New Measurement of Muon Neutrino Disappearance from the IceCube Experiment

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a Cherenkov detector located at the South Pole. Its main component consists of an in-ice array of optical modules instrumenting one cubic kilometer of deep Glacial ice. The DeepCore sub-detector is a denser in-fill array with a lower energy threshold, allowing us to study atmospheric neutrinos oscillations with energy below 100 GeV arriving through the Earth. We present preliminary results of an atmospheric muon neutrino disappearance analysis using data from 2012 to 2021 and employing convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for precise and fast event reconstructions.Comment: contribution to the 2023 Electroweak session of the 57th Rencontres de Morion

Regularized Fourier ptychography using an online plug-and-play algorithm

The plug-and-play priors (PnP) framework has been recently shown to achieve state-of-the-art results in regularized image reconstruction by leveraging a sophisticated denoiser within an iterative algorithm. In this paper, we propose a new online PnP algorithm for Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) based on the accelerated proximal gradient method (APGM). Specifically, the proposed algorithm uses only a subset of measurements, which makes it scalable to a large set of measurements. We validate the algorithm by showing that it can lead to significant performance gains on both simulated and experimental data.https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.00120Published versio

PEA265: Perceptual Assessment of Video Compression Artifacts

The most widely used video encoders share a common hybrid coding framework that includes block-based motion estimation/compensation and block-based transform coding. Despite their high coding efficiency, the encoded videos often exhibit visually annoying artifacts, denoted as Perceivable Encoding Artifacts (PEAs), which significantly degrade the visual Qualityof- Experience (QoE) of end users. To monitor and improve visual QoE, it is crucial to develop subjective and objective measures that can identify and quantify various types of PEAs. In this work, we make the first attempt to build a large-scale subjectlabelled database composed of H.265/HEVC compressed videos containing various PEAs. The database, namely the PEA265 database, includes 4 types of spatial PEAs (i.e. blurring, blocking, ringing and color bleeding) and 2 types of temporal PEAs (i.e. flickering and floating). Each containing at least 60,000 image or video patches with positive and negative labels. To objectively identify these PEAs, we train Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) using the PEA265 database. It appears that state-of-theart ResNeXt is capable of identifying each type of PEAs with high accuracy. Furthermore, we define PEA pattern and PEA intensity measures to quantify PEA levels of compressed video sequence. We believe that the PEA265 database and our findings will benefit the future development of video quality assessment methods and perceptually motivated video encoders.Comment: 10 pages,15 figures,4 table

Regularized Fourier ptychography using an online plug-and-play algorithm

The plug-and-play priors (PnP) framework has been recently shown to achieve state-of-the-art results in regularized image reconstruction by leveraging a sophisticated denoiser within an iterative algorithm. In this paper, we propose a new online PnP algorithm for Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) based on the accelerated proximal gradient method (APGM). Specifically, the proposed algorithm uses only a subset of measurements, which makes it scalable to a large set of measurements. We validate the algorithm by showing that it can lead to significant performance gains on both simulated and experimental data.https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.00120Published versio

Incorporating Intra-Class Variance to Fine-Grained Visual Recognition

Fine-grained visual recognition aims to capture discriminative characteristics amongst visually similar categories. The state-of-the-art research work has significantly improved the fine-grained recognition performance by deep metric learning using triplet network. However, the impact of intra-category variance on the performance of recognition and robust feature representation has not been well studied. In this paper, we propose to leverage intra-class variance in metric learning of triplet network to improve the performance of fine-grained recognition. Through partitioning training images within each category into a few groups, we form the triplet samples across different categories as well as different groups, which is called Group Sensitive TRiplet Sampling (GS-TRS). Accordingly, the triplet loss function is strengthened by incorporating intra-class variance with GS-TRS, which may contribute to the optimization objective of triplet network. Extensive experiments over benchmark datasets CompCar and VehicleID show that the proposed GS-TRS has significantly outperformed state-of-the-art approaches in both classification and retrieval tasks.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Suffering to be alive. Crisis of Masculinity in Michael Kleeberg's novella Barfuß

Die Identität einer Person lässt sich seit Langem nicht als vorgeschriebene stabile Einheit beschreiben (Zima 2010: 372), sondern in ständigen Konfrontationen mit zahlreichen Alteritäten, in Bewegung und sogar in Gefahr des Zerfallens geraten. Besonders auffällig ist diese mit dem männlich-psychischen Zustand und der Männlichkeitsvorstellung in Verbindung zu setzen, die einerseits viel von der alten, ethischen Orientierung geprägt sind, andererseits eine enorme Veränderung erleben. In dem vorliegenden Artikel wird eine „unmoralische Erzählung“ – Michael Kleebergs Barfuß – untersucht, in der alle postmodernen Elemente Validierung finden, ergänzt durch den Einbruch des Chaos in den Alltag und ein performatives, karnevaleskes Spiel des Protagonisten. Die sexuelle Mitte und körperlichen Elemente (z. B. Flagellation und Dominanz) bestimmen den Diskurs der Er- zählung und erinnern an die Risiken, denen die Männlichkeit als erzählende oder erlebende Instanz ausgesetzt ist. Die Analyse ist von der übergeordneten Frage danach geleitet, wie die Erfahrung des Transitorischen bzw. die Ablehnung männlicher Identität durch die Grenzüberschreitungen (körper- lich, geschlechtlich, wie auch erzählerisch) dargestellt wird.For a long time, a person’s identity cannot be described as a prescribed stable unit (Zima 2010: 372), but in constant confrontation with numerous alterities, in motion, and even in danger of disintegration. The question of identity is particularly conspicuous regarding the male psychological state and concept of masculinity, which on the one hand are marked by the traditional ethical orien- tation, but on the other hand, also experience enormous change. This article focuses on “immoral narrative” – Michael Kleeberg’s novella Barfuß, where all postmodern elements find validation, complemented by a performative and carnivalesque play of the main character and the incursion of chaos into everyday life. The sexual midway and somatic elements (e. g., flagellation and dominance) determine the discourse of the narrative, which recalls the risks to which masculinity is exposed as a narrative or experiential entity. The analysis is guided by the overarching question, how are the transitional experience and the rejection of male identity through border crossings (bodily, sexually, and narratively) represented

Hamstring Fatigue for Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) rehabilitation

Persistent quadriceps weakness in individuals with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) has been attributed to arthrogenic muscle inhibition (AMI), which is partially due to the reciprocal inhibition of the quadriceps with the over-excitation of the hamstrings. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the hamstrings fatigue immediately prior to quadriceps strength training on reducing AMI. Eight subjects with ACLR (time since injury: 46.5±23.6 months, age: 21.4±1.4 years) and eight healthy subjects (age: 22.5±2.7 years) with no previous history of knee injury participated. All subjects completed a single session of exercise intervention including 10-mins hamstrings vibration before performing three sets of 10 leg extensions (~20-30% 1-RM) with blood flow restriction through an inflated thigh blood pressure cuff. The central activation ratio (CAR) of the quadriceps, the normalized peak torque of knee extension at maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC), and the co-contraction of the hamstrings during knee extension MVICs were measured by force load cell and Electromyography (EMG) before and after the exercise protocol.By using mixed ANOVA, the ACLR group showed significantly less quadriceps CAR (93±6% versus 98±1%, p=0.05) and higher co-contraction of the hamstrings (15±2% versus 7±2% , p=0.01) at the baseline, compared with the control group. The intervention exercise significantly increased quadriceps CAR ( 98±3%, p=0.001) and decreased hamstrings co-contraction (10±1%, p=0.006) in the ACLR group, but not the control group. Normalized peak torques of knee extension (p=0.3) at MVICs did not significantly change for both ACLR and control groups for a single session of exercise intervention.Therefore, vibration-induced hamstrings fatigue can be used to reduce the over-excitation of the hamstrings and disinhibit the quadriceps after ACLR. Future studies may investigate the effectiveness of a training program with multiple sessions of hamstrings fatigue in alleviating arthrogenic muscle inhibition and increasing the knee extension strength