cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Aerosol attenuation measurements for cosmic rays experiments: the Pierre Auger Observatory experience and
the ARCADE project
Creators: name: Buscemi, Mario
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2015

description: The characterization of the optical properties of the atmosphere in the near UV, in particular the tropospheric aerosol attenuation, is a topic strongly needed by the cosmic rays physics community. In a cosmic rays experiment, for energies greater than 10^18 eV, the identification of the properties of a primary particle is obtained through the study of the shower of particles generated by their interaction in the atmosphere. One of the techniques commonly used to achieve this goal is based on the detection of the UV fluorescence light that the nitrogen molecules of the atmosphere emit after the interaction with the particles of the shower. The most significant and variable phenomenon that affects the measurements of the fluorescence light is the scattering of light due to aerosols, infact a correct estimation of the aerosol attenuation can lead to a correction of the energy of the shower that can range from a few percent to more than 40%. For this reason cosmic rays experiments need a network  of instruments for a continuous monitoring of the aerosol attenuation. Within the activities described above, during my PhD I have been working within the Pierre Auger Collaboration and in the ARCADE project.
My activity in the Auger Collaboration has been focused on the analysis of data obtained using the two laser facilities of the observatory (CLF and XLF). The analysis of the light emitted by the lasers and collected by the Fluorescence Detector after side-scattering within the atmosphere is used to measure the atmospheric aerosol attenuation. In this work I present results of the analysis of the XLF data that I performed for the first time, the work done for the release a new version of the whole Auger Aerosol Database that is used for air shower analysis, and the modifictions I performed on the data analyss method in order to obtain more precise results.
The ARCADE project is a three year project started in 2012 and funded by the MIUR that  was conceived to solve the open problems affecting the measurements of aerosol
attenuation obtained with the typical techniques used in cosmic rays experiments. The experiment that takes place in Lamar (Colorado) makes use of a steerable lidar that was fully designed within the project, and an UV detector. I took part to all the phases of a new experiment, from the design, to the realization and finally to the development of the data analysis methods. All the the details of the project are described, and all my first hand contributes to its realization are highlighted. The description of the analysis methods that I developed for the data analysis of both devices is described, togheter with some preliminary results.
Welfare Chauvinism Among the General Population of the Euro Area in the Aftermath of the Great Recession
Creators: name: Barutell, Luis Fernandez
Publisher: name: University of Illinois at Chicago
Year: 2020
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: The continuity of the European Union lies in its ability to maintain a robust system of welfare protection and appropriate levels of social cohesion for increasingly diverse and segmented societies. However, the Great Recession of the late 2000s challenged the European social model's advancement and questioned the grounds of European multiculturalism. This thesis aimed to investigate whether contextual socioeconomic characteristics -particularly rising unemployment, inequality, and poverty/social exclusion- increased public support for the exclusion of immigrants from the rights to social benefits and services (welfare chauvinism). A secondary analysis was conducted - from data from Round 8 of the European Social Survey (2016) - to assess the specifics of the Euro area, where the struggles of the post-recession period were particularly severe. By using multilevel modeling (specifically, a three-level structure of individuals nested within regions nested within countries), this dissertation developed an original approach that reinforced some of the conclusions presented in previous investigations. In particular, this study confirmed that increasing regional-unemployment and growing country-inequality were significantly associated with exclusionist attitudes among the Eurozone's citizenry. Such a finding was consistent with previous literature suggesting that anxiety over scarcity compromises out-group solidarity. However, it was found that an increment of the population at risk of poverty/social exclusion over the recession recovering period related to lower rather than higher welfare chauvinism. Such a paradoxical finding underlines the need for further examination concerning the mechanisms of inter-group solidarity in contexts of persistent and generalized hardship. This dissertation also revealed the protective role of the value of universalism against the exclusion of immigrants from welfare, which can inform evidence-based educational programs towards the promotion of universalism-based ethics. Ultimately, this study contributes to the advancement of social work practice and research across the multicultural and complex European contexts in times of generalized discontent.
Un modello di guida per la simulazione dei sistemi ferroviari con segnalamento a blocco mobile hard wall e soft wall
Creators: name: Sanzari, Deborah
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2015

description: Nel contesto europeo lo sviluppo e l'ammodernamento del trasporto ferroviario è orientato ad aumentare sia l'attrattività del sistema che l'interoperabilità sulle tratte transnazionali. Il progetto European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) è quello di uniformare i modelli di calcolo adoperati nei sistemi di supervisione e controllo della circolazione attraverso la definizione dello standard operativo specifico per i sistemi di segnalamento ETCS (European Train Control System). Il presente lavoro di ricerca ha prodotto un modello per la simulazione dei sistemi ferroviari con blocco mobile soft wall e, più in generale, a sviluppare non solo un modello di simulazione applicabile ai diversi sistemi di blocco, ma anche privo di quelle problematiche sostanziali riscontrate nei modelli commerciali esistenti.L'applicazione del modello sviluppato ad una rete ferroviaria reale ha consentito, inoltre, di definire quantitativamente gli effetti del blocco mobile soft wall in termini di variazione della capacità di linea rispetto a quella realizzata con gli altri tipi di blocco (ETCS Livello 1, Livello 2 e Livello 3).
Phase diagram of the Holstein polaron in one dimension
Creators: name: Barisic, O. S.
name: Barisic, S.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The behavior of the 1D Holstein polaron is described, with emphasis on lattice coarsening effects, by distinguishing between adiabatic and nonadiabatic contributions to the local correlations and dispersion properties. The original and unifying systematization of the crossovers between the different polaron behaviors, usually considered in the literature, is obtained in terms of quantum to classical, weak coupling to strong coupling, adiabatic to nonadiabatic, itinerant to self-trapped polarons and large to small polarons. It is argued that the relationship between various aspects of polaron states can be specified by five regimes: the weak-coupling regime, the regime of large adiabatic polarons, the regime of small adiabatic polarons, the regime of small nonadiabatic (Lang-Firsov) polarons, and the transitory regime of small pinned polarons for which the adiabatic and nonadiabatic contributions are inextricably mixed in the polaron dispersion properties. The crossovers between these five regimes are positioned in the parameter space of the Holstein Hamiltonian.
description: 19 pages, 9 figures
Detection of a Large Flare in FR Cnc (=1RXS J083230.9+154940)
Creators: name: Golovin, Alex
name: Pavlenko, Elena
name: Kuznyetsova, Yuliana
name: Krushevska, Victoria
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2007
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We report detection of an optical flare in the BY Draconis type star FR Cnc. The flare duration is 41 min, the amplitude is in the B band 1.02 m. It is the first flare reported for this object.
description: Published in IBVS 5748
Cartoon Computation: Quantum-like computing without quantum mechanics
Creators: name: Aerts, Diederik
name: Czachor, Marek
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2006
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present a computational framework based on geometric structures. No quantum mechanics is involved, and yet the algorithms perform tasks analogous to quantum computation. Tensor products and entangled states are not needed -- they are replaced by sets of basic shapes. To test the formalism we solve in geometric terms the Deutsch-Jozsa problem, historically the first example that demonstrated the potential power of quantum computation. Each step of the algorithm has a clear geometric interpetation and allows for a cartoon representation.
description: version accepted in J. Phys.A (Letter to the Editor)
Marine animal behaviour: neglecting ocean currents can lead us up the wrong track
Creators: name: Gaspar, Philippe
name: Georges, Jean-Yves
name: Lenoble, Arnaud
name: Ferraroli, Sandra
name: Fossette, Sabrina
name: Maho, Yvon Le
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2007
Subjects: subject: Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE)
subject: FOS: Biological sciences

description: Tracks of marine animals in the wild, now increasingly acquired by electronic tagging of individuals, are of prime interest not only to identify habitats and high-risk areas, but also to gain detailed information about the behaviour of these animals. Using recent satellite-derived current estimates and leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) tracking data, we demonstrate that oceanic currents, usually neglected when analysing tracking data, can substantially distort the observed trajectories. Consequently, this will affect several important results deduced from the analysis of tracking data, such as the evaluation of the orientation skills and the energy budget of animals or the identification of foraging areas. We conclude that currents should be systematically taken into account to ensure the unbiased interpretation of tracking data, which now play a major role in marine conservation biology.
METHOD DEVELOPMENT ROUTE NETWORK TRAFFIC URBAN PASSENGER TRANSPORT (BY THE EXAMPLE OF MAGNITOGORSK CITY) (МЕТОДИКА РАЗРАБОТКИ МАРШРУТНОЙ СЕТИ ДВИЖЕНИЯ ГОРОДСКОГО ПАССАЖИРСКОГО ТРАНСПОРТА (НА ПРИМЕРЕ ГОРОДА МАГНИТОГОРСКА))
Creators: name: Osintsev, Nikita
name: Rakhmangulov, Aleksandr
name: Tsyganov, Aleksandr
name: Kornilov, Sergey
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: 99999 Engineering not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Other engineering and technologies

description: В статье рассмотрены основные положения методики разработки маршрутной сети движения городского пассажирского транспорта. Представленная методика определения оптимальных параметров маршрутной сети может быть использована для городов с различной схемой улично-дорожной сети и численностью населения с целью повышения безопасности и качества городских пассажирских перевозок.
Role of Nearly-Degenerate Vibrational Modes in Electron Transport through a Molecular Junction
Creators: name: Eskandari-asl, Amir
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We consider an open molecular junction in which electrons are coupled to multi-mode phonons. Using a master equation approach for equilibrated phonons, we show that nearly-degenerate phonon modes can be mapped into an effective single mode, which can result in a noticeable reduction of computational costs. As an illustration, we apply our theory to the OPV-5 molecule and show that we can obtain the consistent conductance spectra while reducing the computational time by orders of magnitude
Measurement of Interfering K^*+K^- and K^*-K^+ Amplitudes in the Decay D^0 --> K^+K^-pi^0
Creators: name: Cawlfield, C.
name: Collaboration, CLEO
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2006
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We have studied the Cabibbo-suppressed decay mode D^0 into K^+ K^- pi^0 using a Dalitz plot technique and find the strong phase difference delta_D [defined as delta_(K*^- K^+) - delta_(K*^+ K^-)] = 332 degrees +- 8 degrees +- 11 degrees and relative amplitude r_D [defined as a_(K*^- K^+) / a_(K*^+ K^-)] = 0.52 +- 0.05 +- 0.04. This measurement indicates significant destructive interference between D^0 into K^+ (K^- pi^0)_K*^- and D^0 into K^- (K^+ pi^0)_K*^+ in the Dalitz plot region where these two modes overlap. This analysis uses 9.0 fb^(-1) of data collected at s^(1/2) of approximately 10.58 GeV with the CLEO III detector.
description: 10 pages postscript,also available through http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS/2006/, Submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communications)
Valutazione delle più frequenti associazioni di tumori maligni multipli primitivi nell'ambito della sfera genitale femminile.
Creators: name: Rivellini, Manuela
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2015

description: In letteratura esistono numerosi case report che non giungono a conclusioni definitive ed univoche circa l'incidenza, le implicazioni cliniche e prognostiche dei tumori maligni multipli primitivi,ma essi rappresentano una realtà clinica che col tempo sarà sempre più evidente e da ciò la necessità di identificare sempre più precocemente i soggetti a maggior rischio.
Preadattamento e trasformabilità dei siti alterati da attività estrattiva
Creators: name: Aliberti, Liberato
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2015

description: Questo lavoro indaga il tema del recupero e trasformazione delle aree degradate e/o alterate da attività estrattiva.
La ricerca esplora le possibilità di trasformazione preadattative finalizzate a reimmettere in ciclo le aree estrattive reintegrandole propositivamente nel metabolismo territoriale. Si indagano i siti di cava piuttosto che di miniera, ma i concetti elaborati sono in parte trasferibili considerato le analogie tra le due tipologie di aree.
Per quanto oggi sia pratica consolidata quella del recupero ambientale legato ai concetti di "ripristino morfologico o di "mimetizzazione ambientale", si è preferito declinare il tema in virtù  delle opportunità di trasformazione che puntino ad innescare nuovi equilibri e a ricreare cicli di vita che, oltre a rendere disponibile il sito recuperandolo, diano nel contempo risposte alle esigenze delle comunità locali per affrontare le sfide del futuro in una sana prospettiva di sviluppo sostenibile.
Si tratta di atti di trasformazione coevolutivi che producono neoecosistemi capaci di riequilibrare i territori attraverso l'erogazione di servizi ecosistemici.  Di riposizionarli all'interno di processi di autosostenibilità piuttosto che adoperare astratte e forzate operazioni di mimetismo o camouflage.
Si tenta di ribaltare la comune visione problematica dei siti estrattivi e semplicistica del ripristino, si punta alla scoperta delle opportunità, relazionate e congiunte, in riferimento ai contesti territoriali ed ambientali. Notevoli opportunità sono rintracciate soprattutto per i casi situati a margine di aree urbane o periurbane e in generale per le zone climaticamente vulnerabili o con crescenti criticità ambientali.
Un sito sfruttato da attività estrattiva ha cambiato seppur temporaneamente natura rientrando legittimamente in una nuova categoria: area post-produttiva, area di scarto, drosscape, etc. Ha assunto quindi nuovi e peculiari caratteri: di forma, di superficie, di livello ecologico, etc. A partire da questi caratteri assunti vengono indagati valori e potenzialità - dal punto di vista ambientale, paesaggistico e territoriale - al fine di individuare le più coerenti suscettibilità di trasformazione.
title: Evaluation of the potential for genomic selection in an Irish breeding population of sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr))
Creators: name: Cashell, Ronan
Publisher: name: University of Galway
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Sitka spruce
subject: Ireland
subject: genomic selection
subject: Biological and Chemical Sciences
subject: Plant Science
subject: AgriBioscience

description: Genomic selection is a form of breeding predicting for phenotypic traits within a population, using allelic data drawn from individuals within this population as the explanatory variable. Genomic selection has been widely evaluated within livestock and crop species, and is now an established part of breeding endeavours within such species. In the era of increasingly cheaper whole-genomic sequencing strategies, the potential for genomic selection is increasingly being investigated in more niche species with features that otherwise discourage evaluation such as long generational intervals or particularly large genomes. Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) is one such species, yet equally is also one of great importance to Irish forestry. Efforts to breed Sitka spruce in Ireland have been have resulted in a national breeding program, but have not yet attempted to incorporate any of the recent advances regarding genetic and genomic breeding. In this thesis, I investigated the the potential for genomic selection among the Irish breeding population of Sitka spruce. I evaluated the suitability of phenotypic data generated from the breeding program for the used as traits of interest within a genomic selection model. Comparing the historical data of the program to contemporary data, I investigated the assumptions of correlation of the genetic control of a traits across different ages which underpins breeding in many long-lived species. Combining the available phenotypic data of the breeding program, derived from families of half-siblings, with genomic data generated from their maternal parent through Genotype-by-Sequencing, I explored the potential for genomic selection in Irish Sitka spruce with respect to the nature of these data. Finally, using a sub-population of full-siblings derived from the breeding program's genotypes, I examined the effectiveness of genomic selection against more conventional breeding methods such pedigree-based breeding. In totality, this thesis demonstrates a clear potential for viable genomic selection in the Irish Sitka spruce breeding population as is, and highlights opportunities for changes to current practices which would further improve genomic selection within this population.
The exact Darwin Lagrangian
Creators: name: Essen, Hanno
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2007
Subjects: subject: Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
subject: General Physics (physics.gen-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Darwin (1920) noted that when radiation can be neglected it should be possible to eliminate the radiation degrees-of-freedom from the action of classical electrodynamics and keep the discrete particle degrees-of-freedom only. Darwin derived his well known Lagrangian by series expansion in $v/c$ keeping terms up to order $(v/c)^2$. Since radiation is due to acceleration the assumption of low speed should not be necessary. A Lagrangian is suggested that neglects radiation without assuming low speed. It cures deficiencies of the Darwin Lagrangian in the ultra-relativistic regime.
description: 2.5 pages, no figures
Effective field theory analysis of boson-trimer bond lengths to next-to-leading order
Creators: name: Qin, Julia
name: Vanasse, Jared
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
subject: Atomic and Molecular Clusters (physics.atm-clus)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Cold Helium atoms are a unique system where a single excited three-body Efimov state occurs, naturally, without the need for an external magnetic field. While three-body bound state energies of cold Helium atoms have previously been investigated, recent experimental techniques have allowed their structure to also be studied. The weak interaction between Helium atoms leads to a helium-helium (dimer) scattering length, $a$, much larger than the helium-helium effective range of interaction, $r$. This feature is exploited in a theory that systematically expands observables in powers of $r/a$, known as short range effective field theory (srEFT), which has been used successfully to investigate properties of cold atom systems. Using srEFT we investigate the average bond length of atoms in the three-body ground state and excited Efimov state of cold Helium atoms. At leading-order (next-to-leading order) in srEFT, we find the average bond length of the $^4$He trimer ground state is 8.35(33) Å (10.29(2) Å) and the average bond length of the excited $^4$He trimer Efimov state is 103(4) Å (105.3(2) Å).
description: 20 pages, 7 figures
Non-Abelian duality from vortex moduli: a dual model of color-confinement
Creators: name: Eto, Minoru
name: Ferretti, Luca
name: Konishi, Kenichi
name: Marmorini, Giacomo
name: Nitta, Muneto
name: Ohashi, Keisuke
name: Vinci, Walter
name: Yokoi, Naoto
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2006
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: It is argued that the dual transformation of non-Abelian monopoles occurring in a system with gauge symmetry breaking G -> H is to be defined by setting the low-energy H system in Higgs phase, so that the dual system is in confinement phase. The transformation law of the monopoles follows from that of monopole-vortex mixed configurations in the system (with a large hierarchy of energy scales, v_1 >> v_2) G -> H -> 0, under an unbroken, exact color-flavor diagonal symmetry H_{C+F} \sim {\tilde H}. The transformation property among the regular monopoles characterized by π_2(G/H), follows from that among the non-Abelian vortices with flux quantized according to π_1(H), via the isomorphism π_1(G) \sim π_1(H) / π_2(G/H). Our idea is tested against the concrete models -- softly-broken {\cal N}=2 supersymmetric SU(N), SO(N) and USp(2N) theories, with appropriate number of flavors. The results obtained in the semiclassical regime (at v_1 >> v_2 >> Λ) of these models are consistent with those inferred from the fully quantum-mechanical low-energy effective action of the systems (at v_1, v_2 \sim Λ).
description: 2+27 pages, 5 figures; v3, minor changes
The Impact of Kidney Transplant on Health Related Quality of Life in Recipients with BMI > 35
Creators: name: Walczak, Debra Ann
Publisher: name: University of Illinois at Chicago
Year: 2020
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Body Kidney transplant [KTx] in recipients with BMI > 35 remains controversial and has not often been studied in patients with BMI > 40. Although health related quality of life [HRQOL] is important to consider when evaluating outcomes, there is a paucity of data as to whether HRQOL is adversely affected by being obese after KTx. This ambi-directional study examined the relationship between degree of obesity, KTx outcomes and HRQOL, across BMI groups, in a racially diverse population. Methods The medical records of 227adult, KTx recipients with BMI > 30, transplanted at the University of Illinois Hospital between 1/2009 -10/2017, were retrospectively reviewed. A prospective approach was limited to 1-time administration of the Kidney Disease Quality Of Life-36 [KDQOL-36] survey to recipients who had not yet completed it after KTx. The cohort was stratified into four obese groups: BMI 30-34.9, n=74; BMI 35-39.9, n=67; BMI 40-49.9, n=67; and BMI > 50 n=19. Data was compared across racial and BMI groups. Cox Proportional Hazard Multivariate and logistic regression were used to identify factors associated with graft survival and patient death. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis determined patient and graft survival over time. KDQOL-36 scores were used to measure HRQOL. Results Overall, 61% were Black, 44% were female. Most received organs from living donors [n=130, 57%]. Demographics were similar across BMI groups. Mean follow up was 4.5 yrs. Patient and graft survival reached 100% at 1 year in all BMI groups and was not significantly different at 3 or 5 years. Females had a .1512 [p=0.013] increase in patient survival compared to males and race did not negatively influence survival. Diabetes mellitus [DM] pre-KTx correlated [Cor= 0.149, p=0.0334] with a 3.4% [p=0.0288] increase in death risk. Rejection [p=0.000], years of education [p=0.001] and median income [p=0.036] influenced graft survival but did not affect outcomes. Wound complications [n=9, 6%] occurred in recipients with BMI 30-39.9 who had a standard open surgical approach. KDQOL-36 component scores were at or above the US dialysis population. BMI class had no effect on HRQOL, while age > 51 [p=0.000], female gender [p=0.057] and pre KTx DM [p=0.020] significantly decreased Physical Component Scores [PCS]. Conclusion KTx outcomes for those with BMI > 35, offers graft and patient survival benefits and HRQOL above the US normative average for transplant recipients and patients on dialysis. Obesity should not be an absolute contraindication to KTx regardless of race or degree of BMI. Importantly, a history of pre-KTx DM can predict poorer recipient survival and lower PCS scores in obese recipients, suggesting a need for rigorous DM management pre and post KTx.
title: The role of the domestic and international law in enabling and constraining internment: A case study of Northern Ireland during ‘the Troubles’ and Guantánamo Bay during the ‘War on Terror’
Creators: name: Portuondo, Maria Cristina
Publisher: name: University of Galway
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Northern Ireland
subject: Guantánamo Bay
subject: Domestic law
subject: International law
subject: Business, Public Policy, & Law
subject: Law
subject: FOS: Law

description: When States are confronted with a terrorist attack that threatens the life of the nation, they typically react by adopting emergency legislation to enable the use of counter-terrorism tactics. While there is extensive literature on this topic, little has been written about the precise role that domestic law and international human rights law play in both enabling and constraining such tactics. This thesis investigates how the law and courts (including quasi-judicial bodies) have at once enabled and constrained counter-terrorism tactics, using a comparison of internment in Northern Ireland during ‘The Trouble’ (a period in time when international human rights law was a newly emerging body of law) and Guantánamo Bay in the context of the present day Global War on Terror (with international human rights law now a well-established area of law with a broad range of treaties and case law). These two case studies were selected due to the similarities between them in terms of the counter-terrorism tactics and used the alleged human rights violations, despite the differences in terms of temporal scope, geographic location, and the state of development of international human rights law. Ultimately, this thesis shows that despite the considerable enabling function of the law, in the form of deference to the executive by courts and legislatures, as well as sovereignty deference mechanisms built into the very fabric of human rights law, the law also constrains the nature and extent of counter-terrorism tactics. This study not only adds to the literature on States’ obligations to protect the general public and national security in response to a terrorist threat but develops the idea of a civil liberties and human rights duty to protect suspected terrorists. Finally, it explores the role and limits of the law in finding a durable solution to the vexed problem of terrorism.
Embodiment: the lived body in medicine and architecture
Creators: name: Anholt, Teri Jill
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2009

description: This thesis project is about reinstating the human body into healthcare architecture. Implicit in this intention are ideas about tactility, intimacy, and movement as experiential aspects of architectural perception. The project attempts to bring physical form to a new paradigm about wholistic healthcare involving a continuum that ranges from a reactive approach to health involving treatment of injury and disability to a proactive approach to health involving preventative and fitness programs.
Biopolymeric Scaffold obtained by Electrospinning for Intima Vessel regeneration
Creators: name: Putzu, Marta
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2015

description: Atherosclerosis is the main cause of death in Western countries for coronary heart disease or stroke; the disease process is progressive and typically starts at an early age and is expressed clinically during the middle and old age. It's a multifactorial disease that, to become clinically manifest, requires the formation of a plaque fibro-lipid within the wall of an artery that reduces
blood flow. The formation of advanced atherosclerotic lesions is the consequence of three processes:
1) the accumulation of lipids, mainly cholesteryl esters and free cholesterol, in the space subendothelium
of the arteries;
2) the establishment of an inflammatory infiltration of lymphocytes and macrophages, engulfing
lipids accumulated, they become foam cells (foam cells);
3) migration and proliferation of smooth muscle cells (smooth muscle cells – SMC)
Despite the term "atherosclerosis" derives from the greek ãthere, "mush" and sclerosis,"hardening",it is important to emphasize that the injury could be a great variability in tissue formed because of the prevalence of each of the three processes.Consequently, some atherosclerotic lesions appear predominantly dense and fibrous, others can contain large amounts of lipid and necrotic debris, while most have combinations and variations of
each of these characteristics. The distribution of lipids and connective tissue within the lesions determines the stability, the ease to rupture and thrombosis, with consequent clinical effects. The purpose of the following doctoral work is part of the European project "THE GRAIL" ( Tissue
in Host Engineering Guided Regeneration of Arterial Intimal Layer Grant nr 278557) whose purpose is to regenerate diseased arteries by removing the inner Atherosclerotic plaque and substituting it with a temporary scaffold referred to as Synthetic Intimal Layer(SIL),that will lead to the regeneration of an intimal layer.
In particular, the project will be focused on the realization of a selectively porous, resorbable and preshaped scaffold made by Electrospinning, based on recombinant Elastin Like Polymers and a copolymer made by conjugation of ELP with silk. This two types of scaffold will be deployed once in contact with healthy medial layer of arterie as a new internal elastic lamina.
Revising Berg-Purcell for finite receptor kinetics
Creators: name: Handy, Gregory
name: Lawley, Sean D
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Quantitative Methods (q-bio.QM)
subject: Probability (math.PR)
subject: Cell Behavior (q-bio.CB)
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: From nutrient uptake, to chemoreception, to synaptic transmission, many systems in cell biology depend on molecules diffusing and binding to membrane receptors. Mathematical analysis of such systems often neglects the fact that receptors process molecules at finite kinetic rates. A key example is the celebrated formula of Berg and Purcell for the rate that cell surface receptors capture extracellular molecules. Indeed, this influential result is only valid if receptors transport molecules through the cell wall at a rate much faster than molecules arrive at receptors. From a mathematical perspective, ignoring receptor kinetics is convenient because it makes the diffusing molecules independent. In contrast, including receptor kinetics introduces correlations between the diffusing molecules since, for example, bound receptors may be temporarily blocked from binding additional molecules. In this work, we present a modeling framework for coupling bulk diffusion to surface receptors with finite kinetic rates. The framework uses boundary homogenization to couple the diffusion equation to nonlinear ordinary differential equations on the boundary. We use this framework to derive an explicit formula for the cellular uptake rate and show that the analysis of Berg and Purcell significantly overestimates uptake in some typical biophysical scenarios. We confirm our analysis by numerical simulations of a many particle stochastic system.
description: 26 pages, 5 figures
Interplay of intrinsic motion of partons and soft gluon emissions in Drell-Yan production studied with PYTHIA
Creators: name: Bubanja, I.
name: Jung, Hannes
name: Raicevic, N.
name: Taheri Monfared, Sara
Publisher: name: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg
Year: 2024

description: Understanding the intrinsic transverse momentum (intrinsic-$k_T$) of partons within colliding hadrons, typically modeled with a Gaussian distribution characterized by a specific width (the intrinsic-$k_T$ width), has been an extremely challenging issue. This difficulty arises because event generators like Pythia require an intrinsic-$k_T$ width that unexpectedly varies with collision energy, reaching unphysical values at high energies. This paper investigates the underlying physics behind this energy dependence in Pythia, revealing that it arises from an interplay between two non-perturbative processes: the internal transverse motion of partons and non-perturbative soft gluon emissions. These contributions are most constrained in the production of Drell-Yan pairs with very low transverse momentum, where soft gluon effects become increasingly prominent with rising collision energy-contrary to initial expectations. Through a detailed analysis of the non-perturbative Sudakov form factor and its influence on intrinsic-$k_T$ width, we clarify the observed energy scaling behavior in Pythia, providing insight into a longstanding issue in parton shower modeling.
Neighborhood Co-Ethnic Density, Acculturation, and Alcohol Use Among Hispanic Adolescents
Creators: name: Kraft, Amber N
Publisher: name: University of Illinois at Chicago
Year: 2020
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: Many studies have found associations between acculturation and alcohol use among Hispanic adolescents in the US. However, these associations vary by acculturation dimension (i.e. destination culture vs. heritage culture/enculturation) and domain (e.g. behavior, values, identity). In addition, parent-child acculturation gaps, in which parents and children manifest different acculturative responses, are frequently associated with negative adolescent outcomes including alcohol use. Research on acculturation-alcohol use relationships has not yet rigorously examined the role of ecological context. Because acculturation is a process of adaptation to the new cultural environment, the fit between the demands of the ecological setting and the individual’s acculturative response may be a more important predictor of adolescent outcomes than any specific acculturative response alone. The present study analyzed data previously collected as part of the Construyendo Oportunidades Para Adolescentes Latinos (COPAL; Schwartz et al., 2012; Schwartz et al., 2014, Schwartz et al., 2016) to determine whether neighborhood co-ethnic density moderates the relationship between both individual and family-level acculturation processes and adolescent alcohol use. Associations were tested cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and survival analyses were also used to assess alcohol initiation. Contrary to hypotheses, adolescent Hispanic identity predicted higher likelihood of alcohol use in high co-ethnic density neighborhoods. Results for the interaction between parental acculturation and neighborhood co-ethnic density were mixed; In high co-ethnic density neighborhoods, parental Hispanic practices predicted lower odds of alcohol use in longitudinal analyses, but earlier initiation in survival analyses. In high co-ethnic density neighborhoods, parental US practices and values were associated with higher likelihood of adolescent alcohol use. Sample size, along with floor effects for alcohol use measures and ceiling effects for neighborhood co-ethnic density measures, limited the ability to test the interaction between acculturation gaps and neighborhood co-ethnic density (hypotheses nine and ten). In some cases, the moderating effect of neighborhood co-ethnic density varied depending on how the construct was operationalized. This study represents an initial step towards understanding the importance of fit between acculturation processes and the surrounding neighborhood environment. It also introduces methodological strategies for incorporating objective neighborhood-level variables into such analyses. Recommendations for future research are discussed in depth.
Magnetotransport and thermoelectricity in disordered graphene
Creators: name: Dóra, Balázs
name: Thalmeier, Peter
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2007
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We have studied the electric and thermal response of two-dimensional Dirac-fermions in a quantizing magnetic field in the presence of localized disorder. The electric and heat current operators in the presence of magnetic field are derived. The self-energy due to impurities is calculated self-consistently, and depends strongly on the frequency and field strength, resulting in asymmetric peaks in the density of states at the Landau level energies, and small islands connecting them. The Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations remain periodic in 1/B, in spite of the distinct quantization of quasiparticle orbits compared to normal metals. The Seebeck coefficient depends strongly on the field strength and orientation. For finite field and chemical potential, the Wiedemann-Franz law can be violated.
description: 10 pages, 6 figures
Optimal Process Modeling for Assessment and Enhancement of Error-Based Motor Learning
Creators: name: Pritesh N Parmar
Publisher: name: University of Illinois at Chicago
Year: 2020
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: As emerging human-machine interfaces enable new opportunities for enhanced performance, users must acquire appropriate motor skills to operate the technology through lengthy, intensive, and elaborate training. Model-based frameworks can enable optimal training through computational modeling to better understand the process of motor learning and simulations to explore the training conditions that facilitate skill acquisitions. In this dissertation, we conducted reaching experiments on 15 healthy individuals and explored the role of error-based feedback and its augmentations (error-augmentation or EA) to shape the time course of motor learning. Computational models tested several learning mechanisms including: 1) constant versus error-dependent learning rates, 2) first-order versus higher-order processes, and 3) generalization across movement directions. We first determined the sample size of trial performances needed to best assess the time course of motor learning, and we found that the number of samples required increased linearly with the time constant of transient signals and decreased exponentially with signal-to noise ratio. Next, we found that the second-order proxy process model with trial-to-trial update method best predicted the influence of EA on changes in movement errors from sparse, intermittent no-vision (catch) trials. Next, our simulations revealed that the optimal EA (gain and offset) schedules should be held constant near 2 to minimize the final error and maximize the rate of learning, and the training duration of at least 16 trials were necessary. We then identified generative model structures to predict motor learning through randomized reaching practice across movement directions, and we found that iterative update of the initial ballistic launch to reaching targets was predictable using the direction-specific, locally generalizing first-order model with constant learning rate. Finally, we investigated generative model structures that can predict motor learning through corrective submovements, and we found that iterative update of the submovements during rapid reaching was predictable using the first-order affine model with Gaussian-weighted learning rate. This work illuminates computational frameworks to better understand and to enhance motor learning process that would dramatically impact neurorehabilitation, sports, piloting, and other forms of performance training.
TADO: Time-varying Attention with Dual-Optimizer Model
Creators: name: Wu, Yuexin
name: Gao, Tianyu
name: Wang, Sihao
name: Xiong, Zhongmin
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Information Retrieval (cs.IR)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: The review-based recommender systems are commonly utilized to measure users preferences towards different items. In this paper, we focus on addressing three main problems existing in the review-based methods. Firstly, these methods suffer from the class-imbalanced problem where rating levels with lower proportions will be ignored to some extent. Thus, their performance on relatively rare rating levels is unsatisfactory. As the first attempt in this field to address this problem, we propose a flexible dual-optimizer model to gain robustness from both regression loss and classification loss. Secondly, to address the problem caused by the insufficient contextual information extraction ability of word embedding, we first introduce BERT into the review-based method to improve the performance of the semantic analysis. Thirdly, the existing methods ignore the feature information of the time-varying user preferences. Therefore, we propose a time-varying feature extraction module with bidirectional long short-term memory and multi-scale convolutional neural network. Afterward, an interaction component is proposed to further summarize the contextual information of the user-item pairs. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed TADO, we conduct extensive experiments on 23 benchmark datasets selected from Amazon Product Reviews. Compared with several recently proposed state-of-the-art methods, our model obtains significant gain over ALFM, MPCN, and ANR averagely with 20.98\%, 9.84\%, and 15.46\%, respectively. Further analysis proves the necessity of jointly using the proposed components in TADO.
"ON-OFF" RGD SIGNALING USING AZOBENZENE PHOTOSWITCH-MODIFIED SURFACES
Creators: name: Vaselli, Elisa
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2015

description: When engineering new biomaterials, one of the first requirement is the design of versatile systems where the accessibility of engrafted biomolecules can be regulated at wish. The chance to regulate the presentation of such biological cues stand on some new strategies adopted to achieve controlled responsiveness in a dynamic way, exploiting several external triggers. The modification of peptide or protein ligands with light-sensitive moieties represents a powerful method to achieve the temporal control of their bioactivity using light. In our work GRGDS sequence was coupled with an azobenzene unit to provide the possibility of a photocontrolled exposure of such peptide, after tethering it on a solid substrate. The final aim of this research, indeed, concerns the development of a smart platform in which the capability to tune cell adhesion response can be achieved exploiting light as trigger. The designed azoderivative was synthesized and characterized by means of UV-Visible spectroscopy, which confirmed that the typical photoswitching behavior of the azobenzene unit was preserved, even after the introduction of the peptide. After an exhaustive characterization in solution the synthesized azoderivative was grafted on a silanized glass surface, exploiting the "click" chemistry strategy. A comprehensive chemical and topographical characterization of such substrate with Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy, was followed by the investigation of the photoresponsive behavior on solid substrate through the water contact angle technique, recording local changes in wettability related to the isomerization of the azobenzene domain upon light stimuli. Finally, the developed photoresponsive platform was tested for biological applications, through adhesion assays with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), in order to evaluate the possibility of a controlled adhesion upon external light stimuli.
2003--2005 INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton observations of 3C 273
Creators: name: Chernyakova, M.
name: Neronov, A.
name: Courvoisier, T. J. -L.
name: Turler, M.
name: Soldi, S.
name: Beckmann, V.
name: Lubinski, P.
name: Walter, R.
name: Page, K. L.
name: Stuhlinger, M.
name: Staubert, R.
name: McHardy, I. M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2007
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The aim of this paper is to study the evolution of the broadband spectrum of one of the brightest and nearest quasars 3C 273. We analyze the data obtained during quasi-simultaneous INTEGRAL and XMM monitoring of the blazar 3C 273 in 2003--2005 in the UV, X-ray and soft gamma-ray bands and study the results in the context of the long-term evolution of the source. The 0.2-100 keV spectrum of the source is well fitted by a combination of a soft cut-off power law and a hard power law. No improvement of the fit is achieved if one replaces the soft cut-off power law by either a blackbody, or a disk reflection model. During the observation period the source has reached the historically softest state in the hard X-ray domain with a photon index $Γ=1.82\pm 0.01$. Comparing our data with available archived X-ray data from previous years, we find a secular evolution of the source toward softer X-ray emission (the photon index has increased by $ΔΓ\simeq 0.3-0.4$ over the last thirty years). We argue that existing theoretical models have to be significantly modified to account for the observed spectral evolution of the source.
description: 11 pages, accepted to A&A
Hydrodynamic and Structural Correlations for the Water Impact of High Speed Planing Craft
Creators: name: Santoro, Nicola
Publisher: name: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Year: 2015

description: This thesis presents an experimental research for the assessment of pressure field on the bottom of a monohedral hard chine hull at high relative speed and it implements the hydrodynamic and structural correlations between different sizes of model. Tests have been performed in rough sea for different wave lengths at Fn ranging from 0.79 to 1.46. The measured pressures have been analysed in time and in frequency domain. The pressure distribution along a rectangular panel of the hull bottom has been identified. The comparison of measured values and those ones provided by Classification Societies has been performed and pressure results have been used to investigate the interactions between the fluid and the craft structure. The elastic behaviour of different bottom panels is analyzed and the scantling of a typical bottom panel, made from four materials, have been calculated, in order to investigate the structural dynamic behaviour