Albion College

About: Albion College is a education organization based out in Albion, Michigan, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Higher education. The organization has 485 authors who have published 754 publications receiving 20907 citations.

Parallel computing methods for X-ray cone beam tomography with large array sizes

Abstract: Cone beam geometries are increasingly of interest for X-ray CT applications to improve imaging efficiency. In this paper, we describe our practical experience implementing circular orbit cone beam backprojection on workstation clusters. The reconstruction problem is computationally intensive, particularly for arrays of 512 voxels in each direction. A voxel driven approach is described where the reconstruction volume is partitioned into variable width slabs and each slab given to a workstation. Each projection is filtered by one workstation and then sent to the others for backprojection. While most computation is done in the backprojection step, a significant amount of time must be spent in sending projectional data. A method is detailed to further reduce the communication overhead by restricting the amount of projection sent to only what is required by each backprojecting workstation. Furthermore, if the shape of the backprojection slabs is made as square as possible, the total communication requirement can be minimized. By reduction of the communication requirement, an overall improvement in processor utilization was observed, and the crossover point where communication dominates was improved.

The Ministry of Amusements: Film, Commerce, and Politics in Germany, 1917–1945

Abstract: In the American edition of the memoirs of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl there appears an excruciatingly funny error in terminology whereby Albert Speer, newly appointed as Hitler's armaments minister, is referred to as the \"Minister of Amusements.\" What makes this faux pas doubly hilarious is that it represents an indirect—and presumably unintentional—parody of Riefenstahl's extended claim in the book for the political innocence of her cinematic activities in the Third Reich. By the same token, however, this error is also central to a discussion of the books under review. Both Klaus Kreimeier and Eric Rentschler deal, in different ways, with the political and commercial uses of film as popular amusement. For these authors, there are no easy historical distinctions among the phenomena of film as entertainment, film as art, film as business, film as politics. Both books illuminate the dynamic social contexts in which films are made, distributed, shown, and viewed. Rentschler also offers fresh material and analysis for the recent historical excavation of the social history of the Third Reich and the hotly debated issues of \"resistance\" and \"collaboration\" under Hitler. Kreimeier, for his part, argues that during the classic era of German film in the 1920s \"Ufa's melodramas, comedies, Prussian films, waltz dreams,

Plant Cell Structure and Ultrastructure

Abstract: The cells of plants possess a variety of included structures; some of which are similar to eukaryotic animal cells, but others are quite distinctive. Many can be observed with a compound light microscope, but others are only resolved with the aid of electron microscopy. One of the great biological achievements of the recent twentieth century has been the development of electron microscopes, the appropriate specimen preparation for observations, and the determination of the structural, genetic, physiological and the elucidation of the role of microscopic and ultrastructural components. This chapter will describe the structure and function of cellular organelles and their respective roles in plant anatomy.