Lying in the medicolegal field: Malingering and psychodiagnostic assessment

The simulation of mental illness, so-called “Malingering”, is a very difficult phenomenon for professionals to identify when making an assessment, especially in the medicolegal and forensic psychology and psychiatry fields. When malingering, the subject implements strategies that mimic the symptoms related to a possible psychiatric disease, with the aim of misleading the operator. It is necessary, therefore, to elicit a complete medical history and make a close clinical examination and, especially, to be able to rely on appropriate diagnostic tools. Another important aspect, in the legal medicine, and forensic psychology and psychiatry fields, is the opposite strategy, namely that of dissimulating, or masking, a disease.Several diagnostic tools that the professional clinician can employ to identify dissembling strategies are considered in this article, namely the MMPI- 2, PAI, M- Fast, the SIRS and, finally, the SIMS. Clin Ter 2019; 170(2):e134-141. doi: 10.7417/CT.2019.212

Scattering in the energy space for the NLS with variable coefficients

We consider the NLS with variable coefficients in dimension $n\ge3$ \begin{equation*} i \partial_t u - Lu +f(u)=0, \qquad Lv=\nabla^{b}\cdot(a(x)\nabla^{b}v)-c(x)v, \qquad \nabla^{b}=\nabla+ib(x), \end{equation*} on $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ or more generally on an exterior domain with Dirichlet boundary conditions, for a gauge invariant, defocusing nonlinearity of power type $f(u)\simeq|u|^{\gamma-1}u$. We assume that $L$ is a small, long range perturbation of $\Delta$, plus a potential with a large positive part. The first main result of the paper is a bilinear smoothing (interaction Morawetz) estimate for the solution. As an application, under the conditional assumption that Strichartz estimates are valid for the linear flow $e^{itL}$, we prove global well posedness in the energy space for subcritical powers $\gamma1+\frac4n$. When the domain is $\mathbb{R}^{n}$, by extending the Strichartz estimates due to Tataru [Tataru08], we prove that the conditional assumption is satisfied and deduce well posedness and scattering in the energy space

Boundary triples for the Dirac operator with Coulomb-type spherically symmetric perturbations

We determine explicitly a boundary triple for the Dirac operator $H:=-i\alpha\cdot \nabla + m\beta + \mathbb V(x)$ in $\mathbb R^3$, for $m\in\mathbb R$ and $\mathbb V(x)= |x|^{-1} ( \nu \mathbb{I}_4 +\mu \beta -i \lambda \alpha\cdot{x}/|x|\,\beta)$, with $\nu,\mu,\lambda \in \mathbb R$. Consequently we determine all the self-adjoint realizations of $H$ in terms of the behaviour of the functions of their domain in the origin. When $\sup_{x} |x||\mathbb V(x)| \leq 1$, we discuss the problem of selecting the distinguished extension requiring that its domain is included in the domain of the appropriate quadratic form

Cluster Mergers, Radio Halos and Hard X-ray Tails: A Statistical Magneto-Turbulent Model

There is now firm evidence that the ICM consists of a mixture of hot plasma, magnetic fields and relativistic particles. The most important evidences for non-thermal phenomena in galaxy clusters comes from the diffuse Mpc-scale synchrotron radio emission (radio halos) observed in a growing number of massive clusters (Feretti 2003) and from hard X-ray (HXR) excess emission (detected in a few cases) which can be explained in terms of IC scattering of relativistic electrons off the cosmic microwave background photons (Fusco-Femiano et al. 2003). There are now growing evidences that giant radio halos may be naturally accounted for by synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons reaccelerated by some kind of turbulence generated in the cluster volume during merger events (Brunetti 2003). With the aim to investigate the connection between thermal and non-thermal properties of the ICM, we have developed a statistical magneto-turbulent model which describes the evolution of the thermal and non-thermal emission from clusters. We calculate the energy and spectrum of the magnetosonic waves generated during cluster mergers, the acceleration and evolution of relativistic electrons and thus the resulting synchrotron and inverse Compton spectra. Here we give a brief description of the main results, while a more detailed discussion will be presented in a forthcoming paper. Einstein-De Sitter cosmology, $H_o=50$ km $s^{-1}$$Mpc^{-1}$, $q_o=0.5$, is assumed.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of IAU Colloquium 195 - "Outskirts of galaxy clusters: intense life in the suburbs", Torino, Italy, March 12-16, 200

From obesity resistance to obesity prediction and prevention?

Comment on: Regulation of hypothalamic neuropeptides gene expression in diet induced obesity resistant rats: possible targets for obesity prediction? [Front Neurosci. 2015

On the radio -- X-ray luminosity correlation of radio halos at low radio frequency - Application of the turbulent re-acceleration model

In this paper we show expectations on the radio--X-ray luminosity correlation of radio halos at 120 MHz. According to the "turbulent re-acceleration scenario", low frequency observations are expected to detect a new population of radio halos that, due to their ultra-steep spectra, are missed by present observations at ~ GHz frequencies. These radio halos should also be less luminous than presently observed halos hosted in clusters with the same X-ray luminosity. Making use of Monte Carlo procedures, we show that the presence of these ultra-steep spectrum halos at 120 MHz causes a steepening and a broadening of the correlation between the synchrotron power and the cluster X-ray luminosity with respect to that observed at 1.4 GHz. We investigate the role of future low frequency radio surveys, and find that the upcoming LOFAR surveys will be able to test these expectations.Comment: e.g.: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&

An unlikely radio halo in the low X-ray luminosity galaxy cluster RXC J1514.9-1523

We report the discovery of a giant radio halo in the galaxy cluster RXC J1514.9-1523 at z=0.22 with a relatively low X-ray luminosity, $L_{X \, [0.1-2.4 \rm \, kev]} \sim 7 \times 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$. This faint, diffuse radio source is detected with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at 327 MHz. The source is barely detected at 1.4 GHz in a NVSS pointing that we have reanalyzed. The integrated radio spectrum of the halo is quite steep, with a slope \alpha = 1.6 between 327 MHz and 1.4 GHz. While giant radio halos are common in more X-ray luminous cluster mergers, there is a less than 10% probability to detect a halo in systems with L_X \ltsim 8 \times 10^{44} erg s$^{-1}$. The detection of a new giant halo in this borderline luminosity regime can be particularly useful for discriminating between the competing theories for the origin of ultrarelativistic electrons in clusters. Furthermore, if our steep radio spectral index is confirmed by future deeper radio observations, this cluster would provide another example of the recently discovered population of ultra-steep spectrum radio halos, predicted by the model in which the cluster cosmic ray electrons are produced by turbulent reacceleration.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures - Accepted for publication on A&A Research Note