168 research outputs found
New mechanism for the generation of primordial seeds for the cosmic magnetic fields
We discuss the inflationary production of magnetic seeds for the galactic dynamo through the photon-graviphoton mixing typical of extended models of local supersymmetry. An analisys of the allowed region in parameter space shows that such a mechanism is compatible with existing phenomenological bounds on the vector mass and on the mixing parameter, but requires a large enough mixing that seems difficult to implement naturally in the context of a minimal supersymmetric scenario
Observation angles, Fermi coordinates, and the Geodesic-Light-Cone gauge
We show that the angular directions locally measured by a static geodesic
observer in a generic cosmological background and expressed in the system of
Fermi Normal Coordinates always coincide with those expressed in the
Geodesic-Light-Cone (GLC) gauge, up to a local transformation which exploits
the residual gauge freedom of the GLC coordinates. This is not the case for
other gauges - like, for instance, the synchronous and longitudinal gauge -
commonly used in the context of observational cosmology. We also make an
explicit proposal for the GLC gauge-fixing condition that ensures a full
identification of its angles with the observational ones.Comment: 14 pages, version accepted for publication on JCA
Stringy black-hole gas in -corrected dilaton gravity
We discuss the properties of the gas of primordial `stringy' black holes
possibly formed in the high-curvature phase preceding the bouncing transition
to the phase of standard cosmological evolution. We show that the regime
dominated by such a string-hole gas can be consistently described by explicit
solutions of the string effective action including first-order
corrections. We present a phase space analysis of the stability of such
solutions comparing the results obtained from different actions and including
the possibility of -symmetric configurations.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures. Replaced to match published versio
Low-energy quantum string cosmology
We introduce a Wheeler-De Witt approach to quantum cosmology based on the
low-energy string effective action, with an effective dilaton potential
included to account for non-perturbative effects and, possibly, higher-order
corrections. We classify, in particular, four different classes of scattering
processes in minisuperspace, and discuss their relevance for the solution of
the graceful exit problem.Comment: Extended version to appear in the Review section of Int. J. Theor.
Phys. A 13 (1998). The new permanent address is added. An updated collection
of papers on the pre-big bang scenario is available at
http://www.to.infn.it/~gasperi
Prognostic Factors of Renal Involvement in Systemic Sclerosis
Background/Aims: Renal involvement is common in systemic sclerosis (SSc), including asymptomatic reduction of glomerular filtration rate (GFR), increased renal resistance indices, scleroderma renal crisis (SRC) and ANCA-associated vasculitis. The aim was to evaluate type and evolution of renal involvement for a period of five years. Methods: 121 SSc patients (100 F, 21 M) with mean age of 54.9 ± 13.8, disease duration of 9 ± 6 years, of which 62 had a diffused form and 59 limited form were enrolled. All patients were screened annually for renal function by laboratory examination, ultrasound and color Doppler ultrasound of renal arteries. Results: Over the five-year observation period, 6 SRC (3 M, 3 F) occurred, four of which required dialysis. One patient developed ANCA-related proliferative glomerulonephritis and the other one acute tubular necrosis. The remaining 113 patients had a preserved renal function (serum creatinine 0.75 ± 0.24 mg/dl, GFR 93.8 ± 20 ml/min, 24h proteinuria 0.20 ± 0.15 g). Doppler indices of intrarenal arterial stiffness increased with progression of capillaroscopic damage and with presence of digital ulcers. A negative correlation was observed between estimated GFR and pulsatile index (p< 0,05, r=-0.198), resistive index(p< 0,01, r=0.267), S/D ratio (p< 0,01, r=-0.237). Conclusion: In SSc patients, renal function was normal for 4.1 years despite the presence of increased intrarenal arterial stiffness. SRC was observed in 4.9% of SSc patients. In SSc patients, a periodic follow-up based on clinical and laboratory evaluation, colorDoppler ultrasound and, in some cases, renal biopsy is required to evaluate renal involvement
Adjunctive treatment and BoNT-A for post-stroke spasticity: are we really focusing on the patient-centered goals?
[no abstract available
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with neurological disorders: an urgent need to enhance the health care system's preparedness
The major ethical issue posed by the COVID 19 pandemic are discussed with special reference to the impact on acute and chronic neurological disorder
On Exotic Solutions of the Atmospheric Neutrino Problem
The measurements of the fluxes of atmospheric neutrinos give evidence for the
disappearance of muon neutrinos. The determination of the dependence of the
disappearance probability on the neutrino energy and trajectory allows in
principle to establish unambiguosly the existence of neutrino oscillations.
Alternative mechanisms for the disappearance of the neutrinos have been
proposed, but do not provide a viable description of the data, if one includes
both events where the neutrinos interact in the detector and -induced
upward going muons. The proposed mechanisms differ in the energy dependence of
the disappearance probability and the upward going muon data that are produced
by high energy neutrinos give a crucial constraint.Comment: LaTex, 18 pages, 6 figure
Intraspecific variability of leaf form and function across habitat types
: Trait-based ecology has already revealed main independent axes of trait variation defining trait spaces that summarize plant adaptive strategies, but often ignoring intraspecific trait variability (ITV). By using empirical ITV-level data for two independent dimensions of leaf form and function and 167 species across five habitat types (coastal dunes, forests, grasslands, heathlands, wetlands) in the Italian peninsula, we found that ITV: (i) rotated the axes of trait variation that define the trait space; (ii) increased the variance explained by these axes and (iii) affected the functional structure of the target trait space. However, the magnitude of these effects was rather small and depended on the trait and habitat type. Our results reinforce the idea that ITV is context-dependent, calling for careful extrapolations of ITV patterns across traits and spatial scales. Importantly, our study provides a framework that can be used to start integrating ITV into trait space analyses
Incentivizing the Dynamic Workforce: Learning Contracts in the Gig-Economy
In principal-agent models, a principal offers a contract to an agent to
perform a certain task. The agent exerts a level of effort that maximizes her
utility. The principal is oblivious to the agent's chosen level of effort, and
conditions her wage only on possible outcomes. In this work, we consider a
model in which the principal is unaware of the agent's utility and action
space. She sequentially offers contracts to identical agents, and observes the
resulting outcomes. We present an algorithm for learning the optimal contract
under mild assumptions. We bound the number of samples needed for the principal
obtain a contract that is within of her optimal net profit for every
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