Constraining the general reheating phase in the α\alpha-attractor inflationary cosmology

In this paper we constrain some aspects of the general postinflationary phase in the context of superconformal $\alpha$-attractor models of inflation. In particular, we provide constraints on the duration of the reheating process, $N_{reh}$, and on the reheating temperature, $T_{reh}$, simulating possible and future results given by the next-generation of cosmological missions. Moreover, we stress what kinds of equation-of-state parameter, $w_{reh}$, are favored for different scenarios. The analysis does not depend on the details of the reheating phase and it is performed assuming different measurements of the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

CPCs and ECM. A good mix for cardiac regeneration

ABSTRACT Despite several improvements in term of diagnosis and prevention, ischemic heart disease still represents one of the principal worldwide causes of death. Cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) based therapy is considered a valid alternative to heart transplant, but several issues concerning the transplanted cells viability, retention and therapeutic effect need to be solved. Tissue engineering, mixing synthetic or natural polymers with injected cells, could represent the way through which overcomes shortages and set up an effective cardiac regenerative therapy. Nowadays, it is well known that cardiac extracellular matrix (ECM) provides structural and functional integrity, affects cardiac function, development and physiologic repair. In this optic, ECM and ECM-like materials represent functional and biocompatible tools with a great potential to serve as natural or nature-mimicking scaffolds in the field of regenerative medicine. The aim of the present work is to provide an overview on the state of the art and recent advantages on CPCs and scaffold-based therapy for heart regeneration

Constraining auto-interaction terms in α-attractor supergravity models of inflation

The inflationary mechanism has become the paradigm of modern cosmology over the last thirty years. However, there are several aspects of inflationary physics that are still to be addressed, like the shape of the inflationary potential. Regarding this, the so-called α-attractor models show interesting properties. In this work, the reconstruction of the effective potential around the global minimum of these particular potentials is provided, assuming a detection of permille-order for the tensor-to-scalar-ratio by forthcoming cosmic microwave background or gravitational waves experiments

Commentary: Early screening parameters for dysphagia in acute ischemic stroke

We read with great interest the article by Henke et al. (1) aimed to identify early assessable predictors of dysphagia in the acute phase of ischemic stroke. A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed higher age, male gender, and higher stroke severity [as assessed by NIH stroke scale (NIHSS)] to be independent predictor of poststroke dysphagia. Moreover, ROC analysis showed that in the acute phase of stroke NIHSS score of 4.5 was the best cut-off between dysphagic and non-dysphagic patients. This research field certainly has a remarkable clinical interest, because it may lead to individuate those acute stroke patients who may benefit from a more detailed assessment of their swallow function (i.e., using fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing or videofluoroscopy). However, an NIHSS cut-off for dysphagia of 4.5, by excluding only stroke patients with a very mild deficit, is probably of limited clinical usefulness. In other words, since the majority of stroke is of moderate-severe degree, it appears to be of little help in detecting only those patients who may benefit from a more detailed assessment of their swallowing function

Reconstruction of α\alpha-attractor supergravity models of inflation

In this paper, we apply reconstruction techniques to recover the potential parameters for a particular class of single-field models, the $\alpha$-attractor (supergravity) models of inflation. This also allows to derive the inflaton vacuum expectation value at horizon crossing. We show how to use this value as one of the input variables to constrain the postaccelerated inflationary phase. We assume that the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ is of the order of $10^{-3}$ , a level reachable by the expected sensitivity of the next-generation CMB experiments.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, some typos correcte

Letter by toscano et al regarding article. association of leukoaraiosis with convalescent rehabilitation outcome in patients with ischemic stroke

Given the aforementioned link between leukoaraiosis and swallowing impairment, and the burden of poststroke dysphagia on rehabilitation outcome, it could be of some interest to analyze the relationships between leukoaraiosis, recovery, and dysphagia in your large population

Alice in wonderland syndrome. a clinical and pathophysiological review

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS) is a perceptual disorder, principally involving visual and somesthetic integration, firstly reported by Todd, on the literary suggestion of the strange experiences described by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland books. Symptoms may comprise among others aschematia and dysmetropsia. This syndrome has many different etiologies; however EBV infection is the most common cause in children, while migraine affects more commonly adults. Many data support a strict relationship between migraine and AIWS, which could be considered in many patients as an aura or a migraine equivalent, particularly in children. Nevertheless, AIWS seems to have anatomical correlates. According to neuroimaging, temporoparietal- occipital carrefour (TPO-C) is a key region for developing many of AIWS symptoms. The final part of this review aims to find the relationship between AIWS symptoms, presenting a pathophysiological model. In brief, AIWS symptoms depend on an alteration of TPO-C where visual-spatial and somatosensory information are integrated. Alterations in these brain regions may cause the cooccurrence of dysmetropsia and disorders of body schema. In our opinion, the association of other symptoms reported in literature could vary depending on different etiologies and the lack of clear diagnostic criteria

2-derivators

Introduced independently by Grothendieck and Heller in the 1980s, derivators provide a formal way to study homotopy theories by working in some quotient category such as the homotopy category of a model category. In 2015 Riehl and Verity introduced $\infty$-cosmoi, which are particular $(\infty,2)$-categories where one can develop $(\infty,1)$-category theory in a synthetic way. They noticed that much of the theory of $\infty$-cosmoi can be developed inside a quotient, the homotopy $2$-category. In the following, we begin a program that aims to formalise the $\infty$-cosmological approach to $\infty$-category theory in a derivator-like framework. In this paper we introduce some axioms and demonstrate they hold in a variety of models, including common models related to $\infty$-category theory. We also prove that these axioms are stable under a particular shift operation.Comment: 48 page

Esteem of Territory and Country in Puglia (Italy) in Perspective of Sustainable Tourism: The Strategic Experiential Approach. An Apulian Case History

The richness of tourism for Italian economy and employment depends on the use of environmental, artistic, historical resources, which the Country has available; but also on the realization of an optimal net of relationships and cooperations with the various regional, provincial and local institutions, based on a unitarian national vision of tourism development. The touristic market has suffered some changes through the years, moving from a mass tourism to the global tourism, in order to get to responsible ecofriendly, sustainable tourism. In a so dynamic background, task of companies operating in this sector is that of interpreting the rising needs of consumers, aiming for quality and organization. This paper’s goal consists of bringing in surface the new perspectives of a tourism focused on the discoveyr of territory and the consequent development of country tourism’ concept. Such trend puts the stress on a necessary interconnection between touristic, territorial marketing and policy of territory’s maintenance and development. In light of the changes that have influenced the relationships between touristic market and its own customers, the paper aims to offer a specific picture of relationship between tourism and sustainability, resting particularly on the marketing tools to give value to territory and supply the development of a sustainable tourism. The paper is supported by a practical case regarding the Manor farm in vineyard “Le Fabriche” located in Maruggio, by the Ionic coast of Salento (Puglia-Italy). Such land hosts some of the best accomodating structures, which manage to fuse together the development of its own economical activity with tradition and the peculiarities of the territory that hosts them

Classification of ductile cast iron specimens: A machine learning approach

In this paper an automatic procedure based on a machine learning approach is proposed to classify ductile cast iron specimens according to the American Society for Testing and Materials guidelines. The mechanical properties of a specimen are strongly influenced by the peculiar morphology of their graphite elements and useful characteristics, the features, are extracted from the specimens’ images; these characteristics examine the shape, the distribution and the size of the graphite particle in the specimen, the nodularity and the nodule count. The principal components analysis are used to provide a more efficient representation of these data. Support vector machines are trained to obtain a classification of the data by yielding sequential binary classification steps. Numerical analysis is performed on a significant number of images providing robust results, also in presence of dust, scratches and measurement noise