What Will I Do Next? The Intention from Motion Experiment

In computer vision, video-based approaches have been widely explored for the early classification and the prediction of actions or activities. However, it remains unclear whether this modality (as compared to 3D kinematics) can still be reliable for the prediction of human intentions, defined as the overarching goal embedded in an action sequence. Since the same action can be performed with different intentions, this problem is more challenging but yet affordable as proved by quantitative cognitive studies which exploit the 3D kinematics acquired through motion capture systems. In this paper, we bridge cognitive and computer vision studies, by demonstrating the effectiveness of video-based approaches for the prediction of human intentions. Precisely, we propose Intention from Motion, a new paradigm where, without using any contextual information, we consider instantaneous grasping motor acts involving a bottle in order to forecast why the bottle itself has been reached (to pass it or to place in a box, or to pour or to drink the liquid inside). We process only the grasping onsets casting intention prediction as a classification framework. Leveraging on our multimodal acquisition (3D motion capture data and 2D optical videos), we compare the most commonly used 3D descriptors from cognitive studies with state-of-the-art video-based techniques. Since the two analyses achieve an equivalent performance, we demonstrate that computer vision tools are effective in capturing the kinematics and facing the cognitive problem of human intention prediction.Comment: 2017 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshop

Poor written and oral text comprehension in third grade children. A multiple case study

In this multiple case study we analyzed oral text comprehension, reading profiles and underlying cognitive abilities (attention, executive functions, working memory, narrative memory, rapid automatized naming and vocabulary) of 9 children identified as poor written text comprehenders after a school screening on 75 third grade children. Four out of the 9 children were named Language-Minority (L-M) children, since they had immigrant parents. The remaining 5 children were born in Italy from Italian parents. The comparisons of the two subgroups suggested that the lexical route of reading was particularly impaired in the L-M subgroup and that written text comprehension was weakened by restricted vocabulary which, in turn, was not supported by efficient phonological short-term memory. In a second type of data analysis we examined the individual profiles of the 9 children, irrespective of their belonging to the L-M or Italian subgroups, and identified different patterns of associations among reading performance, written text comprehension and oral text comprehension. The findings showed that poor text comprehension always co-occurred with word and/or text reading difficulties which, in turn, were associated to slow naming and weak verbal working memory. Moreover, when children had both written and oral text comprehension difficulties, not only verbal working memory was impaired but also narrative memory, suggesting a weakness in the episodic buffer (Baddeley 2000; 2010). The implications of poor working memory associated to slow naming and/or weak episodic buffer for text comprehension are discusse

Year-round variability of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity and runoff in tilled and grassed vineyards

The soil management adopted in vineyard inter-rows has a great influence on soil hydraulic properties, and, consequently, on runoff at the field scale. Conventional management with tillage is adopted by vine-growers to improve the soil water recharge during winter. Nevertheless, this practice is known to increase runoff and soil erosion in steep areas, especially in mechanized vineyards, thus grass cover is adopted to reduce these negative impacts. The year-round values of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity and of the field-scale runoff were measured in vineyard plots from November, 2012 to March, 2016 in the Alto Monferrato vine-growing area (Piedmont, NW Italy). Field-saturated hydraulic conductivity values were obtained by 110 infiltration measurements. The tests were carried out by adopting the Simplified Falling Head methodology in two adjacent vineyards plots, where inter-rows were managed with conventional tillage (CT) and grass cover (GC), respectively. The runoff, the soil temperature and the soil water content in the two plots have also been recorded. As it was expected, the tillage increased the field-saturated hydraulic conductivity with respect to the plot with permanent grass cover. However, this effect was only temporary, since a decrease in field-saturated hydraulic conductivity was observed as a consequence of cumulative precipitation and tractor passages after the tillage operations. The field-saturated hydraulic conductivity ranged between 9 and 9119 mm h-1 in the tilled plot and between 4 and 1775 mm h-1 in the plot with grass cover. The response of the plots to precipitation events, in terms of runoff also varied considerably. Generally, during most of the events, the runoff in the tilled plot resulted higher (up to nearly 20 times) than in the grassed one. The grass cover was less effective in occasion of large precipitation events during the wet seasons than in other months

On the thermal and thermodynamic (In)stability of methylammonium lead halide perovskites

The interest of the scientific community on methylammonium lead halide perovskites (MAPbX3, X = Cl, Br, I) for hybrid organic-inorganic solar cells has grown exponentially since the first report in 2009. This fact is clearly justified by the very high efficiencies attainable (reaching 20% in lab scale devices) at a fraction of the cost of conventional photovoltaics. However, many problems must be solved before a market introduction of these devices can be envisaged. Perhaps the most important to be addressed is the lack of information regarding the thermal and thermodynamic stability of the materials towards decomposition, which are intrinsic properties of them and which can seriously limit or even exclude their use in real devices. In this work we present and discuss the results we obtained using non-ambient X-ray diffraction, Knudsen effusion-mass spectrometry (KEMS) and Knudsen effusion mass loss (KEML) techniques on MAPbCl3, MAPbBr3 and MAPbI3. The measurements demonstrate that all the materials decompose to the corresponding solid lead (II) halide and gaseous methylamine and hydrogen halide, and the decomposition is well detectable even at moderate temperatures (~60 °C). Our results suggest that these materials may be problematic for long term operation of solar devices

Ultra-thin clay layers facilitate seismic slip in carbonate faults

Many earthquakes propagate up to the Earth's surface producing surface ruptures. Seismic slip propagation is facilitated by along-fault low dynamic frictional resistance, which is controlled by a number of physico-chemical lubrication mechanisms. In particular, rotary shear experiments conducted at seismic slip rates (1 ms(-1)) show that phyllosilicates can facilitate co-seismic slip along faults during earthquakes. This evidence is crucial for hazard assessment along oceanic subduction zones, where pelagic clays participate in seismic slip propagation. Conversely, the reason why, in continental domains, co-seismic slip along faults can propagate up to the Earth's surface is still poorly understood. We document the occurrence of micrometer-thick phyllosilicate-bearing layers along a carbonate-hosted seismogenic extensional fault in the central Apennines, Italy. Using friction experiments, we demonstrate that, at seismic slip rates (1 ms(-1)), similar calcite gouges with pre-existing phyllosilicate-bearing (clay content ≤3 wt.%) micro-layers weaken faster than calcite gouges or mixed calcite-phyllosilicate gouges. We thus propose that, within calcite gouge, ultra-low clay content (≤3 wt.%) localized along micrometer-thick layers can facilitate seismic slip propagation during earthquakes in continental domains, possibly enhancing surface displacement

Potential for social involvement modulates activity within the mirror and the mentalizing systems

Processing biological motion is fundamental for everyday life activities, such as social interaction, motor learning and nonverbal communication. The ability to detect the nature of a motor pattern has been investigated by means of point-light displays (PLD), sets of moving light points reproducing human kinematics, easily recognizable as meaningful once in motion. Although PLD are rudimentary, the human brain can decipher their content including social intentions. Neuroimaging studies suggest that inferring the social meaning conveyed by PLD could rely on both the Mirror Neuron System (MNS) and the Mentalizing System (MS), but their specific role to this endeavor remains uncertain. We describe a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment in which participants had to judge whether visually presented PLD and videoclips of human-like walkers (HL) were facing towards or away from them. Results show that coding for stimulus direction specifically engages the MNS when considering PLD moving away from the observer, while the nature of the stimulus reveals a dissociation between MNS -mainly involved in coding for PLD- and MS, recruited by HL moving away. These results suggest that the contribution of the two systems can be modulated by the nature of the observed stimulus and its potential for social involvement