LO STATO PSICO - FISICO NEGLI STUDENTI UNIVERSITARI PENDOLARI

Lo stress \ue8 un insieme di modificazioni fisiologiche, cognitive, emotive e comportamentali di cui l\u2019individuo ha esperienza nel momento in cui \ue8 richiesto un adattamento alle circostanze ambientali presenti: si configura pertanto come una reazione generale a situazioni specifiche e, non ha una connotazione positiva o negativa, svolgendo primariamente una funzione di tipo adattivo. Ci\uf2 che rende disfunzionale e \u201cpatologico\u201d lo stress \ue8 il modo in cui l\u2019individuo valuta la situazione con la quale si trova a rapportarsi: in questi casi si parla pertanto di distress, ovvero \u201cstress negativo\u201d (Selye, 1956). Gli stimoli e le situazioni che, valutate negativamente, determinano una reazione di distress sono definiti stressors; questi possono essere acuti (si verificano una sola volta e per un periodo limitato di tempo) oppure cronici (di lunga durata). A loro volta, gli stressors cronici possono essere intermittenti o propriamente cronici. Nel primo caso, si presentano a intervalli di tempo regolari, hanno una durata limitata e perci\uf2 sono pi\uf9 o meno prevedibili; nel secondo, invece, sono rappresentati da situazioni di lunga durata, che permeano la vita dell\u2019individuo e che diventano stressanti nel momento in cui ostacolano in maniera persistente il perseguimento degli obiettivi della persona. Due sono le reazioni fisiologiche principali che caratterizzano la risposta di stress: muscolari (tensione muscolare o immobilizzazione) e neurovegetative (dovute a un\u2019eccessiva stimolazione del Sistema Nervoso Autonomo simpatico). Gli effetti di queste reazioni fisiologiche, andando a combinarsi con quella che \ue8 l\u2019interpretazione che la persona da della situazione e la propria esperienza emotiva, determinano alcuni dei principali sintomi riferiti legati allo stress: emicrania, tachicardia, iperventilazione, difficolt\ue0 di concentrazione, umore depresso, irritabilit\ue0, stanchezza, affaticamento

Investigating stress in commuting university students

Commuting can be considered as a chronic stressor, since it is often experienced as an unpleasant condition which negatively impacts on the individual psychological, physical and social well-being. Stress becomes dysfunctional and pathological when the individual negatively appraise specific situations. According to the National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT) commuters are people daily travelling out of their residence town for working or studying purposes irrespectively of the distance covered or the mean travel duration. To date, the most studies have been focused on stress among commuting workers; however, it is noteworthy that students represent a wide proportion of commuting population in Italy (about the 23%, conforming to a survey carried out by CENSIS, Centro Studi Investimenti Sociali). In consideration of these data, it is important to cast light on the consequences of commuting on students\u2019 skills and psycho-physical well-being. Present study was aimed at investigating stress among commuting university students, in order to provide answers for some important questions: does commuting affect students\u2019 performance? Does commuting affect daily psychological and physical well-being? What are the commuting characteristics mainly involved in affecting student\u2019s performance and well-being? Three-thousand three-hundred and fifteen commuting students attending the University of Palermo enrolled the study. Non valid data (inconsistent answers) were excluded from the analyses and the final sample consisted of 2949 participants: 60.1% (N = 1773) were females and 39.9% (N = 1176) were males. All students provided socio-anagraphic data and completed an ad hoc self-report questionnaire comprising 20 items. A section of the questionnaire was aimed at collecting information concerning daily commuting, such as place of study (inside or outside the town of residence), estimated daily covered distance, etc. The other section was developed to investigate how commuting students appraise their commuting condition; it investigates three areas: perception of commuting, psycho-physical well-being and disease associated with commuting stressors. The main finding of present study highlights the existence of important differences between commuting students on the basis of means of transportation. It emerged that those using public transports (train, bus, metro) reported a more negative evaluation of their commuting and lower psycho-physical well-being levels than those travelling by private transports. In particular, students travelling by motorcycle described their daily commuting as positive and reported good psycho-physical conditions when arriving at university. This result is in line with previous literature indicating that control and predictability are important subjective factors which mediate the relationship between commuting and stress. People using public transports usually face with uncontrollable events (for example delays or crowding) which facilitate a negative appraisal of commuting. When this is chronically experienced, it may lead to stress and thus lack of energy, irritability, negative mood and difficulties in concentration. All these factors can negatively impact on student\u2019 performance

Effective Field Theories for Electrons in Crystalline Structures

We present an effective field theory formulation for a class of condensed matter systems with crystalline structures for which some of the discrete symmetries of the underlying crystal survive the long distance limit, up to mesoscopic scales, and argue that this class includes interesting materials, such as $Si$-doped $GaAs$. The surviving symmetries determine a limited set of possible effective interactions, that we analyze in detail for the case of $Si$-doped $GaAs$ materials. These coincide with the ones proposed in the literature to describe the spin relaxation times for the $Si$-doped $Ga As$ materials, obtained here as a consequence of the choice of effective fields and their symmetries. The resulting low-energy effective theory is described in terms of three (six chiral) one-dimensional Luttinger liquid systems and their corresponding intervalley transitions. We also discuss the Mott transition within the context of the effective theory.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure

Contemporary stress orientations in the Andean retroarc between 34°S and 39°S from borehole breakout analysis

In this paper we present the results of the analysis of borehole breakouts from 115 wells drilled within Neuquén Basin in the Andean retroarc between 34° and 39°S (Argentina). The first-order present-day stress orientation in the Andean retroarc is expected to be mainly controlled by the plate boundary forces (azimuth 80°) and the topographic forces (E-W). The obtained maximum horizontal stress (SHmax) has a preferred trend with a resultant direction of azimuth 88.7° and a 95% confidence interval of 13.3° consistent with the expected trend. The horizontal stress trajectory map achieved for this region shows that the SHmax along the study area is not completely uniform. To the north of Colorado River, the SHmax shows an ESE tendency interpreted as significant influenced by the topographic forces. To the south of Colorado River, SHmax has an ENE trend similar to the expected based on plate boundary forces. To the southeast of the region, a NE direction was found, probably showing a basement structural control in the stress field geometry. The stress orientations obtained for the whole region show that plate boundary forces, drag basal, and topographic forces are strongly controlling the stress direction distribution.Fil: Guzman, Cecilia Griselda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: Cristallini, Ernesto Osvaldo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: Bottesi, G.. Repsol YPF; Argentin

Vulnerability to psychopathology in adolescence: Intolerance of uncertainty as transdiagnostic risk factor

Adolescence is a transition period characterized by several uncertainties and elevated vulnerability to psychopathology. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is the tendency to expe-rience negative cognitive, emotional, and behavioural reactions in the face of uncertain situations and it may be a risk factor for the development of psychopathology in this population. IU was originally conceptualized as a disorder-specific vulnerability factor, but its transdiagnostic nature is currently established. The present paper aims to review extant literature focused on the relation-ship between IU and psychopathological outcomes in adolescence