A Formal Sociologic Study of Free Will

We make a formal sociologic study of the concept of free will. By using the language of mathematics and logic, we define what we call everlasting societies. Everlasting societies never age: persons never age, and the goods of the society are indestructible. The infinite history of an everlasting society unfolds by following deterministic and probabilistic laws that do their best to satisfy the free will of all the persons of the society. We define three possible kinds of histories for everlasting societies: primitive histories, good histories, and golden histories. In primitive histories, persons are inherently selfish, and they use their free will to obtain the personal ownerships of all the goods of the society. In good histories, persons are inherently good, and they use their free will to distribute the goods of the society. In good histories, a person is not only able to desire the personal ownership of goods, but is also able to desire that a good be owned by another person. In golden histories, free will is bound by the ethic of reciprocity, which states that "you should wish upon others as you would like others to wish upon yourself". In golden societies, the ethic of reciprocity becomes a law that partially binds free will, and that must be abided at all times. In other words, the verb "should" becomes the verb "must"

Information balance between newspapers and social networks

[EN] Competing newspapers, tend to publish the same information in a given time frame. However, each editor tends to aggregate and present the news according to certain criteria such as editorial policies, filtering strategies, readers base, etc. Thus, the proper choice and filtering of information makes one newspaper different from the other and, the proper management of such criteria, may deem the success or failure of a newspaper. From the editor’s perspective, the news selection process is a trade-off between informativeness and attractiveness, as determined by the readership. Moreover, is it possible that cultural and political inputs from social media may impact the news selection process? Political news on social networks represent nowadays a valuable informative asset that gives the possibility to correlate newspaper information with public request expressed on social networks. We believe that it is possible to develop a theory to mitigate the newspaper’s cultural identity with the public information needs collected on social media. In our work, we show how to measure the society's request for information through the analysis of public reaction to certain articles on social networks, in particular we present how studying the hashtags and articles shared can be conveyed to understand social dynamics in nowadays discussion.Mazzeo Rinaldi, F.; Russo, A.; Giuffrida, G. (2020). Information balance between newspapers and social networks. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2020.2020.11635OCS23123

Dynamics of Mount Nyiragongo lava lake inferred from thermal imaging and infrasound array

Abstract Lava lakes provide a direct observation window into processes which usually remain hidden, such as magma convection and outgassing dynamics. We here report a coupled analysis of thermal infrared footage and infrasound array recordings at Mount Nyiragongo (D. R. Congo), and derive a conceptual model of the lava lake's convective system and outgassing mechanism. We suggest that surface flow results from a horizontal pressure gradient at the surface of the lake, driving the crust from high-pressure regions where hot upwelling magma impinges the surface, to low-pressure regions where cold downwelling magma pulls away from the surface. The ascending current of this convection cell carries gas pockets, which once at the surface, are dragged across the lake into downwelling sinks. Such sinks are characterized by persistent chaotic bubble bursting (spattering), whose intensity and position are tracked from infrasound array analysis. Fluctuations of these are observed, but have not been correlated with oscillations of the lava lake level, nor with the variations of surface velocities, both recorded from infrared footage. We also report the activity of a new eruptive vent, which opened early 2016 near an inner circular fracture of the crater's third terrace. We show that the vent's activity was intermittent, alternating between explosive strombolian activity and effusive activity. The latter produced lava flows which spread on the crater's last terrace before cascading into the active lava lake. Although no significant change in the lake behavior was witnessed while the new eruptive vent was active, increased attention should be addressed as this new activity could reflect over-pressurization of the shallow magmatic system. The variety of phenomena captured by this study complements and expands observations reported at other low-viscosity lava lakes, chiefly Kilauea (Hawai'i) and Erta Ale (Ethiopia). Despite Nyiragongo's more vigorous convective regime (where multiple convective cells can operate simultaneously), we suggest that the mechanisms controlling the surface motion and outgassing are similar at all three systems, pointing to generic processes governing the dynamics of low-viscosity lava lakes

Investigating the Correlation between Transportation Social Need and Accessibility: the Case of Catania

Abstract The development of cities and transportation systems of the last few years made possible to expand the range of individuals, giving them the opportunity to locate their residence far away from the places where they carry out daily activities. The ability to make long journeys has become more and more an essential condition to access opportunities of the territory. This necessity can be connected to transportation social need, which scholars define both in terms of people requiring a public transportation service and number of trips they would make if they had minimal limitations on their mobility; accessibility refers to the ease of reaching goods, services, activities and destinations, which together are called opportunities. This research presents the application of a measure of transportation social need and accessibility for the city of Catania, in Italy. The measure of transportation social need, based on transportation and social disadvantage indicators, has been carried out with reference to Italian national statistical institute zonation of the city. A zonal accessibility measure, considering both private and public transportation and evaluating the ease of reaching desired destinations, have been calculated and an analysis of correlation among transportation social need measure and accessibility measures has been carried out in order to verify the strength of relation between them. Due to the high resolution level of the spatial analysis, manipulation of data and computation of indicators and measures was supported by a GIS approach. Three different public transport scenarios have been analyzed by performing a relative accessibility loss computation showing that improvements in public transport service lead to general improvements in relative accessibility loss

Magnetic resonance imaging in cervical spinal cord compression

In patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy MRI sometimes shows increased signal intensity zones on the T2-weighted images. It has been suggested that these findings carry prognostic significance. We studied 56 subjects with cervical spinal cord compression. Twelve patients showed an increased signal intensity (21.4%) and a prevalence of narrowing of the AP-diameter (62% vs 24%). Furthemore, in this group, there was evidence of a longer mean duration of the symptoms and, in most of the patients, of more serious clinical conditions. The importance of these predisposing factors remains, however, to be clarified since they are also present in some patients without the increased signal intensity

Le Norme EMAS-ISO nella valutazione della qualità del Servizio Idrico Integrato

This contribution proposes a theoretical model to support the environmental assessment for the organizations aiming at implementing an EMAS-ISO auditing process in the ground of the water services industry. The model tries to combine a new theory of value – based on natural, bio-genealogical and semantic surplus – with the cycle input - output - re-input characterizing namely the most critical area of the integrated waters service, the waste water treatment plants. A multidimensional pattern based on the Multi-Attribute Value Theory has been assumed as an effective operational framework connecting the contents of the treatment process, as defined by the scientific and technological tools supporting the judges of fact, and the issues of sustainability, supporting the value judgements.This contribution proposes a theoretical model to support the environmental assessment for the organizations aiming at implementing an EMAS-ISO auditing process in the ground of the water services industry. The model tries to combine a new theory of value – based on natural, bio-genealogical and semantic surplus – with the cycle input - output - re-input characterizing namely the most critical area of the integrated waters service, the waste water treatment plants. A multidimensional pattern based on the Multi-Attribute Value Theory has been assumed as an effective operational framework connecting the contents of the treatment process, as defined by the scientific and technological tools supporting the judges of fact, and the issues of sustainability, supporting the value judgements