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.

Vertical Urbanization: The Territorial Crisis of a Universal Model

This research aims to examine, from the perspective of the urban design, the necessity and appropriateness of writing an architectural manifesto that questions, or rethinks, the vertical city model based on the orderly accumulation of slender and free columns – housing towers– where society must fraternize and develop life. The journey through the skyline of the main megalopolitan concentrations in countries such as China, India, Brazil, Mexico or those of the Pacific, shows us a landscape of dense residential conglomerates whose spatial and urban configuration was conceived almost a century ago. Vast extensions of vertical developments conquer, as a final and universal solution, plots without attributes between huge highways, old rice fields, deserts or even impossible topographies. With man's desire to live close to the clouds fulfilled and the technical challenge of rising in a vacuum having been overcome, the challenge should now point to the search for strategies that place the inhabitant again at the centre of the debate. By making the city taller, denser and faster, increases the difficulty of social participation for certain sectors of the population in their environment. Thus, the paper starts analyzing the influence of the precepts of the modern city in the contemporary vertical city. Later, it reflects on the loss of the public space dedicated for people and finally, it will deepen in the experiments of the avant-gardes of the second part of the twentieth-century to find alternatives growth strategies to the city of towers. The results show us that, due to overpopulation and the massive movement towards cities, as well as due to the necessary reduction of our footprint on the planet, is necessary to rethink the urban model of verticalism to get a more human city. As a conclusion, this paper proposes writing an architectural manifesto based on five points to achieve a vertical city for people in our near future.

Computing secure key rates for quantum cryptography with untrusted devices

Device-independent quantum key distribution (DIQKD) provides the strongest form of secure key exchange, using only the input–output statistics of the devices to achieve information-theoretic security. Although the basic security principles of DIQKD are now well understood, it remains a technical challenge to derive reliable and robust security bounds for advanced DIQKD protocols that go beyond the previous results based on violations of the CHSH inequality. In this work, we present a framework based on semidefinite programming that gives reliable lower bounds on the asymptotic secret key rate of any QKD protocol using untrusted devices. In particular, our method can in principle be utilized to find achievable secret key rates for any DIQKD protocol, based on the full input–output probability distribution or any choice of Bell inequality. Our method also extends to other DI cryptographic tasks.

Understanding the Role of Fibroblasts following a 3D Tumoroid Implantation for Breast Tumor Formation

An understanding of the participation and modulation of fibroblasts during tumor formation and growth is still unclear. Among many speculates, one might be the technical challenge to reveal the versatile function of fibroblasts in tissue complexity, and another is the dynamics in tissue physiology and cell activity. The histology of most solid tumors shows a predominant presence of fibroblasts, suggesting that tumor cells recruit fibroblasts for breast tumor growth. In this review paper, therefore, the migration, activation, differentiation, secretion, and signaling systems that are associated with fibroblasts and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) after implantation of a breast tumoroid, i.e., a lab-generated tumor tissue into an animal, are discussed.

Calcium dependence of neurotransmitter release at a high fidelity synapse

The Ca2+-dependence of the priming, fusion, and replenishment of synaptic vesicles are fundamental parameters controlling neurotransmitter release and synaptic plasticity. Despite intense efforts, these important steps in the synaptic vesicles’ cycle remain poorly understood due to the technical challenge in disentangling vesicle priming, fusion, and replenishment. Here, we investigated the Ca2+-sensitivity of these steps at mossy fiber synapses in the rodent cerebellum, which are characterized by fast vesicle replenishment mediating high-frequency signaling. We found that the basal free Ca2+ concentration (<200 nM) critically controls action potential-evoked release, indicating a high-affinity Ca2+ sensor for vesicle priming. Ca2+ uncaging experiments revealed a surprisingly shallow and non-saturating relationship between release rate and intracellular Ca2+ concentration up to 50 μM. The rate of vesicle replenishment during sustained elevated intracellular Ca2+ concentration exhibited little Ca2+-dependence. Finally, quantitative mechanistic release schemes with five Ca2+ binding steps incorporating rapid vesicle replenishment via parallel or sequential vesicle pools could explain our data. We thus show that co-existing high- and low-affinity Ca2+ sensors mediate priming, fusion, and replenishment of synaptic vesicles at a high-fidelity synapse.

Management of high inguinal undescended testis: a review of literature

Background Undescended testis is one of the most common paediatric surgical diagnoses. A lot of research has been done to date, to standardise the surgical management of intra-abdominal and extra-abdominal undescended testis. High inguinal undescended testis is a unique clinical encounter which demands additional surgical measures over conventional orchidopexy for better surgical results. Main body of abstract Open inguinal orchidopexy is a routine and quite straightforward operation for the majority of extra-abdominal undescended testis. However, there are instances in which the testis, even though situated in the inguinal region, poses a challenge for surgeons, to bring it in the scrotum by routine open inguinal orchiopexy. High inguinal testis can be defined as “any intra-canalicular testis present higher up in the inguinal canal and cannot be brought down easily to the scrotum by routine surgery as in standard orchiopexy (open or laparoscopy) and require additional lengthening manoeuvres”. It needs additional surgical lengthening manoeuvres like Prentiss, along with the steps of routine orchiopexy to bring it down in the scrotum. This review article describes the various nomenclatures of undescended testis, appropriate investigations and also various additional surgical measures in the management of difficult high inguinal testis. Conclusion High inguinal undescended testis poses a unique technical challenge even to well-experienced surgeons. It is very important that surgeons dealing with this condition are well aware of the anatomy in this region and also various different manoeuvres described to date to bring the testis down in the scrotum.

Monitoring Reservoirs from Subsea Wells: Ultra-Long Step out VSP Acquisition Using Enhanced Back-Scattering Fiber

While DAS VSP has become relatively standard in dry-tree applications, acquiring data in subsea wells has remained a technical challenge as umbilical can be tens of kilometers long, thereby reducing the overall quantity of backscattered light to the topside interrogator. This adds to the attenuation due to connectors at the wellhead and along the optical path. Yet, the need for subsea DAS interrogation is high, particularly with the onset of complex, deep-water projects that will require on-demand monitoring capabilities. In this article, we report on the successful acquisition and subsequent processing of a zero-offset VSP in an ultra-long step-out context. We simulated a subsea well with 69km worth of lead-in fiber to the wellhead, including attenuation at the wellhead mimicking the connectors. The attenuation was tackled by using an active, subsea amplifier (that would normally sit at the wellhead), and an in-house developed engineered fiber that provides a significant uplift in backscattered energy. We acquired this ZVSP both on fiber and with a standard wireline tool string for comparison. The approach presented here combines hardware and processing strategies to tackle the long step-out challenge. We demonstrate the ability to record seismic data even at very large step-out, a requirement for subsea well monitoring.

Double aneurysm clipping of true fetal posterior communicating artery by minipterional approach plus control with sodium fluorescein: a case report

Introduction: True fetal or fetal type posterior communicating artery aneurysms (PComA) are a technical challenge for the neurosurgeon in both endovascular and microsurgical treatment. Microsurgical clipping using minimally invasive approaches is a safe and optimal alternative solution. Clinical case: a 53-year-old patient who presented subarachnoid hemorrhage, Hunt & Hess scale III, Fisher scale III, and Glasgow Coma Scale of 13. Cerebral angioCT showed two saccular aneurysms in the right true fetal PComA. The patient underwent a right interfacial minipterional craniotomy and clipping of the 2 aneurysms, using sodium fluorescein as a guide. Total occlusion of the aneurysms was achieved, maintaining the patency of the fetal PComA. Conclusion: The minipterional approach allows adequate access to the fetal PComA and the aneurysms originating from it. It is essential to review the patency of the adjacent vessels, being the use of intraoperative fluorescein is an essential complement to avoid complications such as cerebral infarction. Keywords: Intracranial Aneurysm, Craniotomy, Fluorescein, Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Neurosurgeons (Source: MeSH NLM)