Time-stability of a Single-crystal Diamond Detector for fast neutron beam diagnostic under alpha and neutron irradiation

Single-crystal Diamond Detectors (SDDs), due to their good charge carrier transport properties, low leakage and therefore good energy resolution, are good candidates for fast neutron measurement on pulsed spallation sources and fusion plasma experiments. Moreover, diamonds are known to be resistant to neutron irradiation. Nevertheless, measurements show transient effects during irradiation with ionizing particles, as the alpha particle calibration sources. The decrease of the detector counting rate of a counting chain and the pulse height are interpreted as due to a charge trapping inside the detector, which modifies the drift electric field. These instabilities are strongly dependent on the specific type of the interaction. Measurements have been carried out with both alpha particles in the laboratory and neutrons at the ISIS neutron spallation source. We show that these polarization effects are not permanent: the detector performances can be restored by simply inverting the detector bias high voltage. Prime Novelty Statement The measurements described in the paper were performed in order to study the polarization effect in Single-crystal Diamond Detector. This effect was observed under alpha particle and neutron irradiation. With the Transient Current Technique an interpretation of the effect is given

Treatment of eating disorders during hospitalization: presentation of a hospital intensive care program in pediatric age

Abstract AIM: The aim of this study was to present a hospital intensive care program for patients affected by a severe eating disorders, with a significant loss of weight (BMI110 bpm or inability to sustain core body temperature), abnormal laboratory data, especially electrolyte imbalance and refusal to take food and fluids. METHODS: In our study we reported 2 year follow-up of 16 patients treated with the hospital intensive care program between 2007 and 2008 in our department. RESULT: The proposed program was proved an efficient method in a critical phase of the alimentary behavior disorders. It was possible for all the patients to avoid alternative feeding techniques (enteral or parenteral) and to obtain a correct alimentation with a satisfactory improvement of clinical conditions. Eight patients (50%) fully recovered. 5 patients (31.25%) had a significant improvement reaching a BMI>18.5 and one of them had a regular menstrual cycle, too. However in this group of patients a strict modality to alimentation and concern about weight and physical appearance remain. In 3 patients (18.5%) the BMI is still low and amenorrhea persists. CONCLUSIONS: The hospital intensive care program, inspired by the cognitive-behavioral model, through a food rehabilitation and a psychotherapeutic and psychoeducational help, lets the patients and their family understand and modify the dysfunctional patterns, experimenting a right modality to approach alimentation, with a satisfactory improvement in clinical conditions

Classification of the instrument of assessment of children between 0 and 3 years of age

One of the difficulties described in epidemiological studies about psychopathology in children 0-3 years of age appears during the assessment phase. In fact, the assessment of indicators of particular difficulties in children is hampered by the rapid processes of transformation of behavior that cross all areas of child development. The aim of this article was to provide an overview as complete as possible of all instruments used in the assessment phase of children 0-3 years. The literature shows a number of tools for evaluation and diagnosis of psychopathology that have been divided into four categories: mental development tests, interviews with parents, questionnaires and rating scales, evaluation of the parent-child assessment of specific diagnostic entities. The main features of each instrument are described

A hybrid computational intelligence approach for automatic music composition

The use of computers in the production of artifacts has drawn the attention of both artists and computer scientists. Among the different art disciplines, music is one of the arts that most benefited from the use of computers. There are many works which demonstrate the great synergy between these two fields. In this paper we will focus on a specific music composition problem: the figured bass problem, in which we have to automatically generate a 4 voice piece of music, starting from an input the bass line. To solve this problem we use a hybrid strategy, in which different metaheuristics cooperate to find high quality solutions. The cooperation is controlled by means of the combination of fuzzy control and knowledge obtained through Data Mining. As will be shown in the experimental results section, this hybrid strategy is capable of finding musical solutions with an acceptable quality and never discordant which, according to experts, are sound and adhere to scholastic rule