Density fluctuations in κ\kappa-deformed inflationary universe

We study the spectrum of metric fluctuation in $\kappa$-deformed inflationary universe. We write the theory of scalar metric fluctuations in the $\kappa-$deformed Robertson-Walker space, which is represented as a non-local theory in the conventional Robertson-Walker space. One important consequence of the deformation is that the mode generation time is naturally determined by the structure of the $\kappa-$deformation. We expand the non-local action in $H^2/\kappa^2$, with $H$ being the Hubble parameter and $\kappa$ the deformation parameter, and then compute the power spectra of scalar metric fluctuations both for the cases of exponential and power law inflations up to the first order in $H^2/\kappa^2$. We show that the power spectra of the metric fluctuation have non-trivial corrections on the time dependence and on the momentum dependence compared to the commutative space results. Especially for the power law inflation case, the power spectrum for UV modes is weakly blue shifted early in the inflation and its strength decreases in time. The power spectrum of far-IR modes has cutoff proportional to $k^3$ which may explain the low CMB quadrupole moment.Comment: final revision; 19 pages, 3 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev.

The Free Particle in Deformed Special Relativity

The phase space of a classical particle in DSR contains de Sitter space as the space of momenta. We start from the standard relativistic particle in five dimensions with an extra constraint and reduce it to four dimensional DSR by imposing appropriate gauge fixing. We analyze some physical properties of the resulting theories like the equations of motion, the form of Lorentz transformations and the issue of velocity. We also address the problem of the origin and interpretation of different bases in DSR.Comment: 15 page

Noncommutative fluid dynamics in the Snyder space-time

In this paper, we construct for the first time the non-commutative fluid with the deformed Poincare invariance. To this end, the realization formalism of the noncommutative spaces is employed and the results are particularized to the Snyder space. The non-commutative fluid generalizes the fluid model in the action functional formulation to the noncommutative space. The fluid equations of motion and the conserved energy-momentum tensor are obtained.Comment: 12 pages. Version published by Phys. Rev.

Historical Photogrammetry and Terrestrial Laser Scanning for the 3d Virtual Reconstruction of Destroyed Structures: a Case Study in Italy

The current dramatic episodes of destruction of archaeological sites have again highlighted the problem of the safeguarding the threatened heritage and, if possible, recovering those damaged by all the armed conflicts of the past. The historical photogrammetry offers the possibility to recover a posteriori the geometrical and material properties of destroyed structures, reconstructing their 3D model to document, study and maintain their memory, until to support their real anastylosis. The presented work is about the 3D reconstruction of the civic tower of the little town of Sant'Alberto, near the city of Ravenna, Italy. The tower, as a symbol of resistance and pride of the town's population, was destroyed in December 1944 by German troops in retaliation, when they were forced to leave the area. A city committee has subsequently collected all the historical evidence concerning the tower, including a series of photographic images that can be used for the photogrammetric reconstruction; the images calibration and orientation have been solved using the geometric information derived by a terrestrial laser scanner survey realized in the area where the tower was originally located. Despite the scarcity and very poor quality of the available images, the conducted photogrammetric procedure has allowed a complete and qualitatively satisfying object reconstruction, also thanks to the use of geometric constraint tools offered by the chosen software. The integration between the obtained model of the old tower and the 3D TLS survey of the square made it possible to reconstruct the ancient situation of the area

Differential structure on kappa-Minkowski space, and kappa-Poincare algebra

We construct realizations of the generators of the $\kappa$-Minkowski space and $\kappa$-Poincar\'{e} algebra as formal power series in the $h$-adic extension of the Weyl algebra. The Hopf algebra structure of the $\kappa$-Poincar\'{e} algebra related to different realizations is given. We construct realizations of the exterior derivative and one-forms, and define a differential calculus on $\kappa$-Minkowski space which is compatible with the action of the Lorentz algebra. In contrast to the conventional bicovariant calculus, the space of one-forms has the same dimension as the $\kappa$-Minkowski space.Comment: 20 pages. Accepted for publication in International Journal of Modern Physics

Hyperferritinemia without iron overload in patients with bilateral cataracts: a case series

Hepatologists and internists often encounter patients with unexplained high serum ferritin concentration. After exclusion of hereditary hemochromatosis and hemosiderosis, rare disorders like hereditary hyperferritinemia cataract syndrome should be considered in the differential diagnosis. This autosomal dominant syndrome, that typically presents with juvenile bilateral cataracts, was first described in 1995 and has an increasing number of recognized molecular defects within a regulatory region of the L-ferritin gene (FTL). CASE PRESENTATION: Two patients (32 and 49-year-old Caucasian men) from our ambulatory clinic were suspected as having this syndrome and a genetic analysis was performed. In both patients, sequencing of the FTL 5' region showed previously described mutations within the iron responsive element (FTL c.33 C > A and FTL c.32G > C). CONCLUSION: Hereditary hyperferritinemia cataract syndrome should be considered in all patients with unexplained hyperferritinemia without signs of iron overload, particularly those with juvenile bilateral cataracts. Liver biopsy and phlebotomy should be avoided in this disorder

A Laboratory for the Integration of Geomatic and Geomechanical Data: The Rock Pinnacle “Campanile di Val Montanaia”

This work describes a procedure for building a high-quality 3D model of a rocky pinnacle in the Dolomites, Italy, using Structure from Motion (SfM) techniques. The pinnacle, known as “Campanile di Val Montanaia”, is challenging to survey due to its high elevation and sub-vertical cliffs. The construction of the 3D model is the first step in a multi-disciplinary approach to characterize the rock mass and understand its behavior and evolution. This paper discusses the surveying operations, which involved climbing the pinnacle to collect Ground Control Points (GCPs) and using a UAV to capture aerial imagery. The photographs were processed using SfM software to generate point clouds, mesh, and texture, which were then used for rock mass discontinuity mapping. The study compares models of different qualities and point densities to determine the optimal trade-off between processing time and accuracy in terms of discontinuity mapping. The results show that higher quality models allow for more detailed mapping of discontinuities, with some drawbacks due to noise in the case of the densest solution (e.g., increase in frequency of outliers across the point cloud). These pros and cons are also discussed in relation to the computational cost necessary to build the models. The study also examines the limitations and challenges of performing discontinuity mapping in the different models, including subjectivity in interpretation. A further element of interest is the publication of a high-quality 3D georeferenced model of the “Campanile di Val Montanaia” to be used for several potential further applications, such as stability analyses and numerical modeling

The frequency of alcoholism in patients with advanced cancer admitted to an acute palliative care unit and a home care program

Context Cancer patients with a history of alcoholism may be problematic. The frequency of alcoholism among patients with advanced cancer has never been reported in Italy or other European countries. Objectives The aim of this prospective study was to determine the frequency of alcoholism, assessed with a simple and validated instrument, among patients with advanced cancer who were referred to two different palliative care settings: an acute inpatient palliative care unit (PCU) of a comprehensive cancer center in a metropolitan area and a home care program (HCP) in a territorial district, localized in the mountains of Italy. Methods A consecutive sample of patients admitted to an inpatient PCU and to an HCP was assessed for a period of eight months. Each patient who agreed to be interviewed completed the Cut down, Annoyed, Guilty, Eye-opener (CAGE) questionnaire. Patients were then interviewed informally to gather information about their history with alcohol. Results In total, 443 consecutive patients were surveyed; data from 249 to 194 patients were collected in the PCU and HCP, respectively, in the eight-month period. The mean age was 66.4 (SD 12.7) years, and 207 were males. The mean Karnofsky level was 54.2 (SD 14.6). Eighteen patients were CAGE positive (4.06%). Males (Pearson Chi-squared, P = 0.027) and younger patients (analysis of variance test, P = 0.009) were more likely to be CAGE positive. Informal interviews revealed that 17 patients (3.83%) were alcoholics or had a history of alcoholism, and that alcoholism was strongly correlated with CAGE (Pearson Chi-squared, P < 0.0001). Conclusion Only a minority of patients were CAGE positive, with a similar frequency in the PCU and HCP settings. CAGE-positive patients were more likely to be male and younger, independent of diagnosis and performance status. CAGE was positively correlated with informal interviews for detecting alcoholism. As CAGE patients express more symptom distress, it is important to detect this problem with a simple tool that has a high sensitivity and specificity and is easy to use even in patients with advanced disease

Investigating memory prefetcher performance over parallel applications: from real to simulated

In recent years, there have been significant advances in the performance of processors, exemplified by the reduction of transistor size and the increase in the number of cores in a processor. Conversely, the memory subsystem did not advance as significantly as processors, not being able to deliver data at the required rate, and creating what is known as the memory wall [1]. An example of a technology used to mitigate the memory latency is the prefetcher, a technique that identifies access patterns from each core, creates speculative memory requests, and fetches data that can be potentially useful to the cache beforehand. In High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems, many other problems arise with parallelism. Since HPC applications are highly parallel, with many threads communicating with one another mainly through shared memory, it becomes necessary to keep data coherence in the several cache levels. Moreover, the memory interactions among different threads may also unpredictably change the data path through the memory hierarchy. When considering the memory hierarchy complexity along with prefetcher action, the behavior of the processor’s memory subsystem reaches a new level of complexity. In this work, we seek to shed light on how the prefetcher affects the processing performance of parallel HPC applications, and how accurately state-of-the-art multicore architecture simulators are simulating the execution of such applications, with and without prefetcher. We identify that an L2 cache prefetcher is more efficient in comparison with an L1 prefetcher, since avoiding excessive L3 cache accesses better contributes to performance, when comparing to accessing the L2 cache. Moreover, we show evidence that the prefetchers’ contribution to performance is limited by the memory contention that emerges when the level of parallelism increases

Spotlight on Cardiovascular Scoring Systems in Covid-19: Severity Correlations in Real-world Setting

Objectives and Methods: the current understanding of the interplay between cardiovascular (CV) risk and Covid-19 is grossly inadequate. CV risk-prediction models are used to identify and treat high risk populations and to communicate risk effectively. These tools are unexplored in Covid-19. The main objective is to evaluate the association between CV scoring systems and chest X ray (CXR) examination (in terms of severity of lung involvement) in 50 Italian Covid-19 patients. Results only the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) was applicable to all patients. The Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Score (ASCVD) was applicable to half. 62% of patients were classified as high risk according to FRS and 41% according to ASCVD. Patients who died had all a higher FRS compared to survivors. They were all hypertensive. FRS≥30 patients had a 9.7 higher probability of dying compared to patients with a lower FRS. We found a strong correlation between CXR severity and FRS and ASCVD (P &lt; 0.001). High CV risk patients had consolidations more frequently. CXR severity was significantly associated with hypertension and diabetes. 71% of hypertensive patients’ CXR and 88% of diabetic patients’ CXR had consolidations. Patients with diabetes or hypertension had 8 times greater risk of having consolidations. Conclusions: High CV risk correlates with more severe CXR pattern and death. Diabetes and hypertension are associated with more severe CXR. FRS offers more predictive utility and fits best to our cohort. These findings may have implications for clinical practice and for the identification of high-risk groups to be targeted for the vaccine precedence