The role of an SEO company is to improve the search engine visibility of their clients and drive more online traffic (and potential conversions) to their website. Although search engine results page (SERP) rankings aren’t the only measure of success, they are certainly an important indicator of positive growth. Here at SEO Advantage, one of […]

On Thursday, November 14, industry thought leader Erin Firneno will moderate the panel "Measurement Matters: Delivering Better Audience Data to Streaming Advertisers." The promise of streaming as a boon to advertisers has always been its potential to help them target audiences more precisely by delivering more substantive audience data than broadcast can offer. But even as streaming's audience share has grown to justify substantial migration of CTV ad dollars from broadcast to digital, when it comes to quantifying audiences and measuring engagement, the lack of consistent and easily translatable measurement standards?not to mention the sheer number of measurement options?continues to frustrate ad buyers. How can streaming move toward the proposed "single source of truth," or is that even the answer? Confirmed panelists include experts from Vevo, Warner Bros Discovery, and Revry.

Steven A. Carr
Mar 1, 2014; 13:907-917
Technological Innovation and Resources

As the capability of mass spectrometry-based proteomics has matured, tens of thousands of peptides can be measured simultaneously, which has the benefit of offering a systems view of protein expression. However, a major challenge is that with an increase in throughput, protein quantification estimation from the native measured peptides has become a computational task. A limitation to existing computationally-driven protein quantification methods is that most ignore protein variation, such as alternate splicing of the RNA transcript and post-translational modifications or other possible proteoforms, which will affect a significant fraction of the proteome. The consequence of this assumption is that statistical inference at the protein level, and consequently downstream analyses, such as network and pathway modeling, have only limited power for biomarker discovery. Here, we describe a Bayesian model (BP-Quant) that uses statistically derived peptides signatures to identify peptides that are outside the dominant pattern, or the existence of multiple over-expressed patterns to improve relative protein abundance estimates. It is a research-driven approach that utilizes the objectives of the experiment, defined in the context of a standard statistical hypothesis, to identify a set of peptides exhibiting similar statistical behavior relating to a protein. This approach infers that changes in relative protein abundance can be used as a surrogate for changes in function, without necessarily taking into account the effect of differential post-translational modifications, processing, or splicing in altering protein function. We verify the approach using a dilution study from mouse plasma samples and demonstrate that BP-Quant achieves similar accuracy as the current state-of-the-art methods at proteoform identification with significantly better specificity. BP-Quant is available as a MatLab ® and R packages at https://github.com/PNNL-Comp-Mass-Spec/BP-Quant.

DNA polymerase from bacteriophage T7 undergoes large, substrate-induced conformational changes that are thought to account for high replication fidelity, but prior studies were adversely affected by mutations required to construct a Cys-lite variant needed for site-specific fluorescence labeling. Here we have optimized the direct incorporation of a fluorescent un-natural amino acid, (7-hydroxy-4-coumarin-yl)-ethylglycine, using orthogonal amber suppression machinery in Escherichia coli. MS methods verify that the unnatural amino acid is only incorporated at one position with minimal background. We show that the single fluorophore provides a signal to detect nucleotide-induced conformational changes through equilibrium and stopped-flow kinetic measurements of correct nucleotide binding and incorporation. Pre-steady-state chemical quench methods show that the kinetics and fidelity of DNA replication catalyzed by the labeled enzyme are largely unaffected by the unnatural amino acid. These advances enable rigorous analysis to establish the kinetic and mechanistic basis for high-fidelity DNA replication.

New product for intensive care units automates costly and time-consuming nursing work

In our fast changing, increasingly digital world, building a strong customer relationship is the lynchpin to building a great business. The stakes are even higher now as global disruptions occur with alarming regularity—be it political unrest, economic meltdowns or a pandemic. A new, global study called Experience 2030: The Future [...]

4 tips for evolving your customer experience measurement was published on Customer Intelligence Blog.

Join this insightful on-demand webinar event "SI/PI Simulation and Measurement Correlation Forum" available through Signal Integrity Journal that features industry expert presentations ranging from chip to package to complex board designs.(read more)

Simplified methods of acquisition and quantification would facilitate the use of synaptic density imaging in multicenter and longitudinal studies of Alzheimer disease (AD). We validated a simplified tissue-to-reference ratio method using SUV ratios (SUVRs) for estimating synaptic density with [¹¹C]UCB-J PET. Methods: Participants included 31 older adults with AD and 16 with normal cognition. The distribution volume ratio (DVR) using simplified reference tissue model 2 was compared with SUVR at short scan windows using a whole-cerebellum reference region. Results: Synaptic density was reduced in AD participants using DVR or SUVR. SUVR using later scan windows (60–90 or 70–90 min) was minimally biased, with the strongest correlation with DVR. Effect sizes using SUVR at these late time windows were minimally reduced compared with effect sizes with DVR. Conclusion: A simplified tissue-to-reference method may be useful for multicenter and longitudinal studies seeking to measure synaptic density in AD.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:

Alterations of the basilar artery (BA) anatomy have been suggested as a possible MRA feature of Fabry disease (FD). Nonetheless, no information about their clinical or pathophysiologic correlates is available, limiting our comprehension of the real impact of vessel remodeling in FD.

A research team at the University of California San Diego have developed a smartphone attachment that can provide information on changes in pupil size, which can be used to assess neurological phenomena, such as traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease. Such changes in pupil size have been difficult to characterize in the past in those […]

Cambridge, Mass. : National Bureau of Economic Research 2023

National Bureau of Economic Research

National Bureau of Economic Research

National Bureau of Economic Research

National Bureau of Economic Research

IEEE / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Incorporated

Archives, Room Use Only - TK5264.F74 1901

Archives, Room Use Only - TK5262.F74 1901

The transmission of the optical components of the Bernina branch of the Aramis beamline at SwissFEL has been measured with an X-ray gas monitor from DESY and compared with a PSI gas detector upstream of the optical components. The transmission efficiencies of the Mo, Si and SiC mirror coatings of the Aramis beamline and the various other in-beam components were evaluated and compared with theoretical calculations, showing an agreement of 6% or better in all cases. The experiment has also shown the efficacy of the high-harmonic rejection mirrors at the Bernina branch of the Aramis beamline at SwissFEL, and characterized the transmission efficiency of the on-line spectrometer in the Aramis beamline. The theoretical transmission of the mirror coatings match the experimental data to within 7%. The accuracy of these measurements was checked against a radiative bolometer from a Japanese collaboration and found to agree to a level of 4% or better. Further comparisons with a diamond detector from a US-based inter-institute collaboration demonstrated a good agreement for the attenuator settings of the beamline.

Multilayer monochromator devices are commonly used at (imaging) beamlines of synchrotron facilities to shape the X-ray beam to relatively small bandwidth and high intensity. However, stripe artefacts are often observed and can deteriorate the image quality. Although the intensity distribution of these artefacts has been described in the literature, their spectral distribution is currently unknown. To assess the spatio-spectral properties of the monochromated X-ray beam, the direct beam has been measured for the first time using a hyperspectral X-ray detector. The results show a large number of spectral features with different spatial distributions for a [Ru, B4C] strip monochromator, associated primarily with the higher-order harmonics of the undulator and monochromator. It is found that their relative contributions are sufficiently low to avoid an influence on the imaging data. The [V, B4C] strip suppresses these high-order harmonics even more than the former, yet at the cost of reduced efficiency.

The X-ray diffraction/X-ray fluorescence instrument CheMin on the Curiosity rover is a shoebox-sized device using transmission geometry and an energy-discriminating CCD detector. The instrument has returned the first X-ray diffraction data for soil and drilled samples from Mars outcrops, revealing a suite of primary basaltic minerals, amorphous components and varied hydrous alteration products including phyllosilicates.

The title pull–push chromophores, 2-[4-(di­methyl­amino)­benzyl­idene]-1H-indene-1,3(2H)-dione, C18H15NO2 (ID[1]) and (E)-2-{3-[4-(di­methyl­amino)­phen­yl]allyl­idene}-1H-indene-1,3(2H)-dione, C20H17NO2 (ID[2]), have donor–π-bridge–acceptor structures. The mol­ecule with the short π-bridge, ID[1], is almost planar while for the mol­ecule with a longer bridge, ID[2], is less planar. The benzene ring is inclined to the mean plane of the 2,3-di­hydro-1H-indene unit by 3.19 (4)° in ID[1] and 13.06 (8)° in ID[2]. The structures of three polymorphs of compound ID[1] have been reported: the α-polymorph [space group P21/c; Magomedova & Zvonkova (1978). Kristallografiya, 23, 281–288], the β-polymorph [space group P21/c; Magomedova & Zvonkova (1980). Kristallografiya, 25 1183–1187] and the γ-polymorph [space group Pna21; Magomedova, Neigauz, Zvonkova & Novakovskaya (1980). Kristallografiya, 25, 400–402]. The mol­ecular packing in ID[1] studied here is centrosymmetric (space group P21/c) and corresponds to the β-polymorph structure. The mol­ecular packing in ID[2] is non-centrosymmetric (space group P21), which suggests potential NLO properties for this crystalline material. In both compounds, there is short intra­molecular C—H⋯O contact present, enclosing an S(7) ring motif. In the crystal of ID[1], mol­ecules are linked by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds and C—H⋯π inter­actions, forming layers parallel to the bc plane. In the crystal of ID[2], mol­ecules are liked by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form 21 helices propagating along the b-axis direction. The mol­ecules in the helix are linked by offset π–π inter­actions with, for example, a centroid–centroid distance of 3.9664 (13) Å (= b axis) separating the indene rings, and an offset of 1.869 Å. Spectroscopic and electrochemical measurements show the ability of these compounds to easily transfer electrons through the π-conjugated chain.

Temperature is a ubiquitous environmental variable used to explore materials structure, properties and reactivity. This article reports a new paradigm for variable-temperature measurements that varies the temperature continuously across a sample such that temperature is measured as a function of sample position and not time. The gradient approach offers advantages over conventional variable-temperature studies, in which temperature is scanned during a series measurement, in that it improves the efficiency with which a series of temperatures can be probed and it allows the sample evolution at multiple temperatures to be measured in parallel to resolve kinetic and thermodynamic effects. Applied to treat samples at a continuum of temperatures prior to measurements at ambient temperature, the gradient approach enables parametric studies of recovered systems, eliminating temperature-dependent structural and chemical variations to simplify interpretation of the data. The implementation of spatially resolved variable-temperature measurements presented here is based on a gradient-heater design that uses a 3D-printed ceramic template to guide the variable pitch of the wire in a resistively heated wire-wound heater element. The configuration of the gradient heater was refined on the basis of thermal modelling. Applications of the gradient heater to quantify thermal-expansion behaviour, to map metastable polymorphs recovered to ambient temperature, and to monitor the time- and temperature-dependent phase evolution in a complex solid-state reaction are demonstrated.

Instrumentation for time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering measurements with sub-millisecond time resolution, based on Gähler's TISANE (time-involved small-angle neutron experiments) concept, is in operation at NIST's Center for Neutron Research. This implementation of the technique includes novel electronics for synchronizing the neutron pulses from high-speed counter-rotating choppers with a periodic stimulus applied to a sample. Instrumentation details are described along with measurements demonstrating the utility of the technique for elucidating the reorientation dynamics of anisometric magnetic particles.

A tandem-double-slit optical system was constructed to evaluate the practical beam emittance of undulator radiation. The optical system was a combination of an upstream slit (S1) and downstream slit (S2) aligned on the optical axis with an appropriate separation. The intensity distribution after the double slits, I(x1, x2), was measured by scanning S1 and S2 in the horizontal direction. Coordinates having 1/sqrt e intensity were extracted from I(x1, x2), whose contour provided the standard deviation ellipse in the x1–x2 space. I(x1, x2) was converted to the corresponding distribution in the phase space, I(x1, x1'). The horizontal beam emittance was evaluated to be 3.1 nm rad, which was larger than the value of 2.4 nm rad estimated by using ray-tracing. It was found that the increase was mainly due to an increase in beam divergence rather than size.

Strain tensor measurements are important for understanding elastic and plastic deformation, but full bulk strain tensor measurement techniques are still lacking, in particular for dynamic loading. Here, such a methodology is reported, combining imaging-based strain field mapping and simultaneous X-ray diffraction for four typical loading modes: one-dimensional strain/stress compression/tension. Strain field mapping resolves two in-plane principal strains, and X-ray diffraction analysis yields volumetric strain, and thus the out-of-plane principal strain. This methodology is validated against direct molecular dynamics simulations on nanocrystalline tantalum. This methodology can be implemented with simultaneous X-ray diffraction and digital image correlation in synchrotron radiation or free-electron laser experiments.

A gas- and vapour-pressure control system synchronized with the continuous data acquisition of millisecond high-resolution powder diffraction measurements was developed to study structural change processes in gas storage and reaction materials such as metal organic framework compounds, zeolite and layered double hydroxide. The apparatus, which can be set up on beamline BL02B2 at SPring-8, mainly comprises a pressure control system of gases and vapour, a gas cell for a capillary sample, and six one-dimensional solid-state (MYTHEN) detectors. The pressure control system can be remotely controlled via developed software connected to a diffraction measurement system and can be operated in the closed gas and vapour line system. By using the temperature-control system on the sample, high-resolution powder diffraction data can be obtained under gas and vapour pressures ranging from 1 Pa to 130 kPa in temperatures ranging from 30 to 1473 K. This system enables one to perform automatic and high-throughput in situ X-ray powder diffraction experiments even at extremely low pressures. Furthermore, this developed system is useful for studying crystal structures during the adsorption/desorption processes, as acquired by millisecond and continuous powder diffraction measurements. The acquisition of diffraction data can be synchronized with the control of the pressure with a high frame rate of up to 100 Hz. In situ and time-resolved powder diffraction measurements are demonstrated for nanoporous Cu coordination polymer in various gas and vapour atmospheres.

Double-sided Fresnel zone plates are diffractive lenses used for high-resolution hard X-ray microscopy. The double-sided structures have significantly higher aspect ratios compared with single-sided components and hence enable more efficient imaging. The zone plates discussed in this paper are fabricated on each side of a thin support membrane, and the alignment of the zone plates with respect to each other is critical. Here, a simple and reliable way of quantifying misalignments by recording efficiency maps and measuring the absolute diffraction efficiency of the zone plates as a function of tilting angle in two directions is presented. The measurements are performed in a setup based on a tungsten-anode microfocus X-ray tube, providing an X-ray energy of 8.4 keV through differential measurements with a Cu and an Ni filter. This study investigates the sources of the misalignments and concludes that they can be avoided by decreasing the structure heights on both sides of the membrane and by pre-programming size differences between the front- and back-side zone plates.

This article describes a high-efficiency experimental configuration for a self-referenced lattice comparator with a `brush beam' of synchrotron radiation from a bending magnet and two linear position-sensitive photon-counting-type X-ray detectors. The efficiency is more than ten times greater compared with the `pencil-beam' configuration and a pair of zero-dimensional detectors. A solution for correcting the systematic deviation of d-spacing measurements caused by the horizontal non-uniformity of the brush beam is provided. Also, the use of photon-counting-type one-dimensional detectors not only improves the spatial resolution of the measurements remarkably but can also adjust the sample's attitude angles easily.

Errors in the article by Opara, Martiel, Arnold, Braun, Stahlberg, Makita, David & Padeste [J. Appl. Cryst. (2017), 50, 909–918] are corrected.

The residual strain distribution has been measured as a function of depth in both top coat and bond coat in as-received and heat-treated air plasma sprayed thermal barrier coating samples. High-energy synchrotron X-ray beams were used in transmission to produce full Debye–Scherrer rings whose non-circular aspect ratio gave the in-plane and out-of-plane strains far more efficiently than the sin2ψ method. The residual strain in the bond coat is found to be tensile and the strain in the β phase of the as-received sample was measured. The residual strains observed in the top coat were generally compressive (increasing towards the interface), with two kinds of nonlinear trend. These was a `jump' feature near the interface, and in some cases there was another `jump' feature near the surface. It is shown how these trend differences can be correlated to cracks in the coating.

A historical tool for crystallographic analysis is provided by the Hilton net, which can be used for manually surveying the crystal lattice as it is manifested by the Kikuchi bands in a gnomonic projection. For a quantitative analysis using the Hilton net, the projection centre as the relative position of the signal source with respect to the detector plane needs to be known. Interplanar angles are accessible with a precision and accuracy which is estimated to be ≤0.3°. Angles between any directions, e.g. zone axes, are directly readable. Finally, for the rare case of an unknown projection-centre position, its determination is demonstrated by adapting an old approach developed for photogrammetric applications. It requires the indexing of four zone axes [uvw]i in a backscattered Kikuchi diffraction pattern of a known phase collected under comparable geometric conditions.

In order to improve the instrumental accessibility of neutron diffraction techniques, many emerging compact neutron sources and in-house neutron diffractometers are being developed, even though the precision level of neutron diffraction experiments performed on such instruments was thought to be incomparable with that of large-scale neutron facilities. As a challenging project, the RIKEN accelerator-driven compact neutron source (RANS) was employed here to establish the technical environment for texture measurements, and the recalculated pole figures and orientation distribution functions of an interstitial-free steel sheet obtained from RANS were compared with the results from another two neutron diffractometers well established for texture measurement. These quantitative comparisons revealed that the precise neutron diffraction texture measurement at RANS has been realized successfully, and the fine region division of the neutron detector panel is invaluable for improving the stereographic resolution of texture measurements. Moreover, through selectively using the parts of the obtained neutron diffraction patterns that exhibit good statistics, the Rietveld texture analysis improves the reliability of the texture measurement to a certain extent. These technical research results may accelerate the development of other easily accessible techniques for evaluation of engineering materials using compact neutron sources, and also help to improve the data-collection efficiency for various time-resolved scattering experiments at large-scale neutron facilities.

An energy resolution of <10 µeV for the measurement of phonon energy change is achieved with the inelastic neutron spin echo technique on a conventional neutron triple-axis spectrometer.