Acta Informatica manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) A Complete Classification of the Expressiveness of Interval Logics of Allen’s Relations The General and the Dense Cases

Abstract Interval temporal logics take time intervals, instead of time instants, as their primitive temporal entities. One of the most studied interval temporal logics is Halpern and Shoham’s modal logic of time intervals HS, which associates a modal operator with each binary relation between intervals over a linear order (the so-called Allen’s interval relations). In this paper, we compare and classify the expressiveness of all fragments of HS on the class of all linear orders and on the subclass of all dense linear orders. For each of these classes, we identify a complete set of definabilities between HS modalities, valid in that class, thus obtaining a complete classification of the family of all 4096 fragments of HS with respect to their expressiveness. We show that on the class of all linear orders there are exactly 1347 expressively different fragments of HS, while on the class of dense linear orders there are exactly 966 such expressively different fragments

The impact of Covid-19 healthcare emergency on the psychological well-being of health professionals: a review of literature

Introduction. The Coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) was first identified in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China, and later caused a severe health crisis, causing massive disruptions to most healthcare systems worldwide. The Covid-19 health emergency has seen healthcare workers in the front line facing all the difficulties related to the care burden. One of the most significant and probably underinvestigated aspects is the psychological stress of the healthcare staff managing the emergency. The aim of the paper is to analyze the literature on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the psychological well-being of health professionals. Methodology. We conducted a systematic review of articles published on this topic during the months from January 2020 to December 2020, searching on Pub Med, Scopus and Web of Science databases. Results. Most of the issues can be summarized into five conceptual categories: Stress, Depression and Infection Anxiety, Anguish, Insomnia, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Suicide. The literature identifies many factors contributing to the onset of anxiety, depression, and stress, like the fear of contracting the disease and transmitting it to family members and friends, stressful shifts, and little rest among several others. The literature highlights the needs for adequate measures, including proper psychological support. Conclusion. The conducted review suggests that the behaviours of healthcare professionals during the emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic show psychological disorders that can compromise mental health. Therefore, there is a call for those in chief like hospital managers and policymakers to take action, promoting measures like surveillance, monitoring, and psychological support among others, to increase the resilience of healthcare workers, limiting stress and anxiety and allowing them to keep their performance at work

The impact of Covid-19 healthcare emergency on the psychological well-being of health professionals: a review of literature

Introduction. The Coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) was first identified in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China, and later caused a severe health crisis, causing massive disruptions to most healthcare systems worldwide. The Covid-19 health emergency has seen healthcare workers in the front line facing all the difficulties related to the care burden. One of the most significant and probably underinvestigated aspects is the psychological stress of the healthcare staff managing the emergency. The aim of the paper is to analyze the literature on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the psychological well-being of health professionals.Methodology. We conducted a systematic review of articles published on this topic during the months from January 2020 to December 2020, searching on Pub Med, Scopus and Web of Science databases.Results. Most of the issues can be summarized into five conceptual categories: Stress, Depression and Infection Anxiety, Anguish, Insomnia, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Suicide. The literature identifies many factors contributing to the onset of anxiety, depression, and stress, like the fear of contracting the disease and transmitting it to family members and friends, stressful shifts, and little rest among several others. The literature highlights the needs for adequate measures, including proper psychological support.Conclusion. The conducted review suggests that the behaviours of healthcare professionals during the emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic show psychological disorders that can compromise mental health. Therefore, there is a call for those in chief like hospital managers and policymakers to take action, promoting measures like surveillance, monitoring, and psychological support among others, to increase the resilience of healthcare workers, limiting stress and anxiety and allowing them to keep their performance at work

Lithium difluoro­(oxalato)borate tetra­methyl­ene sulfone disolvate

The title compound, Li+·C2BF2O4 −·2C4H8O2S, is a dimeric species, which resides across a crystallographic inversion center. The dimers form eight-membered rings containing two Li+ cations, which are joined by O2S sulfone linkages. The Li+ cations are ligated by four O atoms from the anions and solvent mol­ecules, forming a pseudo-tetra­hedral geometry. The exocyclic coordination sites are occupied by O atoms from the oxalate group of the difluoro­(oxalato)borate anion and an additional tetra­methyl­ene sulfone ligand

Volcanic CO2 tracks the incubation period of basaltic paroxysms

The ordinarily benign activity of basaltic volcanoes is periodically interrupted by violent paroxysmal explosions ranging in size from Hawaiian to Plinian in the most extreme examples. These paroxysms often occur suddenly and with limited or no precursors, leaving their causal mechanisms still incompletely understood. Two such events took place in summer 2019 at Stromboli, a volcano otherwise known for its persistent mild open-vent activity, resulting in one fatality and damage to infrastructure. Here, we use a post hoc analysis and reinterpretation of volcanic gas compositions and fluxes acquired at Stromboli to show that the two paroxysms were preceded by detectable escalations in volcanic plume CO2 degassing weeks to months beforehand. Our results demonstrate that volcanic gas CO2 is a key driver of explosions and that the preparatory periods ahead of explosions in basaltic systems can be captured by precursory CO2 leakage from deeply stored mafic magma

Ground deformation reveals the scale-invariant conduit dynamics driving explosive basaltic eruptions

The mild activity of basaltic volcanoes is punctuated by violent explosive eruptions that occur without obvious precursors. Modelling the source processes of these sudden blasts is challenging. Here, we use two decades of ground deformation (tilt) records from Stromboli volcano to shed light, with unprecedented detail, on the short-term (minute-scale) conduit processes that drive such violent volcanic eruptions. We find that explosive eruptions, with source parameters spanning seven orders of magnitude, all share a common pre-blast ground inflation trend. We explain this exponential inflation using a model in which pressure build-up is caused by the rapid expansion of volatile-rich magma rising from depth into a shallow (<400m) resident magma conduit. We show that the duration and amplitude of this inflation trend scales with the eruption magnitude, indicating that the explosive dynamics obey the same (scale-invariant) conduit process. This scale-invariance of pre-explosion ground deformation may usher in a new era of short-term eruption forecasting

Ground deformation reveals the scale-invariant conduit dynamics driving explosive basaltic eruptions

The mild activity of basaltic volcanoes is punctuated by violent explosive eruptions that occur without obvious precursors. Modelling the source processes of these sudden blasts is challenging. Here, we use two decades of ground deformation (tilt) records from Stromboli volcano to shed light, with unprecedented detail, on the short-term (minute-scale) conduit processes that drive such violent volcanic eruptions. We find that explosive eruptions, with source parameters spanning seven orders of magnitude, all share a common pre-blast ground inflation trend. We explain this exponential inflation using a model in which pressure build-up is caused by the rapid expansion of volatile-rich magma rising from depth into a shallow (<400 m) resident magma conduit. We show that the duration and amplitude of this inflation trend scales with the eruption magnitude, indicating that the explosive dynamics obey the same (scale-invariant) conduit process. This scale-invariance of pre-explosion ground deformation may usher in a new era of short-term eruption forecasting

Human Herpesvirus-8 Infection Leads to Expansion of the Preimmune/Natural Effector B Cell Compartment

BACKGROUND: Human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) is the etiological agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and of some lymphoproliferative disorders of B cells. Most malignancies develop after long-lasting viral dormancy, and a preventing role for both humoral and cellular immune control is suggested by the high frequency of these pathologies in immunosuppressed patients. B cells, macrophages and dendritic cells of peripheral lymphoid organs and blood represent the major reservoir of HHV-8. Due to the dual role of B cells in HHV-8 infection, both as virus reservoir and as agents of humoral immune control, we analyzed the subset distribution and the functional state of peripheral blood B cells in HHV-8-infected individuals with and without cKS. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Circulating B cells and their subsets were analyzed by 6-color flow cytometry in the following groups: 1- patients HHV-8 positive with classic KS (cKS) (n = 47); 2- subjects HHV-8 positive and cKS negative (HSP) (n = 10); 3- healthy controls, HHV-8 negative and cKS negative (HC) (n = 43). The number of B cells belonging to the preimmune/natural effector compartment, including transitional, pre-naïve, naïve and MZ-like subsets, was significantly higher among HHV-8 positive subjects, with or without cKS, while was comparable to healthy controls in the antigen-experienced T-cell dependent compartment. The increased number of preimmune/natural effector B cells was associated with increased resistance to spontaneous apoptosis, while it did not correlate with HHV-8 viral load. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results indicate that long-lasting HHV-8 infection promotes an imbalance in peripheral B cell subsets, perturbing the equilibrium between earlier and later steps of maturation and activation processes. This observation may broaden our understanding of the complex interplay between viral and immune factors leading HHV-8-infected individuals to develop HHV-8-associated malignancies

Retinoic acid-induced 1 gene haploinsufficiency alters lipid metabolism and causes autophagy defects in Smith-Magenis syndrome

Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by cognitive and behavioral symptoms, obesity, and sleep disturbance, and no therapy has been developed to alleviate its symptoms or delay disease onset. SMS occurs due to haploinsufficiency of the retinoic acid-induced-1 (RAI1) gene caused by either chromosomal deletion (SMS-del) or RAI1 missense/nonsense mutation. The molecular mechanisms underlying SMS are unknown. Here, we generated and characterized primary cells derived from four SMS patients (two with SMS-del and two carrying RAI1 point mutations) and four control subjects to investigate the pathogenetic processes underlying SMS. By combining transcriptomic and lipidomic analyses, we found altered expression of lipid and lysosomal genes, deregulation of lipid metabolism, accumulation of lipid droplets, and blocked autophagic flux. We also found that SMS cells exhibited increased cell death associated with the mitochondrial pathology and the production of reactive oxygen species. Treatment with N-acetylcysteine reduced cell death and lipid accumulation, which suggests a causative link between metabolic dyshomeostasis and cell viability. Our results highlight the pathological processes in human SMS cells involving lipid metabolism, autophagy defects and mitochondrial dysfunction and suggest new potential therapeutic targets for patient treatment