The Gelasian (Late Villanyan-MN17) diversified micromammal assemblage with Mimomys pliocaenicus from Coste San Giacomo (Anagni basin, central Italy), taxonomy and comparison with selected european sites

The Gelasian site of Coste San Giacomo (CSG) (central Italy) provides a unique opportunity to investigate the faunal and environmental changes occurred in Mediterranean Europe during the Early Pleistocene. The finding of both large and small mammal fauna has a great biochronological and palaeoenvironmental value. In this work the description of the small mammal assemblage is presented and discussed in detail for the first time. Twelve taxa, belonging to three orders, have been in fact identified and described (six Rodentia, one Lagomorpha and five Eulipotyphla). In particular, the CSG small mammal assemblage has provided the largest collection in Europe of Mimomys pliocaenicus and, for this reason, it can be considered as a reference. Finally, the occurrence of the Desmaninae subfamily is reported for the first time in Italy. © 2015 Associazione Teriologica Italiana

Formulations of the 3+1 evolution equations in curvilinear coordinates

Following Brown, in this paper we give an overview of how to modify standard hyperbolic formulations of the 3+1 evolution equations of General Relativity in such a way that all auxiliary quantities are true tensors, thus allowing for these formulations to be used with curvilinear sets of coordinates such as spherical or cylindrical coordinates. After considering the general case for both the Nagy-Ortiz-Reula (NOR) and the Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura (BSSN) formulations, we specialize to the case of spherical symmetry and also discuss the issue of regularity at the origin. Finally, we show some numerical examples of the modified BSSN formulation at work in spherical symmetry.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure

RNA secondary structure prediction using large margin methods

The secondary structure of RNA is essential for its biological role. Recently, Do, Woods, Batzoglou, (ISMB 2006) proposed a probabilistic approach that generalizes SCFGs using conditional maximum likelihood to estimate the model parameters. We propose an alternative approach to parameter estimation which is based on an SVM-like large margin method

Italian High-speed Airplane Engines

This paper presents an account of Italian high-speed engine designs. The tests were performed on the Fiat AS6 engine, and all components of that engine are discussed from cylinders to superchargers as well as the test set-up. The results of the bench tests are given along with the performance of the engines in various races

Improved Determination of the CKM Angle alpha from B to pi pi decays

Motivated by a recent paper that compares the results of the analysis of the CKM angle alpha in the frequentist and in the Bayesian approaches, we have reconsidered the information on the hadronic amplitudes, which helps constraining the value of alpha in the Standard Model. We find that the Bayesian method gives consistent results irrespective of the parametrisation of the hadronic amplitudes and that the results of the frequentist and Bayesian approaches are equivalent when comparing meaningful probability ranges or confidence levels. We also find that from B to pi pi decays alone the 95% probability region for alpha is the interval [80^o,170^o], well consistent with recent analyses of the unitarity triangle where, by using all the available experimental and theoretical information, one gets alpha = (93 +- 4)^o. Last but not least, by using simple arguments on the hadronic matrix elements, we show that the unphysical region alpha ~ 0, present in several experimental analyses, can be eliminated.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Investigating The Physics Case of Running a B-Factory at the Y(5S) Resonance

We discuss the physics case of a high luminosity B-Factory running at the Y(5S) resonance. We show that the coherence of the B meson pairs is preserved at this resonance, and that Bs can be well distinguished from Bd and charged B mesons. These facts allow to cover the physics program of a traditional B-Factory and, at the same time, to perform complementary measurements which are not accessible at the Y(4S). In particular we show how, despite the experimental limitations in performing time-dependent measurements of Bs decays, the same experimental information can be extracted, in several cases, from the determination of time-integrated observables. In addition, a few examples of the potentiality in measuring rare Bs decays are given. Finally, we discuss how the study of Bs meson will improve the constraints on New Physics parameters in the Bs sector, in the context of the generalized Unitarity Triangle analysis.Comment: 47 pages, 22 figure

Effectiveness of Travelling Slice Modeling in Representing the Continuous Casting Process of Large Product Sections

It is critical in the metal continuous casting process to estimate the temperature evolution of the casted section along the machine from the meniscus (the point where liquid metal is poured) to the cutting machine, where the product is cut to commercial length. A convenient approximated model to achieve this goal with a feasible computational effort, particularly in the case of large sections, is the so-called travelling slice: the transversal section of casted product is subjected to different thermal boundary conditions (e.g., thermal flux, radiation, convection) that are found during the movement at constant speed from meniscus to the end of machine. In this work, the results obtained with the approximated travelling slice model are analyzed in the favorable case of an axisymmetric section. In this case, the reference model is 2D, whereas the travelling slice model degenerates in a simple 1D model. Three different casted shapes were investigated, rounds with diameters of 200 mm, 850 mm, and 1200 mm, spanning from traditional to only recently adopted product diameter sizes. To properly test the validity of the travelling slice model, other casting speeds were considered, even outside the industrial range. Results demonstrate the advantage of using the travelling slice, particularly the much lower computational cost without sacrificing precision, even at low casting speed and large dimensions