How to Reform the Italian Domestic Adoptions System Through a Centralized Market Design

Using an innovative variation of the standard Matching Market Design framework, this draft aims to provide inputs useful to drive the reform of the current Italian Domestic Adoption System (Italian families that desire to adopt an Italian child). The problem addressed in this draft, concern how to match the relative small number of waiting children to the large number of waiting families in the most rational and efficient way: each year, the adoptions system is not able to place the 20% of the children in foster care, despite the fact that the number of children (supply side) is very small respect the total amount of families (demand side) willing to adopt. This project is oriented to solve the inefficiencies characterizing the current adoption program, substituting the actual decentralized setup with a more efficient centralized matching market criteriaMatching Market Design, Adoptions System, Matching Algorithm

Fractional exclusion statistics and shot noise in ballistic conductors

We study the noise properties of ballistic conductors with carriers satisfying fractional exclusion statistics. To test directly the nature of exclusion statistics we found that systems under weakly degenerate conditions should be considered. Typical of these systems is that the chemical potential, $\mu$ is in the thermal range $|\mu |<3k_{B}T$. In these conditions the noise properties under current saturation are found to depend upon the statistical parameter $g$, displaying suppressed shot noise for $1/2\leq g\leq 1$, and enhanced shot noise for $0<g<1/2$, according to the attractive or repulsive nature of the carrier exclusion statistics.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Charge transport in bacteriorhodopsin monolayers: The contribution of conformational change to current-voltage characteristics

When moving from native to light activated bacteriorhodopsin, modification of charge transport consisting of an increase of conductance is correlated to the protein conformational change. A theoretical model based on a map of the protein tertiary structure into a resistor network is implemented to account for a sequential tunneling mechanism of charge transfer through neighbouring amino acids. The model is validated by comparison with current-voltage experiments. The predictability of the model is further tested on bovine rhodopsin, a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) also sensitive to light. In this case, results show an opposite behaviour with a decrease of conductance in the presence of light.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Mechanosensing in myosin filament solves a 60 years old conflict in skeletal muscle modeling between high power output and slow rise in tension

Almost 60 years ago Andrew Huxley with his seminal paper \cite{Huxley1957} laid the foundation of modern muscle modeling, linking chemical events to mechanical performance. He described mechanics and energetics of muscle contraction through the cyclical attachment and detachment of myosin motors to the actin filament with ad hoc assumptions on the dependence of the rate constants on the strain of the myosin motors. That relatively simple hypothesis is still present in recent models, even though with several modifications to adapt the model to the different experimental constraints which became subsequently available. However, already in that paper, one controversial aspect of the model became clear. Relatively high attachment and detachment rates of myosin to the actin filament were needed to simulate the high power output at intermediate velocity of contraction. However, these rates were incompatible with the relatively slow rise in tension after activation, despite the rise should be generated by the same rate functions. This discrepancy has not been fully solved till today, despite several hypotheses have been forwarded to reconcile the two aspects. Here, using a conventional muscle model, we show that the recently revealed mechanosensing mechanism of recruitment of myosin motors \cite{Linarietal2015} can solve this long standing problem without any further ad-hoc hypotheses

Opsin vs opsin: new materials for biotechnological applications

The need of new diagnostic methods satisfying, as an early detection, a low invasive procedure and a cost-efficient value, is orienting the technological research toward the use of bio-integrated devices, in particular bio-sensors. The set of know-why necessary to achieve this goal is wide, from biochemistry to electronics and is summarized in an emerging branch of electronics, called \textit{proteotronics}. Proteotronics is here here applied to state a comparative analysis of the electrical responses coming from type-1 and type-2 opsins. In particular, the procedure is used as an early investigation of a recently discovered family of opsins, the proteorhodopsins activated by blue light, BPRs. The results reveal some interesting and unexpected similarities between proteins of the two families, suggesting the global electrical response are not strictly linked to the class identity.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures revised version with more figure

Oligopolistic Non-Linear Pricing and Size Economies

The effects of non-linear pricing are determined by the relationship between the demand and the technological structure of the market. This paper focuses on a model in which firms supply a homogeneous product in two different sizes. Information about consumers' reservation prices is incomplete and the production technology is characterized by size economies. Four equilibrium regions are identified depending on the relative intensity of size economies with respect to consumers' evaluation of a second unit of the good. The desirability of non-linear pricing varies across different equilibrium regions.non-linear pricing, size economies, supply technology.