Hole-depletion of ladders in Sr14_{14}Cu24_{24}O41_{41} induced by correlation effects

The hole distribution in Sr$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$ is studied by low temperature polarization dependent O K Near-Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure measurements and state of the art electronic structure calculations that include core-hole and correlation effects in a mean-field approach. Contrary to all previous analysis, based on semi-empirical models, we show that correlations and antiferromagnetic ordering favor the strong chain hole-attraction. For the remaining small number of holes accommodated on ladders, leg-sites are preferred to rung-sites. The small hole affinity of rung-sites explains naturally the 1D - 2D cross-over in the phase diagram of (La,Y,Sr,Ca)$_{14}$Cu$_{24}$O$_{41}$Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure

Multimodal Emotion Recognition via Convolutional Neural Networks: Comparison of different strategies on two multimodal datasets

The aim of this paper is to investigate emotion recognition using a multimodal approach that exploits convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with multiple input. Multimodal approaches allow different modalities to cooperate in order to achieve generally better performances because different features are extracted from different pieces of information. In this work, the facial frames, the optical flow computed from consecutive facial frames, and the Mel Spectrograms (from the word melody) are extracted from videos and combined together in different ways to understand which modality combination works better. Several experiments are run on the models by first considering one modality at a time so that good accuracy results are found on each modality. Afterward, the models are concatenated to create a final model that allows multiple inputs. For the experiments the datasets used are BAUM-1 ((Bahçeşehir University Multimodal Affective Database - 1) and RAVDESS (Ryerson Audio–Visual Database of Emotional Speech and Song), which both collect two distinguished sets of videos based on the different intensity of the expression, that is acted/strong or spontaneous/normal, providing the representations of the following emotional states that will be taken into consideration: angry, disgust, fearful, happy and sad. The performances of the proposed models are shown through accuracy results and some confusion matrices, demonstrating better accuracy than the compared proposals in the literature. The best accuracy achieved on BAUM-1 dataset is about 95%, while on RAVDESS it is about 95.5%

Quasars as standard candles II

A tight non-linear relation between the X-ray and the optical-ultraviolet (UV) emission has been observed in active galactic nuclei (AGN) over a wide range of redshift and several orders of magnitude in luminosity, suggesting the existence of an ubiquitous physical mechanism regulating the energy transfer between the accretion disc and the X-ray emitting corona. Recently, our group developed a method to use this relation in observational cosmology, turning quasars into standardizable candles. This work mainly seeks to investigate the potential evolution of this correction at high redshifts. We thus studied the LX − LUV relation for a sample of quasars in the redshift range 4 <  z <  7, adopting the selection criteria proposed in our previous work regarding their spectral properties. The resulting sample consists of 53 type 1 (unobscured) quasars, observed either with Chandra or XMM-Newton, for which we performed a full spectral analysis, determining the rest-frame 2 keV flux density, as well as more general X-ray properties such as the estimate of photon index, and the soft (0.5–2 keV) and hard (2–10 keV) unabsorbed luminosities. We find that the relation shows no evidence for evolution with redshift. The intrinsic dispersion of the LX–LUV for a sample free of systematics/contaminants is of the order of 0.22 dex, which is consistent with previous estimates from our group on quasars at lower redshift

Evolution of magnetic phases and orbital occupation in (SrMnO3)n/(LaMnO3)2n superlattices

The magnetic and electronic modifications induced at the interfaces in (SrMnO$_{3}$)$_{n}$/(LaMnO$_{3}$)$_{2n}$ superlattices have been investigated by linear and circular magnetic dichroism in the Mn L$_{2,3}$ x-ray absorption spectra. Together with theoretical calculations, our data demonstrate that the charge redistribution across interfaces favors in-plane ferromagnetic (FM) order and $e_{g}(x^{2}-y^{2})$ orbital occupation, in agreement with the average strain. Far from interfaces, inside LaMnO$_3$, electron localization and local strain favor antiferromagnetism (AFM) and $e_{g}(3z^{2}-r^{2})$ orbital occupation. For $n=1$ the high density of interfacial planes ultimately leads to dominant FM order forcing the residual AFM phase to be in-plane too, while for $n \geq 5$ the FM layers are separated by AFM regions having out-of-plane spin orientation.Comment: accepted for publication as a Rapid Communication in Physical Review

Gotcha-I: A Multiview Human Videos Dataset

The growing need of security in large open spaces led to the need to use video capture of people in different context and illumination and with multiple biometric traits as head pose, body gait, eyes, nose, mouth, and further more. All these traits are useful for a multibiometric identification or a person re-identification in a video surveillance context. Body Worn Cameras (BWCs) are used by the police of different countries all around the word and their use is growing significantly. This raises the need to develop new recognition methods that consider multibiometric traits on person re-identification. The purpose of this work is to present a new video dataset called Gotcha-I. This dataset has been obtained using more mobile cameras to adhere to the data of BWCs. The dataset includes videos from 62 subjects in indoor and outdoor environments to address both security and surveillance problem. During these videos, subjects may have a different behavior in videos such as freely, path, upstairs, avoid the camera. The dataset is composed by 493 videos including a set of 180° videos for each face of the subjects in the dataset. Furthermore, there are already processed data, such as: the 3D model of the face of each subject with all the poses of the head in pitch, yaw and roll; and the body keypoint coordinates of the gait for each video frame. It’s also shown an application of gender recognition performed on Gotcha-I, confirming the usefulness and innovativeness of the proposed dataset

Gait Analysis for Gender Classification in Forensics

Gender Classification (GC) is a natural ability that belongs to the human beings. Recent improvements in computer vision provide the possibility to extract information for different classification/recognition purposes. Gender is a soft biometrics useful in video surveillance, especially in uncontrolled contexts such as low-light environments, with arbitrary poses, facial expressions, occlusions and motion blur. In this work we present a methodology for the construction of a gait analyzer. The methodology is divided into three major steps: (1) data extraction, where body keypoints are extracted from video sequences; (2) feature creation, where body features are constructed using body keypoints; and (3) classifier selection when such data are used to train four different classifiers in order to determine the one that best performs. The results are analyzed on the dataset Gotcha, characterized by user and camera either in motion

Effect of NF-κB/Rel inhibition on spontaneous vs chemotherapy-induced apoptosis in AML and normal cord blood CD34+ cells

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Evidence of orbital reconstruction at interfaces in La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 films

Electronic properties of transition metal oxides at interfaces are influenced by strain, electric polarization and oxygen diffusion. Linear dichroism (LD) x-ray absorption, diffraction, transport and magnetization on thin La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 films, allow identification of a peculiar universal interface effect. We report the LD signature of preferential 3d-eg(3z2-r2) occupation at the interface, suppressing the double exchange mechanism. This surface orbital reconstruction is opposite of that favored by residual strain and independent of dipolar fields, chemical nature of the substrate and capping.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Activation of NF-kappaB/Rel transcription factors in human primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells by interleukin 7.

Pathways that regulate the activation of NF-kappaB/Rel transcription factors are known to include signaling through a number of cytokine receptors. Interleukin 7 (IL-7), produced by bone marrow and other stromal cells, is a key factor for differentiation and survival in the lymphoid and other compartments. We found that human recombinant IL-7 induced NF-kappaB/Rel activation, analyzed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), in human peripheral blood T lymphocytes from healthy donors. Induced complexes included p65 and p50 NF-kappaB/Rel subunits. These results demonstrate for the first time that IL-7 can participate in signaling leading to NF-kappaB/Rel activation

Analysis of short-term blood pressure variability in pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma patients

Data on short-term blood pressure variability (BPV), which is a well-established cardiovascular prognostic tool, in pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma (PPGL) patients is still lack and conflicting. We retrospectively evaluated 23 PPGL patients referred to our unit from 2010 to 2019 to analyze 24 h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (24-h ABPM)-derived markers of short-term BPV, before and after surgical treatment. PPGL diagnosis was assessed according to guidelines and confirmed by histologic examination. The 24-h ABPM-derived markers of short-term BPV included: circadian pressure rhythm; standard deviation (SD) and weighted SD (wSD) of 24-h, daytime, and night-time systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP); average real variability (ARV) of 24-h, daytime, and night-time systolic and diastolic BP. 7 males and 16 females of 53 ± 18 years old were evaluated. After surgical resection of PPGL we found a significant decrease in 24-h systolic BP ARV (8.8 ± 1.6 vs. 7.6 ± 1.3 mmHg, p &lt; 0.001), in 24-h diastolic BP ARV (7.5 ± 1.6 vs. 6.9 ± 1.4 mmHg, p = 0.031), and in wSD of 24-h diastolic BP (9.7 ± 2.0 vs 8.8 ± 2.1 mmHg, p = 0.050) comparing to baseline measurements. Moreover, baseline 24-h urinary metanephrines significantly correlated with wSD of both 24-h systolic and diastolic BP. Our study highlights as PPGL patients, after proper treatment, show a significant decrease in some short-term BPV markers, which might represent a further cardiovascular risk factor