2,453 research outputs found
Contextual cropping and scaling of TV productions
This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11042-011-0804-3. Copyright @ Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011.In this paper, an application is presented which automatically adapts SDTV (Standard Definition Television) sports productions to smaller displays through intelligent cropping and scaling. It crops regions of interest of sports productions based on a smart combination of production metadata and systematic video analysis methods. This approach allows a context-based composition of cropped images. It provides a differentiation between the original SD version of the production and the processed one adapted to the requirements for mobile TV. The system has been comprehensively evaluated by comparing the outcome of the proposed method with manually and statically cropped versions, as well as with non-cropped versions. Envisaged is the integration of the tool in post-production and live workflows
Robust Upward Dispersion of the Neutron Spin Resonance in the Heavy Fermion Superconductor CeYbCoIn
The neutron spin resonance is a collective magnetic excitation that appears
in copper oxide, iron pnictide, and heavy fermion unconventional
superconductors. Although the resonance is commonly associated with a
spin-exciton due to the ()-wave symmetry of the superconducting
order parameter, it has also been proposed to be a magnon-like excitation
appearing in the superconducting state. Here we use inelastic neutron
scattering to demonstrate that the resonance in the heavy fermion
superconductor CeYbCoIn with has a ring-like
upward dispersion that is robust against Yb-doping. By comparing our
experimental data with random phase approximation calculation using the
electronic structure and the momentum dependence of the -wave
superconducting gap determined from scanning tunneling microscopy for
CeCoIn, we conclude the robust upward dispersing resonance mode in
CeYbCoIn is inconsistent with the downward dispersion
predicted within the spin-exciton scenario.Comment: Supplementary Information available upon reques
Early Lymphocyte Recovery Post Unrelated Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (UHSCT) Is Associated With Better Survival and Less Acute Graft Versus Host Disease (aGVHD)
Stem Cell Mobilization Failures Salvaged with Plerixafor: Long Term Follow Up of Engraftment and Outcomes
Wigs, disguises and child's play : solidarity in teacher education
It is generally acknowledged that much contemporary education takes place within a dominant audit culture, in which accountability becomes a powerful driver of educational practices. In this culture both pupils and teachers risk being configured as a means to an assessment and target-driven end: pupils are schooled within a particular paradigm of education. The article discusses some ethical issues raised by such schooling, particularly the tensions arising for teachers, and by implication, teacher educators who prepare and support teachers for work in situations where vocational aims and beliefs may be in in conflict with instrumentalist aims. The article offers De Certeau’s concept of ‘la perruque’ to suggest an opening to playful engagement for human ends in education, as a way of contending with and managing the tensions generated. I use the concept to recover a concept of solidarity for teacher educators and teachers to enable ethical teaching in difficult times
Segue Between Favorable and Unfavorable Solvation
Solvation of small and large clusters are studied by simulation, considering
a range of solvent-solute attractive energy strengths. Over a wide range of
conditions, both for solvation in the Lennard-Jones liquid and in the SPC model
of water, it is shown that the mean solvent density varies linearly with
changes in solvent-solute adhesion or attractive energy strength. This behavior
is understood from the perspective of Weeks' theory of solvation [Ann. Rev.
Phys. Chem. 2002, 53, 533] and supports theories based upon that perspective.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Thermodynamics, Structure, and Dynamics of Water Confined between Hydrophobic Plates
We perform molecular dynamics simulations of 512 water-like molecules that
interact via the TIP5P potential and are confined between two smooth
hydrophobic plates that are separated by 1.10 nm. We find that the anomalous
thermodynamic properties of water are shifted to lower temperatures relative to
the bulk by K. The dynamics and structure of the confined water
resemble bulk water at higher temperatures, consistent with the shift of
thermodynamic anomalies to lower temperature. Due to this shift, our
confined water simulations (down to K) do not reach sufficiently low
temperature to observe a liquid-liquid phase transition found for bulk water at
K using the TIP5P potential. We find that the different
crystalline structures that can form for two different separations of the
plates, 0.7 nm and 1.10 nm, have no counterparts in the bulk system, and
discuss the relevance to experiments on confined water.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figure
The impact of sound field systems on learning and attention in elementary school classrooms
Purpose: An evaluation of the installation and use of sound field systems (SFS) was carried out to investigate their impact on teaching and learning in elementary school classrooms. Methods: The evaluation included acoustic surveys of classrooms, questionnaire surveys of students and teachers and experimental testing of students with and without the use of SFS. Students ’ perceptions of classroom environments and objective data evaluating change in performance on cognitive and academic assessments with amplification over a six month period are reported. Results: Teachers were positive about the use of SFS in improving children’s listening and attention to verbal instructions. Over time students in amplified classrooms did not differ from those in nonamplified classrooms in their reports of listening conditions, nor did their performance differ in measures of numeracy, reading or spelling. Use of SFS in the classrooms resulted in significantly larger gains in performance in the number of correct items on the nonverbal measure of speed of processing and the measure of listening comprehension. Analysis controlling for classroom acoustics indicated that students ’ listening comprehension score
Light absorption by polar and non-polar aerosol compounds from laboratory biomass combustion
Fresh and atmospherically aged biomass-burning (BB) aerosol mass is mostly comprised of strongly light-absorbing black carbon (BC) and of organic carbon (OC) with its light-absorbing fraction – brown carbon (BrC). There is a lack of data on the physical and chemical properties of atmospheric BB aerosols, leading to high uncertainties in estimates of the BB impact on air quality and climate, especially for BrC. The polarity of chemical compounds influences their fate in the atmosphere including wet/dry deposition and chemical and physical processing. So far, most of the attention has been given to the water-soluble (polar) fraction of BrC, while the non-polar BrC fraction has been largely ignored. In the present study, the light absorption properties of polar and non-polar fractions of fresh and aged BB emissions were examined to estimate the contribution of different-polarity organic compounds to the light absorption properties of BB aerosols.
In our experiments, four globally and regionally important fuels were burned under flaming and smoldering conditions in the Desert Research Institute (DRI) combustion chamber. To mimic atmospheric oxidation processes (5–7 days), BB emissions were aged using an oxidation flow reactor (OFR). Fresh and OFR-aged BB aerosols were collected on filters and extracted with water and hexane to study absorption properties of polar and non-polar organic species. Results of spectrophotometric measurements (absorption weighted by the solar spectrum and normalized to mass of fuel consumed) over the 190 to 900nm wavelength range showed that the non-polar (hexane-soluble) fraction is 2–3 times more absorbing than the polar (water-soluble) fraction. However, for emissions from fuels that undergo flaming combustion, an increased absorbance was observed for the water extracts of oxidized/aged emissions while the absorption of the hexane extracts was lower for the aged emissions for the same type of fuels. Absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) values, computed based on absorbance values from spectrophotometer measurements, were changed with aging and the nature of this change was fuel dependent. The light absorption by humic-like substances (HULIS) was found to be higher in fuels characteristic of the southwestern USA. The absorption of the HULIS fraction was lower for OFR-aged BB emissions. Comparison of the light absorption properties of different-polarity extracts (water, hexane, HULIS) provides insight into the chemical nature of BB BrC and its transformation during oxidation processes
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