Intensity Projection Research Articles

Robert Morris (1931–2018)

This text, a series of reflections on the life and work of Robert Morris, draws from Jeffrey Weiss's long working relationship with the artist, which includes their collaboration on an intensive study project at the Guggenheim Museum. He gives chief consideration to two bodies of work: the Minimalist objects, conceived during the 1960s and refabricated throughout his life; and the Blind Time drawings, produced between 1973 and 2015. Weiss's account is based on a close consideration of material and technical concerns, which motivate speculations about the medium of time. Temporality is expressed in three ways: through strategic replication, which characterized the on-going production of “early” works; through the process of making, which is foregrounded in the drawings; and through the role of memory, a recurring thematic device in the practice overall.

After the Trolls: Patent Litigation As Ex-Post Market Making

Recent patent policy emphasizes the superiority of ex ante licensing over ex post patent assertion. Ex ante means before costs are sunk by a patent defendant, so licensing at this stage avoids the leveraging of a defendant’s investments in product design which is a presumptive aspect of litigation in the ex post period. Contrary to the dominant narrative (ex ante good, ex post bad) this Article defends patent litigation as a reasonable way to award compensation in the ex post (i.e., after product development) period. The literature on strategic delay, together with the sometimes heavy costs of negotiating patent licenses during an intensive product development project (including opportunity costs), point to a productive role for patent litigation: ex post market-making. Patent litigation determines which patented inventions contributed to product success during the all-out scramble for successful product development and market entry. But it does so after development is complete and the product market is established. This temporal decoupling – separating intensive development competition from a careful assessment of the contributions of individual patented technologies – is a rational way to appropriately compensate the various contributors to a new product in fast-moving, technology-intensive markets. The last part of the Article reviews the many ways that litigation has been reformed in recent years in response to the problem of rent-seeking litigation, i.e., patent trolls. Many patent doctrines have been adjusted to better police the “troll line”: the line separating socially worthless troll patents from value-adding patents that are worth enforcing. Because of these reforms, we can be confident that patent litigation primarily serves the positive function of rewarding (ex post) the actual contributors to a new product.

L’enfant et son parent hospitalisé en réanimation

Intensive care units are places which generate anxiety and stress, hospitalisations in these sectors often being sudden and a result of unexpected events. Furthermore, the family dynamics are often affected. This observation led to the creation of a surgical intensive care project at Caen university hospital, financed by the Fondation de France, which aims to ensure the parent-child bond is maintained.

A Royal Pain, But Worth It: New Storage for Old Collections

Three years ago, the Section of Anthropology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to rehouse its 1.5-million-specimen archaeological collection. The entire Anthropology collection was affected by the movement of the archaeology material, and required additional attention. With a staff of two people, a conservator, and a host of wonderful volunteers and interns, the security and accessibility of the collections were greatly enhanced through the creation of custom housing for a variety of objects, including pottery, textiles, spears, bows and arrows, saddles, etc. This poster shows a sampling of the storage upgrades that resulted from this intense project.

Observing “Myself” in the Video: Fostering Reflective Practice in Oral Presentation Training

This paper proposes using video-supported reflection to facilitate EFL students’ reflective practice of oral presentations. Based on reflective learning theory, four teaching stages are designed and used in an intensive oral presentation training project: creating reflection scenarios, providing reflection scaffolds, guiding collaborative reflection, and summarizing learning gains. Data are collected through students’ reflective journals and focus group interviews. Findings indicate that the project has a positive impact on students’ reflective abilities and their perceived learning gains. Problems encountered by the students are identified and discussed in light of research and practice on how to support and enhance reflective learning.

The INTENSE project: using observations and models to understand the past, present and future of sub-daily rainfall extremes

Abstract. Historical in situ sub-daily rainfall observations are essential for the understanding of short-duration rainfall extremes but records are typically not readily accessible and data are often subject to errors and inhomogeneities. Furthermore, these events are poorly quantified in projections of future climate change making adaptation to the risk of flash flooding problematic. Consequently, knowledge of the processes contributing to intense, short-duration rainfall is less complete compared with those on daily timescales. The INTENSE project is addressing this global challenge by undertaking a data collection initiative that is coupled with advances in high-resolution climate modelling to better understand key processes and likely future change. The project has so far acquired data from over 23 000 rain gauges for its global sub-daily rainfall dataset (GSDR) and has provided evidence of an intensification of hourly extremes over the US. Studies of these observations, combined with model simulations, will continue to advance our understanding of the role of local-scale thermodynamics and large-scale atmospheric circulation in the generation of these events and how these might change in the future.

Оцінка критичних сценаріїв щодо надходження інвестицій в розвиток об’єктів електроенергетики України

We analyze the existing plans and programs for the development of generating capacities of the Ukrainian UPS and, on this basis, form the variants of prospects of their implementation depending on the amount of financing. Scenario calculations of the prospective structure of generating capacities of the Ukrainian UPS and the characteristics of its operation have shown that improper investments in the development of generating capacities can lead to the collapse of the Ukrainian power system already after 2030, when the large-scale decommissioning of existing capacities will begin even despite their life extention. For sustainable, environmentally acceptable operation of the energy system, it is necessary to solve the problem of finding sources of investment in the industry in the near future, especially for the implementation of high-capital intensive and large-scale projects with a long period of implementation, such as the construction of new nuclear and pumped storage power plants.

X-ray Phase-Contrast Radiography and Tomography with a Multiaperture Analyzer.

We present a multiaperture analyzer setup for performing x-ray phase contrast imaging in planar and three-dimensional modalities. The method is based on strongly structuring the x-ray beam with an amplitude modulator, before it reaches the sample, and on a multiaperture analyzing element before detection. A multislice representation of the sample is used to establish a quantitative relation between projection images and the corresponding three-dimensional distributions, leading to successful tomographic reconstruction. Sample absorption, phase, and scattering are retrieved from the measurement of five intensity projections. The method is tested on custom-built phantoms with synchrotron radiation: sample absorption and phase can be reliably retrieved also in combination with strong scatterers, simultaneously attaining high sensitivity and dynamic range.

Empowerment of the Students Creativity Through Participatory Art Project in Surakarta

The general objective of the participatory art project creation is to provide inspiration and concrete solutions to the creativity problems of senior high school students in Surakarta. While specifically aims to: 1) create useful the art strategies to empower the students creativity, 2) realize the art project that favors the development of students creativity potential, 3) create many artwork that comes from the students socio-cultural context. The methods of participatory art creation were done by: 1) an intensive on-site art project that was on going at SMAN 5 Surakarta, SMA Murni and MA Al-Islam in Surakarta. Object observation included student activities in and outside of school, the learning atmosphere in the classroom, student work documents, and documents teacher (curriculum, syllabus, lesson plans, learning materials). 2) In-deep interviews; with the head master, teachers, and students. 3) The literature review; to examine the theory to reinforce the concepts as a foundation that provides clear direction and path in the process of creating art works for the purpose of creating some participatory artwork. 4) Workshop and experiments; provide workshops of art creation to the students and conduct experiments with materials, techniques and formats in order to achieve a shape that corresponds to the concept of creation. The results of this art project are: 1) the product of participatory art creation strategies that are able to empower the students creativity. 2) the realization of participatory art project moving in the area of art creativity empowerment of students in the school. 3) the creation of art works based on the socio-cultural context, namely: print making, comic strips, comic puppets, etching. Through the creation of a participatory art project has been a change as follows: 1) An increase in the students activity receiving learning material of art creation, especially of the creativity led to the idea in visual forms. 2) Participatory art project can be oriented to direct experience of completing a variety of problems from simple. 3) The students have a skills to creative thinking with a different perspective and can be flexibly applied to solve a of problems as well welcoming the opportunity.

Evaluation of Open Source Medical Imaging Software: A Case Study on Health Technology Student Learning Experience

Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACSs) can be relatively high cost acquisitions if the intended purpose of use is limited to educational and research use. However, rapidly growing offering of open-source software enables such acquisitions with moderate cost. Establishing selection criteria product with the best fit for its purpose and testing it for compatibility requires additional effort. A case study of a selection and test process as a student learning experience is analyzed. Knowledge production paradigms are briefly described. Institutional background of Applied Science Universities and Metropolia UAS, its Information and Communications Technology Bachelor of Engineering program and its major, Health Technology are introduced. An intensive project course of Medical Devices Research and Development is analyzed, especially two projects of PACS and DICOM viewers are discussed in more detail. The research value is in documented learning case for pedagogical development and the use value is in tested practical installation. The selection criteria and testing results are summarized. The main results of the project as a joint team teaching and learning experience are discussed and reflected to the knowledge production paradigms.

Embedding Undergraduate Research in an Anthropology Curriculum

We strive to provide our students with applied and transformational experiences to strengthen and crystallize the coursework within our disciplines and prepare students to conduct research in their later undergraduate years, graduate school, and careers. One of our greatest challenges as educators is training students to conduct research within the constraints of college and department-level requirements and subject to faculty teaching loads and the need for faculty buy-in. I have designed a system for embedding high-impact educational practices and transformational experiences in a stepwise process throughout an undergraduate anthropology curriculum. I support using community-based projects as the vehicle for training students to design and carry out collaborative research, after which they can mentor other students to further refine their training and/or take an upperlevel course that results in a proposal for a capstone research project. Materials for four courses are included, along with assessment tools for measuring student mastery/growth/development. The courses involved are a research design seminar, a methods seminar, a research proposal course, and a seminar on mentoring research design or methods. Suggestions for adjusting faculty workloads are offered. My hope is to (1) provide educators with a ready-made program; (2) demonstrate its feasibility to faculty and its value to students, faculty, and community; and (3) encourage departments to use the tools presented or design their own using these as a template. The value of undergraduate training in, and the conduct of, research has been reported by many educators, for many disciplines (Madan and Teitge 2013 for a review of particular disciplines; see also Russell et al. 2007; Kuh 2008; Lopatto 2010a; Craney et al. 2011). Benefits fall within the areas of personal and scholarly growth and career guidance. In terms of personal development, students report or demonstrate increased self-confidence, independence, creativity, discipline, cognitive development (e.g., analytical and synthetic skills), and feelings of accomplishment (Russell et al. 2007; Lopatto 2008, 2010b; Wayment and Dickson 2008). Besides the obvious development of research skills (formulating research questions, conducting a literature review, designing a project and research methods, collecting and analyzing data, and reporting of results), students benefit scholastically in other direct and indirect ways. Applied and research experience help to crystallize what students learn in the foundational courses within their major, via “reallife” experience (https://www.utexas.edu/ugs/our/conduct/ models). As Madan and Teitge (2013, 1) state, “...only after forming one’s own hypotheses does one truly understand the nuances of research designs and better conceptualize course material.” Students begin to think like scientists, and the more they participate in research design, the better they become at tailoring methods to answer proposed questions (Russell et al. 2007; Lopatto 2008; Madan and Teitge 2013). At liberal arts and undergraduate colleges, faculty members often rely on undergraduates as research assistants. Student benefits from this may include training within their discipline, one-on-one mentorship (Madan and Teitje 2013), experience as peer mentors (Lopatto 2010b), knowledge of funding opportunities, conference attendance and presentations, and publications (Lopatto 2008). All of these experiences help solidify students’ career paths, enhance their applications to graduate school, and/or facilitate their employment in applied areas (Lopatto 2008; Madan and Teitge 2013). Russell et al. (2007) found that participation in undergraduate research increased students’ interest in attaining advanced degrees. To expand research opportunities and benefits to a greater number of students, I have designed a program that embeds undergraduate research in an anthropology curriculum. A primary goal of the project is to enrich the lives, experiences, and education of students via applied, practical, and highimpact academic experiences. The value to educators is in the ready-to-use program. While there are countless references for the “what” and “why” of teaching and involvement of undergraduates in research, the “how” resources are scarce, and thus faculty are left to design their own courses and associated materials. Here I present materials for conducting and assessing four courses that involve early training for all majors in designing and conducting a collaborative research project, include peer mentoring for midto upper-level majors, and lead students toward a capstone research proposal. Kuh (2008, 21) suggests that students should participate in at least two high-impact activities as undergraduates, to “enhance student engagement and increase student success.” His list of possible activities are first-year seminars, common intellectual experiences, learning communities, writing intensive courses, collaborative assignments and projects, undergraduate research, diversity/global learning, service

MO-FG-BRA-04: A Novel Time Weighted Density Correction for Stereotactic Lung Radiotherapy: A Phantom Study

Purpose: Conventional treatment plans for lung radiotherapy are created using either the free breathing (FB) scheme which represents the tumor at an arbitrary breathing phase of the patient's respiratory cycle, or the average computed tomography (ACT) intensity projection over 10-binned phases. Neither method is entirely accurate because of the absence of time dependence of tumor movement. In the present “Hybrid” method, the HU of tumor in 3D space is determined by relative weighting of the HU of the tumor and lung in proportion to the time they spend at that location during the entire breathing cycle. Methods: A Quasar respiratory motion phantom was employed to simulate lung tumor movement. Utilizing 4DCT image scans, volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans were generated for three treatment planning scenarios which included conventional FB and ACT schemes, along with a third alternative Hybrid approach. Our internal target volume (ITV) hybrid structure was created using Boolean operation in Eclipse (ver. 11) treatment planning system, where independent sub-regions created by the gross tumor volume (GTV) overlap from the 10 motion phases were each assigned a time weighted CT value. The dose-volume-histograms (DVH) for each scheme were compared and analyzed. Results: Using our hybrid technique, we have demonstrated a reduction of 1.9% – 3.4% in total monitor units with respect to conventional treatment planning strategies, along with a 6 fold improvement in high dose spillage over the FB plan. The higher density ACT and Hybrid schemes also produced a slight enhancement in target conformity and reduction in low dose spillage. Conclusion: All treatment plans created in this study exceeded RTOG protocol criteria. Our results determine the free breathing approach yields an inaccurate account of the target treatment density. A significant decrease in unnecessary lung irradiation can be achieved by implementing Hybrid HU method with ACT method second best.

Congenital anatomic variants of the kidney and ureter: a pictorial essay

Congenital renal parenchymal and pelvicalyceal abnormalities have a wide spectrum. Most of them are asymptomatic, like that of ectopia, cross fused kidney, horseshoe kidney, etc., while a few of them become complicated, leading to renal failure and death. It is very important for the radiologist to identify these anatomic variants and guide the clinicians for surgical and therapeutic procedures. Cross-sectional imaging with a volume rendered technique/maximum intensity projection has overcome ultrasonography and IVU for identification and interpretation of some of these variants.

Airway Evaluation with Multidetector Computed Tomography Post-Processing Methods in Asthmatic Patients.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory obstructive airways disease. The disease occurs regardless of age and manifests with cough, attacks of breathlessness, and tightness in the chest. The pathophysiology of asthma is complex and still not fully understood. It is essential to find answers concerning the role of each part of the bronchial tree in asthma, especially the role of small bronchioles. With the development of newer generations of multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) and advanced post-processing methods it is possible to obtain more detailed images and gain insight into further aspects of asthma. MDCT post-processing methods can be divided into two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D). In 2D projections, visualized hypodense regions correspond to the airway flow limitations. With the more advanced methods, such as multi planar reconstructions (MPR), images in different planes (axial, coronal, or sagittal) can be created. In the MPR technique only the voxels which are adjacent to each other in the predetermined plane can be extracted from the data set. Using the minimal/maximal intensity projections and shaded surface display, the volume of interest (VOI) can be extracted. High resolution CT scans can be used to create a more advanced imaging tool - the virtual bronchoscopy (VB). Using the VB makes it possible to visualize regions of obturation in the bronchi of up to the 5-8th generation. The MDCT with advanced post-processing methods is likely to assume an important role in the differential diagnosis of asthma, particularly when the diagnosis is dubious or hard to settle due to accompanying other lung diseases.

Laboratory-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging with misaligned optical elements

We report on a laboratory X-ray phase-contrast imaging technique based on the edge illumination principle that substantially relaxes the existing limitations on system set up and data acquisition, allowing an increase in tolerance of misalignments by at least two orders of magnitude. The robustness of this approach was systematically studied by means of experiments with our prototype. Numerical simulations were also performed in order to assess the dependence of the image quality on the data acquisition scheme. The results show that errors in the positioning of the masks within a 1° range for all the angles, and within 1 mm range of translation, do not noticeably affect image quality. We also show that, if the misalignment does not exceed few tens of micrometers, three intensity projections are sufficient to effectively retrieve the three representations of the sample, allowing for optimization of dose or time efficiency even with a non-ideal system.

Theoretical and methodological reflection of a case study on the Deblínsko landscape project

Full text of the article is available both in English and Czech.The case study is based primarily on long-standing collaboration of two public sector institutions: the MU in Brno and the Deblín Primary School and Kindergarten, with cooperation of experts in numerous other institutions. The MU in Brno and the Deblín Primary School and Kindergarten focus on research, teaching and, above all, practical applications of sustainability/security. The objective of the study is to revise the theoretical and methodological frameworks influencing approaches to teaching sustainability in primary education and, through it, to open a discussion of civic society topics and formation starting at the level of children/pupils/students. The vehicle for achieving the objective is a thorough critical view of the “Deblínsko landscape project”. The authors’ experience concerns development of dialogue between the world of science and its applications and needs of those on whom its consequences impact. They are collected as part of activities aimed primarily at intensive field and project teaching, which reflects the sustainability discourse in the primary, secondary and tertiary education practice and is also connected with establishment of international collaboration. The focus of the field work is based on the understanding of each of the institutions as regional education centres (Deblín Primary School and Kindergarten = community centre), focused on solving issues of sustainability, involving owners, users, decision-makers, shareholders and stakeholders within public territorial administration, represented by means of goals and measures of regional development schemes along with micro-regional development programmes and local action group (LAG) activities.

Imaging Disc Endplates with DCE-MRI Reveals Modic Changes with Higher Sensitivity and Spatial Specificity

Introduction One of the sequelae of intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is accompanying degenerative changes in adjacent subchondral bone (SB) of the vertebral bodies, which are classified as modic changes (MC). MC may represent vascularization and/or edema (Type I), proliferation of yellow fatty marrow (Type II), or sclerosis (Type III). Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) is a method to study blood perfusion in extracellular extravascular space (EES). Therefore, it could be sensitive especially to Type I MC. In this study, temporal and spatial characteristics of DCE-MRI in degenerative endplate changes were investigated. Materials and Methods This study was approved by the IRB and written consents were obtained from 31 participants (Age: median [min, max]: 36 [20–57 years]; 11 female patients; 23 asymptomatic controls, 8 patients with low back pain associated with degenerative disc disease). Images were acquired using a 3T MRI system with CTL-spine coil. DCE-MRI was acquired using dual-echo FSPGR (16-sagittal slices with 3 mm thickness, FOV = 31 cm, acquisition matrix = 310 × 300, TR = 4.0 ms, TE1 = 1.1 ms, TE2 = 2.2 ms, flip angle = 12 degrees, 23 frames with 28s frame rate). The contrast (Gd-DTPA 0.1 mmol/kg) was administered manually as a bolus via an antecubital vein at the end of the second dynamic frame. Conventional T2” and T1-weighted (T2W, T1W) images were also acquired and reviewed by two radiologists to assess MCs and disc degeneration. For analysis, an operator manually drew regions of interest (ROI) for endplates (EP) and adjacent SBs. Using these ROIs, planes parallel to the cranial and caudal faces of each IVD were generated and DCE-MRI intensity projection (IP) onto those planes were calculated for each EP and SB. A representative image slice with ROIs and projection planes (magenta dotted line) are shown in Fig. 1 . Results In three control patients, the radiologists reported two Type I MC (1.7% of controls' IVDs) and two (1.7%) Type II MC. In four patients, three Type I MC (12.5% of patients' IVDs) and one (2.5%) Type II MC were reported. Fig. 2 illustrates T1W, T2W, and average contrast enhancement projected onto EPs and adjacent SBs from two patients with Type I MC and one patient with Type II MC. Red areas in IP images show regions with high contrast agent uptake. Note that IP images are in oblique–axial orientation. [Figure: see text] Conclusion The results show that the SB regions with degenerative changes show much higher contrast agent uptake compared with normal SB regions. The enhancement was more prominent in Type I MC. Increased vascularization in Type I MC should lead to higher blood perfusion and edema should lead to increased accumulation of contrast agent. Interestingly, some Type II MCs had no noticeable enhancement while others showed some enhancement. It is possible that those enhancing endplates might be a mixed Type I/II. These preliminary results show that DCE-MRI might be a valuable tool to detect MC in earlier stages and also distinguish different phases of degenerative endplate changes with better specificity. Acknowledgment This study is supported by AOSpine research grant. [Figure: see text]

Conservation of imperiled crayfish, Euastacus clarkae Morgan, 1997 (Decapoda: Parastacidae), a highland crayfish from the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia’s World Heritage Area

The imperiled Clark’s crayfish, Euastacus clarkae Morgan (1997), was described from a handful of juvenile specimens collected from one location in 1981. The Australian Crayfish Project recently completed an intensive field survey project to better define its distribution, habitat, biology and conservation status. Euastacus clarkae is restricted to headwater reaches of highland streams feeding the Hastings and Forbes rivers, at elevations ranging from 670-1150 m. The entire Hastings River catchment (3846 km2) was surveyed and established the Extent of Occurrence for E. clarkae at 200 km2. The distribution was almost entirely located within Werrikimbe National Park where the species was locally abundant. We recommended conservation down listing from Critically Endangered to Endangered and present information to support future conservation efforts and allow specific management plans to be drafted for this rare, highland species. To assist with identification we provide a key to this and other Euastacus found in the Hastings and adjoining drainages.

高解像度ダウンスケーリングによる将来台風の強度予測

高解像度ダウンスケーリングによる将来台風の強度予測

Absorption, refraction and scattering retrieval with an edge-illumination-based imaging setup

We have recently developed a new method based on edge-illumination for retrieving a three-image representation of the sample. A minimum of three intensity projections are required in order to retrieve the transmission, refraction and ultra-small-angle scattering properties of the sample. Here we show how the method can be adapted for particular cases in which some degree of a priori information about the sample might be available, limiting the number of required projections to two. Moreover, an iterative algorithm to correct for non-ideal optical elements is proposed and tested on numerical simulations, and finally validated on experimental data.