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Showing papers by "University of Trento published in 2013"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper introduces selective search which combines the strength of both an exhaustive search and segmentation, and shows that its selective search enables the use of the powerful Bag-of-Words model for recognition.
Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of generating possible object locations for use in object recognition. We introduce selective search which combines the strength of both an exhaustive search and segmentation. Like segmentation, we use the image structure to guide our sampling process. Like exhaustive search, we aim to capture all possible object locations. Instead of a single technique to generate possible object locations, we diversify our search and use a variety of complementary image partitionings to deal with as many image conditions as possible. Our selective search results in a small set of data-driven, class-independent, high quality locations, yielding 99 % recall and a Mean Average Best Overlap of 0.879 at 10,097 locations. The reduced number of locations compared to an exhaustive search enables the use of stronger machine learning techniques and stronger appearance models for object recognition. In this paper we show that our selective search enables the use of the powerful Bag-of-Words model for recognition. The selective search software is made publicly available (Software: http://disi.unitn.it/~uijlings/SelectiveSearch.html ).

5,843 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of recent theoretical and experimental advances in the fundamental understanding and active control of quantum fluids of light in nonlinear optical systems is presented, from the superfluid flow around a defect at low speeds to the appearance of a Mach-Cherenkov cone in a supersonic flow, to the hydrodynamic formation of topological excitations such as quantized vortices and dark solitons at the surface of large impenetrable obstacles.
Abstract: This article reviews recent theoretical and experimental advances in the fundamental understanding and active control of quantum fluids of light in nonlinear optical systems. In the presence of effective photon-photon interactions induced by the optical nonlinearity of the medium, a many-photon system can behave collectively as a quantum fluid with a number of novel features stemming from its intrinsically nonequilibrium nature. A rich variety of recently observed photon hydrodynamical effects is presented, from the superfluid flow around a defect at low speeds, to the appearance of a Mach-Cherenkov cone in a supersonic flow, to the hydrodynamic formation of topological excitations such as quantized vortices and dark solitons at the surface of large impenetrable obstacles. While the review is mostly focused on a specific class of semiconductor systems that have been extensively studied in recent years (planar semiconductor microcavities in the strong light-matter coupling regime having cavity polaritons as elementary excitations), the very concept of quantum fluids of light applies to a broad spectrum of systems, ranging from bulk nonlinear crystals, to atomic clouds embedded in optical fibers and cavities, to photonic crystal cavities, to superconducting quantum circuits based on Josephson junctions. The conclusive part of the article is devoted to a review of the future perspectives in the direction of strongly correlated photon gases and of artificial gauge fields for photons. In particular, several mechanisms to obtain efficient photon blockade are presented, together with their application to the generation of novel quantum phases.

1,469 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
05 Nov 2013-eLife
TL;DR: The presence of Prevotella copri is identified as strongly correlated with disease in new-onset untreated rheumatoid arthritis (NORA) patients and uniquePrevotella genes that correlate with disease are identified.
Abstract: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a prevalent systemic autoimmune disease, caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Animal models suggest a role for intestinal bacteria in supporting the systemic immune response required for joint inflammation. Here we performed 16S sequencing on 114 stool samples from rheumatoid arthritis patients and controls, and shotgun sequencing on a subset of 44 such samples. We identified the presence of Prevotella copri as strongly correlated with disease in new-onset untreated rheumatoid arthritis (NORA) patients. Increases in Prevotella abundance correlated with a reduction in Bacteroides and a loss of reportedly beneficial microbes in NORA subjects. We also identified unique Prevotella genes that correlated with disease. Further, colonization of mice revealed the ability of P. copri to dominate the intestinal microbiota and resulted in an increased sensitivity to chemically induced colitis. This work identifies a potential role for P. copri in the pathogenesis of RA.

1,427 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Luca Amendola1, Stephen Appleby2, Anastasios Avgoustidis3, David Bacon4, Tessa Baker5, Marco Baldi6, Marco Baldi7, Marco Baldi8, Nicola Bartolo9, Nicola Bartolo6, Alain Blanchard10, Camille Bonvin11, Stefano Borgani6, Stefano Borgani12, Enzo Branchini6, Enzo Branchini13, Clare Burrage3, Stefano Camera, Carmelita Carbone14, Carmelita Carbone6, Luciano Casarini15, Luciano Casarini16, Mark Cropper17, Claudia de Rham18, J. P. Dietrich19, Cinzia Di Porto, Ruth Durrer11, Anne Ealet, Pedro G. Ferreira5, Fabio Finelli6, Juan Garcia-Bellido20, Tommaso Giannantonio19, Luigi Guzzo6, Luigi Guzzo14, Alan Heavens18, Lavinia Heisenberg21, Catherine Heymans22, Henk Hoekstra23, Lukas Hollenstein, Rory Holmes, Zhiqi Hwang24, Knud Jahnke25, Thomas D. Kitching17, Tomi S. Koivisto26, Martin Kunz11, Giuseppe Vacca27, Eric V. Linder28, M. March29, Valerio Marra30, Carlos Martins31, Elisabetta Majerotto11, Dida Markovic32, David J. E. Marsh33, Federico Marulli8, Federico Marulli6, Richard Massey34, Yannick Mellier35, Francesco Montanari36, David F. Mota15, Nelson J. Nunes37, Will J. Percival32, Valeria Pettorino38, Valeria Pettorino39, Cristiano Porciani, Claudia Quercellini, Justin I. Read40, Massimiliano Rinaldi41, Domenico Sapone42, Ignacy Sawicki43, Roberto Scaramella, Constantinos Skordis44, Constantinos Skordis43, Fergus Simpson45, Andy Taylor22, Shaun A. Thomas, Roberto Trotta18, Licia Verde45, Filippo Vernizzi39, Adrian Vollmer, Yun Wang46, Jochen Weller19, T. G. Zlosnik47 
TL;DR: Euclid is a European Space Agency medium-class mission selected for launch in 2020 within the cosmic vision 2015-2025 program as discussed by the authors, which will explore the expansion history of the universe and the evolution of cosmic structures by measuring shapes and red-shift of galaxies as well as the distribution of clusters of galaxies over a large fraction of the sky.
Abstract: Euclid is a European Space Agency medium-class mission selected for launch in 2020 within the cosmic vision 2015–2025 program. The main goal of Euclid is to understand the origin of the accelerated expansion of the universe. Euclid will explore the expansion history of the universe and the evolution of cosmic structures by measuring shapes and red-shifts of galaxies as well as the distribution of clusters of galaxies over a large fraction of the sky. Although the main driver for Euclid is the nature of dark energy, Euclid science covers a vast range of topics, from cosmology to galaxy evolution to planetary research. In this review we focus on cosmology and fundamental physics, with a strong emphasis on science beyond the current standard models. We discuss five broad topics: dark energy and modified gravity, dark matter, initial conditions, basic assumptions and questions of methodology in the data analysis. This review has been planned and carried out within Euclid’s Theory Working Group and is meant to provide a guide to the scientific themes that will underlie the activity of the group during the preparation of the Euclid mission.

1,211 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
25 Apr 2013-Cell
TL;DR: In this paper, the genesis of genomic rearrangements, including abundant DNA translocations and deletions that arise in a highly interdependent manner, was modeled and shown to induce considerable genomic derangement over relatively few events in prostate cancer and other neoplasms, supporting a model of punctuated cancer evolution.

1,146 citations


Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the state-of-the-art and identify research challenges when developing, deploying and managing self-adaptive software systems, focusing on four essential topics of selfadaptation: design space for selfadaptive solutions, software engineering processes, from centralized to decentralized control, and practical run-time verification & validation.
Abstract: The goal of this roadmap paper is to summarize the state-of-the-art and identify research challenges when developing, deploying and managing self-adaptive software systems. Instead of dealing with a wide range of topics associated with the field, we focus on four essential topics of self-adaptation: design space for self-adaptive solutions, software engineering processes for self-adaptive systems, from centralized to decentralized control, and practical run-time verification & validation for self-adaptive systems. For each topic, we present an overview, suggest future directions, and focus on selected challenges. This paper complements and extends a previous roadmap on software engineering for self-adaptive systems published in 2009 covering a different set of topics, and reflecting in part on the previous paper. This roadmap is one of the many results of the Dagstuhl Seminar 10431 on Software Engineering for Self-Adaptive Systems, which took place in October 2010.

783 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Graphene films can be crumpled into tailored self-organized hierarchical structures that mimic superhydrophobic leaves by harnessing the mechanical instabilities of graphene adhered on a biaxially pre-stretched polymer substrate and by controlling the relaxation of the pre-strains in a particular order.
Abstract: It is shown that by controlling the relaxation of graphene adhered on a biaxially pre-stretched polymer substrate, graphene films can be reversibly crumpled and unfolded to form tailored hierarchical structures with tunable wettability and transmittance, and that the crumpled graphene–polymer laminates can be used as actuators.

714 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a detailed description of the analysis used by the CMS Collaboration in the search for the standard model Higgs boson in pp collisions at the LHC, which led to the observation of a new boson.
Abstract: A detailed description is reported of the analysis used by the CMS Collaboration in the search for the standard model Higgs boson in pp collisions at the LHC, which led to the observation of a new boson. The data sample corresponds to integrated luminosities up to 5.1 inverse femtobarns at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, and up to 5.3 inverse femtobarns at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. The results for five Higgs boson decay modes gamma gamma, ZZ, WW, tau tau, and bb, which show a combined local significance of 5 standard deviations near 125 GeV, are reviewed. A fit to the invariant mass of the two high resolution channels, gamma gamma and ZZ to 4 ell, gives a mass estimate of 125.3 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst) GeV. The measurements are interpreted in the context of the standard model Lagrangian for the scalar Higgs field interacting with fermions and vector bosons. The measured values of the corresponding couplings are compared to the standard model predictions. The hypothesis of custodial symmetry is tested through the measurement of the ratio of the couplings to the W and Z bosons. All the results are consistent, within their uncertainties, with the expectations for a standard model Higgs boson.

643 citations


01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a method to improve the performance of the beamforming process in the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (Program) (DMR-1121107)
Abstract: National Science Foundation (U.S.). Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (Program) (DMR-1121107)

642 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, two-particle angular correlations for charged particles emitted in pPb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV are presented.

575 citations


Book ChapterDOI
16 Mar 2013
TL;DR: The latest version of MathSAT5 supports most of the SMT-LIB theories and their combinations, and provides many functionalities, including sound SAT-style Boolean formula preprocessing for SMT formulae and a framework allowing users for plugging their custom tuned SAT solvers.
Abstract: MathSAT is a long-term project, which has been jointly carried on by FBK-IRST and University of Trento, with the aim of developing and maintaining a state-of-the-art SMT tool for formal verification (and other applications). MathSAT5 is the latest version of the tool. It supports most of the SMT-LIB theories and their combinations, and provides many functionalities (like e.g. unsat cores, interpolation, AllSMT). MathSAT5 improves its predecessor MathSAT4 in many ways, also providing novel features: first, a much improved incrementality support, which is vital in SMT applications; second, a full support for the theories of arrays and floating point; third, sound SAT-style Boolean formula preprocessing for SMT formulae; finally, a framework allowing users for plugging their custom tuned SAT solvers. MathSAT5 is freely available, and it is used in numerous internal projects, as well as by a number of industrial partners.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, measurements of two-and four-particle angular correlations for charged particles emitted in pPb collisions are presented over a wide range in pseudorapidity and full azimuth.

Proceedings Article
01 Aug 2013
TL;DR: An analysis of the performance of publicly available, state-of-the-art tools on all layers and languages in the OntoNotes v5.0 corpus should set the benchmark for future development of various NLP components in syntax and semantics, and possibly encourage research towards an integrated system that makes use of the various layers jointly to improve overall performance.
Abstract: Large-scale linguistically annotated corpora have played a crucial role in advancing the state of the art of key natural language technologies such as syntactic, semantic and discourse analyzers, and they serve as training data as well as evaluation benchmarks. Up till now, however, most of the evaluation has been done on monolithic corpora such as the Penn Treebank, the Proposition Bank. As a result, it is still unclear how the state-of-the-art analyzers perform in general on data from a variety of genres or domains. The completion of the OntoNotes corpus, a large-scale, multi-genre, multilingual corpus manually annotated with syntactic, semantic and discourse information, makes it possible to perform such an evaluation. This paper presents an analysis of the performance of publicly available, state-of-the-art tools on all layers and languages in the OntoNotes v5.0 corpus. This should set the benchmark for future development of various NLP components in syntax and semantics, and possibly encourage research towards an integrated system that makes use of the various layers jointly to improve overall performance.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The present data are consistent with the pure scalar hypothesis, while disfavoring the pure pseudoscalar hypothesis.
Abstract: A study is presented of the mass and spin-parity of the new boson recently observed at the LHC at a mass near 125 GeV. An integrated luminosity of 17.3 fb^(-1), collected by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, is used. The measured mass in the ZZ channel, where both Z bosons decay to e or μ pairs, is 126.2±0.6(stat)±0.2(syst) GeV. The angular distributions of the lepton pairs in this channel are sensitive to the spin-parity of the boson. Under the assumption of spin 0, the present data are consistent with the pure scalar hypothesis, while disfavoring the pure pseudoscalar hypothesis.

Book
17 Jan 2013
TL;DR: This chapter discusses the development of causation and its applications in science, as well as some of the theories and applications currently in use.
Abstract: List of illustrations Preface 1. Introduction 2. Function 3. Evolution 4. Development 5. Causation 6. Applications and future directions References Index.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An unbinned maximum-likelihood fit to the dimuon invariant mass distribution gives a branching fraction B(Bs(0)→μ+ μ-)=(3.0(-0.9)(+1.0))×10(-9), where the uncertainty includes both statistical and systematic contributions.
Abstract: Results are presented from a search for the rare decays B0s→μ+μ− and B0→μ+μ− in pp collisions at s√=7 and 8 TeV, with data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of 5 and 20 fb−1, respectively, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. An unbinned maximum-likelihood fit to the dimuon invariant mass distribution gives a branching fraction B(B0s→μ+μ−)=(3.0+1.0−0.9)×10−9, where the uncertainty includes both statistical and systematic contributions. An excess of B0s→μ+μ− events with respect to background is observed with a significance of 4.3 standard deviations. For the decay B0→μ+μ− an upper limit of B(B0→μ+μ−)<1.1×10−9 at the 95% confidence level is determined. Both results are in agreement with the expectations from the standard model.

Journal ArticleDOI
S. Chatrchyan1, Vardan Khachatryan1, Albert M. Sirunyan1, Armen Tumasyan1  +3948 moreInstitutions (144)
21 Dec 2013
TL;DR: In this article, a search for the pair production of top squarks in events with a single isolated electron or muon, jets, large missing transverse momentum, and large transverse mass is presented.
Abstract: This paper presents a search for the pair production of top squarks in events with a single isolated electron or muon, jets, large missing transverse momentum, and large transverse mass. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 inverse femtobarns of pp collisions collected in 2012 by the CMS experiment at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. No significant excess in data is observed above the expectation from standard model processes. The results are interpreted in the context of supersymmetric models with pair production of top squarks that decay either to a top quark and a neutralino or to a bottom quark and a chargino. For small mass values of the lightest supersymmetric particle, top-squark mass values up to around 650 GeV are excluded.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that the distribution of IFOF fibers within the frontal lobe corresponds to a fine functional segmentation and can be considered as a “multi-function” bundle, with each anatomical subcomponent subserving different brain processing.
Abstract: The anatomy and functional role of the inferior fronto-occipital fascicle (IFOF) remain poorly known. We accurately analyze its course and the anatomical distribution of its frontal terminations. We propose a classification of the IFOF in different subcomponents. Ten hemispheres (5 left, 5 right) were dissected with Klingler's technique. In addition to the IFOF dissection, we performed a 4-T diffusion tensor imaging study on a single healthy subject. We identified two layers of IFOF. The first one is superficial and antero-superiorly directed, terminating in the inferior frontal gyrus. The second is deeper and consists of three portions: posterior, middle and anterior. The posterior component terminates in the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex. The middle component terminates in the MFG and lateral orbito-frontal cortex. The anterior one is directed to the orbito-frontal cortex and frontal pole. In vivo tractography study confirmed these anatomical findings. We suggest that the distribution of IFOF fibers within the frontal lobe corresponds to a fine functional segmentation. IFOF can be considered as a "multi-function" bundle, with each anatomical subcomponent subserving different brain processing. The superficial layer and the posterior component of the deep layer, which connects the occipital extrastriate, temporo-basal and inferior frontal cortices, might subserve semantic processing. The middle component of the deep layer could play a role in a multimodal sensory-motor integration. Finally, the anterior component of the deep layer might be involved in emotional and behavioral aspects.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
22 Jun 2013
TL;DR: NADEEF is presented, an extensible, generalized and easy-to-deploy data cleaning platform that is designed in a way to allow cleaning algorithms to cope with multiple rules holistically, i.e. detecting and repairing data errors without differentiating between various types of rules.
Abstract: Despite the increasing importance of data quality and the rich theoretical and practical contributions in all aspects of data cleaning, there is no single end-to-end off-the-shelf solution to (semi-)automate the detection and the repairing of violations w.r.t. a set of heterogeneous and ad-hoc quality constraints. In short, there is no commodity platform similar to general purpose DBMSs that can be easily customized and deployed to solve application-specific data quality problems. In this paper, we present NADEEF, an extensible, generalized and easy-to-deploy data cleaning platform. NADEEF distinguishes between a programming interface and a core to achieve generality and extensibility. The programming interface allows the users to specify multiple types of data quality rules, which uniformly define what is wrong with the data and (possibly) how to repair it through writing code that implements predefined classes. We show that the programming interface can be used to express many types of data quality rules beyond the well known CFDs (FDs), MDs and ETL rules. Treating user implemented interfaces as black-boxes, the core provides algorithms to detect errors and to clean data. The core is designed in a way to allow cleaning algorithms to cope with multiple rules holistically, i.e. detecting and repairing data errors without differentiating between various types of rules. We showcase two implementations for core repairing algorithms. These two implementations demonstrate the extensibility of our core, which can also be replaced by other user-provided algorithms. Using real-life data, we experimentally verify the generality, extensibility, and effectiveness of our system.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, results of searches for heavy stable charged particles produced in pp collisions at 7 and 8 TeV are presented corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 and 18.8 inverse femtobarns, respectively.
Abstract: Results of searches for heavy stable charged particles produced in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 and 8 TeV are presented corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 inverse femtobarns and 18.8 inverse femtobarns, respectively. Data collected with the CMS detector are used to study the momentum, energy deposition, and time-of-flight of signal candidates. Leptons with an electric charge between e/3 and 8e, as well as bound states that can undergo charge exchange with the detector material, are studied. Analysis results are presented for various combinations of signatures in the inner tracker only, inner tracker and muon detector, and muon detector only. Detector signatures utilized are long time-of-flight to the outer muon system and anomalously high (or low) energy deposition in the inner tracker. The data are consistent with the expected background, and upper limits are set on the production cross section of long-lived gluinos, scalar top quarks, and scalar tau leptons, as well as pair produced long-lived leptons. Corresponding lower mass limits, ranging up to 1322 GeV for gluinos, are the most stringent to date.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Mar 2013
TL;DR: A framework that aims at defining a top-down approach to the design of the architecture of novel change-detection systems for multitemporal VHR images taking into account the intrinsic complexity associated with these data is proposed.
Abstract: This paper addresses change detection in multitemporal remote sensing images. After a review of the main techniques developed in remote sensing for the analysis of multitemporal data, the attention is focused on the challenging problem of change detection in very-high-resolution (VHR) multispectral images. In this context, we propose a framework that aims at defining a top-down approach to the design of the architecture of novel change-detection systems for multitemporal VHR images. The proposed framework explicitly models the presence of different radiometric changes on the basis of the properties of multitemporal images, extracts the semantic meaning of radiometric changes, identifies changes of interest with strategies designed on the basis of the specific application, and takes advantage of the intrinsic multiscale/multilevel properties of the objects and the high spatial correlation between pixels in a neighborhood. This framework defines guidelines for the development of a new generation of change-detection methods that can properly analyze multitemporal VHR images taking into account the intrinsic complexity associated with these data. In order to illustrate the use of the proposed framework, a real change-detection problem has been considered, which is described by a pair of VHR multispectral images acquired by the QuickBird satellite on the city of Trento, Italy. The proposed framework has been used for defining a system for change detection in the two images. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the developed system and the usefulness of the proposed framework.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: First data on a tumor patient show reduction in both relayed NOE and CEST amid proton signals leading to an increase in magnetization transfer ratio asymmetry, providing insight into previously reported amide proton transfer (APT) effects in tumors.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The work in this paper shows that reactive search optimization scheme, i.e., the “learning while optimizing” principle, is effective in improving multiobjective optimization algorithms.
Abstract: Combining ant colony optimization (ACO) and the multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (EA) based on decomposition (MOEA/D), this paper proposes a multiobjective EA, i.e., MOEA/D-ACO. Following other MOEA/D-like algorithms, MOEA/D-ACO decomposes a multiobjective optimization problem into a number of single-objective optimization problems. Each ant (i.e., agent) is responsible for solving one subproblem. All the ants are divided into a few groups, and each ant has several neighboring ants. An ant group maintains a pheromone matrix, and an individual ant has a heuristic information matrix. During the search, each ant also records the best solution found so far for its subproblem. To construct a new solution, an ant combines information from its group's pheromone matrix, its own heuristic information matrix, and its current solution. An ant checks the new solutions constructed by itself and its neighbors, and updates its current solution if it has found a better one in terms of its own objective. Extensive experiments have been conducted in this paper to study and compare MOEA/D-ACO with other algorithms on two sets of test problems. On the multiobjective 0-1 knapsack problem, MOEA/D-ACO outperforms the MOEA/D with conventional genetic operators and local search on all the nine test instances. We also demonstrate that the heuristic information matrices in MOEA/D-ACO are crucial to the good performance of MOEA/D-ACO for the knapsack problem. On the biobjective traveling salesman problem, MOEA/D-ACO performs much better than the BicriterionAnt on all the 12 test instances. We also evaluate the effects of grouping, neighborhood, and the location information of current solutions on the performance of MOEA/D-ACO. The work in this paper shows that reactive search optimization scheme, i.e., the “learning while optimizing” principle, is effective in improving multiobjective optimization algorithms.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The eradication of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth resulted in improvement in motor fluctuations without affecting the pharmacokinetics of levodopa.
Abstract: Parkinson's disease is associated with gastrointestinal motility abnormalities favoring the occurrence of local infections. The aim of this study was to investigate whether small intestinal bacterial overgrowth contributes to the pathophysiology of motor fluctuations. Thirty-three patients and 30 controls underwent glucose, lactulose, and urea breath tests to detect small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and Helicobacter pylori infection. Patients also underwent ultrasonography to evaluate gastric emptying. The clinical status and plasma concentration of levodopa were assessed after an acute drug challenge with a standard dose of levodopa, and motor complications were assessed by Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale-IV and by 1-week diaries of motor conditions. Patients with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth were treated with rifaximin and were clinically and instrumentally reevaluated 1 and 6 months later. The prevalence of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth was significantly higher in patients than in controls (54.5% vs. 20.0%; P = .01), whereas the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection was not (33.3% vs. 26.7%). Compared with patients without any infection, the prevalence of unpredictable fluctuations was significantly higher in patients with both infections (8.3% vs. 87.5%; P = .008). Gastric half-emptying time was significantly longer in patients than in healthy controls but did not differ in patients based on their infective status. Compared with patients without isolated small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, patients with isolated small intestinal bacterial overgrowth had longer off time daily and more episodes of delayed-on and no-on. The eradication of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth resulted in improvement in motor fluctuations without affecting the pharmacokinetics of levodopa. The relapse rate of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth at 6 months was 43%. © 2013 Movement Disorder Society.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The estimation of the directions of arrival (DoAs) of narrow-band signals impinging on a linear antenna array is addressed within the Bayesian compressive sensing (BCS) framework and customized implementations exploiting the measurements collected at a unique time instant and multiple time instants are presented and discussed.
Abstract: The estimation of the directions of arrival (DoAs) of narrow-band signals impinging on a linear antenna array is addressed within the Bayesian compressive sensing (BCS) framework. Unlike several state-of-the-art approaches, the voltages at the output of the receiving sensors are directly used to determine the DoAs of the signals thus avoiding the computation of the correlation matrix. Towards this end, the estimation problem is properly formulated to enforce the sparsity of the solution in the linear relationships between output voltages (i.e., the problem data) and the unknown DoAs. Customized implementations exploiting the measurements collected at a unique time instant (single-snapshot) and multiple time instants (multiple-snapshots) are presented and discussed. The effectiveness of the proposed approaches is assessed through an extensive numerical analysis addressing different scenarios, signal configurations, and noise conditions. Comparisons with state-of-the-art methods are reported, as well.

Journal ArticleDOI
Stephen A. Bustin1, Vladimir Benes2, Jeremy A. Garson3, Jan Hellemans, Jim F. Huggett, Mikael Kubista, Reinhold Mueller, Tania Nolan, Michael W. Pfaffl4, Gregory L. Shipley, Carl T. Wittwer5, Peter Schjerling6, Philip J. R. Day7, Mónica Abreu8, Begoña Aguado9, Jean-François Beaulieu10, Anneleen Beckers11, Sara Bogaert11, John A. Browne12, Fernando Carrasco-Ramiro9, Liesbeth Ceelen, Kate L. Ciborowski13, Pieter Cornillie11, Stephanie Coulon11, Ann Cuypers14, Sara De Brouwer11, Leentje De Ceuninck11, Jurgen De Craene11, Hélène De Naeyer11, Ward De Spiegelaere11, Kato Deckers15, Annelies Dheedene11, Kaat Durinck11, Margarida Ferreira-Teixeira8, Annelies Fieuw11, Jack M. Gallup16, Sandra Gonzalo-Flores9, Karen Goossens11, Femke Heindryckx17, Elizabeth Herring10, Hans Hoenicka, Laura Icardi11, Rolf Jaggi18, Farzad Javad7, Michael Karampelias11, Frederick S. B. Kibenge19, Molly J. T. Kibenge19, Candy Kumps11, Irina Lambertz11, Tim Lammens20, Amelia Markey7, Peter Messiaen20, Evelien Mets11, Sofia Morais, Alberto Mudarra-Rubio9, Justine K. Nakiwala21, Hilde Nelis11, Pål A. Olsvik22, Claudina Perez-Novo20, Michelle Plusquin14, Tony Remans14, Ali Rihani11, Paulo Rodrigues-Santos8, Pieter Rondou11, Rebecca Sanders, Katharina Schmidt-Bleek23, Kerstin Skovgaard24, Karen Smeets14, Laura Tabera9, Stefan Toegel25, Tim Van Acker11, Wim Van den Broeck11, Joni Van der Meulen11, Mireille Van Gele11, Gert Van Peer11, Mario Van Poucke11, Nadine Van Roy11, Sarah Vergult11, Joris Wauman11, Marina Tshuikina-Wiklander26, Erik Willems27, Sara Zaccara28, Fjoralba Zeka11, Jo Vandesompele11 
TL;DR: Two surveys of over 1,700 publications whose authors use quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) reveal a lack of transparent and comprehensive reporting of essential technical information.
Abstract: Two surveys of over 1,700 publications whose authors use quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) reveal a lack of transparent and comprehensive reporting of essential technical information. Reporting standards are significantly improved in publications that cite the Minimum Information for Publication of Quantitative Real-Time PCR Experiments (MIQE) guidelines, although such publications are still vastly outnumbered by those that do not.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An effective solution to deal with supervised change detection in very high geometrical resolution (VHR) images is studied and the inclusion of spatial and contextual information issued from local textural statistics and mathematical morphology is proposed.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
13 May 2013
TL;DR: This paper studies the nature of social-media content generated during two different natural disasters and trains a model based on conditional random fields to extract valuable information from such content.
Abstract: During times of disasters online users generate a significant amount of data, some of which are extremely valuable for relief efforts. In this paper, we study the nature of social-media content generated during two different natural disasters. We also train a model based on conditional random fields to extract valuable information from such content. We evaluate our techniques over our two datasets through a set of carefully designed experiments. We also test our methods over a non-disaster dataset to show that our extraction model is useful for extracting information from socially-generated content in general.

Journal ArticleDOI
07 Mar 2013
TL;DR: This paper is aimed at reviewing the array design approaches proposed in the state of the art for long-range wireless power transmission, highlighting the latest advances and innovative solutions as well as envisaging possible future trends of the research in this area.
Abstract: The concept of long-range wireless power transmission (WPT) has been formulated shortly after the invention of high power microwave amplifiers. The promise of WPT, energy transfer over large distances without the need to deploy a wired electrical network, led to the development of landmark successful experiments, and provided the incentive for further research to increase the performances, efficiency, and robustness of these technological solutions. In this framework, the key-role and challenges in designing transmitting and receiving antenna arrays able to guarantee high-efficiency power transfer and cost-effective deployment for the WPT system has been soon acknowledged. Nevertheless, owing to its intrinsic complexity, the design of WPT arrays is still an open research field whose importance is growing as the possibility to transfer energy by means of electromagnetic waves gathers more and more interest from the applicative viewpoint. This paper is aimed at reviewing the array design approaches proposed in the state of the art for long-range wireless power transmission, highlighting the latest advances and innovative solutions as well as envisaging possible future trends of the research in this area.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A systematic, large-scale structure is found in the neural responses related to the interaction between two major cognitive dimensions of object representation: animacy and real-world size that reflect the major joints in the representational structure of objects and place informative constraints on the nature of the underlying cognitive architecture.
Abstract: Occipito-temporal cortex is known to house visual object representations, but the organization of the neural activation patterns along this cortex is still being discovered. Here we found a systematic, large-scale structure in the neural responses related to the interaction between two major cognitive dimensions of object representation: animacy and real-world size. Neural responses were measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging while human observers viewed images of big and small animals and big and small objects. We found that real-world size drives differential responses only in the object domain, not the animate domain, yielding a tripartite distinction in the space of object representation. Specifically, cortical zones with distinct response preferences for big objects, all animals, and small objects, are arranged in a spoked organization around the occipital pole, along a single ventromedial, to lateral, to dorsomedial axis. The preference zones are duplicated on the ventral and lateral surface of the brain. Such a duplication indicates that a yet unknown higher-order division of labor separates object processing into two substreams of the ventral visual pathway. Broadly, we suggest that these large-scale neural divisions reflect the major joints in the representational structure of objects and thus place informative constraints on the nature of the underlying cognitive architecture.