A new dielectric effect in viscous liquids

An accurate experimental and theoretical study has been performed about a phenomenon, not previously reported in the literature, occurring in highly viscous liquids: the formation of a definite pipe structure induced by the passage of a heavy body, this structure lasting for quite a long time. A very rich phenomenology (including mechanical, optical and structural effects) associated with the formation of the pipe has been observed in different liquids. Actually, the peculiar dynamical evolution of that structure does not appear as a trivial manifestation of standard relaxation or spurious effects. In particular we have revealed different time scales during the evolution of the pipe and a non-monotonous decrease of the persistence time with decreasing viscosity (with the appearance of at least two different maxima). We put forward a microscopic model, consistent with the experimental data, where the pipe behaves as a "dielectric shell" whose time evolution is described through a simple thermodynamical approach, predicting several properties effectively observed.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0812.436

Impact of Higher Harmonics in Searching for Gravitational Waves from Non-Spinning Binary Black Holes

Current searches for gravitational waves from coalescing binary black holes (BBH) use templates that only include the dominant harmonic. In this study we use effective-one-body multipolar waveforms calibrated to numerical-relativity simulations to quantify the effect of neglecting sub-dominant harmonics on the sensitivity of searches. We consider both signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the signal-based vetoes that are used to re-weight SNR. We find that neglecting sub-dominant modes when searching for non-spinning BBHs with component masses $3\,M_{\odot} \leq m_1, m_2 \leq 200\,M_{\odot}$ and total mass $M < 360\,M_{\odot}$ in advanced LIGO results in a negligible reduction of the re-weighted SNR at detection thresholds. Sub-dominant modes therefore have no effect on the detection rates predicted for advanced LIGO. Furthermore, we find that if sub-dominant modes are included in templates the sensitivity of the search becomes worse if we use current search priors, due to an increase in false alarm probability. Templates would need to be weighted differently than what is currently done to compensate for the increase in false alarms. If we split the template bank such that sub-dominant modes are only used when $M \gtrsim 100\,M_{\odot}$ and mass ratio $q \gtrsim 4$, we find that the sensitivity does improve for these intermediate mass-ratio BBHs, but the sensitive volume associated with these systems is still small compared to equal-mass systems. Using sub-dominant modes is therefore unlikely to substantially increase the probability of detecting gravitational waves from non-spinning BBH signals unless there is a relatively large population of intermediate mass-ratio BBHs in the universe.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures. Version approved by journa

Optimal percentage of inhibitory synapses in multi-task learning

Performing more tasks in parallel is a typical feature of complex brains. These are characterized by the coexistence of excitatory and inhibitory synapses, whose percentage in mammals is measured to have a typical value of 20-30\%. Here we investigate parallel learning of more Boolean rules in neuronal networks. We find that multi-task learning results from the alternation of learning and forgetting of the individual rules. Interestingly, a fraction of 30\% inhibitory synapses optimizes the overall performance, carving a complex backbone supporting information transmission with a minimal shortest path length. We show that 30\% inhibitory synapses is the percentage maximizing the learning performance since it guarantees, at the same time, the network excitability necessary to express the response and the variability required to confine the employment of resources.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Between the Local and the National: The Free Territory of Trieste, Italianita, and the Politics of Identity from the Second World War to the Osimo Treaty

This dissertation examines the politicized use of the city of Trieste and its surrounding territory, a cosmopolitan municipality that became the theatre of one of the most heated disputes of the early Cold War years. Scholars have extensively studied the diplomatic dimension of the confrontation between Italy and former Yugoslavia, yet many have largely neglected the significance of the broader political process that led to the Osimo Treaty of 1975, the final settlement of Italy\u27s eastern border. This dissertation reaffirms the importance of the Triestine territory as a contested socio-political space that experienced the logic of both Cold War containment and detente. It studies this issue through a pericentric interpretative framework and demonstrates that the intertwining effect of local, national, and international politics significantly impacted the strategy of the Italian government which both extended and moderated the confrontational rhetoric of the Cold War against Tito\u27s regime.;I argue that political leaders, parties, and associations used a wide range of political, economic, and social activities, which I later refer to as the politics of identity, to claim Italian sovereignty over the contested Adriatic border and reassert the Italian identity or Italianita of the Triestine territory. Above all, these activities were instrumentally used by the central government to reinforce popular support and project the image of the Triestine territory as a stronghold of Western democracy and barrier to Slav-Communism. Thus, ideas that had previously underscored the Italian identity of the disputed border now took a more dynamic as well as political and economic meaning that increasingly detached from former notions of an imagined community which shared a common language, culture, and past. As a result, Cold War Trieste gradually transformed into a factory of ideas of nationhood in post-war Italy.;While this dissertation initially traces the fluctuating meaning of Italianita from nineteenth-century irredentism to twentieth-century Fascism, it later explores government support of nationalist ambitions that survived the Second World War and only gradually adjusted to the dynamic logic of the Cold War. After Trieste\u27s return to Italy in 1954, however, the new Center-left Christian Democratic coalition government reframed its politics of identity toward the city and its territory by upholding a policy of Adriatic friendship that promoted political and economic cooperation across the border. While these policies mirrored the new logic of Adriatic detente, they also met political and popular opposition inside Trieste, ultimately weakening local loyalty toward the nation-state and facilitating the re-emergence of both political localism and autonomist aspirations. The political process that accompanied the definition of Italy\u27s northeastern frontier also reshaped the image of the Triestine border that, located at the Southern point of the Iron Curtain, transformed from a wall into a bridge toward the Communist world. Thus, this work sheds light on the politics of identity in Cold War regions, the dynamic relationship between capital and frontier cities and the fluidity of nationhood in post-war Italy

I Greci e Roma: koinoi nomoi per un impero democratico

Durante la Seconda Sofistica (I-III d.C.), Platone è uno degli autori classici più letti. Gli intellettuali greci adottano le Leggi come testo per l’esercitazione retorica e punto di riferimento per una riflessione sul ruolo dei nomoi nell’Impero romano. Il caso di Elio Aristide è emblematico. Nei Discorsi platonici, egli cita passi delle Leggi a scopo retorico, per sostenere argomenti filosofici, spesso di significato anti-platonico, e per attribuire efficacia a brani celebrativi, ironici o polemici. Nelle meletai Ai Tebani, invece, Aristide, attraverso il gioco retorico del discorso figurato, fa emergere la concezione dei nomoi per i Greci del II secolo d.C.: le leggi restano l’unica garanzia di libertà e democrazia nel sistema autocratico dell’impero romano.En la época de la Segunda Sofística (I-III d.C.), Platón constituye uno de los autores clásicos más leídos. En efecto, los intelectuales griegos usan las Leyes como texto para la ejercitación retórica así como punto de partida para una reflexión sobre el papel de los nomoi en el Imperio romano. El caso de Elio Aristides es emblemático. En los Discursos platónicos, el autor cita pasajes de las Leyes con un fin retórico, pero también para defender argumentos filosóficos –muchas veces anti-platónicos– y, además, para dar más eficacia a textos celebrativos, irónicos o polémicos. En las meletai tituladas A los Tebanos Aristides, por medio de un discurso figurado, resalta la función de los nomoi para los griegos del siglo II d.C.: las leyes representan la única garantía de libertad y democracia dentro del sistema autocrático del Imperio romano

Policy design and state capacity in the COVID-19 emergency in Italy: if you are not prepared for the (un)expected, you can be only what you already are

Italy was the first large epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Western world. Since the country has not had any serious experience with this kind of disease in recent decades, its response has been indicative of a first reaction to an (un)known and (un)expected event. At the same time, the Italian experience is an emblematic case of how a lack of specific preparedness measures drives a country to deal with this kind of crisis through a process in which the existing characteristics of the policy and political system, with all their pros and cons, prevail. This means that the existing country characteristics that affects policy design, state capacity, institutional arrangements and political games forge the process and content of the response. Based on this observation, this paper analyses the policy dynamics of the first four months of management of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, focusing on how the health and economic responses were designed and implemented

Alien Registration- Capano, Yvonne (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/29775/thumbnail.jp

Searching for Gravitational Waves from Compact Binary Coalescence Using LIGO and Virgo Data

This thesis describes current efforts to search for gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences (CBCs) by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) and the Virgo Collaboration. We briefly review the physics of gravitational-wave emission and detection, describing how gravitational waves are emitted from inspiraling compact stellar mass objects and how the LSC and Virgo try to detect them using interferometers. Next we review the data-analysis principles used to search for potential signals in the detectors\u27 noise. These principles are employed by ``ihope, which is the data-analysis pipeline used to search for CBCs. We describe each step in this pipeline and discuss how interferometer data is stored and examined. Next we present the results from a six-month long search which occurred in early 2007, during LIGO\u27s fifth science run. This is followed by details of tuning studies carried out on LIGO\u27s sixth-, and Virgo\u27s second- and third-, science runs (S6, VSR2, and VSR3), which ran from July 2009 to October 2010. No gravitational waves were detected in these searches. A blind injection was performed during S6/VSR3 and detected by our pipeline, however. We detail studies into assigning a statistical significance to this injection. Next we use these studies to show that we can expect to detect gravitational waves with high significance using two detectors in the advanced detector era. Finally, we review some future developments for the CBC pipeline currently being undertaken

Alien Registration- Capano, Rosario (Lewiston, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/29774/thumbnail.jp