Teoria di campo conforme

In questa trattazione si introduce e si sviluppa la teoria di campo conforme. Dal principale riferimento bibliografico si è voluto estrarre ed elaborare un testo che, più che sull'esaustività della trattazione, si concentra sulle particolari proprietà della teoria date proprio dall'imposta invarianza sotto trasformazioni conformi. Partendo da una breve introduzione storica seguita dall'esposizione di alcune nozioni preliminari utili (Capitolo 1) si passa successivamente allo sviluppo della teoria in d >2 dimensioni (Capitolo 2) con particolare attenzione alla struttura di gruppo delle trasformazioni conformi e alle correnti conservate ottenute dalla presenza di tali simmetrie della teoria (Paragrafo 2.4). Inoltre particolare enfasi è data alle condizioni imposte sulle funzioni di correlazione dalle simmetrie (Paragrafo 2.5). Successivamente (Capitolo 3) si procede con lo studio della teoria conforme in due dimensioni, dove essa possiede particolari proprietà che la distinguono dal caso di background a più alte dimensioni. In tale contesto si considera l'algebra di Virasoro (Paragrafo 3.2) e si espongono brevemente i casi del bosone libero (Paragrafo 3.5) e del fermione libero (Paragrafo 3.6). Si ha infine (Capitolo 4) un'introduzione alla teoria nel caso di spazi con topologie non banali, in particolare il toro, concentrandosi sulla costruzione del background e sul gruppo modulare (Paragrafo 4.2)

Dynamic investigation on the Mirandola bell tower in post-earthquake scenarios

After the seismic events of the 20th and 29th of May 2012 in Emilia (Italy), most of the monumental and historic buildings of the area were severely damaged. In a few structures, partial collapse mechanisms were observed (e.g. façade tilting, out-of-plane overturning of panels…). This paper presents the case-study of the bell tower of the Santa Maria Maggiore cathedral, located in Mirandola (Italy). The dynamic response of the structure was evaluated through operational modal analysis using ambient vibrations, a consolidated non-destructive procedure that estimates the dynamic parameters of the bell-tower. The dynamic tests were carried out in pre-intervention and post-intervention conditions in order to understand the sensitivity of dynamic measurements to safety interventions. Furthermore, a comparative study is made with similar cases of undamaged masonry towers up to the 6th mode. Finally, an investigation on the state of connections and of the building itself is carried out via FE model updating

Legume grain-based supplements in dairy sheep diet: Effects on milk yield, composition and fatty acid profile

With the aim to find protein sources that are free of genetically modified organisms, the effects of legume grain-based concentrates, used as alternatives of a mixed concentrate feed containing soybean, were evaluated on sheep milk production. Twelve lactating ewes were divided into four groups, fed hay and, according to a 4 × 4 Latin square design, supplied with 800 g/day of a commercial mixed concentrate feed (MCF) containing maize and soybean, or the same amount of isoprotein concentrates consisting of chickpea (CH), faba bean (FB), or pea (PE) mixed with barley. The ewes ingested more of the concentrates with legume grains than the MCF (702, 702, 678 vs 587 g/day DM for CH, FB, PE and MCF; P ≤ 0.001). Compared with CH, FB and PE resulted in greater (P ≤ 0.05) milk yield (710, 718 vs 654 g/day for FB, PE and CH, respectively), and led to a greater (P ≤ 0.05) efficiency of dietary protein utilisation for milk casein synthesis (94, 97 vs 87 g casein/kg crude protein intake for FB, PE and CH, respectively), whereas MCF resulted in intermediate levels of milk yield (677 g/day) and milk casein/crude protein intake (88 g/kg). Chickpea increased the milk content of trans-vaccenic and rumenic acids in comparison with FB and PE and, similarly to MCF, increased the milk content of linoleic acid, as well as total unsaturated fatty acids (24.3, 23.9 vs 17.2, 16.8 g/100 g fatty acid methyl esters for MCF, CH, FB and PE; P ≤ 0.001), thereby improving the potential health-promoting index. Legume grains can replace soybean in diets of dairy ewes, as they do not adversely affect milk yield and composition

Effects of ewes grazing sulla or ryegrass pasture for different daily durations on forage intake, milk production and fatty acid composition of cheese

Sulla (Sulla coronarium L.) forage is valued for its positive impact on ruminant production, in part due to its moderate content of condensed tannin (CT). The duration of daily grazing is a factor affecting the feed intake and milk production of ewes. In this study, the effects of grazing sulla pasture compared with annual ryegrass, and the extension of grazing from 8 to 22 h/day, were evaluated with regard to ewe forage intake and milk production, as well as the physicochemical properties and fatty acid (FA) composition of cheese. During 42 days in the spring, 28 ewes of the Comisana breed were divided into four groups (S8, S22, R8 and R22) that grazed sulla (S) or ryegrass (R) for 8 (0800 to 1600 h) or 22 h/day, and received no feeding supplement. In six cheese-making sessions, cheeses were manufactured from the 48 h bulk milk of each group. Compared with ewes grazing ryegrass, those grazing sulla had higher dry matter (DM) intake, intake rate and milk yield, and produced milk that was lower in fat and higher in casein. Ewes grazing for 22 h spent more time eating, which reduced the intake rate, increased DM and nutrient intake and milk yield, and reduced milk fat. Due to the ability of CT to inhibit the complete ruminal biohydrogenation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), the FA composition of sulla cheese was more beneficial for consumer health compared with ryegrass cheese, having lower levels of saturated fatty acids and higher levels of PUFA and n-3 FA. The FA profile of S8 cheese was better than that of S22 cheese, as it was higher in branched-chain FA, monounsaturated FA, PUFA, rumenic acid (c9,t11-C18:2), and had a greater health-promoting index. The effect of short grazing time on sulla was attributed to major inhibition of PUFA biohydrogenating ruminal bacteria, presumably stimulated by the higher accumulation of sulla CT in the rumen, which is related to a higher intake rate over a shorter eating time. Thus, grazing sulla improved the performance of ewes, thereby increasing, especially with short grazing time, the nutritional properties of cheese fat

Targeted sequencing of BRAF by MinION in archival Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded specimens allows to discriminate between Hairy Cell Leukemia and Hair Cell Leukemia Variant

Targeted sequencing of BRAF by MinION in archival Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded specimens allows to discriminate between Hairy Cell Leukemia and Hair Cell Leukemia Varian

Innovative multifunctional materials with low environmental impact for energy saving, comfort and health of indoor environment

L’esigenza di un’elevata efficienza energetica degli edifici porta ad avere strutture isolate con limitati ricambi d’aria. Di conseguenza ci può essere un peggioramento della qualità dell’aria interna con aumento delle concentrazioni degli inquinanti aereo-dispersi e conseguenti ambienti confinati caratterizzati da una scarsa qualità dell’aria. Si spende molto tempo in ambienti confinati come uffici, residenze, scuole e altre strutture pubbliche che devono necessariamente avere un microclima sano e confortevole. Ristagni di umidità e concentrazioni elevate di inquinanti aereodispersi possono avere severe e gravi conseguenze sullo stato di salute degli occupanti degli edifici come la ben nota Sindrome da Edificio Malato (Sick Building Syndrom, SBS). Da qui nasce l’esigenza di sviluppare tecnologie che passivamente riescano a migliorate la qualità dell’aria indoor senza andare a inficiare sul conteggio energetico dell’edificio stesso. Lo scopo della ricerca è quello di sviluppare malte e/o finiture multifunzionali innovative che, senza ulteriori dispendi energetici, riescano a garantire un elevato comfort e la salubrità degli ambienti indoor. L’obiettivo sarà raggiunto impiegando nelle miscele preparate con diversi leganti (cemento, cemento fotocatalitico, calce idraulica naturale con e senza agente fotocatalitico) aggregati/filler non convenzionali con elevate capacità adsorbenti anche tramite l’utilizzo di sottoprodotti industriali. Le finiture multifunzionali potranno così adsorbire gli inquinanti aereodispersi in un reattore a micro-nano scala dove verranno rimossi, mantenendo nel tempo un’elevata efficienza. Dai risultati ottenuti si è dimostrato come le malte innovative multifunzionali, oltre a soddisfare i requisiti ordinari, sono in grado di migliorare passivamente la qualità dell’aria di ambienti confinati. In particolare le finiture garantiscono elevata traspirabilità, sono buoni tamponi igroscopici e hanno un’elevata capacità disinquinante.Recent European laws and directives are stricter in terms of energy efficiency of buildings. Constructions are currently built up more sealed and air changing is not enough. This condition leads to a greater risk of unhealthy indoor environments. Due to the changing in lifestyle, people are nowadays spending indoor mostly of their time, so, indoor air quality (IAQ) is becoming a critical issue. Mortars, plasters and finishes can have an active role to improve IAQ. This study focused on innovative and multifunctional mortars to be used as finishes, able to improve IAQ, without wasting energy. The action of different binders (cement, photocatalytic cement, natural hydraulic lime with and without photocatalytic agents) was studied as well as the effects of adsorbent materials used as unconventional aggregates/fillers. The effect of using biomass waste materials was also investigated, to the aims of sustainability. In particular, multifunctional finishes can adsorb airborne pollutants in micro-nano-scale where they will be removed ensuring enough efficiency during time. The results show that the innovative multifunctional mortars for finishes, besides fulfilling the ordinary requirements, are able to improve passively IAQ, for the health and comfort of occupants, in terms of permeability, moisture buffering ability and depolluting activity

PDGFRα up-regulation mediated by sonic hedgehog pathway activation leads to BRAF inhibitor resistance in melanoma cells with BRAF mutation

Control of BRAF(V600E) metastatic melanoma by BRAF inhibitor (BRAF-I) is limited by intrinsic and acquired resistance. Growth factor receptor up-regulation is among the mechanisms underlying BRAF-I resistance of melanoma cells. Here we demonstrate for the first time that PDGFRα up-regulation causes BRAF-I resistance. PDGFRα inhibition by PDGFRα-specific short hairpin (sh)RNA and by PDGFRα inhibitors restores and increases melanoma cells' sensitivity to BRAF-I in vitro and in vivo. This effect reflects the inhibition of ERK and AKT activation which is associated with BRAF-I resistance of melanoma cells. PDGFRα up-regulation is mediated by Sonic Hedgehog Homolog (Shh) pathway activation which is induced by BRAF-I treatment. Similarly to PDGFRα inhibition, Shh inhibition by LDE225 restores and increases melanoma cells' sensitivity to BRAF-I. These effects are mediated by PDGFRα down-regulation and by ERK and AKT inhibition. The clinical relevance of these data is indicated by the association of PDGFRα up-regulation in melanoma matched biopsies of BRAF-I +/- MEK inhibitor treated patients with shorter time to disease progression and less tumor regression. These findings suggest that monitoring patients for early PDGFRα up-regulation will facilitate the identification of those who may benefit from the treatment with BRAF-I in combination with clinically approved PDGFRα or Shh inhibitors

Functional Flow Matching

In this work, we propose Functional Flow Matching (FFM), a function-space generative model that generalizes the recently-introduced Flow Matching model to operate directly in infinite-dimensional spaces. Our approach works by first defining a path of probability measures that interpolates between a fixed Gaussian measure and the data distribution, followed by learning a vector field on the underlying space of functions that generates this path of measures. Our method does not rely on likelihoods or simulations, making it well-suited to the function space setting. We provide both a theoretical framework for building such models and an empirical evaluation of our techniques. We demonstrate through experiments on synthetic and real-world benchmarks that our proposed FFM method outperforms several recently proposed function-space generative models

Dynamic Conditional Optimal Transport through Simulation-Free Flows

We study the geometry of conditional optimal transport (COT) and prove a dynamical formulation which generalizes the Benamou-Brenier Theorem. Equipped with these tools, we propose a simulation-free flow-based method for conditional generative modeling. Our method couples an arbitrary source distribution to a specified target distribution through a triangular COT plan, and a conditional generative model is obtained by approximating the geodesic path of measures induced by this COT plan. Our theory and methods are applicable in infinite-dimensional settings, making them well suited for a wide class of Bayesian inverse problems. Empirically, we demonstrate that our method is competitive on several challenging conditional generation tasks, including an infinite-dimensional inverse problem