On the behavior of nitrogen oxides in the stratosphere

A summary is presented of the relative importance of the principal aeronomic processes determining the vertical distribution of NO−NO2 in the stratosphere. Formation and destruction of nitric oxide are considered with transport processes for steady-state conditions. Estimates of the vertical distribution of NO x are made for extreme conditions of the eddy diffusion coefficient. It is pointed out that NO is determined by the values which are adopted for its photodissociation coefficient which is related to the absorption of solar radiation in the Schumann-Runge bands of molecular oxygen

Free electron lifetime achievements in Liquid Argon Imaging TPC

A key feature for the success of the liquid Argon imaging TPC (LAr-TPC) technology is the industrial purification against electro-negative impurities, especially Oxygen and Nitrogen remnants, which have to be continuously kept at an exceptionally low level by filtering and recirculating liquid Argon. Improved purification techniques have been applied to a 120 liters LAr-TPC test facility in the INFN-LNL laboratory. Through-going muon tracks have been used to determine the free electron lifetime in liquid Argon against electro-negative impurities. The short path length here observed (30 cm) is compensated by the high accuracy in the observation of the specific ionization of cosmic ray muons at sea level as a function of the drift distance. A free electron lifetime of (21.4+7.3-4.3) ms, namely > 15.8 ms at 90 % C.L. has been observed over several weeks under stable conditions, corresponding to a residual Oxygen equivalent of about 15 ppt (part per trillion). At 500 V/cm, the free electron speed is 1.5 m/ms. In a LAr-TPC a free electron lifetime in excess of 15 ms corresponds for instance to an attenuation of less than 15 % after a drift path of 5 m, opening the way to the operation of the LAr-TPC with exceptionally long drift distances.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures; Accepted for publication in JINS

A hardware implementation of Region-of-Interest selection in LAr-TPC for data reduction and triggering

Large Liquid Argon TPC detectors in the range of multikton mass for neutrino and astroparticle physics require the extraction and treatment of signals from some 105 wires. In order to enlarge the throughtput of the DAQ system an on-line lossless data compression has been realized reducing almost a factor 4 the data flow. Moreover a trigger system based on a new efficient on-line identification algorithm of wire hits was studied, implemented on the actual ICARUS digital read- out boards and fully tested on the ICARINO LAr-TPC facility operated at LNL INFN Laboratory with cosmic-rays. Capability to trigger isolated low energy events down to 1 MeV visible energy was also demonstrated.Comment: 26 pages, 26 Figure; to be submitted to JINS

The Fermat-Torricelli problem in normed planes and spaces

We investigate the Fermat-Torricelli problem in d-dimensional real normed spaces or Minkowski spaces, mainly for d=2. Our approach is to study the Fermat-Torricelli locus in a geometric way. We present many new results, as well as give an exposition of known results that are scattered in various sources, with proofs for some of them. Together, these results can be considered to be a minitheory of the Fermat-Torricelli problem in Minkowski spaces and especially in Minkowski planes. This demonstrates that substantial results about locational problems valid for all norms can be found using a geometric approach

Use of virtual reality-based training in different fields of rehabilitation: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives: To analyse the effectiveness of virtual reality-based interventions within several fields of rehabilitation, and to investigate whether the outcomes of virtual realitybased interventions, in terms of upper or lower limb function, gait and balance, differ with respect to the virtual reality system used. Methods: A search of PubMed database resulted in an initial total of 481 records. Of these, 27 articles were included in the study. A final total of 20 articles, with neurological, orthoapedic, geriatric or paediatric patients, published between 2012 and 2019, were included in the study. Two independent reviewers selected potentially relevant articles based on the inclusion criteria for fulltext reading. They extracted data, and evaluated the methodological quality of each study. Results: Seventeen studies were included in the metaanalysis. Eight studies analysed upper limb function, with no significant evidence that specialized VR is superior to conventional treatment. Regarding Fugl-Meyer scale results, the effect of specialized virtual reality therapy was found to be significantly better than conventional treatment. No significant differences between specialized VR and conventional treatment were observed in effects on hand dexterity and gait. There was a significant difference in effects on balance in favour of specialized virtual reality as compared to conventional treatment. Gaming virtual reality was significantly better than conventional treatment for upper limb function, but not for hand dexterity, gait and balance. Conclusion: Use of specialized virtual reality and gaming virtual reality can be advantageous for treatment of the upper extremity, but not for hand dexterity and gait in all pathologies considered. Specialized virtual reality can improve balance in neurological patients

Augmentation of Leptin and Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 alpha mRNAs in Preeclamptic Placenta

Schizophrenia is characterized by marked deficits in executive and psychomotor functions, as demonstrated for goal-directed actions in the antisaccade task. Recent studies, however, suggest that this deficit represents only one manifestation of a general deficit in stimulus-response integration and volitional initiation of motor responses. We here used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain activation patterns during a manual stimulus-response compatibility task in 18 schizophrenic patients and 18 controls. We found that across groups incongruent vs. congruent responses recruited a bilateral network consisting of dorsal fronto-parietal circuits as well as bilateral anterior insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the presupplementary motor area (preSMA). When testing for the main-effect across all conditions, patients showed significantly lower activation of the right DLPFC and, in turn, increased activation in a left hemispheric network including parietal and premotor areas as well as the preSMA. For incongruent responses patients showed significantly increased activation in a similar left hemispheric network, as well as additional activation in parietal and premotor regions in the right hemisphere. The present study reveals that hypoactivity in the right DLPFC in schizophrenic patients is accompanied by hyperactivity in several fronto-parietal regions associated with task execution. Impaired top-down control due to a dysfunctional DLPFC might thus be partly compensated by an up-regulation of task-relevant regions in schizophrenic patients

A user-centred design framework for disaster risk visualisation

Visualisations are powerful communication tools that have the potential to help societies assess and manage natural hazard and disaster risks. However, the diversity of risk management contexts and user characteristics is a challenge to develop understandable and useable visualisations. We conducted a systematic literature review to understand the current state developing disaster risk visualisations following design best practices and accounting for the heterogeneity between end-users and disaster risk contexts. We find that, despite being widely recommended, tailoring visualisations to users through the process of user-centred design remains a relatively unexplored topic within disaster risk. To address this, we present a unifying user-centred design framework for disaster risk visualisation, based on existing visualisation frameworks. The framework contains three phases: the Define phase, which aims to define and characterise the disaster risk management context and end-user group who will benefit from a visualisation; the Design phase, which is highly iterative and presents an opportunity to test how users interpret different design elements; and the Refine phase, which focuses on evaluating how users understand, respond to, and make decisions based on the visualisation. The framework is sufficiently flexible to be applied to any disaster risk management and natural hazard context to identify challenges and design effective disaster risk visualisations that are understandable and useable

Transdiagnostic commonalities and differences in resting state functional connectivity of the default mode network in schizophrenia and major depression

Schizophrenia and depression are prevalent psychiatric disorders, but their underlying neural bases remains poorly understood. Neuroimaging evidence has pointed towards the relevance of functional connectivity aberrations in defaultmode network (DMN) hubs, dorso-medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus, in both disorders, but commonalities and differences in resting state functional connectivity of those two regions across disorders has not been formally assessed. Here, we took a transdiagnostic approach to investigate resting state functional connectivity of those two regions in 75 patients with schizophrenia and 82 controls from 4 scanning sites and 102 patients with depression and 106 controls from 3 sites. Our results demonstrate common dysconnectivity patterns as indexed by a significant reduction of functional connectivity between precuneus and bilateral superior parietal lobe in schizophrenia and depression. Furthermore, our findings highlight diagnosis-specific connectivity reductions of the parietal operculum in schizophrenia relative to depression. In light of evidence that points towards the importance of the DMN for social cognitive abilities and well documented impairments of social interaction in both patient groups, it is conceivable that the observed transdiagnostic connectivity alterations may contribute to interpersonal difficulties, but this could not be assessed directly in our study as measures of social behavior were not available. Given the operculum's role in somatosensory integration, diagnosis-specific connectivity reductions may indicate a pathophysiological mechanism for basic self-disturbances that is characteristic of schizophrenia, but not depression. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc

Measurement of a large electron lifetime in a liquid argon TPC

An unprecedentedly high value of electron lifetime in a liquid argon TPC, about 21ms, has been measured in a test facility at INFN-LNL. This results opens the way to the future development of TPCs with very long drift distances