A Revision Control System for Image Editing in Collaborative Multimedia Design

Revision control is a vital component in the collaborative development of artifacts such as software code and multimedia. While revision control has been widely deployed for text files, very few attempts to control the versioning of binary files can be found in the literature. This can be inconvenient for graphics applications that use a significant amount of binary data, such as images, videos, meshes, and animations. Existing strategies such as storing whole files for individual revisions or simple binary deltas, respectively consume significant storage and obscure semantic information. To overcome these limitations, in this paper we present a revision control system for digital images that stores revisions in form of graphs. Besides, being integrated with Git, our revision control system also facilitates artistic creation processes in common image editing and digital painting workflows. A preliminary user study demonstrates the usability of the proposed system.Comment: pp. 512-517 (6 pages

Fine Art Pattern Extraction and Recognition

This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Journal of Imaging (ISSN 2313-433X) (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jimaging/special issues/faper2020)

RECODE: Revision Control for Digital Images

Revision control is a vital component in the collaborative development of artifacts such as software code and multimedia. While revision control has been widely deployed for text files, very few attempts to control the versioning of binary files can be found in the literature. This can be inconvenient for multimedia applications that use a significant amount of binary data, such as images, videos, meshes, and animations. Existing strategies such as storing whole files for individual revisions or simple binary deltas, respectively consume significant storage and complex semantic information. To overcome these limitations, in this paper we present RECODE, a revision control system for digital images. It stores revisions in the form of a DAG (directed acyclic graph) where nodes represent editing operations, and edges describe the spatial and temporal relationships between operations. Being integrated with GitHub, the largest project hosting platform, RECODE also facilitates the artistic creation process of distributed teams with different workflows that include image editing and digital painting. A preliminary user study was performed to assess the perceived usability of the proposed system

Editorial for Special Issue "Fine Art Pattern Extraction and Recognition"

Cultural heritage, especially the fine arts, plays an invaluable role in the cultural, historical, and economic growth of our societies. Works of fine arts are primarily developed for aesthetic purposes and are mainly expressed through painting, sculpture, and architecture. In recent years, owing to technological improvements and drastic cost reductions, a large-scale digitization effort has been made, which has led to the increasing availability of large, digitized fine art collections. Coupled with recent advances in pattern recognition and computer vision, this availability has provided, especially researchers in these fields, with new opportunities to assist the art community by using automatic tools to further analyze and understand works of fine arts. Among other benefits, a deeper understanding of the fine arts has the potential to make works more accessible to a wider population, both in terms of fruition and creation, thus supporting the spread of culture

ED-XRF analysis of the mediaeval copper-based door in Monte Sant'Angelo (Southern Italy)

AbstractThis work regards the analysis of a copper-based door (dated 1076 AD) located at the entrance to the sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo (Southern Italy) by using a non-destructive technique and in situ chemical analysis. The door does not show serious corrosive phenomena and presents several types of decorative elements such as two inlays (of silver and copper colour) and three engravings (of red, black and green colour). A portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometer was used in order to evaluate the chemical composition of the door and of the decorations that adorn the artefact. No sampling or sample preparation was required before the measurements. Preliminary analysis on the materials that make up the door revealed that the panels and the frame of the two sashes are made of the same alloy, while the nails and the handles have a different composition. Graphical abstrac

Return current in hysteretic Josephson junctions: Experimental distribution in the thermal activation regime

We present an experimental study on the retrapping process of a hysteretic, high-quality Josephson junction; namely, we have measured the distribution of the values at which the junction switches back from the voltage state to the zero-voltage state, as a function of the applied magnetic field. While the opposite process (escape from the zero-voltage state) has been extensively studied in the past, both from the theoretical and the experimental point of view, little is found in the literature on the retrapping process. In terms of the tilted washboard potential, the process corresponds to the retrapping from the running state to a locked state in a potential well. The interest of the measurements is in the fact that the value of the return current can be directly related to the dissipation in the junction. While the deterministic behavior, experimentally measured through the I–V curve, appears to be in agreement with the theoretical predictions, even in minor details, the statistical behavior is strongly different from what is expected. The disagreement is found even in zero-applied magnetic field and it cannot be attributed to external noise in the system. From the experimental statistical properties, we find values for the effective dissipation much lower than those obtained from the deterministic curves, a result which could be of interest in experiments on the observation of macroscopic quantum phenomena

Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Children.

Since its appearance in Wuhan in mid-December 2019, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) related 19 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread dramatically worldwide. It soon became apparent that the incidence of pediatric COVID-19 was much lower than the adult form. Morbidity in children is characterized by a variable clinical presentation and course. Symptoms are similar to those of other acute respiratory viral infections, the upper airways being more affected than the lower airways. Thus far, over 90% of children who tested positive for the virus presented mild or moderate symptoms and signs. Most children were asymptomatic, and only a few cases were severe, unlike in the adult population. Deaths have been rare and occurred mainly in children with underlying morbidity. Factors as reduced angiotensin-converting enzyme receptor expression, increased activation of the interferon-related innate immune response, and trained immunity have been implicated in the relative resistance to COVID-19 in children, however the underlying pathogenesis and mechanism of action remain to be established. While at the pandemic outbreak, mild respiratory manifestations were the most frequently described symptoms in children, subsequent reports suggested that the clinical course of COVID-19 is more complex than initially thought. Thanks to the experience acquired in adults, the diagnosis of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infection has improved with time. Data on the treatment of children are sparse, however, several antiviral trials are ongoing. The purpose of this narrative review is to summarize current understanding of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infection and provide more accurate information for healthcare workers and improve the care of patients

Superconducting tunable flux qubit with direct readout scheme

We describe a simple and efficient scheme for the readout of a tunable flux qubit, and present preliminary experimental tests for the preparation, manipulation and final readout of the qubit state, performed in incoherent regime at liquid Helium temperature. The tunable flux qubit is realized by a double SQUID with an extra Josephson junction inserted in the large superconducting loop, and the readout is performed by applying a current ramp to the junction and recording the value for which there is a voltage response, depending on the qubit state. This preliminary work indicates the feasibility and efficiency of the scheme.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

From the Concept of Being “the Boss” to the Idea of Being “a Team”: The Adaptive Co-Pilot as the Enabler for a New Cooperative Framework

The “classical” SAE LoA for automated driving can present several drawbacks, and the SAE-L2 and SAE-L3, in particular, can lead to the so-called “irony of automation”, where the driver is substituted by the artificial system, but is still regarded as a “supervisor” or as a “fallback mechanism”. To overcome this problem, while taking advantage of the latest technology, we regard both human and machine as members of a unique team that share the driving task. Depending on the available resources (in terms of driver’s status, system state, and environment conditions) and considering that they are very dynamic, an adaptive assignment of authority for each member of the team is needed. This is achieved by designing a technology enabler, constituted by the intelligent and adaptive co-pilot. It comprises (1) a lateral shared controller based on NMPC, which applies the authority, (2) an arbitration module based on FIS, which calculates the authority, and (3) a visual HMI, as an enabler of trust in automation decisions and actions. The benefits of such a system are shown in this paper through a comparison of the shared control driving mode, with manual driving (as a baseline) and lane-keeping and lane-centering (as two commercial ADAS). Tests are performed in a use case where support for a distracted driver is given. Quantitative and qualitative results confirm the hypothesis that shared control offers the best balance between performance, safety, and comfort during the driving task.This research was supported by the ECSEL Joint-Undertaking,which funded the PRYSTINE project under the Grant 783190

Measurement of the Intrinsic Dissipation of a Macroscopic System in the Quantum Regime

We report on the first measurements of the intrinsic dissipation in a macroscopic system cooled at very low temperature (35 mK) and operating in the quantum regime. The system under study is an rf SQUID with a high quality Josephson junction. Below 50 mK the tunneling probability of escape from a metastable well vs applied flux presents a series of maxima due to energy level quantization. From the shape of the tunneling probability we can evaluate the intrinsic dissipation related to the overall system as well as the coherence time related to the Rabi oscillations in a future macroscopic quantum coherence experiment