Cognitive fluctuations in connection to disgraphia a comparison of Alzheimer's disease with dementia Lewy bodies

Background: The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between cognitive impairment and the performance of handwritten scripts presented as “letter-writing” to a close relative by patients with dementia Lewy bodies (DLB), as fluctuations of the symptoms phase, and in a matched group of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The degree of writing disability and personal, spatial, and temporal orientation was compared in these two groups. Design and methods: Fourteen simple questions, designed in a form that could be utilized by any general practitioner in order to document the level of cognitive functioning of each patient, were presented to 30 AD patients and 26 DLB patients. The initial cognition test was designated PQ1. The patients were examined on tests of letter-writing ability. Directly after the letter-writing, the list of 14 questions presented in PQ1 was presented again in a repeated procedure that was designated PQ2. The difference between these two measures (PQ1 – PQ2) was designated D∆. This test of letter-writing ability and cognitive performance was administered over 19 days. Results: Several markedly strong relationships between dysgraphia and several measures of cognitive performance in AD patients and DLB patients were observed, but the deterioration of performance from PQ1 to PQ2 over all test days were markedly significant in AD patients and not significant in DLB patients. It is possible that in graphic expression even by patients diagnosed with moderate to relatively severe AD and DLB there remains some residual capacity for understanding and intention that may be expressed. Furthermore, the deterioration in performance and the differences noted in AD and DLB patients may be due to the different speed at which the process of the protein degradation occurs for functional modification of synapses. Conclusion: Our method can be used as part of neuropsychological tests to differentiate the diagnosis between AD and DL

Collective behavior of oscillating electric dipoles

The present work reports about the dynamics of a collection of randomly distributed, and randomly oriented, oscillators in 3D space, coupled by an interaction potential falling as $1/r^3$, where r stands for the inter-particle distance. This model schematically represents a collection of identical biomolecules, coherently vibrating at some common frequency, coupled with a $1/r^3$ potential stemming from the electrodynamic interaction between oscillating dipoles. The oscillating dipole moment of each molecule being a direct consequence of its coherent (collective) vibration. By changing the average distance among the molecules, neat and substantial changes in the power spectrum of the time variation of a collective observable are found. As the average intermolecular distance can be varied by changing the concentration of the solvated molecules, and as the collective variable investigated is proportional to the projection of the total dipole moment of the model biomolecules on a coordinate plane, we have found a prospective experimental strategy of spectroscopic kind to check whether the mentioned intermolecular electrodynamic interactions can be strong enough to be detectable, and thus to be of possible relevance to biology.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

Development of composite piezoelectric materials for tactile sensing

This thesis has dealt with the preparation and the characterization of piezoelectric 0-3 composite materials. The technological aim is to evaluate a material potentially suitable for the development of a sensitive skin for human robotics. As secondary objectives this material should be cheap (relatively) and easy processable in order to make it possibly adaptable for industrial production. For these reasons, 0-3 composites were prepared and characterized. Raw materials were selected among the most commonly used for piezoelectric applications. PVDF is the most widely used ferroelectric polymer. It was used along with two of its copolymers: PVDF-HeFP, developed to have improved flexibility but no piezoelectricity and PVDF-TrFE, developed to obtain the crystalline piezoelectric phase whatever the process. PMMA was also studied. Barium titanate submicron-powder was chosen as piezo-active filler. Composites were prepared with increasing volume percentages of fillers. Two different processing methods were explored in order to evaluate their effect on the microstructure and the piezoelectric respons

Charger-mediated energy transfer for quantum batteries: an open system approach

The energy charging of a quantum battery is analyzed in an open quantum setting, where the interaction between the battery element and the external power source is mediated by an ancilla system (the quantum charger) that acts as a controllable switch. Different implementations are analyzed putting emphasis on the interplay between coherent energy pumping mechanisms and thermalization

Mining Network Events using Traceroute Empathy

In the never-ending quest for tools that enable an ISP to smooth troubleshooting and improve awareness of network behavior, very much effort has been devoted in the collection of data by active and passive measurement at the data plane and at the control plane level. Exploitation of collected data has been mostly focused on anomaly detection and on root-cause analysis. Our objective is somewhat in the middle. We consider traceroutes collected by a network of probes and aim at introducing a practically applicable methodology to quickly spot measurements that are related to high-impact events happened in the network. Such filtering process eases further in- depth human-based analysis, for example with visual tools which are effective only when handling a limited amount of data. We introduce the empathy relation between traceroutes as the cornerstone of our formal characterization of the traceroutes related to a network event. Based on this model, we describe an algorithm that finds traceroutes related to high-impact events in an arbitrary set of measurements. Evidence of the effectiveness of our approach is given by experimental results produced on real-world data.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, extended version of Discovering High-Impact Routing Events using Traceroutes, in Proc. 20th International Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC 2015

Charger-mediated energy transfer in exactly-solvable models for quantum batteries

We present a systematic analysis and classification of several models of quantum batteries involving different combinations of two level systems and quantum harmonic oscillators. In particular, we study energy transfer processes from a given quantum system, termed charger, to another one, i.e. the proper battery. In this setting, we analyze different figures of merit, including the charging time, the maximum energy transfer, and the average charging power. The role of coupling Hamiltonians which do not preserve the number of local excitations in the charger-battery system is clarified by properly accounting them in the global energy balance of the model.Comment: 11 page

Lebanon: between aspiration of changes and the ancient regime

The Syrian refugee crisis, the 2019 riots, the 2020 Beirut port explosion, a deep institutional and financial crisis. In these last years Lebanon and Lebanese experienced extraordinary events which hugely aected both people and institutions. This report is exploring all these crisis dimensions with the aim of providing “food for thought” and contribute to the debate related to the immediate future of the country and therole that youth can eventually play. Thanks to the collaboration with Lebanese academicians and a well-structured field research performed in the country, authors have been able to present an unusual point of view with respect to some crucial issues that are affecting nowadays Lebanon: the resilience of the sectarian system, youths' aspirations for the future, new parties and movements aims and objectives and the “old regime” perspectives. This report represents a unique “document” containing unprecedent testimonies. A “document” which will be hopefully upscaled by other academicians for their future research; a first step towards the comprehension of complex phenomena that will interest Lebanon institutions and Lebanese lives in the forthcoming years. As no final answer is ready yet, it is necessary to continue to research for it and stimulate debate around urgent and critical issues. “Leaving” (Irhal) cannot be the only solution both for corrupt politicians neither for Lebanese youths