Italian cinema and the contested memories of fascism: Notes towards a historical reconsideration

Questo articolo analizza la rappresentazione del periodo fascista nella cinematografia italiana e dimostra la necessità di una sua riconsiderazione in chiave storica. Il pezzo parte da recenti film cosiddetti revisionisti e li pone nel contesto dell’uso politico del film storico nell’Italia del dopoguerra. Interrogando i punti di contatto di rappresentazioni del ventennio di opposta matrice ideologica, e in particolare il comune debito verso il mito degli italiani brava gente, l’articolo sostiene la necessità di superare un dibattito incentrato sullo sterile dualismo tra ortodossia e revisionismo per raggiungere una più completa visione delle memorie del periodo fascista e della loro trasmissione attraverso il mezzo cinematografico

Rapid decline of fasting glucose in HCV diabetic patients treated with direct-acting antiviral agents

Association between HCV infection and diabetes has been widely postulated. Little is known about the impact of direct acting antiviral agents (DAAs) on glycemic control. Aim of our study was to evaluate the glycemic control modifications in a case series of HCV+ diabetic population receiving DAAs. We retrospectively evaluated 149 HCV+ patients in two different institutions affiliated to the Sapienza University: Policlinico Umberto I of Rome and Ospedale Santa Maria Goretti of Latina. We were able to identify 29 patients with T2DM (19% of total population) who were receiving different IFN-free regimens. During-treatment fasting glucose values were available for 21 patients and analysis showed a statistically significant reduction (p=0,007), the reduction mean value was -52,86 mg/dl. An A1C value during treatment (week 4 or week 8 or week 12) was available for 10 patients and the analysis showed a statistically significant reduction (p=0,021) with a reduction mean value of -1,95%. 6 patients (23%) needed to reduce hypoglycemic drugs, 8 of 10 patients showed reduction of A1C, 14 of 21 patients (67%) showed reduced FG during treatment. FG and A1C reductions values were independent from which DAA was present in the regimen, HCV genotype, BMI and HIV status. In order to avoid hypoglycemic events, diabetic patients undergoing DAAs should be closely monitorized for reduction of hypoglycemic drugs. Furthermore, diabetes could be considered, in our opinion, as an element to prioritize treatment in those patients with no apparent liver disease

Improvement of output beam quality in broad area lasers with off-axis feedback

We report a method to improve the beam quality of broad area lasers by using a V-shaped external cavity formed by two off-axis feedback mirrors that allow to select a single transverse mode with the intensity modulated in the transverse direction. We find that in the case when one of the two feedback mirrors is absent a spontaneous formation of self-induced transverse population grating leading to a reduction of the lasing threshold is observed. Most favorable conditions for stabilization of single transverse supermode and creation of a high power and high brightness plane wave traveling in the extended cavity are obtained for equal re ectivities of the two external reflectors

Feedback-controlled transport in an interacting colloidal system

Based on dynamical density functional theory (DDFT) we consider a non-equilibrium system of interacting colloidal particles driven by a constant tilting force through a periodic, symmetric "washboard" potential. We demonstrate that, despite of pronounced spatio-temporal correlations, the particle current can be reversed by adding suitable feedback control terms to the DDFT equation of motion. We explore two distinct control protocols with time delay, focussing on either the particle positions or the density profile. Our study shows that the DDFT is an appropriate framework to implement time-delayed feedback control strategies widely used in other fields of nonlinear physicsComment: 6 pages, 5 figure

On the stability of periodic orbits in delay equations with large delay

We prove a necessary and sufficient criterion for the exponential stability of periodic solutions of delay differential equations with large delay. We show that for sufficiently large delay the Floquet spectrum near criticality is characterized by a set of curves, which we call asymptotic continuous spectrum, that is independent on the delay.Comment: postprint versio

Directional Freeze-Casting : A Bioinspired Method to Assemble Multifunctional Aligned Porous Structures for Advanced Applications

Herein, the potential of directional freeze-casting techniques as a very generic, green, and straightforward approach for the processing of various functional porous materials is introduced. These materials include 3D monoliths, films, fibers, and microspheres/beads, which are obtained by the assembly of network building blocks originated from cryoassembly of the various aqueous-based systems. The process simply relies on 1) directional freezing of the slurry through contact with a cold surface, 2) maintaining the slurry at the frozen state for a particular time with controlling the freezing parameters and directions, and 3) sublimation of the created ice crystal templates inside the developed structure to translate the ice growth pattern to final porous structure. The materials developed with such a cryogenic process contain a highly complex porous structure, e.g., a hierarchical and well-aligned microstructure in different levels, which renders a high control over the physicochemical and mechanical functionalities. Due to the versatility and controllability of this technique, the process can also be extended for the mimicking of the structures found in natural materials to the bulk materials to assemble bioinspired porous composites with many useful mechanical and physical features. The aim, herein, is to give a brief overview of the recent advances in developing anisotropic porous inorganic, organic, hybrid, and carbonaceous materials with a particular emphasis on materials with biomimicking microstructure using directional ice templating approach and to highlight their recent breakthrough for different high-performance applications.Peer reviewe

Modelling the Recoherence of Mesoscopic Superpositions in Dissipative Environments

A model is presented to describe the recently proposed experiment (J. Raimond, M. Brune and S. Haroche Phys. Rev. Lett {\bf 79}, 1964 (1997)) where a mesoscopic superposition of radiation states is prepared in a high-Q cavity which is coupled to a similar resonator. The dynamical coherence loss of such state in the absence of dissipation is reversible and can in principle be observed. We show how this picture is modified due to the presence of the environmental couplings. Analytical expressions for the experimental conditional probabilities and the linear entropy are given. We conclude that the phenomenon can still be observed provided the ratio between the damping constant and the inter-cavities coupling does not exceed about a few percent. This observation is favored for superpositions of states with large overlap.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Stripe-array diode-laser in an off-axis external cavity: Theory and experiment

Stripe-array diode lasers naturally operate in an anti-phase supermode. This produces a sharp double lobe far field at angles \$\pm \alpha\$ depending on the period of the array. In this paper a 40 emitter gain guided stripe-array laterally coupled by off-axis filtered feedback is investigated experimentally and numerically. We predict theoretically and confirm experimentally that at doubled feedback angle \$2 \alpha\$ a stable higher order supermode exists with twice the number of emitters per array period. The theoretical model is based on time domain traveling wave equations for optical fields coupled to the carrier density equation taking into account diffusion of carriers. Feedback from the external reflector is modeled using Fresnel integration

Impact of HCV Eradication on Lipid Metabolism in HIV/HCV Coinfected Patients: Data from ICONA and HepaICONA Foundation Cohort Study

Objectives: HCV shows complex interactions with lipid metabolism. Our aim was to examine total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) changes in HIV/HCV coinfected patients, after achieving sustained virological response (SVR), according to different HCV genotypes and specific antiretroviral use. Methods: HIV/HCV coinfected patients, enrolled in the ICONA and HepaICONA cohorts, who achieved DAA-driven SVR were included. Paired t-tests were used to examine whether the pre- and post-SVR laboratory value variations were significantly different from zero. ANCOVA regression models were employed to estimate the causal effect of SVR and of PI/r use on lipid changes. The interaction between the effect of eradication and HCV genotype was formally tested. Results: six hundred and ninety-nine HIV/HCV coinfected patients were enrolled. After HCV eradication, a significant improvement in liver function occurred, with a significant decrease in AST, ALT, GGT, and total plasmatic bilirubin. TC and LDL-C significantly increased by 21.4 mg/dL and 22.4 mg/dL, respectively (p < 0.001), after SVR, whereas there was no evidence for a change in HDL-C (p = 0.45) and triglycerides (p = 0.49). Notably, the TC and LDL-C increase was higher for participants who were receiving darunavir/ritonavir, and the TC showed a more pronounced increase among HCV genotype 3 patients (interaction-p value = 0.002). Conclusions: complex and rapid changes in TC and LDL-C levels, modulated by HCV genotype and PI/r-based ART combinations, occurred in HIV/HCV coinfected patients after SVR. Further studies are needed to evaluate the clinical impact of these changes on the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease

Intrinsic Decoherence Dynamics in Smooth Hamiltonian Systems: Quantum-classical Correspondence

A direct classical analog of the quantum dynamics of intrinsic decoherence in Hamiltonian systems, characterized by the time dependence of the linear entropy of the reduced density operator, is introduced. The similarities and differences between the classical and quantum decoherence dynamics of an initial quantum state are exposed using both analytical and computational results. In particular, the classicality of early-time intrinsic decoherence dynamics is explored analytically using a second-order perturbative treatment, and an interesting connection between decoherence rates and the stability nature of classical trajectories is revealed in a simple approximate classical theory of intrinsic decoherence dynamics. The results offer new insights into decoherence, dynamics of quantum entanglement, and quantum chaos.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Physical Review