299 research outputs found
Energia pulita: le diverse sfaccettature della comunicazione
Il contributo analizza il ruolo della comunicazione in
problematiche connesse con le fonti di energia, evidenziandone
le criticitĂ riguardo alle tecniche ed al contenuto
informativo. In particolare, sono considerati gli stilemi
“pulito” e “verde”, il cui impiego da parte di comunicatori
e stakeholder è spesso distorto in modo non compatibile
con un’informazione scientificamente corretta. Ne
deriva che per creare consapevolezza e capacitĂ critica
qualsiasi societĂ deve perseguire una comunicazione
obiettiva e completa secondo lo stato dell’arte delle conoscenze
scientifiche e deve rendere comprensibile ciascuna
problematica anche a chi fosse privo di basi culturali
Single-Session Attention Bias Modification Training in Victims of Work-Related Accidents
Individuals who experienced traumatic work-related accidents frequently show cognitive deficits and biased processing of trauma-relevant information, which, in turn, could increase the risk of further accidents. The attention bias modification training (ABMT) is designed to reduce hypervigilance toward and enhance attentional disengagement from threat stimuli. The aim of the present study was to assess whether it is possible to implicitly reduce the attentional bias toward trauma-related stimuli through a single session of ABMT in individuals who experienced a traumatic occupational accident. Nineteen individuals who had experienced a traumatic work-related accident and 11 workers who never experienced a work accident (control group) underwent a preliminary assessment of cognitive performance (executive functions and sustained attention) and an evaluation of the attentional bias toward accident-related pictures by means of a dot-probe task. The results showed that injured workers performed more poorly than controls in tasks of executive functions and concentration abilities. Also, injured workers showed an attentional bias toward trauma reminders (i.e., faster reaction times to probes replacing trauma-related pictures). Injured workers were then randomly allocated to a single-session of ABMT (N = 10) or to an Attention Control Condition (ACC; N = 9). After the training, the dot-probe task was administered again to assess changes in the attentional bias toward trauma-relevant pictures. Injured workers who underwent the ABMT, but not those who underwent the ACC, showed a significant reduction of the attentional bias from pre- to post-training. Overall, these results support previous findings reporting an association between traumatic occupational accidents and cognitive dysfunctions. More importantly, these preliminary findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting the effectiveness of a short ABMT in reducing the attentional bias after a traumatic workplace accident
Halo Coronal Mass Ejections during Solar Cycle 24: reconstruction of the global scenario and geoeffectiveness
In this study we present a statistical analysis of 53 fast Earth-directed
halo CMEs observed by the SOHO/LASCO instrument during the period Jan.
2009-Sep. 2015, and we use this CME sample to test the capabilities of a
Sun-to-Earth prediction scheme for CME geoeffectiveness. First, we investigate
the CME association with other solar activity features by means of
multi-instrument observations of the solar magnetic and plasma properties.
Second, using coronagraphic images to derive the CME kinematical properties at
0.1 AU, we propagate the events to 1 AU by means of the WSA-ENLIL+Cone model.
Simulation results at Earth are compared with in-situ observations at L1. By
applying the pressure balance condition at the magnetopause and a solar wind-Kp
index coupling function, we estimate the expected magnetospheric compression
and geomagnetic activity level, and compare them with global data records. The
analysis indicates that 82% of the CMEs arrived at Earth in the next 4 days.
Almost the totality of them compressed the magnetopause below geosynchronous
orbits and triggered a geomagnetic storm. Complex sunspot-rich active regions
associated with energetic flares result the most favourable configurations from
which geoeffective CMEs originate. The analysis of related SEP events shows
that 74% of the CMEs associated with major SEPs were geoeffective. Moreover,
the SEP production is enhanced in the case of fast and interacting CMEs. In
this work we present a first attempt at applying a Sun-to-Earth
geoeffectiveness prediction scheme - based on 3D simulations and solar
wind-geomagnetic activity coupling functions - to a statistical set of
potentially geoeffective halo CMEs. The results of the prediction scheme are in
good agreement with geomagnetic activity data records, although further studies
performing a fine-tuning of such scheme are needed.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Space Weather and Space
Climate (SWSC
A Terrella Device for Simulating Aurora-Like Phenomena in a Box
International audience; A Terrella device was developed and setup in Trieste in 2006 to be used as an experimental training device during practicum sessions of the Advanced International School on Space Weather at ICTP. The Terrella consisted of a vacuum chamber, where an aluminum sphere with an embedded permanent magnet bar mimics the Earth (Terrella) and its magnetic field, and a system of electrodes is set to a high potential difference to generate an electron flow (particle wind) that ionizes the residual air around the sphere. This results in aurora-like glowing patterns whose geometry is dependent on the orientation and distance of the bar magnet, so that various configurations can be experimented. This Terrella device proved to be an effective tool not only for academic but also for outreach purposes. We will briefly present both applications, focusing in particular on the latter, and on the planned use for IHY EPO activities
Somatic, but not cognitive-affective, symptoms are associated with reduced heart rate variability in individuals with dysphoria
Background: Somatic, but not cognitive-affective, symptoms of depression have been associated with reduced heart rate variability (HRV), and with poor prognosis in cardiovascular patients. However, factors concomitant with cardiovascular diseases may confound the relationship between somatic symptoms of depression and reduced HRV. Therefore, this study examined whether reduced HRV was differentially associated with cognitive-affective and somatic symptoms of depression in medically healthy individuals with and without dysphoria. Methods: Self-reported cognitive-affective and somatic symptoms as measured with the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) questionnaire and time and frequency domain parameters of HRV were collected in 62 medically healthy individuals, of whom 25 with and 37 without dysphoria. Results: Somatic, but not cognitive-affective, symptoms of depression were inversely associated with standard deviation of NN intervals (SDNN) (beta = -0.476, p .24). Conclusions: By showing that the relationship between somatic depressive symptoms and reduced HRV extends to medically healthy individuals with dysphoria, the present findings suggest that this association is independent of factors concomitant with cardiovascular diseases. The present study also suggests that individuals with somatic rather than cognitive-affective subsets of depressive symptoms may be at greater risk for developing cardiovascular diseases
Classification and Properties of Supershort Solar Radio Bursts
Characteristics of supershort structures (SSSs) occurring in the metric solar type IV radio bursts are described. The most important property of SSSs is their duration, which, at half-power, ranges from 4 to 60 ms and is thus much shorter than generally expected for the bursts in the metric range. The comparison of the distributions of SSS durations with those of the spikes confirms that these are completely different classes of bursts. Our analysis is focused on the frequency range 200-450 MHz, providing us with the one-to-one identification of individual SSSs in single-frequency records of the INAF-Trieste Astronomical Observatory (Italy) and in the high-resolution spectral data of Artemis IV (Greece). The analysis reveals a number of different bursts that are classified as simple broadband, simple narrowband, and complex SSSs. The diversity of SSSs has a resemblance to the variety of the well-known metric radio bursts characterized by a 1 s timescale
Statistical analysis of solar H-alpha flares
A statistical analysis of a large data set of H-alpha flares comprising
almost 100000 single events that occurred during the period January 1975 to
December 1999 is presented. We analyzed the flares evolution steps, i.e.
duration, rise times, decay times and event asymmetries. Moreover, these
parameters characterizing the temporal behavior of flares, as well as the
spatial distribution on the solar disk, i.e. N-S and E-W asymmetries, are
analyzed in terms of their dependency on the solar cycle. The main results are:
1) The duration, rise and decay times increase with increasing importance
class. The increase is more pronounced for the decay times than for the rise
times. The same relation is valid with regard to the brightness classes but in
a weaker manner. 2) The event asymmetry indices, which characterize the
proportion of the decay to the rise time of an event, are predominantly
positive (90%). For about 50% of the events the decay time is even more than 4
times as long as the rise time. 3) The event asymmetries increase with the
importance class. 4) The flare duration and decay times vary in phase with the
solar cycle; the rise times do not. 5) The event asymmetries do not reveal a
distinct correlation with the solar cycle. However, they drop during times of
solar minima, which can be explained by the shorter decay times found during
minimum activity. 6) There exists a significant N-S asymmetry over longer
periods, and the dominance of one hemisphere over the other can persist for
more than one cycle. 7) For certain cycles there may be evidence that the N-S
asymmetry evolves with the solar cycle, but in general this is not the case. 8)
There exists a slight but significant E-W asymmetry with a prolonged eastern
excess.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure
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