La migrazione studentesca dalla Laurea Triennale alla Laurea Magistrale

In the last years, the Italian universities have experienced significant changes that involve the students and the universities' governance. Students' enrolment has decreased significantly especially after the economic crisis of 2008, while the students' migration from the South to the Central and Northern regions of the country has increased. This phenomenon has created further inequalities within the country and a cultural and socio-economic loss for the South. Important changes have pushed the universities also compete to attract students. Therefore, among the others, student migration is an issue that needs full consideration. In this paper, the attention is devoted to the First Level graduates that choose to enroll in a Second Level Degree Course provided by a different University. First part of the analysis concerns the investigation of the determinants of the First Level graduates at University of Palermo migration, and the second one concerns a study of the most likely attraction aspects of the universities in Italy. Although results are affected by the available information (above all the absence of economic status of the student\u2019s family), they give interesting suggestion about the characteristics of the migrant student and on the strength points of attraction of universities

Gluon chain formation in presence of static charges

We consider the origins of the gluon chain model. The model serves as a realization of the dynamics of the chromoelectric flux between static quark-antiquark sources. The derivation is based on the large-N_C limit of the Coulomb gauge Hamiltonian in the presence of a background field introduced to model magnetic confinement.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Gluelump spectrum from Coulomb gauge QCD

We compute the energy spectrum of gluelumps defined as gluonic excitations bound to a localized, static octet source. We are able to reproduce the nontrivial ordering of the spin-parity levels and show how this is related to the non-abelian part of the Coulomb interaction between color charges.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Heavy quarkonium hybrids from Coulomb gauge QCD

Using the non-relativisitc reduction of Coulomb gauge QCD we compute spectrum of the low mass hybrid mesons containing a heavy quark-antiquark pair. The gluon degrees of freedom are treated in the mean field approximation calibrated to the gluelump spectrum. We discuss the role of the non-abelian nature of the QCD Coulomb interaction in the ordering of the spin-parity levels.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Velocity and phase distribution measurements in vertical air-water annular flows

Annular flow topology for three air-water conditions in a vertical duct is investigated through the use of a traversing double-sensor hot-film anemometry probe and differential pressure measurements. Near wall measurements of mean and fluctuating velocities, as well as local void fraction, are taken in the liquid film, with the highest turbulent fluctuations occurring for the flow condition with the largest pressure drop. A modified law-of-the-wall formulation for wall shear is presented which, using near wall values of mean velocity and kinetic energy, agrees reasonably well with the average stress obtained from direct pressure drop measurements. The linear profile using wall coordinates in the logarithmic layer is preserved in annular flow; however, the slope and intercept of the profile differ from the single-phase values for the annular flow condition which has a thicker, more turbulent, liquid film

Structure and Functionality of the Mesozooplankton Community in a Coastal Marine Environment: Portofino Marine Protected Area (Liguria)

This research is part of the LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) project, a network of terrestrial, freshwater, transitional water and marine sites, on which ecological research is conducted on a multi-decade scale. LTER studies ecosystems, their dynamics and evolution, the relationships between biodiversity and ecological functionality, water quality, productivity, the role of resource availability, the effects of pollution and climate change. The research focuses on the study of the variability of zooplankton groups in the Portofino marine protected area, in Punta Faro. The samplings were carried out in the years 2018\u20132019, and the results were compared with the values of the years 2003\u20132005, interesting from a meteorological climatic and biological point of view. The plankton community of the Punta Faro system was analyzed by means of a modeling approach to obtain information on the functionality and health status of the system and to verify whether this has undergone any alterations in the last decade. The analyses carried out show a clear difference between the three-year period 2003\u20132005 and the two-year period 2018\u20132019, highlighting how environmental changes, such as the increase in temperature, have led to higher costs of system functioning in the last two years. The mesozooplankton community has changed both in terms of abundance of organisms and in terms of organization and functionality

Circular dielectric cavity and its deformations

The construction of perturbation series for slightly deformed dielectric circular cavity is discussed in details. The obtained formulae are checked on the example of cut disks. A good agreement is found with direct numerical simulations and far-field experiments.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure

WIF1 re-expression in glioblastoma inhibits migration through attenuation of non-canonical WNT signaling by downregulating the lncRNA MALAT1.

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive primary brain tumor in adults and due to the invasive nature cannot be completely removed. The WNT inhibitory factor 1 (WIF1), a secreted inhibitor of WNTs, is systematically downregulated in glioblastoma and acts as strong tumor suppressor. The aim of this study was the dissection of WIF1-associated tumor-suppressing effects mediated by canonical and non-canonical WNT signaling. We found that WIF1 besides inhibiting the canonical WNT pathway selectively downregulates the WNT/calcium pathway associated with significant reduction of p38-MAPK (p38-mitogen-activated protein kinase) phosphorylation. Knockdown of WNT5A, the only WNT ligand overexpressed in glioblastoma, phenocopied this inhibitory effect. WIF1 expression inhibited cell migration in vitro and in an orthotopic brain tumor model, in accordance with the known regulatory function of the WNT/Ca(2+) pathway on migration and invasion. In search of a mediator for this function differential gene expression profiles of WIF1-expressing cells were performed. Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1), a long non-coding RNA and key positive regulator of invasion, emerged as the top downregulated gene. Indeed, knockdown of MALAT1 reduced migration in glioblastoma cells, without effect on proliferation. Hence, loss of WIF1 enhances the migratory potential of glioblastoma through WNT5A that activates the WNT/Ca(2+) pathway and MALAT1. These data suggest the involvement of canonical and non-canonical WNT pathways in glioblastoma promoting key features associated with this deadly disease, proliferation on one hand and invasion on the other. Successful targeting will require a dual strategy affecting both canonical and non-canonical WNT pathways

Friction Factor Measurements in an Equally Spaced Triangular Tube Array

Friction factor data for adiabatic cross-flow of water in a staggered tube array was obtained over a Reynolds number range (based on hydraulic diameter and gap velocity) of about 10,000 to 250,000. The tubes were 12.7mm (0.5 inch) outer diameter, in a uniformly spaced triangular arrangement with a pitch-to-diameter ratio of 1.5. The friction factor was compared to several literature correlations, and was found to be best matched by the Idelchik correlation. Other correlations were found to vary significantly from the test data. Based on the test data, a new correlation is proposed for this tube bundle geometry which covers the entire Reynolds number range tested