3,887 research outputs found
La Fenomenologia dello spirito di Hegel: Problemi e interpretazioni
No full textIl volume raccoglie saggi dedicati alla Fenomenologia dello spirito di G.W.F. Hegel e ad alcune sue principali interpretazioni. A scritti dal taglio più nettamente storiografico che ne ricostruiscono le influenze in autori quali Marx, Gentile, Heidegger, Kojève, Paci, Lacan e Brandom, si affiancano contributi volti a ricostruire alcuni nodi categoriali che, sollecitati dal testo hegeliano, hanno segnato le riflessioni etiche, teoretiche, filosofico-politiche e psicoanalitiche successive: dialettica, cultura, negazione, desiderio, corpo, fenomeno, riconoscimento. Questa raccolta non intende quindi né riproporre la lettera del testo hegeliano, né avanzare una sua specifica interpretazione. Piuttosto, gli autori hanno condiviso lo sforzo di illustrare in actu exercito le possibilità di movimento tra questi due estremi – testo e interpretazione – tra cui la cultura filosofica si muove. Attraverso questo movimento la Fenomenologia dello spirito continua a produrre filosofia, ossia ad essere occasione e strumento per la comprensione del “proprio tempo col pensiero”
Fixation Drifts in Neuromorphic Vision Sensing & Computing: a Natural Approach for Effective Space-Time Encoding of Static Scenes
No full textDespite the name, human fixation is a highly dynamic process. Contrary to a photographer, who puts a great effort in keeping the lens still, eyes incessantly move even during fixation, to the point visibility would otherwise rapidly fade away. Beyond avoiding perceptual fading, many functional advantages of Fixational Eye Movements have been pointed out in biology, persuading the scientific community that FEMs are far from being a nuisance as originally believed. On the wave of these findings, I investigate their role in neuromorphic vision sensing and processing, hence bridging two active research fields: vision neuroscience and neuromorphic computing. By emulating primary functionalities of the human retina, neuromorphic cameras represent a convenient device for either investigating (by modeling) visual neuroscience theories, as well as building power-efficient robotic systems. I exploit neuromorphic technology to examine the effects of active viewing strategies during fixation, emphasizing the benefits they provide in terms of both space and time encoding of static visual inputs. My aim is to confirm main biological evidence and propose new arguments on the importance of such movements for artificial vision systems, further extendable to biological ones. The scientific questions I tackle can be expressed as follows: (1) “How do bio-inspired fixation drifts influence the spatio-temporal representation of static visual features in neuromorphic sensing?” and (2) “How does this affect subsequent processing stages?”. The first step to answer both questions is the design of a neuromorphic active- vision setup – able to finely reproduce microscopic and randomly-drifting bio-inspired motion patterns – combined with the development of a suitable software toolkit. This enables to effortlessly acquire significant amount of event-based data from different static visual sources, for further analysis. I then characterize the output signal of the silicon retina using either traditional computer vision algorithms, latest deep-learning architectures, and emerging spiking neural networks. Specifically, to answer the first question, I examine purely spatial information gathered from event-based recordings of natural images and synthetic stimuli. I adopt both traditional amplitude-based image correlation approaches (frequently employed for efficient coding studies in vision science), as well as more sophisticated phase-based examination techniques (coupled with Gabor filter banks for robust local feature extraction,
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and metrics inherited from neuroimaging research). The influence of motion isotropy is then evaluated based on circular statistic tests and image deconvolution techniques (refined using Tikhonov regularization). Finally, to conclude the first question, I asses the distribution events on the temporal dimension by using a custom deep-learning pipeline, together with neuromorphic data recorded from a large and well-established computer-vision dataset. The pipeline uses progressively increasing temporal scales of the data stream, and mainly comprises state-of-the-art 2D and 3D convolutional neural networks, as well as a cutting-edge spiking network model. Since the latter is particularly suitable for neuromorphic hardware implementations, this answers the second question as well. Collectively, my results prove that fixational drifts assist vision in (i) minimizing redundancy, by removing space correlations and inducing whitening effects of the amplitude spectrum, (ii) preserving relevant structural information, by retaining local phase with no alteration, (iii) acting as preliminary anisotropic filtering stages, that can be combined in time for unbiased feature extraction, (iv) inducing biologically-comparable time modulations of static visual information, by arranging events in complex spatio-temporal patterns, and (v) improving a subsequent spike-based computation, able to learn rich temporal codes for high-level vision tasks. Overall, these aspects reflect in an efficient spatio-temporal encoding of static visual scenes, that benefits both transmission and computation of spiking data downstream the hierarchical structure of the visual system. Hopefully, the modeling framework I propose could serve as a methodological basis to (i) investigate data encoding in visual systems, (ii) provide preliminary proofs or refusals of neuroscientific theories about FEMs, (ii) produce novel and suitable benchmarks for advancing the field of neuromorphic computing, and finally (iv) inspire future robotic applications to efficiently gather visual information during fixation. Since neuromorphic hardware is particularly suited for embedded and power-constrained solutions, a mechanism that helps discarding redundancy while preserving informative content can be a convenient tool for optimizing data transmission, both in terms of wiring and energy requirements. Moreover, given that spike-based algorithms and processors are particularly convenient for (and devoted to) richly time-structured data, finding an optimal strategy for effectively encoding space in time is crucial for real-world neuromorphic vision applications. Nature came up with a single elegant solution for both problems
Rozpor ako východisko, láska ako smer u Simone Weilovej (Contradiction as base, Love as direction in writings of Simone Weil)
No full textArticle is explaining contradiction and love, Simone Weil‘s essential terms of hermeneutics of human Being. It introduces close relation of these terms with her understanding of God as well as with her overall concept of religion. Author also mentions Simone Weil‘s inspirations with philosophical and spiritual concepts of the East
“I beg you to tell me what has become of Djamila”: The Political Mobilization of Simone de Beauvoir’s Readers During the Boupacha Affair
No full textBy Sophia Millman This is a condensed version of a Masters thesis dedicated to the political mobilization of Simone de Beauvoir’s readers. The citations from the letters were translated from French by the author. *** On June 2, 1960, the French government ordered all copies of the daily Algiers edition of Le Monde seized and destroyed to suppress the publication of Simone de Beauvoir’s article “Pour Djamila Boupacha.” Beauvoir, a self-professed “woman of letters”, not “of action[1]”, and one ..
Actual and Perceived Level of Scientific English across Italian Physiotherapy Courses: A Cross-Sectional Study
No full textThe knowledge of the English language is fundamental for the application of evidence-based practice. This study explores, through an online survey, the (1) perceived and (2) actual level of Scientific English among Italian undergraduate (UGs) and postgraduate (PGs) physiotherapists. As for (1), the participants expressed their agreement with 10 statements regarding the attitude towards Scientific English through a 1–4 Likert-type scale, with consensus set at ≥70%. As for (2), an ad-hoc 10-point questionnaire was developed through a Delphi procedure, with a pass score set at ≥60%. The survey was completed by 421 participants (UG: 47%; PG: 53%). As for (1), consensus was achieved in both groups in 4 out of 10 statements, specifically the ones addressing the capability to fully understand a scientific paper and physiotherapy-specific language in English. As for (2), the mean score reached by both groups was below 60%. The participants who had studied or were studying at a university in southern Italy presented 2.56 [1.54; 4.24] times higher odds to fail the test. New strategies to bridge the gap in the knowledge of Scientific English in Italy should be developed, through the creation of a unique syllabus tailored to the needs of future physiotherapist
Active fixation as an efficient coding strategy for neuromorphic vision
No full textAbstract Contrary to a photographer, who puts a great effort in keeping the lens still, eyes insistently move even during fixation. This benefits signal decorrelation, which underlies an efficient encoding of visual information. Yet, camera motion is not sufficient alone; it must be coupled with a sensor specifically selective to temporal changes. Indeed, motion induced on standard imagers only results in burring effects. Neuromorphic sensors represent a valuable solution. Here we characterize the response of an event-based camera equipped with fixational eye movements (FEMs) on both synthetic and natural images. Our analyses prove that the system starts an early stage of redundancy suppression, as a precursor of subsequent whitening processes on the amplitude spectrum. This does not come at the price of corrupting structural information contained in local spatial phase across oriented axes. Isotropy of FEMs ensures proper representations of image features without introducing biases towards specific contrast orientations
A comparative study of form and theology in the works of Flannery O'Connor and Simone Weil
No full textIn this comparative study of the form and theology of Flannery O'Connor and Simone Weil I interrogate how Weil's philosophical writings and her theology illuminate O'Connor's use of both narrative and non-fictional forms, and her Catholicism. The Introduction analyses how Weil's concept of superposed reading provides a new method of approaching both O'Connor, her writings, and O'Connor
studies, and focuses on how such apparently different women interconnect. Chapter One explores how both Weil and O'Connor attempt to write their theologies on the
souls of their readers yet are each subject to constraints imposed by form. Weil's concept of locating equilibrium between incommensurates is discussed, and her
distinctively philosophical approach to fictions and fictionality is used to investigate O'Connor's notion of prophetic fictions and the writer's role. Chapter Two assesses how both writers revivify Christian paradoxes. Weil's monstrous concept of affiiction, and O'Connor's use of the grotesque genre to jolt secular man into an
awareness of the sacred are scrutinised. Chapter Three studies how both writers consider an encounter between God and man is possible through the action of grace. My Conclusion interrogates how Weil's work can deepen our understanding of O'Connor's writings, and examines how successful O'Connor is at realising a truly
Christian literature. I conclude that despite being a writer of powerful fictions, O'Connor can not be totally successful in her mission as writer-prophet because
ultimately fiction escapes orthodoxy
A Bio-Inspired Neuromorphic Active Vision System Based on Fixational Eye Movements
No full textSimilar to biological retinas, neuromorphic Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS) devices only respond to changes in the visual scene. It has been observed that in biological systems there is a causal relationship between fixational eye movements and target visibility during fixation, which plays a central role in vision. Based on these findings we implemented an active vision system comprising of a DVS mounted on a pan-tilt unit to introduce microscopic and erratic camera movements as a pivot for artificial vision of static scenes. The key principle is that moving the sensor over an image shifts the low temporal frequency power of a static scene into a range that an event-based retina can properly signal and encode it as highly synchronous activity. By characterizing the signal provided by the active vision system we evidenced (1) an amplification of its response to high spatial frequencies; (2) a whitening effect when scaling stimulus contrast to match the structure of natural images; and (3) an equalized response to all possible orientations of static stimuli related to the isotropic statistics of the random-like motion. The design of a further proper anisotropic spatial summation of events with opponent contrast polarity in a biologically-realistic spiking neural network allowed the detection of information relative to the local orientation of stimuli in a fully bio-inspired fashion. We validate the system proposed with experimental results using synthetic control stimuli
The role of strategic communication in facing paracrisis: a multiple case approach in the lab-grown meat industry
No full textMicrolinices benthovus Simone 2014
No full textbenthovus, Microlinices Simone, 2014 Microlinices benthovus Simone, 2014: 575–578 (figs 6A–J, 7A–H, 11A–C). Gastropoda, Naticidae Paratypes (22 spc): MZSP 105269. Paratypes 1 (15 spc): MZSP 105270. Paratypes 2 (16 spc): MZSP 105271. Paratypes 3 (7 spc): MZSP 105272. Localities: Brazil, Espírito Santo, off Itaúnas, Abrolhos Slope, 18°59' S, 37°50' W, MD55 sta. DC 73, 637 m depth, 27 May 1987; 1) 19°00' S, 37°48' W, MD55 sta. DC72, 950– 1050 m, 27 May 1987; 2) off Regência, 19°40' S, 37°48' W, MD55 sta. CB77, 790– 940 m depth, 27 May 1987; 3) off Itaúnas, Abrolhos Slope, 19°01' S, 37°47' W, MD55 sta. CB79, 1500–1575 m depth, 28 May 1987. Collectors: P. Bouchet, J.H. Leal and B. Métivier. Preservation: Dry. Remarks: Former MNHN, Paris. The catalogue number MZSP 105250 is mentioned twice in Simone’s (2014) paper, among the paratypes of M. ibitingus Simone, 2014 and M. benthovus. This duplicity was a mistake by the author: the latter is an erroneous designation and should be disregarded. The only valid paratype lots for M. benthovus are the ones shown above.Published as part of Cavallari, Daniel C., Dornellas, Ana Paula S. & Simone, Luiz Ricardo L., 2016, Second annotated list of type specimens of molluscs deposited in the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, pp. 1-59 in European Journal of Taxonomy 213 on page 10, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2016.213, http://zenodo.org/record/384012
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