On the non-local heat kernel expansion

We propose a novel derivation of the non-local heat kernel expansion, first studied by Barvinsky, Vilkovisky and Avramidi, based on simple diagrammatic equations satisfied by the heat kernel. For Laplace-type differential operators we obtain the explicit form of the non-local heat kernel form factors to second order in the curvature. Our method can be generalized easily to the derivation of the non-local heat kernel expansion of a wide class of differential operators.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, 31 diagrams; references added; to appear in JM

When the words are not everything: the use of laughter, fillers, back-channel, silence, and overlapping speech in phone calls

This article presents an observational study on how some common conversational cues – laughter, fillers, back-channel, silence, and overlapping speech – are used during mobile phone conversations. The observations are performed over the SSPNet Mobile Corpus, a collection of 60 calls between pairs of unacquainted individuals (120 subjects for roughly 12 h of material in total). The results show that the temporal distribution of the social signals above is not uniform, but it rather reflects the social meaning they carry and convey. In particular, the results show significant use differences depending on factors such as gender, role (caller or receiver), topic, mode of interaction (agreement or disagreement), personality traits, and conflict handling style

Hybridized tetraquarks

We propose a new interpretation of the neutral and charged X,Z exotic hadron resonances. Hybridized-tetraquarks are neither purely compact tetraquark states nor bound or loosely bound molecules but rather a manifestation of the interplay between the two. While meson molecules need a negative or zero binding energy, its counterpart for h -tetraquarks is required to be positive. The formation mechanism of this new class of hadrons is inspired by that of Feshbach metastable states in atomic physics. The recent claim of an exotic resonance in the View the MathML source channel by the D0 Collaboration and the negative result presented subsequently by the LHCb Collaboration are understood in this scheme, together with a considerable portion of available data on X,Z particles. Considerations on a state with the same quantum numbers as the X(5568) are also made

Gianluca Garelli, Dialettica e interpretazione

open1noL’ermeneutica ha goduto fino a vent’anni fa di una posizione di primo piano all’interno del dibattito filosofico. Con Verità e metodo di Gadamer essa ha cercato di presentarsi come una scienza in grado di affermare la propria autorità a partire dalla costruzione di una teoria generale dell’interpretazione. Il punto d’avvio dell’ultimo libro di Gianluca Garelli Dialettica e interpretazione. Studi su Hegel e la metodica del comprendere, pubblicato da Pendragon nel 2015, è proprio il tentativo di proporre una nuova visione del lavoro ermeneutico, che trovi le sue radici nella proposta hegeliana della Fenomenologia dello spirito.openEsposito, AlessandroEsposito, Alessandr

Cooperation of partially-transformed clones: an invisible force behind the early stages of carcinogenesis.

1Most tumours exhibit significant heterogeneity and are best described as communities of cellular populations competing for resources. Growing experimental evidence also suggests, however, that cooperation between cancer clones is important as well for the maintenance of tumour heterogeneity and tumour progression. However, a role for cell communication during the earliest steps in oncogenesis is not well characterised despite its vital importance in normal tissue and clinically manifest tumours. Here, we present a simple analytical model and stochastic lattice-based simulations to study how the interaction between the mutational process and cell-to-cell communication in three-dimensional tissue architecture might contribute to shape early oncogenesis. We show that non-cell-autonomous mechanisms of carcinogenesis could support and accelerate pre-cancerous clonal expansion through the cooperation of different, non- or partially- transformed mutants. We predict the existence of a 'cell-autonomous time-horizon', a time before which cooperation between cell-to-cell communication and DNA mutations might be one of the most fundamental forces shaping the early stages of oncogenesis. The understanding of this process could shed new light on the mechanisms leading to clinically manifest cancers.“Alessandro Esposito acknowledges the financial support provided by the CRUK with a multi-disciplinary project award (OncoLive, NS/A000077/1), pump-priming funds from the CRUK Cambridge Institute. Alessandro Esposito also acknowledges financial support from Medical Research Council program grants (MC_UU_12022/1 and MC_UU_12022/8) awarded to Prof. Ashok Venkitarama

How many photons are needed for FRET imaging?

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) imaging is an essential analytical method in biomedical research. The limited photon-budget experimentally available, however, imposes compromises between spatiotemporal and biochemical resolutions, photodamage and phototoxicity. The study of photon-statistics in biochemical imaging is thus important in guiding the efficient design of instrumentation and assays. Here, we show a comparative analysis of photon-statistics in FRET imaging demonstrating how the precision of FRET imaging varies vastly with imaging parameters. Therefore, we provide analytical and numerical tools for assay optimization. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is a very robust technique with excellent photon-efficiencies. However, we show that also intensity-based FRET imaging can reach high precision by utilizing information from both donor and acceptor fluorophores

The World Heritage and cultural landscapes

Landscapes have a range of values that communities recognize as important and want to conserve. Cultural and natural values are the qualities which make a place or landscape important. In particular, we can consider Cultural Landscapes an important and constitutional part of the World Heritage. It is fundamental that stakeholders must know what values are to be found in their cultural landscapes and consequently rein- force the protection and enhancement of the values. The attempt to help the awareness is presented in the paper and discussed as an UNESCO instrument of observation, retention and pro-active conservation of the heritage of our past, as institutional to the formation of continuity in the future years to come and for the future generations. Finally, one case study is also illustrated as a very good example of effective values-based man- agement

Read my Feed – from RSS to SIP

Abstract: RRS web feeds are read by a synthetic voice, trough a SIP VoIP call, offering eye-free access to huge amount of classified textual content available on the Web. DTMF browsing allows to choose in between different RSS providers, and to cycle trough RRS titles, until the desired full article is selected, and read. The main content in the page is located by explicit parsing for known feeds, or by heuristic reasoning for new feeds and pages, which can be directly accessed by passing their URI as a SIP address parameter. Scalability is attained by caching of network and audio data instances, and expressivity improved by generation of SSML markup on the basis of the original HTML and CSS code. The whole system is made of a collection of Open Source components and public W3C standards, and the use of Festival for Speech Synthesis makes the service available for any supported language

How major depressive disorder affects the ability to decode multimodal dynamic emotional stimuli

Most studies investigating the processing of emotions in depressed patients reported impairments in the decoding of negative emotions. However, these studies adopted static stimuli (mostly stereotypical facial expressions corresponding to basic emotions) which do not reflect the way people experience emotions in everyday life. For this reason, this work proposes to investigate the decoding of emotional expressions in patients affected by Recurrent Major Depressive Disorder (RMDDs) using dynamic audio/video stimuli. RMDDs’ performance is compared with the performance of patients with Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood (ADs) and healthy (HCs) subjects. The experiments involve 27 RMDDs (16 with acute depression - RMDD-A, and 11 in a compensation phase - RMDD-C), 16 ADs and 16 HCs. The ability to decode emotional expressions is assessed through an emotion recognition task based on short audio (without video), video (without audio) and audio/video clips. The results show that AD patients are significantly less accurate than HCs in decoding fear, anger, happiness, surprise and sadness. RMDD-As with acute depression are significantly less accurate than HCs in decoding happiness, sadness and surprise. Finally, no significant differences were found between HCs and RMDD-Cs in a compensation phase. The different communication channels and the types of emotion play a significant role in limiting the decoding accuracy