Seismic microzonation by means of cluster analysis

The identification of areas with uniform behaviour in seismic perspective is a very complex task that involves the simultaneous assessment of many parameters. In this paper we propose an automatic procedure for the seismic microzonation based on cluster analysis and performed by means of an agglomerative hierarchical algorithm. It exploits a proximity matrix specifically defined on the parameters space and the average linkage criteria. The procedure has been used to carry out the expedite seismic microzonation of some high seismic hazard areas, only using the data inferred by the extensive application of the HVSR technique. The results of the clustering procedures have been assessed from a …

Hydrogeological and geotechnical modeling of the foundation soils of Maredolce Lake in Palermo, aided by geophysical surveys

The cultural heritage of Maredolce (Palermo) includes an Arab-Norman castle that originally stood on the shores of an artificial lake carved out of a basin dug out of the calcarenite and filled with water thanks to the channeling of the springs of San Ciro upstream. Subsequently, the lowering of the water table and the high hydraulic permeability of the outcropping rocks caused the lake to dry up. Recently, a project of enhancement of the cultural heritage required the restoration of the lake. The geophysical study presented here, including the integrated use of different techniques such as electrical and seismic tomography, Multichannel Analysis of the Surface Waves and ambient vibration r…

NONEQUILIBRIUM PHENOMENA AND METASTABILITY IN MESOSCOPIC AND QUANTUM SYSTEMS

Here we summarize some relevant results related to nonequilibrium phenomena in mesoscopic and quantum systems. A common phenomenon in the dynamics of out-of-equilibrium systems is the metastability, and the problem of the lifetime of metastable states involves fundamental aspects of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Metastability (see Fig. 1) is a signature of a first order phase transition, often characterized by a long-living metastable state. In particular, the stability of a metastable state can be enhanced by Gaussian and non-Gaussian noise sources. This counterintuitive effect has been found in different physical areas, ranging from spintronics, aggregation kinetics of Brownian pa…

Selective decontamination of the digestive tract in adult-to-adult living related liver transplant patients: a single centre experience

Memristors and nonequilibrium stochastic multistable systems

The main aim of this special issue is to report the recent advances and new trends in memristors and nonequilibrium stochastic multistable systems, both theoretically and experimentally, within an interdisci-plinary context. In particular, memristors are multistable systems whose switching dynamics is a stochastic process, which can be controlled by internal and external noise sources, unveiling the constructive role of random fluctuations. Furthermore, the use of memristors as memory elements in neuromorphic systems with noise-assisted persistence of memory states, chaotic dynamics, metastable chaos and chaos synchronization, new stochastic nonlinear models, noise-induced phenomena such as…

The Effect of Thermic Stress on the Somatic Reaction of Rage and on Rapid Circling Turns, in the cat

An investigation was made of the effect of thermic stress on the somatic rage reaction and on rapid circling turns in cats awake and free to move in a behavioural cage. An increase in room temperature had a two-phase effect on the excitability of the nervous structures stimulated that is able to evoke the somatic rage reaction and rapid circling turns. The first phase, at room temperature 25 degrees-30 degrees C, was characterized by hypoexcitability; the second phase, appearing after longer periods of exposure and at temperatures above 30 degrees C, was characterized by the onset panting, hyperexcitability of the nervous structures stimulated and then by lowering of the somatic rage reacti…

A parsimonious model for generating arbitrage-free scenario trees

Simulation models of economic, financial and business risk factors are widely used to assess risks and support decision-making. Extensive literature on scenario generation methods aims at describing some underlying stochastic processes with the least number of scenarios to overcome the ‘curse of dimensionality’. There is, however, an important requirement that is usually overlooked when one departs from the application domain of security pricing: the no-arbitrage condition. We formulate a moment matching model to generate multi-factor scenario trees for stochastic optimization satisfying no-arbitrage restrictions with a minimal number of scenarios and without any distributional assumptions.…

Resistive state relaxation time in ZrO2(Y)-based memristive devices under the influence of external noise

The effects of external digitally synthesized Gaussian noise on the resistive state relaxation time of a ZrO2(Y)-based memristive device when switching from a low resistance state to a high resistance state have been experimentally investigated. A nonmonotonic dependence of the resistive state relaxation time on the external noise intensity is found. This behavior is interpreted as a manifestation of the noise-enhanced stability effect previously observed in various complex systems with metastable states. It is shown that the experimental results agree satisfactorily with the theoretical ones. The presented results indicate the constructive role of external noise and its possible use as a m…