THE DETERMINANTS OF CORRUPTION IN ITALY: REGIONAL PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

Several measures indicate the presence of substantial corruption in Italian society. This paper investigates the determinants of corruption in Italy in the period 1963–2001 using statistics on crimes against the public administration at a regional level. Our estimates show that economic variables (government consumption, level of development) and political and cultural influences (party concentration, presence of voluntary organisations, absenteeism at national elections) significantly affect corruption in Italy

The LOFT (Large Observatory for X-ray Timing) background simulations

The Large Observatory For X-ray Timing (LOFT) is an innovative medium-class mission selected for an assessment phase in the framework of the ESA M3 Cosmic Vision call. LOFT is intended to answer fundamental questions about the behaviour of matter in the very strong gravitational and magnetic fields around compact objects. With an effective area of ~10 m^2 LOFT will be able to measure very fast variability in the X-ray fluxes and spectra. A good knowledge of the in-orbit background environment is essential to assess the scientific performance of the mission and to optimize the instrument design. The two main contributions to the background are cosmic diffuse X-rays and high energy cosmic rays; also, albedo emission from the Earth is significant. These contributions to the background for both the Large Area Detector and the Wide Field Monitor are discussed, on the basis of extensive Geant-4 simulations of a simplified instrumental mass model.Comment: Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 8443, Paper No. 8443-209, 201

The effect of the displacement damage on the Charge Collection Efficiency in Silicon Drift Detectors for the LOFT satellite

The technology of Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) has been selected for the two instruments aboard the Large Observatory For X-ray Timing (LOFT) space mission. LOFT underwent a three year long assessment phase as candidate for the M3 launch opportunity within the "Cosmic Vision 2015 -- 2025" long-term science plan of the European Space Agency. During the LOFT assessment phase, we studied the displacement damage produced in the SDDs by the protons trapped in the Earth's magnetosphere. In a previous paper we discussed the effects of the Non Ionising Energy Losses from protons on the SDD leakage current. In this paper we report the measurement of the variation of Charge Collection Efficiency produced by displacement damage caused by protons and the comparison with the expected damage in orbit.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication by Journal of Instrumentatio

Editorial: Fibrosis and inflammation in tissue pathophysiology

In adult mammals, tissue damage activates a wound healing response with acute inflammation followed by either complete repair (for low-grade damage or in highly regenerative tissues, such as the liver) or replacement fibrosis (for extensive damage or in poorly regenerative tissues, such as the myocardium). Persistent damage and repeated insults sustain continuous activation of repair pathways leading to chronic inflammation, progressive tissue fibrosis and sclerosis. Despite the evolutionary advantage conferred by scarring as a rapid repair mechanism, chronic fibrosis leads to tissue adverse remodeling and impaired function. Persistent low-level inflammation and fibrosis are observed in many pathological conditions (e.g. hypertension, obesity, diabetes, genetic diseases), and lead to further complications including atherosclerosis and ischemic events, organ failure, autoimmune diseases, cancer, aging, and reduced resilience to infectious diseases. Pathological fibrosis plays a major role in a wide range of diseases, accounting for an increasingly large fraction of mortality cases worldwide. While recent advances have unveiled many environmental and genetic causes of fibrotic disorders, a better understanding of both ubiquitous and tissue-specific regulatory pathways and cellular dynamics could help to design new targeted therapies, and to identify the etiology of idiopathic diseases. Within this Research Topic, we invite submission of articles (reviews, original research, or methodology articles) on the pathophysiological role of fibrosis and inflammation in different tissues. Areas to be covered include, but are not limited to: - genetic and environmental causes of persistent low-level inflammation and fibrosis (e.g. autoimmunity, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, genetic diseases, latent infections); - comorbidities including systemic sclerosis, neurological disorders, organ failure (heart, skeletal muscle, kidney, liver, lungs), cancer, and reduced resilience to infectious diseases; - in vivo (animal models) and in vitro (organoids, tissue culture) modelling of fibrotic diseases for the discovery of novel therapeutic targets and potential tissue-specific treatments; - vascular responses to inflammation and inflammation of vascular tissues; - system biology approaches to identify molecular and cellular networks leading to chronic inflammation and fibrosis

Measurement of the effect of Non Ionising Energy Losses on the leakage current of Silicon Drift Detector prototypes for the LOFT satellite

The silicon drift detectors are at the basis of the instrumentation aboard the Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT) satellite mission, which underwent a three year assessment phase within the "Cosmic Vision 2015 - 2025" long-term science plan of the European Space Agency. Silicon detectors are especially sensitive to the displacement damage, produced by the non ionising energy losses of charged and neutral particles, leading to an increase of the device leakage current and thus worsening the spectral resolution. During the LOFT assessment phase, we irradiated two silicon drift detectors with a proton beam at the Proton Irradiation Facility in the accelerator of the Paul Scherrer Institute and we measured the increase in leakage current. In this paper we report the results of the irradiation and we discuss the impact of the radiation damage on the LOFT scientific performance.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication by Journal of Instrumentation (JINST