Search results for " ensemble"
showing 10 items of 93 documents
How do presenters engage with their audience? Speakers multimodal interpersonal behaviour in research dissemination talks
2020
Abstract Speakers in research dissemination talks are challenged with the need to connect with an audience that does not necessarily share their knowledge and expertise. This communicative situation can be particularly challenging for speakers using English both as a foreign language and for academic purposes. This study combines multimodal and ethnographic methods to explore how speakers of dissemination talks engage with their public. It focuses on four presenters’ use and combination of language, paralanguage, kinesics, proxemics and gaze during intensive moments of engagement. The results show that these interpersonal rich points consist of dense multimodal ensembles that serve to short…
Accurate estimation of retinal vessel width using bagged decision trees and an extended multiresolution Hermite model.
2012
We present an algorithm estimating the width of retinal vessels in fundus camera images. The algorithm uses a novel parametric surface model of the cross-sectional intensities of vessels, and ensembles of bagged decision trees to estimate the local width from the parameters of the best-fit surface. We report comparative tests with REVIEW, currently the public database of reference for retinal width estimation, containing 16 images with 193 annotated vessel segments and 5066 profile points annotated manually by three independent experts. Comparative tests are reported also with our own set of 378 vessel widths selected sparsely in 38 images from the Tayside Scotland diabetic retinopathy scre…
Design for social media engagement: Insights from elderly care assistance
2015
Abstract This paper explores an alternative view of design as an emergent process of engagement and learning, as opposed to the traditional view of systems design as a problem-solving tool. We focus on digitally enabled elderly support networks as an innovative approach to the design of elderly care assistance through social media. Our research project is conducted in the context of an Italian health-care institution and provides the empirical backdrop illustrating the ensemble artefact, the four design principles and the pragmatic outcomes of personalized elderly care interventions. These contributions add both practical and theoretical guidance and learning regarding social-media engageme…
Learning-induced neural plasticity of speech processing before birth
2013
Learning, the foundation of adaptive and intelligent behavior, is based on plastic changes in neural assemblies, reflected by the modulation of electric brain responses. In infancy, auditory learning implicates the formation and strengthening of neural long-term memory traces, improving discrimination skills, in particular those forming the prerequisites for speech perception and understanding. Although previous behavioral observations show that newborns react differentially to unfamiliar sounds vs. familiar sound material that they were exposed to as fetuses, the neural basis of fetal learning has not thus far been investigated. Here we demonstrate direct neural correlates of human fetal l…
Critical end point behaviour in a binary fluid mixture
1997
We consider the liquid-gas phase boundary in a binary fluid mixture near its critical end point. Using general scaling arguments we show that the diameter of the liquid-gas coexistence curve exhibits singular behaviour as the critical end point is approached. This prediction is tested by means of extensive Monte-Carlo simulations of a symmetrical Lennard-Jones binary mixture within the grand canonical ensemble. The simulation results show clear evidence for the proposed singularity, as well as confirming a previously predicted singularity in the coexistence chemical potential [Fisher and Upton, Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 2402 (1990)]. The results suggest that the observed singularities, particula…
A note on the uniqueness result for the inverse Henderson problem
2019
The inverse Henderson problem of statistical mechanics is the theoretical foundation for many bottom-up coarse-graining techniques for the numerical simulation of complex soft matter physics. This inverse problem concerns classical particles in continuous space which interact according to a pair potential depending on the distance of the particles. Roughly stated, it asks for the interaction potential given the equilibrium pair correlation function of the system. In 1974, Henderson proved that this potential is uniquely determined in a canonical ensemble and he claimed the same result for the thermodynamical limit of the physical system. Here, we provide a rigorous proof of a slightly more …
The growth of charged platelets.
2014
Growth models of charged nanoplatelets are investigated with Monte Carlo simulations and simple theory. In a first model, 2-dimensional simulations in the canonical ensemble are used to demonstrate that the growth of a single weakly charged platelet could be limited by its own internal repulsion. The short range attractive interaction in the crystal is modeled with a square well potential while the electrostatic interactions are described with a screened Coulomb potential. The qualitative behavior of this case can also be described by simply balancing the attractive crystal energy with the screened Coulomb repulsion between the crystal sites. This repulsion is a free energy term dominated b…
Monte Carlo Simulations of a Clay Inspired Model Suspension: The Role of Rim Charge
2012
International audience; We present a theoretical investigation of a model clay dispersion in 1-1 salt solutions by varying the particle volume fraction and ionic strength as well as the charge distribution on the clay platelets. The platelets are modeled as discs with charged sites distributed on a hexagonal lattice. The edge sites can be positively charged while the remaining sites are negative giving rise to a strong charge anisotropy. Simulations are carried out using a Monte Carlo method in the canonical ensemble. The interactions between the platelet sites are described with a screened Coulomb potential plus a short range repulsive potential. Simulations show a complex phase behavior. …
Canonical versus microcanonical analysis of first-order phase transitions
1998
Abstract I discuss the relation between canonical and microcanonical analyses of first-order phase transitions. In particular it is shown that the microcanonical Maxwell construction is equivalent to the equal-peak-height criterion often employed in canonical simulations. As a consequence the microcanonical finite-size estimators for the transition point, latent heat and interface tension are identical to standard estimators in the canonical ensemble. Special emphasis is placed on various ways for estimating interface tensions. The theoretical considerations are illustrated with numerical data for the two-dimensional 10-state Potts model.
Quantum Effects and Phase Transitions in Adsorbed Molecular Layers
1998
Phase transitions in adsorbed (two dimensional) fluids and in adsorbed layers of molecules are studied with a combination of path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC), Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo (GEMC) and finite size scaling techniques. Entropy driven phase transitions in systems with purely repulsive interactions are analyzed as well phase diagrams of fluids with internal quantum states. Adsorbed layers of H 2 molecules at a full monolayer coverage in the \(\sqrt 3 \times \sqrt 3 \) structure have a higher transition temperature to the disordered phase compared to the system with the heavier D 2 molecules, this effect is analyzed by PIMC. Linear N 2 molecules adsorbed on graphite show a transition…