243 research outputs found
Sunflower under conventional and organic farming systems: results from a long term experiment in Central Italy
Sunflower productivity under organic and conventional agricultural systems was studied between 2002 and 2004 in the frame of the MASCOT experiment (Mediterranean Arable Systems COmparison Trial), established in 2001. The aim was to compare organic and conventional management systems for a typical arable crop rotation of Central Italy in the long-term. Sunflower was cultivated as a part of a five-year stockless arable crop rotation (sugar beet-common wheatsunflower-pigeon bean-durum wheat). In the organic system, red clover (Trifolium pratense) is interseeded in common and durum wheat and used as a green manure for sunflower or sugar beet. Grain yield of organically-grown sunflower was lower by 41%, 17% and 44% in 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively, but no significant differences in percent seed oil content were found between the conventional and organic sunflower in two years out of three
Hamilton Jacobi Bellman equations in infinite dimensions with quadratic and superquadratic Hamiltonian
We consider Hamilton Jacobi Bellman equations in an inifinite dimensional
Hilbert space, with quadratic (respectively superquadratic) hamiltonian and
with continuous (respectively lipschitz continuous) final conditions. This
allows to study stochastic optimal control problems for suitable controlled
Ornstein Uhlenbeck process with unbounded control processes
Smoluchowski-Kramers approximation in the case of variable friction
We consider the small mass asymptotics (Smoluchowski-Kramers approximation)
for the Langevin equation with a variable friction coefficient. The limit of
the solution in the classical sense does not exist in this case. We study a
modification of the Smoluchowski-Kramers approximation. Some applications of
the Smoluchowski-Kramers approximation to problems with fast oscillating or
discontinuous coefficients are considered.Comment: already publishe
Modulation Equations: Stochastic Bifurcation in Large Domains
We consider the stochastic Swift-Hohenberg equation on a large domain near
its change of stability. We show that, under the appropriate scaling, its
solutions can be approximated by a periodic wave, which is modulated by the
solutions to a stochastic Ginzburg-Landau equation. We then proceed to show
that this approximation also extends to the invariant measures of these
equations
Exponential Mixing for a Stochastic PDE Driven by Degenerate Noise
We study stochastic partial differential equations of the reaction-diffusion
type. We show that, even if the forcing is very degenerate (i.e. has not full
rank), one has exponential convergence towards the invariant measure. The
convergence takes place in the topology induced by a weighted variation norm
and uses a kind of (uniform) Doeblin condition.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur
Differentiability of backward stochastic differential equations in Hilbert spaces with monotone generators
The aim of the present paper is to study the regularity properties of the
solution of a backward stochastic differential equation with a monotone
generator in infinite dimension. We show some applications to the nonlinear
Kolmogorov equation and to stochastic optimal control
Bismut-Elworthy-Li formulae for Bessel processes
In this article we are interested in the differentiability property of the Markovian semi-group corresponding to the Bessel processes of nonnegative dimension. More precisely, for all δ ≥ 0 and T > 0, we compute the derivative of the function x↦PδTF(x), where (Pδt)t≥0 is the transition semi-group associated to the δ-dimensional Bessel process, and F is any bounded Borel function on R+. The obtained expression shows a nice interplay between the transition semi-groups of the δ—and the (δ + 2)-dimensional Bessel processes. As a consequence, we deduce that the Bessel processes satisfy the strong Feller property, with a continuity modulus which is independent of the dimension. Moreover, we provide a probabilistic interpretation of this expression as a Bismut-Elworthy-Li formula
Adjoint bi-continuous semigroups and semigroups on the space of measures
For a given bi-continuous semigroup T on a Banach space X we define its
adjoint on an appropriate closed subspace X^o of the norm dual X'. Under some
abstract conditions this adjoint semigroup is again bi-continuous with respect
to the weak topology (X^o,X). An application is the following: For K a Polish
space we consider operator semigroups on the space C(K) of bounded, continuous
functions (endowed with the compact-open topology) and on the space M(K) of
bounded Baire measures (endowed with the weak*-topology). We show that
bi-continuous semigroups on M(K) are precisely those that are adjoints of a
bi-continuous semigroups on C(K). We also prove that the class of bi-continuous
semigroups on C(K) with respect to the compact-open topology coincides with the
class of equicontinuous semigroups with respect to the strict topology. In
general, if K is not Polish space this is not the case
Non-autonomous stochastic evolution equations and applications to stochastic partial differential equations
In this paper we study the following non-autonomous stochastic evolution
equation on a UMD Banach space with type 2,
{equation}\label{eq:SEab}\tag{SE} {{aligned} dU(t) & = (A(t)U(t) + F(t,U(t)))
dt + B(t,U(t)) dW_H(t), \quad t\in [0,T],
U(0) & = u_0. {aligned}. {equation}
Here are unbounded operators with domains
which may be time dependent. We assume that
satisfies the conditions of Acquistapace and Terreni. The
functions and are nonlinear functions defined on certain interpolation
spaces and is the initial value. is a cylindrical Brownian
motion on a separable Hilbert space .
Under Lipschitz and linear growth conditions we show that there exists a
unique mild solution of \eqref{eq:SEab}. Under assumptions on the interpolation
spaces we extend the factorization method of Da Prato, Kwapie\'n, and Zabczyk,
to obtain space-time regularity results for the solution of
\eqref{eq:SEab}. For Hilbert spaces we obtain a maximal regularity result.
The results improve several previous results from the literature.
The theory is applied to a second order stochastic partial differential
equation which has been studied by Sanz-Sol\'e and Vuillermot. This leads to
several improvements of their result.Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Evolution Equation
Prescriptive adherence to GINA guidelines and asthma control: An Italian cross sectional study in general practice
Background: Although general practitioners (GPs) are frequently the first healthcare professionals whom asthma patients refer to for their symptoms, few studies have explored the extent of adherence to guidelines for asthma management based on data provided directly by GPs. Aims of the present study were to assess drug prescriptions for asthma by GPs and to evaluate prescriptive adherence to GINA guidelines (GL) and its relationship with disease control in real life. Methods: 995 asthmatic patients (45% males, mean age 43.3 ± 17.7 yrs) were enrolled by 107 Italian GPs distributed throughout the country. Data on diagnosis, disease severity, prescribed anti-asthmatic drugs and control were collected through questionnaires filled out by GPs taking into consideration the 2009 GINA Guidelines. Data on drug use and chronic sinusitis, nasal polyposis, chronic bronchitis, emphysema were reported by patients through a self-administered questionnaire. Results: The large majority of patients were classified by GPs as having intermittent (48.4%) or mild persistent asthma (25.3%); 61% had co-morbid allergic rhinitis (AR). The prevalent therapeutic regimen used by patients was a combination of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) plus long-acting β2-agonists (LABA) (54.1%), even in the intermittent/mild persistent group. ICS as mono-therapy or in combination with other drugs but LABA, was the second most frequently adopted treatment (14.4%). In general, the GPs adherence to GL treatment indications was 28.8%, with a significant association with a good asthma control (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.18–2.92). On the other hand, comorbidity (OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.32–0.84), moderate (0.44, 0.28–0.69) and severe (0.06, 0.02–0.20) persistent asthma showed significant negative effects on asthma control. Conclusions: Our results show that over-treatment of intermittent/mild persistent asthma is frequent in the GPs setting while therapeutic regimens are more appropriately applied for moderate/severe asthma. In general, we found low adherence to GINA GL treatment recommendations even if its relevance in asthma control was confirmed
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