Recover Subjective Quality Scores from Noisy Measurements

Simple quality metrics such as PSNR are known to not correlate well with subjective quality when tested across a wide spectrum of video content or quality regime. Recently, efforts have been made in designing objective quality metrics trained on subjective data (e.g. VMAF), demonstrating better correlation with video quality perceived by human. Clearly, the accuracy of such a metric heavily depends on the quality of the subjective data that it is trained on. In this paper, we propose a new approach to recover subjective quality scores from noisy raw measurements, using maximum likelihood estimation, by jointly estimating the subjective quality of impaired videos, the bias and consistency of test subjects, and the ambiguity of video contents all together. We also derive closed-from expression for the confidence interval of each estimate. Compared to previous methods which partially exploit the subjective information, our approach is able to exploit the information in full, yielding tighter confidence interval and better handling of outliers without the need for z-scoring or subject rejection. It also handles missing data more gracefully. Finally, as side information, it provides interesting insights on the test subjects and video contents.Comment: 16 pages; abridged version appeared in Data Compression Conference (DCC) 201

Hindered magnetic dipole transitions between P-wave bottomonia and coupled-channel effects

In the hindered magnetic dipole transitions of heavy quarkonia, the coupled-channel effects originating from the coupling of quarkonia to a pair of heavy and anti-heavy mesons can play a dominant role. Here, we study the hindered magnetic dipole transitions between two $P$-wave bottomonia, $\chi_b(n P)$ and $h_b(n^\prime P)$, with $n\neq n^\prime$. In these processes the coupled-channel effects are expected to lead to partial widths much larger than the quark model predictions. We estimate these partial widths which, however, are very sensitive to unknown coupling constants related to the vertices $\chi_{b0}(nP)B\bar B$. A measurement of the hindered M1 transitions can shed light on the coupled-channel dynamics in these transitions and hence on the size of the coupling constants. We also suggest to check the coupled-channel effects by comparing results from quenched and fully dynamical lattice QCD calculations.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, version accepted for publication in Physics Letters

Lorentz violation dispersion relation and its application

We derive a modified dispersion relation (MDR) in the Lorentz violation extension of quantum electrodynamics (QED) sector in the standard model extension (SME) framework. Based on the extended Dirac equation and corresponding MDR, we observe the resemblance of the Lorentz violation coupling with spin-gravity coupling. We also develop a neutrino oscillation mechanism induced by the presence of nondiagonal terms of Lorentz violation couplings in 2-flavor space in a 2-spinor formalism by explicitly assuming neutrinos to be Marjorana fermions. We also obtain a much stringent bound ($\backsim10^{-25}$) on one of the Lorentz violation parameters by applying MDR to the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray (UHECR) problem.Comment: 22 Latex pages, final version in publicatio

Analysis of the vertex D∗D∗ρD^*D^* \rho with the light-cone QCD sum rules

In this article, we analyze the vertex $D^*D^*\rho$ with the light-cone QCD sum rules. The strong coupling constant $g_{D^*D^*\rho}$ is an important parameter in evaluating the charmonium absorption cross sections in searching for the quark-gluon plasmas. Our numerical value for the $g_{D^*D^*\rho}$ is consistent with the prediction of the effective SU(4) symmetry and vector meson dominance theory.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, revised versio

Stability of parallel/perpendicular domain boundaries in lamellar block copolymers under oscillatory shear

We introduce a model constitutive law for the dissipative stress tensor of lamellar phases to account for low frequency and long wavelength flows. Given the uniaxial symmetry of these phases, we argue that the stress tensor must be the same as that of a nematic but with the local order parameter being the slowly varying lamellar wavevector. This assumption leads to a dependence of the effective dynamic viscosity on orientation of the lamellar phase. We then consider a model configuration comprising a domain boundary separating laterally unbounded domains of so called parallel and perpendicularly oriented lamellae in a uniform, oscillatory, shear flow, and show that the configuration can be hydrodynamically unstable for the constitutive law chosen. It is argued that this instability and the secondary flows it creates can be used to infer a possible mechanism for orientation selection in shear experiments.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure