The ground state of a spin-1/2 neutral particle with anomalous magnetic moment in a Aharonov-Casher configuration

We determine the (bound) ground state of a spin 1/2 chargless particle with anomalous magnetic moment in certain Aharonov-Casher configurations. We recast the description of the system in a supersymmetric form. Then the basic physical requirements for unbroken supersymmetry are established. We comment on the possibility of neutron trapping in these systems

Enhanced Electrical and Reliability Testing of Power Semiconductor Devices

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Engineering patterned and dynamic surfaces for the spatio-temporal control of cell behaviour

Stem cell shape and mechanical properties in vitro can be directed by geometrically defined micropatterned adhesion substrates. However conventional methods are limited by the fixed micropattern design, which cannot recapitulate the dynamic changes of the natural cell microenvironment. Recent advancements in microfabrication technologies in combination with the use of light-responsive materials, allow to manipulate the shape of living cells in real-time in a non-invasive Spatio-temporal controlled way to introduce additional geometrically defined adhesion sites and to study relative cell behaviour. Here, the confocal laser technique is exploited for dynamically evaluate the variation over time of the tensional and morphological cell state. This method allows the precise control of specific actin structures that regulate cell architecture. Actin filament bundles, initially randomly organized in circular-shaped cells, are induced to align and distribute to form a rectangular-shaped cell in response to specific dynamic changes in the cell adhesion pattern. The changes in morphology also reflect dramatic changes in FAs distribution, cell mechanics, nuclear morphology, and chromatin conformation. The reported strategy is convenient to explore the cell-substrate interface and the mechanisms through which cell geometry regulates cell signalling in a facile and cost-effective manner and it open new routes to understand how the field of dynamic platforms should potentially contribute to unveil complex biological events such as the modulation of cell shape

Funzione sociale dello sport, diversabilità e tutela della personalità

Sport is a mass phenomen. Today the European Law recognize the social model of sport activity and it is possible conceive the sport a fundamental human right. Also, the legislation on disability provide for the right sport for people with disability. The general goal is to overcome, as much as possible, the disability's effects and to enable the disabled to participate in all areas of society, and in community life This article examine the social role of sport and physical activity  in promoting equal rights for the disabilities, It identifies the positive actions and the law developments that can be adopted to provide equality of opportunity and access to sport and recreation for disabled people, and some of the initiatives that have already been introduced

Principles and perspectives of radiographic imaging with muons

Radiographic imaging with muons, also called Muography, is based on the measurement of the absorption of muons, generated by the interaction of cosmic rays with the earth’s atmosphere, in matter. Muons are elementary particles with high penetrating power, a characteristic that makes them capable of crossing bodies of dimensions of the order of hundreds of meters. The interior of bodies the size of a pyramid or a volcano can be seen directly with the use of this technique, which can rely on highly segmented muon trackers. Since the muon flux is distributed in energy over a wide spectrum that depends on the direction of incidence, the main difference with radiography made with X-rays is in the source. The source of muons is not tunable, neither in energy nor in direction; to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, muography requires large instrumentation, long time data acquisition and high background rejection capacity. Here, we present the principles of the Muography, illustrating how radiographic images can be obtained, starting from the measurement of the attenuation of the muon flux through an object. It will then be discussed how recent technologies regarding artificial intelligence can give an impulse to this methodology in order to improve its results

RGB-D Object Recognition for Deep Robotic Learning

Negli ultimi anni, il successo delle tecniche di Deep Learning in una grande varietà di problemi sia nel contesto della visione artificiale che in quello dell’elaborazione del linguaggio naturale ha contribuito all’applicazione di reti neurali artificiali profonde a sistemi robotici. Grazie all’utilizzo di sensori RGB-D per l’acquisizione dell’informazione di profondità di una scena del mondo reale, i sistemi robotizzati stanno sempre più semplificando alcune delle sfide comuni nel campo della visione robotica. Nel contesto del riconoscimento oggetti RGB-D, un’attività fondamentale per diverse applicazioni robotiche, data una CNN come modello di apprendimento ed un dataset RGB-D, ci si chiede spesso quale sia la migliore strategia di preprocessamento della profondità al fine di ottenere una migliore accuratezza di classificazione. Un’altra domanda cruciale è se l’informazione di profondità incrementerà in maniera notevole o meno l’accuratezza del classificatore.Questa tesi è interessata a cercare di rispondere a queste domande chiave. In particolare, discutiamo e confrontiamo i risultati ottenuti dall’impiego di tre strategie di preprocessamento dell’informazione di profondità, dove ognuna di queste strategie conduce ad uno specifico scenario di training. Questi scenari vengono valutati per mezzo del dataset CORe50 RGB-D. Infine, questa tesi prova che, nel contesto del riconoscimento oggetti, l’utilizzo dell’informazione di profondità migliora significativamente l’accuratezza di classificazione. A tal fine, dalla nostra analisi si evince che la precisione e completezza dell’informazione di profondità ed eventualmente la sua strategia di segmentazione svolgono un ruolo fondamentale. Inoltre, mostriamo che effettuare un training from scratch di una CNN (rispetto ad un fine-tuning) può permettere di apprezzare miglioramenti notevoli dell’accuratezza

First results on the CMS RPC system using the 2007 and 2008 cosmic ray data

A preliminary study of the performance of the CMS RPC system will be here presented. A large set of muons have been triggered and reconstructed using cosmic ray data taken in the 2007 and 2008 CMS Global Runs. The Drift Tube chambers and the RPC chambers have both been used as trigger system and the data have been used to measure detector and trigger performances. RPC detector and trigger efficiencies have been measured using muon data triggered by DT chambers only in order to have an unbiased set of data. More studies on the RPC detector have been performed (noise, current, cluster size) and the first results will also be shown here

Does magnetic resonance represent the gold-standard of imaging for the follow-up of arthritis?

Several studies suggest that MRI is between 2 and 10 times superior to conventional radiology in the visualization of erosions. This higher sensibility is dependent on the specific joint assessed, the precocity of the disease, and the timing of follow-up. In addition, MRI can depict bone oedema, which is an early and reversible bone lesion, and evaluate the degree of inflammation of the synovial membrane. A single examination could therefore evaluate disease activity and damage. The sensitivity to change of articular MRI is good, as demonstrated by a number of follow-up studies. In view of these advantages, it may be surprising that MRI has not yet become the gold standard of imaging of the arthritic joint. The three main reasons are low availability of high field machines, examination's costs, and lack of standardization of the technique. Low field extremity-dedicated MRI machines are probably the answer to the first two concerns. They have been shown to obtain reliable results for the clinician, and to be relatively cheap and patientfriendly, allowing repeated follow-up examinations. As far as standardization is concerned, there are many studies addressing the problem, with OMERACT as the driving force. MRI is likely to represent the future of the follow up of arthritis for the evaluation of its pace of progression and the effect of treatment. The advent of new and potent biologic therapies has incremented the need for more sensible imaging methods and will probably drive their diffusion in clinical practice