Phenomenon Of Alignment Research Articles

CAMEL: Capturing Metaphorical Alignment with Context Disentangling for Multimodal Emotion Recognition

Understanding the emotional polarity of multimodal content with metaphorical characteristics, such as memes, poses a significant challenge in Multimodal Emotion Recognition (MER). Previous MER researches have overlooked the phenomenon of metaphorical alignment in multimedia content, which involves non-literal associations between concepts to convey implicit emotional tones. Metaphor-agnostic MER methods may be misinformed by the isolated unimodal emotions, which are distinct from the real emotions blended in multimodal metaphors. Moreover, contextual semantics can further affect the emotions associated with similar metaphors, leading to the challenge of maintaining contextual compatibility. To address the issue of metaphorical alignment in MER, we propose to leverage a conditional generative approach for capturing metaphorical analogies. Our approach formulates schematic prompts and corresponding references based on theoretical foundations, which allows the model to better grasp metaphorical nuances. In order to maintain contextual sensitivity, we incorporate a disentangled contrastive matching mechanism, which undergoes curricular adjustment to regulate its intensity during the learning process. The automatic and human evaluation experiments on two benchmarks prove that, our model provides considerable and stable improvements in recognizing multimodal emotion with metaphor attributes.

Contact guidance via heterogeneity of substrate elasticity.

Contact guidance, the widely-known phenomenon of cell alignment, is an essential step in the organization of adherent cells. This guidance is known to occur by, amongst other things, anisotropic features in the environment including elastic heterogeneity. To understand the origins of this guidance we employed a novel statistical thermodynamics framework, which recognises the non-thermal fluctuations in the cellular response, for modelling the response of the cells seeded on substrates with alternating soft and stiff stripes. Consistent with observations, the modelling framework predicts the existence of three regimes of cell guidance: (i) in regime I for stripe widths much larger than the cell size guidance is primarily entropic; (ii) for stripe widths on the order of the cell size in regime II guidance is biochemically mediated and accompanied by changes to the cell morphology while (iii) in regime III for stripe widths much less than the cell size there is no guidance as cells cannot sense the substrate heterogeneity. Guidance in regimes I and II is due to "molli-avoidance" with cells primarily residing on the stiff stripes. While the molli-avoidance tendency is not lost with decreasing density of collagen coating the substrate, the reduced focal adhesion formation with decreasing collagen density tends to inhibit contact guidance. Our results provide clear physical insights into the interplay between cell mechano-sensitivity and substrate elastic heterogeneity that ultimately leads to the contact guidance of cells in heterogeneous tissues. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Cellular morphology and organization play a crucial role in the micro-architecture of tissues and dictates their biological and mechanical functioning. Despite the importance of cellular organization in all facets of tissue biology, the fundamental question of how a cell organizes itself in an anisotropic environment is still poorly understood. We employ a novel statistical thermodynamics framework which recognises the non-thermal fluctuations in the cellular response to investigate cell guidance on substrates with alternating soft and stiff stripes. The propensity of cells to primarily reside on stiff stripes results in strong guidance when the period of the stripes is larger than the cell size. For smaller stripe periods, cells sense a homogeneous substrate and guidance is lost.

On the distribution alignment of propagation in graph neural networks

Graph neural networks (GNNs) have been widely adopted for modeling graph-structure data. Most existing GNN studies have focused on designing different strategies to propagate information over the graph structures. After systematic investigations, we observe that the propagation step in GNNs matters, but its resultant performance improvement is insensitive to the location where we apply it. Our empirical examination further shows that the performance improvement brought by propagation mostly comes from a phenomenon of distribution alignment, i.e., propagation over graphs actually results in the alignment of the underlying distributions between the training and test sets. The findings are instrumental to understand GNNs, e.g., why decoupled GNNs can work as good as standard GNNs.11Source code: https://github.com/THUDM/DistAlign-GNNs.

Nonfusion procedures in pediatric scoliosis

The treatment of early onset scoliosis (EOS) in children is acomplex and demanding challenge in the treatment of spinal deformities. Conservative treatment with physiotherapy is indicated in mild forms with a Cobb angle from 10°and additionally a corset treatment with a Cobb angle of more than 20°. After exhaustion of the conservative measures or a progression of spinal scoliosis of 10° or deformities of more than 35°, asurgical approach should be considered in order to prevent respiratory insufficiency as well as severe postural and thoracic deformities. In situations where growth is still ongoing fusion operations can lead to stunted growth, a crankshaft phenomenon or degeneration of alignment. Meaningful alternatives to a fusion are so-called growing rods as a distraction-based nonfusion technique, e.g. traditional growing rods (TGR) and magnetically controlled growing rods (MCGR) or as a further method a vertical expandable prosthetic titanium rib (VEPTR) device. The advantages and disadvantages of each operative procedure must be considered with respect to the risk profile of each patient and the experience of the surgeon in order to guarantee the best possible treatment.

Intersystem crossing of 2-Methlypyrazine studied by femtosecond photoelectron imaging

The ultrafast nonadibatic relaxation dynamics of the excited state of 2-methylpyrazine has been studied by using femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron imaging and femtosecond time-resolved mass spectrometry. The first excited state S<sub>1</sub> of 2-methylpyrazine was excited by 323 nm pump light, and the excited state deactivation process is detected by 400 nm probe light. The lifetime of S<sub>1</sub> state 98 ps is obtained by time-resolved mass spectroscopy. The intersystem crossing from the S<sub>1</sub> state to the T<sub>1</sub> state is observed on real time. The relaxation dynamics of S<sub>1</sub> state of 2-methlypyrazine is different from that of pyrazine, the results show that the intersystem crossing process between S<sub>1</sub> and T<sub>1</sub> is the main relaxation channel of S<sub>1</sub> state of 2-methlypyrazine, but the internal conversion process between S<sub>1</sub> and S<sub>0</sub> is also a main relaxation channel of S<sub>1</sub> state. By using the advantages of femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron imaging, the photoelectron angular distribution at different pump-probe time delay was obtained experimentally. From the photoelectron angle distribution combined with photoelectron kinetic energy distributions, we tried to observe the field-free nonadiabatic alignment. However, due to the fact that the molecular symmetry of 2-methylpyrazine is lower than that of pyrazine, it is more challenging to observe the phenomenon of molecular nonadiabatic alignment with lower symmetry. Therefore, it is fail to observe nonadiabatic alignment feature of 2-methylpyrazine in this experiment. This work provides a clearer physical picture for S<sub>1</sub> state nonadibatic relaxation dynamics of 2-methylpyrazine.

Geometric stability of stationary Euler flows

ABSTRACTGeometric stability theory is developed as an analogue of structural stability in physical space. Two steady flows are said to be geometrically equivalent if they have the same streamline pattern with velocities satisfying . A stationary solution to the Euler equations is non-unique if there exists a geometrically equivalent solution with horizontally varying F, in which case its geometric structure is stable and permits non-proportional velocity change. An Euler flow without such an equivalent solution is unique and geometrically unstable. Analysis of pseudo-plane flows shows that only constant-speed flows, specifically straightline jet and vertical-aligned circular vortex, are geometrically stable. The only stable flow with closed streamlines is vertical-aligned circular vortex, which provides a stability explanation for the phenomenon of vortex alignment and axisymmetrisation. A series of polynomial and nonpolynomial Euler solutions is used to validate the generic instability of pseudo-plane ideal flows. The quadratic solutions indicate that the pressure field has dynamic multiplicity and cannot be used as a proxy for geometric analysis.

Improved Multistage In-Motion Attitude Determination Alignment Method for Strapdown Inertial Navigation System.

This paper derives an improved multistage in-motion attitude determination alignment (IMADA) for strapdown inertial navigation system, which integrates the traditional IMADA and the designed dual velocity-modeling IMADA, as well as the multiple repeated alignment process, to address the principled model errors and the calculation errors of traditional -aided IMADA. With the proposed algorithm, not only the designed drawbacks of traditional -based IMADA can be solved, but also the degradation phenomenon of high-level alignment for multistage IMADA would be largely less. Moreover, the degradation of the alignment accuracy with the vehicle velocity is also removed. Finally, the 30 groups of car-mounted experiments and the Monte Carlo simulation experiments with the navigation-grade SINS are carried out to demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm. The results show that the number of the heading degradation of the second-level alignment is reduced to 10 as compared the traditional number 20. Moreover, the alignment accuracy of heading is improved by 23%. Even with the different speeds of 20 m/s, 60 m/s, 80 m/s, the heading alignment accuracies are 1.3063°, 1.3102°, 1.3564° and are still almost the same.

Entropic Forces Drive Cellular Contact Guidance

Contact guidance—the widely known phenomenon of cell alignment induced by anisotropic environmental features—is an essential step in the organization of adherent cells, but the mechanisms by which cells achieve this orientational ordering remain unclear. Here, we seeded myofibroblasts on substrates micropatterned with stripes of fibronectin and observed that contact guidance emerges at stripe widths much greater than the cell size. To understand the origins of this surprising observation, we combined morphometric analysis of cells and their subcellular components with a, to our knowledge, novel statistical framework for modeling nonthermal fluctuations of living cells. This modeling framework is shown to predict not only the trends but also the statistical variability of a wide range of biological observables, including cell (and nucleus) shapes, sizes, and orientations, as well as stress-fiber arrangements within the cells with remarkable fidelity with a single set of cell parameters. By comparing observations and theory, we identified two regimes of contact guidance: 1) guidance on stripe widths smaller than the cell size (w ≤ 160 μm), which is accompanied by biochemical changes within the cells, including increasing stress-fiber polarization and cell elongation; and 2) entropic guidance on larger stripe widths, which is governed by fluctuations in the cell morphology. Overall, our findings suggest an entropy-mediated mechanism for contact guidance associated with the tendency of cells to maximize their morphological entropy through shape fluctuations.

Modelling collective motion based on the principle of agency: General framework and the case of marching locusts.

Collective phenomena are studied in a range of contexts—from controlling locust plagues to efficiently evacuating stadiums—but the central question remains: how can a large number of independent individuals form a seemingly perfectly coordinated whole? Previous attempts to answer this question have reduced the individuals to featureless particles, assumed particular interactions between them and studied the resulting collective dynamics. While this approach has provided useful insights, it cannot guarantee that the assumed individual-level behaviour is accurate, and, moreover, does not address its origin—that is, the question of why individuals would respond in one way or another. We propose a new approach to studying collective behaviour, based on the concept of learning agents: individuals endowed with explicitly modelled sensory capabilities, an internal mechanism for deciding how to respond to the sensory input and rules for modifying these responses based on past experience. This detailed modelling of individuals favours a more natural choice of parameters than in typical swarm models, which minimises the risk of spurious dependences or overfitting. Most notably, learning agents need not be programmed with particular responses, but can instead develop these autonomously, allowing for models with fewer implicit assumptions. We illustrate these points with the example of marching locusts, showing how learning agents can account for the phenomenon of density-dependent alignment. Our results suggest that learning agent-based models are a powerful tool for studying a broader class of problems involving collective behaviour and animal agency in general.

Investigation of quasi-particle structure of proton-hole indium nuclei

The present work focuses on the successful application of the Projected Shell Model (PSM) in studying the yrast bands of neutron-rich odd-mass 111-119In nuclei. For these isotopes, the band structures have been analyzed in terms of quasi-particles configurations. The phenomenon of rotational alignment and back bending in moment of inertia is also studied in the present work. The intrinsic structure of 111-119In nuclei in the present study has also been described as arising due to an interplay between proton and neutron orbitals belonging to 1- and 3-qp configurations. Besides this, the reduced transition probabilities, B(E2) and B(M1) , are also obtained from the PSM wave functions.

Using drawings to explore preschool children’s ideas about shadow formation

Τhis paper aims at exploring children’s ideas concerning shadow formation as they are expressed through their drawings. A qualitative research approach was adopted using two sets of data (89 drawings in total) collected over a period of 6 months in two kindergartens, one in France and a second in Greece. The drawings in each group were realised using similar instructions defined jointly by the team of researchers. The indicators that were used to analyze the drawings can be aggregated in four categories: presence of the three entities needed to represent the phenomenon of shadow formation, shadow characteristics, alignment, and nature of light. Results are presented not with the intention of comparison of the two groups, but with the disposition of highlighting the diversity of categories that emerged. Findings and educational implications for science at kindergartens are thoroughly discussed.

Direct numerical simulation of particle alignment in viscoelastic fluids

Rigid particles suspended in viscoelastic fluids under shear can align in string-like structures in the flow direction. Although this phenomenon was first reported almost four decades ago by Michele et al. [J. Michele, R. Pätzold, R. Donis, Alignment and aggregation effects in suspensions of spheres in non-Newtonian media, Rheologica Acta 16 (1977) 317–321.], the exact mechanism of particle alignment is not completely understood. Initially, it was believed that normal stress differences are responsible for the alignment of particles, but recent experimental work by van Loon et al. [S. Van Loon, J. Fransaer, C. Clasen, J. Vermant, String formation in sheared suspensions in rheologically complex media: The essential role of shear thinning, Journal of Rheology 58(1) (2014) 237–254.] showed particle alignment in a shear-thinning fluid without significant normal stress differences.To unravel the phenomenon of particle alignment, we present for the first time 3D direct numerical simulations of the alignment of two and three rigid, non-Brownian particles in a viscoelastic shear flow, with the shear rate denoted by γ˙. The equations are solved on moving, boundary-fitted meshes, which are locally refined to accurately describe the polymer stresses around and in between the particles. A small minimal gap size between the particles is introduced. The Giesekus model, with a relaxation time λ, is used for the viscoelastic fluid, and the effect of the Weissenberg number Wi=λγ˙, shear thinning parameter α and ratio between the solvent viscosity and zero-shear viscosity β is investigated.The numerical method allows for the detailed investigation of particles interacting in viscoelastic flows. Alignment of two and three particles is observed in the simulations. Morphology plots were created for various values of α, β and Wi. Alignment is mainly governed by the value of the elasticity parameter S, defined as half of the ratio between the first normal stress difference and shear stress of the suspending fluid. Alignment appears to occur above a critical value of S, which decreases with increasing α, thus shear thinning promotes alignment. Furthermore, three particles align at lower S than two particles. Finally, simulations were performed in a shear-thinning Carreau fluid, where we never observed alignment of the particles. These results lead us to the conclusion that the presence of normal stress differences is essential for particle alignment to occur, although it is strongly promoted by shear thinning.

Business and IT alignment

Over the last two decades, the need for the alignment of business needs and opportunities of information technology (IT) has been considered one of the key issues in IT management. Research in the field of business and IT alignment gained momentum in the last decade of the last century when it was realized that the cost- effectiveness of IT investments directly contributed to the so-called strategic alignment, ie. alignment between business strategy and IT strategy. It is recognized that IT changes the direction in which companies organize their business processes, communication with customers and deliver their products and services. The aim of this study is to investigate the current situation in solving the problem of business and IT alignment in order to allow a comparison of different definitions and a conceptualization of this phenomenon, and also to consider the efforts made so far in order to solve this problem. The conceptualization of the phenomenon of alignment of business and IT is given through the strategic alignment model that had the biggest impact in this area. The question of the applicability of the model and the framework developed for the purpose of alignment stems from the challenges facing the problem of alignment of business and IT. These challenges are categorized and particularly elaborated in this paper.

Exploring the Alignment Space – Lexical and Gestural Alignment with Real and Virtual Humans

Communication is characterized by speakers' dynamic adaptations and coordination of both linguistic and nonverbal behaviors. Understanding this phenomenon of alignment and its underlying mechanisms and processes in both human-human and human-computer interaction is of particular importance when building artificial interlocutors. In this paper we contribute to the exploration of the still fragmentary alignment space with two controlled experiments on lexical and gestural alignment. Our results show, on the one hand, that human interlocutors align their lexical choice and gesture handedness in similar ways when interacting with real versus virtual humans. On the other hand we found, however, also subtle differences. We discuss our findings in terms of a dynamic interplay of multiple components (automatic and strategic) and mechanisms (communicative and social) of alignment.

Teams, Traits and Tasks [QT]3 for Total Quality

Team as an acronym is defined as “Together Each One Achieves More”. The individual’s success is evidently an aftermath of a synergistic contribution of more number of participants. The criticality of being in sync (synergistic) is however vital, as until the tasks are pursued towards the same objective in a path which compliments that of the other’s, results can’t be materialized. It is thus a subject of people’s traits such that they align their individual tasks to individual’s objectives, but should remain in sync. so as to maximize the value addition. It is evident that Values must be rightly valued, and only those teams can add value that value the values of teams while valuing their tasks.The phenomenon of alignment is accented through W Edward Deming’s paradigm of the system. The onus of design and implementation however lies on the top management as Deming professed. Developing right People and using them Rightly is the responsibility they should both strategically and tactically exercise. This paper in addition to exploring traits counts some inconsequential elements which must be abstained. Termed by anti-values, the most dreadful traits of business-systems are reported.

Chaotic inflation with kinetic alignment of axion fields

N-flation is a radiatively stable scenario for chaotic inflation in which the displacements of $N \gg 1$ axions with decay constants $f_1 \le \ldots \le f_N < M_P$ lead to a super-Planckian effective displacement equal to the Pythagorean sum $f_{Py}$ of the $f_i$. We show that mixing in the axion kinetic term generically leads to the phenomenon of kinetic alignment, allowing for effective displacements as large as $\sqrt{N} f_{N} \ge f_{Py}$, even if $f_1, \ldots, f_{N-1}$ are arbitrarily small. At the level of kinematics, the necessary alignment occurs with very high probability, because of eigenvector delocalization. We present conditions under which inflation can take place along an aligned direction. Our construction sharply reduces the challenge of realizing N-flation in string theory.

An Investigation Into the Relationship Between Values and Commitment

The concept of values “fit” has been a significant theme in the management literature for many years. It is argued that where there is alignment of staff and organizational values a range of positive outcomes are encountered. What is unclear is how this translates into the charity sector. This study explores the phenomenon of values alignment in two U.K. charities. Questionnaires were used to measure staff values, perceptions of organization values, and staff commitment. Drawing on the work of Finegan, an interaction term is used as a proxy for fit. Analyses of data from 286 participants indicated that it was the perceptions of organization values that had the greatest impact on staff commitment. The alignment of staff values and perceptions of organization values only had a degree of effect within one of the charities. This challenges the dominant view on such alignment and the implications of this are discussed.

Naturalizing joint action: A process-based approach

Numerous philosophical theories of joint agency and its intentional structure have been developed in the past few decades. These theories have offered accounts of joint agency that appeal to higher-level states (such as goals, commitments, and intentions) that are “shared” in some way. These accounts have enhanced our understanding of joint agency, yet there are a number of lower-level cognitive phenomena involved in joint action that philosophers rarely acknowledge. In particular, empirical research in cognitive science has revealed that when individuals engage in a joint activity such as conversation or joint problem solving, they become aligned at multiple levels (e.g., behaviors, or cognitive states). We argue that this phenomenon of alignment is crucial to understanding joint actions and should be integrated with philosophical approaches. In this paper, we sketch a possible integration, and draw out its implications for understanding of joint agency and collective intentionality. The result is a process-based, dynamic account of joint action that integrates both low-level and high-level states, and seeks to capture the separate processes of how a joint action is initiated and sustained.

Common retrieval processes in producers and comprehenders of spatial information in a non-interactive task

This study explores spatial representations generated by people playing either the producer's or the comprehender's role in non-interactive settings, under identical manipulations of the communication modality (pointing vs. verbal directions) and the type of body rotation (physical vs. imagined). Results showed that these manipulations consistently modulated the accessibility of the target locations in similar ways for both producers and comprehenders, indicating a common retrieval process of spatial information in the absence of alignment cues. In both roles, the accessibility pattern to directions obtained when using the pointing gesture was heavily dependent on the rotation type, whereas that was less so when using verbal directions. The results also demonstrated that the differences in the accessibility patterns arise at the response encoding stage (in production) and at the response decoding stage (in comprehension), suggesting a functional parallelism in the response system between the two communication roles. The commonality in the retrieval processes is a genuine phenomenon that should be taken into account when attributing exclusively the phenomenon of spatial alignment to the interactive efforts performed by producers and comprehenders.

Molecular Alignment Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses and Its Impact on Molecular Motion

AbstractSpectroscopy aims at extracting information about matter through its interaction with light. However, when performed on gas and liquid phases as well as solid phases lacking long‐range order, the extracted spectroscopic features are in fact averaged over the molecular isotropic angular distributions. The reason is that light–matter processes depend on the angle between the transitional molecular dipole and the polarization of the light interacting with it. This understanding gave birth to the constantly expanding field of “laser‐induced molecular alignment”. In this paper, we attempt to guide the readers through our involvement (both experimental and theoretical) in this field in the last few years. We start with the basic phenomenon of molecular alignment induced by a single pulse, continue with selective alignment of close molecular species and unidirectional molecular rotation induced by two time‐delayed pulses, and lead up to novel schemes for manipulating the spatial distributions of molecular samples through rotationally controlled scattering off inhomogeneous fields and surfaces.