CP violation in D meson decays: would it be a sign of new physics ?

Ascribing the large SU(3) violations in the Cabibbo forbidden decays of neutral D mesons to the final state interactions, one gets large strong phase differences, necessary for substantial direct CP violation. While the absolute value of the CP violating asymmetries depend on the uncertain strength of the penguin contribution, we predict an asymmetry for the decays into charged pions more than twice as large and having opposite sign with respect to that for charged kaons.Comment: 9 pages, added references, minor changes in the text, results unchanged. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

L’approche variationniste à la pratique terminologique d’entreprise

Cet article présente un projet de recherche sur la terminologie des composants structurels de la motocyclette Aprilia, axé sur une enquête de « sociolinguistique en milieu de travail » et qui a pour but de décrire le rapport réel entre terminologie et variétés de la langue, tout en considérant les études de Rita Temmerman sur la « théorie de la terminologie sociocognitive ».La présence et l’utilisation de la variété vénète en milieu de travail a été vérifié à l’aide d’un questionnaire de sociolinguistique, distribué à 10% des actifs chez Aprilia S.p.A. L’examen des données, a finalement mené à une analyse contrastive entre la « stratification linguistique en milieu de travail » et l’architecture de la langue italienne standard proposée par Berruto.This paper attempts to shed new light on the possible relationships within terminology and language varieties, considering a more realistic approach to the linguistics facts and to the communication standards of a restricted “social network” from the viewpoint of Rita Temmerman’s theory on sociocognitive approach to terminological description. A questionnaire has been distributed to 10% of the working employees of Aprilia S.p.A, a motorcycle producer, axing on the prestige and visibility of the regional variety as main language of communication of the working place. The gathering and analysis of the data gave an interesting outline which led us to a comparison between the “linguistic stratification” of the firm and the architecture of the standard Italian language

The Phillips Curve and the Italian Lira, 1861-1998

We examine Italian inflation rates and the Phillips curve with a very long-run perspective, one that covers the entire existence of the Italian lira from political unification (1861) to the entry of Italy in the European Monetary Union (end of 1998). We first study the volatility, persistence and stationarity of the Italian inflation rate over the long run and across various exchange-rate regimes that have shaped Italian monetary history. Next, we estimate alternative Phillips equations and investigate the extent to which nonlinearities, asymmetries and structural changes characterize the inflation-output trade-off in the long run. We capture the effects of structural changes and asymmetries on the estimated parameters of the inflation-output trade-off relying partly on sub-sample estimates and partly on time-varying parameters estimated with the Kalman filter. Finally, we investigate causal relationships between inflation rates and output and extend the analysis to include the US and the UK for comparison purposes. The inference is that Italy has experienced a conventional inflation-output trade-off only during times of low inflation and stable aggregate supply.inflation, Phillips curve, Italian lira

Exposure-Tolerant Imaging Solution forCultural Heritage Monitoring

This paper describes a simple and cheap solution specifically designed for monitoring the degradation of thin coatings employed for metal protection. The proposed solution employs a commercial photocamera and a frequency-domain-based approach that is capable of highlighting the surface uniformity changes due to initial corrosion. Even though the proposed solution is specifically designed to monitor the long-time performance of protective coatings employed for the restoration of silver artifacts, it can be successfully used also for assessing the conservation state of other ancient metallic works of art. The proposed solution is made tolerant to exposure changes by using a procedure for sensor nonlinearity identification and correction, does not require a precise lighting control, and employs only free open-source software, so that its overall cost is very low and can be used also by not specifically trained operator

Theoretical Studies of Homogeneous Catalysts Mimicking Nitrogenase

The conversion of molecular nitrogen to ammonia is a key biological and chemical process and represents one of the most challenging topics in chemistry and biology. In Nature the Mo-containing nitrogenase enzymes perform nitrogen 'fixation' via an iron molybdenum cofactor (FeMo-co) under ambient conditions. In contrast, industrially, the Haber-Bosch process reduces molecular nitrogen and hydrogen to ammonia with a heterogeneous iron catalyst under drastic conditions of temperature and pressure. This process accounts for the production of millions of tons of nitrogen compounds used for agricultural and industrial purposes, but the high temperature and pressure required result in a large energy loss, leading to several economic and environmental issues. During the last 40 years many attempts have been made to synthesize simple homogeneous catalysts that can activate dinitrogen under the same mild conditions of the nitrogenase enzymes. Several compounds, almost all containing transition metals, have been shown to bind and activate N(2) to various degrees. However, to date Mo(N(2))(HIPTN)(3)N with (HIPTN)(3)N= hexaisopropyl-terphenyl-triamidoamine is the only compound performing this process catalytically. In this review we describe how Density Functional Theory calculations have been of help in elucidating the reaction mechanisms of the inorganic compounds that activate or fix N(2). These studies provided important insights that rationalize and complement the experimental findings about the reaction mechanisms of known catalysts, predicting the reactivity of new potential catalysts and helping in tailoring new efficient catalytic compounds

Case ReportCeruminous otitis in native chicken breeders belonging toRobusta Lionatabreed

At the beginning of 2005, an outbreak of ceruminous otitis has been observed in a breeders flock belonging to the Robusta Lionata breed, a native chicken breed reared in a Centre for the valorisation and conservation of native poultry breeds. The disease caused a high morbidity rate (90% of birds), whereas the mortality affected only 10% of the birds. The death of the birds was preceded by clinical signs, such as worsening of the ceruminous otitis with abundant secretion of bad-smelling cerumen, lack of appetite and depression. The otitis externa, mainly bilateral, was the only evident finding at necropsy. Laboratory examinations showed only the presence of Mycoplasma synoviae, either by isolation on culture media or by PCR, on ear and choana samples. Aspergillus fumigatus was detected only in one bird. In this paper, the Authors report for the first time on an outbreak of ceruminous otitis in native chicken breeds and point out that the only pathogenic agent isolated from the birds has been Mycoplasma synoviae

Macroeconomic instability and the phillips curve in Italy

The theme of this paper is whether there was a textbook-like inflation-output tradeoff in post-WWII Italy. We estimate both standard and time-varying parameter models of the relationship between inflation and the level of real economic activity over the 1949 to 2010 period and find no evidence of a stable, significant and positive association between output and prices. We attribute this evidence primarily to a fiscally dominated monetary policy and a rigid indexation mechanism aimed at protecting wages from inflation. These two institutions contributed to the persistent inflation bias and macroeconomic instability that lasted almost until the entry of the country in the European Monetary Union

Designer Glycopeptides for Cytotoxic T Cell–based Elimination of Carcinomas

Tumors express embryonic carbohydrate antigens called tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACA). TACA-containing glycopeptides are appealing cytotoxic T cell (CTL)-based vaccines to prevent or treat cancer because the same sugar moieties are expressed in a variety of tumors, rendering a vaccination strategy applicable in a large population. Here we demonstrate that by using glycopeptides with high affinity for the major histocompatibility complex and glycosylated in a position corresponding to a critical T cell receptor (TcR) contact, it is possible to induce anti-TACA CTL in vivo. In the current study we show that designer glycopeptides containing the Thomsen-Freidenreich (TF) antigen (β-Gal-[1→3]-α-GalNAc-O-serine) are immunogenic in vivo and generate TF-specific CTL capable of recognizing a variety of tumor cells in vitro including a MUC1-expressing tumor. The fine specificity of the TF-specific CTL repertoire indicates that the TcR recognize the glycosylated amino acid residue together with TF in a conventional major histocompatibility complex class I–restricted fashion. These results have high potential for immunotherapy against a broad range of tumors

Búsqueda de patrones en la comunidad fitoplanctónica de una laguna micromareal (Laguna de Venecia): evidencias en diez años de observación

By analysing a ten-year series (1998-2007) of data on hydrochemical properties, phytoplankton abundance and species composition in the Venice Lagoon, we identified i) the average annual phytoplankton biomass cycle, mainly unimodal and fairly well tuned with the fluctuations in temperature and irradiance and (ii) the seasonal succession of the most important species, allowing us to construct a “phytoplankton calendar”. Phytoplankton biomass was significantly lower in the second half of the ten-year period (2003-2007) than in the first half (1998-2002).A través del análisis de propiedades hidroquímicas, abundancia fitoplanctónica y composición de especies, en series de diez años (1998-2007), en la laguna de Venecia, se han identificado: i) Un promedio anual del ciclo de la biomasa prevalentemente de forma unimodal y bien sintonizada con las fluctuaciones de temperatura e irradiación; ii) Una composición cualitativa del fitoplancton que nos ha permitido realizar un “calendario del fitoplancton”; iii) Un decrecimiento en los últimos 5 años (2003-2007), de la biomasa con respecto a los 5 primeros años (1998-2003)