Unstable Giants

We find giant graviton solutions in Frolov's three parameter generalization of the Lunin-Maldacena background. The background we study has $\tilde{\gamma}_1=0$ and $\tilde{\gamma}_2=\tilde{\gamma}_3=\tilde{\gamma}$. This class of backgrounds provide a non-superymmetric example of the gauge theory/gravity correspondence that can be tested quantitatively, as recently shown by Frolov, Roiban and Tseytlin. The giant graviton solutions we find have a greater energy than the point gravitons, making them unstable states. Despite this, we find striking quantitative agreement between the gauge theory and gravity descriptions of open strings attached to the giant.Comment: 1+24 pages, 2 figures; v2: coupling to NSNS B field included, refs added and typos corrected; v3 new results on stability of giants included, presentation improved, refs added; v4 final version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Do Users Behave Similarly in VR? Investigation of the User Influence on the System Design

With the overarching goal of developing user-centric Virtual Reality (VR) systems, a new wave of studies focused on understanding how users interact in VR environments has recently emerged. Despite the intense efforts, however, current literature still does not provide the right framework to fully interpret and predict users’ trajectories while navigating in VR scenes. This work advances the state-of-the-art on both the study of users’ behaviour in VR and the user-centric system design. In more detail, we complement current datasets by presenting a publicly available dataset that provides navigation trajectories acquired for heterogeneous omnidirectional videos and different viewing platforms—namely, head-mounted display, tablet, and laptop. We then present an exhaustive analysis on the collected data to better understand navigation in VR across users, content, and, for the first time, across viewing platforms. The novelty lies in the user-affinity metric, proposed in this work to investigate users’ similarities when navigating within the content. The analysis reveals useful insights on the effect of device and content on the navigation, which could be precious considerations from the system design perspective. As a case study of the importance of studying users’ behaviour when designing VR systems, we finally propose a user-centric server optimisation. We formulate an integer linear program that seeks the best stored set of omnidirectional content that minimises encoding and storage cost while maximising the user’s experience. This is posed while taking into account network dynamics, type of video content, and also user population interactivity. Experimental results prove that our solution outperforms common company recommendations in terms of experienced quality but also in terms of encoding and storage, achieving a savings up to 70%. More importantly, we highlight a strong correlation between the storage cost and the user-affinity metric, showing the impact of the latter in the system architecture design

Environments of a sample of AzTEC submillimetre galaxies in the COSMOS field

Aims. Submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) are bright sources at submillimetre wavelengths (F-850 mu m>2-5 mJy). Made up of mostly of high-z galaxies (z>1), SMGs are amongst the most luminous dusty galaxies in the Universe. These galaxies are thought to be the progenitors of the massive elliptical galaxies in the local Universe and to reside in massive haloes at early epochs. Studying their environments and clustering strength is thus important to put these galaxies in a cosmological context.Methods. We present an environmental study of a sample of 116 SMGs in 96 ALMA observation fields, which were initially discovered with the AzTEC camera on ASTE and identified with high-resolution 1.25 mm ALMA imaging within the COSMOS survey field, having either spectroscopic or unambiguous photometric redshift. We analysed their environments making use of the latest release of the COSMOS photometric catalogue, COSMOS2015, a catalogue that contains precise photometric redshifts for more than half a million objects over the 2 deg(2) COSMOS field. We searched for dense galaxy environments computing the so-called overdensity parameter as a function of distance within a radius of 5 from the SMG. We validated this approach spectroscopically for those SMGs for which spectroscopic redshift is available. As an additional test, we searched for extended X-ray emission as a proxy for the hot intracluster medium, performing an X-ray stacking analysis in the 0.5-2 keV band with a 32 '' aperture and our SMG position using all available XMM-Newton and Chandra X-ray observations of the COSMOS field.Results. We find that 27% (31 out of 116) of the SMGs in our sample are located in a galactic dense environment; a fraction that is similar to previous studies. The spectroscopic redshift is known for 15 of these 31 sources, thus this photometric approach is tested using spectroscopy. We are able to confirm that 7 out of 15 SMGs lie in high-density peaks. However, the search for associated extended X-ray emission via an X-ray stacking analysis leads to a detection that is not statistically significant.Peer reviewe

An Extracted Fraction of Pseudomonas Oleovorans Can Inhibit Viral Entry and RNA Replication of Hepatitis C Virus in Cell Culture

The emergence and distribution of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is still considered as an unsolved problem. Due to side effects, many synthetic drugs have been avoided and replaced by new biologically derived ones. Aim of this study was to use Pseudomonas oleovorans’ extract as HCV viral replication inhibition agent in cell culture system. Several factors were studied and the optimum growth conditions were selected for maximum production of antiviral substance. Pseudomonas oleovorans’ extract was fractionated using different concentrations of chloroform: methanol on silica gel columns. Analysis of potent fraction by GC/MS showed of tetradecanoic and hexadecanoic acid methyl esters. The selected fraction was tested against HCV in vitro using two different protocols: viral attachment entry inhibition (Pre-incubation) and viral replication inhibition (Post infection). 0.1 µg / ml of the selected antiviral fraction resulted in inhibition of viral replication in Huh 7.5 cells. However, higher concentration of 100 µg / ml did not cause any viral inhibition. The selected bacterial fraction containing tetradecanoic acid and hexadecanoic acid methyl esters could be used as a promising candidate to inhibit viral HCV entry and replication of HCV

Prehistoric stone disks from entrances and cemeteries of north-eastern Adriatic hillforts|Prazgodovinski kamniti diski z vhodov in grobi[; na gradi[;ih na severovzhodnem Jadranu

The paper presents a group of four, approximately 0.5m large, stone disks from entrances or cemeteries of two protohistoric hillforts of north-eastern Adriatic. The disks, having a sparse chronology with the exception of one dated to the Middle Bronze Age, show flat and plain surfaces or covered with sub-circular depressions. One disk shows two larger cup-marks at the centre of both faces. They are interpreted as ritual artefacts based on the association with sacred settlement locations and comparisons with similar coeval stones found mainly close to citadel entrances, burials and thresholds in the Aegean area and Anatolia

2PI Effective Action and Evolution Equations of N = 4 super Yang-Mills

We employ nPI effective action techniques to study N = 4 super Yang-Mills, and write down the 2PI effective action of the theory. We also supply the evolution equations of two-point correlators within the theory.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures. Figure 2 replaced, approximation scheme clarified, references adde

MASCOT : metadata for advanced scalable video coding tools : final report

The goal of the MASCOT project was to develop new video coding schemes and tools that provide both an increased coding efficiency as well as extended scalability features compared to technology that was available at the beginning of the project. Towards that goal the following tools would be used: - metadata-based coding tools; - new spatiotemporal decompositions; - new prediction schemes. Although the initial goal was to develop one single codec architecture that was able to combine all new coding tools that were foreseen when the project was formulated, it became clear that this would limit the selection of the new tools. Therefore the consortium decided to develop two codec frameworks within the project, a standard hybrid DCT-based codec and a 3D wavelet-based codec, which together are able to accommodate all tools developed during the course of the project

3DTV: Capture, transmission, and display of 3D video

[No abstract available

An Extracted Fraction of Pseudomonas Oleovorans Can Inhibit Viral Entry and RNA Replication of Hepatitis C Virus in Cell Culture

The emergence and distribution of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is still considered as an unsolved problem. Due to side effects, many synthetic drugs have been avoided and replaced by new biologically derived ones. Aim of this study was to use Pseudomonas oleovorans’ extract as HCV viral replication inhibition agent in cell culture system. Several factors were studied and the optimum growth conditions were selected for maximum production of antiviral substance. Pseudomonas oleovorans’ extract was fractionated using different concentrations of chloroform: methanol on silica gel columns. Analysis of potent fraction by GC/MS showed of tetradecanoic and hexadecanoic acid methyl esters. The selected fraction was tested against HCV in vitro using two different protocols: viral attachment entry inhibition (Pre-incubation) and viral replication inhibition (Post infection). 0.1 µg / ml of the selected antiviral fraction resulted in inhibition of viral replication in Huh 7.5 cells. However, higher concentration of 100 µg / ml did not cause any viral inhibition. The selected bacterial fraction containing tetradecanoic acid and hexadecanoic acid methyl esters could be used as a promising candidate to inhibit viral HCV entry and replication of HCV