Rational Convolution Roots of Isobaric Polynomials

In this paper, we exhibit two matrix representations of the rational roots of generalized Fibonacci polynomials (GFPs) under convolution product, in terms of determinants and permanents, respectively. The underlying root formulas for GFPs and for weighted isobaric polynomials (WIPs), which appeared in an earlier paper by MacHenry and Tudose, make use of two types of operators. These operators are derived from the generating functions for Stirling numbers of the first kind and second kind. Hence we call them Stirling operators. To construct matrix representations of the roots of GFPs, we use the Stirling operators of the first kind. We give explicit examples to show how the Stirling operators of the second kind appear in the low degree cases for the WIP-roots. As a consequence of the matrix construction, we have matrix representations of multiplicative arithmetic functions under the Dirichlet product into its divisible closure.Comment: 13 page

Microwave Imaging from Limited-Angle Scattered Data using the Iterative Multi-Scaling Approach

In this paper, with reference to limited-angle data configurations, the performance of the nonlinear multi-scaling inversion approach (IMSA) is analyzed. Such an assessment is carried out by considering synthetically-generated as well as laboratory-controlled experimental data ('Marseille data') concerning two-dimensional dielectric scatterers. The obtained results demonstrate a satisfactory robustness and the reliability of the approach

Le fattezze dell’appartenenza. Ispirato alla performance "Loro mi hanno detto" (2014)

In cosa consiste il senso di appartenenza? Il saggio indaga questo delicato tema attraverso una fantasmatica conversazione tra artisti e psicoanalisti, che l’autrice media sulle tracce di alcune immagini. Il risultato è un luogo sospeso nel tempo dove le esperienze della sua performance "Loro mi hanno detto" (2014). dell’autrice incontrano le parole e le musiche di grandi personaggi del passato e del presente, creando un dibattito sugli itinerari delle relazioni e le caratteristiche universali dell’amore. Una performance visiva quindi, ma anche un testo psicologico che mira a osservare l’appartenenza da diverse prospettive: da quella dell’analisi-tr ansazionale che prende in considerazione principi teorici quali “copioni”, “giochi” e “ingiunzioni”, a quella prettamente creativa ed emotiva di poeti e musicisti tra i più intensi dei nostri tempi. “The substance of belonging”. What does the sense of belonging consist of? The essay explores this delicate creating a debate subject through an imaginary conversation among artists and psychoanalysts, that the author mediates on the trails of some sequences of her performance "They told me" (2014). The result is a place suspended in time where the author’s experiences meet words and music by great characters of the past and the present, about the relationships and the universal characteristics of love. A visual performance, but also a psychological text which aims to observe this sense of belonging from different perspectives. From the transactional analytical perspective that takes into theoretical principles such as scripts, games and “injunctions” and also from the strictly creative and emotional perspective expressed by the most intense poets and musicians of our times

Molecular biomineralization of octocoral skeletons: calcite versus aragonite

Aragonite and calcite represent the two most common polymorphs of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) formed biogenically by organisms. The mechanisms that allow animals to selectively deposit aragonite and/or calcite has been extensively studied in molluscs, but information on corals (class Anthozoa, phylum Cnidaria) is lacking. Contrary to scleractinian corals, exclusively producing aragonite skeletons, members of the coral subclass Octocorallia exhibit both calcitic and aragonitic skeletal structures. They thus represent an interesting target to study biological and environmental control over CaCO3 polymorphs in corals. In this project we selected different octocoral species - characterized by aragonite or calcite skeletons - to investigate the evolution and mechanisms underlying aragonite and calcite biomineralization in corals. Main objectives of this study were 1) the characterization of the molecular machinery employed to deposit the two different CaCO3 polymorphs, and 2) study the effects of seawater chemistry on skeleton mineralogy and gene expression. In the introductory section (Chapter 1) relevant concepts, terminology and background information is provided. Chapter 2 and 3 aimed at filling the gap in terms of availability of -omic resources for octocorals compared to scleractinians. New resources generated as part of the project include reference transcriptomes and skeletal proteomes for four octocoral species with different biomineralization strategies. The transcriptomic analysis presented in Chapter 2 provides a taxonomically comprehensive presence map for homologs of coral calcification genes across early-branching metazoans. By sensibly increasing taxonomic sampling, we expanded the distribution for several genes and reported homologs presence in previously unsurveyed groups. Homologs datasets were used for phylogenetic inferences, which provided insight into the evolution of acidic proteins and allowed to propose an alternative evolutionary scenario for the scleractinian protein galaxin senso stricto. In Chapter 3 several new proteins with putative functions in octocoral biomineralization are described. A comparative characterization of skeleton proteomes in Octocorallia and Scleractinia is also provided. This analysis highlighted an extremely low overlap in terms of proteins presence between aragonite and calcite-forming species, while at the same time identifying a small set of proteins that constitute the core proteome of octocoral sclerites. Instances of similarity between scleractinians and octocorals are also listed, and include galaxin-related proteins, carbonic anhydrases and multicopper oxidases. Finally, as in scleractinians, some octocoral skeletogenic proteins appear to have acquired their role in calcification as the result of secondary co-option and following the enrichment - within the sequence - of acidic residues. Chapter 4 and 5 focused on the interaction between environmental conditions and calcification in octocorals and scleractinians. Chapter 4 revolves around the effect of the magnesium-calcium molar ratio (mMg:mCa) and its effects on the skeleton polymorph. Exposure to calcite-inducing mMg:mCa did not cause a polymorph switch in H. coerulea, while calcite was incorporated in the skeleton of M. digitata. We did not observe changes in expression for skeletogenic proteins, with the exception of one gene coding for the uncharacterized skeleton organic matrix protein 5 (in M. digitata) and endothelin converting enzyme 1 (in H. coerulea). However, carbonic anhydrases and different calcium transporters and channels were affected, suggesting a potential response to changes in mMg:mCa centered around ions transport, rather than a direct involvement of the organic matrix. In Chapter 5, we exposed the octocoral Pinnigrogia flava to sublethal seawater temperature and lower pH (~7.3). We showed how the calcification process in this octocoral is decoupled from the response to stress. Increasing water temperature triggered a stress response but did not affect calcification, while acidification downregulated the expression of several calcification-related genes without causing stress. This represents a mechanistic explanation for the higher tolerance to anthropic stressors exhibited by octocorals. Finally in Chapter 6, an optimized protocol for 16S sequencing in bacteria, using the Illumina MiniSeq available at the Chair for Geobiology & Paleontology of the Department of Earth- and Environmental Sciences at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Munich (Germany), is presented. This protocol allowed to characterize bacterial communities from different sources, including aquarium seawater, and could thus represent a valuable tool to perform microbiome characterizations from marine organisms in the future. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the formation of aragonite and calcite skeletons in corals. It includes the first characterizations of octocoral skeleton proteomes, and led to the identification of several - previously unknown - genes with putative calcification-related functions. These novel targets represent a valuable groundwork for further studies, including functional investigations aiming at elucidating the exact mechanisms behind coral biomineralization. It also shed new light on the calcification responses triggered by predicted past and future environmental conditions, providing a better understanding on how corals reacted to changes during their evolutionary history, and their ability to cope with future ones

Molecular biomineralization of octocoral skeletons: calcite versus aragonite

Aragonite and calcite represent the two most common polymorphs of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) formed biogenically by organisms. The mechanisms that allow animals to selectively deposit aragonite and/or calcite has been extensively studied in molluscs, but information on corals (class Anthozoa, phylum Cnidaria) is lacking. Contrary to scleractinian corals, exclusively producing aragonite skeletons, members of the coral subclass Octocorallia exhibit both calcitic and aragonitic skeletal structures. They thus represent an interesting target to study biological and environmental control over CaCO3 polymorphs in corals. In this project we selected different octocoral species - characterized by aragonite or calcite skeletons - to investigate the evolution and mechanisms underlying aragonite and calcite biomineralization in corals. Main objectives of this study were 1) the characterization of the molecular machinery employed to deposit the two different CaCO3 polymorphs, and 2) study the effects of seawater chemistry on skeleton mineralogy and gene expression. In the introductory section (Chapter 1) relevant concepts, terminology and background information is provided. Chapter 2 and 3 aimed at filling the gap in terms of availability of -omic resources for octocorals compared to scleractinians. New resources generated as part of the project include reference transcriptomes and skeletal proteomes for four octocoral species with different biomineralization strategies. The transcriptomic analysis presented in Chapter 2 provides a taxonomically comprehensive presence map for homologs of coral calcification genes across early-branching metazoans. By sensibly increasing taxonomic sampling, we expanded the distribution for several genes and reported homologs presence in previously unsurveyed groups. Homologs datasets were used for phylogenetic inferences, which provided insight into the evolution of acidic proteins and allowed to propose an alternative evolutionary scenario for the scleractinian protein galaxin senso stricto. In Chapter 3 several new proteins with putative functions in octocoral biomineralization are described. A comparative characterization of skeleton proteomes in Octocorallia and Scleractinia is also provided. This analysis highlighted an extremely low overlap in terms of proteins presence between aragonite and calcite-forming species, while at the same time identifying a small set of proteins that constitute the core proteome of octocoral sclerites. Instances of similarity between scleractinians and octocorals are also listed, and include galaxin-related proteins, carbonic anhydrases and multicopper oxidases. Finally, as in scleractinians, some octocoral skeletogenic proteins appear to have acquired their role in calcification as the result of secondary co-option and following the enrichment - within the sequence - of acidic residues. Chapter 4 and 5 focused on the interaction between environmental conditions and calcification in octocorals and scleractinians. Chapter 4 revolves around the effect of the magnesium-calcium molar ratio (mMg:mCa) and its effects on the skeleton polymorph. Exposure to calcite-inducing mMg:mCa did not cause a polymorph switch in H. coerulea, while calcite was incorporated in the skeleton of M. digitata. We did not observe changes in expression for skeletogenic proteins, with the exception of one gene coding for the uncharacterized skeleton organic matrix protein 5 (in M. digitata) and endothelin converting enzyme 1 (in H. coerulea). However, carbonic anhydrases and different calcium transporters and channels were affected, suggesting a potential response to changes in mMg:mCa centered around ions transport, rather than a direct involvement of the organic matrix. In Chapter 5, we exposed the octocoral Pinnigrogia flava to sublethal seawater temperature and lower pH (~7.3). We showed how the calcification process in this octocoral is decoupled from the response to stress. Increasing water temperature triggered a stress response but did not affect calcification, while acidification downregulated the expression of several calcification-related genes without causing stress. This represents a mechanistic explanation for the higher tolerance to anthropic stressors exhibited by octocorals. Finally in Chapter 6, an optimized protocol for 16S sequencing in bacteria, using the Illumina MiniSeq available at the Chair for Geobiology & Paleontology of the Department of Earth- and Environmental Sciences at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Munich (Germany), is presented. This protocol allowed to characterize bacterial communities from different sources, including aquarium seawater, and could thus represent a valuable tool to perform microbiome characterizations from marine organisms in the future. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the formation of aragonite and calcite skeletons in corals. It includes the first characterizations of octocoral skeleton proteomes, and led to the identification of several - previously unknown - genes with putative calcification-related functions. These novel targets represent a valuable groundwork for further studies, including functional investigations aiming at elucidating the exact mechanisms behind coral biomineralization. It also shed new light on the calcification responses triggered by predicted past and future environmental conditions, providing a better understanding on how corals reacted to changes during their evolutionary history, and their ability to cope with future ones

Here today, gone tomorrow - adaptation to change in memory-guided visual search

Visual search for a target object can be facilitated by the repeated presentation of an invariant configuration of nontargets ('contextual cueing'). Here, we tested adaptation of learned contextual associations after a sudden, but permanent, relocation of the target. After an initial learning phase targets were relocated within their invariant contexts and repeatedly presented at new locations, before they returned to the initial locations. Contextual cueing for relocated targets was neither observed after numerous presentations nor after insertion of an overnight break. Further experiments investigated whether learning of additional, previously unseen context-target configurations is comparable to adaptation of existing contextual associations to change. In contrast to the lack of adaptation to changed target locations, contextual cueing developed for additional invariant configurations under identical training conditions. Moreover, across all experiments, presenting relocated targets or additional contexts did not interfere with contextual cueing of initially learned invariant configurations. Overall, the adaptation of contextual memory to changed target locations was severely constrained and unsuccessful in comparison to learning of an additional set of contexts, which suggests that contextual cueing facilitates search for only one repeated target location

The duty to communicate and the impacts of the lack of regulation of cryptocurrency exchanges in Brazil

The theme of this paper consists in characterizing the regulation of crypto-active products and the operation of exchanges in the Brazilian normative and economic scenario. To this end, it proposes to show the reader the distinctive characteristics that have enabled the ver-tiginous leverage in the use of crypto-active instruments over the last decade through the establishment of concepts that are relevant to the understanding of this market, as well as the speed of the degree of advancement in the accounting regulation of crypto-active in-struments and the brokers that provide this type of service around the world. Taking into consideration the structural characteristic, the first section brings the contextualization of the functioning of crypto-active products and blockchain technology, whilst the second refers to the presentation of the provision for possible legal provision to which the func-tioning of crypto-active products shall be submitted. The third section, in turn, seeks to demonstrate the mode of operation of exchanges, as well as through which ways exchanges provide their services to their clients. In the fourth section, the possible regulatory paths for exchanges in Brazil are addressed taking as a basis what is being discussed in the Brazilian Parliament and what is the guiding parameter in the rest of the world. What we see is a regulatory grey area concerning exchanges: what information, how, and to whom it should be reported. In this sense, on one end there is total centralization by the State in the func-tioning of the crypto market. On the other hand, there is the absence of any form of regula-tion on crypto-activities and exchanges. It advocated the existence of guarantees provided to customers by exchanges, such as asset segregation, transparency in the provision of in-formation, and contribution to the reporting of suspiciously illicit activities to the compe-tent authorities

HOW DOES SCHIZOPHRENIA OCCUR AND CAN DELUSIONS BE PROTECTIVE TO THE PERSON? A BIRD’S EYE VIEW ATTEMPTING TO INTEGRATE THE NEUROBIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

This short paper is an attempt to integrate what we know about the biological development of schizophrenia. It attempts to integrate Neurodevelomental, Dopamine, Glutamate, Salience and Psychological theories of the development of schizophrenia into a unitary whole, and thus to illustrate how these theories relate together. It is a summary of a much larger work, presently in preparation, done for the purposes of the present coference. It attempts to describe the biological development of schizophrenia, and thence the delusions and hallucinations which play a part in it symptomatically