Using XML as a means to access legislative documents: Italian and foreign experiences

In this paper we describe the goals and the organisation of the ongoing project "Norme in Rete" (NIR --- http://www.normeinrete.it), which involves several important Italian institutions and organisations. This project aims at the production of tools for the access to Italian normative documents, and data formats for the standardisation of the text of laws and rules both national and local. One of its many goals is the conversion of the national law corpus into XML.Within the context of this project, our effort has concentrated on the development of an XML DTD already, and of an XML Schema very soon, to describe Italian national and local laws. We illustrate in this paper the overall structure of the DTDs. They are organised in a stricter, normative set of rules, with normative power, for new law drafts, and of a looser, descriptive set of rules for existing documents over which no rules can be imposed. In this paper we examine both types of DTD (strict and loose), their global organisation, the modules for legal elements, for textual and tabular tags (resembling HTML), and for modular, generic elements, that allow easy extendibility to the DTD. Also the treatment of meta-information is examined in this paper.We produce a short account of several analogous experiences in Northern Europe, carried out by both public institutions and private legal publishers. Mention is also made of the European Union\u27s similar projects

Ultrastrong Coupling of Si1−xGex Parabolic Quantum Wells toTerahertz Microcavities

Control and manipulation of quantum states by light are increasingly important for both fundamental research and applications. This can be achieved through the strong coupling between light and semiconductor devices, typically observed at THz frequencies in 2D electron gases embedded in lithographic optical cavities. Here, we explore the possibility of achieving ultrastrong coupling between conduction sub-band states in Si1–xGex heterostructures and THz cavity photons fabricated with a potentially silicon-CMOS-compliant process. We developed Si1–xGex parabolic quantum wells with a transition at ω0 = 3.1 THz and hybrid metal-plasmonic THz patch-antenna microcavities resonating between 2 and 5 THz depending on the antenna length. In this first demonstration, we achieved anticrossing around 3 THz with spectroscopically measured Rabi frequency ΩR ≃ 0.7 THz (ΩR/ω0 ≃ 0.2, i.e., ultrastrong coupling). The present group-IV semiconductor material platform can be extended to the 5–12 THz range, where these semiconductors are transparent, as opposed to the III–V compound semiconductors plagued by strong THz optical phonon absorption. Moreover, the intersubband transition in parabolic quantum wells hosted by the nonpolar Si1–xGex crystal lattice is robust against carrier density and temperature variations, making the strength of the coupling only weakly temperature-dependent from 10 to 300 K. These results pave the way for the employment of the Si1–xGex material platform to perform fundamental research in ultrastrong light–matter coupling, fully exploiting the plasmonic character of the cavity mirror, as well as in ultrafast modulators and saturable absorbers for THz laser research

Mesenchymal–endothelial transition contributes to cardiac neovascularization

Endothelial cells contribute to a subset of cardiac fibroblasts by undergoing endothelial-to-mesenchymal-transition, but whether cardiac fibroblasts can adopt an endothelial cell fate and directly contribute to neovascularization after cardiac injury is not known. Here, using genetic fate map techniques, we demonstrate that cardiac fibroblasts rapidly adopt an endothelial cell like phenotype after acute ischemic cardiac injury. Fibroblast derived endothelial cells exhibit anatomical and functional characteristics of native endothelial cells. We show that the transcription factor p53 regulates such a switch in cardiac fibroblast fate. Loss of p53 in cardiac fibroblasts severely decreases the formation of fibroblast derived endothelial cells, reduces post infarct vascular density and worsens cardiac function. Conversely, stimulation of the p53 pathway in cardiac fibroblasts augments mesenchymal to endothelial transition, enhances vascularity and improves cardiac function. These observations demonstrate that mesenchymal-to-endothelial-transition contributes to neovascularization of the injured heart and represents a potential therapeutic target for enhancing cardiac repair

A Trouble Shared Is a Trouble Halved: Social Context and Status Affect Pain in Mouse Dyads

In mice behavioral response to pain is modulated by social status. Recently, social context also has been shown to affect pain sensitivity. In our study, we aimed to investigate the effects of interaction between status and social context in dyads of outbred CD-1 male mice in which the dominance/submission relationship was stable. Mice were assessed for pain response in a formalin (1% concentration) test either alone (individually tested-IT), or in pairs of dominant and subordinate mice. In the latter condition, they could be either both injected (BI) or only one injected (OI) with formalin. We observed a remarkable influence of social context on behavioral response to painful stimuli regardless of the social status of the mice. In the absence of differences between OI and IT conditions, BI mice exhibited half as much Paw-licking behavior than OI group. As expected, subordinates were hypoalgesic in response to the early phase of the formalin effects compared to dominants. Clear cut-differences in coping strategies of dominants and subordinates appeared. The former were more active, whereas the latter were more passive. Finally, analysis of behavior of the non-injected subjects (the observers) in the OI dyads revealed that dominant observers were more often involved in Self-grooming behavior upon observation of their subordinate partner in pain. This was not the case for subordinate mice observing the pain response of their dominant partner. In contrast, subordinate observers Stared at the dominant significantly more frequently compared to observer dominants in other dyads. The observation of a cagemate in pain significantly affected the observer's behavior. Additionally, the quality of observer's response was also modulated by the dominance/submission relationship

Asymmetric-coupled Ge/SiGe quantum wells for second harmonic generation at 7.1 THz in integrated waveguides: a theoretical study

We present a theoretical investigation of guided second harmonic generation at THz frequencies in SiGe waveguides embedding n-type Ge/SiGe asymmetric coupled quantum wells to engineer a giant second order nonlinear susceptibility. A characteristic of the chosen material system is the existence of large off-diagonal elements in the chi (2) tensor, coupling optical modes with different polarization. To account for this effect, we generalize the coupled-mode theory, proposing a theoretical model suitable for concurrently resolving every second harmonic generation interaction among guide-sustained modes, regardless of which chi (2) tensor elements it originates from. Furthermore, we exploit the presence of off-diagonal chi (2) elements and the peculiarity of the SiGe material system to develop a simple and novel approach to achieve perfect phase matching without requiring any fabrication process. For a realistic design of the quantum heterostructure we estimate second order nonlinear susceptibility peak values of similar to 7 and similar to 1.4 x 10(5) pm/V for diagonal and off diagonal chi (2) elements, respectively. Embedding such heterostructure in Ge-rich SiGe waveguides of thicknesses of the order of 10-15 mu m leads to second harmonic generation efficiencies comprised between 0.2 and 2 %, depending on the choice of device parameters. As a case study, we focus on the technologically relevant frequency of 7.1 THz, yet the results we report may be extended to the whole 5-20 THz range

A narrative review on the role and main findings of the Videofluoroscopic Study of Swallowing in Parkison's disease

Purpose: Dysphagia is a common symptom in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), though it may go undiagnosed until severe complications arise. Dysphagia can be suspected on a clinical basis, but an instrumental assessment is mandatory to confirm its presence and evaluate pathophysiological aspects and severity of the swallowing impairment. Aim of this review is to inform the clinician and the radiologist on the importance and the main radiological findings of the Video-Fluoroscopic-Swallow-Study (VFSS) in patients with PD starting from the most recent literature data on the topic. Materials and methods: Databases analysis identified 98 papers (January 2000/October 2022) of which 55 were excluded after reading title, abstract and full-text. After evaluation of the selected articles and their references 7 additional papers were added. Results: Fifty papers were reviewed to answer the following four main questions: Should VFSS be routinely used to screen dysphagia? Compared to other diagnostic tools, what is the role of VFSS in PD patients with suspected dysphagia? What are the main VFSS findings and technical expedients ? What is the role of VFSS in the choice of the best treatment strategy ? Conclusions: VFSS represents a gold standard technique in the diagnostic evaluation of dysphagia in PD, having a fundamental role in the identification of patients with high risk of aspiration pneumonia and also being extremely helpful to guide to the choice of treatment strategies for dysphagia

Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Interface Roughness and Alloy Disorder in Ge/GeSi Asymmetric Coupled Quantum Wells Using Electron Tomography

: Interfaces play an essential role in the performance of ever-shrinking semiconductor devices, making comprehensive determination of their three-dimensional (3D) structural properties increasingly important. This becomes even more relevant in compositional interfaces, as is the case for Ge/GeSi heterostructures, where chemical intermixing is pronounced in addition to their morphology. We use the electron tomography method to reconstruct buried interfaces and layers of asymmetric coupled Ge/Ge0.8Si0.2 multiquantum wells, which are considered a potential building block in THz quantum cascade lasers. The three-dimensional reconstruction is based on a series of high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy images. It allows chemically sensitive investigation of a relatively large interfacial area of about (80 × 80) nm2 with subnanometer resolution as well as the analysis of several interfaces within the multiquantum well stack. Representing the interfaces as iso-concentration surfaces in the tomogram and converting them to topographic height maps allows the determination of their morphological roughness as well as layer thicknesses, reflecting low variations in either case. Simulation of the reconstructed tomogram intensities using a sigmoidal function provides in-plane-resolved maps of the chemical interface widths showing a relatively large spatial variation. The more detailed analysis of the intermixed region using thin slices from the reconstruction and additional iso-concentration surfaces provides an accurate picture of the chemical disorder of the alloy at the interface. Our comprehensive three-dimensional image of Ge/Ge0.8Si0.2 interfaces reveals that in the case of morphologically very smooth interfaces─depending on the scale considered─the interface alloy disorder itself determines the overall characteristics, a result that is fundamental for highly miscible material systems