Like grandparents, like parents: Empirical evidence and psychoanalytic thinking on the transmission of parenting styles

The authors discuss the issue of intergenerational transmission of parenting from an empirical and psychoanalytic perspective. After presenting a framework to explain their conception of parenting, they describe intergenerational transmission of parenting as a key to interpreting and eventually changing parenting behaviors. Then they present (1) the empirical approach aimed at determining if there is actually a stability across generations that contributes to harsh parenting and eventually maltreatment and (2) the psyphoanalytic thinking that seeks to explain the continuity in terms of representations and clinical phenomena. The authors also discuss the relationship between the attachment and the caregiving systems and hypothesize a common base for the two systems in childhood experience. Finally, they propose the psychoanalytic perspective as a fruitful theoretical framework to integrate the evidence for the neurophysiological mediators and moderators of intergenerational transmission. Psychoanalytically informed research can provide clinically relevant insights and hypotheses to be tested

Kaon physics with the KLOE detector

In this paper we discuss the recent finalized analyses by the KLOE experiment at DA$\Phi$NE: the CPT and Lorentz invariance test with entangled $K^0 \bar{K}^0$ pairs, and the precision measurement of the branching fraction of the decay ${ K^+} \rightarrow \pi^+\pi^-\pi^+(\gamma)$. We also present the status of an ongoing analysis aiming to precisely measure the $K^{\pm}$ mass

From Waste to Resources: Sewage Sludges from the Citrus Processing Industry to Improve Soil Fertility and Performance of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)

The citrus industry produces a large number of sludges as a consequence of citrus wastewater treatment. The correct disposal of citrus sewage sludges (CSSs) has been attempted using anaerobic digestion, aerobic digestion, and lime stabilization. However, since CSSs hold nitrogen, phosphorus, and other macronutrients required by crops, in line with the circular economy principles, they could be utilized for agricultural purposes, such as organic fertilizer. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of CSSs supplied at different doses on soil fertility and lettuce performance. To this end, a pot experiment was established. The soil was amended with CSSs at three different concentrations (2.5, 5, 10 t ha(-1)). After 46 days of lettuce growth, the experiment was stopped, and soils and plants were analyzed. Soil amended with CSSs showed an increase in total organic C ranging from 7% to 11%. Additionally, available P increased but only at the highest CSS dose. The addition of CSSs affected the biochemical properties of soil, but a univocal trend related to the number of CSSs applied was not found. Microbial biomass C increased only with the highest dose of CSS applied, while the metabolic quotient (qCO(2)) decreased. Such a positive effect on soil fertility and soil microorganisms, in turn, lead to an increase in lettuce biomass. Moreover, results indicated that following CSS addition, lettuce crops adsorbed more N in leaves than in roots, whereas P, Ca, Mg, K, and Na showed an opposite pattern and increased more consistently in roots. In conclusion, amendment with CSSs enhances soil fertility by increasing, regardless of CSS dose, total organic C, and, at the highest dose, P availability and microbial biomass C. Such improvement in soil fertility, in turn, increases lettuce biomass production without affecting its quality, i.e., alteration of the (K + Na)/(Ca + Mg) ratio

Spin-1/2 Ising-Heisenberg model with the pair XYZ Heisenberg interaction and quartic Ising interactions as the exactly soluble zero-field eight-vertex model

The spin-1/2 Ising-Heisenberg model with the pair XYZ Heisenberg interaction and quartic Ising interactions is exactly solved by establishing a precise mapping relationship with the corresponding zero-field (symmetric) eight-vertex model. It is shown that the Ising-Heisenberg model with the ferromagnetic Heisenberg interaction exhibits a striking critical behavior, which manifests itself through re-entrant phase transitions as well as continuously varying critical exponents. The changes of critical exponents are in accordance with the weak universality hypothesis in spite of a peculiar singular behavior to emerge at a quantum critical point of the infinite order, which occurs at the isotropic limit of the Heisenberg interaction. On the other hand, the Ising-Heisenberg model with the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg interaction surprisingly exhibits less significant changes of both critical temperatures as well as critical exponents upon varying a strength of the exchange anisotropy in the Heisenberg interaction.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

12-months prospective Pentraxin-3 and metabolomic evaluation in multiple sclerosis patients treated with glatiramer acetate

Background: Pentraxin-3 (PTX-3) is involved in acute immunological responses and it is a pro-inflammatory protein and a novel biomarker of inflammatory diseases. It is demonstrated that PTX-3 is higher in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of aggressive Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Metabolomics, the identification of small endogenous molecules, offers a molecular profile of MS. Glatiramer acetate (GA) is a widely used treatment for (MS) but its mechanism of action is not completely defined. The aim of our study is to analyze PTX-3 and metabolomic profile in MS patients compared to controls and to investigate the effect of GA on PXT-3 and metabolic molecules during treatment in responder and not responder MS patients. Methods: 28 unrelated MS patients and 27 age-and sex-matched controls were recruited. In serum, PTX-3 levels were measured by ELISA and Metabolomic panel was evaluated trough Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). According to clinical practice patients started GA treatment; PTX-3 and metabolomic identification were performed before and during treatment. Responders to treatment were identified if no evidence of instrumental, clinical relapses and disability progression (NEDA) occurred during follow up. Results: Serum PTX-3 levels were higher in MS patients compared to matched controls (7,85 ± 2,19 vs 6,20 ± 1,63 ng/ml) (p = 0,03); metabolomic evaluation shows higher levels of lactate and lower levels of valine, tyrosine and tryptophan in MS patients compared to controls. During therapy, PTX-3 levels have been reduced statistically significant (p = 0,001) at six months and one year of treatment. After one year, of the twenty patients that completed the study, 55% were considered fully responders to treatment; in these patients the mean reduction of PTX-3 at one year was higher respect to not responders (−3,82 ± 1,24 ng/ml vs −2,32 ± 1,03 ng/ml p = 0,02) and we observed a higher reduction of lactate, tyrosine and hypoxanthine and an increase of hydroxyproline and ADP as well as of three oxidative phosphorylation markers, citrulline, ornithine and tryptophan approaching the metabolic profile of healthy subjects. Discussion and conclusions: We demonstrated a metabolomic imbalance with mitochondrial dysfunction detected by higher levels of lactate and lower levels of tryptophan, tyrosine and valine in MS patients compared to healthy controls. The reduction of PTX-3 levels and the restoring of mitochondrial function, reducing oxidative stress by GA, allows to identify responder patients. Further and larger studies are needed to understand the predictive role of PTX-3 and metabolomic pattern in the identification of responder patients to GA

The Frontier Fields Lens Modeling Comparison Project

Gravitational lensing by clusters of galaxies offers a powerful probe of their structure and mass distribution. Deriving a lens magnification map for a galaxy cluster is a classic inversion problem and many methods have been developed over the past two decades to solve it. Several research groups have developed techniques independently to map the predominantly dark matter distribution in cluster lenses. While these methods have all provided remarkably high precision mass maps, particularly with exquisite imaging data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the reconstructions themselves have never been directly compared. In this paper, we report the results of comparing various independent lens modeling techniques employed by individual research groups in the community. Here we present for the first time a detailed and robust comparison of methodologies for fidelity, accuracy and precision. For this collaborative exercise, the lens modeling community was provided simulated cluster images -- of two clusters Ares and Hera -- that mimic the depth and resolution of the ongoing HST Frontier Fields. The results of the submitted reconstructions with the un-blinded true mass profile of these two clusters are presented here. Parametric, free-form and hybrid techniques have been deployed by the participating groups and we detail the strengths and trade-offs in accuracy and systematics that arise for each methodology. We note in conclusion that lensing reconstruction methods produce reliable mass distributions that enable the use of clusters as extremely valuable astrophysical laboratories and cosmological probes.Comment: 38 pages, 25 figures, submitted to MNRAS, version with full resolution images can be found at http://pico.bo.astro.it/~massimo/papers/FFsims.pd

Detection of water at z = 0.685 towards B0218+357

We report the detection of the H_2O molecule in absorption at a redshift z = 0.68466 in front of the gravitationally lensed quasar B0218+357. We detect the fundamental transition of ortho-water at 556.93 GHz (redshifted to 330.59 GHz). The line is highly optically thick and relatively wide (15 km/s FWHM), with a profile that is similar to that of the previously detected CO(2--1) and HCO^+(2--1) optically thick absorption lines toward this quasar. From the measured level of the continuum at 330.59 GHz, which corresponds to the level expected from the power-law spectrum $S(\nu) \propto \nu^{-0.25}$ already observed at lower frequencies, we deduce that the filling factor of the H_2O absorption is large. It was already known from the high optical thickness of the CO, ^{13}CO and C^{18}O lines that the molecular clouds entirely cover one of the two lensed images of the quasar (all its continuum is absorbed); our present results indicate that the H_2O clouds are covering a comparable surface. The H_2O molecules are therefore not confined to small cores with a tiny filling factor, but are extended over parsec scales. The H_2O line has a very large optical depth, and only isotopic lines could give us the water abundance. We have also searched for the 183 GHz line in absorption, obtaining only an upper limit; this yields constraints on the excitation temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted in ApJ Letter

Measurement of secondary particle production induced by particle therapy ion beams impinging on a PMMA target

Particle therapy is a technique that uses accelerated charged ions for cancer treatment and combines a high irradiation precision with a high biological effectiveness in killing tumor cells [1]. Informations about the secondary particles emitted in the interaction of an ion beam with the patient during a treatment can be of great interest in order to monitor the dose deposition. For this purpose an experiment at the HIT (Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center) beam facility has been performed in order to measure fluxes and emission profiles of secondary particles produced in the interaction of therapeutic beams with a PMMA target. In this contribution some preliminary results about the emission profiles and the energy spectra of the detected secondaries will be presente

High-resolution tracking in a GEM-Emulsion detector

SHiP (Search for Hidden Particles) is a beam dump experiment proposed at the CERN SPS aiming at the observation of long lived particles very weakly coupled with ordinary matter mostly produced in the decay of charmed hadrons. The beam dump facility of SHiP is also a copious factory of neutrinos of all three kinds and therefore a dedicated neutrino detector is foreseen in the SHiP apparatus. The neutrino detector exploits the Emulsion Cloud Chamber technique with a modular structure, alternating walls of target units and planes of electronic detectors providing the time stamp to the event. GEM detectors are one of the possible choices for this task. This paper reports the results of the first exposure to a muon beam at CERN of a new hybrid chamber, obtained by coupling a GEM chamber and an emulsion detector. Thanks to the micrometric accuracy of the emulsion detector, the position resolution of the GEM chamber as a function of the particle inclination was evaluated in two configurations, with and without the magnetic fiel