Fractional Fokker-Planck Equation for Ultraslow Kinetics

Several classes of physical systems exhibit ultraslow diffusion for which the mean squared displacement at long times grows as a power of the logarithm of time ("strong anomaly") and share the interesting property that the probability distribution of particle's position at long times is a double-sided exponential. We show that such behaviors can be adequately described by a distributed-order fractional Fokker-Planck equations with a power-law weighting-function. We discuss the equations and the properties of their solutions, and connect this description with a scheme based on continuous-time random walks

Stability analysis of static solutions in a Josephson junction

We present all the possible solutions of a Josephson junction with bias current and magnetic field with both inline and overlap geometry, and examine their stability. We follow the bifurcation of new solutions as we increase the junction length. The analytical results, in terms of elliptic functions in the case of inline geometry, are in agreement with the numerical calculations and explain the strong hysteretic phenomena typically seen in the calculation of the maximum tunneling current. This suggests a different experimental approach based on the use, instead of the external magnetic field the modulus of the elliptic function or the related quantity the total magnetic flux to avoid hysteretic behavior and unfold the overlapping $I_{max}(H)$ curves.Comment: 36 pages with 17 figure

Covert-overt prejudices towards the intellectual disabilities at school: A study on teachers and non-teachers of southern Italy

Intellectual Disabilities (ID) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with considerable individual variability in type and severity. Due to overt and covert prejudices around ID, however, society tends to generalize this condition. Also, in schools, teachers’ attitudes toward students with IDs often differ from those toward regular students. The purpose of this study is to examine the levels of overt and covert prejudices toward ID of curricular and support teachers and non-teachers, in a sample of Southern Italian citizens, by evaluating age, gender and socioeconomic differences, as well as the associations of prejudice with education about and contact with ID. Six hundred and sixty-four participants (484 F; 38% teachers), 18–70 years old (M = 38.72; SD = 14.79) participated in the study. The Modern and Classical Prejudices Scale was administered in paper and online forms. Sociodemographic measures, as well as measures around ID education and contact with people with ID were collected. The results show that teachers had higher levels of classical prejudices compared to non-teacher participants. Teachers of primary schools showed higher levels of classical and modern prejudices. No gender and socioeconomic status (SES) differences were found in the whole sample. The entry of children with Intellectual Disabilities into primary school can be strongly influenced by teachers’ prejudices. Therefore, the need for teachers’ information and training on Intellectual Disabilities is evident

Pulsation Period Changes as a Tool to Identify Pre-Zero Age Horizontal Branch Stars

One of the most dramatic events in the life of a low-mass star is the He flash, which takes place at the tip of the red giant branch (RGB) and is followed by a series of secondary flashes before the star settles into the zero-age horizontal branch (ZAHB). Yet, no stars have been positively identified in this key evolutionary phase, mainly for two reasons: first, this pre-ZAHB phase is very short compared to other major evolutionary phases in the life of a star; and second, these pre-ZAHB stars are expected to overlap the loci occupied by asymptotic giant branch (AGB), HB and RGB stars observed in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD). We investigate the possibility of detecting these stars through stellar pulsations, since some of them are expected to rapidly cross the Cepheid/RR Lyrae instability strip in their route from the RGB tip to the ZAHB, thus becoming pulsating stars along the way. As a consequence of their very high evolutionary speed, some of these stars may present anomalously large period change rates. We constructed an extensive grid of stellar models and produced pre-ZAHB Monte Carlo simulations appropriate for the case of the Galactic globular cluster M3 (NGC 5272), where a number of RR Lyrae stars with high period change rates are found. Our results suggest that some -- but certainly not all -- of the RR Lyrae stars in M3 with large period change rates are in fact pre-ZAHB pulsators.Comment: Conference Proceedings HELAS Workshop on 'Synergies between solar and stellar modelling', Rome, June 2009, Astrophys. Space Sci., in the pres

Water oxygenation and sea bass

The influence of water oxygen concentration on the acid–base balance of sea bass was evaluated. Fish weighing 200–250 g were cultured under different dissolved oxygen concentrations of 64%, 97%, 150% and 250% saturation (92.7, 140.5, 217.5 and 362.7 mmHg respectively) under mild hypoxia, normoxia, mild hyperoxia and high hyperoxia conditions. The results showed that high hyperoxia and mild hypoxia conditions modified some blood parameters significantly when compared with fish held under the normoxia condition, while no differences were shown with respect to the acid–base balance of fish cultured under normoxia and mild hyperoxia conditions. This testifies that the mild hyperoxia condition does not produce physiological disturbances in the acid–base status of sea bass and it could be considered a favourable condition in sea bass land-based farming, mainly in comparison with the mild hypoxia condition, responsible for other physiological problems

La rappresentazione del rapporto tra utenti e sistema sanitario: I modelli culturali dei medici di medicina generale - The representation of the relationship between users and healthcare system: Cultural models of general practitioners

The present research study explores the emotional and symbolic representation of the Italian healthcare system and specifically of general medical services reported by a group of Italian general practitioners. General medicine is recently affected by a structural change which could be sustained also by a cultural revolution, however this revolution seems to be oriented to expected values without a clear methodology which promotes and accompanies this cultural change. The present study deals with the lack of practices due to these unrealized expected values and assumes that for intervening it is necessary knowing the existing culture before thinking to change it. Interviews to 36 general practitioners were analyzed by Emotional Text Analysis (AET). Results highlight a factorial space characterized by five clusters. According to respondents’ perspective, healthcare problems refer to two large issues characterized by powerlessness of general practitioners to intervene. On the one hand, there is health emergency, dealt with by first aid and emergency medicine. On the other hand, there is chronicity, especially affecting the elderly, which is dealt with by other workers (nurses, private family assistants, social workers) who care patients at home and replace physicians. The general practitioners’ work is difficult because of many different reasons; but the central theme is the lack of absolute power – based on morality and consciousness – which leads to the perception of catastrophic consequences for medical profession and the physician-patient relationship. Often, general practitioners are in their offices and are not able to go to patients’ home, therefore they cannot create care relationships based on trust and dependence which allow useful and trustworthy interventions. In sum, the core theme emerging from data refers to the general practitioners’ perceived lack of personal and trust-based relationships with patients

La relazione che organizza il contesto sanitario: domanda dell’utenza e risposta dei servizi sanitari, nel territorio e nell’ospedale - The relationship which organizes the healthcare context: users’ demand and response of healthcare services, in the territory and the hospital

Our intent is to present citizens’ demand of health care services in Italy through a research structured in three studies. We used the Emotional Text Analysis (ETA) to lead the three s tudies: the first study regarded the citizens’expectations of the healthcare services, the second study regarded the point of view of the hospital personnel (medical doctors and nurses), the third regarded the point of view of the General Practitioners onthe health care services. These three studies are briefly presented. Data and outcome of an Assumed Similarity Test applied to all experimental subjects of the three studies in order to make a comparison among them, are also presented. The findings of the Emotional Text Analysis show that citizens, potential users of health services, center their requests on their individual subjectivity, and seek answers both to their suffering and to the feeling of alienation that characterizes the being sick feeling that makes them go to a medical doctor. For their part, general practitioners and hospital doctors immediately transform this subjective feeling in an objective medical diagnosis. Here a first gap emerges between patient’s demand and medical response, leavingthe possibility of an alliance on the diagnosis in order to jointly fight the disease. It has long been in place though a change that has expelled the patient also from sharing the diagnostic process, increasingly taken from self-centered dynamics within the healthcare system. This widens the gap between the request of the citizens and the response of the health services, that contributes to that conflictual growth to which defensive medicine gives a dysfunctional answer. The Assumed Similarity Test contributes to the interpretation of the health care dynamic identified in the Emotional Text Analysis; particularly in regard to the unfolding conflict, given by the hypothesis emerging from the data analysis, that a feeling of closeness for the hospital personnel goes along with an emotional stance of overpowering the othe

Diffusion in multiscale spacetimes

We study diffusion processes in anomalous spacetimes regarded as models of quantum geometry. Several types of diffusion equation and their solutions are presented and the associated stochastic processes are identified. These results are partly based on the literature in probability and percolation theory but their physical interpretation here is different since they apply to quantum spacetime itself. The case of multiscale (in particular, multifractal) spacetimes is then considered through a number of examples and the most general spectral-dimension profile of multifractional spaces is constructed.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures. v2: discussion improved, typos corrected, references adde

a numerical procedure for evaluating physical parameters of ergonomic assessment for cart pushing pulling tasks

Abstract Manual Material Handling (MMH), by pushing or pulling carts, is a common task that characterizes any manufacturing or service operation, and there is always a significant human input to those operations in terms of physical load. The physical load represents the effect of input forces during MMH operations that depend on the interaction between material handling equipment and the working environment. Many times MMH represents a critical issue related to human-machine interaction due to the carts can work in environment with parameters different from those used in designing, subjecting workers to risk of musculoskeletal disorders. The aim of this work, developed in collaboration with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), is to develop a new procedure that allows estimating the initial and the maintenance forces necessary to push or pull carts, knowing the characteristics of the cart and the environment in which it works, in order to preventively assess the ergonomic indexes according to ISO 11228-2. The procedure is based on multibody simulations. The cart is modeled by Computer Aided Design (CAD) code and, then, imported in a multibody code where numerical simulations are performed in order to calculate the forces. In the multibody code static and dynamic friction coefficients of bearing of wheels are assigned, together with parameters of contact between wheels and floor. Changing the pivot angle of two floating wheels, several simulations have been carried out. Moreover, considering a cart used at the assembly line of the FCA plant of Pomigliano d'Arco (Naples), experimental tests have been performed in order to validate the procedure by comparing numerical results with the experimental ones

Highly specific PCR-RFLP assays for karyotyping the widespread 2Rb inversion in malaria vectors of the Anopheles gambiae complex

Background: Chromosomal inversion polymorphisms play a role in adaptation to heterogeneous environments. Inversion polymorphisms are implicated in the very high ecological flexibility of the three main malaria vector species of the Afrotropical Anopheles gambiae complex, facilitating the exploitation of anthropogenic environmental modifications and promoting a strong association with humans. In addition to extending the species' spatial and temporal distribution, inversions are associated with epidemiologically relevant mosquito behavior and physiology, underscoring their medical importance. We here present novel PCR-RFLP based assays strongly predictive of genotype for the cosmopolitan 2Rb inversion in An. coluzzii and An. gambiae, a development which overcomes the numerous constraints inherent to traditional cytological karyotyping. Methods: We designed PCR-RFLP genotyping assays based on tag SNPs previously computationally identified as strongly predictive (> 95%) of 2Rb genotype. We targeted those tags whose alternative allelic states destroyed or created the recognition site of a commercially available restriction enzyme, and designed assays with distinctive cleavage profiles for each inversion genotype. The assays were validated on 251 An. coluzzii and 451 An. gambiae cytologically karyotyped specimens from nine countries across Africa and one An. coluzzii laboratory colony. Results: For three tag SNPs, PCR-RFLP assays (denoted DraIII, MspAI, and TatI) reliably produced robust amplicons and clearly distinguishable electrophoretic profiles for all three inversion genotypes. Results obtained with the DraIII assay are ≥ 95% concordant with cytogenetic assignments in both species, while MspAI and TatI assays produce patterns highly concordant with cytogenetic assignments only in An. coluzzii or An. gambiae, respectively. Joint application of species-appropriate pairs of assays increased the concordance levels to > 99% in An. coluzzii and 98% in An. gambiae. Potential sources of discordance (e.g. imperfect association between tag and inversion, allelic dropout, additional polymorphisms in the restriction target site, incomplete or failed restriction digestion) are discussed. Conclusions: The availability of highly specific, cost effective and accessible molecular assays for genotyping 2Rb in An. gambiae and An. coluzzii allows karyotyping of both sexes and all developmental stages. These novel tools will accelerate deeper investigations into the role of this ecologically and epidemiologically important chromosomal inversion in vector biology.[Figure not available: see fulltext.