Sars‐cov‐2 pandemic: Not the first, not the last

The common trait among the betacoronaviruses that emerged during the past two decades (the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus—SARS‐CoV, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus—MERS‐CoV, and the recent SARS coronavirus 2—SARS‐CoV‐2) is their probable animal origin, all deriving from viruses present in bat species. Bats have arisen the attention of the scientific community as reservoir of emerging viruses, given their wide geographical distribution, their biological diversity (around 1,400 species, 21 different families and over 200 genera), and their peculiar ecological and physiological characteristics which seem to facilitate them in harbouring a high viral diversity. Several human activities may enable the viral spill‐over from bats to humans, such as deforestation, land‐use changes, increased livestock grazing or intensive production of vegetal cultures. In addition, the globalization of trade and high global human mobility allow these viruses to be disseminated in few hours in many parts of the World. In order to avoid the emergence of new pandemic threats in the future we need to substantially change our global models of social and economic development, posing the conservation of biodiversity and the preservation of natural ecosystems as a pillar for the protection of global human health

Large adiabatic temperature and magnetic entropy changes in EuTiO3

We have investigated the magnetocaloric effect in single and polycrystalline samples of quantum paraelectric EuTiO3 by magnetization and heat capacity measurements. Single crystalline EuTiO3 shows antiferromagnetic ordering due to Eu2+ magnetic moments below TN = 5.6 K. This compound shows a giant magnetocaloric effect around its Neel temperature. The isothermal magnetic entropy change is 49 Jkg-1K-1, the adiabatic temperature change is 21 K and the refrigeration capacity is 500 JKg-1 for a field change of 7 T at TN. The single crystal and polycrystalline samples show similar values of the magnetic entropy change and adiabatic temperature changes. The large magnetocaloric effect is due to suppression of the spin entropy associated with localized 4f moment of Eu2+ ions. The giant magnetocaloric effect together with negligible hysteresis, suggest that EuTiO3 could be a potential material for magnetic refrigeration below 20 K.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Asymmetries in extraction from nominal copular sentences: A challenging case study for NLP tools

In this paper we discuss two types of nominal copular sentences (Canonical and Inverse, Moro 1997) and we demonstrate how the peculiarities of these two configurations are hardly considered by standard NLP tools that are currently publicly available. Here we show that example-based MT tools (e.g. Google Translate) as well as other NLP tools (UDpipe, LinguA, Stanford Parser, and Google Cloud AI API) fail in capturing the critical distinctions between the two structures in the end producing both wrong analyses and, possibly as a consequence of a non-coherent (or missing) structural analysis, incorrect translations in the case of MT tools. To support the proposed analysis, we present also an empirical study showing that native speakers are indeed sensitive to the critical distinctions. This poses a sharp challenge for NLP tools that aim at being cognitively plausible or at least descriptively adequate (Chowdhury & Zamparelli 2018)

Post-test simulations for the NACIE-UP benchmark by STH codes

This paper illustrates the results obtained in the last phase of the NACIE-UP benchmark activity foreseen inside the EU SESAME Project. The purpose of this research activity, performed by system thermal–hydraulic (STH) codes, is finalized to the improvement, development and validation of existing STH codes for Heavy Liquid Metal (HLM) systems. All the participants improved their modelling of the NACIE-UP facility, respect to the initial blind simulation phase, adopting the actual experimental boundary conditions and reducing as much as possible sources of uncertainty in their numerical model. Four different STH codes were employed by the participants to the benchmark to model the NACIE-UP facility, namely: CATHARE for ENEA, ATHLET for GRS, RELAP5-3D© for the “Sapienza” University of Rome and RELAP5/Mod3.3(modified) for the University of Pisa. Three reference tests foreseen in the NACIE-UP benchmark and carried out at ENEA Brasimone Research Centre were analysed from four participants. The data from the post-test analyses, performed independently by the participant using different STH codes, were compared together and with the available experimental results and critically discussed

Spaces of Memory

In the last decade, museums, memorials and monuments have become the battlefield for competing and conflicting visions of the past and the hegemonic or counter memories of the so-called “difficult heritage” or “traumatic heritage”. Far from being mere spaces of musealization that freeze and fix dominant narratives of the past, spaces of memory are increasingly turning into sites of negotiations and reconfigurations of meaning in which social and political identities are debated, strengthened, or weakened in reference to the traumatic experiences of the past which they “represent”. Yet, what does it mean to spatially represent a (traumatic) memory, and what is a space of memory? In expanding and, simultaneously, problematizing Pierre Nora’s (Nora 1996) category of lieu de mémoire, the way we think of spaces of memory aims at an in-depth examination of the peculiar yet specific ways of re-thinking the nexus between space and memory: how do we elaborate, activate, and make visible spaces for memory? This question points to the dynamic construction that underlines the production and connection of spatiality and memory, as well as to the coexistence of a plurality of meanings and experiences that characterize spaces of memory