Exploring the Role of Interdisciplinarity in Physics: Success, Talent and Luck

Although interdisciplinarity is often touted as a necessity for modern research, the evidence on the relative impact of sectorial versus to interdisciplinary science is qualitative at best. In this paper we leverage the bibliographic data set of the American Physical Society to quantify the role of interdisciplinarity in physics, and that of talent and luck in achieving success in scientific careers. We analyze a period of 30 years (1980-2009) tagging papers and their authors by means of the Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme (PACS), to show that some degree of interdisciplinarity is quite helpful to reach success, measured as a proxy of either the number of articles or the citations score. We also propose an agent-based model of the publication-reputation-citation dynamics reproduces the trends observed in the APS data set. On the one hand, the results highlight the crucial role of randomness and serendipity in real scientific research; on the other, they shed light on a counter-intuitive effect indicating that the most talented authors are not necessarily the most successful ones.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figure

Studio di nuovi catalizzatori per la reazione di idrolisi di biomasse lignocellulosiche

Il grande utilizzo di fonti fossili quali petrolio, carbone e gas naturale ha portato a diversi problemi ambientali come l’inquinamento e l’incremento dei gas serra nell’atmosfera, oltre a problemi sociopolitici legati all’impoverimento dei rispettivi giacimenti. Per questi motivi negli ultimi anni è cresciuta la necessità di ricercare e utilizzare materie prime nuove e rinnovabili per la produzione di energia, combustibili e building blocks per l’industria chimica. Tra i vari tipi di risorse, le biomasse rappresentano il principale candidato per andare a sostituire i combustibili fossili nella produzione di energia e chemicals, dato che costituiscono la principale fonte di carbonio organico rinnovabile sulla Terra, basandosi sul modello della bioraffineria. Il processo di conversione delle biomasse lignocellulosiche rappresenta quindi una soluzione a lungo termine valida alla dipendenza dell’industria chimica da composti di origine fossile: è infatti richiesto che a partire dal 2025, almeno il 30% di materie prime derivanti da fonti rinnovabili sia impiegato dalle industrie chimiche. Lo scopo di questo lavoro di tesi è stato quello di sintetizzare nuovi catalizzatori a base di fosfato di niobio e valutarne poi le prestazioni nella reazione di idrolisi delle biomasse lignocellulosiche

inkjet sensors produced by consumer printers with smartphone impedance readout

Abstract Inkjet printing technology is showing a disruptive potential for low-cost optical and electrochemical biosensors fabrication. This technology is becoming affordable for every laboratory, potentially allowing every research group to implement a biosensors fabrication platform with consumer inkjet printers, commercially available inks and smartphones for readout. In the present work we developed an example of such platform testing several inks, printers, and substrates. We defined and optimized the protocols assessing the printing limits and the fabricated biosensors electrochemical properties in standard solutions. Our platform has a total cost of less than 450 Euro and a single sensor fabrication cost of 0.026 Euro. Finally, we tested the sensitivity of smartphone-performed impedance measurements with printed biosensors surface coverage by Self Assembling Monolayers (SAM), validating them with standard instruments

Early lactation ratio of fat and protein percentage in milk is associated with health, milk production, and survival.

An observational study was conducted on 1,498 cows in 3 large Italian dairy farms. The objective of the study was to evaluate the prognostic value of early lactation fat-to-protein ratio in milk. In all 3 herds, an intensive herd health monitoring program was being practiced that included weekly visits and extensive data collection on health, reproduction, production, and culling. A milk sample was collected from all cows at approximately 7 d postpartum and the ratio of fat-to-protein percentage in this milk sample was measured. Animals with a fat-to-protein ratio in early lactation greater than 2.0 showed an increase in postpartum diseases such as retained placenta, left-displaced abomasums, metritis and clinical endometritis. We also observed a decrease in early lactation milk production but this was limited to cows in lactation 2 and higher when the fat-to-protein ratio was greater than 2.0 in the early postpartum milk sample. Finally, an increased risk of being culled from the herd was observed, with the risk of culling increasing with increasing fat-to-protein ratio in the early lactation milk sample. No effect of fat-to-protein ratio was found on the incidence of clinical mastitis in the 3 herds. From this study, we conclude that analyses of milk components in early postpartum (6-9 days in milk), particularly the ratio of fat-to-protein percentage, is a valuable indicator of lipo-mobilization and the negative energy balance status in postpartum cows. Because a single milk sample is sufficient to provide valuable information, we suggest that this is a valuable addition to herd health programs on dairy farms

The effect of different sports specialization on ankle joint mobility of young players

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of practicing different sports on ankle joint mobility (AJM) in young subjects. In 344 players of 5 different sports (soccer, classical ballet, gymnastics, volleyball and basketball), mean age 12.0±2.4 years, sex (male/female: 237/107), BMI 19.0±2.8 (Kg/m 2 ), AJM was evaluated by using an inclinometer while the trunk flexibility was evaluated by the Sit and Reach test. Compared to all other groups, soccer players showed a significant reduction of AJM (p<.005) that is already present in younger subjects and that tends to worsen with aging (p<.04). On the contrary, the young dancers of classic ballet showed a significant increase in the AJM (p<.002). Basketball, volleyball and gymnastics groups showed a similar AJM. The higher AJM showed by females compared to males (128.5±21.0° vs 144.6±18.5°; p<.001) was not significant when the group of soccer players and dancers were excluded from the calculation. All groups investigated did not show a different mobility between the two ankles or the dominant and non-dominant limb. The age of the subjects investigated was not correlated with AJM. The group of gymnasts showed a significant increase in trunk flexibility (p<.001) compared to all other groups. Sport practice can significantly modify AJM both by increasing and reducing it. Such process should be timely assessed in order to prevent these alterations along with the related possible negative effects in the short and long term

Structural Analysis of Human Serum Albumin in Complex with the Fibrate Drug Gemfibrozil

Gemfibrozil (GEM) is an orally administered lipid-regulating fibrate derivative drug sold under the brand name Lopid®, among others. Since its approval in the early 80s, GEM has been largely applied to treat hypertriglyceridemia and other disorders of lipid metabolism. Though generally well tolerated, GEM can alter the distribution and the free, active concentration of some co-administered drugs, leading to adverse effects. Most of them appear to be related to the ability of GEM to bind with high affinity human serum albumin (HSA), the major drug-carrier protein in blood plasma. Here, we report the crystal structure of HSA in complex with GEM. Two binding sites have been identified, namely Sudlow’s binding sites I (FA7) and II (FA3–FA4). A comparison of the crystal structure of HSA in complex with GEM with those of other previously described HSA–drug complexes enabled us to appreciate the analogies and differences in their respective binding modes. The elucidation of the molecular interaction between GEM and HSA might offer the basis for the development of novel GEM derivatives that can be safely and synergistically co-administered with other drugs, enabling augmented therapeutic efficacies

An air-fall ash layer in the Grotta dei Baffoni cave in the Frasassi Gorge (Marche Apennine, Italy): relevance to the Younger Dryas debate

A thin tephra layer was discovered in a section of cave sediments in the Grotta dei Baffoni Cave (GDB), in the Marche Apennine of central Italy, immediately underlying a clayey layer containing charcoal fragments dated at 12,843 ± 122 years before present. This date indicated that humans were occupying the cave at the very beginning of the Younger Dryas cooling event. Petrographic and geochemical analysis of the volcanic glass contained in the tephra layer suggests that this deposit represents a distal air-fall ash erupted from a volcano in the Campi Flegrei caldera, which produced the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT). Radiocarbon AMS dating of charcoal particles from this GDB tephra layer yielded an age around 14.4 ± 0.4 ka, which is consistent with the chronology of the NYT eruption, which occurred some 14.1 ± 1.4 thousand years ago. Nevertheless, the sediment succession in this cave deposit actually covers a time interval across the sudden and drastic Younger Dryas cooling event, which occurred around 12.9 ka. There is an ongoing debate about the causes of the Younger Dryas event, which divides the scientific community into a faction sustaining that the Younger Dryas cooling event was triggered by an elusive meteorite impact, and an opposing one that advocates volcanic eruptions, such as the eruption of the Laacher See volcano in central Germany, which was precisely dated at 13 ka. A detailed trace element and 187Os/188Os analysis of the sedimentary succession in the Grotta dei Baffoni Cave did not reveal evidence of any platinum-group element anomalies or an osmium isotope signature that would support an extraterrestrial impact event around the time of the Younger Dryas event. The Grotta dei Baffoni tephra layer turned out to be derived from a large eruption in the Campi Flegrei of southern Italy, which produced the huge Neapolitan Yellow Tuff around 14.1 thousand years ago. This catastrophic event appears to be synchronous with the minor Older Dryas cooling event, which preceded the Younger Dryas by some 1300 years

Freezing time emulating new and faster devices with virtual machines

Recent proposals of emerging data storage devices make it necessary to reevaluate all levels of the storage hierarchy to optimize the software stack performance. However, these new devices are not always widely available and therefore early experiments may be impossible. Emulators aim at mimicking as close as possible the behavior of a component, nonetheless, emulating new and fast storage devices is a challenging task due to time perception. In this work, we propose an approach to emulate storage devices using virtual machines (VMs) allowing the evaluation of a new device within a real system. We use a technique called freezing time, which pauses a VM to manipulate its clock and hide the real I/O completion time. Our approach is implemented at the hypervisor level and it is transparent to the guest operating system or application. We evaluate the technique under a real system using regular magnetic disks to emulate faster storage devices. Our method presented a latency error of 6.5% compared to a real device. Moreover, decoupled experiment between two laboratories, at the Barcelona Super Computing Center (BSC) in Spain, and the Center of Computer Science and Free Software (C3SL) in Brazil, demonstrated that our approach is reproducible and promising to allow the virtual evaluation of next-gen storage devices.This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the TIN2015-65316 Grant, the Generalitat de Catalunya under contract 2014-SGR-1051, the Serrapilheira Institute (Grant number Serra-1709-16621), as well as the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Grant Agreement no. 671951 (NEXTGenIO) for the extensions added after the MASCOTS paper.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Freezing Time: a new approach for emulating fast storage devices using VM

© 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Recently we are seeing a considerable effort from both academy and industry in proposing new technologies for storage devices. Often these devices are not readily available for evaluation and methods to allow performing their tests just from their performance parameters are an important tool for system administrators. Simulators are a traditional approach for carrying out such evaluations, however, they are more suitable for evaluating the storage device as an isolate component, mostly due to time constraints. In this paper, we propose an approach based on virtual machine technology that is capable of emulate storage devices transparently for the operating system allowing evaluation of simulating devices within a real system using any synthetic or real workload. To emulate devices in real environments it is necessary to use the currently available devices as a storage medium which creates a difficulty when the device to be emulated is faster than this storage medium. To circumvent this limitation we introduce a new technique called Freezing Time, which takes advantage of virtual machine pausing mechanism to manipulate the virtual machine clock and hide the real I/O completion time. Our approach can be implemented just requiring the hypervisor to be modified, providing a high degree of compatibility and flexibility since it is not necessary to modify neither the operating system nor the application. We evaluate our tool under a real system using old magnetic disks to emulate faster storage devices. Experiments using our technique presented an average latency error of 6.08% for read operations and 6.78% for write operations when comparing a real to device.This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the TIN2015–65316 grant, the Generalitat de Catalunya under contract 2014–SGR–1051.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft