Collaboratory Digital Libraries for Humanities in the Italian context

The study investigates the approach to collaboration in Humanities, within the Italian context, to test the possibility of collaborative digital library for scholars. The research hypothesis is that collaboration can foster innovation and scienti c development: therefore, within Humanities, digital libraries can be the collaborative laboratory for research. Thus, understanding perception of scholars towards collaboration, especially online, and comprehending if wiki systems could be the framework of collaboration were the objectives of the study. A qualitative approach has been adopted, using case study as research method: in-depth, semi-structured interviews to Digital Humanities scholars provide data integrated with interviews with two key informants (one of which is prof. Umberto Eco). The results of the study show that Humanities, within Italian context, do appreciate collaboration and the concept of a collaboratory digital library, though several issues need to be solved. In fact, Humanities are still tied with individual work and collaboration is not easy to pursue, for cultural, technical and political reasons. Great e ort needs to be done at many different levels to eliminate obstacles and facilitate online collaboration for scholars. The study provides a draft model for a collaborative digital library arisen from gathered data

Modelli matematici per l'ottimizzazione delle politiche di manutenzione preventiva su base statistica

“Prevenire è meglio che curare” recitava anni fa una nota pubblicità di dentifrici. Ma se l’uso del dentifricio non bastasse, varrebbe la pena visitare ogni tanto il dentista per un controllo? E con quale frequenza, tenuto conto del costo di una visita di controllo, di quello di una visita “non solo di controllo” ma in cui si richiede un intervento a fronte di un “guasto”, della propensione al rischio e delle abitudini igieniche del paziente? In passato sono stati a lungo studiati i problemi di manutenzione e sostituzione dei sistemi soggetti a deterioramento, descritti in numerosi modelli che possono essere classificati in diverse politiche. Ogni politica presenta differenti caratteristiche, vantaggi e svantaggi. In prima analisi si classificano le diverse politiche manutentive esistenti per sistemi a unità singola, per poi mostrare nel dettaglio alcuni modelli matematici di natura probabilistica di supporto alla programmazione della manutenzione nei sistemi di produzione, evidenziando le formule che permettono di confrontare i diversi modelli in termini numerici di costo atteso a lungo termine. Lo scopo della ricerca è dunque l’esposizione e l’analisi dei principali modelli matematici per l’ottimizzazione delle politiche preventive su base statistica; la metodologia impiegata include una revisione sistematica della letteratura esistente, comprensiva di articoli accademici, testi, manuali e report scientifici redatti a partire dai primi studi dei pionieri dell’approccio matematico alla manutenzione (Barlow, Hunter) per poi spingersi fino ai giorni nostri. Il materiale utilizzato deriva dalla ricerca di parole chiave su cataloghi online di articoli scientifici, portali specifici del mondo dell’ingegneria e dalla consultazione di testi universitari. La tesi vuole fornire un contributo alla letteratura esistente sulle politiche manutentive preventive offrendo un’ampia prospettiva sulla situazione attuale di studio ed applicabilità dei modelli teorici analizzati

Le biblioteche e la filiera dell’open

Negli ultimi anni, le collaborazioni fra mondo bibliotecario e mondo wikipediano sono sempre più frequenti e interessanti. L'articolo ripercorre le ragioni teoriche e deontologiche di questi progetti, all'interno della cornice concettuale dei "beni comuni digitali"

Outflows and mass accretion in collapsing dense cores with misaligned rotation axis and magnetic field

Outflows and jets are intimately related to the formation of stars, and play an important role in redistributing mass, energy and angular momentum within the dense core and parent cloud. The interplay between magnetic field and rotation is responsible for launching these outflows, whose formation has been generally carried out for idealized systems where the angle $\alpha$ between the rotation axis and large-scale magnetic field is zero. Here we explore, through three-dimensional ideal magneto-hydrodynamic simulations, the effects of a non-zero $\alpha$ on the formation of outflows during the collapse of dense pre-stellar cores. We find that mass ejection is less efficient for increasing angle $\alpha$, and that outflows are essentially suppressed for $\alpha\sim90^{\circ}$. An important consequence is a corresponding increase of the mass accreted onto the adiabatic (first) core. In addition, mean flow velocities tend to increase with $\alpha$, and misaligned configurations produce clumpy, heterogeneous outflows that undergo precession, and are more prone to instabilities.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS letters, 6 pages 4 figure

Targeting the JAK/STAT Pathway: A Combined Ligand- And Target-Based Approach

Janus kinases (JAKs) are a family of proinflammatory enzymes able to mediate the immune responses and the inflammatory cascade by modulating multiple cytokine expressions as well as various growth factors. In the present study, the inhibition of the JAK-signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) signaling pathway is explored as a potential strategy for treating autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. A computationally driven approach aimed at identifying novel JAK inhibitors based on molecular topology, docking, and molecular dynamics simulations was carried out. For the best candidates selected, the inhibitory activity against JAK2 was evaluated in vitro. Two hit compounds with a novel chemical scaffold, 4 (IC50 = 0.81 μM) and 7 (IC50 = 0.64 μM), showed promising results when compared with the reference drug Tofacitinib (IC50 = 0.031 μM).This study was funded by the University of Valencia and Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) through postdoctoral grants no. UVINV_POSTDOC18-785681 and APOSTD/2019/055 (M.G-L.) and by the University of Bologna through research grant no. RFO2019 (P.R., S.C., and M.R.)

Mass accretion to young stars triggered by flaring activity in circumstellar disks

Young low-mass stars are characterized by ejection of collimated outflows and by circumstellar disks which they interact with through accretion of mass. The accretion builds up the star to its final mass and is also believed to power the mass outflows, which may in turn remove the excess angular momentum from the star-disk system. However, although the process of mass accretion is a critical aspect of star formation, some of its mechanisms are still to be fully understood. A point not considered to date and relevant for the accretion process is the evidence of very energetic and frequent flaring events in these stars. Flares may easily perturb the stability of the disks, thus influencing the transport of mass and angular momentum. Here we report on three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic modeling of the evolution of a flare with an idealized non--equilibrium initial condition occurring near the disk around a rotating magnetized star. The model takes into account the stellar magnetic field, the gravitational force, the viscosity of the disk, the magnetic-field-oriented thermal conduction (including the effects of heat flux saturation), the radiative losses from optically thin plasma, and the coronal heating. We show that, during its first stage of evolution, the flare gives rise to a hot magnetic loop linking the disk to the star. The disk is strongly perturbed by the flare: disk material evaporates under the effect of the thermal conduction and an overpressure wave propagates through the disk. When the overpressure reaches the opposite side of the disk, a funnel flow starts to develop there, accreting substantial disk material onto the young star from the side of the disk opposite to the flare.Comment: 14 pages, 10 Figures; accepted for publication on MNRAS. Version with full resolution images can be found at http://www.astropa.unipa.it/~orlando/PREPRINTS/sorlando_mnras.pd