Cases That Would Have Been: Three Years After AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, Claims of Corporate Wrongdoing Continue to Pile Up

In the wake of two U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the past three years, consumers, workers and others harmed by unfair fine print in contracts are increasingly being shut out of the courthouse, a new Public Citizen and National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) report shows.The report identifies 140 cases affecting thousands of consumers or employees over the past three years where a court enforced an arbitration clause and barred the claimants from participating in class actions

Coping Strategies and Perceived Support in Adolescents and Young Adults: Predictive Model of Self-Reported Cognitive and Mood Problems

The aims of this study were: to assess cognitive and mood problems, perceived social support and coping strategies in adolescence and early adulthood; to understand how coping strategies are related to age, gender and years of schooling; to identify possi- ble stable and modifiable predictors of cognitive and mood problems adopting LISREL software. The participants were 517 adolescents and young adults (age M = 18.95 years, SD = 3.2, range: 14 - 25); 59% were female and with a mean of 13.10 years of schooling (SD = 2.7). Participants were enrolled in secondary schools, association groups or university in Veneto, Italy. They completed a battery of self-report ques- tionnaires via a secure online site or in paper versions. The LISREL model was psy- chometrically solid and showed good fit (\u3c72 = 15.96, df = 12, p = 0.19, RMSEA = 0.025), explaining 26% of the variance and showing how the stable factor gender and some modifiable factors, namely certain coping strategies and friends\u2019 support, pre- dicted cognitive and mood problems

Improving Hickson-like compact group finders in redshift surveys: an implementation in the SDSS

In this work we present an algorithm to identify compact groups (CGs) that closely follows Hickson's original aim and that improves the completeness of the samples of compact groups obtained from redshift surveys. Instead of identifying CGs in projection first and then checking a velocity concordance criterion, we identify them directly in redshift space using Hickson-like criteria. The methodology was tested on a mock lightcone of galaxies built from the outputs of a recent semi-analytic model of galaxy formation run on top of the Millennium Simulation I after scaling to represent the first-year Planck cosmology. The new algorithm identifies nearly twice as many CGs, no longer missing CGs that failed the isolation criterion because of velocity outliers lying in the isolation annulus. The new CG sample picks up lower surface brightness groups, which are both looser and with fainter brightest galaxies, missed by the classic method. A new catalogue of compact groups from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey is the natural corollary of this study. The publicly available sample comprises $462$ observational groups with four or more galaxy members, of which $406$ clearly fulfil all the compact group requirements: compactness, isolation, and velocity concordance of all of their members. The remaining $56$ groups need further redshift information of potentially contaminating sources. This constitutes the largest sample of groups that strictly satisfy all the Hickson's criteria in a survey with available spectroscopic information.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, 8 tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Tables D1 and D2 will be available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/ or https://iate.oac.uncor.edu/index.php/alcance-publico/catalogos

Implementazione di modelli strutturali non lineari per lo studio di fenomeni di LCO

L’analisi proposta in questo lavoro si pone nell’ambito dell’Aeroelasticità Computazionale riproponendosi di verificare gli effetti dell’introduzione di non linearità strutturali di tipo freeplay all’interno di un sistema aeroelastico. Più nel dettaglio si è cercato di capire se la presenza del gioco nella catena di comando delle superfici di controllo possa dare origine a fenomeni di LCO (Limit Cycle Oscillations) quali il buzz delle superfici di controllo stesse. Il lavoro svolto si è quindi concentrato prevalentemente sull’implementazione di un modello strutturale non lineare e sulla successiva esecuzione di simulazioni dirette effettuate mediante l’utilizzo di strumenti atti a svolgere analisi accoppiate fluido-struttura. Ciò che differenzia questo lavoro dagli studi presenti in letteratura sul buzz è che questi si basano per lo più su modelli strutturali e/o aerodinamici molto semplificati. La scelta qui operata di considerare una condizione il più possibile realistica, legata ai dati registrati in volo su di un velivolo operativo, ha comportato nel nostro caso la necessità di utilizzare modelli più completi con la conseguenza di introdurre ulteriori complicazioni in un problema già di per sé complesso come il buzz. Più nel dettaglio, alle difficoltà intrinseche associate a questo tipo di fenomeno aeroelastico, dovute in particolar modo all’aerodinamica transonica, sono state aggiunte tutte le complicazioni derivanti dalla necessità di considerare il velivolo nella sua interezza. Se dal punto di vista strutturale ciò ha significato includere nel modello i modi deformabili di tutto il velivolo, dal punto di vista aerodinamico è stato necessario modellare il campo fluido attorno all’intero aeroplano con la conseguenza di aumentare drasticamente gli oneri computazionali associati alla risoluzione numerica del problema

Probing the surface magnetic field structure in RX J1856.5-3754

The evolution of magnetic field in isolated neutron stars is one of the most important ingredients in the attempt to build a unified description of these objects. A prediction of field evolution models is the existence of an equilibrium configuration, in which the Hall cascade vanishes. Recent calculations have explored the field structure in this stage, called the Hall attractor. We use X-ray data of near-by, cooling neutron stars to probe this prediction, as these sources are surmised to be close to or at Hall attractor phase. We show that the source RX J1856.5-3754 might be closer to the attractor than other sources of its class. Our modelling indicates that the properties of surface thermal emission, assuming that the star is in the Hall attractor, are in contradiction with the spectral data of RX J1856.5-3754.Comment: 9 pages, accepted to MNRA

Fractional Brownian motions ruled by nonlinear equations

In this note we consider generalized diffusion equations in which the diffusivity coefficient is not necessarily constant in time, but instead it solves a nonlinear fractional differential equation involving fractional Riemann-Liouville time-derivative. Our main contribution is to highlight the link between these generalised equations and fractional Brownian motion (fBm). In particular, we investigate the governing equation of fBm and show that its diffusion coefficient must satisfy an additive evolutive fractional equation. We derive in a similar way the governing equation of the iterated fractional Brownian motion.Comment: 7 page

Efecto de la minería de dunas en la población de Ctenomys, Madariaga

La minería de arenas derivadas de dunas de la costa atlántica es una de las principales actividades que proveen de áridos para la construcción. Esta genera cambios significativos en el medio ambiente. En este trabajo se estudiará la relación entre el estado de sucesión ecológica y el rol de <i>Ctenomys talarum</i> como indicador de rehabilitación ambiental de áreas degradadas por la minería de áridos.Área: Ciencias Biológicas, Ambiente y Salu

Analisi Modale Sperimentale delle Appendici Aerodinamiche di una Monoposto da competizione DALLARA

In this Master of Science thesis, resulting from the cooperation between the Department of Mechanical, Nuclear and Production Engineering of the University of Pisa and Dallara Automobili s.p.a., the target was the design of a graphical user interface, in Matlab, for signal processing. The signals to be processed were acquired during modal tests aimed at detecting natural frequencies of wings of a high-performance single-seater sports car produced by Dallara. Afterward, these frequencies were compared with the frequencies of forcing functions due to the motion of the vehicle, in order to avoid the dangerous occurrence of resonances

On the properties of compact groups identified in different photometric bands

Historically, compact group catalogues vary not only in their identification algorithms and selection functions, but also in their photometric bands. Differences between compact group catalogues have been reported. However, it is difficult to assess the impact of the photometric band in these differences given the variety of identification algorithms. We used the mock lightcone built by Henriques et al. (2012) to identify and compare compact groups in three different photometric bands: $K$, $r$, and $u$. We applied the same selection functions in the three bands, and found that compact groups in the u-band look the smallest in projection, the difference between the two brightest galaxies is the largest in the K-band, while compact groups in the r-band present the lowest compactness. We also investigated the differences between samples when galaxies are selected only in one particular band (pure compact groups) and those that exist regardless the band in which galaxies were observed (common compact groups). We found that the differences between the total samples are magnified, but also some others arise: pure-r compact groups are the largest in projection; pure-u compact groups have the brightest first ranked galaxies, and the most similar two first ranked galaxies; pure-K compact groups have the highest compactness and the most different two first ranked galaxies; and common compact groups show the largest percentage of physically dense groups. Therefore, without a careful selection and identification of the samples, the characteristic features of group properties in a particular photometric band could be overshadowed.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA