Live-action Footage Research Articles

Clinical procedures for in vitro maturation treatment

To demonstrate clinical techniques for invitro maturation (IVM) treatment, including stimulation recommendations, small follicle pick-up procedures, and compact cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) search practice. This video utilizes live-action footage from surgery and embryology practice for a representative IVM treatment cycle, with step-by-step instructions and recommendations for practice procedures. Invitro fertilization (IVF) clinic. Patients undergoing IVM treatment. The patient(s) included in this video gave consent for publication of the video and posting of the video online, including on social media, the journal website, scientific literature websites, and other applicable sites. Identification of treatment cohorts, IVM definitions, and recommendations for stimulation treatments. A visual demonstration of COC extraction techniques from small antral follicles includes tubing, needle types, considerations when using double lumen or sheath needles, needle pressure, ultrasound, needle flushing, and aspiration technique. Visual demonstration of oocyte search and IVM preparation, including filtering follicular aspirate, prevention of COC cooling, identification of compact COCs, and general parameters of different IVM approaches. Clinical techniques for small follicle ovum pick up and compact COC identification for IVM treatment. Successful IVM treatment of patients can be achieved using minimal ovarian stimulation, effective small follicle retrieval, and efficient compact COC identification with flexibility in approach depending on clinical constraints and preference. Invitro maturation treatment is an efficacious and safe treatment for high ovarian reserve and hyper-responding patients undergoing IVF treatment, in which the retrieval of multiple immature COCs and their exvivo maturation can be achieved with little to no invivo stimulation. Practice procedures vary between treatment centers and IVM techniques. This video provides practice recommendations paired with a visual demonstration of techniques to assist in standardizing the approach and expanding the practice to more centers.

3D special effects modelling based on computer graphics technology

Cinema has radically transformed due to 3D special effects modelling, a product of advancing computer graphics technology. This field has significantly impacted entertainment and technology, and is now extending its reach beyond. A basic understanding of 3D modelling is crucial, obtainable through academic resources that provide historical context and insights. The journey begins with the emergence of computer-generated imagery (CGI) in the mid-20th century, pioneered by innovators like Ivan Sutherland. We progress to the 1980s, where film and gaming intersected, resulting in landmark films like "Tron". These movies showcased the storytelling potential of CGI. The 1990s further demonstrated CGI's capacity to blend with live-action footage, with films like "Jurassic Park". By the 2000s, filmmakers fully harnessed 3D modelling, creating immersive cinematic experiences like "The Lord of the Rings". The democratization of 3D modelling and its integration with virtual production and augmented reality have since expanded its applications. We conclude by looking forward, where emerging technologies promise to further integrate 3D modelling into our lives, reshaping fields like gaming and navigation. This essay will explore the evolution and impact of 3D special effects modelling.

Animation and the visualization of subjective experiences in Ninjababy

This article explores how animation has unique abilities to portray the emotional lives of characters in concise, accurate, reflective and engaging ways. It does so through a close reading of the experimental Norwegian film Ninjababy (), about Rakel, a young woman who, discovering that she is six-and-a-half-months pregnant after casual sex, decides to put her baby up for adoption. In Ninjababy, animation is combined with live-action footage and used to illustrate interior states of mind that live-action film cannot show. The article also discusses how the use of animation makes Ninjababy particularly fit to address sensitive topics like sexuality and mental health in secondary education.

Multiple HD Screen-Based Virtual Studio System with Learned Mask-Free Portrait Harmonization

Virtual studio technology allows producers to combine live-action footage and computer-generated imagery and has promoted the development of film and television industry. However, the existing green screen-based virtual studio limits the visual effects just in postproduction. In this paper, we propose a new virtual studio system based on the recent emerging technology using multiple high-definition (HD) screens. Besides using traditional computer graphics like other similar systems, our system enables to capture panoramic video from the real world as the background and project it onto multiple HD screens, so as to recreate the scene in the studio. In addition, we propose a mask-free portrait harmonization network to make sure that the appearances of the foreground region and the background are consistent. Our portrait harmonization network does not need any auxiliary foreground mask and works in an end-to-end manner, which meets the postprocessing requirements for our virtual studio. Experimental result on real composite images shows that our network is superior to the state-of-the-art image harmonization method under the task of portrait harmonization. We also demonstrate our system with a CAVE system.

Animating Truth: Documentary and Visual Culture in the 21st Century

Animating Truth: Documentary and Visual Culture in the 21st Century

Shades of Invisibility

Shades of Invisibility is an ongoing experimental artist’s documentation of my practice in making Chernobyl Journey, an activist film that I have been working on for twelve years. In Chernobyl Journey live action tells the story of my four trips to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone between 2009 and 2015 in search of rare Przewalski Horses, while animation is used to subversively unravel this apparently straightforward and chronological story backwards, tracing my fascination for the Exclusion Zone back to memories of an acute and life-changing illness in my own timeline from May to August 1986. In the film, animation is used not only to portray my inner private world of sensations, emotions and memories, but also to trace the slow process of arriving at self-knowledge through unravelling invisibilities of a very external and political nature. However, it is not the animation itself that makes the film experimental and subversive, but the way in which the animation is intimately woven into the live action footage. Through methods of compositing and blending, a counter historical narrative is inscribed into the fabric and the forbidden spaces of the two landscapes my auto-ethnographic story inhabits. As well as providing an outlet for my counter historical auto-ethnographic story, Chernobyl Journey also debunks the myth that nature will spring back like a lightly trodden on blade of grass, even after the worst excesses of human exploitation, extraction and environmental disaster. Shades of Invisibility is informed and inspired by my reading of New Materialist texts, in particular Jane Bennett’s ‘Vibrant Matter’. In the text I attempt to explore the efficacy of agencies other than my own will upon my art, using invisibility as a linking theme to create a network of interlocking pathways into subject matter that is dense, multi-layered, interdisciplinary, complex and sometimes politically taboo. My approach to documentation is activist in itself, as it questions the hylomorphic and anthropocentric world view that underpins auteur theory. I argue that this model of creativity based on the unrestrained and unaccountable power of the human individual’s will mirrors the neo-liberal model of unrestrained extractive capitalism that is contributing so much to our present reality of climate crisis, loss of species diversity and global injustice.

Exploring 3D Playblast-To-2D Animation Rotoscoping Techniques

Rotoscoping can produce believable 2D animation and movements when the process is done correctly. However, not all live-action footage can be easily rotoscoped due to scenes or fictional designs that are impossible to shoot. To overcome this technical challenge, 3D playblast can be used as footage for an alternative source for rotoscoping. This research aims to explore and evaluate two rotoscoping techniques of transforming 3D playblast into 2D animation. Two different animation software (Adobe Animate CC and Toon Boom Harmony) were used to explore those rotoscoping techniques. The method began by designing a storyboard with dynamic camera angles. Then, animated 3D models were developed based on the storyboard as footage for rotoscoping. Then, those animated 3D models were rotoscoped frame by frame using ‘Toon Boon Harmony’ and ‘Adobe Animated CC’. The rotoscope outputs were evaluated for their effectiveness and weaknesses. Findings show that rotoscoping frame by frame is viable for both software with some nuances. Nevertheless, the proposed rotoscope techniques can maintain consistency between each frame without losing the proportion of anatomy and style when animating in an extreme and distorted scene.

The Design of RenderMan.

The design of RenderMan was driven by the requirements of rendering for the movies. The rendered images could have no digital artifacts and they had to be able to be composited seamlessly with live-action footage. This article recounts the development of RenderMan. It tells the story of the invention of the fundamental architecture and algorithms, the application of good engineering and design principles, RenderMan's use in feature films, the long-term influence of the RenderMan Shading Language on real-time graphics and high-performance computing, and, where the name came from.

Tone Mapping for Integrating CG Elements into Live-Action Footage

Tone Mapping for Integrating CG Elements into Live-Action Footage

Effects of Motion Picture Frame Rate on Material and Texture Appearance

High frame rate film should decrease motion blur and temporal aliasing allowing viewers to see more detail. Here we assessed how frame rate affected perception of detail in fabrics and costume ornamentation in three experiments. Live action footage with a fashion show theme was captured at all combinations of two resolutions (2k and 4k), three frame rates (24, 48 and 60 fps), and two shutter angles (180° and 358°). In the first experiment, participants rated the sharpness of a clip of a moving garment relative to a stationary clip. In the second experiment, participants rated (1) image sharpness and (2) quality of motion of 20-s sequences of costumed actors walking on a catwalk. In the last experiment, observers viewed pairs of image sequences and made direct pairwise comparisons while attending to the quality of motion, realism and detail in the garments. As expected, fabric detail became noticeably less distinct when in motion. Motion quality and image sharpness ratings improved with increasing frame rate, especially from 24 to 48 fps. Sharpness ratings were higher for 180° than for 358° shutter angle but the effect was small except at the lowest frame rate. Given the relatively weak effects of shutter angle, we conclude that aliasing and judder were stronger determinants of perceived detail than motion blur. Our results show that naïve observers perceive enhanced detail in HFR film sequences of moving fabrics. We argue that this improved perception of detail could underlie both the positive and negative reactions to HFR film, depending on the nature of the content and whether it lends itself to such high fidelity.

Techniques for successful vaginal anastomosis in the uterine transplantation patient

To demonstrate techniques for successful donor-to-recipient vaginal anastomosis in uterine transplantation including illustration of a tension-free technique. This video uses live-action footage from surgery, detailed animations, and illustrations to review the step-by-step technique we use for vaginal anastomosis in uterine transplantation. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained for this experimental surgery. Academic medical center. Patients undergoing uterine transplantation. Preparation of recipient vagina with illustration of challenges and risk secondary to dense adhesions between bladder and neo-vagina. Use of surgical techniques. Key steps include appropriate preparation of both donor and recipient vaginal tissues and a tension-free closure with horizontal mattress stitches. Intraoperative techniques in the clinical research trial of uterine transplantation. Successful vaginal anastomosis in the uterine transplantation patient. This video provides a step-by-step guide to vaginal anastomosis in uterine transplantation patients. Our team has applied techniques from vaginal reconstructive surgery in an attempt to reduce the occurrence of postoperative vaginal strictures, with attention to planned donor and recipient anastomosis site tissue preparation and closure of the anastomosis using a tension-free suturing technique.

Techniques for successful vaginal anastomosis in the uterine transplant patient

To demonstrate our techniques for successful vaginal anastomosis in the uterine transplant patient. We report the case of a recent uterine transplant from a decease multi-organ donor and highlight the vaginal anastomosis portion of this multi-step surgery. This video uses live action footage from surgery and detailed descriptions review our techniques for successful vaginal anastomosis in the uterine transplant patient. Following uterine transplantation, access to the donor allograft cervix is important for many reasons. Vaginal strictures pose a unique problem in this surgical population. We believe strictures result from difficult in approximating donor vaginal mucosa to recipient vaginal mucosa, and that this is paramount in reducing this untoward postop complication. Given the difficulty of surgery and tendency for the recipient vaginal mucosa to retract, our teams has employed techniques from vaginal reconstructive surgery to reduce the occurrence of postoperative vaginal strictures.

Uterus transplantation: organ procurement in a deceased donor model

To demonstrate our technique of uterine procurement from a deceased donor. This video uses live action footage from surgery and detailed illustrations to review the steps and techniques involved in deceased donor procurement surgery. Academic medical center. A deceased multiorgan donor. Trial organ procurement of a viable uterus from a deceased donor. Procurement time and associated features of suitability of dissected specimen. This video article describes the advantages of a deceased donor model over a live donor model, including eliminating the risk of surgical complications to a living donor, avoidance of ethical issues inherent in live donation, easier access to generous vascular pedicles for anastomosis, and faster procurement time. This video also outlines the key steps to a successful uterine procurement using illustrations and live action footage from a trial organ procurement. Uterine transplantation is an emerging surgical treatment for patients with absolute uterine factor infertility. Continued practice is essential in preparing for a deceased donor uterine procurement. The process continues to be refined and adapted as new information becomes available toward the goal of safe, efficient, ethical, and effective surgical treatment of absolute uterine factor infertility.

Forms of Mediation in Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir

Forms of Mediation in Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir Donato Loia (bio) You have to take care of yourself: it is you who takes care; and then you take care of something which is the same thing as yourself, [the same thing] as the subject who "takes care," this is your self as object. —Michel Foucault 1 Introduction Scholars of film studies and trauma studies have dedicated much thinking to Waltz with Bashir (2008) by Israeli director Ari Folman. 2 The animated film is based on Folman's participation as an Israeli soldier in the 1982 Lebanon war. The movie's main character, Folman himself, attempts to remember—twenty-four years later—repressed memories from the war. The most significant repressed experiences haunting the character are the Sabra and Shatila massacres, where the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia murdered more than 1,700 Palestinians while the Israel Defense Forces provided military cover for the Phalangists. This essay will not discuss the degree of involvement of the Israeli Defense Force in the massacres nor will it consider the issues of perpetrator trauma or the Palestinian response the movie. 3 Instead, this essay examines Waltz with Bashir as a reflection on the possibility of mediating or repressing a traumatic memory. The movie begins with Folman revealing to a friend, haunted by recurring war dreams, that he has no flashbacks or memories from the war. However, that same night, Folman experiences his first flashback from the Sabra and Shatila massacres. The flashback, which recurs multiple times throughout the movie, and shows Folman and his comrades emerging [End Page 91] naked out of a body of water and walking toward a bombed city, triggers his desire to better understand his role and experiences. The vision always ends with Palestinian women, seemingly crying, running toward the group of men walking toward the city (fig. 1). Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. Ari Folman, Waltz with Bashir, 2008, still. The rest of the movie shows Folman carrying out a series of interviews with friends and various professionals who were involved in the Lebanon war, including a psychiatrist, a journalist, and an army general. Ohad Landesman and Roy Bendor point out that "while the interviews were recorded faithfully in clean high fidelity sound, their filmed footage was used only as a visual reference to inspire the animation (which was not rotoscoped, but made entirely from scratch)." 4 The film combines interview scenes with flashbacks from the war, including the one mentioned above that appears again in the movie's final scene. However, in the final scene, the vision continues after the women run toward the soldiers. After the camera zooms in for a few seconds on a closeup on Folman's face, the camera cuts to a reverse shot of live action footage of the crying women. Audiences hear—for the first time in the film—the crying women's voices, initially superimposed on the animation, then as part of the live footage. The women are crying and screaming in Arabic, "My son, my son!"; "Take photos! Take photos!"; and "Where are the [End Page 92] Arabs, where are the Arabs?" The live action footage shows the trucidated bodies of women, men, and children. The curly hair of a child appears among the debris. Then, the film ends. Waltz with Bashir has often been treated as a documentary. The International Documentary Association awarded it as the best feature-length film in 2008, and the Writers Guild of America awarded it Best Documentary in 2009. The critical reception of the movie, says Giulia Miller, "has retrospectively caused it to be redefined as 'animated documentary'." 5 This paper is unconcerned with issues of categorizations. 6 One of the crucial issues for Waltz with Bashir, and for us here, is to comprehend the relationship between memory and representation—or more precisely, the possibility of expressing a traumatic event through an emotional and critical intertwinement of documentary sources and animation. I will say more about this point later on, but it is necessary to clarify here that to express a traumatic event does not mean to explain, to justify, or to comprehend that event. By possibility of expressing...

Effects of motion picture frame rate on material and texture appearance

High frame rate film should decrease motion blur and temporal aliasing allowing viewers to see more detail. Here we assessed how frame rate affected perception of detail in fabrics and costume ornamentation in three experiments. Live action footage with a fashion show theme was captured at all combinations of two resolutions (2k and 4k), three frame rates (24, 48 and 60 fps), and two shutter angles (180° and 358°). In the first experiment, participants rated the sharpness of a clip of a moving garment relative to a stationary clip. In the second experiment, participants rated (1) image sharpness and (2) quality of motion of 20-s sequences of costumed actors walking on a catwalk. In the last experiment, observers viewed pairs of image sequences and made direct pairwise comparisons while attending to the quality of motion, realism and detail in the garments. As expected, fabric detail became noticeably less distinct when in motion. Motion quality and image sharpness ratings improved with increasing frame rate, especially from 24 to 48 fps. Sharpness ratings were higher for 180° than for 358° shutter angle but the effect was small except at the lowest frame rate. Given the relatively weak effects of shutter angle, we conclude that aliasing and judder were stronger determinants of perceived detail than motion blur. Our results show that naive observers perceive enhanced detail in HFR film sequences of moving fabrics. We argue that this improved perception of detail could underlie both the positive and negative reactions to HFR film, depending on the nature of the content and whether it lends itself to such high fidelity.

Aesthetic Applications of Rotoscoping in Waking Life

This paper examines how Rotoshop, a rotoscoping software developed by Bob Sabiston, influenced animation making and perceptions of spectators in Waking Life. Generally, images are subordinate to the narrative, and film is no exception. When film is restructured in the spectator‘s mind, most of images are volatilized, and remains only a story. However, Richard Linklater wants spectator experiences feelings and moment rather than stories In Waking Life. Using narrative and visual strategy, he achieved this goal. The basic plot of Waking Life is assembling a story (dream) through quotations. There is no unified story?just quotations that interrupt the flow of the narrative and rotoscoped images that are not subordinate to the narrative. Rotoshop achieved a dreamlike effect for animation that is not merely a reproduction of live-action footage but creative interpretations of animators. The images show characters’ mental processes while reflecting subjective interpretations of the animators. Moreover, Waking Life pushes characters and environments into a fluid world where images are unstable and where background objects are in constant motion. The wavy effects make the spectator feel dizzy, reaching the body and not the brain. Thus, spectators experience the present moment, not just a story.

디즈니 애니메이션에 나타난 모더니즘 회화스타일 : 색, 형태, 공간을 중심으로

20세기 초 모더니즘 예술의 다양한 실험은 필름과 카메라의 발명과 함께 애니메이션을 탄생시켰다. 초창기에는 영화, 사진, 미술 등 예술가들에 의해 이미지와 시간을 접목한 다양한 분야의 이미지 실험이 이루어졌다. 그러나 이후 애니메이션이 상업적으로 성공을 거두면서 점차 흥미위주의 작품이 주류로 자리 잡아 갔으며, 초기 애니메이션의 실험적 특성은 소위 비주류 애니메이션으로 명맥이 유지되었다. 디즈니 애니메이션 역시 상업적인 작품을 제작하면서 초기작품의 실험적 형태, 움직임의 표현, 그리고 초현실주의적 관점이 반영돼 모더니즘 예술로 긍정적인 평가를 받아왔었지만, 점차 영화적 리얼리즘을 표방하여 3차원적 영상 이미지 표현에 몰두하였다. 그 예로 애니메이터들에겐 드로잉과 라이브액션 푸티지(liveaction footage)를 연구하는 클래스를 열어 사람과 동물의 움직임을 재현하는 테크닉을 발전시켜갔다. 또한 2차원 원급법의 표현적 한계를 극복하고자 기술적으로 멀티플레인 카메라(multiplane camera), 3D컴퓨터그래픽스와의 합성 등 이미지의 입체감을 강화시켜갔다. 더욱이 내용면으로 대중적인 동화 소재의 선택과 월트 디즈니 개인의 실사영화에 대한 관심은 애니메이션 연출에서 헐리우드 영화적 내러티브의 관습과 이미지 재현의 사실성을 강화시켜 초기 작품들이 갖고 있던 고유의 특성이 변질되면서 디즈니 애니메이션은 하위 영상문화 또는 아동적인 것으로 인식되는 원인이 됐다. 그러나 사라진 듯 보인 초기 모더니즘의 특성들은 이미지 표현에 있어 현재에도 디즈니 애니메이션에 계승되고 있다. 여전히 장르의 특성상 내러티브의 범주에서 디자인의 대상성은 중요시되지만 그 표현에 있어서는, 모더니즘 회화가 추구했던 이미지의 단순화와 과장으로 형태와 색이 줄 수 있는 심리적작용은 애니메이션 디자인에 활용되어 과거에 비해 그 특성은 더욱 강화됐다. 먼저 간단한 도형의 형태로 단순화된 모더니즘 회화의 특성은 캐릭터 디자인에 차용되고, 색은 대상의 장식이나 고증적 재현의 일차원적 목표를 넘어 카메라와 인물의 움직임으로 한 하면에서 배치가 바뀌면서 충돌 상쇄하여 관객에게 내적 경험을 유도하게 한다. 추상회화에서 색의 해방이 평면성으로 귀결된 것과 같이 캐릭터의 단순화된 개념적 색상의 사용은 캐릭터를 평면적으로 보이게 할뿐더러 이와 대조되는 공간은 더욱 평면적으로 나타나게 된다. 또한 카메라 움직임에 따라 드러나는 배경의 다중시점은 다양한 각도에서 대상의 본질을 표현하려한 모더니즘 회화를 연상시키기에 충분하다. 이러한 특성들이 초기 모더니즘 회화가 줬던 경험을 환기시킨다는 점에 입각하여 본 연구는 현대 작품들 사례를 중심으로 단순화 또는 과장된 형태, 내적표현의 색, 그리고 공간 사건의 배경의 역할을 유지하면서 움직임이 주는 경험을 20세기 초 모더니즘 회화의 특성과 비교 분석한다. In the early twentieth century, history of animation began by modern artists, they produced various experimental images with the newly invented film and cameras. Artists in the field of movie, photography, paintings and others manipulated images in motion. But as some animated movies won industrial success and popularity, they became the trend but experimental style of early animation preserved by so-called non-mainstreamers or experimental animators, counteracting commercialism. Disney animation also followed the trend by applying realistic Hollywood film style, the worse critics placed a low value on the animation and it tarnished the image, although it was profitable investment from a business standpoint. To make images realistic, they opened a drawing class that animators developed skills to imitate motions and forms from subjects in real life. Also some techniques and gizmos were used to mimic and simulate three dimensional objects and spaces, multiplane camera and compositing 3D CG images with 2D drawings. Moreover, they brought animation stories from fairly tales or folk tales, and Walt's personal interest in live-action movies, they applied Hollywood-film-like narratives and realistic visual, and harsh criticism ensued. On the surface early disney animations' potential seems to be weakened, but in reality it still exists by simplifying and exaggerating forms and color as modern arts. Disney animation employs concepts of the modernism paintings such as simplified shapes and colors to a character design, when their characters are placed together in a scene, that visual elements cause mental reaction. This modification gives a new internal experience to audiences. As conceptual colors in abstract paintings make images appeared to be flat, coloring characters with no shading make them look flat and comparing to them, background images are also appeared to be flat. On top of that, multi-perspective at background images recalls modernist paintings. This essay goes in details with the animation pioneers' works and how Disney animation developed its techniques to emulate real life and analyses color schemes, forms, and spaces in Disney animation compared with modern artists' works, in that the visual language of Disney animation reminds of impression from abstract paintings in the beginning of the twentieth centuries.

“Those ars all bellical”: Luca Buvoli's Velocity Zero (2007–2009) and a post/modernist poetics of aphasia

Luca Buvoli's single-channel video, Velocity Zero (2007-9) features various sufferers of aphasia – the brain disorder affecting speech (and often cognition) – as they read aloud the eleven points of F.T. Marinetti's ‘Founding and Manifesto of Futurism’ (1909). First screened at the Venice Biennale in 2007 as part of a larger installation, this revision of Futurism – on the eve of its centenary – entails a literal re-reading of the movement's founding text. Combining live-action footage overlaid with animation, and filmed in both English and Italian versions, Velocity Zero unstitches the movement's ostensibly streamlined poetics. In the mouths of these readers, the manifesto's language is decelerated, elided, pulled apart, giving the lie to a Futurist dream of dehumanized speech and speed. Yet many of the readings approximate Marinettian principles even as they undercut them; involuntary slips and omissions wrest a new poetics from imperative fiats. Buvoli's work thus sets into relief some vital, if unlikely, affinities: between physiological disability and avant-garde prowess, between clinical diagnosis and critical methodology. Velocity Zero restores to Futurist pronouncements the fraught embodiment of language. But it also suggests the extent to which the movement – like modernism at large – was haunted by linguistic demolition from the start.

Spies That Fly (review)

Reviewed by: Spies That Fly A. Bowdoin Van Riper Spies That Fly (2002). Directed by Larry Klein. Produced and distributed by WGBH/Boston. 56 minutes. Spies in the Sky, a 2002 episode of the PBS television series Nova, explores the origins and early history of remotely piloted reconnaissance aircraft. Its main narrative thread begins with Israeli operations over Lebanon's Bekka Valley in 1982 and ends with American operations over Afghanistan in 2001. It is, however, less a story about combat than a story about successive attempts to find a technological fix for a difficult military problem. The problem—as the film's opening segments explain in some detail—was simple to state: how to acquire detailed, timely photographic intelligence over hostile territory. Piloted aircraft, like the U-2s whose cameras revealed Soviet missile sites in Cuba, were flexible but increasingly vulnerable to surface-to-air missiles. Satellites were immune to missiles, but incapable of lingering over a promising target and difficult to reroute on short notice. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were conceived in the 1960s as a third solution, one that provided the flexibility of a piloted aircraft without putting a pilot's life at risk. Making that "third way" work, however, proved to be more difficult than it appeared. The first American UAV, the jet-powered Lightning Bug of the 1960s, cost enormous amounts of money and delivered mediocre results. It took fifteen years before Israel fielded the first modern UAV: a small, radically simple, highly robust machine driven by a propeller and powered by a two-stroke engine. American designers expanded on the Israeli approach to UAV design in two distinct ways, and Spies That Fly chronicles both. The first thread traces the evolution of "full-size" UAVs from the ship-launched Pioneer used in the Gulf War through the turn-of-the-century Predator to the long-range, high-endurance Global Hawk used tested in Afghanistan. The second explores a [End Page 158] series of attempts to build small UAVs like the Dragonfly (a modular design that can be disassembled and carried in a suitcase) for use by units in the field. Both are illustrated with a rich variety of visuals: computer animation, interviews with military experts, and live-action footage of training exercises and combat operations, including a UAV-directed attack on enemy vehicles in Afghanistan. Keeping with the film's origins as an episode of Nova, the filmmakers focus on design and operational challenges rather than military applications. Some of its most interesting moments involve ongoing attempts to understand the dynamics of insect flight, in order to design insect-sized, flapping-wing UAVs for use inside buildings. To its credit, Spies That Fly emphasizes the difficulty of such work and the high failure rate for experimental UAVs. This warts-and-all treatment is a welcome departure from the credulous "gee whiz!" tone that frequently creeps into television documentaries on military technology. Reissued as part of a four-disc boxed set that includes Nova episodes on Soviet jet fighters and the U. S. Air Force's new Joint Strike Fighter, Spies That Fly is being marketed to viewers interested in exotic airplanes and recent military history. It is also, however, a finely crafted miniature case study in the history of a cutting-edge technology. A. Bowdoin Van Riper Southern Polytechnic State University Copyright © 2011 Center for the Study of Film and History

Aggregation Hokey-Pokey

Like kids in a wrestling match, proteins in some neurodegenerative diseases appear to knot into clumps. Researchers have long thought that the conglomerations' components are stuck, but new live-action footage shows that the proteins do the hokey-pokey; many of them move freely in and out. Further results suggest that this dance reflects cellular custodians delivering defective proteins to a clump-bound cellular incinerator. Researchers think that the globs in neurodegenerative diseases congeal due to misshapen proteins. For example, long spans of the amino acid glutamine in the mutant huntingtin protein cause it to tangle, and different proteins that contain congealing polyglutamine stretches show up in other neurodegenerative diseases. The clods also harbor cellular cleanup crews--proteasomes that chew up mangled proteins and chaperones that help proteins fold--as well as two proteins that turn on genes, TBP and CBP. No one knows whether or how the aggregates contribute to symptoms. Decades of biochemical tests suggested that they were solid masses that kept proteins from their normal cellular tasks. In July, however, scientists reported that CBP could exit one type of polyglutamine-induced clump. Two research teams decided to watch the clumps in live cells to determine whether cellular cleanup crews could also come and go. First the groups investigated the mobility of clump-bound components, including one that is involved in breaking down proteins. Stenoien and colleagues attached a blue-glowing tag to ataxin, the protein that causes the polyglutamine disease spinocerebellar ataxia, and they glued a yellow-shining snippet to ubiquitin, which marks misshapen proteins for destruction by the proteasome. By tracking the fluorescence, the researchers saw that ataxin and ubiquitin wriggled into the clumps. To determine whether the proteasome was degrading the newly received ataxin, the team chemically inhibited the protein-munching machine. The concentrations of ubiquitin and ataxin in the clumps rose, suggesting that the degradation system was backing up. Together, the data suggest that the proteasome chews up ataxin within the gobs. Using similar methods, Kim and colleagues lit up the chaperone HSP70 in cells carrying mutant huntingtin. The researchers found HSP70 jumping in and out of the protein knots. Additional tests suggested that the chaperone was not just visiting the gobs but was trying to fold proteins. Having discovered that apparently beneficial duties occur in the wads, the researchers probed whether the snarls cause trouble as well. The groups followed the movement of two proteins that activate genes to determine whether these essential molecules can escape. The cells' entire CBP complement zipped in and out of protein masses, as did a small amount of TBP. Additional research will determine if the amounts of CBP or TBP caught in the piles contribute to cellular decay. Protein clumps "can't be viewed as static balls," says neurologist Henry Paulson of the University of Iowa in Iowa City. "The cell is seeing polyglutamine as abnormal and working to lessen the toxicity and destroy it." Researchers might be able to develop treatments that help the cell with the cleanup task, he says. If successful, doctors could put the treatments in, get the clusters out, and turn neurodegeneration around. That's what it's all about. --Mary Beckman D. L. Stenoien, M. Mielke, M. A. Mancini, Intranuclear ataxin1 inclusions contain both fast- and slow-exchanging components. Nat. Cell Biol. 4 , 806-810 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text] S. Kim, E. A. A. Nollen, K. Kitagawa, V. P. Bindokas, R. I. Morimoto, Polyglutamine protein aggregates are dynamic. Nat. Cell Biol. 4 , 826-831 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]