Reclaiming Narratives of Sexual Assault: An Examination of the #MeToo Movement and Social Media

Untruths depicted by American media has shaped narratives about sexual assault and negatively affected the credibility of female sexual assault victims. Since women began the viral #MeToo movement in 2017, there is a need for research about the shifting sexual assault narratives in the United States. My project examines how this movement and use of social media has allowed women to reclaim narratives about sexual assault, spanning from October 2017 to April 2023. Specifically, my project analyzes ways in which the media responded to the #MeToo movement and how female created social media videos amplify sexual assault stories. I argue that sexual assault myths have normalized sexual violence towards women and admonished women for speaking out against sexual assault. This maintains society’s patriarchal power structure. In conclusion, my project, by examining the #MeToo movement and social media sheds new light on normalized sexual assault myths in American culture

How Many Templates for GW Chirp Detection? The Minimal-Match Issue Revisited

In a recent paper dealing with maximum likelihood detection of gravitational wave chirps from coalescing binaries with unknown parameters we introduced an accurate representation of the no-signal cumulative distribution of the supremum of the whole correlator bank. This result can be used to derive a refined estimate of the number of templates yielding the best tradeoff between detector's performance (in terms of lost signals among those potentially detectable) and computational burden.Comment: submitted to Class. Quantum Grav. Typing error in eq. (4.8) fixed; figure replaced in version

Responsiveness to sensory cues using the Timed Up and Go test in patients with Parkinson's disease: a prospective cohort study.

Objective: To test the effectiveness of the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test to define responsiveness to auditory and visual cues in patients with Parkinson's disease. Methods: Consecutive patients > 50 years old were enrolled if they were classified as stage 1–3 of the Hoehn and Yahr scale; scored ≤ 45 on part III of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale; > 23 on the Mini-Mental State Examination; and were able to perform the TUG test without assistance. Within-subject analysis identified positive-responders, negative-responders and non-responders. TUG times with and without sensory cues were studied among all patients, and among responders only using the Friedman Test. Results: Twenty-two patients (16 men, 6 women), mean age 72.4 years (standard deviation (SD) 8.7 years) were included. Basal mean TUG time was 12.3 (SD 4.0). TUG times after visual cues (11.7 (SD 4.8)) were lower than in basal conditions (p = 0.006), whereas TUG times after auditory cues were not (p > 0.05). In the 16 patients who were positive-responders, mean TUG times after visual (11.0 (SD 3.1)) and auditory (11.3 (SD 3.6)) cues were lower than in basal conditions (12.5 (SD 3.8)) (p = 0.0002). Conclusion: The TUG test may be used to tailor the rehabilitation programme in patients with Parkinson's disease, identifying those who respond to visual and auditory cueing

Correlator Bank Detection of GW chirps. False-Alarm Probability, Template Density and Thresholds: Behind and Beyond the Minimal-Match Issue

The general problem of computing the false-alarm rate vs. detection-threshold relationship for a bank of correlators is addressed, in the context of maximum-likelihood detection of gravitational waves, with specific reference to chirps from coalescing binary systems. Accurate (lower-bound) approximants for the cumulative distribution of the whole-bank supremum are deduced from a class of Bonferroni-type inequalities. The asymptotic properties of the cumulative distribution are obtained, in the limit where the number of correlators goes to infinity. The validity of numerical simulations made on small-size banks is extended to banks of any size, via a gaussian-correlation inequality. The result is used to estimate the optimum template density, yielding the best tradeoff between computational cost and detection efficiency, in terms of undetected potentially observable sources at a prescribed false-alarm level, for the simplest case of Newtonian chirps.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.

NICMOS Imaging of the Host Galaxies of z ~ 2 - 3 Radio-Quiet Quasars

We have made a deep NICMOS imaging study of a sample of 5 z ~ 2 - 3 radio-quiet quasars with low absolute nuclear luminosities, and we have detected apparent host galaxies in all of these. Most of the hosts have luminosities approximately equal to present-day L*, with a range from 0.2 L* to about 4 L*. These host galaxies have magnitudes and sizes consistent with those of the Lyman break galaxies at similar redshifts and at similar rest wavelengths, but are about two magnitudes fainter than high-z powerful radio galaxies. The hosts of our high-z sample are comparable to or less luminous than the hosts of the low-z RQQs with similar nuclear absolute magnitudes. However, the high z galaxies are more compact than the hosts of the low z quasars, and probably have only 10 - 20% of the stellar mass of their low-z counterparts. Application of the M(bulge)/M(BH) relation found for present-day spheroids to the stellar masses implied for the high z host galaxies would indicate that they contain black holes with masses around 10^8 Msolar. Comparison to their nuclear magnitudes implies accretion rates that are near or at the Eddington limit. Although these high z hosts already contain supermassive black holes, the galaxies will need to grow significantly to evolve into present-day L* galaxies. These results are basically consistent with theoretical predictions for the hierarchical buildup of the galaxy host and its relation to the central supermassive black hole.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

A rare case of cerebral venous thrombosis and disseminated intravascular coagulation temporally associated to the covid-19 vaccine administration

Globally, at the time of writing (20 March 2021), 121.759.109 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported to the WHO, including 2.690.731 deaths. Globally, on 18 March 2021, a total of 364.184.603 vaccine doses have been administered. In Italy, 3.306.711 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 103.855 deaths have been reported to WHO. In Italy, on 9 March 2021, a total of 6.634.450 vaccine doses have been administered. On 15 March 2021, Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) decided to temporarily suspend the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine throughout the country as a precaution, pending the rulings of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This decision was taken in line with similar measures adopted by other European countries due to the death of vaccinated people. On 18 March 2021, EMA’s safety committee concluded its preliminary review about thromboembolic events in people vaccinated with COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca at its extraordinary meeting, confirming the benefits of the vaccine continue to outweigh the risk of side effects, however, the vaccine may be associated with very rare cases of blood clots associated with thrombocytopenia, i.e., low levels of blood platelets with or without bleeding, including rare cases of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). We report the case of a 54-year-old woman who developed disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) with multi-district thrombosis 12 days after the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine administration. A brain computed tomography (CT) scan showed multiple subacute intra-axial hemorrhages in atypical locations, including the right frontal and the temporal lobes. A plain old balloon angioplasty (POBA) of the right coronary artery was performed, without stent implantation, with restoration of distal flow, but with persistence of extensive thrombosis of the vessel. A successive thorax angio-CT added the findings of multiple contrast filling defects with multi-vessel involvement: at the level of the left upper lobe segmental branches, of left interlobar artery, of the right middle lobe segmental branches and of the right interlobar artery. A brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the same day showed the presence of an acute basilar thrombosis associated with the superior sagittal sinus thrombosis. An abdomen angio-CT showed filling defects at the level of left portal branch and at the level of right suprahepatic vein. Bilaterally, it was adrenal hemorrhage and blood in the pelvis. An evaluation of coagulation factors did not show genetic alterations so as the nasopharyngeal swab ruled out a COVID-19 infection. The patient died after 5 days of hospitalization in intensive care

Muon calibration of the ASTRI-Horn telescope: preliminary results

Astri-Horn is a Small-Sized Telescope (SST) for very-high energy gamma-ray astronomy installed in Italy at the INAF "M.C. Fracastoro" observing station (Mt. Etna, Sicily). The ASTRI-Horn telescope is characterized by a dual-mirror optical system and a curved focal surface covered by SiPM sensors managed by a innovative fast front-end electronics. Dedicated studies were performed to verify the feasibility of the calibration through muons on the relatively small size of the primary mirror (~4 m diameter), as in the case of larger Cherenkov telescopes. A number of tests were performed using simulations of the atmospheric showers with the CORSIKA package and of the telescope response with a dedicated simulator. In this contribution we present a preliminary analysis of muon events detected by ASTRI-Horn during the regular scientific data taking performed in December 2018 and March 2019. These muon events validate the results obtained with the simulations and definitively confirm the feasibility of calibrating the ASTRI-Horn SST telescope with muons.Comment: Proceedings of the 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, 24 July-1 August 201