cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
La Meteorologia lucreziana: De rerum natura VI 96-534
Creators: name: Notaro, Emilia
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2006

description: [ITALIANO] Il presente lavoro consiste nel commento ai vv. 96-534 del sesto libro del de rerum natura, sezione in cui il poeta, con l'intento di combattere l'ignorantia causarum che spinge gli uomini ad attribuire gli eventi naturali agli dei, fornisce la spiegazione di alcuni fenomeni meteorologici. Partendo dal background filosofico dell'autore, che comprende non soltanto l'epicurea Lettera a Pitocle, ma anche la Meteorologia di Aristotele, le fonti dossografiche, Teofrasto e Posidonio, il commento si articola in varie sezioni, ognuna delle quali corrisponde ad un fenomeno (il tuono= cap. II; il lampo= cap. III; il fulmine= cap. III) o a un gruppo di fenomeni (cap. V= presteri, nuvole, pioggia, etc.). Ogni capitolo comprende l'analisi delle fonti (particolarmente interessante, per le analogie di metodo e contenuto, è il confronto tra il testo lucreziano e i Metarsiologica di Teofrasto, trattato meteorologico pervenutoci in una duplice traduzione, araba e siriaca) e l'analisi linguistica, che tiene presente la lunga tradizione di commenti al testo lucreziano, a partire dal '500 fino all'ultimo decennio del secolo scorso. / [ENGLISH] This commentary on vv. 96-534 of Lucretius'book VI deals with a section of the poem whose main target is fighting against the ignorantia causarum which makes common people see divine actions behind natural events: that's why Lucretius offers to his readers rational explanations about a number of meteorological phaenomena. The commentary moves from the author's philosophical background (based on epicurean Letter to Pythocles, Aristotle's meteorology, doxographical sources, Theophrastus, Posidonius) and is divided into several sections: each of them concernes one single phaenomenon (chapter II= the thunder; chapter III= the lightning; chapter IV= the thunderbolt) or even a group of phaenomena (prester, clouds, rain, etc.). Every chapter is made up of an evaluation of the sources and of a lexical nalysis The former is characterized by an interesting comparison between Lucretius'poem and Theophrastus'Metarsiologika, a treatise we can read through two translations, an arabic and a syriac one. The latter is based on the secular tradition of commentaries to Lucretian poem, starting from th 16th century until the last decade of the 20th.
Effectful Semantics in 2-Dimensional Categories: Premonoidal and Freyd Bicategories
Creators: name: Paquet, Hugo
name: Saville, Philip
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Logic in Computer Science (cs.LO)
subject: Programming Languages (cs.PL)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Premonoidal categories and Freyd categories provide an encompassing framework for the semantics of call-by-value programming languages. Premonoidal categories are a weakening of monoidal categories in which the interchange law for the tensor product may not hold, modelling the fact that effectful programs cannot generally be re-ordered. A Freyd category is a pair of categories with the same objects: a premonoidal category of general programs, and a monoidal category of 'effect-free' programs which do admit re-ordering.
 Certain recent innovations in semantics, however, have produced models which are not categories but bicategories. Here we develop the theory to capture such examples by introducing premonoidal and Freyd structure in a bicategorical setting. The second dimension introduces new subtleties, so we verify our definitions with several examples and a correspondence theorem (between Freyd bicategories and certain actions of monoidal bicategories) which parallels the categorical framework.
description: In Proceedings ACT 2023, arXiv:2312.08138
BACTERIAL SUPERANTIGEN PROCESSING AND PRESENTATION
Creators: name: Callahan, Kathleen Mary
Publisher: name: Maryland Shared Open Access Repository
Year: 1997

description: Bacterial superantigens (BSAgs) are a unique class of antigens capable of cross-linking major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules to particular T-cell antigen receptor variable segment (TCR Vβ) causing various pathogenic syndromes. Unlike classical protein antigens, BSAgs bypass the specificity of interaction of MHC and TCR. Exagerated T cell proliferation followed by a state of T cell non-responsiveness (anergy) are the characteristic features of BSAgs. T lymphocytes obtained from mice injected with low microgram amounts of BSAg were unresponsive to successive BSAg challenge. A possible mechanism of this anergic response was investigated by studying the kinetic interactions of BSAgs with MHC class II molecules, that formed saturated complexes within three minutes. These cell surface complexes remained on the cell surface for an extended length of time and were biologically active. Interestingly, SEA had the highest amount of binding and one of the slowest dissociation rates. The stability of these complexes was tested in endosomal/lysosomal hydrogen ion concentrations similar to the pH where conventional antigen peptides dislocate from class II molecules. Remarkably, complexes of BSAg and MHC class II molecules were stable even at lysosomal pH. To further examine BSAgs' processing and presentation, subcellular organelles were fractionated using Percoll density-gradients. The subcellular distribution of SEA and SEB was comparable with the majority of each found on the plasma membrane, although more SEB could be detected in the lysosomes. Conventional antigen reached far into the acidic endocytic vesicles after a short incubation period. Furthermore, distribution of the conventional antigen was altogether different as it was observed throughout subcellular compartments, but not on the plasma membrane. These results indicate that BSAgs are internalized and processed in a way that may differ from conventional antigens. Thus, constitutive transports of BSAgs from the plasma membrane to MHC class II peptide-loading compartment, through endosomes and lysosomes, occur at a much reduced rate and this phenomenon may have far reaching consequences on how T cells react to these unusual antigens.
Nonlinear Solar Dynamo Model with Magnetic Helicity
Creators: name: Kitiashvili, I. N.
name: Kosovichev, A. G.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Variations of the sunspot number are important indicators of the solar activity cycles. The sunspot formation is a result of a dynamo process inside the Sun, which is far from being understood. We use simple dynamical models of the dynamo process to simulate the magnetic field evolution and investigate general properties of the sunspot number variations during the solar cycles. We have found that the classical Parker's model with a standard kinetic helicity quenching cannot represent the typical profiles of the solar-cycle variations of the sunspot number, and also does not give chaotic solutions. For modeling of the solar cycle properties we use a nonlinear dynamo model of Kleeorin and Ruzmaikin (1982), which takes into account dynamics of the turbulent magnetic helicity. We have obtained a series of periodic and chaotic solutions for different layers of the convective zone. The solutions qualitatively reproduce some basic observational features of the solar cycle properties, in particular, the relationship between the growth time and the cycle amplitude. Also, on the longer time scale the dynamo model with the magnetic helicity has intermittent solutions, which may be important for modeling long-term variations of the solar cycles.
description: 14 pages, 10 figures, published in Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics
Resolution over Linear Equations and Multilinear Proofs
Creators: name: Raz, Ran
name: Tzameret, Iddo
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2007
Subjects: subject: Computational Complexity (cs.CC)
subject: Logic in Computer Science (cs.LO)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: F.2.2; F.4.1

description: We develop and study the complexity of propositional proof systems of varying strength extending resolution by allowing it to operate with disjunctions of linear equations instead of clauses. We demonstrate polynomial-size refutations for hard tautologies like the pigeonhole principle, Tseitin graph tautologies and the clique-coloring tautologies in these proof systems. Using the (monotone) interpolation by a communication game technique we establish an exponential-size lower bound on refutations in a certain, considerably strong, fragment of resolution over linear equations, as well as a general polynomial upper bound on (non-monotone) interpolants in this fragment. We then apply these results to extend and improve previous results on multilinear proofs (over fields of characteristic 0), as studied in [RazTzameret06]. Specifically, we show the following: 1. Proofs operating with depth-3 multilinear formulas polynomially simulate a certain, considerably strong, fragment of resolution over linear equations. 2. Proofs operating with depth-3 multilinear formulas admit polynomial-size refutations of the pigeonhole principle and Tseitin graph tautologies. The former improve over a previous result that established small multilinear proofs only for the \emph{functional} pigeonhole principle. The latter are different than previous proofs, and apply to multilinear proofs of Tseitin mod p graph tautologies over any field of characteristic 0. We conclude by connecting resolution over linear equations with extensions of the cutting planes proof system.
description: 44 pages
title: Geotechnical assessment of squeezing ground conditions – analysis and design of support systems with conventional excavation methods
title: Γεωτεχνική αξιολόγηση της διάνοιξης σηράγγων σε συνθλίβουσες εδαφικές συνθήκες - ανάλυση και διαστασιολόγηση των μέτρων άμεσης υποστήριξης σε εκσκαφή με συμβατικές μεθόδους
titleType: AlternativeTitle
Creators: name: Δελής, Γεώργιος Παύλος
Publisher: name: National Technological University of Athens
Year: 2025
Subjects: Geotechnical properties
Squeezing ground conditions
Numerical analysis
Rigid support
Yielding support
Γεωτεχνικές ιδιότητες
Συνθλίβουσες εδαφικές συνθήκες
Αριθμητικές αναλύσεις
Άκαμπτη υποστήριξη
Ενδίδουσα υποστήριξη

description: Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο--Μεταπτυχιακή Εργασία. Διεπιστημονικό-Διατμηματικό Πρόγραμμα Μεταπτυχιακών Σπουδών (Δ.Π.Μ.Σ.) “Σχεδιασμός και Κατασκευή Υπόγειων Έργων”
Nontrivial quantized Berry phases for itinerant spin liquids
Creators: name: Maruyama, Isao
name: Hatsugai, Yasuhiro
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2007
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Quantized Berry phases as local order parameters in t-J models are studied. A texture pattern of the local order parameters is topologically stable due to the quantization of non-Abelian Berry phases defined by low-energy states below a spin gap, which exists in the large J/t case with a few electrons. We have confirmed that itinerant singlets in the wide class of t-J models carry the nontrivial Berry phase pi. In the large J/t case for the one-dimensional t-J model, Berry phases are uniformly pi when the number of electrons is N =4n +2, ($n=0,1,2,...$).
description: 8 pages, 4 figures
Ground-state properties of few-Boson system in a one-dimensional hard wall potential with split
Creators: name: Yin, Xiangguo
name: Hao, Yajiang
name: Chen, Shu
name: Zhang, Yunbo
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We carry out a detailed examination of the ground state property of few-boson system in a one-dimensional hard wall potential with a $δ-$ split in the center. In the Tonks-Girardeau limit with infinite repulsion between particles, we use the Bose-Fermi mapping to construct the exact $N-$ particle ground state wavefunction which allows us to study the correlation properties accurately. For the general case with finite inter-particle interaction, the exact diagonalization method is exploited to study the ground-state density distribution, occupation number distribution, and momentum distribution for variable interaction strengths and barrier heights. The secondary peaks in the momentum distribution reveal the interference between particles on the two sides of the split, which is more prominent for large barrier strength and small interaction strength.
description: 7 pages, 9 figures
"Unusual" critical states in type-II superconductors
Creators: name: Brandt, E. H.
name: Mikitik, G. P.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2007
Subjects: subject: Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We give a theoretical description of the general critical states in which the critical currents in type-II superconductors are not perpendicular to the local magnetic induction. Such states frequently occur in real situations, e.g., when the sample shape is not sufficiently symmetric or the direction of the external magnetic field changes in some complex way. Our study is restricted to the states in which flux-line cutting does not occur. The properties of such general critical states can essentially differ from the well-known properties of the usual Bean critical states. To illustrate our approach, we analyze several examples. In particular, we consider the critical states in a slab placed in a uniform perpendicular magnetic field and to which two components of the in-plane magnetic field are then applied successively. We also analyze the critical states in a long thin strip placed in a perpendicular magnetic field which then is tilted towards the axis of the strip.
description: 15 pages including 11 figures
L’attività d'impresa dell'incapace: profili fallimentari
Creators: name: Fiordiliso, Francesco
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2006

description: La tesi tratta dell’attività d’impresa svolta dall’incapace, e dei relativi profili fallimentari. Vengono affrontati in primo luogo i problemi connessi all’acquisto della qualità d’imprenditore in relazione alle diverse situazioni d’incapacità legale. Successivamente ci si sofferma sul valore dell’autorizzazione giudiziale e sulle conseguenze della sua mancanza, anche nei casi in cui l’attività d’impresa viene svolta con dolo dal minore ovvero dall’incapace naturale. Si affronta poi l’aspetto della rappresentanza legale nell’esercizio dell’attività d’impresa dell’incapace, sia rapportandola alla funzione della procura institoria, sia valutando le conseguenze del rappresentante legale non autorizzato. Si affrontano, infine,  le conseguenze del fallimento dell’attività d’impresa dell’incapace, da un lato distinguendo gli aspetti di carattere personale e patrimoniale, dall’altro valutando la relazione tra la tutela dell’ incapace fallito e affidamento dei terzi.
Cooperation in Threshold Public Projects with Binary Actions
Creators: name: Chen, Yiling
name: Tao, Biaoshuai
name: Yu, Fang-Yi
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: When can cooperation arise from self-interested decisions in public goods games? And how can we help agents to act cooperatively? We examine these classical questions in a pivotal participation game, a variant of public good games, where heterogeneous agents make binary participation decisions on contributing their endowments, and the public project succeeds when it has enough contributions. We prove it is NP-complete to decide the existence of a cooperative Nash equilibrium such that the project succeeds. We also identify two natural special scenarios where this decision problem is tractable. We then propose two algorithms to help cooperation in the game. Our first algorithm adds an external investment to the public project, and our second algorithm uses matching funds. We show that the cost to induce a cooperative Nash equilibrium is near-optimal for both algorithms. Finally, the cost of matching funds can always be smaller than the cost of adding an external investment. Intuitively, matching funds provide a greater incentive for cooperation than adding an external investment does.
description: 14 pages, 1 figure, accepted at IJCAI'21: International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
THE CHARACTERIZATION OF ANTIBODIES FROM SUBJECTS VACCINATED WITH NICVAXᵀᴹ
Creators: name: Campbell, Karen M.
Publisher: name: Maryland Shared Open Access Repository
Year: 2007

description: Nicotine, which is found in tobacco, is highly addictive causing over 1 billion people worldwide to use tobacco products and causing approximately 5 million premature, preventable deaths each year. Our long term goal is to produce a nicotine vaccine which will be efficacious in preventing and treating the addiction to smoking. The nicotine vaccine produced by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals known as NicVAXNicotine, which is found in tobacco, is highly addictive causing over 1 billion people worldwide to use tobacco products and causing approximately 5 million premature, preventable deaths each year. Our long term goal is to produce a nicotine vaccine which will be efficacious in preventing and treating the addiction to smoking. The nicotine vaccine produced by Nabi Biopharaceuticals known as NicVAXᵀᴹ is a conjugate vaccine consisting of trans-3'aminomethylnicotine (a nicotine derivative) conjugated to recombinant Pseudomonas aeruginosa exoprotein A (rEPA). Animal studies have shown that nicotine antibodies reduce the amount of nicotine in the brain and increase the amount of nicotine in the blood serum significantly after animals have been given nicotine in a quantity and delivery to mimic smoking in humans. It is well established that immunogenicity, affinity and specificity all play a role in the efficacy of vaccines. To date in human subjects receiving the vaccine, significant antibody levels are induced, becoming higher when higher amounts of NicVAX are given. The antibody specificity is similar to that found in animal studies. The antibody affinity in samples from human subjects has not been studied. The connection between affinity and efficacy will be important for further development of the vaccine. We hypothesize that people with the highest affinity antibodies will have a significantly larger percentage of people able to quit smoking for one year from the time of the first vaccination. Competitive radioimmunoassay (RIA) has been used to study the affinity in samples from animal studies; however with the number of samples potentially available from this study using a more automated method such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) will be needed. The experimental focus of this proposal is to determine whether SPR can be used to determine the affinity of antibodies for nicotine in human serum samples, to make these determinations and correlate these results with efficacy measurements. The specific aims are: 1. Correlate the affinity measurement using competitive radioimmunoassay (RIA) with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) results. (i) Test a selection of samples using RIA and then (ii) determine the best method for SPR using these samples. 2. Determine affinity of serum samples containing significant levels of nicotine specific antibody and correlate with smoking cessation and the amount of NicVAX the patient receives.
Verification of Timed Security Protocols
Creators: name: Cuomo, Nicola
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2010

description: Security protocols are communication protocols that aim at enforcing security properties through heavy use of cryptographic primitives. These protocols are at the core of security-sensitive applications in a variety of domains (e.g. transportation, health-care, online banking and commerce). Failures are not a option as may cause heavy loss of capitals, time and even humans life. In spite of their apparent simplicity, security protocols are notoriously error-prone and so a number of verification techniques were developed to cope with the verification of such protocols.
However most of the proposed protocol specification languages and verification techniques are limited to cryptographic protocols where quantitative temporal information is not crucial (e.g. delay, timeout, timed disclosure or expiration of information do not affect the correctness of the protocol), and details about some low level timing aspects of the protocol are abstracted away (e.g.: timestamps,
duration of channel delivery, etc.).

In this thesis we face the problem of specifying and verifying security protocols where temporal aspects explicitly appear in the description.
For these kinds of protocols we have designed a specification formalism, which consists of a state-transition graph for each participant of the protocol, with
edges labelled by trigger/action clauses.
The specification of a protocol is translated into a Timed Automaton on which standard techniques of model checking can be exploited (properties to be checked can be expressed in a linear/branching untimed/timed temporal logic).
We also study the protocol insecurity problem for time dependent security protocols with a finite number of sessions, extending to the timed case the results of M. Rusinowitch and M. Turuanistated for the untimed
case.  We show that the extension to time and the increased power of the intruder model we propose do not affect the complexity of the problem which remains NP--Complete.
La translatio iudicii nel processo civile
Creators: name: Iannelli, Paola Grazia
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2006

description: Il lavoro di ricerca, premesso un breve excursus sul fenomeno della trasmigrazione del processo civile nel codice di rito del 1865, si è incentrato dapprima sulle premesse fattuali della translatio, nonché su natura, limiti e portata dell’incontestabilità della competenza del giudice dinanzi a cui il processo trasmigra; quindi sui problemi di carattere teorico e pratico che si determinano ogni qualvolta deve effettuarsi una riassunzione ex art.50 c.p.c..
Nell’ultima parte del lavoro si è infine verificata la esportabilità del meccanismo della trasmigrazione al di fuori del processo di cognizione, e perciò nella sede propria della tutela esecutiva e sommaria, ed oltre la disciplina della competenza, e perciò nell’ambito delle questioni di giurisdizione.
title: Πειραματική διερεύνηση του βαθμού εξουδετέρωσης ανθεκτικών στα αντιβιοτικά βακτηρίων δευτεροβάθμια και τριτοβάθμια επεξεργασμένων λυμάτων με υπεριώδη ακτινοβολία
titleType: AlternativeTitle
title: Experimental investigation of the degree of neutralization of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in secondary and tertiary treated wastewater by UV radiation
Creators: name: Aggeli, Marina
Publisher: name: National Technological University of Athens
Year: 2025
Subjects: Ανθεκτικότητα βακτηρίων
UV ακτινοβολία
Απολύμανση λυμάτων
Αντιβιοτικά
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria
UV radiation

description: Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο--Μεταπτυχιακή Εργασία. Διεπιστημονικό-Διατμηματικό Πρόγραμμα Μεταπτυχιακών Σπουδών (Δ.Π.Μ.Σ.) “Επιστήμη και Τεχνολογία Υδατικών Πόρων”
"SORRY HONEY, FOR THIS PART WE NEED AN AMERICAN": LATINA ACTRESSES IN HOLLYWOOD
Creators: name: Canton, Yolanda Perez
Publisher: name: Maryland Shared Open Access Repository
Year: 2013

description: This study examines the evolution of the kinds of roles that Latina actresses have had access to in Hollywood cinema, from the 1920s to the 2010s, in relation to the marketing of their star personas and their ethnic features. There have been two marketing paths open to Latina actresses in mainstream films: embodying the "Latin look" and fitting into stereotypes about Latinas, or attempting to appear more Anglo-American and play any type of roles. This study uses feminist film theory and critical race theory to understand Latinas' positions as women and as ethnic "Others." The paper is divided into three periods, classic Hollywood (1920s-1950s), postwar Hollywood (1950s-1970s), and contemporary cinema (1980s-2010s), and each section focuses on the Latina actresses who exemplified the era: Dolores del Rio, Lupe Velez, Rita Hayworth, Rita Moreno, Raquel Welch, Rosie Perez, Salma Hayek, and Jennifer Lopez.
Near band gap photoluminescence properties of hexagonal boron nitride
Creators: name: Museur, Luc
name: Kanaev, Andrei V.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Optics (physics.optics)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Near band-gap luminescence (hnu > 5 eV) of hexagonal boron nitride has been studied by means of the time- and energy-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy method. Two emissions have been observed at 5.5 eV and 5.3 eV. The high-energy emission at 5.5 eV is composed of fixed sub-bands assigned to bound excitons at 5.47 eV, 5.56 eV and 5.61 eV. The non-structured low-energy emission at 5.3 eV undergoes a large blue shift (up to 120 meV) with a linear slope <1 with increasing excitation energy Eexc. At Eexc>5.7 eV, the band position is fixed and marks the transition from the Raman to the photoluminescence regime. We assign the 5.3 eV band to quasi donor-acceptor pair (q-DAP) states due to electrostatic band fluctuations induced by charged defects. The shift is explained by photo-induced neutralization of charged defect states. The absence of contribution to the q-DAP luminescence from exciton suggests the existence of a large exciton binding energy, which is qualitatively consistent with theoretical predictions.
description: accepted for publication
Ecogenicità della placca aterosclerotica femorale e rischio cardiovascolare nell'arteriopatia obliterante degli arti inferiori
Creators: name: Schiano, Vittorio
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2010

description: Aims. Atherosclerosis is a systemic disease and the presence of an unstable atherosclerotic plaque in a vascular district, characterized by low echogenicity at B-mode ultrasound, leads to a greater prevalence of unstable plaques in other vascular beds. Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a common manifestation of atherosclerosis associated with a high risk of developing cardiovascular events. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the prognostic impact of femoral plaque
echogenicity in PAD.
Methods and Results. Femoral plaque echogenicity of 246 claudicants with ankle/brachial index<0.90 was evaluated at B-mode ultrasound by visual analysis and by calculating the Gray Scale Median (GSM) value. Plaques were classified as hypoechoic at visual analysis if echogenicity involved <50% of the plaque area. The occurrence of major cardiovascular events, including myocardial infarction and stroke, was prospectively assessed. During a median follow-up of 30 months, 32 patients (13%) had a cardiovascular event. The femoral GSM showed an inverse relationship with cardiovascular risk, also after adjustment for possible confounders (HR=0.97,95% CI 0.95-0.98, p<0.001) (the higher the echogenicity, the lower the cardiovascular risk). Spearman analysis showed that femoral GSM values and plaque types assessed by visual analysis were highly correlated (ρ=0.905,p<0.001). Consistently, at Cox analysis, patients with hypoechoic femoral plaque at visual analysis had a 7.9-fold increased cardiovascular risk compared to patients with hyperechoic plaque after adjustment for possible confounders (95% CI 3.42-18.03,p<0.001).
Conclusions. The presence of an hypoechoic atherosclerotic femoral plaque, evaluated by noninvasiveB-mode ultrasound, entails a higher cardiovascular risk in PAD.
Studio di peptidi antimicrobici dell'immunità innata: Possibili applicazioni in campo medico ed agro-alimentare
Creators: name: Ripa, Raffaella
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2010

description: The antimicrobial peptides are a large and diversified group of effector molecules of the  innate  immune  response  and  constitute  the  first  line  of  defense  against  the pathogens. The AMPs (antimicrobial peptides) are produced by several tissues and cell  types  in  plants  and  in  animal  species  like  insects,amphibians  and  vertebrate. Their  aminoacid  composition  and  their  chimical-phisical  caracteristics  linked  with structural characteristics,  allow  them  to  act  with  the  lipid  bilayer  of  the  bacterial membrane, causing the death of microorganisms. The antimicrobial agents seem to have an high potential action on bacterial pathogens for humans, because they are able  to  act  in  a  selective  and  combined  manner.  Moreover  they  do  not  induce  the phenomenon  of  antibiotic-resistant  on  bacteria,  which  is  a  quite  common  factor  in traditional antibiotics.
One of the richest natural sources of peptide antibiotics are the secretions of the amphibians  and  the  molecules  produced  by  insects  to  the  defense  from  external
insults. Therefore, it was decided to analyze some of these molecules, which have small size, strong α-helix structure, and positive net charge, such as Temporins, from the skin of the European red frog (Rana temporaria). The second type of analyzed molecules  are  Royal-Jelline,  produced  by  cephalic  glands  of  nurse  bees  (Apis mellifera).  The  research  activities,  carried  out during  the  PhD,  is  part  of  the DEFENCE project. Studies about the action mechanism of these molecules against opportunistic pathogens,  involved  in nosocomial  infections  or  associated  with  food poisoning, have shown their ability to alter the membrane permeability of the target cell,  and  to  act  synergistically.  In  particular,  we  used  a  synthetic  analogue  of Temporin  B  (TB-KK),  which  becames  able  to  act  in  synergy  with  Temporin  A  and Royal-Jellina  1.  In  addition,  the  mix  of  Temporin  A  and  Temporin  B  (TB-KK)  was analyzed in live on model organisms (mice) to determine their ability to protect the animal against Gram-positive and Gram-negative and to exert an anti- inflammatory activities, modulating the expression of inflammatory cytokines. Purpose  of  this  study  is  the  identification  of  peptides,  which  have  the  best therapeutic   index   for   protection   both   from   bacterial   infections   and   bacterial components (LPS), main agents of the sepsis pathogenesis. A further aim is finding a possible  application  of  these  peptides  is  in  farmacology  end  agro-industries,  as  an active-packaging component to increase shelf-life of alimentary products.
A microscopic simulation model for supporting the design of railway systems: development and applications
Creators: name: Quaglietta, Egidio
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2011

description: The research presented in this thesis regards the development of a “multi-purpose” microscopic simulation model of railway systems, that can effectively support different design activities, overcoming applicability limits of commercial microscopic models, mostly due to computing inefficiency and the impossibility of being interfaced with automatic structures for system analysis (e.g. “black-box” optimization or uncertainty analysis).
The first part of this work has concerned with the practical development of the model itself: the specification of its modules and respective parameters of input/output; the definition of an open architecture to allow the interfacing with external applications; and the practical implementation in C++ by using an object-oriented programming technique. The simulation process has been then parallelized to let the model be efficient also for large-sized networks or for analyses involving a large number of simulations, especially when launched on multi-core computers. A validation phase has consented to verify the correctness of the implemented code as well as the validity of model outputs by ascertaining their congruence with those observed in a real MRT line, for the same inputs. Then a variance-base sensitivity analysis has been performed to understand how uncertainty in model outputs was apportioned to the different uncertainty sources in model inputs. Such analysis has allowed to identify for a real case-study, the most influent design variables for a certain performance, leading to a more efficient allocation of economic resources available for the intervention.
The second part has regarded several applications of the model to solve different design problems. First, a framework for the optimal design of railway systems has been built-up by integrating the model within a “black-box” optimization loop. The application of this framework to a real case-study consented to identify the equi-block signalling layout that maximized the economic efficiency of investment costs, and the layout which offered the best trade-off between investment costs and user’s satisfaction. In order to effectively support RAM (Reliability, Availabiliy, Maintainability) analysis, an effective modelling architecture has been defined which integrates the microscopic model with an “event-driven” mesoscopic model that considers failure rates of components as input data. Afterwards, the integration with a model for simulating rail passenger flows has led to define a simulation architecture which consents the evaluation of effects induced by a certain intervention, not only on Service Availability (SA) but also on Quality of Service (QoS) offered to customers. Applications results have underlined the usefulness of the developed model and its flexibility in being employed for supporting different decisional tasks relative to both infrastructures and operations of railway systems.
C2FAR: Coarse-to-Fine Autoregressive Networks for Precise Probabilistic Forecasting
Creators: name: Bergsma, Shane
name: Zeyl, Timothy
name: Anaraki, Javad Rahimipour
name: Guo, Lei
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: We present coarse-to-fine autoregressive networks (C2FAR), a method for modeling the probability distribution of univariate, numeric random variables. C2FAR generates a hierarchical, coarse-to-fine discretization of a variable autoregressively; progressively finer intervals of support are generated from a sequence of binned distributions, where each distribution is conditioned on previously-generated coarser intervals. Unlike prior (flat) binned distributions, C2FAR can represent values with exponentially higher precision, for only a linear increase in complexity. We use C2FAR for probabilistic forecasting via a recurrent neural network, thus modeling time series autoregressively in both space and time. C2FAR is the first method to simultaneously handle discrete and continuous series of arbitrary scale and distribution shape. This flexibility enables a variety of time series use cases, including anomaly detection, interpolation, and compression. C2FAR achieves improvements over the state-of-the-art on several benchmark forecasting datasets.
MECHANISM OF INDUCTION OF C/EBPδ BY INTERLEUKIN-6 DURING THE ACUTE PHASE RESPONSE
Creators: name: Cantwell, Carrie A.
Publisher: name: Maryland Shared Open Access Repository
Year: 1997

description: C/EBPδ is a member of the C/EBP (CCAAT/enhancer binding protein) family of transcription factors whose expression has been shown to increase dramatically in liver during the acute phase response (APR). C/EBPδ expression is activated in response to APR mediators such as interleukin-6 (IL- 6). C/EBPδ is one of the major regulatory proteins involved in the induction of a number of acute phase (AP) genes in the liver by interacting with IL-6 responsive elements (IL-6REs) in the gene promoters. To better understand the mechanism by which C/EBPδ expression is activated by IL-6 during the APR, a study was initiated to map any potential IL-6REs within the C/EBPδ promoter and to determine the regulatory proteins that bind to these sites. IL-6 induction of C/EBPδ transcription was confirmed by Northern blot analysis in a hepatoma cell line, Hep3B. Cycloheximide inhibition experiments suggested that the IL-6 induction of C/EBPδ transcripts occurs at the transcriptional level and not through stabilization of the C/EBPδ mRNA. To identify regions within the C/EBPδ promoter responsible for the IL-6 induction, progressive 5' deletion mutants were constructed. These constructs were transiently transfected into Hep3B cells and tested for IL-6 inducibility. An IL- 6 responsive region was identified within the first 120 bases of the promoter sequences. A region between -114 and -100 contained sequences that closely resembles the acute phase responsive element (APRE), a motif found in the promoters of many IL-6 inducible genes that binds members of the STAT family of transcription factors. Mutational analysis of the APRE revealed that this site is essential for IL-6 inducibility of the C/EBPδ promoter. In addition, multiple copies of the C/EBPδ APRE inserted in a heterologous promoter are capable of conferring IL-6 inducibility. Electrophoresis mobility shift assay (EMSA) experiments demonstrated preferential binding of STAT3 compared to STAT1, to the C/EBPδ APRE site in response to IL-6. Additional cotransfection experiments with STAT expression vectors showed that STAT3, but not STAT1 or STAT5b, can transactivate the C/EBPδ promoter in an IL-6 responsive manner. Two Sp1 sites were also identified within the C/EBPδ proximal promoter region. Mutations introduced into either of these Sp1 sites decreased the IL-6 inducibility of the C/EBPδ promoter as well as transactivation by STAT3. These findings indicate that Sp1 proteins function cooperatively with STAT3 to activate transcription from the C/EBPδ promoter. Replacement of the C/EBPδ APRE with STAT sites from two IFN-y inducible genes conferred IFN-y responsiveness to the C/EBPδ promoter. This change in STAT specificity appears to be due to a single base difference within the STAT binding motifs. These results indicate that the C/EBPδ gene is designed to respond to certain cytokines, such as IL-6 and G-CSF, but not to others such as IFN-y.
Benefits of Advanced Air Mobility for Society and Environment: A Case Study of Ohio
Creators: name: Dulia, Esrat F.
name: Sabuj, Mir S.
name: Shihab, Syed A. M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Numerical Analysis (math.NA)
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is an emerging transportation system that will enable the safe and efficient low altitude operations and applications of unmanned aircraft (e.g., passenger transportation and cargo delivery) in the national airspace. This system is currently under active research and development by NASA in collaboration with FAA, other federal partner agencies, industry, and academia to develop its infrastructure, information architecture, software functions, concepts of operation, operations management tools and other functional components. Existing studies have, however, not thoroughly analyzed the net positive impact of AAM on society and environment to justify investments in its infrastructure and implementation. In this work, we fill this gap by evaluating the non-monetary social impact of AAM in the state of Ohio for passengers, patients, farmers, logistics companies and their customers and bridge inspection entities, as well as its environmental impact, by conducting a thorough data-driven quantitative cost-benefit analysis of AAM from the perspective of the state government. To this end, the most relevant and significant benefit and cost factors are identified, monetized, and estimated. Existing ground transportation for the movement of passengers and goods within and across urban areas is considered as the base case. The findings demonstrate that AAM's benefits are large and varied, far outweighing its costs. Insights on these benefits can help gain community acceptance of AAM, which is critical for successful implementation of AAM. The findings support decision-making for policymakers and provide justification for investments in AAM infrastructure by the government and private sector.
A model of diffusion in a potential well for the dynamics of the large-scale circulation in turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection
Creators: name: Brown, Eric
name: Ahlers, Guenter
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Experimental measurements of properties of the large-scale circulation (LSC) in turbulent convection of a fluid heated from below in a cylindrical container of aspect ratio one are presented and used to test a model of diffusion in a potential well for the LSC. The model consists of a pair of stochastic ordinary differential equations motivated by the Navier-Stokes equations. The two coupled equations are for the azimuthal orientation theta_0, and for the azimuthal temperature amplitude delta at the horizontal midplane. The dynamics is due to the driving by Gaussian distributed white noise that is introduced to represent the action of the small-scale turbulent fluctuations on the large-scale flow. Measurements of the diffusivities that determine the noise intensities are reported. Two time scales predicted by the model are found to be within a factor of two or so of corresponding experimental measurements. A scaling relationship predicted by the model between delta and the Reynolds number is confirmed by measurements over a large experimental parameter range. The Gaussian peaks of probability distributions p(delta) and p(\dotθ_0) are accurately described by the model; however the non-Gaussian tails of p(delta) are not. The frequency, angular change, and amplitude bahavior during cessations are accurately described by the model when the tails of the probability distribution of $δ$ are used as experimental input.
description: 17 pages, 17 figures
Structural Disorder and Properties of the Stuffed Pyrochlore Ho2TiO5
Creators: name: Lau, G. C.
name: Ueland, B. G.
name: Dahlberg, M. L.
name: Freitas, R. S.
name: Huang, Q.
name: Zandbergen, H. W.
name: Schiffer, P.
name: Cava, R. J.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2007
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We report a structural and thermodynamic study of the "stuffed spin ice" material Ho2TiO5 (i.e., Ho2(Ti1.33Ho0.67)O6.67), comparing samples synthesized through two different routes. Neutron powder diffraction and electron diffraction reveal that the previously reported defect fluorite phase has short-range pyrochlore ordering, in that there are domains in which the Ho and Ho/Ti sublattices are distinct. By contrast, a sample prepared through a floating zone method has long range ordering of these sublattices. Despite the differences in crystal structures, the two versions of Ho2TiO5 display similar magnetic susceptibilities. Field dependent magnetization and measured recovered entropies, however, show a difference between the two forms, suggesting that the magnetic properties of the stuffed pyrochlores depend on the local structure.
description: submitted to Phys. Rev. B
Luminescence Spectra of Quantum Dots in Microcavities. I. Bosons
Creators: name: Laussy, Fabrice P.
name: del Valle, Elena
name: Tejedor, Carlos
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We provide a unified theory of luminescence spectra of coupled light-matter systems realized with semiconductor heterostructures in microcavities, encompassing: i) the spontaneous emission case, where the system decays from a prepared (typically pure) initial state, and ii) luminescence in the presence of a continuous, incoherent pump. While the former case has been amply discussed in the literature (albeit mainly for the case of resonance), no consideration has been given to the influence of the incoherent pump. We show how, by provoking a self-consistent quantum state, the pump considerably alters the emission spectra, even at vanishing intensities. The main outcome of our analysis is to unambiguously identify strong-coupling in situations where it appears in disguise or only seems to appear. Here, we consider bosonic matter fields, in which case fully analytical solutions can be obtained. This describes the case of quantum wells or large quantum dots, or the limit of low excitation where the average populations remain much smaller than one.
Observation of higher-order solitons in defocusing waveguide arrays
Creators: name: Smirnov, Eugene
name: Ruter, Christian E.
name: Kip, Detlef
name: Kartashov, Yaroslav V.
name: Torner, Lluis
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2007
Subjects: subject: Optics (physics.optics)
subject: Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We observe experimentally higher-order solitons in waveguide arrays with defocusing saturable nonlinearity. Such solitons can comprise several in-phase bright spots and are stable above a critical power threshold. We elucidate the impact of the nonlinearity saturation on the domains of existence and stability of the observed complex soliton states.
description: 13 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Optics Letters
The FFX Correlator
Creators: name: Iguchi, Satoru
name: Okuda, Takeshi
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We established a new algorithm for correlation process in radio astronomy. This scheme consists of the 1st-stage Fourier Transform as a filter and the 2nd-stage Fourier Transform for spectroscopy. The "FFX" correlator stands for Filter and FX architecture, since the 1st-stage Fourier Transform is performed as a digital filter, and the 2nd-stage Fourier Transform is performed as a conventional FX scheme. We developed the FFX correlator hardware not only for the verification of the FFX scheme algorithm but also for the application to the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE) telescope toward high-dispersion and wideband radio observation at submillimeter wavelengths. In this paper, we present the principle of the FFX correlator and its properties, as well as the evaluation results with the production version.
description: 20 figures