Publications by Rita Cucchiara

Sentence similarity search is a fundamental task in information retrieval, enabling applications such as search engines, question answering, and textual analysis. However, retrieval systems often struggle when training data are scarce, as is the case for low-resource languages or specialized domains such as ancient texts. To address this challenge, we propose a novel paradigm for domain-specific sentence similarity search, where the embedding space is shaped by a combination of limited real data and a large amount of synthetic data generated by Large Language Models (LLMs). Specifically, we employ LLMs to generate domain-specific sentence pairs and fine-tune a sentence embedding model, effectively distilling knowledge from the LLM to the retrieval model. We validate our method through a case study on biblical intertextuality in Latin, demonstrating that synthetic data augmentation significantly improves retrieval effectiveness in a domain with scarce annotated resources. More broadly, our approach offers a scalable and adaptable framework for enhancing retrieval in domain-specific contexts. Source code and trained models are available at https://github.com/aimagelab/biblical-retrieval-synthesis.

Fashion illustration is a crucial medium for designers to convey their creative vision and transform design concepts into tangible representations that showcase the interplay between clothing and the human body. In the context of fashion design, computer vision techniques have the potential to enhance and streamline the design process. Departing from prior research primarily focused on virtual try-on, this paper tackles the task of multimodal-conditioned fashion image editing. Our approach aims to generate human-centric fashion images guided by multimodal prompts, including text, human body poses, garment sketches, and fabric textures. To address this problem, we propose extending latent diffusion models to incorporate these multiple modalities and modifying the structure of the denoising network, taking multimodal prompts as input. To condition the proposed architecture on fabric textures, we employ textual inversion techniques and let diverse cross-attention layers of the denoising network attend to textual and texture information, thus incorporating different granularity conditioning details. Given the lack of datasets for the task, we extend two existing fashion datasets, Dress Code and VITON-HD, with multimodal annotations. Experimental evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach in terms of realism and coherence concerning the provided multimodal inputs.

In the realm of creative expression, not everyone possesses the gift of effortlessly translating their imaginative visions into flawless sketches. More often than not, the outcome resembles an abstract, perhaps even slightly distorted representation. The art of producing impeccable sketches is not only challenging but also a time-consuming process. Our work is the first of this kind in transforming abstract, sometimes deformed garment sketches into photorealistic catalog images, to empower the everyday individual to become their own fashion designer. We create Sketch2Stitch, a dataset featuring over 65,000 abstract sketch images generated from garments of DressCode and VITONHD, two benchmark datasets in the virtual try-on task. Sketch2Stitch is the first dataset in the literature to provide abstract sketches in the fashion domain. We propose a StyleGAN-based generative framework that bridges freehand sketching with photorealistic garment synthesis. We demonstrate that our framework allows users to sketch rough outlines and optionally provide color hints, producing realistic designs in seconds. Experimental results demonstrate, both quantitatively and qualitatively, that the proposed framework achieves superior performance against various baselines and existing methods on both subsets of our dataset. Our work highlights a pathway toward AI-assisted fashion design tools, democratizing garment ideation for students, independent designers, and casual creators.

This report is the transcript of what was discussed in a convention at the Endocrinology Unit in Modena, Italy, in the form of the aporetic dialogs of ancient Greece. It is the third episode of a series of four discussions on the differences between males and females, with a multidisciplinary approach. In this work, the role of testosterone in gender differences in the aptitude for mathematics is explored. First, the definitions of mathematical abilities were provided together with any gender difference in the distribution of females and males in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects. A clear predominance of males is evident at most science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education levels, especially in advanced academic careers. Then, the discussants were divided into two groups: group 1, which illustrated the thesis that testosterone promotes the development of logical‒mathematical skills, and group 2, which, in contrast, asserted the inconsistency of a direct role of testosterone in improving cognitive abilities and that socio-cultural factors should be considered on the basis of this gender gap. In the end, an expert referee (a female engineer) tried to resolve the aporia: are the two theories equivalent or is one superior?.

Image captioning has attracted significant attention within the Computer Vision and Multimedia research domains, resulting in the development of effective methods for generating natural language descriptions of images. Concurrently, the rise of generative models has facilitated the production of highly realistic and high-quality images, particularly through recent advancements in latent diffusion models. In this paper, we propose to leverage the recent advances in Generative AI and create additional training data that can be effectively used to boost the performance of an image captioning model. Specifically, we combine real images with their synthetic counterparts generated by Stable Diffusion using a Mixup data augmentation technique to create novel training examples. Extensive experiments on the COCO dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution in comparison to different baselines and state-of-the-art methods and validate the benefits of using synthetic data to augment the training stage of an image captioning model and improve the quality of the generated captions. Source code and trained models are publicly available at: https://github.com/aimagelab/synthcap_pp.

Multimodal LLMs (MLLMs) are the natural extension of large language models to handle multimodal inputs, combining text and image data. They have recently garnered attention due to their capability to address complex tasks involving both modalities. However, their effectiveness is limited to the knowledge acquired during training, which restricts their practical utility. In this work, we introduce a novel method to enhance the adaptability of MLLMs by integrating external knowledge sources. Our proposed model, Reflective LLaVA (ReflectiVA), utilizes reflective tokens to dynamically determine the need for external knowledge and predict the relevance of information retrieved from an external database. Tokens are trained following a two-stage two-model training recipe. This ultimately enables the MLLM to manage external knowledge while preserving fluency and performance on tasks where external knowledge is not needed. Through our experiments, we demonstrate the efficacy of ReflectiVA for knowledge-based visual question answering, highlighting its superior performance compared to existing methods. Source code and trained models are publicly available at https://github.com/aimagelab/ReflectiVA.

Transformer-based language models like BERT have revolutionized Natural Language Processing (NLP) research, but their application to historical languages remains underexplored. This paper investigates the adaptation of BERT-based embedding models for Latin, a language central to the study of the sacred texts of Christianity. Focusing on Jerome’s Vulgate, pre-Vulgate Latin translations of the Bible, and patristic commentaries such as Augustine’s De Genesi ad litteram, we address the challenges posed by Latin’s complex syntax, specialized vocabulary, and historical variations at the orthographic, morphological, and semantic levels. In particular, we propose fine-tuning existing BERT-based embedding models on annotated Latin corpora, using self-generated hard negatives to improve performance in detecting biblical references in early Christian literature in Latin. Experimental results demonstrate the ability of BERT-based models to identify citations of and allusions to the Bible(s) in ancient Christian commentaries while highlighting the complexities and challenges of this field. By integrating NLP techniques with humanistic expertise, this work provides a case study on intertextual analysis in Latin patristic works. It underscores the transformative potential of interdisciplinary approaches, advancing computational tools for sacred text studies and bridging the gap between philology and computational analysis.