14,670 research outputs found
Drift Correction Methods for gas Chemical Sensors in Artificial Olfaction Systems: Techniques and Challenges
In this chapter the authors introduce the main challenges faced when developing drift correction techniques and will propose a deep overview of state-of-the-art methodologies that have been proposed in the scientific literature trying to underlying pros and cons of these techniques and focusing on challenges still open and waiting for solution
Consumers’ Attitudes on Services of General Interest in the EU: Accessibility, Price and Quality 2000-2004
The research question addressed by this paper is a simple one: are European consumers happy with the services provided by the utilities after two decades of reforms? We focus on electricity, gas, water, telephone in the EU 15 Member States. The variables we analyse are consumers’ satisfaction with accessibility, price and quality, as reported in three waves of Eurobarometer survey, 2000-2002-2004, comprising around 47,000 observations. We use ordered logit models to analyze the impact of privatization and regulatory reforms, as represented by an OECD dataset, controlling for individual and country characteristics. Our results do not support a clear association between consumers’ satisfaction and a standard reform package of privatization, vertical disintegration, liberalization.Consumers’ Satisfaction, Gas, Electricity, Telephone, Water, Eurobarometer
Quantum Pattern Retrieval by Qubit Networks with Hebb Interactions
Qubit networks with long-range interactions inspired by the Hebb rule can be
used as quantum associative memories. Starting from a uniform superposition,
the unitary evolution generated by these interactions drives the network
through a quantum phase transition at a critical computation time, after which
ferromagnetic order guarantees that a measurement retrieves the stored memory.
The maximum memory capacity p of these qubit networks is reached at a memory
density p/n=1.Comment: To appear in Physical Review Letter
A critical look at strings
This is an invited contribution to the Special Issue of "Foundations of
Physics" titled "Forty Years Of String Theory: Reflecting On the Foundations".
I have been asked to assess string theory as an outsider, and to compare it
with the theory, methods, and expectations in my own field.Comment: 7 page
NonClassicality Criteria in Multiport Interferometry
Interference lies at the heart of the behavior of classical and quantum
light. It is thus crucial to understand the boundaries between which
interference patterns can be explained by a classical electromagnetic
description of light and which, on the other hand, can only be understood with
a proper quantum mechanical approach. While the case of two-mode interference
has received a lot of attention, the multimode case has not yet been fully
explored. Here we study a general scenario of intensity interferometry: we
derive a bound on the average correlations between pairs of output intensities
for the classical wavelike model of light, and we show how it can be violated
in a quantum framework. As a consequence, this violation acts as a
nonclassicality witness, able to detect the presence of sources with
sub-Poissonian photon-number statistics. We also develop a criterion that can
certify the impossibility of dividing a given interferometer into two
independent subblocks.Comment: 5 + 3 pages, published versio
Cooling dynamics of ultracold two-species Fermi-Bose mixtures
We compare strategies for evaporative and sympathetic cooling of two-species
Fermi-Bose mixtures in single-color and two-color optical dipole traps. We show
that in the latter case a large heat capacity of the bosonic species can be
maintained during the entire cooling process. This could allow to efficiently
achieve a deep Fermi degeneracy regime having at the same time a significant
thermal fraction for the Bose gas, crucial for a precise thermometry of the
mixture. Two possible signatures of a superfluid phase transition for the Fermi
species are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Corrosion behavior of dental implants immersed into human saliva: Preliminary results of an in vitro study
Over the years, dif- ferent implant surfaces have been used to try to maximize bone to implant contact. The aim of this study was to compare levels of metallic ions and particles dissolution collected from two dif- ferent dental implants surfaces immersed into human saliva.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 60 den- tal implants were tested. Group A: sanded with aluminium oxide medium grade particles and ac- id-etched; Group B: micro-sanded with calcium phosphate powders and acid-etched. Forty im- plants were immersed in 20 ml of human saliva, twenty, as a control, in sterile saline solution. ICP-MS was performed to detect any metallic ions released from dental implants at T0, on day 1 (T1), on day 3 (T2), after one week (T3), on day 14 (T4), after 3 months (T5) and after 6 months (T6).
RESULTS: Dissolution of metallic particles of titanium and nickel, absent in human saliva (T0), were found after one week (T3) for Group B and after 3 months (T5) for Group A. Vanadium was already detected in small concentrations in either group after 1 day, with an exponential growth for Group B.
CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results reported signi cant values of Ti, Ni and V released by Group B, showing for the rst time statistically signi cant values of vanadium
Confocal laser scanning microscope, raman microscopy and western blotting to evaluate inflammatory response after myocardial infarction
Cardiac muscle necrosis is associated with inflammatory cascade that clears the infarct from dead
cells and matrix debris, and then replaces the damaged tissue with scar, through three overlapping phases: the
inflammatory phase, the proliferative phase and the maturation phase.
Western blotting, laser confocal microscopy, Raman microscopy are valuable tools for studying the inflammatory
response following myocardial infarction both humoral and cellular phase, allowing the identification and
semiquantitative analysis of proteins produced during the inflammatory cascade activation and the topographical distribution
and expression of proteins and cells involved in myocardial inflammation. Confocal laser scanning microscopy
(CLSM) is a relatively new technique for microscopic imaging, that allows greater resolution, optical sectioning of the
sample and three-dimensional reconstruction of the same sample. Western blotting used to detect the presence of a specific
protein with antibody-antigen interaction in the midst of a complex protein mixture extracted from cells, produced
semi-quantitative data quite easy to interpret. Confocal Raman microscopy combines the three-dimensional optical resolution
of confocal microscopy and the sensitivity to molecular vibrations, which characterizes Raman spectroscopy.
The combined use of western blotting and confocal microscope allows detecting the presence of proteins in the sample
and trying to observe the exact location within the tissue, or the topographical distribution of the same. Once demonstrated
the presence of proteins (cytokines, chemokines, etc.) is important to know the topographical distribution, obtaining in this
way additional information regarding the extension of the inflammatory process in function of the time stayed from the
time of myocardial infarction. These methods may be useful to study and define the expression of a wide range of inflammatory
mediators at several different timepoints providing a more detailed analysis of the time course of the infarct
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