Complex delay dynamics on railway networks: from universal laws to realistic modelling

Railways are a key infrastructure for any modern country. The reliability and resilience of this peculiar transportation system may be challenged by different shocks such as disruptions, strikes and adverse weather conditions. These events compromise the correct functioning of the system and trigger the spreading of delays into the railway network on a daily basis. Despite their importance, a general theoretical understanding of the underlying causes of these disruptions is still lacking. In this work, we analyse the Italian and German railway networks by leveraging on the train schedules and actual delay data retrieved during the year 2015. We use {these} data to infer simple statistical laws ruling the emergence of localized delays in different areas of the network and we model the spreading of these delays throughout the network by exploiting a framework inspired by epidemic spreading models. Our model offers a fast and easy tool for the preliminary assessment of the {effectiveness of} traffic handling policies, and of the railway {network} criticalities.Comment: 32 pages (with appendix), 28 Figures (with appendix), 2 Table

Statistically validated network of portfolio overlaps and systemic risk

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordCommon asset holding by financial institutions (portfolio overlap) is nowadays regarded as an important channel for financial contagion with the potential to trigger fire sales and severe losses at the systemic level. We propose a method to assess the statistical significance of the overlap between heterogeneously diversified portfolios, which we use to build a validated network of financial institutions where links indicate potential contagion channels. The method is implemented on a historical database of institutional holdings ranging from 1999 to the end of 2013, but can be applied to any bipartite network. We find that the proportion of validated links (i.e. of significant overlaps) increased steadily before the 2007-2008 financial crisis and reached a maximum when the crisis occurred. We argue that the nature of this measure implies that systemic risk from fire sales liquidation was maximal at that time. After a sharp drop in 2008, systemic risk resumed its growth in 2009, with a notable acceleration in 2013. We finally show that market trends tend to be amplified in the portfolios identified by the algorithm, such that it is possible to have an informative signal about institutions that are about to suffer (enjoy) the most significant losses (gains).Labex Louis BachelierEuropean Union FP7European Union Horizon 202

Stillbirth and loss: family practices and display

This paper explores how parents respond to their memories of their stillborn child over the years following their loss. When people die after living for several years or more, their family and friends have the residual traces of a life lived as a basis for an identity that may be remembered over a sustained period of time. For the parent of a stillborn child there is no such basis and the claim for a continuing social identity for their son or daughter is precarious. Drawing on interviews with the parents of 22 stillborn children, this paper explores the identity work performed by parents concerned to create a lasting and meaningful identity for their child and to include him or her in their families after death. The paper draws on Finch's (2007) concept of family display and Walter's (1999) thesis that links continue to exist between the living and the dead over a continued period. The paper argues that evidence from the experience of stillbirth suggests that there is scope for development for both theoretical frameworks

Multicharacterization approach for studying InAl(Ga)N/Al(Ga)N/GaN heterostructures for high electron mobility transistors

We report on our multi–pronged approach to understand the structural and electrical properties of an InAl(Ga)N(33nm barrier)/Al(Ga)N(1nm interlayer)/GaN(3μm)/AlN(100nm)/Al2O3 high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) heterostructure grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). In particular we reveal and discuss the role of unintentional Ga incorporation in the barrier and also in the interlayer. The observation of unintentional Ga incorporation by using energy dispersive X–ray spectroscopy analysis in a scanning transmission electron microscope is supported with results obtained for samples with a range of AlN interlayer thicknesses grown under both the showerhead as well as the horizontal type MOVPE reactors. Poisson–Schrödinger simulations show that for high Ga incorporation in the Al(Ga)N interlayer, an additional triangular well with very small depth may be exhibited in parallel to the main 2–DEG channel. The presence of this additional channel may cause parasitic conduction and severe issues in device characteristics and processing. Producing a HEMT structure with InAlGaN as the barrier and AlGaN as the interlayer with appropriate alloy composition may be a possible route to optimization, as it might be difficult to avoid Ga incorporation while continuously depositing the layers using the MOVPE growth method. Our present work shows the necessity of a multicharacterization approach to correlate structural and electrical properties to understand device structures and their performance

N6L pseudopeptide interferes with nucleophosmin protein-protein interactions and sensitizes leukemic cells to chemotherapy.

Abstract NPM1 is a multifunctional nucleolar protein implicated in several processes such as ribosome maturation and export, DNA damage response and apoptotic response to stress stimuli. The NPM1 gene is involved in human tumorigenesis and is found mutated in one third of acute myeloid leukemia patients, leading to the aberrant cytoplasmic localization of NPM1. Recent studies indicated that the N6L multivalent pseudopeptide, a synthetic ligand of cell–surface nucleolin, is also able to bind NPM1 with high affinity. N6L inhibits cell growth with different mechanisms and represents a good candidate as a novel anticancer drug for a number of malignancies of different histological origin. In this study we investigated whether N6L treatment could drive antitumor effect in acute myeloid leukemia cell lines. We found that N6L binds NPM1 at the N-terminal domain, co-localizes with cytoplasmic, mutated NPM1, and interferes with its protein-protein associations. N6L toxicity appears to be p53 dependent but interestingly, the leukemic cell line harbouring the mutated form of NPM1 is more resistant to treatment, suggesting that NPM1 cytoplasmic delocalization confers protection from p53 activation. Moreover, we show that N6L sensitizes AML cells to doxorubicin and cytarabine treatment. These studies suggest that N6L may be a promising option in combination therapies for acute myeloid leukemia treatment

Supersymmetric Extra Dimensions: Gravitino Effects in Selectron Pair Production

We examine the phenomenological consequences of a supersymmetric bulk in the scenario of large extra dimensions. We assume supersymmetry is realized in the bulk and study the interactions of the resulting bulk gravitino Kaluza-Klein (KK) tower of states, with supersymmetry breaking on the brane inducing a light mass for the zero-mode gravitino. We derive the 4-d effective theory, including the couplings of the bulk gravitino KK states to fermions and their scalar superpartners. The virtual exchange of the gravitino KK states in selectron pair production in polarized \epem collisions is then examined. We find that the leading order operator for this exchange is dimension six, in contrast to that of bulk graviton KK exchange which induces a dimension eight operator at lowest order. The resulting kinematic distributions for selectron production are dramatically altered from those in D=4 supersymmetric scenarios, and can lead to a enormous sensitivity to the fundamental higher dimensional Planck scale, of order $20-25\times \sqrt s$.Comment: 48 pg

Real-Life Clinical Data of Cabozantinib for Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Introduction: Cabozantinib has been approved by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) previously treated with sorafenib. Cabozantinib is also being tested in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors in the frontline setting. Real-life clinical data of cabozantinib for HCC are still lacking. Moreover, the prognostic factors for HCC treated with cabozantinib have not been investigated. Methods: We evaluated clinical data and outcome of HCC patients who received cabozantinib in the legal context of named patient use in Italy. Results: Ninety-six patients from 15 centres received cabozantinib. All patients had preserved liver function (Child-Pugh A), mostly with an advanced HCC (77.1%) in a third-line setting (75.0%). The prevalence of performance status (PS) > 0, macrovascular invasion (MVI), extrahepatic spread, and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) >400 ng/mL was 50.0, 30.2, 67.7, and 44.8%, respectively. Median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival were 12.1 (95% confidence interval 9.4-14.8) and 5.1 (3.3-6.9) months, respectively. Most common treatment-related adverse events (AEs) were fatigue (67.7%), diarrhoea (54.2%), anorexia (45.8%), HFSR (43.8%), weight loss (24.0%), and hypertension (24.0%). Most common treatment-related Grade 3-4 AEs were fatigue (6.3%), HFSR (6.3%), and increased aminotransferases (6.3%). MVI, ECOG-PS > 0, and AFP >400 ng/mL predicted a worse OS. Discontinuation for intolerance and no new extrahepatic lesions at the progression were associated with better outcomes. Conclusions: In a real-life Western scenario (mostly in a third-line setting), cabozantinib efficacy and safety data were comparable with those reported in its registration trial. Data regarding the prognostic factors might help in patient selection and design of clinical trials