Reorientation dynamics in thin glassy films

We present a study of orientational relaxation dynamics in thin films of a low-molecular-weight glass-former as a function of temperature and film thickness. The relaxation is probed by second-harmonic generation after release of a poling electric field. From the measured decays of the second-harmonic signal and their fitting with a stretched exponential, we can determine the distribution of relaxation times in the system. As temperature decreases from above the glass transition, we observe that the width of the distribution first increases under confinement, but that deeper in the glassy state, confinement has no effect anymore on the dynamics.Comment: 10 pages, including 12 figures, RevTeX

Contribution of perceptual and emotional skills to moral decision-making

Moral decision-making is the ability to choose an optimal course of action based on a system of norms and values that guides our behaviour in a community. Even though the models of moral decision-making have mainly focused on cognitive reasoning and emotions, moral decisions - like all kind of decisions - are taken within a context and in interaction with environmental factors. Therefore, the role played by such factors is critical in order to explain how a decision is reached. In Chapter 1, after a systematic overview of the different theoretical models proposed to explain morality, I discuss the evidence in favour of the role played by sensory stimuli in moral choices, focusing on a recent meta-analysis (Landy & Goodwin, 2015a) that showed that besides vision, chemosensory stimuli play a central role in the moral decision process. Then, I explore the link between odours and morality, starting from the disgust emotion, arguing that olfactory stimuli could extend their effects to morality via mechanisms unrelated to disgust, as suggested by the shared neural underpinnings underlying olfaction and moral choices..

Structure and temporal dynamics of marine biodiversity in the Terra Nova Bay area (Ross Sea, Antarctica) analysed through DNA barcoding and metabarcoding: A standardized and systematic approach for the construction of a \u201cDNA Barcode\u201d library.

Aims and structure of the thesis: The firs objective of this thesis consisted in the quantification of the reference library completeness for the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) barcode of metazoan species occurring in the Ross Sea MPA and in identifying which taxonomic groups in the last decades were investigated by using \u201cDNA barcode\u201d techniques performed in the Southern Ocean. In order to do that, all the available sequence data on major public repositories were gathered and analyzed. A collection of COI sequences amplified from specimen of the Italian National Antarctic Museum (MNA) was produced and aggregated to the latter to assemble the first global Ross Sea reference library of metazoan COI barcoding sequences. The potentialities of \u201cDNA metabarcoding\u201d techniques applied to the analysis of Antarctic biological communities were also evaluated in Terra Nova Bay (TNB) by focusing on the development of macrozoobenthic pioneering communities colonizing artificial structures over a period of three years and on nanoplankton temporal short-term dynamics in two consecutive years. These studies were conducted using innovative sampling methodologies and experiments and differed not only for the investigated community, but also for the sampling frequency, timing and study purposes. Due to the peculiarities of the three analyses, these will be detailed in three separate chapters. Each chapter is composed by its specific \u201cIntroduction\u201d to the concepts discussed in that study, followed by a section on \u201cMaterials and Methods\u201d and a joint section with the \u201cResults and Discussion\u201d. Considering that the different chapters, notwithstanding the fact that they pertain to the same, general topic of research, greatly differs in the overall design, as mentioned earlier, no general Discussion for the entire thesis was produced. Instead, an Introduction, discussing the most general topics covered by the entire thesis, is presented at first (i.e. the \u201cThesis Introduction\u201d), whereas the thesis\u2019 Conclusions, considering all the outcomes reported in the different chapters, will be presented at the end of the whole thesis (\u201cThesis Conclusions\u201d)