H→bb‾jH \rightarrow b\overline{b}j at Next-to-Next-to-Leading Order Accuracy

We present the calculation of the decay $H \rightarrow b\overline{b}j$ at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) accuracy. We consider contributions in which the Higgs boson couples directly to bottom quarks, i.e. our predictions are accurate to order $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s^3 y_b^2)$ . We calculate the various components needed to construct the NNLO contribution, including an independent calculation of the two-loop amplitudes. We compare our results for the two-loop amplitudes to an existing calculation finding agreement. We present multiple checks on our two-loop expression using the known infrared factorization properties as the emitted gluon becomes soft or collinear. We use our results to construct a Monte Carlo implementation of $H \rightarrow b\overline{b}j$ and present jet rates and differential distributions in the Higgs rest frame using the Durham jet algorithm.Comment: 42 pages, 5 figures. v3: matches published version, attached supplementary file with two-loop amplitude

Cognitive Reserve and Its Effect in Older Adults on Retrieval of Proper Names, Logo Names and Common Nouns

Previous studies showed that high Cognitive Reserve (CR, years of education and experience and knowledge acquired in life) is correlated with language proficiency as measured with vocabulary size, verbal analogy, and semantic processing. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between CR and the ability in retrieving different categories of words: Proper Names, Logo Names, and Common Nouns. The hypothesis is that CR contributes more in retrieving Common Nouns and Logo Names which are highly semantically interconnected, than retrieving Proper Names which are pure referring expressions. Forty-six Italian healthy older adults underwent the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and their performances spanned from low to high global cognitive profile. They were also administered a picture naming task for Proper Names, Logo Names and Common Nouns. Latency and Accuracy were recorded. CR was measured with the Cognitive Reserve Index (CRI) questionnaire which provides a measure of education, working time activities, and leisure time activities. Participants were significantly faster and more accurate in name retrieval when CR was high. CRI and MoCA as interaction terms predicted naming Latency with a stronger effect of CRI when the global cognitive profile was in the low range. The effect of CRI on Accuracy was lower for Proper Names than for Common Nouns and Logo Names, which did not differ from each other. Our results show that name retrieval Accuracy can be predicted by CR, significantly more in the case of Logo Names and Common Nouns than in the case of Proper Names. As Proper Names have scarce semantic interconnections and are arbitrarily assigned to unique individuals, they are not much influenced by CR. Although Logo Names are also arbitrarily assigned to their bearers, they can be conceptually categorized and thus influenced by reserve. The weak relationship between Proper Names and CR might suggest a proper name task as a useful tool to detect early signs of dementia, in particular for persons with high CR

Osservazioni sulla produttività del “buio” romanico: la finestra e la luce nell’architettura religiosa dell’arco sud-alpino

Starting from the realization – apparently taken for granted – of the darkness of some Romanesque churches, we investigate the possibilities and valences, both aesthetic and semantic, of the purposeful deployment of illumination into the interior of sacred space according to both the specific “direction” of daylight, and the revaluation of the effects of artificial illumination by means of oil lamps or candles. This essay concentrates on the window as indicator of the events of a microhistory of light in architecture. In a kind of close reading, we attempt to examine the diverse forms of an “economy of luminosity” determined by the arrangement, morphology, and transformations of the individual apertures of three churches of the Alpine foothill region of Lombardy from the 11th to the 12th century. Alongside techniques of directing the light into the churches’ interiors, we consider interventions towards the exclusion of daylight from sacred spaces. Until the last quarter of the Cinquecento, there does not seem to have been any need to attend to the apertures in order to augment their illumination. Only with post-Tridentine Reform and upon the publications of the Instructiones of Carlo Borromeo in 1577 was illumination increased by means of opening large oculi and windows, which the restoration campaigns of the 19th and 20th centuries have later obliterated

Sintesi del precursore amminico a struttura benzopiranica di F163 per lo sviluppo di radiotraccianti otticamente attivi per la PET

Sebbene non sia stata ancora raggiunta un'esauriente comprensione dei meccanismi alla base dell'insorgenza del fenomeno Pre-condizionamento Ischemico(IPC), è ampiamente accettato che tra i vari segnali coinvolti come “triggers”e/o effettori finali,un ruolo importante è indubbiamente giocato dall'attivazione di canali al potassio ATP-dipendenti cardiaci (KATP).Nelle cellule miocardiche,i canali KATP sono stati individuati sia nella membrana sarcolemmatica (sarc-KATP),che nella membrana interna mitocondriale(mito-KATP).Molte evidenze sperimentali hanno dimostrato che effettivamente nell'IPC si ha l'attivazione dei sarc-KATP ,contrariamente a quanto si pensava in precedenza dove si attribuiva il fenomeno all'esclusiva attivazione dei mito-KATP.Al contrario,la modulazione farmacologica dei canali KATP (con attivatori o con inibitori),da una parte,è stata sfruttata come strumento utile nelle sperimentazioni inerenti studi di IPC;d'altra parte,attivatori KATP sono stati visti come possibili agenti terapeutici per ridurre il danno miocardico indotto da episodi ischemici. Nello specifico,queste molecole hanno mostrato una buona selettività nei confronti dei canali mito-KATP e perciò sono stati proposti come potenziali strumenti farmacologici con ruolo cardio-protettivo anti-ischemico,privi di altri effetti biologici(come attività inotropica negativa,ipotensione o iperglicemia) connessi all'attivazione dei canali sarc-KATP cardiaci e non-cardiaci

Sacrificio, riso ed eroismo. I canti della Grande Guerra come testo mitopoietico

Abstrac

The Use of the Body and the Representation of Elderly Parents’ Care in the Visual Art from the Arab World

This paper aims to present the first preliminary results of The Changing Body and the Care Experience in Visual Arts in a Comparative and Cross-cultural Perspective Between Western and Mediterranean Art, a research project focused on the perception and representation of care in the MENA region (i.e. the Middle East and North Africa). In modern and contemporary artistic productions from the area, a reflection on the per- ception and visual representation of care must necessarily set out from the depiction of the body and illness, which plays a crucial role in any discourse on caring. The purpose of this paper is therefore to offer an initial overview of the visual representation of caring, and of the way in which it is understood in North Africa and Middle East, through the comparative analysis of some case studies

The Architectural Heritage as a Projection of Competition and Negotiation Shared Muslim-Vīraśaiva Sacred Sites in Northern Karnataka. A Preliminary Approach.

Recent studies have reported that the mausoleum of Ahmad Shāh I Bahmanī (r. 1422-1436), in Ashtur (Karnataka), is frequented by both Muslims and Vīraśaivas. Now, setting out from the pilgrimage performed on the occasion of the sovereign’surs, the aim of the present contribution is to analyze some of the architectural sites that are touched by the pilgrimage, and to examine how their spaces are understood and perceived by the devotees. The paper aims to shed light on the coexistence of these two religious groups and on the way in which certain forms of competition and negotiation have come to be transposed onto the cultural and historical landscape

The relationship between Cognitive Reserve and Math Abilities

Cognitive Reserve is the capital of knowledge and experiences that an individual acquires over their life-span. Cognitive Reserve is strictly related to Brain Reserve, which is the ability of the brain to cope with damage. These two concepts could explain many phenomena such as the modality of onset in dementia or the different degree of impairment in cognitive abilities in aging. The aim of this study is to verify the effect of Cognitive Reserve, as measured by a questionnaire, on a variety of numerical abilities (number comprehension, reading and writing numbers, rules and principles, mental calculations and written calculations), in a group of healthy older people (aged 65-98 years). Sixty older individuals were interviewed with the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire (CRIq), and assessed with the Numerical Activities of Daily Living battery (NADL), which included formal tasks on math abilities, an informal test on math, one interview with the participant, and one interview with a relative on the perceived math abilities. We also took into account the years of education, as another proxy for Cognitive Reserve. In the multiple regression analyses on all formal tests, CRIq scores did not significantly predict math performance. Other variables, i.e., years of education and Mini-Mental State Examination score, accounted better for math performance on NADL. Only a subsection of CRIq, CRIq-Working-activity, was found to predict performance on a NADL subtest assessing informal use of math in daily life. These results show that education might better explain abstract math functions in late life than other aspects related to Cognitive Reserve, such as lifestyle or occupational attainment

Pragmatic language disorder in Parkinson's disease and the potential effect of cognitive reserve

It is known that patients with Parkinson\u2019s Disease (PD) may show deficits in several areas of cognition, including speech and language abilities. One domain of particular interest is pragmatics, which refers to the capacity of using language in context for a successful communication. Several studies showed that some specific aspects of pragmatics \u2013 both in production and in comprehension \u2013 might be impaired in patients with PD. However, a clear picture of pragmatic abilities in PD is still missing, as most of the existing studies focused on specific aspects of the pragmatic competence rather than on sketching a complete pragmatic profile. Moreover, little is known on the potential role of protective factors in compensating the decline of communicative skills as the disease progresses. The present study has two aims: (1) to provide a complete picture of pragmatic abilities in patients with PD, by using a comprehensive battery (Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates, APACS) and by investigating the relationship with other aspects of cognitive functioning (e.g., working memory and Theory of Mind) and (2) to investigate whether Cognitive Reserve, i.e., the resilience to cognitive impairment provided by life experiences and activities, may compensate for the progressive pragmatic deficits in PD. We found that patients with PD, compared to healthy matched controls, had worse performance in discourse production and in the description of scenes, and that these impairments were tightly correlated with the severity of motor impairment, suggesting reduced intentionality of engaging in a communicative exchange. Patients with PD showed also an impairment in comprehending texts and humor, suggesting a problem in inferring from stories, which was related to general cognitive impairment. Notably, we did not find any significant difference between patients and controls in figurative language comprehension, a domain that is commonly impaired in other neurodegenerative diseases. This might be indicative of a specific profile of pragmatic impairment in patients with PD, worth of further investigation. Finally, Cognitive Reserve measures showed a high degree of association with pragmatic comprehension abilities, suggesting that the modification of life-styles could be a good candidate for compensating the possible problems in understanding the pragmatic aspects of language experienced by patients with PD