Single electron transistor strongly coupled to vibrations: Counting Statistics and Fluctuation Theorem

Using a simple quantum master equation approach, we calculate the Full Counting Statistics of a single electron transistor strongly coupled to vibrations. The Full Counting Statistics contains both the statistics of integrated particle and energy currents associated to the transferred electrons and phonons. A universal as well as an effective fluctuation theorem are derived for the general case where the various reservoir temperatures and chemical potentials are different. The first relates to the entropy production generated in the junction while the second reveals internal information of the system. The model recovers Franck-Condon blockade and potential applications to non-invasive molecular spectroscopy are discussed.Comment: extended discussion, to appear in NJ

Biometrics measurements in Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in the Picentini area. Discussion and conclusions

Techniques for assigning individual to age-classes and/or distinguish between sexes are necessary to understand population dynamics and behavioral interactions of Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Many studies have focused on separating juveniles from adults; age of captured live pups can be estimated from morphological changes, hind foot (HF) length, zygomatic (Z) width and body weight1. Methods that avoid capturing the animals would be particularly useful, but none is available. In this paper biometric differences between young adults and adults subjects and between sexes are investigated. Lower canine length (LCL), lower canine width (LCW), condilo-basal (CB) and scapular length resulted smaller than female adults, whereas male young adults had withers height, occipito-coccygeal (OC), ear length, and upper canine width (UCW) smaller than male adults. Almost all the parameters included in this study confirmed sexual dimorphism and some of the differences already present in young adults gained significance (from P<0.05 to P<0.01) in the adult foxes. In particular bodyweight, OC length, withers height, ear length, upper canine length and LCL, scapular and mandibular length, and inter-carnassial (IC) and Z width were significantly greater in male than in female adult foxes (P<0.01). Nasal-occipitalis (NO) length, total length, UCW and LCW, and upper dentition (UD) were significantly greater in male than in female adult foxes, as well (P<0.05). The low number of subjects included in each category, strictly due to hunting season, did not allow estimating an accurate range for the biometrics measurements performed and probably biased recordings, producing some contradictory results. Fox size varies geographically, thus mean adults measurements should be determined for each area in which they have to be applied1. HF method has been demonstrated to be an accurate method for assessing age of pups1; our data suggest that it might be as efficient in young adults, at least in female subjects. On the other hand, our results confirm the sexual dimorphism in the canine region to be higher than in the carnassial region (data not shown in our results)

Improving the Quality of Hospital Antibiotic Use: Impact on Multidrug-Resistant Bacterial Infections in Children

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is considered a rapidly growing global public health emergency. Neonates and children are among patients for whom antibiotics are largely prescribed and for whom the risk of AMR development is high. The phenomenon of increasing AMR has led to the need to develop measures aimed at the rational and effective use of the available drugs also in children and antimicrobial stewardship (AS), which is one of the measures that in adults has showed the highest efficacy in reducing antibiotic abuse and misuse, appears as an attractive approach. The aim of this manuscript is to analyze the basic principles and strategies of pediatric AS. To this end, we searched in PubMed articles published in years 2000 to 2019 containing “antimicrobial resistance,” “antibiotic use,” “antimicrobial stewardship,” and “children” or “pediatric” as keywords. Our review showed that the balance between multi-resistant organisms and new antimicrobials is extremely precarious. The AS tools are the most important weapon at our disposal to stem the phenomenon. Careful monitoring of prescriptions, continuous training of prescribing physicians and collaboration with highly qualified multidisciplinary staff, creation of local and national guidelines, use of rapid diagnostic tests, technological means of support, and research activities by testing new broad-spectrum antibiotics are mandatory. However, all of these measures must be supported by adequate investment by national and international health organizations. Only by making AS daily practice, through the use of financial resources and dedicated staff, we can fight AMR to ensure safe and effective care for our young patients

Endodontic Retreatment of Teeth With Uncertain Endodontic Prognosis Versus Dental Implants: 5-year Results From a Randomised Controlled Trial

PURPOSE. To ascertain whether it is better to endodontically retreat a previously endo-dontically treated tooth with periapical pathology and/or symptoms and an uncertain prognosis, or to replace the tooth with a single implant-supported crown. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Twenty patients requiring treatment of a previously endodon-tically treated tooth with periapical pathology and/or symptoms of endodontic origin and an uncertain prognosis, as judged by the recruiting investigator, were randomly allocated to endodontic retreatment (endo group; 10 patients) or tooth extraction and replacement with an implant-supported crown (implant group; 10 patients) according to a paral-lel-group design at a single centre. Patients were followed up to 5 years after treatment completion. Outcome measures were: procedure failure; complications; marginal bone level changes at both teeth and implants; radiographic endodontic success (teeth only); number of patient visits and days to complete treatment; chairside time; costs; and ae-sthetics, as assessed using the pink aesthetic score (PES) for the soft tissues and the white aesthetic score (WES) for the tooth/crown by independent assessors. RESULTS. One patient from the endo group dropped out. One endodontically retreated tooth fractured. There were no statistically significant differences in treatment failure between groups (difference in proportions = 0.1; 95% CI-0.18 to 0.35; P = 1.00). Three endo group patients had one complication each versus one complication in the implant group, the difference not being statistically significant (difference in proportions = 0.2; 95% CI-0.17 to 0.51; P = 0.582). The mean marginal bone levels at endo retreatment/implant insertion were 2.10 ± 0.66 mm for the endo and 0.05 ± 0.15 mm for the implant group. Five years after treatment completion, teeth lost on average 0.60 ± 0.96 mm and implants 0.56 ± 0.77 mm, the difference not being statistically significant (mean difference =-0.05 mm; 95% CI:-0.95 to 0.86; P = 0.914). Of the four teeth that originally showed periapical radiolucency, one was lost, two displayed complete healing, and one showed radiographic improvement. There were no statistically significant differences in the number of patient visits (endo = 6.7 ± 0.7; implant = 6.1 ± 0.7; mean difference = 0.6; 95% CI:-0.1 to 1.3 P = 0.106). However, it took significantly more days (endo = 61 ± 13.0; implant = 191.4 ± 75.0; mean difference =-130.4; 95% CI:-184.5 to-76.4; P < 0.001) but less chairside time (endo = 628 ± 41.4 min; implant = 328.5 ± 196.4 min; mean difference =-299.5; 95% CI:-441.3 to 1.0; P = < 0.001) to complete the rehabilitation. Implant treatment was significantly more expensive (endo = 1440 ± 549.7; implant = 2099 ± 170.3; mean difference = 659; 95% CI: 257.2 to 1060.8; P = 0.004). Five years after treatment completion, mean PES were 12.3 ± (1.3) and 8.9 ± 2.2 and mean WES were 8.1 ± 1.4 and 7.1 ± 1.7 in the endo group and implant group, respectively. Soft tissues aesthetics (PES) was significantly better at endodontically retreated teeth (mean difference-3.4; 95% CI-5.1 to-1.6; P (t-test) = 0.001), whereas no significant differences were observed between treatments in tooth aesthetics (WES) (mean difference =-1.0; 95% CI-2.6 to 0.5; P (t-test) = 0.178)

Nonlinear electron-phonon coupling in doped manganites

We employ time-resolved resonant x-ray diffraction to study the melting of charge order and the associated insulator-metal transition in the doped manganite Pr$_{0.5}$Ca$_{0.5}$MnO$_3$ after resonant excitation of a high-frequency infrared-active lattice mode. We find that the charge order reduces promptly and highly nonlinearly as function of excitation fluence. Density functional theory calculations suggest that direct anharmonic coupling between the excited lattice mode and the electronic structure drive these dynamics, highlighting a new avenue of nonlinear phonon control

Preliminary Ground Motion Measurements at LNF Site for the Super B Project

TUPEA067International audienceFol­low­ing pre­vi­ous mea­sure­ments, more de­tailed pre­lim­i­nary ground mo­tion mea­sure­ments have been per­formed at the LNF site for the Super B pro­ject site char­ac­ter­i­za­tion. First, re­sults of ver­ti­cal ground mo­tion mea­sure­ments done dur­ing 18 hours are shown in order to get an idea of the evo­lu­tion of the ground mo­tion am­pli­tude with time. Sec­ond­ly, mea­sure­ments of ground mo­tion (in the 3 di­rec­tions of space) were per­formed at dif­fer­ent lo­ca­tions on sur­face in order to eval­u­ate and to com­pare the in­flu­ence of var­i­ous vi­bra­tion sources. Then, re­sults of ground mo­tion co­her­ence mea­sured for dif­fer­ent dis­tances at two lo­ca­tions close to each other but with soft and rigid floor are com­pared. These mea­sure­ments are also com­pared to the ones done in the ATF2 beam line where a spe­cial floor was built for sta­bil­i­ty. By this way, the re­sults re­veal that the LNF is a good site to use ground mo­tion co­her­ence prop­er­ties for sta­bil­i­ty like it has been done for ATF2

Detection of multiple and overlapping bidirectional communities within large, directed and weighted networks of neurons

With the recent explosion of publicly available biological data, the analysis of networks has gained significant interest. In particular, recent promising results in Neuroscience show that the way neurons and areas of the brain are connected to each other plays a fundamental role in cognitive functions and behaviour. Revealing pattern and structures within such an intricate volume of connections is a hard problem that has its roots in Graph and Network Theory. Since many real world situations can be modelled through networks, structures detection algorithms find application in almost every field of Science. These are NP-complete problems; therefore the generally used approach is through heuristic algorithms. Here, we formulate the problem of finding structures in networks of neurons in terms of a community detection problem. We introduce a definition of community and we construct a statistics-based heuristic algorithm for directed and weighted networks aiming at identifying overlapping bidirectional communities in large networks. We carry out a systematic analysis of the algorithm's performance, showing excellent results over a wide range of parameters (successful detection percentages almost $100\%$ all the time). Also, we show results on the computational time needed and we suggest future directions on how to improve computational performance

Majorana and the quasi-stationary states in Nuclear Physics

A complete theoretical model describing artificial disintegration of nuclei by bombardment with alpha-particles, developed by Majorana as early as in 1930, is discussed in detail alongside the basic experimental evidences that motivated it. By following the quantum dynamics of a state resulting from the superposition of a discrete state with a continuum one, whose interaction is described by a given potential term, Majorana obtained (among the other predictions) the explicit expression for the integrated cross section of the nuclear process, which is the direct measurable quantity of interest in the experiments. Though this is the first application of the concept of quasi-stationary states to a Nuclear Physics problem, it seems also that the unpublished Majorana's work anticipates by several years the related seminal paper by Fano on Atomic Physics.Comment: latex, amsart, 13 page