1,732 research outputs found

    Et Facta Est Lux: Experiencing Luminosity in Art and in the Real World

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    The experience of light determined some of the most intriguing cultural universals, yet it is an underrepresented problem in vision sciences. In their attempt to represent cultural universals, artists adopted empirical solutions to the representation of light sources. We believe that such graphic solutions are showcases of visual indexes related to the phenomenology of light, and therefore they already constitute a level of explanation for luminosity perception. This claim is supported by psychophysical experiments on the ‘glare effect’, an illusion that generates a vivid impression of self-luminosity only by means of quasi-linear luminance ramps. Recent studies show that a similar illusion can be obtained in absence of physically continuous luminance ramps. Results from several experiments suggest that: 1) the key features for luminosity perception lie within the photo-geometric structure of the proximal stimulus; 2) the processes involved in luminosity perception are intrinsically different from those involved in surface color perception

    Minimal flavor violation in the see-saw portal

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    We consider an extension of the Standard Model with two singlet leptons, with masses in the electroweak range, that induce neutrino masses via the see-saw mechanism, plus a generic new physics sector at a higher scale, Λ\Lambda. We apply the minimal flavor violation (MFV) principle to the corresponding Effective Field Theory (ν\nuSMEFT) valid at energy scales EΛE \ll \Lambda. We identify the irreducible sources of lepton flavor and lepton number violation at the renormalizable level, and apply the MFV ans\"atz to derive the scaling of the Wilson coefficients of the ν\nuSMEFT operators up to dimension six. We highlight the most important phenomenological consequences of this hypothesis in the rates for exotic Higgs decays, the decay length of the heavy neutrinos, and their production modes at present and future colliders. We also comment on possible astrophysical implications.Comment: 28 pages, 3 Figures. References added, typos corrected. Added clarification on the contraction of the flavor indices. Matches the published versio

    Interaction and coherence of a plasmon-exciton polariton condensate

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    Polaritons are quasiparticles arising from the strong coupling of electromagnetic waves in cavities and dipolar oscillations in a material medium. In this framework, localized surface plasmon in metallic nanoparticles defining optical nanocavities have attracted increasing interests in the last decade. This interest results from their sub-diffraction mode volume, which offers access to extremely high photonic densities by exploiting strong scattering cross-sections. However, high absorption losses in metals have hindered the observation of collective coherent phenomena, such as condensation. In this work we demonstrate the formation of a non-equilibrium room temperature plasmon-exciton-polariton condensate with a long range spatial coherence, extending a hundred of microns, well over the excitation area, by coupling Frenkel excitons in organic molecules to a multipolar mode in a lattice of plasmonic nanoparticles. Time-resolved experiments evidence the picosecond dynamics of the condensate and a sizeable blueshift, thus measuring for the first time the effect of polariton interactions in plasmonic cavities. Our results pave the way to the observation of room temperature superfluidity and novel nonlinear phenomena in plasmonic systems, challenging the common belief that absorption losses in metals prevent the realization of macroscopic quantum states.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, SI 7 pages, 5 figure

    Automatic Passenger Counting on the Edge via Unsupervised Clustering

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    We present a device- and network-based solution for automatic passnger counting that operates on the edge in real time. The proposed solution consists of a low-cost WiFi scanner device equipped with custom algorithms for dealing with MAC address randomization. Our low-cost scanner is able to capture and analyze 802.11 probe requests emitted by passengers' devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets. The device is configured with a Python data-processing pipeline that combines data coming from different types of sensors and processes them on the fly. For the analysis task, we have devised a lightweight version of the DBSCAN algorithm. Our software artifact is designed in a modular way in order to accommodate possible extensions of the pipeline, e.g., either additional filters or data sources. Furthermore, we exploit multi-threading and multi-processing for speeding up the entire computation. The proposed solution has been tested with different types of mobile devices, obtaining promising experimental results. In this paper, we present the key ingredients of our edge computing solution

    The see-saw portal at future Higgs Factories

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    We consider an extension of the Standard Model with two right-handed singlet fermions with mass at the electroweak scale that induce neutrino masses, plus a generic new physics sector at a higher scale Λ\Lambda. We focus on the effective operators of lowest dimension d=5d=5, which induce new production and decay modes for the singlet fermions. We assess the sensitivity of future Higgs Factories, such as FCC-ee, CLIC-380, ILC and CEPC, to the coefficients of these operators for various center of mass energies. We show that future lepton colliders can test the cut-off of the theory up to Λ5001000  \Lambda \simeq 500 - 1000\;TeV, surpassing the reach of future indirect measurements of the Higgs and ZZ boson widths. We also comment on the possibility of determining the underlying model flavor structure should a New Physics signal be observed, and on the impact of higher dimensional d=6d=6 operators on the experimental signatures.Comment: 31 pages, 13 figures, matches published versio

    Simboli e significati nella cultura locale di una periferia urbana: uno studio di caso

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    Una ricerca psicologico-clinica esplora la Cultura Locale (i significati emozionali condivisi da chi partecipa a un contesto, atti a mantenere stabilità e coesione, a regolare e l’emozionalità dei processi di convivenza) di un quartiere della periferia romana nel momento della pianificazione di servizi per la comunità. La ricerca è fondata sulla analisi del testo computer assistita (Analisi Emozionale del Testo) di interviste somministrate a 8 figure chiave, e sulla analisi delle corrispondenze multiple di 314 questionari sulla percezione soggettiva della qualità di vita e sulla anticipazione dei rapporti sociali, somministrati a cittadini del quartiere. I risultati della analisi di interviste e questionari hanno messo in luce la qualità di vita come soggettivamente percepita dagli abitanti e le caratteristiche della cultura locale del territorio oggetto dello studio. Vengono fornite indicazioni pragmatiche sulla attivazione di servizi coerenti con la cultura locale del territorio esaminato. Viene messo in evidenza il possibile contributo della psicologia clinica alle discipline geografiche, urbanistiche, ambientali.This clinical-psychological research explores the Local Culture (emotional meanings shared by people in a given context aimed at maintaining stability and unity as well as regulating emotions affecting cohabitation) of a suburban neighborhood in Rome in the phase of community service planning. The inquiry is based on a computer-assisted text analysis (Emotional Text Analysis) of interviews of 8 key figures, and on the multiple correspondence analysis of questionnaires on the subjective perception of the quality of life and on the expectation of social relationships. The questionnaires have been administered to 314 inhabitants. The results of the analysis of interviews and questionnaires highlighted the quality of life in terms of subjective perception and the specific features of the local culture of the territory considered for this study. Practical solutions are indicated based on the Local Culture of the neighborhood in question. The possible contribution of clinical psychology to geographic, urban, and environmental disciplines is also highlighted. © 2019 The Author(s

    Making sense of the “clean label” trends: a review of consumer food choice behavior and discussion of industry implications

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    Consumers in industrialized countries are nowadays much more interested in information about the production methods and components of the food products that they eat, than they had been 50 years ago. Some production methods are perceived as less “natural” (i.e. conventional agriculture) while some food components are seen as “unhealthy” and “unfamiliar” (i.e. artificial additives). This phenomenon, often referred to as the “clean label” trend, has driven the food industry to communicate whether a certain ingredient or additive is not present or if the food has been produced using a more “natural” production method (i.e. organic agriculture). However, so far there is no common and objective definition of clean label. This review paper aims to fill the gap via three main objectives, which are to a) develop and suggest a definition that integrates various understandings of clean label into one single definition, b) identify the factors that drive consumers' choices through a review of recent studies on consumer perception of various food categories understood as clean label with the focus on organic, natural and ‘free from’ artificial additives/ingredients food products and c) discuss implications of the consumer demand for clean label food products for food manufacturers as well as policy makers. We suggest to define clean label, both in a broad sense, where consumers evaluate the cleanliness of product by assumption and through inference looking at the front-of-pack label and in a strict sense, where consumers evaluate the cleanliness of product by inspection and through inference looking at the back-of-pack label. Results show that while ‘health’ is a major consumer motive, a broad diversity of drivers influence the clean label trend with particular relevance of intrinsic or extrinsic product characteristics and socio-cultural factors. However, ‘free from’ artificial additives/ingredients food products tend to differ from organic and natural products. Food manufacturers should take the diversity of these drivers into account in developing new products and communication about the latter. For policy makers, it is important to work towards a more homogenous understanding and application of the term of clean label and identify a uniform definition or regulation for ‘free from’ artificial additives/ingredients food products, as well as work towards decreasing consumer misconceptions. Finally, multiple future research avenues are discussed
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