Geology and wines of Pachino - Portopalo area : preliminary outlines

This research, still in a developmental phase, analyses geological peculiarities and the relation- ships between them and the vineyards typical to the Pachino-Portopalo area. The actual knowledge does not yet allow the drawing of tourist routes from which a geo-tourist would be able to join together Geosites and Oenosites. This will be one of the main topics of future research, oriented to produce substantial contributions to the sustainable development of this area.peer-reviewe

Edge modes and Fabry-Perot Plasmonic Resonances in anomalous-Hall Thin Films

We study plasmon propagation on a metallic two-dimensional surface partially coated with a thin film of anomalous-Hall material. The resulting three regions, separated by two sharp interfaces, are characterised by different Hall conductivities but identical normal conductivities. A single bound mode is found, which can localise to either interface and has an asymmetric potential profile across the region. For propagating modes, we calculate the reflection and transmission coefficients through the magnetic region. We find Airy transmission patterns with sharp maxima and minima as a function of the plasmon incidence angle. The system therefore behaves as a high-quality filter.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. Upon revision, the basic content and analysis of the paper is unchanged but the emphasis on topological insulators has been removed. The title and abstract has been changed to reflect this. Damping of the bound mode has been include

Business Models for Sustainable Finance: The Case Study of Social Impact Bonds

Business models for sustainability (BMfS) are relevant topics on research agendas, given their orientation toward sustainability issues. However, traditional versions of these models are often ill-equipped at solving complex social problems. Cross-sector partnerships for sustainability (CSPfS) have been recognized as a new paradigm that mitigates the failure of traditional models. Impact investing, and social impact bonds (SIBs) in particular, represent an interesting field of research in innovative business models for sustainable finance, even though the literature does not consider SIBs within this broader field. We propose an exploratory study based on qualitative methods aimed at conceptualizing SIBs within the framework of BMfS and understanding how SIB collaboration varies across social sectors and geographical areas. Our study identifies three different models of SIBs characterized by the different degrees of collaboration between actors: (i) SIB as a fully collaborative partnership; (ii) SIB as a low-collaborative partnership; and (iii) SIB as a partially collaborative partnership. Our findings are useful to policy makers and practitioners involved in the SIB design, suggesting that a fully collaborative SIB model may stand a better chance of achieving the expected social impacts

The qTq_T subtraction method for top quark production at hadron colliders

We consider QCD radiative corrections to top-quark pair production at hadron colliders. We use the $q_T$ subtraction formalism to perform a fully-differential computation for this process. Our calculation is accurate up to the next-to-leading order in QCD perturbation theory and it includes all the flavour off-diagonal partonic channels at the next-to-next-to-leading order. We present a comparison of our numerical results with those obtained with the publicly available numerical programs MCFM and Top++.Comment: Few references and comments added, expanded discussion on the qt subtraction method, result unchanged, version published in EPJ

A comparison between entecavir and tenofovir in chronic hepatitis B in the clinical practice: a single-center experience

Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) affects 350-400 million of patients worldwide. Entecavir (ETV) and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) are two nucleoside/nucleotide analogs recommended as first-line treatments in CHB.This retrospective study aimed at comparing effectiveness and renal safety of ETV and TDF through the analysis of data obtained from our CHB outpatients from June 2007 to September 2014. 41 out of 126 CHB outpatients were treated with ETV and 18 with TDF.TDF showed greater, though not statistically significant, effectiveness, in the three groups considered, i.e. naïve, pretreated with nucleoside/nucleotide analogs other than ETV or TDF, and pretreated with ETV or TDF patients. In particular, in naïve patients, those treated with TDF attained not detectable levels of viremia more rapidly (7 months versus 9 months) than ETV-treated patients, even starting from higher HBV DNA levels. In addition, virologic failure was observed in 0 versus 11% in TDF and ETV group, respectively. Also in patients pretreated with nucleoside/nucleotide analogs other than ETV or TDF, virologic failure was observed just in ETV patients. In patients who switched from ETV or TDF the mean time to attain undetectable HBV DNA levels was shorter in TDF group (3 months versus 6 months).Considering renal toxicity, there was no difference in creatinine and GFR levels between the two groups. Proteinuria and phosphaturia were greater in TDF patients, reaching statistical significance just in those pretreated with nucleoside/nucleotide analogs other than ETV or TDF

Soft-gluon resummation for single-particle inclusive hadroproduction at high transverse momentum

We consider the cross section for one-particle inclusive production at high transverse momentum in hadronic collisions. We present the all-order resummation formula that controls the logarithmically-enhanced perturbative QCD contributions to the partonic cross section in the threshold region, at fixed rapidity of the observed parton (hadron). The explicit resummation up to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy is supplemented with the computation of the general structure of the near-threshold contributions to the next-to-leading order cross section. This next-to-leading order computation allows us to extract the one-loop hard-virtual amplitude that enters into the resummation formula. This is a necessary ingredient to explicitly extend the soft-gluon resummation beyond the next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. These results equally apply to both spin-unpolarized and spin-polarized scattering processes

Fondamento etico della fuzione do governo e diritto popolare di resistenza: riflessioni critiche sull'art. 93 della Costituzione italiana

Il giuramento solenne del Presidente del Consiglio e dei Ministri nelle mani del Presidente della Repubblica, previsto nell'art. 93 della Costituzione italiana, è un momento dle procedimento di formazione del nuovo Esecutivo il cui significato è stato spesso considerato un mero elemento procedurale e pertanto sottovalutato dalla dottrina. In realtà esso è il moderno e laico erede del giuramento politico di più antica tradizione: a tale solenne assunzione di impegno di fronte alla comunità nazionale si deve il fondamento etico della funzione di governo poiché esprime il basilare patto fra governanti e governati, e in ultima analisi fra istituzioni del potere costituito e società civile, su cui si regge il moderno costituzionalismo democratico. Il saggio si propone di ricostruire il dibattito italiano sulla natura del giuramento costituzionale dallo Statuto Albertino all'odierna Costituzione repubblicana, e di indagare sugli elementi che concorrono a dare un moderno spessore etico al giuramento costituzionale, individuando infine i motivi per cui, di fronte alla rottura del pactum unionis da parte di un Esecutivo infedele al proprio giuramento, trova piena legittimazione il diritto popolare di disobbedire al potere costituito e di praticare la disobbedienza civile come estremo mezzo per salvare la democrazi