2,221 research outputs found
Non-Local Order Parameters as a Probe for Phase Transitions in the Extended Fermi-Hubbard Model
The Extended Fermi-Hubbard model is a rather studied Hamiltonian due to both
its many applications and a rich phase diagram. Here we prove that all the
phase transitions encoded in its one dimensional version are detectable via
non-local operators related to charge and spin fluctuations. The main advantage
in using them is that, in contrast to usual local operators, their asymptotic
average value is finite only in the appropriate gapped phases. This makes them
powerful and accurate probes to detect quantum phase transitions. Our results
indeed confirm that they are able to properly capture both the nature and the
location of the transitions. Relevantly, this happens also for conducting
phases with a spin gap, thus providing an order parameter for the
identification of superconducting and paired superfluid phasesComment: 7 pages, 3 figures; Submitted to EPJ Special Topics, Quantum Gases
and Quantum Coherenc
Translating Video Recordings of Mobile App Usages into Replayable Scenarios
Screen recordings of mobile applications are easy to obtain and capture a
wealth of information pertinent to software developers (e.g., bugs or feature
requests), making them a popular mechanism for crowdsourced app feedback. Thus,
these videos are becoming a common artifact that developers must manage. In
light of unique mobile development constraints, including swift release cycles
and rapidly evolving platforms, automated techniques for analyzing all types of
rich software artifacts provide benefit to mobile developers. Unfortunately,
automatically analyzing screen recordings presents serious challenges, due to
their graphical nature, compared to other types of (textual) artifacts. To
address these challenges, this paper introduces V2S, a lightweight, automated
approach for translating video recordings of Android app usages into replayable
scenarios. V2S is based primarily on computer vision techniques and adapts
recent solutions for object detection and image classification to detect and
classify user actions captured in a video, and convert these into a replayable
test scenario. We performed an extensive evaluation of V2S involving 175 videos
depicting 3,534 GUI-based actions collected from users exercising features and
reproducing bugs from over 80 popular Android apps. Our results illustrate that
V2S can accurately replay scenarios from screen recordings, and is capable of
reproducing 89% of our collected videos with minimal overhead. A case
study with three industrial partners illustrates the potential usefulness of
V2S from the viewpoint of developers.Comment: In proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Software
Engineering (ICSE'20), 13 page
Pulse-shape discrimination with PbWO crystal scintillators
The light output, ratio, and pulse shape have been
investigated at C with PbWO crystal scintillators undoped, and
doped by F, Eu, Mo, Gd and S. The fast s and middle s components of scintillation decay were observed for all the samples. Slow
components of scintillation signal with the decay times s and s with the total intensity up to have been recognized for
several samples doped by Molybdenum. We found some indications of a pulse-shape
discrimination between particles and quanta with PbWO (Mo
doped) crystal scintillators.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, submitted to NIM
Response of CdWO4 crystal scintillator for few MeV ions and low energy electrons
The response of a CdWO4 crystal scintillator to protons, alpha particles, Li,
C, O and Ti ions with energies in the range 1 - 10 MeV was measured. The
non-proportionality of CdWO4 for low energy electrons (4 - 110 keV) was studied
with the Compton Coincidence Technique. The energy dependence of the quenching
factors for ions and the relative light yield for low energy electrons was
calculated using a semi-empirical approach. Pulse-shape discrimination ability
between gamma quanta, protons, alpha particles and ions was investigated.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figs, accepted in Nucl. Instrum. Meth.
Lipid-coated zinc oxide nanocrystals as innovative ROS-generators for photodynamic therapy
Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) is a medical treatment that combines the administration of a nontoxic drug, called photosensitizer (PS), with light irradiation of the targeted region. It has been proposed as a new cancer therapy, promising better selectivity and fewer side-effects compared to traditional chemo- and radio-therapies. PSs indeed can accumulate specifically within the region of interest so that when the light is directly focused only in that region the therapeutic effect is highly localized.
Traditional PSs, like chlorins and porphyrins, suffer from several drawbacks such as aggregation in biological media and poor biocompatibility. Thus, the development of innovative photosensitizers able to overcome these issues is crucial to the therapeutic action of PDT. Among the others, nanostructured Zinc Oxide (ZnO) has been recently proposed as new therapeutic agent and PS thanks to its semiconducting properties, biocompatible features, and ease of functionalization [1]. Nevertheless, further efforts are needed in order to improve its colloidal stability in biological media and to unravel the effective therapeutic mechanism.
Here, we propose the synthesis and characterization of lipid-coated ZnO nanoparticles as new photosensitizer for cancer PDT [2]. First, by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) experiments, we show that the lipid-coating increases the colloidal stability of the ZnO NPs in Phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Then, using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) coupled with the spin-trapping technique, we demonstrate and characterize the ability of bare and lipid-coated ZnO NPs to generate Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) in water only when remotely actuated via light irradiation. Interestingly, our results aware that the surface chemistry of the NPs greatly influence the type of photo-generated ROS. Finally, we show that our NPs are effectively internalized inside human epithelial carcinoma cells (HeLa) via a lysosomal pathway and that they are able to generate ROS inside cancer cells.
[1] B. Dumontel, M. Canta, H. Engelke, A. Chiodoni, L. Racca, A. Ancona, T. Limongi, G. Canavese and V. Cauda, J. Mater. Chem. B. under revision.
[2] A. Ancona, H. Engelke, N. Garino, B. Dumontel, W.Fazzini and V. Cauda, to be submitted.
The support from ERC Starting Grant – Project N. 678151 “Trojananohorse” is gratefully acknowledged
Endovascular stenting of the ascending aorta for type A aortic dissections in patients at high risk for open surgery
Background: Open repair is the gold standard for type A aortic dissection (TAAD). Endovascular option has been proposed in very limited and selected TAAD patients. We report our experience with endovascular TAAD repair. Methods: Inclusion criteria were: (1) entry tear in the ascending aorta; (2) proximal landing zone of at least 2 cm; (3) distance between entry tear and brachio-cephalic trunk of at least 0.5 cm; (4) no signs of cardiac tamponade or severe aortic regurgitation and (5) no signs of aortic branches ischaemia. Patients with cardiac revascularisation from ascending aorta were excluded. Results: From April 2009 to June 2012, 37 patients with TAAD were admitted to our hospital. As many as 28 underwent surgical repair and 9 were considered at high surgical risk in a multidisciplinary meeting. Four met our inclusion criteria for an endovascular approach. Two of them had previous ascending aortic repair for TAAD and one had aortic valve replacement. Technical success was achieved in 100% of the patients. No mortality was registered during a median follow-up of 15 months (range 4-39 months), no migration of the graft and complete false lumen thrombosis of the ascending aorta in three patients. Conclusion: Endovascular treatment of TAAD is challenging but feasible in a selected subset of patients. Further research remains mandatory. © 2013 European Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
In-situ Analysis of Laminated Composite Materials by X-ray Micro-Computed Tomography and Digital Volume Correlation
The complex mechanical behaviour of composite materials, due to internal heterogeneity and multi-layered composition impose deeper studies. This paper presents an experimental investigation technique to perform volume kinematic measurements in composite materials. The association of X-ray micro-computed tomography acquisitions and Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) technique allows the measurement of displacements and deformations in the whole volume of composite specimen. To elaborate the latter, composite fibres and epoxy resin are associated with metallic particles to create contrast during X-ray acquisition.
A specific in situ loading device is presented for three-point bending tests, which enables the visualization of transverse shear effects in composite structures
Detecting myocardial salvage after primary PTCA: early myocardial contrast echocardiography versus delayed Sestamibi perfusion imaging.
Acoustic Emission from crumpling paper
From magnetic systems to the crust of the earth, many physical systems that
exibit a multiplicty of metastable states emit pulses with a broad power law
distribution in energy. Digital audio recordings reveal that paper being
crumpled, a system that can be easily held in hand, is such a system. Crumpling
paper both using the traditional hand method and a novel cylindrical geometry
uncovered a power law distribution of pulse energies spanning at least two
decades: (exponent 1.3 - 1.6) Crumpling initally flat sheets into a compact
ball (strong crumpling), we found little or no evidence that the energy
distribution varied systematically over time or the size of the sheet. When we
applied repetitive small deformations (weak crumpling) to sheets which had been
previously folded along a regular grid, we found no systematic dependence on
the grid spacing. Our results suggest that the pulse energy depends only weakly
on the size of the paper regions responsible for sound production.Comment: 12 pages of text, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. E, additional
information availible at http://www.msc.cornell.edu/~houle/crumpling
Failure Processes in Elastic Fiber Bundles
The fiber bundle model describes a collection of elastic fibers under load.
the fibers fail successively and for each failure, the load distribution among
the surviving fibers change. Even though very simple, the model captures the
essentials of failure processes in a large number of materials and settings. We
present here a review of fiber bundle model with different load redistribution
mechanism from the point of view of statistics and statistical physics rather
than materials science, with a focus on concepts such as criticality,
universality and fluctuations. We discuss the fiber bundle model as a tool for
understanding phenomena such as creep, and fatigue, how it is used to describe
the behavior of fiber reinforced composites as well as modelling e.g. network
failure, traffic jams and earthquake dynamics.Comment: This article has been Editorially approved for publication in Reviews
of Modern Physic
- …