A See-Saw S4S_4 model for fermion masses and mixings

We present a supersymmetric see-saw $S_4$ model giving rise to the most general neutrino mass matrix compatible with Tri-Bimaximal mixing. We adopt the $S_4\times Z_5$ flavour symmetry, broken by suitable vacuum expectation values of a small number of flavon fields. We show that the vacuum alignment is a natural solution of the most general superpotential allowed by the flavour symmetry, without introducing any soft breaking terms. In the charged lepton sector, mass hierarchies are controlled by the spontaneous breaking of the flavour symmetry caused by the vevs of one doublet and one triplet flavon fields instead of using the Froggatt-Nielsen U(1) mechanism. The next to leading order corrections to both charged lepton mass matrix and flavon vevs generate corrections to the mixing angles as large as ${\cal O}(\lambda_C^2)$. Applied to the quark sector, the symmetry group $S_4\times Z_5$ can give a leading order $V_{CKM}$ proportional to the identity as well as a matrix with ${\cal O}(1)$ coefficients in the Cabibbo $2\times 2$ submatrix. Higher order corrections produce non vanishing entries in the other $V_{CKM}$ entries which are generically of ${\cal O}(\lambda_C^2)$.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures, minor changes to match the published versio

Effectiveness of cardiac resynchronization therapy in heart failure patients with valvular heart disease: comparison with patients affected by ischaemic heart disease or dilated cardiomyopathy. The InSync/InSync ICD Italian Registry

AimsTo analyse the effectiveness of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in patients with valvular heart disease (a subset not specifically investigated in randomized controlled trials) in comparison with ischaemic heart disease or dilated cardiomyopathy patients.Methods and resultsPatients enrolled in a national registry were evaluated during a median follow-up of 16 months after CRT implant. Patients with valvular heart disease treated with CRT (n = 108) in comparison with ischaemic heart disease (n = 737) and dilated cardiomyopathy (n = 635) patients presented: (i) a higher prevalence of chronic atrial fibrillation, with atrioventricular node ablation performed in around half of the cases; (ii) a similar clinical and echocardiographic profile at baseline; (iii) a similar improvement of LVEF and a similar reduction in ventricular volumes at 6-12 months; (iv) a favourable clinical response at 12 months with an improvement of the clinical composite score similar to that occurring in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and more pronounced than that observed in patients with ischaemic heart disease; (v) a long-term outcome, in term of freedom from death or heart transplantation, similar to patients affected by ischaemic heart disease and basically more severe than that of patients affected by dilated cardiomyopathy.ConclusionIn 'real world' clinical practice, CRT appears to be effective also in patients with valvular heart disease. However, in this group of patients the outcome after CRT does not precisely overlap any of the two other groups of patients, for which much more data are currently available

With or without ν\nu? Hunting for the seed of the matter-antimatter asymmetry

The matter-antimatter asymmetry underlines the incompleteness of the current understanding of particle physics. Neutrinoless double-beta ($0\nu \beta\beta$) decay may help explain this asymmetry, while unveiling the Majorana nature of the neutrino. The CUORE experiment searches for $0\nu \beta\beta$ decay of $^{130}$Te using a tonne-scale cryogenic calorimeter operated at milli-kelvin temperatures. We report no evidence for $0\nu \beta\beta$ decay and place a lower limit on the half-life of T$_{1/2}$ $>$ 3.8 $\times$ 10$^{25}$ years (90% C.I.) with over 2 tonne$\cdot$year TeO$_2$ exposure. The tools and techniques developed for this result and the 5 year stable operation of nearly 1000 detectors demonstrate the infrastructure for a next-generation experiment capable of searching for $0\nu \beta\beta$ decay across multiple isotopes

Defining Kawasaki disease and pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome-temporally associated to SARS-CoV-2 infection during SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Italy: results from a national, multicenter survey

Background: There is mounting evidence on the existence of a Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome-temporally associated to SARS-CoV-2 infection (PIMS-TS), sharing similarities with Kawasaki Disease (KD). The main outcome of the study were to better characterize the clinical features and the treatment response of PIMS-TS and to explore its relationship with KD determining whether KD and PIMS are two distinct entities. Methods: The Rheumatology Study Group of the Italian Pediatric Society launched a survey to enroll patients diagnosed with KD (Kawasaki Disease Group - KDG) or KD-like (Kawacovid Group - KCG) disease between February 1st 2020, and May 31st 2020. Demographic, clinical, laboratory data, treatment information, and patients' outcome were collected in an online anonymized database (RedCAP®). Relationship between clinical presentation and SARS-CoV-2 infection was also taken into account. Moreover, clinical characteristics of KDG during SARS-CoV-2 epidemic (KDG-CoV2) were compared to Kawasaki Disease patients (KDG-Historical) seen in three different Italian tertiary pediatric hospitals (Institute for Maternal and Child Health, IRCCS "Burlo Garofolo", Trieste; AOU Meyer, Florence; IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa) from January 1st 2000 to December 31st 2019. Chi square test or exact Fisher test and non-parametric Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney test were used to study differences between two groups. Results: One-hundred-forty-nine cases were enrolled, (96 KDG and 53 KCG). KCG children were significantly older and presented more frequently from gastrointestinal and respiratory involvement. Cardiac involvement was more common in KCG, with 60,4% of patients with myocarditis. 37,8% of patients among KCG presented hypotension/non-cardiogenic shock. Coronary artery abnormalities (CAA) were more common in the KDG. The risk of ICU admission were higher in KCG. Lymphopenia, higher CRP levels, elevated ferritin and troponin-T characterized KCG. KDG received more frequently immunoglobulins (IVIG) and acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) (81,3% vs 66%; p = 0.04 and 71,9% vs 43,4%; p = 0.001 respectively) as KCG more often received glucocorticoids (56,6% vs 14,6%; p < 0.0001). SARS-CoV-2 assay more often resulted positive in KCG than in KDG (75,5% vs 20%; p < 0.0001). Short-term follow data showed minor complications. Comparing KDG with a KD-Historical Italian cohort (598 patients), no statistical difference was found in terms of clinical manifestations and laboratory data. Conclusion: Our study suggests that SARS-CoV-2 infection might determine two distinct inflammatory diseases in children: KD and PIMS-TS. Older age at onset and clinical peculiarities like the occurrence of myocarditis characterize this multi-inflammatory syndrome. Our patients had an optimal response to treatments and a good outcome, with few complications and no deaths

A non-tatonnement dynamic macroeconomic model with stochastic rationing

In this paper we present a dynamic macroeconomic Keynesian-type model with rationing equilibria in each period and price adjustment from one period to the next. Due to stochastic rationing we obtain a well-defined measure of the size of rationing in any infra-period allocation. Prices can then be adjusted on the basis of these rationing measures. A complete characterization of the typology of equilibria is given and dynamic adjustment equations are derived that allow to simulate the dynamic behaviour of the economy. There is evidence of all kind of dynamic phenomena: convergence, cycles, period doubling bifurcations, chaos and divergence. A particularly interesting fact is the emergence of an attractor in employment-real wage plane which has perfectly the shape of a labour demand curve. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RN 9560(308) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

MODELS, INFERENCES, AND REPRESENTATIONS IN SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

The research project is proposed by a PRIN group of Italian teams formed in the 1990s, under the leadership of Lorenzo Magnani of the PAVIA Unit, in the framework of intensive international collaborations. The project involves 10 units, representative of Italian Philosophy of Science, and forms a consistent group, involving a cross participation of its members. The program is coherently linked to the activities of the Italian Society for Logic and Philosophy of Sciences (SILFS) - http://www.silfs.it the local coordinator of the BOLOGNA unit is the president of this Society. The connecting thread of the past research work realized by the group has been the role of models and simulations in the rational reconstruction of scientific inquiry. The title proposed this year, although a continuation of this fundamental research line, aims at further extending - especially by strengthening the interdisciplinary aspects - the basic subject of models in science with three goals that are shared by all the local teams: a) the analysis of explanatory and creative inferential/representational strategies from a cognitive, epistemological, and computational perspective, also involving the computational modeling of concepts and the development of experimental studies; b) the refinement of the logical and mathematical tools required to develop the basic ideas and to better analyze the concepts of inference and representation; c) the analysis of modeling with respect to the notions of foundations, multilevel explanation, and emergence in the naturalistic perspective of empirical science including physics - a naturalized model of metaphysical knowledge \u2013 biology, and contemporary brain sciences. The project's units of the University of Macerata will focus on the following subject-matter: -MACERATA: Multilevel explanation in science and ontology. Here the others interrelated subject-matters of the other project's units: -PAVIA: Scientific models, representations, and abductive inferences in the light of a new \u201ceco-cognitive epistemology\u201d -BOLOGNA: Reasoning and non-classical inferences: proof theory, semantics and applications -ROME 3: Physical models of the world and naturalism -MILAN: Emergence and fundamentality -PISA: Decision under risk and uncertainty: a logical and epistemological analysis -TRIESTE: Confirmation, verisimilitude, and realism: issues in the logic and epistemology of scientific change -CHIETI/PESCARA Frames of reasoning and limitations of rational behaviour: theoretical and experimental research from the cognitive, social and cultural point of view -CAGLIARI: From models to logic: structures, logification and equivalence between logics -SASSARI: Properties: fundamental, intrinsic, involved in truth-making, grounding causal power