Mutual Inductance Route to Paramagnetic Meissner Effect in 2D Josephson Junction Arrays

We simulate two-dimensional Josephson junction arrays, including full mutual- inductance effects, as they are cooled below the transition temperature in a magnetic field. We show numerical simulations of the array magnetization as a function of position, as detected by a scanning SQUID which is placed at a fixed height above the array. The calculated magnetization images show striking agreement with the experimental images obtained by A. Nielsen et al. The average array magnetization is found to be paramagnetic for many values of the applied field, confirming that paramagnetism can arise from magnetic screening in multiply-connected superconductors without the presence of d-wave superconductivity.Comment: REVTeX 3.1, 5 pages, 5 figure

The ‘future’ of urban rent from the perspective of the metropolitan territorial plan of Naples

The Metropolitan City of Naples, as in the art. 1 of its Statute, aims «to restore the environment, to regenerate and reorder the urban tissue, to safeguard the common goods, guaranteeing their access, to reorganize the territorial polycentrism, overcrossing the center-periphery dichotomy and to promote the civil, social, cultural and economic development, enanching the diversities and the territorial excellences». In the Statute (at Article 35), the Metropolitan City is expected to provide coordination and general territorial planning by means of the Metropolitan Territorial Plan, consisting of a structural and an operational component, with measures of “urban equalization”. The structural component defines the vision of the territory, while the operational one programmes the actions of metropolitan interest to be implemented by the metropolitan city as well as the indications for the municipalities of the metropolitan city over a three-year period. In December 2017, the proposal for the Territorial coordination plan was adopted, which substantially recovers the Provincial Territorial Coordination Plan of 2007, repealing certain parts. The TCP of the metropolitan city of Naples is based on the redevelopment of the existing patrimony as a way of contrasting land consumption, in line with government plans. The main strategic elements of the plan, in fact, are the conservation and enhancement of the environmental, natural, cultural and landscape heritage, the adaptation of the housing supply, concentrating it only on the margins or within already established sites – densification –, and the enhancement and re-articulation of the urban system in a polycentric and reticular key. It is therefore, from this perspective, that this article seeks to elaborate a number of reflections on the possible ”future of urban rent” in the context of the metropolitan spaces of Naples, where the “potential” of the value of abandoned land in peripheral and/or peri- urban areas assumes a strategic role in the processes of regeneration and densification envisaged by the TCP. In terms of TCP operation, the principle should be to “expropriate” as little as possible, making use of the “equalization instrument” to ensure economic operators the necessary profit (an “interest in doing”)

The Casimir Effect for Fermions in One Dimension

We study the Casimir problem for a fermion coupled to a static background field in one space dimension. We examine the relationship between interactions and boundary conditions for the Dirac field. In the limit that the background becomes concentrated at a point (a ``Dirac spike'') and couples strongly, it implements a confining boundary condition. We compute the Casimir energy for a masslike background and show that it is finite for a stepwise continuous background field. However the total Casimir energy diverges for the Dirac spike. The divergence cannot be removed by standard renormalization methods. We compute the Casimir energy density of configurations where the background field consists of one or two sharp spikes and show that the energy density is finite except at the spikes. Finally we define and compute an interaction energy density and the force between two Dirac spikes as a function of the strength and separation of the spikes.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

On the Parity Problem in One-Dimensional Cellular Automata

We consider the parity problem in one-dimensional, binary, circular cellular automata: if the initial configuration contains an odd number of 1s, the lattice should converge to all 1s; otherwise, it should converge to all 0s. It is easy to see that the problem is ill-defined for even-sized lattices (which, by definition, would never be able to converge to 1). We then consider only odd lattices. We are interested in determining the minimal neighbourhood that allows the problem to be solvable for any initial configuration. On the one hand, we show that radius 2 is not sufficient, proving that there exists no radius 2 rule that can possibly solve the parity problem from arbitrary initial configurations. On the other hand, we design a radius 4 rule that converges correctly for any initial configuration and we formally prove its correctness. Whether or not there exists a radius 3 rule that solves the parity problem remains an open problem.Comment: In Proceedings AUTOMATA&JAC 2012, arXiv:1208.249

Real estate investment choices and decision support systems

The evaluation of real estate assets is currently one of the main focal points addressed by territorial marketing strategies, with the view of developing high-performing or competitive cities. Given the complexity of the driving forces that determine the behavior of actors in a real estate market, it is necessary to identify a priori the factors that determine the competitive capacity of a city, to attract investments. The decision support system allows taking into account the key factors that determine the “attractiveness” of real estate investments in competitive urban contexts. This study proposes an integrated complex evaluation model that is able to map out and encapsulate the multidimensional spectrum of factors that shape the attractiveness of alternative real estate options. The conceptual–methodological approach is illustrated by an application of the model to a real-world case study of investment choice in the residential sector of Naples

HNRNPM guides an alternative splicing program in response to inhibition of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway in Ewing sarcoma cells

Ewing sarcomas (ES) are biologically aggressive tumors of bone and soft tissues for which no cure is currently available. Most ES patients do not respond to chemotherapeutic treatments or acquire resistance. Since the PI3K/AKT/mTOR axis is often deregulated in ES, its inhibition offers therapeutic perspective for these aggressive tumors. Herein, by using splicing sensitive arrays, we have uncovered an extensive splicing program activated upon inhibition of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway by BEZ235. Bioinformatics analyses identified hnRNPM as a key factor in this response. HnRNPMmotifswere significantly enriched in introns flanking the regulated exons and proximity of binding represented a key determinant for hnRNPM-dependent splicing regulation. Knockdown of hnRNPM expression abolished a subset of BEZ235-induced splicing changes that contained hnRNPM binding sites, enhanced BEZ235 cytotoxicity and limited the clonogenicity of ES cells. Importantly, hnRNPM up-regulation correlates with poor outcome in sarcoma patients. These findings uncover an hnRNPM-dependent alternative splicing program set in motion by inhibition of the mTOR/AKT/PI3K pathway in ES cells that limits therapeutic efficacy of pharmacologic inhibitors, suggesting that combined inhibition of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and hnRNPM activity may represent a novel approach for ES treatment

Reduction and reconstruction of stochastic differential equations via symmetries

An algorithmic method to exploit a general class of infinitesimal symmetries for reducing stochastic differential equations is presented and a natural definition of reconstruction, inspired by the classical reconstruction by quadratures, is proposed. As a side result the well-known solution formula for linear one-dimensional stochastic differential equations is obtained within this symmetry approach. The complete procedure is applied to several examples with both theoretical and applied relevance

Ordering Quantiles through Confidence Statements

Ranking variables according to their relevance to predict an outcome is an important task in biomedicine. For instance, such ranking can be used for selecting a smaller number of genes for then applying other sophisticated experiments only on genes identified as important. A nonparametric method called Quor is designed to provide a confidence value for the order of arbitrary quantiles of different populations using independent samples. This confidence may provide insights about possible differences among groups and yields a ranking of importance for the variables. Computations are efficient and use exact distributions with no need for asymptotic considerations. Experiments with simulated data and with multiple real -omics data sets are performed, and they show advantages and disadvantages of the method. Quor has no assumptions but independence of samples, thus it might be a better option when assumptions of other methods cannot be asserted. The software is publicly available on CRAN