Ultrafast light-induced long range antiferromagnetic correlations in paramagnets

We propose and analyze a laser-driven protocol to generate long-range ordered patterns in paramagnets, based on non-adiabatically driven aggregation dynamics. We derive the optimal driving parameters that maximize, respectively, the correlation length or the size of defect-free antiferromagnetic clusters in a one-dimensional chain. We show that one can reach correlation lengths that are exponentially larger than those achieved by adiabatic pumping schemes. The resonantly driven dynamics of cluster fronts is shown to map to an exactly solvable model of free fermions

Exoskeleton-Mediated Physical Human-Human Interaction for a Sit-to-Stand Rehabilitation Task

Sit-to-Stand (StS) is a fundamental daily activity that can be challenging for stroke survivors due to strength, motor control, and proprioception deficits in their lower limbs. Existing therapies involve repetitive StS exercises, but these can be physically demanding for therapists while assistive devices may limit patient participation and hinder motor learning. To address these challenges, this work proposes the use of two lower-limb exoskeletons to mediate physical interaction between therapists and patients during a StS rehabilitative task. This approach offers several advantages, including improved therapist-patient interaction, safety enforcement, and performance quantification. The whole body control of the two exoskeletons transmits online feedback between the two users, but at the same time assists in movement and ensures balance, and thus helping subjects with greater difficulty. In this study we present the architecture of the framework, presenting and discussing some technical choices made in the design.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to 2024 IEEE The International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA

On the comparison of age determination methods based on dental development radiographic studies in a sample of Italian population

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the degree of reliability, complexity of use and possibility of further refinement of eight radiographic methods for the age determination of subjects in the growth phase, applied on a sample of Italian population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Each considered method was tested on a sample of 178 digitized panoramic radiographs (97 males and 81 females, aged 5 to 22 years). The obtained data were processed by statistical analysis. RESULTS: The overall Absolute Mean Error (AME) was on average equal to 0.89 years; within this error range fell approximately 61% of the subjects in our sample. The overall average of AME plus 1 standard deviation (SD) was equal to approximately 1.70 years, in the context of which fell about 84.5% of the sample investigated. CONCLUSIONS: The statistical analysis of the data obtained by applying on our sample the considered methods showed, for each of them, the level of reliability in terms of absolute error with the relative SD (i.e., exact match between the age determined by the evaluators and the actual age, in terms of absolute value)

Tsunami risk perception in central and southern Italy

The Tsunami Alert Centre of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (CAT-INGV) has been promoting, since 2018, the study of tsunami risk perception in Italy. Between 2018 and 2021 a semi-structured questionnaire on the perception of tsunami risk was administered to a sample of 5842 citizens residing in 450 Italian coastal municipalities, representative of more than 12 million people. The survey was conducted with the computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) methodology, described in Cerase et al. (2019), who published the results of the first pilot survey (about 1000 interviews). The large sample and the socio-demographic stratification give an excellent representation of the resident population in the surveyed Italian coastal municipalities. Moreover, in 2021 an optimized version of the questionnaire was also administered via Telepanel (a tool for collecting proportional and representative opinions of citizens) that was representative of the Italian population and included 1500 people distributed throughout the country. In this work we present the main results of the three survey phases, with a comparison among the eight surveyed regions and between the coastal regions and some coastal metropolitan cities involved in the investigations (Rome, Naples, Bari, Reggio Calabria, and Catania). Data analysis reveals heterogeneous and generally low tsunami risk perception. Some seaside populations, in fact, show a good perception of tsunami risk, while others, such as in Apulia and Molise, reveal a lower perception, most likely due to the long time elapsed since the last event and lack of memory. We do not find relevant differences related to the socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender) of the sample, whereas the education degree appears to affect people's perception. The survey shows that the respondents' predominant source of information on tsunamis is the television and other media sources (such as newspapers, books, films, internet), while the official sources (e.g., civil protection, local authorities, universities and research institutes) do not contribute significantly. Also, we find an interesting difference in people's understanding of the words tsunami and maremoto, the local term commonly used in Italy until the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman event, which should be taken into account in scientific and risk communication. The Telepanel survey, based on a nationwide sample, highlights a lower level of tsunami risk perception in comparison to average risk perception levels found in the coastal-municipality sample. Our results are being used to drive our communication strategy aimed at reducing tsunami risk in Italy, to activate dissemination and educational programs (data driven), to fill the data gap on tsunami risk perception in the North-Eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and connected seas (NEAM) area, and to implement multilevel civil protection actions (national and local, top-down and bottom-up). Not least, outputs can address a better development of the UNESCO Tsunami Ready program in Italy.</p

Disaster waste management after flood events

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IGHV mutational status of nodal marginal zone lymphoma by NGS reveals distinct pathogenic pathways with different prognostic implications

The precise B cell of origin and molecular pathogenesis of nodal marginal zone lymphoma (NMZL) remain poorly defined. To date, due to the rarity of NMZL, the vast majority of already-published studies have been conducted on a limited number of samples and the technical approach to analyze the immunoglobulin genes was of amplifying rearranged variable region genes with the classical direct sequencing of the PCR products followed by cloning. Here, we studied the B cell Ig heavy-chain repertoires by next-generation sequencing (NGS) in 30 NMZL cases. Most of the cases were mutated (20/28; 71.5%) with homologies to the respective germ line genes ranging from 85 to 97, 83%, whereas 8/28 (28.5%) were unmutated. In addition, our results show that NMZL cases have a biased usage of specific immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable (IGHV) region genes. Moreover, we documented intraclonal diversity in all (100%) of the mutated cases and ongoing somatic hypermutations (SHM) have been confirmed by hundreds of reads. We analyzed the mutational pattern to detect and quantify antigen selection pressure and we found a positive selection in 4 cases, whereas in the remaining cases there was an unspecific stimulation. Finally, the disease-specific survival and the progression-free survival were significantly different between cases with mutated and unmutated IGHV genes, pointing out mutational status as a possible new biomarker in NMZL

Self-Healing and reprocessable oleic acid-based elastomer with dynamic S-S bonds as solvent-free reusable adhesive on copper surface

In the last decade, the application of dynamic covalent chemistry in the field of polymeric materials has become the subject of an increasing number of studies, gaining applicative relevance. This is due to the fact that polymers containing dynamic functions possess a structure that affords reprocessability, recyclability and peculiar self-healing properties inconceivable for “classic” polymer networks. Consequently, the synthesis of a dynamic covalent chemistry-based polymer and its chemical, thermal, and mechanical characterizations are reported in the present research. In particular, oleic acid has been used as starting material to follow the founding principles of the circular economy system and, thanks to the aromatic disulfide component, which is the foundation of the material dynamic characteristics, the obtained polymer resulted as being reprocessable and self-healable. Moreover, the polymer can strongly interact with copper surfaces through the formation of stable Cu-S bonds. Then, the application of the polymer as a solvent-free reusable adhesive for copper was investigated by lap joint shear tests and comparisons with the properties of an analogous material, devoid of the disulfide bonds, were conducted

Optical properties of high-quality oxide coating materials used in gravitational-wave advanced detectors

High-reflection interference mirrors for current gravitational wave detectors (aLIGO, Advanced Virgo, KAGRA) are made of high-quality oxide multi-layers deposited by ion beam sputtering (IBS) at the Laboratoire des Mat\ue9riaux Avanc\ue9s (LMA). For this task, LMA uses a large IBS custom-made machine (the grand coater GC) able to deposit very uniform coatings over very large surfaces, with diameter of some tens of cm. We report for the first time about the optical characterization by spectroscopic ellipsometry of oxide coatings deposited by the GC under strictly the same conditions used for the production of interference mirrors. We have investigated oxide materials like silica (SiO2), tantala (Ta2O5) and titania-doped tantala (Ti:Ta2O5), providing for each material a broad-band (190\u20131700 nm) accurate determination of the complex index of refraction, with particular attention to wavelengths used in interferometers. Particular focus has been dedicated to the influence of Ti-doping on tantala coating. The doping induces a red-shift of the optical gap and an increase of the NIR refractive index. Furthermore, doping induces a decrease of the so-called Urbach energy, consistent with the well-known reduction of the internal friction in these kind of systems