Multigranular scale speech recognition: tehnological and cognitive view

We propose a Multigranular Automatic Speech Recognizer. The hypothesis is that speech signal contains information distributed on more different time scales. Many works from various scientific fields ranging from neurobiology to speech technologies, seem to concord on this assumption. In a broad sense, it seems that speech recognition in human is optimal because of a partial parallelization process according to which the left-to-right stream of speech is captured in a multilevel grid in which several linguistic analyses take place contemporarily. Our investigation aims, in this view, to apply these new ideas to the project of more robust and efficient recognizers

Pressure induced magnetic phase separation in La0.75_{0.75}Ca0.25_{0.25}MnO3_{3} manganite

The pressure dependence of the Curie temperature T$_{C}(P)$ in La$_{0.75}$Ca$_{0.25}$MnO$_{3}$ was determined by neutron diffraction up to 8 GPa, and compared with the metallization temperature T$_{IM}(P)$ \cite{irprl}. The behavior of the two temperatures appears similar over the whole pressure range suggesting a key role of magnetic double exchange also in the pressure regime where the superexchange interaction is dominant. Coexistence of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic peaks at high pressure and low temperature indicates a phase separated regime which is well reproduced with a dynamical mean-field calculation for a simplified model. A new P-T phase diagram has been proposed on the basis of the whole set of experimental data.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

The emotional contagion in children with autism spectrum disorder

Studies of the last decade have demonstrated that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) showed difficulties in language, social and relational areas, but they had also impairment in the mechanisms of embodied simulation, namely the imitative behaviors that allow the body to give an experiential meaning to own and other’s emotions. The identification of this specific emotional response in ASD children, also defined as emotional contagion, allows to move the therapeutic focus from reducing the behavioral symptomatic expressions of the child to promoting the expression of his ability of emotional regulation. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of emotional contagion in 53 ASD children aged between 22 and 66 months, through the Test of emotional contagion and verify the presence of compromised emotional contagion areas. Our findings have shown that the severity of the disorder is closely related to the inability of the child to respond to the emotional stimuli, regardless from cognitive abilities, and that emotion to which children responded most frequently was happiness, while the one who responded less was anger

From the emotional integration to the cognitive construction: the developmental approach of Turtle Project in children with autism spectrum disorder

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder show a deficit in neurobiological processes. This deficit hinders the development of intentional behavior and appropriate problem-solving, leading the child to implement repetitive and stereotyped behaviors and to have difficulties in reciprocal interactions, empathy and in the development of a theory of mind. The objective of this research is to verify the effectiveness of a relationship-based approach on the positive evolution of autistic symptoms. Method: A sample of 80 children with autism spectrum disorder was monitored during the first four years of therapy, through a clinical diagnostic assessment at the time of intake and then in two follow-up. Results: The results showed that through the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule it is possible to assess the socio-relational key elements on which the therapy is based. There was evidence, in fact, of significant improvements after two and four years of therapy, both for children with severe autistic symptoms and for those in autistic spectrum. Conclusions: Socio-relational aspects represent the primary element on which work in therapy with autistic children and can be considered as indicators of a positive evolution and prognosis that will produce improvements even in the cognitive are

Electron beam transfer line design for plasma driven Free Electron Lasers

Plasma driven particle accelerators represent the future of compact accelerating machines and Free Electron Lasers are going to benefit from these new technologies. One of the main issue of this new approach to FEL machines is the design of the transfer line needed to match of the electron-beam with the magnetic undulators. Despite the reduction of the chromaticity of plasma beams is one of the main goals, the target of this line is to be effective even in cases of beams with a considerable value of chromaticity. The method here explained is based on the code GIOTTO [1] that works using a homemade genetic algorithm and that is capable of finding optimal matching line layouts directly using a full 3D tracking code.Comment: 9 Pages, 4 Figures. A related poster was presented at EAAC 201

Ergodicity breaking in strong and network-forming glassy system

The temperature dependence of the non-ergodicity factor of vitreous GeO$_2$, $f_{q}(T)$, as deduced from elastic and quasi-elastic neutron scattering experiments, is analyzed. The data are collected in a wide range of temperatures from the glassy phase, up to the glass transition temperature, and well above into the undercooled liquid state. Notwithstanding the investigated system is classified as prototype of strong glass, it is found that the temperature- and the $q$-behavior of $f_{q}(T)$ follow some of the predictions of Mode Coupling Theory. The experimental data support the hypothesis of the existence of an ergodic to non-ergodic transition occurring also in network forming glassy systems

A collimation system for ELI-NP Gamma Beam System - design and simulation of performance

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance and refine the design of the collimation system for the gamma radiation source (GBS) currently being realised at ELI-NP facility. The gamma beam, produced by inverse Compton scattering, will provide a tunable average energy in the range between 0.2 and 20 MeV, an energy bandwidth 0.5% and a flux of about 108 photons/s. As a result of the inverse Compton interaction, the energy of the emitted radiation is related to the emission angle, it is maximum in the backscattering direction and decreases as the angle increase [1,2]. Therefore, the required energy bandwidth can be obtained only by developing a specific collimation system of the gamma beam, i.e. filtering out the radiation emitted at larger angles. The angular acceptance of the collimation for ELI-NP-GBS must be continuously adjustable in a range from about 700 to 60 μrad, to obtain the required parameters in the entire energy range. The solution identified is a stack of adjustable slits, arranged with a relative rotation around the beam axis to obtain an hole with an approximately circular shape. In this contribution, the final collimation design and its performance evaluated by carrying out a series of detailed Geant4 simulations both of the high-energy and the low-energy beamline are presented