Modeling of the Acute Toxicity of Benzene Derivatives by Complementary QSAR Methods

A data set containing acute toxicity values (96-h LC50) of 69 substituted benzenes for fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) was investigated with two Quantitative Structure- Activity Relationship (QSAR) models, either using or not using molecular descriptors, respectively. Recursive Neural Networks (RNN) derive a QSAR by direct treatment of the molecular structure, described through an appropriate graphical tool (variable-size labeled rooted ordered trees) by defining suitable representation rules. The input trees are encoded by an adaptive process able to learn, by tuning its free parameters, from a given set of structureactivity training examples. Owing to the use of a flexible encoding approach, the model is target invariant and does not need a priori definition of molecular descriptors. The results obtained in this study were analyzed together with those of a model based on molecular descriptors, i.e. a Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) model using CROatian MultiRegression selection of descriptors (CROMRsel). The comparison revealed interesting similarities that could lead to the development of a combined approach, exploiting the complementary characteristics of the two approaches

What do we know through improvisation?

In this paper, which is exploratory in character, I address the question of whether, how, and what we know through artistic improvisation. Has artistic improvisation a specific cognitive supply? Can this alleged cognitive supply contribute to the aesthetic merit of the performance? And how? In order to answer these questions I will first explain which is exactly the problem we face. Secondly, I will try to give some suggestions to solve this problem

Contemplating Music

La filosofia della musica \ue8 uno dei principali campi cui Jerrold Levinson ha dedicato la sua riflessione e anche in CA, cos\uec come in Music, Art and Metaphysics (MAM) e The Pleasures of Aesthetics (PA), all\u2019arte dei suoni \ue8 dedicata una specifica sezione che valorizza, accanto alla costituzione formale, i possibili contenuti della musica, emergenti in una contemplazione che \ue8 al contempo partecipazione attiva, di tipo sia emotivo sia riflessivo, da parte dell\u2019ascoltatore. I saggi \u2018musicali\u2019 di CA, le cui tesi Levinson ha pi\uf9 recentemente sviluppato in varie direzioni1, 1. approfondiscono la teoria dell\u2019espressivit\ue0 musicale gi\ue0 presentata in MAM e PA (la cosiddetta \u2018teoria della persona\u2019, TP), 2. la articolano in relazione ad aspetti particolari dell\u2019esperienza musicale (per es. la performance), e 3. ne esaminano il contributo per la comprensione della dimensione narrativa e drammatica della musica nonch\ue9, in generale 4., come elemento centrale del suo valore artistico. Qui mi concentrer\uf2 soprattutto sul punto 1., toccando poi pi\uf9 brevemente i punti 2., 3. e 4. Non muover\uf2 particolari critiche alle tesi qui argomentate da Levinson (eccettuata la proposta di un\u2019integrazione alla sua tesi sul valore intrinseco-esperienziale della musica), perch\ue9 a differenza di alcune posizioni di altri filosofi analitici della musica, e anche di alcuni orientamenti dello stesso Levinson rispetto all\u2019ontologia della musica (cui CA non offre particolari contributi), le condivido in larghissima misura. Piuttosto, presenter\uf2 quelli che mi sembrano i punti salienti della sezione musicale di CA, provando, in un caso, a difendere le proposte levinsoniane da alcune obiezioni

Body and Soul . . . and the Artifact: The Aesthetically Extended Self

By thinking on my personal (som)aesthetic experience as a would-be jazz saxophonist, I will argue that the relationship between musician and instrument can exemplify the “extended self” thesis in the artistic/aesthetic realm. As can happen with a human partner, a special affective relationship may arise between human being and instrument and, through repeated practice, the instrument can become an indispensable element of the aesthetic habits by virtue of which we interact with the environment, thus becoming part of the (extended) self. As I will suggest, this special bodily and affective relationship is due to the affordances offered by the instrumental partner and to the expressive experiences that this encounter makes possible. This affective relationship is one of the reasons behind the regret we feel for the destruction or loss of artifacts. Thanks to the assiduity of a somaesthetic relationship, it happens that these objects become extensions not only of the body but also of the mind or “soul.

\u201cMind the gap\u201d. L\u2019improvvisazione come agire intenzionale

n this paper I aim at discussing the following questions: is improvisation an intentional action? If it is an intentional action, in what sense is improvisation intentional? Can improvisation contribute to the understanding of intentional action? I will argue that improvisation is not a bizarre case of action or a weakened action, but an intentional action in the proper sense (provided with some specific properties). Moreover, improvisation exemplifies key features of intentional action as such

Staple: Complementary Learners for Real-Time Tracking

Correlation Filter-based trackers have recently achieved excellent performance, showing great robustness to challenging situations exhibiting motion blur and illumination changes. However, since the model that they learn depends strongly on the spatial layout of the tracked object, they are notoriously sensitive to deformation. Models based on colour statistics have complementary traits: they cope well with variation in shape, but suffer when illumination is not consistent throughout a sequence. Moreover, colour distributions alone can be insufficiently discriminative. In this paper, we show that a simple tracker combining complementary cues in a ridge regression framework can operate faster than 80 FPS and outperform not only all entries in the popular VOT14 competition, but also recent and far more sophisticated trackers according to multiple benchmarks.Comment: To appear in CVPR 201