Measuring social capital with a myograph

We study the behavior of 12 pairs of undergraduate students while they were involved in a simple coordination game requiring motor interaction. Three experimental conditions were defined according to whether a monetary prize was given to both or only one subject, if the couple was in successfully completing the required assignment. Electromyographic potentials (EMG) were recorded from the right first dorsal interosseus (FDI) muscle, a muscle critically involved in the motor task. We also collected written answers from a standard questionnaire from which we constructed individual measures of Social Capital (SC), based on organized group interaction, religious and political involvement. These measures are collected, by standard practice, to estimate individual pro-social attitudes and behavior. Consistently with our simple behavioral model, by which EMG signals are direct measures of subjects’ personal concern (call it utility) associated to the given task, our evidence shows that EMG is increasing in the subjects’ own monetary reward. When we split the subject pool into two subsamples (according to various measures of Social Capital obtained from the questionnaire), we find that monetary incentives explain the level of subjects’ EMG only in the subsample characterized by low SC, while, for subjects with (comparatively) higher SC, effort in the coordination task is much less sensitive to whether it is directly rewarded or not. This result is robust across the different SC index specifications. The present findings seem to support the possibility that an electrophysiological measure, such as EMG, could reveal the most profound attitudes and believes that guide social interaction, and that our relatively inexpensive and ready-to-use technology can back-up socio-economic research in a very effective way.NeuroEconomics; Social Capital

Looking for Light Pseudoscalar Bosons in the Binary Pulsar System J0737-3039

We present numerical calculations of the photon-light-pseudoscalar-boson conversion in the recently discovered binary pulsar system J0737-3039. Light pseudoscalar bosons (LPBs) oscillate into photons in the presence of strong magnetic fields. In the context of this binary pulsar system, this phenomenon attenuates the light beam emitted by one of the pulsars, when the light ray goes through the magnetosphere of the companion pulsar. We show that such an effect is observable in the gamma-ray band since the binary pulsar is seen almost edge-on, depending on the value of the LPB mass and on the strenght of its two-photon coupling. Our results are surprising in that they show a very sharp and significant (up to 50%) transition probability in the gamma-ray ($>$ tens of MeV) domain. The observations can be performed by the upcoming NASA GLAST mission.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Using Artificial Intelligence for the Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer: The Paper of Yuichiro Oishi et al. Is a Step Forward on the Way of Precision Medicine

Yuichiro Oishi et al. presented an interesting study reporting the ability of Artifi- cial Intelligence (AI) to diagnose and locate prostate cancer from multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) [1]. The authors evaluated the diagnostic performance of their AI with a ROC analysis; interestingly the area under the ROC curve was 0.985, while the sensitivity and the specificity were 0.875 and 0.961 (p < 0.01), respectively. Figure 1 of the paper shows that the regions of the prostate labeled by AI as prostate cancer correspond strictly to the cancer areas identified at pathological examination of the gland. These good results justified the strong conclusions of the paper: “diagnostic partition using the superpixel method and SVM-computed likelihood maps enables automated diagnosis of prostate cancer location and shape in mpMRI” [1]. Many aspects of this paper deserve to be emphasized. During the last two decades, numerous attempts to use radiomics for the diagnosis of cancer have been made [2]. So far, the dimensions of the dataset have always been a major limiting factor for the AI training and consequently for its diagnostic performance. The AI-based computer-aided diagnosis used in this study interestingly reached a good result with only a small number of patients, apparently overcoming the need for a large dataset. The authors achieved this result by sampling all the peripheral zone pixels for training the Support Vector Machine. Using this strategy, the dataset which resulted was very large despite the small number of patients included in the study. Because of the previous consideration, the strategy proposed by Yuichiro Oishi et al. will probably be crucial in the development of future diagnostic tools

Geochemistry as a Clue for Paleoweathering and Provenance of Southern Apennines Shales (Italy): A Review

The southern Apennines (Italy) chain is a fold-and-thrust belt mainly derived from the deformation of the African–Apulian passive margin where shallow-water, basinal, and shelf-margin facies successions, including fine-grained sediments, occur. Here, we provide a review of the geochemistry of Meso–Cenozoic shales from the Lagonegro basin to elucidate provenance and paleoweathering. The different suites of these shales are dominated by 2:1 clay minerals and are Fe shales and shales. An R-mode factor analysis suggests Ti, Al, and LREE (F1) and K2O-MgO (F2) covariance, likely related to the illite → smectite → kaolinite evolution during weathering. HREE and Y are distributed by phosphate minerals, suggesting LREE/HREE fractionation. The CIA paleoweathering proxy rules out non-steady-state weathering conditions and indicates that the source area was affected by moderate to intense weathering. The paleoprecipitation values derived from the CIA-K and CALMAG indices show median values in the 1214–1610 mm/y range. The Eu/Eu*, Sm/Nd, and Ti/Al provenance ratios point toward a UCC-like source excluding any mafic supply and suggest that the Lagonegro basin was connected, through a southern area, with the African cratonic area. However, the Eu/Eu* median value of the southern Apennine shales is quite similar to the value of the Archean shales, possibly indicating a less differentiated component. This is consistent, in many samples, with the value of the (Gd/Yb)ch ratio, suggesting that the shales likely incorporated ancient sediments derived from African Archean terranes through a cannibalistic proces

Two decades of condition monitoring methods for power devices

Condition monitoring (CM) of power semiconductor devices enhances converter reliability and customer service. Many studies have investigated the semiconductor devices failure modes, the sensor technologies, and the signal processing techniques to optimize the CM. Furthermore, the improvement of power devices’ CM thanks to the use of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies is rising in smart grids, transportation electrification, and so on. These technologies will be widespread in the future, where more and more smart techniques and smart sensors will enable a better estimation of the state of the health (SOH) of the devices. Considering the increasing use of power converters, CM is essential as the analysis of the data obtained from multiple sensors enables the prediction of the SOH, which, in turn, enables to properly schedule the maintenance, i.e., accounting for the trade-off between the maintenance cost and the cost and issues due to the device failure. From this perspective, this review paper summarizes past developments and recent advances of the various methods with the aim of describing the current state-of-the-art in CM research

La scenografia degli stucchi del Serpotta rivisitata. La materia e la forma

The material that lies beneath the smooth shining surface of the stuccoes of the Serpotta family who used to work in Sicily from 1670 to 1730, has been thoroughly studied in previous papers, disclosing the deep, albeit empirical, knowledge of materials science that guided the artists in creating their masterpieces. In this work, attention is focused on the solid perspective and on the scenographic sculpture by Giacomo Serpotta, who is acknowledged as the leading exponent of the School. The study deals with some particular works of the artist, the “small-scaled plastic theatres”, so-called “teatrini”, which he made for the San Lorenzo Oratory in Palermo. On the basis of archival documents and previous analogical photogrammetric plotting, integrated with digital solutions and computer-based technologies, the study investigates and interprets the geometric-formal genesis of the examined works of art. Knowledge of the material composition of the stuccoes, along with the ability to accurately reproduce their shapes, give interesting possibilities to provide a complete reading of the works of art damaged by deterioration or theft.La materia che si nasconde sotto le levigate e lucenti superfici degli stucchi della famiglia dei Serpotta, che operò in Sicilia tra il 1670 e il 1730, è stata ampiamente studiata in precedenti lavori, rivelando la profonda, se pur empirica, conoscenza della Scienza dei Materiali che guidava gli artisti nella realizzazione dei loro capolavori. In questo studio l’attenzione viene posta sulla prospettiva solida e sulla scultura scenografica dello scultore palermitano Giacomo Serpotta, riconosciuto come il principale esponente della Scuola. L’indagine si concentra su particolari opere dell’artista, i cosiddetti “teatrini plastici”, da lui eseguiti per l’Oratorio di San Lorenzo nel centro antico di Palermo. Sulla base di documenti di archivio e rilevamenti stereo fotogrammetrici analogici pregressi, integrati con tecniche di acquisizione dati di ultima generazione, lo studio presenta elaborazioni digitali che hanno permesso ricostruzioni virtuali a video di elementi scultorei non più esistenti. La conoscenza dei materiali che compongono le opere in stucco, insieme alla capacità di riprodurre con precisione le forme, offre interessanti possibilità di fornire una lettura completa delle opere d’arte danneggiate dal deterioramento o dal furto

Versatile electrochemiluminescent organic emitters

namely polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, have been the first molecules investigated since the beginning of ECL studies. Moving from organic solvents to water-based solutions in view of analytical applications, the attention on ECL emitters shifted to soluble inorganic complexes, which prevailed in both fundamental and applied research. However, the investigation of organic molecules has recently revived owing to new synthetic procedures and concepts. Polymeric nanoparticles, and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) sparked the research with renovated interest for organic molecules. Here, we introduce and summarise these new concepts behind organic emitters for ECL