I Never Believed In Angels Until I Met You : Girl Of The Cross

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Fertility and well-being in the italian regions

We analyse the association between fertility rates and well-being in the Italian regions in the period 2012-2017. Well-being is measured by the indicators of Equitable and Sustainable Well-being (BES), collected by ISTAT since 2013 with the aim of evaluating the economic, social and environmental development of the society through measurement of citizens’ life quality. We expect that the regions performing better in terms of well-being conditions are also those with the highest levels of fertility. Both graphical and panel data regression analyses support our main hypothesis, but also reveal that in different clusters of regions the intensity and direction of the relationship significantly change. Our results also stress the need of taking the different domains of well-being into account while explaining reproductive behaviour of resident population at territorial level

Fertility and territorial well-being in Italy .How is fertility related to social, economic and environmental quality?

We analyzed the association between fertility rates and well-being measured at the regional level. How does the gap between intended and realized fertility relate with other well-being indicators measured at the aggregate level in terms of social, economic, environmental conditions? We try to answer this question with reference to Italy in the period 2010-2017 through the analysis of the association between the regional fertility rates and a rich system of regional indicators measuring various aspects of the social, economic and environmental quality (Equitable and Sustainable Well-being or Benessere Equo e Sostenibile - BES, in Italian). The results show that in regions best performing in terms of economic conditions and of the functioning of public services as well as in terms of the quality of the educational system and of the environment, fertility is higher than the national average

The Heumann-Hotzel model for aging revisited

Since its proposition in 1995, the Heumann-Hotzel model has remained as an obscure model of biological aging. The main arguments used against it were its apparent inability to describe populations with many age intervals and its failure to prevent a population extinction when only deleterious mutations are present. We find that with a simple and minor change in the model these difficulties can be surmounted. Our numerical simulations show a plethora of interesting features: the catastrophic senescence, the Gompertz law and that postponing the reproduction increases the survival probability, as has already been experimentally confirmed for the Drosophila fly.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Time evolution of the Partridge-Barton Model

The time evolution of the Partridge-Barton model in the presence of the pleiotropic constraint and deleterious somatic mutations is exactly solved for arbitrary fecundity in the context of a matricial formalism. Analytical expressions for the time dependence of the mean survival probabilities are derived. Using the fact that the asymptotic behavior for large time $t$ is controlled by the largest matrix eigenvalue, we obtain the steady state values for the mean survival probabilities and the Malthusian growth exponent. The mean age of the population exhibits a $t^{-1}$ power law decayment. Some Monte Carlo simulations were also performed and they corroborated our theoretical results.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, 1 postscript figure, published in Phys. Rev. E 61, 5664 (2000

Patient-reported outcomes feedback report for knee arthroplasty patients should present selective information in a simple design - findings of a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Technical innovation to assess patient-reported outcomes (PROs) facilitates their implementation in clinical practice. In particular, mobile applications (apps) allow PROs to be assessed outside of the clinical setting. A patient\u27s health status can be remotely monitored and evaluated after discharge, and their recovery process tracked. This is of particular interest for patients after knee arthroplasty, as the recovery phase after surgery usually takes place in an outpatient setting and requires a high level of patient engagement. Providing results of PRO assessments to patients in the form of a feedback report could increase patient engagement and may improve communication between health care professionals and patients. The aim of the study is to develop a PRO feedback report for mobile devices that is comprehensible and provides valuable information for patients after knee arthroplasty. RESULTS: In an iterative development process, our expert group developed two preliminary feedback reports (a text-based version and a graphical display) based on previous research results and practical experience. In a second step, we discussed these reports with orthopedic patients (n = 8) in terms of comprehensibility and value using semi-structured interviews and cognitive debriefing methods. Participants assessed the reports as informative, but had some difficulties in fully comprehending all of the information provided. Based on the feedback from patients, we modified both versions and reduced complexity to increase comprehensibility. CONCLUSIONS: A PRO feedback report for patients for mobile app use has to take account of the heterogeneous user group, particularly demographics such as age and experience with mobile devices. Information should be presented in a simple way to be comprehensible and of value to patients. Technological advancements allow a simple default report to be set, something which enables patients interested in additional information to make customizations

Smart Material Implication Using Spin-Transfer Torque Magnetic Tunnel Junctions for Logic-in-Memory Computing

Smart material implication (SIMPLY) logic has been recently proposed for the design of energy-efficient Logic-in-Memory (LIM) architectures based on non-volatile resistive memory devices. The SIMPLY logic is enabled by adding a comparator to the conventional IMPLY scheme. This allows performing a preliminary READ operation and hence the SET operation only in the case it is actually required. This work explores the SIMPLY logic scheme using nanoscale spin-transfer torque magnetic tunnel junction (STT-MTJ) devices. The performance of the STT-MTJ based SIMPLY architecture is analyzed by varying the load resistor and applied voltages to implement both READ and SET operations, while also investigating the effect of temperature on circuit operation. Obtained results show an existing tradeoff between error rate and energy consumption, which can be effectively managed by properly setting the values of load resistor and applied voltages. In addition, our analysis proves that tracking the temperature dependence of the MTJ properties through a proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT) reference voltage at the input of the comparator is beneficial to mitigate the reliability degradation under temperature variations