Investigating Social Exclusion in Late Prehistoric Italy: Preliminary Results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project (PHASE 1)

This report presents the preliminary results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project, a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort which aims to investigate social exclusion, marginality and the adoption of anomalous funerary rites in late prehistoric Italy. In particular, this contribution explores the incidence and meaning of practices of ritual marginalisation and funerary deviancy in the region of Veneto between the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age period

A scalable hardware and software control apparatus for experiments with hybrid quantum systems

Modern experiments with fundamental quantum systems - like ultracold atoms, trapped ions, single photons - are managed by a control system formed by a number of input/output electronic channels governed by a computer. In hybrid quantum systems, where two or more quantum systems are combined and made to interact, establishing an efficient control system is particularly challenging due to the higher complexity, especially when each single quantum system is characterized by a different timescale. Here we present a new control apparatus specifically designed to efficiently manage hybrid quantum systems. The apparatus is formed by a network of fast communicating Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), the action of which is administrated by a software. Both hardware and software share the same tree-like structure, which ensures a full scalability of the control apparatus. In the hardware, a master board acts on a number of slave boards, each of which is equipped with an FPGA that locally drives analog and digital input/output channels and radiofrequency (RF) outputs up to 400 MHz. The software is designed to be a general platform for managing both commercial and home-made instruments in a user-friendly and intuitive Graphical User Interface (GUI). The architecture ensures that complex control protocols can be carried out, such as performing of concurrent commands loops by acting on different channels, the generation of multi-variable error functions and the implementation of self-optimization procedures. Although designed for managing experiments with hybrid quantum systems, in particular with atom-ion mixtures, this control apparatus can in principle be used in any experiment in atomic, molecular, and optical physics.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure

NCTM 2015 summer high school institute

NCTM’s 2015 High School Interactive Institute engaged teachers in learning opportunities to promote effective mathematics teaching. Through keynote speeches, interactive workshops, and facilitated task discussion groups, teachers reflected on current and best practices, participated in classroom-ready lessons, and collaborate with other educators

A multi-layer framework for personalized social tag-based applications

Recent years have seen an increasing diffusion of online communities giving their members the ability of specifying and sharing metadata concerning online resources. Such practice, also known as social or collaborative tagging, has the purpose of collecting and sharing opinions about Web resources and simplifying their retrieval. In this paper, we go one step further and show how tags can have more enhanced applications to be exploited for customizing Web content fruition. More precisely, we propose a multi-layer framework where data collected by social tagging communities are complemented with additional services. Such services provide users the ability of expressing their dis/agreement with existing tags, denoting the members they trust based on their characteristics and relationships, or specifying policies on which "quality" assessment of resources should be returned. Besides providing the formal specification of the proposed framework, we illustrate two case studies we have implemented and the experiments we have carried out in order to verify the feasibility of our approach

Diagnostic evaluation of a point-of-care test for culture and microbial susceptibility testing in canine dermatological infections in clinical practice

Background and Aim: Empirical antimicrobial therapy is frequently given in superficial bacterial folliculitis (SBF) and otitis externa (OE) in dogs, especially for the initial clinical presentation. Culture and subsequent antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) are generally limited to chronic cases with poor response to initial therapy. Several factors contribute to the failure to implement the use of AST in veterinary practice, i.e., long laboratory turnaround time or special requirements for sample shipping. Point-of-care (PoC) testing might reduce laboratory turnaround time and costs and the risk of emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens. This study evaluated the Speed Biogram\u2122 PoC test in canine SBF and OE compared with conventional methods for culture and AST. Materials and Methods: Thirty-four canine samples were analyzed: eleven from SBF, seven from bacterial OE, four from mixed OE, six from Malassezia spp. OE, and six negative controls. Sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) of the PoC test and the agreement between the PoC test and conventional methods were evaluated. Results: Se and Sp of PoC test in discriminating between healthy and unhealthy subjects were 100% (95% confidence interval [CI] 87.66-100.00) and 100% (95% CI 54.1-100.0), respectively. For bacterial identification, the k value was 0.532. Se and Sp of PoC tests for AST were 81.73% (95% CI 72.95-88.63) and 93.10% (95% CI 88.86-96.98), respectively with a total good agreement between tests (mean k=0.714), but major (8/27) and very major (19/27) errors were observed in 55% of bacterial conventional culture-positive samples. Conclusion: PoC test can identify dogs with SBF and OE, but AST is not sufficiently accurate. The lack of susceptibility testing for methicillin makes this test inappropriate for use in small animal practice

Evaluation of feline red blood cells collected with an open system and stored for 35 days as whole blood units

Introduction: The increasing access to veterinary hospital blood banks and commercial sources of feline blood products means that transfusion therapy is more widely available to veterinarians and feline stored blood products are used more often. Despite the increasing availability of feline blood collected and stored for transfusion purposes, few studies have investigated storage lesions in feline whole blood (FWB) units and no study has evaluated hematological changes in FWB units. The objective of this study was to assess changes in feline RBCs collected and stored for transfusion purposes as FWB units. Methods:A prospective, laboratory invitrostudy wasconducted. Twelve nonleukoreduced FWB units were collected with an open system using three 20-mL syringes prefilled with citrate, phos- phate, dextrose, and adenine (CPDA-1) preservative-anticoagulant solution with ratio with blood of 1:7 from anesthetized feline blood donors. Units were stored in a blood bank dedicated refrigerator and sampled every 7 days (D7, D14, D21, D28) from collection (D0) to the end of storage (35 days, D35). At each time point, the following were evaluated: (1) hematological parameters (RBC, HGB, HCT, MCV, MCH, MCHC, RDW); (2) percentage of hemolysis; (3) morphological index, scored of 0 to 4 based on echinocyte transformation of the normal discocyte; and (4) aerobic and anaerobic blood culture. Results were statistically compared to D0, with t-test or Wilcoxon test, as appropriate with statistical significance set at P < 0.01. Results: There was no significant difference in hematological parameters at any time point with respect to D0. Significant increases were found in percentage of hemolysis and morphological index starting from 21 days of storage (P = 0.0002 and P = 0.0039, respectively). Mean hemolysis percentage value was less than 1% up to 21 days of storage. All blood cultures were negative for bacterial growth. Conclusion: RBCs in FWB units collected with an open system can undergo some significant hematological changes, but these results suggest that storage for up to 21 days is safe. In vivo studies are required to establish if these changes affect the ability of stored RBCs to circulate and provide adequate oxygen delivery after transfusion

Evaluation of Feline Packed Red Blood Cell Units Obtained by Blood Sedimentation and Stored for 42 Days for Transfusion Purposes

Component therapy involves separation of whole blood (WB) into its components (packed red blood cells\u2014PRBCs\u2014and plasma), for specific replacement therapy and to reduce transfusion reactions. In cats, blood for transfusion is commonly collected using an open system and administered as WB, in part because of the challenge of preparing components from a small blood volume. Feline blood has a high erythrocyte sedimentation rate; therefore, if the syringe containing collected blood is placed upright, plasma can be removed from the red cells shortly after collection for separate storage of plasma and PRBCs. The aim of this study was to assess the characteristics of feline PRBC units obtained by blood sedimentation both at collection and after storage for 42 days. Blood was collected from fourteen feline blood donors into three 20-ml syringes pre-charged with CPDA-1:blood ratio of 1:7 using an open system. A pre-donation CBC was performed in each donor. The three syringes were allowed to sediment for approx. 1 hour at room temperature. Then plasma was aseptically expressed into plain transfer bags and RBC expressed into another transfer bag pre-charged with 10 ml of SAG-M. PRBCs units were stored in a blood-dedicated refrigerator and sampled using blood bag segments at preparation time (D0) and after 42 days storage (D42). On pre-donation blood and on PRBC units at D0 and D42 the following parameters were evaluated: I) hematological parameters (RBC, Hb, Hct, WBC, PLT); II) percentage hemolysis; III) morphological index (only for PRBC units), scored of 0 to 3 based on echinocyte transformation of the normal discocyte; IV) aerobic and anaerobic blood culture (only for PRBC units). From donor to PRBC units there was a significant increase in RBC count (mean increase +1886\ub1SD1399 \u3bcL/103), Hb concentration (+2.8\ub12.2 g/dl), Hct percentage (+8.3\ub15.5%). Significant reduction was found in PLT count (-249\ub1189 \u3bcL/103). Comparing PRBC at D0 and D42 a significant increase was found in percentage hemolysis (+1.2%), morphological index (+0.9) and a significant reduction in RBC count (-460\ub1679 \u3bcL/103), Hct percentage (-3.2\ub13.5%), WBC count (median -2589 \u3bcL/103), and PLT count (median -43 \u3bcL/10). All blood cultures were negative for bacterial growth. PRBC units obtained by sedimentation of donated blood appear to be a suitable blood component for treatment of normovolemic anemia. However, storage for 42 days, as suggested for canine and feline PRBC units, resulted in significant hematological changes that could reduce oxygen delivery after transfusion

Hematological, biochemical and microbiological evaluation of feline whole blood units collected using an open system and stored for 35 days

Despite the increasing availability of feline blood, which is collected and stored for transfusion purposes, few studies have assessed the effect of storage on feline whole blood (WB) units. The purpose of this study was to investigate selected hematologic and biochemical changes during storage of feline WB units and to determine when they occurred. Data from a quality control program for WB units was used in this study. Twelve feline WB units, collected using an open system, were sampled every 7 days from the point of collection to the end of storage at 35 days (D0, D7, D14, D21, D28, and D35). Measurements at each time point were: (1) hematologic parameters; (2) percentage hemolysis; (3) morphologic index scored at 0\u20133, based on echinocyte transformation of the erythrocytes; and (4) selected biochemical parameters. Aerobic and anaerobic culture was performed at D0 and D35. Results were compared statistically to D0 (statistical significance set at <0.01). Storage did not result in statistically significant changes in measured hematological parameters. There were statistically significant increases in percentage hemolysis and morphologic index, starting from D21 (P = 0.000 and P = 0.004, respectively). Glucose decreased significantly from D21 (P = 0.003); potassium increased significantly from D7 (P=0.001); and sodium increased significantly, starting from D28 (P = 0.009). Bacteria were not isolated. Blood in feline WB units collected using an open system underwent some significant storage changes that were time-dependent. As these changes could affect the quality and the utility of stored WB used in feline transfusion medicine, further study is required to determine their clinical importance

Multifidelity Deep Operator Networks

Operator learning for complex nonlinear operators is increasingly common in modeling physical systems. However, training machine learning methods to learn such operators requires a large amount of expensive, high-fidelity data. In this work, we present a composite Deep Operator Network (DeepONet) for learning using two datasets with different levels of fidelity, to accurately learn complex operators when sufficient high-fidelity data is not available. Additionally, we demonstrate that the presence of low-fidelity data can improve the predictions of physics-informed learning with DeepONets

The 4 K outer cryostat for the CUORE experiment: construction and quality control

The external shell of the CUORE cryostat is a large cryogen-free system designed to host the dilution refrigerator and the bolometers of the CUORE experiment in a low radioactivity environment. The three vessels that form the outer shell were produced and delivered to the Gran Sasso underground Laboratories in July 2012. In this paper, we describe the production techniques and the validation tests done at the production site in 2012.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures; to appear in NIM