Accelerator-based light sources get a boost

Laser wakefield accelerator based light sources: potential applications and requirements

In this article we review the prospects of laser wakefield accelerators as next generation light sources for applications. This work arose as a result of discussions held at the 2013 Laser Plasma Accelerators Workshop. X-ray phase contrast imaging, x-ray absorption spectroscopy, and nuclear resonance fluorescence are highlighted as potential applications for laser–plasma based light sources. We...

DNA vaccines get a boost

High blood pressure, sepsis, and snake bites might all be cured by the same antidote, according to Schneider et al. (page 2629). High blood pressure and septic shock are both enhanced by a 21–amino acid peptide called ET-1. This peptide is secreted by blood vessel cells that have been activated by inflammatory cytokines. ET-1 triggers the contraction of smooth muscle cells that are wrapped arou...

Phase Coding: Spikes Get a Boost from Local Fields

The brain exhibits coherent, long-range oscillations, and it now appears that these oscillations play a substantial role in neural coding: they can boost the information contained in action potentials by as much as 50%.

Photonic crystals boost light emission

Ray-Based Rendering for Virtual Light Sources

The ray-based approach is powerful and useful for the description of 3-D images because of its neutrality to all types of 3-D displaying technologies. This approach has been developed in order to reproduce the whole visual data captured at the transmitter. However, for the purpose of augmented reality, not only is the reproduction of real visual data essential, but also the synthesis of virtual...