Survival Egoism: We are, They will be

During the last century, the new, exciting field of Artificial Intelligence has risen. With its promises, fears for the uncertain future development of this area started to rise. Is it going to be sentient? Is it going to be smarter than us? Is it going to "understand" our uselessness? Is it going to decide that we are no more fundamental? And consequently decide to end our species? These and more questions emerged, nourished by the apprehension of the possible dangers that we would need to face. A number of possible solutions were proposed, to try to limit these yet-to-exist new beings. But none of them got universally accepted, thus leaving this primordial fright unscathed. In this paper a novel point of view is considered where, instead of limiting and preventing the possible worst outcomes, an analysis of the human psyche is performed. This work of introspection grants us the great power of copying: once we understand how our psyche is divided - or "stratified" - and how we can, socially speaking, live together and coexist, we are able to try and replicate this abstract structure inside the "mind" of an hypothetical new artificial being. Using - and possibly improving - this set of abstract mental tools and intrinsic barriers for the creation of a new being should, hypothetically, remove the chance - and the fear - of a future repercussion from its original root

Assessment of seasonal and annual rainfall trend in Calabria (southern Italy) with the ITA method

Abstract In this paper, an investigation on the temporal variability of seasonal and annual rainfall in the Calabria region (southern Italy) was carried out using a homogeneous and gap-filled monthly rainfall dataset of 129 rain gauges in the period 1951–2006. In particular, possible trends have been assessed by means of the Innovative Trend Analysis (ITA) technique, which allows the identification of a trend in the low, medium and high values of a series. Moreover, the results obtained with the ITA have been compared with the ones obtained with the Mann–Kendall test. These analyses have been performed in five rainfall zones (RZs) of the study area, characterized by different climatic conditions. As a result, both the methods evidenced a negative trend of the annual rainfall in the entire study area. On a seasonal scale, this negative tendency has been confirmed in autumn and winter although with some differences among the several RZs

Progettazione e sviluppo di una libreria eseguibile per l'ottimizzazione del recupero termico nei treni di scambio di un impianto di raffinazione petrolifera

La tesi proposta riguarda lo studio e la risoluzione di alcuni aspetti inerenti al miglioramento di un sistema di controllo avanzato operante nella Raffineria di Livorno ENI. L'obbiettivo di questo lavoro consiste nella realizzazione di una libreria (DLL) ATL COM utilizzabile da un server allo scopo di determinare in tempo reale (grazie all'acquisizione dei dati di campo) la distribuzione ottimale di varie portate di fluidi, frazionabili su diversi treni di scambio disposti in parallelo, al fine di ottenere il massimo recupero termico rispettando determinati vincoli imposti. I treni sono asserviti a un determinato processo di raffinazione, ovvero la distillazione di basi lubrificanti in una colonna tipo vacuum appartenente al ciclo di produzione del complesso industriale. Il sistema potrà essere applicato anche ad altri impianti della Raffineria dove presenti stazioni di scambio termico con caratteristiche affini. Il lavoro è stato svolto in collaborazione con il comparto di ricerca interno alla raffineria, nell'ambito di uno stage formativo. Nella realizzazione si è cercato di rispettare il più possibile tutte le esigenze sia teoriche che pratiche disposte dall'ente con cui vi è stata la collaborazione

ZFP36 expression impairs glioblastoma cell lines viability and invasiveness by targeting multiple signal transduction pathways.

RNA binding proteins belonging to the TIS11/TTP gene family regulate the stability of multiple targets. Their inactivation or deregulated expression has recently been related to cancer, and it has been suggested that they are capable of displaying tumor suppressor activities. Here we describe three new targets of ZFP36 (PIM-1, PIM-3 and XIAP) and show by different approaches that its ectopic expression is capable of impairing glioblastoma cell lines viability and invasiveness by interfering with different transduction pathways. Moreover, we provide evidence that compounds capable of inducing the expression of TIS11/TTP genes determine a comparable biological effect on the same cell contexts

Trends in the Daily Precipitation Categories of Calabria (Southern Italy)

Abstract This study presents an analysis of daily rainfall categories over a region of southern Italy using a set of daily homogenous precipitation series for the period 1916–2006. Six daily rainfall categories have been considered: Light, 0–4 mm/day; Light-Moderate, 4–16 mm/day; Moderate-Heavy, 16–32 mm/day; Heavy, 32–64 mm/day; Heavy-Torrential, 64–128 mm/day; Torrential, 128-up mm/day. Results showed that Light-Moderate, Moderate-Heavy and Heavy rainfall are the main contributors to the total annual rainfall. Moreover, a trend analysis through the Mann-Kendall test showed a decreasing trend of the higher categories and an increasing trend of the weaker categories

Ars Informatica

Dalla sua nascita, l’informatica è considerabile come una disciplina apolide. Le sue caratteristiche la rendono una materia che non rientra totalmente in nessuno dei domini tradizionali ufficialmente riconosciuti. Svariate discussioni si sono sollevate nel corso della sua breve storia, affermando come questa facesse integralmente parte a questo o quel dominio. Eppure nessuno è riuscito finora a convincere il mondo accademico dell’assoluta associazione dell’informatica ad una di esse. L’unico punto di apparente concordo riguarda l’affermazione della non appartenenza dell’informatica al dominio dell’arte. L’obbiettivo di questo articolo è di confutare tale concezione. Nelle prossime pagine verrà chiarificato come, essendo una disciplina nuova e originale, risulta fondamentalmente sbagliata la sua classificazione unica ed univoca entro i margini di un certo dominio. Infatti risulta molto più corretto identificare la materia come appartenente a più ambiti diversi e, apparentemente, contrastanti

Pregnancy vaccination predictive factors and uptake profiles among Italian women: A cross-sectional survey study on a large population

Objectives: To assess influenza and Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccine coverage during pregnancy, explore key socioeconomic and maternity pathway-related predictors of vaccination, and detect specific patterns of vaccination uptake. Methods: The authors cross-sectionally analyzed self-reported data obtained from the systematic survey on the maternity pathways of Tuscany. They selected all pregnant women that completed from March 2019 to June 2022 the third-trimester questionnaire (n = 25 160), which included two dichotomous items on influenza and Tdap vaccination, as well as socioeconomic and pathway-related questions. Multilevel logistic models were performed to assess vaccination predictors and cluster analysis to identify vaccination patterns. Results: Vaccination coverage was higher for pertussis (56.5%) than for influenza (18.9%). The main predictors of vaccination were high socioeconomic status, attending private gynecologists, and receiving vaccine information. Three clusters were identified: cluster 1 included women receiving both Tdap and influenza vaccines; cluster 2 included women receiving no vaccinations; and cluster 3 included women receiving only the pertussis vaccine. Although women from cluster 3 were of middle to low education status, vaccine information was the main adherence determinant also in this group. Conclusions: Health workers and policymakers should focus on groups of pregnant women less prone to vaccination to promote vaccination information and encourage wider uptake and coverage

Driving time drives the hospital choice: choice models for pelvic organ prolapse surgery in Italy

Objective: The Italian healthcare jurisdiction promotes patient mobility, which is a major determinant of practice variation, thus being related to the equity of access to health services. We aimed to explore how travel times, waiting times, and other efficiency- and quality-related hospital attributes influenced the hospital choice of women needing pelvic organ prolapse (POP) surgery in Tuscany, Italy. Methods: We obtained the study population from Hospital Discharge Records. We duplicated individual observations (n = 2533) for the number of Tuscan hospitals that provided more than 30 POP interventions from 2017 to 2019 (n = 22) and merged them with the hospitals' list. We generated the dichotomous variable "hospital choice" assuming the value one when hospitals where patients underwent surgery coincided with one of the 22 hospitals. We performed mixed logit models to explore between-hospital patient choice, gradually adding the women's features as interactions. Results: Patient choice was influenced by travel more than waiting times. A general preference for hospitals delivering higher volumes of interventions emerged. Interaction analyses showed that poorly educated women were less likely to choose distant hospitals and hospitals providing greater volumes of interventions compared to their counterpart. Women with multiple comorbidities more frequently chose hospitals with shorter average length of stay. Conclusion: Travel times were the main determinants of hospital choice. Other quality- and efficiency-related hospital attributes influenced hospital choice as well. However, the effect depended on the socioeconomic and clinical background of women. Managers and policymakers should consider these findings to understand how women behave in choosing providers and thus mitigate equity gaps