Thermal monopoles and selfdual dyons in the Quark-Gluon Plasma

We perform a numerical study of the excess of non-abelian gauge invariant gluonic action around thermal abelian monopoles which populate the deconfined phase of Yang-Mills theories. Our results show that the excess of magnetic action is close to that of the electric one, so that thermal abelian monopoles may be associated with physical objects carrying both electric and magnetic charge, i.e. dyons. Thus, the quark gluon plasma is likely to be populated by selfdual dyons, which may manifest themselves in the heavy-ion collisions via the chiral magnetic effect. Thermodynamically, thermal monopoles provide a negative contribution to the pressure of the system.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX 4.

Light Hybrid Mesons in QCD

Including the radiative perturbative corrections and the short distance tachyonic gluon mass effects which mimic the ones of UV renormalons, we re-estimate the decay amplitudes, masses and widths of light hybrid mesons from QCD spectral sum rules. We show that the effects are tiny and confirm the previous lowest order results. We discuss the phenomenological impacts of our results for the vector hybrids.Comment: Typos fixed, references updated; the final version version to appear in Phys. Lett. B. 6 pages, Latex, espcrc1.sty is required (included). The complete paper is also available via the www at http://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/Preprints

Measurement-based Energy Consumption Profiling of Mobile Radio Networks

Abstract —The exponential growth of mobile traffic is forcing operators to increase quickly the capacity of their network and extend it with new technologies and improved topologies, such as heterogeneous layouts with small cells. However, since revenues cannot grow at the same rate of traffic, the main challenge is to manage capacity expansion with reduced costs. In addi- tion to fixed costs for the new network infrastructures, operational costs are becoming critical, mainly for en- ergy bill component. Moreover, the carbon footprint of mobile access networks is considered one of the largest of the whole ICT (Information and Communications Technology) sector and its reduction is fundamental for the environmental sustainability of the Internet economy. Due to these reasons, improving the energy efficiency of the access network is crucial for mobile operators. In order to do that, monitoring the energy consumption of the network components and defining models of energy profile are valuable approaches for es- timating energy costs and identifying the most efficient configurations. In this paper, we present an energy consumption monitoring system that has been designed and im- plemented in three different countries using separate sensors for the radio and base-band components of second, third and fourth generation systems. We also propose an energy profiling approach that simplifies the characterization of the different components and allows the estimation of the energy efficiency based on traffic statistics

. Design and teaching of physical education for children and youth.

The reduction of physical activity is a phenomenon that affects the world population at all ages (childhood and adolescence, adulthood and third age) whose effects do not only concern the predisposition to risk factors for health but also more generally well-being and good individual bio-psycho-social functioning. Sedentary lifestyle, unfortunately, no longer affects adults and the elderly, but it is an unhealthy habit that is grafted more and more precociously, also extending to children and adolescents. In fact, during the developmental age we observe alarming trends of involution of motor skills with a general trend of reduction in the quality and quantity of movements in both children and adolescents; over the last fifty years, unfortunately, the coordination of school-age children has regressed, manifesting itself with a significant delay in the development of coordination especially in urban populations, as well as being affected by a serious and widespread problem of overweight and obesity in age paediatric. This paper analyses some special educational needs of movement during childhood and adolescence, even in the presence of disabilities, and tracks the main teaching methods that enhance the body and movement and the sensory perceptive syste

Thyroid-specific transcription factors control Hex promoter activity

The homeobox-containing gene Hex is expressed in several cell types, including thyroid follicular cells, in which it regulates the transcription of tissue-specific genes. In this study the regulation of Hex promoter activity was investigated. Using co-transfection experiments, we demonstrated that the transcriptional activity of the Hex gene promoter in rat thyroid FRTL-5 cells is ∼10-fold greater than that observed in HeLa and NIH 3T3 cell lines (which do not normally express the Hex gene). To identify the molecular mechanisms underlying these differences, we evaluated the effect of the thyroid-specific transcription factor TTF-1 on the Hex promoter activity. TTF-1 produced 3-4-fold increases in the Hex promoter activity. Gel-retardation assays and mutagenesis experiments revealed the presence of functionally relevant TTF-1 binding sites in the Hex promoter region. These in vitro data may also have functional relevance in vivo, since a positive correlation between TTF-1 and Hex mRNAs was demonstrated in human thyroid tissues by means of RT-PCR analysis. The TTF-1 effect, however, is not sufficient to explain the difference in Hex promoter activity between FRTL-5 and cells that do not express the Hex gene. For this reason, we tested whether Hex protein is able to activate the Hex promoter. Indeed, co-transfection experiments indicate that Hex protein is able to increase the activity of its own promoter in HeLa cells ∼4-fold. TTF-1 and Hex effects are additive: when transfected together in HeLa cells, the Hex promoter activity is increased 6-7-fold. Thus, the contemporary presence of both TTF-1 and Hex could be sufficient to explain the higher transcriptional activity of the Hex promoter in thyroid cells with respect to cell lines that do not express the Hex gene. These findings demonstrate the existence of direct cross-regulation between thyroid-specific transcription factors

The Tuning System for the HIE-ISOLDE High-Beta Quarter Wave Resonator

A new linac using superconducting quarter-wave resonators (QWR) is under construction at CERN in the framework of the HIE-ISOLDE project. The QWRs are made of niobium sputtered on a bulk copper substrate. The working frequency at 4.5 K is 101.28 MHz and they will provide 6 MV/m accelerating gradient on the beam axis with a total maximum power dissipation of 10 W on cavity walls. A tuning system is required in order to both minimize the forward power variation in beam operation and to compensate the unavoidable uncertainties in the frequency shift during the cool-down process. The tuning system has to fulfil a complex combination of RF, structural and thermal requirements. The paper presents the functional specifications and details the tuning system RF and mechanical design and simulations. The results of the tests performed on a prototype system are discussed and the industrialization strategy is presented in view of final production.Comment: 5 pages, The 16th International Conference on RF Superconductivity (SRF2013), Paris, France, Sep 23-27, 201

Tinnitus revival during COVID‑19 lockdown: how to deal with it?

To the Editor, The novel Coronavirus Disease, officially designated as COVID-19 by the WHO, is a serious issue for public health. To contain the COVID-19, the Italian Government stated on March 9th 2020 the prohibition of any movement throughout the national area unless for work/health reasons and the obligation to remain as much as possible inside one’s own home. With the start of the so-called “Phase Two” on May 4th 2020, circulation within the same region was allowed again, due to the progressive slowdown of the outbreak. Therefore, since lockdown measures were relaxed and access to the emergency room or ENT clinic became less worrying for patients, specialists of Otolaryngology Units in Bari (Italy) observed an increase in the amount of subjects complaining of the revival of intense tinnitus. We attempt in this letter to focus on patients affected by chronic subjective tinnitus, that already had a diagnosis and self-stabilized without a massive treatment. Research studies have reported tinnitus wide impact on quality of life of subjects experiencing it, involving their emotional state, concentration and sleep quality; at this regard, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) is a self-reported tool regularly used to quantify the grade of perceived handicap as slight (0–16), mild (18–36), moderate (38–56), severe (58–76) or catastrophic (78–100) on the basis of 25 questions [1]. During the past 2 weeks, we have collected data from 16 patients among our population of chronic sufferers: THI observed was moderate in 62.5% and severe in 18.75% of cases, catastrophic in 12.5% and mild in 6.25% of subjects. Interestingly, the grade of handicap resulted increased by one-level in 12 out of 16 patients (75%); in particular, THI shifted from mild to moderate in 9 patients and from moderate to severe in 3 patients. As shown in the literature, tinnitus generation, maintenance and recrudescence are still debated. A cortical reorganization secondary to sensory deprivation has been proposed as one on the most frequent cause of tinnitus [2]. The avoidance of silence and acoustic masking have been proposed as effective measures to overcome sensory deprivation and increase masking of the symptom [3]. It is reasonable to think that, during the lockdown, the absence of environmental masking sounds from everyday life may have enhanced the tinnitus perception. Furthermore, proneness to worry and incoming stress during pandemic could be included as further potential risk factors for tinnitus worsening. As proficiently reviewed in a recent work [4], some internet/smartphone-based applications provide in tinnitus patients adequate counseling and interactive information together with sound therapy. As brain networks implicated in adaptive responses to sound stimuli and to worry are shared in many cases, an early decrease of anxiety status may release neural resources crucial for tinnitus habituation/distress perception [5]. In general, interactive platforms have been widely implemented during lockdown period due to the forced lack of real personal and working relationships; since smart-working seems to be successful for future plans, the development of smart applications and mobile services in the health care field may be promising in terms of cost-effectiveness, tolerability and simplicity of use

Cost-effective reductions of PM2.5 concentrations and exposure in Italy

In recent years several European air pollution policies have been based on a cost-effectiveness approach. In the European Union, the European Commission starts using the multi-pollutant, multi-effect GAINS (Greenhouse Gas Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies) model to identify cost-effective National Emission Ceilings and specific emission control measures for each Member State to reach these targets. In this paper, we apply the GAINS methodology to the case of Italy with 20 subnational regions. We present regional results for different approaches to environmental target setting for PM2.5 pollution in the year 2030. We have obtained these results using optimization techniques consistent with those of GAINS-Europe, but at a higher resolution. Our results show that an overall health-impact oriented approach is more cost-effective than setting a nation-wide limit value on ambient air quality, such as the one set for the year 2030 by the European Directive on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe. The health-impact oriented approach implies additional emission control costs of 153 million €/yr on top of the baseline costs, compared to 322 million €/yr for attaining the nation-wide air quality limit. We provide insights into the distribution of costs and benefits for regions within Italy and identify the main beneficiaries of a health-impact approach over a limit-value approach

The Quest for Light Sea Quarks: Algorithms for the Future

As part of a systematic algorithm study, we present first results on a performance comparison between a multibosonic algorithm and the hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm as employed by the SESAM collaboration. The standard Wilson fermion action is used on 32*16^3 lattices at beta=5.5.Comment: LaTeX, 3 pages, Lattice2001(algorithms

Quasiparticle Description of the QCD Plasma, Comparison with Lattice Results at Finite T and Mu

We compare our 2+1 flavor, staggered QCD lattice results with a quasiparticle picture. We determine the pressure, the energy density, the baryon density, the speed of sound and the thermal masses as a function of T and $\mu_B$. For the available thermodynamic quantities the difference is a few percent between the results of the two approaches. We also give the phase diagram on the $\mu_B$--T plane and estimate the critical chemical potential at vanishing temperature.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure