Plasma properties from the multi-wavelength analysis of the November 1st 2003 CME/shock event

The analysis of the spectral properties and dynamic evolution of a CME/shock event observed on November 1st 2003 in white-light by the LASCO coronagraph and in the ultraviolet by the UVCS instrument operating aboard SOHO, has been performed to compute the properties of some important plasma parameters in the middle corona below about 2 solar radii. Simultaneous observations obtained with the MLSO/Mk4 white-light coronagraph, providing both the early evolution of the CME expansion in the corona and the pre-shock electron density profile along the CME front, were also used to study this event. By combining the above information with the analysis of the metric type II radio emission detected by ground-based radio spectrographs, we finally derive estimates of the values of the local Alfv\'en speed and magnetic field strength in the solar corona.Comment: In press Journal of Advanced Research, Cairo University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.

Phase structure of a generalized Nambu Jona-Lasinio model with Wilson fermions in the mean field or large NN-expansion

We analyze the vacuum structure of a generalized lattice Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with two flavors of Wilson fermions, such that its continuum action is the most general four-fermion action with 'trivial' color interactions, and having a $SU(2)_V x SU(2)_A$ symmetry in the chiral limit. The phase structure of this model in the space of the two four-fermion couplings shows, in addition to the standard Aoki phases, new phases with $!= 0$, in close analogy to similar results recently suggested by some of us for lattice QCD with two degenerate Wilson fermions. This result shows how the phase structure of an effective model for low energy QCD cannot be entirely understood from Wilson Chiral Perturbation Theory, based on the standard QCD chiral effective Lagrangian approach.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures, sent to Nuclear Physics

Critical behaviour of the O(3) nonlinear sigma model with topological term at theta=pi from numerical simulations

We investigate the critical behaviour at theta=pi of the two-dimensional O(3) nonlinear sigma model with topological term on the lattice. Our method is based on numerical simulations at imaginary values of theta, and on scaling transformations that allow a controlled analytic continuation to real values of theta. Our results are compatible with a second order phase transition, with the critical exponent of the SU(2)_1 Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten model, for sufficiently small values of the coupling.Comment: Revised version. 24 pages, 7 figure

Apoptotic gene expression in neuropathic pain

Pain initiated or caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction in the nervous system is defined as neuropathic pain. It results from direct injury to nerves in the peripheral or central nervous system and is associated with several clinical symptoms. Neuropathic pain treatment is extremely difficult, as it is a very complex disease, involving several molecular pathways. Excitatory or inhibitory pathways controlling neuropathic pain development show altered gene expression, caused by peripheral nerve injury.
This study used several experimental pain models to demonstrate the occurrence of programmed cell death in the centers controlling pain induction and maintenance, such as spinal cord and pre-frontal cortex. We combined behavioural, molecular and morphological approaches to assess the involvement of bcl-2 gene family and caspases in neuropathic pain. Chronic constriction injury (CCI) and spared nerve injury (SNI) of rodent sciatic nerve induced the appearance of pain-like behaviours, such as hyperalgesia and allodynia. An early (2-3 days post-CCI) apoptosis appeared in the spinal cord neurons as the pro-apoptotic bax gene increased (320±19%). The incidence of apoptosis appeared to be limited to the first few days following nerve injury. Subsequently, increased expression of anti-apoptotic bcl-2 family genes may inhibit further neuron loss. SNI triggered apoptotic pathway and caspases activation in pre-frontal cortex 7, 14, and 21 days post-injury. Among the time-points analyzed, RT-PCR analysis showed increased expression of the bax/bcl-2 ratio (40±2%), bid (16±2%), caspase-1 (84±3%), caspase-8 (53±6%), caspase-9 (25±6%), caspase-12 (58±2%), TNF (32±2%) genes in the cortex by 7 days post-injury. Western blot analysis showed increased active Caspase-3 protein levels in the cortex at 3, 7, 14, and 21 post-surgery. This study shows that apoptotic genes could be an useful pharmacological target in neuropathic pain controlling.
&#xa

LA MITIGAZIONE NELLA PROSA SCIENTIFICO-ACCADEMICA ITALIANA E NELLA PROSPETTIVA DELL'INSEGNAMENTO DELL'ITALIANO LS.

La presente ricerca, che si inserisce negli ambiti della pragmatica, della linguistica testuale e della linguistica applicata, analizza il fenomeno della mitigazione all’interno di un corpus di 25 articoli scientifici in italiano, con l’intento di comprendere meglio questo fenomeno pragmatico nel suo contesto di azione. Si cerca quindi di rispondere ad alcune domande riguardanti forme, funzioni e domini testuali della mitigazione. Per riuscire in ciò, si è elaborato un approccio pragmatico integrato, derivato dal modello tripartito di Caffi (2007), basato sulla nozione di scope (contenuto proposizionale, dimensione illocutiva e origine deittica dell’enunciato), e dalla lunga tradizione di studi di stampo funzionalista. Si presentano quindi i primi risultati di questa ricerca originale, sia da un punto di vista qualitativo sia qualitativo. Infine, tale ricerca investiga alcune possibili implicazioni per l’insegnamento dell’italiano LS in ambito accademico, offrendo a quanti coinvolti nell’insegnamento, sia in qualità di ricercatori che di insegnanti, alcune prime conclusioni, strumenti e risorse immediatamente utilizzabili per la progettazione di percorsi formativi volti allo sviluppo di sensibilità testuali e di genere e di abilità come quella di scrittura accademica, definibili comunicative, accademiche e transferable, , abilità cruciali per qualunque studente universitario che intenda completare con successo il proprio percorso di studi.This research, framed into the domain of pragmatics, textual linguistics and applied linguistics, aims to analyse mitigation phenomena within a 25 Italian RA’s corpus, to contribute to a better comprehension of these phenomenon in its context of action. More in details, this work attempts to answers to some questions regarding forms, functions and text domains of mitigation. In order to do so, an integrated pragmatic approach was elaborated, derived from Caffi’s tripartite model (2007), based on the notion of scope (propositional content, illocutionary dimension and deictic origin), and on the tradition of literature in a functionalist perspective. The first results of this original investigation, both qualitative and quantitative, will be presented. Furthermore, this research investigates some possible implications in the domain of Italian as FL teaching, and some potential implementations. It provides then, to those involved in teaching Italian LS in academic context, as both teacher and researcher, some first conclusions, tools and resources immediately expendable to design language formation paths, meant to develop textual and genre sensibility as well as competences and skills, like academic writing, defined communicative, academic and transferable, which are crucial for any kind of student to achieve success in their studies

Conjoint Analysis based methodologies for the ex-ante evaluation of regulatory impact

The activity of evaluation of Public Intervention, or Regulation activity, is actually considered from public administration as a strategic element of political and administrative action. This gives rise to the development of several methods for the ex-ante evaluation of the effects of normative regulations, both on citizens and enterprise activities and on organization and operation of Public Administrations. However, the proposed methodologies not taking into account the complexity and the multidimensionality of the phenomenon, often offer a partial and qualitative point of view. Here we propose several statistical methods based on the classical Conjoint Analysis model. Our aim is to measure and evaluate the sustainability and the expected benefits of regulation respect to different designed alternatives. Mainly, we propose to apply a strategy that - integrating the Conjoint Analysis with graphical factorial representations - allows getting several purposes such as to synthesize individual judgments and to underline the different evaluation preference structures expressed by several groups of judges. The developed methodologies will be applied on real data

A psychological intervention based on cognitive-behavioural therapy reduces psychopathological symptoms that indirectly influence the heart rate via cortisol in hypertensive patients: Preliminary results of a pilot study

ObjectiveThis study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) integrated with psychoeducation in a group of hypertensive patients with clinically significant psychopathological symptoms.MethodsOne hundred hypertensive patients completed the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised. Of them, 17 scored above the clinical range (cut-off = 0.75) on the Global Severity Index and were included in the study. Psychological distress was assessed again after the intervention (T1) and 6 months after the end of treatment (T2). In addition, the cortisol dosage and the heart rate (HR) measurement were collected at both T0 and T2. Then, mediation analyses were carried out to calculate whether psychopathological distress might predict HR through elevated serum cortisol levels, at both T0 and T2.ResultsThe psychological intervention (CBT integrated with psychoeducation) reduced most of the psychopathological symptoms (anxiety, depression, somatisations, obsessions and compulsions, hostility, interpersonal sensitivity and paranoid ideation) but not cortisol dosage and HR measurement. However, psychological distress indirectly predicted HR via cortisol at T0 but not at T2.ConclusionThese results suggest and encourage the replicability of data in larger sample sizes and the comparison with a control group. Nevertheless, these results highlight a need for a multidimensional assessment of disorders affecting the mental and physical spheres of patients to support their overall well-being

Embodied energy and operational energy evaluation in tall buildings according to different typologies of façade

Abstract Although recent studies demonstrate the importance of including the Embodied Energy (EE) in building analysis, only the Operational Energy (OE) is currently taken into account in building energy demand calculation method. In particular, the EE plays an important role in tall buildings evaluation, because the energy demand increases with building height. Aim of this study was to assess the Embodied Energy in evaluation of different types of tall building facade systems performances along with the Operational Energy, pointing out the importance of taking into account both these aspects. Within the research activity here presented, 8 glazed envelope typologies, in 5 different climate zones, have been evaluated

Novel perspectives in redox biology and pathophysiology of failing myocytes: modulation of the intramyocardial redox milieu for therapeutic interventions - A review article from the Working Group of Cardiac Cell Biology, Italian Society of Cardiology

The prevalence of heart failure (HF) is still increasing worldwide, with enormous human, social, and economic costs, in spite of huge efforts in understanding pathogeneticmechanisms and in developing effective therapies that have transformed this syndrome into a chronic disease. Myocardial redox imbalance is a hallmark of this syndrome, since excessive reactive oxygen and nitrogen species can behave as signaling molecules in the pathogenesis of hypertrophy and heart failure, leading to dysregulation of cellular calcium handling, of the contractile machinery, of myocardial energetics and metabolism, and of extracellular matrix deposition. Recently, following new interesting advances in understanding myocardial ROS and RNS signaling pathways, new promising therapeutical approaches with antioxidant properties are being developed, keeping in mind that scavenging ROS and RNS tout court is detrimental as well, since these molecules also play a role in physiological myocardial homeostasis