SRA: Fast Removal of General Multipath for ToF Sensors

A major issue with Time of Flight sensors is the presence of multipath interference. We present Sparse Reflections Analysis (SRA), an algorithm for removing this interference which has two main advantages. First, it allows for very general forms of multipath, including interference with three or more paths, diffuse multipath resulting from Lambertian surfaces, and combinations thereof. SRA removes this general multipath with robust techniques based on $L_1$ optimization. Second, due to a novel dimension reduction, we are able to produce a very fast version of SRA, which is able to run at frame rate. Experimental results on both synthetic data with ground truth, as well as real images of challenging scenes, validate the approach

Analysis of Basis Pursuit Via Capacity Sets

Finding the sparsest solution $\alpha$ for an under-determined linear system of equations $D\alpha=s$ is of interest in many applications. This problem is known to be NP-hard. Recent work studied conditions on the support size of $\alpha$ that allow its recovery using L1-minimization, via the Basis Pursuit algorithm. These conditions are often relying on a scalar property of $D$ called the mutual-coherence. In this work we introduce an alternative set of features of an arbitrarily given $D$, called the "capacity sets". We show how those could be used to analyze the performance of the basis pursuit, leading to improved bounds and predictions of performance. Both theoretical and numerical methods are presented, all using the capacity values, and shown to lead to improved assessments of the basis pursuit success in finding the sparest solution of $D\alpha=s$

Perturbative Gauge Theory and Closed String Tachyons

We find an interesting connection between perturbative large N gauge theory and closed superstrings. The gauge theory in question is found on N D3-branes placed at the tip of the cone R^6/Gamma. In our previous work we showed that, when the orbifold group Gamma breaks all supersymmetry, then typically the gauge theory is not conformal because of double-trace couplings whose one-loop beta functions do not possess real zeros. In this paper we observe a precise correspondence between the instabilities caused by the flow of these double-trace couplings and the presence of tachyons in the twisted sectors of type IIB theory on orbifolds R^{3,1}x R^6/Gamma. For each twisted sectors that does not contain tachyons, we show that the corresponding double-trace coupling flows to a fixed point and does not cause an instability. However, whenever a twisted sector is tachyonic, we find that the corresponding one-loop beta function does not have a real zero, hence an instability is likely to exist in the gauge theory. We demonstrate explicitly the one-to-one correspondence between the regions of stability/instability in the space of charges under Gamma that arise in the perturbative gauge theory and in the free string theory. Possible implications of this remarkably simple gauge/string correspondence are discussed.Comment: 25 pages, Latex; V2: Clarifications and references adde

Macromolecular theory of solvation and structure in mixtures of colloids and polymers

The structural and thermodynamic properties of mixtures of colloidal spheres and non-adsorbing polymer chains are studied within a novel general two-component macromolecular liquid state approach applicable for all size asymmetry ratios. The dilute limits, when one of the components is at infinite dilution but the other concentrated, are presented and compared to field theory and models which replace polymer coils with spheres. Whereas the derived analytical results compare well, qualitatively and quantitatively, with mean-field scaling laws where available, important differences from ``effective sphere'' approaches are found for large polymer sizes or semi-dilute concentrations.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Rigidity and defect actions in Landau-Ginzburg models

Studying two-dimensional field theories in the presence of defect lines naturally gives rise to monoidal categories: their objects are the different (topological) defect conditions, their morphisms are junction fields, and their tensor product describes the fusion of defects. These categories should be equipped with a duality operation corresponding to reversing the orientation of the defect line, providing a rigid and pivotal structure. We make this structure explicit in topological Landau-Ginzburg models with potential x^d, where defects are described by matrix factorisations of x^d-y^d. The duality allows to compute an action of defects on bulk fields, which we compare to the corresponding N=2 conformal field theories. We find that the two actions differ by phases.Comment: 53 pages; v2: clarified exposition of pivotal structures, corrected proof of theorem 2.13, added remark 3.9; version to appear in CM

Endothelial cell-derived Pentraxin 3 limits the vasoreparative therapeutic potential of Circulating Angiogenic Cells

AIMS: Circulating angiogenic cells (CACs) promote revascularization of ischaemic tissues although their underlying mechanism of action and the consequences of delivering varying number of these cells for therapy remain unknown. This study investigates molecular mechanisms underpinning CAC modulation of blood vessel formation. METHODS AND RESULTS: CACs at low (2 × 10(5) cells/mL) and mid (2 × 10(6) cells/mL) cellular densities significantly enhanced endothelial cell tube formation in vitro, while high density (HD) CACs (2 × 10(7) cells/mL) significantly inhibited this angiogenic process. In vivo, Matrigel-based angiogenesis assays confirmed mid-density CACs as pro-angiogenic and HD CACs as anti-angiogenic. Secretome characterization of CAC-EC conditioned media identified pentraxin 3 (PTX3) as only present in the HD CAC-EC co-culture. Recombinant PTX3 inhibited endothelial tube formation in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, our data revealed that the anti-angiogenic effect observed in HD CAC-EC co-cultures was significantly abrogated when PTX3 bioactivity was blocked using neutralizing antibodies or PTX3 siRNA in endothelial cells. We show evidence for an endothelial source of PTX3, triggered by exposure to HD CACs. In addition, we confirmed that PTX3 inhibits fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 2-mediated angiogenesis, and that the PTX3 N-terminus, containing the FGF-binding site, is responsible for such anti-angiogenic effects. CONCLUSION: Endothelium, when exposed to HD CACs, releases PTX3 which markedly impairs the vascular regenerative response in an autocrine manner. Therefore, CAC density and accompanying release of angiocrine PTX3 are critical considerations when using these cells as a cell therapy for ischaemic disease

Polar phonons in some compressively stressed epitaxial and polycrystalline SrTiO3 thin films

Several SrTiO3 (STO) thin films without electrodes processed by pulsed laser deposition, of thicknesses down to 40 nm, were studied using infrared transmission and reflection spectroscopy. The complex dielectric responses of polar phonon modes, particularly ferroelectric soft mode, in the films were determined quantitatively. The compressed epitaxial STO films on (100) La0.18Sr0.82Al0.59-Ta0.41O3 substrates (strain 0.9%) show strongly stiffened phonon responses, whereas the soft mode in polycrystalline film on (0001) sapphire substrate shows a strong broadening due to grain boundaries and/or other inhomogeneities and defects. The stiffened soft mode is responsible for a much lower static permittivity in the plane of the compressed film than in the bulk samples.Comment: 11 page

Decomposition of Differences

This paper examines methods of decomposing a difference in levels between groups for a dependent variable such as income. Applied to regression equations, this technique estimates the contribution to the difference from divergent characteristics and divergent rates of converting characteristics into the dependent variable. The consequences of an "interaction" component being present in the decomposition is examined. The paper, using data from the 1960 Census, shows how ignoring the interaction term can influence results.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68707/2/10.1177_004912417500300306.pd

Perturbative Search for Fixed Lines in Large N Gauge Theories

The logarithmic running of marginal double-trace operators is a general feature of 4-d field theories containing scalar fields in the adjoint or bifundamental representation. Such operators provide leading contributions in the large N limit; therefore, the leading terms in their beta functions must vanish for a theory to be large N conformal. We calculate the one-loop beta functions in orbifolds of the N=4 SYM theory by a discrete subgroup Gamma of the SU(4) R-symmetry, which are dual to string theory on AdS_5 x S^5/Gamma. We present a general strategy for determining whether there is a fixed line passing through the origin of the coupling constant space. Then we study in detail some classes of non-supersymmetric orbifold theories, and emphasize the importance of decoupling the U(1) factors. Among our examples, which include orbifolds acting freely on the S^5, we do not find any large N non-supersymmetric theories with fixed lines passing through the origin. Connection of these results with closed string tachyon condensation in AdS_5 x S^5/Gamma is discussed.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures, latex v2: Clarifications and reference adde

Low Complexity Regularization of Linear Inverse Problems

Inverse problems and regularization theory is a central theme in contemporary signal processing, where the goal is to reconstruct an unknown signal from partial indirect, and possibly noisy, measurements of it. A now standard method for recovering the unknown signal is to solve a convex optimization problem that enforces some prior knowledge about its structure. This has proved efficient in many problems routinely encountered in imaging sciences, statistics and machine learning. This chapter delivers a review of recent advances in the field where the regularization prior promotes solutions conforming to some notion of simplicity/low-complexity. These priors encompass as popular examples sparsity and group sparsity (to capture the compressibility of natural signals and images), total variation and analysis sparsity (to promote piecewise regularity), and low-rank (as natural extension of sparsity to matrix-valued data). Our aim is to provide a unified treatment of all these regularizations under a single umbrella, namely the theory of partial smoothness. This framework is very general and accommodates all low-complexity regularizers just mentioned, as well as many others. Partial smoothness turns out to be the canonical way to encode low-dimensional models that can be linear spaces or more general smooth manifolds. This review is intended to serve as a one stop shop toward the understanding of the theoretical properties of the so-regularized solutions. It covers a large spectrum including: (i) recovery guarantees and stability to noise, both in terms of $\ell^2$-stability and model (manifold) identification; (ii) sensitivity analysis to perturbations of the parameters involved (in particular the observations), with applications to unbiased risk estimation ; (iii) convergence properties of the forward-backward proximal splitting scheme, that is particularly well suited to solve the corresponding large-scale regularized optimization problem