Dynamics of large anisotropic spin in a sub-ohmic dissipative environment close to a quantum-phase transition

We investigate the dynamics of a large anisotropic spin whose easy-axis component is coupled to a bosonic bath with a spectral function J(\w)\propto \omega^s. Such a spin complex might be realized in a single-molecular magnet. Using the non-perturbative renormalization group, we calculate the line of quantum-phase transitions in the sub-ohmic regime ($s<1$). These quantum-phase transitions only occur for integer spin $J$. For half-integer $J$, the low temperature fixed-point is identical to the fixed-point of the spin-boson model without quantum-tunneling between the two levels. Short-time coherent oscillations in the spin decay prevail even into the localized phase in the sub-ohmic regime. The influence of the reorganization energy and the recurrence time on the decoherence in the absence of quantum-tunneling is discussed.Comment: 14 pages,7 figure

The antiquity of hydrocephalus: the first full palaeo-neuropathological description

The Pathology Museum of the University of Florence houses a rich collection of anatomical specimens and over a hundred waxworks portraying pathological conditions occurring in the nineteenth century, when the museum was established. Clinical and autopsy findings of these cases can still be retrieved from the original museum catalogue, offering a rare opportunity for retrospective palaeo-pathological diagnostics. We present a historical case of severe hydrocephalus backed by modern-day anthropological, radiological and molecular analyses conducted on the skeleton of an 18-month-old male infant deceased in 1831. Luigi Calamai (1796-1851), a wax craftsman of La Specola workshop in Florence, was commissioned to create a life-sized wax model of the child's head, neck and upper thorax. This artwork allows us to appreciate the cranial and facial alterations determined by 30&nbsp;lb of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) accumulated within the cerebral ventricular system. Based on the autopsy report, gross malformations of the neural tube, tumours and haemorrhage could be excluded. A molecular approach proved helpful in confirming sex. We present this case as the so-far most compelling case of hydrocephalus in palaeo-pathological research

An Integrated Smart City Platform

Smart Cities aim to create a higher quality of life for their citizens, improve business services and promote tourism experience. Fostering smart city innovation at local and regional level requires a set of mature technologies to discover, integrate and harmonize multiple data sources and the exposure of eective applications for end-users (citizens, administrators, tourists...). In this context, Semantic Web technologies and Linked Open Data principles provide a means for sharing knowledge about cities as physical, economical, social, and technical systems, enabling the development of smart city services. Despite the tremendous effort these communities have done so far, there exists a lack of comprehensive and effective platforms that handle the entire process of identication, ingestion, consumption and publication of data for Smart Cities. In this paper, a complete open-source platform to boost the integration, semantic enrichment, publication and exploitation of public data to foster smart cities in local and national administrations is proposed. Starting from mature software solutions, we propose a platform to facilitate the harmonization of datasets (open and private, static and dynamic on real time) of the same domain generated by dierent authorities. The platform provides a unied dataset oriented to smart cities that can be exploited to offer services to the citizens in a uniform way, to easily release open data, and to monitor services status of the city in real time by means of a suite of web applications

Dipole and Bloch oscillations of cold atoms in a parabolic lattice

The paper studies the dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate loaded into a 1D parabolic optical lattice, and excited by a sudden shift of the lattice center. Depending on the magnitude of the initial shift, the condensate undergoes either dipole or Bloch oscillations. The effects of dephasing and of atom-atom interactions on these oscillations are discussed.Comment: 3 pages, to appear in proceeding of LPHYS'05 conference (July 4-8, 2005, Kyoto, Japan

Phonon distributions of a single bath mode coupled to a quantum dot

The properties of an unconventional, single mode phonon bath coupled to a quantum dot, are investigated within the rotating wave approximation. The electron current through the dot induces an out of equilibrium bath, with a phonon distribution qualitatively different from the thermal one. In selected transport regimes, such a distribution is characterized by a peculiar selective population of few phonon modes and can exhibit a sub-Poissonian behavior. It is shown that such a sub-Poissonian behavior is favored by a double occupancy of the dot. The crossover from a unequilibrated to a conventional thermal bath is explored, and the limitations of the rotating wave approximation are discussed.Comment: 21 Pages, 7 figures, to appear in New Journal of Physics - Focus on Quantum Dissipation in Unconventional Environment