Automatic Synchronization of Multi-User Photo Galleries

In this paper we address the issue of photo galleries synchronization, where pictures related to the same event are collected by different users. Existing solutions to address the problem are usually based on unrealistic assumptions, like time consistency across photo galleries, and often heavily rely on heuristics, limiting therefore the applicability to real-world scenarios. We propose a solution that achieves better generalization performance for the synchronization task compared to the available literature. The method is characterized by three stages: at first, deep convolutional neural network features are used to assess the visual similarity among the photos; then, pairs of similar photos are detected across different galleries and used to construct a graph; eventually, a probabilistic graphical model is used to estimate the temporal offset of each pair of galleries, by traversing the minimum spanning tree extracted from this graph. The experimental evaluation is conducted on four publicly available datasets covering different types of events, demonstrating the strength of our proposed method. A thorough discussion of the obtained results is provided for a critical assessment of the quality in synchronization.Comment: ACCEPTED to IEEE Transactions on Multimedi

Use of the Intermittent Abdominal Pressure Ventilation to guarantee speech in a tracheostomized Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis patient

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Quantum magnetism and counterflow supersolidity of up-down bosonic dipoles

We study a gas of dipolar Bosons confined in a two-dimensional optical lattice. Dipoles are considered to point freely in both up and down directions perpendicular to the lattice plane. This results in a nearest neighbor repulsive (attractive) interaction for aligned (anti-aligned) dipoles. We find regions of parameters where the ground state of the system exhibits insulating phases with ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic ordering, as well as with rational values of the average magnetization. Evidence for the existence of a novel counterflow supersolid quantum phase is also presented.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Nail gun penetrating injury of the heart mimicking an acute coronary syndrome

We describe the case of a 75-year-old man admitted to hospital for chest pain and syncope. Physical examination was normal with evidence of a very small wound on the left chest. Considering the presence of multiple coronary risk factors, an acute coronary syndrome was initially suspected, but the electrocardiogram (EKG) was normal and only a slight increase of cardiac enzymes was detected. The hypothesis of aortic dissection was also considered and in order to discriminate between the aortic and coronary syndrome, a thoracic and coronary computed tomography (CT) scan was performed. The CT scan showed a metallic structure, suggestive of a nail, about 6 cm in length, in the deep layers of the left ventricular wall and a small pneumothorax due to a lung lesion. The patient was therefore transferred to our department for urgent cardiac surgery that was performed without complications

Ultracold Dipolar Gases in Optical Lattices

This tutorial is a theoretical work, in which we study the physics of ultra-cold dipolar bosonic gases in optical lattices. Such gases consist of bosonic atoms or molecules that interact via dipolar forces, and that are cooled below the quantum degeneracy temperature, typically in the nK range. When such a degenerate quantum gas is loaded into an optical lattice produced by standing waves of laser light, new kinds of physical phenomena occur. These systems realize then extended Hubbard-type models, and can be brought to a strongly correlated regime. The physical properties of such gases, dominated by the long-range, anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions, are discussed using the mean-field approximations, and exact Quantum Monte Carlo techniques (the Worm algorithm).Comment: 56 pages, 26 figure

Effect of Doublon-Holon Binding on Mott transition---Variational Monte Carlo Study of Two-Dimensional Bose Hubbard Models

To understand the mechanism of Mott transitions in case of no magnetic influence, superfluid-insulator (Mott) transitions in the S=0 Bose Hubbard model at unit filling are studied on the square and triangular lattices, using a variational Monte Carlo method. In trial many-body wave functions, we introduce various types of attractive correlation factors between a doubly-occupied site (doublon, D) and an empty site (holon, H), which play a central role for Mott transitions, in addition to the onsite repulsive (Gutzwiller) factor. By optimizing distance-dependent parameters, we study various properties of this type of wave functions. With a hint from the Mott transition arising in a completely D-H bound state, we propose an improved picture of Mott transitions, by introducing two characteristic length scales, the D-H binding length $\xi_{\rm dh}$ and the minimum D-D exclusion length $\xi_{\rm dd}$. Generally, a Mott transition occurs when $\xi_{\rm dh}$ becomes comparable to $\xi_{\rm dd}$. In the conductive (superfluid) state, domains of D-H pairs overlap with each other ($\xi_{\rm dh}>\xi_{\rm dd}$); thereby D and H can propagate independently as density carriers by successively exchanging the partners. In contrast, intersite repulsive Jastrow (D-D and H-H) factors have little importance for the Mott transition.Comment: 16 pages, 22 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Generating socially appropriate tutorial dialog

Analysis of student-tutor coaching dialogs suggest that good human tutors attend to and attempt to influence the motivational state of learners. Moreover, they are sensitive to the social face of the learner, and seek to mitigate the potential face threat of their comments. This paper describes a dialog generator for pedagogical agents that takes motivation and face threat factors into account. This enables the agent to interact with learners in a socially appropriate fashion, and foster intrinsic motivation on the part of the learner, which in turn may lead to more positive learner affective states

Borderline personality traits, rumination and self-injurious behavior: An empirical test of the emotional cascades model in adult male offenders

The aim of the study was to examine whether the emotional cascade model, which suggests that the relationship between emotional and behavioural dysregulation in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is mediated by rumination, applies to a sample of adult male offenders. The study focused on individuals with “BPD traits” and two dysregulated behaviors that are particularly relevant to the prison population: non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidality. Participants were 179 adult male offenders detained in a medium-secure prison, all of whom completed a battery of measures and self-reported their actual prison behaviour. The results support the application of the emotional cascade model to adult male offenders, suggesting that emotional cascades may play an important role in NSSI and suicidality in this population, although this relationship needs further exploration. These findings highlight the benefits of targeting rumination to manage risk of NSSI and suicidality within custodial settings

Dynamical mean-field theory for bosons

We discuss the recently developed bosonic dynamical mean-field (B-DMFT) framework, which maps a bosonic lattice model onto the selfconsistent solution of a bosonic impurity model with coupling to a reservoir of normal and condensed bosons. The effective impurity action is derived in several ways: (i) as an approximation to the kinetic energy functional of the lattice problem, (ii) using a cavity approach, and (iii) by using an effective medium approach based on adding a one-loop correction to the selfconsistently defined condensate. To solve the impurity problem, we use a continuous-time Monte Carlo algorithm based on a sampling of a perturbation expansion in the hybridization functions and the condensate wave function. As applications of the formalism we present finite temperature B-DMFT phase diagrams for the bosonic Hubbard model on a 3d cubic and 2d square lattice, the condensate order parameter as a function of chemical potential, critical exponents for the condensate, the approach to the weakly interacting Bose gas regime for weak repulsions, and the kinetic energy as a function of temperature.Comment: 26 pages, 19 figure