Motivation and personality traits for choosing religious tourism. A research on the case of Medjugorje.

Religion has long been a primary motivation for journeys and it is considered the oldest non-economic reason for travelling. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons tourists choose to travel to sacred sites, with the specific aim of discovering relationships between personality traits and motivations for religious travel. Participating in the research were 679 Italian travellers to Medjugorje sanctuary, who completed the travel motivation scale and big five questionnaire. The results show that motivation is focused prevalently on the need for discovery in men and socialisation in women. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that personality traits are predictive of motivation factors differently for males and females

Classical and Modern Prejudice toward Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities: The Role of Experienced Contact, Beliefs in a Just World and Social Dominance Orientation

: This study investigates the impact of experienced contact on prejudiced attitudes towards individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs), examining beliefs in a just world (BJW) and social dominance orientation (SDO) as potential serial mediators. Data were collected from 224 university students (M = 23.02, SD = 2.48). Path analysis modelling assessed the structural relationships between the study variables. The findings revealed that experienced contact was negatively and significantly associated with BJW and SDO. Additionally, BJW and SDO fully mediated the relationship between experienced contact and overt prejudice. These findings underscore the influence of individual differences on attitudes towards individuals with ID, establishing a crucial foundation for future research and the development of interventions aimed at reducing prejudice and discrimination

IL LATO OSCURO DELLA COLPA!

Francesco Mancini e Amelia Gangemi propongono una tesi duale sul senso di colpa delineando le caratteristiche della colpa deontologica – sensazione di avere trasgredito una norma morale senza che vi sia una vittima – e della colpa altruistica – sensazione di aver violato un principio altruistico senza la trasgressione di una norma morale. Gli autori presentano alcune prove comportamentali, cognitive e neurofisiologiche che dimostrano che i due sensi di colpa hanno tratti distintivi divers

Superconducting order of Sr2RuO4\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{RuO}_4 from a three-dimensional microscopic model

We compute and compare even- and odd-parity superconducting order parameters of strontium ruthenate ($\mathrm{Sr}_2\mathrm{RuO}_4$) in the limit of weak interactions, resulting from a fully microscopic three-dimensional model including spin-orbit coupling. We find that odd-parity helical and even-parity $d$-wave order are favored for smaller and larger values of the Hund's coupling parameter $J$, respectively. Both orders are found compatible with specific heat data and the recently-reported nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) Knight shift drop [A. Pustogow et al. Nature 574, 72 (2019)]. The chiral $p$-wave order, numerically very competitive with helical order, sharply conflicts with the NMR experiment.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

A Minimal Model of Signaling Network Elucidates Cell-to-Cell Stochastic Variability in Apoptosis

Signaling networks are designed to sense an environmental stimulus and adapt to it. We propose and study a minimal model of signaling network that can sense and respond to external stimuli of varying strength in an adaptive manner. The structure of this minimal network is derived based on some simple assumptions on its differential response to external stimuli. We employ stochastic differential equations and probability distributions obtained from stochastic simulations to characterize differential signaling response in our minimal network model. We show that the proposed minimal signaling network displays two distinct types of response as the strength of the stimulus is decreased. The signaling network has a deterministic part that undergoes rapid activation by a strong stimulus in which case cell-to-cell fluctuations can be ignored. As the strength of the stimulus decreases, the stochastic part of the network begins dominating the signaling response where slow activation is observed with characteristic large cell-to-cell stochastic variability. Interestingly, this proposed stochastic signaling network can capture some of the essential signaling behaviors of a complex apoptotic cell death signaling network that has been studied through experiments and large-scale computer simulations. Thus we claim that the proposed signaling network is an appropriate minimal model of apoptosis signaling. Elucidating the fundamental design principles of complex cellular signaling pathways such as apoptosis signaling remains a challenging task. We demonstrate how our proposed minimal model can help elucidate the effect of a specific apoptotic inhibitor Bcl-2 on apoptotic signaling in a cell-type independent manner. We also discuss the implications of our study in elucidating the adaptive strategy of cell death signaling pathways.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Robust Satellite Techniques for Volcanic and Seismic Hazards Monitoring

Several satellite techniques have been proposed to monitor events related to seismic and volcanic activity. A selfadaptive approach (RAT, Robust AVHRR Techniques) has recently been proposed which seems able to recognise space-time anomalies, differently related to such events, also in the presence of highly variable contributions from atmospheric (transmittance), surface (emissivity and morphology) and observational (time/season, but also solar and satellite zenithal angles) conditions. On the basis of NOAA-AVHRR data, the RAT aprroach has already been applied to Mount Etna volcanic ash cloud monitoring in daytime, and to seismic area monitoring in Southern Italy. This paper presents the theoretical basis for the extension of RAT approach also to nighttime volcanic ash cloud detection, together with its possible implementation to lava flow monitoring. One example of successful forecasting (few days before) of a new lava vent opening during the Mount Etna eruption of July 2001 will be discussed in some detail. Progress on the use of the same approach on seismically active area monitoring will be discussed by comparison with previous results achieved on the Irpinia-Basilicata earthquake (MS = 6.9), which occurred on November 23rd 1980 in Southern Italy

Bending modes, elastic constants and mechanical stability of graphitic systems

The thermodynamic and mechanical properties of graphitic systems are strongly dependent on the shear elastic constant C44. Using state-of-the-art density functional calculations, we provide the first complete determination of their elastic constants and exfoliation energies. We show that stacking misorientations lead to a severe lowering of C44 of at least one order of magnitude. The lower exfoliation energy and the lower C44 (more bending modes) suggest that flakes with random stacking should be easier to exfoliate than the ones with perfect or rhombohedral stacking. We also predict ultralow friction behaviour in turbostratic graphitic systems.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Strong peak in Tc of Sr2RuO4 under uniaxial pressure

Sr2RuO4 is an unconventional superconductor that has attracted widespread study because of its high purity and the possibility that its superconducting order parameter has odd parity. We study the dependence of its superconductivity on anisotropic strain. Applying uniaxial pressures of up to ~1 gigapascals along a 〈100〉 direction (a axis) of the crystal lattice results in the transition temperature (Tc) increasing from 1.5 kelvin in the unstrained material to 3.4 kelvin at compression by ≈0.6%, and then falling steeply. Calculations give evidence that the observed maximum Tc occurs at or near a Lifshitz transition when the Fermi level passes through a Van Hove singularity, and open the possibility that the highly strained, Tc = 3.4 K Sr2RuO4 has an even-parity, rather than an odd-parity, order parameter.PostprintPeer reviewe

Structure-guided design and optimization of small molecules targeting the protein-protein interaction between the von hippel-lindau (VHL) E3 ubiquitin ligase and the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) alpha subunit with in vitro nanomolar affinities

E3 ubiquitin ligases are attractive targets in the ubiquitin-proteasome system, however, the development of small-molecule ligands has been rewarded with limited success. The von Hippel-Lindau protein (pVHL) is the substrate recognition subunit of the VHL E3 ligase that targets HIF-1α for degradation. We recently reported inhibitors of the pVHL:HIF-1α interaction, however they exhibited moderate potency. Herein, we report the design and optimization, guided by X-ray crystal structures, of a ligand series with nanomolar binding affinities