Drug repurposing against COVID-19. focus on anticancer agents

The very limited time allowed to face the COVID-19 pandemic poses a pressing challenge to find proper therapeutic approaches. However, synthesis and full investigation from preclinical studies to phase III trials of new medications is a time-consuming procedure, and not viable in a global emergency, such as the one we are facing

Isotropic properties of the photonic band gap in quasicrystals with low-index contrast

We report on the formation and development of the photonic band gap in two-dimensional 8-, 10- and 12-fold symmetry quasicrystalline lattices of low index contrast. Finite size structures made of dielectric cylindrical rods were studied and measured in the microwave region, and their properties compared with a conventional hexagonal crystal. Band gap characteristics were investigated by changing the direction of propagation of the incident beam inside the crystal. Various angles of incidence from 0 \degree to 30\degree were used in order to investigate the isotropic nature of the band gap. The arbitrarily high rotational symmetry of aperiodically ordered structures could be practically exploited to manufacture isotropic band gap materials, which are perfectly suitable for hosting waveguides or cavities.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR

Cosmogenic neutrino fluxes under the effect of active-sterile secret interactions

Ultra High Energy cosmogenic neutrinos may represent a unique opportunity to unveil possible new physics interactions once restricted to the neutrino sector only. In the present paper we study the observable effects of a secret active-sterile interactions, mediated by a pseudoscalar, on the expected flux of cosmogenic neutrinos. The results show that for masses of sterile neutrinos and pseudoscalars of hundreds MeV, necessary to evade cosmological, astrophysical and elementary particle constraints, the presence of such new interactions can significantly change the energy spectrum of cosmogenic neutrinos at Earth in the energy range from PeV to ZeV. Interestingly, the distortion of the spectrum results to be detectable at GRAND apparatus if the scalar mediator mass is around 250 MeV and the UHECRs are dominated by the proton component. Larger mediator masses or a chemical composition of UHECRs dominated by heavier nuclei would require much larger cosmic rays apparatus which might be available in future.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Structural change in multipartite entanglement sharing: a random matrix approach

We study the typical entanglement properties of a system comprising two independent qubit environments interacting via a shuttling ancilla. The initial preparation of the environments is modeled using random-matrix techniques. The entanglement measure used in our study is then averaged over many histories of randomly prepared environmental states. Under a Heisenberg interaction model, the average entanglement between the ancilla and one of the environments remains constant, regardless of the preparation of the latter and the details of the interaction. We also show that, upon suitable kinematic and dynamical changes in the ancilla-environment subsystems, the entanglement-sharing structure undergoes abrupt modifications associated with a change in the multipartite entanglement class of the overall system's state. These results are invariant with respect to the randomized initial state of the environments.Comment: 10 pages, RevTeX4 (Minor typo's corrected. Closer to published version

Response of House Foundations During the Loma Prieta Earthquake

Significant damage to house foundations has resulted from the Lorna Prieta earthquake. In some cases the cost to repair the foundation and to make the necessary seismic upgrades exceeded the market value of the house. This level of foundation damage was found at various distances from the epicenter and in different geologic settings. Presented in this paper are observations made on the foundation responses to various ground effects from the earthquake shaking. Also pointed out is the difference in performance of various affected foundation systems

Microwave Harmonic Emission in MgB2 Superconductor: Comparison with YBaCuO

We report results of microwave second-harmonic generation in ceramic samples of MgB2, prepared by different methods. The SH signal has been investigated as a function of the temperature and the static magnetic field. The results are discussed in the framework of models reported in the literature. We show that the peculiarities of the SH signal are related to the specific properties of the sample. A comparison with the results obtained in ceramic and crystalline YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7) shows that the second-harmonic emission in MgB2 is weaker than that observed in ceramic YBa(2)Cu(3)O(7).Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures; Proceedings of Third Workshop on Metamaterials and Special Materials for Electromagnetic Applications and TLC (Rome, 30-31 March, 2006

Twenty-first semiannual report to Congress, 1 January - 30 June 1969

Manned space flights, satellite observations, space sciences, and air traffic control - NASA report to Congress for 1 Jan. to 30 June 196

Relaxation due to random collisions with a many-qudit environment

We analyze the dynamics of a system qudit of dimension mu sequentially interacting with the nu-dimensional qudits of a chain playing the ore of an environment. Each pairwise collision has been modeled as a random unitary transformation. The relaxation to equilibrium of the purity of the system qudit, averaged over random collisions, is analytically computed by means of a Markov chain approach. In particular, we show that the steady state is the one corresponding to the steady state for random collisions with a single environment qudit of effective dimension nu_e=nu*mu. Finally, we numerically investigate aspects of the entanglement dynamics for qubits (mu=nu=2) and show that random unitary collisions can create multipartite entanglement between the system qudit and the qudits of the chain.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

The out of plane behaviour of masonry infilled frames

The great interest about out of plane behavior of masonry infill walls has recently increased since it is a key point in the seismic modelling of framed structures. Their contribute to the whole seismic resistance of a framed building cannot be skipped. After a review of the literature on the subject, this paper presents a trilinear constitutive model for the out of plane behavior of masonry infills based on the tensile strength of the constituents. Comparisons with literature model are provided and the identification of the model is based on experimental tests