A Tentative Description of Z_c,b States in Terms of Metastable Feshbach Resonances

We attempt a description of the recently discovered Z_{c,b} states in terms of Feshbach resonances arising from the interaction between the `closed' subspace of hadrocharmonium levels and the `open' one of open-charm/beauty thresholds. We show how the neutrality of the X(3872) might be understood in this scheme and provide a preliminary explanation of the pattern of the measured total widths of X,Z_{c,b}.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of The 6th International Workshop on Charm Physics (CHARM 2013

Doubly Charmed Tetraquarks in B_c and Xi_bc Decays

The phenomenology of the so-called X, Y and Z hadronic resonances is hard to reconcile with standard charmonium or bottomonium interpretations. It has been suggested that some of these new hadrons can possibly be described as tightly bound tetraquark states and/or as loosely bound two-meson molecules. In the present paper we focus on the hypothetical existence of flavored, doubly charmed, tetraquarks. Such states might also carry double electric charge, and in this case, if discovered, they could univocally be interpreted in terms of compact tetraquarks. Flavored tetraquarks are also amenable to lattice studies as their interpolating operators do not overlap with ordinary meson ones. We show that doubly charmed tetraquarks could significantly be produced at LHC from B_c or Xi_bc heavy baryons.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Comments and references added. Version to appear in Phys.Rev.

Gauge theories in anti-selfdual variables

Some years ago the Nicolai map, viewed as a change of variables from the gauge connection in a fixed gauge to the anti-selfdual part of the curvature, has been extended by the first named author to pure YM from its original definition in N=1 SUSY YM. We study here the perturbative 1PI effective action in the anti-selfdual variables of any gauge theory, in particular pure YM, QCD and N=1 SUSY YM. We prove that the one-loop 1PI effective action of a gauge theory mapped to the anti-selfdual variables in any gauge is identical to the one of the original theory. This is due to the conspiracy between the Jacobian of the change to the anti-selfdual variables and an extra functional determinant that arises from the non-linearity of the coupling of the anti-selfdual curvature to an external source in the Legendre transform that defines the 1PI effective action. Hence we establish the one-loop perturbative equivalence of the mapped and original theories on the basis of the identity of the one-loop 1PI effective actions. Besides, we argue that the identity of the perturbative 1PI effective actions extends order by order in perturbation theory.Comment: 19 pages; paper shortened and sharpened according to the referee suggestion

The measurement of enhancement in mathematical abilities as a result of joint cognitive trainings in numerical and visual-spatial skills: A preliminary study

A body of literature shows the significant role of visual-spatial skills played in the improvement of mathematical skills in the primary school. The main goal of the current study was to investigate the impact of a combined visuo-spatial and mathematical training on the improvement of mathematical skills in 146 second graders of several schools located in Italy. Participants were presented single pencil-and-paper visuo-spatial or mathematical trainings, computerised version of the above mentioned treatments, as well as a combined version of computer-assisted and pencil-and-paper visuo-spatial and mathematical trainings, respectively. Experimental groups were presented with training for 3 months, once a week. All children were treated collectively both in computer-assisted or pencil-and-paper modalities. At pre and post-test all our participants were presented with a battery of objective tests assessing numerical and visuo-spatial abilities. Our results suggest the positive effect of different types of training for the empowerment of visuo-spatial and numerical abilities. Specifically, the combination of computerised and pencil-and-paper versions of visuo-spatial and mathematical trainings are more effective than the single execution of the software or of the pencil-and-paper treatment

A novel Smart Home Energy Management system: Cooperative neighbourhood and adaptive renewable energy usage

Energy usage optimization in Smart Homes is a critical problem: over 30% of the energy consumption of the world resides in the residential sector. Usage awareness and manual appliance control alone are able to reduce consumption by 15%. This result could be improved if appliance control is automatic, especially if renewable sources are present locally. In this paper, a Smart Home Energy Management system that aims at automatically controlling appliances in groups of smart homes belonging to the same neighborhood is proposed. Not only is electric power distribution considered, but also renewable energy sources such as wind micro-turbines and solar panels. The proposed strategy relies on two algorithms. The Cost Saving Task Scheduling algorithm is aimed at scheduling high-power controllable loads during off-peak hours, taking into account the expected usage of the non-controllable appliances such as fridge, oven, etc. This algorithm is run whenever a new need of energy from a controllable load is detected. The Renewable Source Power Allocation algorithm re-allocated the starting time of controllable loads whenever surplus of renewable source power is detected making use of a distributed max-consensus negotiation. Performance evaluation of the algorithms tested proves that the proposed approach provides an energy cost saving that goes between 35% and 65% with reference to the case where no automatic control is used

Surgical treatment of a cemental tear-associated bony defect using hyaluronic acid and a resorbable collagen membrane: a 2-year follow-up

Introduction A cemental tear (CeT) is a special type of surface root fracture that may cause periodontal and even periapical tissue destruction. Unfortunately, there is limited knowledge as to how these rare cases can effectively be treated. The present case is believed to be the first reported in the literature treating a bony defect caused by a cemental tear with hyaluronic acid (HA) and a collagen membrane. The aim of this case report is to present a regenerative surgical approach with clinical and tomographic success and stability at 2-year follow-up.Case PresentationA 61-year-old patient presented with spontaneous pain and gingival swelling over his right central maxillary incisor. Radiographically, a radiolucent area was observed in the medial third between both central incisors. The tomographic evaluation showed a buccal bone dehiscence and a bony defect. Once the differential diagnosis with an endodontic-periodontal lesion and root fracture was performed, CeT was the presumptive diagnosis. During the exploratory flap surgery, a small root fragment (CeT) on the mesial side of the tooth was founded and removed. The bony lesion was treated with hyaluronic acid (HA) and a resorbable collagen membrane. At 2-year follow-up clinical, radiographic, and tomographic success was observed.ConclusionA CeT-associated bony defect could be successfully treated after removing cemental fragments and performing a regenerative approach using HA and a resorbable collagen membrane

IoT Architecture for a sustainable tourism application in a smart city environment

In the past few years, the Smart Cities concept has become one of the main driving forces for the urban transition towards a low carbon environment, sustainable economy, andmobility. Tourism, as one of the fastest growing industries, is also an important generator of carbon emissions; therefore, the recently emerging sustainable tourism concept is envisioned as an important part of the Smart Cities paradigm.Within this context, the Internet-of-Things (IoT) concept is the key technological point for the development of smart urban environments through the use of aggregated data, integrated in a single decisional platform. This paper performs the first analysis on the feasibility of the use of an IoT approach and proposes a specific architecture for a sustainable tourism application. The architecture is tailored for the optimisation of the movement of cruise ship tourists in the city of Cagliari (Italy), by taking into consideration factors such as transport information and queue waiting times. A first set of simulations is performed using 67-point of interest, real transportation data, and an optimisation algorithm

Amplitude analysis and the nature of the Zc(3900)

The microscopic nature of the XYZ states remains an unsettled topic. We show how a thorough amplitude analysis of the data can help constraining models of these states. Specifically, we consider the case of the Zc(3900) peak and discuss possible scenarios of a QCD state, virtual state, or a kinematical enhancement. We conclude that current data are not precise enough to distinguish between these hypotheses, however, the method we propose, when applied to the forthcoming high-statistics measurements should shed light on the nature of these exotic enhancements.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables. Version accepted for publication on Phys.Lett.

How to exploit the Social Internet of Things: Query Generation Model and Device Profiles’ Dataset

The future Internet of Things (IoT) will be characterized by an increasing number of object-to-object interactions for the implementation of distributed applications running in smart environments. The Social IoT (SIoT) is one of the possible paradigms that is proposed to make the objects’ interactions easier by facilitating the search of services and the management of objects’ trustworthiness. In this scenario, we address the issue of modeling the queries that are generated by the objects when fulfilling applications’ requests that could be provided by any of the peers in the SIoT. To this, the defined model takes into account the objects’ major features in terms of typology and associated functionalities, and the characteristics of the applications. We have then generated a dataset, by extracting objects’ information and positions from the city of Santander in Spain. We have classified all the available devices according to the FIWARE Data Models, so as to enable the portability of the dataset among different platforms. The dataset and the proposed query generation model are made available to the research community to study the navigability of the SIoT network, with an application also to other IoT networks. Experimental analyses have also been conducted, which give some key insights on the impact of the query model parameters on the average number of hops needed for each search

On the η\eta and η′\eta' Photoproduction Beam Asymmetry at High Energies

We show that, in the Regge limit, beam asymmetries in $\eta$ and $\eta'$ photoproduction are sensitive to hidden strangeness components. Under reasonable assumptions about the couplings we estimate the contribution of the $\phi$ Regge pole, which is expected to be the dominant hidden strangeness contribution. The ratio of the asymmetries in $\eta'$ and $\eta$ production is estimated to be close to unity in the forward region $0 < -t/\text{GeV}^2 \leq 1$ at the photon energy $E_\text{lab} = 9$~GeV, relevant for the upcoming measurements at Jefferson Lab.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure