinusoidal and ten patient-recorded lung tumor trajectories. The platform was used to drive a rigid foam “diaphragm” that compressed/decompressed the phantom interior. Experimental characterization comprised of determining the reproducibility and the external–internal correlation of external and internal marker trajectories extracted from kV x-ray fluoroscopy. Experiments were conducted to illustrate three example applications of the phantom—(i) validating the geometric accuracy of the VisionRT surface photogrammetry system; (ii) validating an image registration tool, NiftyReg; and (iii) quantifying the geometric error due to irregular motion in four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT). Results: The phantom correctly reproduced sinusoidal and patient-derived motion, as well as realistic respiratory motion-related effects such as hysteresis. The reproducibility of marker trajectories over multiple runs for sinusoidal as well as patient traces, as characterized by fluoroscopy, was within 0

  8. Effect of respiratory motion on internal radiation dosimetry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xie, Tianwu [Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva 4 CH-1211 (Switzerland); Zaidi, Habib, E-mail: habib.zaidi@hcuge.ch [Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva 4 CH-1211 (Switzerland); Geneva Neuroscience Center, Geneva University, Geneva CH-1205 (Switzerland); Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen 9700 RB (Netherlands)

    2014-11-01

    Purpose: Estimation of the radiation dose to internal organs is essential for the assessment of radiation risks and benefits to patients undergoing diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures including PET. Respiratory motion induces notable internal organ displacement, which influences the absorbed dose for external exposure to radiation. However, to their knowledge, the effect of respiratory motion on internal radiation dosimetry has never been reported before. Methods: Thirteen computational models representing the adult male at different respiratory phases corresponding to the normal respiratory cycle were generated from the 4D dynamic XCAT phantom. Monte Carlo calculations were performed using the MCNP transport code to estimate the specific absorbed fractions (SAFs) of monoenergetic photons/electrons, the S-values of common positron-emitting radionuclides (C-11, N-13, O-15, F-18, Cu-64, Ga-68, Rb-82, Y-86, and I-124), and the absorbed dose of {sup 18}F-fluorodeoxyglucose ({sup 18}F-FDG) in 28 target regions for both the static (average of dynamic frames) and dynamic phantoms. Results: The self-absorbed dose for most organs/tissues is only slightly influenced by respiratory motion. However, for the lung, the self-absorbed SAF is about 11.5% higher at the peak exhale phase than the peak inhale phase for photon energies above 50 keV. The cross-absorbed dose is obviously affected by respiratory motion for many combinations of source-target pairs. The cross-absorbed S-values for the heart contents irradiating the lung are about 7.5% higher in the peak exhale phase than the peak inhale phase for different positron-emitting radionuclides. For {sup 18}F-FDG, organ absorbed doses are less influenced by respiratory motion. Conclusions: Respiration-induced volume variations of the lungs and the repositioning of internal organs affect the self-absorbed dose of the lungs and cross-absorbed dose between organs in internal radiation dosimetry. The dynamic

  9. Variable disparity-motion estimation based fast three-view video coding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bae, Kyung-Hoon; Kim, Seung-Cheol; Hwang, Yong Seok; Kim, Eun-Soo

    2009-02-01

    In this paper, variable disparity-motion estimation (VDME) based 3-view video coding is proposed. In the encoding, key-frame coding (KFC) based motion estimation and variable disparity estimation (VDE) for effectively fast three-view video encoding are processed. These proposed algorithms enhance the performance of 3-D video encoding/decoding system in terms of accuracy of disparity estimation and computational overhead. From some experiments, stereo sequences of 'Pot Plant' and 'IVO', it is shown that the proposed algorithm's PSNRs is 37.66 and 40.55 dB, and the processing time is 0.139 and 0.124 sec/frame, respectively.

  10. Breaking cover: neural responses to slow and fast camouflage-breaking motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yin, Jiapeng; Gong, Hongliang; An, Xu; Chen, Zheyuan; Lu, Yiliang; Andolina, Ian M; McLoughlin, Niall; Wang, Wei

    2015-08-22

    Primates need to detect and recognize camouflaged animals in natural environments. Camouflage-breaking movements are often the only visual cue available to accomplish this. Specifically, sudden movements are often detected before full recognition of the camouflaged animal is made, suggesting that initial processing of motion precedes the recognition of motion-defined contours or shapes. What are the neuronal mechanisms underlying this initial processing of camouflaged motion in the primate visual brain? We investigated this question using intrinsic-signal optical imaging of macaque V1, V2 and V4, along with computer simulations of the neural population responses. We found that camouflaged motion at low speed was processed as a direction signal by both direction- and orientation-selective neurons, whereas at high-speed camouflaged motion was encoded as a motion-streak signal primarily by orientation-selective neurons. No population responses were found to be invariant to the camouflage contours. These results suggest that the initial processing of camouflaged motion at low and high speeds is encoded as direction and motion-streak signals in primate early visual cortices. These processes are consistent with a spatio-temporal filter mechanism that provides for fast processing of motion signals, prior to full recognition of camouflage-breaking animals. © 2015 The Authors.

  11. Neurons compute internal models of the physical laws of motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angelaki, Dora E; Shaikh, Aasef G; Green, Andrea M; Dickman, J David

    2004-07-29

    A critical step in self-motion perception and spatial awareness is the integration of motion cues from multiple sensory organs that individually do not provide an accurate representation of the physical world. One of the best-studied sensory ambiguities is found in visual processing, and arises because of the inherent uncertainty in detecting the motion direction of an untextured contour moving within a small aperture. A similar sensory ambiguity arises in identifying the actual motion associated with linear accelerations sensed by the otolith organs in the inner ear. These internal linear accelerometers respond identically during translational motion (for example, running forward) and gravitational accelerations experienced as we reorient the head relative to gravity (that is, head tilt). Using new stimulus combinations, we identify here cerebellar and brainstem motion-sensitive neurons that compute a solution to the inertial motion detection problem. We show that the firing rates of these populations of neurons reflect the computations necessary to construct an internal model representation of the physical equations of motion.

  12. Part I. Fuel-motion diagnostics in support of fast-reactor safety experiments. Part II. Fission product detection system in support of fast reactor safety experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Devolpi, A.; Doerner, R.C.; Fink, C.L.; Regis, J.P.; Rhodes, E.A.; Stanford, G.S.; Braid, T.H.; Boyar, R.E.

    1986-05-01

    In all destructive fast-reactor safety experiments at TREAT, fuel motion and cladding failure have been monitored by the fast-neutron/gamma-ray hodoscope, providing experimental results that are directly applicable to design, modeling, and validation in fast-reactor safety. Hodoscope contributions to the safety program can be considered to fall into several groupings: pre-failure fuel motion, cladding failure, post-failure fuel motion, steel blockages, pretest and posttest radiography, axial-power-profile variations, and power-coupling monitoring. High-quality results in fuel motion have been achieved, and motion sequences have been reconstructed in qualitative and quantitative visual forms. A collimated detection system has been used to observe fission products in the upper regions of a test loop in the TREAT reactor. Particular regions of the loop are targeted through any of five channels in a rotatable assembly in a horizontal hole through the biological shield. A well-type neutron detector, optimized for delayed neutrons, and two GeLi gamma ray spectrometers have been used in several experiments. Data are presented showing a time history of the transport of Dn emitters, of gamma spectra identifying volatile fission products deposited as aerosols, and of fission gas isotopes released from the coolant

  13. Infrared and Raman study of the fast internal motions of non-rigid molecules in condensed state: method of selective deuteration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lascombe, J.; Cavagnat, D.; Lassegues, J.C.; Rafilipomanana, C.

    1983-01-01

    The dynamical behaviour of non-rigid molecules in the gas state is now well known but very little information is available on these molecules in condensed state. The authors present a method of study based on the analysis of the infrared and Raman spectra of selectively deuterated molecules. It is applied to the nitromethane and cyclopentene molecules which provide respectively characteristic examples of methyl internal rotation and ring-puckering motion. In each case, an isolated -C0 or -CD oscillator is modulated by the internal motion and several γ(CH) or γ(CD) bands are observed as a result of the dependence of the vibrational frequency of the oscillator on its conformational situation. Moreover, in the case of crystalline nitromethane a detailed study of the temperature dependence of the band profiles allows the main mechanism of relaxation of the -CH oscillator to be deduced. (orig.)

  14. Quantitative fuel motion determination with the CABRI fast neutron hodoscope

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baumung, K.; Augier, G.

    1991-01-01

    The fast neutron hodoscope installed at the CABRI reactor in Cadarache, France, is employed to provide quantitative fuel motion data during experiments in which single liquid-metal fast breeder reactor test pins are subjected to simulated accident conditions. Instrument design and performance are reviewed, the methods for the quantitative evaluation are presented, and error sources are discussed. The most important findings are the axial expansion as a function of time, phenomena related to pin failure (such as time, location, pin failure mode, and fuel mass ejected after failure), and linear fuel mass distributions with a 2-cm axial resolution. In this paper the hodoscope results of the CABRI-1 program are summarized

  15. Effect of respiratory motion on internal radiation dosimetry

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Xie, Tianwu; Zaidi, Habib

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: Estimation of the radiation dose to internal organs is essential for the assessment of radiation risks and benefits to patients undergoing diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures including PET. Respiratory motion induces notable internal organ displacement, which influences

  16. The internal-external respiratory motion correlation is unaffected by audiovisual biofeedback.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steel, Harry; Pollock, Sean; Lee, Danny; Keall, Paul; Kim, Taeho

    2014-03-01

    This study evaluated if an audiovisual (AV) biofeedback causes variation in the level of external and internal correlation due to its interactive intervention in natural breathing. The internal (diaphragm) and external (abdominal wall) respiratory motion signals of 15 healthy human subjects under AV biofeedback and free breathing (FB) were analyzed and measures of correlation and regularity taken. Regularity metrics (root mean square error and spectral power dispersion metric) were obtained and the correlation between these metrics and the internal and external correlation was investigated. For FB and AV biofeedback assisted breathing the mean correlations found between internal and external respiratory motion were 0.96±0.02 and 0.96±0.03, respectively. This means there is no evidence to suggest (p-value=0.88) any difference in the correlation between internal and external respiratory motion with the use of AV biofeedback. Our results confirmed the hypothesis that the internal-external correlation with AV biofeedback is the same as for free breathing. Should this correlation be maintained for patients, AV biofeedback can be implemented in the clinic with confidence as regularity improvements using AV biofeedback with an external signal will be reflected in increased internal motion regularity.

  17. Effects of cholesterol or gramicidin on slow and fast motions of phospholipids in oriented bilayers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peng, Z.Y.; Simplaceanu, V.; Dowd, S.R.; Ho, C.

    1989-01-01

    Nuclear spin-lattice relaxation both in the rotating frame and in the laboratory frame is used to investigate the slow and fast molecular motions of phospholipids in oriented bilayers in the liquid crystalline phase. The bilayers are prepared from a perdeuterated phospholipid labeled with a pair of 19 F atoms at the 7 position of the 2-sn acyl chain. Phospholipid-cholesterol or phospholipid-gramicidin interactions are characterized by measuring the relaxation rates as a function of the bilayer orientation, the locking field, and the temperature. These studies show that cholesterol or gramicidin can specifically enhance the relaxation due to slow motions in phospholipid bilayers with correlation times τ s longer than 10 -8 sec. The perturbations of the geometry of the slow motions induced by cholesterol are qualitatively different from those induced by gramicidin. In contrast, the presence of cholesterol or gramicidin slightly suppresses the fast motions with correlation times τ f = 10 -9 to 10 -10 sec without significantly affecting their geometry. Weak locking-field and temperature dependences are observed for both pure lipid bilayers and bilayers containing either cholesterol or gramicidin, suggesting that the motions of phospholipid acyl chains may have dispersed correlation times

  18. Fast filtering algorithm based on vibration systems and neural information exchange and its application to micro motion robot

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gao Wa; Zha Fu-Sheng; Li Man-Tian; Song Bao-Yu

    2014-01-01

    This paper develops a fast filtering algorithm based on vibration systems theory and neural information exchange approach. The characters, including the derivation process and parameter analysis, are discussed and the feasibility and the effectiveness are testified by the filtering performance compared with various filtering methods, such as the fast wavelet transform algorithm, the particle filtering method and our previously developed single degree of freedom vibration system filtering algorithm, according to simulation and practical approaches. Meanwhile, the comparisons indicate that a significant advantage of the proposed fast filtering algorithm is its extremely fast filtering speed with good filtering performance. Further, the developed fast filtering algorithm is applied to the navigation and positioning system of the micro motion robot, which is a high real-time requirement for the signals preprocessing. Then, the preprocessing data is used to estimate the heading angle error and the attitude angle error of the micro motion robot. The estimation experiments illustrate the high practicality of the proposed fast filtering algorithm. (general)

  19. Audiovisual biofeedback improves the correlation between internal/external surrogate motion and lung tumor motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Danny; Greer, Peter B; Paganelli, Chiara; Ludbrook, Joanna Jane; Kim, Taeho; Keall, Paul

    2018-03-01

    Breathing management can reduce breath-to-breath (intrafraction) and day-by-day (interfraction) variability in breathing motion while utilizing the respiratory motion of internal and external surrogates for respiratory guidance. Audiovisual (AV) biofeedback, an interactive personalized breathing motion management system, has been developed to improve reproducibility of intra- and interfraction breathing motion. However, the assumption of the correlation of respiratory motion between surrogates and tumors is not always verified during medical imaging and radiation treatment. Therefore, the aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that the correlation of respiratory motion between surrogates and tumors is the same under free breathing without guidance (FB) and with AV biofeedback guidance for voluntary motion management. For 13 lung cancer patients receiving radiotherapy, 2D coronal and sagittal cine-MR images were acquired across two MRI sessions (pre- and mid-treatment) with two breathing conditions: (a) FB and (b) AV biofeedback, totaling 88 patient measurements. Simultaneously, the external respiratory motion of the abdomen was measured. The internal respiratory motion of the diaphragm and lung tumor was retrospectively measured from 2D coronal and sagittal cine-MR images. The correlation of respiratory motion between surrogates and tumors was calculated using Pearson's correlation coefficient for: (a) abdomen to tumor (abdomen-tumor) and (b) diaphragm to tumor (diaphragm-tumor). The correlations were compared between FB and AV biofeedback using several metrics: abdomen-tumor and diaphragm-tumor correlations with/without ≥5 mm tumor motion range and with/without adjusting for phase shifts between the signals. Compared to FB, AV biofeedback improved abdomen-tumor correlation by 11% (p = 0.12) from 0.53 to 0.59 and diaphragm-tumor correlation by 13% (p = 0.02) from 0.55 to 0.62. Compared to FB, AV biofeedback improved abdomen-tumor correlation by 17% (p = 0

  20. Fast motion-including dose error reconstruction for VMAT with and without MLC tracking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ravkilde, Thomas; Keall, Paul J.; Grau, Cai

    2014-01-01

    of the algorithm for reconstruction of dose and motion-induced dose errors throughout the tracking and non-tracking beam deliveries was quantified. Doses were reconstructed with a mean dose difference relative to the measurements of -0.5% (5.5% standard deviation) for cumulative dose. More importantly, the root...... validate a simple model for fast motion-including dose error reconstruction applicable to intrafractional QA of MLC tracking treatments of moving targets. MLC tracking experiments were performed on a standard linear accelerator with prototype MLC tracking software guided by an electromagnetic transponder......-mean-square deviation between reconstructed and measured motion-induced 3%/3 mm γ failure rates (dose error) was 2.6%. The mean computation time for each calculation of dose and dose error was 295 ms. The motion-including dose reconstruction allows accurate temporal and spatial pinpointing of errors in absorbed dose...

  1. International Working Group on Fast Reactors Sixth Annual Meeting. Summary Report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1973-01-01

    The Agenda of the Meeting was as follows: 1. Review of IWGFR Activities - 1a. Approval of the minutes of the Fifth IWGFR Meeting. 1b. Report by Scientific Secretary regarding the activities of the Group. 2. Comments on National Programmes on Fast Breeder Reactors. 3. International Coordination of the Schedule for Major Fast Reactor Meetings and other major international meetings having a predominant fast reactor interest. 4. Consideration of Conferences on Fast Reactors. 4a. IAEA Symposium on Fuel and Fuel Elements for Fast Reactors, Brussels, Belgium 2-6 July 1973. 4b. International Symposium on Physics of Fast Reactors, Tokyo, Japan, 16 to 23 October 1973. 4c. International Conference on Fast Reactor Power Stations, London, UK, 11 to 14 March 1974 . 4d. Suggestions of the IWGFR members on other conferences. 5. Consideration of a Schedule for Specialists' Meetings in 1973-74. 6. Other Business - 6a. First-aid in Sodium Burns. 6b. Principles of Good Practice for Safe Operation of Sodium Circuits. 6c. Bibliography on Fast Reactors. 7. The Date and Place of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the IWGFR

  2. Effect of pressure on the fast motions in ordered phase phospholipid bilayers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Singh, H

    2005-07-01

    Application of hydrostatic pressure to phospholipid bilayers increases acyl chain order and raises the main transition temperature. {sup 2}H NMR spectra and quadrupole echo decay times were obtained at ambient pressure and pressures of 85 MPa and 196.1 MPa for ordered phase bilayers of a zwitterionic phospholipid : 16:0-16:0 PC-d{sub 62} (DPPC-d{sub 62}) and an anionic phospholipid : 16:0-16:0 PG-d{sub 62} (DPPG-d{sub 62}). The extent to which deuterium magnetization following an RF pulse is refocused in the echo after a second pulse is limited by the motions that modulate the orientation-dependent quadrupole interaction. The q-CPMG pulse sequence is used to separate the contribution of slow and fast motions to the echo decay rate. This work provides insight into how chain packing affects local motion.

  3. A Fast Algorithm to Simulate Droplet Motions in Oil/Water Two Phase Flow

    KAUST Repository

    Zhang, Tao

    2017-06-09

    To improve the research methods in petroleum industry, we develop a fast algorithm to simulate droplet motions in oil and water two phase flow, using phase field model to describe the phase distribution in the flow process. An efficient partial difference equation solver—Shift-Matrix method is applied here, to speed up the calculation coding in high-level language, i.e. Matlab and R. An analytical solution of order parameter is derived, to define the initial condition of phase distribution. The upwind scheme is applied in our algorithm, to make it energy decay stable, which results in the fast speed of calculation. To make it more clear and understandable, we provide the specific code for forming the coefficient matrix used in Shift-Matrix Method. Our algorithm is compared with other methods in different scales, including Front Tracking and VOSET method in macroscopic and LBM method using RK model in mesoscopic scale. In addition, we compare the result of droplet motion under gravity using our algorithm with the empirical formula common used in industry. The result proves the high efficiency and robustness of our algorithm and it’s then used to simulate the motions of multiple droplets under gravity and cross-direction forces, which is more practical in industry and can be extended to wider application.

  4. Internal Mass Motion for Spacecraft Dynamics and Control

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Hall, Christopher D

    2008-01-01

    We present a detailed description of the application of a noncanonical Hamiltonian formulation to the modeling, analysis, and simulation of the dynamics of gyrostat spacecraft with internal mass motion...

  5. Technical note: Correlation of respiratory motion between external patient surface and internal anatomical landmarks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fayad, Hadi; Pan, Tinsu; Clément, Jean-François; Visvikis, Dimitris

    2011-01-01

    Purpose Current respiratory motion monitoring devices used for motion synchronization in medical imaging and radiotherapy provide either 1D respiratory signals over a specific region or 3D information based on few external or internal markers. On the other hand, newer technology may offer the potential to monitor the entire patient external surface in real time. The main objective of this study was to assess the motion correlation between such an external patient surface and internal anatomical landmarks motion. Methods Four dimensional Computed Tomography (4D CT) volumes for ten patients were used in this study. Anatomical landmarks were manually selected in the thoracic region across the 4D CT datasets by two experts. The landmarks included normal structures as well as the tumour location. In addition, a distance map representing the entire external patient surface, which corresponds to surfaces acquired by a Time of Flight (ToF) camera or similar devices, was created by segmenting the skin of all 4D CT volumes using a thresholding algorithm. Finally, the correlation between the internal landmarks and external surface motion was evaluated for different regions (placement and size) throughout a patient’s surface. Results Significant variability was observed in the motion of the different parts of the external patient surface. The larger motion magnitude was consistently measured in the central regions of the abdominal and the thoracic areas for the different patient datasets considered. The highest correlation coefficients were observed between the motion of these external surface areas and internal landmarks such as the diaphragm and mediastinum structures as well as the tumour location landmarks (0.8 ± 0.18 and 0.72 ± 0.12 for the abdominal and the thoracic regions respectively). Worse correlation was observed when one considered landmarks not significantly influenced by respiratory motion such as the apex and the sternum. Discussion and conclusions There

  6. INTERNAL PROPER MOTIONS IN THE ESKIMO NEBULA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    García-Díaz, Ma. T.; Gutiérrez, L.; Steffen, W.; López, J. A.; Beckman, J.

    2015-01-01

    We present measurements of internal proper motions at more than 500 positions of NGC 2392, the Eskimo Nebula, based on images acquired with WFPC2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope at two epochs separated by 7.695 yr. Comparisons of the two observations clearly show the expansion of the nebula. We measured the amplitude and direction of the motion of local structures in the nebula by determining their relative shift during that interval. In order to assess the potential uncertainties in the determination of proper motions in this object, in general, the measurements were performed using two different methods, used previously in the literature. We compare the results from the two methods, and to perform the scientific analysis of the results we choose one, the cross-correlation method, because it is more reliable. We go on to perform a ''criss-cross'' mapping analysis on the proper motion vectors, which helps in the interpretation of the velocity pattern. By combining our results of the proper motions with radial velocity measurements obtained from high resolution spectroscopic observations, and employing an existing 3D model, we estimate the distance to the nebula to be 1.3 kpc

  7. INTERNAL PROPER MOTIONS IN THE ESKIMO NEBULA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    García-Díaz, Ma. T.; Gutiérrez, L.; Steffen, W.; López, J. A. [Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Km 103 Carretera Tijuana-Ensenada, 22860 Ensenada, B.C. (Mexico); Beckman, J., E-mail: tere@astro.unam.mx, E-mail: leonel@astro.unam.mx, E-mail: wsteffen@astro.unam.mx, E-mail: jal@astro.unam.mx, E-mail: jeb@iac.es [Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain)

    2015-01-10

    We present measurements of internal proper motions at more than 500 positions of NGC 2392, the Eskimo Nebula, based on images acquired with WFPC2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope at two epochs separated by 7.695 yr. Comparisons of the two observations clearly show the expansion of the nebula. We measured the amplitude and direction of the motion of local structures in the nebula by determining their relative shift during that interval. In order to assess the potential uncertainties in the determination of proper motions in this object, in general, the measurements were performed using two different methods, used previously in the literature. We compare the results from the two methods, and to perform the scientific analysis of the results we choose one, the cross-correlation method, because it is more reliable. We go on to perform a ''criss-cross'' mapping analysis on the proper motion vectors, which helps in the interpretation of the velocity pattern. By combining our results of the proper motions with radial velocity measurements obtained from high resolution spectroscopic observations, and employing an existing 3D model, we estimate the distance to the nebula to be 1.3 kpc.

  8. Deliberate utilization of interaction torques brakes elbow extension in a fast throwing motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hore, Jon; Debicki, Derek B; Gribble, Paul L; Watts, Sherry

    2011-05-01

    We tested the hypothesis that in fast arm movements the CNS deliberately utilizes interaction torques to decelerate (brake) joint rotations. Twelve subjects performed fast 2-D overarm throws in which large elbow extension velocities occurred. Joint motions were computed from recordings made with search coils; joint torques were calculated using inverse dynamics. After ball release, a large follow-through shoulder extension acceleration occurred that was initiated by shoulder extensor muscle torque. This shoulder acceleration produced a flexor interaction torque at the elbow that initiated elbow deceleration (braking). An instantaneous mechanical interaction of passive torques then occurred between elbow and shoulder, i.e., elbow extension deceleration produced a large shoulder extensor interaction torque that contributed to the shoulder extension acceleration which, simultaneously, produced a large elbow flexor interaction torque that contributed to elbow extension deceleration, and so on. Late elbow flexor muscle torque also contributed to elbow deceleration. The interaction of passive torques between shoulder and elbow was braked by shoulder flexor muscle torque. In this mechanism, shoulder musculature contributed to braking elbow extension in two ways: shoulder extensors initiated the mechanical interaction of passive torques between shoulder and elbow and shoulder flexors dissipated kinetic energy from elbow braking. It is concluded that, in fast 2-D throws, the CNS deliberately utilizes powerful interaction torques between shoulder and elbow to brake motion at the elbow.

  9. Heart Motion Prediction in Robotic-Assisted Beating Heart Surgery: A Nonlinear Fast Adaptive Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fan Liang

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Off-pump Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG surgery outperforms traditional on-pump surgery because the assisted robotic tools can alleviate the relative motion between the beating heart and robotic tools. Therefore, it is possible for the surgeon to operate on the beating heart and thus lessens post surgery complications for the patients. Due to the highly irregular and non-stationary nature of heart motion, it is critical that the beating heart motion is predicted in the model-based track control procedures. It is technically preferable to model heart motion in a nonlinear way because the characteristic analysis of 3D heart motion data through Bi-spectral analysis and Fourier methods demonstrates the involved nonlinearity of heart motion. We propose an adaptive nonlinear heart motion model based on the Volterra Series in this paper. We also design a fast lattice structure to achieve computational-efficiency for real-time online predictions. We argue that the quadratic term of the Volterra Series can improve the prediction accuracy by covering sharp change points and including the motion with sufficient detail. The experiment results indicate that the adaptive nonlinear heart motion prediction algorithm outperforms the autoregressive (AR and the time-varying Fourier-series models in terms of the root mean square of the prediction error and the prediction error in extreme cases.

  10. Dynamics of fast ions in Tokamaks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Helander, P.

    1994-01-01

    Fast ions play a prominent role in the heating of tokamak plasmas by, e.g. neutral-beam injection, ion-cyclotron-resonance heating, and alpha-particle heating. In this thesis, a number of physical and mathematical problems concerning the dynamics of fast ions in tokamaks are addressed. First, the motion under adiabatic perturbations is studied. The frequencies of instabilities excited in tokamaks sometimes vary slowly with time. The existence of an adiabatic invariant of particle motion in such circumstances is shown to lead to a rapid convection of particles in the radial direction. Generalized adiabatic invariants are constructed for systems where the slowly varying parameter is subjected to small, but rapidly varying, fluctuations. Second, the onset of stochastic motion under resonant perturbations is considered. It is shown that the finite width of fast-ion drift orbits significantly affects the threshold for stochastic motion caused by magnetic field ripple or ion-cyclotron-resonance heating. Finite-orbit-width effects are also shown to reduce the strength of resonant interaction between alpha particles and internal kink modes. Third, the diffusive motion in the stochastic regime is analysed mathematically. Monte Carlo operators for the motion on long time-scales are constructed, and the validity of the quasilinear diffusion coefficient is examined. Finally, the effects of close ion collisions are investigated. It is demonstrated that close encounters with fast ions produce a high-energy tail in the distribution functions of impurity ions, and that close collisions between fusion-generated alpha particles give rise to a population of such particles with energies extending up to twice the birth energy. 44 refs

  11. Fuel motion in overpower tests of metallic integral fast reactor fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rhodes, E.A.; Bauer, T.H.; Stanford, G.S.; Regis, J.P.; Dickerman, C.E.

    1992-01-01

    In this paper results from hodoscope data analyses are presented for transient overpower (TOP) tests M5, M6, and M7 at the Transient Reactor Test Facility, with emphasis on transient feedback mechanisms, including prefailure expansion at the tops of the fuel pins, subsequent dispersive axial fuel motion, and losses in relative worth of the fuel pins during the tests. Tests M5 and M6 were the first TOP tests of margin to cladding breach and prefailure elongation of D9-clad ternary (U-Pu-Zr) integral fast reactor-type fuel. Test M7 extended these results to high-burnup fuel and also initiated transient testing of HT-9-clad binary (U-Zr) Fast Flux Test Facility driver fuel. Results show significant prefailure negative reactivity feedback and strongly negative feedback from fuel driven to failure

  12. Fast compressed domain motion detection in H.264 video streams for video surveillance applications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Szczerba, Krzysztof; Forchhammer, Søren; Støttrup-Andersen, Jesper

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents a novel approach to fast motion detection in H.264/MPEG-4 advanced video coding (AVC) compressed video streams for IP video surveillance systems. The goal is to develop algorithms which may be useful in a real-life industrial perspective by facilitating the processing of large...... on motion vectors embedded in the video stream without requiring a full decoding and reconstruction of video frames. To improve the robustness to noise, a confidence measure based on temporal and spatial clues is introduced to increase the probability of correct detection. The algorithm was tested on indoor...

  13. Calibration and quantification of fast intracellular motion (FIM) in living cells using correlation analysis

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Veselý, Pavel; Mikš, A.; Novák, J.; Boyde, A.

    2003-01-01

    Roč. 25, - (2003), s. 230-239 ISSN 0161-0457 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA304/99/0368 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z5052915 Keywords : fast intracellular motion * living cell ů video rate confocal laser scanning microscopy Subject RIV: EA - Cell Biology Impact factor: 0.733, year: 2003

  14. Real-Time Observation of Internal Motion within Ultrafast Dissipative Optical Soliton Molecules

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krupa, Katarzyna; Nithyanandan, K.; Andral, Ugo; Tchofo-Dinda, Patrice; Grelu, Philippe

    2017-06-01

    Real-time access to the internal ultrafast dynamics of complex dissipative optical systems opens new explorations of pulse-pulse interactions and dynamic patterns. We present the first direct experimental evidence of the internal motion of a dissipative optical soliton molecule generated in a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser. We map the internal motion of a soliton pair molecule by using a dispersive Fourier-transform imaging technique, revealing different categories of internal pulsations, including vibrationlike and phase drifting dynamics. Our experiments agree well with numerical predictions and bring insights to the analogy between self-organized states of lights and states of the matter.

  15. Precise Aperture-Dependent Motion Compensation with Frequency Domain Fast Back-Projection Algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Man Zhang

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Precise azimuth-variant motion compensation (MOCO is an essential and difficult task for high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR imagery. In conventional post-filtering approaches, residual azimuth-variant motion errors are generally compensated through a set of spatial post-filters, where the coarse-focused image is segmented into overlapped blocks concerning the azimuth-dependent residual errors. However, image domain post-filtering approaches, such as precise topography- and aperture-dependent motion compensation algorithm (PTA, have difficulty of robustness in declining, when strong motion errors are involved in the coarse-focused image. In this case, in order to capture the complete motion blurring function within each image block, both the block size and the overlapped part need necessary extension leading to degeneration of efficiency and robustness inevitably. Herein, a frequency domain fast back-projection algorithm (FDFBPA is introduced to deal with strong azimuth-variant motion errors. FDFBPA disposes of the azimuth-variant motion errors based on a precise azimuth spectrum expression in the azimuth wavenumber domain. First, a wavenumber domain sub-aperture processing strategy is introduced to accelerate computation. After that, the azimuth wavenumber spectrum is partitioned into a set of wavenumber blocks, and each block is formed into a sub-aperture coarse resolution image via the back-projection integral. Then, the sub-aperture images are straightforwardly fused together in azimuth wavenumber domain to obtain a full resolution image. Moreover, chirp-Z transform (CZT is also introduced to implement the sub-aperture back-projection integral, increasing the efficiency of the algorithm. By disusing the image domain post-filtering strategy, robustness of the proposed algorithm is improved. Both simulation and real-measured data experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposal.

  16. Advances in fast reactor technology. Proceedings of the 30. meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1998-04-01

    Individual States were largely responsible for early developments in experimental and prototype liquid metal fast reactors (LMFRs). However, for development of advanced LMFRs, international co-operation plays an important role. The IAEA seeks to promote such co-operation. For R and D incorporating innovative features, international co-operation allows pooling of resources and expertise in areas of common interest. Information on experience gained from R and D, and from the operation and construction of fast reactors, has been reviewed periodically by the International Working Group on Fast Reactors (IWGFR). These proceedings contain updated a new information on the status of LMFR development, as reported at the 30th meeting of the IWGFR, held in Beijing, China, from 13 to 16 May 1997

  17. Advances in fast reactor technology. Proceedings of the 30. meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1998-04-01

    Individual States were largely responsible for early developments in experimental and prototype liquid metal fast reactors (LMFRs). However, for development of advanced LMFRs, international co-operation plays an important role. The IAEA seeks to promote such co-operation. For R and D incorporating innovative features, international co-operation allows pooling of resources and expertise in areas of common interest. Information on experience gained from R and D, and from the operation and construction of fast reactors, has been reviewed periodically by the International Working Group on Fast Reactors (IWGFR). These proceedings contain updated a new information on the status of LMFR development, as reported at the 30th meeting of the IWGFR, held in Beijing, China, from 13 to 16 May 1997. Refs,figs,tabs.

  18. International Working Group on Fast Reactors Second Annual Meeting. Summary Report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1969-01-01

    The Agenda of the Meeting was as follows: Opening of the meeting. 2. Appraisal of the IWGFB's activity for the period from the first annual meeting of the Group. 3. Comments on national programmes on fast breeder reactors. 4. Presentation of general findings and conclusions of national and regional meetings on fast reactor problems held in represented countries and international organisations last year. 5. Comments on the programmes of international meetings on fast reactors to be held in 1969. 6. Consideration of a schedule for meetings on fast reactors in 1970. 7. Suggestions for the topics and location of specialists' meetings in 1969-1970. 8. Suggestions for reviews and studies in the field of fast reactors. 9. The time and place of the third annual meeting of the IWGFR. 10. Closing of the meeting

  19. Relation of external surface to internal tumor motion studied with cine CT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chi, P.-C.M.; Balter, Peter; Luo Dershan; Mohan, Radhe; Pan Tinsu

    2006-01-01

    The accuracy of delivering gated-radiation therapy to lung tumors using an external respiratory surrogate relies on not only interfractional and intrafractional reproducibility, but also a strong correlation between external motion and internal tumor motion. The purpose of this work was to use the cine images acquired by four-dimensional computed tomography acquisition protocol to study the relation between external surface motion and internal tumor motion. The respiratory phase information of tumor motion and chest wall motion was measured on the cine images using a proposed region-of-interest (ROI) method and compared to measurement of an external respiratory monitoring device. On eight lung patient data sets, the phase shifts were measured between (1) the signal of a real-time positioning-management (RPM) respiratory monitoring device placed in the abdominal region and four surface locations on the chest wall (2) the RPM signal in the abdominal region and tumor motions, and (3) chest wall surface motions and tumor motions. Respiratory waveforms measured at different surface locations during the same respiratory cycle often varied and had significant phase shifts. Seven of the 8 patients showed the abdominal motion leading chest wall motion. The best correlation (smallest phase shift) was found between the abdominal motion and the superior-inferior (S-I) tumor motion. A wide range of phase shifts was observed between external surface motion and tumor anterior-posterior (A-P)/lateral motion. The result supported the placement of the RPM block in the abdominal region and suggested that during a gated therapy utilizing the RPM system, it is necessary to place the RPM block at the same location as it is during treatment simulation in order to reduce potential errors introduced by the position of the RPM block. Correlations between external motions and lateral/A-P tumor motions were inconclusive due to a combination of patient selection and the limitation of the ROI

  20. Influence of different breathing maneuvers on internal and external organ motion: Use of fiducial markers in dynamic MRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Plathow, Christian; Zimmermann, Hendrik; Fink, Christian; Umathum, Reiner; Schoebinger, Max; Huber, Peter; Zuna, Ivan; Debus, Juergen; Schlegel, Wolfgang; Meinzer, Hans-Peter; Semmler, Wolfhard; Kauczor, Hans-Ulrich; Bock, Michael

    2005-01-01

    Purpose: To investigate, with dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) and a fiducial marker, the influence of different breathing maneuvers on internal organ and external chest wall motion. Methods and materials: Lung and chest wall motion of 16 healthy subjects (13 male, 3 female) were examined with real-time trueFISP (true fast imaging with steady-state precession) dMRI and a small inductively coupled marker coil on either the abdomen or thorax. Three different breathing maneuvers were performed (predominantly 'abdominal breathing,' 'thoracic breathing,' and unspecific 'normal breathing'). The craniocaudal (CC), anteroposterior (AP), and mediolateral (ML) lung distances were correlated (linear regression coefficient) with marker coil position during forced and quiet breathing. Results: Differences of the CC distance between maximum forced inspiration and expiration were significant between abdominal and thoracic breathing (p < 0.05). The correlation between CC distance and coil position was best for forced abdominal breathing and a marker coil in the abdominal position (r 0.89 ± 0.04); for AP and ML distance, forced thoracic breathing and a coil in the thoracic position was best (r = 0.84 ± 0.03 and 0.82 ± 0.03, respectively). In quiet breathing, a lower correlation was found. Conclusion: A fiducial marker coil external to the thorax in combination with dMRI is a new technique to yield quantitative information on the correlation of internal organ and external chest wall motion. Correlations are highly dependent on the breathing maneuver

  1. Processing of angular motion and gravity information through an internal model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laurens, Jean; Straumann, Dominik; Hess, Bernhard J M

    2010-09-01

    The vestibular organs in the base of the skull provide important information about head orientation and motion in space. Previous studies have suggested that both angular velocity information from the semicircular canals and information about head orientation and translation from the otolith organs are centrally processed in an internal model of head motion, using the principles of optimal estimation. This concept has been successfully applied to model behavioral responses to classical vestibular motion paradigms. This study measured the dynamic of the vestibuloocular reflex during postrotatory tilt, tilt during the optokinetic afternystagmus, and off-vertical axis rotation. The influence of otolith signal on the VOR was systematically varied by using a series of tilt angles. We found that the time constants of responses varied almost identically as a function of gravity in these paradigms. We show that Bayesian modeling could predict the experimental results in an accurate and consistent manner. In contrast to other approaches, the Bayesian model also provides a plausible explanation of why these vestibulooculo motor responses occur as a consequence of an internal process of optimal motion estimation.

  2. Motion-specific internal target volumes for FDG-avid mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lamb, James M.; Robinson, Clifford G.; Bradley, Jeffrey D.; Low, Daniel A.

    2013-01-01

    Background and purpose: To quantify the benefit of motion-specific internal target volumes for FDG-avid mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes generated using 4D-PET, vs. conventional internal target volumes generated using non-respiratory gated PET and 4D-CT scans. Materials and methods: Five patients with FDG-avid tumors metastatic to 11 hilar or mediastinal lymph nodes were imaged with respiratory-correlated FDG-PET (4D-PET) and 4D-CT. FDG-avid nodes were contoured by a radiation oncologist in two ways. Standard-of-care volumes were contoured using conventional un-gated PET, 4D-CT, and breath-hold CT. A second, motion-specific, set of volumes were contoured using 4D-PET.Contours based on 4D-PET corresponded directly to an internal target volume (ITV 4D ), whereas contours based on un-gated PET were expanded by a series of exploratory isotropic margins (from 5 to 13 mm) based on literature recommendations on lymph node motion to form internal target volumes (ITV 3D ). Results: A 13 mm expansion of the un-gated PET nodal volume was needed to cover the ITV 4D for 10 of 11 nodes studied. The ITV 3D based on a 13 mm expansion included on average 45 cm 3 of tissue that was not included in the ITV 4D . Conclusions: Motion-specific lymph-node internal target volumes generated from 4D-PET imaging could be used to improve accuracy and/or reduce normal-tissue irradiation compared to the standard-of-care un-gated PET based internal target volumes

  3. Coherent Motion Reveals Non‐Ergodic Nature of Internal Conversion between Excited States

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kuhlman, Thomas Scheby; Sølling, Theis I.; Møller, Klaus Braagaard

    2012-01-01

    for smaller molecules. Specifically, we focus on the S2→S1 internal conversion in cyclobutanone, cyclopentanone, and cyclohexanone. By means of time‐resolved mass spectrometry and photoelectron spectroscopy the relative rate of this transition is determined to be 13:2:1. Remarkably, we observe coherent......We found that specific nuclear motion along low‐frequency modes is effective in coupling electronic states and that this motion prevail in some small molecules. Thus, in direct contradiction to what is expected based on the standard models, the internal conversion process can proceed faster...

  4. Probing Motion of Fast Radio Burst Sources by Timing Strongly Lensed Repeaters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dai, Liang; Lu, Wenbin

    2017-09-01

    Given the possible repetitive nature of fast radio bursts (FRBs), their cosmological origin, and their high occurrence, detection of strongly lensed sources due to intervening galaxy lenses is possible with forthcoming radio surveys. We show that if multiple images of a repeating source are resolved with VLBI, using a method independent of lens modeling, accurate timing could reveal non-uniform motion, either physical or apparent, of the emission spot. This can probe the physical nature of FRBs and their surrounding environments, constraining scenarios including orbital motion around a stellar companion if FRBs require a compact star in a special system, and jet-medium interactions for which the location of the emission spot may randomly vary. The high timing precision possible for FRBs (˜ms) compared with the typical time delays between images in galaxy lensing (≳10 days) enables the measurement of tiny fractional changes in the delays (˜ {10}-9) and hence the detection of time-delay variations induced by relative motions between the source, the lens, and the Earth. We show that uniform cosmic peculiar velocities only cause the delay time to drift linearly, and that the effect from the Earth’s orbital motion can be accurately subtracted, thus enabling a search for non-trivial source motion. For a timing accuracy of ˜1 ms and a repetition rate (of detected bursts) of ˜0.05 per day of a single FRB source, non-uniform displacement ≳0.1-1 au of the emission spot perpendicular to the line of sight is detectable if repetitions are seen over a period of hundreds of days.

  5. Monitoring internal organ motion with continuous wave radar in CT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pfanner, Florian; Maier, Joscha; Allmendinger, Thomas; Flohr, Thomas; Kachelrieß, Marc

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: To avoid motion artifacts in medical imaging or to minimize the exposure of healthy tissues in radiation therapy, medical devices are often synchronized with the patient's respiratory motion. Today's respiratory motion monitors require additional effort to prepare the patients, e.g., mounting a motion belt or placing an optical reflector on the patient's breast. Furthermore, they are not able to measure internal organ motion without implanting markers. An interesting alternative to assess the patient's organ motion is continuous wave radar. The aim of this work is to design, implement, and evaluate such a radar system focusing on application in CT.Methods: The authors designed a radar system operating in the 860 MHz band to monitor the patient motion. In the intended application of the radar system, the antennas are located close to the patient's body inside the table of a CT system. One receive and four transmitting antennas are used to avoid the requirement of exact patient positioning. The radar waves propagate into the patient's body and are reflected at tissue boundaries, for example at the borderline between muscle and adipose tissue, or at the boundaries of organs. At present, the authors focus on the detection of respiratory motion. The radar system consists of the hardware mentioned above as well as of dedicated signal processing software to extract the desired information from the radar signal. The system was evaluated using simulations and measurements. To simulate the radar system, a simulation model based on radar and wave field equations was designed and 4D respiratory-gated CT data sets were used as input. The simulated radar signals and the measured data were processed in the same way. The radar system hardware and the signal processing algorithms were tested with data from ten volunteers. As a reference, the respiratory motion signal was recorded using a breast belt simultaneously with the radar measurements.Results: Concerning the

  6. Rectal Balloon for the Immobilization of the Prostate Internal Motion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Sang Kyu; Beak, Jong Geal; Kim, Joo Ho; Jeon, Byong Chul; Cho, Jeong Hee; Kim, Dong Wook; Song, Tae Soo; Cho, Jae Ho; Na, Soo Kyong

    2005-01-01

    The using of endo-rectal balloon has proposed as optimal method that minimized the motion of prostate and the dose of rectum wall volume for treated prostate cancer patients, so we make the customized rectal balloon device. In this study, we analyzed the efficiency of the Self-customized rectal balloon in the aspects of its reproducibility. In 5 patients, for treatment planning, each patient was acquired CT slice images in state of with and without rectal balloon. Also they had CT scanning same repeated third times in during radiation treatment (IMRT). In each case, we analyzed the deviation of rectal balloon position and verified the isodose distribution of rectum wall at closed prostate. Using the rectal balloon, we minimized the planning target volume (PTV) by decreased the internal motion of prostate and overcome the dose limit of radiation therapy in prostate cancer by increased the gap between the rectum wall and high dose region. The using of rectal balloon, although, was reluctant to treat by patients. View a point of immobilization of prostate internal motion and dose escalation of GTV (gross tumor volume), its using consider large efficient for treated prostate cancer patients.

  7. International standardization of safety requirements for fast reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2011-06-01

    Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) is conducting the FaCT (Fast Reactor Cycle Technology Development) project in cooperation with Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) and Mitsubishi FBR systems inc. (MFBR), where an advanced loop-type fast reactor named JSFR (Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor) is being developed. It is important to develop software technologies (a safety guideline, safety design criteria, safety design standards etc.) of FBRs as well as hardware ones (a reactor plant itself) in order to address prospective worldwide utilization of FBR technology. Therefore, it is expected to establish a rational safety guideline applicable to the JSFR and harmonized with national nuclear-safety regulations as well, including Japan, the United States and the European Union. This report presents domestic and international status of safety guideline development for sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs), results of comparative study for safety requirements provided in existing documents and a proposal for safety requirements of future SFRs with a roadmap for their refinement and worldwide utilization. (author)

  8. A unified internal model theory to resolve the paradox of active versus passive self-motion sensation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laurens, Jean; Angelaki, Dora E

    2017-10-18

    Brainstem and cerebellar neurons implement an internal model to accurately estimate self-motion during externally generated ('passive') movements. However, these neurons show reduced responses during self-generated ('active') movements, indicating that predicted sensory consequences of motor commands cancel sensory signals. Remarkably, the computational processes underlying sensory prediction during active motion and their relationship to internal model computations during passive movements remain unknown. We construct a Kalman filter that incorporates motor commands into a previously established model of optimal passive self-motion estimation. The simulated sensory error and feedback signals match experimentally measured neuronal responses during active and passive head and trunk rotations and translations. We conclude that a single sensory internal model can combine motor commands with vestibular and proprioceptive signals optimally. Thus, although neurons carrying sensory prediction error or feedback signals show attenuated modulation, the sensory cues and internal model are both engaged and critically important for accurate self-motion estimation during active head movements.

  9. A novel directional asymmetric sampling search algorithm for fast block-matching motion estimation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yue-e.; Wang, Qiang

    2011-11-01

    This paper proposes a novel directional asymmetric sampling search (DASS) algorithm for video compression. Making full use of the error information (block distortions) of the search patterns, eight different direction search patterns are designed for various situations. The strategy of local sampling search is employed for the search of big-motion vector. In order to further speed up the search, early termination strategy is adopted in procedure of DASS. Compared to conventional fast algorithms, the proposed method has the most satisfactory PSNR values for all test sequences.

  10. Audiovisual biofeedback improves diaphragm motion reproducibility in MRI

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Taeho; Pollock, Sean; Lee, Danny; O’Brien, Ricky; Keall, Paul

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: In lung radiotherapy, variations in cycle-to-cycle breathing results in four-dimensional computed tomography imaging artifacts, leading to inaccurate beam coverage and tumor targeting. In previous studies, the effect of audiovisual (AV) biofeedback on the external respiratory signal reproducibility has been investigated but the internal anatomy motion has not been fully studied. The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that AV biofeedback improves diaphragm motion reproducibility of internal anatomy using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: To test the hypothesis 15 healthy human subjects were enrolled in an ethics-approved AV biofeedback study consisting of two imaging sessions spaced ∼1 week apart. Within each session MR images were acquired under free breathing and AV biofeedback conditions. The respiratory signal to the AV biofeedback system utilized optical monitoring of an external marker placed on the abdomen. Synchronously, serial thoracic 2D MR images were obtained to measure the diaphragm motion using a fast gradient-recalled-echo MR pulse sequence in both coronal and sagittal planes. The improvement in the diaphragm motion reproducibility using the AV biofeedback system was quantified by comparing cycle-to-cycle variability in displacement, respiratory period, and baseline drift. Additionally, the variation in improvement between the two sessions was also quantified. Results: The average root mean square error (RMSE) of diaphragm cycle-to-cycle displacement was reduced from 2.6 mm with free breathing to 1.6 mm (38% reduction) with the implementation of AV biofeedback (p-value biofeedback (p-value biofeedback (p-value = 0.012). The diaphragm motion reproducibility improvements with AV biofeedback were consistent with the abdominal motion reproducibility that was observed from the external marker motion variation. Conclusions: This study was the first to investigate the potential of AV biofeedback to improve the motion

  11. Internal friction due to domain-wall motion in martensitically transformed A15 compounds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snead, C.L. Jr.; Welch, D.O.

    1985-01-01

    A lattice instability in A15 materials in some cases leads to a cubic-to-tetragonal martensitic transformation at low temperatures. The transformed material orients in lamellae with c axes alternately aligned along the directions producing domain walls between the lamellae. An internal-friction (delta) feature below T/sub m/ is attributed to stress-induced domain-wall motion. The magnitude of the friction increases as temperature is lowered below T/sub m/ as (1-c/a) increases, and behaves as (1-c/a) 2 from T/sub m/ down to the superconducting critical temperature where the increasing tetragonality is inhibited. The effect of strain in the lattice is to decrease the domain-wall internal friction, but not affect T/sub m/. Neutron-induced disorder and the addition of some third-elements in alloying decrease both delta and T/sub m/, with some elements reducing only the former. Less than 1 at. % H is seen to completely suppress both delta and T/sub m. Martensitically transformed V 2 Zr demonstrates low-temperature internal-friction and modulus behavior consists with easy β/m wall motion relative to the easy m/m motion of the A15's. For the V 2 Zr, a peak in delta is observed, qualitatively in agreement with expected β/m wall motion

  12. Neural mechanism for sensing fast motion in dim light.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ran; Wang, Yi

    2013-11-07

    Luminance is a fundamental property of visual scenes. A population of neurons in primary visual cortex (V1) is sensitive to uniform luminance. In natural vision, however, the retinal image often changes rapidly. Consequently the luminance signals visual cells receive are transiently varying. How V1 neurons respond to such luminance changes is unknown. By applying large static uniform stimuli or grating stimuli altering at 25 Hz that resemble the rapid luminance changes in the environment, we show that approximately 40% V1 cells responded to rapid luminance changes of uniform stimuli. Most of them strongly preferred luminance decrements. Importantly, when tested with drifting gratings, the preferred speeds of these cells were significantly higher than cells responsive to static grating stimuli but not to uniform stimuli. This responsiveness can be accounted for by the preferences for low spatial frequencies and high temporal frequencies. These luminance-sensitive cells subserve the detection of fast motion under the conditions of dim illumination.

  13. SU-E-J-235: Audiovisual Biofeedback Improves the Correlation Between Internal and External Respiratory Motion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, D; Pollock, S; Keall, P [Radiation Physics Laboratory, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, NSW (Australia); Greer, P [School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW (Australia); Department of Radiation Oncology, Calvary Mater Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW (Australia); Ludbrook, J [Department of Radiation Oncology, Calvary Mater Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW (Australia); Paganelli, C [Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milano (Italy); Kim, T [Radiation Physics Laboratory, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, NSW (Australia); Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, NC (United States)

    2015-06-15

    Purpose: External respiratory surrogates are often used to predict internal lung tumor motion for beam gating but the assumption of correlation between external and internal surrogates is not always verified resulting in amplitude mismatch and time shift. To test the hypothesis that audiovisual (AV) biofeedback improves the correlation between internal and external respiratory motion, in order to improve the accuracy of respiratory-gated treatments for lung cancer radiotherapy. Methods: In nine lung cancer patients, 2D coronal and sagittal cine-MR images were acquired across two MRI sessions (pre- and mid-treatment) with (1) free breathing (FB) and (2) AV biofeedback. External anterior-posterior (AP) respiratory motions of (a) chest and (b) abdomen were simultaneously acquired with physiological measurement unit (PMU, 3T Skyra, Siemens Healthcare Erlangen, Germany) and real-time position management (RPM) system (Varian, Palo Alto, USA), respectively. Internal superior-inferior (SI) respiratory motions of (c) lung tumor (i.e. centroid of auto-segmented lung tumor) and (d) diaphragm (i.e. upper liver dome) were measured from individual cine-MR images across 32 dataset. The four respiratory motions were then synchronized with the cine-MR image acquisition time. Correlation coefficients were calculated in the time variation of two nominated respiratory motions: (1) chest-abdomen, (2) abdomen-diaphragm and (3) diaphragm-lung tumor. The three combinations were compared between FB and AV biofeedback. Results: Compared to FB, AV biofeedback improved chest-abdomen correlation by 17% (p=0.005) from 0.75±0.23 to 0.90±0.05 and abdomen-diaphragm correlation by 4% (p=0.058) from 0.91±0.11 to 0.95±0.05. Compared to FB, AV biofeedback improved diaphragm-lung tumor correlation by 12% (p=0.023) from 0.65±0.21 to 0.74±0.16. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that AV biofeedback significantly improved the correlation of internal and external respiratory motion, thus

  14. SU-E-J-235: Audiovisual Biofeedback Improves the Correlation Between Internal and External Respiratory Motion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, D; Pollock, S; Keall, P; Greer, P; Ludbrook, J; Paganelli, C; Kim, T

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: External respiratory surrogates are often used to predict internal lung tumor motion for beam gating but the assumption of correlation between external and internal surrogates is not always verified resulting in amplitude mismatch and time shift. To test the hypothesis that audiovisual (AV) biofeedback improves the correlation between internal and external respiratory motion, in order to improve the accuracy of respiratory-gated treatments for lung cancer radiotherapy. Methods: In nine lung cancer patients, 2D coronal and sagittal cine-MR images were acquired across two MRI sessions (pre- and mid-treatment) with (1) free breathing (FB) and (2) AV biofeedback. External anterior-posterior (AP) respiratory motions of (a) chest and (b) abdomen were simultaneously acquired with physiological measurement unit (PMU, 3T Skyra, Siemens Healthcare Erlangen, Germany) and real-time position management (RPM) system (Varian, Palo Alto, USA), respectively. Internal superior-inferior (SI) respiratory motions of (c) lung tumor (i.e. centroid of auto-segmented lung tumor) and (d) diaphragm (i.e. upper liver dome) were measured from individual cine-MR images across 32 dataset. The four respiratory motions were then synchronized with the cine-MR image acquisition time. Correlation coefficients were calculated in the time variation of two nominated respiratory motions: (1) chest-abdomen, (2) abdomen-diaphragm and (3) diaphragm-lung tumor. The three combinations were compared between FB and AV biofeedback. Results: Compared to FB, AV biofeedback improved chest-abdomen correlation by 17% (p=0.005) from 0.75±0.23 to 0.90±0.05 and abdomen-diaphragm correlation by 4% (p=0.058) from 0.91±0.11 to 0.95±0.05. Compared to FB, AV biofeedback improved diaphragm-lung tumor correlation by 12% (p=0.023) from 0.65±0.21 to 0.74±0.16. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that AV biofeedback significantly improved the correlation of internal and external respiratory motion, thus

  15. Predictive piston motion control in a free-piston internal combustion engine

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mikalsen, R.; Jones, E.; Roskilly, A.P. [Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU England (United Kingdom)

    2010-05-15

    A piston motion controller for a free-piston internal combustion engine is presented. To improve dynamic performance in the control of the piston motion and engine compression ratio, the controller response is determined from a prediction of engine top dead centre error rather than the measured value from the previous cycle. The proposed control approach showed superior performance compared with that of standard PI feedback control known from the literature due to a reduced control action time delay. The manipulation of fuel injection timing to reduce in-cylinder pressure peaks and cycle-to-cycle variations was also studied, indicating that with the piston motion estimation, the injection timing is a powerful control variable for this purpose. (author)

  16. Analysis of clad motion during a loss of flow (LOF) accident in a fast sodium cooled reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Henkel, P.

    1985-10-01

    A new model describing clad motion during a Loss of Flow (LOF) accident in a Liquid Metal Cooled Fast (Breeder) Reactor (LMFBR) is presented. Its special features are Clad motion is treated within a fuel pin bundle. The bundle geometry is represented by an equivalent annular geometry which serves as the descriptional basis for the clad motion analysis; Several flow regimes are considered. These include a wave or film flow along the fuel pin surfaces as well as a drop flow within the coolant channels. A new entrainment criterion is successfully applied to describe the entrainment of molten cladding and the coolant flow is modelled as a two-dimensional, monstationary flow. Therefore, radial cross flows in a pin bundle can be calculated. Especially, thermal incoherency effects can be treated consistently. The analysis of clad motion in the two experiments STAR1 and STAR2 using the subsequently presented SANDCMOT model gives good agreement with the experimental data. (orig.) [de

  17. The calculation of site-dependent earthquake motions -3. The method of fast fourier transform

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Simpson, I.C.

    1976-10-01

    The method of Fast Fourier transform (FFT) is applied to the problem of the determination of site-dependent earthquake motions, which takes account of local geological effects. A program, VELAY 1, which uses the FFT method has been written and is described in this report. The assumptions of horizontally stratified, homogeneous, isotropic, linearly viscoelastic layers and a normally incident plane seismic wave are made. Several examples are given, using VELAY 1, of modified surface acceleration-time histories obtained using a selected input acceleration-time history and a representative system of soil layers. There is a discussion concerning the soil properties that need to be measured in order to use VELAY 1 (and similar programs described in previous reports) and hence generate site-dependent ground motions suitable for aseismic design of a nuclear power plant at a given site. (author)

  18. International business expansion through franchising : the case of fast-food industry

    OpenAIRE

    Sadi, Muhammad A.

    1994-01-01

    The purpose of this research project was threefold: 1) to establish a set of research questions , propositions and hypotheses about the nature of international fast-food franchising; 2) to identify the distinctive strategies employed by fast-food franchise firms in foreign markets and 3) to provide a set of guidelines for managers which will assist them in dealing with the challenges of initiating and expanding a fast-food franchise system in a foreign country. A multi...

  19. Quantification of the impact of large and small-scale instabilities on the fast-ion confinement in ASDEX Upgrade

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Geiger, B.; Weiland, M.; Mlynek, A.

    2015-01-01

    with up to 10 MW of heating power, the fast-ion measurements agree best with the theoretical predictions that assume a weak level anomalous fast-ion transport. This is also in agreement with measurements of the internal inductance, a Motional Stark Effect diagnostic and a novel polarimetry diagnostic...

  20. The use of CT density changes at internal tissue interfaces to correlate internal organ motion with an external surrogate

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gaede, Stewart; Yu, Edward; Van Dyk, Jake; Battista, Jerry [Radiation Oncology Program, London Regional Cancer Program, London, Ontario (Canada); Carnes, Gregory; Lee, Ting-Yim [Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario (Canada)

    2009-01-21

    The purpose of this paper is to describe a non-invasive method to monitor the motion of internal organs affected by respiration without using external markers or spirometry, to test the correlation with external markers, and to calculate any time shift between the datasets. Ten lung cancer patients were CT scanned with a GE LightSpeed Plus 4-Slice CT scanner operating in a cine mode. We retrospectively reconstructed the raw CT data to obtain consecutive 0.5 s reconstructions at 0.1 s intervals to increase image sampling. We defined regions of interest containing tissue interfaces, including tumour/lung interfaces that move due to breathing on multiple axial slices and measured the mean CT number versus respiratory phase. Tumour motion was directly correlated with external marker motion, acquired simultaneously, using the sample coefficient of determination, r{sup 2}. Only three of the ten patients showed correlation higher than r{sup 2} = 0.80 between tumour motion and external marker position. However, after taking into account time shifts (ranging between 0 s and 0.4 s) between the two data sets, all ten patients showed correlation better than r{sup 2} = 0.8. This non-invasive method for monitoring the motion of internal organs is an effective tool that can assess the use of external markers for 4D-CT imaging and respiratory-gated radiotherapy on a patient-specific basis.

  1. Field theory of the spinning electron: Internal motions

    OpenAIRE

    Salesi, Giovanni; Recami, Erasmo

    1996-01-01

    We present here a field theory of the spinning electron, by writing down a new equation for the 4-velocity field v^mu (different from that of Dirac theory), which allows a classically intelligible description of the electron. Moreover, we make explicit the noticeable kinematical properties of such velocity field (which also result different from the ordinary ones). At last, we analyze the internal zitterbewegung (zbw) motions, for both time-like and light-like speeds. We adopt in this paper t...

  2. Cinematic study of temporomandibular joint motion using ultra-fast magnetic resonance imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manière-Ezvan, A; Havet, T; Franconi, J M; Quémar, J C; de Certaines, J D

    1999-10-01

    Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) are usually performed to study the opening/closing movements of the mandible and have up to now been pseudodynamic step-by-step images simulating condylar motion by post-processing reconstruction. The aim of this study was: 1. to optimize a TMJ cine-imaging method to give a better clinical result than the step-by-step methods; 2. to develop an ultra-fast MRI Gradient Echo (GE) sequence for this purpose; and 3. to analyze condylar movements in the sagittal, coronal and para-axial planes during border mandibular displacements and chewing. Both TM joints were studied in six asymptomatic volunteers. The method involved a compromise between in-plane resolution, slice thickness, signal-to-noise ratio and time resolution. Routine clinical use was found to be a GE pulse sequence providing three images per second with an isometric voxel resolution of approximately two millimeters in ridge. This did not allow visualization of the disk. Using this sequence enabled real and simultaneous condylar displacement observation in the three planes of space and therefore contributed to a better functional diagnosis of pathologic TMJ motions.

  3. Status of national programmes on fast reactors 1997/98. 31. annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1998-01-01

    The objective of the meeting was to co-ordinate the exchange of information on the status of fast reactor development and operational experience, including experience with experimental types of reactor; to consider meeting arrangements for 1998 and 1999; and to review the IAEA co-ordinated research activities in the field of fast reactor, as well as co-ordination of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors activities with other organizations

  4. Technical committee meeting on Liquid Metal Fast Reactor (LMFR) developments. 33rd annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors (IWG-FR). Working material

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2000-01-01

    Over the past 33 years, the IAEA has actively encouraged and advocated international cooperation in fast reactor technology. The present publication contains information on the status of fast reactor development and on worldwide activities in this advanced nuclear power technology during 1999/2000, as reported at the 33. annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors. It is intended to provide information regarding the current status of LMFR development in IAEA Member States

  5. SU-C-BRF-05: Design and Geometric Validation of An Externally and Internally Deformable, Programmable Lung Motion Phantom

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cheung, Y; Sawant, A

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: Most clinically-deployed strategies for respiratory motion management in lung radiotherapy (e.g., gating, tracking) use external markers that serve as surrogates for tumor motion. However, typical lung phantoms used to validate these strategies are rigid-exterior+rigid-interior or rigid-exterior+deformable-interior. Neither class adequately represents the human anatomy, which is deformable internally as well as externally. We describe the construction and experimental validation of a more realistic, externally- and internally-deformable, programmable lung phantom. Methods: The outer shell of a commercially-available lung phantom (RS- 1500, RSD Inc.) was used. The shell consists of a chest cavity with a flexible anterior surface, and embedded vertebrae, rib-cage and sternum. A 3-axis platform was programmed with sinusoidal and six patient-recorded lung tumor trajectories. The platform was used to drive a rigid foam ‘diaphragm’ that compressed/decompressed the phantom interior. Experimental characterization comprised of mapping the superior-inferior (SI) and anterior-posterior (AP) trajectories of external and internal radioopaque markers with kV x-ray fluoroscopy and correlating these with optical surface monitoring using the in-room VisionRT system. Results: The phantom correctly reproduced the programmed motion as well as realistic effects such as hysteresis. The reproducibility of marker trajectories over multiple runs for sinusoidal as well as patient traces, as characterized by fluoroscopy, was within 0.4 mm RMS error for internal as well as external markers. The motion trajectories of internal and external markers as measured by fluoroscopy were found to be highly correlated (R=0.97). Furthermore, motion trajectories of arbitrary points on the deforming phantom surface, as recorded by the VisionRT system also showed a high correlation with respect to the fluoroscopically-measured trajectories of internal markers (R=0.92). Conclusion: We have

  6. Fast nuclear reactors. Associated international projects. State of the art and assessment of the concepts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Azpitarte, O.; Ramilo, L.

    2013-01-01

    The recognition of the strategic importance of nuclear energy as a source of sustainable energy may be perceived in the continuous development, in many countries, of the technology of fast nuclear reactors with an associated closed fuel cycle, assuming that these Generation IV innovative systems will be required in the future. These reactors fulfill international requirements for safety and reliability, economic competitiveness, sustainability and proliferation resistance. They have the potential of using more efficiently the natural resources of Uranium and of reducing the volume and radiotoxicity of the nuclear waste by partitioning and transmutation of Minor Actinides. The national and international programs being carried out today are concentrated in the following concepts: Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR), Lead Fast Reactor (LFR), Gas Fast Reactor (GFR), Super Critical Water Reactor (SCWR) and Molten Salt Reactor (MSR). This article presents a short review of the technology of the mentioned concepts and details the current state of the main national and international related projects. (author)

  7. When fast atom diffraction turns 3D

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zugarramurdi, Asier; Borisov, Andrei G.

    2013-01-01

    Fast atom diffraction at surfaces (FAD) in grazing incidence geometry is characterized by the slow motion in the direction perpendicular to the surface and fast motion parallel to the surface plane along a low index direction. It is established experimentally that for the typical surfaces the FAD reveals the 2D diffraction patterns associated with exchange of the reciprocal lattice vector perpendicular to the direction of fast motion. The reciprocal lattice vector exchange along the direction of fast motion is negligible. The usual approximation made in the description of the experimental data is then to assume that the effective potential leading to the diffraction results from the averaging of the 3D surface potential along the atomic strings forming the axial channel. In this work we use full quantum wave packet propagation calculations to study theoretically the possibility to observe the 3D diffraction in FAD experiments. We show that for the surfaces with large unit cell, such as can be the case for reconstructed or vicinal surfaces, the 3D diffraction can be observed. The reciprocal lattice vector exchange along the direction of fast motion leads to several Laue circles in the diffraction pattern

  8. Present status of fuel motion detection by radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sumita, Kenji; Mizuta, Hiroshi; Ishizuka, Makoto; Ara, Katsuyuki; Nakata, Hirokatsu.

    1978-05-01

    In reactor safety research, it is important to know transient fuel behavior under accidental conditions. Transient histories such as temperature and axial expansion of fuel and cladding and internal pressure of fuel rod are thus measured in experiments simulating accidents. If fuel motion could then be observed during and after fuel failure, this would greatly make for fuel behavior research. The present status is reviewed of fuel motion detections by radiations such as neutron, γ-ray and X-ray, including the principle and system. A neutron hodoscope among them is used already with practical results in in-reactor safety experiments of sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor. So, this is described in detail and its conceptual design as applied to the NSRR is presented. (auth.)

  9. Internal motion time scales of a small, highly stable and disulfide-rich protein: A 15N, 13C NMR and molecular dynamics study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guenneugues, Marc; Gilquin, Bernard; Wolff, Nicolas; Menez, Andre; Zinn-Justin, Sophie

    1999-01-01

    Motions of the backbone CαHα and threonine CβHβ bonds of toxin α were investigated using natural abundance 13C NMR and molecular dynamics. Measurement of the 13C longitudinal and transverse relaxation rates employed ACCORDION techniques together with coherence selection by pulsed field gradients and sensitivity enhancement through the use of preservation of equivalent pathway, thus allowing a considerable reduction of the required spectrometer time. 13C R1, R2, 1H → 13C NOE were obtained, as well as the variations of R1ρ(90 deg.) as a function of the rf field strength. These data were compared to those recorded by 1H and 15N NMR on a labelled sample of the toxin [Guenneugues et al. (1997) Biochemistry, 36, 16097-16108]. Both sets of data showed that picosecond to nanosecond time scale motions are well correlated to the secondary structure of the protein. This was further reinforced by the analysis of a 1 ns molecular dynamics simulation in water. Several CαHα and threonine CβHβ experimentally exhibit fast motions with a correlation time longer than 500 ps, that cannot be sampled along the simulation. In addition, the backbone exhibits motions on the microsecond to millisecond time scale on more than half of its length. Thus, toxin α, a highly stable protein (Tm=75 deg. C at acidic pH) containing 61 amino acids and 4 disulfides, shows important internal motions on time scales ranging from 0.1-0.5 ps, to 10-100 ps, 1 ns, and about 30 μs to 10 ms

  10. Progress in liquid metal fast reactor technology. Proceedings of the 28th meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1996-04-01

    The key objectives and activities of Member State liquid metal fast reactor (LMFR) programmes are: Demonstration of effective designs; demonstration of system safety; demonstration of economic competitiveness with other power generation systems. The International Working Group on Fast Reactors (IWGFR) at its 1995 meeting observed that while some countries (as a result of static or falling power demand) are reducing the research and development programmes or delaying the commercial deployment of fast reactors, other countries are planning to introduce these reactors and are embarking on their own development programmes. In these circumstances the international exchange of information and experience is of increasing importance. These proceedings contain updated information from long standing members of the IWGFR and new information on the status of LMFR research and development from new members of the Group: Brazil, China, Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Korea. Refs, figs, tabs

  11. Progress in liquid metal fast reactor technology. Proceedings of the 28th meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1996-04-01

    The key objectives and activities of Member State liquid metal fast reactor (LMFR) programmes are: Demonstration of effective designs; demonstration of system safety; demonstration of economic competitiveness with other power generation systems. The International Working Group on Fast Reactors (IWGFR) at its 1995 meeting observed that while some countries (as a result of static or falling power demand) are reducing the research and development programmes or delaying the commercial deployment of fast reactors, other countries are planning to introduce these reactors and are embarking on their own development programmes. In these circumstances the international exchange of information and experience is of increasing importance. These proceedings contain updated information from long standing members of the IWGFR and new information on the status of LMFR research and development from new members of the Group: Brazil, China, Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Korea. Refs, figs, tabs.

  12. The Internal Ballistics of an Air Gun

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denny, Mark

    2011-01-01

    The internal ballistics of a firearm or artillery piece considers the pellet, bullet, or shell motion while it is still inside the barrel. In general, deriving the muzzle speed of a gunpowder firearm from first principles is difficult because powder combustion is fast and it very rapidly raises the temperature of gas (generated by gunpowder…

  13. Fast generation of video holograms of three-dimensional moving objects using a motion compensation-based novel look-up table.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Seung-Cheol; Dong, Xiao-Bin; Kwon, Min-Woo; Kim, Eun-Soo

    2013-05-06

    A novel approach for fast generation of video holograms of three-dimensional (3-D) moving objects using a motion compensation-based novel-look-up-table (MC-N-LUT) method is proposed. Motion compensation has been widely employed in compression of conventional 2-D video data because of its ability to exploit high temporal correlation between successive video frames. Here, this concept of motion-compensation is firstly applied to the N-LUT based on its inherent property of shift-invariance. That is, motion vectors of 3-D moving objects are extracted between the two consecutive video frames, and with them motions of the 3-D objects at each frame are compensated. Then, through this process, 3-D object data to be calculated for its video holograms are massively reduced, which results in a dramatic increase of the computational speed of the proposed method. Experimental results with three kinds of 3-D video scenarios reveal that the average number of calculated object points and the average calculation time for one object point of the proposed method, have found to be reduced down to 86.95%, 86.53% and 34.99%, 32.30%, respectively compared to those of the conventional N-LUT and temporal redundancy-based N-LUT (TR-N-LUT) methods.

  14. Self-navigated 4D cartesian imaging of periodic motion in the body trunk using partial k-space compressed sensing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Küstner, Thomas; Würslin, Christian; Schwartz, Martin; Martirosian, Petros; Gatidis, Sergios; Brendle, Cornelia; Seith, Ferdinand; Schick, Fritz; Schwenzer, Nina F; Yang, Bin; Schmidt, Holger

    2017-08-01

    To enable fast and flexible high-resolution four-dimensional (4D) MRI of periodic thoracic/abdominal motion for motion visualization or motion-corrected imaging. We proposed a Cartesian three-dimensional k-space sampling scheme that acquires a random combination of k-space lines in the ky/kz plane. A partial Fourier-like constraint compacts the sampling space to one half of k-space. The central k-space line is periodically acquired to allow an extraction of a self-navigated respiration signal used to populate a k-space of multiple breathing positions. The randomness of the acquisition (induced by periodic breathing pattern) yields a subsampled k-space that is reconstructed using compressed sensing. Local image evaluations (coefficient of variation and slope steepness through organs) reveal information about motion resolvability. Image quality is inspected by a blinded reading. Sequence and reconstruction method are made publicly available. The method is able to capture and reconstruct 4D images with high image quality and motion resolution within a short scan time of less than 2 min. These findings are supported by restricted-isometry-property analysis, local image evaluation, and blinded reading. The proposed method provides a clinical feasible setup to capture periodic respiratory motion with a fast acquisition protocol and can be extended by further surrogate signals to capture additional periodic motions. Retrospective parametrization allows for flexible tuning toward the targeted applications. Magn Reson Med 78:632-644, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

  15. Physics in the fast lane: rotors, fast ions and mobile fermions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Price, D.L.; Saboungi, M.-L.

    1996-09-01

    Dynamic disorder in the high-temperature solid phases of the Zintl compounds CsPb and NaSn is characterized by. fast orientational motions of the polyanions and coupled motions of the cations Melting is characterized by slow translational motions of the centers of mass of the polyanions. The dynamic behavior of the ions is associated with dramatic increases in electrical conductivity characteristic of the behavior expected of a mixed conductor

  16. A multistage motion vector processing method for motion-compensated frame interpolation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Ai- Mei; Nguyen, Truong Q

    2008-05-01

    In this paper, a novel, low-complexity motion vector processing algorithm at the decoder is proposed for motion-compensated frame interpolation or frame rate up-conversion. We address the problems of having broken edges and deformed structures in an interpolated frame by hierarchically refining motion vectors on different block sizes. Our method explicitly considers the reliability of each received motion vector and has the capability of preserving the structure information. This is achieved by analyzing the distribution of residual energies and effectively merging blocks that have unreliable motion vectors. The motion vector reliability information is also used as a prior knowledge in motion vector refinement using a constrained vector median filter to avoid choosing identical unreliable one. We also propose using chrominance information in our method. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme has better visual quality and is also robust, even in video sequences with complex scenes and fast motion.

  17. Antenna design for fast ion collective Thomson scattering diagnostic for the international thermonuclear experimental reactor

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Leipold, Frank; Furtula, Vedran; Salewski, Mirko

    2009-01-01

    Fast ion physics will play an important role for the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER), where confined alpha particles will affect and be affected by plasma dynamics and thereby have impacts on the overall confinement. A fast ion collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic...

  18. Fast and Accurate Rat Head Motion Tracking With Point Sources for Awake Brain PET.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miranda, Alan; Staelens, Steven; Stroobants, Sigrid; Verhaeghe, Jeroen

    2017-07-01

    To avoid the confounding effects of anesthesia and immobilization stress in rat brain positron emission tomography (PET), motion tracking-based unrestrained awake rat brain imaging is being developed. In this paper, we propose a fast and accurate rat headmotion tracking method based on small PET point sources. PET point sources (3-4) attached to the rat's head are tracked in image space using 15-32-ms time frames. Our point source tracking (PST) method was validated using a manually moved microDerenzo phantom that was simultaneously tracked with an optical tracker (OT) for comparison. The PST method was further validated in three awake [ 18 F]FDG rat brain scans. Compared with the OT, the PST-based correction at the same frame rate (31.2 Hz) reduced the reconstructed FWHM by 0.39-0.66 mm for the different tested rod sizes of the microDerenzo phantom. The FWHM could be further reduced by another 0.07-0.13 mm when increasing the PST frame rate (66.7 Hz). Regional brain [ 18 F]FDG uptake in the motion corrected scan was strongly correlated ( ) with that of the anesthetized reference scan for all three cases ( ). The proposed PST method allowed excellent and reproducible motion correction in awake in vivo experiments. In addition, there is no need of specialized tracking equipment or additional calibrations to be performed, the point sources are practically imperceptible to the rat, and PST is ideally suitable for small bore scanners, where optical tracking might be challenging.

  19. A Prospective Cohort Study of Gated Stereotactic Liver Radiation Therapy Using Continuous Internal Electromagnetic Motion Monitoring

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Worm, Esben S; Høyer, Morten; Hansen, Rune

    2018-01-01

    PURPOSE: Intrafraction motion can compromise the treatment accuracy in liver stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Respiratory gating can improve treatment delivery; however, gating based on external motion surrogates is inaccurate. The present study reports the use of Calypso-based internal...... electromagnetic motion monitoring for gated liver SBRT. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Fifteen patients were included in a study of 3-fraction respiratory gated liver SBRT guided by 3 implanted electromagnetic transponders. The planning target volume was created by a 5-mm axial and 7-mm (n = 12) or 10-mm (n = 3...

  20. International Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology - Vol ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Fast predictive control for air-fuel ratio of SI engines using a nonlinear internal model · EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT EMAIL FREE FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT. YJ Zhai, DL Yu, R Tafreshi, Y Al-Hamidi, 1-17. Design and control of three fingers motion for dexterous assembly of compliant ...

  1. New type of microengine using internal combustion of hydrogen and oxygen

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Svetovoy, Vitaly; Sanders, Remco G.P.; Ma, Kechun; Elwenspoek, Michael Curt

    2014-01-01

    Microsystems become part of everyday life but their application is restricted by lack of strong and fast motors (actuators) converting energy into motion. For example, widespread internal combustion engines cannot be scaled down because combustion reactions are quenched in a small space. Here we

  2. Internal models and prediction of visual gravitational motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zago, Myrka; McIntyre, Joseph; Senot, Patrice; Lacquaniti, Francesco

    2008-06-01

    Baurès et al. [Baurès, R., Benguigui, N., Amorim, M.-A., & Siegler, I. A. (2007). Intercepting free falling objects: Better use Occam's razor than internalize Newton's law. Vision Research, 47, 2982-2991] rejected the hypothesis that free-falling objects are intercepted using a predictive model of gravity. They argued instead for "a continuous guide for action timing" based on visual information updated till target capture. Here we show that their arguments are flawed, because they fail to consider the impact of sensori-motor delays on interception behaviour and the need for neural compensation of such delays. When intercepting a free-falling object, the delays can be overcome by a predictive model of the effects of gravity on target motion.

  3. Internal friction of flux motion in Hg-system high-Tc superconductors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tian, W.; Zhu, J.S.; Shao, H.M.; Li, J.; Wang, Y.N.

    1996-01-01

    The internal friction(IF) and modulus as functions of temperature were measured for several Hg-system high-Tc superconductors(Hg1201, Hg1223, Hg1223 doped with Fe and Pb), under the applied magnetic field, with vibrating reed technique. An IF peak associated with flux motion can be found below Tc for all samples. The temperature of the IF peak increases with reducing vibrating amplitude. This amplitude dependence of IF indicates that the flux motion is characterized by nonlinear behavior. No apparent shift of IF peak position can be detected by varying the frequency in the range from 10 2 Hz to 10 3 Hz. Furthermore, the IF peak height satisfies a scaling law Q -1 ∝ω -n . This may be originated from phase transition of flux line lattice(FLL) rather than a thermally activated diffusion process. (orig.)

  4. Motion-Blur-Free High-Speed Video Shooting Using a Resonant Mirror

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michiaki Inoue

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This study proposes a novel concept of actuator-driven frame-by-frame intermittent tracking for motion-blur-free video shooting of fast-moving objects. The camera frame and shutter timings are controlled for motion blur reduction in synchronization with a free-vibration-type actuator vibrating with a large amplitude at hundreds of hertz so that motion blur can be significantly reduced in free-viewpoint high-frame-rate video shooting for fast-moving objects by deriving the maximum performance of the actuator. We develop a prototype of a motion-blur-free video shooting system by implementing our frame-by-frame intermittent tracking algorithm on a high-speed video camera system with a resonant mirror vibrating at 750 Hz. It can capture 1024 × 1024 images of fast-moving objects at 750 fps with an exposure time of 0.33 ms without motion blur. Several experimental results for fast-moving objects verify that our proposed method can reduce image degradation from motion blur without decreasing the camera exposure time.

  5. Fast Numerical Simulation of Focused Ultrasound Treatments During Respiratory Motion With Discontinuous Motion Boundaries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwenke, Michael; Georgii, Joachim; Preusser, Tobias

    2017-07-01

    Focused ultrasound (FUS) is rapidly gaining clinical acceptance for several target tissues in the human body. Yet, treating liver targets is not clinically applied due to a high complexity of the procedure (noninvasiveness, target motion, complex anatomy, blood cooling effects, shielding by ribs, and limited image-based monitoring). To reduce the complexity, numerical FUS simulations can be utilized for both treatment planning and execution. These use-cases demand highly accurate and computationally efficient simulations. We propose a numerical method for the simulation of abdominal FUS treatments during respiratory motion of the organs and target. Especially, a novel approach is proposed to simulate the heating during motion by solving Pennes' bioheat equation in a computational reference space, i.e., the equation is mathematically transformed to the reference. The approach allows for motion discontinuities, e.g., the sliding of the liver along the abdominal wall. Implementing the solver completely on the graphics processing unit and combining it with an atlas-based ultrasound simulation approach yields a simulation performance faster than real time (less than 50-s computing time for 100 s of treatment time) on a modern off-the-shelf laptop. The simulation method is incorporated into a treatment planning demonstration application that allows to simulate real patient cases including respiratory motion. The high performance of the presented simulation method opens the door to clinical applications. The methods bear the potential to enable the application of FUS for moving organs.

  6. Complexity reduction in the H.264/AVC using highly adaptive fast mode decision based on macroblock motion activity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdellah, Skoudarli; Mokhtar, Nibouche; Amina, Serir

    2015-11-01

    The H.264/AVC video coding standard is used in a wide range of applications from video conferencing to high-definition television according to its high compression efficiency. This efficiency is mainly acquired from the newly allowed prediction schemes including variable block modes. However, these schemes require a high complexity to select the optimal mode. Consequently, complexity reduction in the H.264/AVC encoder has recently become a very challenging task in the video compression domain, especially when implementing the encoder in real-time applications. Fast mode decision algorithms play an important role in reducing the overall complexity of the encoder. In this paper, we propose an adaptive fast intermode algorithm based on motion activity, temporal stationarity, and spatial homogeneity. This algorithm predicts the motion activity of the current macroblock from its neighboring blocks and identifies temporal stationary regions and spatially homogeneous regions using adaptive threshold values based on content video features. Extensive experimental work has been done in high profile, and results show that the proposed source-coding algorithm effectively reduces the computational complexity by 53.18% on average compared with the reference software encoder, while maintaining the high-coding efficiency of H.264/AVC by incurring only 0.097 dB in total peak signal-to-noise ratio and 0.228% increment on the total bit rate.

  7. FPSoC-Based Architecture for a Fast Motion Estimation Algorithm in H.264/AVC

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Obianuju Ndili

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available There is an increasing need for high quality video on low power, portable devices. Possible target applications range from entertainment and personal communications to security and health care. While H.264/AVC answers the need for high quality video at lower bit rates, it is significantly more complex than previous coding standards and thus results in greater power consumption in practical implementations. In particular, motion estimation (ME, in H.264/AVC consumes the largest power in an H.264/AVC encoder. It is therefore critical to speed-up integer ME in H.264/AVC via fast motion estimation (FME algorithms and hardware acceleration. In this paper, we present our hardware oriented modifications to a hybrid FME algorithm, our architecture based on the modified algorithm, and our implementation and prototype on a PowerPC-based Field Programmable System on Chip (FPSoC. Our results show that the modified hybrid FME algorithm on average, outperforms previous state-of-the-art FME algorithms, while its losses when compared with FSME, in terms of PSNR performance and computation time, are insignificant. We show that although our implementation platform is FPGA-based, our implementation results compare favourably with previous architectures implemented on ASICs. Finally we also show an improvement over some existing architectures implemented on FPGAs.

  8. Internal fuel motion as an inherent shutdown mechanism for LMFBR accidents: PINEX-3, PINEX-2, and HUT 5-2A experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ferrell, P.C.; Porten, D.R.; Martin, F.J.

    1981-01-01

    The PINEX-2 experiment verified the concept of axial internal molten fuel motion within annular fuel, representing an inherent shutdown mechanism for hypothetical transient overpower excursions on the order of 5$/s. The PINEX-3 experiment, simulating a 50 cents/s transient overpower, showed that limitations on the effectiveness of fuel motion may arise from freezing of the fuel and blockage of the internal movement. Analysis of these experiments was performed to assess the physical processes that dominate fuel relocation potential and to apply them to prototypic LMFBR pin conditions. Results indicate that internal fuel motion should be reliable as a shutdown mechanism in LMFBR's for a range of reactivity insertion rates beyond presently available experimental data

  9. Flow effects due to valve and piston motion in an internal combustion engine exhaust port

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Semlitsch, Bernhard; Wang, Yue; Mihăescu, Mihai

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Flow regime identification depending on the valve lift during the exhaust stroke. • Analysis of the valve motion effect onto the flow development in the exhaust port. • Physical interpretation of commonly used discharge and flow coefficient formulations. • Illustration of flow effects in junction regions with pulsatile flow. - Abstract: Performance optimization regarding e.g. exhaust valve strategies in an internal combustion engine is often performed based on one-dimensional simulation investigation. Commonly, a discharge coefficient is used to describe the flow behavior in complex geometries, such as the exhaust port. This discharge coefficient for an exhaust port is obtained by laboratory experiments at fixed valve lifts, room temperatures, and low total pressure drops. The present study investigates the consequences of the valve and piston motion onto the energy losses and the discharge coefficient. Therefore, Large Eddy Simulations are performed in a realistic internal combustion geometry using three different modeling strategies, i.e. fixed valve lift and fixed piston, moving piston and fixed valve lift, and moving piston and moving valve, to estimate the energy losses. The differences in the flow field development with the different modeling approaches is delineated and the dynamic effects onto the primary quantities, e.g. discharge coefficient, are quantified. Considering the motion of piston and valves leads to negative total pressure losses during the exhaust cycle, which cannot be observed at fixed valve lifts. Additionally, the induced flow structures develop differently when valve motion is taken into consideration, which leads to a significant disparity of mass flow rates evolving through the two individual valve ports. However, accounting for piston motion and limited valve motion, leads to a minor discharge coefficient alteration of about one to two percent

  10. Fast reciprocating probe system on the EAST superconducting tokamak

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhang, W.; Chang, J. F.; Wan, B. N.; Xu, G. S.; Li, B.; Xu, C. S.; Yan, N.; Wang, L.; Liu, S. C.; Jiang, M.; Liu, P. [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 1126, Hefei 230031 (China); Xiao, C. J. [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 1126, Hefei 230031 (China); Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Plasma Physics Laboratory, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon SK S7N 5E2 (Canada)

    2010-11-15

    A new fast reciprocating probe system (FRPS) has been built and installed on the outer midplane of the EAST tokamak to investigate the profiles of the boundary plasma parameters such as electron density and temperature. The system consists of a two-stage motion drive mechanism: slow motion and fast motion. The fast motion is powered by a servo motor, which drives the probe horizontally up to 50 cm to scan the edge region of the EAST tokamak. The maximum velocity achieved is 2 m/s. High velocity and flexible control of the fast motion are the remarkable features of this FRPS. A specially designed connector installed at the front end of the probe shaft makes it easy to install or replace the probe head on FRPS. During the latest experimental campaign in the spring of 2010, a probe head with seven tips, including two tips for a Mach probe, has been used. An example is given for simultaneous profile measurements of the plasma temperature, plasma density, and the plasma flow velocity.

  11. Thought Speed, Mood, and the Experience of Mental Motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pronin, Emily; Jacobs, Elana

    2008-11-01

    This article presents a theoretical account relating thought speed to mood and psychological experience. Thought sequences that occur at a fast speed generally induce more positive affect than do those that occur slowly. Thought speed constitutes one aspect of mental motion. Another aspect involves thought variability, or the degree to which thoughts in a sequence either vary widely from or revolve closely around a theme. Thought sequences possessing more motion (occurring fast and varying widely) generally produce more positive affect than do sequences possessing little motion (occurring slowly and repetitively). When speed and variability oppose each other, such that one is low and the other is high, predictable psychological states also emerge. For example, whereas slow, repetitive thinking can prompt dejection, fast, repetitive thinking can prompt anxiety. This distinction is related to the fact that fast thinking involves greater actual and felt energy than slow thinking does. Effects of mental motion occur independent of the specific content of thought. Their consequences for mood and energy hold psychotherapeutic relevance. © 2008 Association for Psychological Science.

  12. Fast superconducting magnetic field switch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goren, Yehuda; Mahale, Narayan K.

    1996-01-01

    The superconducting magnetic switch or fast kicker magnet is employed with electron stream or a bunch of electrons to rapidly change the direction of flow of the electron stream or bunch of electrons. The apparatus employs a beam tube which is coated with a film of superconducting material. The tube is cooled to a temperature below the superconducting transition temperature and is subjected to a constant magnetic field which is produced by an external dc magnet. The magnetic field produced by the dc magnet is less than the critical field for the superconducting material, thus, creating a Meissner Effect condition. A controllable fast electromagnet is used to provide a magnetic field which supplements that of the dc magnet so that when the fast magnet is energized the combined magnetic field is now greater that the critical field and the superconducting material returns to its normal state allowing the magnetic field to penetrate the tube. This produces an internal field which effects the direction of motion and of the electron stream or electron bunch. The switch can also operate as a switching mechanism for charged particles.

  13. Fast superconducting magnetic field switch

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goren, Y.; Mahale, N.K.

    1996-01-01

    The superconducting magnetic switch or fast kicker magnet is employed with electron stream or a bunch of electrons to rapidly change the direction of flow of the electron stream or bunch of electrons. The apparatus employs a beam tube which is coated with a film of superconducting material. The tube is cooled to a temperature below the superconducting transition temperature and is subjected to a constant magnetic field which is produced by an external dc magnet. The magnetic field produced by the dc magnet is less than the critical field for the superconducting material, thus, creating a Meissner Effect condition. A controllable fast electromagnet is used to provide a magnetic field which supplements that of the dc magnet so that when the fast magnet is energized the combined magnetic field is now greater that the critical field and the superconducting material returns to its normal state allowing the magnetic field to penetrate the tube. This produces an internal field which effects the direction of motion and of the electron stream or electron bunch. The switch can also operate as a switching mechanism for charged particles. 6 figs

  14. The effect of internal and external fields of view on visually induced motion sickness

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bos, J.E.; Vries, S.C. de; Emmerik, M.L. van; Groen, E.L.

    2010-01-01

    Field of view (FOV) is said to affect visually induced motion sickness. FOV, however, is characterized by an internal setting used by the graphics generator (iFOV) and an external factor determined by screen size and viewing distance (eFOV). We hypothesized that especially the incongruence between

  15. Molten fuel motion during a fast-reactor overpower transient

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kolesar, D.C.; Padilla, A. Jr.; Lewis, C.H.; Waltar, A.E.

    1976-01-01

    Mechanistic models for postfailure fuel behavior during hypothetical transient overpower accidents are currently being developed for incorporation into the MELT accident analysis code. A new model for the fuel-coolant interaction and for the motion of fuel in the coolant channel has been developed and incorporated into the MELT-III code. A major limitation of the mechanistic fuel motion model is its dependence on the uniform interaction region of MELT-III. Consequently, a parallel effort is currently in progress to incorporate a non-uniform interaction region into the MELT code. Combination of the fuel motion and the nonuniform interaction region models will provide the framework for development of a mechanistic fuel plateout/blockage model for transient overpower accidents

  16. Fast particle effects on the internal kink, fishbone and Alfven modes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gorelenkov, N.N.; Bernabei, S.; Cheng, C.Z.; Fu, G.Y.; Hill, K.; Kaye, S.; Kramer, G.J.; Nazikian, R.; Park, W.; Kusama, Y.; Shinokhara, K.; Ozeki, T.

    2001-01-01

    The issues of linear stability of low frequency perturbative and nonperturbative modes in advanced tokamak regimes are addressed based on recent developments in theory, computational methods, and progress in experiments. Perturbative codes NOVA and ORBIT are used to calculate the effects of TAEs on fast particle population in spherical tokamak NSTX. Nonperturbative analysis of chirping frequency modes in experiments on TFTR and JT-60U is presented using the kinetic code HINST, which identified such modes as a separate branch of Alfven modes - resonance TAE (R-TAE). Internal kink mode stability in the presence of fast particles is studied using the NOVA code and hybrid kinetic-MHD nonlinear code M3D. (author)

  17. Fast Particle Effects on the Internal Kink, Fishbone and Alfven Modes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gorelenkov, N.N.; Bernabei, S.; Cheng, C.Z.; Fu, G.Y.; Hill, K.; Kaye, S.; Kramer, G.J.; Kusama, Y.; Shinohara, K.; Nazikian, R.; Ozeki, T.; Park, W.

    2000-01-01

    The issues of linear stability of low frequency perturbative and nonperturbative modes in advanced tokamak regimes are addressed based on recent developments in theory, computational methods, and progress in experiments. Perturbative codes NOVA and ORBIT are used to calculate the effects of TAEs on fast particle population in spherical tokamak NSTX. Nonperturbative analysis of chirping frequency modes in experiments on TFTR and JT-60U is presented using the kinetic code HINST, which identified such modes as a separate branch of Alfven modes - resonance TAE (R-TAE). Internal kink mode stability in the presence of fast particles is studied using the NOVA code and hybrid kinetic-MHD nonlinear code M3D

  18. On connection of rotation and internal motion in deformed nuclei

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krutov, V.A.

    1979-01-01

    In the semiphenomenological nuclear madel (SPNM) the problem of ''overestimate of Coriolis interaction'' is shown to be easily solved. The rotation and internal motion coupling operator H(rot/in) is used. Overdetermination of the operator H(rot/in) has been generalized and extended into schemes of strong and weak coupling. In this case both schemes of coupling are transformed from approximate into precise ones and become applicable for any nuclear deformation. As examples of application of the theory considered are the matrix elements of the E2-transitions and inertia parameters of a 235 U nucleus

  19. DMPDS: A Fast Motion Estimation Algorithm Targeting High Resolution Videos and Its FPGA Implementation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gustavo Sanchez

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a new fast motion estimation (ME algorithm targeting high resolution digital videos and its efficient hardware architecture design. The new Dynamic Multipoint Diamond Search (DMPDS algorithm is a fast algorithm which increases the ME quality when compared with other fast ME algorithms. The DMPDS achieves a better digital video quality reducing the occurrence of local minima falls, especially in high definition videos. The quality results show that the DMPDS is able to reach an average PSNR gain of 1.85 dB when compared with the well-known Diamond Search (DS algorithm. When compared to the optimum results generated by the Full Search (FS algorithm the DMPDS shows a lose of only 1.03 dB in the PSNR. On the other hand, the DMPDS reached a complexity reduction higher than 45 times when compared to FS. The quality gains related to DS caused an expected increase in the DMPDS complexity which uses 6.4-times more calculations than DS. The DMPDS architecture was designed focused on high performance and low cost, targeting to process Quad Full High Definition (QFHD videos in real time (30 frames per second. The architecture was described in VHDL and synthesized to Altera Stratix 4 and Xilinx Virtex 5 FPGAs. The synthesis results show that the architecture is able to achieve processing rates higher than 53 QFHD fps, reaching the real-time requirements. The DMPDS architecture achieved the highest processing rate when compared to related works in the literature. This high processing rate was obtained designing an architecture with a high operation frequency and low numbers of cycles necessary to process each block.

  20. Correlation of glenohumeral internal rotation deficit and total rotational motion to shoulder injuries in professional baseball pitchers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilk, Kevin E; Macrina, Leonard C; Fleisig, Glenn S; Porterfield, Ronald; Simpson, Charles D; Harker, Paul; Paparesta, Nick; Andrews, James R

    2011-02-01

    Glenohumeral internal rotation deficit (GIRD) indicates a 20° or greater loss of internal rotation of the throwing shoulder compared with the nondominant shoulder. To determine whether GIRD and a deficit in total rotational motion (external rotation + internal rotation) compared with the nonthrowing shoulder correlate with shoulder injuries in professional baseball pitchers. Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Over 3 competitive seasons (2005 to 2007), passive range of motion measurements were evaluated on the dominant and nondominant shoulders for 170 pitcher-seasons. This included 122 professional pitchers during the 3 seasons of data collection, in which some pitchers were measured during multiple seasons. Ranges of motion were measured with a bubble goniometer during the preseason, by the same examiner each year. External and internal rotation of the glenohumeral joint was assessed with the participant supine and the arm abducted 90° in the plane of the scapula, with the scapula stabilized anteriorly at the coracoid process. The reproducibility of the test methods had an intraclass correlation coefficient of .81. Days in which the player was unable to participate because of injury or surgery were recorded during the season by the medical staff of the team and defined as an injury. Pitchers with GIRD (n = 40) were nearly twice as likely to be injured as those without but without statistical significance (P = .17). Pitchers with total rotational motion deficit greater than 5° had a higher rate of injury. Minor league pitchers were more likely than major league pitchers to be injured. However, when players were injured, major league pitchers missed a significantly greater number of games than minor league pitchers. Compared with pitchers without GIRD, pitchers with GIRD appear to be at a higher risk for injury and shoulder surgery.

  1. International conference on fast reactors and related fuel cycles (FR09): Challenges and opportunities. CN-176 presentations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2009-01-01

    Renewed interest in nuclear energy is driven by the need to develop carbon free energy sources, by demographics and development in emerging economies, as well as by security of supply concerns. It is expected that nuclear energy will deliver huge amounts of energy to both emerging and developed economies. However, acceptance of large scale contributions would depend on satisfaction of key drivers to enhance sustainability in terms of economics, safety, adequacy of natural resources, waste reduction, non-proliferation and public acceptance. Fast spectrum reactors with recycle enhance the sustainability indices significantly. This has led to the focus on fast spectrum reactors with recycle in the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) and the International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO) initiative of the IAEA. It is expected that 2009 will register major events in the domain of fast spectrum reactors, that is, the restart of Monju in Japan, the first criticality of the China Experimental Fast Reactor in China, as well as new insights through end-of-life studies in Phenix, France. New fast reactors are expected to be commissioned in the near future: the 500 MW(e) Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor in India and the BN-800 unit in the Russian Federation. Moreover, China, France, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and the United States of America are preparing advanced prototypes/ demonstrations and/or commercial reactors for the 2020-2030 horizon. The necessary condition for successful fast reactor deployment in the near and mid-term is the understanding and assessment of innovative technological and design options, based on both past knowledge and experience, as well as on ongoing research and technology development efforts. In this respect, the need for in-depth international information exchange is underscored by the fact that the last large international fast reactor conference was held as far back as 1991. Since then, progress in research

  2. A High-Speed Vision-Based Sensor for Dynamic Vibration Analysis Using Fast Motion Extraction Algorithms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dashan Zhang

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The development of image sensor and optics enables the application of vision-based techniques to the non-contact dynamic vibration analysis of large-scale structures. As an emerging technology, a vision-based approach allows for remote measuring and does not bring any additional mass to the measuring object compared with traditional contact measurements. In this study, a high-speed vision-based sensor system is developed to extract structure vibration signals in real time. A fast motion extraction algorithm is required for this system because the maximum sampling frequency of the charge-coupled device (CCD sensor can reach up to 1000 Hz. Two efficient subpixel level motion extraction algorithms, namely the modified Taylor approximation refinement algorithm and the localization refinement algorithm, are integrated into the proposed vision sensor. Quantitative analysis shows that both of the two modified algorithms are at least five times faster than conventional upsampled cross-correlation approaches and achieve satisfactory error performance. The practicability of the developed sensor is evaluated by an experiment in a laboratory environment and a field test. Experimental results indicate that the developed high-speed vision-based sensor system can extract accurate dynamic structure vibration signals by tracking either artificial targets or natural features.

  3. A Motion-Adaptive Deinterlacer via Hybrid Motion Detection and Edge-Pattern Recognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    He-Yuan Lin

    2008-03-01

    Full Text Available A novel motion-adaptive deinterlacing algorithm with edge-pattern recognition and hybrid motion detection is introduced. The great variety of video contents makes the processing of assorted motion, edges, textures, and the combination of them very difficult with a single algorithm. The edge-pattern recognition algorithm introduced in this paper exhibits the flexibility in processing both textures and edges which need to be separately accomplished by line average and edge-based line average before. Moreover, predicting the neighboring pixels for pattern analysis and interpolation further enhances the adaptability of the edge-pattern recognition unit when motion detection is incorporated. Our hybrid motion detection features accurate detection of fast and slow motion in interlaced video and also the motion with edges. Using only three fields for detection also renders higher temporal correlation for interpolation. The better performance of our deinterlacing algorithm with higher content-adaptability and less memory cost than the state-of-the-art 4-field motion detection algorithms can be seen from the subjective and objective experimental results of the CIF and PAL video sequences.

  4. A Motion-Adaptive Deinterlacer via Hybrid Motion Detection and Edge-Pattern Recognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Hsin-Te

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract A novel motion-adaptive deinterlacing algorithm with edge-pattern recognition and hybrid motion detection is introduced. The great variety of video contents makes the processing of assorted motion, edges, textures, and the combination of them very difficult with a single algorithm. The edge-pattern recognition algorithm introduced in this paper exhibits the flexibility in processing both textures and edges which need to be separately accomplished by line average and edge-based line average before. Moreover, predicting the neighboring pixels for pattern analysis and interpolation further enhances the adaptability of the edge-pattern recognition unit when motion detection is incorporated. Our hybrid motion detection features accurate detection of fast and slow motion in interlaced video and also the motion with edges. Using only three fields for detection also renders higher temporal correlation for interpolation. The better performance of our deinterlacing algorithm with higher content-adaptability and less memory cost than the state-of-the-art 4-field motion detection algorithms can be seen from the subjective and objective experimental results of the CIF and PAL video sequences.

  5. Impact of quasar proper motions on the alignment between the International Celestial Reference Frame and the Gaia reference frame

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, J.-C.; Malkin, Z.; Zhu, Z.

    2018-03-01

    The International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF) is currently realized by the very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of extragalactic sources with the zero proper motion assumption, while Gaia will observe proper motions of these distant and faint objects to an accuracy of tens of microarcseconds per year. This paper investigates the difference between VLBI and Gaia quasar proper motions and it aims to understand the impact of quasar proper motions on the alignment of the ICRF and Gaia reference frame. We use the latest time series data of source coordinates from the International VLBI Service analysis centres operated at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSF2017) and Paris observatory (OPA2017), as well as the Gaia auxiliary quasar solution containing 2191 high-probability optical counterparts of the ICRF2 sources. The linear proper motions in right ascension and declination of VLBI sources are derived by least-squares fits while the proper motions for Gaia sources are simulated taking into account the acceleration of the Solar system barycentre and realistic uncertainties depending on the source brightness. The individual and global features of source proper motions in GSF2017 and OPA2017 VLBI data are found to be inconsistent, which may result from differences in VLBI observations, data reduction and analysis. A comparison of the VLBI and Gaia proper motions shows that the accuracies of the components of rotation and glide between the two systems are 2-4 μas yr- 1 based on about 600 common sources. For the future alignment of the ICRF and Gaia reference frames at different wavelengths, the proper motions of quasars must necessarily be considered.

  6. Correlation-based motion vector processing with adaptive interpolation scheme for motion-compensated frame interpolation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Ai-Mei; Nguyen, Truong

    2009-04-01

    In this paper, we address the problems of unreliable motion vectors that cause visual artifacts but cannot be detected by high residual energy or bidirectional prediction difference in motion-compensated frame interpolation. A correlation-based motion vector processing method is proposed to detect and correct those unreliable motion vectors by explicitly considering motion vector correlation in the motion vector reliability classification, motion vector correction, and frame interpolation stages. Since our method gradually corrects unreliable motion vectors based on their reliability, we can effectively discover the areas where no motion is reliable to be used, such as occlusions and deformed structures. We also propose an adaptive frame interpolation scheme for the occlusion areas based on the analysis of their surrounding motion distribution. As a result, the interpolated frames using the proposed scheme have clearer structure edges and ghost artifacts are also greatly reduced. Experimental results show that our interpolated results have better visual quality than other methods. In addition, the proposed scheme is robust even for those video sequences that contain multiple and fast motions.

  7. SU-E-J-79: Internal Tumor Volume Motion and Volume Size Assessment Using 4D CT Lung Data

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jurkovic, I [University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX (United States); Stathakis, S; Li, Y; Patel, A; Vincent, J; Papanikolaou, N; Mavroidis, P [Cancer Therapy and Research Center University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX (United States)

    2014-06-01

    Purpose: To assess internal tumor volume change through breathing cycle and associated tumor motion using the 4DCT data. Methods: Respiration induced volume change through breathing cycle and associated motion was analyzed for nine patients that were scanned during the different respiratory phases. The examined datasets were the maximum and average intensity projections (MIP and AIP) and the 10 phases of the respiratory cycle. The internal target volume (ITV) was delineated on each of the phases and the planning target volume (PTV) was then created by adding setup margins to the ITV. Tumor motion through the phases was assessed using the acquired 4DCT dataset, which was then used to determine if the margins used for the ITV creation successfully encompassed the tumor in three dimensions. Results: Results showed that GTV motion along the superior inferior axes was the largest in all the cases independent of the tumor location and/or size or the use of abdomen compression. The extent of the tumor motion was found to be connected with the size of the GTV. The smallest GTVs exhibited largest motion vector independent of the tumor location. The motion vector size varied through the phases depending on the tumor size and location and it was smallest for phases 20 and 30. The smaller the volume of the delineated GTV, the greater its volume difference through the different respiratory phases was. The average GTV volume change was largest for the phases 60 and 70. Conclusion: Even if GTV is delineated using both AIP and MIP datasets, its motion extent will exceed the used margins especially for the very small GTV volumes. When the GTV size is less than 10 cc it is recommended to use fusion of the GTVs through all the phases to create the planning ITV.

  8. Polarized proton beam development at COSY with EDDA as a fast internal polarimeter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hinterberger, F.

    2001-01-01

    Polarized protons in the Cooler Synchrotron COSY encounter five imperfection and nine intrinsic depolarizing resonances during the acceleration from 300 to 3300 MeV/c. When crossing imperfection resonances vertical correction dipoles are excited in order to enhance the average vertical displacement and thereby the resonance strength to result in a complete spin flip without loss of polarization. When crossing intrinsic resonances a rapid vertical tune jump is applied to minimize polarization losses. In order to find the optimum machine parameters a novel and fast method was developed to measure the internal beam polarization as a function of the beam momentum in the vicinity of a depolarizing resonance as well as in the full acceleration ramp. Using very thin internal CH 2 - and/or C-fiber targets the polarization is deduced from the left-right asymmetry of fast scaler rates. To this end the EDDA detector is used. This detector consists of two cylindrical scintillation hodoscope layers covering about 87% of 4π for pp elastic scattering. The effective analyzing power of the fast method is obtained by a special calibration procedure using a 'slow but proper' EDDA-style measurement of the elastic pp scattering asymmetries. For this calibration precise analyzing power excitation functions measured by EDDA became available in time

  9. The effect of internal and external fields of view on visually induced motion sickness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bos, Jelte E; de Vries, Sjoerd C; van Emmerik, Martijn L; Groen, Eric L

    2010-07-01

    Field of view (FOV) is said to affect visually induced motion sickness. FOV, however, is characterized by an internal setting used by the graphics generator (iFOV) and an external factor determined by screen size and viewing distance (eFOV). We hypothesized that especially the incongruence between iFOV and eFOV would lead to sickness. To that end we used a computer game environment with different iFOV and eFOV settings, and found the opposite effect. We speculate that the relative large differences between iFOV and eFOV used in this experiment caused the discrepancy, as may be explained by assuming an observer model controlling body motion. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Technical committee meeting on material-coolant interactions and material movement and relocation in liquid metal fast reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1994-01-01

    The Technical Committee Meeting on Material-Coolant Interactions and Material Movement and Relocation in Liquid Metal Fast Reactors was sponsored by the International Working Group on Fast Reactors (IWGFR), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and hosted by PNC, on behalf of the Japanese government. A broad range of technical subjects was discussed in the TCM, covering entire aspects of material motion and interactions relevant to the safety of LMFRs. Recent achievement and current status in research and development in this area were presented including European out-of-pile test of molten material movement and relocation; molten material-sodium interaction; molten fuel-coolant interaction; core disruptive accidents; sodium boiling; post accident material relocation, heat removal and relevant experiments already performed or planned

  11. Technical committee meeting on material-coolant interactions and material movement and relocation in liquid metal fast reactors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1994-07-01

    The Technical Committee Meeting on Material-Coolant Interactions and Material Movement and Relocation in Liquid Metal Fast Reactors was sponsored by the International Working Group on Fast Reactors (IWGFR), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and hosted by PNC, on behalf of the Japanese government. A broad range of technical subjects was discussed in the TCM, covering entire aspects of material motion and interactions relevant to the safety of LMFRs. Recent achievement and current status in research and development in this area were presented including European out-of-pile test of molten material movement and relocation; molten material-sodium interaction; molten fuel-coolant interaction; core disruptive accidents; sodium boiling; post accident material relocation, heat removal and relevant experiments already performed or planned.

  12. Water droplets' internal fluidity during horizontal motion on a superhydrophobic surface with an external electric field.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakai, Munetoshi; Kono, Hiroki; Nakajima, Akira; Sakai, Hideki; Abe, Masahiko; Fujishima, Akira

    2010-02-02

    On a superhydrophobic surface, the internal fluidity of water droplets with different volumes (15, 30 microL) and their horizontal motion in an external electric field were evaluated using particle image velocimetry (PIV). For driving of water droplets on a superhydrophobic coating between parallel electrodes, it was important to place them at appropriate positions. Droplets moved with slipping. Small droplets showed deformation that is more remarkable. Results show that the dielectrophoretic force induced the initial droplet motion and that the surface potential gradient drove the droplets after reaching the middle point between electrodes.

  13. Phantom investigation of 3D motion-dependent volume aliasing during CT simulation for radiation therapy planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tanyi, James A; Fuss, Martin; Varchena, Vladimir; Lancaster, Jack L; Salter, Bill J

    2007-01-01

    To quantify volumetric and positional aliasing during non-gated fast- and slow-scan acquisition CT in the presence of 3D target motion. Single-slice fast, single-slice slow, and multi-slice fast scan helical CTs were acquired of dynamic spherical targets (1 and 3.15 cm in diameter), embedded in an anthropomorphic phantom. 3D target motions typical of clinically observed tumor motion parameters were investigated. Motion excursions included ± 5, ± 10, and ± 15 mm displacements in the S-I direction synchronized with constant displacements of ± 5 and ± 2 mm in the A-P and lateral directions, respectively. For each target, scan technique, and motion excursion, eight different initial motion-to-scan phase relationships were investigated. An anticipated general trend of target volume overestimation was observed. The mean percentage overestimation of the true physical target volume typically increased with target motion amplitude and decreasing target diameter. Slow-scan percentage overestimations were larger, and better approximated the time-averaged motion envelope, as opposed to fast-scans. Motion induced centroid misrepresentation was greater in the S-I direction for fast-scan techniques, and transaxial direction for the slow-scan technique. Overestimation is fairly uniform for slice widths < 5 mm, beyond which there is gross overestimation. Non-gated CT imaging of targets describing clinically relevant, 3D motion results in aliased overestimation of the target volume and misrepresentation of centroid location, with little or no correlation between the physical target geometry and the CT-generated target geometry. Slow-scan techniques are a practical method for characterizing time-averaged target position. Fast-scan techniques provide a more reliable, albeit still distorted, target margin

  14. Merging constitutional and motional covalent dynamics in reversible imine formation and exchange processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kovaříček, Petr; Lehn, Jean-Marie

    2012-06-06

    The formation and exchange processes of imines of salicylaldehyde, pyridine-2-carboxaldehyde, and benzaldehyde have been studied, showing that the former has features of particular interest for dynamic covalent chemistry, displaying high efficiency and fast rates. The monoimines formed with aliphatic α,ω-diamines display an internal exchange process of self-transimination type, inducing a local motion of either "stepping-in-place" or "single-step" type by bond interchange, whose rate decreases rapidly with the distance of the terminal amino groups. Control of the speed of the process over a wide range may be achieved by substituents, solvent composition, and temperature. These monoimines also undergo intermolecular exchange, thus merging motional and constitutional covalent behavior within the same molecule. With polyamines, the monoimines formed execute internal motions that have been characterized by extensive one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and EXSY proton NMR studies. In particular, with linear polyamines, nondirectional displacement occurs by shifting of the aldehyde residue along the polyamine chain serving as molecular track. Imines thus behave as simple prototypes of systems displaying relative motions of molecular moieties, a subject of high current interest in the investigation of synthetic and biological molecular motors. The motional processes described are of dynamic covalent nature and take place without change in molecular constitution. They thus represent a category of dynamic covalent motions, resulting from reversible covalent bond formation and dissociation. They extend dynamic covalent chemistry into the area of molecular motions. A major further step will be to achieve control of directionality. The results reported here for imines open wide perspectives, together with other chemical groups, for the implementation of such features in multifunctional molecules toward the design of molecular devices presenting a complex combination of

  15. Attractors of relaxation discrete-time systems with chaotic dynamics on a fast time scale

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maslennikov, Oleg V.; Nekorkin, Vladimir I.

    2016-01-01

    In this work, a new type of relaxation systems is considered. Their prominent feature is that they comprise two distinct epochs, one is slow regular motion and another is fast chaotic motion. Unlike traditionally studied slow-fast systems that have smooth manifolds of slow motions in the phase space and fast trajectories between them, in this new type one observes, apart the same geometric objects, areas of transient chaos. Alternating periods of slow regular motions and fast chaotic ones as well as transitions between them result in a specific chaotic attractor with chaos on a fast time scale. We formulate basic properties of such attractors in the framework of discrete-time systems and consider several examples. Finally, we provide an important application of such systems, the neuronal electrical activity in the form of chaotic spike-burst oscillations.

  16. Respiratory gating based on internal electromagnetic motion monitoring during stereotactic liver radiation therapy: First results.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poulsen, Per Rugaard; Worm, Esben Schjødt; Hansen, Rune; Larsen, Lars Peter; Grau, Cai; Høyer, Morten

    2015-01-01

    Intrafraction motion may compromise the target dose in stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) of tumors in the liver. Respiratory gating can improve the treatment delivery, but gating based on an external surrogate signal may be inaccurate. This is the first paper reporting on respiratory gating based on internal electromagnetic monitoring during liver SBRT. Two patients with solitary liver metastases were treated with respiratory-gated SBRT guided by three implanted electromagnetic transponders. The treatment was delivered in end-exhale with beam-on when the centroid of the three transponders deviated less than 3 mm [left-right (LR) and anterior-posterior (AP) directions] and 4mm [cranio-caudal (CC)] from the planned position. For each treatment fraction, log files were used to determine the transponder motion during beam-on in the actual gated treatments and in simulated treatments without gating. The motion was used to reconstruct the dose to the clinical target volume (CTV) with and without gating. The reduction in D95 (minimum dose to 95% of the CTV) relative to the plan was calculated for both treatment courses. With gating the maximum course mean (standard deviation) geometrical error in any direction was 1.2 mm (1.8 mm). Without gating the course mean error would mainly increase for Patient 1 [to -2.8 mm (1.6 mm) (LR), 7.1 mm (5.8 mm) (CC), -2.6 mm (2.8mm) (AP)] due to a large systematic cranial baseline drift at each fraction. The errors without gating increased only slightly for Patient 2. The reduction in CTV D95 was 0.5% (gating) and 12.1% (non-gating) for Patient 1 and 0.3% (gating) and 1.7% (non-gating) for Patient 2. The mean duty cycle was 55%. Respiratory gating based on internal electromagnetic motion monitoring was performed for two liver SBRT patients. The gating added robustness to the dose delivery and ensured a high CTV dose even in the presence of large intrafraction motion.

  17. Motion-based, high-yielding, and fast separation of different charged organics in water.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xuan, Mingjun; Lin, Xiankun; Shao, Jingxin; Dai, Luru; He, Qiang

    2015-01-12

    We report a self-propelled Janus silica micromotor as a motion-based analytical method for achieving fast target separation of polyelectrolyte microcapsules, enriching different charged organics with low molecular weights in water. The self-propelled Janus silica micromotor catalytically decomposes a hydrogen peroxide fuel and moves along the direction of the catalyst face at a speed of 126.3 μm s(-1) . Biotin-functionalized Janus micromotors can specifically capture and rapidly transport streptavidin-modified polyelectrolyte multilayer capsules, which could effectively enrich and separate different charged organics in water. The interior of the polyelectrolyte multilayer microcapsules were filled with a strong charged polyelectrolyte, and thus a Donnan equilibrium is favorable between the inner solution within the capsules and the bulk solution to entrap oppositely charged organics in water. The integration of these self-propelled Janus silica micromotors and polyelectrolyte multilayer capsules into a lab-on-chip device that enables the separation and analysis of charged organics could be attractive for a diverse range of applications. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  18. Leap Motion development essentials

    CERN Document Server

    Spiegelmock, Mischa

    2013-01-01

    This book is a fast-paced guide with practical examples that aims to help you understand and master the Leap Motion SDK.This book is for developers who are either involved in game development or who are looking to utilize Leap Motion technology in order to create brand new user interaction experiences to distinguish their products from the mass market. You should be comfortable with high-level languages and object-oriented development concepts in order to get the most out of this book.

  19. Resolving Fast, Confined Diffusion in Bacteria with Image Correlation Spectroscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rowland, David J; Tuson, Hannah H; Biteen, Julie S

    2016-05-24

    By following single fluorescent molecules in a microscope, single-particle tracking (SPT) can measure diffusion and binding on the nanometer and millisecond scales. Still, although SPT can at its limits characterize the fastest biomolecules as they interact with subcellular environments, this measurement may require advanced illumination techniques such as stroboscopic illumination. Here, we address the challenge of measuring fast subcellular motion by instead analyzing single-molecule data with spatiotemporal image correlation spectroscopy (STICS) with a focus on measurements of confined motion. Our SPT and STICS analysis of simulations of the fast diffusion of confined molecules shows that image blur affects both STICS and SPT, and we find biased diffusion rate measurements for STICS analysis in the limits of fast diffusion and tight confinement due to fitting STICS correlation functions to a Gaussian approximation. However, we determine that with STICS, it is possible to correctly interpret the motion that blurs single-molecule images without advanced illumination techniques or fast cameras. In particular, we present a method to overcome the bias due to image blur by properly estimating the width of the correlation function by directly calculating the correlation function variance instead of using the typical Gaussian fitting procedure. Our simulation results are validated by applying the STICS method to experimental measurements of fast, confined motion: we measure the diffusion of cytosolic mMaple3 in living Escherichia coli cells at 25 frames/s under continuous illumination to illustrate the utility of STICS in an experimental parameter regime for which in-frame motion prevents SPT and tight confinement of fast diffusion precludes stroboscopic illumination. Overall, our application of STICS to freely diffusing cytosolic protein in small cells extends the utility of single-molecule experiments to the regime of fast confined diffusion without requiring advanced

  20. Fast-starting after a breath: air-breathing motions are kinematically similar to escape responses in the catfish Hoplosternum littorale

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Domenici, Paolo; Norin, Tommy; Bushnell, Peter G.

    2015-01-01

    Fast-starts are brief accelerations commonly observed in fish within the context of predator–prey interactions. In typical C-start escape responses, fish react to a threatening stimulus by bending their body into a C-shape during the first muscle contraction (i.e. stage 1) which provides a sudden......-breathing in this species is followed by escape-like C-start motions, presumably to minimise time at the surface and exposure to avian predators. These findings show that C-starts can occur in a variety of contexts in which fish may need to get away from areas of potential danger....

  1. String-like collective motion in the α- and β-relaxation of a coarse-grained polymer melt

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pazmiño Betancourt, Beatriz A.; Starr, Francis W.; Douglas, Jack F.

    2018-03-01

    Relaxation in glass-forming liquids occurs as a multi-stage hierarchical process involving cooperative molecular motion. First, there is a "fast" relaxation process dominated by the inertial motion of the molecules whose amplitude grows upon heating, followed by a longer time α-relaxation process involving both large-scale diffusive molecular motion and momentum diffusion. Our molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained glass-forming polymer melt indicate that the fast, collective motion becomes progressively suppressed upon cooling, necessitating large-scale collective motion by molecular diffusion for the material to relax approaching the glass-transition. In each relaxation regime, the decay of the collective intermediate scattering function occurs through collective particle exchange motions having a similar geometrical form, and quantitative relationships are derived relating the fast "stringlet" collective motion to the larger scale string-like collective motion at longer times, which governs the temperature-dependent activation energies associated with both thermally activated molecular diffusion and momentum diffusion.

  2. Fast reactor safety: proceedings of the international topical meeting. Volume 1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1985-07-01

    The emphasis of this meeting was on the safety-related aspects of fast reactor design, analysis, licensing, construction, and operation. Relative to past meetings, there was less emphasis on the scientific and technological basis for accident assessment. Because of its broad scope, the meeting attracted 217 attendees from a wide cross section of the design, safety analysis, and safety technology communities. Eight countries and two international organizations were represented. A total of 126 papers were presented, with contributions from the United States, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy. Sessions covered in Volume 1 include: impact of safety and licensing considerations on fast reactor design; safety aspects of innovative designs; intra-subassembly behavior; operational safety; design accommodation of seismic and other external events; natural circulation; safety design concepts; safety implications derived from operational plant data; decay heat removal; and assessment of HCDA consequences.

  3. Fast reactor safety: proceedings of the international topical meeting. Volume 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-07-01

    The emphasis of this meeting was on the safety-related aspects of fast reactor design, analysis, licensing, construction, and operation. Relative to past meetings, there was less emphasis on the scientific and technological basis for accident assessment. Because of its broad scope, the meeting attracted 217 attendees from a wide cross section of the design, safety analysis, and safety technology communities. Eight countries and two international organizations were represented. A total of 126 papers were presented, with contributions from the United States, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy. Sessions covered in Volume 1 include: impact of safety and licensing considerations on fast reactor design; safety aspects of innovative designs; intra-subassembly behavior; operational safety; design accommodation of seismic and other external events; natural circulation; safety design concepts; safety implications derived from operational plant data; decay heat removal; and assessment of HCDA consequences

  4. Status of National Programmes on Fast Breeder Reactors. International Working Group on Fast Reactors, Twentieth Annual Meeting, Vienna, 24-27 March 1987

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1987-07-01

    The Agenda of the meeting was as follows: 1. Approval of the Agenda. 2. Approval of the minutes of the 19th meeting of the IWGFR. 3. Report of the Scientific Secretary regarding the WD activities of the Working Group. 4. Presentations and discussions on national programmes on fast breeder reactors. 5. Consideration of conferences on fast breeder reactors. a. ANS-ENS International Conference on Fast Breeder Systems Experience Gained and Path to Economical Power Generation, Richland, Washington, USA, 13-17 September 1987. b. International Conference on Liquid Metal Engineering and Technology, Avignon, France, 17-20 October 1988. c. Other meetings of interest to IWGFR members. 6. Consideration of major recommendations of some of the WD IWGFR Specialists' Meetings. 7. Consideration of arrangements for Specialists' Meetings in 1987. a. Specialists' Meeting on Fission and Corrosion Products Behaviour in Primary Circuits of LMFBRs, Karlsruhe, Fed. Rep. of Germany, May 1987. b. Specialists' Meeting on LMFBR Reactor Block Antiseismic Design and Verification, Bologna, Italy, October 1987. 8. Selection of topics for Specialists' Meetings to be held in 1988 and suggestions of the IWGFR on other Specialists' Meetings and their justifications. 9. Consideration of joint research activities: a. Coordinated Research Programme on a Comparative Assessment of Processing Techniques for Analysis of Sodium Boiling Noise Detection Data. b. Coordinated Research Programme on Intercomparison of LMFBR Core Mechanics Codes. c. New Topics of CRP. d. Other Activities. 10. Updating of ''LMFBR Plant Parameters''. 11. Informal discussion on ''Safety Criteria for Fast Reactors in IWGFR Countries''. 12. The date and place of the 21th Annual Meeting of the IWGFR

  5. Quantum-dynamical Modeling of the Rydberg to Valence Excited-State Internal Conversion in Cyclobutanone and Cyclopentanone

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kuhlman, T. S.; Sauer, Stephan P. A.; Solling, T. I.

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we present 4-state, 5-dimensional Vibronic Coupling Hamiltonians for cyclobutanone and cyclopentanone. Wave packet calculations using these Hamiltonians reveal that for cyclobutanone the (n,3s) to (n,π*) internal conversion involves direct motion in nuclear modes coupling the two st...... states leading to fast population transfer. For cyclopentanone, internal vibrational energy redistribution is a bottleneck for activating reactive nuclear modes leading to slower population transfer....

  6. Fast, accurate, small-scale 3D scene capture using a low-cost depth sensor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carey, Nicole; Nagpal, Radhika; Werfel, Justin

    2017-01-01

    Commercially available depth sensing devices are primarily designed for domains that are either macroscopic, or static. We develop a solution for fast microscale 3D reconstruction, using off-the-shelf components. By the addition of lenses, precise calibration of camera internals and positioning, and development of bespoke software, we turn an infrared depth sensor designed for human-scale motion and object detection into a device with mm-level accuracy capable of recording at up to 30Hz. PMID:28758159

  7. 19 CFR 210.15 - Motions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Motions. 210.15 Section 210.15 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION INVESTIGATIONS OF UNFAIR PRACTICES IN IMPORT TRADE ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT Motions § 210.15 Motions. (a) Presentation and disposition. (1) During the period...

  8. 19 CFR 210.26 - Other motions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Other motions. 210.26 Section 210.26 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION INVESTIGATIONS OF UNFAIR PRACTICES IN IMPORT TRADE ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT Motions § 210.26 Other motions. Motions pertaining to discovery shall be filed in...

  9. Discriminative Vision-Based Recovery and Recognition of Human Motion

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poppe, Ronald Walter

    2009-01-01

    The automatic analysis of human motion from images opens up the way for applications in the domains of security and surveillance, human-computer interaction, animation, retrieval and sports motion analysis. In this dissertation, the focus is on robust and fast human pose recovery and action

  10. Preoperative fasting times: Prescribed and actual fasting times at ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The current international guidelines for preoperative fasting for elective surgery are 6 ... to determine whether this policy was being followed and patients were being starved ..... recommended fasting time, so that autonomous patients take care.

  11. Semi-automatic detection and correction of body organ motion, particularly cardiac motion in SPECT studies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Quintana, J.C.; Caceres, F.; Vargas, P.

    2002-01-01

    patient and artificially imposed). The method is fast (<20s) and robust as compared with manual or other semi-automatic detection of body organ motions in nuclear medicine studies. Conclusion: A fast and robust semi-automatic patient motion detection and correction for SPECT studies has been developed

  12. International review on safety requirements for the prototype fast breeder reactor “Monju”

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2016-01-01

    In response to the lessons learned from the serious nuclear accidents at the TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Stations, an advisory committee, which was set up by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, issued the report “Safety Requirements Expected to the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor Monju” taking into account the SFR specific safety characteristics in July 2014. The report was reviewed by the leading international experts on SFR safety from five countries and one international organization in order to obtain independent and objective evaluation. The international review comments on each subsection were collected and compiled, and then a summary of results was derived through the discussion at the review meeting and individual feedbacks. As a result the basic concept for prevention of severe accidents and mitigation of their consequences of Monju is appropriate in consideration of SFR specific safety characteristics, and is in accordance with international common understanding. (author)

  13. Localized diffusive motion on two different time scales in solid alkane nanoparticles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, S.-K.; Mamontov, Eugene; Bai, M.; Hansen, F.Y.; Taub, H.; Copley, J.R.D.; Garcia Sakai, V.; Gasparovic, Goran; Jenkins, Timothy; Tyagi, M.; Herwig, Kenneth W.; Neumann, D.A.; Montfrooij, W.; Volkmann, U.G.

    2010-01-01

    High-energy-resolution quasielastic neutron scattering on three complementary spectrometers has been used to investigate molecular diffusive motion in solid nano- to bulk-sized particles of the alkane n-C32H66. The crystalline-to-plastic and plastic-to-fluid phase transition temperatures are observed to decrease as the particle size decreases. In all samples, localized molecular diffusive motion in the plastic phase occurs on two different time scales: a 'fast' motion corresponding to uniaxial rotation about the long molecular axis; and a 'slow' motion attributed to conformational changes of the molecule. Contrary to the conventional interpretation in bulk alkanes, the fast uniaxial rotation begins in the low-temperature crystalline phase.

  14. International Experience with Fast Reactor Operation & Testing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sackett, John I.; Grandy, C.

    2013-01-01

    Conclusion: • Worldwide experience with fast reactors has demonstrated the robustness of the technology and it stands ready for worldwide deployment. • The lessons learned are many and there is danger that what has been learned will be forgotten given that there is little activity in fast reactor development at the present time. • For this reason it is essential that knowledge of fast reactor technology be preserved, an activity supported in the U.S. as well as other countries

  15. CAMDYN: a new model to describe the axial motion of molten fuel inside the pin of a fast breeder reactor during accident conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peter, G.

    1991-01-01

    The new in-pin fuel motion model CAMDYN (Cavity Material Dynamics) describes the axial motion of both partially and fully molten fuel inside the pin of a fast breeder reactor during accident conditions. The motion of the two types of molten fuel and the imbedded fission gas bubbles is treated both before and after cladding failure. The basic modelling approach consists of the treatment of two one-dimensional flows which are coupled by interaction terms. Each of these flows is treated compressively and with axially variable flow cross sections. The mass and energy equations of both fields are solved explicitly using upwind differencing on a fixed Eulerian grid. The two momentum equations are solved simultaneously, using the convective momentum fluxes of the previous timestep. Both partially and fully molten fuel can move axially into a central hole extending to the plenum in the case of certain hollow pellet designs. The fuel temperature calculation includes the determination of a radial temperature profile. A simple conduction freezing model is included. After cladding failure, ejection into the coolant channel is modeled

  16. Orientation tuning of contrast masking caused by motion streaks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Apthorp, Deborah; Cass, John; Alais, David

    2010-08-01

    We investigated whether the oriented trails of blur left by fast-moving dots (i.e., "motion streaks") effectively mask grating targets. Using a classic overlay masking paradigm, we varied mask contrast and target orientation to reveal underlying tuning. Fast-moving Gaussian blob arrays elevated thresholds for detection of static gratings, both monoptically and dichoptically. Monoptic masking at high mask (i.e., streak) contrasts is tuned for orientation and exhibits a similar bandwidth to masking functions obtained with grating stimuli (∼30 degrees). Dichoptic masking fails to show reliable orientation-tuned masking, but dichoptic masks at very low contrast produce a narrowly tuned facilitation (∼17 degrees). For iso-oriented streak masks and grating targets, we also explored masking as a function of mask contrast. Interestingly, dichoptic masking shows a classic "dipper"-like TVC function, whereas monoptic masking shows no dip and a steeper "handle". There is a very strong unoriented component to the masking, which we attribute to transiently biased temporal frequency masking. Fourier analysis of "motion streak" images shows interesting differences between dichoptic and monoptic functions and the information in the stimulus. Our data add weight to the growing body of evidence that the oriented blur of motion streaks contributes to the processing of fast motion signals.

  17. Quantum-dynamical Modeling of the Rydberg to Valence Excited-State Internal Conversion in Cyclobutanone and Cyclopentanone

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Møller K. B.

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we present 4-state, 5-dimensional Vibronic Coupling Hamiltonians for cyclobutanone and cyclopentanone. Wave packet calculations using these Hamiltonians reveal that for cyclobutanone the (n,3s to (n,π* internal conversion involves direct motion in nuclear modes coupling the two states leading to fast population transfer. For cyclopentanone, internal vibrational energy redistribution is a bottleneck for activating reactive nuclear modes leading to slower population transfer.

  18. Hardware architecture design of a fast global motion estimation method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liang, Chaobing; Sang, Hongshi; Shen, Xubang

    2015-12-01

    VLSI implementation of gradient-based global motion estimation (GME) faces two main challenges: irregular data access and high off-chip memory bandwidth requirement. We previously proposed a fast GME method that reduces computational complexity by choosing certain number of small patches containing corners and using them in a gradient-based framework. A hardware architecture is designed to implement this method and further reduce off-chip memory bandwidth requirement. On-chip memories are used to store coordinates of the corners and template patches, while the Gaussian pyramids of both the template and reference frame are stored in off-chip SDRAMs. By performing geometric transform only on the coordinates of the center pixel of a 3-by-3 patch in the template image, a 5-by-5 area containing the warped 3-by-3 patch in the reference image is extracted from the SDRAMs by burst read. Patched-based and burst mode data access helps to keep the off-chip memory bandwidth requirement at the minimum. Although patch size varies at different pyramid level, all patches are processed in term of 3x3 patches, so the utilization of the patch-processing circuit reaches 100%. FPGA implementation results show that the design utilizes 24,080 bits on-chip memory and for a sequence with resolution of 352x288 and frequency of 60Hz, the off-chip bandwidth requirement is only 3.96Mbyte/s, compared with 243.84Mbyte/s of the original gradient-based GME method. This design can be used in applications like video codec, video stabilization, and super-resolution, where real-time GME is a necessity and minimum memory bandwidth requirement is appreciated.

  19. The effect of motion on dynamic nuclear polarization: A new theoretical development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coffino, A.R.

    1989-01-01

    Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) is a magnetic resonance technique which uses two different radiation sources: a radiofrequency field and microwave field to radiate nuclei and electrons, respectively. The DNP experiment probes the nature of the interaction between nuclei and electrons. The maximum of the resonance signal from the nucleus is plotted as a function of microwave frequency for the case of the microwaves on and off. The DNP signal is the ratio of these two signals and is termed the enhancement of the nuclear signal. This thesis considers the theory of the DNP signal based on the density matrix formulation of the Stochastic Liouville Equation, which incorporates the spin-spin interactions, spin-field interactions and a stochastic dynamics process which modulates these interactions. The case of one electron coupled to one spin one-half nucleus is considered. Such a formulation has never been developed. The thesis demonstrates that previous partial theories have attempted to incorporate dynamics have been incorrect. This theoretical development demonstrates, for the first time, how dynamics affects the DNP lineshapes. This theory predicts that DNP spectra change smoothly from the no motion to the fast motion region, and reproduces the known analytic answers in both the no-motion and the fast-motion limit. The most important observation of the results is that a DNP signal for a motional rate in the intermediate motional region looks like a superposition of a no-motion and fast-motion signal

  20. Infrared wireless data transfer for real-time motion control

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gajdusek, M.; Overboom, T.T.; Damen, A.A.H.; Bosch, van den P.P.J.

    2009-01-01

    In this paper several wireless solution are compared for their suitability for real-time control of a fast motion system. From the comparison, Very Fast Infrared (VFIR) communication link has been found to be an attractive solution for presented wirelessly controlled manipulator. Because standard

  1. Contributions from the Second and Third Internal Gravity Modes for the Vertical Motion Response.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julio Buchmann

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available In earlier papers of a series of real data integrations of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community ClimateModel with tropical heat anomalies display regions of pronounced subsidence and drying located several thousand kilometers westwardpoleward of the heating for cases of tropical Atlantic heating and tropical east Pacifi c heating. This highly predictable sinking responseis established within the fi rst fi ve days of these integrations. The normal-modes of a set of adiabatic primitive equations linearizedabout a basic state at rest are used to partition model response into gravity-inertia and Rossby modes. The most important contributionfor the vertical motion response comes from the gravity modes added for all vertical modes. The principal emphasis is given upon thecontributions of the second and third internal vertical modes (with equivalent depths on the order of a fews hundred meters for thevertical motion response.

  2. Interactive inverse kinematics for human motion estimation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Engell-Nørregård, Morten Pol; Hauberg, Søren; Lapuyade, Jerome

    2009-01-01

    We present an application of a fast interactive inverse kinematics method as a dimensionality reduction for monocular human motion estimation. The inverse kinematics solver deals efficiently and robustly with box constraints and does not suffer from shaking artifacts. The presented motion...... to significantly speed up the particle filtering. It should be stressed that the observation part of the system has not been our focus, and as such is described only from a sense of completeness. With our approach it is possible to construct a robust and computationally efficient system for human motion estimation....

  3. Dynamic motion analysis of fetuses with central nervous system disorders by cine magnetic resonance imaging using fast imaging employing steady-state acquisition and parallel imaging: a preliminary result.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Wan-Yuo; Ono, Shigeki; Oi, Shizuo; Shen, Shu-Huei; Wong, Tai-Tong; Chung, Hsiao-Wen; Hung, Jeng-Hsiu

    2006-08-01

    The authors present a novel cine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, two-dimensional (2D) fast imaging employing steady-state acquisition (FIESTA) technique with parallel imaging. It achieves temporal resolution at less than half a second as well as high spatial resolution cine imaging free of motion artifacts for evaluating the dynamic motion of fetuses in utero. The information obtained is used to predict postnatal outcome. Twenty-five fetuses with anomalies were studied. Ultrasonography demonstrated severe abnormalities in five of the fetuses; the other 20 fetuses constituted a control group. The cine fetal MR imaging demonstrated fetal head, neck, trunk, extremity, and finger as well as swallowing motions. Imaging findings were evaluated and compared in fetuses with major central nervous system (CNS) anomalies in five cases and minor CNS, non-CNS, or no anomalies in 20 cases. Normal motility was observed in the latter group. For fetuses in the former group, those with abnormal motility failed to survive after delivery, whereas those with normal motility survived with functioning preserved. The power deposition of radiofrequency, presented as specific absorption rate (SAR), was calculated. The SAR of FIESTA was approximately 13 times lower than that of conventional MR imaging of fetuses obtained using single-shot fast spin echo sequences. The following conclusions are drawn: 1) Fetal motion is no longer a limitation for prenatal imaging after the implementation of parallel imaging with 2D FIESTA, 2) Cine MR imaging illustrates fetal motion in utero with high clinical reliability, 3) For cases involving major CNS anomalies, cine MR imaging provides information on extremity motility in fetuses and serves as a prognostic indicator of postnatal outcome, and 4) The cine MR used to observe fetal activity is technically 2D and conceptually three-dimensional. It provides four-dimensional information for making proper and timely obstetrical and/or postnatal management

  4. Atypical anticlockwise internal tidal motions in the deep ocean

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Haren, H.

    2015-01-01

    In the ocean, horizontal motions associated with freely propagating semidiurnal tidal inertia-gravity waves mainly describe an ellipse that is traversed in a clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere. In this article, rare observations of anticlockwise polarised semidiurnal motions are

  5. The MusIC method: a fast and quasi-optimal solution to the muscle forces estimation problem

    OpenAIRE

    Muller , Antoine; Pontonnier , Charles; Dumont , Georges

    2018-01-01

    International audience; The present paper aims at presenting a fast and quasi-optimal method of muscle forces estimation: the MusIC method. It consists in interpolating a first estimation in a database generated offline thanks to a classical optimization problem, and then correcting it to respect the motion dynamics. Three different cost functions – two polynomial criteria and a min/max criterion – were tested on a planar musculoskeletal model. The MusIC method provides a computation frequenc...

  6. Status of national programmes on fast breeder reactors. Twenty-fifth annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors. Summary report. Working material

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1992-07-01

    At present nuclear power accounts for approximately 17% of total electricity generation worldwide. Given continuing population growth and the needs of the third world and developing countries to improve their economic performance and standard of living, energy demand is expected to continue to grow through the 21st century. The proportion of energy supplied as electricity is also expected to continue to increase. Although fossil fuelled electricity generation is the option preferred by several countries for the short term, there are rising concerns over climatic consequences caused by extended burning of fossil fuels as a result of the demands of a fast expanding world population. In this situation nuclear electricity will become more and more important and the known reserves of uranium would be consumed quite quickly by thermal reactors. It would be possible to sustain a large nuclear programme only by introducing fast reactors. One can conclude that there are strategic reasons for pursuing the development of fast breeder reactors. It will become desirable essential, to have this technology available for introduction. The experience of the various prototypes presently in operation has confirmed the operability and benign characteristics of the LMFR and has given ground for confidence in the future. Current fast reactor designs offer very large margins of safety and by virtue of redundant and diverse safety systems the potential for an energetic core disruptive accident or for fast reactor core meltdown has been essentially eliminated. Several international forums reviewed the current trends in the fast reactor development. The view was reaffirmed that fast breeder reactors still remain the most practical tool for effective utilization of uranium resources for the future energy needs. Achievement of competitiveness with LMRs is still the first priority condition for the future deployment of this type of reactor. The recycling of plutonium into LMFBRs would allow

  7. Status of national programmes on fast breeder reactors. Twenty-fifth annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors. Summary report. Working material

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1992-01-01

    At present nuclear power accounts for approximately 17% of total electricity generation worldwide. Given continuing population growth and the needs of the third world and developing countries to improve their economic performance and standard of living, energy demand is expected to continue to grow through the 21st century. The proportion of energy supplied as electricity is also expected to continue to increase. Although fossil fuelled electricity generation is the option preferred by several countries for the short term, there are rising concerns over climatic consequences caused by extended burning of fossil fuels as a result of the demands of a fast expanding world population. In this situation nuclear electricity will become more and more important and the known reserves of uranium would be consumed quite quickly by thermal reactors. It would be possible to sustain a large nuclear programme only by introducing fast reactors. One can conclude that there are strategic reasons for pursuing the development of fast breeder reactors. It will become desirable essential, to have this technology available for introduction. The experience of the various prototypes presently in operation has confirmed the operability and benign characteristics of the LMFR and has given ground for confidence in the future. Current fast reactor designs offer very large margins of safety and by virtue of redundant and diverse safety systems the potential for an energetic core disruptive accident or for fast reactor core meltdown has been essentially eliminated. Several international forums reviewed the current trends in the fast reactor development. The view was reaffirmed that fast breeder reactors still remain the most practical tool for effective utilization of uranium resources for the future energy needs. Achievement of competitiveness with LMRs is still the first priority condition for the future deployment of this type of reactor. The recycling of plutonium into LMFBRs would allow

  8. Revealing the fast atomic motion of network glasses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruta, B; Baldi, G; Chushkin, Y; Rufflé, B; Cristofolini, L; Fontana, A; Zanatta, M; Nazzani, F

    2014-05-19

    Still very little is known on the relaxation dynamics of glasses at the microscopic level due to the lack of experiments and theories. It is commonly believed that glasses are in a dynamical arrested state, with relaxation times too large to be observed on human time scales. Here we provide the experimental evidence that glasses display fast atomic rearrangements within a few minutes, even in the deep glassy state. Following the evolution of the structural relaxation in a sodium silicate glass, we find that this fast dynamics is accompanied by the absence of any detectable aging, suggesting a decoupling of the relaxation time and the viscosity in the glass. The relaxation time is strongly affected by the network structure with a marked increase at the mesoscopic scale associated with the ion-conducting pathways. Our results modify the conception of the glassy state and asks for a new microscopic theory.

  9. Near field fluid coupling between internal motion of the organ of Corti and the basilar membrane

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Elliott, Stephen J.; Ni, Guangjian [Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton, Southampton (United Kingdom)

    2015-12-31

    The pressure distribution in each of the fluid chambers of the cochlea can be decomposed into a 1D, or plane wave, component and a near field component, which decays rapidly away from the excitation point. The transverse motion of the basilar membrane, BM, for example, generates both a 1D pressure field, which couples into the slow wave, and a local near field pressure, proportional to the BM acceleration, that generates an added mass on the BM due to the fluid motion. When the organ of Corti, OC, undergoes internal motion, due for example to outer hair cell activity, this motion will not itself generate any 1D pressure if the OC is incompressible and the BM is constrained not to move volumetrically, and so will not directly couple into the slow wave. This motion will, however, generate a near field pressure, proportional to the OC acceleration, which will act on the OC and thus increases its effective mass. The near field pressure due to this OC motion will also act on the BM, generating a force on the BM proportional to the acceleration of the OC, and thus create a “coupling mass” effect. By reciprocity, this coupling mass is the same as that acting on the OC due to the motion of the BM. This near field fluid coupling is initially observed in a finite element model of a slice of the cochlea. These simulations suggest a simple analytical formulation for the fluid coupling, using higher order beam modes across the width of the cochlear partition. It is well known that the added mass due to the near field pressure dominates the overall mass of the BM, and thus significantly affects the micromechanical dynamics. This work not only quantifies the added mass of the OC due its own motion in the fluid, and shows that this is important, but also demonstrates that the coupling mass effect between the BM and OC significantly affects the dynamics of simple micromechanical models.

  10. Utilizing the Fast Flux Test Facility for international passive safety testing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shen, P.K.; Padilla, A.; Lucoff, D.M.; Waltar, A.E.

    1991-01-01

    A two-phased approach has been undertaken in the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) to conduct passive safety testing. Phase I (1986 to 1987) was structured to obtain an initial understanding of the reactivity feedback components. The planned Phase II (1992 to 1993) international program will extend the testing to include static and dynamic feedback measurements, transient and demonstration tests, and gas expansion module (GEM) reactivity tests. The primary objective is to meet the needs for safety analysis code validation, with particular emphasis on reducing the uncertainties associated with structure reactivity feedback. Program scope and predicted FFTF responses are discussed and illustrated. (author)

  11. Motion of ionizing electric-field solitons in a bounded plasma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lagar'kov, A.; Rutkevich, I.

    1981-01-01

    A theory is derived for the motion of fast ionization waves along a plane slab of a weakly ionized plasma. The properties of the ionization wave are shown to be closely related to the motion of a two-dimensional surface-charge wave along the slab boundaries. As a result, the ionization wave is quite different from a one-dimensional wave. A quasi-one-dimensional description is used for the wave motion, in which the initial equations are averaged over the transverse coordinate. The relationship between the normal component of the current density at the plasma boundary and the amplitude of the electric potential from the linear theory for a surface wave is used to close the system of averaged equations. Self-similar solutions are derived for these equations; the solutions describe space-charge solitons and electric-field solitons which ionize the plasma. The theory is used to explain the motion of fast ionization waves in long discharge tubes

  12. The fast code

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Freeman, L.N.; Wilson, R.E. [Oregon State Univ., Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Corvallis, OR (United States)

    1996-09-01

    The FAST Code which is capable of determining structural loads on a flexible, teetering, horizontal axis wind turbine is described and comparisons of calculated loads with test data are given at two wind speeds for the ESI-80. The FAST Code models a two-bladed HAWT with degrees of freedom for blade bending, teeter, drive train flexibility, yaw, and windwise and crosswind tower motion. The code allows blade dimensions, stiffnesses, and weights to differ and models tower shadow, wind shear, and turbulence. Additionally, dynamic stall is included as are delta-3 and an underslung rotor. Load comparisons are made with ESI-80 test data in the form of power spectral density, rainflow counting, occurrence histograms, and azimuth averaged bin plots. It is concluded that agreement between the FAST Code and test results is good. (au)

  13. Assessing Respiration-Induced Tumor Motion and Internal Target Volume Using Four-Dimensional Computed Tomography for Radiotherapy of Lung Cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, H. Helen; Balter, Peter; Tutt, Teresa; Choi, Bum; Zhang, Joy; Wang, Catherine; Chi, Melinda; Luo Dershan; Pan Tinsu; Hunjan, Sandeep; Starkschall, George; Rosen, Isaac; Prado, Karl; Liao Zhongxing; Chang, Joe; Komaki, Ritsuko; Cox, James D.; Mohan, Radhe; Dong Lei

    2007-01-01

    Purpose: To assess three-dimensional tumor motion caused by respiration and internal target volume (ITV) for radiotherapy of lung cancer. Methods and Materials: Respiration-induced tumor motion was analyzed for 166 tumors from 152 lung cancer patients, 57.2% of whom had Stage III or IV non-small-cell lung cancer. All patients underwent four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) during normal breathing before treatment. The expiratory phase of 4DCT images was used as the reference set to delineate gross tumor volume (GTV). Gross tumor volumes on other respiratory phases and resulting ITVs were determined using rigid-body registration of 4DCT images. The association of GTV motion with various clinical and anatomic factors was analyzed statistically. Results: The proportions of tumors that moved >0.5 cm along the superior-inferior (SI), lateral, and anterior-posterior (AP) axes during normal breathing were 39.2%, 1.8%, and 5.4%, respectively. For 95% of the tumors, the magnitude of motion was less than 1.34 cm, 0.40 cm, and 0.59 cm along the SI, lateral, and AP directions. The principal component of tumor motion was in the SI direction, with only 10.8% of tumors moving >1.0 cm. The tumor motion was found to be associated with diaphragm motion, the SI tumor location in the lung, size of the GTV, and disease T stage. Conclusions: Lung tumor motion is primarily driven by diaphragm motion. The motion of locally advanced lung tumors is unlikely to exceed 1.0 cm during quiet normal breathing except for small lesions located in the lower half of the lung

  14. SU-F-303-17: Real Time Dose Calculation of MRI Guided Co-60 Radiotherapy Treatments On Free Breathing Patients, Using a Motion Model and Fast Monte Carlo Dose Calculation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thomas, D; O’Connell, D; Lamb, J; Cao, M; Yang, Y; Agazaryan, N; Lee, P; Low, D

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: To demonstrate real-time dose calculation of free-breathing MRI guided Co−60 treatments, using a motion model and Monte-Carlo dose calculation to accurately account for the interplay between irregular breathing motion and an IMRT delivery. Methods: ViewRay Co-60 dose distributions were optimized on ITVs contoured from free-breathing CT images of lung cancer patients. Each treatment plan was separated into 0.25s segments, accounting for the MLC positions and beam angles at each time point. A voxel-specific motion model derived from multiple fast-helical free-breathing CTs and deformable registration was calculated for each patient. 3D images for every 0.25s of a simulated treatment were generated in real time, here using a bellows signal as a surrogate to accurately account for breathing irregularities. Monte-Carlo dose calculation was performed every 0.25s of the treatment, with the number of histories in each calculation scaled to give an overall 1% statistical uncertainty. Each dose calculation was deformed back to the reference image using the motion model and accumulated. The static and real-time dose calculations were compared. Results: Image generation was performed in real time at 4 frames per second (GPU). Monte-Carlo dose calculation was performed at approximately 1frame per second (CPU), giving a total calculation time of approximately 30 minutes per treatment. Results show both cold- and hot-spots in and around the ITV, and increased dose to contralateral lung as the tumor moves in and out of the beam during treatment. Conclusion: An accurate motion model combined with a fast Monte-Carlo dose calculation allows almost real-time dose calculation of a free-breathing treatment. When combined with sagittal 2D-cine-mode MRI during treatment to update the motion model in real time, this will allow the true delivered dose of a treatment to be calculated, providing a useful tool for adaptive planning and assessing the effectiveness of gated treatments

  15. Near-surface energy transfers from internal tide beams to smaller vertical scale motions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chou, S.; Staquet, C.; Carter, G. S.; Luther, D. S.

    2016-02-01

    Mechanical energy capable of causing diapycnal mixing in the ocean is transferred to the internal wave field when barotropic tides pass over underwater topography and generate internal tides. The resulting internal tide energy is confined in vertically limited structures, or beams. As internal tide beams (ITBs) propagate through regions of non-uniform stratification in the upper ocean, wave energy can be scattered through multiple reflections and refractions, be vertically trapped, or transferred to non-tidal frequencies through different nonlinear processes. Various observations have shown that ITBs are no longer detectable in horizontal kinetic energy beyond the first surface reflection. Importantly, this implies that some of the internal tide energy no longer propagates in to the abyssal ocean and consequently will not be available to maintain the density stratification. Using the NHM, a nonlinear and nonhydrostatic model based on the MITgcm, simulations of an ITB propagating up to the sea surface are examined in order to quantify the transformation of ITB energy to other motions. We compare and contrast the transformations enabled by idealized, smoothly-varying stratification with transformations enabled by realistic stratification containing a broad-band vertical wavenumber spectrum of variations. Preliminary two-dimensional results show that scattering due to small-scale structure in realistic stratification profiles from Hawaii can lead to energy being vertically trapped near the surface. Idealized simulations of "locally" generated internal solitary waves are analyzed in terms of energy flux transfers from the ITB to solitary waves, higher harmonics, and mean flow. The amount of internal tide energy which propagates back down after near-surface reflection of the ITB in different environments is quantified.

  16. Neural correlates of sensory prediction errors in monkeys: evidence for internal models of voluntary self-motion in the cerebellum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cullen, Kathleen E; Brooks, Jessica X

    2015-02-01

    During self-motion, the vestibular system makes essential contributions to postural stability and self-motion perception. To ensure accurate perception and motor control, it is critical to distinguish between vestibular sensory inputs that are the result of externally applied motion (exafference) and that are the result of our own actions (reafference). Indeed, although the vestibular sensors encode vestibular afference and reafference with equal fidelity, neurons at the first central stage of sensory processing selectively encode vestibular exafference. The mechanism underlying this reafferent suppression compares the brain's motor-based expectation of sensory feedback with the actual sensory consequences of voluntary self-motion, effectively computing the sensory prediction error (i.e., exafference). It is generally thought that sensory prediction errors are computed in the cerebellum, yet it has been challenging to explicitly demonstrate this. We have recently addressed this question and found that deep cerebellar nuclei neurons explicitly encode sensory prediction errors during self-motion. Importantly, in everyday life, sensory prediction errors occur in response to changes in the effector or world (muscle strength, load, etc.), as well as in response to externally applied sensory stimulation. Accordingly, we hypothesize that altering the relationship between motor commands and the actual movement parameters will result in the updating in the cerebellum-based computation of exafference. If our hypothesis is correct, under these conditions, neuronal responses should initially be increased--consistent with a sudden increase in the sensory prediction error. Then, over time, as the internal model is updated, response modulation should decrease in parallel with a reduction in sensory prediction error, until vestibular reafference is again suppressed. The finding that the internal model predicting the sensory consequences of motor commands adapts for new

  17. Inter-fraction variations in respiratory motion models

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McClelland, J R; Modat, M; Ourselin, S; Hawkes, D J [Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London (United Kingdom); Hughes, S; Qureshi, A; Ahmad, S; Landau, D B, E-mail: j.mcclelland@cs.ucl.ac.uk [Department of Oncology, Guy' s and St Thomas' s Hospitals NHS Trust, London (United Kingdom)

    2011-01-07

    Respiratory motion can vary dramatically between the planning stage and the different fractions of radiotherapy treatment. Motion predictions used when constructing the radiotherapy plan may be unsuitable for later fractions of treatment. This paper presents a methodology for constructing patient-specific respiratory motion models and uses these models to evaluate and analyse the inter-fraction variations in the respiratory motion. The internal respiratory motion is determined from the deformable registration of Cine CT data and related to a respiratory surrogate signal derived from 3D skin surface data. Three different models for relating the internal motion to the surrogate signal have been investigated in this work. Data were acquired from six lung cancer patients. Two full datasets were acquired for each patient, one before the course of radiotherapy treatment and one at the end (approximately 6 weeks later). Separate models were built for each dataset. All models could accurately predict the respiratory motion in the same dataset, but had large errors when predicting the motion in the other dataset. Analysis of the inter-fraction variations revealed that most variations were spatially varying base-line shifts, but changes to the anatomy and the motion trajectories were also observed.

  18. International Working Group on Fast Reactors Thirteenth Annual Meeting. Summary Report. Part II

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1980-10-01

    The Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the IAEA International Working Group on Fast Reactors was held at the IAEA Headquarters, Vienna, Austria from 9 to 11 April 1980. The Summary Report (Part I) contains the Minutes of the Meeting. The Summary Report (Part II) contains the papers which review the national programme in the field of LMFBRs and other presentations at the Meeting. The Summary Report (Part III) contains the discussions on the review of the national programmes

  19. International Working Group on Fast Reactors Thirteenth Annual Meeting. Summary Report. Part I

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1980-09-01

    The Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the IAEA International Working Group on Fast Reactors was held at the IAEA Headquarters, Vienna, Austria from 9 to 11 April 1980. The Summary Report (Part I) contains the Minutes of the Meeting. The Summary Report (Part II) contains the papers which review the national programme in the field of LMFBRs and other presentations at the Meeting. The Summary Report (Part III) contains the discussions on the review of the national programmes

  20. Fuel-motion diagnostics and cineradiography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    DeVolpi, A.

    1982-09-01

    Nuclear and non-nuclear applications of cineradiography are reviewed, with emphasis on diagnostic instrumentation for in-pile transient-reactor safety testing of nuclear fuel motion. The primary instrument for this purpose has been the fast-neutron hodoscope, which has achieved quantitative monitoring of time, location, mass, and velocity of fuel movement under the difficult conditions associated with transient-reactor experiments. Alternative diagnostic devices that have been developed have not matched the capabilities of the hodoscope. Other applications for the fuel-motion diagnostic apparatus are also evolving, including time-integrated radiography and direct time- and space-resolved fuel-pin power monitoring. Although only two reactors are now actively equipped with high-resolution fuel-motion diagnostic systems, studies and tests have been carried out in and for many other reactors

  1. Dynamic chaos phenomenon and coherent radiation accompanying high energy particle motion through crystals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Akhiezer, A.I.; Truten', V.I.; Shul'ga, N.F.

    1991-01-01

    A crystal has a regular structure, therefore every motion in such a structure seems to be regular. However, it is not actually so and even in perfect crystals the particle motion may be either regular or chaotic. Everything depends on the number of integrals of motion determining a particle trajectory. The character of particle motion in a crystal, i.e. its regularity or chaoticity, affects many physical processes accompanying the particle's motion. In this paper we shall consider the effect of dynamic chaos on the coherent radiation of fast particles in a crystal. We also consider the validity conditions of coherent radiation theory results, the role of the second and higher Born approximations in the radiation theory of fast particles in crystals, the continuous string approximation in this theory, the coherent radiation in the model of random strings, and the multiple scattering effect on the coherent radiation. (author)

  2. The initial safe range of motion of the ankle joint after three methods of internal fixation of simulated fractures of the medial malleolus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shimamura, Yoshio; Kaneko, Kazuo; Kume, Kazuhiko; Maeda, Mutsuhiro; Iwase, Hideaki

    2006-07-01

    Previous studies have demonstrated the safe passive range of ankle motion for inter-bone stiffness after internal fixation under load but there is a lack of information about the safe range of ankle motion for early rehabilitation in the absence of loading. The present study was designed to assess the effect of ankle movement on inter-bone displacement characteristics of medial malleolus fractures following three types of internal fixation to determine the safe range of motion. Five lower legs obtained during autopsy were used to assess three types of internal fixation (two with Kirschner-wires alone; two with Kirschner-wires plus tension band wiring; and, one with an AO/ASIF malleolar screw alone). Following a simulated fracture by sawing through the medial malleolus the displacement between the fractured bone ends was measured during a passive range of movement with continuous monitoring using omega (Omega) shaped transducers and a biaxial flexible goniometer. Statistical analysis was performed with repeated measures analysis of variance. Inter-bone displacement was not proportional to the magnitude of movement throughout the range of ankle motion as, when separation exceeded 25 microm, there was increasingly wide separation as plantar-flexion or dorsal-flexion was increased. There was no statistical significant difference between the small amount of inter-bone displacement observed with three types of fixation within the safe range of dorsal-flexion and plantar-flexion for early rehabilitation. However the inter-bone separation when fixation utilized two Kirschner-wires alone tended to be greater than when using the other two types of fixation during dorsal-flexion and eversion. The present study revealed a reproducible range of ankle motion for early rehabilitation which was estimated to be within the range of 20 degrees of dorsal-flexion and 10 degrees of plantar-flexion without eversion. Also, internal fixation with two Kirschner-wires alone does not seem to

  3. On the coupling of cyclotron motion to ion internal degrees of freedom

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dunbar, R.C.

    1979-01-01

    A possibility of significant coupling between gas-phase ion cyclotron motion and two internal angular momentum terms is explored. The first case, coupling with ion spin, is treated via the relativistic Hamiltonian, and found to produce only relativistic perturbations which are entirely negligible. The second case, coupling with ion rotation, is developed via its equivalence to a Stark effect. Small shifts in the cyclotron resonances frequency , ωsub(c) and the appearance of a weak cyclotron resonance at 2ωsub(c) are predicted, but these effects are negligible in general. If the cyclotron frequency is near an ion rotational transition, however, a shift of 10 -5 in cyclotron frequency may be observed, and could provide a means of investigating low-frequency rotational transitions of ions. (Auth.)

  4. Parametric modelling of nonstationary platform deck motions

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Mandal, S.

    with fast Fourier transform spectra and show good agreement. However, the higher order maximum entropy model can be used for better representation of nonstationary motions. This method also reduces long time series of nonstationary offshore data into a few...

  5. Three-dimensional intrafractional internal target motions in accelerated partial breast irradiation using three-dimensional conformal external beam radiotherapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirata, Kimiko; Yoshimura, Michio; Mukumoto, Nobutaka; Nakamura, Mitsuhiro; Inoue, Minoru; Sasaki, Makoto; Fujimoto, Takahiro; Yano, Shinsuke; Nakata, Manabu; Mizowaki, Takashi; Hiraoka, Masahiro

    2017-07-01

    We evaluated three-dimensional intrafractional target motion, divided into respiratory-induced motion and baseline drift, in accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI). Paired fluoroscopic images were acquired simultaneously using orthogonal kV X-ray imaging systems at pre- and post-treatment for 23 patients who underwent APBI with external beam radiotherapy. The internal target motion was calculated from the surgical clips placed around the tumour cavity. The peak-to-peak respiratory-induced motions ranged from 0.6 to 1.5mm in all directions. A systematic baseline drift of 1.5mm towards the posterior direction and a random baseline drift of 0.3mm in the lateral-medial and cranial-caudal directions were observed. The baseline for an outer tumour cavity drifted towards the lateral and posterior directions, and that for an upper tumour cavity drifted towards the cranial direction. Moderate correlations were observed between the posterior baseline drift and the patients' physical characteristics. The posterior margin for intrafractional uncertainties was larger than 5mm in patients with greater fat thickness due to the baseline drift. The magnitude of the intrafractional motion was not uniform according to the direction, patients' physical characteristics, or tumour cavity location due to the baseline drift. Therefore, the intrafractional systematic movement should be properly managed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Bubble Driven Quasioscillatory Translational Motion of Catalytic Micromotors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manjare, Manoj; Yang, Bo; Zhao, Y.-P.

    2012-09-01

    A new quasioscillatory translational motion has been observed for big Janus catalytic micromotors with a fast CCD camera. Such motional behavior is found to coincide with both the bubble growth and burst processes resulting from the catalytic reaction, and the competition of the two processes generates a net forward motion. Detailed physical models have been proposed to describe the above processes. It is suggested that the bubble growth process imposes a growth force moving the micromotor forward, while the burst process induces an instantaneous local pressure depression pulling the micromotor backward. The theoretic predictions are consistent with the experimental data.

  7. FAST MOTIONS OF GALAXIES IN THE COMA I CLOUD: A CASE OF DARK ATTRACTOR?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Karachentsev, Igor D.; Nasonova, Olga G.; Courtois, Helene M.

    2011-01-01

    We note that nearby galaxies having high negative peculiar velocities are distributed over the sky very inhomogeneously. A part of this anisotropy is caused by the 'Local Velocity Anomaly', i.e., by the bulk motion of nearby galaxies away from the Local Void. However, half of the fast-flying objects reside within a small region known as the Coma I cloud. According to Makarov and Karachentsev, this complex contains 8 groups, 5 triplets, 10 pairs, and 83 single galaxies with a total mass of 4.7 × 10 13 M ☉ . We use 122 galaxies in the Coma I region with known distances and radial velocities V LG –1 to draw the Hubble relation for them. The Hubble diagram shows a Z-shaped effect of infall with an amplitude of +200 km s –1 on the nearby side and –700 km s –1 on the back side. This phenomenon can be understood as the galaxy infall toward a dark attractor with a mass of ∼2 × 10 14 M ☉ situated at a distance of 15 Mpc from us. The existence of a large void between the Coma and Virgo clusters also probably affects the Hubble flow around the Coma I.

  8. International review on safety requirements for the prototype fast breeder reactor “Monju” (Translated document)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2016-02-01

    In response to the lessons learned from the serious nuclear accidents at the TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Stations, an advisory committee, which was set up by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, issued the report “Safety Requirements Expected to the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor Monju” taking into account the SFR specific safety characteristics in July 2014. The report was reviewed by the leading international experts on SFR safety from five countries and one international organization in order to obtain independent and objective evaluation. The international review comments on each subsection were collected and compiled, and then a summary of results was derived through the discussion at the review meeting and individual feedbacks. As a result the basic concept for prevention of severe accidents and mitigation of their consequences of Monju is appropriate in consideration of SFR specific safety characteristics, and is in accordance with international common understanding. (author)

  9. New type of microengine using internal combustion of hydrogen and oxygen

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svetovoy, Vitaly B.; Sanders, Remco G. P.; Ma, Kechun; Elwenspoek, Miko C.

    2014-01-01

    Microsystems become part of everyday life but their application is restricted by lack of strong and fast motors (actuators) converting energy into motion. For example, widespread internal combustion engines cannot be scaled down because combustion reactions are quenched in a small space. Here we present an actuator with the dimensions 100 × 100 × 5 μm3 that is using internal combustion of hydrogen and oxygen as part of its working cycle. Water electrolysis driven by short voltage pulses creates an extra pressure of 0.5–4 bar for a time of 100–400 μs in a chamber closed by a flexible membrane. When the pulses are switched off this pressure is released even faster allowing production of mechanical work in short cycles. We provide arguments that this unexpectedly fast pressure decrease is due to spontaneous combustion of the gases in the chamber. This actuator is the first step to truly microscopic combustion engines. PMID:24599052

  10. New type of microengine using internal combustion of hydrogen and oxygen.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svetovoy, Vitaly B; Sanders, Remco G P; Ma, Kechun; Elwenspoek, Miko C

    2014-03-06

    Microsystems become part of everyday life but their application is restricted by lack of strong and fast motors (actuators) converting energy into motion. For example, widespread internal combustion engines cannot be scaled down because combustion reactions are quenched in a small space. Here we present an actuator with the dimensions 100 × 100 × 5 μm(3) that is using internal combustion of hydrogen and oxygen as part of its working cycle. Water electrolysis driven by short voltage pulses creates an extra pressure of 0.5-4 bar for a time of 100-400 μs in a chamber closed by a flexible membrane. When the pulses are switched off this pressure is released even faster allowing production of mechanical work in short cycles. We provide arguments that this unexpectedly fast pressure decrease is due to spontaneous combustion of the gases in the chamber. This actuator is the first step to truly microscopic combustion engines.

  11. Trajectory of coronary motion and its significance in robotic motion cancellation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cattin, Philippe; Dave, Hitendu; Grünenfelder, Jürg; Szekely, Gabor; Turina, Marko; Zünd, Gregor

    2004-05-01

    To characterize remaining coronary artery motion of beating pig hearts after stabilization with an 'Octopus' using an optical remote analysis technique. Three pigs (40, 60 and 65 kg) underwent full sternotomy after receiving general anesthesia. An 8-bit high speed black and white video camera (50 frames/s) coupled with a laser sensor (60 microm resolution) were used to capture heart wall motion in all three dimensions. Dopamine infusion was used to deliberately modulate cardiac contractility. Synchronized ECG, blood pressure, airway pressure and video data of the region around the first branching point of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery after Octopus stabilization were captured for stretches of 8 s each. Several sequences of the same region were captured over a period of several minutes. Computerized off-line analysis allowed us to perform minute characterization of the heart wall motion. The movement of the points of interest on the LAD ranged from 0.22 to 0.81 mm in the lateral plane (x/y-axis) and 0.5-2.6 mm out of the plane (z-axis). Fast excursions (>50 microm/s in the lateral plane) occurred corresponding to the QRS complex and the T wave; while slow excursion phases (movement of the coronary artery after stabilization appears to be still significant. Minute characterization of the trajectory of motion could provide the substrate for achieving motion cancellation for existing robotic systems. Velocity plots could also help improve gated cardiac imaging.

  12. Proceedings 21. International Conference on Applied Physics of Condensed Matter and of the Scientific Conference Advanced Fast Reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vajda, J.; Jamnicky, I.

    2015-01-01

    The 21. International Conference on Applied Physics of Condensed Matter was held on 24-26 June, 2015 on Strbske Pleso, Strba, Slovakia. The Scientific Conference the Advanced Fast Reactors was part of the 21 st International Conference on APCOM 2015. The specialists discussed various aspects of modern problems in: Physical properties and structural aspects of solid materials and their influencing; Advanced fast reactors; Physical properties and structural aspects of solid materials and their influencing; Nuclear science and technology, influence of irradiation on physical properties of materials, radiation detection; Computational physics and theory of physical properties of matter; interdisciplinary physics of condensed matter; Nuclear science and technology, influence of irradiation on physical properties of materials, radiation detection; Optical phenomena in materials, photovoltaics and photonics, new principles in sensors and detection methods. Fifty seven contributions relevant of INIS interest has been inputted to INIS.

  13. Mental imagery of gravitational motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gravano, Silvio; Zago, Myrka; Lacquaniti, Francesco

    2017-10-01

    There is considerable evidence that gravitational acceleration is taken into account in the interaction with falling targets through an internal model of Earth gravity. Here we asked whether this internal model is accessed also when target motion is imagined rather than real. In the main experiments, naïve participants grasped an imaginary ball, threw it against the ceiling, and caught it on rebound. In different blocks of trials, they had to imagine that the ball moved under terrestrial gravity (1g condition) or under microgravity (0g) as during a space flight. We measured the speed and timing of the throwing and catching actions, and plotted ball flight duration versus throwing speed. Best-fitting duration-speed curves estimate the laws of ball motion implicit in the participant's performance. Surprisingly, we found duration-speed curves compatible with 0g for both the imaginary 0g condition and the imaginary 1g condition, despite the familiarity with Earth gravity effects and the added realism of performing the throwing and catching actions. In a control experiment, naïve participants were asked to throw the imaginary ball vertically upwards at different heights, without hitting the ceiling, and to catch it on its way down. All participants overestimated ball flight durations relative to the durations predicted by the effects of Earth gravity. Overall, the results indicate that mental imagery of motion does not have access to the internal model of Earth gravity, but resorts to a simulation of visual motion. Because visual processing of accelerating/decelerating motion is poor, visual imagery of motion at constant speed or slowly varying speed appears to be the preferred mode to perform the tasks. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Evaluation of hip internal and external rotation range of motion as an injury risk factor for hip, abdominal and groin injuries in professional baseball players

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xinning Li

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Normal hip range of motion (ROM is essential in running and transfer of energy from lower to upper extremities during overhead throwing. Dysfunctional hip ROM may alter lower extremity kinematics and predispose athletes to hip and groin injuries. The purpose of this study is characterize hip internal/external ROM (Arc and its effect on the risk of hip, hamstring, and groin injuries in professional baseball players. Bilateral hip internal and external ROM was measured on all baseball players (N=201 in one professional organization (major and minor league during spring training. Players were organized according to their respective positions. All injuries were documented prospectively for an entire MLB season (2010 to 2011. Data was analyzed according to position and injuries during the season. Total number of players (N=201 with an average age of 24±3.6 (range=17-37. Both pitchers (N=93 and catchers (N=22 had significantly decreased mean hip internal rotation and overall hip arc of motion compared to the positional players (N=86. Players with hip, groin, and hamstring injury also had decreased hip rotation arc when compared to the normal group. Overall, there is a correlation between decreased hip internal rotation and total arc of motion with hip, hamstring, and groin injuries.

  15. Statement to International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles: Challenges and Opportunities, 7 December 2009, Kyoto, Japan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Amano, Yukiya

    2009-01-01

    Full text: Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my honour to address participants at this opening session of the International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles: Challenges and Opportunities, organized by the IAEA and hosted by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. Fast reactor technology has the potential to ensure that energy resources which would last hundreds of years with the technology we are using today will actually last several thousand years. In other words it can withstand enormous increases in demand. This innovative technology also reduces the risk to the environment and helps to limit the burden that will be placed on future generations in the form of waste products. The coming year will be an exciting one for the development of fast-spectrum nuclear reactors. We expect to reach many important milestones: - the first criticality of the China Experimental Fast Reactor; - the restart of the Monju prototype fast reactor in Japan; and - the new insights we will gain through the end-of-life studies at the Phenix reactor in France. In the near future, new fast reactors will be commissioned: the 500MW(e) Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor in India, the first in a series of five of the same type, and the BN-800 reactor in the Russian Federation. Moreover, France, Japan, India, China and the Republic of Korea are preparing advanced prototypes, demonstration or commercial reactors for the 2020-2030 period. Nuclear power is set to be an increasingly important part of the global energy mix in the coming decades as demand for energy grows. Scores of countries in both the developed and developing world have told the IAEA that they are interested in introducing nuclear power. The 30 countries which already have nuclear power reactors are set to build more. This trend is likely to be accompanied by accelerated deployment of fast reactors. Continued advances in research and technology development are necessary to ensure improved economics and

  16. Fifteenth annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors. Summary report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1982-09-01

    The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the IWGFR was held in accordance with the recommendation of the previous Annual Group Meeting, in Obninsk, USSR, Vienna from 30 March to 2 April 1982. The meeting was attended by the Member States of the group: France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA, as well as by representatives from CEC, IAEA and OECD and observer from the USSR. This document includes: review of the IWGFR Activities for the period since the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Group; preliminary programme of international conference on breeder reactors as a world energy resource and the breeder fuel cycle; list of meetings on atomic energy which may be of interest to the IWGFR Members; IWGFR criteria for supporting some of the international conferences; list of proposed topics for the IWGFR Specialists' Meetings; list of topics for review articles on LMFBR recommended for publication by the IAEA; list of meetings sponsored by the IWGFR; a list of members of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors

  17. Sixteenth annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors. Summary report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1983-10-01

    The Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the IWGFR was held in accordance with the recommendation of the previous Annual Meeting Group, in Vienna from 12-15 April 1983. The meeting was attended by the Member States of the group: France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA, as well as by representatives from CEC, IAEA and OECD and observer from the USSR. This document includes: review of the IWGFR Activities for the period since the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Group; preliminary programme of international conference on breeder reactors as a world energy resource and the breeder fuel cycle; list of meetings on atomic energy which may be of interest to the IWGFR Members; IWGFR criteria for supporting some of the international conferences; list of proposed topics for the IWGFR Specialists' Meetings; list of topics for review articles on LMFBR recommended for publication by the IAEA; list of meetings sponsored by the IWGFR; a list of members of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors.

  18. Fifteenth annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors. Summary report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1982-09-01

    The Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the IWGFR was held in accordance with the recommendation of the previous Annual Group Meeting, in Obninsk, USSR, Vienna from 30 March to 2 April 1982. The meeting was attended by the Member States of the group: France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA, as well as by representatives from CEC, IAEA and OECD and observer from the USSR. This document includes: review of the IWGFR Activities for the period since the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Group; preliminary programme of international conference on breeder reactors as a world energy resource and the breeder fuel cycle; list of meetings on atomic energy which may be of interest to the IWGFR Members; IWGFR criteria for supporting some of the international conferences; list of proposed topics for the IWGFR Specialists' Meetings; list of topics for review articles on LMFBR recommended for publication by the IAEA; list of meetings sponsored by the IWGFR; a list of members of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors.

  19. Sixteenth annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors. Summary report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1983-10-01

    The Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the IWGFR was held in accordance with the recommendation of the previous Annual Meeting Group, in Vienna from 12-15 April 1983. The meeting was attended by the Member States of the group: France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA, as well as by representatives from CEC, IAEA and OECD and observer from the USSR. This document includes: review of the IWGFR Activities for the period since the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Group; preliminary programme of international conference on breeder reactors as a world energy resource and the breeder fuel cycle; list of meetings on atomic energy which may be of interest to the IWGFR Members; IWGFR criteria for supporting some of the international conferences; list of proposed topics for the IWGFR Specialists' Meetings; list of topics for review articles on LMFBR recommended for publication by the IAEA; list of meetings sponsored by the IWGFR; a list of members of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors

  20. Results of the International Energy Agency Round Robin on Fast Pyrolysis Bio-oil Production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Elliott, Douglas C.; Meier, Dietrich; Oasmaa, Anja; van de Beld, Bert; Bridgwater, Anthony V.; Marklund, Magnus

    2017-04-06

    An international round robin study of the production of fast pyrolysis bio-oil was undertaken. Fifteen institutions in six countries contributed. Three biomass samples were distributed to the laboratories for processing in fast pyrolysis reactors. Samples of the bio-oil produced were transported to a central analytical laboratory for analysis. The round robin was focused on validating the pyrolysis community understanding of production of fast pyrolysis bio-oil by providing a common feedstock for bio-oil preparation. The round robin included: •distribution of 3 feedstock samples from a common source to each participating laboratory; •preparation of fast pyrolysis bio-oil in each laboratory with the 3 feedstocks provided; •return of the 3 bio-oil products (minimum 500 ml) with operational description to a central analytical laboratory for bio-oil property determination. The analyses of interest were: density, viscosity, dissolved water, filterable solids, CHN, S, trace element analysis, ash, total acid number, pyrolytic lignin, and accelerated aging of bio-oil. In addition, an effort was made to compare the bio-oil components to the products of analytical pyrolysis through GC/MS analysis. The results showed that clear differences can occur in fast pyrolysis bio-oil properties by applying different reactor technologies or configurations. The comparison to analytical pyrolysis method suggested that Py-GC/MS could serve as a rapid screening method for bio-oil composition when produced in fluid-bed reactors. Furthermore, hot vapor filtration generally resulted in the most favorable bio-oil product, with respect to water, solids, viscosity, and total acid number. These results can be helpful in understanding the variation in bio-oil production methods and their effects on bio-oil product composition.

  1. Fast switching and signature of efficient domain wall motion driven by spin-orbit torques in a perpendicular anisotropy magnetic insulator/Pt bilayer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Avci, Can Onur; Rosenberg, Ethan; Baumgartner, Manuel; Beran, Lukáš; Quindeau, Andy; Gambardella, Pietro; Ross, Caroline A.; Beach, Geoffrey S. D.

    2017-08-01

    We report fast and efficient current-induced switching of a perpendicular anisotropy magnetic insulator thulium iron garnet by using spin-orbit torques (SOT) from the Pt overlayer. We first show that, with quasi-DC (10 ms) current pulses, SOT-induced switching can be achieved with an external field as low as 2 Oe, making TmIG an outstanding candidate to realize efficient switching in heterostructures that produce moderate stray fields without requiring an external field. We then demonstrate deterministic switching with fast current pulses (≤20 ns) with an amplitude of ˜1012 A/m2, similar to all-metallic structures. We reveal that, in the presence of an initially nucleated domain, the critical switching current is reduced by up to a factor of five with respect to the fully saturated initial state, implying efficient current-driven domain wall motion in this system. Based on measurements with 2 ns-long pulses, we estimate the domain wall velocity of the order of ˜400 m/s per j = 1012 A/m2.

  2. International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles: Safe Technologies and Sustainable Scenarios (FR13). Presentations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2013-01-01

    The conference, which was held from 4 to 7 of March 2013 in Paris, provided a forum to exchange information on national and international programmes, and more generally new developments and experience, in the field of fast reactors and related fuel cycle technologies. A first goal was to identify and discuss strategic and technical options that have been proposed by individual countries or companies. Another goal was to promote the development of fast reactors and related fuel cycle technologies in a safe, proliferation resistant and economic way. A third goal was to identify gaps and key issues that need to be addressed in relation to the industrial deployment of fast reactors with a closed fuel cycle. A fourth goal was to engage young scientists and engineers in this field, in particular with sustainability, innovation, simulation, safety, economics and public acceptance

  3. Content Adaptive True Motion Estimator for H.264 Video Compression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Kulla

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Content adaptive true motion estimator for H.264 video coding is a fast block-based matching estimator with implemented multi-stage approach to estimate motion fields between two image frames. It considers the theory of 3D scene objects projection into 2D image plane for selection of motion vector candidates from the higher stages. The stages of the algorithm and its hierarchy are defined upon motion estimation reliability measurement (image blocks including two different directions of spatial gradient, blocks with one dominant spatial gradient and blocks including minimal spatial gradient. Parameters of the image classification into stages are set adaptively upon image structure. Due to search strategy are the estimated motion fields more corresponding to a true motion in an image sequence as in the case of conventional motion estimation algorithms that use fixed sets of motion vector candidates from tight neighborhood.

  4. Atomic motion in a high-intensity standing wave laser field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saez Ramdohr, L.F.

    1987-01-01

    This work discusses the effect of a high-intensity standing wave laser field on the motion of neutral atoms moving with a relatively high velocity. The analysis involves a detailed calculation of the force acting on the atoms and the calculation of the diffusion tensor associated with the fluctuations of the quantum force operator. The high-intensity laser field limit corresponds to a Rabi frequency much greater than the natural rate of the atom. The general results are valid for any atomic velocity. Results are then specialized to the case of slow and fast atoms where the Doppler shift of the laser frequency due to the atomic motion is either smaller or larger than the natural decay rate of the atom. The results obtained for the force and diffusion tensor are applied to a particular ideal experiment that studies the evolution of a fast atomic beam crossing a high-intensity laser beam. The theories developed previously, for a similar laser configuration, discuss only the low atomic velocities case and not the more realistic case of fast atoms. Here, an approximate solution of the equation for the distribution is obtained. Starting from the approximate distribution function, the deflection angle and dispersion angle for the atomic beam with respect to the free motion are calculated

  5. 19 CFR 210.57 - Amendment of the motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Amendment of the motion. 210.57 Section 210.57 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION INVESTIGATIONS OF UNFAIR PRACTICES IN IMPORT TRADE ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT Temporary Relief § 210.57 Amendment of the motion. A motion for...

  6. Effect of Pitching Consecutive Days in Youth Fast-Pitch Softball Tournaments on Objective Shoulder Strength and Subjective Shoulder Symptoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skillington, S Andrew; Brophy, Robert H; Wright, Rick W; Smith, Matthew V

    2017-05-01

    The windmill pitching motion has been associated with risk for shoulder injury. Because there are no pitching limits on youth fast-pitch softball pitchers, these athletes often pitch multiple games across consecutive days. Strength changes, fatigue levels, and shoulder pain that develop among female fast-pitch pitchers over the course of consecutive days of pitching have not been investigated. Over the course of 2- and 3-day fast-pitch softball tournaments, pitchers will develop progressive objective weakness and increased subjective shoulder fatigue and pain without complete recovery between days. Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. Fourteen female fast-pitch softball pitchers between the ages of 14 and 18 years were evaluated for strength and fatigue changes across 2- and 3-day tournaments. At the beginning and end of each day of tournament play, pitchers were asked to quantify shoulder fatigue and shoulder pain levels of their dominant throwing arm using a 10-point visual analog scale (VAS). Shoulder abduction, flexion, external rotation, internal rotation, elbow flexion, and elbow extension strength measurements were gathered using a handheld dynamometer. Over the course of an average single day of tournament participation, pitchers developed significant increases in VAS scores for shoulder fatigue (median, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.3-3.0) and pain (median, 1.3; 95% CI, 0.5-2.3) and significant strength loss in all tested motions. Pitchers also developed significant increases in VAS shoulder fatigue (median, 3.5; 95% CI, 1.5-5.5), VAS shoulder pain (median, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.0-4.5), and strength loss in all tested motions over the entire tournament. Shoulder pain, fatigue, and strength do not fully recover between days. The accumulation of subjective shoulder pain and fatigue over the course of tournament play were closely correlated. Among youth female fast-pitch softball pitchers, there is a progressive increase in shoulder fatigue, pain, and weakness over the

  7. Fast breeder reactor research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1975-01-01

    Full text: The meeting was attended by 15 participants from seven countries and two international organizations. The Eighth Annual Meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors (IWGFR) was attended by representatives from France, Fed. Rep. Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America - countries that have made significant progress in developing the technology and physics of sodium cooled fast reactors and have extensive national programmes in this field - as well as by representatives of the Commission of the European Communities and the IAEA. The design of fast-reactor power plants is a more difficult task than developing facilities with thermal reactors. Different reactor kinetics and dynamics, a hard neutron spectrum, larger integral doses of fuel and structural material irradiation, higher core temperatures, the use of an essentially novel coolant, and, as a result of all these factors, the additional reliability and safety requirements that are imposed on the planning and operation of sodium cooled fast reactors - all these factors pose problems that can be solved comprehensively only by countries with a high level of scientific and technical development. The exchange of experience between these countries and their combined efforts in solving the fundamental problems that arise in planning, constructing and operating fast reactors are promoting technical progress and reducing the relative expenditure required for various studies on developing and introducing commercial fast reactors. For this reason, the meeting concentrated on reviewing and discussing national fast reactor programmes. The situation with regard to planning, constructing and operating fast experimental and demonstration reactors in the countries concerned, the experience accumulated in operating them, the difficulties arising during operation and ways of over-coming them, the search for optimal designs for the power

  8. Motion compensation for MRI-guided radiotherapy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Glitzner, M.

    2017-01-01

    Radiotherapy aims to deliver a lethal radiation dose to cancer cells immersed in the body using a high energetic photon beam. Due to physiologic motion of the human anatomy (e.g. caused by filling of internal organs or breathing), the target volume is under permanent motion during irradiation,

  9. A system for learning statistical motion patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Weiming; Xiao, Xuejuan; Fu, Zhouyu; Xie, Dan; Tan, Tieniu; Maybank, Steve

    2006-09-01

    Analysis of motion patterns is an effective approach for anomaly detection and behavior prediction. Current approaches for the analysis of motion patterns depend on known scenes, where objects move in predefined ways. It is highly desirable to automatically construct object motion patterns which reflect the knowledge of the scene. In this paper, we present a system for automatically learning motion patterns for anomaly detection and behavior prediction based on a proposed algorithm for robustly tracking multiple objects. In the tracking algorithm, foreground pixels are clustered using a fast accurate fuzzy K-means algorithm. Growing and prediction of the cluster centroids of foreground pixels ensure that each cluster centroid is associated with a moving object in the scene. In the algorithm for learning motion patterns, trajectories are clustered hierarchically using spatial and temporal information and then each motion pattern is represented with a chain of Gaussian distributions. Based on the learned statistical motion patterns, statistical methods are used to detect anomalies and predict behaviors. Our system is tested using image sequences acquired, respectively, from a crowded real traffic scene and a model traffic scene. Experimental results show the robustness of the tracking algorithm, the efficiency of the algorithm for learning motion patterns, and the encouraging performance of algorithms for anomaly detection and behavior prediction.

  10. Field theory of the spinning electron: I - Internal motions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salesi, Giovanni; Recami, Erasmo; Universidade Estadual de Campinas, SP

    1994-05-01

    One of the most satisfactory picture of spinning particles is the Barut-Zanghi (BZ) classical theory for the relativistic electron, that relates the electron spin with the so-called Zitterbewegung (zbw). The BZ theory has been recently studied in the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian symplectic formulations, both in flat and in curved space-time. The BZ motion equations constituted the starting point for two recent works about spin and electron structure, co-authored by us, which adopted the Clifford algebra formalism. In this letter, by employing on the contrary the ordinary tensorial language, we first write down a meaningful (real) equation of motion, describing particle classical paths, quite different from the corresponding (complex) equation of the standard Dirac theory. As a consequence, we succeed in regarding the electron as an extended-type object with a classically intelligible structure (thus overcoming some long-standing, well-known problems). Second, we make explicit the kinematical properties of the 4-velocity field v μ , which also result to be quite different from the ordinary ones, valid for scalar particles. At last, we analyze the inner zbw motions, both time-like and light-like, as functions of the initial conditions (in particular, for the case of classical uniform motions, the z component of spin s is shown to be quantized). In so doing, we make explicit the strict correlation existing between electron polarization and zbw kinematics. (author). 9 refs

  11. Field theory of the spinning electron: I - Internal motions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Salesi, Giovanni [Universita Statale di Catania (Italy). Dipt. di Fisica; Recami, Erasmo [Universita Statale di Bergamo, Dalmine, BG (Italy). Facolta di Ingegneria]|[Universidade Estadual de Campinas, SP (Brazil). Dept. de Matematica Aplicada

    1994-05-01

    One of the most satisfactory picture of spinning particles is the Barut-Zanghi (BZ) classical theory for the relativistic electron, that relates the electron spin with the so-called Zitterbewegung (zbw). The BZ theory has been recently studied in the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian symplectic formulations, both in flat and in curved space-time. The BZ motion equations constituted the starting point for two recent works about spin and electron structure, co-authored by us, which adopted the Clifford algebra formalism. In this letter, by employing on the contrary the ordinary tensorial language, we first write down a meaningful (real) equation of motion, describing particle classical paths, quite different from the corresponding (complex) equation of the standard Dirac theory. As a consequence, we succeed in regarding the electron as an extended-type object with a classically intelligible structure (thus overcoming some long-standing, well-known problems). Second, we make explicit the kinematical properties of the 4-velocity field v{sup {mu}}, which also result to be quite different from the ordinary ones, valid for scalar particles. At last, we analyze the inner zbw motions, both time-like and light-like, as functions of the initial conditions (in particular, for the case of classical uniform motions, the z component of spin s is shown to be quantized). In so doing, we make explicit the strict correlation existing between electron polarization and zbw kinematics. (author). 9 refs.

  12. SU-F-J-117: Impact of Motion Artifacts On Image Quality and Accuracy of Tumor Motion Reconstruction in 4D CT-On-Rails and MV-CBCT Scans: A Phantom Study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lin, T; Ma, C [Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA (United States)

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: To compare and quantify respiratory motion artifacts in images from free breathing 4D-CT-on-Rails(CTOR) and those from MV-Cone-beam-CT(MVCB) and facilitate respiratory motion guided radiation therapy. Methods: 4D-CTOR: Siemens Somatom CT-on-Rails system with Anzai belt loaded with pressure sensor load cells. 4D scans were performed in helical mode, pitch 0.1, gantry rotation time 0.5s, 1.5mm slice thickness, 120kVp, 400 mAs. Normal and fast breathing (>12rpm) scanning protocols were investigated. Helical scan, AIP(average intensity projection) and MIP(maximum intensity projection) were generated from 4D-CTOR scans with amplitude sorting into 10 phases.MVCB: Siemens Artiste diamond view(1MV)MVCB was performed with 5MU thorax protocol with 60 second of full rotation.Phantom: Anzai AZ-733V respiratory phantom. The settings were set to normal and resp. modes with repetition rates at 15 rpm and 10 rpm. Surgical clips, acrylic, wooden, rubber and lung density, total six mock-ups were scanned and compared in this study.Signal-to-noise ratio(SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio(CNR) and reconstructed motion volume were compared to different respiratory setups for the mock-ups. Results: Reconstructed motion volume was compared to the real object volume for the six test mock-ups. It shows that free breathing helical in all instances underestimates the object excursions largest to −67.4% and least −6.3%. Under normal breathing settings, MIP can predict very precise motion volume with minimum 0.4% and largest −13.9%. MVCB shows underestimate of the motion volume with −1.11% minimum and −18.0% maximum. With fast breathing, AIP provides bad representation of the object motion; however, the MIP can predict the motion volume with −2.0% to −11.4% underestimate. Conclusion: Respiratory motion guided radiation therapy requires good motion recording. This study shows that regular CTOR helical scans provides bad guidance, 4D CTOR AIP cannot represent the fast breathing

  13. MOTION MODELLINGUSINGCONCEPTS OF FUZZY ARTIFICIAL POTENTIAL FIELDS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. Motlagh

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Artificial potential fields (APF are well established for reactive navigation of mobile robots. This paper describes a fast and robust fuzzy-APF on an ActivMedia AmigoBot. Obstacle-related information is fuzzified by using sensory fusion, which results in a shorter runtime. In addition, the membership functions of obstacle direction and range have been merged into one function, obtaining a smaller block of rules. The system is tested in virtual environments with non-concave obstacles. Then, the paper describes a new approach to motion modelling where the motion of intelligent travellers is modelled by consecutive path segments. In previous work, the authors described a reliable motion modelling technique using causal inference of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM which has been efficiently modified for the purpose of this contribution. Results and analysis are given to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed motion modelling algorithm.

  14. A Fast Monte Carlo Simulation for the International Linear Collider Detector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Furse, D.

    2005-01-01

    The following paper contains details concerning the motivation for, implementation and performance of a Java-based fast Monte Carlo simulation for a detector designed to be used in the International Linear Collider. This simulation, presently included in the SLAC ILC group's org.lcsim package, reads in standard model or SUSY events in STDHEP file format, stochastically simulates the blurring in physics measurements caused by intrinsic detector error, and writes out an LCIO format file containing a set of final particles statistically similar to those that would have found by a full Monte Carlo simulation. In addition to the reconstructed particles themselves, descriptions of the calorimeter hit clusters and tracks that these particles would have produced are also included in the LCIO output. These output files can then be put through various analysis codes in order to characterize the effectiveness of a hypothetical detector at extracting relevant physical information about an event. Such a tool is extremely useful in preliminary detector research and development, as full simulations are extremely cumbersome and taxing on processor resources; a fast, efficient Monte Carlo can facilitate and even make possible detector physics studies that would be very impractical with the full simulation by sacrificing what is in many cases inappropriate attention to detail for valuable gains in time required for results

  15. Real-time motion-adaptive-optimization (MAO) in TomoTherapy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lu Weiguo; Chen Mingli; Ruchala, Kenneth J; Chen Quan; Olivera, Gustavo H [TomoTherapy Inc., 1240 Deming Way, Madison, WI (United States); Langen, Katja M; Kupelian, Patrick A [MD Anderson Cancer Center-Orlando, Orlando, FL (United States)], E-mail: wlu@tomotherapy.com

    2009-07-21

    IMRT delivery follows a planned leaf sequence, which is optimized before treatment delivery. However, it is hard to model real-time variations, such as respiration, in the planning procedure. In this paper, we propose a negative feedback system of IMRT delivery that incorporates real-time optimization to account for intra-fraction motion. Specifically, we developed a feasible workflow of real-time motion-adaptive-optimization (MAO) for TomoTherapy delivery. TomoTherapy delivery is characterized by thousands of projections with a fast projection rate and ultra-fast binary leaf motion. The technique of MAO-guided delivery calculates (i) the motion-encoded dose that has been delivered up to any given projection during the delivery and (ii) the future dose that will be delivered based on the estimated motion probability and future fluence map. These two pieces of information are then used to optimize the leaf open time of the upcoming projection right before its delivery. It consists of several real-time procedures, including 'motion detection and prediction', 'delivered dose accumulation', 'future dose estimation' and 'projection optimization'. Real-time MAO requires that all procedures are executed in time less than the duration of a projection. We implemented and tested this technique using a TomoTherapy (registered) research system. The MAO calculation took about 100 ms per projection. We calculated and compared MAO-guided delivery with two other types of delivery, motion-without-compensation delivery (MD) and static delivery (SD), using simulated 1D cases, real TomoTherapy plans and the motion traces from clinical lung and prostate patients. The results showed that the proposed technique effectively compensated for motion errors of all test cases. Dose distributions and DVHs of MAO-guided delivery approached those of SD, for regular and irregular respiration with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 3 cm, and for medium and large

  16. Real-time motion-adaptive-optimization (MAO) in TomoTherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lu Weiguo; Chen Mingli; Ruchala, Kenneth J; Chen Quan; Olivera, Gustavo H; Langen, Katja M; Kupelian, Patrick A

    2009-01-01

    IMRT delivery follows a planned leaf sequence, which is optimized before treatment delivery. However, it is hard to model real-time variations, such as respiration, in the planning procedure. In this paper, we propose a negative feedback system of IMRT delivery that incorporates real-time optimization to account for intra-fraction motion. Specifically, we developed a feasible workflow of real-time motion-adaptive-optimization (MAO) for TomoTherapy delivery. TomoTherapy delivery is characterized by thousands of projections with a fast projection rate and ultra-fast binary leaf motion. The technique of MAO-guided delivery calculates (i) the motion-encoded dose that has been delivered up to any given projection during the delivery and (ii) the future dose that will be delivered based on the estimated motion probability and future fluence map. These two pieces of information are then used to optimize the leaf open time of the upcoming projection right before its delivery. It consists of several real-time procedures, including 'motion detection and prediction', 'delivered dose accumulation', 'future dose estimation' and 'projection optimization'. Real-time MAO requires that all procedures are executed in time less than the duration of a projection. We implemented and tested this technique using a TomoTherapy (registered) research system. The MAO calculation took about 100 ms per projection. We calculated and compared MAO-guided delivery with two other types of delivery, motion-without-compensation delivery (MD) and static delivery (SD), using simulated 1D cases, real TomoTherapy plans and the motion traces from clinical lung and prostate patients. The results showed that the proposed technique effectively compensated for motion errors of all test cases. Dose distributions and DVHs of MAO-guided delivery approached those of SD, for regular and irregular respiration with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 3 cm, and for medium and large prostate motions. The results conceptually

  17. Longitudinal dynamics of laser-cooled fast ion beams

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Weidemüller, M.; Eike, B.; Eisenbarth, U.

    1999-01-01

    We present recent results of our experiments on laser cooling of fast stored ion beams at the Heidelberg Test Storage Ring. The longitudinal motion of the ions is directly cooled by the light pressure force, whereas efficient transverse cooling is obtained indirectly by longitudinal-transverse co......We present recent results of our experiments on laser cooling of fast stored ion beams at the Heidelberg Test Storage Ring. The longitudinal motion of the ions is directly cooled by the light pressure force, whereas efficient transverse cooling is obtained indirectly by longitudinal....... When applying laser cooling in square-well buckets over long time intervals, hard Coulomb collisions suddenly disappear and the longitudinal temperature drops by about a factor of three. The observed longitudinal behaviour of the beam shows strong resemblance with the transition to an Coulomb...

  18. Motion Sickness: First Aid

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... com. Accessed July 29, 2017. Priesol AJ. Motion sickness. https://www.uptodate.com/content/search. Accessed July 29, 2017. Brunette GW, et al. CDC Health Information for International Travel 2018. New York, N. ...

  19. Enhancing physics demos using iPhone slow motion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lincoln, James

    2017-12-01

    Slow motion video enhances our ability to perceive and experience the physical world. This can help students and teachers especially in cases of fast moving objects or detailed events that happen too quickly for the eye to follow. As often as possible, demonstrations should be performed by the students themselves and luckily many of them will already have this technology in their pockets. The "S" series of iPhone has the slow motion video feature standard, which also includes simultaneous sound recording (somewhat unusual among slow motion cameras). In this article I share some of my experiences using this feature and provide advice on how to successfully use this technology in the classroom.

  20. Fast MR imaging for evaluating the pancreaticobiliary system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takehara, Yasuo

    1999-01-01

    Due to physiological movement clinical MR applications for abdominal organs got off to a very slow start compared to MR imaging of other organs. However, with recent cutting-edge hardware technologies such as high performance gradient systems and phased-array capability, as well as software innovations including short TR fast spoiled gradient recalled acquisition in the steady state (GRASS), snapshot imaging such as single shot fast spin echo sequence (SSFSE) and echo planar imaging (EPI), scan times have been further reduced to make breath-hold imaging clinically viable and to enable semi-fluoroscopic, kinematic imaging recognition. The elimination of physiological motion has contributed to the significant improvement in image quality, or more specifically, the physiological motion that had long been problematic has been turned into a source of physiological information about pancreaticobiliary pathologies. In this article, the author reviewed the current status of fast MR technologies for examining pancreaticobiliary pathologies, stressing the functional and physiological aspects of the corresponding anatomy. The technologies included secretin MRCP, which became a powerful tool when combined with kinematic imaging

  1. Adaptive motion of animals and machines

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Kimura, Hiroshi

    2006-01-01

    ... single function in a control system and mechanism. That is, adaptation in motion is induced at every level from the central nervous system to the musculoskeletal system. Thus, we organized the International Symposium on Adaptive Motion in Animals and Machines (AMAM) for scientists and engineers concerned with adaptation on various levels to be broug...

  2. Fast neutron nuclear reactor with lightened internal structure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Artaud, R.; Aubert, M.; Renaux, C.

    1984-01-01

    The invention concerns an integrated type fast reactor. The inner vessel comprises two truncated shells, of which the large bases are connected either directly, or by a cylindrical shell of large diameter. The small base of the upper truncated shell is prolongated by a shell of small diameter and the small base of the lower truncated shell supports the reactor core. The invention allows the construction of simpler and less expansive fast reactors [fr

  3. Interplay effect on a 6-MV flattening-filter-free linear accelerator with high dose rate and fast multi-leaf collimator motion treating breast and lung phantoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Netherton, Tucker; Li, Yuting; Nitsch, Paige; Shaitelman, Simona; Balter, Peter; Gao, Song; Klopp, Ann; Muruganandham, Manickam; Court, Laurence

    2018-06-01

    Using a new linear accelerator with high dose rate (800 MU/min), fast MLC motions (5.0 cm/s), fast gantry rotation (15 s/rotation), and 1 cm wide MLCs, we aimed to quantify the effects of complexity, arc number, and fractionation on interplay for breast and lung treatments under target motion. To study lung interplay, eight VMAT plans (1-6 arcs) and four-nine-field sliding-window IMRT plans varying in complexity were created. For the breast plans, four-four-field sliding-window IMRT plans were created. Using the Halcyon 1.0 linear accelerator, each plan was delivered five times each under sinusoidal breathing motion to a phantom with 20 implanted MOSFET detectors; MOSFET dose (cGy), delivery time, and MU/cGy values were recorded. Maximum and mean dose deviations were calculated from MOSFET data. The number of MOSFETs with at least 19 of 20 detectors agreeing with their expected dose within 5% per fraction was calculated across 10 6 iterations to model dose deviation as function of fraction number for all plan variants. To put interplay plans into clinical context, additional IMRT and VMAT plans were created and delivered for the sites of head and neck, prostate, whole brain, breast, pelvis, and lung. Average modulation and interplay effect were compared to those from conventional linear accelerators, as reported from previous studies. The mean beam modulation for plans created for the Halcyon 1.0 linear accelerator was 2.9 MU/cGy (two- to four-field IMRT breast plans), 6.2 MU/cGy (at least five-field IMRT), and 3.6 MU/cGy (four-arc VMAT). To achieve treatment plan objectives, Halcyon 1.0 VMAT plans require more arcs and modulation than VMAT on conventional linear accelerators. Maximum and mean dose deviations increased with increasing plan complexity under tumor motion for breast and lung treatments. Concerning VMAT plans under motion, maximum, and mean dose deviations were higher for one arc than for two arcs regardless of plan complexity. For plan variants

  4. Analyzing locomotion synthesis with feature-based motion graphs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahmudi, Mentar; Kallmann, Marcelo

    2013-05-01

    We propose feature-based motion graphs for realistic locomotion synthesis among obstacles. Among several advantages, feature-based motion graphs achieve improved results in search queries, eliminate the need of postprocessing for foot skating removal, and reduce the computational requirements in comparison to traditional motion graphs. Our contributions are threefold. First, we show that choosing transitions based on relevant features significantly reduces graph construction time and leads to improved search performances. Second, we employ a fast channel search method that confines the motion graph search to a free channel with guaranteed clearance among obstacles, achieving faster and improved results that avoid expensive collision checking. Lastly, we present a motion deformation model based on Inverse Kinematics applied over the transitions of a solution branch. Each transition is assigned a continuous deformation range that does not exceed the original transition cost threshold specified by the user for the graph construction. The obtained deformation improves the reachability of the feature-based motion graph and in turn also reduces the time spent during search. The results obtained by the proposed methods are evaluated and quantified, and they demonstrate significant improvements in comparison to traditional motion graph techniques.

  5. Indexing Motion Detection Data for Surveillance Video

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vind, Søren Juhl; Bille, Philip; Gørtz, Inge Li

    2014-01-01

    We show how to compactly index video data to support fast motion detection queries. A query specifies a time interval T, a area A in the video and two thresholds v and p. The answer to a query is a list of timestamps in T where ≥ p% of A has changed by ≥ v values. Our results show that by building...... a small index, we can support queries with a speedup of two to three orders of magnitude compared to motion detection without an index. For high resolution video, the index size is about 20% of the compressed video size....

  6. Self versus environment motion in postural control.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kalpana Dokka

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available To stabilize our position in space we use visual information as well as non-visual physical motion cues. However, visual cues can be ambiguous: visually perceived motion may be caused by self-movement, movement of the environment, or both. The nervous system must combine the ambiguous visual cues with noisy physical motion cues to resolve this ambiguity and control our body posture. Here we have developed a Bayesian model that formalizes how the nervous system could solve this problem. In this model, the nervous system combines the sensory cues to estimate the movement of the body. We analytically demonstrate that, as long as visual stimulation is fast in comparison to the uncertainty in our perception of body movement, the optimal strategy is to weight visually perceived movement velocities proportional to a power law. We find that this model accounts for the nonlinear influence of experimentally induced visual motion on human postural behavior both in our data and in previously published results.

  7. Asynchronous partial contact motion due to internal resonance in multiple degree-of-freedom rotordynamics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaw, A D; Champneys, A R; Friswell, M I

    2016-08-01

    Sudden onset of violent chattering or whirling rotor-stator contact motion in rotational machines can cause significant damage in many industrial applications. It is shown that internal resonance can lead to the onset of bouncing-type partial contact motion away from primary resonances. These partial contact limit cycles can involve any two modes of an arbitrarily high degree-of-freedom system, and can be seen as an extension of a synchronization condition previously reported for a single disc system. The synchronization formula predicts multiple drivespeeds, corresponding to different forms of mode-locked bouncing orbits. These results are backed up by a brute-force bifurcation analysis which reveals numerical existence of the corresponding family of bouncing orbits at supercritical drivespeeds, provided the damping is sufficiently low. The numerics reveal many overlapping families of solutions, which leads to significant multi-stability of the response at given drive speeds. Further, secondary bifurcations can also occur within each family, altering the nature of the response and ultimately leading to chaos. It is illustrated how stiffness and damping of the stator have a large effect on the number and nature of the partial contact solutions, illustrating the extreme sensitivity that would be observed in practice.

  8. Technical Note: Intrafractional changes in time lag relationship between anterior–posterior external and superior–inferior internal motion signals in abdominal tumor sites

    Science.gov (United States)

    Regmi, Rajesh; Lovelock, D. Michael; Zhang, Pengpeng; Pham, Hai; Xiong, Jianping; Yorke, Ellen D.; Goodman, Karyn A.; Wu, Abraham J.; Mageras, Gig S.

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: To investigate constancy, within a treatment session, of the time lag relationship between implanted markers in abdominal tumors and an external motion surrogate. Methods: Six gastroesophageal junction and three pancreatic cancer patients (IRB-approved protocol) received two cone-beam CTs (CBCT), one before and one after treatment. Time between scans was less than 30 min. Each patient had at least one implanted fiducial marker near the tumor. In all scans, abdominal displacement (Varian RPM) was recorded as the external motion signal. Purpose-built software tracked fiducials, representing internal signal, in CBCT projection images. Time lag between superior–inferior (SI) internal and anterior–posterior external signals was found by maximizing the correlation coefficient in each breathing cycle and averaging over all cycles. Time-lag-induced discrepancy between internal SI position and that predicted from the external signal (external prediction error) was also calculated. Results: Mean ± standard deviation time lag, over all scans and patients, was 0.10 ± 0.07 s (range 0.01–0.36 s). External signal lagged the internal in 17/18 scans. Change in time lag between pre- and post-treatment CBCT was 0.06 ± 0.07 s (range 0.01–0.22 s), corresponding to 3.1% ± 3.7% (range 0.6%–10.8%) of gate width (range 1.6–3.1 s). In only one patient, change in time lag exceeded 10% of the gate width. External prediction error over all scans of all patients varied from 0.1 ± 0.1 to 1.6 ± 0.4 mm. Conclusions: Time lag between internal motion along SI and external signals is small compared to the treatment gate width of abdominal patients examined in this study. Change in time lag within a treatment session, inferred from pre- to post-treatment measurements is also small, suggesting that a single measurement of time lag at the session start is adequate. These findings require confirmation in a larger number of patients. PMID:26127033

  9. Technical Note: Intrafractional changes in time lag relationship between anterior-posterior external and superior-inferior internal motion signals in abdominal tumor sites.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Regmi, Rajesh; Lovelock, D Michael; Zhang, Pengpeng; Pham, Hai; Xiong, Jianping; Yorke, Ellen D; Goodman, Karyn A; Wu, Abraham J; Mageras, Gig S

    2015-06-01

    To investigate constancy, within a treatment session, of the time lag relationship between implanted markers in abdominal tumors and an external motion surrogate. Six gastroesophageal junction and three pancreatic cancer patients (IRB-approved protocol) received two cone-beam CTs (CBCT), one before and one after treatment. Time between scans was less than 30 min. Each patient had at least one implanted fiducial marker near the tumor. In all scans, abdominal displacement (Varian RPM) was recorded as the external motion signal. Purpose-built software tracked fiducials, representing internal signal, in CBCT projection images. Time lag between superior-inferior (SI) internal and anterior-posterior external signals was found by maximizing the correlation coefficient in each breathing cycle and averaging over all cycles. Time-lag-induced discrepancy between internal SI position and that predicted from the external signal (external prediction error) was also calculated. Mean ± standard deviation time lag, over all scans and patients, was 0.10 ± 0.07 s (range 0.01-0.36 s). External signal lagged the internal in 17/18 scans. Change in time lag between pre- and post-treatment CBCT was 0.06 ± 0.07 s (range 0.01-0.22 s), corresponding to 3.1% ± 3.7% (range 0.6%-10.8%) of gate width (range 1.6-3.1 s). In only one patient, change in time lag exceeded 10% of the gate width. External prediction error over all scans of all patients varied from 0.1 ± 0.1 to 1.6 ± 0.4 mm. Time lag between internal motion along SI and external signals is small compared to the treatment gate width of abdominal patients examined in this study. Change in time lag within a treatment session, inferred from pre- to post-treatment measurements is also small, suggesting that a single measurement of time lag at the session start is adequate. These findings require confirmation in a larger number of patients.

  10. The perception of object versus objectless motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hock, Howard S; Nichols, David F

    2013-05-01

    Wertheimer, M. (Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane, 61:161-265, 1912) classical distinction between beta (object) and phi (objectless) motion is elaborated here in a series of experiments concerning competition between two qualitatively different motion percepts, induced by sequential changes in luminance for two-dimensional geometric objects composed of rectangular surfaces. One of these percepts is of spreading-luminance motion that continuously sweeps across the entire object; it exhibits shape invariance and is perceived most strongly for fast speeds. Significantly for the characterization of phi as objectless motion, the spreading luminance does not involve surface boundaries or any other feature; the percept is driven solely by spatiotemporal changes in luminance. Alternatively, and for relatively slow speeds, a discrete series of edge motions can be perceived in the direction opposite to spreading-luminance motion. Akin to beta motion, the edges appear to move through intermediate positions within the object's changing surfaces. Significantly for the characterization of beta as object motion, edge motion exhibits shape dependence and is based on the detection of oppositely signed changes in contrast (i.e., counterchange) for features essential to the determination of an object's shape, the boundaries separating its surfaces. These results are consistent with area MT neurons that differ with respect to speed preference Newsome et al (Journal of Neurophysiology, 55:1340-1351, 1986) and shape dependence Zeki (Journal of Physiology, 236:549-573, 1974).

  11. Status of national programmes on fast reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1994-04-01

    Based on the International Working Group on Fast reactors (IWGFR) members' request, the IAEA organized a special meeting on Fast Reactor Development and the Role of the IAEA in May 1993. The purpose of the meeting was to review and discuss the status and recent development, to present major changes in fast reactor programmes and to recommend future activities on fast reactors. The IWGFR took note that in some Member States large prototypes have been built or are under construction. However, some countries, due to their current budget constraints, have reduced the level of funding for research and development programmes on fast reactors. The IWGFR noted that in this situation the international exchange of information and cooperation on the development of fast reactors is highly desirable and stressed the importance of the IAEA's programme on fast reactors. These proceedings contain important and useful information on national programmes and new developments in sodium cooled fast reactors in Member States. Refs, figs and tabs

  12. The role of human ventral visual cortex in motion perception

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saygin, Ayse P.; Lorenzi, Lauren J.; Egan, Ryan; Rees, Geraint; Behrmann, Marlene

    2013-01-01

    Visual motion perception is fundamental to many aspects of visual perception. Visual motion perception has long been associated with the dorsal (parietal) pathway and the involvement of the ventral ‘form’ (temporal) visual pathway has not been considered critical for normal motion perception. Here, we evaluated this view by examining whether circumscribed damage to ventral visual cortex impaired motion perception. The perception of motion in basic, non-form tasks (motion coherence and motion detection) and complex structure-from-motion, for a wide range of motion speeds, all centrally displayed, was assessed in five patients with a circumscribed lesion to either the right or left ventral visual pathway. Patients with a right, but not with a left, ventral visual lesion displayed widespread impairments in central motion perception even for non-form motion, for both slow and for fast speeds, and this held true independent of the integrity of areas MT/V5, V3A or parietal regions. In contrast with the traditional view in which only the dorsal visual stream is critical for motion perception, these novel findings implicate a more distributed circuit in which the integrity of the right ventral visual pathway is also necessary even for the perception of non-form motion. PMID:23983030

  13. INTERACTIVE MOTION PLATFORMS AND VIRTUAL REALITY FOR VEHICLE SIMULATORS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evžen Thöndel

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Interactive motion platforms are intended for vehicle simulators, where the direct interaction of the human body is used for controlling the simulated vehicle (e.g. bicycle, motorbike or other sports vehicles. The second use of interactive motion platforms is for entertainment purposes or fitness. The development of interactive motion platforms reacts to recent calls in the simulation industry to provide a device, which further enhances the virtual reality experience, especially with connection to the new and very fast growing business in virtual reality glasses. The paper looks at the design and control of an interactive motion platform with two degrees of freedom to be used in virtual reality applications. The paper provides the description of the control methods and new problems related to the virtual reality sickness are discussed here.

  14. Fast reactor safety: proceedings of the international topical meeting. Volume 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-07-01

    The emphasis of this meeting was on the safety-related aspects of fast reactor design, analysis, licensing, construction, and operation. Relative to past meetings, there was less emphasis on the scientific and technological basis for accident assessment. Because of its broad scope, the meeting attracted 217 attendees from a wide cross section of the design, safety analysis, and safety technology communities. Eight countries and two international organizations were represented. A total of 126 papers were presented, with contributions from the United States, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy. Sessions covered in Volume 2 include: safety design concepts; operational transient experiments; analysis of seismic and external events; HCDA-related codes, analysis, and experiments; sodium fires; instrumentation and control/PPS design; whole-core accident analysis codes; and impact of safety design considerations on future LMFBR developments

  15. On the roto-translatory internal motions of a three layer non-isobarycentric Earth model: a Lagrangian system approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Escapa, Alberto; Fukushima, Toshio

    2010-05-01

    The internal structure of numerous celestial bodies are well approximated by means of a three layer model composed of a solid external layer, which encloses a fluid layer containing a solid body. An analysis of the inner dynamics of this model can provide some constrains on its rheological characteristics; an information that in many situations is only accessible through this indirect way. In addition, the understanding of this kind of motions, especially of those associated with a rigid displacement (a rotation or a relative translation) of the solid layers, is of primary importance to establish with enough accuracy the definition of the terrestrial reference frames. In the Earth case, most approaches to this formidable problem rely on the numerical solution of the respective elastic field equations, once they have been projected on a set of spherical harmonics functions of a given degree. Due to its intrinsic nature these numerical methods do not provide by themselves much insight into the internal dynamics, hence the interest to develop simpler dynamical models that reproduces the main characteristics of the motion and allows obtaining analytical approximate solutions of the problem. To this aim, and as a first stage, we have considered the internal dynamics of a simple Earth model made up of a spherical rigid mantle, an inviscid, homogeneous fluid outer core and a spherical rigid inner core. Initially the barycenters of all the constituents are located at the same point (isobarycentric model) and the whole system rotates with constant angular velocity around the figure axis. When this situation is perturbed both the motions of the fluid and of the solid layers depart from the reference uniform rotation. However, following Busse (1974) we have assumed that the motion of the mantle is the same as in the unperturbed state, and that the inner core dynamics only suffers a variation of oscillatory nature in the translational motion of its barycenter. As a consequence

  16. Fast and precise luminosity measurement at the international linear ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    6. — journal of. December 2007 physics pp. 1151–1157. Fast and precise luminosity measurement ... The fast investigation of the collision quality for intrabunch feedback and the ... consisting of the sensor, the absorber and an interconnection structure. 2. ... outer radius of BeamCal is increased to keep the angular overlap.

  17. Action Recognition by Joint Spatial-Temporal Motion Feature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weihua Zhang

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper introduces a method for human action recognition based on optical flow motion features extraction. Automatic spatial and temporal alignments are combined together in order to encourage the temporal consistence on each action by an enhanced dynamic time warping (DTW algorithm. At the same time, a fast method based on coarse-to-fine DTW constraint to improve computational performance without reducing accuracy is induced. The main contributions of this study include (1 a joint spatial-temporal multiresolution optical flow computation method which can keep encoding more informative motion information than recent proposed methods, (2 an enhanced DTW method to improve temporal consistence of motion in action recognition, and (3 coarse-to-fine DTW constraint on motion features pyramids to speed up recognition performance. Using this method, high recognition accuracy is achieved on different action databases like Weizmann database and KTH database.

  18. Fast-food consumption and body mass index in children and adolescents: an international cross-sectional study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braithwaite, Irene; Stewart, Alistair W; Hancox, Robert J; Beasley, Richard; Murphy, Rinki; Mitchell, Edwin A

    2014-12-08

    To investigate whether reported fast-food consumption over the previous year is associated with higher childhood or adolescent body mass index (BMI). Secondary analysis from a multicentre, multicountry cross-sectional study (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Children (ISAAC) Phase Three). Parents/guardians of children aged 6-7 completed questionnaires which included questions about their children's asthma and allergies, fast-food consumption, height and weight. Adolescents aged 13-14 completed the same questionnaire. The questionnaire asked "In the past 12 months, how often on average did you (your child) eat fast-food/burgers?" The responses were infrequent (never/only occasionally), frequent (once/twice a week) or very frequent (three or more times per week). A general linear mixed model was used to determine the association between BMI and fast-food consumption, adjusting for Gross National Income per capita by country, measurement type (whether heights/weights were reported or measured), age and sex. 72,900 children (17 countries) and 199,135 adolescents (36 countries) provided data. Frequent and very frequent fast-food consumption was reported in 23% and 4% of children, and 39% and 13% of adolescents, respectively. Children in the frequent and very frequent groups had a BMI that was 0.15 and 0.22 kg/m(2) higher than those in the infrequent group (pfast-food consumption is high in childhood and increases in adolescence. Compared with infrequent fast-food consumption, frequent and very frequent consumption is associated with a higher BMI in children. Owing to residual confounding, reverse causation and likely misreporting, the reverse association observed in adolescents should be interpreted with caution. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

  19. Characterization of the internal background for thermal and fast neutron detection with CLLB

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Woolf, Richard S., E-mail: richard.woolf@nrl.navy.mil; Phlips, Bernard F.; Wulf, Eric A.

    2016-12-01

    We report on a set of experiments conducted to determine what effects, if any, the internal background in the CLLB scintillation detector has on the thermal neutron detection performance. We conducted source measurements using an unmoderated and moderated {sup 252}Cf neutron/γ-ray source and long (48-h), unshielded and shielded, background measurements to characterize the internal background with and without a source present. These measurements allowed us to determine the 2-d event selections needed to isolate the thermal neutron peak observed in pulse shape vs. energy space and apply those selections to our background measurements. Our results indicate that the thermal neutron detection capabilities of the CLLB are marginally affected by the presence of internal background. An unmoderated 113-µCi {sup 252}Cf source at 15 cm from the detector yields a thermal neutron rate of 8×10{sup −2}/s cm{sup 3}, while moderating the source with 5 cm of polyethylene yields a thermal neutron rate of 5.5×10{sup −1}/s cm{sup 3}. The measured background rate for events that fall within the selected thermal neutron region is 1.2×10{sup −3}/s cm{sup 3}. Lastly, the potential for CLLB for detecting fast neutrons was investigated.

  20. The direct, not V1-mediated, functional influence between the thalamus and middle temporal complex in the human brain is modulated by the speed of visual motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaglianese, A; Costagli, M; Ueno, K; Ricciardi, E; Bernardi, G; Pietrini, P; Cheng, K

    2015-01-22

    The main visual pathway that conveys motion information to the middle temporal complex (hMT+) originates from the primary visual cortex (V1), which, in turn, receives spatial and temporal features of the perceived stimuli from the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). In addition, visual motion information reaches hMT+ directly from the thalamus, bypassing the V1, through a direct pathway. We aimed at elucidating whether this direct route between LGN and hMT+ represents a 'fast lane' reserved to high-speed motion, as proposed previously, or it is merely involved in processing motion information irrespective of speeds. We evaluated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses elicited by moving visual stimuli and applied connectivity analyses to investigate the effect of motion speed on the causal influence between LGN and hMT+, independent of V1, using the Conditional Granger Causality (CGC) in the presence of slow and fast visual stimuli. Our results showed that at least part of the visual motion information from LGN reaches hMT+, bypassing V1, in response to both slow and fast motion speeds of the perceived stimuli. We also investigated whether motion speeds have different effects on the connections between LGN and functional subdivisions within hMT+: direct connections between LGN and MT-proper carry mainly slow motion information, while connections between LGN and MST carry mainly fast motion information. The existence of a parallel pathway that connects the LGN directly to hMT+ in response to both slow and fast speeds may explain why MT and MST can still respond in the presence of V1 lesions. Copyright © 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Hard Ware Implementation of Diamond Search Algorithm for Motion Estimation and Object Tracking

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hashimaa, S.M.; Mahmoud, I.I.; Elazm, A.A.

    2009-01-01

    Object tracking is very important task in computer vision. Fast search algorithms emerged as important search technique to achieve real time tracking results. To enhance the performance of these algorithms, we advocate the hardware implementation of such algorithms. Diamond search block matching motion estimation has been proposed recently to reduce the complexity of motion estimation. In this paper we selected the diamond search algorithm (DS) for implementation using FPGA. This is due to its fundamental role in all fast search patterns. The proposed architecture is simulated and synthesized using Xilinix and modelsim soft wares. The results agree with the algorithm implementation in Matlab environment.

  2. Neurons Responsive to Global Visual Motion Have Unique Tuning Properties in Hummingbirds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaede, Andrea H; Goller, Benjamin; Lam, Jessica P M; Wylie, Douglas R; Altshuler, Douglas L

    2017-01-23

    Neurons in animal visual systems that respond to global optic flow exhibit selectivity for motion direction and/or velocity. The avian lentiformis mesencephali (LM), known in mammals as the nucleus of the optic tract (NOT), is a key nucleus for global motion processing [1-4]. In all animals tested, it has been found that the majority of LM and NOT neurons are tuned to temporo-nasal (back-to-front) motion [4-11]. Moreover, the monocular gain of the optokinetic response is higher in this direction, compared to naso-temporal (front-to-back) motion [12, 13]. Hummingbirds are sensitive to small visual perturbations while hovering, and they drift to compensate for optic flow in all directions [14]. Interestingly, the LM, but not other visual nuclei, is hypertrophied in hummingbirds relative to other birds [15], which suggests enhanced perception of global visual motion. Using extracellular recording techniques, we found that there is a uniform distribution of preferred directions in the LM in Anna's hummingbirds, whereas zebra finch and pigeon LM populations, as in other tetrapods, show a strong bias toward temporo-nasal motion. Furthermore, LM and NOT neurons are generally classified as tuned to "fast" or "slow" motion [10, 16, 17], and we predicted that most neurons would be tuned to slow visual motion as an adaptation for slow hovering. However, we found the opposite result: most hummingbird LM neurons are tuned to fast pattern velocities, compared to zebra finches and pigeons. Collectively, these results suggest a role in rapid responses during hovering, as well as in velocity control and collision avoidance during forward flight of hummingbirds. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Infrared video based gas leak detection method using modified FAST features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Min; Hong, Hanyu; Huang, Likun

    2018-03-01

    In order to detect the invisible leaking gas that is usually dangerous and easily leads to fire or explosion in time, many new technologies have arisen in the recent years, among which the infrared video based gas leak detection is widely recognized as a viable tool. However, all the moving regions of a video frame can be detected as leaking gas regions by the existing infrared video based gas leak detection methods, without discriminating the property of each detected region, e.g., a walking person in a video frame may be also detected as gas by the current gas leak detection methods.To solve this problem, we propose a novel infrared video based gas leak detection method in this paper, which is able to effectively suppress strong motion disturbances.Firstly, the Gaussian mixture model(GMM) is used to establish the background model.Then due to the observation that the shapes of gas regions are different from most rigid moving objects, we modify the Features From Accelerated Segment Test (FAST) algorithm and use the modified FAST (mFAST) features to describe each connected component. In view of the fact that the statistical property of the mFAST features extracted from gas regions is different from that of other motion regions, we propose the Pixel-Per-Points (PPP) condition to further select candidate connected components.Experimental results show that the algorithm is able to effectively suppress most strong motion disturbances and achieve real-time leaking gas detection.

  4. Fast Breeder Reactor studies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Till, C.E.; Chang, Y.I.; Kittel, J.H.; Fauske, H.K.; Lineberry, M.J.; Stevenson, M.G.; Amundson, P.I.; Dance, K.D.

    1980-07-01

    This report is a compilation of Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) resource documents prepared to provide the technical basis for the US contribution to the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation. The eight separate parts deal with the alternative fast breeder reactor fuel cycles in terms of energy demand, resource base, technical potential and current status, safety, proliferation resistance, deployment, and nuclear safeguards. An Annex compares the cost of decommissioning light-water and fast breeder reactors. Separate abstracts are included for each of the parts

  5. Fast Breeder Reactor studies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Till, C.E.; Chang, Y.I.; Kittel, J.H.; Fauske, H.K.; Lineberry, M.J.; Stevenson, M.G.; Amundson, P.I.; Dance, K.D.

    1980-07-01

    This report is a compilation of Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) resource documents prepared to provide the technical basis for the US contribution to the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation. The eight separate parts deal with the alternative fast breeder reactor fuel cycles in terms of energy demand, resource base, technical potential and current status, safety, proliferation resistance, deployment, and nuclear safeguards. An Annex compares the cost of decommissioning light-water and fast breeder reactors. Separate abstracts are included for each of the parts.

  6. 13th International Conference on Motion and Vibration Control (MOVIC 2016) and the 12th International Conference on Recent Advances in Structural Dynamics (RASD 2016)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2016-01-01

    This volume contains the papers presented at the Thirteenth International Conference on Motion and Vibration Control (MoViC), together with the Twelfth International Conference on Recent Advances in Structural Dynamics (RASD). MoViC is an event that started in Yokohama, Japan in 1992 and has been organised every two years alternating between Japan, USA and Europe. The eleven previous RASD conferences have been held every three years or so since 1980 primarily in Southampton, UK. The idea of joining the two conferences came quite naturally because of the common ground of the two conferences and the chances of cross-pollination between two otherwise separate research groups. This joint conference is devoted to theoretical, numerical and experimental developments in motion/vibration/structural dynamics, their control and application to all types of structures and dynamical systems. The conference reflects the state-of-the- art in these topics, and is an excellent opportunity to exchange scientific, technical and experimental ideas. The Conference Proceedings include over 250 papers by authors from over 20 countries, forty technical sessions and five plenary presentations. The five invited speakers are Professor Roger Goodall (Loughborough University, UK) presenting “Motion and vibration control for railway vehicles”, Professor Takeshi Mizuno (Saitama University, Japan) presenting “Recent advances in magnetic suspension technology”, Professor Kevin Murphy (University of Louisville, USA) presenting “Dynamics of Passive Balancing Rings for Rotating Systems”, Professor David Wagg (University of Sheffield, UK) presenting “Reducing vibrations in structures using structural control”, and Professor Kon-Well Wang (University of Michigan, USA) presenting “From Muscles to Plants - Nature-Inspired Adaptive Metastructures for Structural Dynamics Enhancement”. I would like to thank members of the Organising Committee for their help, over the last year or so, in

  7. Autoregressive harmonic analysis of the earth's polar motion using homogeneous international latitude service data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fong Chao, B.

    1983-12-01

    The homogeneous set of 80-year-long (1900-1979) International Latitude Service (ILS) polar motion data is analyzed using the autoregressive method (Chao and Gilbert, 1980) which resolves and produces estimates for the complex frequency (or frequency and Q) and complex amplitude (or amplitude and phase) of each harmonic component in the data. Principal conclusion of this analysis are that (1) the ILS data support the multiple-component hypothesis of the Chandler wobble (it is found that the Chandler wobble can be adequately modeled as a linear combination of four (coherent) harmonic components, each of which represents a steady, nearly circular, prograte motion, a behavior that is inconsistent with the hypothesis of a single Chandler period excited in a temporally and/or spatially random fashion). (2) the four-component Chandler wobble model ``explains'' the apparent phase reversal during 1920-1940 and the pre-1950 empirical period-amplitude relation, (3) the annual wobble is shown to be rather stationary over the years both in amplitude and in phase and no evidence is found to support the large variations reported by earlier investigations. (4) the Markowitz wobble is found to support the large variations reported by earlier investigations. (4) the Markowitz wobble is found to be marginally retrograde and appears to have a complicated behavior which cannot be resolved because of the shortness of the data set.

  8. Temporomandibular joint motion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maeda, M.; Kawamura, Y.; Matsuda, T.; Itou, S.; Odori, T.; Ishii, Y.; Torizuka, K.

    1990-01-01

    This paper evaluates MR imaging with the therapeutic effect after splint therapy in internal derangement of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Fifteen patients (19 TMJs) with internal derangement of the TMJ and five normal volunteers (10 TMJs) were examined with sagittal T1-weighted spin-echo and gradient recalled acquisition in a steady state (GRASS) MR imaging. MR studies of the patients undergoing splint therapy were performed with an without splints. Pseudodynamic images of TMJ motion provide information that was not available from spin-echo T1-weighted images

  9. Overview of Experiments for Physics of Fast Reactors from the International Handbooks of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments and Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bess, J. D.; Briggs, J. B.; Gulliford, J.; Ivanova, T.; Rozhikhin, E. V.; Semenov, M. Yu.; Tsibulya, A. M.; Koscheev, V. N.

    2017-07-01

    Overview of Experiments to Study the Physics of Fast Reactors Represented in the International Directories of Critical and Reactor Experiments John D. Bess Idaho National Laboratory Jim Gulliford, Tatiana Ivanova Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development E.V.Rozhikhin, M.Yu.Sem?nov, A.M.Tsibulya Institute of Physics and Power Engineering The study the physics of fast reactors traditionally used the experiments presented in the manual labor of the Working Group on Evaluation of sections CSEWG (ENDF-202) issued by the Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1974. This handbook presents simplified homogeneous model experiments with relevant experimental data, as amended. The Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development coordinates the activities of two international projects on the collection, evaluation and documentation of experimental data - the International Project on the assessment of critical experiments (1994) and the International Project on the assessment of reactor experiments (since 2005). The result of the activities of these projects are replenished every year, an international directory of critical (ICSBEP Handbook) and reactor (IRPhEP Handbook) experiments. The handbooks present detailed models of experiments with minimal amendments. Such models are of particular interest in terms of the settlements modern programs. The directories contain a large number of experiments which are suitable for the study of physics of fast reactors. Many of these experiments were performed at specialized critical stands, such as BFS (Russia), ZPR and ZPPR (USA), the ZEBRA (UK) and the experimental reactor JOYO (Japan), FFTF (USA). Other experiments, such as compact metal assembly, is also of interest in terms of the physics of fast reactors, they have been carried out on the universal critical stands in Russian institutes (VNIITF and VNIIEF) and the US (LANL, LLNL, and others.). Also worth mentioning

  10. Twelfth annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors. Summary report. Part I

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1979-05-01

    The Twelfth Annual Meeting of the IWGFR was held in accordance with the recommendation of the previous AGM,in Vienna from 27 to 30 March 1979. The meeting was attended by the Member States of the group: France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA, as well as by representatives from CEC, IAEA and OECD and observer from the USSR. This document includes: review of the IWGFR Activities for the period since the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Group; preliminary programme of international conference on breeder reactors as a world energy resource and the breeder fuel cycle; list of meetings on atomic energy which may be of interest to the IWGFR Members; IWGFR criteria for supporting some of the international conferences; list of proposed topics for the IWGFR Specialists' Meetings; list of topics for review articles on LMFBR recommended for publication by the IAEA; list of meetings sponsored by the IWGFR; a list of members of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors.

  11. Twelfth annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors. Summary report. Part I

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1979-05-01

    The Twelfth Annual Meeting of the IWGFR was held in accordance with the recommendation of the previous AGM,in Vienna from 27 to 30 March 1979. The meeting was attended by the Member States of the group: France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA, as well as by representatives from CEC, IAEA and OECD and observer from the USSR. This document includes: review of the IWGFR Activities for the period since the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Group; preliminary programme of international conference on breeder reactors as a world energy resource and the breeder fuel cycle; list of meetings on atomic energy which may be of interest to the IWGFR Members; IWGFR criteria for supporting some of the international conferences; list of proposed topics for the IWGFR Specialists' Meetings; list of topics for review articles on LMFBR recommended for publication by the IAEA; list of meetings sponsored by the IWGFR; a list of members of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors

  12. Fast-ion transport and neutral beam current drive in ASDEX upgrade

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Geiger, B.; Weiland, M.; Jacobsen, Asger Schou

    2015-01-01

    The neutral beam current drive efficiency has been investigated in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak by replacing on-axis neutral beams with tangential off-axis beams. A clear modification of the radial fast-ion profiles is observed with a fast-ion D-alpha diagnostic that measures centrally peaked profiles...... during on-axis injection and outwards shifted profiles during off-axis injection. Due to this change of the fast-ion population, a clear modification of the plasma current profile is predicted but not observed by a motional Stark effect diagnostic. The fast-ion transport caused by MHD activity has been...

  13. Nuclear fast neutron reactor cooled by a liquid metal and of which internal structures are equipped with a thermal protection device

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lemercier, G.; Lions, N.

    1986-01-01

    The internal structures of a nuclear fast neutron reactor are covered at least partially, on the most hot side, by a thermal protection device. This device comprises modular plates arranged end to end with a certain play between themselves and taking approximately the shape of the internal structures. Each plate is fixed in its center on the internal structures by a stud. A small plate fixed at one of the corners of each plate and covering partially the adjacent plates ensures the safety fixing of these ones [fr

  14. 19 CFR 210.53 - Motion filed after complaint.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Motion filed after complaint. 210.53 Section 210.53 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION INVESTIGATIONS OF UNFAIR PRACTICES IN IMPORT TRADE ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT Temporary Relief § 210.53 Motion filed after complaint. (a) A...

  15. Fusion of optical flow based motion pattern analysis and silhouette classification for person tracking and detection

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tangelder, J.W.H.; Lebert, E.; Burghouts, G.J.; Zon, K. van; Den Uyl, M.J.

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a novel approach to detect persons in video by combining optical flow based motion analysis and silhouette based recognition. A new fast optical flow computation method is described, and its application in a motion based analysis framework unifying human tracking and detection is

  16. Improvements in TREAT hodoscope fuel-motion capabilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fink, C.L.; Boyar, R.E.; Eichholz, J.J.; DeVolpi, A.

    1982-01-01

    The fast-neutron detection system of the hadoscope has been a major ingredient in the success of the hodoscope as a fuel-motion monitoring device. While the original Hornyak-button detector system has met most of the current fuel-motion needs, the more stringent requirements of improved reactor-safety codes, and of new experimental test facilities necessitate improved detection capabilities. Development efforts have centered on three areas: the construction of an array of proton-recoil proportional counters to be used in conjunction with the Hornyak-button detectors, the upgrading of the Hornyak-button detectors to increase linearity and signal-to-background ratio, and the intercalibration of detectors using a modified horizontal and a new vertical scan system

  17. Impaired Perception of Biological Motion in Parkinson’s Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaywant, Abhishek; Shiffrar, Maggie; Roy, Serge; Cronin-Golomb, Alice

    2016-01-01

    Objective We examined biological motion perception in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Biological motion perception is related to one’s own motor function and depends on the integrity of brain areas affected in PD, including posterior superior temporal sulcus. If deficits in biological motion perception exist, they may be specific to perceiving natural/fast walking patterns that individuals with PD can no longer perform, and may correlate with disease-related motor dysfunction. Method 26 non-demented individuals with PD and 24 control participants viewed videos of point-light walkers and scrambled versions that served as foils, and indicated whether each video depicted a human walking. Point-light walkers varied by gait type (natural, parkinsonian) and speed (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 m/s). Participants also completed control tasks (object motion, coherent motion perception), a contrast sensitivity assessment, and a walking assessment. Results The PD group demonstrated significantly less sensitivity to biological motion than the control group (pperception (p=.02, Cohen’s d=.68). There was no group difference in coherent motion perception. Although individuals with PD had slower walking speed and shorter stride length than control participants, gait parameters did not correlate with biological motion perception. Contrast sensitivity and coherent motion perception also did not correlate with biological motion perception. Conclusion PD leads to a deficit in perceiving biological motion, which is independent of gait dysfunction and low-level vision changes, and may therefore arise from difficulty perceptually integrating form and motion cues in posterior superior temporal sulcus. PMID:26949927

  18. Development of real-time motion capture system for 3D on-line games linked with virtual character

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jong Hyeong; Ryu, Young Kee; Cho, Hyung Suck

    2004-10-01

    Motion tracking method is being issued as essential part of the entertainment, medical, sports, education and industry with the development of 3-D virtual reality. Virtual human character in the digital animation and game application has been controlled by interfacing devices; mouse, joysticks, midi-slider, and so on. Those devices could not enable virtual human character to move smoothly and naturally. Furthermore, high-end human motion capture systems in commercial market are expensive and complicated. In this paper, we proposed a practical and fast motion capturing system consisting of optic sensors, and linked the data with 3-D game character with real time. The prototype experiment setup is successfully applied to a boxing game which requires very fast movement of human character.

  19. Motion-insensitive rapid configuration relaxometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, Damien; Bieri, Oliver

    2017-08-01

    Triple echo steady state (TESS) uses the lowest steady state configuration modes for rapid relaxometry. Due to its unbalanced gradient scheme, however, TESS is inherently motion-sensitive. The purpose of this work is to merge TESS with a balanced acquisition scheme for motion-insensitive rapid configuration relaxometry, termed MIRACLE. The lowest order steady state free precession (SSFP) configurations are retrieved by Fourier transformation of the frequency response of N frequency-shifted balanced SSFP (bSSFP) scans and subsequently processed for relaxometry, as proposed with TESS. Accuracy of MIRACLE is evaluated from simulations, phantom studies as well as in vivo brain and cartilage imaging at 3T. Simulations and phantom results revealed no conceptual flaw, and artifact-free configuration imaging was achieved in vivo. Overall, relaxometry results were accurate in phantoms and in good agreement for cartilage and for T2 in the brain, but apparent low T1 values were observed for brain white matter; reflecting asymmetries in the bSSFP profile. Rapid T1 and T2 mapping with MIRACLE offers analogous properties as TESS while successfully mitigating its motion-sensitivity. As a result of the Fourier transformation, relaxometry becomes sensitive to the voxel frequency distribution, which may contain useful physiologic information, such as structural brain integrity. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Magn Reson Med 78:518-526, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

  20. Fast polarizers installation for ECRH and ECE in TCV

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Silva, Miguel, E-mail: miguel.silva@epfl.ch [Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Centre de Recherches en Physique des Plasmas (CRPP), Association EURATOM-Confederation Suisse, CH-1015 Lausanne (Switzerland); Goodman, Timothy; Felici, Federico; Porte, Laurie [Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Centre de Recherches en Physique des Plasmas (CRPP), Association EURATOM-Confederation Suisse, CH-1015 Lausanne (Switzerland)

    2011-10-15

    We report on the installation of fast polarizers for ECRH injection and ECE diagnostics, in the TCV tokamak. The main goal is to change the polarization during a plasma shot and react to changing conditions such as: plasma current and position, ECRH injection angles as well as ECE oblique observation angle and correlation ECE frequency. This will allow tracking of plasma variations, find optimum parameters to maximize ECRH absorption and improve the quality and consistency of ECE measurements. The polarization is varied using two fast polarizers, from General Atomics, positioned either in the evacuated transmission line for ECRH, or in a similar non-evacuated line near a real-time moveable directional antenna for ECE. A programmable driver is used to control a servo-motor and allows three operation modes during a plasma shot: fixed angle position, pre-programmed reference waveform and following of a real-time reference waveform. Preliminary tests of the motor controller achieved an 8 Hz bandwidth for a {+-}4{sup o} amplitude motion and a 2.2 Hz bandwidth for a {+-}4{sup o} amplitude motion. The fast polarizers are presently in the ECE system and the control hardware is being installed.

  1. Mobile technology and telemedicine for shoulder range of motion: validation of a motion-based machine-learning software development kit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramkumar, Prem N; Haeberle, Heather S; Navarro, Sergio M; Sultan, Assem A; Mont, Michael A; Ricchetti, Eric T; Schickendantz, Mark S; Iannotti, Joseph P

    2018-03-07

    Mobile technology offers the prospect of delivering high-value care with increased patient access and reduced costs. Advances in mobile health (mHealth) and telemedicine have been inhibited by the lack of interconnectivity between devices and software and inability to process consumer sensor data. The objective of this study was to preliminarily validate a motion-based machine learning software development kit (SDK) for the shoulder compared with a goniometer for 4 arcs of motion: (1) abduction, (2) forward flexion, (3) internal rotation, and (4) external rotation. A mobile application for the SDK was developed and "taught" 4 arcs of shoulder motion. Ten subjects without shoulder pain or prior shoulder surgery performed the arcs of motion for 5 repetitions. Each motion was measured by the SDK and compared with a physician-measured manual goniometer measurement. Angular differences between SDK and goniometer measurements were compared with univariate and power analyses. The comparison between the SDK and goniometer measurement detected a mean difference of less than 5° for all arcs of motion (P > .05), with a 94% chance of detecting a large effect size from a priori power analysis. Mean differences for the arcs of motion were: abduction, -3.7° ± 3.2°; forward flexion, -4.9° ± 2.5°; internal rotation, -2.4° ± 3.7°; and external rotation -2.6° ± 3.4°. The SDK has the potential to remotely substitute for a shoulder range of motion examination within 5° of goniometer measurements. An open-source motion-based SDK that can learn complex movements, including clinical shoulder range of motion, from consumer sensors offers promise for the future of mHealth, particularly in telemonitoring before and after orthopedic surgery. Copyright © 2018 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Fast reactor safety: proceedings of the international topical meeting. Volume 2. [R

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1985-07-01

    The emphasis of this meeting was on the safety-related aspects of fast reactor design, analysis, licensing, construction, and operation. Relative to past meetings, there was less emphasis on the scientific and technological basis for accident assessment. Because of its broad scope, the meeting attracted 217 attendees from a wide cross section of the design, safety analysis, and safety technology communities. Eight countries and two international organizations were represented. A total of 126 papers were presented, with contributions from the United States, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy. Sessions covered in Volume 2 include: safety design concepts; operational transient experiments; analysis of seismic and external events; HCDA-related codes, analysis, and experiments; sodium fires; instrumentation and control/PPS design; whole-core accident analysis codes; and impact of safety design considerations on future LMFBR developments.

  3. Laws of motion for interacting Yang-Mills particles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fuchs, H.

    1988-01-01

    Our recent Lagrangian approach to the equations of motion for test particles with internal structure can be enlarged to the laws of motion for interacting particles, at least in principle. As an example we consider the interaction of point particles endowed with a pole-dipole structure of the non-abelian charge. (author)

  4. Fast lesion mapping during HIFU treatment using harmonic motion imaging guided focused ultrasound (HMIgFUS) in vitro and in vivo

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Yang; Wang, Shutao; Payen, Thomas; Konofagou, Elisa

    2017-04-01

    The successful clinical application of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation depends on reliable monitoring of the lesion formation. Harmonic motion imaging guided focused ultrasound (HMIgFUS) is an ultrasound-based elasticity imaging technique, which monitors HIFU ablation based on the stiffness change of the tissue instead of the echo intensity change in conventional B-mode monitoring, rendering it potentially more sensitive to lesion development. Our group has shown that predicting the lesion location based on the radiation force-excited region is feasible during HMIgFUS. In this study, the feasibility of a fast lesion mapping method is explored to directly monitor the lesion map during HIFU. The harmonic motion imaging (HMI) lesion map was generated by subtracting the reference HMI image from the present HMI peak-to-peak displacement map, as streamed on the computer display. The dimensions of the HMIgFUS lesions were compared against gross pathology. Excellent agreement was found between the lesion depth (r 2  =  0.81, slope  =  0.90), width (r 2  =  0.85, slope  =  1.12) and area (r 2  =  0.58, slope  =  0.75). In vivo feasibility was assessed in a mouse with a pancreatic tumor. These findings demonstrate that HMIgFUS can successfully map thermal lesions and monitor lesion development in real time in vitro and in vivo. The HMIgFUS technique may therefore constitute a novel clinical tool for HIFU treatment monitoring.

  5. Femtosecond dynamics of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (piroxicam) in solution: The involvement of twisting motion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gil, Michał; Douhal, Abderrazzak

    2008-06-01

    In this contribution, we report on fast and ultrafast dynamics of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, piroxicam (PX), in methyl acetate (MAC) and triacetin (TAC), two solvents of different viscosities. The enol form of PX undergoes a femtosecond (shorter than 100 fs) electronically excited state intramolecular proton-transfer reaction to produce keto tautomers. These structures exhibit an internal twisting motion to generate keto rotamers in ˜2-5 ps, a time being longer in TAC. The transient absorption/emission spectrum is very broad indicating that the potential-energy surface at the electronically excited state is very flat, and reflecting the involvement of several coordinates along which the wavepacket of the fs-produced structures evolve.

  6. Acoustic Measurement Of Periodic Motion Of Levitated Object

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watkins, John L.; Barmatz, Martin B.

    1992-01-01

    Some internal vibrations, oscillations in position, and rotations of acoustically levitated object measured by use of microphone already installed in typical levitation chamber for tuning chamber to resonance and monitoring operation. Levitating acoustic signal modulated by object motion of lower frequency. Amplitude modulation detected and analyzed spectrally to determine amplitudes and frequencies of motions.

  7. Measurement of Intervertebral Motion Using Quantitative Fluoroscopy: Report of an International Forum and Proposal for Use in the Assessment of Degenerative Disc Disease in the Lumbar Spine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alan C. Breen

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Quantitative fluoroscopy (QF is an emerging technology for measuring intervertebral motion patterns to investigate problem back pain and degenerative disc disease. This International Forum was a networking event of three research groups (UK, US, Hong Kong, over three days in San Francisco in August 2009. Its aim was to reach a consensus on how best to record, analyse, and communicate QF information for research and clinical purposes. The Forum recommended that images should be acquired during regular trunk motion that is controlled for velocity and range, in order to minimise externally imposed variability as well as to correlate intervertebral motion with trunk motion. This should be done in both the recumbent passive and weight bearing active patient configurations. The main recommended outputs from QF were the true ranges of intervertebral rotation and translation, neutral zone laxity and the consistency of shape of the motion patterns. The main clinical research priority should initially be to investigate the possibility of mechanical subgroups of patients with chronic, nonspecific low back pain by comparing their intervertebral motion patterns with those of matched healthy controls.

  8. Compensating for Quasi-periodic Motion in Robotic Radiosurgery

    CERN Document Server

    Ernst, Floris

    2012-01-01

    Compensating for Quasi-periodic Motion in Robotic Radiosurgery outlines the techniques needed to accurately track and compensate for respiratory and pulsatory motion during robotic radiosurgery. The algorithms presented within the book aid in the treatment of tumors that move during respiration. In Chapters 1 and 2,  the book introduces the concept of stereotactic body radiation therapy, motion compensation strategies and the clinical state-of-the-art. In Chapters 3 through 5, the author describes and evaluates new methods for motion prediction, for correlating external motion to internal organ motion, and for the evaluation of these algorithms’ output based on an unprecedented amount of real clinical data. Finally, Chapter 6 provides a brief introduction into currently investigated, open questions and further fields of research. Compensating for Quasi-periodic Motion in Robotic Radiosurgery targets researchers working in the related fields of surgical oncology, artificial intelligence, robotics and more. ...

  9. Novel instrumentation to detect sliding and erratic bed load motion

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Ilgner, HJ

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available stationary beds on thick-walled pipes within a minute, only the 2 mm-thin spool pieces were able to detect erratic bed motions due to the sensors’ fast response capability. This required additional features to focus the sensing area directly onto the pipe...

  10. The International conference on fast reactors and related fuel cycles: next generation nuclear systems for sustainable development. Book of abstracts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2017-01-01

    The materials of the International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles (June 26-29, 2017, Yekaterinburg) are presented. The forum was organized by the IAEA with the assistance of Rosatom State Corporation. The theme of the conference: “The New Generation of Nuclear Systems for Sustainable Development”. About 700 specialists from more than 30 countries took part in the conference. The state and prospects for the development of the direction of fast reactors in countries dealing with this topic were discussed. A wide range of scientific issues covered the concepts of prospective reactors, reactor cores, fuel and fuel cycles, operation and decommissioning, safety, licensing, structural materials, industrial implementation [ru

  11. IAEA Technical Meeting on Status of IAEA Fast Reactor Knowledge Preservation Initiative. Presentations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2013-01-01

    The objectives of the technical meeting were to: • exchange information between the Member States/International Organizations on national and international initiatives addressing knowledge preservation and data retrieval/collection in the field of fast neutron systems; • present and discuss the Member States’/International Organizations’ policies and conditions for releasing to the IAEA both publicly available and confidential information on fast neutron systems; • collect data on fast neutron systems provided by participating Member States/International Organizations and encourage participants to contribute in data collection; • provide recommendations for further IAEA initiatives in the field of fast reactor knowledge preservation

  12. Subtle Motion Analysis and Spotting using the Riesz Pyramid

    OpenAIRE

    Arango , Carlos ,; Alata , Olivier; Emonet , Rémi; Legrand , Anne-Claire; Konik , Hubert

    2018-01-01

    International audience; Analyzing and temporally spotting motions which are almost invisible to the human eye might reveal interesting information about the world. However, detecting these events is difficult due to their short duration and low intensities. Taking inspiration from video magnification techniques, we design a workflow for analyzing and temporally spotting subtle motions based on the Riesz pyramid. In addition, we propose a filtering and masking scheme that segments motions of i...

  13. Quantized motion of trapped ions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Steinbach, J.

    1999-01-01

    This thesis is concerned with a theoretical and numerical study of the preparation and coherent manipulation of quantum states in the external and internal degrees of freedom of trapped ions. In its first part, this thesis proposes and investigates schemes for generating several nonclassical states for the quantized vibrational motion of a trapped ion. Based on dark state preparation specific laser excitation configurations are presented which, given appropriately chosen initial states, realize the desired motional states in the steady-state, indicated by the cessation of the fluorescence emitted by the ion. The focus is on the SU(1,1) intelligent states in both their single- and two-mode realization, corresponding to one- and two-dimensional motion of the ion. The presented schemes are also studied numerically using a Monte-Carlo state-vector method. The second part of the thesis describes how two vibrational degrees of freedom of a single trapped ion can be coupled through the action of suitably chosen laser excitation. Concentrating on a two-dimensional ion trap with dissimilar vibrational frequencies a variety of quantized two-mode couplings are derived. The focus is on a linear coupling that takes excitations from one mode to another. It is demonstrated how this can result in a state rotation, in which it is possible to coherently transfer the motional state of the ion between orthogonal directions without prior knowledge of that motional state. The third part of this thesis presents a new efficient method for generating maximally entangled internal states of a collection of trapped ions. The method is deterministic and independent of the number of ions in the trap. As the essential element of the scheme a mechanism for the realization of a controlled NOT operation that can operate on multiple ions is proposed. The potential application of the scheme for high-precision frequency standards is explored. (author)

  14. Representation of visual gravitational motion in the human vestibular cortex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Indovina, Iole; Maffei, Vincenzo; Bosco, Gianfranco; Zago, Myrka; Macaluso, Emiliano; Lacquaniti, Francesco

    2005-04-15

    How do we perceive the visual motion of objects that are accelerated by gravity? We propose that, because vision is poorly sensitive to accelerations, an internal model that calculates the effects of gravity is derived from graviceptive information, is stored in the vestibular cortex, and is activated by visual motion that appears to be coherent with natural gravity. The acceleration of visual targets was manipulated while brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In agreement with the internal model hypothesis, we found that the vestibular network was selectively engaged when acceleration was consistent with natural gravity. These findings demonstrate that predictive mechanisms of physical laws of motion are represented in the human brain.

  15. Motion Vector Estimation Using Line-Square Search Block Matching Algorithm for Video Sequences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guo Bao-long

    2004-09-01

    Full Text Available Motion estimation and compensation techniques are widely used for video coding applications but the real-time motion estimation is not easily achieved due to its enormous computations. In this paper, a new fast motion estimation algorithm based on line search is presented, in which computation complexity is greatly reduced by using the line search strategy and a parallel search pattern. Moreover, the accurate search is achieved because the small square search pattern is used. It has a best-case scenario of only 9 search points, which is 4 search points less than the diamond search algorithm. Simulation results show that, compared with the previous techniques, the LSPS algorithm significantly reduces the computational requirements for finding motion vectors, and also produces close performance in terms of motion compensation errors.

  16. On a PCA-based lung motion model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li Ruijiang; Lewis, John H; Jia Xun; Jiang, Steve B [Department of Radiation Oncology and Center for Advanced Radiotherapy Technologies, University of California San Diego, 3855 Health Sciences Dr, La Jolla, CA 92037-0843 (United States); Zhao Tianyu; Wuenschel, Sara; Lamb, James; Yang Deshan; Low, Daniel A [Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, 4921 Parkview Pl, St. Louis, MO 63110-1093 (United States); Liu Weifeng, E-mail: sbjiang@ucsd.edu [Amazon.com Inc., 701 5th Ave. Seattle, WA 98104 (United States)

    2011-09-21

    Respiration-induced organ motion is one of the major uncertainties in lung cancer radiotherapy and is crucial to be able to accurately model the lung motion. Most work so far has focused on the study of the motion of a single point (usually the tumor center of mass), and much less work has been done to model the motion of the entire lung. Inspired by the work of Zhang et al (2007 Med. Phys. 34 4772-81), we believe that the spatiotemporal relationship of the entire lung motion can be accurately modeled based on principle component analysis (PCA) and then a sparse subset of the entire lung, such as an implanted marker, can be used to drive the motion of the entire lung (including the tumor). The goal of this work is twofold. First, we aim to understand the underlying reason why PCA is effective for modeling lung motion and find the optimal number of PCA coefficients for accurate lung motion modeling. We attempt to address the above important problems both in a theoretical framework and in the context of real clinical data. Second, we propose a new method to derive the entire lung motion using a single internal marker based on the PCA model. The main results of this work are as follows. We derived an important property which reveals the implicit regularization imposed by the PCA model. We then studied the model using two mathematical respiratory phantoms and 11 clinical 4DCT scans for eight lung cancer patients. For the mathematical phantoms with cosine and an even power (2n) of cosine motion, we proved that 2 and 2n PCA coefficients and eigenvectors will completely represent the lung motion, respectively. Moreover, for the cosine phantom, we derived the equivalence conditions for the PCA motion model and the physiological 5D lung motion model (Low et al 2005 Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 63 921-9). For the clinical 4DCT data, we demonstrated the modeling power and generalization performance of the PCA model. The average 3D modeling error using PCA was within 1

  17. On a PCA-based lung motion model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ruijiang; Lewis, John H; Jia, Xun; Zhao, Tianyu; Liu, Weifeng; Wuenschel, Sara; Lamb, James; Yang, Deshan; Low, Daniel A; Jiang, Steve B

    2011-09-21

    Respiration-induced organ motion is one of the major uncertainties in lung cancer radiotherapy and is crucial to be able to accurately model the lung motion. Most work so far has focused on the study of the motion of a single point (usually the tumor center of mass), and much less work has been done to model the motion of the entire lung. Inspired by the work of Zhang et al (2007 Med. Phys. 34 4772-81), we believe that the spatiotemporal relationship of the entire lung motion can be accurately modeled based on principle component analysis (PCA) and then a sparse subset of the entire lung, such as an implanted marker, can be used to drive the motion of the entire lung (including the tumor). The goal of this work is twofold. First, we aim to understand the underlying reason why PCA is effective for modeling lung motion and find the optimal number of PCA coefficients for accurate lung motion modeling. We attempt to address the above important problems both in a theoretical framework and in the context of real clinical data. Second, we propose a new method to derive the entire lung motion using a single internal marker based on the PCA model. The main results of this work are as follows. We derived an important property which reveals the implicit regularization imposed by the PCA model. We then studied the model using two mathematical respiratory phantoms and 11 clinical 4DCT scans for eight lung cancer patients. For the mathematical phantoms with cosine and an even power (2n) of cosine motion, we proved that 2 and 2n PCA coefficients and eigenvectors will completely represent the lung motion, respectively. Moreover, for the cosine phantom, we derived the equivalence conditions for the PCA motion model and the physiological 5D lung motion model (Low et al 2005 Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 63 921-9). For the clinical 4DCT data, we demonstrated the modeling power and generalization performance of the PCA model. The average 3D modeling error using PCA was within 1

  18. On a PCA-based lung motion model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Ruijiang; Lewis, John H; Jia Xun; Jiang, Steve B; Zhao Tianyu; Wuenschel, Sara; Lamb, James; Yang Deshan; Low, Daniel A; Liu Weifeng

    2011-01-01

    Respiration-induced organ motion is one of the major uncertainties in lung cancer radiotherapy and is crucial to be able to accurately model the lung motion. Most work so far has focused on the study of the motion of a single point (usually the tumor center of mass), and much less work has been done to model the motion of the entire lung. Inspired by the work of Zhang et al (2007 Med. Phys. 34 4772-81), we believe that the spatiotemporal relationship of the entire lung motion can be accurately modeled based on principle component analysis (PCA) and then a sparse subset of the entire lung, such as an implanted marker, can be used to drive the motion of the entire lung (including the tumor). The goal of this work is twofold. First, we aim to understand the underlying reason why PCA is effective for modeling lung motion and find the optimal number of PCA coefficients for accurate lung motion modeling. We attempt to address the above important problems both in a theoretical framework and in the context of real clinical data. Second, we propose a new method to derive the entire lung motion using a single internal marker based on the PCA model. The main results of this work are as follows. We derived an important property which reveals the implicit regularization imposed by the PCA model. We then studied the model using two mathematical respiratory phantoms and 11 clinical 4DCT scans for eight lung cancer patients. For the mathematical phantoms with cosine and an even power (2n) of cosine motion, we proved that 2 and 2n PCA coefficients and eigenvectors will completely represent the lung motion, respectively. Moreover, for the cosine phantom, we derived the equivalence conditions for the PCA motion model and the physiological 5D lung motion model (Low et al 2005 Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 63 921-9). For the clinical 4DCT data, we demonstrated the modeling power and generalization performance of the PCA model. The average 3D modeling error using PCA was within 1

  19. Motion correction options in PET/MRI.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catana, Ciprian

    2015-05-01

    Subject motion is unavoidable in clinical and research imaging studies. Breathing is the most important source of motion in whole-body PET and MRI studies, affecting not only thoracic organs but also those in the upper and even lower abdomen. The motion related to the pumping action of the heart is obviously relevant in high-resolution cardiac studies. These two sources of motion are periodic and predictable, at least to a first approximation, which means certain techniques can be used to control the motion (eg, by acquiring the data when the organ of interest is relatively at rest). Additionally, nonperiodic and unpredictable motion can also occur during the scan. One obvious limitation of methods relying on external devices (eg, respiratory bellows or the electrocardiogram signal to monitor the respiratory or cardiac cycle, respectively) to trigger or gate the data acquisition is that the complex motion of internal organs cannot be fully characterized. However, detailed information can be obtained using either the PET or MRI data (or both) allowing the more complete characterization of the motion field so that a motion model can be built. Such a model and the information derived from simple external devices can be used to minimize the effects of motion on the collected data. In the ideal case, all the events recorded during the PET scan would be used to generate a motion-free or corrected PET image. The detailed motion field can be used for this purpose by applying it to the PET data before, during, or after the image reconstruction. Integrating all these methods for motion control, characterization, and correction into a workflow that can be used for routine clinical studies is challenging but could potentially be extremely valuable given the improvement in image quality and reduction of motion-related image artifacts. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. An adaptive mode-driven spatiotemporal motion vector prediction for wavelet video coding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Fan; Liu, Guizhong; Qi, Yong

    2010-07-01

    The three-dimensional subband/wavelet codecs use 5/3 filters rather than Haar filters for the motion compensation temporal filtering (MCTF) to improve the coding gain. In order to curb the increased motion vector rate, an adaptive motion mode driven spatiotemporal motion vector prediction (AMDST-MVP) scheme is proposed. First, by making use of the direction histograms of four motion vector fields resulting from the initial spatial motion vector prediction (SMVP), the motion mode of the current GOP is determined according to whether the fast or complex motion exists in the current GOP. Then the GOP-level MVP scheme is thereby determined by either the S-MVP or the AMDST-MVP, namely, AMDST-MVP is the combination of S-MVP and temporal-MVP (T-MVP). If the latter is adopted, the motion vector difference (MVD) between the neighboring MV fields and the S-MVP resulting MV of the current block is employed to decide whether or not the MV of co-located block in the previous frame is used for prediction the current block. Experimental results show that AMDST-MVP not only can improve the coding efficiency but also reduce the number of computation complexity.

  1. X-ray cinematography on the nuclear fuel and cladding motion diagnostics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mizuta, Hiroshi; Uruwashi, Shinichi.

    1979-01-01

    X-ray cinematography has been used for monitoring fuel motion in the out-of-pile fuel pin joule melting experiments for nuclear, liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactor, safety studies related to fuel pin failure, initial fuel motion and thermal fuel-coolant interaction (FCI) of the hypothetical core distractive accident. In order to visually observe the nuclear fuel motion, the X-ray cinematography system consists of an X-ray source located about 5 cm from the test section and an image intensifier located at a corresponding position on the opposite side of the test section. The image from the image intensifier has been recorded both with a high speed camera and video recorder. (author)

  2. Fast breeder reactors an engineering introduction

    CERN Document Server

    Judd, A M

    1981-01-01

    Fast Breeder Reactors: An Engineering Introduction is an introductory text to fast breeder reactors and covers topics ranging from reactor physics and design to engineering and safety considerations. Reactor fuels, coolant circuits, steam plants, and control systems are also discussed. This book is comprised of five chapters and opens with a brief summary of the history of fast reactors, with emphasis on international and the prospect of making accessible enormous reserves of energy. The next chapter deals with the physics of fast reactors and considers calculation methods, flux distribution,

  3. Fast reactor programme

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Plakman, J.C.

    1982-01-01

    This progress report summarizes the fast reactor research carried out by ECN during the period covering the year 1980. This research is mainly concerned with the cores of sodium-cooled breeders, in particular the SNR-300, and its related safety aspects. It comprises six items: A programme to determine relevant nuclear data of fission- and corrosion-products; A fuel performance programme comprising in-pile cladding failure experiments and a study of the consequences of loss-of-cooling and overpower; Basic research on fuel; Investigation of the changes in the mechanical properties of austenitic stainless steel DIN 1.4948 due to fast neutron doses, this material has been used in the manufacture of the reactor vessel and its internal components; Study of aerosols which could be formed at the time of a fast reactor accident and their progressive behaviour on leaking through cracks in the concrete containment; Studies on heat transfer in a sodium-cooled fast reactor core. As fast breeders operate at high power densities, an accurate knowledge of the heat transfer phenomena under single-phase and two-phase conditions is sought. (Auth.)

  4. Optimization of intra-voxel incoherent motion imaging at 3.0 Tesla for fast liver examination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leporq, Benjamin; Saint-Jalmes, Hervé; Rabrait, Cecile; Pilleul, Frank; Guillaud, Olivier; Dumortier, Jérôme; Scoazec, Jean-Yves; Beuf, Olivier

    2015-05-01

    Optimization of multi b-values MR protocol for fast intra-voxel incoherent motion imaging of the liver at 3.0 Tesla. A comparison of four different acquisition protocols were carried out based on estimated IVIM (DSlow , DFast , and f) and ADC-parameters in 25 healthy volunteers. The effects of respiratory gating compared with free breathing acquisition then diffusion gradient scheme (simultaneous or sequential) and finally use of weighted averaging for different b-values were assessed. An optimization study based on Cramer-Rao lower bound theory was then performed to minimize the number of b-values required for a suitable quantification. The duration-optimized protocol was evaluated on 12 patients with chronic liver diseases No significant differences of IVIM parameters were observed between the assessed protocols. Only four b-values (0, 12, 82, and 1310 s.mm(-2) ) were found mandatory to perform a suitable quantification of IVIM parameters. DSlow and DFast significantly decreased between nonadvanced and advanced fibrosis (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01) whereas perfusion fraction and ADC variations were not found to be significant. Results showed that IVIM could be performed in free breathing, with a weighted-averaging procedure, a simultaneous diffusion gradient scheme and only four optimized b-values (0, 10, 80, and 800) reducing scan duration by a factor of nine compared with a nonoptimized protocol. Preliminary results have shown that parameters such as DSlow and DFast based on optimized IVIM protocol can be relevant biomarkers to distinguish between nonadvanced and advanced fibrosis. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. Thermal-hydraulic methods in fast reactor safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weber, D.P.; Briggs, L.L.

    1985-01-01

    Methods for the solution of thermal-hydraulic problems in liquid metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs) arising primarily from transient accident analysis are reviewed. Principal emphasis is given to the important phenomenological issues of sodium boiling and fuel motion. Descriptions of representative phenomenological and mathematical models, computational algorithms, advantages and limitations of the approaches, and current research needs and directions are provided

  6. MONJU AS AN INTERNATIONAL ASSET: INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE AND COOPERATION

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rodriguez, G.; Wisner, R.S.; Stuart, R.

    2004-01-01

    The role of the fast breeder reactor prototype Monju has expanded to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Today instead of being merely a demonstration of an economical, safe, environmentally responsible source of energy, as originally designed, it has also the capability to be transformed into a unique International Irradiations Test Facility. The potential for Monju's role in the Generation IV nuclear energy systems development, and fast reactor research and development area is clear. Its incomparable fast neutron spectrum density will be a major interest not only for Sodium Fast Reactor but for all the Generation IV concepts. As Monju's potential future role is laid out, plans for future tests can be made. Tests of advanced fuels and materials in support of the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative, as well as Minor Actinide Burning can be envisaged. Tests planned on transmutation of minor actinides have the objectives of an industrial demonstration of the reduction of toxic wastes and the stewardship burden of the long-lived wastes. Tests and demonstrations carried out at Monju will provide a bridge from existing Generation III fast reactor systems, now in the later stages of their projected operational lifetimes, to Generation IV nuclear energy systems. The JNC founded the International Cooperation and Technology Development Center and the International Research Fellowship program to facilitate this international effort. The Center exists specifically to formulate and perform projects ensuring the maximum technical benefit from Monju. The staff includes physicists, engineers and nuclear industry leaders from around the world. Research Fellowships center is based on several technical areas: advanced instrumentation, inspection techniques, plant reliability and safety, nucleonics, sodium handling technologies, irradiation and experiment management and coordination and advanced post-irradiation examination capabilities and techniques. This paper describes the recent

  7. SU-F-I-15: Evaluation of a New MR-Compatible Respiratory Motion Device at 3T

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Soliman, A [Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON (Canada); Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON (Canada); Chugh, B; Keller, B [Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON (Canada); University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Canada); Sahgal, A; Song, W [Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON (Canada); Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON (Canada); University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (Canada)

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: Recent advances in MRI-guided radiotherapy has inspired the development of MRI-compatible motion devices that simulate patient periodic motion in the scanner, particularly respiratory motion. Most commercial devices rely on non MR-safe ferromagnetic stepper motors which are not practical for regular QA testing. This work evaluates the motion performance of a new fully MRI compatible respiratory motion device at 3T. Methods: The QUASAR™ MRI-compatible respiratory motion phantom has been recently developed by Modus QA Inc., London, ON, Canada. The prototype is constructed from diamagnetic materials with linear motion generated using MRI-compatible piezoelectric motors that can be safely inserted in the scanner bore. The tumor was represented by a fillable sphere and is attached to the linear motion generator. The spherical tumor-representative and its surroundings were filled with different concentrations of MnCl2 to produce realistic relaxation times. The motion was generated along the longitudinal (H/F) axis of the bore using sinusoidal reference waveform (amplitude = 15 mm, frequency 0.25 Hz). Imaging was then performed on 3T Philips Achieva using a 32-channel cardiac coil. Fast 2D spoiled gradient-echo was used with a spatial resolution of 1.8 × 1.8 mm{sup 2} and slice thickness of 4 mm. The motion waveform was then measured on the resultant image series by tracking the centroid of the sphere through the time series. This image-derived measured motion was compared to the software-generated reference waveform. Results: No visible distortions from the device were observed on the images. Excellent agreement between the measured and the reference waveforms were obtained. Negligible motion was observed in the lateral (R/L) direction. Conclusion: Our investigation demonstrates that this piezo-electric motor design is effective at simulating periodic motion and is a potential candidate for MRI-radiotherapy respiratory motion simulation. Future work should

  8. SU-F-I-15: Evaluation of a New MR-Compatible Respiratory Motion Device at 3T

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soliman, A; Chugh, B; Keller, B; Sahgal, A; Song, W

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: Recent advances in MRI-guided radiotherapy has inspired the development of MRI-compatible motion devices that simulate patient periodic motion in the scanner, particularly respiratory motion. Most commercial devices rely on non MR-safe ferromagnetic stepper motors which are not practical for regular QA testing. This work evaluates the motion performance of a new fully MRI compatible respiratory motion device at 3T. Methods: The QUASAR™ MRI-compatible respiratory motion phantom has been recently developed by Modus QA Inc., London, ON, Canada. The prototype is constructed from diamagnetic materials with linear motion generated using MRI-compatible piezoelectric motors that can be safely inserted in the scanner bore. The tumor was represented by a fillable sphere and is attached to the linear motion generator. The spherical tumor-representative and its surroundings were filled with different concentrations of MnCl2 to produce realistic relaxation times. The motion was generated along the longitudinal (H/F) axis of the bore using sinusoidal reference waveform (amplitude = 15 mm, frequency 0.25 Hz). Imaging was then performed on 3T Philips Achieva using a 32-channel cardiac coil. Fast 2D spoiled gradient-echo was used with a spatial resolution of 1.8 × 1.8 mm 2 and slice thickness of 4 mm. The motion waveform was then measured on the resultant image series by tracking the centroid of the sphere through the time series. This image-derived measured motion was compared to the software-generated reference waveform. Results: No visible distortions from the device were observed on the images. Excellent agreement between the measured and the reference waveforms were obtained. Negligible motion was observed in the lateral (R/L) direction. Conclusion: Our investigation demonstrates that this piezo-electric motor design is effective at simulating periodic motion and is a potential candidate for MRI-radiotherapy respiratory motion simulation. Future work should focus

  9. SU-E-J-191: Motion Prediction Using Extreme Learning Machine in Image Guided Radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jia, J; Cao, R; Pei, X; Wang, H; Hu, L

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: Real-time motion tracking is a critical issue in image guided radiotherapy due to the time latency caused by image processing and system response. It is of great necessity to fast and accurately predict the future position of the respiratory motion and the tumor location. Methods: The prediction of respiratory position was done based on the positioning and tracking module in ARTS-IGRT system which was developed by FDS Team (www.fds.org.cn). An approach involving with the extreme learning machine (ELM) was adopted to predict the future respiratory position as well as the tumor’s location by training the past trajectories. For the training process, a feed-forward neural network with one single hidden layer was used for the learning. First, the number of hidden nodes was figured out for the single layered feed forward network (SLFN). Then the input weights and hidden layer biases of the SLFN were randomly assigned to calculate the hidden neuron output matrix. Finally, the predicted movement were obtained by applying the output weights and compared with the actual movement. Breathing movement acquired from the external infrared markers was used to test the prediction accuracy. And the implanted marker movement for the prostate cancer was used to test the implementation of the tumor motion prediction. Results: The accuracy of the predicted motion and the actual motion was tested. Five volunteers with different breathing patterns were tested. The average prediction time was 0.281s. And the standard deviation of prediction accuracy was 0.002 for the respiratory motion and 0.001 for the tumor motion. Conclusion: The extreme learning machine method can provide an accurate and fast prediction of the respiratory motion and the tumor location and therefore can meet the requirements of real-time tumor-tracking in image guided radiotherapy

  10. SU-E-J-191: Motion Prediction Using Extreme Learning Machine in Image Guided Radiotherapy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jia, J; Cao, R; Pei, X; Wang, H; Hu, L [Key Laboratory of Neutronics and Radiation Safety, Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui, 230031 (China); Engineering Technology Research Center of Accurate Radiotherapy of Anhui Province, Hefei 230031 (China); Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, SuZhou (China)

    2015-06-15

    Purpose: Real-time motion tracking is a critical issue in image guided radiotherapy due to the time latency caused by image processing and system response. It is of great necessity to fast and accurately predict the future position of the respiratory motion and the tumor location. Methods: The prediction of respiratory position was done based on the positioning and tracking module in ARTS-IGRT system which was developed by FDS Team (www.fds.org.cn). An approach involving with the extreme learning machine (ELM) was adopted to predict the future respiratory position as well as the tumor’s location by training the past trajectories. For the training process, a feed-forward neural network with one single hidden layer was used for the learning. First, the number of hidden nodes was figured out for the single layered feed forward network (SLFN). Then the input weights and hidden layer biases of the SLFN were randomly assigned to calculate the hidden neuron output matrix. Finally, the predicted movement were obtained by applying the output weights and compared with the actual movement. Breathing movement acquired from the external infrared markers was used to test the prediction accuracy. And the implanted marker movement for the prostate cancer was used to test the implementation of the tumor motion prediction. Results: The accuracy of the predicted motion and the actual motion was tested. Five volunteers with different breathing patterns were tested. The average prediction time was 0.281s. And the standard deviation of prediction accuracy was 0.002 for the respiratory motion and 0.001 for the tumor motion. Conclusion: The extreme learning machine method can provide an accurate and fast prediction of the respiratory motion and the tumor location and therefore can meet the requirements of real-time tumor-tracking in image guided radiotherapy.

  11. National report for United Kingdom. 32nd annual meeting of the IAEA International Working Group on Fast Reactors, Vienna, 18-19 May 1999

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abram, T.; Picker, C.

    1999-01-01

    Much of the UK nuclear industry has now completed the transition from state to private ownership. The UK continues to support international development of fast reactor technology, mainly through participation in the European Fast Reactor collaboration, with all funding provided by BNFL. Inactive commissioning is about to begin on the PFR Sodium Disposal Plant, which includes a caesium removal plant. The defuelling machine is being refurbished to permit the control and shutdown rods to be removed. No further reprocessing of fuel has taken place. (author)

  12. Illusory Motion Reproduced by Deep Neural Networks Trained for Prediction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watanabe, Eiji; Kitaoka, Akiyoshi; Sakamoto, Kiwako; Yasugi, Masaki; Tanaka, Kenta

    2018-01-01

    The cerebral cortex predicts visual motion to adapt human behavior to surrounding objects moving in real time. Although the underlying mechanisms are still unknown, predictive coding is one of the leading theories. Predictive coding assumes that the brain's internal models (which are acquired through learning) predict the visual world at all times and that errors between the prediction and the actual sensory input further refine the internal models. In the past year, deep neural networks based on predictive coding were reported for a video prediction machine called PredNet. If the theory substantially reproduces the visual information processing of the cerebral cortex, then PredNet can be expected to represent the human visual perception of motion. In this study, PredNet was trained with natural scene videos of the self-motion of the viewer, and the motion prediction ability of the obtained computer model was verified using unlearned videos. We found that the computer model accurately predicted the magnitude and direction of motion of a rotating propeller in unlearned videos. Surprisingly, it also represented the rotational motion for illusion images that were not moving physically, much like human visual perception. While the trained network accurately reproduced the direction of illusory rotation, it did not detect motion components in negative control pictures wherein people do not perceive illusory motion. This research supports the exciting idea that the mechanism assumed by the predictive coding theory is one of basis of motion illusion generation. Using sensory illusions as indicators of human perception, deep neural networks are expected to contribute significantly to the development of brain research.

  13. Slow Motion and Zoom in HD Digital Videos Using Fractals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maurizio Murroni

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Slow motion replay and spatial zooming are special effects used in digital video rendering. At present, most techniques to perform digital spatial zoom and slow motion are based on interpolation for both enlarging the size of the original pictures and generating additional intermediate frames. Mainly, interpolation is done either by linear or cubic spline functions or by motion estimation/compensation which both can be applied pixel by pixel, or by partitioning frames into blocks. Purpose of this paper is to present an alternative technique combining fractals theory and wavelet decomposition to achieve spatial zoom and slow motion replay of HD digital color video sequences. Fast scene change detection, active scene detection, wavelet subband analysis, and color fractal coding based on Earth Mover's Distance (EMD measure are used to reduce computational load and to improve visual quality. Experiments show that the proposed scheme achieves better results in terms of overall visual quality compared to the state-of-the-art techniques.

  14. Fast-starting after a breath: air-breathing motions are kinematically similar to escape responses in the catfish Hoplosternum littorale

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paolo Domenici

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Fast-starts are brief accelerations commonly observed in fish within the context of predator–prey interactions. In typical C-start escape responses, fish react to a threatening stimulus by bending their body into a C-shape during the first muscle contraction (i.e. stage 1 which provides a sudden acceleration away from the stimulus. Recently, similar C-starts have been recorded in fish aiming at a prey. Little is known about C-starts outside the context of predator–prey interactions, though recent work has shown that escape response can also be induced by high temperature. Here, we test the hypothesis that air-breathing fish may use C-starts in the context of gulping air at the surface. Hoplosternum littorale is an air-breathing freshwater catfish found in South America. Field video observations reveal that their air-breathing behaviour consists of air-gulping at the surface, followed by a fast turn which re-directs the fish towards the bottom. Using high-speed video in the laboratory, we compared the kinematics of the turn immediately following air-gulping performed by H. littorale in normoxia with those of mechanically-triggered C-start escape responses and with routine (i.e. spontaneous turns. Our results show that air-breathing events overlap considerably with escape responses with a large stage 1 angle in terms of turning rates, distance covered and the relationship between these rates. Therefore, these two behaviours can be considered kinematically comparable, suggesting that air-breathing in this species is followed by escape-like C-start motions, presumably to minimise time at the surface and exposure to avian predators. These findings show that C-starts can occur in a variety of contexts in which fish may need to get away from areas of potential danger.

  15. Internal wave turbulence near a Texel beach.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hans van Haren

    Full Text Available A summer bather entering a calm sea from the beach may sense alternating warm and cold water. This can be felt when moving forward into the sea ('vertically homogeneous' and 'horizontally different', but also when standing still between one's feet and body ('vertically different'. On a calm summer-day, an array of high-precision sensors has measured fast temperature-changes up to 1 °C near a Texel-island (NL beach. The measurements show that sensed variations are in fact internal waves, fronts and turbulence, supported in part by vertical stable stratification in density (temperature. Such motions are common in the deep ocean, but generally not in shallow seas where turbulent mixing is expected strong enough to homogenize. The internal beach-waves have amplitudes ten-times larger than those of the small surface wind waves. Quantifying their turbulent mixing gives diffusivity estimates of 10(-4-10(-3 m(2 s(-1, which are larger than found in open-ocean but smaller than wave breaking above deep sloping topography.

  16. SU-E-J-61: Monitoring Tumor Motion in Real-Time with EPID Imaging During Cervical Cancer Treatment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mao, W; Hrycushko, B; Yan, Y; Foster, R; Albuquerque, K

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: Traditional external beam radiotherapy for cervical cancer requires setup by external skin marks. In order to improve treatment accuracy and reduce planning margin for more conformal therapy, it is essential to monitor tumor positions interfractionally and intrafractionally. We demonstrate feasibility of monitoring cervical tumor motion online using EPID imaging from Beam’s Eye View. Methods: Prior to treatment, 1∼2 cylindrical radio opaque markers were implanted into inferior aspect of cervix tumor. During external beam treatments on a Varian 2100C by 4-field 3D plans, treatment beam images were acquired continuously by an EPID. A Matlab program was developed to locate internal markers on MV images. Based on 2D marker positions obtained from different treatment fields, their 3D positions were estimated for every treatment fraction. Results: There were 398 images acquired during different treatment fractions of three cervical cancer patients. Markers were successfully located on every frame of image at an analysis speed of about 1 second per frame. Intrafraction motions were evaluated by comparing marker positions relative to the position on the first frame of image. The maximum intrafraction motion of the markers was 1.6 mm. Interfraction motions were evaluated by comparing 3D marker positions at different treatment fractions. The maximum interfraction motion was up to 10 mm. Careful comparison found that this is due to patient positioning since the bony structures shifted with the markers. Conclusion: This method provides a cost-free and simple solution for online tumor tracking for cervical cancer treatment since it is feasible to acquire and export EPID images with fast analysis in real time. This method does not need any extra equipment or deliver extra dose to patients. The online tumor motion information will be very useful to reduce planning margins and improve treatment accuracy, which is particularly important for SBRT treatment with long

  17. SU-E-J-61: Monitoring Tumor Motion in Real-Time with EPID Imaging During Cervical Cancer Treatment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mao, W; Hrycushko, B; Yan, Y; Foster, R; Albuquerque, K [UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX (United States)

    2015-06-15

    Purpose: Traditional external beam radiotherapy for cervical cancer requires setup by external skin marks. In order to improve treatment accuracy and reduce planning margin for more conformal therapy, it is essential to monitor tumor positions interfractionally and intrafractionally. We demonstrate feasibility of monitoring cervical tumor motion online using EPID imaging from Beam’s Eye View. Methods: Prior to treatment, 1∼2 cylindrical radio opaque markers were implanted into inferior aspect of cervix tumor. During external beam treatments on a Varian 2100C by 4-field 3D plans, treatment beam images were acquired continuously by an EPID. A Matlab program was developed to locate internal markers on MV images. Based on 2D marker positions obtained from different treatment fields, their 3D positions were estimated for every treatment fraction. Results: There were 398 images acquired during different treatment fractions of three cervical cancer patients. Markers were successfully located on every frame of image at an analysis speed of about 1 second per frame. Intrafraction motions were evaluated by comparing marker positions relative to the position on the first frame of image. The maximum intrafraction motion of the markers was 1.6 mm. Interfraction motions were evaluated by comparing 3D marker positions at different treatment fractions. The maximum interfraction motion was up to 10 mm. Careful comparison found that this is due to patient positioning since the bony structures shifted with the markers. Conclusion: This method provides a cost-free and simple solution for online tumor tracking for cervical cancer treatment since it is feasible to acquire and export EPID images with fast analysis in real time. This method does not need any extra equipment or deliver extra dose to patients. The online tumor motion information will be very useful to reduce planning margins and improve treatment accuracy, which is particularly important for SBRT treatment with long

  18. Stopping power and polarization induced in a plasma by a fast charged particle in circular motion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Villo-Perez, Isidro [Departamento de Electronica, Tecnologia de las Computadoras y Proyectos, Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena, Cartagena (Spain); Arista, Nestor R. [Division Colisiones Atomicas, Centro Atomico Bariloche and Instituto Balseiro, Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Bariloche (Argentina); Garcia-Molina, Rafael [Departamento de Fisica, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia (Spain)

    2002-03-28

    We describe the perturbation induced in a plasma by a charged particle in circular motion, analysing in detail the evolution of the induced charge, the electrostatic potential and the energy loss of the particle. We describe the initial transitory behaviour and the different ways in which convergence to final stationary solutions may be obtained depending on the basic parameters of the problem. The results for the stopping power show a resonant behaviour which may give place to large stopping enhancement values as compared with the case of particles in straight-line motion with the same linear velocity. The results also explain a resonant effect recently obtained for particles in circular motion in magnetized plasmas. (author)

  19. Stretch sensors for human body motion

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Brien, Ben; Gisby, Todd; Anderson, Iain A.

    2014-03-01

    Sensing motion of the human body is a difficult task. From an engineers' perspective people are soft highly mobile objects that move in and out of complex environments. As well as the technical challenge of sensing, concepts such as comfort, social intrusion, usability, and aesthetics are paramount in determining whether someone will adopt a sensing solution or not. At the same time the demands for human body motion sensing are growing fast. Athletes want feedback on posture and technique, consumers need new ways to interact with augmented reality devices, and healthcare providers wish to track recovery of a patient. Dielectric elastomer stretch sensors are ideal for bridging this gap. They are soft, flexible, and precise. They are low power, lightweight, and can be easily mounted on the body or embedded into clothing. From a commercialisation point of view stretch sensing is easier than actuation or generation - such sensors can be low voltage and integrated with conventional microelectronics. This paper takes a birds-eye view of the use of these sensors to measure human body motion. A holistic description of sensor operation and guidelines for sensor design will be presented to help technologists and developers in the space.

  20. TU-F-BRB-02: Motion Artifacts and Suppression in MRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhong, X.

    2015-01-01

    The current clinical standard of organ respiratory imaging, 4D-CT, is fundamentally limited by poor soft-tissue contrast and imaging dose. These limitations are potential barriers to beneficial “4D” radiotherapy methods which optimize the target and OAR dose-volume considering breathing motion but rely on a robust motion characterization. Conversely, MRI imparts no known radiation risk and has excellent soft-tissue contrast. MRI-based motion management is therefore highly desirable and holds great promise to improve radiotherapy of moving cancers, particularly in the abdomen. Over the past decade, MRI techniques have improved significantly, making MR-based motion management clinically feasible. For example, cine MRI has high temporal resolution up to 10 f/s and has been used to track and/or characterize tumor motion, study correlation between external and internal motions. New MR technologies, such as 4D-MRI and MRI hybrid treatment machines (i.e. MR-linac or MR-Co60), have been recently developed. These technologies can lead to more accurate target volume determination and more precise radiation dose delivery via direct tumor gating or tracking. Despite all these promises, great challenges exist and the achievable clinical benefit of MRI-based tumor motion management has yet to be fully explored, much less realized. In this proposal, we will review novel MR-based motion management methods and technologies, the state-of-the-art concerning MRI development and clinical application and the barriers to more widespread adoption. Learning Objectives: Discuss the need of MR-based motion management for improving patient care in radiotherapy. Understand MR techniques for motion imaging and tumor motion characterization. Understand the current state of the art and future steps for clinical integration. Henry Ford Health System holds research agreements with Philips Healthcare. Research sponsored in part by a Henry Ford Health System Internal Mentored Grant

  1. TU-F-BRB-00: MRI-Based Motion Management for RT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2015-01-01

    The current clinical standard of organ respiratory imaging, 4D-CT, is fundamentally limited by poor soft-tissue contrast and imaging dose. These limitations are potential barriers to beneficial “4D” radiotherapy methods which optimize the target and OAR dose-volume considering breathing motion but rely on a robust motion characterization. Conversely, MRI imparts no known radiation risk and has excellent soft-tissue contrast. MRI-based motion management is therefore highly desirable and holds great promise to improve radiotherapy of moving cancers, particularly in the abdomen. Over the past decade, MRI techniques have improved significantly, making MR-based motion management clinically feasible. For example, cine MRI has high temporal resolution up to 10 f/s and has been used to track and/or characterize tumor motion, study correlation between external and internal motions. New MR technologies, such as 4D-MRI and MRI hybrid treatment machines (i.e. MR-linac or MR-Co60), have been recently developed. These technologies can lead to more accurate target volume determination and more precise radiation dose delivery via direct tumor gating or tracking. Despite all these promises, great challenges exist and the achievable clinical benefit of MRI-based tumor motion management has yet to be fully explored, much less realized. In this proposal, we will review novel MR-based motion management methods and technologies, the state-of-the-art concerning MRI development and clinical application and the barriers to more widespread adoption. Learning Objectives: Discuss the need of MR-based motion management for improving patient care in radiotherapy. Understand MR techniques for motion imaging and tumor motion characterization. Understand the current state of the art and future steps for clinical integration. Henry Ford Health System holds research agreements with Philips Healthcare. Research sponsored in part by a Henry Ford Health System Internal Mentored Grant

  2. TU-F-BRB-00: MRI-Based Motion Management for RT

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2015-06-15

    The current clinical standard of organ respiratory imaging, 4D-CT, is fundamentally limited by poor soft-tissue contrast and imaging dose. These limitations are potential barriers to beneficial “4D” radiotherapy methods which optimize the target and OAR dose-volume considering breathing motion but rely on a robust motion characterization. Conversely, MRI imparts no known radiation risk and has excellent soft-tissue contrast. MRI-based motion management is therefore highly desirable and holds great promise to improve radiotherapy of moving cancers, particularly in the abdomen. Over the past decade, MRI techniques have improved significantly, making MR-based motion management clinically feasible. For example, cine MRI has high temporal resolution up to 10 f/s and has been used to track and/or characterize tumor motion, study correlation between external and internal motions. New MR technologies, such as 4D-MRI and MRI hybrid treatment machines (i.e. MR-linac or MR-Co60), have been recently developed. These technologies can lead to more accurate target volume determination and more precise radiation dose delivery via direct tumor gating or tracking. Despite all these promises, great challenges exist and the achievable clinical benefit of MRI-based tumor motion management has yet to be fully explored, much less realized. In this proposal, we will review novel MR-based motion management methods and technologies, the state-of-the-art concerning MRI development and clinical application and the barriers to more widespread adoption. Learning Objectives: Discuss the need of MR-based motion management for improving patient care in radiotherapy. Understand MR techniques for motion imaging and tumor motion characterization. Understand the current state of the art and future steps for clinical integration. Henry Ford Health System holds research agreements with Philips Healthcare. Research sponsored in part by a Henry Ford Health System Internal Mentored Grant.

  3. TU-F-BRB-02: Motion Artifacts and Suppression in MRI

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhong, X. [Siemens (Germany)

    2015-06-15

    The current clinical standard of organ respiratory imaging, 4D-CT, is fundamentally limited by poor soft-tissue contrast and imaging dose. These limitations are potential barriers to beneficial “4D” radiotherapy methods which optimize the target and OAR dose-volume considering breathing motion but rely on a robust motion characterization. Conversely, MRI imparts no known radiation risk and has excellent soft-tissue contrast. MRI-based motion management is therefore highly desirable and holds great promise to improve radiotherapy of moving cancers, particularly in the abdomen. Over the past decade, MRI techniques have improved significantly, making MR-based motion management clinically feasible. For example, cine MRI has high temporal resolution up to 10 f/s and has been used to track and/or characterize tumor motion, study correlation between external and internal motions. New MR technologies, such as 4D-MRI and MRI hybrid treatment machines (i.e. MR-linac or MR-Co60), have been recently developed. These technologies can lead to more accurate target volume determination and more precise radiation dose delivery via direct tumor gating or tracking. Despite all these promises, great challenges exist and the achievable clinical benefit of MRI-based tumor motion management has yet to be fully explored, much less realized. In this proposal, we will review novel MR-based motion management methods and technologies, the state-of-the-art concerning MRI development and clinical application and the barriers to more widespread adoption. Learning Objectives: Discuss the need of MR-based motion management for improving patient care in radiotherapy. Understand MR techniques for motion imaging and tumor motion characterization. Understand the current state of the art and future steps for clinical integration. Henry Ford Health System holds research agreements with Philips Healthcare. Research sponsored in part by a Henry Ford Health System Internal Mentored Grant.

  4. Opening Session [International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles: Safe Technologies and Sustainable Scenarios (FR13), Paris, France, March 4-7, 2013

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Laurent Michel

    2013-01-01

    For this opening address, I would like to share with you some thoughts about the evolution of the key drivers during the last decades for the development of fast reactors from the very pioneering age till now, taking into account new concerns and major events occurred since the last international conference on fast reactors and related fuel cycles held in Kyoto, Japan (FR 2009). There are three major periods: • The pioneering age (1945-1980) with breeding as a main driver followed by a kind of “winter season“ (1980-2000) for the development of fast reactors worldwide; • The so-called “brainstorming” phase (2000-2010), back to physics and nuclear chemistry, with international rebirth of the research on fast reactors and advanced fuel cycle owing to the GENERATION IV initiative, revisiting various reactor concepts along with 4 main drivers: sustainability, safety, proliferation resistance and costcompetitiveness. • A new era now (started in 2010) with very promising technological options and projects of prototypes with two main key drivers: → Innovation towards enhanced safety which is a major concern for public acceptance of nuclear power, especially after the FUKUSHIMA accident. → Higher flexibility in the management of fissile materials and nuclear waste in order to take into account various possible options for the contribution of nuclear power in the energy mix

  5. 19 CFR 210.54 - Service of motion by the complainant.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Service of motion by the complainant. 210.54 Section 210.54 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION INVESTIGATIONS OF UNFAIR PRACTICES IN IMPORT TRADE ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT Temporary Relief § 210.54 Service of motion by the...

  6. Status of national programmes on fast breeder reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-07-01

    The twenty-second Annual Meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors took place in Vienna, 18-21 April 1989. Nineteen representatives from twelve Member States and International Organizations attended the Meeting. This publication is a collection of presentations in which the participants reported the status of their national programmes on fast breeder reactors. A separate abstract was prepared for each of the twelve papers from this collections. Refs, figs, tabs and 1 graph

  7. Fetal anatomy revealed with fast MR sequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levine, D; Hatabu, H; Gaa, J; Atkinson, M W; Edelman, R R

    1996-10-01

    Although all the imaging studies in this pictorial essay were done for maternal rather than fetal indications, fetal anatomy was well visualized. However, when scans are undertaken for fetal indications, fetal motion in between scout views and imaging sequences may make specific image planes difficult to obtain. Of the different techniques described in this review, we preferred the HASTE technique and use it almost exclusively for scanning pregnant patients. The T2-weighting is ideal for delineating fetal organs. Also, the HASTE technique allows images to be obtained in 430 msec, limiting artifacts arising from maternal and fetal motion. MR imaging should play a more important role in evaluating equivocal sonographic cases as fast scanning techniques are more widely used. Obstetric MR imaging no longer will be limited by fetal motion artifacts. When complex anatomy requires definition in a complicated pregnant patient, MR imaging should be considered as a useful adjunct to sonography.

  8. Power deposition by neutral beam injected fast ions in field-reversed configurations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takahashi, Toshiki; Kato, Takayuki; Kondoh, Yoshiomi; Iwasaka, Naotaka

    2004-04-01

    Effects of Coulomb collisions on neutral beam (NB) injected fast ions into Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) plasmas are investigated by calculating the single particle orbits, where the ions are subject to the slowing down and pitch angle collisions. The Monte-Carlo method is used for the pitch angle scattering, and the friction term is added to the equation of motion to show effects of slowing down collision such as the deposited power profile. Calculation parameters used are relevant to the NB injection on the FRC Injection Experiment (FIX) device. It is found that the dominant local power deposition occurs in the open field region between the X-point and the mirror point because of a concentration of fast ions and a longer duration travel at the mirror reflection point. In the present calculation, the maximum deposited power to the FRC plasma is about 10% of the injected power. Although the pitch angle scattering by Coulomb collision destroys the mirror confinement of NB injected fast ions, this effect is found negligible. The loss mechanism due to non-adiabatic fast ion motion, which is intrinsic in non-uniform FRC plasmas, affects much greater than the pitch angle scattering by Coulomb collision. (author)

  9. Ion beam heating for fast ignition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gus'kov, S.Yu.; Limpouch, J.; Klimo, O.

    2010-01-01

    Complete text of publication follows. The characteristics features of the formation of the spatial distribution of the energy transferred to the plasma from a beam of ions with different initial energies, masses and charges under fast ignition conditions are determined. The motion of the Bragg peak is extended with respect to the spatial distribution of the temperature of the ion-beam-heated medium. The parameters of the ion beams are determined to initiate different regimes of fast ignition of thermonuclear fuel precompressed to a density of 300-500 g/cm 3 - the edge regime, in which the ignition region is formed at the outer boundary of the fuel, and the internal regime, in which the ignition region is formed in central parts of the fuel. The conclusion on the requirements for fast ignition by light and heavy ion beams is presented. It is shown that the edge heating with negative temperature gradient is described by a self-similar solution. Such a temperature distribution is the reason of the fact that the ignited beam energy at the edge heating is larger than the minimal ignition energy by factor 1.65. The temperature Bragg peak may be produced by ion beam heating in the reactor scale targets with pR-parameter larger than 3-4 g/cm 2 . In particular, for central ignition of the targets with pR-parameters in the range of 4-8 g/cm 2 the ion beam energy should be, respectively, from 5 to 7 times larger than the minimal ignition energy. The work by S.Ye. Gus'kov, D.V. Il'in, and V.E. Sherman was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation under the program 'Development of the Scientific Potential of High Education for 2009-2010' (project no. 2.1.1/1505) and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 08-02-01394 a ). The work by J. Limpouch and O. Klimo was supported by the Czech Ministry of Education (project no. LC528, MSM6840770022).

  10. Mid-Ventilation Concept for Mobile Pulmonary Tumors: Internal Tumor Trajectory Versus Selective Reconstruction of Four-Dimensional Computed Tomography Frames Based on External Breathing Motion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guckenberger, Matthias; Wilbert, Juergen; Krieger, Thomas; Richter, Anne; Baier, Kurt; Flentje, Michael

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: To evaluate the accuracy of direct reconstruction of mid-ventilation and peak-phase four-dimensional (4D) computed tomography (CT) frames based on the external breathing signal. Methods and Materials: For 11 patients with 15 pulmonary targets, a respiration-correlated CT study (4D CT) was acquired for treatment planning. After retrospective time-based sorting of raw projection data and reconstruction of eight CT frames equally distributed over the breathing cycle, mean tumor position (P mean ), mid-ventilation frame, and breathing motion were evaluated based on the internal tumor trajectory. Analysis of the external breathing signal (pressure sensor around abdomen) with amplitude-based sorting of projections was performed for direct reconstruction of the mid-ventilation frame and frames at peak phases of the breathing cycle. Results: On the basis of the eight 4D CT frames equally spaced in time, tumor motion was largest in the craniocaudal direction, with 12 ± 7 mm on average. Tumor motion between the two frames reconstructed at peak phases was not different in the craniocaudal and anterior-posterior directions but was systematically smaller in the left-right direction by 1 mm on average. The 3-dimensional distance between P mean and the tumor position in the mid-ventilation frame based on the internal tumor trajectory was 1.2 ± 1 mm. Reconstruction of the mid-ventilation frame at the mean amplitude position of the external breathing signal resulted in tumor positions 2.0 ± 1.1 mm distant from P mean . Breathing-induced motion artifacts in mid-ventilation frames caused negligible changes in tumor volume and shape. Conclusions: Direct reconstruction of the mid-ventilation frame and frames at peak phases based on the external breathing signal was reliable. This makes the reconstruction of only three 4D CT frames sufficient for application of the mid-ventilation technique in clinical practice.

  11. Estimation of Joint types and Joint Limits from Motion capture data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Engell-Nørregård, Morten Pol; Erleben, Kenny

    2009-01-01

    It is time-consuming for an animator to explicitly model joint types and joint limits of articulated figures. In this paper we describe a simple and fast approach to automated joint estimation from motion capture data of articulated figures. Our method will make the joint modeling more efficient ...

  12. ECONOMIC APPROACH ON FAST-FOOD UNITS - CASE STUDY

    OpenAIRE

    Cristiana TINDECHE; Liliana POPESCU

    2012-01-01

    The globalization phenomenon that characterizes the century we are living in includes even the food we consume which is mostly fast-food products. Fast-foods are internationally expanding at an amazing pace. In the century of speed, when the modern man is in a permanent rush for confirmation, success, money and the time is passing unbelievably fast, the fast-food is a perfect alternative for having a meal out in the city or for preparing dinner at home [5]. Because fast-food products are del...

  13. Deep eye-CU (DECU): Summarization of patient motion in the ICU

    OpenAIRE

    Torres, C; Fried, JC; Rose, K; Manjunath, BS

    2016-01-01

    © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. Healthcare professionals speculate about the effects of poses and pose manipulation in healthcare. Anecdotal observations indicate that patient poses and motion affect recovery. Motion analysis using human observers puts strain on already taxed healthcare workforce requiring staff to record motion. Automated algorithms and systems are unable to monitor patients in hospital environments without disrupting patients or the existing standards ...

  14. Motion field estimation for a dynamic scene using a 3D LiDAR.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Qingquan; Zhang, Liang; Mao, Qingzhou; Zou, Qin; Zhang, Pin; Feng, Shaojun; Ochieng, Washington

    2014-09-09

    This paper proposes a novel motion field estimation method based on a 3D light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor for motion sensing for intelligent driverless vehicles and active collision avoidance systems. Unlike multiple target tracking methods, which estimate the motion state of detected targets, such as cars and pedestrians, motion field estimation regards the whole scene as a motion field in which each little element has its own motion state. Compared to multiple target tracking, segmentation errors and data association errors have much less significance in motion field estimation, making it more accurate and robust. This paper presents an intact 3D LiDAR-based motion field estimation method, including pre-processing, a theoretical framework for the motion field estimation problem and practical solutions. The 3D LiDAR measurements are first projected to small-scale polar grids, and then, after data association and Kalman filtering, the motion state of every moving grid is estimated. To reduce computing time, a fast data association algorithm is proposed. Furthermore, considering the spatial correlation of motion among neighboring grids, a novel spatial-smoothing algorithm is also presented to optimize the motion field. The experimental results using several data sets captured in different cities indicate that the proposed motion field estimation is able to run in real-time and performs robustly and effectively.

  15. Motion Field Estimation for a Dynamic Scene Using a 3D LiDAR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qingquan Li

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a novel motion field estimation method based on a 3D light detection and ranging (LiDAR sensor for motion sensing for intelligent driverless vehicles and active collision avoidance systems. Unlike multiple target tracking methods, which estimate the motion state of detected targets, such as cars and pedestrians, motion field estimation regards the whole scene as a motion field in which each little element has its own motion state. Compared to multiple target tracking, segmentation errors and data association errors have much less significance in motion field estimation, making it more accurate and robust. This paper presents an intact 3D LiDAR-based motion field estimation method, including pre-processing, a theoretical framework for the motion field estimation problem and practical solutions. The 3D LiDAR measurements are first projected to small-scale polar grids, and then, after data association and Kalman filtering, the motion state of every moving grid is estimated. To reduce computing time, a fast data association algorithm is proposed. Furthermore, considering the spatial correlation of motion among neighboring grids, a novel spatial-smoothing algorithm is also presented to optimize the motion field. The experimental results using several data sets captured in different cities indicate that the proposed motion field estimation is able to run in real-time and performs robustly and effectively.

  16. Trapped fast particle destabilization of internal kink mode for the locally flattened q-profile with an inflection point

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Xian-Qu [Institute of Fusion Science, School of Physical Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610031 (China); Zhang, Rui-Bin; Meng, Guo [State Key Lab of Nuclear Physics and Technology, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China)

    2016-07-15

    The destabilization of ideal internal kink modes by trapped fast particles in tokamak plasmas with a “shoulder”-like equilibrium current is investigated. It is found that energetic particle branch of the mode is unstable with the driving of fast-particle precession drifts and corresponds to a precessional fishbone. The mode with a low stability threshold is also more easily excited than the conventional precessional fishbone. This is different from earlier studies for the same equilibrium in which the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) branch of the mode is stable. Furthermore, the stability and characteristic frequency of the mode are analyzed by solving the dispersion relation and comparing with the conventional fishbone. The results suggest that an equilibrium with a locally flattened q-profile, may be modified by localized current drive (or bootstrap current, etc.), is prone to the onset of the precessional fishbone branch of the mode.

  17. Survey of large-amplitude flapping motions in the midtail current sheet

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. A. Sergeev

    2006-08-01

    Full Text Available We surveyed fast current sheet crossings (flapping motions over the distance range 10–30 RE in the magnetotail covered by the Geotail spacecraft. Since the local tilts of these dynamic sheets are large and variable in these events, we compare three different methods of evaluating current sheet normals using 4-s/c Cluster data and define the success criteria for the single-spacecraft-based method (MVA to obtain the reliable results. Then, after identifying more than ~1100 fast CS crossings over a 3-year period of Geotail observations in 1997–1999, we address their parameters, spatial distribution and activity dependence. We confirm that over the entire distance covered and LT bins, fast crossings have considerable tilts in the YZ plane (from estimated MVA normals which show a preferential appearance of one (YZ kink-like mode that is responsible for these severe current sheet perturbations. Their occurrence is highly inhomogeneous; it sharply increases with radial distance and has a peak in the tail center (with some duskward shift, resembling the occurrence of the BBFs, although there is no one-to-one local correspondence between these two phenomena. The crossing durations typically spread around 1 min and decrease significantly where the high-speed flows are registered. Based on an AE index superposed epoch study, the flapping motions prefer to appear during the substorm expansion phase, although a considerable number of events without any electrojet and auroral activity were also observed. We also present statistical distributions of other parameters and briefly discuss what could be possible mechanisms to generate the flapping motions.

  18. Modeling a space-variant cortical representation for apparent motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wurbs, Jeremy; Mingolla, Ennio; Yazdanbakhsh, Arash

    2013-08-06

    Receptive field sizes of neurons in early primate visual areas increase with eccentricity, as does temporal processing speed. The fovea is evidently specialized for slow, fine movements while the periphery is suited for fast, coarse movements. In either the fovea or periphery discrete flashes can produce motion percepts. Grossberg and Rudd (1989) used traveling Gaussian activity profiles to model long-range apparent motion percepts. We propose a neural model constrained by physiological data to explain how signals from retinal ganglion cells to V1 affect the perception of motion as a function of eccentricity. Our model incorporates cortical magnification, receptive field overlap and scatter, and spatial and temporal response characteristics of retinal ganglion cells for cortical processing of motion. Consistent with the finding of Baker and Braddick (1985), in our model the maximum flash distance that is perceived as an apparent motion (Dmax) increases linearly as a function of eccentricity. Baker and Braddick (1985) made qualitative predictions about the functional significance of both stimulus and visual system parameters that constrain motion perception, such as an increase in the range of detectable motions as a function of eccentricity and the likely role of higher visual processes in determining Dmax. We generate corresponding quantitative predictions for those functional dependencies for individual aspects of motion processing. Simulation results indicate that the early visual pathway can explain the qualitative linear increase of Dmax data without reliance on extrastriate areas, but that those higher visual areas may serve as a modulatory influence on the exact Dmax increase.

  19. Analysis of the ballooning deformation of an internally pressurized thin-wall tube during fast thermal transients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, E.I.H.

    1977-01-01

    A large-strain time-dependent thermoplastic analysis has been developed for the ballooning deformation of a thin-wall tube subjected to internal pressure, axial loading, and fast thermal transients. This deformation initiates with the onset of plastic instability in the material, the onset being determined by a plastic-instability criterion for strain-rate sensitive materials. The interaction among the local ballooning geometry, the state of stress, and the plastic flow process was considered, and integration of the flow equations yields the local curvature and the states of stress and strain in the vicinity of the maximum ballooning site. The effects of axial constraint and heating rate were also discussed. The analysis was applied to a LWR Zircaloy cladding subjected to a constant heating rate and a range of internal pressures. The results agree very well with experimental strain-time data obtained from tube-burst tests. In most cases, the time of rupture was accurately predicted despite the lack of complete material-property data

  20. Improved assessment of mediastinal and pulmonary pathologies in combined staging CT examinations using a fast-speed acquisition dual-source CT protocol

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Braun, Franziska M.; Holzner, Veronica; Meinel, Felix G.; Armbruster, Marco; Brandlhuber, Martina; Ertl-Wagner, Birgit; Sommer, Wieland H. [University Hospital Munich, Institute for Clinical Radiology, Munich (Germany)

    2017-12-15

    To demonstrate the feasibility of fast Dual-Source CT (DSCT) and to evaluate the clinical utility in chest/abdomen/pelvis staging CT studies. 45 cancer patients with two follow-up combined chest/abdomen/pelvis staging CT examinations (maximally ±10 kV difference in tube potential) were included. The first scan had to be performed with our standard protocol (fixed pitch 0.6), the second one using a novel fast-speed DSCT protocol (fixed pitch 1.55). Effective doses (ED) were calculated, noise measurements performed. Scan times were compared, motion artefacts and the diagnostic confidence rated in consensus reading. ED for the standard and fast-speed scans was 9.1 (7.0-11.1) mSv and 9.2 (7.4-12.8) mSv, respectively (P = 0.075). Image noise was comparable (abdomen; all P > 0.05) or reduced for fast-speed CTs (trachea, P = 0.001; ascending aorta, P < 0.001). Motion artefacts of the heart/the ascending aorta (all P < 0.001) and breathing artefacts (P < 0.031) were reduced in fast DSCT. The diagnostic confidence for the evaluation of mediastinal (P < 0.001) and pulmonary (P = 0.008) pathologies was improved for fast DSCT. Fast DSCT for chest/abdomen/pelvis staging CT examinations is performed within 2 seconds scan time and eliminates relevant intrathoracic motion/breathing artefacts. Mediastinal/pulmonary pathologies can thus be assessed with high diagnostic confidence. Abdominal image quality remains excellent. (orig.)

  1. Scalable Photogrammetric Motion Capture System "mosca": Development and Application

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knyaz, V. A.

    2015-05-01

    Wide variety of applications (from industrial to entertainment) has a need for reliable and accurate 3D information about motion of an object and its parts. Very often the process of movement is rather fast as in cases of vehicle movement, sport biomechanics, animation of cartoon characters. Motion capture systems based on different physical principles are used for these purposes. The great potential for obtaining high accuracy and high degree of automation has vision-based system due to progress in image processing and analysis. Scalable inexpensive motion capture system is developed as a convenient and flexible tool for solving various tasks requiring 3D motion analysis. It is based on photogrammetric techniques of 3D measurements and provides high speed image acquisition, high accuracy of 3D measurements and highly automated processing of captured data. Depending on the application the system can be easily modified for different working areas from 100 mm to 10 m. The developed motion capture system uses from 2 to 4 technical vision cameras for video sequences of object motion acquisition. All cameras work in synchronization mode at frame rate up to 100 frames per second under the control of personal computer providing the possibility for accurate calculation of 3D coordinates of interest points. The system was used for a set of different applications fields and demonstrated high accuracy and high level of automation.

  2. Robot Motion and Control 2011

    CERN Document Server

    2012-01-01

    Robot Motion Control 2011 presents very recent results in robot motion and control. Forty short papers have been chosen from those presented at the sixth International Workshop on Robot Motion and Control held in Poland in June 2011. The authors of these papers have been carefully selected and represent leading institutions in this field. The following recent developments are discussed: • Design of trajectory planning schemes for holonomic and nonholonomic systems with optimization of energy, torque limitations and other factors. • New control algorithms for industrial robots, nonholonomic systems and legged robots. • Different applications of robotic systems in industry and everyday life, like medicine, education, entertainment and others. • Multiagent systems consisting of mobile and flying robots with their applications The book is suitable for graduate students of automation and robotics, informatics and management, mechatronics, electronics and production engineering systems as well as scientists...

  3. Cone-Beam Computed Tomography Internal Motion Tracking Should Be Used to Validate 4-Dimensional Computed Tomography for Abdominal Radiation Therapy Patients

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rankine, Leith; Wan, Hanlin; Parikh, Parag; Maughan, Nichole [Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri (United States); Poulsen, Per [Department of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus (Denmark); DeWees, Todd; Klein, Eric [Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri (United States); Santanam, Lakshmi, E-mail: lsantanam@radonc.wustl.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri (United States)

    2016-06-01

    Purpose: To demonstrate that fiducial tracking during pretreatment Cone-Beam CT (CBCT) can accurately measure tumor motion and that this method should be used to validate 4-dimensional CT (4DCT) margins before each treatment fraction. Methods and Materials: For 31 patients with abdominal tumors and implanted fiducial markers, tumor motion was measured daily with CBCT and fluoroscopy for 202 treatment fractions. Fiducial tracking and maximum-likelihood algorithms extracted 3-dimensional fiducial trajectories from CBCT projections. The daily internal margin (IM) (ie, range of fiducial motion) was calculated for CBCT and fluoroscopy as the 5th-95th percentiles of displacement in each cardinal direction. The planning IM from simulation 4DCT (IM{sub 4DCT}) was considered adequate when within ±1.2 mm (anterior–posterior, left–right) and ±3 mm (superior–inferior) of the daily measured IM. We validated CBCT fiducial tracking as an accurate predictive measure of intrafraction motion by comparing the daily measured IM{sub CBCT} with the daily IM measured by pretreatment fluoroscopy (IM{sub pre-fluoro}); these were compared with pre- and posttreatment fluoroscopy (IM{sub fluoro}) to identify those patients who could benefit from imaging during treatment. Results: Four-dimensional CT could not accurately predict intrafractional tumor motion for ≥80% of fractions in 94% (IM{sub CBCT}), 97% (IM{sub pre-fluoro}), and 100% (IM{sub fluoro}) of patients. The IM{sub CBCT} was significantly closer to IM{sub pre-fluoro} than IM{sub 4DCT} (P<.01). For patients with median treatment time t < 7.5 minutes, IM{sub CBCT} was in agreement with IM{sub fluoro} for 93% of fractions (superior–inferior), compared with 63% for the t > 7.5 minutes group, demonstrating the need for patient-specific intratreatment imaging. Conclusions: Tumor motion determined from 4DCT simulation does not accurately predict the daily motion observed on CBCT or fluoroscopy. Cone-beam CT could

  4. Illusory Motion Reproduced by Deep Neural Networks Trained for Prediction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eiji Watanabe

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The cerebral cortex predicts visual motion to adapt human behavior to surrounding objects moving in real time. Although the underlying mechanisms are still unknown, predictive coding is one of the leading theories. Predictive coding assumes that the brain's internal models (which are acquired through learning predict the visual world at all times and that errors between the prediction and the actual sensory input further refine the internal models. In the past year, deep neural networks based on predictive coding were reported for a video prediction machine called PredNet. If the theory substantially reproduces the visual information processing of the cerebral cortex, then PredNet can be expected to represent the human visual perception of motion. In this study, PredNet was trained with natural scene videos of the self-motion of the viewer, and the motion prediction ability of the obtained computer model was verified using unlearned videos. We found that the computer model accurately predicted the magnitude and direction of motion of a rotating propeller in unlearned videos. Surprisingly, it also represented the rotational motion for illusion images that were not moving physically, much like human visual perception. While the trained network accurately reproduced the direction of illusory rotation, it did not detect motion components in negative control pictures wherein people do not perceive illusory motion. This research supports the exciting idea that the mechanism assumed by the predictive coding theory is one of basis of motion illusion generation. Using sensory illusions as indicators of human perception, deep neural networks are expected to contribute significantly to the development of brain research.

  5. A dual-Kinect approach to determine torso surface motion for respiratory motion correction in PET

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heß, Mirco; Büther, Florian; Dawood, Mohammad; Schäfers, Klaus P.; Gigengack, Fabian

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: Respiratory gating is commonly used to reduce blurring effects and attenuation correction artifacts in positron emission tomography (PET). Established clinically available methods that employ body-attached hardware for acquiring respiration signals rely on the assumption that external surface motion and internal organ motion are well correlated. In this paper, the authors present a markerless method comprising two Microsoft Kinects for determining the motion on the whole torso surface and aim to demonstrate its validity and usefulness—including the potential to study the external/internal correlation and to provide useful information for more advanced correction approaches. Methods: The data of two Kinects are used to calculate 3D representations of a patient’s torso surface with high spatial coverage. Motion signals can be obtained for any position by tracking the mean distance to a virtual camera with a view perpendicular to the surrounding surface. The authors have conducted validation experiments including volunteers and a moving high-precision platform to verify the method’s suitability for providing meaningful data. In addition, the authors employed it during clinical 18 F-FDG-PET scans and exemplarily analyzed the acquired data of ten cancer patients. External signals of abdominal and thoracic regions as well as data-driven signals were used for gating and compared with respect to detected displacement of present lesions. Additionally, the authors quantified signal similarities and time shifts by analyzing cross-correlation sequences. Results: The authors’ results suggest a Kinect depth resolution of approximately 1 mm at 75 cm distance. Accordingly, valid signals could be obtained for surface movements with small amplitudes in the range of only few millimeters. In this small sample of ten patients, the abdominal signals were better suited for gating the PET data than the thoracic signals and the correlation of data-driven signals was found

  6. A dual-Kinect approach to determine torso surface motion for respiratory motion correction in PET

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Heß, Mirco, E-mail: mirco.hess@uni-muenster.de; Büther, Florian; Dawood, Mohammad; Schäfers, Klaus P. [European Institute for Molecular Imaging, University of Münster, Münster 48149 (Germany); Gigengack, Fabian [European Institute for Molecular Imaging, University of Münster, Münster 48149, Germany and Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Münster, Münster 48149 (Germany)

    2015-05-15

    Purpose: Respiratory gating is commonly used to reduce blurring effects and attenuation correction artifacts in positron emission tomography (PET). Established clinically available methods that employ body-attached hardware for acquiring respiration signals rely on the assumption that external surface motion and internal organ motion are well correlated. In this paper, the authors present a markerless method comprising two Microsoft Kinects for determining the motion on the whole torso surface and aim to demonstrate its validity and usefulness—including the potential to study the external/internal correlation and to provide useful information for more advanced correction approaches. Methods: The data of two Kinects are used to calculate 3D representations of a patient’s torso surface with high spatial coverage. Motion signals can be obtained for any position by tracking the mean distance to a virtual camera with a view perpendicular to the surrounding surface. The authors have conducted validation experiments including volunteers and a moving high-precision platform to verify the method’s suitability for providing meaningful data. In addition, the authors employed it during clinical {sup 18}F-FDG-PET scans and exemplarily analyzed the acquired data of ten cancer patients. External signals of abdominal and thoracic regions as well as data-driven signals were used for gating and compared with respect to detected displacement of present lesions. Additionally, the authors quantified signal similarities and time shifts by analyzing cross-correlation sequences. Results: The authors’ results suggest a Kinect depth resolution of approximately 1 mm at 75 cm distance. Accordingly, valid signals could be obtained for surface movements with small amplitudes in the range of only few millimeters. In this small sample of ten patients, the abdominal signals were better suited for gating the PET data than the thoracic signals and the correlation of data-driven signals was

  7. Inhibitory Control of Feature Selectivity in an Object Motion Sensitive Circuit of the Retina

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tahnbee Kim

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Object motion sensitive (OMS W3-retinal ganglion cells (W3-RGCs in mice respond to local movements in a visual scene but remain silent during self-generated global image motion. The excitatory inputs that drive responses of W3-RGCs to local motion were recently characterized, but which inhibitory neurons suppress W3-RGCs’ responses to global motion, how these neurons encode motion information, and how their connections are organized along the excitatory circuit axis remains unknown. Here, we find that a genetically identified amacrine cell (AC type, TH2-AC, exhibits fast responses to global motion and slow responses to local motion. Optogenetic stimulation shows that TH2-ACs provide strong GABAA receptor-mediated input to W3-RGCs but only weak input to upstream excitatory neurons. Cell-type-specific silencing reveals that temporally coded inhibition from TH2-ACs cancels W3-RGC spike responses to global but not local motion stimuli and, thus, controls the feature selectivity of OMS signals sent to the brain.

  8. Probing Photoinduced Structural Phase Transitions by Fast or Ultra-Fast Time-Resolved X-Ray Diffraction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cailleau, Hervé Collet, Eric; Buron-Le Cointe, Marylise; Lemée-Cailleau, Marie-Hélène Koshihara, Shin-Ya

    A new frontier in the field of structural science is the emergence of the fast and ultra-fast X-ray science. Recent developments in time-resolved X-ray diffraction promise direct access to the dynamics of electronic, atomic and molecular motions in condensed matter triggered by a pulsed laser irradiation, i.e. to record "molecular movies" during the transformation of matter initiated by light pulse. These laser pump and X-ray probe techniques now provide an outstanding opportunity for the direct observation of a photoinduced structural phase transition as it takes place. The use of X-ray short-pulse of about 100ps around third-generation synchrotron sources allows structural investigations of fast photoinduced processes. Other new X-ray sources, such as laser-produced plasma ones, generate ultra-short pulses down to 100 fs. This opens the way to femtosecond X-ray crystallography, but with rather low X-ray intensities and more limited experimental possibilities at present. However this new ultra-fast science rapidly progresses around these sources and new large-scale projects exist. It is the aim of this contribution to overview the state of art and the perspectives of fast and ultra-fast X-ray scattering techniques to study photoinduced phase transitions (here, the word ultra-fast is used for sub-picosecond time resolution). In particular we would like to largely present the contribution of crystallographic methods in comparison with optical methods, such as pump-probe reflectivity measurements, the reader being not necessary familiar with X-ray scattering. Thus we want to present which type of physical information can be obtained from the positions of the Bragg peaks, their intensity and their shape, as well as from the diffuse scattering beyond Bragg peaks. An important physical feature is to take into consideration the difference in nature between a photoinduced phase transition and conventional homogeneous photoinduced chemical or biochemical processes where

  9. Status of National Programmes on Fast Breeder Reactors. International Working Group on Fast Reactors Twenty-First Annual Meeting, Seattle, USA, 9-12 May 1988

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-11-01

    The following papers on the status of national programmes on fast breeder reactors are presented in this report: Fast breeder reactor development in France during 1987; Status of fast breeder reactor development in the Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands; A review of the Indian fast reactor programme; A review of the Italian fast reactor programme; A review of the fast reactor programme in Japan; Status of fast reactor activities in the USSR; A review of the United Kingdom fast reactor programme; Status of liquid metal reactor development in the United States of America; Review of activities of the Commission of European Communities relating to fast reactors in 1987; European co-operation in the field of fast reactor research and development — 1987 progress report; A review of fast reactor activities in Switzerland

  10. What is the future for fast reactor technology?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kraev, Kamen

    2017-01-01

    NucNet spoke to Vladimir Kriventsev, team leader for fast reactor technology development at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), about the possibilities and challenges of technology development in the fast reactor sector. Today, the field of fast reactors is vibrant and full of fascinating developments, some which will have an impact in the nearer term and others in the longer term.

  11. What is the future for fast reactor technology?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kraev, Kamen [NucNet, Brussels (Belgium). The Independent Global Nuclear News Agency

    2017-08-15

    NucNet spoke to Vladimir Kriventsev, team leader for fast reactor technology development at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), about the possibilities and challenges of technology development in the fast reactor sector. Today, the field of fast reactors is vibrant and full of fascinating developments, some which will have an impact in the nearer term and others in the longer term.

  12. Fast Computation of Ground Motion Shaking Map base on the Modified Stochastic Finite Fault Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, W.; Zhong, Q.; Shi, B.

    2012-12-01

    Rapidly regional MMI mapping soon after a moderate-large earthquake is crucial to loss estimation, emergency services and planning of emergency action by the government. In fact, many countries show different degrees of attention on the technology of rapid estimation of MMI , and this technology has made significant progress in earthquake-prone countries. In recent years, numerical modeling of strong ground motion has been well developed with the advances of computation technology and earthquake science. The computational simulation of strong ground motion caused by earthquake faulting has become an efficient way to estimate the regional MMI distribution soon after earthquake. In China, due to the lack of strong motion observation in network sparse or even completely missing areas, the development of strong ground motion simulation method has become an important means of quantitative estimation of strong motion intensity. In many of the simulation models, stochastic finite fault model is preferred to rapid MMI estimating for its time-effectiveness and accuracy. In finite fault model, a large fault is divided into N subfaults, and each subfault is considered as a small point source. The ground motions contributed by each subfault are calculated by the stochastic point source method which is developed by Boore, and then summed at the observation point to obtain the ground motion from the entire fault with a proper time delay. Further, Motazedian and Atkinson proposed the concept of Dynamic Corner Frequency, with the new approach, the total radiated energy from the fault and the total seismic moment are conserved independent of subfault size over a wide range of subfault sizes. In current study, the program EXSIM developed by Motazedian and Atkinson has been modified for local or regional computations of strong motion parameters such as PGA, PGV and PGD, which are essential for MMI estimating. To make the results more reasonable, we consider the impact of V30 for the

  13. Molecular dynamics simulation of nonlinear spectroscopies of intermolecular motions in liquid water.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yagasaki, Takuma; Saito, Shinji

    2009-09-15

    Water is the most extensively studied of liquids because of both its ubiquity and its anomalous thermodynamic and dynamic properties. The properties of water are dominated by hydrogen bonds and hydrogen bond network rearrangements. Fundamental information on the dynamics of liquid water has been provided by linear infrared (IR), Raman, and neutron-scattering experiments; molecular dynamics simulations have also provided insights. Recently developed higher-order nonlinear spectroscopies open new windows into the study of the hydrogen bond dynamics of liquid water. For example, the vibrational lifetimes of stretches and a bend, intramolecular features of water dynamics, can be accurately measured and are found to be on the femtosecond time scale at room temperature. Higher-order nonlinear spectroscopy is expressed by a multitime correlation function, whereas traditional linear spectroscopy is given by a one-time correlation function. Thus, nonlinear spectroscopy yields more detailed information on the dynamics of condensed media than linear spectroscopy. In this Account, we describe the theoretical background and methods for calculating higher order nonlinear spectroscopy; equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, and a combination of both, are used. We also present the intermolecular dynamics of liquid water revealed by fifth-order two-dimensional (2D) Raman spectroscopy and third-order IR spectroscopy. 2D Raman spectroscopy is sensitive to couplings between modes; the calculated 2D Raman signal of liquid water shows large anharmonicity in the translational motion and strong coupling between the translational and librational motions. Third-order IR spectroscopy makes it possible to examine the time-dependent couplings. The 2D IR spectra and three-pulse photon echo peak shift show the fast frequency modulation of the librational motion. A significant effect of the translational motion on the fast frequency modulation of the librational motion is

  14. WE-G-17A-03: MRIgRT: Quantification of Organ Motion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stanescu, T; Tadic, T; Jaffray, D

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: To develop an MRI-based methodology and tools required for the quantification of organ motion on a dedicated MRI-guided radiotherapy system. A three-room facility, consisting of a TrueBeam 6X linac vault, a 1.5T MR suite and a brachytherapy interventional room, is currently under commissioning at our institution. The MR scanner can move and image in either room for diagnostic and treatment guidance purposes. Methods: A multi-imaging modality (MR, kV) phantom, featuring programmable 3D simple and complex motion trajectories, was used for the validation of several image sorting algorithms. The testing was performed on MRI (e.g. TrueFISP, TurboFLASH), 4D CT and 4D CBCT. The image sorting techniques were based on a) direct image pixel manipulation into columns or rows, b) single and aggregated pixel data tracking and c) using computer vision techniques for global pixel analysis. Subsequently, the motion phantom and sorting algorithms were utilized for commissioning of MR fast imaging techniques for 2D-cine and 4D data rendering. MR imaging protocols were optimized (e.g. readout gradient strength vs. SNR) to minimize the presence of susceptibility-induced distortions, which were reported through phantom experiments and numerical simulations. The system-related distortions were also quantified (dedicated field phantom) and treated as systematic shifts where relevant. Results: Image sorting algorithms were validated for specific MR-based applications such as quantification of organ motion, local data sampling, and 4D MRI for pre-RT delivery with accuracy better than the raw image pixel size (e.g. 1 mm). MR fast imaging sequences were commissioning and imaging strategies were developed to mitigate spatial artifacts with minimal penalty on the image spatial and temporal sampling. Workflows (e.g. liver) were optimized to include the new motion quantification tools for RT planning and daily patient setup verification. Conclusion: Comprehensive methods were developed

  15. Auditory motion capturing ambiguous visual motion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arjen eAlink

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available In this study, it is demonstrated that moving sounds have an effect on the direction in which one sees visual stimuli move. During the main experiment sounds were presented consecutively at four speaker locations inducing left- or rightwards auditory apparent motion. On the path of auditory apparent motion, visual apparent motion stimuli were presented with a high degree of directional ambiguity. The main outcome of this experiment is that our participants perceived visual apparent motion stimuli that were ambiguous (equally likely to be perceived as moving left- or rightwards more often as moving in the same direction than in the opposite direction of auditory apparent motion. During the control experiment we replicated this finding and found no effect of sound motion direction on eye movements. This indicates that auditory motion can capture our visual motion percept when visual motion direction is insufficiently determinate without affecting eye movements.

  16. Fast Reactor Physics. Vol. II. Proceedings of a Symposium on Fast Reactor Physics and Related Safety Problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1968-01-01

    Proceedings of a Symposium organized by the IAEA and held in Karlsruhe, 30 October - 3 November 1967. The meeting was attended by 183 scientists from 23 countries and three international organizations. Contents: (Vol.1) Review of national programmes (5 papers); Nuclear data for fast reactors (12 papers); Experimental methods (3 papers); Zoned systems (7 papers); Kinetics (7 papers). (Vol.11) Fast critical experiments (8 papers); Heterogeneity in fast critical experiments (5 papers); Fast power reactors (13 papers); Fast pulsed reactors (3 papers); Panel discussion. Each paper is in its original language (50 English, 11 French and 3 Russian) and is preceded by an abstract in English with a second one in the original language if this is not English. Discussions are in English. (author)

  17. Numerical simulation of spin motion in circular accelerators using spinor formulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nghiem, P.; Tkatchenko, A.

    1992-07-01

    A simple method is presented based on spinor algebra formalism for tracking the spin motion in circular accelerators. Using an analytical expression of the one-turn transformation matrix including the effects of perturbating fields or of siberian snakes, a simple and very fast numerical code has been written for studying spin motion in various circumstances. In particular, effects of synchrotron oscillations on final polarization after one isolated resonance crossing are simulated. Results of these calculations agree very well with those which have been obtained previously from analytical approaches or from other numerical-simulation programs. (author) 8 refs.; 14 figs

  18. Fast detection and modeling of human-body parts from monocular video

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lao, W.; Han, Jungong; With, de P.H.N.; Perales, F.J.; Fisher, R.B.

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents a novel and fast scheme to detect different body parts in human motion. Using monocular video sequences, trajectory estimation and body modeling of moving humans are combined in a co-operating processing architecture. More specifically, for every individual person, features of

  19. Advanced motion control for next-generation precision mechatronics: Challenges for control, identification, and learning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oomen, Tom

    2017-01-01

    Manufacturing equipment and scientific instruments, including wafer scanners, printers, microscopes, and medical imaging scanners, require accurate and fast motions. Increasing requirements necessitate enhanced control performance. The aim of this paper is to identify several challenges for advanced

  20. Mobile user identity sensing using the motion sensor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Xi; Feng, Tao; Xu, Lei; Shi, Weidong

    2014-05-01

    Employing mobile sensor data to recognize user behavioral activities has been well studied in recent years. However, to adopt the data as a biometric modality has rarely been explored. Existing methods either used the data to recognize gait, which is considered as a distinguished identity feature; or segmented a specific kind of motion for user recognition, such as phone picking-up motion. Since the identity and the motion gesture jointly affect motion data, to fix the gesture (walking or phone picking-up) definitively simplifies the identity sensing problem. However, it meanwhile introduces the complexity from gesture detection or requirement on a higher sample rate from motion sensor readings, which may draw the battery fast and affect the usability of the phone. In general, it is still under investigation that motion based user authentication in a large scale satisfies the accuracy requirement as a stand-alone biometrics modality. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to use the motion sensor readings for user identity sensing. Instead of decoupling the user identity from a gesture, we reasonably assume users have their own distinguishing phone usage habits and extract the identity from fuzzy activity patterns, represented by a combination of body movements whose signals in chains span in relative low frequency spectrum and hand movements whose signals span in relative high frequency spectrum. Then Bayesian Rules are applied to analyze the dependency of different frequency components in the signals. During testing, a posterior probability of user identity given the observed chains can be computed for authentication. Tested on an accelerometer dataset with 347 users, our approach has demonstrated the promising results.

  1. Designing Dual-functionalized Gels for Self-reconfiguration and Autonomous Motion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuksenok, Olga; Balazs, Anna C.

    2015-04-01

    Human motion is enabled by the concerted expansion and contraction of interconnected muscles that are powered by inherent biochemical reactions. One of the challenges in the field of biomimicry is eliciting this form of motion from purely synthetic materials, which typically do not generate internalized reactions to drive mechanical action. Moreover, for practical applications, this bio-inspired motion must be readily controllable. Herein, we develop a computational model to design a new class of polymer gels where structural reconfigurations and internalized reactions are intimately linked to produce autonomous motion, which can be directed with light. These gels contain both spirobenzopyran (SP) chromophores and the ruthenium catalysts that drive the oscillatory Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. Importantly, both the SP moieties and the BZ reaction are photosensitive. When these dual-functionalized gels are exposed to non-uniform illumination, the localized contraction of the gel (due to the SP moieties) in the presence of traveling chemical waves (due to the BZ reaction) leads to new forms of spontaneous, self-sustained movement, which cannot be achieved by either of the mono-functionalized networks.

  2. TU-F-BRB-03: Clinical Implementation of MR-Based Motion Management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Glide-Hurst, C.

    2015-01-01

    The current clinical standard of organ respiratory imaging, 4D-CT, is fundamentally limited by poor soft-tissue contrast and imaging dose. These limitations are potential barriers to beneficial “4D” radiotherapy methods which optimize the target and OAR dose-volume considering breathing motion but rely on a robust motion characterization. Conversely, MRI imparts no known radiation risk and has excellent soft-tissue contrast. MRI-based motion management is therefore highly desirable and holds great promise to improve radiotherapy of moving cancers, particularly in the abdomen. Over the past decade, MRI techniques have improved significantly, making MR-based motion management clinically feasible. For example, cine MRI has high temporal resolution up to 10 f/s and has been used to track and/or characterize tumor motion, study correlation between external and internal motions. New MR technologies, such as 4D-MRI and MRI hybrid treatment machines (i.e. MR-linac or MR-Co60), have been recently developed. These technologies can lead to more accurate target volume determination and more precise radiation dose delivery via direct tumor gating or tracking. Despite all these promises, great challenges exist and the achievable clinical benefit of MRI-based tumor motion management has yet to be fully explored, much less realized. In this proposal, we will review novel MR-based motion management methods and technologies, the state-of-the-art concerning MRI development and clinical application and the barriers to more widespread adoption. Learning Objectives: Discuss the need of MR-based motion management for improving patient care in radiotherapy. Understand MR techniques for motion imaging and tumor motion characterization. Understand the current state of the art and future steps for clinical integration. Henry Ford Health System holds research agreements with Philips Healthcare. Research sponsored in part by a Henry Ford Health System Internal Mentored Grant

  3. TU-F-BRB-03: Clinical Implementation of MR-Based Motion Management

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Glide-Hurst, C. [Henry Ford Health System (United States)

    2015-06-15

    The current clinical standard of organ respiratory imaging, 4D-CT, is fundamentally limited by poor soft-tissue contrast and imaging dose. These limitations are potential barriers to beneficial “4D” radiotherapy methods which optimize the target and OAR dose-volume considering breathing motion but rely on a robust motion characterization. Conversely, MRI imparts no known radiation risk and has excellent soft-tissue contrast. MRI-based motion management is therefore highly desirable and holds great promise to improve radiotherapy of moving cancers, particularly in the abdomen. Over the past decade, MRI techniques have improved significantly, making MR-based motion management clinically feasible. For example, cine MRI has high temporal resolution up to 10 f/s and has been used to track and/or characterize tumor motion, study correlation between external and internal motions. New MR technologies, such as 4D-MRI and MRI hybrid treatment machines (i.e. MR-linac or MR-Co60), have been recently developed. These technologies can lead to more accurate target volume determination and more precise radiation dose delivery via direct tumor gating or tracking. Despite all these promises, great challenges exist and the achievable clinical benefit of MRI-based tumor motion management has yet to be fully explored, much less realized. In this proposal, we will review novel MR-based motion management methods and technologies, the state-of-the-art concerning MRI development and clinical application and the barriers to more widespread adoption. Learning Objectives: Discuss the need of MR-based motion management for improving patient care in radiotherapy. Understand MR techniques for motion imaging and tumor motion characterization. Understand the current state of the art and future steps for clinical integration. Henry Ford Health System holds research agreements with Philips Healthcare. Research sponsored in part by a Henry Ford Health System Internal Mentored Grant.

  4. A finite state model for respiratory motion analysis in image guided radiation therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Huanmei; Sharp, Gregory C; Salzberg, Betty; Kaeli, David; Shirato, Hiroki; Jiang, Steve B

    2004-01-01

    Effective image guided radiation treatment of a moving tumour requires adequate information on respiratory motion characteristics. For margin expansion, beam tracking and respiratory gating, the tumour motion must be quantified for pretreatment planning and monitored on-line. We propose a finite state model for respiratory motion analysis that captures our natural understanding of breathing stages. In this model, a regular breathing cycle is represented by three line segments, exhale, end-of-exhale and inhale, while abnormal breathing is represented by an irregular breathing state. In addition, we describe an on-line implementation of this model in one dimension. We found this model can accurately characterize a wide variety of patient breathing patterns. This model was used to describe the respiratory motion for 23 patients with peak-to-peak motion greater than 7 mm. The average root mean square error over all patients was less than 1 mm and no patient has an error worse than 1.5 mm. Our model provides a convenient tool to quantify respiratory motion characteristics, such as patterns of frequency changes and amplitude changes, and can be applied to internal or external motion, including internal tumour position, abdominal surface, diaphragm, spirometry and other surrogates

  5. A finite state model for respiratory motion analysis in image guided radiation therapy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wu Huanmei [College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 (United States); Sharp, Gregory C [Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114 (United States); Salzberg, Betty [College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 (United States); Kaeli, David [Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 (United States); Shirato, Hiroki [Department of Radiation Medicine, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo (Japan); Jiang, Steve B [Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114 (United States)

    2004-12-07

    Effective image guided radiation treatment of a moving tumour requires adequate information on respiratory motion characteristics. For margin expansion, beam tracking and respiratory gating, the tumour motion must be quantified for pretreatment planning and monitored on-line. We propose a finite state model for respiratory motion analysis that captures our natural understanding of breathing stages. In this model, a regular breathing cycle is represented by three line segments, exhale, end-of-exhale and inhale, while abnormal breathing is represented by an irregular breathing state. In addition, we describe an on-line implementation of this model in one dimension. We found this model can accurately characterize a wide variety of patient breathing patterns. This model was used to describe the respiratory motion for 23 patients with peak-to-peak motion greater than 7 mm. The average root mean square error over all patients was less than 1 mm and no patient has an error worse than 1.5 mm. Our model provides a convenient tool to quantify respiratory motion characteristics, such as patterns of frequency changes and amplitude changes, and can be applied to internal or external motion, including internal tumour position, abdominal surface, diaphragm, spirometry and other surrogates.

  6. Real-time motional Stark effect in jet

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alves, D.; Stephen, A.; Hawkes, N.; Dalley, S.; Goodyear, A.; Felton, R.; Joffrin, E.; Fernandes, H.

    2004-01-01

    The increasing importance of real-time measurements and control systems in JET experiments, regarding e.g. Internal Transport Barrier (ITB) and q-profile control, has motivated the development of a real-time motional Stark effect (MSE) system. The MSE diagnostic allows the measurement of local magnetic fields in different locations along the neutral beam path providing, therefore, local measurement of the current and q-profiles. Recently in JET, an upgrade of the MSE diagnostic has been implemented, incorporating a totally new system which allows the use of this diagnostic as a real-time control tool as well as an extended data source for off-line analysis. This paper will briefly describe the technical features of the real-time diagnostic with main focus on the system architecture, which consists of a VME crate hosting three PowerPC processor boards and a fast ADC, all connected via Front Panel Data Port (FPDP). The DSP algorithm implements a lockin-amplifier required to demodulate the JET MSE signals. Some applications for the system will be covered such as: feeding the real-time equilibrium reconstruction code (EQUINOX) and allowing the full coverage analysis of the Neutral Beam time window. A brief comparison between the real-time MSE analysis and the off-line analysis will also be presented

  7. Brane-world motion in compact dimensions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greene, Brian; Levin, Janna; Parikh, Maulik

    2011-08-01

    The topology of extra dimensions can break global Lorentz invariance, singling out a globally preferred frame even in flat spacetime. Through experiments that probe global topology, an observer can determine her state of motion with respect to the preferred frame. This scenario is realized if we live on a brane universe moving through a flat space with compact extra dimensions. We identify three experimental effects due to the motion of our universe that one could potentially detect using gravitational probes. One of these relates to the peculiar properties of the twin paradox in multiply-connected spacetimes. Another relies on the fact that the Kaluza-Klein modes of any bulk field are sensitive to boundary conditions. A third concerns the modification to the Newtonian potential on a moving brane. Remarkably, we find that even small extra dimensions are detectable by brane observers if the brane is moving sufficiently fast. Communicated by P R L V Moniz

  8. Fast, accurate, and robust automatic marker detection for motion correction based on oblique kV or MV projection image pairs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Slagmolen, Pieter; Hermans, Jeroen; Maes, Frederik; Budiharto, Tom; Haustermans, Karin; Heuvel, Frank van den

    2010-01-01

    takes a little less than a second where most time is spent on the image preprocessing. Conclusions: The authors have developed a method to automatically detect multiple markers in a pair of projection images that is robust, accurate, and sufficiently fast for clinical use. It can be used for kV, MV, or mixed image pairs and can cope with limited motion between the projection images.

  9. The lucky image-motion prediction for simple scene observation based soft-sensor technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yan; Su, Yun; Hu, Bin

    2015-08-01

    High resolution is important to earth remote sensors, while the vibration of the platforms of the remote sensors is a major factor restricting high resolution imaging. The image-motion prediction and real-time compensation are key technologies to solve this problem. For the reason that the traditional autocorrelation image algorithm cannot meet the demand for the simple scene image stabilization, this paper proposes to utilize soft-sensor technology in image-motion prediction, and focus on the research of algorithm optimization in imaging image-motion prediction. Simulations results indicate that the improving lucky image-motion stabilization algorithm combining the Back Propagation Network (BP NN) and support vector machine (SVM) is the most suitable for the simple scene image stabilization. The relative error of the image-motion prediction based the soft-sensor technology is below 5%, the training computing speed of the mathematical predication model is as fast as the real-time image stabilization in aerial photography.

  10. Development of a coded aperture fuel motion diagnostics system for the ACPR (UPGRADE)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kelly, J.G.; Stalker, K.T.

    1979-01-01

    As part of Sandia Laboratories' program to study simulated core disruptive accidents in reactor safety research, a fuel motion detection system based on coded aperture imaging is being developed for the Annular Core Pulsed Reactor (ACPR). Although fuel motion has been observed at the TREAT by the fast neutron hodoscope and with a Vidicon pinhole camera technique, the coded aperture system offers a potential for lower cost, higher spatial resolution, three dimensional imaging, and higher frame rates at lower fluences than either of the other techniques

  11. Experimental study of the large-scale axially heterogeneous liquid-metal fast breeder reactor at the fast critical assembly: Power distribution measurements and their analyses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iijima, S.; Obu, M.; Hayase, T.; Ohno, A.; Nemoto, T.; Okajima, S.

    1988-01-01

    Power distributions of the large-scale axially heterogeneous liquid-metal fast breeder reactor were studied by using the experiment results of fast critical assemblies XI, XII, and XIII and the results of their analyses. The power distributions were examined by the gamma-scanning method and fission rate measurements using /sup 239/Pu and /sup 238/U fission counters and the foil irradiation method. In addition to the measurements in the reference core, the power distributions were measured in the core with a control rod inserted and in a modified core where the shape of the internal blanket was determined by the radial boundary. The calculation was made by using JENDL-2 and the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute's standard calculation system for fast reactor neutronics. The power flattening trend, caused by the decrease of the fast neutron flux, was observed in the axial and radial power distributions. The effect of the radial boundary shape of the internal blanket on the power distribution was determined in the core. The thickness of the internal blanket was reduced at its radial boundary. The influence of the internal blanket was observed in the power distributions in the core with a control rod inserted. The calculation predicted the neutron spectrum harder in the internal blanket. In the radial distributions of /sup 239/Pu fission rates, the space dependency of the calculated-to-experiment values was found at the active core close to the internal blanket

  12. IAEA Technical Meeting on Status of IAEA Fast Reactor Knowledge Preservation Initiative. Working Material

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2013-01-01

    In response to needs expressed by Member States and within a broader IAEA-wide effort in nuclear knowledge preservation, the IAEA has been carrying out a dedicated initiative on Fast Reactor Data Knowledge Preservation (FRKP). The main objectives of the FRKP initiative are to: • Halt the on-going loss of information related to Fast Reactors (FR); • Collect, retrieve, preserve and make accessible already existing data and information on FR. These objectives require the implementation of activities supporting digital document archival, exchange, search and retrieval and facilitating, by developing and using suitable standards and IT tools, the knowledge preservation over the next decades. To this purpose the IAEA has developed the Fast Reactor Knowledge Organization System (FRKOS), a web-based application employing IAEA methodology and approach for categorization of FR knowledge domain, which allows creating a comprehensive and well-structured international inventory of fast reactor data and information provided by different Member States. The resulting Web Portal is established and maintained by the IAEA. The IAEA knowledge preservation initiatives and tools in the field of fast neutron systems - which were presented and very well received during the recent IAEA Fast Reactor and Related Fuel Cycles Conference (FR13) - are supposed to be of interest for national nuclear authorities, regulators, scientific and research organizations, commercial companies and all other stakeholders involved in fast reactor activities at national or international level. The objectives of the technical meeting were to: • Exchange information between the member states/international organizations on national and international initiatives addressing knowledge preservation and data retrieval/collection in the field of fast neutron systems; • Present and discuss the member states’/international organizations’ policies and conditions for releasing to the IAEA both publicly

  13. Hip strength and range of motion

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mosler, Andrea B.; Crossley, Kay M.; Thorborg, Kristian

    2017-01-01

    Objectives To determine the normal profiles for hip strength and range of motion (ROM) in a professional football league in Qatar, and examine the effect of leg dominance, age, past history of injury, and ethnicity on these profiles. Design Cross-sectional cohort study. Methods Participants...... values are documented for hip strength and range of motion that can be used as reference profiles in the clinical assessment, screening, and management of professional football players. Leg dominance, recent past injury history and ethnicity do not need to be accounted for when using these profiles...... included 394 asymptomatic, male professional football players, aged 18–40 years. Strength was measured using a hand held dynamometer with an eccentric test in side-lying for hip adduction and abduction, and the squeeze test in supine with 45° hip flexion. Range of motion measures included: hip internal...

  14. User's guide to EPIC, a computer program to calculate the motion of fuel and coolant subsequent to pin failure in an LMFBR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pizzica, P.A.; Garner, P.L.; Abramson, P.B.

    1979-10-01

    The computer code EPIC models fuel and coolant motion which results from internal fuel pin pressure (from fission gas or fuel vapor) and possibly from the generation of sodium vapor pressure in the coolant channel subsequent to pin failure in a liquid-metal fast breeder reactor. The EPIC model is restricted to conditions where fuel pin geometry is generally preserved and is not intended to treat the total disruption of the pin structure. The modeling includes the ejection of molten fuel from the pin into a coolant channel with any amount of voiding through a clad breach which may be of any length or which may extend with time. One-dimensional Eulerian hydrodynamics is used to treat the motion of fuel and fission gas inside a molten fuel cavity in the fuel pin as well as the mixture of two-phase sodium and fission gas in the coolant channel. Motion of fuel in the coolant channel is tracked with a type of particle-in-cell technique. EPIC is a Fortran-IV program requiring 400K bytes of storage on the IBM 370/195 computer. 21 refs., 2 figs.

  15. Motion compensation in digital subtraction angiography using graphics hardware.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deuerling-Zheng, Yu; Lell, Michael; Galant, Adam; Hornegger, Joachim

    2006-07-01

    An inherent disadvantage of digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is its sensitivity to patient motion which causes artifacts in the subtraction images. These artifacts could often reduce the diagnostic value of this technique. Automated, fast and accurate motion compensation is therefore required. To cope with this requirement, we first examine a method explicitly designed to detect local motions in DSA. Then, we implement a motion compensation algorithm by means of block matching on modern graphics hardware. Both methods search for maximal local similarity by evaluating a histogram-based measure. In this context, we are the first who have mapped an optimizing search strategy on graphics hardware while paralleling block matching. Moreover, we provide an innovative method for creating histograms on graphics hardware with vertex texturing and frame buffer blending. It turns out that both methods can effectively correct the artifacts in most case, as the hardware implementation of block matching performs much faster: the displacements of two 1024 x 1024 images can be calculated at 3 frames/s with integer precision or 2 frames/s with sub-pixel precision. Preliminary clinical evaluation indicates that the computation with integer precision could already be sufficient.

  16. An Adaptive Motion Estimation Scheme for Video Coding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pengyu Liu

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The unsymmetrical-cross multihexagon-grid search (UMHexagonS is one of the best fast Motion Estimation (ME algorithms in video encoding software. It achieves an excellent coding performance by using hybrid block matching search pattern and multiple initial search point predictors at the cost of the computational complexity of ME increased. Reducing time consuming of ME is one of the key factors to improve video coding efficiency. In this paper, we propose an adaptive motion estimation scheme to further reduce the calculation redundancy of UMHexagonS. Firstly, new motion estimation search patterns have been designed according to the statistical results of motion vector (MV distribution information. Then, design a MV distribution prediction method, including prediction of the size of MV and the direction of MV. At last, according to the MV distribution prediction results, achieve self-adaptive subregional searching by the new estimation search patterns. Experimental results show that more than 50% of total search points are dramatically reduced compared to the UMHexagonS algorithm in JM 18.4 of H.264/AVC. As a result, the proposed algorithm scheme can save the ME time up to 20.86% while the rate-distortion performance is not compromised.

  17. Power deposition by neutral beam injected fast ions in field-reversed configurations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takahashi, Toshiki; Kato, Takayuki; Kondoh, Yoshiomi; Iwasawa, Naotaka

    2004-01-01

    The effects of Coulomb collisions on neutral beam (NB) injected fast ions into field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas are investigated by calculating the single particle orbits, where the ions are subject to the slowing-down and pitch-angle collisions. The Monte Carlo method is used for the pitch-angle scattering, and the friction term is added to the equation of motion to show the effects of the slowing-down collision, such as the deposited power profile. The calculation parameters used are relevant to the NB injection on the FRC injection experiment device [T. Asai, Y. Suzuki, T. Yoneda, F. Kodera, M. Okubo, and S. Goto, Phys. Plasmas 7, 2294 (2000)]. It is found that the dominant local power deposition occurs in the open field region between the X point and the mirror point because of a concentration of fast ions and a longer duration travel at the mirror reflection point. In the present calculation, the maximum deposited power to the FRC plasma is about 10% of the injected power. Although the pitch-angle scattering by Coulomb collision destroys the mirror confinement of NB injected fast ions, this effect is found to be negligible. The loss mechanism due to nonadiabatic fast ion motion, which is intrinsic in nonuniform FRC plasmas, has a much greater effect than the pitch-angle scattering by Coulomb collision

  18. Triangular Geometrized Sampling Heuristics for Fast Optimal Motion Planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmed Hussain Qureshi

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT-based algorithms have become increasingly popular due to their lower computational complexity as compared with other path planning algorithms. The recently presented RRT* motion planning algorithm improves upon the original RRT algorithm by providing optimal path solutions. While RRT determines an initial collision-free path fairly quickly, RRT* guarantees almost certain convergence to an optimal, obstacle-free path from the start to the goal points for any given geometrical environment. However, the main limitations of RRT* include its slow processing rate and high memory consumption, due to the large number of iterations required for calculating the optimal path. In order to overcome these limitations, we present another improvement, i.e, the Triangular Geometerized-RRT* (TG-RRT* algorithm, which utilizes triangular geometrical methods to improve the performance of the RRT* algorithm in terms of the processing time and a decreased number of iterations required for an optimal path solution. Simulations comparing the performance results of the improved TG-RRT* with RRT* are presented to demonstrate the overall improvement in performance and optimal path detection.

  19. Seven pin bundle fast top tests L01 and L02

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Davies, A.L.; Bowen, G.R.; Herbert, R.; Kear, K.L.; Tylka, J.P.; Holland, J.W.

    1984-01-01

    Tests L01 and L02 were the first two seven pin bundle tests in the PFR/TREAT program of fuel failure tests carried out jointly by the US and the UK. The two tests were on bottom plenum annular pellet mixed oxide fuel clad in 316 stainless steel. L01 used fresh fuel, while L02 used PFR irradiated 4% burn-up fuel, to determine any differences in the failure mechanism and subsequent fuel behavior due to irradiation. They were performed in flowing sodium in the Mark IIIA version of a TREAT integral loop. Both were fast transient overpower (TOP) tests intended to simulate 5 $/s reactivity ramp hypothetical accidents in a large fast reactor. The test objectives were to obtain information on fuel motion in the central hole before failure, the time and location of cladding failures, and material motion in the channel after failure, having particular regard to the effect of irradiation

  20. FAST and SAFE Passive Safety Devices for Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hartanto, Donny; Kim, Chihyung; Kim, In-Hyung; Kim, Yonghee [KAIST, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2015-05-15

    The major factor is the impact of the neutron spectral hardening. The second factor that affects the CVR is reduced capture by the coolant when the coolant voiding occurs. To improve the CVR, many ideas and concepts have been proposed, which include introduction of an internal blanket, spectrum softening, or increasing the neutron leakage. These ideas may reduce the CVR, but they deteriorate the neutron economy. Another potential solution is to adopt a passive safety injection device such as the ARC (autonomous reactivity control) system, which is still under development. In this paper, two new concepts of passive safety devices are proposed. The devices are called FAST (Floating Absorber for Safety at Transient) and SAFE (Static Absorber Feedback Equipment). Their purpose is to enhance the negative reactivity feedback originating from the coolant in fast reactors. SAFE is derived to balance the positive reactivity feedback due to sodium coolant temperature increases. It has been demonstrated that SAFE allows a low-leakage SFR to achieve a self-shutdown and self-controllability even though the generic coolant temperature coefficient is quite positive and the coolant void reactivity can be largely managed by the new FAST device. It is concluded that both FAST and SAFE devices will improve substantially the fast reactor safety and they deserve more detailed investigations.

  1. International intercomparison of fluence of fast neutrons using 115In(n,γ) activation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lesiecki, H.; Cosack, M.

    1985-07-01

    The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) has participated in an international intercomparison of fluence measurements of fast neutrons. This was organized under the auspices of the ''Comite Consultatif pour les Etalons de Mesure des Rayonnements Ionisants (CCEMRI)'', Sect. 3 (Mesures Neutronique). The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Teddington, UK volunteered to assume responsibility for the experimental realization and final evaluation. This report deals with the measurements performed at the PTB for the neutron fluence intercomparison at neutron energies of Esub(n) = 144 keV and 570 keV which was based on the 115 In(n,γ) 116 Insup(m) reaction. The count rate of a 4πβ-counter which had to be used to determine the activation of the In sample was to be compared with the neutron fluence by which the sample was irradiated. A description of the neutron production, the fluence determination, the 4πβ-counting, and the evaluation of the results will be given. (orig.) [de

  2. 19 CFR 210.59 - Responses to the motion and the complaint.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Responses to the motion and the complaint. 210.59 Section 210.59 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION INVESTIGATIONS OF UNFAIR PRACTICES IN IMPORT TRADE ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT Temporary Relief § 210.59 Responses to the motion and...

  3. The influence of motion control shoes on the running gait of mature and young females.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lilley, Kim; Stiles, Vicky; Dixon, Sharon

    2013-03-01

    This study compared the running gait of mature and young females, and investigated the effect of a motion control shoe. First, it was hypothesised that in a neutral shoe, mature females would display significantly greater rearfoot eversion, knee internal rotation and external adductor moments when compared to a younger group. Secondly, the motion control shoe would reduce rearfoot eversion and knee internal rotation in both groups. Thirdly it was hypothesised that the motion control shoe would increase knee external adductor moment, through an increase in knee varus and moment arm. 15 mature (40-60 years) and 15 young (18-25 years) females performed 10 running trials at 3.5ms(-1)±5% over a force platform. Two shoes were tested, the Adidas Supernova Glide (neutral), and the Adidas Supernova Sequence (motion control). Ankle and knee joint dynamics were analysed for the right leg, and the mean of ten trials was calculated. Joint moments were calculated using inverse dynamics. In the neutral condition, mature females presented greater peak rearfoot eversion, knee internal rotation, and external adductor moments than young females (p<0.05). A motion control shoe significantly reduced peak rearfoot eversion and knee internal rotation among both groups (p<0.05). No between shoe differences in knee external adductor moment were observed. A motion control shoe is recommended to reduce risk of injury associated with rearfoot eversion and knee internal rotation in mature females. However since the knee external adductor moment is a variable commonly associated with medial knee loading it is suggested that alternative design features are required to influence this moment. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Frequency of gamma oscillations in humans is modulated by velocity of visual motion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butorina, Anna V.; Sysoeva, Olga V.; Prokofyev, Andrey O.; Nikolaeva, Anastasia Yu.; Stroganova, Tatiana A.

    2015-01-01

    Gamma oscillations are generated in networks of inhibitory fast-spiking (FS) parvalbumin-positive (PV) interneurons and pyramidal cells. In animals, gamma frequency is modulated by the velocity of visual motion; the effect of velocity has not been evaluated in humans. In this work, we have studied velocity-related modulations of gamma frequency in children using MEG/EEG. We also investigated whether such modulations predict the prominence of the “spatial suppression” effect (Tadin D, Lappin JS, Gilroy LA, Blake R. Nature 424: 312-315, 2003) that is thought to depend on cortical center-surround inhibitory mechanisms. MEG/EEG was recorded in 27 normal boys aged 8–15 yr while they watched high-contrast black-and-white annular gratings drifting with velocities of 1.2, 3.6, and 6.0°/s and performed a simple detection task. The spatial suppression effect was assessed in a separate psychophysical experiment. MEG gamma oscillation frequency increased while power decreased with increasing velocity of visual motion. In EEG, the effects were less reliable. The frequencies of the velocity-specific gamma peaks were 64.9, 74.8, and 87.1 Hz for the slow, medium, and fast motions, respectively. The frequency of the gamma response elicited during slow and medium velocity of visual motion decreased with subject age, whereas the range of gamma frequency modulation by velocity increased with age. The frequency modulation range predicted spatial suppression even after controlling for the effect of age. We suggest that the modulation of the MEG gamma frequency by velocity of visual motion reflects excitability of cortical inhibitory circuits and can be used to investigate their normal and pathological development in the human brain. PMID:25925324

  5. Motion Segments Decomposition of RGB-D Sequences for Human Behavior Understanding

    OpenAIRE

    Devanne , Maxime; Berretti , Stefano; Pala , Pietro; Wannous , Hazem; Daoudi , Mohamed; Bimbo , Alberto ,

    2017-01-01

    International audience; In this paper, we propose a framework for analyzing and understanding human behavior from depth videos. The proposed solution first employs shape analysis of the human pose across time to decompose the full motion into short temporal segments representing elementary motions. Then, each segment is characterized by human motion and depth appearance around hand joints to describe the change in pose of the body and the interaction with objects. Finally , the sequence of te...

  6. Development and operation of fast protection for KSTAR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hong, Jaesic, E-mail: hjaesic@nfri.re.kr; Lee, Woongryol; Lee, Taegu; Han, Hyunsun; Han, Sang-Hee; Park, Kaprai

    2016-11-15

    Highlights: • The evolution of KSTAR machine interlock system. • The evolution of KSTAR fast interlock. • The fast interlock interface. • The operation results of the fast interlock. - Abstract: Protection for the Korea superconducting tokamak advanced research (KSTAR) is somewhat more complicated than for the previous tokomak generation. External reasons for this increased complexity are the initial and maintenance costs, and internal reasons relate to various characteristics of the tokamak and long pulse operation. KSTAR has two protection mechanisms: the device protection system protects damage to superconducting coils etc. from events within the other systems, and the fast protection system protects the internal vacuum vessel components against damage from heating and the long pulse plasma. The fast protection system initially contained the plasma control system (PCS), central control system (CCS), and the heating devices. In 2012, a fast interlock interface was implemented for PCS fail-safe. This detected the absence of plasma current using the diagnostic signals and discharge operation gate windows of the timing synchronized system (TSS), and activates the operation gates and heating stop from the CCS. Additional fast interlock logic was implemented to reduce damage to the plasma facing components (PFC) and other materials by overheating and improper operational state of heating systems after starting the discharge sequence. However, the fast interlock interface system has failed to protect the heating during PCS malfunctions since 2013. This paper introduces the KSTAR protection system, and describes the fast protection interface, with testing and operational results, then discusses future plans for a more effective and safer protection system.

  7. Using an external surrogate for predictor model training in real-time motion management of lung tumors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rottmann, Joerg; Berbeco, Ross [Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 (United States)

    2014-12-15

    Purpose: Precise prediction of respiratory motion is a prerequisite for real-time motion compensation techniques such as beam, dynamic couch, or dynamic multileaf collimator tracking. Collection of tumor motion data to train the prediction model is required for most algorithms. To avoid exposure of patients to additional dose from imaging during this procedure, the feasibility of training a linear respiratory motion prediction model with an external surrogate signal is investigated and its performance benchmarked against training the model with tumor positions directly. Methods: The authors implement a lung tumor motion prediction algorithm based on linear ridge regression that is suitable to overcome system latencies up to about 300 ms. Its performance is investigated on a data set of 91 patient breathing trajectories recorded from fiducial marker tracking during radiotherapy delivery to the lung of ten patients. The expected 3D geometric error is quantified as a function of predictor lookahead time, signal sampling frequency and history vector length. Additionally, adaptive model retraining is evaluated, i.e., repeatedly updating the prediction model after initial training. Training length for this is gradually increased with incoming (internal) data availability. To assess practical feasibility model calculation times as well as various minimum data lengths for retraining are evaluated. Relative performance of model training with external surrogate motion data versus tumor motion data is evaluated. However, an internal–external motion correlation model is not utilized, i.e., prediction is solely driven by internal motion in both cases. Results: Similar prediction performance was achieved for training the model with external surrogate data versus internal (tumor motion) data. Adaptive model retraining can substantially boost performance in the case of external surrogate training while it has little impact for training with internal motion data. A minimum

  8. Trends and Developments for Fast Neutron Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carré, Frank

    2013-01-01

    • FR13 – A unique and dedicated framework to share updates on national programs of Fast Reactor developments, projects of new builds and plans for the future: - Near term projects of sodium and lead-alloy Fast Reactors; - Gen-IV visions of sodium-cooled and alternative types of Fast Neutron Reactors (GFR, LFR…). • FR13 – A special emphasis put on Fast Reactor Safety, Sustainability of nuclear fuel cycle and Young Generation perspective. • FR13 – A catalyst for further collaborations and alliances: - To share visions of goals and advisable options for future Fast Reactors and Nuclear Fuel Cycle; - To share cost of R&D and large demonstrations (safety, security, recycling); - To progress towards harmonized international standards; - To integrate national projects into a consistent international roadmap

  9. Motion characteristic of a free piston linear engine

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xiao, Jin; Li, Qingfeng; Huang, Zhen [Key Laboratory for Power Machinery and Engineering of Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240 (China)

    2010-04-15

    A mathematical model of a free piston linear engine is established. The motion characteristics as well as the natural frequency map of the free piston are established. Then, its motion characteristics are successfully explained from the oscillation point. The full simulation model is built up in Matlab/Simulink for a better understanding of its motion features. The results show that the free piston system is a forced vibration system with variable damping coefficient and stiffness. Its steady-state response of periodical excitation is convergent which means that the system is stable under the periodical combustion. Furthermore, it has some unique features which are different from those of traditional Internal Combustion (IC) engines. (author)

  10. Vibration analysis of reactor assembly internals for Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chellapandi, P.; Jalaldeen, S.; Srinivasan, R.; Chetal, S.C.; Bhoje, S.B.

    2003-01-01

    Vibration analysis of the reactor assembly components of 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is presented. The vibration response of primary pump as well as dynamic forces developed at its supports are predicted numerically. The stiffness properties of hydrostatic bearing are determined by formulating and solving governing fluid and structural mechanics equations. The dynamic forces exerted by pump are used as input data for the dynamic response of reactor assembly components, mainly inner vessel, thermal baffle and control plug. Dynamic response of reactor assembly components is also predicted for the pressure fluctuations caused by sodium free level oscillations. Thermal baffle (weir shell) which is subjected to fluid forces developed at the associated sodium free levels is analysed by formulating and solving a set of non-linear equations for fluids, structures and fluid structure interaction (FSI). The control rod drive mechanism is analysed for response under flow induced forces on the parts subjected to cross flow in the zone just above the core top, taking into account FSI between sheaths of control and safety rod and absorber pin bundle. Based on the analysis results, it is concluded that the reactor assembly internals are free from any risk of mechanical as well as flow induced vibrations. (author)

  11. Auditory Motion Elicits a Visual Motion Aftereffect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berger, Christopher C; Ehrsson, H Henrik

    2016-01-01

    The visual motion aftereffect is a visual illusion in which exposure to continuous motion in one direction leads to a subsequent illusion of visual motion in the opposite direction. Previous findings have been mixed with regard to whether this visual illusion can be induced cross-modally by auditory stimuli. Based on research on multisensory perception demonstrating the profound influence auditory perception can have on the interpretation and perceived motion of visual stimuli, we hypothesized that exposure to auditory stimuli with strong directional motion cues should induce a visual motion aftereffect. Here, we demonstrate that horizontally moving auditory stimuli induced a significant visual motion aftereffect-an effect that was driven primarily by a change in visual motion perception following exposure to leftward moving auditory stimuli. This finding is consistent with the notion that visual and auditory motion perception rely on at least partially overlapping neural substrates.

  12. Auditory Motion Elicits a Visual Motion Aftereffect

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher C. Berger

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The visual motion aftereffect is a visual illusion in which exposure to continuous motion in one direction leads to a subsequent illusion of visual motion in the opposite direction. Previous findings have been mixed with regard to whether this visual illusion can be induced cross-modally by auditory stimuli. Based on research on multisensory perception demonstrating the profound influence auditory perception can have on the interpretation and perceived motion of visual stimuli, we hypothesized that exposure to auditory stimuli with strong directional motion cues should induce a visual motion aftereffect. Here, we demonstrate that horizontally moving auditory stimuli induced a significant visual motion aftereffect—an effect that was driven primarily by a change in visual motion perception following exposure to leftward moving auditory stimuli. This finding is consistent with the notion that visual and auditory motion perception rely on at least partially overlapping neural substrates.

  13. PROMO – Real-time Prospective Motion Correction in MRI using Image-based Tracking

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Nathan; Roddey, Cooper; Shankaranarayanan, Ajit; Han, Eric; Rettmann, Dan; Santos, Juan; Kuperman, Josh; Dale, Anders

    2010-01-01

    Artifacts caused by patient motion during scanning remain a serious problem in most MRI applications. The prospective motion correction technique attempts to address this problem at its source by keeping the measurement coordinate system fixed with respect to the patient throughout the entire scan process. In this study, a new image-based approach for prospective motion correction is described, which utilizes three orthogonal 2D spiral navigator acquisitions (SP-Navs) along with a flexible image-based tracking method based on the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) algorithm for online motion measurement. The SP-Nav/EKF framework offers the advantages of image-domain tracking within patient-specific regions-of-interest and reduced sensitivity to off-resonance-induced corruption of rigid-body motion estimates. The performance of the method was tested using offline computer simulations and online in vivo head motion experiments. In vivo validation results covering a broad range of staged head motions indicate a steady-state error of the SP-Nav/EKF motion estimates of less than 10 % of the motion magnitude, even for large compound motions that included rotations over 15 degrees. A preliminary in vivo application in 3D inversion recovery spoiled gradient echo (IR-SPGR) and 3D fast spin echo (FSE) sequences demonstrates the effectiveness of the SP-Nav/EKF framework for correcting 3D rigid-body head motion artifacts prospectively in high-resolution 3D MRI scans. PMID:20027635

  14. Utilize target motion to cover clinical target volume (ctv) - a novel and practical treatment planning approach to manage respiratory motion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jin Jianyue; Ajlouni, Munther; Kong Fengming; Ryu, Samuel; Chetty, Indrin J.; Movsas, Benjamin

    2008-01-01

    Purpose: To use probability density function (PDF) to model motion effects and incorporate this information into treatment planning for lung cancers. Material and methods: PDFs were calculated from the respiratory motion traces of 10 patients. Motion effects were evaluated by convolving static dose distributions with various PDFs. Based on a differential dose prescription with relatively lower dose to the clinical target volume (CTV) than to the gross tumor volume (GTV), two approaches were proposed to incorporate PDFs into treatment planning. The first approach uses the GTV-based internal target volume (ITV) as the planning target volume (PTV) to ensure full dose to the GTV, and utilizes the motion-induced dose gradient to cover the CTV. The second approach employs an inhomogeneous static dose distribution within a minimized PTV to best match the prescription dose gradient. Results: Motion effects on dose distributions were minimal in the anterior-posterior (AP) and lateral directions: a 10-mm motion only induced about 3% of dose reduction in the peripheral target region. The motion effect was remarkable in the cranial-caudal direction. It varied with the motion amplitude, but tended to be similar for various respiratory patterns. For the first approach, a 10-15 mm motion would adequately cover the CTV (presumed to be 60-70% of the GTV dose) without employing the CTV in planning. For motions 15-mm. An example of inhomogeneous static dose distribution in a reduced PTV was given, and it showed significant dose reduction in the normal tissue without compromising target coverage. Conclusions: Respiratory motion-induced dose gradient can be utilized to cover the CTV and minimize the lung dose without the need for more sophisticated technologies

  15. The open quantum Brownian motions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bauer, Michel; Bernard, Denis; Tilloy, Antoine

    2014-01-01

    Using quantum parallelism on random walks as the original seed, we introduce new quantum stochastic processes, the open quantum Brownian motions. They describe the behaviors of quantum walkers—with internal degrees of freedom which serve as random gyroscopes—interacting with a series of probes which serve as quantum coins. These processes may also be viewed as the scaling limit of open quantum random walks and we develop this approach along three different lines: the quantum trajectory, the quantum dynamical map and the quantum stochastic differential equation. We also present a study of the simplest case, with a two level system as an internal gyroscope, illustrating the interplay between the ballistic and diffusive behaviors at work in these processes. Notation H z : orbital (walker) Hilbert space, C Z in the discrete, L 2 (R) in the continuum H c : internal spin (or gyroscope) Hilbert space H sys =H z ⊗H c : system Hilbert space H p : probe (or quantum coin) Hilbert space, H p =C 2 ρ t tot : density matrix for the total system (walker + internal spin + quantum coins) ρ-bar t : reduced density matrix on H sys : ρ-bar t =∫dxdy ρ-bar t (x,y)⊗|x〉 z 〈y| ρ-hat t : system density matrix in a quantum trajectory: ρ-hat t =∫dxdy ρ-hat t (x,y)⊗|x〉 z 〈y|. If diagonal and localized in position: ρ-hat t =ρ t ⊗|X t 〉 z 〈X t | ρ t : internal density matrix in a simple quantum trajectory X t : walker position in a simple quantum trajectory B t : normalized Brownian motion ξ t , ξ t † : quantum noises (paper)

  16. Magnetohydrodynamic motion of a two-fluid plasma

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burby, J. W.

    2017-08-01

    The two-fluid Maxwell system couples frictionless electrons and ion fluids via Maxwell's equations. When the frequencies of light waves, Langmuir waves, and single-particle cyclotron motion are scaled to be asymptotically large, the two-fluid Maxwell system becomes a fast-slow dynamical system. This fast-slow system admits a formally exact single-fluid closure that may be computed systematically with any desired order of accuracy through the use of a functional partial differential equation. In the leading order approximation, the closure reproduces magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). Higher order truncations of the closure give an infinite hierarchy of extended MHD models that allow for arbitrary mass ratio, as well as perturbative deviations from charge neutrality. The closure is interpreted geometrically as an invariant slow manifold in the infinite-dimensional two-fluid phase space, on which two-fluid motions are free of high-frequency oscillations. This perspective shows that the full closure inherits a Hamiltonian structure from the two-fluid theory. By employing infinite-dimensional Lie transforms, the Poisson bracket for the all-order closure may be obtained in the closed form. Thus, conservative truncations of the single-fluid closure may be obtained by simply truncating the single-fluid Hamiltonian. Moreover, the closed-form expression for the all-order bracket gives explicit expressions for a number of the full closure's conservation laws. Notably, the full closure, as well as any of its Hamiltonian truncations, admits a pair of independent circulation invariants.

  17. Human Kinematics of Cochlear Implant Surgery: An Investigation of Insertion Micro-Motions and Speed Limitations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kesler, Kyle; Dillon, Neal P; Fichera, Loris; Labadie, Robert F

    2017-09-01

    Objectives Document human motions associated with cochlear implant electrode insertion at different speeds and determine the lower limit of continuous insertion speed by a human. Study Design Observational. Setting Academic medical center. Subjects and Methods Cochlear implant forceps were coupled to a frame containing reflective fiducials, which enabled optical tracking of the forceps' tip position in real time. Otolaryngologists (n = 14) performed mock electrode insertions at different speeds based on recommendations from the literature: "fast" (96 mm/min), "stable" (as slow as possible without stopping), and "slow" (15 mm/min). For each insertion, the following metrics were calculated from the tracked position data: percentage of time at prescribed speed, percentage of time the surgeon stopped moving forward, and number of direction reversals (ie, going from forward to backward motion). Results Fast insertion trials resulted in better adherence to the prescribed speed (45.4% of the overall time), no motion interruptions, and no reversals, as compared with slow insertions (18.6% of time at prescribed speed, 15.7% stopped time, and an average of 18.6 reversals per trial). These differences were statistically significant for all metrics ( P implant electrode at 15 mm/min is not feasible for human operators. The lower limit of continuous forward insertion is 52 mm/min on average. Guidelines on manual insertion kinematics should consider this practical limit of human motion.

  18. International collaborative project to compare and track the nutritional composition of fast foods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Chronic diseases are the leading cause of premature death and disability in the world with over-nutrition a primary cause of diet-related ill health. Excess quantities of energy, saturated fat, sugar and salt derived from fast foods contribute importantly to this disease burden. Our objective is to collate and compare nutrient composition data for fast foods as a means of supporting improvements in product formulation. Methods/design Surveys of fast foods will be done in each participating country each year. Information on the nutrient composition for each product will be sought either through direct chemical analysis, from fast food companies, in-store materials or from company websites. Foods will be categorized into major groups for the primary analyses which will compare mean levels of saturated fat, sugar, sodium, energy and serving size at baseline and over time. Countries currently involved include Australia, New Zealand, France, UK, USA, India, Spain, China and Canada, with more anticipated to follow. Discussion This collaborative approach to the collation and sharing of data will enable low-cost tracking of fast food composition around the world. This project represents a significant step forward in the objective and transparent monitoring of industry and government commitments to improve the quality of fast foods.

  19. International collaborative project to compare and track the nutritional composition of fast foods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-07-27

    Chronic diseases are the leading cause of premature death and disability in the world with over-nutrition a primary cause of diet-related ill health. Excess quantities of energy, saturated fat, sugar and salt derived from fast foods contribute importantly to this disease burden. Our objective is to collate and compare nutrient composition data for fast foods as a means of supporting improvements in product formulation. Surveys of fast foods will be done in each participating country each year. Information on the nutrient composition for each product will be sought either through direct chemical analysis, from fast food companies, in-store materials or from company websites. Foods will be categorized into major groups for the primary analyses which will compare mean levels of saturated fat, sugar, sodium, energy and serving size at baseline and over time. Countries currently involved include Australia, New Zealand, France, UK, USA, India, Spain, China and Canada, with more anticipated to follow. This collaborative approach to the collation and sharing of data will enable low-cost tracking of fast food composition around the world. This project represents a significant step forward in the objective and transparent monitoring of industry and government commitments to improve the quality of fast foods.

  20. Cervical range of motion, cervical and shoulder strength in senior versus age-grade Rugby Union International front-row forwards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies, Mark; Moore, Isabel S; Moran, Patrick; Mathema, Prabhat; Ranson, Craig A

    2016-05-01

    To provide normative values for cervical range of motion (CROM), isometric cervical and shoulder strength for; International Senior professional, and International Age-grade Rugby Union front-row forwards. Cross-sectional population study. All international level front-row players within a Rugby Union Tier 1 Nation. Nineteen Senior and 21 Age-grade front-row forwards underwent CROM, cervical and shoulder strength testing. CROM was measured using the CROM device and the Gatherer System was used to measure multi-directional isometric cervical and shoulder strength. The Age-grade players had significantly lower; cervical strength (26-57% deficits), cervical flexion to extension strength ratios (0.5 vs. 0.6), and shoulder strength (2-36% deficits) than the Senior players. However, there were no differences between front-row positions within each age group. Additionally, there were no differences between age groups or front-row positions in the CROM measurements. Senior Rugby Union front-row forwards have greater cervical and shoulder strength than Age-grade players, with the biggest differences being in cervical strength, highlighting the need for age specific normative values. Importantly, Age-grade players should be evaluated to ensure they have developed sufficient cervical strength prior to entering professional level Rugby Union. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. SU-E-J-115: Correlation of Displacement Vector Fields Calculated by Deformable Image Registration Algorithms with Motion Parameters of CT Images with Well-Defined Targets and Controlled-Motion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jaskowiak, J; Ahmad, S; Ali, I [University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK (United States); Alsbou, N [Ohio Northern University, Ada, OH (United States)

    2015-06-15

    Purpose: To investigate correlation of displacement vector fields (DVF) calculated by deformable image registration algorithms with motion parameters in helical axial and cone-beam CT images with motion artifacts. Methods: A mobile thorax phantom with well-known targets with different sizes that were made from water-equivalent material and inserted in foam to simulate lung lesions. The thorax phantom was imaged with helical, axial and cone-beam CT. The phantom was moved with a cyclic motion with different motion amplitudes and frequencies along the superior-inferior direction. Different deformable image registration algorithms including demons, fast demons, Horn-Shunck and iterative-optical-flow from the DIRART software were used to deform CT images for the phantom with different motion patterns. The CT images of the mobile phantom were deformed to CT images of the stationary phantom. Results: The values of displacement vectors calculated by deformable image registration algorithm correlated strongly with motion amplitude where large displacement vectors were calculated for CT images with large motion amplitudes. For example, the maximal displacement vectors were nearly equal to the motion amplitudes (5mm, 10mm or 20mm) at interfaces between the mobile targets lung tissue, while the minimal displacement vectors were nearly equal to negative the motion amplitudes. The maximal and minimal displacement vectors matched with edges of the blurred targets along the Z-axis (motion-direction), while DVF’s were small in the other directions. This indicates that the blurred edges by phantom motion were shifted largely to match with the actual target edge. These shifts were nearly equal to the motion amplitude. Conclusions: The DVF from deformable-image registration algorithms correlated well with motion amplitude of well-defined mobile targets. This can be used to extract motion parameters such as amplitude. However, as motion amplitudes increased, image artifacts increased

  2. Pebble-bed pebble motion: Simulation and Applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Joshua J. Cogliati; Abderrafi M. Ougouag

    2011-11-01

    Pebble bed reactors (PBR) have moving graphite fuel pebbles. This unique feature provides advantages, but also means that simulation of the reactor requires understanding the typical motion and location of the granular flow of pebbles. This report presents a method for simulation of motion of the pebbles in a PBR. A new mechanical motion simulator, PEBBLES, efficiently simulates the key elements of motion of the pebbles in a PBR. This model simulates gravitational force and contact forces including kinetic and true static friction. It's used for a variety of tasks including simulation of the effect of earthquakes on a PBR, calculation of packing fractions, Dancoff factors, pebble wear and the pebble force on the walls. The simulator includes a new differential static friction model for the varied geometries of PBRs. A new static friction benchmark was devised via analytically solving the mechanics equations to determine the minimum pebble-to-pebble friction and pebble-to-surface friction for a five pebble pyramid. This pyramid check as well as a comparison to the Janssen formula was used to test the new static friction equations. Because larger pebble bed simulations involve hundreds of thousands of pebbles and long periods of time, the PEBBLES code has been parallelized. PEBBLES runs on shared memory architectures and distributed memory architectures. For the shared memory architecture, the code uses a new O(n) lock-less parallel collision detection algorithm to determine which pebbles are likely to be in contact. The new collision detection algorithm improves on the traditional non-parallel O(n log(n)) collision detection algorithm. These features combine to form a fast parallel pebble motion simulation. The PEBBLES code provides new capabilities for understanding and optimizing PBRs. The PEBBLES code has provided the pebble motion data required to calculate the motion of pebbles during a simulated earthquake. The PEBBLES code provides the ability to

  3. Pebble-bed pebble motion: Simulation and Applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cogliati, Joshua J.; Ougouag, Abderrafi M.

    2011-01-01

    Pebble bed reactors (PBR) have moving graphite fuel pebbles. This unique feature provides advantages, but also means that simulation of the reactor requires understanding the typical motion and location of the granular flow of pebbles. This report presents a method for simulation of motion of the pebbles in a PBR. A new mechanical motion simulator, PEBBLES, efficiently simulates the key elements of motion of the pebbles in a PBR. This model simulates gravitational force and contact forces including kinetic and true static friction. It's used for a variety of tasks including simulation of the effect of earthquakes on a PBR, calculation of packing fractions, Dancoff factors, pebble wear and the pebble force on the walls. The simulator includes a new differential static friction model for the varied geometries of PBRs. A new static friction benchmark was devised via analytically solving the mechanics equations to determine the minimum pebble-to-pebble friction and pebble-to-surface friction for a five pebble pyramid. This pyramid check as well as a comparison to the Janssen formula was used to test the new static friction equations. Because larger pebble bed simulations involve hundreds of thousands of pebbles and long periods of time, the PEBBLES code has been parallelized. PEBBLES runs on shared memory architectures and distributed memory architectures. For the shared memory architecture, the code uses a new O(n) lock-less parallel collision detection algorithm to determine which pebbles are likely to be in contact. The new collision detection algorithm improves on the traditional non-parallel O(n log(n)) collision detection algorithm. These features combine to form a fast parallel pebble motion simulation. The PEBBLES code provides new capabilities for understanding and optimizing PBRs. The PEBBLES code has provided the pebble motion data required to calculate the motion of pebbles during a simulated earthquake. The PEBBLES code provides the ability to determine

  4. Pebble bed pebble motion: Simulation and Application

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cogliati, Joshua J.

    Pebble bed reactors (PBR) have moving graphite fuel pebbles. This unique feature provides advantages, but also means that simulation of the reactor requires understanding the typical motion and location of the granular flow of pebbles. This dissertation presents a method for simulation of motion of the pebbles in a PBR. A new mechanical motion simulator, PEBBLES, efficiently simulates the key elements of motion of the pebbles in a PBR. This model simulates gravitational force and contact forces including kinetic and true static friction. It's used for a variety of tasks including simulation of the effect of earthquakes on a PBR, calculation of packing fractions, Dancoff factors, pebble wear and the pebble force on the walls. The simulator includes a new differential static friction model for the varied geometries of PBRs. A new static friction benchmark was devised via analytically solving the mechanics equations to determine the minimum pebble-to-pebble friction and pebble-to-surface friction for a five pebble pyramid. This pyramid check as well as a comparison to the Janssen formula was used to test the new static friction equations. Because larger pebble bed simulations involve hundreds of thousands of pebbles and long periods of time, the PEBBLES code has been parallelized. PEBBLES runs on shared memory architectures and distributed memory architectures. For the shared memory architecture, the code uses a new O(n) lock-less parallel collision detection algorithm to determine which pebbles are likely to be in contact. The new collision detection algorithm improves on the traditional non-parallel O(n log(n)) collision detection algorithm. These features combine to form a fast parallel pebble motion simulation. The PEBBLES code provides new capabilities for understanding and optimizing PBRs. The PEBBLES code has provided the pebble motion data required to calculate the motion of pebbles during a simulated earthquake. The PEBBLES code provides the ability to

  5. Kinematics and Dynamics of Motion Control Based on Acceleration Control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohishi, Kiyoshi; Ohba, Yuzuru; Katsura, Seiichiro

    The first IEEE International Workshop on Advanced Motion Control was held in 1990 pointed out the importance of physical interpretation of motion control. The software servoing technology is now common in machine tools, robotics, and mechatronics. It has been intensively developed for the numerical control (NC) machines. Recently, motion control in unknown environment will be more and more important. Conventional motion control is not always suitable due to the lack of adaptive capability to the environment. A more sophisticated ability in motion control is necessary for compliant contact with environment. Acceleration control is the key technology of motion control in unknown environment. The acceleration control can make a motion system to be a zero control stiffness system without losing the robustness. Furthermore, a realization of multi-degree-of-freedom motion is necessary for future human assistance. A human assistant motion will require various control stiffness corresponding to the task. The review paper focuses on the modal coordinate system to integrate the various control stiffness in the virtual axes. A bilateral teleoperation is a good candidate to consider the future human assistant motion and integration of decentralized systems. Thus the paper reviews and discusses the bilateral teleoperation from the control stiffness and the modal control design points of view.

  6. Estimating tropical vertical motion profile shapes from satellite observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Back, L. E.; Handlos, Z.

    2013-12-01

    The vertical structure of tropical deep convection strongly influences interactions with larger scale circulations and climate. This research focuses on investigating this vertical structure and its relationship with mesoscale tropical weather states. We test the hypothesis that vertical motion shape varies in association with weather state type. We estimate mean state vertical motion profile shapes for six tropical weather states defined using cloud top pressure and optical depth properties from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project. The relationship between vertical motion and the dry static energy budget are utilized to set up a regression analysis that empirically determines two modes of variability in vertical motion from reanalysis data. We use these empirically determined modes, this relationship and surface convergence to estimate vertical motion profile shape from observations of satellite retrievals of rainfall and surface convergence. We find that vertical motion profile shapes vary systematically between different tropical weather states. The "isolated systems" regime exhibits a more ''bottom-heavy'' profile shape compared to the convective/thick cirrus and vigorous deep convective regimes, with maximum upward vertical motion occurring in the lower troposphere rather than the middle to upper troposphere. The variability we observe with our method does not coincide with that expected based on conventional ideas about how stratiform rain fraction and vertical motion are related.

  7. Slow speed—fast motion: time-lapse recordings in physics education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vollmer, Michael; Möllmann, Klaus-Peter

    2018-05-01

    Video analysis with a 30 Hz frame rate is the standard tool in physics education. The development of affordable high-speed-cameras has extended the capabilities of the tool for much smaller time scales to the 1 ms range, using frame rates of typically up to 1000 frames s-1, allowing us to study transient physics phenomena happening too fast for the naked eye. Here we want to extend the range of phenomena which may be studied by video analysis in the opposite direction by focusing on much longer time scales ranging from minutes, hours to many days or even months. We discuss this time-lapse method, needed equipment and give a few hints of how to produce respective recordings for two specific experiments.

  8. Lagrangian Description of Nonadiabatic Particle Motion in Spherical Tori

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    R.B. White; Yu.V. Yakovenko; Ya.I. Kolesnichenko

    2002-06-21

    The ability of a device to provide adiabatic motion of charged particles is crucial for magnetic confinement. As the magnetic field in the present-day spherical tori, e.g., MAST and NSTX, is much lower than in the conventional tokamaks, effects of the finite Larmor radius (FLR) on the motion of fast ions are of importance in these devices, affecting the stochasticity threshold for the interaction of the ions with electromagnetic perturbations. In addition, FLR by itself may result in non-conservation (jumps) of the magnetic moment of particles [4]. In this work we propose a Lagrangian approach to description of the resonant collisionless motion of charged particles under a perturbation, allowing for FLR. The work generalizes results of Ref. [1], where only time-independent perturbations were considered. The approach is used to find the stochasticity thresholds for the Goldston-White-Boozer (GWB) diffusion [2] and the cyclotron-resonance-induced (CRI) diffusion (for the case of the firs t cyclotron resonance, the latter was discovered in Ref. [3]). In addition, a new expression for the magnetic moment variation caused by FLR is found.

  9. Lagrangian Description of Nonadiabatic Particle Motion in Spherical Tori

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    White, R.B.; Yakovenko, Yu.V.; Kolesnichenko, Ya.I.

    2002-01-01

    The ability of a device to provide adiabatic motion of charged particles is crucial for magnetic confinement. As the magnetic field in the present-day spherical tori, e.g., MAST and NSTX, is much lower than in the conventional tokamaks, effects of the finite Larmor radius (FLR) on the motion of fast ions are of importance in these devices, affecting the stochasticity threshold for the interaction of the ions with electromagnetic perturbations. In addition, FLR by itself may result in non-conservation (jumps) of the magnetic moment of particles [4]. In this work we propose a Lagrangian approach to description of the resonant collisionless motion of charged particles under a perturbation, allowing for FLR. The work generalizes results of Ref. [1], where only time-independent perturbations were considered. The approach is used to find the stochasticity thresholds for the Goldston-White-Boozer (GWB) diffusion [2] and the cyclotron-resonance-induced (CRI) diffusion (for the case of the first cyclotron resonance, the latter was discovered in Ref. [3]). In addition, a new expression for the magnetic moment variation caused by FLR is found

  10. On a mean field game optimal control approach modeling fast exit scenarios in human crowds

    KAUST Repository

    Burger, Martin; Di Francesco, Marco; Markowich, Peter A.; Wolfram, Marie Therese

    2013-01-01

    The understanding of fast exit and evacuation situations in crowd motion research has received a lot of scientific interest in the last decades. Security issues in larger facilities, like shopping malls, sports centers, or festivals necessitate a better understanding of the major driving forces in crowd dynamics. In this paper we present an optimal control approach modeling fast exit scenarios in pedestrian crowds. The model is formulated in the framework of mean field games and based on a parabolic optimal control problem. We consider the case of a large human crowd trying to exit a room as fast as possible. The motion of every pedestrian is determined by minimizing a cost functional, which depends on his/her position and velocity, the overall density of people, and the time to exit. This microscopic setup leads in a mean-field formulation to a nonlinear macroscopic optimal control problem, which raises challenging questions for the analysis and numerical simulations.We discuss different aspects of the mathematical modeling and illustrate them with various computational results. ©2013 IEEE.

  11. On a mean field game optimal control approach modeling fast exit scenarios in human crowds

    KAUST Repository

    Burger, Martin

    2013-12-01

    The understanding of fast exit and evacuation situations in crowd motion research has received a lot of scientific interest in the last decades. Security issues in larger facilities, like shopping malls, sports centers, or festivals necessitate a better understanding of the major driving forces in crowd dynamics. In this paper we present an optimal control approach modeling fast exit scenarios in pedestrian crowds. The model is formulated in the framework of mean field games and based on a parabolic optimal control problem. We consider the case of a large human crowd trying to exit a room as fast as possible. The motion of every pedestrian is determined by minimizing a cost functional, which depends on his/her position and velocity, the overall density of people, and the time to exit. This microscopic setup leads in a mean-field formulation to a nonlinear macroscopic optimal control problem, which raises challenging questions for the analysis and numerical simulations.We discuss different aspects of the mathematical modeling and illustrate them with various computational results. ©2013 IEEE.

  12. SCALABLE PHOTOGRAMMETRIC MOTION CAPTURE SYSTEM “MOSCA”: DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. A. Knyaz

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Wide variety of applications (from industrial to entertainment has a need for reliable and accurate 3D information about motion of an object and its parts. Very often the process of movement is rather fast as in cases of vehicle movement, sport biomechanics, animation of cartoon characters. Motion capture systems based on different physical principles are used for these purposes. The great potential for obtaining high accuracy and high degree of automation has vision-based system due to progress in image processing and analysis. Scalable inexpensive motion capture system is developed as a convenient and flexible tool for solving various tasks requiring 3D motion analysis. It is based on photogrammetric techniques of 3D measurements and provides high speed image acquisition, high accuracy of 3D measurements and highly automated processing of captured data. Depending on the application the system can be easily modified for different working areas from 100 mm to 10 m. The developed motion capture system uses from 2 to 4 technical vision cameras for video sequences of object motion acquisition. All cameras work in synchronization mode at frame rate up to 100 frames per second under the control of personal computer providing the possibility for accurate calculation of 3D coordinates of interest points. The system was used for a set of different applications fields and demonstrated high accuracy and high level of automation.

  13. A review of the UK fast reactor programme

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Picker, C.; Ainsworth, K.F.

    1998-01-01

    The general position with regard to nuclear power and fast reactors in the UK during 1996 is described. The main UK Government-funded fast reactor research and development programme was concluded in 1993, to be replaced by a smaller programme which is mainly funded and managed by British Nuclear Fuels plc. The main focus of this programme sustains the UK participation in the European Fast Reactor (EFR) collaboration and the broader international links built-up over the previous decades. The status of fast reactor studies made in the UK in 1996 is outlined and, with respect to the Prototype Fast Reactor at Dounreay, a report of progress with the closure studies, fuel reprocessing and decommissioning activities is provided. (author)

  14. Galileo and the Problems of Motion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hooper, Wallace Edd

    Galileo's science of motion changed natural philosophy. His results initiated a broad human awakening to the intricate new world of physical order found in the midst of familiar operations of nature. His thinking was always based squarely on the academic traditions of the spiritual old world. He advanced physics by new standards of judgment drawn from mechanics and geometry, and disciplined observation of the world. My study first determines the order of composition of the earliest essays on motion and physics, ca. 1588 -1592, from internal evidence, and bibliographic evidence. There are clear signs of a Platonist critique of Aristotle, supported by Archimedes, in the Ten Section Version of On Motion, written ca. 1588, and probably the earliest of his treatises on motion or physics. He expanded upon his opening Platonic -Archimedean position by investigating the ideas of scholastic critics of Aristotle, including the Doctores Parisienses, found in his readings of the Jesuit Professors at the Collegio Romano. Their influences surfaced clearly in Galileo's Memoranda on Motion and the Dialogue on Motion, and in On Motion, which followed, ca. 1590-1592. At the end of his sojourn in Pisa, Galileo opened the road to the new physics by solving an important problem in the mechanics of Pappus, concerning motion along inclined planes. My study investigates why Galileo gave up attempts to establish a ratio between speed and weight, and why he began to seek the ratios of time and distance and speed, by 1602. It also reconstructs Galileo's development of the 1604 principle, seeking to outline its invention, elaboration, and abandonment. Then, I try to show that we have a record of Galileo's moment of recognition of the direct relation between the time of fall and the accumulated speed of motion--that great affinity between time and motion and the key to the new science of motion established before 1610. Evidence also ties the discovery of the time affinity directly to Galileo

  15. Comparison of FSE T2 W PROPELLER and 3D-FIESTA of 3 T MR for the internal auditory canal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Hai-Bo; Yuan, Hui-Shu; Ma, Furong; Zhao, Qiang

    The study compared the use of periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) technique fast spin echo (FSE) T2 W and the sequence of three-dimensional fast imaging employing steady-state acquisition (3D-FIESTA) technique in the MRI of the internal auditory canal for overall image quality improvement. One hundred thirty-two patients undergoing FSE T2 W PROPELLER and 3D-FIESTA examinations of the internal auditory canal were included. All examinations were performed at 3.0 T with comparison of a sagittal oblique FSE T2 W sequence with the PROPELLER technique to 3D-FIESTA in the same reconstructed orientation with PROPELLER. Image quality was evaluated by two radiologists using a 4-point scale. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare the data of the two techniques. The image quality of FSE T2 W PROPELLER was significantly improved compared to the reconstructed images of 3D-FIESTA. Observer 1: median FSE T2 W with PROPELLER, 4 [mean, 3.455] versus median reconstructed 3D-FIESTA, 3 [mean, 3.15], (PW with PROPELLER, 4 [mean, 3.47] versus median reconstructed 3D-FIESTA, 3 [mean, 3.25], (PW PROPELLER technique for MRI of internal auditory canal reduced uncertainty caused by motion artifact and improved the quality of the image compared to the reconstructed 3D-FIESTA. It was affected by different parameters including the blade width, echo train length (ETL). This is explained by data oversampling at the center region of k-space, which requires additional imaging time over conventional MRI techniques. Increasing blade was expected to improve motion correction effects but also the signal-to-noise ratio. ETL increases the image sharpness and the overall image quality. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  16. Asymmetric vestibular stimulation reveals persistent disruption of motion perception in unilateral vestibular lesions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panichi, R; Faralli, M; Bruni, R; Kiriakarely, A; Occhigrossi, C; Ferraresi, A; Bronstein, A M; Pettorossi, V E

    2017-11-01

    Self-motion perception was studied in patients with unilateral vestibular lesions (UVL) due to acute vestibular neuritis at 1 wk and 4, 8, and 12 mo after the acute episode. We assessed vestibularly mediated self-motion perception by measuring the error in reproducing the position of a remembered visual target at the end of four cycles of asymmetric whole-body rotation. The oscillatory stimulus consists of a slow (0.09 Hz) and a fast (0.38 Hz) half cycle. A large error was present in UVL patients when the slow half cycle was delivered toward the lesion side, but minimal toward the healthy side. This asymmetry diminished over time, but it remained abnormally large at 12 mo. In contrast, vestibulo-ocular reflex responses showed a large direction-dependent error only initially, then they normalized. Normalization also occurred for conventional reflex vestibular measures (caloric tests, subjective visual vertical, and head shaking nystagmus) and for perceptual function during symmetric rotation. Vestibular-related handicap, measured with the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) at 12 mo correlated with self-motion perception asymmetry but not with abnormalities in vestibulo-ocular function. We conclude that 1 ) a persistent self-motion perceptual bias is revealed by asymmetric rotation in UVLs despite vestibulo-ocular function becoming symmetric over time, 2 ) this dissociation is caused by differential perceptual-reflex adaptation to high- and low-frequency rotations when these are combined as with our asymmetric stimulus, 3 ) the findings imply differential central compensation for vestibuloperceptual and vestibulo-ocular reflex functions, and 4 ) self-motion perception disruption may mediate long-term vestibular-related handicap in UVL patients. NEW & NOTEWORTHY A novel vestibular stimulus, combining asymmetric slow and fast sinusoidal half cycles, revealed persistent vestibuloperceptual dysfunction in unilateral vestibular lesion (UVL) patients. The compensation of

  17. Active motions of Brownian particles in a generalized energy-depot model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Yong; Koo Kim, Chul; Lee, Kong-Ju-Bock

    2008-01-01

    We present a generalized energy-depot model in which the rate of conversion of the internal energy into motion can be dependent on the position and velocity of a particle. When the conversion rate is a general function of the velocity, the active particle exhibits diverse patterns of motion, including a braking mechanism and a stepping motion. The phase trajectories of the motion are investigated in a systematic way. With a particular form of the conversion rate dependent on the position and velocity, the particle shows a spontaneous oscillation characterizing a negative stiffness. These types of active behaviors are compared with similar phenomena observed in biology, such as the stepping motion of molecular motors and amplification in the hearing mechanism. Hence, our model can provide a generic understanding of the active motion related to the energy conversion and also a new control mechanism for nano-robots. We also investigate the effect of noise, especially on the stepping motion, and observe random walk-like behavior as expected.

  18. Spectroscopic Measurements of the Ion Velocity Distribution at the Base of the Fast Solar Wind

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeffrey, Natasha L. S.; Hahn, Michael; Savin, Daniel W.; Fletcher, Lyndsay

    2018-03-01

    In situ measurements of the fast solar wind reveal non-thermal distributions of electrons, protons, and minor ions extending from 0.3 au to the heliopause. The physical mechanisms responsible for these non-thermal properties and the location where these properties originate remain open questions. Here, we present spectroscopic evidence, from extreme ultraviolet spectroscopy, that the velocity distribution functions (VDFs) of minor ions are already non-Gaussian at the base of the fast solar wind in a coronal hole, at altitudes of thermal equilibrium, (b) fluid motions such as non-Gaussian turbulent fluctuations or non-uniform wave motions, or (c) some combination of both. These observations provide important empirical constraints for the source region of the fast solar wind and for the theoretical models of the different acceleration, heating, and energy deposition processes therein. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the ion VDF in the fast solar wind has been probed so close to its source region. The findings are also a timely precursor to the upcoming 2018 launch of the Parker Solar Probe, which will provide the closest in situ measurements of the solar wind at approximately 0.04 au (8.5 solar radii).

  19. PAC study of ionic motion in silver compound superionic conductors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mekata, M.; Seguchi, Y.

    1983-01-01

    Ionic motion in superionic conductors, Ag 2 S, Ag 2 Se and Ag 3 SI was investigated by γ-γ PAC on 111 Cd. Diffusion constant measurements showed that probe ions migrate almost as fast as Ag + ions above 500 K in Ag 2 S and Ag 2 Se and above 700 K in Ag 3 SI. Multivalent impurities were found to be unstable in AgI and Ag 2 Te. The correlation time of ionic motion was deduced from the observed relaxation rate together with the diffusion constants. The correlation time and its activation energy increase in order of Ag 2 S, Ag 2 Se and Ag 3 SI. The flight distance of Ag + ions remains almost constant in the measured temperature range. (Auth.)

  20. Fast potential change in sawteeth in JIPP T-IIU tokamak plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hamada, Y.; Nishizawa, A.; Kawasumi, Y.

    1994-12-01

    Fast changes of electric potential with different polarities are observed during sawtooth oscillation in a core region of a tokamak plasma using a heavy ion beam probe. The potential change inside the inversion radius is found to be positive. The change is negative outside the inversion radius and shows clearly a propagation nature. The observed potential can be interpreted by the mixture of the potentials of two origins. One of them drives the fast MHD plasma motion through E/B drift and the other is a barrier potential induced by mixing of hot and cold plasmas at sawtooth crash. (author)

  1. The effect of dynamic femoroacetabular impingement on pubic symphysis motion: a cadaveric study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Birmingham, Patrick M; Kelly, Bryan T; Jacobs, Robert; McGrady, Linda; Wang, Mei

    2012-05-01

    A link between femoroacetabular impingement and athletic pubalgia has been reported clinically. One proposed origin of athletic pubalgia is secondary to repetitive loading of the pubic symphysis, leading to instability and parasymphyseal tendon and ligament injury. Hypothesis/ The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of simulated femoral-based femoroacetabular impingement on rotational motion at the pubic symphysis. The authors hypothesize that the presence of a cam lesion leads to increased relative symphyseal motion. Controlled laboratory study. Twelve hips from 6 fresh-frozen human cadaveric pelvises were used to simulate cam-type femoroacetabular impingement. The hips were held in a custom jig and maximally internally rotated at 90° of flexion and neutral adduction. Three-dimensional motion of the pubic symphysis was measured by a motion-tracking system for 2 states: native and simulated cam. Load-displacement plots were generated between the internal rotational torque applied to the hip and the responding motion in 3 anatomic planes of the pubic symphysis. As the hip was internally rotated, the motion at the pubic symphysis increased proportionally with the degrees of the rotation as well as the applied torque measured at the distal femur for both states. The primary rotation of the symphysis was in the transverse plane and on average accounted for more than 60% of the total rotation. This primary motion caused the anterior aspect of the symphyseal joint to open or widen, whereas the posterior aspect narrowed. At the torque level of 18.0 N·m, the mean transverse rotation in degrees was 0.89° ± 0.35° for the native state and 1.20° ± 0.41° for cam state. The difference between cam and the native groups was statistically significant (P pubalgia.

  2. Fast reactor database

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1996-02-01

    This publication contains detailed data on liquid metal cooled fast reactors (LMFRs), specifically plant parameters and design details. Each LMFR power plant is characterized by about 400 parameters, by design data and by relevant materials. The report provides general and detailed design characteristics including structural materials, data on experimental, demonstration, prototype and commercial size LMFRs. The focus is on practical issues that are useful to engineers, scientists, managers and university students and professors. The report includes updated information contained in IAEA previous publications on LMFR plant parameters: IWGRF/51 (1985) and IWGFR/80 (1991) and reflects experience gained from two consultants meetings held in Vienna (1993,1994). This compilation of data was produced by members of the IAEA International Working Group on Fast Reactors (IWGFR)

  3. International Working Group on Fast Reactors. Meeting of Specialists on the Value of Plutonium Alpha, Winfrich, UK, 30 June - 1 July 1969. Summary Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1969-07-15

    The meeting of specialists on the value of plutonium alpha was held at Winfrith in accordance to the recommendation of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors, and in agreement with the UK authorities. Participants from six countries and two international organizations took part in the meeting. A short review on available data for plutonium alpha received by the IAEA Nuclear Data Unit was presented. Three experiments recently known where the measurements of the alpha-value have been made in the energy range of interest were referred to.

  4. On the role of memory effects for dissipation and diffusion in slow collective nuclear motion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cassing, W.; Noerenberg, W.

    1983-01-01

    The energy dissipation in slow collective nuclear motion is viewed as a combined effect of a diabatic production of particle-hole excitations, leading to a conservative storage of collective energy, and a subsequent equilibration due to residual two-body collisions. The effective equation of motion for the collective degree of freedom turns out to be nonlocal in time due to the large mean free path of the nucleons and allows for a simultaneous description of two different attitudes of nuclear matter. The elastic response of heavy nuclei for ''fast'' collective motion switches over to pure friction for very slow collective motion. The time development of the fluctuations in the velocities may show oscillations for times comparable to the local equilibration time and hence, is qualitatively different from the classical limit. A first application of the diabatic dynamical approach is made for the quadrupole motion within a diabatic deformed harmonic oscillator basis. (orig.)

  5. Dominant-limb range-of-motion and humeral-retrotorsion adaptation in collegiate baseball and softball position players.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hibberd, Elizabeth E; Oyama, Sakiko; Tatman, Justin; Myers, Joseph B

    2014-01-01

    Biomechanically, the motions used by baseball and softball pitchers differ greatly; however, the throwing motions of position players in both sports are strikingly similar. Although the adaptations to the dominant limb from overhead throwing have been well documented in baseball athletes, these adaptations have not been clearly identified in softball players. This information is important in order to develop and implement injury-prevention programs specific to decreasing the risk of upper extremity injury in softball athletes. To compare range-of-motion and humeral-retrotorsion characteristics of collegiate baseball and softball position players and of baseball and softball players to sex-matched controls. Cross-sectional study. Research laboratories and athletic training rooms at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Fifty-three collegiate baseball players, 35 collegiate softball players, 25 male controls (nonoverhead athletes), and 19 female controls (nonoverhead athletes). Range of motion and humeral retrotorsion were measured using a digital inclinometer and diagnostic ultrasound. Glenohumeral internal-rotation deficit, external-rotation gain, total glenohumeral range of motion, and humeral retrotorsion. Baseball players had greater glenohumeral internal-rotation deficit, total-range-of-motion, and humeral-retrotorsion difference than softball players and male controls. There were no differences between glenohumeral internal-rotation deficit, total-range-of-motion, and humeral-retrotorsion difference in softball players and female controls. Few differences were evident between softball players and female control participants, although range-of-motion and humeral-retrotorsion adaptations were significantly different than baseball players. The throwing motions are similar between softball and baseball, but the athletes adapt to the demands of the sport differently; thus, stretching/strengthening programs designed for baseball may not be the most

  6. Criterion-free measurement of motion transparency perception at different speeds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rocchi, Francesca; Ledgeway, Timothy; Webb, Ben S.

    2018-01-01

    Transparency perception often occurs when objects within the visual scene partially occlude each other or move at the same time, at different velocities across the same spatial region. Although transparent motion perception has been extensively studied, we still do not understand how the distribution of velocities within a visual scene contribute to transparent perception. Here we use a novel psychophysical procedure to characterize the distribution of velocities in a scene that give rise to transparent motion perception. To prevent participants from adopting a subjective decision criterion when discriminating transparent motion, we used an “odd-one-out,” three-alternative forced-choice procedure. Two intervals contained the standard—a random-dot-kinematogram with dot speeds or directions sampled from a uniform distribution. The other interval contained the comparison—speeds or directions sampled from a distribution with the same range as the standard, but with a notch of different widths removed. Our results suggest that transparent motion perception is driven primarily by relatively slow speeds, and does not emerge when only very fast speeds are present within a visual scene. Transparent perception of moving surfaces is modulated by stimulus-based characteristics, such as the separation between the means of the overlapping distributions or the range of speeds presented within an image. Our work illustrates the utility of using objective, forced-choice methods to reveal the mechanisms underlying motion transparency perception. PMID:29614154

  7. TH-CD-207A-03: A Surface Deformation Driven Respiratory Model for Organ Motion Tracking in Lung Cancer Radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, H; Zhen, X; Zhou, L; Gu, X

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: To propose and validate a novel real-time surface-mesh-based internal organ-external surface motion and deformation tracking method for lung cancer radiotherapy. Methods: Deformation vector fields (DVFs) which characterizes the internal and external motion are obtained by registering the internal organ and tumor contours and external surface meshes to a reference phase in the 4D CT images using a recent developed local topology preserved non-rigid point matching algorithm (TOP). A composite matrix is constructed by combing the estimated internal and external DVFs. Principle component analysis (PCA) is then applied on the composite matrix to extract principal motion characteristics and finally yield the respiratory motion model parameters which correlates the internal and external motion and deformation. The accuracy of the respiratory motion model is evaluated using a 4D NURBS-based cardiac-torso (NCAT) synthetic phantom and three lung cancer cases. The center of mass (COM) difference is used to measure the tumor motion tracking accuracy, and the Dice’s coefficient (DC), percent error (PE) and Housdourf’s distance (HD) are used to measure the agreement between the predicted and ground truth tumor shape. Results: The mean COM is 0.84±0.49mm and 0.50±0.47mm for the phantom and patient data respectively. The mean DC, PE and HD are 0.93±0.01, 0.13±0.03 and 1.24±0.34 voxels for the phantom, and 0.91±0.04, 0.17±0.07 and 3.93±2.12 voxels for the three lung cancer patients, respectively. Conclusions: We have proposed and validate a real-time surface-mesh-based organ motion and deformation tracking method with an internal-external motion modeling. The preliminary results conducted on a synthetic 4D NCAT phantom and 4D CT images from three lung cancer cases show that the proposed method is reliable and accurate in tracking both the tumor motion trajectory and deformation, which can serve as a potential tool for real-time organ motion and deformation

  8. TH-CD-207A-03: A Surface Deformation Driven Respiratory Model for Organ Motion Tracking in Lung Cancer Radiotherapy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chen, H; Zhen, X; Zhou, L [Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong (China); Gu, X [UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX (United States)

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: To propose and validate a novel real-time surface-mesh-based internal organ-external surface motion and deformation tracking method for lung cancer radiotherapy. Methods: Deformation vector fields (DVFs) which characterizes the internal and external motion are obtained by registering the internal organ and tumor contours and external surface meshes to a reference phase in the 4D CT images using a recent developed local topology preserved non-rigid point matching algorithm (TOP). A composite matrix is constructed by combing the estimated internal and external DVFs. Principle component analysis (PCA) is then applied on the composite matrix to extract principal motion characteristics and finally yield the respiratory motion model parameters which correlates the internal and external motion and deformation. The accuracy of the respiratory motion model is evaluated using a 4D NURBS-based cardiac-torso (NCAT) synthetic phantom and three lung cancer cases. The center of mass (COM) difference is used to measure the tumor motion tracking accuracy, and the Dice’s coefficient (DC), percent error (PE) and Housdourf’s distance (HD) are used to measure the agreement between the predicted and ground truth tumor shape. Results: The mean COM is 0.84±0.49mm and 0.50±0.47mm for the phantom and patient data respectively. The mean DC, PE and HD are 0.93±0.01, 0.13±0.03 and 1.24±0.34 voxels for the phantom, and 0.91±0.04, 0.17±0.07 and 3.93±2.12 voxels for the three lung cancer patients, respectively. Conclusions: We have proposed and validate a real-time surface-mesh-based organ motion and deformation tracking method with an internal-external motion modeling. The preliminary results conducted on a synthetic 4D NCAT phantom and 4D CT images from three lung cancer cases show that the proposed method is reliable and accurate in tracking both the tumor motion trajectory and deformation, which can serve as a potential tool for real-time organ motion and deformation

  9. Motion of the esophagus due to cardiac motion.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jacob Palmer

    Full Text Available When imaging studies (e.g. CT are used to quantify morphological changes in an anatomical structure, it is necessary to understand the extent and source of motion which can give imaging artifacts (e.g. blurring or local distortion. The objective of this study was to assess the magnitude of esophageal motion due to cardiac motion. We used retrospective electrocardiogram-gated contrast-enhanced computed tomography angiography images for this study. The anatomic region from the carina to the bottom of the heart was taken at deep-inspiration breath hold with the patients' arms raised above their shoulders, in a position similar to that used for radiation therapy. The esophagus was delineated on the diastolic phase of cardiac motion, and deformable registration was used to sequentially deform the images in nearest-neighbor phases among the 10 cardiac phases, starting from the diastolic phase. Using the 10 deformation fields generated from the deformable registration, the magnitude of the extreme displacements was then calculated for each voxel, and the mean and maximum displacement was calculated for each computed tomography slice for each patient. The average maximum esophageal displacement due to cardiac motion for all patients was 5.8 mm (standard deviation: 1.6 mm, maximum: 10.0 mm in the transverse direction. For 21 of 26 patients, the largest esophageal motion was found in the inferior region of the heart; for the other patients, esophageal motion was approximately independent of superior-inferior position. The esophagus motion was larger at cardiac phases where the electrocardiogram R-wave occurs. In conclusion, the magnitude of esophageal motion near the heart due to cardiac motion is similar to that due to other sources of motion, including respiratory motion and intra-fraction motion. A larger cardiac motion will result into larger esophagus motion in a cardiac cycle.

  10. A novel approach for fast scanning of nuclear emulsions with continuous motion of the microscope stage

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aleksandrov, A., E-mail: andrey@na.infn.it [INFN sezione di Napoli, I-80125 Napoli (Italy); LPI - Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, RUS-119991 Moscow (Russian Federation); Tioukov, V. [INFN sezione di Napoli, I-80125 Napoli (Italy)

    2013-08-01

    Nuclear emulsions have been used in particle physics experiments for many decades because of their unique spatial resolution. The use of nuclear emulsions as precise tracking detectors in large experiments has recently been made possible due to advances in the production of emulsion films and to the development of very fast automatic scanning devices. The present scanning speed of the European Scanning System (ESS), which has been developed within the OPERA Collaboration, is about 20 cm{sup 2}/h. In addition to the scanning of OPERA films, the ESS is used for other applications with ever-growing demands for scanning speed, such as the muon radiography of volcanoes. In order to further increase the scanning speed of the ESS, we are testing a novel approach different from the standard stop-and-go motion of the microscope stage in the horizontal plane. Indeed we perform data acquisition with the stage moving at constant speed, using an objective lens with wide field of view. Unlike the implementation realized in Japan where the movement of objective lens and stage are synchronized to pile up images of the same view in a vertical stack, in this approach only the stage is moving horizontally. Thus images at different depths are not fully overlapped and special care is needed in the reconstruction. This approach can give a substantial increase in the scanning speed, especially for thin emulsion layers and wide field of view. In this paper we demonstrate that, after applying special corrections, the emulsion data quality can be as good as with the standard stop-and-go approach. This technique allows to double the scanning speed of the ESS, bringing it to 40 cm{sup 2}/h without any hardware modification.

  11. TU-F-BRB-01: Resolving and Characterizing Breathing Motion for Radiotherapy with MRI

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tryggestad, E. [Mayo Clinic (United States)

    2015-06-15

    The current clinical standard of organ respiratory imaging, 4D-CT, is fundamentally limited by poor soft-tissue contrast and imaging dose. These limitations are potential barriers to beneficial “4D” radiotherapy methods which optimize the target and OAR dose-volume considering breathing motion but rely on a robust motion characterization. Conversely, MRI imparts no known radiation risk and has excellent soft-tissue contrast. MRI-based motion management is therefore highly desirable and holds great promise to improve radiotherapy of moving cancers, particularly in the abdomen. Over the past decade, MRI techniques have improved significantly, making MR-based motion management clinically feasible. For example, cine MRI has high temporal resolution up to 10 f/s and has been used to track and/or characterize tumor motion, study correlation between external and internal motions. New MR technologies, such as 4D-MRI and MRI hybrid treatment machines (i.e. MR-linac or MR-Co60), have been recently developed. These technologies can lead to more accurate target volume determination and more precise radiation dose delivery via direct tumor gating or tracking. Despite all these promises, great challenges exist and the achievable clinical benefit of MRI-based tumor motion management has yet to be fully explored, much less realized. In this proposal, we will review novel MR-based motion management methods and technologies, the state-of-the-art concerning MRI development and clinical application and the barriers to more widespread adoption. Learning Objectives: Discuss the need of MR-based motion management for improving patient care in radiotherapy. Understand MR techniques for motion imaging and tumor motion characterization. Understand the current state of the art and future steps for clinical integration. Henry Ford Health System holds research agreements with Philips Healthcare. Research sponsored in part by a Henry Ford Health System Internal Mentored Grant.

  12. TU-F-BRB-01: Resolving and Characterizing Breathing Motion for Radiotherapy with MRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tryggestad, E.

    2015-01-01

    The current clinical standard of organ respiratory imaging, 4D-CT, is fundamentally limited by poor soft-tissue contrast and imaging dose. These limitations are potential barriers to beneficial “4D” radiotherapy methods which optimize the target and OAR dose-volume considering breathing motion but rely on a robust motion characterization. Conversely, MRI imparts no known radiation risk and has excellent soft-tissue contrast. MRI-based motion management is therefore highly desirable and holds great promise to improve radiotherapy of moving cancers, particularly in the abdomen. Over the past decade, MRI techniques have improved significantly, making MR-based motion management clinically feasible. For example, cine MRI has high temporal resolution up to 10 f/s and has been used to track and/or characterize tumor motion, study correlation between external and internal motions. New MR technologies, such as 4D-MRI and MRI hybrid treatment machines (i.e. MR-linac or MR-Co60), have been recently developed. These technologies can lead to more accurate target volume determination and more precise radiation dose delivery via direct tumor gating or tracking. Despite all these promises, great challenges exist and the achievable clinical benefit of MRI-based tumor motion management has yet to be fully explored, much less realized. In this proposal, we will review novel MR-based motion management methods and technologies, the state-of-the-art concerning MRI development and clinical application and the barriers to more widespread adoption. Learning Objectives: Discuss the need of MR-based motion management for improving patient care in radiotherapy. Understand MR techniques for motion imaging and tumor motion characterization. Understand the current state of the art and future steps for clinical integration. Henry Ford Health System holds research agreements with Philips Healthcare. Research sponsored in part by a Henry Ford Health System Internal Mentored Grant

  13. Fast neutron fluence calculations as support for a BWR pressure vessel and internals surveillance program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lucatero, Marco A.; Palacios-Hernandez, Javier C.; Ortiz-Villafuerte, Javier; Xolocostli-Munguia, J. Vicente; Gomez-Torres, Armando M.

    2010-01-01

    Materials surveillance programs are required to detect and prevent degradation of safety-related structures and components of a nuclear power reactor. In this work, following the directions in the Regulatory Guide 1.190, a calculational methodology is implemented as additional support for a reactor pressure vessel and internals surveillance program for a BWR. The choice of the neutronic methods employed was based on the premise of being able of performing all the expected future survey calculations in relatively short times, but without compromising accuracy. First, a geometrical model of a typical BWR was developed, from the core to the primary containment, including jet pumps and all other structures. The methodology uses the Synthesis Method to compute the three-dimensional neutron flux distribution. In the methodology, the code CORE-MASTER-PRESTO is used as the three-dimensional core simulator; SCALE is used to generate the fine-group flux spectra of the components of the model and also used to generate a 47 energy-groups job cross section library, collapsed from the 199-fine-group master library VITAMIN-B6; ORIGEN2 was used to compute the isotopic densities of uranium and plutonium; and, finally, DORT was used to calculate the two-dimensional and one-dimensional neutron flux distributions required to compute the synthesized three-dimensional neutron flux. Then, the calculation of fast neutron fluence was performed using the effective full power time periods through six operational fuel cycles of two BWR Units and until the 13th cycle for Unit 1. The results showed a maximum relative difference between the calculated-by-synthesis fast neutron fluxes and fluences and those measured by Fe, Cu and Ni dosimeters less than 7%. The dosimeters were originally located adjacent to the pressure vessel wall, as part of the surveillance program. Results from the computations of peak fast fluence on pressure vessel wall and specific weld locations on the core shroud are

  14. Design and implementation of motion planning of inspection and maintenance robot for ITER-like vessel

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Hesheng; Lai, Yinping [Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China (China); Chen, Weidong, E-mail: wdchen@sjtu.edu.cn [Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China (China); Cao, Qixin [Institute of Robotics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China)

    2015-12-15

    Robot motion planning is a fundamental problem to ensure the robot executing the task without clashes, fast and accurately in a special environment. In this paper, a motion planning of a 12 DOFs remote handling robot used for inspecting the working state of the ITER-like vessel and maintaining key device components is proposed and implemented. Firstly, the forward and inverse kinematics are given by analytic method. The work space and posture space of this manipulator are both considered. Then the motion planning is divided into three stages: coming out of the cassette mover, moving along the in-vessel center line, and inspecting the D-shape section. Lastly, the result of experiments verified the performance of the motion design method. In addition, the task of unscrewing/screwing the screw demonstrated the feasibility of system in function.

  15. Influence of Visual Motion, Suggestion, and Illusory Motion on Self-Motion Perception in the Horizontal Plane.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenblatt, Steven David; Crane, Benjamin Thomas

    2015-01-01

    A moving visual field can induce the feeling of self-motion or vection. Illusory motion from static repeated asymmetric patterns creates a compelling visual motion stimulus, but it is unclear if such illusory motion can induce a feeling of self-motion or alter self-motion perception. In these experiments, human subjects reported the perceived direction of self-motion for sway translation and yaw rotation at the end of a period of viewing set visual stimuli coordinated with varying inertial stimuli. This tested the hypothesis that illusory visual motion would influence self-motion perception in the horizontal plane. Trials were arranged into 5 blocks based on stimulus type: moving star field with yaw rotation, moving star field with sway translation, illusory motion with yaw, illusory motion with sway, and static arrows with sway. Static arrows were used to evaluate the effect of cognitive suggestion on self-motion perception. Each trial had a control condition; the illusory motion controls were altered versions of the experimental image, which removed the illusory motion effect. For the moving visual stimulus, controls were carried out in a dark room. With the arrow visual stimulus, controls were a gray screen. In blocks containing a visual stimulus there was an 8s viewing interval with the inertial stimulus occurring over the final 1s. This allowed measurement of the visual illusion perception using objective methods. When no visual stimulus was present, only the 1s motion stimulus was presented. Eight women and five men (mean age 37) participated. To assess for a shift in self-motion perception, the effect of each visual stimulus on the self-motion stimulus (cm/s) at which subjects were equally likely to report motion in either direction was measured. Significant effects were seen for moving star fields for both translation (p = 0.001) and rotation (pperception was shifted in the direction consistent with the visual stimulus. Arrows had a small effect on self-motion

  16. The Southern Proper Motion Program. IV. The SPM4 Catalog

    Science.gov (United States)

    Girard, Terrence M.; van Altena, William F.; Zacharias, Norbert; Vieira, Katherine; Casetti-Dinescu, Dana I.; Castillo, Danilo; Herrera, David; Lee, Young Sun; Beers, Timothy C.; Monet, David G.; López, Carlos E.

    2011-07-01

    We present the fourth installment of the Yale/San Juan Southern Proper Motion Catalog, SPM4. The SPM4 contains absolute proper motions, celestial coordinates, and B, V photometry for over 103 million stars and galaxies between the south celestial pole and -20° declination. The catalog is roughly complete to V = 17.5 and is based on photographic and CCD observations taken with the Yale Southern Observatory's double astrograph at Cesco Observatory in El Leoncito, Argentina. The proper-motion precision, for well-measured stars, is estimated to be 2-3 mas yr-1, depending on the type of second-epoch material. At the bright end, proper motions are on the International Celestial Reference System by way of Hipparcos Catalog stars, while the faint end is anchored to the inertial system using external galaxies. Systematic uncertainties in the absolute proper motions are on the order of 1 mas yr-1.

  17. Fasting glycaemia to simplify screening for gestational diabetes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryser Rüetschi, J; Jornayvaz, F R; Rivest, R; Huhn, E A; Irion, O; Boulvain, M

    2016-12-01

    Recommendations in Switzerland on screening for gestational diabetes endorse the International Association of Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group consensus. As universal testing is time consuming and glucose loading is unpleasant, the recommendations include a simplification, not performing the glucose loading in women with fasting glycaemia fasting glycaemia was fasting glycaemia. The prevalence of gestational diabetes was 10.9% in our population. Among 251 women with gestational diabetes, fasting glycaemia was ≥5.1 mmol/l in 119 women (47.4%), between 4.4 and fasting glycaemia between 4.4 and fasting glycaemia is an attractive alternative to universal screening with the complete 75-g glucose tolerance test. This strategy is, however, slightly less sensitive than previously reported in higher-risk populations. Fasting glycaemia can be considered as an alternative to the complete test for gestational diabetes screening. © 2016 Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

  18. Evaluation of feature detection algorithms for structure from motion

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Govender, N

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available technique with an application to stereo vision,” in International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, April 1981. [17] C.Tomasi and T.Kanade, “Detection and tracking of point fetaures,” Carnegie Mellon, Tech. Rep., April 1991. [18] P. Torr... Algorithms for Structure from Motion Natasha Govender Mobile Intelligent Autonomous Systems CSIR Pretoria Email: ngovender@csir.co.za Abstract—Structure from motion is a widely-used technique in computer vision to perform 3D reconstruction. The 3D...

  19. Space and velocity distributions of fast ions in magnetically confined plasmas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kolesnichenko, Ya.I.; Lutsenko, V.V.; Lisak, M.; Wising, F.

    1994-01-01

    General expressions in terms of the orbit averaged distribution function are obtained for local characteristic quantities of fast ions, such as the velocity distribution, energy density and power deposition. The resulting expressions are applied to the case of a very peaked production profile of fast ions, characterized by particularly strong orbital effects. It is shown that in this case the radial profiles of the fast ions can be qualitatively different from the source profile, being e.g. strongly non-monotonic. The analysis is carried out for a straight as well as for a tokamak magnetic field. It is predicted that marginally co-passing and semi-trapped particles (i.e. particles that are trapped in only one azimuthal direction) can be transformed to trapped and circulating particles due to electron drag. This leads to e.g. different distribution functions of fast ions in the cases of co- or counter-injection. Collisional constants of motion are obtained

  20. Surface EMG signals based motion intent recognition using multi-layer ELM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jianhui; Qi, Lin; Wang, Xiao

    2017-11-01

    The upper-limb rehabilitation robot is regard as a useful tool to help patients with hemiplegic to do repetitive exercise. The surface electromyography (sEMG) contains motion information as the electric signals are generated and related to nerve-muscle motion. These sEMG signals, representing human's intentions of active motions, are introduced into the rehabilitation robot system to recognize upper-limb movements. Traditionally, the feature extraction is an indispensable part of drawing significant information from original signals, which is a tedious task requiring rich and related experience. This paper employs a deep learning scheme to extract the internal features of the sEMG signals using an advanced Extreme Learning Machine based auto-encoder (ELMAE). The mathematical information contained in the multi-layer structure of the ELM-AE is used as the high-level representation of the internal features of the sEMG signals, and thus a simple ELM can post-process the extracted features, formulating the entire multi-layer ELM (ML-ELM) algorithm. The method is employed for the sEMG based neural intentions recognition afterwards. The case studies show the adopted deep learning algorithm (ELM-AE) is capable of yielding higher classification accuracy compared to the Principle Component Analysis (PCA) scheme in 5 different types of upper-limb motions. This indicates the effectiveness and the learning capability of the ML-ELM in such motion intent recognition applications.

  1. Influence of Visual Motion, Suggestion, and Illusory Motion on Self-Motion Perception in the Horizontal Plane.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven David Rosenblatt

    Full Text Available A moving visual field can induce the feeling of self-motion or vection. Illusory motion from static repeated asymmetric patterns creates a compelling visual motion stimulus, but it is unclear if such illusory motion can induce a feeling of self-motion or alter self-motion perception. In these experiments, human subjects reported the perceived direction of self-motion for sway translation and yaw rotation at the end of a period of viewing set visual stimuli coordinated with varying inertial stimuli. This tested the hypothesis that illusory visual motion would influence self-motion perception in the horizontal plane. Trials were arranged into 5 blocks based on stimulus type: moving star field with yaw rotation, moving star field with sway translation, illusory motion with yaw, illusory motion with sway, and static arrows with sway. Static arrows were used to evaluate the effect of cognitive suggestion on self-motion perception. Each trial had a control condition; the illusory motion controls were altered versions of the experimental image, which removed the illusory motion effect. For the moving visual stimulus, controls were carried out in a dark room. With the arrow visual stimulus, controls were a gray screen. In blocks containing a visual stimulus there was an 8s viewing interval with the inertial stimulus occurring over the final 1s. This allowed measurement of the visual illusion perception using objective methods. When no visual stimulus was present, only the 1s motion stimulus was presented. Eight women and five men (mean age 37 participated. To assess for a shift in self-motion perception, the effect of each visual stimulus on the self-motion stimulus (cm/s at which subjects were equally likely to report motion in either direction was measured. Significant effects were seen for moving star fields for both translation (p = 0.001 and rotation (p0.1 for both. Thus, although a true moving visual field can induce self-motion, results of this

  2. Fast-response LCDs for virtual reality applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Haiwei; Peng, Fenglin; Gou, Fangwang; Wand, Michael; Wu, Shin-Tson

    2017-02-01

    We demonstrate a fast-response liquid crystal display (LCD) with an ultra-low-viscosity nematic LC mixture. The measured average motion picture response time is only 6.88 ms, which is comparable to 6.66 ms for an OLED at a 120 Hz frame rate. If we slightly increase the TFT frame rate and/or reduce the backlight duty ratio, image blurs can be further suppressed to unnoticeable level. Potential applications of such an image-blur-free LCD for virtual reality, gaming monitors, and TVs are foreseeable.

  3. Allocation of Internal Medicine Resident Time in a Swiss Hospital: A Time and Motion Study of Day and Evening Shifts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wenger, Nathalie; Méan, Marie; Castioni, Julien; Marques-Vidal, Pedro; Waeber, Gérard; Garnier, Antoine

    2017-04-18

    Little current evidence documents how internal medicine residents spend their time at work, particularly with regard to the proportions of time spent in direct patient care versus using computers. To describe how residents allocate their time during day and evening hospital shifts. Time and motion study. Internal medicine residency at a university hospital in Switzerland, May to July 2015. 36 internal medicine residents with an average of 29 months of postgraduate training. Trained observers recorded the residents' activities using a tablet-based application. Twenty-two activities were categorized as directly related to patients, indirectly related to patients, communication, academic, nonmedical tasks, and transition. In addition, the presence of a patient or colleague and use of a computer or telephone during each activity was recorded. Residents were observed for a total of 696.7 hours. Day shifts lasted 11.6 hours (1.6 hours more than scheduled). During these shifts, activities indirectly related to patients accounted for 52.4% of the time, and activities directly related to patients accounted for 28.0%. Residents spent an average of 1.7 hours with patients, 5.2 hours using computers, and 13 minutes doing both. Time spent using a computer was scattered throughout the day, with the heaviest use after 6:00 p.m. The study involved a small sample from 1 institution. At this Swiss teaching hospital, internal medicine residents spent more time at work than scheduled. Activities indirectly related to patients predominated, and about half the workday was spent using a computer. Information Technology Department and Department of Internal Medicine of Lausanne University Hospital.

  4. Fuel-motion diagnostics for PFR/TREAT experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    DeVolpi, A.; Doerner, R.C.; Fink, C.L.; Regis, J.P.; Rhodes, E.A.; Stanford, G.S.

    1984-01-01

    In all the transients in the PFR/TREAT series, fuel motion had been monitored by the fast-neutron hodoscope. This paper treats the enhancements in hodoscope operation and data analysis since the start of the PFR/TREAT tests. The hodoscope has a maximum viewing height of 1.2 m. Data collection intervals for the series have been in the order of 1 ms, depending on the duration of the transient. Mass-displacement resolutions of about 0.1 g are achievable for the single-pin tests and 1 g for 7-pin tests. The hodoscope system can accommodate the full dynamic range of power

  5. IGS polar motion measurement accuracy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jim Ray

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available We elaborate an error budget for the long-term accuracy of IGS (International Global Navigation Satellite System Service polar motion estimates, concluding that it is probably about 25–30 μas (1-sigma overall, although it is not possible to quantify possible contributions (mainly annual that might transfer directly from aliases of subdaily rotational tide errors. The leading sources are biases arising from the need to align daily, observed terrestrial frames, within which the pole coordinates are expressed and which are continuously deforming, to the secular, linear international reference frame. Such biases are largest over spans longer than about a year. Thanks to the very large number of IGS tracking stations, the formal covariance errors are much smaller, around 5 to 10 μas. Large networks also permit the systematic frame-related errors to be more effectively minimized but not eliminated. A number of periodic errors probably also influence polar motion results, mainly at annual, GPS (Global Positioning System draconitic, and fortnightly periods, but their impact on the overall error budget is unlikely to be significant except possibly for annual tidal aliases. Nevertheless, caution should be exercised in interpreting geophysical excitations near any of the suspect periods.

  6. Human Perception of Ambiguous Inertial Motion Cues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Guan-Lu

    2010-01-01

    Human daily activities on Earth involve motions that elicit both tilt and translation components of the head (i.e. gazing and locomotion). With otolith cues alone, tilt and translation can be ambiguous since both motions can potentially displace the otolithic membrane by the same magnitude and direction. Transitions between gravity environments (i.e. Earth, microgravity and lunar) have demonstrated to alter the functions of the vestibular system and exacerbate the ambiguity between tilt and translational motion cues. Symptoms of motion sickness and spatial disorientation can impair human performances during critical mission phases. Specifically, Space Shuttle landing records show that particular cases of tilt-translation illusions have impaired the performance of seasoned commanders. This sensorimotor condition is one of many operational risks that may have dire implications on future human space exploration missions. The neural strategy with which the human central nervous system distinguishes ambiguous inertial motion cues remains the subject of intense research. A prevailing theory in the neuroscience field proposes that the human brain is able to formulate a neural internal model of ambiguous motion cues such that tilt and translation components can be perceptually decomposed in order to elicit the appropriate bodily response. The present work uses this theory, known as the GIF resolution hypothesis, as the framework for experimental hypothesis. Specifically, two novel motion paradigms are employed to validate the neural capacity of ambiguous inertial motion decomposition in ground-based human subjects. The experimental setup involves the Tilt-Translation Sled at Neuroscience Laboratory of NASA JSC. This two degree-of-freedom motion system is able to tilt subjects in the pitch plane and translate the subject along the fore-aft axis. Perception data will be gathered through subject verbal reports. Preliminary analysis of perceptual data does not indicate that

  7. Descriptive profile of hip rotation range of motion in elite tennis players and professional baseball pitchers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellenbecker, Todd S; Ellenbecker, Gail A; Roetert, E Paul; Silva, Rogerio Teixeira; Keuter, Greg; Sperling, Fabio

    2007-08-01

    Repetitive loading to the hip joint in athletes has been reported as a factor in the development of degenerative joint disease and intra-articular injury. Little information is available on the bilateral symmetry of hip rotational measures in unilaterally dominant upper extremity athletes. Side-to-side differences in hip joint range of motion may be present because of asymmetrical loading in the lower extremities of elite tennis players and professional baseball pitchers. Cohort (cross-sectional) study (prevalence); Level of evidence, 1. Descriptive measures of hip internal and external rotation active range of motion were taken in the prone position of 64 male and 83 female elite tennis players and 101 male professional baseball pitchers using digital photos and computerized angle calculation software. Bilateral differences in active range of motion between the dominant and nondominant hip were compared using paired t tests and Bonferroni correction for hip internal, external, and total rotation range of motion. A Pearson correlation test was used to test the relationship between years of competition and hip rotation active range of motion. No significant bilateral difference (P > .005) was measured for mean hip internal or external rotation for the elite tennis players or the professional baseball pitchers. An analysis of the number of subjects in each group with a bilateral difference in hip rotation greater than 10 degrees identified 17% of the professional baseball pitchers with internal rotation differences and 42% with external rotation differences. Differences in the elite male tennis players occurred in only 15% of the players for internal rotation and 9% in external rotation. Female subjects had differences in 8% and 12% of the players for internal and external rotation, respectively. Statistical differences were found between the mean total arc of hip range of internal and external rotation in the elite tennis players with the dominant side being greater

  8. Bio-inspired motion detection in an FPGA-based smart camera module

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koehler, T; Roechter, F; Moeller, R; Lindemann, J P

    2009-01-01

    Flying insects, despite their relatively coarse vision and tiny nervous system, are capable of carrying out elegant and fast aerial manoeuvres. Studies of the fly visual system have shown that this is accomplished by the integration of signals from a large number of elementary motion detectors (EMDs) in just a few global flow detector cells. We developed an FPGA-based smart camera module with more than 10 000 single EMDs, which is closely modelled after insect motion-detection circuits with respect to overall architecture, resolution and inter-receptor spacing. Input to the EMD array is provided by a CMOS camera with a high frame rate. Designed as an adaptable solution for different engineering applications and as a testbed for biological models, the EMD detector type and parameters such as the EMD time constants, the motion-detection directions and the angle between correlated receptors are reconfigurable online. This allows a flexible and simultaneous detection of complex motion fields such as translation, rotation and looming, such that various tasks, e.g., obstacle avoidance, height/distance control or speed regulation can be performed by the same compact device

  9. Automatic online and real-time tumour motion monitoring during stereotactic liver treatments on a conventional linac by combined optical and sparse monoscopic imaging with kilovoltage x-rays (COSMIK)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bertholet, Jenny; Toftegaard, Jakob; Hansen, Rune

    2018-01-01

    during the CBCT is estimated from the auto-segmented positions in the projections and used to optimize an external correlation model (ECM) of internal motion as a function of external motion. During treatment, the ECM estimates the internal motion from the external motion at 20 Hz. KV images are acquired...... every 3 s, auto-segmented, and used to update the ECM for baseline shifts between internal and external motion. The COSMIK method was validated using Calypso-recorded internal tumour motion with simultaneous camera-recorded external motion for 15 liver stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) patients....... The validation included phantom experiments and simulations hereof for 12 fractions and further simulations for 42 fractions. The simulations compared the accuracy of COSMIK with ECM-based monitoring without model updates and with model updates based on stereoscopic imaging as well as continuous kilovoltage...

  10. 19 CFR 210.52 - Motions for temporary relief.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ....52 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION INVESTIGATIONS OF UNFAIR PRACTICES IN IMPORT TRADE ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT Temporary Relief § 210.52 Motions for temporary relief... issuance of temporary relief, the Commission will be guided by practice under Rule 65 of the Federal Rules...

  11. Prediction of Critical Heat Flux under Rolling Motion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hwang, Jinseok; Lee, Yeongun; Park, Gooncherl [Seoul National Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2013-05-15

    The aim to this paper may be summarized as follows: identify the flow regime compare with existing void-quality relationship and void fraction at OAF derived from the vapor superficial velocity obtained by the churn-to annular flow criterion, develop and evaluate the correlation for accurate prediction of CHF ratio under rolling motion. Experimentally measured CHF results from the previous study were not well-predicted by existing CHF correlations developed for wide range of pressure under rolling motion in vertical tube. Specifically, existing correlations do not account for the dynamic motion parameter, such as tangential and centrifugal force. This study reviewed some existing correlation and experimental studies related to reduction and enhancement of CHF and heat transfer and flow behavior under heaving and rolling motion, and developed a CHF ratio correlation for upward flow vertical tube under rolling motion. Based upon dimensionless groups, equations and interpolation factor, an empirical CHF correlation has been developed which is consistent with experimental data for uniformly heated tubes internally cooled by R-134 under rolling motion. Flow regime was determined through the prediction method for annular flow. Non-dimensional number and function were decided by CHF mechanism of each region. Interaction of LFD and DNB regions is taken into account by means of power interpolation which is reflected void fraction at OAF. The suggested correlation predicted the CHF Ratio with reasonable accuracy, showing an average error of -0.59 and 2.51% for RMS. Rolling motion can affect bubble motion and liquid film behavior complexly by combination of tangential and centrifugal forces and mass flow than heaving motion. Through a search of literature and a comparison of previous CHF ratio results, this work can contribute to the study of boiling heat transfer and CHF for the purpose of enhancement or reduction the CHF of dynamic motion system, such as marine reactor.

  12. [Fast-track treatment--second revolution of colorectal surgery].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kellokumpu, Ilmo

    2012-01-01

    The fast-track treatment model can be regarded as the second revolution of colorectal surgery after the introduction of laparoscopic surgery. In the gastro-surgical unit of the Central Hospital of Central Finland, results equivalent to international studies in colorectal surgery have been achieved by using fast-track model. In a study setting, this treatment model has resulted in significant decrease of total treatment costs and speeded up discharge of the patients from the hospital. The fast-track treatment model requires both a motivated, trained medical team and a motivated patient.

  13. Investigation of point triangulation methods for optimality and performance in Structure from Motion systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Structure from Motion (SFM) systems are composed of cameras and structure in the form of 3D points and other features. It is most often that the structure components outnumber the cameras by a great margin. It is not uncommon to have a configuration with 3 cameras observing more than 500 3D points...... an overview of existing triangulation methods with emphasis on performance versus optimality, and will suggest a fast triangulation algorithm based on linear constraints. The structure and camera motion estimation in a SFM system is based on the minimization of some norm of the reprojection error between...

  14. Flow Behavior Around a Fast-Starting Robotic Fish

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Ganzhong; Currier, Todd; Modarres-Sadeghi, Yahya

    2017-11-01

    A robotic fish is used to study the flow behavior around the body of a fast-starting fish as it experiences a fast-start. The robotic fish is designed and built emulating a Northern Pike, Esox Lucius, which can accelerate at up to 245 m/s2. In previous studies, we had focused on the flow around the tail during the fast-start, by using a tail which acted flexibly in the preparatory stage and rigidly in the propulsive stage. We have extended that study by including the fish body in the experimental setup, where the body can bend into a C-shape, so that the influence of the body motion on the resulting flow around the structure can be understood as well. In the tests, the fish can rotate about a vertical axis, where a multi-axis force sensor measures flow forces acting on the body. Synchronized with the force measurement, flow visualizations using bubble image velocimetry are conducted, and the observed shed vortices are related to the peak forces observed during the maneuver.

  15. The ELETTRA fast magnets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tommasini, D.

    1992-01-01

    The design of the fast magnets to be used to inject the electron beam into the 2 GeV storage ring Elettra is presented and discussed. Injection makes use of two types of fast magnets: the septa and the kickers. There are two identical septa magnets of the so called 'eddy current' type, which will be housed in a vacuum tank. The orbit bump is generated by four identical kicker magnets symmetrically placed around the mid-point of a single straight section: they will be in air with an internal vacuum chamber. Extensive electric and magnetic tests have been performed on prototypes, and the relevant results are presented and discussed. (author) 6 refs.; 6 figs.; 2 tabs

  16. International orientation and export commitment in fast small and medium size firms internationalization: scales validation and implications for the Brazilian case

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcelo André Machado

    Full Text Available Abstract A set of changes in the competitive environment has recently provoked the emergence of a new kind of organization that has since its creation a meaningful share of its revenue being originated from international activities developed in more than one continent. Within this new reality, the internationalization of the firm in phases or according to its growth has resulted in it losing its capacity to explain this process with regard to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME. Thus, in this paper, the international orientation (IO and export commitment (EC constructs have been revised under a theoretical context of the fast internationalization of medium-sized companies, so as to identify scales that more accurately measure these dimensions in the Brazilian setting. After a literature review and an exploratory research, the IO and EC scales proposed by Knight and Cavusgil (2004 and Shamsuddoha and Ali (2006 were respectively applied to a sample of 398 small- and medium-sized exporting Brazilian companies. In spite of conjunction and situation differences inherent to the Brazilian companies, the selected scales presented high measuring reliability. Furthermore, the field research outcomes provide evidence for the existence of a phenomenon of fast internationalization in medium-sized companies in Brazil, as well as support some theoretical assumptions of other empirical investigations carried out with samples from developed countries.

  17. Superluminal motion of extragalactic objects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Matveenko, L.I. (AN SSSR, Moscow. Inst. Kosmicheskikh Issledovanij)

    1983-07-01

    Extragalactic objects with active nuclei are reviewed. Experimental data are obtained with the method of superfar radiointerferometry. The main peculiarities of the complex structure of Seyfert galaxies, quasars and lacertae objects are considered: the distribution of radiobrightness, spectra, alteration of the density of radiation flux and the distance between the components of sources. The superluminal velocities of component divergence observed are explained by different reasons: fast motion of components considerable difference of the Hubble component or non-cosmologic nature of the red shift of objects, effect of echoreflection of radiation, gravitation lens, systematic alteration of the optical thickness of the object, synchronouys radiation of electrons in the dipole magnetic field, as well as different kinematic illusions connected with the final time of signal propagation.

  18. Superluminal motion of extragalactic objects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matveenko, L.I.

    1983-01-01

    Extragalactic objects with active nuclei are reviewed. Experimental data are obtained with the method of superfar radiointerferometry. The main peculiarities of the complex strUcture of Seyfert galaxies quasars and lacertae ob ects are considered: the distribution of radiobrightness, spectra, alteration of the density of radiation flux and the distance between the components of sources. The superluminal velocities of component divergence observed are explained by different reasons: fast motion of components considerable difference of the Hubble component or non-cosmologic nature of the red shift of objects, effect of echoreflection of radiation, gravitation lens, systematic alteration of the optical thickness of the object, synchronoUs radiation of electrons in the dipole magnetic field, as well as different kinematic illusions connected with the final time of signal propagation

  19. Fast wave current drive on DIII-D

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    deGrassie, J.S.; Petty, C.C.; Pinsker, R.I.

    1995-01-01

    The physics of electron heating and current drive with the fast magnetosonic wave has been demonstrated on DIII-D, in reasonable agreement with theoretical modeling. A recently completed upgrade to the fast wave capability should allow full noninductive current drive in steady state advanced confinement discharges and provide some current density profile control for the Advanced Tokamak Program. DIII-D now has three four-strap fast wave antennas and three transmitters, each with nominally 2 MW of generator power. Extensive experiments have been conducted with the first system, at 60 MHz, while the two newer systems have come into operation within the past year. The newer systems are configured for 60 to 120 MHz. The measured FWCD efficiency is found to increase linearly with electron temperature as γ = 0.4 x 10 18 T eo (keV) [A/m 2 W], measured up to central electron temperature over 5 keV. A newly developed technique for determining the internal noninductive current density profile gives efficiencies in agreement with this scaling and profiles consistent with theoretical predictions. Full noninductive current drive at 170 kA was achieved in a discharge prepared by rampdown of the Ohmic current. Modulation of microwave reflectometry signals at the fast wave frequency is being used to investigate fast wave propagation and damping. Additionally, rf pick-up probes on the internal boundary of the vessel provide a comparison with ray tracing codes, with dear evidence for a toroidally directed wave with antenna phasing set for current drive. There is some experimental evidence for fast wave absorption by energetic beam ions at high cyclotron harmonic resonances

  20. Contribution of metallic fission product inclusions to axial fuel motion potential

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sasa, P.; Cronenberg, A.; Stevenson, M.

    1979-01-01

    In the analysis of postulated nuclear reactor accidents, axial fuel motion within the fuel pin prior to cladding failure can have an important mitigating effect. The question of primary importance is whether or not metallic inclusions have the potential to vaporize during an overheating event and thus contribute to fuel motion. To assess this potential, two limiting calculations were made: 1) The inclusion constituent assumed insoluble in one another and 2) The constituents assumed totally miscible in one another. Thermodynamic considerations indicate that the metallic fission products found within inclusions of fuel rods irradiated in a fast neutron spectrum, would form homogeneous solutions. Therefore, it is concluded that the metallic fission products would not enhance fuel swelling during an overheating event. 16 refs

  1. Multiscale sampling model for motion integration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sherbakov, Lena; Yazdanbakhsh, Arash

    2013-09-30

    Biologically plausible strategies for visual scene integration across spatial and temporal domains continues to be a challenging topic. The fundamental question we address is whether classical problems in motion integration, such as the aperture problem, can be solved in a model that samples the visual scene at multiple spatial and temporal scales in parallel. We hypothesize that fast interareal connections that allow feedback of information between cortical layers are the key processes that disambiguate motion direction. We developed a neural model showing how the aperture problem can be solved using different spatial sampling scales between LGN, V1 layer 4, V1 layer 6, and area MT. Our results suggest that multiscale sampling, rather than feedback explicitly, is the key process that gives rise to end-stopped cells in V1 and enables area MT to solve the aperture problem without the need for calculating intersecting constraints or crafting intricate patterns of spatiotemporal receptive fields. Furthermore, the model explains why end-stopped cells no longer emerge in the absence of V1 layer 6 activity (Bolz & Gilbert, 1986), why V1 layer 4 cells are significantly more end-stopped than V1 layer 6 cells (Pack, Livingstone, Duffy, & Born, 2003), and how it is possible to have a solution to the aperture problem in area MT with no solution in V1 in the presence of driving feedback. In summary, while much research in the field focuses on how a laminar architecture can give rise to complicated spatiotemporal receptive fields to solve problems in the motion domain, we show that one can reframe motion integration as an emergent property of multiscale sampling achieved concurrently within lamina and across multiple visual areas.

  2. Coded aperture imaging system for nuclear fuel motion detection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stalker, K.T.; Kelly, J.G.

    1980-01-01

    A Coded Aperature Imaging System (CAIS) has been developed at Sandia National Laboratories to image the motion of nuclear fuel rods undergoing tests simulating accident conditions within a liquid metal fast breeder reactor. The tests require that the motion of the test fuel be monitored while it is immersed in a liquid sodium coolant precluding the use of normal optical means of imaging. However, using the fission gamma rays emitted by the fuel itself and coded aperture techniques, images with 1.5 mm radial and 5 mm axial resolution have been attained. Using an electro-optical detection system coupled to a high speed motion picture camera a time resolution of one millisecond can be achieved. This paper will discuss the application of coded aperture imaging to the problem, including the design of the one-dimensional Fresnel zone plate apertures used and the special problems arising from the reactor environment and use of high energy gamma ray photons to form the coded image. Also to be discussed will be the reconstruction techniques employed and the effect of various noise sources on system performance. Finally, some experimental results obtained using the system will be presented

  3. Integration of auditory and kinesthetic information in motion: alterations in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabaté, Magdalena; Llanos, Catalina; Rodríguez, Manuel

    2008-07-01

    The main aim in this work was to study the interaction between auditory and kinesthetic stimuli and its influence on motion control. The study was performed on healthy subjects and patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Thirty-five right-handed volunteers (young, PD, and age-matched healthy participants, and PD-patients) were studied with three different motor tasks (slow cyclic movements, fast cyclic movements, and slow continuous movements) and under the action of kinesthetic stimuli and sounds at different beat rates. The action of kinesthesia was evaluated by comparing real movements with virtual movements (movements imaged but not executed). The fast cyclic task was accelerated by kinesthetic but not by auditory stimuli. The slow cyclic task changed with the beat rate of sounds but not with kinesthetic stimuli. The slow continuous task showed an integrated response to both sensorial modalities. These data show that the influence of the multisensory integration on motion changes with the motor task and that some motor patterns are modulated by the simultaneous action of auditory and kinesthetic information, a cross-modal integration that was different in PD-patients. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved.

  4. Fast flux test facility noise data management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thie, J.A.

    1988-01-01

    An extensive collection of spectra from an automated data collection system at the Fast Flux Facility has features from neutron data extracted and managed by database software. Inquiry techniques, including screening, applied to database results show the influences of control rods on wideband noise and, more generally, abilities to detect diverse types of off-normal noise. Uncovering a temporary 0.1-Hz resonance shift gave additional diagnostic information on a 13-Hz mechanical motion characterized by the interference of two resonances. The latter phenomenon is discussed generically for possible application to other reactor types. (author)

  5. Status of national programmes on fast reactors 1998/99. 32nd annual meeting. Working material

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1999-07-01

    Over the past 32 years, the IAEA has actively encouraged and advocated international cooperation in fast reactor technology. The present publication contains information on the status of fast reactor development and on worldwide activities in this advanced nuclear power technology during 1998/1999, as reported at the 32. annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors. It is intended to provide information regarding the current status of LMFR development in IAEA Member States.

  6. Status of national programmes on fast reactors 1998/99. 32nd annual meeting. Working material

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-01-01

    Over the past 32 years, the IAEA has actively encouraged and advocated international cooperation in fast reactor technology. The present publication contains information on the status of fast reactor development and on worldwide activities in this advanced nuclear power technology during 1998/1999, as reported at the 32. annual meeting of the International Working Group on Fast Reactors. It is intended to provide information regarding the current status of LMFR development in IAEA Member States

  7. Fast reactor safety and computational thermo-fluid dynamics approaches

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ninokata, Hisashi; Shimizu, Takeshi

    1993-01-01

    This article provides a brief description of the safety principle on which liquid metal cooled fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs) is based and the roles of computations in the safety practices. A number of thermohydraulics models have been developed to date that successfully describe several of the important types of fluids and materials motion encountered in the analysis of postulated accidents in LMFBRs. Most of these models use a mixture of implicit and explicit numerical solution techniques in solving a set of conservation equations formulated in Eulerian coordinates, with special techniques included to specific situations. Typical computational thermo-fluid dynamics approaches are discussed in particular areas of analyses of the physical phenomena relevant to the fuel subassembly thermohydraulics design and that involve describing the motion of molten materials in the core over a large scale. (orig.)

  8. The Role of Motion Concepts in Understanding Non-Motion Concepts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Omid Khatin-Zadeh

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This article discusses a specific type of metaphor in which an abstract non-motion domain is described in terms of a motion event. Abstract non-motion domains are inherently different from concrete motion domains. However, motion domains are used to describe abstract non-motion domains in many metaphors. Three main reasons are suggested for the suitability of motion events in such metaphorical descriptions. Firstly, motion events usually have high degrees of concreteness. Secondly, motion events are highly imageable. Thirdly, components of any motion event can be imagined almost simultaneously within a three-dimensional space. These three characteristics make motion events suitable domains for describing abstract non-motion domains, and facilitate the process of online comprehension throughout language processing. Extending the main point into the field of mathematics, this article discusses the process of transforming abstract mathematical problems into imageable geometric representations within the three-dimensional space. This strategy is widely used by mathematicians to solve highly abstract and complex problems.

  9. Chaos in the motion of a test scalar particle coupling to the Einstein tensor in Schwarzschild-Melvin black hole spacetime

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Mingzhi [Hunan Normal University, Department of Physics, Institute of Physics, Changsha, Hunan (China); Hunan Normal University, Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Structures and Quantum Control of Ministry of Education, Changsha, Hunan (China); Chen, Songbai; Jing, Jiliang [Hunan Normal University, Department of Physics, Institute of Physics, Changsha, Hunan (China); Hunan Normal University, Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Structures and Quantum Control of Ministry of Education, Changsha, Hunan (China); Hunan Normal University, Synergetic Innovation Center for Quantum Effects and Applications, Changsha, Hunan (China)

    2017-04-15

    We present firstly the equation of motion for a test scalar particle coupling to the Einstein tensor in the Schwarzschild-Melvin black hole spacetime through the short-wave approximation. Through analyzing Poincare sections, the power spectrum, the fast Lyapunov exponent indicator and the bifurcation diagram, we investigate the effects of the coupling parameter on the chaotic behavior of the particles. With the increase of the coupling strength, we find that the motion of the coupled particle for the chosen parameters becomes more regular and order for the negative couple constant. While, for the positive one, the motion of the coupled particles first undergoes a series of transitions betweens chaotic motion and regular motion and then falls into horizon or escapes to spatial infinity. Our results show that the coupling brings about richer effects for the motion of the particles. (orig.)

  10. Shaking Takete and Flowing Maluma. Non-Sense Words Are Associated with Motion Patterns.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Markus Koppensteiner

    Full Text Available People assign the artificial words takete and kiki to spiky, angular figures and the artificial words maluma and bouba to rounded figures. We examined whether such a cross-modal correspondence could also be found for human body motion. We transferred the body movements of speakers onto two-dimensional coordinates and created animated stick-figures based on this data. Then we invited people to judge these stimuli using the words takete-maluma, bouba-kiki, and several verbal descriptors that served as measures of angularity/smoothness. In addition to this we extracted the quantity of motion, the velocity of motion and the average angle between motion vectors from the coordinate data. Judgments of takete (and kiki were related to verbal descriptors of angularity, a high quantity of motion, high velocity and sharper angles. Judgments of maluma (or bouba were related to smooth movements, a low velocity, a lower quantity of motion and blunter angles. A forced-choice experiment during which we presented subsets with low and high rankers on our motion measures revealed that people preferably assigned stimuli displaying fast movements with sharp angles in motion vectors to takete and stimuli displaying slow movements with blunter angles in motion vectors to maluma. Results indicated that body movements share features with information inherent in words such as takete and maluma and that people perceive the body movements of speakers on the level of changes in motion direction (e.g., body moves to the left and then back to the right. Follow-up studies are needed to clarify whether impressions of angularity and smoothness have similar communicative values across different modalities and how this affects social judgments and person perception.

  11. Shaking Takete and Flowing Maluma. Non-Sense Words Are Associated with Motion Patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koppensteiner, Markus; Stephan, Pia; Jäschke, Johannes Paul Michael

    2016-01-01

    People assign the artificial words takete and kiki to spiky, angular figures and the artificial words maluma and bouba to rounded figures. We examined whether such a cross-modal correspondence could also be found for human body motion. We transferred the body movements of speakers onto two-dimensional coordinates and created animated stick-figures based on this data. Then we invited people to judge these stimuli using the words takete-maluma, bouba-kiki, and several verbal descriptors that served as measures of angularity/smoothness. In addition to this we extracted the quantity of motion, the velocity of motion and the average angle between motion vectors from the coordinate data. Judgments of takete (and kiki) were related to verbal descriptors of angularity, a high quantity of motion, high velocity and sharper angles. Judgments of maluma (or bouba) were related to smooth movements, a low velocity, a lower quantity of motion and blunter angles. A forced-choice experiment during which we presented subsets with low and high rankers on our motion measures revealed that people preferably assigned stimuli displaying fast movements with sharp angles in motion vectors to takete and stimuli displaying slow movements with blunter angles in motion vectors to maluma. Results indicated that body movements share features with information inherent in words such as takete and maluma and that people perceive the body movements of speakers on the level of changes in motion direction (e.g., body moves to the left and then back to the right). Follow-up studies are needed to clarify whether impressions of angularity and smoothness have similar communicative values across different modalities and how this affects social judgments and person perception.

  12. Effects of five hindfoot arthrodeses on foot and ankle motion: Measurements in cadaver specimens

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Kun; Chen, Yanxi; Qiang, Minfei; Hao, Yini

    2016-01-01

    Single, double, and triple hindfoot arthrodeses are used to correct hindfoot deformities and relieve chronic pain. However, joint fusion may lead to dysfunction in adjacent articular surfaces. We compared range of motion in adjacent joints before and after arthrodesis to determine the effects of each procedure on joint motion. The theory of moment of couple, bending moment and balanced loading was applied to each of 16 fresh cadaver feet to induce dorsiflexion, plantarflexion, internal rotation, external rotation, inversion, and eversion. Range of motion was measured with a 3-axis coordinate measuring machine in a control foot and in feet after subtalar, talonavicular, calcaneocuboid, double, or triple arthrodesis. All arthrodeses restricted mainly internal-external rotation and inversion-eversion. The restriction in a double arthrodesis was more than that in a single arthrodesis, but that in a calcaneocuboid arthrodesis was relatively low. After triple arthrodeses, the restriction on dorsiflexion and plantarflexion movements was substantial, and internal-external rotation and inversion-eversion were almost lost. Considering that different arthrodesis procedures cause complex, three-dimensional hindfoot motion reductions, we recommend talonavicular or calcaneocuboid arthrodesis for patients with well-preserved functions of plantarflexion/dorsiflexion before operation, subtalar or calcaneocuboid arthrodesis for patients with well-preserved abduction/adduction, and talonavicular arthrodesis for patients with well-preserved eversion/inversion. PMID:27752084

  13. Coordinated Resolved Motion Control of Dual-Arm Manipulators with Closed Chain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tianliang Liu

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available When applied to some tasks, such as payload handling, assembling, repairing and so on, the two arms of a humanoid robot will form a closed kinematic chain. It makes the motion planning and control for dual-arm coordination very complex and difficult. In this paper, we present three types of resolved motion control methods for a humanoid robot during coordinated manipulation. They are, respectively, position-level, velocity-level and acceleration-level resolved motion control methods. The desired pose, velocity and acceleration of each end-effector are then resolved according to the desired motion of the payload and the constraints on the closed-chain system without consideration of the internal force. Corresponding to the three cases above, the joint variables of each arm are then calculated using the inverse kinematic equations, at position-level, velocity-level or acceleration-level. Finally, a dynamic modelling and simulation platform is established based on ADAMS and Matlab software. The proposed methods are verified by typical cases. The simulation results show that the proposed control strategy can realize the dual-arm coordinated operation and the internal force of the closed chain during the operation is controlled in a reasonable range at the same time.

  14. Experiential Learning in Vehicle Dynamics Education via Motion Simulation and Interactive Gaming

    OpenAIRE

    Hulme, Kevin; Kasprzak, Edward; English, Ken; Moore-Russo, Deborah; Lewis, Kemper

    2009-01-01

    Creating active, student-centered learning situations in postsecondary education is an ongoing challenge for engineering educators. Contemporary students familiar with visually engaging and fast-paced games can find traditional classroom methods of lecture and guided laboratory experiments limiting. This paper presents a methodology that incorporates driving simulation, motion simulation, and educational practices into an engaging, gaming-inspired simulation framework for a vehicle dynamics c...

  15. Status of fast breeder reactor development in the United States

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rosen, S

    1979-07-01

    This document was prepared by the Office of the Program Director for Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE). It sets forth the status and current activities for the development of fast breeder technology in the United States. In April 1977 the United States announced a change in its nuclear energy policy. Concern about the potential for the proliferation of nuclear weapons capability emerged as a major issue in considering whether to proceed with the development, demonstration and eventual deployment of breeder reactor energy systems. Plutonium recycle and the commercialization of the fast breeder were deferred indefinitely. This led to a reorientation of the nuclear fuel cycle program which was previously directed toward the commercialization of fuel reprocessing and plutonium recycle to the investigation of a full range of alternative fuel cycle technologies. Two major system evaluation programs, the Nonproliferation Alternative Systems Assessment Program (NASAP), which is domestic, and the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE), which is international, are assessing the nonproliferation advantages and other characteristics of advanced reactor concepts and fuel cycles. These evaluations will allow a decision in 1981 on the future direction of the breeder program. In the interim, the technologies of two fast breeder reactor concepts are being developed: the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) and the Gas Cooled Fast Reactor (CFR). The principal goals of the fast breeder program are: LMFBR - through a strong R and D program, consistent with US nonproliferation objectives and anticipated national electric energy requirements, maintain the capability to commit to a breeder option; investigate alternative fuels and fuel cycles that might offer nonproliferation advantages; GCFR - provide a viable alternative to the LMFBR that will be consistent with the developing U.S. nonproliferation policy; provide GCFR technology and other needed

  16. Status of the DEBENE fast breeder reactor development, March 1979

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daeunert, U.; Kessler, G.

    1979-01-01

    Status report of the Fast-breeder reactor development in Germany covers the following: description of the political situation in Federal republic of germany during 1978; international cooperation in the field of fast reactor technology development; operation description of the KNK-II fast core experimental power plant; status of construction of the SNR-300; results of the research and development programs concerned with fuel element, cladding, absorber rods and core structural materials development; sodium effects; neutron irradiation effects on SS properties; reactor physics related to experiments in fast critical assemblies; fast reactor safety issues; core disruption accidents; sodium boiling experiments, measuring methods developed; component tests

  17. Status of the DEBENE fast breeder reactor development, March 1979

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Daeunert, U; Kessler, G

    1979-07-01

    Status report of the Fast-breeder reactor development in Germany covers the following: description of the political situation in Federal republic of germany during 1978; international cooperation in the field of fast reactor technology development; operation description of the KNK-II fast core experimental power plant; status of construction of the SNR-300; results of the research and development programs concerned with fuel element, cladding, absorber rods and core structural materials development; sodium effects; neutron irradiation effects on SS properties; reactor physics related to experiments in fast critical assemblies; fast reactor safety issues; core disruption accidents; sodium boiling experiments, measuring methods developed; component tests.

  18. Artificial intelligence applications of fast optical memory access

    Science.gov (United States)

    Henshaw, P. D.; Todtenkopf, A. B.

    The operating principles and performance of rapid laser beam-steering (LBS) techniques are reviewed and illustrated with diagrams; their applicability to fast optical-memory (disk) access is evaluated; and the implications of fast access for the design of expert systems are discussed. LBS methods examined include analog deflection (source motion, wavefront tilt, and phased arrays), digital deflection (polarization modulation, reflectivity modulation, interferometric switching, and waveguide deflection), and photorefractive LBS. The disk-access problem is considered, and typical LBS requirements are listed as 38,000 beam positions, rotational latency 25 ms, one-sector rotation time 1.5 ms, and intersector space 87 microsec. The value of rapid access for increasing the power of expert systems (by permitting better organization of blocks of information) is illustrated by summarizing the learning process of the MVP-FORTH system (Park, 1983).

  19. Internal conversion mediated by specific nuclear motions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Klein, Liv Bærenholdt; Sølling, Theis Ivan

    2014-01-01

    the excitation energies, and the excitation in all cases is by a 200 nm photon, the S1 density-of-states in the Franck-Condon region will be high for the more N-alkylated amine. This, according to standard models, should lead to faster internal conversion. The experimental results are in contrast to this...

  20. Evaluation of tumor motion effect in canine model for diagnostic and radiotherapy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Woo, Sangkeun; Nam, Taewon; Kim, Kyeongmin [Molecular Imaging Research Center, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Park, Seungwoo; Han, Suchul; Ji, Younghoon [Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Park, Nohwon; Eom, Kidong [Konkuk Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2013-05-15

    The internal organs move up to 35mm maximum and it provides information and uncertainty that has been distorted in the diagnosis and treatment. Previous most studies for the effect of respiration have been performed with external monitoring systems but it cannot represent internal organ motion such as liver, pancreas, and lung. Positron emission tomography (PET) is more influenced by motion than computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) since measurement time for image acquisition is longer than CT and MRI. Thus, count of tumor is to be underestimated and region of tumor is to be overestimated. The first aim of this study was developing the artificial pulmonary nodule which can be performed non-invasive transplant into thorax of dogs and second is to assess the effect of respiratory motion on PET image with evaluating the applicability of the artificial model using dogs for diagnosis and treatment. The developed artificial pulmonary nodule showed reproducibility and motion effect as respiratory cycle and it was verified in PET images. Radiation dose estimated was not changed and was reduced slightly of 10 rpm and 15 rpm, respectively, in both of glass dosimeter and ion chamber. The developed artificial pulmonary nodule will be useful tool for evaluating respiratory motion and better research performance for diagnosis and treatment will be expected with performing simulated experiment using the nodule conducted in this study.

  1. Near-Field Ground Motion Modal versus Wave Propagation Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Artur Cichowicz

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The response spectrum generally provides a good estimate of the global displacement and acceleration demand of far-field ground motion on a structure. However, it does not provide accurate information on the local shape or internal deformation of the response of the structure. Near-field pulse-like ground motion will propagate through the structure as waves, causing large, localized deformation. Therefore, the response spectrum alone is not a sufficient representation of near-field ground motion features. Results show that the drift-response technique based on a continuous shear-beam model has to be employed here to estimate structure-demand parameters when structure is exposed to the pulse like ground motion. Conduced modeling shows limited applicability of the drift spectrum based on the SDOF approximation. The SDOF drift spectrum approximation can only be applied to structures with smaller natural periods than the dominant period of the ground motion. For periods larger than the dominant period of ground motion the SDOF drift spectra model significantly underestimates maximum deformation. Strong pulse-type motions are observed in the near-source region of large earthquakes; however, there is a lack of waveforms collected from small earthquakes at very close distances that were recorded underground in mines. The results presented in this paper are relevant for structures with a height of a few meters, placed in an underground excavation. The strong ground motion sensors recorded mine-induced earthquakes in a deep gold mine, South Africa. The strongest monitored horizontal ground motion was caused by an event of magnitude 2 at a distance of 90 m with PGA 123 m/s2, causing drifts of 0.25%–0.35%. The weak underground motion has spectral characteristics similar to the strong ground motion observed on the earth's surface; the drift spectrum has a maximum value less than 0.02%.

  2. Fast wave current drive on DIII-D

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    deGrassie, J.S.; Petty, C.C.; Pinsker, R.I.; Forest, C.B.; Ikezi, H.; Prater, R.; Baity, F.W.; Callis, R.W.; Cary, W.P.; Chiu, S.C.; Doyle, E.J.; Ferguson, S.W.; Hoffman, D.J.; Jaeger, E.F.; Kim, K.W.; Lee, J.H.; Lin-Liu, Y.R.; Murakami, M.; ONeill, R.C.; Porkolab, M.; Rhodes, T.L.; Swain, D.W.

    1996-01-01

    The physics of electron heating and current drive with the fast magnetosonic wave has been demonstrated on DIII-D, in reasonable agreement with theoretical modeling. A recently completed upgrade to the fast wave capability should allow full noninductive current drive in steady state advanced confinement discharges and provide some current density profile control for the Advanced Tokamak Program. DIII-D now has three four-strap fast wave antennas and three transmitters, each with nominally 2 MW of generator power. Extensive experiments have been conducted with the first system, at 60 MHz, while the two newer systems have come into operation within the past year. The newer systems are configured for 60 to 120 MHz. The measured FWCD efficiency is found to increase linearly with electron temperature as γ=0.4x10 18 T e0 (keV) [A/m 2 W], measured up to central electron temperature over 5 keV. A newly developed technique for determining the internal noninductive current density profile gives efficiencies in agreement with this scaling and profiles consistent with theoretical predictions. Full noninductive current drive at 170 kA was achieved in a discharge prepared by rampdown of the Ohmic current. Modulation of microwave reflectometry signals at the fast wave frequency is being used to investigate fast wave propagation and damping. Additionally, rf pick-up probes on the internal boundary of the vessel provide a comparison with ray tracing codes, with clear evidence for a toroidally directed wave with antenna phasing set for current drive. copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics

  3. Gravitational attraction until relativistic equipartition of internal and translational kinetic energies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bulyzhenkov, I. E.

    2018-02-01

    Translational ordering of the internal kinematic chaos provides the Special Relativity referents for the geodesic motion of warm thermodynamical bodies. Taking identical mathematics, relativistic physics of the low speed transport of time-varying heat-energies differs from Newton's physics of steady masses without internal degrees of freedom. General Relativity predicts geodesic changes of the internal heat-energy variable under the free gravitational fall and the geodesic turn in the radial field center. Internal heat variations enable cyclic dynamics of decelerated falls and accelerated takeoffs of inertial matter and its structural self-organization. The coordinate speed of the ordered spatial motion takes maximum under the equipartition of relativistic internal and translational kinetic energies. Observable predictions are discussed for verification/falsification of the principle of equipartition as a new basic for the ordered motion and self-organization in external fields, including gravitational, electromagnetic, and thermal ones.

  4. Modeling Internal Radiation Therapy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Broek, Egon; Schouten, Theo E.; Pellegrini, M.; Fred, A.; Filipe, J.; Gamboa, H.

    2011-01-01

    A new technique is described to model (internal) radiation therapy. It is founded on morphological processing, in particular distance transforms. Its formal basis is presented as well as its implementation via the Fast Exact Euclidean Distance (FEED) transform. Its use for all variations of internal

  5. The effect of postoperative passive motion on rotator cuff healing in a rat model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peltz, Cathryn D; Dourte, Leann M; Kuntz, Andrew F; Sarver, Joseph J; Kim, Soung-Yon; Williams, Gerald R; Soslowsky, Louis J

    2009-10-01

    Surgical repairs of torn rotator cuff tendons frequently fail. Immobilization has been shown to improve tissue mechanical properties in an animal model of rotator cuff repair, and passive motion has been shown to improve joint mechanics in animal models of flexor tendon repair. Our objective was to determine if daily passive motion would improve joint mechanics in comparison with continuous immobilization in a rat rotator cuff repair model. We hypothesized that daily passive motion would result in improved passive shoulder joint mechanics in comparison with continuous immobilization initially and that there would be no differences in passive joint mechanics or insertion site mechanical properties after four weeks of remobilization. A supraspinatus injury was created and was surgically repaired in sixty-five Sprague-Dawley rats. Rats were separated into three postoperative groups (continuous immobilization, passive motion protocol 1, and passive motion protocol 2) for two weeks before all underwent a remobilization protocol for four weeks. Serial measurements of passive shoulder mechanics (internal and external range of motion and joint stiffness) were made before surgery and at two and six weeks after surgery. After the animals were killed, collagen organization and mechanical properties of the tendon-to-bone insertion site were determined. Total range of motion for both passive motion groups (49% and 45% of the pre-injury values) was less than that for the continuous immobilization group (59% of the pre-injury value) at two weeks and remained significantly less following four weeks of remobilization exercise. Joint stiffness at two weeks was increased for both passive motion groups in comparison with the continuous immobilization group. At both two and six weeks after repair, internal range of motion was significantly decreased whereas external range of motion was not. There were no differences between the groups in terms of collagen organization or mechanical

  6. On development and improvement of evaluation techniques for strong ground motion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2012-08-15

    Issues regarding evaluation of active fault and ground motion for formulation of design basis ground motion (Ss) were identified during NISA and NSC seismic safety reviewing activities, which have been conducted in the light of the revision of the relevant seismic regulatory guide in 2006 and the experiences of the Niigataken Chuetsu-oki Earthquake in 2007 and the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake. In this theme following four subjects were investigated to resolve the important problems for ground motion evaluation, (1) advanced evaluation of ground motion using fault model and uncertainty; (2) improving evaluation of ground motion using attenuation relation of response spectrum; (3) development of advanced technique for ground motion observation and observation tool in deep borehole; (4) improving the evaluation of site effect and seismic wave propagation characteristics. Obtained results will be incorporated into the national safety review and also in the safety standard guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) using its Extra-Budgetary Program (IAEA EBP), thereby contributing to technical cooperation in global nuclear seismic safety. (author)

  7. On development and improvement of evaluation techniques for seismic ground motion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2013-08-15

    Issues regarding evaluation of active fault and ground motion for formulation of design basis ground motion (Ss) were prescribed in 'NSC seismic and tsunami safety reviewing manual' in 2012. Moreover, Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) is establishing the new seismic safety guideline. In this theme following four subjects were investigated to resolve the important problems for ground motion evaluation, (1) advanced evaluation of ground motion using fault model and uncertainty; (2) improving evaluation of ground motion using attenuation relation of response spectrum; (3) development of advanced and generic techniques for ground motion observation and observation tool in deep borehole; (4) improving the evaluation of site effect and seismic wave propagation characteristics. In addition as emergency requirements from NRA following two subjects were also investigated; (5) hazard evaluation development on fault displacement; (6) ground motion evaluation at near-by source location. Obtained results will be reflected not only in the domestic guideline established by NRA but in the national safety review and also in the safety standard guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) through its Extra-Budgetary Program (EBP), thereby contributing to technical cooperation in global nuclear seismic safety. (author)

  8. CONTRIBUTION OF VELOCITY VORTICES AND FAST SHOCK REFLECTION AND REFRACTION TO THE FORMATION OF EUV WAVES IN SOLAR ERUPTIONS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Hongjuan; Liu, Siqing; Gong, Jiancun [Center for Space Science and Applied Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China); Wu, Ning [School of Tourism and Geography, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, Yunnan 650031 (China); Lin, Jun [Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan 650011 (China)

    2015-06-01

    We numerically study the detailed evolutionary features of the wave-like disturbance and its propagation in the eruption. This work is a follow-up to Wang et al., using significantly upgraded new simulations. We focus on the contribution of the velocity vortices and the fast shock reflection and refraction in the solar corona to the formation of the EUV waves. Following the loss of equilibrium in the coronal magnetic structure, the flux rope exhibits rapid motions and invokes the fast-mode shock at the front of the rope, which then produces a type II radio burst. The expansion of the fast shock, which is associated with outward motion, takes place in various directions, and the downward expansion shows the reflection and the refraction as a result of the non-uniform background plasma. The reflected component of the fast shock propagates upward and the refracted component propagates downward. As the refracted component reaches the boundary surface, a weak echo is excited. The Moreton wave is invoked as the fast shock touches the bottom boundary, so the Moreton wave lags the type II burst. A secondary echo occurs in the area where reflection of the fast shock encounters the slow-mode shock, and the nearby magnetic field lines are further distorted because of the interaction between the secondary echo and the velocity vortices. Our results indicate that the EUV wave may arise from various processes that are revealed in the new simulations.

  9. Reconstructing 3D Tree Models Using Motion Capture and Particle Flow

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jie Long

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Recovering tree shape from motion capture data is a first step toward efficient and accurate animation of trees in wind using motion capture data. Existing algorithms for generating models of tree branching structures for image synthesis in computer graphics are not adapted to the unique data set provided by motion capture. We present a method for tree shape reconstruction using particle flow on input data obtained from a passive optical motion capture system. Initial branch tip positions are estimated from averaged and smoothed motion capture data. Branch tips, as particles, are also generated within a bounding space defined by a stack of bounding boxes or a convex hull. The particle flow, starting at branch tips within the bounding volume under forces, creates tree branches. The forces are composed of gravity, internal force, and external force. The resulting shapes are realistic and similar to the original tree crown shape. Several tunable parameters provide control over branch shape and arrangement.

  10. An Improved Perturb and Observe Algorithm for Photovoltaic Motion Carriers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Lele; Xu, Wei; Li, Liming; Zheng, Shubin

    2018-03-01

    An improved perturbation and observation algorithm for photovoltaic motion carriers is proposed in this paper. The model of the proposed algorithm is given by using Lambert W function and tangent error method. Moreover, by using matlab and experiment of photovoltaic system, the tracking performance of the proposed algorithm is tested. And the results demonstrate that the improved algorithm has fast tracking speed and high efficiency. Furthermore, the energy conversion efficiency by the improved method has increased by nearly 8.2%.

  11. Motion robust high resolution 3D free-breathing pulmonary MRI using dynamic 3D image self-navigator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Wenwen; Ong, Frank; Johnson, Kevin M; Nagle, Scott K; Hope, Thomas A; Lustig, Michael; Larson, Peder E Z

    2018-06-01

    To achieve motion robust high resolution 3D free-breathing pulmonary MRI utilizing a novel dynamic 3D image navigator derived directly from imaging data. Five-minute free-breathing scans were acquired with a 3D ultrashort echo time (UTE) sequence with 1.25 mm isotropic resolution. From this data, dynamic 3D self-navigating images were reconstructed under locally low rank (LLR) constraints and used for motion compensation with one of two methods: a soft-gating technique to penalize the respiratory motion induced data inconsistency, and a respiratory motion-resolved technique to provide images of all respiratory motion states. Respiratory motion estimation derived from the proposed dynamic 3D self-navigator of 7.5 mm isotropic reconstruction resolution and a temporal resolution of 300 ms was successful for estimating complex respiratory motion patterns. This estimation improved image quality compared to respiratory belt and DC-based navigators. Respiratory motion compensation with soft-gating and respiratory motion-resolved techniques provided good image quality from highly undersampled data in volunteers and clinical patients. An optimized 3D UTE sequence combined with the proposed reconstruction methods can provide high-resolution motion robust pulmonary MRI. Feasibility was shown in patients who had irregular breathing patterns in which our approach could depict clinically relevant pulmonary pathologies. Magn Reson Med 79:2954-2967, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

  12. Response of base isolated structure during strong ground motions beyond design earthquakes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yabana, Shuichi; Ishida, Katsuhiko; Shiojiri, Hiroo

    1991-01-01

    In Japan, some base isolated structures for fast breeder reactors (FBR) are tried to design. When a base isolated structure are designed, the relative displacement of isolators are generally limited so sa to be remain in linear state of those during design earthquakes. But to estimate safety margin of a base isolated structure, the response of that until the failure must be obtained experimentally to analytically during strong ground motions of beyond design earthquake. The aim of this paper is to investigate the response of a base isolated structure when the stiffness of the isolators hardens and to simulate the response during strong ground motions of beyond design earthquakes. The optimum characteristics of isolators, with which the margin of the structure are increased, are discussed. (author)

  13. Preliminary design characteristics of the RB fast-thermal core 'HERBE'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pesic, M.; Marinkovic, P.

    1989-01-01

    The 'RB' is zero power heavy water critical assembly designed in 1958 in Yugoslavia. The reactor operated using natural metal uranium, 2% enriched metal uranium, and 80% enriched UO 2 fuel of Soviet origin. A study of design of fast neutron fields began in 1976 and three fast neutron fields were designed up to 1983: the external neutron converter, the experimental fuel channel and the internal neutron converter, as the first step to fast-thermal coupled system. The preliminary design characteristics of the HERBE - a new fast - thermal core at the RB reactor are shown in this paper. (author)

  14. Transient feedback from fuel motion in metal IFR [Integral Fast Reactor] fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rhodes, E.A.; Stanford, G.S.; Regis, J.P.; Bauer, T.H.; Dickerman, C.E.

    1990-01-01

    Results from hodoscope data analyses are presented for TREAT transient-overpower tests M5 through M7 with emphasis on transient feedback mechanisms, including prefailure expansion at the tops of the fuel pins, subsequent dispersive axial fuel motion, and losses in relative worth of the fuel pins during the tests. Tests M5 and M6 were the first TOP tests of margin to cladding branch and prefailure elongation of D9-clad ternary (U-Pu-Zr) IFR-type fuel. Test M7 extended these results to high-burnup fuel and also initiated transient testing of HT9-clad binary (U-Zr) FFTF-driver fuel. Results show significant prefailure negative reactivity feedback and strongly negative feedback from fuel driven to failure. 4 refs., 6 figs

  15. Gravity Cues Embedded in the Kinematics of Human Motion Are Detected in Form-from-Motion Areas of the Visual System and in Motor-Related Areas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cignetti, Fabien; Chabeauti, Pierre-Yves; Menant, Jasmine; Anton, Jean-Luc J J; Schmitz, Christina; Vaugoyeau, Marianne; Assaiante, Christine

    2017-01-01

    The present study investigated the cortical areas engaged in the perception of graviceptive information embedded in biological motion (BM). To this end, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess the cortical areas active during the observation of human movements performed under normogravity and microgravity (parabolic flight). Movements were defined by motion cues alone using point-light displays. We found that gravity modulated the activation of a restricted set of regions of the network subtending BM perception, including form-from-motion areas of the visual system (kinetic occipital region, lingual gyrus, cuneus) and motor-related areas (primary motor and somatosensory cortices). These findings suggest that compliance of observed movements with normal gravity was carried out by mapping them onto the observer's motor system and by extracting their overall form from local motion of the moving light points. We propose that judgment on graviceptive information embedded in BM can be established based on motor resonance and visual familiarity mechanisms and not necessarily by accessing the internal model of gravitational motion stored in the vestibular cortex.

  16. Semiclassical eigenenergies in the wake of fast ions in solids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mueller, J.; Burgdoerfer, J.; Noid, D.W.

    1990-01-01

    We compare the semiclassical and quantum mechanical eigenenergies of an electron in the wake of a fast, highly charged ion traversing a solid. The classical dynamics of this system shows a transition from regular to chaotic motion as a function of the binding energy. The transition can also be seen in the quantal spectra. We find evidence for a connection between bifurcation of tori and disorder in the energy level sequences. 21 refs., 4 figs

  17. Fast MR imaging and ultrafast MR imaging of fetal central nervous system abnormalities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shakudo, Miyuki; Manabe, Takao; Murata, Katsuko; Matsuo, Ryoichi; Oda, Junro [Osaka City General Hospital (Japan); Inoue, Yuichi; Mochizuki, Kunizo; Yamada, Ryusaku

    2001-12-01

    The aims of this study were two: to compare the efficacy of fast MRI (breath-hold fast spin-echo T2-weighted and fast gradient-echo T1-weighted sequence) and ultrafast MRI (half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin-echo sequence) in evaluation of fetal central nervous system (CNS) abnormalities at late gestational age, and to compare the capability of fast MRI and ultrafast MRI to assess fetal CNS abnormalities with that of prenatal ultrasonography (US). Forty-nine women with fetuses at gestational ages of 26-39 weeks underwent fast MRI (29 patients) or ultrafast MRI (20 patients). In detection of motion artifact, visualization of the lateral and 4th ventricles, and differentiation between gray and white matter in cerebral hemispheres, ultrafast MRI was significantly superior to fast MRI (p<0.0001, Mann-Whitney U test). In 25 of 43 cases, US and MR diagnoses were the same and consistent with postnatal diagnosis. In 10 of 43 cases, MRI demonstrated findings additional to or different from those of US, and MR findings were confirmed postnatally. MRI, particularly ultrafast MRI, is useful for demonstrating CNS abnormalities in situations in which US is suggestive but not definitive. (author)

  18. Correlation between hip function and knee kinematics evaluated by three-dimensional motion analysis during lateral and medial side-hopping.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itoh, Hiromitsu; Takiguchi, Kohei; Shibata, Yohei; Okubo, Satoshi; Yoshiya, Shinichi; Kuroda, Ryosuke

    2016-09-01

    [Purpose] Kinematic and kinetic characteristics of the limb during side-hopping and hip/knee interaction during this motion have not been clarified. The purposes of this study were to examine the biomechanical parameters of the knee during side hop and analyze its relationship with clinical measurements of hip function. [Subjects and Methods] Eleven male college rugby players were included. A three-dimensional motion analysis system was used to assess motion characteristics of the knee during side hop. In addition, hip range of motion and muscle strength were evaluated. Subsequently, the relationship between knee motion and the clinical parameters of the hip was analyzed. [Results] In the lateral touchdown phase, the knee was positioned in an abducted and externally rotated position, and increasing abduction moment was applied to the knee. An analysis of the interaction between knee motion and hip function showed that range of motion for hip internal rotation was significantly correlated with external rotation angle and external rotation/abduction moments of the knee during the lateral touchdown phase. [Conclusion] Range of motion for hip internal rotation should be taken into consideration for identifying the biomechanical characteristics in the side hop test results.

  19. Internal models of target motion: expected dynamics overrides measured kinematics in timing manual interceptions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zago, Myrka; Bosco, Gianfranco; Maffei, Vincenzo; Iosa, Marco; Ivanenko, Yuri P; Lacquaniti, Francesco

    2004-04-01

    Prevailing views on how we time the interception of a moving object assume that the visual inputs are informationally sufficient to estimate the time-to-contact from the object's kinematics. Here we present evidence in favor of a different view: the brain makes the best estimate about target motion based on measured kinematics and an a priori guess about the causes of motion. According to this theory, a predictive model is used to extrapolate time-to-contact from expected dynamics (kinetics). We projected a virtual target moving vertically downward on a wide screen with different randomized laws of motion. In the first series of experiments, subjects were asked to intercept this target by punching a real ball that fell hidden behind the screen and arrived in synchrony with the visual target. Subjects systematically timed their motor responses consistent with the assumption of gravity effects on an object's mass, even when the visual target did not accelerate. With training, the gravity model was not switched off but adapted to nonaccelerating targets by shifting the time of motor activation. In the second series of experiments, there was no real ball falling behind the screen. Instead the subjects were required to intercept the visual target by clicking a mousebutton. In this case, subjects timed their responses consistent with the assumption of uniform motion in the absence of forces, even when the target actually accelerated. Overall, the results are in accord with the theory that motor responses evoked by visual kinematics are modulated by a prior of the target dynamics. The prior appears surprisingly resistant to modifications based on performance errors.

  20. Complexity Control of Fast Motion Estimation in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC with Rate-Distortion-Complexity optimization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wu, Mo; Forchhammer, Søren; Aghito, Shankar Manuel

    2007-01-01

    A complexity control algorithm for H.264 advanced video coding is proposed. The algorithm can control the complexity of integer inter motion estimation for a given target complexity. The Rate-Distortion-Complexity performance is improved by a complexity prediction model, simple analysis of the pa...... statistics and a control scheme. The algorithm also works well for scene change condition. Test results for coding interlaced video (720x576 PAL) are reported.......A complexity control algorithm for H.264 advanced video coding is proposed. The algorithm can control the complexity of integer inter motion estimation for a given target complexity. The Rate-Distortion-Complexity performance is improved by a complexity prediction model, simple analysis of the past...

  1. 19 CFR 210.58 - Provisional acceptance of the motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Provisional acceptance of the motion. 210.58 Section 210.58 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION INVESTIGATIONS OF UNFAIR PRACTICES IN IMPORT TRADE ADJUDICATION AND ENFORCEMENT Temporary Relief § 210.58 Provisional acceptance of...

  2. Molecular packing, hydrogen bonding, and fast dynamics in lysozyme/trehalose/glycerol and trehalose/glycerol glasses at low hydration

    OpenAIRE

    Lerbret, Adrien; Affouard, Frédéric

    2017-01-01

    Water and glycerol are well-known to facilitate the structural relaxation of amorphous protein matrices. However, several studies evidenced that they may also limit fast ($\\sim$ pico-nanosecond, ps-ns) and small-amplitude ($\\sim$ \\AA ) motions of proteins, which govern their stability in freeze-dried sugar mixtures. To determine how they interact with proteins and sugars in glassy matrices and, thereby, modulate their fast dynamics, we performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of lysozyme...

  3. Deficient Biological Motion Perception in Schizophrenia: Results from a Motion Noise Paradigm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jejoong eKim

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Background: Schizophrenia patients exhibit deficient processing of perceptual and cognitive information. However, it is not well understood how basic perceptual deficits contribute to higher level cognitive problems in this mental disorder. Perception of biological motion, a motion-based cognitive recognition task, relies on both basic visual motion processing and social cognitive processing, thus providing a useful paradigm to evaluate the potentially hierarchical relationship between these two levels of information processing. Methods: In this study, we designed a biological motion paradigm in which basic visual motion signals were manipulated systematically by incorporating different levels of motion noise. We measured the performances of schizophrenia patients (n=21 and healthy controls (n=22 in this biological motion perception task, as well as in coherent motion detection, theory of mind, and a widely used biological motion recognition task. Results: Schizophrenia patients performed the biological motion perception task with significantly lower accuracy than healthy controls when perceptual signals were moderately degraded by noise. A more substantial degradation of perceptual signals, through using additional noise, impaired biological motion perception in both groups. Performance levels on biological motion recognition, coherent motion detection and theory of mind tasks were also reduced in patients. Conclusion: The results from the motion-noise biological motion paradigm indicate that in the presence of visual motion noise, the processing of biological motion information in schizophrenia is deficient. Combined with the results of poor basic visual motion perception (coherent motion task and biological motion recognition, the association between basic motion signals and biological motion perception suggests a need to incorporate the improvement of visual motion perception in social cognitive remediation.

  4. The Non-Ergodic Nature of Internal Conversion

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sølling, Theis I.; Kuhlman, Thomas Scheby; Stephansen, Anne B.

    2014-01-01

    The absorption of light by molecules can induce ultrafast dynamics and coupling of electronic and nuclear vibrational motion. The ultrafast nature in many cases rests on the importance of several potential energy surfaces in guiding the nuclear motion—a concept of central importance in many aspects...... of chemical reaction dynamics. This Minireview focuses on the non-ergodic nature of internal conversion, that is, on the concept that the nuclear dynamics only sample a reduced phase space, potentially resulting in localization of the dynamics in real space. A series of results that highlight...... it takes to reach it. 2) Localization of energy into a single reactive mode, which is dictated by the internal conversion process. 3) Initiation of the internal conversion by activation of a single complex motion, which then specifically couples to a reactive mode. 4) Nonstatistical internal conversion...

  5. Mechatronic design of a fast and long range 4 degrees of freedom humanoid neck

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brouwer, Dannis Michel; Bennik, J.; Leideman, J.; Soemers, Herman; Stramigioli, Stefano

    2009-01-01

    This paper describes the mechatronic design of a humanoid neck. To research human machine interaction, the head and neck combination should be able to approach the human behavior as much as possible. We present a novel humanoid neck concept that is both fast, and has a long range of motion in 4

  6. Forecasting of flowrate under rolling motion flow instability condition based on on-line sequential extreme learning machine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen Hanying; Gao Puzhen; Tan Sichao; Tang Jiguo; Hou Xiaofan; Xu Huiqiang; Wu Xiangcheng

    2015-01-01

    The coupling of multiple thermal-hydraulic parameters can result in complex flow instability in natural circulation system under rolling motion. A real-time thermal-hydraulic condition prediction is helpful to the operation of systems in such condition. A single hidden layer feedforward neural networks algorithm named extreme learning machine (ELM) is considered as suitable method for this application because of its extremely fast training time, good accuracy and simplicity. However, traditional ELM assumes that all the training data are ready before the training process, while the training data is received sequentially in practical forecasting of flowrate. Therefore, this paper proposes a forecasting method for flowrate under rolling motion based on on-line sequential ELM (OS-ELM), which can learn the data one by one or chunk-by-chunk. The experiment results show that the OS-ELM method can achieve a better forecasting performance than basic ELM method and still keep the advantage of fast training and simplicity. (author)

  7. Decoherence recuperating fast environmental dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cetinbas, Murat

    2010-01-01

    We examine the exact internal decoherence dynamics of a qubit in an isolated Josephson charge-qubit quantum computer in the presence of one- and two-body static internal imperfections. By help of open system dynamics quantifiers, i.e. purity, fidelity, covariance and Loschmidt echo, we distinguish between non-unitary and unitary components of internal decoherence dynamics and show that the non-unitary component consists of two processes: system-environment entanglement and incoherence. Our results indicate that the incoherence process is the major source of internal decoherence rather than system-environment entanglement. We find that strong one-body intra-environmental interactions, which generate fast environmental dynamics, result in a rapid suppression of decoherence induced by both system-environment entanglement and incoherence processes. We explain the mechanisms of suppression of decoherence for these two processes and discuss our results.

  8. Estimation of organ motion for gated PET imaging in small animal using artificial tumor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Woo, Sang Keun; Yu, Jung Woo; Lee, Yong Jin [Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2011-10-15

    The image quality is lowered by reducing of contrast and signal due to breathing and heart motion when acquire Positron Emission Tomography (PET) image of small animal tumor. Therefore motion correction is required for betterment of quantitative estimation of tumor. The gated PET using external monitoring device is commonly used for motion correction. But that method has limitation by reason of detection from the outside. Therefore, we had devised the in-vivo motion assessment. In-vivo motion has been demonstrated in lung, liver and abdomen region of rats by coated molecular sieve. In PET image analysis, count and SNR were drawn in the target region. The motion compensation PET image for optimal gate number was confirmed by FWHM. Artificial motion evaluation of tumor using molecular sieve suggests possibility of motion correction modeling without external monitoring devices because it estimates real internal motion of lung, liver, and abdomen. The purpose of this study was to assess the optimal gates number for each region and to improve quantitative estimation of tumor

  9. Polar Motion Studies and NOAA's Legacy of International Scientific Cooperation: Ukiah and Gaithersburg Latitude Observatories

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caccamise, D. J., II; Stone, W. A.

    2017-12-01

    In 1895, the International Geodetic Association invited the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS) to join in an unprecedented international effort to observe and measure the earth's polar motion. This effort was in response to the American astronomer Seth C. Chandler Jr. announcing his 1891 discovery that the earth's axis of rotation—and hence the direction of true north—wobbles within the earth with a period of about 14 months, varying latitude everywhere on the globe. In 1899, two astro-geodetic observatories were built in Gaithersburg, Maryland and Ukiah, California with three others in Caloforte, Italy; Kitab, Russia (now Uzbekistan); and Mizusawa, Japan. (A sixth station was located and operated at an astronomical observatory in Cincinnati, Ohio until 1916 using instruments loaned by USC&GS). All five observatories were located along the same parallel - approximately 35 degrees - 8 minutes. The observatories were decommissioned in 1982, and subsequently, NOAA deeded the two remaining U.S. observatories to the cities of Gaithersburg and Ukiah. The observatories and adjacent property were to be used as parkland. Both cities have restored the observatories and opened public parks. Recently, Gaithersburg (Ukiah in progress) has had its latitude observatory dedicated as a National Historic Landmark. In 2014-15, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS, the present-day NOAA successor to the USC&GS) loaned the original zenith telescopes to the communities, returning the observatories to their original configuration. The contribution of NOAA observers and the data collected is still important to astronomers and geophysicists and has practical applications in spacecraft navigation and geospatial positioning. This poster will bring to fruition this multiyear effort among partners by providing examples of NOAA's mission and contribution to science, service, and stewardship at both geodetic observatories, through programs and historic exhibits for students and the

  10. Towards denoising XMCD movies of fast magnetization dynamics using extended Kalman filter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kopp, M; Harmeling, S; Schütz, G; Schölkopf, B; Fähnle, M

    2015-01-01

    The Kalman filter is a well-established approach to get information on the time-dependent state of a system from noisy observations. It was developed in the context of the Apollo project to see the deviation of the true trajectory of a rocket from the desired trajectory. Afterwards it was applied to many different systems with small numbers of components of the respective state vector (typically about 10). In all cases the equation of motion for the state vector was known exactly. The fast dissipative magnetization dynamics is often investigated by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism movies (XMCD movies), which are often very noisy. In this situation the number of components of the state vector is extremely large (about 10(5)), and the equation of motion for the dissipative magnetization dynamics (especially the values of the material parameters of this equation) is not well known. In the present paper it is shown by theoretical considerations that - nevertheless - there is no principle problem for the use of the Kalman filter to denoise XMCD movies of fast dissipative magnetization dynamics. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Calculation of the MT25 microtron dynamics and its fast simulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krist, Pavel; Chvatil, David; Bila, Jiri

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents the design of a mathematical model and its fast simulation developed for the setup of the control system of the MT25 microtron, which is a cyclic electron accelerator. This type of accelerator has been controlled manually until now. The mathematical model is based on calculations of the electron motion in the accelerating cavity and vacuum chamber. The simulation diagram was created using the Matlab-Simulink tools. (author)

  12. Quantum dissipative effects in moving imperfect mirrors: Sidewise and normal motions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fosco, Cesar D.; Lombardo, Fernando C.; Mazzitelli, Francisco D.

    2011-01-01

    We extend our previous work on the functional approach to the dynamical Casimir effect, to compute dissipative effects due to the relative motion of two flat, parallel, imperfect mirrors in vacuum. The interaction between the internal degrees of freedom of the mirrors and the vacuum field is modeled with a nonlocal term in the vacuum field action. We consider two different situations: either the motion is 'normal', i.e., the mirrors advance or recede changing the distance a(t) between them; or it is 'parallel', namely, a remains constant, but there is a relative sliding motion of the mirrors' planes. For the latter, we show explicitly that there is a nonvanishing frictional force, even for a constant shifting speed.

  13. Response of Voronezh reactor type to horizontal ground motion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pecinka, L.

    1983-01-01

    For the purposes of vibration monitoring of PWR's the well known 'double pendulum model' has been developed and experimentally verified. It is shown, that this model is possible to use for response calculations of Voronezh reactor pressure vessel and its internals to horizontal ground motion. The equation of motion is given in usual matrix form, the damping matrix is calculated by Rayleigh formula. Driving force is given by vector of ground motion in horizontal direction. For the numerical integration of equation of motion is possible to use following methods - matrix exponential in state space; - modal analysis; - one-step direct integration. For our purposes the last one has been chosen and related computer code TRANS has been developed. The results of calculations are given in the graphically form using generalized angular coordinates and its second derivatives, which describes the displacement or acceleration of reactor pressure vessel to ground and the core barrel to reactor pressure vessel. The driving vector is given in the form of artificially generated accelerogram. (orig./HP)

  14. The CABRI fast neutron Hodoscope: Renovation, qualification program and first results following the experimental reactor restart

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chevalier, V.; Mirotta, S.; Guillot, J.; Biard, B.

    2018-01-01

    The CABRI experimental pulse reactor, located at the Cadarache nuclear research center, southern France, is devoted to the study of Reactivity Initiated Accidents (RIA). For the purpose of the CABRI International Program (CIP), managed and funded by IRSN, in the framework of an OECD/NEA agreement, a huge renovation of the facility has been conducted since 2003. The Cabri Water Loop was then installed to ensure prototypical Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) conditions for testing irradiated fuel rods. The hodoscope installed in the CABRI reactor is a unique online fuel motion monitoring system, operated by IRSN and dedicated to the measurement of the fast neutrons emitted by the tested rod during the power pulse. It is one of the distinctive features of the CABRI reactor facility, which is operated by CEA. The system is able to determine the fuel motion, if any, with a time resolution of 1 ms and a spatial resolution of 3 mm. The hodoscope equipment has been upgraded as well during the CABRI facility renovation. This paper presents the main outcomes achieved with the hodoscope since October 2015, date of the first criticality of the CABRI reactor in its new Cabri Water Loop configuration. Results obtained during reactor commissioning phase functioning, either in steady-state mode (at low and high power, up to 23 MW) or in transient mode (start-up, possibly beyond 20 GW), are discussed.

  15. Dust devil dynamics in the internal vortex region

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Onishchenko, O G; Pokhotelov, O A; Horton, W

    2015-01-01

    A hydrodynamic model for dust devil dynamics in the internal vortex region is analyzed. It is shown that the results concerning the growing plumes investigated by Onishchenko et al (2014) for the short time domain can be applied to the study of vortex motion in the internal region for longer times. It is demonstrated that these convective plumes in an atmosphere with weak, large-scale toroidal motion inhomogeneity in the vertical direction can be a subject for further exponential growth over time. (invited comment)

  16. A heuristic mathematical model for the dynamics of sensory conflict and motion sickness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oman, C. M.

    1982-01-01

    By consideration of the information processing task faced by the central nervous system in estimating body spatial orientation and in controlling active body movement using an internal model referenced control strategy, a mathematical model for sensory conflict generation is developed. The model postulates a major dynamic functional role for sensory conflict signals in movement control, as well as in sensory-motor adaptation. It accounts for the role of active movement in creating motion sickness symptoms in some experimental circumstance, and in alleviating them in others. The relationship between motion sickness produced by sensory rearrangement and that resulting from external motion disturbances is explicitly defined. A nonlinear conflict averaging model is proposed which describes dynamic aspects of experimentally observed subjective discomfort sensation, and suggests resulting behaviours. The model admits several possibilities for adaptive mechanisms which do not involve internal model updating. Further systematic efforts to experimentally refine and validate the model are indicated.

  17. 04 - Sodium cooled fast breeder fourth-generation reactors - The experimental reactor ALLEGRO, the other ways for fast breeder fourth-generation reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2012-12-01

    The authors first present the technology of gas-cooled fast breeder reactors (basic principles, specific innovations, feasibility studies, fuel element, safety) and notably the ALLEGRO project (design options and expected performances, preliminary safety demonstration). Then, they present the lead-cooled fast-breeder reactor technology: interests and obstacles, return on experience, the issue of lead density, neutron assessment, transmutation potential, dosimetry, safety chemical properties and compatibility with the fuel, water, air and steels. The next part addresses the technology of molten-salt fast-breeder reactors: choice of the liquid fuel and geometry, reactor concept (difficulties, lack of past R and D), demonstration and demonstrators, international context

  18. Benefits of rotational ground motions for planetary seismology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donner, S.; Joshi, R.; Hadziioannou, C.; Nunn, C.; van Driel, M.; Schmelzbach, C.; Wassermann, J. M.; Igel, H.

    2017-12-01

    Exploring the internal structure of planetary objects is fundamental to understand the evolution of our solar system. In contrast to Earth, planetary seismology is hampered by the limited number of stations available, often just a single one. Classic seismology is based on the measurement of three components of translational ground motion. Its methods are mainly developed for a larger number of available stations. Therefore, the application of classical seismological methods to other planets is very limited. Here, we show that the additional measurement of three components of rotational ground motion could substantially improve the situation. From sparse or single station networks measuring translational and rotational ground motions it is possible to obtain additional information on structure and source. This includes direct information on local subsurface seismic velocities, separation of seismic phases, propagation direction of seismic energy, crustal scattering properties, as well as moment tensor source parameters for regional sources. The potential of this methodology will be highlighted through synthetic forward and inverse modeling experiments.

  19. Subjective Vertical Conflict Theory and Space Motion Sickness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Wei; Chao, Jian-Gang; Wang, Jin-Kun; Chen, Xue-Wen; Tan, Cheng

    2016-02-01

    Space motion sickness (SMS) remains a troublesome problem during spaceflight. The subjective vertical (SV) conflict theory postulates that all motion sickness provoking situations are characterized by a condition in which the SV sensed from gravity and visual and idiotropic cues differs from the expected vertical. This theory has been successfully used to predict motion sickness in different vehicles on Earth. We have summarized the most outstanding and recent studies on the illusions and characteristics associated with spatial disorientation and SMS during weightlessness, such as cognitive map and mental rotation, the visual reorientation and inversion illusions, and orientation preferences between visual scenes and the internal z-axis of the body. The relationships between the SV and the incidence of and susceptibility to SMS as well as spatial disorientation were addressed. A consistent framework was presented to understand and explain SMS characteristics in more detail on the basis of the SV conflict theory, which is expected to be more advantageous in SMS prediction, prevention, and training.

  20. Measurement of shoulder motion fraction and motion ratio

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kang, Yeong Han

    2006-01-01

    This study was to understand about the measurement of shoulder motion fraction and motion ratio. We proposed the radiological criterior of glenohumeral and scapulothoracic movement ratio. We measured the motion fraction of the glenohumeral and scapulothoracic movement using CR (computed radiological system) of arm elevation at neutral, 90 degree, full elevation. Central ray was 15 .deg., 19 .deg., 22 .deg. to the cephald for the parallel scapular spine, and the tilting of torso was external oblique 40 .deg., 36 .deg., 22 .deg. for perpendicular to glenohumeral surface. Healthful donor of 100 was divided 5 groups by age (20, 30, 40, 50, 60). The angle of glenohumeral motion and scapulothoracic motion could be taken from gross arm angle and radiological arm angle. We acquired 3 images at neutral, 90 .deg. and full elevation position and measured radiographic angle of glenoheumeral, scapulothoracic movement respectively. While the arm elevation was 90 .deg., the shoulder motion fraction was 1.22 (M), 1.70 (W) in right arm and 1.31, 1.54 in left. In full elevation, Right arm fraction was 1.63, 1.84 and left was 1.57, 1.32. In right dominant arm (78%), 90 .deg. and Full motion fraction was 1.58, 1.43, in left (22%) 1.82, 1.94. In generation 20, 90 .deg. and Full motion fraction was 1.56, 1.52, 30' was 1.82, 1.43, 40' was 1.23, 1.16, 50' was 1.80, 1.28,60' was 1.24, 1.75. There was not significantly by gender, dominant arm and age. The criteria of motion fraction was useful reference for clinical diagnosis the shoulder instability

  1. Gating based on internal/external signals with dynamic correlation updates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Huanmei; Zhao Qingya; Berbeco, Ross I; Nishioka, Seiko; Shirato, Hiroki; Jiang, Steve B

    2008-01-01

    Precise localization of mobile tumor positions in real time is critical to the success of gated radiotherapy. Tumor positions are usually derived from either internal or external surrogates. Fluoroscopic gating based on internal surrogates, such as implanted fiducial markers, is accurate however requiring a large amount of imaging dose. Gating based on external surrogates, such as patient abdominal surface motion, is non-invasive however less accurate due to the uncertainty in the correlation between tumor location and external surrogates. To address these complications, we propose to investigate an approach based on hybrid gating with dynamic internal/external correlation updates. In this approach, the external signal is acquired at high frequency (such as 30 Hz) while the internal signal is sparsely acquired (such as 0.5 Hz or less). The internal signal is used to validate and update the internal/external correlation during treatment. Tumor positions are derived from the external signal based on the newly updated correlation. Two dynamic correlation updating algorithms are introduced. One is based on the motion amplitude and the other is based on the motion phase. Nine patients with synchronized internal/external motion signals are simulated retrospectively to evaluate the effectiveness of hybrid gating. The influences of different clinical conditions on hybrid gating, such as the size of gating windows, the optimal timing for internal signal acquisition and the acquisition frequency are investigated. The results demonstrate that dynamically updating the internal/external correlation in or around the gating window will reduce false positive with relatively diminished treatment efficiency. This improvement will benefit patients with mobile tumors, especially greater for early stage lung cancers, for which the tumors are less attached or freely floating in the lung.

  2. Gating based on internal/external signals with dynamic correlation updates

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wu Huanmei [Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, Indiana University School of Informatics, IUPUI, Indianapolis, IN (United States); Zhao Qingya [School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN (United States); Berbeco, Ross I [Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Womens Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States); Nishioka, Seiko [NTT East-Japan Sapporo Hospital, Sapporo (Japan); Shirato, Hiroki [Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo (Japan); Jiang, Steve B [Department of Radiation Oncology, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA (United States)], E-mail: hw9@iupui.edu, E-mail: sbjiang@ucsd.edu

    2008-12-21

    Precise localization of mobile tumor positions in real time is critical to the success of gated radiotherapy. Tumor positions are usually derived from either internal or external surrogates. Fluoroscopic gating based on internal surrogates, such as implanted fiducial markers, is accurate however requiring a large amount of imaging dose. Gating based on external surrogates, such as patient abdominal surface motion, is non-invasive however less accurate due to the uncertainty in the correlation between tumor location and external surrogates. To address these complications, we propose to investigate an approach based on hybrid gating with dynamic internal/external correlation updates. In this approach, the external signal is acquired at high frequency (such as 30 Hz) while the internal signal is sparsely acquired (such as 0.5 Hz or less). The internal signal is used to validate and update the internal/external correlation during treatment. Tumor positions are derived from the external signal based on the newly updated correlation. Two dynamic correlation updating algorithms are introduced. One is based on the motion amplitude and the other is based on the motion phase. Nine patients with synchronized internal/external motion signals are simulated retrospectively to evaluate the effectiveness of hybrid gating. The influences of different clinical conditions on hybrid gating, such as the size of gating windows, the optimal timing for internal signal acquisition and the acquisition frequency are investigated. The results demonstrate that dynamically updating the internal/external correlation in or around the gating window will reduce false positive with relatively diminished treatment efficiency. This improvement will benefit patients with mobile tumors, especially greater for early stage lung cancers, for which the tumors are less attached or freely floating in the lung.

  3. Generation 4 International Forum. 2014 Annual Report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2015-01-01

    This eighth edition of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) Annual Report highlights the main achievements of the Forum in 2014, and in particular progress made in the collaborative RandD activities of the eleven existing project arrangements for the six GIF systems: the gas-cooled fast reactor, the sodium-cooled fast reactor, the supercritical-water-cooled reactor and the very-high-temperature reactor. Progress made under the memoranda of understanding for the lead-cooled fast reactor and the molten salt reactor is also reported. In May 2014, China joined the supercritical-water-cooled reactor system arrangement; and in October 2014, the project arrangement on system integration and assessment for the sodium-cooled fast reactor became effective. GIF also continued to develop safety design criteria and guidelines for the sodium-cooled fast reactor, and to engage with regulators on safety approaches for generation IV systems. Finally, GIF initiated an internal discussion on sustainability approaches to complement ongoing work on economics, safety, proliferation resistance and physical protection

  4. Markerless motion estimation for motion-compensated clinical brain imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kyme, Andre Z.; Se, Stephen; Meikle, Steven R.; Fulton, Roger R.

    2018-05-01

    Motion-compensated brain imaging can dramatically reduce the artifacts and quantitative degradation associated with voluntary and involuntary subject head motion during positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and computed tomography (CT). However, motion-compensated imaging protocols are not in widespread clinical use for these modalities. A key reason for this seems to be the lack of a practical motion tracking technology that allows for smooth and reliable integration of motion-compensated imaging protocols in the clinical setting. We seek to address this problem by investigating the feasibility of a highly versatile optical motion tracking method for PET, SPECT and CT geometries. The method requires no attached markers, relying exclusively on the detection and matching of distinctive facial features. We studied the accuracy of this method in 16 volunteers in a mock imaging scenario by comparing the estimated motion with an accurate marker-based method used in applications such as image guided surgery. A range of techniques to optimize performance of the method were also studied. Our results show that the markerless motion tracking method is highly accurate (brain imaging and holds good promise for a practical implementation in clinical PET, SPECT and CT systems.

  5. Fasting mitigates immediate hypersensitivity: a pivotal role of endogenous D-beta-hydroxybutyrate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakamura, Shigeru; Hisamura, Ryuji; Shimoda, Sachiko; Shibuya, Izumi; Tsubota, Kazuo

    2014-01-01

    Fasting is a rigorous type of dietary restriction that is associate with a number of health benefits. During fasting, ketone bodies significantly increase in blood and become major body fuels, thereby sparing glucose. In the present study, we investigated effects of fasting on hypersensitivity. In addition, we also investigated the possible role of D-beta-hydroxybutyrate provoked by fasting in the attenuation of immediate hypersensitivity by fasting. Effects of fasting on systemic anaphylaxis were examined using rat model of toluene 2, 4-diisocyanate induced nasal allergy. In addition to food restriction, a ketogenic high-fat and low-carbohydrate diet that accelerates fatty acid oxidation and systemic instillation of D-beta-hydroxybutyrate were employed to elevate internal D-beta-hydroxybutyrate concentration. We assessed relationship between degranulation of rat peritoneal mast cells and internal D-beta-hydroxybutyrate concentration in each treatment. Changes in [Ca(2+)]i responses to compound 48/80 were analyzed in fura 2-loaded rat peritoneal mast cells derived from the ketogenic diet and fasting. Immediate hypersensitivity reaction was significantly suppressed by fasting. A significant reduction in mast cells degranulation, induced by mast cell activator compound 48/80, was observed in rat peritoneal mast cells delivered from the 24 hours fasting treatment. In addition, mast cells delivered from a ketogenic diet and D-beta-hydroxybutyrate infusion treatment also had reduced mast cell degranulation and systemic D-beta-hydroxybutyrate concentrations were elevated to similar extent as the fasting state. The peak increase in [Ca(2+)]i was significantly lower in the ketogenic diet and fasting group than that in the control diet group. The results of the present study demonstrates that fasting suppress hypersensitivity reaction, and indicate that increased level of D-beta-hydroxybutyrate by fasting plays an important role, via the stabilization of mast cells, in

  6. The first-passage area for drifted Brownian motion and the moments of the Airy distribution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kearney, Michael J; Majumdar, Satya N; Martin, Richard J

    2007-01-01

    An exact expression for the distribution of the area swept out by a drifted Brownian motion till its first-passage time is derived. A study of the asymptotic behaviour confirms earlier conjectures and clarifies their range of validity. The analysis leads to a simple closed-form solution for the moments of the Airy distribution. (fast track communication)

  7. Rigid-body motion correction of the liver in image reconstruction for golden-angle stack-of-stars DCE MRI.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johansson, Adam; Balter, James; Cao, Yue

    2018-03-01

    Respiratory motion can affect pharmacokinetic perfusion parameters quantified from liver dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI. Image registration can be used to align dynamic images after reconstruction. However, intra-image motion blur remains after alignment and can alter the shape of contrast-agent uptake curves. We introduce a method to correct for inter- and intra-image motion during image reconstruction. Sixteen liver dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI examinations of nine subjects were performed using a golden-angle stack-of-stars sequence. For each examination, an image time series with high temporal resolution but severe streak artifacts was reconstructed. Images were aligned using region-limited rigid image registration within a region of interest covering the liver. The transformations resulting from alignment were used to correct raw data for motion by modulating and rotating acquired lines in k-space. The corrected data were then reconstructed using view sharing. Portal-venous input functions extracted from motion-corrected images had significantly greater peak signal enhancements (mean increase: 16%, t-test, P <  0.001) than those from images aligned using image registration after reconstruction. In addition, portal-venous perfusion maps estimated from motion-corrected images showed fewer artifacts close to the edge of the liver. Motion-corrected image reconstruction restores uptake curves distorted by motion. Motion correction also reduces motion artifacts in estimated perfusion parameter maps. Magn Reson Med 79:1345-1353, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

  8. PET motion correction using PRESTO with ITK motion estimation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Botelho, Melissa [Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering, Science Faculty of University of Lisbon (Portugal); Caldeira, Liliana; Scheins, Juergen [Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-4), Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany); Matela, Nuno [Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering, Science Faculty of University of Lisbon (Portugal); Kops, Elena Rota; Shah, N Jon [Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-4), Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany)

    2014-07-29

    The Siemens BrainPET scanner is a hybrid MRI/PET system. PET images are prone to motion artefacts which degrade the image quality. Therefore, motion correction is essential. The library PRESTO converts motion-corrected LORs into highly accurate generic projection data [1], providing high-resolution PET images. ITK is an open-source software used for registering multidimensional data []. ITK provides motion estimation necessary to PRESTO.

  9. PET motion correction using PRESTO with ITK motion estimation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Botelho, Melissa; Caldeira, Liliana; Scheins, Juergen; Matela, Nuno; Kops, Elena Rota; Shah, N Jon

    2014-01-01

    The Siemens BrainPET scanner is a hybrid MRI/PET system. PET images are prone to motion artefacts which degrade the image quality. Therefore, motion correction is essential. The library PRESTO converts motion-corrected LORs into highly accurate generic projection data [1], providing high-resolution PET images. ITK is an open-source software used for registering multidimensional data []. ITK provides motion estimation necessary to PRESTO.

  10. Nonstandard neutrino self-interactions in a supernova and fast flavor conversions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dighe, Amol; Sen, Manibrata

    2018-02-01

    We study the effects of nonstandard self-interactions (NSSI) of neutrinos streaming out of a core-collapse supernova. We show that with NSSI, the standard linear stability analysis gives rise to linearly as well as exponentially growing solutions. For a two-box spectrum, we demonstrate analytically that flavor-preserving NSSI lead to a suppression of bipolar collective oscillations. In the intersecting four-beam model, we show that flavor-violating NSSI can lead to fast oscillations even when the angle between the neutrino and antineutrino beams is obtuse, which is forbidden in the standard model. This leads to the new possibility of fast oscillations in a two-beam system with opposing neutrino-antineutrino fluxes, even in the absence of any spatial inhomogeneities. Finally, we solve the full nonlinear equations of motion in the four-beam model numerically, and explore the interplay of fast and slow flavor conversions in the long-time behavior, in the presence of NSSI.

  11. Imaging the motion of electrons across semiconductor heterojunctions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Man, Michael K. L.; Margiolakis, Athanasios; Deckoff-Jones, Skylar; Harada, Takaaki; Wong, E. Laine; Krishna, M. Bala Murali; Madéo, Julien; Winchester, Andrew; Lei, Sidong; Vajtai, Robert; Ajayan, Pulickel M.; Dani, Keshav M.

    2017-01-01

    Technological progress since the late twentieth century has centred on semiconductor devices, such as transistors, diodes and solar cells. At the heart of these devices is the internal motion of electrons through semiconductor materials due to applied electric fields or by the excitation of photocarriers. Imaging the motion of these electrons would provide unprecedented insight into this important phenomenon, but requires high spatial and temporal resolution. Current studies of electron dynamics in semiconductors are generally limited by the spatial resolution of optical probes, or by the temporal resolution of electronic probes. Here, by combining femtosecond pump-probe techniques with spectroscopic photoemission electron microscopy, we imaged the motion of photoexcited electrons from high-energy to low-energy states in a type-II 2D InSe/GaAs heterostructure. At the instant of photoexcitation, energy-resolved photoelectron images revealed a highly non-equilibrium distribution of photocarriers in space and energy. Thereafter, in response to the out-of-equilibrium photocarriers, we observed the spatial redistribution of charges, thus forming internal electric fields, bending the semiconductor bands, and finally impeding further charge transfer. By assembling images taken at different time-delays, we produced a movie lasting a few trillionths of a second of the electron-transfer process in the photoexcited type-II heterostructure—a fundamental phenomenon in semiconductor devices such as solar cells. Quantitative analysis and theoretical modelling of spatial variations in the movie provide insight into future solar cells, 2D materials and other semiconductor devices.

  12. Analysis of Lung Tumor Motion in a Large Sample: Patterns and Factors Influencing Precise Delineation of Internal Target Volume

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Knybel, Lukas [Department of Oncology, University Hospital Ostrava, Ostrava (Czech Republic); VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava (Czech Republic); Cvek, Jakub, E-mail: Jakub.cvek@fno.cz [Department of Oncology, University Hospital Ostrava, Ostrava (Czech Republic); Molenda, Lukas; Stieberova, Natalie; Feltl, David [Department of Oncology, University Hospital Ostrava, Ostrava (Czech Republic)

    2016-11-15

    Purpose/Objective: To evaluate lung tumor motion during respiration and to describe factors affecting the range and variability of motion in patients treated with stereotactic ablative radiation therapy. Methods and Materials: Log file analysis from online respiratory tumor tracking was performed in 145 patients. Geometric tumor location in the lungs, tumor volume and origin (primary or metastatic), sex, and tumor motion amplitudes in the superior-inferior (SI), latero-lateral (LL), and anterior-posterior (AP) directions were recorded. Tumor motion variability during treatment was described using intrafraction/interfraction amplitude variability and tumor motion baseline changes. Tumor movement dependent on the tumor volume, position and origin, and sex were evaluated using statistical regression and correlation analysis. Results: After analysis of >500 hours of data, the highest rates of motion amplitudes, intrafraction/interfraction variation, and tumor baseline changes were in the SI direction (6.0 ± 2.2 mm, 2.2 ± 1.8 mm, 1.1 ± 0.9 mm, and −0.1 ± 2.6 mm). The mean motion amplitudes in the lower/upper geometric halves of the lungs were significantly different (P<.001). Motion amplitudes >15 mm were observed only in the lower geometric quarter of the lungs. Higher tumor motion amplitudes generated higher intrafraction variations (R=.86, P<.001). Interfraction variations and baseline changes >3 mm indicated tumors contacting mediastinal structures or parietal pleura. On univariate analysis, neither sex nor tumor origin (primary vs metastatic) was an independent predictive factor of different movement patterns. Metastatic lesions in women, but not men, showed significantly higher mean amplitudes (P=.03) and variability (primary, 2.7 mm; metastatic, 4.9 mm; P=.002) than primary tumors. Conclusion: Online tracking showed significant irregularities in lung tumor movement during respiration. Motion amplitude was significantly lower in upper lobe

  13. Status of liquid metal cooled fast reactor technology

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1999-04-01

    During the period 1985-1998, there have been substantial advances in fast reactor technology development. Chief among these has been the demonstration of reliable operation by several prototypes and experimental reactors, the reliable operation of fuel at high burnup. At the IAEA meetings on liquid metal cooled fast reactor technology (LMFR), it became evident that there have been significant technological advances as well as changes in the economic and regulatory environment since 1985. Therefore the International working group on Fast Reactors has recommended the preparation of a new status report on fast reactors. The present report intends to provide comprehensive and detailed information on LMFR technology. The focus is on practical issues that are useful to engineers, scientists, managers, university students and professors, on the following topics: experience in construction and operation, reactor physics and safety, sore structural material and fuel technology, fast reactor engineering and activities in progress on LMFR plants Refs, figs, tabs

  14. Status of liquid metal cooled fast reactor technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-04-01

    During the period 1985-1998, there have been substantial advances in fast reactor technology development. Chief among these has been the demonstration of reliable operation by several prototypes and experimental reactors, the reliable operation of fuel at high burnup. At the IAEA meetings on liquid metal cooled fast reactor technology (LMFR), it became evident that there have been significant technological advances as well as changes in the economic and regulatory environment since 1985. Therefore the International working group on Fast Reactors has recommended the preparation of a new status report on fast reactors. The present report intends to provide comprehensive and detailed information on LMFR technology. The focus is on practical issues that are useful to engineers, scientists, managers, university students and professors, on the following topics: experience in construction and operation, reactor physics and safety, sore structural material and fuel technology, fast reactor engineering and activities in progress on LMFR plants

  15. A margin model to account for respiration-induced tumour motion and its variability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coolens, Catherine; Webb, Steve; Evans, Phil M; Shirato, H; Nishioka, K

    2008-01-01

    In order to reduce the sensitivity of radiotherapy treatments to organ motion, compensation methods are being investigated such as gating of treatment delivery, tracking of tumour position, 4D scanning and planning of the treatment, etc. An outstanding problem that would occur with all these methods is the assumption that breathing motion is reproducible throughout the planning and delivery process of treatment. This is obviously not a realistic assumption and is one that will introduce errors. A dynamic internal margin model (DIM) is presented that is designed to follow the tumour trajectory and account for the variability in respiratory motion. The model statistically describes the variation of the breathing cycle over time, i.e. the uncertainty in motion amplitude and phase reproducibility, in a polar coordinate system from which margins can be derived. This allows accounting for an additional gating window parameter for gated treatment delivery as well as minimizing the area of normal tissue irradiated. The model was illustrated with abdominal motion for a patient with liver cancer and tested with internal 3D lung tumour trajectories. The results confirm that the respiratory phases around exhale are most reproducible and have the smallest variation in motion amplitude and phase (approximately 2 mm). More importantly, the margin area covering normal tissue is significantly reduced by using trajectory-specific margins (as opposed to conventional margins) as the angular component is by far the largest contributor to the margin area. The statistical approach to margin calculation, in addition, offers the possibility for advanced online verification and updating of breathing variation as more data become available

  16. Investigation of the Linker Swing Motion in the Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework ZIF-90

    KAUST Repository

    Zheng, Bin

    2018-03-13

    The linker swing motion in the zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-90 is investigated by density functional theory (DFT) calculation, molecular dynamics (MD) and grand-canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations. The relation between the terminal aldehyde group rotation and the linker swing motion is revealed. The extremely high activation energy of the linker swing motion in ZIF-90 can be attributed to the asymmetric geometry and electron distribution of aldehyde groups. The change in the gate structure resulting from the linker rotation is used to understand the guest adsorption in ZIF-90. This study shows that it is possible to tune the linker swing motion and then the properties of ZIF-90 by manipulating the terminal group rotation. The results highlight the importance of considering the internal freedom effects to correctly describe the linker swing motion and the flexibility of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).

  17. Fast Focal Point Correction in Prism-Coupled Total Internal Reflection Scanning Imager Using an Electronically Tunable Lens

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chenggang Zhu

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Total internal reflection (TIR is useful for interrogating physical and chemical processes that occur at the interface between two transparent media. Yet prism-coupled TIR imaging microscopes suffer from limited sensing areas due to the fact that the interface (the object plane is not perpendicular to the optical axis of the microscope. In this paper, we show that an electrically tunable lens can be used to rapidly and reproducibly correct the focal length of an oblique-incidence scanning microscope (OI-RD in a prism-coupled TIR geometry. We demonstrate the performance of such a correction by acquiring an image of a protein microarray over a scan area of 4 cm2 with an effective resolution of less than 20 microns. The electronic focal length tuning eliminates the mechanical movement of the illumination lens in the scanning microscope and in turn the noise and background drift associated with the motion.

  18. Indeterminism in Classical Dynamics of Particle Motion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eyink, Gregory; Vishniac, Ethan; Lalescu, Cristian; Aluie, Hussein; Kanov, Kalin; Burns, Randal; Meneveau, Charles; Szalay, Alex

    2013-03-01

    We show that ``God plays dice'' not only in quantum mechanics but also in the classical dynamics of particles advected by turbulent fluids. With a fixed deterministic flow velocity and an exactly known initial position, the particle motion is nevertheless completely unpredictable! In analogy with spontaneous magnetization in ferromagnets which persists as external field is taken to zero, the particle trajectories in turbulent flow remain random as external noise vanishes. The necessary ingredient is a rough advecting field with a power-law energy spectrum extending to smaller scales as noise is taken to zero. The physical mechanism of ``spontaneous stochasticity'' is the explosive dispersion of particle pairs proposed by L. F. Richardson in 1926, so the phenomenon should be observable in laboratory and natural turbulent flows. We present here the first empirical corroboration of these effects in high Reynolds-number numerical simulations of hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic fluid turbulence. Since power-law spectra are seen in many other systems in condensed matter, geophysics and astrophysics, the phenomenon should occur rather widely. Fast reconnection in solar flares and other astrophysical systems can be explained by spontaneous stochasticity of magnetic field-line motion

  19. Event-by-Event Continuous Respiratory Motion Correction for Dynamic PET Imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Yunhan; Chan, Chung; Ma, Tianyu; Liu, Yaqiang; Gallezot, Jean-Dominique; Naganawa, Mika; Kelada, Olivia J; Germino, Mary; Sinusas, Albert J; Carson, Richard E; Liu, Chi

    2016-07-01

    Existing respiratory motion-correction methods are applied only to static PET imaging. We have previously developed an event-by-event respiratory motion-correction method with correlations between internal organ motion and external respiratory signals (INTEX). This method is uniquely appropriate for dynamic imaging because it corrects motion for each time point. In this study, we applied INTEX to human dynamic PET studies with various tracers and investigated the impact on kinetic parameter estimation. The use of 3 tracers-a myocardial perfusion tracer, (82)Rb (n = 7); a pancreatic β-cell tracer, (18)F-FP(+)DTBZ (n = 4); and a tumor hypoxia tracer, (18)F-fluoromisonidazole ((18)F-FMISO) (n = 1)-was investigated in a study of 12 human subjects. Both rest and stress studies were performed for (82)Rb. The Anzai belt system was used to record respiratory motion. Three-dimensional internal organ motion in high temporal resolution was calculated by INTEX to guide event-by-event respiratory motion correction of target organs in each dynamic frame. Time-activity curves of regions of interest drawn based on end-expiration PET images were obtained. For (82)Rb studies, K1 was obtained with a 1-tissue model using a left-ventricle input function. Rest-stress myocardial blood flow (MBF) and coronary flow reserve (CFR) were determined. For (18)F-FP(+)DTBZ studies, the total volume of distribution was estimated with arterial input functions using the multilinear analysis 1 method. For the (18)F-FMISO study, the net uptake rate Ki was obtained with a 2-tissue irreversible model using a left-ventricle input function. All parameters were compared with the values derived without motion correction. With INTEX, K1 and MBF increased by 10% ± 12% and 15% ± 19%, respectively, for (82)Rb stress studies. CFR increased by 19% ± 21%. For studies with motion amplitudes greater than 8 mm (n = 3), K1, MBF, and CFR increased by 20% ± 12%, 30% ± 20%, and 34% ± 23%, respectively. For (82)Rb

  20. FAST: FAST Analysis of Sequences Toolbox

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Travis J. Lawrence

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available FAST (FAST Analysis of Sequences Toolbox provides simple, powerful open source command-line tools to filter, transform, annotate and analyze biological sequence data. Modeled after the GNU (GNU’s Not Unix Textutils such as grep, cut, and tr, FAST tools such as fasgrep, fascut, and fastr make it easy to rapidly prototype expressive bioinformatic workflows in a compact and generic command vocabulary. Compact combinatorial encoding of data workflows with FAST commands can simplify the documentation and reproducibility of bioinformatic protocols, supporting better transparency in biological data science. Interface self-consistency and conformity with conventions of GNU, Matlab, Perl, BioPerl, R and GenBank help make FAST easy and rewarding to learn. FAST automates numerical, taxonomic, and text-based sorting, selection and transformation of sequence records and alignment sites based on content, index ranges, descriptive tags, annotated features, and in-line calculated analytics, including composition and codon usage. Automated content- and feature-based extraction of sites and support for molecular population genetic statistics makes FAST useful for molecular evolutionary analysis. FAST is portable, easy to install and secure thanks to the relative maturity of its Perl and BioPerl foundations, with stable releases posted to CPAN. Development as well as a publicly accessible Cookbook and Wiki are available on the FAST GitHub repository at https://github.com/tlawrence3/FAST. The default data exchange format in FAST is Multi-FastA (specifically, a restriction of BioPerl FastA format. Sanger and Illumina 1.8+ FastQ formatted files are also supported. FAST makes it easier for non-programmer biologists to interactively investigate and control biological data at the speed of thought.