Reducing wildland fire hazard exploiting complex network theory. A case study analysis

We discuss a new systematic methodology to mitigate wildland fire hazard by appropriately distributing fuel breaks in space. In particular, motivated by the concept of information flow in complex networks we create a hierarchical allocation of the landscape patches that facilitate the fire propagation based on the Bonacich centrality. Reducing the fuel load in these critical patches results to lower levels of fire hazard. For illustration purposes we apply the proposed strategy to a real case of wildland fire. In particular we focus on the wildland fire that occurred in Spetses Island, Greece in 1990 and burned the one third of the forest. The efficiency of the proposed strategy is compared against the benchmark of random distribution of fuel breaks for a wide range of fuel breaks densities

Complex network statistics to the design of fire breaks for the control of fire spreading

A computational approach for identifying efficient fuel breaks partitions for the containment of fire incidents in forests is proposed. The approach is based on the complex networks statistics, namely the centrality measures and cellular automata modeling. The efficiency of various centrality statistics, such as betweenness, closeness, Bonacich and eigenvalue centrality to select fuel breaks partitions vs. the random-based distribution is demonstrated. Two examples of increasing complexity are considered: (a) an artificial forest of randomly distributed density of vegetation, and (b) a patch from the area of Vesuvio, National Park of Campania, Italy. Both cases assume flat terrain and single type of vegetation. Simulation results over an ensemble of lattice realizations and runs show that the proposed approach appears very promising as it produces statistically significant better outcomes when compared to the random distribution approach

The therapeutic power of writing in La carne by Rosa Montero and Mi sa che fuori é primavera by Concita de Gregorio

El propósito de este trabajo consiste en contribuir a definir el acto de escribir como terapia, a través del análisis de las novelas: La carne (2016) de Rosa Montero y Mi sa che fuori é primavera (2015) de Concita De Gregorio. En las dos obras, hay referencias explícitas al poder que tiene la escritura para salir de los trastornos personales y del duelo, intentando así poner orden en la propia existenciaThe purpose of this work is to contribute to define the act of writing as a therapy through the analysis of two novels: La carne (2016) by Rosa Montero and Mi sa che fuori é primvera (2015) by Concita De Gregorio. Actually, both authors to order one’ s own existence, make explicit references to the power that writing has got to leave sorrow and personal mental disorder

Can social microblogging be used to forecast intraday exchange rates?

The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is widely accepted to hold true under certain assumptions. One of its implications is that the prediction of stock prices at least in the short run cannot outperform the random walk model. Yet, recently many studies stressing the psychological and social dimension of financial behavior have challenged the validity of the EMH. Towards this aim, over the last few years, internet-based communication platforms and search engines have been used to extract early indicators of social and economic trends. Here, we used Twitter's social networking platform to model and forecast the EUR/USD exchange rate in a high-frequency intradaily trading scale. Using time series and trading simulations analysis, we provide some evidence that the information provided in social microblogging platforms such as Twitter can in certain cases enhance the forecasting efficiency regarding the very short (intradaily) forex.Comment: This is a prior version of the paper published at NETNOMICS. The final publication is available at http://www.springer.com/economics/economic+theory/journal/1106

A numerical method for the approximation of stable and unstable manifolds of microscopic simulators

We address a numerical methodology for the approximation of coarse-grained stable and unstable manifolds of saddle equilibria/stationary states of multiscale/stochastic systems for which a macroscopic description does not exist analytically in a closed form. Thus, the underlying hypothesis is that we have a detailed microscopic simulator (Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, agent-based model etc.) that describes the dynamics of the subunits of a complex system (or a black-box large-scale simulator) but we do not have explicitly available a dynamical model in a closed form that describes the emergent coarse-grained/macroscopic dynamics. Our numerical scheme is based on the equation-free multiscale framework, and it is a three-tier procedure including (a) the convergence on the coarse-grained saddle equilibrium, (b) its coarse-grained stability analysis, and (c) the approximation of the local invariant stable and unstable manifolds; the later task is achieved by the numerical solution of a set of homological/functional equations for the coefficients of a polynomial approximation of the manifolds

Malleability of the self: electrophysiological correlates of the enfacement illusion

Self-face representation is fundamentally important for self-identity and self-consciousness. Given its role in preserving identity over time, self-face processing is considered as a robust and stable process. Yet, recent studies indicate that simple psychophysics manipulations may change how we process our own face. Specifically, experiencing tactile facial stimulation while seeing similar synchronous stimuli delivered to the face of another individual seen as in a mirror, induces 'enfacement' illusion, i.e. the subjective experience of ownership of the other’s face and a bias in attributing to the self, facial features of the other person. Here we recorded visual Event-Related Potentials elicited by the presentation of self, other and morphed faces during a self-other discrimination task performed immediately after participants received synchronous and control asynchronous Interpersonal Multisensory Stimulation (IMS). We found that self-face presentation after synchronous as compared to asynchronous stimulation significantly reduced the late positive potential (LPP; 450-750 ms), a reliable electrophysiological marker of self-identification processes. Additionally, enfacement cancelled out the differences in LPP amplitudes produced by self- and other-face during the control condition. These findings represent the first direct neurophysiological evidence that enfacement may affect self-face processing and pave the way to novel paradigms for exploring defective self-representation and self-other interactions

La Santa Sede e la questione palestinese: gli anni del mandato britannico (1920-1948)

2010 - 2011L’obiettivo del presente lavoro è la ricostruzione della posizione della Santa Sede rispetto alla questione palestinese, durante gli anni del mandato britannico. Il percorso argomentativo della tematica analizzata si è strutturato sulla base delle seguenti domande: come si rapportò la Santa Sede al progetto sionista e quale peso ebbe, nel determinarne l’atteggiamento, il fattore teologico? Come reagì quando, nel corso della Conferenza di San Remo, fu affidato il mandato palestinese alla Gran Bretagna, grande sostenitrice del sionismo, da un lato, e delle Chiese protestanti e scismatiche, dall’altro? In che misura influì, sulla posizione vaticana, e sulle sue relazioni con il governo britannico, il punto di vista delle comunità arabo-cattoliche di Terra Santa? Quali reazioni vi furono di fronte all’ascesa del nazionalismo arabo in Palestina, da un lato, e dell’antisemitismo nel cuore dell’Europa cristiana, dall’altro? Quale atteggiamento assunse il Vaticano di fronte al disimpegno britannico, che riaprì il dibattito internazionale sul futuro assetto politico-territoriale della Terra Santa? Il coinvolgimento della Sede Apostolica nelle vicende mediorientali, a causa della presenza, in Terra Santa, di minoranze cristiane, discendenti dai primi gruppi di credenti e dell’interesse alla tutela di Gerusalemme e dei Luoghi Santi è poco conosciuto e mancano finora studi organici sulla posizione della Santa Sede rispetto alla questione palestinese per il periodo del mandato britannico, anche a causa dell’inaccessibilità, fino al mese di settembre del 2006, delle fonti archivistiche vaticane successive al 22 gennaio del 1922. Per ricostruire questo periodo storico sono stati analizzati diversi fondi archivistici, ricchi di fonti in gran parte inedite o poco studiate. Una delle questioni più dibattute e controverse fra gli studiosi è relativa all’incidenza del fattore teologico nell’atteggiamento vaticano rispetto al sionismo. L’analisi delle fonti archivistiche ha dimostrato che, per quanto riguarda gli anni del mandato britannico sulla Palestina, nelle argomentazioni antisioniste vaticane, il fattore teologico, relativo alla tesi del «popolo deicida», era praticamente assente e questo porta ad escludere la tesi di un legame diretto fra antisionismo ed antisemitismo. La Santa Sede non avversava in modo assoluto l’ideale sionista, finalizzato alla creazione di un «focolare» nazionale ebraico in Palestina, su un piano di parità con la popolazione preesistente, ma il volto concreto che il sionismo assunse nel corso del mandato anche, e soprattutto, a causa della politica britannica, che non esitava a sacrificare, sull’altare della «dichiarazione di Balfour», i diritti dei palestinesi. Per quanto riguarda l’assetto politico-territoriale della Terra Santa, l’atteggiamento vaticano fu idealista e pragmatico al tempo stesso. Nonostante una netta preferenza per una soluzione unitaria, che escludesse una sovranità totalmente araba o ebraica, la Sede Apostolica non si oppose ai progetti di divisione della Palestina, purché fosse garantita la salvaguardia di Gerusalemme e dintorni, attraverso un’internazionalizzazione territoriale e fosse previsto un adeguato sistema di garanzie per gli altri Luoghi sacri della Cristianità, disseminati sull’intero territorio palestinese. [a cura dell'autore]X n.s

MDPI – Proceso editorial y nuevos servicios para la comunicación científica

Presentación en la jornada "Open in Action: Los datos de investigación, un paso más hacia la ciencia abierta" realizada en la UPV en la Semana del Acceso Abierto 2016Proceso editorial para la publicación en la editorial MDPI y los nuevos servicios para la comunicación científicahttp://bit.ly/OAW_UPVRusso, L. (2016). MDPI – Proceso editorial y nuevos servicios para la comunicación científica. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/72823

El poder curador de la escritura en "La carne" de Rosa Montero y "Mi sa che fuori é primavera" de Concita De Gregorio

El propósito de este trabajo consiste en contribuir a definir el acto de escribir como terapia, a través del análisis de las novelas: La carne (2016) de Rosa Montero y Mi sa che fuori é primavera (2015) de Concita De Gregorio. En las dos obras, hay referencias explícitas al poder que tiene la escritura para salir de los trastornos personales y del duelo, intentando así poner orden en la propia existencia.Palabras claves: psicoanálisis, alma, palabra, escribir, terapia.Abstract The purpose of this work is to contribute to define the act of writing as a therapy through the analysis of two novels: La carne (2016) by Rosa Montero and Mi sa che fuori é primvera (2015) by Concita De Gregorio. Actually, both authors to order one’ s own existence, make explicit references to the power that writing has got to leave sorrow and personal mental disorders.Key words: psychoanalysis, word, soul, writing, therapy.</p

Piacentinu Ennese PDO cheese as reservoir of promising probiotic bacteria

Piacentinu Ennese is a protected designation of origin (PDO) cheese produced in the surrounding area of Enna (Sicily, Italy), using raw ewe’s milk without the addition of any starter cultures. In the present study, the Lactobacillus population of Piacentinu Ennese PDO cheese was in vitro screened in order to select promising probiotic strains to be further used in humans. One hundred and sixty-nine lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were isolated from 90 days ripened cheeses and identified by Rep-PCR genomic fingerprinting, using the (GTG)5-primer, and by MALDI-TOF MS. One hundred and thirteen (113) isolates belonging to QPS-list species were characterized for both safety and functional properties. All tested isolates were considered safe because none showed either gelatinase, DNase, mucinase, or hemolytic activity. Tolerance to lysozyme, bile salts, and acidic conditions, along with ability to survive under simulated gastrointestinal digestion, were observed. In addition, based on antimicrobial activity against pathogens, cell surface characteristics, Caco-2 adhesion abilities, and anti-inflammatory potential, it was possible to confirm the strain-dependent functional aptitude, suggesting that Piacentinu Ennese PDO cheese may be considered a precious source of probiotic candidates