Computation of emotions

When people talk to each other, they express their feelings through facial expressions, tone of voice, body postures and gestures. They even do this when they are interacting with machines. These hidden signals are an important part of human communication, but most computer systems ignore them. Emotions need to be considered as an important mode of communication between people and interactive systems. Affective computing has enjoyed considerable success over the past 20 years, but many challenges remain.This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final version is available from ACM in ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction published at http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2669638

Dynamics of Resonances in Strongly Interacting Systems

The effects of the propagation of particles which have a finite life-time and an according broad distribution in their mass spectrum are discussed in the context of a transport descriptions. In the first part some example cases of mesonic modes in nuclear matter at finite densities and temperatures are presented. These equilibrium calculations illustrate the dynamical range of spectral distributions to be adequately covered by non-equilibrium description of the dynamics of two nuclei colliding at high energies. The second part addresses the problem of transport descriptions which properly account for the damping width of the particles. A systematic and general gradient approximation is presented in the form of diagrammatic rules which permit to derive a self-consistent transport scheme from the Kadanoff--Baym equation. The scheme is conserving and thermodynamically consistent provided the self-energies are obtained within the Phi-derivable two-particle irreducible (2PI) method of Baym. The merits, the limitations and partial cures of the limitations of this transport scheme are discussed in detail.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the International Conference "Progress in Nonequilibrium Green's Functions III", Kiel, 22.-26. August 200

Characterisation of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L. ssp. vulgaris) varieties using microsatellite markers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sugar beet is an obligate outcrossing species. Varieties consist of mixtures of plants from various parental combinations. As the number of informative morphological characteristics is limited, this leads to some problems in variety registration research.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have developed 25 new microsatellite markers for sugar beet. A selection of 12 markers with high quality patterns was used to characterise 40 diploid and triploid varieties. For each variety 30 individual plants were genotyped. The markers amplified 3-21 different alleles. Varieties had up to 7 different alleles at one marker locus. All varieties could be distinguished. For the diploid varieties, the expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.458 to 0.744. The average inbreeding coefficient F_iswas 0.282 ± 0.124, but it varied widely among marker loci, from F_is= +0.876 (heterozygote deficiency) to F_is= -0.350 (excess of heterozygotes). The genetic differentiation among diploid varieties was relatively constant among markers (F_st= 0.232 ± 0.027). Among triploid varieties the genetic differentiation was much lower (F_st= 0.100 ± 0.010). The overall genetic differentiation between diploid and triploid varieties was F_st= 0.133 across all loci. Part of this differentiation may coincide with the differentiation among breeders' gene pools, which was F_st= 0.063.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Based on a combination of scores for individual plants all varieties can be distinguished using the 12 markers developed here. The markers may also be used for mapping and in molecular breeding. In addition, they may be employed in studying gene flow from crop to wild populations.</p

Subcycle Quantum Electrodynamics

Besides their stunning physical properties which are unmatched in a classical world, squeezed states of electromagnetic radiation bear advanced application potentials in quantum information systems and precision metrology, including gravitational wave detectors with unprecedented sensitivity. Since the first experiments on such nonclassical light, quantum analysis has been based on homodyning techniques and photon correlation measurements. These methods require a well-defined carrier frequency and photons contained in a quantum state need to be absorbed or amplified. They currently function in the visible to near-infrared and microwave spectral ranges. Quantum nondemolition experiments may be performed at the expense of excess fluctuations in another quadrature. Here we generate mid-infrared time-locked patterns of squeezed vacuum noise. After propagation through free space, the quantum fluctuations of the electric field are studied in the time domain by electro-optic sampling with few-femtosecond laser pulses. We directly compare the local noise amplitude to the level of bare vacuum fluctuations. This nonlinear approach operates off resonance without absorption or amplification of the field that is investigated. Subcycle intervals with noise level significantly below the pure quantum vacuum are found. Enhanced fluctuations in adjacent time segments manifest generation of highly correlated quantum radiation as a consequence of the uncertainty principle. Together with efforts in the far infrared, this work opens a window to the elementary quantum dynamics of light and matter in an energy range at the boundary between vacuum and thermal background conditions.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: Ultracold Quantum Gases, Quantum Chromodynamic Plasmas, and Holographic Duality

Strongly correlated quantum fluids are phases of matter that are intrinsically quantum mechanical, and that do not have a simple description in terms of weakly interacting quasi-particles. Two systems that have recently attracted a great deal of interest are the quark-gluon plasma, a plasma of strongly interacting quarks and gluons produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions, and ultracold atomic Fermi gases, very dilute clouds of atomic gases confined in optical or magnetic traps. These systems differ by more than 20 orders of magnitude in temperature, but they were shown to exhibit very similar hydrodynamic flow. In particular, both fluids exhibit a robustly low shear viscosity to entropy density ratio which is characteristic of quantum fluids described by holographic duality, a mapping from strongly correlated quantum field theories to weakly curved higher dimensional classical gravity. This review explores the connection between these fields, and it also serves as an introduction to the Focus Issue of New Journal of Physics on Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: from Ultracold Quantum Gases to QCD Plasmas. The presentation is made accessible to the general physics reader and includes discussions of the latest research developments in all three areas.Comment: 138 pages, 25 figures, review associated with New Journal of Physics special issue "Focus on Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: from Ultracold Quantum Gases to QCD Plasmas" (http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/focus/Focus%20on%20Strongly%20Correlated%20Quantum%20Fluids%20-%20from%20Ultracold%20Quantum%20Gases%20to%20QCD%20Plasmas

A high-quality sequence of Rosa chinensis to elucidate genome structure and ornamental traits

Rose is the worlds most important ornamental plant with economic, cultural and symbolic value. Roses are cultivated worldwide and sold as garden roses, cut flowers and potted plants. Rose has a complex genome with high heterozygosity and various ploidy levels. Our objectives were (i) to develop the first high-quality reference genome sequence for the genus Rosa by sequencing a doubled haploid, combining long and short read sequencing, and anchoring to a high-density genetic map and (ii) to study the genome structure and the genetic basis of major ornamental traits. We produced a haploid rose line from R. chinensis "Old Blush" and generated the first rose genome sequence at the pseudo-molecule scale (512 Mbp with N50 of 3.4 Mb and L75 of 97). The sequence was validated using high-density diploid and tetraploid genetic maps. We delineated hallmark chromosomal features including the pericentromeric regions through annotation of TE families and positioned centromeric repeats using FISH. Genetic diversity was analysed by resequencing eight Rosa species. Combining genetic and genomic approaches, we identified potential genetic regulators of key ornamental traits, including prickle density and number of flower petals. A rose APETALA2 homologue is proposed to be the major regulator of petals number in rose. This reference sequence is an important resource for studying polyploidisation, meiosis and developmental processes as we demonstrated for flower and prickle development. This reference sequence will also accelerate breeding through the development of molecular markers linked to traits, the identification of the genes underlying them and the exploitation of synteny across Rosaceae

Bimanual grasp planning reflects changing rather than fixed constraint dominance

We studied whether motor-control constraints for grasping objects that are moved to new positions reflect a rigid constraint hierarchy or a flexible constraint hierarchy. In two experiments, we asked participants to move two plungers from the same start locations to different target locations (both high, both low, or one high and one low). We found that participants grasped the plungers symmetrically and at heights that ensured comfortable or easy-to-control end postures when the plungers had the same target heights, but these grasp tendencies were reduced when the plungers had different target heights. In addition, when the plungers had different mass distributions, participants behaved in ways that suggested still-different emphases of the relevant grasp constraints. When the plungers had different mass distributions, participants sacrificed bimanual symmetry for end-state comfort. The results suggest that bimanual grasp planning relies on a flexible rather than static hierarchy. Different constraints take on different degrees of importance depending on the nature of the task and on the level of task experience. The results have implications for the understanding of perceptual-motor skill learning. It may be that one mechanism underlying such learning is changing the priorities of task constraints