Journal articles on the topic 'Opacity mapping'

AbstractWe present the first VLBA maps of Galactic H ɪ opacity towards the QSO 3C 138. The maps show significant opacity structure down to angular scales of 20 mas, which implies density structures in the cold neutral medium on physical scales of 10 AU or less

Clark & Thornton (C&T) have demonstrated the paradox between the opacity of the transformations that underlie relational mappings and the ease with which people learn such mappings. However, C&T's trading-spaces proposal resolves the paradox only in the broadest outline. The general-purpose algorithm promised by C&T remains to be developed. The strategy of doing so is to analyze and formulate computational mechanisms for known cases of recoding.

Thermal inertia, which represents the resistance to change in temperature of the upper few centimeters of the surface, provides information to help understand the surficial geology and recent processes that are potentially still active today. It cannot be directly measured on Mars and is therefore usually modelled. We present a new analytical method based on Apparent Thermal Inertia (ATI), a thermal inertia proxy. Calculating ATI requires readily available input data: temperature, incidence angle, visible dust opacity, and a digital elevation model. Because of the high spatial resolution, the method can be used on sloping terrains, which makes possible thermal mapping using THEMIS in nearly any area of Mars. Comparison with results obtained by other approaches using modeled data shows similarity in flat areas and illustrates the significant influence of slope and aspect on albedo and diurnal temperature differences.

Located at the heart of the University of South Carolina campus is the historic Horseshoe—originally the South Carolina College campus (est. 1801)—a site whose construction during the antebellum years relied on enslaved labor. Ghosts of the Horseshoe is a cross-College, collaborative “critical interactive” for iPad that features the Horseshoe campus and endeavors to make visible this unacknowledged history. The application uses as its dedicated navigational interface a historic 1884 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of the site; participants can also activate a Google Map overlay of the site and determine its degree of opacity with respect to the archival map image. Importantly, however, the two maps do not actually “map” onto each other. This serves as a first mis-mapping of several mis-mappings. This article considers how such mis-mappings, involving geo-locative contingencies, representational disjunctions, and potential dis-locations, mediate site-specific explorations and, as such, make possible alternative historiographic understandings of place.

The opacity of digital technologies has posed significant challenges for critical research and digital methods. In response, controversy mapping, reverse engineering and hacking have been key methodological devices to grapple with opacity and ‘open the black box’ of digital ecosystems. We take recent developments in digital humanitarianism and the accelerated production of apps for refugees following the 2015 Mediterranean refugee crisis as a site of methodological experimentation to advance hacking as critical methodological interference. Drawing on the work of Michel Serres, we propose to understand digital technologies as ‘parasitic’ and reconceptualise hacking as ‘acts of digital parasitism’. Acts of digital parasitism are interferences that work alongside rather than work against. On one hand, this reworking of hacking advances an agenda for digital methods through reworking hacking for digital humanities and social science research. On the other, it allows us to show how the object of research – humanitarian apps – is configured through platformisation and incorporation within digital parasitic relations.

Abstract When communicating speakers map meaning onto form. It would thus seem obvious for languages to show a one-to-one correspondence between meaning and form, but this is often not the case. This perfect mapping, i.e. transparency, is indeed continuously violated in natural languages, giving rise to zero-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-one opaque correspondences between meaning and form. However, transparency is a mutating feature, which can be influenced by language contact. In this scenario languages tend to evolve and lose some of their opaque features, becoming more transparent. This study investigates transparency in a very specific contact situation, namely that of a creole, Haitian Creole, and its sub- and superstrate languages, Fongbe and French, within the Functional Discourse Grammar framework. We predict Haitian Creole to be more transparent than French and Fongbe and investigate twenty opacity features, divided into four categories, namely Redundancy (one-to-many), Fusion (many-to-one), Discontinuity (one meaning is split in two or more forms,) and Form-based Form (forms with no semantic counterpart: zero-to-one). The results indeed prove our prediction to be borne out: Haitian Creole only presents five opacity features out of twenty, while French presents nineteen and Fongbe nine. Furthermore, the opacity features of Haitian Creole are also present in the other two languages.

AbstractSamothraki Greek onset-/r/ deletion with subsequent compensatory lengthening (CL) of the following vowel poses two major problems for current phonological theory. First, such a pattern should be impossible because in moraic theory onsets never bear weight, thus — under the assumption that CL is all about mora conservation (cf. Hayes 1989 and several others) — their deletion should not induce lengthening. Second, CL is an instance of opacity, and opacity is the single biggest conundrum that Optimality Theory faces. This paper addresses both issues and suggests that CL should not be treated as mora conservation, but instead as position preservation through the presence of a mora. This move sidesteps the previous problems as no reference to the input moraicity of segments is required and consequently, onsets, like codas, can cause CL. Moreover, concerns about OT’s parallelism, single input-output mapping, and Richness of the Base are taken into account ensuring that the resulting analysis observes all of them. The proposed solution neatly accounts for a number of CL cases and is successfully implemented in Samothraki Greek, an elaborate analysis of which is offered to capture the full range of facts.

The vowel harmony systems of the Bantu A.60 languages of Cameroon provide an extraordinary wealth of uncommon properties not yet exploited by linguistic theory. In this paper, the author focuses on one variant of the Yambasa cluster, Gunu A.62a, as described by Ambadian [1990, 1991], Orwig [1989], Quilis et al [1990], and Robinson [1979, 1983]. An analysis of long-distance ATR and rounding harmonies in Gunu is presented in terms of the privative features ATR, Front, Round, and Open. Both the featural representations and their "direct mapping" onto outputs account for the derivational opacity as well as transparency of front vowels to Round harmony.

ABSTRACT Vibrio parahaemolyticus is an organism well adapted to communal life on surfaces. When grown on a surface or in a viscous layer, the bacterium induces a large gene system and differentiates to swarmer cells capable of movement over and colonization of surfaces.V. parahaemolyticus displays additional phenotypic versatility manifested as variable colony morphology, switching between translucent and opaque colony types. Although not itself luminescent,V. parahaemolyticus produces autoinducer molecules capable of inducing luminescence in Vibrio harveyi. To examine the role of quorum signaling in the lifestyles of V. parahaemolyticus, the functional homolog of the gene encoding theV. harveyi autoinducer-controlled transcriptional regulatory protein LuxR was cloned. Sequence analysis of the clone predicted an open reading frame with a deduced product 96% identical to LuxR. Introduction of the clone carrying the luxR-like locus into V. parahaemolyticus dramatically affected colony morphology, converting a translucent strain to an opaque one. When the coding sequence for the luxR homolog was placed under the control of the Ptac promoter, conversion to the opaque phenotype became inducible by isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactopyranoside. Allelic disruption of the luxR-like gene on the chromosome of an opaque strain produced a translucent strain proficient in swarming ability. Primer extension mapping demonstrated opaRtranscription in opaque but not translucent cell types. It is postulated that this gene, which has been named opaR, encodes a transcription factor controlling cell type. The underlying genetic basis for opaque-translucent variation may be the consequence of a genomic alteration detected in the opaR locus of opaque and translucent strains.

We present a method that decomposes, and "unwraps", an input video into a set of layered 2D atlases , each providing a unified representation of the appearance of an object (or background) over the video. For each pixel in the video, our method estimates its corresponding 2D coordinate in each of the atlases, giving us a consistent parameterization of the video, along with an associated alpha (opacity) value. Importantly, we design our atlases to be interpretable and semantic, which facilitates easy and intuitive editing in the atlas domain, with minimal manual work required. Edits applied to a single 2D atlas (or input video frame) are automatically and consistently mapped back to the original video frames, while preserving occlusions, deformation, and other complex scene effects such as shadows and reflections. Our method employs a coordinate-based Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) representation for mappings, atlases, and alphas, which are jointly optimized on a per-video basis, using a combination of video reconstruction and regularization losses. By operating purely in 2D, our method does not require any prior 3D knowledge about scene geometry or camera poses, and can handle complex dynamic real world videos. We demonstrate various video editing applications, including texture mapping, video style transfer, image-to-video texture transfer, and segmentation/labeling propagation, all automatically produced by editing a single 2D atlas image.

During the past 30 years, seismic attributes have evolved beyond simple measures of amplitude, frequency, and phase to include measures of waveform similarity, amplitude variation with offset (AVO), spectral content, and structural deformation. Although neural networks and geostatistics are effective ways of combining the information content of these many attributes, such analyses cannot replicate the pattern-recognition capabilities of an experienced interpreter. For this reason, careful visualization and display of multiple attributes remains one of the most powerful interpretation tools at our disposal. The two most important color display models are based on red, green, and blue (RGB) or hue, lightness, and saturation (HLS). Each of these color models in turn can be modulated by transparency. We recommend using the RGB color model to map attributes of similar type, such as-volumes of near-, mid-, and far-angle amplitude or low-, moder-ate-, and high-frequency spectral components. The HLS model is preferred when one attribute modulates another, such as dip magnitude modulating dip azimuth or amplitude of the peak spectral frequency modulating the phase measured at the peak frequency. Transparency/opacity provides a fourth color dimension and additional attribute modulation capabilities. This tutorial demonstrates those attributes best displayed in each of the two basic color models with examples from the Gulf of Mexico and Fort Worth Basin, Texas, U.S.A. Sometimes these combinations can be achieved using commercial voxel-based interpretation software. By careful use of color and transparency applied to modern volumetric attributes, one can display the strike of faults and flexures in three dimensions, isolate collapse features, and qualitatively display the geomorphology and thickness of channels.

Abstrak Karakter 3-dimensi banyak digunakan diberbagai industri antara lain film, animasi, iklan dan game. Karakter 3-dimensi juga banyak digunakan dalam dunia medis sebagai representasi interaktif anatomi manusia. Pemodelan karakter 3-dimensi merupakan serangkaian proses representasi sebuah karakter dalam ruang 3-dimensi. Pada tahap awal sebelum memodelkan karakter 3-dimensi, terlebih dahulu karakter tersebut dibuat sketsa tampak depan, tampak atas, dan tampak samping. Sketsa itulah yang kemudian dituangkan kedalam perangkat lunak untuk menghasilkan model objek tersebut dalam bentuk 3-dimensi. Terakhir adalah proses untuk menjadikan suatu objek menjadi realistis yaitu proses rendering. Jika pada dua proses sebelumnya, objek yang diolah masih berupa kerangka kasar, maka dalam proses inilah suatu objek akan diubah sehingga objek tersebut menjadi realistis dengan melakukan texture mapping, pencahayaan, refleksi, penambahan bayangan, transparansi atau opacity. Pemodelan objek dengan menggunakan polygon dapat dilakukan dengan mudah dan proses rendering juga menjadi lebih cepat.Kata Kunci: pemodelan, polygon, karakter 3-dimensi, rendering

Aims and objectives: This study examines second language (L2) bilinguals’ use of words that have the same or similar forms in their two languages but whose meaning extensions differ – that is, false cognates. We examine the conditions under which L2 speakers inappropriately use false cognates in the L2. How do frequency of the relevant words in each language and polysemy of the word in the first language (L1) affect L2 learners’ use of such words? Design: Fifty Spanish L1–English L2 adults translated 80 words in context from Spanish (S) to English (E). The words involved polysemous Spanish words that had several translations in English, one of which was a cognate form. Words were strictly balanced for L1 polysemy (high versus low), frequency of the S word, frequency of the E cognate form, and frequency of the E non-cognate translation. The words were presented in unambiguous contextual frames that pushed for the non-cognate translation in English. Data and analysis: Analyses of variance were used to analyze participants’ translations relative to the variables of Spanish polysemy and the frequencies of the forms in question. Findings: The findings show that the relative transparency or opacity of the mapping between the L1 and L2 influences word choice: the use of a false cognate instead of a competing correct lexical item depends on the complex interaction of L1 polysemy and the lexical frequencies of the L1 and L2 forms in the bilingual’s two languages. Originality: This study strictly controls for several factors crucial to L2 users’ choice of a word in the L2: polysemy in the L1, frequency of the L1 word, and frequencies of the L2 words involved. Significance: When these variables are viewed together, the data reveal a complex interaction showing factors that contribute to the transparency or opacity of the L1–L2 lexical semantic linkages.

ABSTRACT Helium-peculiar magnetic chemically peculiar stars show variations of helium abundance across their surfaces. As a result of associated atmospheric scale height variations, the stellar surface becomes distorted, with helium-rich regions dented inwards. Effectively, on top of flux variations due to opacity effects, the depressed helium-rich surface regions become less bright in the optical regions and brighter in the ultraviolet. We study the observational effects of the aspherical surface on the light curves of a Cen. We simulate the light curves of this star adopting surface distributions of He, N, O, Si, and Fe derived from Doppler mapping and introducing the effect of distortion proportional to helium abundance. We show that while most of the optical and UV variations of this star result from flux redistribution due to the non-uniform surface distributions of helium and iron, the reduction of light variations due to the helium-related surface distortion leads to a better agreement between simulated optical light curves and the light curves observed with the BRITE satellites.

Abstract We measure the low-J CO line ratios R 21 ≡ CO (2–1)/CO (1–0), R 32 ≡ CO (3–2)/CO (2–1), and R 31 ≡CO (3–2)/CO (1–0) using whole-disk CO maps of nearby galaxies. We draw CO (2–1) from PHANGS-ALMA, HERACLES, and follow-up IRAM surveys; CO (1–0) from COMING and the Nobeyama CO Atlas of Nearby Spiral Galaxies; and CO (3–2) from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Nearby Galaxy Legacy Survey and Atacama Pathfinder Experiment Large APEX Sub-Millimetre Array mapping. All together, this yields 76, 47, and 29 maps of R 21, R 32, and R 31 at 20″ ∼ 1.3 kpc resolution, covering 43, 34, and 20 galaxies. Disk galaxies with high stellar mass, log ( M ⋆ / M ⊙ ) = 10.25 – 11 , and star formation rate (SFR) = 1–5 M ⊙ yr−1, dominate the sample. We find galaxy-integrated mean values and a 16%–84% range of R 21 = 0.65 (0.50–0.83), R 32 = 0.50 (0.23–0.59), and R 31 = 0.31 (0.20–0.42). We identify weak trends relating galaxy-integrated line ratios to properties expected to correlate with excitation, including SFR/M ⋆ and SFR/L CO. Within galaxies, we measure central enhancements with respect to the galaxy-averaged value of ∼ 0.18 − 0.14 + 0.09 dex for R 21, 0.27 − 0.15 + 0.13 dex for R 31, and 0.08 − 0.09 + 0.11 dex for R 32. All three line ratios anticorrelate with galactocentric radius and positively correlate with the local SFR surface density and specific SFR, and we provide approximate fits to these relations. The observed ratios can be reasonably reproduced by models with low temperature, moderate opacity, and moderate densities, in good agreement with expectations for the cold interstellar medium. Because the line ratios are expected to anticorrelate with the CO (1–0)-to-H2 conversion factor, α CO 1 − 0 , these results have general implications for the interpretation of CO emission from galaxies.

Robust knowledge of the distribution, amount, and physical/chemical state of the cold molecular (H2) gas is key to understanding galaxy evolution. With the help of multi-CO line observations, it is possible to study the molecular gas distribution and disentangle numerous physical and chemical processes that shape and govern the molecular interstellar medium (ISM). For the first time, we obtain full-galaxy mapping data of faint CO isotopologues (13CO, C18O, C17O) at 1mm and 3mm wavelengths across the disk of the nearby spiral galaxy M51. With the help of these CO isotopologues, it is possible to constrain the bulk physical and chemical conditions in the molecular gas. We study potential explanations for why CO isotopologue emission varies. Likely drivers include CO abundance variations due to selective nucleosynthesis and changes in the optical depth. Our analysis concludes that a combination of variation in opacity and relative abundances is the dominant driver for the observed CO isotopologue ratio trends on large (kpc) scales. In contrast, abundance variation due to selective photodissociation and chemical fractionation seem to only play a minor or negligible role on galaxy-wide scales.

The complete virtual engineering of the entire beating heart requires the support of sophisticated visualization tools that can effectively extract meaningful visual information from a combination of data sets and depict complex spatial, temporal and physical properties encoded in the data sets. Traditional surface graphics techniques have not been able to serve such requirements adequately, largely because of the necessity of transforming field-based data sets (simulated computationally and recorded clinically or experimentally) to surface representations, and because of the information loss during the process. Constructive volume geometry is a new computer graphics technique, and like the virtual tissue engineering of the beating heart, it employs field-based data types as its intrinsic primitives. In this paper, we describe the application of constructive volume geometry to the visualization of cardiac anatomy and electrophysiology. We demonstrate the capability of this technique in generating visualizations that can depict multiple structures in a combination of data sets and heterogenous interior structure through effective use of opacity and combinational operators. This is applied to tracking and mapping intramural bundles of muscle fibres, and to map voltage isosurfaces of reentrant activity, and the filaments around which reentrant waves propagate.

The opacity of conventional ultrasound transducers can impede the miniaturization and workflow of current photoacoustic systems. In particular, optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) requires the coaxial alignment of optical illumination and acoustic-detection paths through complex beam combiners and a thick coupling medium. To overcome these hurdles, we developed a novel OR-PAM method on the basis of our recently reported transparent lithium niobate (LiNbO3) ultrasound transducer (Dangi et al., Optics Letters, 2019), which was centered at 13 MHz ultrasound frequency with 60% photoacoustic bandwidth. To test the feasibility of wearable OR-PAM, optical-only raster scanning of focused light through a transducer was performed while the transducer was fixed above the imaging subject. Imaging experiments on resolution targets and carbon fibers demonstrated a lateral resolution of 8.5 µm. Further, we demonstrated vasculature mapping using chicken embryos and melanoma depth profiling using tissue phantoms. In conclusion, the proposed OR-PAM system using a low-cost transparent LiNbO3 window transducer has a promising future in wearable and high-throughput imaging applications, e.g., integration with conventional optical microscopy to enable a multimodal microscopy platform capable of ultrasound stimulation.

The eye lens is a transparent, ellipsoid organ in the anterior chamber of the eye that is required for fine focusing of light onto the retina to transmit a clear image. Cataracts, defined as any opacity in the lens, remains the leading cause of blindness in the world. Recent studies in humans and mice indicate that Eph–ephrin bidirectional signaling is important for maintaining lens transparency. Specifically, mutations and polymorphisms in the EphA2 receptor and the ephrin-A5 ligand have been linked to congenital and age-related cataracts. It is unclear what other variants of Ephs and ephrins are expressed in the lens or whether there is preferential expression in epithelial vs. fiber cells. We performed a detailed analysis of Eph receptor and ephrin ligand mRNA transcripts in whole mouse lenses, epithelial cell fractions, and fiber cell fractions using a new RNA isolation method. We compared control samples with EphA2 knockout (KO) and ephrin-A5 KO samples. Our results revealed the presence of transcripts for 12 out of 14 Eph receptors and 8 out of 8 ephrin ligands in various fractions of lens cells. Using specific primer sets, RT-PCR, and sequencing, we verified the variant of each gene that is expressed, and we found two epithelial-cell-specific genes. Surprisingly, we also identified one Eph receptor variant that is expressed in KO lens fibers but is absent from control lens fibers. We also identified one low expression ephrin variant that is only expressed in ephrin-A5 control samples. These results indicate that the lens expresses almost all Ephs and ephrins, and there may be many receptor–ligand pairs that play a role in lens homeostasis.

Context. The [CII] 158 μm far-infrared fine-structure line is one of the dominant cooling lines of the star-forming interstellar medium. Hence [CII] emission originates in and thus can be used to trace a range of ISM processes. Velocity-resolved large-scale mapping of [CII] in star-forming regions provides a unique perspective of the kinematics of these regions and their interactions with the exciting source of radiation. Aims. We explore the scientific applications of large-scale mapping of velocity-resolved [CII] observations. With the [CII] observations, we investigate the effect of stellar feedback on the ISM. We present the details of observation, calibration, and data reduction using a heterodyne array receiver mounted on an airborne observatory. Methods. A 1.15 square degree velocity-resolved map of the Orion molecular cloud centred on the bar region was observed using the German REceiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (upGREAT) heterodyne receiver flying on board the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. The data were acquired using the 14 pixels of the German REceiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies that were observed in an on-the-fly mapping mode. 2.4 million spectra were taken in total. These spectra were gridded into a three-dimensional cube with a spatial resolution of 14.1 arcseconds and a spectral resolution of 0.3 km s−1. Results. A square-degree [CII] map with a spectral resolution of 0.3 km s−1 is presented. The scientific potential of this data is summarized with discussion of mechanical and radiative stellar feedback, filament tracing using [CII], [CII] opacity effects, [CII] and carbon recombination lines, and [CII] interaction with the large molecular cloud. The data quality and calibration is discussed in detail, and new techniques are presented to mitigate the effects of unavoidable instrument deficiencies (e.g. baseline stability) and thus to improve the data quality. A comparison with a smaller [CII] map taken with the Herschel/Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared spectrometer is presented. Conclusions. Large-scale [CII] mapping provides new insight into the kinematics of the ISM. The interaction between massive stars and the ISM is probed through [CII] observations. Spectrally resolving the [CII] emission is necessary to probe the microphysics induced by the feedback of massive stars. We show that certain heterodyne instrument data quality issues can be resolved using a spline-based technique, and better data correction routines allow for more efficient observing strategies.

The immunoglobulin-like family of CD66 antigens, present on human neutrophils and epithelial cells, are used as receptors for adhesins expressed by the pathogenic Neisseriae. N. gonorrhoeae strain MS11 can express 11 isoforms of these adhesins, called opacity-related (Opa) proteins. Each MS11 Opa protein recognizes a distinct spectrum of CD66 receptors. CD66–Opa binding is mediated by the NH2-terminal domain of the receptor and occurs through protein–protein interactions. In this report, we have investigated the molecular basis for the binding between the CD66 and Opa protein families by mapping amino acids in CD66 receptors that determine Opa protein binding. We performed homologue scanning mutagenesis between CD66e, which binds multiple Opa variants, and CD66b, which binds none, and tested both loss-of-function by CD66e and gain-of-function by CD66b in solution assays and in assays involving full-length receptors expressed by epithelial cells. We found that three residues in the CD66e N-domain are required for maximal Opa protein receptor activity. Opa proteins that recognize the same spectrum of native CD66 molecules showed differential binding of receptors with submaximal activity, indicating that the binding characteristics of these Opa proteins are actually slightly different. These data provide a first step toward resolving the structural requirements for Opa–CD66 interaction.

Segmentation and visualization of three-dimensional digital cultural heritage are important analytical tools for the intuitive understanding of content. In this paper, we propose a semantic segmentation and visualization framework that automatically classifies carved items (people, buildings, plants, etc.) in cultural heritage reliefs. We also apply our method to the bas-reliefs of Borobudur Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Indonesia. The difficulty in relief segmentation lies in the fact that the boundaries of each carved item are formed by indistinct soft edges, i.e., edges with low curvature. This unfavorable relief feature leads the conventional methods to fail to extract soft edges, whether they are three-dimensional methods classifying a three-dimensional scanned point cloud or two-dimensional methods classifying pixels in a drawn image. To solve this problem, we propose a deep-learning-based soft edge enhanced network to extract the semantic labels of each carved item from multichannel images that are projected from the three-dimensional point clouds of the reliefs. The soft edges in the reliefs can be clearly extracted using our novel opacity-based edge highlighting method. By mapping the extracted semantic labels into three-dimensional points of the relief data, the proposed method provides comprehensive three-dimensional semantic segmentation results of the Borobudur reliefs.

Abstract A novel ENU-induced mutation in the mouse leading to a nuclear and cortical opacity of the eye lens (ENU418) was mapped to proximal chromosome 1 by a genome-wide mapping approach. It suggests that the cluster of γ-crystallin encoding genes (Cryg) and the βA2-crystallin encoding gene Cryba2 are excellent candidate genes. An A → G exchange in the middle of intron 1 of the Cryge gene was found as the only alteration cosegregating with the cataractous phenotype. The mutation was confirmed by the presence of a novel restriction site for ApaI in the corresponding genomic DNA fragment. The mutation represses splicing of intron 1; the additional 92 bp in the corresponding cDNA leads to a frameshift and the expression of a novel hybrid protein containing 3 amino acids of the γE-crystallin at the N terminus, but 153 novel amino acids. The CrygeENU418 protein has a calculated molecular mass of ∼15.6 kD and an alkaline isoelectric point (pH 10.1) and is predicted to have two hydrophobic domains. Western blot analysis using a polyclonal antibody against the hydrophilic C-terminal part of the CrygeENU418-specific protein demonstrated its stable expression in the cataractous lenses; it was not found in the wild types. Histological analysis of the cataractous lenses indicated that the expression of the new protein disrupts the cellular structure of the eye lens.

Background: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) derived pachymetry mapping has potential in diagnosis of early and advancing keratoconus. The OCT corneal pachymetry map–based logistic regression formula and the keratoconus risk scoring system has been proven to provide very accurate results in keratoconus identification. In keratoconus screening these techniques might be helpful. Objectives: To ascertain the diagnostic accuracy of anterior segment optical coherence tomographic corneal pachymetry to diagnose the cases the cases of early keratoconus by using corneal topography as a high standard with which other techniques of these kinds are compared. Study Design: Cross-sectional (validation) study. Duration: One year from July 01, 2019 to June 30, 2020. Settings: Department of Ophthalmology, Allied Hospital/DHQ Hospital, Faisalabad Pakistan. Methodology: A total of 195 patients having asymmetrical astigmatism (>1 diopter), 12-40 years of age of both genders were included. Patients with corneal ulcer and corneal opacity were excluded. After complete examination corneal topography and anterior segment optical coherence tomography was performed. Tomographic minimum central corneal thickness was recorded and assessed for cutoff value, if exceeding cutoff value patient was diagnosed with the early keratoconus. Results: In OCT pachymetry positive patients, 103 (True Positive) had early keratoconus and 05 (False Positive) had no early keratoconus on corneal topography. Among 87, OCT pachymetry negative patients, 04 (False Negative) had early keratoconus on corneal topography whereas 83 (True Negative) had no early keratoconus on corneal topography (p=0.0001). Overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of anterior segment optical coherence tomographic corneal pachymetry to diagnose the cases of early keratoconus in the suspected individuals by using corneal topography as gold standard was 96.26%, 94.32%, 95.37%, 95.40% and 95.38% respectively. Conclusion: This study concluded that diagnostic accuracy of anterior segment optical coherence tomographic corneal pachymetry to find out the cases of early keratoconus is very high. Keywords: Optical coherence tomographic corneal pachymetry, Keratoconus, Sensitivity

This paper presents the methods and implementation processes of a WebGIS platform designed to publish the available land use and land cover maps of Europe at continental scale. The system is built completely on open source infrastructure and open standards. The proposed architecture is based on a server-client model having GeoServer as the map server, Leaflet as the client-side mapping library and the Bootstrap framework at the core of the front-end user interface. The web user interface is designed to have typical features of a desktop GIS (e.g. activate/deactivate layers and order layers by drag and drop actions) and to show specific information on the activated layers (e.g. legend and simplified metadata). Users have the possibility to change the base map from a given list of map providers (e.g. OpenStreetMap and Microsoft Bing) and to control the opacity of each layer to facilitate the comparison with both other land cover layers and the underlying base map. In addition, users can add to the platform any custom layer available through a Web Map Service (WMS) and activate the visualization of photos from popular photo sharing services. This last functionality is provided in order to have a visual assessment of the available land coverages based on other user-generated contents available on the Internet. It is supposed to be a first step towards a calibration/validation service that will be made available in the future.

This paper presents the methods and implementation processes of a WebGIS platform designed to publish the available land use and land cover maps of Europe at continental scale. The system is built completely on open source infrastructure and open standards. The proposed architecture is based on a server-client model having GeoServer as the map server, Leaflet as the client-side mapping library and the Bootstrap framework at the core of the front-end user interface. The web user interface is designed to have typical features of a desktop GIS (e.g. activate/deactivate layers and order layers by drag and drop actions) and to show specific information on the activated layers (e.g. legend and simplified metadata). Users have the possibility to change the base map from a given list of map providers (e.g. OpenStreetMap and Microsoft Bing) and to control the opacity of each layer to facilitate the comparison with both other land cover layers and the underlying base map. In addition, users can add to the platform any custom layer available through a Web Map Service (WMS) and activate the visualization of photos from popular photo sharing services. This last functionality is provided in order to have a visual assessment of the available land coverages based on other user-generated contents available on the Internet. It is supposed to be a first step towards a calibration/validation service that will be made available in the future.

ABSTRACT Traditionally, ground-based spectrophotometric observations probing transiting exoplanet atmospheres have employed a linear map between comparison and target star light curves (e.g. via differential spectrophotometry) to correct for systematics contaminating the transit signal. As an alternative to this conventional method, we introduce a new Gaussian Processes (GP) regression-based method to analyse ground-based spectrophotometric data. Our new method allows for a generalized non-linear mapping between the target transit light curves and the time-series used to detrend them. This represents an improvement compared to previous studies because the target and comparison star fluxes are affected by different telluric and instrumental systematics, which are complex and non-linear. We apply our method to six Gemini/GMOS transits of the warm (Teq = 990 K) Neptune HAT-P-26b. We obtain on average ∼20 per cent better transit depth precision and residual scatter on the white light curve compared to the conventional method when using the comparison star light curve as a GP regressor and ∼20 per cent worse when explicitly not using the comparison star. Ultimately, with only a cost of 30 per cent precision on the transmission spectra, our method overcomes the necessity of using comparison stars in the instrument field of view, which has been one of the limiting factors for ground-based observations of the atmospheres of exoplanets transiting bright stars. We obtain a flat transmission spectrum for HAT-P-26b in the range of 490–900 nm that can be explained by the presence of a grey opacity cloud deck, and indications of transit timing variations, both of which are consistent with previous measurements.

ABSTRACT NGC 4151 is among the most well-studied Seyfert galaxies that does not suffer from strong obscuration along the observer’s line of sight. This allows to probe the central active galactic nucleus (AGN) engine with photometry, spectroscopy, reverberation mapping, or interferometry. Yet, the broad-band polarization from NGC 4151 has been poorly examined in the past despite the fact that polarimetry gives us a much cleaner view of the AGN physics than photometry or spectroscopy alone. In this paper, we compile the 0.15–89.0 μm total and polarized fluxes of NGC 4151 from archival and new data in order to examine the physical processes at work in the heart of this AGN. We demonstrate that, from the optical to the near-infrared (IR) band, the polarized spectrum of NGC 4151 shows a much bluer power-law spectral index than that of the total flux, corroborating the presence of an optically thick, locally heated accretion flow, at least in its near-IR emitting radii. Specific signatures from the atmosphere of the accretion structure are tentatively found at the shortest ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, before the onset of absorption opacity. Otherwise, dust scattering appears to be the dominant contributor from the near-UV to near-IR polarized spectrum, superimposed on to a weaker electron component. We also identify a change in the polarization processes from the near-IR to the mid-IR, most likely associated with the transition from Mie scattering to dichroic absorption from aligned dust grains in the dusty torus or narrow-line region. Finally, we present and discuss the very first far-infrared polarization measurement of NGC 4151 at 89 μm.

Studying the spatial and temporal distribution of surface water resources is critical, especially in highly populated areas and in regions under climate change pressure. There is an increasing number of satellite Earth observations that can provide information to monitor surface water at global scale. However, mapping surface waters at local and regional scales is still a challenge for numerous reasons (insufficient spatial resolution, vegetation or cloud opacity, limited time-frequency or time-record, information content of the instrument, lack in global retrieval method, interpretability of results, etc.). In this paper, we use 17 years of the MODIS (MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer) observations at a 8-day resolution. This satellite dataset is combined with ground expertise to analyse the evolution of surface waters at the Cambodia/Vietnam border in the Upper Mekong Delta. The trends and evolution of surface waters are very significant and contrasted, illustrating the impact of agriculture practices and dykes construction. In most of the study area in Cambodia. surface water areas show a decreasing trend but with a strong inter-annual variability. In specific areas, an increase of the wet surfaces is even observed. Ground expertise and historical knowledge of the development of the territory enable to link the decrease to ongoing excavation of drainage canals and the increase of deforestation and land reclamation, exposing flooded surfaces previously hidden by vegetation cover. By contrast, in Vietnam, the decreasing trend in wet surfaces is very clear and can be explained by the development of dykes dating back to the 1990s with an acceleration in the late 2000s as part of a national strategy of agriculture intensification. This study shows that coupling satellite data with ground-expertise allows to monitor surface waters at mesoscale (<100 × 100 km2), demonstrating the potential of interdisciplinary approaches for water ressource management and planning.

ABSTRACT We use the Point Process MAPping (PPMAP) algorithm to reanalyse the Herschel and SCUBA-2 observations of the L1688 and L1689 subregions of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud. PPMAP delivers maps with high resolution (here 14 arcsec, corresponding to ${\sim}0.01\, {\rm pc}$ at ${\sim}140\, {\rm pc}$), by using the observations at their native resolutions. PPMAP also delivers more accurate dust optical depths, by distinguishing dust of different types and at different temperatures. The filaments and pre-stellar cores almost all lie in regions with $N_{\rm H_2}\gtrsim 7\times 10^{21}\, {\rm cm}^{-2}$ (corresponding to AV ≳ 7). The dust temperature, T, tends to be correlated with the dust opacity index, β, with low T and low β concentrated in the interiors of filaments. The one exception to this tendency is a section of filament in L1688 that falls – in projection – between the two B stars: S1 and HD147889; here T and β are relatively high, and there is compelling evidence that feedback from these two stars has heated and compressed the filament. Filament fwhms are typically in the range $0.10$ to $0.15\, {\rm pc}$. Most filaments have line-densities in the range $25$ to $65\, {\rm M_{\odot }\, pc^{-1}}$. If their only support is thermal gas pressure, and the gas is at the canonical temperature of $10\, {\rm K}$, the filaments are highly supercritical. However, there is some evidence from ammonia observations that the gas is significantly warmer than this, and we cannot rule out the possibility of additional support from turbulence and/or magnetic fields. On the basis of their spatial distribution, we argue that most of the starless cores are likely to disperse (rather than evolving to become pre-stellar).

Context. NIKA2 is a dual-band millimetre continuum camera of 2 900 kinetic inductance detectors, operating at 150 and 260 GHz, installed at the IRAM 30-m telescope in Spain. Open to the scientific community since October 2017, NIKA2 will provide key observations for the next decade to address a wide range of open questions in astrophysics and cosmology. Aims. Our aim is to present the calibration method and the performance assessment of NIKA2 after one year of observation. Methods. We used a large data set acquired between January 2017 and February 2018 including observations of primary and secondary calibrators and faint sources that span the whole range of observing elevations and atmospheric conditions encountered by the IRAM 30-m telescope. This allowed us to test the stability of the performance parameters against time evolution and observing conditions. We describe a standard calibration method, referred to as the “Baseline” method, to translate raw data into flux density measurements. This includes the determination of the detector positions in the sky, the selection of the detectors, the measurement of the beam pattern, the estimation of the atmospheric opacity, the calibration of absolute flux density scale, the flat fielding, and the photometry. We assessed the robustness of the performance results using the Baseline method against systematic effects by comparing results using alternative methods. Results. We report an instantaneous field of view of 6.5′ in diameter, filled with an average fraction of 84%, and 90% of valid detectors at 150 and 260 GHz, respectively. The beam pattern is characterised by a FWHM of 17.6″ ± 0.1″ and 11.1″ ± 0.2″, and a main-beam efficiency of 47%±3%, and 64%±3% at 150 and 260 GHz, respectively. The point-source rms calibration uncertainties are about 3% at 150 GHz and 6% at 260 GHz. This demonstrates the accuracy of the methods that we deployed to correct for atmospheric attenuation. The absolute calibration uncertainties are of 5%, and the systematic calibration uncertainties evaluated at the IRAM 30-m reference Winter observing conditions are below 1% in both channels. The noise equivalent flux density at 150 and 260 GHz are of 9 ± 1 mJy s1/2 and 30 ± 3 mJy s1/2. This state-of-the-art performance confers NIKA2 with mapping speeds of 1388 ± 174 and 111 ± 11 arcmin2 mJy−2 h−1 at 150 and 260 GHz. Conclusions. With these unique capabilities of fast dual-band mapping at high (better that 18″) angular resolution, NIKA2 is providing an unprecedented view of the millimetre Universe.

The rapid advancement in pattern recognition via the deep learning method has made it possible to develop an autonomous medical image classification system. This system has proven robust and accurate in classifying most pathological features found in a medical image, such as airspace opacity, mass, and broken bone. Conventionally, this system takes routine medical images with minimum pre-processing as the model's input; in this research, we investigate if saliency maps can be an alternative model input. Recent research has shown that saliency maps' application increases deep learning model performance in image classification, object localization, and segmentation. However, conventional bottom-up saliency map algorithms regularly failed to localize salient or pathological anomalies in medical images. This failure is because most medical images are homogenous, lacking color, and contrast variant. Therefore, we also introduce the Xenafas algorithm in this paper. The algorithm creates a new kind of anomalous saliency map called the Intensity Probability Mapping and Weighted Intensity Probability Mapping. We tested the proposed saliency maps on five deep learning models based on common convolutional neural network architecture. The result of this experiment showed that using the proposed saliency map over regular radiograph chest images increases the sensitivity of most models in identifying images with air space opacities. Using the Grad-CAM algorithm, we showed how the proposed saliency map shifted the model attention to the relevant region in chest radiograph images. While in the qualitative study, it was found that the proposed saliency map regularly highlights anomalous features, including foreign objects and cardiomegaly. However, it is inconsistent in highlighting masses and nodules. ABSTRAK: Perkembangan pesat sistem pengecaman corak menggunakan kaedah pembelajaran mendalam membolehkan penghasilan sistem klasifikasi gambar perubatan secara automatik. Sistem ini berupaya menilai secara tepat jika terdapat tanda-tanda patologi di dalam gambar perubatan seperti kelegapan ruang udara, jisim dan tulang patah. Kebiasaannya, sistem ini akan mengambil gambar perubatan dengan pra-pemprosesan minimum sebagai input. Kajian ini adalah tentang potensi peta salien dapat dijadikan sebagai model input alternatif. Ini kerana kajian terkini telah menunjukkan penggunaan peta salien dapat meningkatkan prestasi model pembelajaran mendalam dalam pengklasifikasian gambar, pengesanan objek, dan segmentasi gambar. Walau bagaimanapun, sistem konvensional algoritma peta salien jenis bawah-ke-atas kebiasaannya gagal mengesan salien atau anomali patologi dalam gambar-gambar perubatan. Kegagalan ini disebabkan oleh sifat gambar perubatan yang homogen, kurang variasi warna dan kontras. Oleh itu, kajian ini memperkenalkan algoritma Xenafas yang menghasilkan dua jenis pemetaan saliensi anomali iaitu Pemetaan Kebarangkalian Keamatan dan Pemetaan Kebarangkalian Keamatan Pemberat. Kajian dibuat pada peta salien yang dicadangkan iaitu pada lima model pembelajaran mendalam berdasarkan seni bina rangkaian neural konvolusi yang sama. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan dengan menggunakan peta salien atas gambar-gambar radiografi dada tetap membantu kesensitifan kebanyakan model dalam mengidentifikasi gambar-gambar dengan kelegapan ruang udara. Dengan menggunakan algoritma Grad-CAM, peta salien yang dicadangkan ini mampu mengalih fokus model kepada kawasan yang relevan kepada gambar radiografi dada. Sementara itu, kajian kualitatif ini juga menunjukkan algoritma yang dicadangkan mampu memberi ciri anomali, termasuk objek asing dan kardiomegali. Walau bagaimanapun, ianya tidak konsisten dalam menjelaskan berat dan nodul.

This article describes the results of a study conducted with fifty-three adult third-year learners of Spanish, French, and German in order to investigate (a) the degree to which idiom type affects the speed and ease of idiom comprehension and interpretation, (b) the effect that context exerts on idiom understanding, (c) the strategies second language learners employ in computing the idiomatic meaning of multiword phrasal units during contextualized and acontextualized reading of texts containing such idioms, and (d) the cognitive processes that are likely to constrain the construction of the right idiomatic mappings between target and domain idioms. Findings indicate that (a) there were significant main effects for lexical and post-lexical level idioms in both the context and the non-context treatment; (b) translation, guessing, and the use of context are highly important in the construction of idiomatic meaning; and (c) the degree of opacity between target and domain idiom, knowledge of vocabulary, graphophonics and syntactic arrangement, and literal meaning of an idiom influence and affect transfer of idiomatic knowledge in significant ways.

<p>Recent work on opacity calls attention to the need for a refined taxonomy (e.g. Baković 2007, 2011), though the mutual exclusivity of the two major kinds of opaque interactions, underapplication and overapplication, remains unquestioned. No interaction has, until now, been reported to display both effects for a single input to output mapping. I present one case from Berbice Dutch Creole (hereafter Berbice) where, depending on the analysis, nasal place assimilation simultaneously underapplies and overapplies, due to an interaction with consonant deletion. In this paper, I present several possible analyses of the Berbice data in rule-based serialism and Optimality Theory with Candidate Chains (McCarthy 2007) and compare the claims these frameworks make on the interaction’s classification. I also discuss the theoretical implications of hybrid opacity and how it may fit within the larger taxonomy of opacity. Finally, I lay the foundation for further work on the phenomenon by presenting a generalized template and a possible experimental design.</p>

ObjectivesWith low-dose computed tomography(CT) lung cancer screening, many studies with an increasing number of patients with ground-glass opacity (GGO) are published. Hence, the present study aimed to analyze the published studies on GGO using bibliometric analysis. The findings could provide a basis for future research in GGO and for understanding past advances and trends in the field.MethodsPublished studies on GGO were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using the R package and VOSviewer for countries, institutions, journals, authors, keywords, and articles relevant to GGO. In addition, a bibliometric map was created to visualize the relationship.ResultsThe number of publications on GGO has been increasing since 2011. China is ranked as the most prolific country; however, Japan has the highest number of citations for its published articles. Seoul National University and Professor Jin Mo Goo from Korea had the highest publications. Most top 10 journals specialized in the field of lung diseases. Radiology is a comprehensive journal with the greatest number of citations and highest H-index than other journals. Using bibliometric analysis, research topics on “prognosis and diagnosis,” “artificial intelligence,” “treatment,” “preoperative positioning and minimally invasive surgery,” and “pathology of GGO” were identified. Artificial intelligence diagnosis and minimally invasive treatment may be the future of GGO. In addition, most top 10 literatures in this field were guidelines for lung cancer and pulmonary nodules.ConclusionsThe publication volume of GGO has increased rapidly. The top three countries with the highest number of published articles were China, Japan, and the United States. Japan had the most significant number of citations for published articles. Most key journals specialized in the field of lung diseases. Artificial intelligence diagnosis and minimally invasive treatment may be the future of GGO.

Abstract Background Cataract surgery is traumatic to the corneal epithelium,scarring and opacity is the commonest cause of blindness. Objective To study the corneal epithelial thickness in different corneal conditions using anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT). Patients and Methods A case-control study including 80 eyes divided equally into 4 groups; group 1:controls,group 2:corneal scarring ,group 3:cataract patients and group 4:pterygium. using AS-OCT epithelial mapping to document changes in epithelial thickness in controls, cataract patients pre and 1 month after phacoemulsification, patients with corneal scarring and patients with pterygium. Results In phacoemulsification group; we found that epithelial thickness became thinner in area (0_2) and thicker in area (7_9) mm in the map with no significant change in areas (2_5),(5_7) mm in the map. In corneal scarring group; we found that epithelial thickness became thicker compared to control group in all zones. In pterygium group; we found that epithelial thickness became thicker compared to control group in, areas (2_5), (5_7) & (7_9) mm in the map with no significant change in area (0_2) mm in the map. Conclusion The corneal epithelium thickness becomes thinner or thicker to compensate for changes in stromal thickness.

Abstract OBJECTIVES Availability of new techniques may affect surgeons’ procedure selection and thereby affect clinical outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the availability of virtual-assisted lung mapping on the selection of lung resection methods. METHODS Members of the Japanese Association for Chest Surgeons were invited to participate in a web-based survey. Participants were divided into those who had never used virtual-assisted lung mapping (Group 0), those who had used only virtual-assisted lung mapping 1.0 (multiple dye marks on the pleural surface; Group 1), and those who had used virtual-assisted lung mapping 2.0 (multiple dye marks and intrabronchial microcoils for three-dimensional mapping; Group 2). Participants were shown chest computed tomography images of six ground glass opacity nodules and asked to choose surgical procedures to resect the nodules with sufficient resection margins greater than the lesion diameter or 2 cm. RESULTS There were 197 surgeons in Group 0, 49 in Group 1, and 26 in Group 2. All groups showed a similar trend of avoiding wedge resection for deeply located nodules. However, Group 1 showed a trend of disagreeing with selection of wedge resection compared with Group 0 as measured by a Likert scale (1–5) by -0.21 points (95% confidence interval, -0.41 to -0.008 points, p = 0.042). This tendency disappeared in Group 2. CONCLUSIONS Availability of virtual-assisted lung mapping 1.0 led to selection of segmentectomy, while availability of virtual-assisted lung mapping 2.0 led to aggressive deep wedge resection.

Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in critical approaches to mapping and quantification within geography. Such works have embraced the potential of these methods to advance the cause of social and spatial justice in an increasingly data-driven world. But as more geographers are turning to these approaches, it seems that conventional sources of social data are less and less able to capture emerging forms of social and spatial inequality, or are made unavailable to researchers interested in uncovering and challenging these inequalities. This therefore opens up the question of how geographers interested in mobilizing maps and data for critical purposes can even study or make definitive claims about phenomena or processes for which there are no reliable or available sources of data? Together, these issues point to the fundamental challenge of opacity to the future of geographical thought and praxis, and the necessity for critical geographers to not simply abandon these methods because of such challenges, but rather embrace this fuzziness in new and productive ways.

A linguistic theory reaches explanatory adequacy if it arrives at a linguistically-appropriate grammar based on the kind of input available to children. In phonology, we assume that children can succeed even when the input consists of surface evidence alone, with no corrections or explicit paradigmatic information – that is, in learning from distributional evidence. We take the grammar to include both a lexicon of underlying representations and a mapping from the lexicon to surface forms. Moreover, this mapping should be able to express optionality and opacity, among other textbook patterns. This learning challenge has not yet been addressed in the literature. We argue that the principle of Minimum Description Length (MDL) offers the right kind of guidance to the learner – favoring generalizations that are neither overly general nor overly specific – and can help the learner overcome the learning challenge. We illustrate with an implemented MDL learner that succeeds in learning various linguistically-relevant patterns from small corpora.

Abstract Stochastic processes are highly relevant in research fields as different as neuroscience, economy, ecology, chemistry, and fundamental physics. However, due to their intrinsic unpredictability, stochastic mechanisms are very challenging for any kind of investigations and practical applications. Here we report the deliberate use of stochastic X-ray pulses in two-dimensional spectroscopy to the simultaneous mapping of unoccupied and occupied electronic states of atoms in a regime where the opacity and transparency properties of matter are subject to the incident intensity and photon energy. A readily transferable matrix formalism is presented to extract the electronic states from a dataset measured with the monitored input from a stochastic excitation source. The presented formalism enables investigations of the response of the electronic structure to irradiation with intense X-ray pulses while the time structure of the incident pulses is preserved.

Abstract Objective This study was aimed to develop a method combining computed tomography (CT) and fluorescence imaging, allowing identification of microvasculature in anatomical donors and facilitating translational research and education. Methods We investigated homogeneity and radiopacity of 30 different mixtures including radiopaque substances povidone–iodine (Betadine), barium sulfate (BaSO4), and bismuth subsalicylate (Pepto-Bismol) varying in suspension and dilution with agar, latex, or gelatin. Three candidate mixtures were selected for testing the extent of perfusion in renal vasculature to establish methodology. From these candidate mixtures, two were selected for mixture with fluorescein and infusion into cadavers based on their ability to perfuse renal vasculature. The extent to which these two candidate mixtures combined with fluorescein were able to perfuse vasculature in a cadaver head was used to determine which mixture was superior. Results BaSO4 and bismuth subsalicylate–based mixtures demonstrated superior opacity in vials. In terms of solidifying agents, gelatin-based mixtures demonstrated increased friability and lower melting points compared with the other agents, so only latex and agar-based mixtures were used moving forward past the vial stage. Combinations of BaSO4 and latex and BaSO4 and 3% agar were found to perfuse kidneys superiorly to the mixture containing bismuth subsalicylate. Finally, in cadaver heads, the mixture containing BaSO4, agar, and fluorescein was found to perfuse the smallest vasculature. Conclusion A final combination of BaSO4, 3% agar, and fluorescein proves to be a powerful and novel combination enabling CT imaging, fluorescence imaging, and dissection of vasculature. This paves the way for future translational research and education.

Ubiquitous in airports, border checkpoints, and other securitised spaces throughout the world, full-body imaging scanners claim to read bodies in order to identify if they pose security threats. Millimetre-wave body imaging machines—the most common type of body scanner—display to the operating security agent a screen with a generic body outline. If an anomaly is found or if an individual does not align with the machine’s understanding of an “average” body, a small box is highlighted and placed around the “problem” area, prompting further inspection in the form of pat-downs or questioning. In this complex security regime governed by such biometric, body-based technologies, it could be argued that nonalignment with bodily normativity as well as an attendant failure to reveal oneself—to become “transparent” (Hall 295)—marks a body as dangerous. As these algorithmic technologies become more pervasive, so too does the imperative to critically examine their purported neutrality and operative logic of revelation and readability.Biometric technologies are marketed as excavators of truth, with their optic potency claiming to demask masquerading bodies. Failure and bias are, however, an inescapable aspect of such technologies that work with narrow parameters of human morphology. Indeed, surveillance technologies have been taken to task for their inherent racial and gender biases (Browne; Pugliese). Facial recognition has, for example, been critiqued for its inability to read darker skin tones (Buolamwini and Gebru), while body scanners have been shown to target transgender bodies (Keyes; Magnet and Rodgers; Quinan). Critical security studies scholar Shoshana Magnet argues that error is endemic to the technological functioning of biometrics, particularly since they operate according to the faulty notion that bodies are “stable” and unchanging repositories of information that can be reified into code (Magnet 2).Although body scanners are presented as being able to reliably expose concealed weapons, they are riddled with incompetencies that misidentify and over-select certain demographics as suspect. Full-body scanners have, for example, caused considerable difficulties for transgender travellers, breast cancer patients, and people who use prosthetics, such as artificial limbs, colonoscopy bags, binders, or prosthetic genitalia (Clarkson; Quinan; Spalding). While it is not in the scope of this article to detail the workings of body imaging technologies and their inconsistencies, a growing body of scholarship has substantiated the claim that these machines unfairly impact those identifying as transgender and non-binary (see, e.g., Beauchamp; Currah and Mulqueen; Magnet and Rogers; Sjoberg). Moreover, they are constructed according to a logic of binary gender: before each person enters the scanner, transportation security officers must make a quick assessment of their gender/sex by pressing either a blue (corresponding to “male”) or pink (corresponding to “female”) button. In this sense, biometric, computerised security systems control and monitor the boundaries between male and female.The ability to “reveal” oneself is henceforth predicated on having a body free of “abnormalities” and fitting neatly into one of the two sex categorisations that the machine demands. Transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals, particularly those who do not have a binary gender presentation or whose presentation does not correspond to the sex marker in their documentation, also face difficulties if the machine flags anomalies (Quinan and Bresser). Drawing on a Foucauldian analysis of power as productive, Toby Beauchamp similarly illustrates how surveillance technologies not only identify but also create and reshape the figure of the dangerous subject in relation to normative configurations of gender, race, and able-bodiedness. By mobilizing narratives of concealment and disguise, heightened security measures frame gender nonconformity as dangerous (Beauchamp, Going Stealth). Although national and supranational authorities market biometric scanning technologies as scientifically neutral and exact methods of identification and verification and as an infallible solution to security risks, such tools of surveillance are clearly shaped by preconceptions and prejudgements about race, gender, and bodily normativity. Not only are they encoded with “prototypical whiteness” (Browne) but they are also built on “grossly stereotypical” configurations of gender (Clarkson).Amongst this increasingly securitised landscape, creative forms of artistic resistance can offer up a means of subverting discriminatory policing and surveillance practices by posing alternate visualisations that reveal and challenge their supposed objectivity. In his 2018 audio-video artwork installation entitled SANCTUM, UK-based American artist Zach Blas delves into how biometric technologies, like those described above, both reveal and (re)shape ontology by utilising the affectual resonance of sexual submission. Evoking the contradictory notions of oppression and pleasure, Blas describes SANCTUM as “a mystical environment that perverts sex dungeons with the apparatuses and procedures of airport body scans, biometric analysis, and predictive policing” (see full description at https://zachblas.info/works/sanctum/).Depicting generic mannequins that stand in for the digitalised rendering of the human forms that pass through body scanners, the installation transports the scanners out of the airport and into a queer environment that collapses sex, security, and weaponry; an environment that is “at once a prison-house of algorithmic capture, a sex dungeon with no genitals, a weapons factory, and a temple to security.” This artistic reframing gestures towards full-body scanning technology’s germination in the military, prisons, and other disciplinary systems, highlighting how its development and use has originated from punitive—rather than protective—contexts.In what follows, we adopt a methodological approach that applies visual analysis and close reading to scrutinise a selection of scenes from SANCTUM that underscore the sadomasochistic power inherent in surveillance technologies. Analysing visual and aural elements of the artistic intervention allows us to complicate the relationship between transparency and recognition and to problematise the dynamic of mandatory complicity and revelation that body scanners warrant. In contrast to a discourse of visibility that characterises algorithmically driven surveillance technology, Blas suggests opacity as a resistance strategy to biometrics' standardisation of identity. Taking an approach informed by critical security studies and queer theory, we also argue that SANCTUM highlights the violence inherent to the practice of reducing the body to a flat, inert surface that purports to align with some sort of “core” identity, a notion that contradicts feminist and queer approaches to identity and corporeality as fluid and changing. In close reading this artistic installation alongside emerging scholarship on the discriminatory effects of biometric technology, this article aims to highlight the potential of art to queer the supposed objectivity and neutrality of biometric surveillance and to critically challenge normative logics of revelation and readability.Corporeal Fetishism and Body HorrorThroughout both his artistic practice and scholarly work, Blas has been critical of the above narrative of biometrics as objective extractors of information. Rather than looking to dominant forms of representation as a means for recognition and social change, Blas’s work asks that we strive for creative techniques that precisely queer biometric and legal systems in order to make oneself unaccounted for. For him, “transparency, visibility, and representation to the state should be used tactically, they are never the end goal for a transformative politics but are, ultimately, a trap” (Blas and Gaboury 158). While we would simultaneously argue that invisibility is itself a privilege that is unevenly distributed, his creative work attempts to refuse a politics of visibility and to embrace an “informatic opacity” that is attuned to differences in bodies and identities (Blas).In particular, Blas’s artistic interventions titled Facial Weaponization Suite (2011-14) and Face Cages (2013-16) protest against biometric recognition and the inequalities that these technologies propagate by making masks and wearable metal objects that cannot be detected as human faces. This artistic-activist project contests biometric facial recognition and their attendant inequalities by, as detailed on the artist’s website,making ‘collective masks’ in workshops that are modelled from the aggregated facial data of participants, resulting in amorphous masks that cannot be detected as human faces by biometric facial recognition technologies. The masks are used for public interventions and performances.One mask explores blackness and the racist implications that undergird biometric technologies’ inability to detect dark skin. Meanwhile another mask, which he calls the “Fag Face Mask”, points to the heteronormative underpinnings of facial recognition. Created from the aggregated facial data of queer men, this amorphous pink mask implicitly references—and contests—scientific studies that have attempted to link the identification of sexual orientation through rapid facial recognition techniques.Building on this body of creative work that has advocated for opacity as a tool of social and political transformation, SANCTUM resists the revelatory impulses of biometric technology by turning to the use and abuse of full-body imaging. The installation opens with a shot of a large, dark industrial space. At the far end of a red, spotlighted corridor, a black mask flickers on a screen. A shimmering, oscillating sound reverberates—the opening bars of a techno track—that breaks down in rhythm while the mask evaporates into a cloud of smoke. The camera swivels, and a white figure—the generic mannequin of the body scanner screen—is pummelled by invisible forces as if in a wind tunnel. These ghostly silhouettes appear and reappear in different positions, with some being whipped and others stretched and penetrated by a steel anal hook. Rather than conjuring a traditional horror trope of the body’s terrifying, bloody interior, SANCTUM evokes a new kind of feared and fetishized trope that is endemic to the current era of surveillance capitalism: the abstracted body, standardised and datafied, created through the supposedly objective and efficient gaze of AI-driven machinery.Resting on the floor in front of the ominous animated mask are neon fragments arranged in an occultist formation—hands or half a face. By breaking the body down into component parts— “from retina to fingerprints”—biometric technologies “purport to make individual bodies endlessly replicable, segmentable and transmissible in the transnational spaces of global capital” (Magnet 8). The notion that bodies can be seamlessly turned into blueprints extracted from biological and cultural contexts has been described by Donna Haraway as “corporeal fetishism” (Haraway, Modest). In the context of SANCTUM, Blas illustrates the dangers of mistaking a model for a “concrete entity” (Haraway, “Situated” 147). Indeed, the digital cartography of the generic mannequin becomes no longer a mode of representation but instead a technoscientific truth.Several scenes in SANCTUM also illustrate a process whereby substances are extracted from the mannequins and used as tools to enact violence. In one such instance, a silver webbing is generated over a kneeling figure. Upon closer inspection, this geometric structure, which is reminiscent of Blas’s earlier Face Cages project, is a replication of the triangulated patterns produced by facial recognition software in its mapping of distance between eyes, nose, and mouth. In the next scene, this “map” breaks apart into singular shapes that float and transform into a metallic whip, before eventually reconstituting themselves as a penetrative douche hose that causes the mannequin to spasm and vomit a pixelated liquid. Its secretions levitate and become the webbing, and then the sequence begins anew.In another scene, a mannequin is held upside-down and force-fed a bubbling liquid that is being pumped through tubes from its arms, legs, and stomach. These depictions visualise Magnet’s argument that biometric renderings of bodies are understood not to be “tropic” or “historically specific” but are instead presented as “plumbing individual depths in order to extract core identity” (5). In this sense, this visual representation calls to mind biometrics’ reification of body and identity, obfuscating what Haraway would describe as the “situatedness of knowledge”. Blas’s work, however, forces a critique of these very systems, as the materials extracted from the bodies of the mannequins in SANCTUM allude to how biometric cartographies drawn from travellers are utilised to justify detainment. These security technologies employ what Magnet has referred to as “surveillant scopophilia,” that is, new ways and forms of looking at the human body “disassembled into component parts while simultaneously working to assuage individual anxieties about safety and security through the promise of surveillance” (17). The transparent body—the body that can submit and reveal itself—is ironically represented by the distinctly genderless translucent mannequins. Although the generic mannequins are seemingly blank slates, the installation simultaneously forces a conversation about the ways in which biometrics draw upon and perpetuate assumptions about gender, race, and sexuality.Biometric SubjugationOn her 2016 critically acclaimed album HOPELESSNESS, openly transgender singer, composer, and visual artist Anohni performs a deviant subjectivity that highlights the above dynamics that mark the contemporary surveillance discourse. To an imagined “daddy” technocrat, she sings:Watch me… I know you love me'Cause you're always watching me'Case I'm involved in evil'Case I'm involved in terrorism'Case I'm involved in child molestersEvoking a queer sexual frisson, Anohni describes how, as a trans woman, she is hyper-visible to state institutions. She narrates a voyeuristic relation where trans bodies are policed as threats to public safety rather than protected from systemic discrimination. Through the seemingly benevolent “daddy” character and the play on ‘cause (i.e., because) and ‘case (i.e., in case), she highlights how gender-nonconforming individuals are predictively surveilled and assumed to already be guilty. Reflecting on daddy-boy sexual paradigms, Jack Halberstam reads the “sideways” relations of queer practices as an enactment of “rupture as substitution” to create a new project that “holds on to vestiges of the old but distorts” (226). Upending power and control, queer art has the capacity to both reveal and undermine hegemonic structures while simultaneously allowing for the distortion of the old to create something new.Employing the sublimatory relations of bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism (BDSM), Blas’s queer installation similarly creates a sideways representation that re-orientates the logic of the biometric scanners, thereby unveiling the always already sexualised relations of scrutiny and interrogation as well as the submissive complicity they demand. Replacing the airport environment with a dark and foreboding mise-en-scène allows Blas to focus on capture rather than mobility, highlighting the ways in which border checkpoints (including those instantiated by the airport) encourage free travel for some while foreclosing movement for others. Building on Sara Ahmed’s “phenomenology of being stopped”, Magnet considers what happens when we turn our gaze to those “who fail to pass the checkpoint” (107). In SANCTUM, the same actions are played out again and again on spectral beings who are trapped in various states: they shudder in cages, are chained to the floor, or are projected against the parameters of mounted screens. One ghostly figure, for instance, lies pinned down by metallic grappling hooks, arms raised above the head in a recognisable stance of surrender, conjuring up the now-familiar image of a traveller standing in the cylindrical scanner machine, waiting to be screened. In portraying this extended moment of immobility, Blas lays bare the deep contradictions in the rhetoric of “freedom of movement” that underlies such spaces.On a global level, media reporting, scientific studies, and policy documents proclaim that biometrics are essential to ensuring personal safety and national security. Within the public imagination, these technologies become seductive because of their marked ability to identify terrorist attackers—to reveal threatening bodies—thereby appealing to the anxious citizen’s fear of the disguised suicide bomber. Yet for marginalised identities prefigured as criminal or deceptive—including transgender and black and brown bodies—the inability to perform such acts of revelation via submission to screening can result in humiliation and further discrimination, public shaming, and even tortuous inquiry – acts that are played out in SANCTUM.Masked GenitalsFeminist surveillance studies scholar Rachel Hall has referred to the impetus for revelation in the post-9/11 era as a desire for a universal “aesthetics of transparency” in which the world and the body is turned inside-out so that there are no longer “secrets or interiors … in which terrorists or terrorist threats might find refuge” (127). Hall takes up the case study of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (infamously known as “the Underwear Bomber”) who attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while onboard a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on 25 December 2009. Hall argues that this event signified a coalescence of fears surrounding bodies of colour, genitalia, and terrorism. News reports following the incident stated that Abdulmutallab tucked his penis to make room for the explosive, thereby “queer[ing] the aspiring terrorist by indirectly referencing his willingness … to make room for a substitute phallus” (Hall 289). Overtly manifested in the Underwear Bomber incident is also a desire to voyeuristically expose a hidden, threatening interiority, which is inherently implicated with anxieties surrounding gender deviance. Beauchamp elaborates on how gender deviance and transgression have coalesced with terrorism, which was exemplified in the wake of the 9/11 attacks when the United States Department of Homeland Security issued a memo that male terrorists “may dress as females in order to discourage scrutiny” (“Artful” 359). Although this advisory did not explicitly reference transgender populations, it linked “deviant” gender presentation—to which we could also add Abdulmutallab’s tucking of his penis—with threats to national security (Beauchamp, Going Stealth). This also calls to mind a broader discussion of the ways in which genitalia feature in the screening process. Prior to the introduction of millimetre-wave body scanning technology, the most common form of scanner used was the backscatter imaging machine, which displayed “naked” body images of each passenger to the security agent. Due to privacy concerns, these machines were replaced by the scanners currently in place which use a generic outline of a passenger (exemplified in SANCTUM) to detect possible threats.It is here worth returning to Blas’s installation, as it also implicitly critiques the security protocols that attempt to reveal genitalia as both threatening and as evidence of an inner truth about a body. At one moment in the installation a bayonet-like object pierces the blank crotch of the mannequin, shattering it into holographic fragments. The apparent genderlessness of the mannequins is contrasted with these graphic sexual acts. The penetrating metallic instrument that breaks into the loin of the mannequin, combined with the camera shot that slowly zooms in on this action, draws attention to a surveillant fascination with genitalia and revelation. As Nicholas L. Clarkson documents in his analysis of airport security protocols governing prostheses, including limbs and packies (silicone penis prostheses), genitals are a central component of the screening process. While it is stipulated that physical searches should not require travellers to remove items of clothing, such as underwear, or to expose their genitals to staff for inspection, prosthetics are routinely screened and examined. This practice can create tensions for trans or disabled passengers with prosthetics in so-called “sensitive” areas, particularly as guidelines for security measures are often implemented by airport staff who are not properly trained in transgender-sensitive protocols.ConclusionAccording to media technologies scholar Jeremy Packer, “rather than being treated as one to be protected from an exterior force and one’s self, the citizen is now treated as an always potential threat, a becoming bomb” (382). Although this technological policing impacts all who are subjected to security regimes (which is to say, everyone), this amalgamation of body and bomb has exacerbated the ways in which bodies socially coded as threatening or deceptive are targeted by security and surveillance regimes. Nonetheless, others have argued that the use of invasive forms of surveillance can be justified by the state as an exchange: that citizens should willingly give up their right to privacy in exchange for safety (Monahan 1). Rather than subscribing to this paradigm, Blas’ SANCTUM critiques the violence of mandatory complicity in this “trade-off” narrative. Because their operationalisation rests on normative notions of embodiment that are governed by preconceptions around gender, race, sexuality and ability, surveillance systems demand that bodies become transparent. This disproportionally affects those whose bodies do not match norms, with trans and queer bodies often becoming unreadable (Kafer and Grinberg). The shadowy realm of SANCTUM illustrates this tension between biometric revelation and resistance, but also suggests that opacity may be a tool of transformation in the face of such discriminatory violations that are built into surveillance.ReferencesAhmed, Sara. “A Phenomenology of Whiteness.” Feminist Theory 8.2 (2007): 149–68.Beauchamp, Toby. “Artful Concealment and Strategic Visibility: Transgender Bodies and U.S. State Surveillance after 9/11.” Surveillance & Society 6.4 (2009): 356–66.———. Going Stealth: Transgender Politics and U.S. Surveillance Practices. 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