On the variation of the correction factor of surface velocity with the measurement vertical for shallow flows over rough beds

2023

Considering that water flow energy affects the detachment of soil particles, the transport and deposit of the detached particles, the flow velocity is a key variable governing the soil erosion processes at the hillslope scale. The simple dye-tracer technique for measuring mean flow velocity can be applied in non-controlled field applications for which some measurement difficulties (e.g. due to sediment transport, and shallow flows) can occur. The correction factor is usually obtained as the ratio between the mean velocity, deriving from measurements of flow discharge and water depth, and surface velocity. Alternatively, the possibility of using the velocity profile in a given vertical to de…

Photovoltaic Devices Using Sublimed Methylammonium Lead Iodide Perovskites: Long‐Term Reproducible Processing

2023

Single-trial-based temporal principal component analysis on extracting event-related potentials of interest for an individual subject.

2023

Background: Temporal principal component analysis (tPCA) has been widely used to extract event-related potentials (ERPs) at group level of multiple subjects ERP data and it assumes that the underlying factor loading is fixed across participants. However, such assumption may fail to work if latency and phase for one ERP vary considerably across participants. Furthermore, effect of number of trials on tPCA decomposition has not been systematically examined as well, especially for within-subject PCA. New method: We reanalyzed a real ERP data of an emotional experiment using tPCA to extract N2 and P2 from single-trial EEG of an individual. We also explored influence of the number of trials (con…

SIFT Matching by Context Exposed

2023

This paper investigates how to step up local image descriptor matching by exploiting matching context information. Two main contexts are identified, originated respectively from the descriptor space and from the keypoint space. The former is generally used to design the actual matching strategy while the latter to filter matches according to the local spatial consistency. On this basis, a new matching strategy and a novel local spatial filter, named respectively blob matching and Delaunay Triangulation Matching (DTM) are devised. Blob matching provides a general matching framework by merging together several strategies, including rank-based pre-filtering as well as many-to-many and symmetri…

On the friction/tangential restitution problem: Independent friction-restitution modeling of sphere rebound with arbitrary spin

2023

Most descriptions of collision events introduce coefficients of friction and tangential restitution which vary significantly with the impact angle, in contrast with the independence of the normal coefficient of restitution with this parameter. A redefinition of the coefficients of friction and tangential restitution based on the idea that friction and restitution effects can be treated as being mutually independent, provides a satisfactory description of experimental data using a ‘constant’ restitution coefficient independent on the impact angle. This independent friction-restitution modeling is developed here for the rebound of a homogeneous sphere having an arbitrary spin on a rough massi…

Signatures of physical constraints in rotating rigid bodies

2023

We study signatures of physical constraints on free rotations of rigid bodies. We show analytically that the physical or non-physical nature of the moments of inertia of a system can be detected by qualitative changes both in the Montgomery Phase and in the Tennis Racket Effect.

Adsorptive Separation of CO2 by a Hydrophobic Carborane-Based Metal-Organic Framework under Humid Conditions

2023

We report that the carborane-based metal-organic framework (MOF) mCB-MOF-1 can achieve high adsorptive selectivity for CO2:N2 mixtures. This hydrophobic MOF presenting open metal sites shows high CO2 adsorption capacity and remarkable selectivity values that are maintained even under extremely humid conditions. The comparison of mCB-MOF-1' with MOF-74(Ni) demonstrates the superior performance of the former under challenging moisture operation conditions.

Evaluation of Peri-Operative Management in Women with Deep Endometriosis Who are Candidates for Bowel Surgery: A Survey from the Italian Society of G…

2023

Study objective: There is great consensus that the implementation of ERAS approach is beneficial for surgical patients, but there is paucity of data concerning its application in women with deep endometriosis (DE) who are candidates for bowel surgery. The present survey was aimed at gathering detailed information on perioperative management of DE patients undergoing sigmoid/rectal (discoid or segmental) resection within SEGI group. Design: Baseline survey. Setting: National survey conducted within the main Italian cooperative group in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery (SEGI). Patients: The study did not involve patients. Interventions: A 63-item questionnaire, covering ERAS items for g…

Effect of atomic layer deposited zinc promoter on the activity of copper-on-zirconia catalysts in the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methanol

2023

Funding Information: The work at Aalto University has been financially supported by the Academy of Finland (COOLCAT consortium, decision no. 329977 and 329978 ; ALDI consortium, decision no. 331082 ). This work made use of Aalto University Bioeconomy, OtaNano and RawMatters infrastructure. Hannu Revitzer (Aalto University) is thanked for the ICP-OES analysis, Aalto workshop people (especially Seppo Jääskeläinen) for working on the reactor modifications. The DFT calculations were made possible by computational resources provided by the CSC — IT Center for Science, Espoo, Finland ( https://www.csc.fi/en/ ) and computer capacity from the Finnish Grid and Cloud Infrastructure (urn:nbn:fi:resear…

External sustainability in Spanish economy: bubbles and crises, 1970–2020

2023

We address the issue of the sustainability Spain’s exter-nal debt, using data for the period 1970–2020. To detect episodes of potentially explosive behavior of the Spanish net foreign assets over GDP ratio and the current account balance over GDP ratio, as well as episodes of external adjustments over this long period, we employ a recursive unit root test approach. Our empirical analysis leads us to conclude that there is some evidence of bubbles in the ratio between Spanish net foreign assets and the GDP. In contrast, the evidence that the ratio between the Spanish current account balance and the GDP had explosive subperiods is very weak. The episode of explosive behavior identified in the…

Limited effects of size-selective harvesting and harvesting-induced life-history changes on the temporal variability of biomass dynamics in complex f…

2023

Harvesting has been implicated in destabilizing the abundances of exploited populations. Because selective harvesting often targets large individuals, some studies have proposed that exploited populations often experience demographic shifts toward younger, smaller individuals and become more sensitive to environmental fluctuations. The theory of consumer–resource dynamics has been applied to address the impacts of harvesting in simple modular food webs, but harvested populations are embedded in a complex food web in nature. In addition, exploited populations have been shown to undergo trait evolution or phenotypic changes toward early maturation at smaller sizes. Using an empirically derive…

Parte III – I fattori della produzione agricola: Capitolo IV, 4.1. I segni distintivi dell’azienda agricola

2023

Questo volume nasce dalla necessità di offrire una lettura contemporanea delle peculiari regole che tradizionalmente hanno attribuito al Diritto agra- rio un carattere di specialità. Facciamo riferimento alle norme che in un’ottica di programmazione di un settore produttivo centrale per l’economia del nostro paese disciplinano l’impresa agricola, la proprietà terriera, i contratti agrari, il lavoro agricolo, il credito agrario, il mercato dei prodotti agricoli. Regole la cui chiave di lettura è sempre passata dalla considerazione dell’esistenza di un legame stretto tra “agricoltura” e “terra”, considerazione che non riteniamo superata, ma piuttosto aggiornata, dalle numerose innovazioni leg…

Design and Simulation of Fast Discharge Units (FDUs) for Toroidal Field Coils of Divertor Tokamak Test (DTT)

2023

Questa tesi riassume il lavoro svolto durante il triennio di dottorato nel periodo compreso tra il 2019 e il 2022. Come è ben noto nella comunità scientifica, l'ambiziosissimo progetto di fusione nucleare ha richiesto e richiede notevoli risorse ed investimenti; La tabella di marcia per la generazione di energia da fusione nucleare su larga scala comprende missioni impegnative. I progetti ITER e DEMO, essendo progetti internazionali, richiedono la collaborazione (sia dal punto di vista economico che tecnico) di diversi Paesi a livello europeo ed extraeuropeo; per questo motivo i vari aspetti tecnologici, che verranno poi implementati e applicati nei reattori a fusione finali, vengono prima …

The serial mediation effects of body image-coping strategies and avatar-identification in the relationship between self-concept clarity and gaming di…

2023

Gaming disorder (GD) has been recognized as a mental health problem, resulting in adverse and psychosocial consequences. Although previous evidence suggests poorer self-concept clarity (SCC) and avatar identification are associated with GD, less is known about the mediating role of body-image coping strategies (appearance- fixing and avoidance, a form of escapism) in this relationship. A total of 214 Italian online gamers (64 % males) were anonymously recruited online by posting the survey link on social media gaming forums and other online sites. The participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 59 years (M = 24.07 years, SD = 5.19). The results of the correlational analysis showed that SCC was neg…

Effectiveness of isolated vertical extension of masonry buildings as nonconventional TMD

2023

In this paper, the strategy of Intermediate Isolation System (IIS) is proposed for the vertical extension of an aggregate of masonry buildings located in Pozzuoli, south Italy. The effectiveness of IIS working as a nonconventional Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) for the existing construction is assessed in terms of reduction of seismic demand and damage in the masonry structure undergoing inelastic deformation under seismic input. For this aim, a general step-by-step procedure is first defined and then applied to the case study building. In particular, the characterization of dynamic behaviour and seismic capacity of the building aggregate is first addressed through modal and push over analyses. El…

Finding an egg in a haystack: variation in chemical cue use by egg parasitoids of herbivorous insects

2023

Egg parasitoids of herbivorous insects use an interplay of short- and long-range chemical cues emitted by hosts and host plants to find eggs to parasitize. Volatile compounds that attract egg parasitoids can be identified via behavioral assays and used to manipulate parasitoid behavior in the field for biological control of herbivorous pests. However, how and when a particular cue will be used varies over the life of an individual, as well as at and below species level. Future research should expand taxonomic coverage to explore variation in chemical cue use in more natural, dynamic settings. More nuanced understanding of the variability of egg parasitoid host-finding strategies will aid in…

Distinguishing the Need to Belong and Sense of Belongingness: The Relation between Need to Belong and Personal Appraisals under Two Different Belongi…

2023

People are frequently caught in the hold between the need to belong and the fear of exclusion. However, these needs might be expressed differently under different belongingness conditions, where other powerful social processes are accentuated. Thus, the need to belong and social exclusion are concepts that are subjectively appraised based on one’s social relations. The present study aims to examine the relationship between the need to belong and five personal appraisals under two different belongingness conditions: (1) social-emotion support and (2) social-value representation. A total of 201 participants from two different groups were presented with 69 different items measuring five person…

Life-cycle optimization of building performance: a collection of case studies

2023

The building sector is one of the most impacting on the energy demand and on the environment in developed countries, together with industry and transports. The European Union introduced the topic of nearly zero-energy building (nZEB) and promoted a deep renovations in the existing building stock with the aim of reducing the energy consumption and environmental impacts of the building sector. The design of a nZEB, and in general of a low-energy building, involves different aspects like the economic cost, the comfort indoor, the energy consumption, the life cycle environmental impacts, the different points of view of policy makers, investors and inhabitants. Thus, the adoption of a multicrite…

Optimising the effects of physical activity on mental health and wellbeing: A joint consensus statement from Sports Medicine Australia and the Austra…

2023

Objectives Participation in physical activity can improve mental health and well-being, but effects are mixed. This consensus statement from Sports Medicine Australia and the Australian Psychological Society aims to provide guidance to practitioners on the ways that physical activity can be promoted to maximise benefits to mental health. Method Following the Clinical Consensus Statement protocol, an expert group comprised of eight members with expertise in physical activity and mental health articulated recommendations regarding five physical activity contextual factors: type, physical environment, delivery, domain, and social environment. Results To optimise the mental health benefits of p…

Long-term intake of Lacticaseibacillus helveticus enhances bioavailability of omega-3 fatty acids in the mouse retina

2023

Omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are required for the structure and function of the retina. They could also help to prevent or delay the development of retinopathies. Given the accumulating evidence showing the role of gut microbiota in regulating retinal physiology and host lipid metabolism, we evaluated the potential of long-term dietary supplementation with the Gram-positive bacterium Lacticaseibacillus helveticus strain VEL12193 to modulate the retinal n-3 PUFA content. A set of complementary approaches was used to study the impact of such a supplementation on the gut microbiota and host lipid/fatty acid (FA) metabolism. L. helv…

A chi si rivolgono le norme di diritto internazionale?

2023

In this chapter the traditional legal issues concerning the identification of the subjects of international law is examined according to an original perspective. First of all, the legal regimes of self-determination, minorities and national reconciliation processes are seen, as a whole; namely, as expressions of the increasing legal value of civil societies (peoples, groups) in international law. Second: the legal regime of State sovereignty is dealt with in this chapter, since sovereignty is considered as being the logical corollary of state international capacity. Third and most importantly: the legal position of individuals is not examined in general terms, but with specific regard to so…

MATERNAL EXPOSURE TO STRESSFUL/TRAUMATIC EVENTS AND AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS IN OFFSPRING: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS OF A CASE CONTROL PILOT STUDY.

2023

The correlation between maternal exposure to stressful and traumatic events during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring has been studied in the literature. Fewer studies, however, have considered the mother's exposure to traumatic events during childhood. This work focuses on maternal exposure to these events in childhood and/or adulthood, relating it to autism spectrum disorder in offspring. A questionnaire was used to assess whether and to what type of event the mothers have been exposed, and to assess eventual peri-traumatic dissociation related to the traumatic event. The mothers involved in this study were recruited at the Child Neuropsychiatry Outpatient Clinic of…

An innovative moment resisting steel connection: optimal design formulations, practical applications and experimental tests

2023

This thesis concerns the study of an innovative moment resisting connection device to be adopted in the so-called moment resisting steel frames. Following previous seismic events, such as Northridge in 1994, many steel structures characterized by welded connections between beams and columns experienced extended damages and diffused brittle failures, making the facilities unserviceable and economically disadvantageous to repair. The answers to this problem is represented by a large number of studies, where several proposals for different devices, as well as special technical solutions, are available. However, the main idea developed among all the proposals is represented by the identificatio…

A Completeness Proof for a Regular Predicate Logic with Undefined Truth Value

2023

We provide a sound and complete proof system for an extension of Kleene's ternary logic to predicates. The concept of theory is extended with, for each function symbol, a formula that specifies when the function is defined. The notion of "is defined" is extended to terms and formulas via a straightforward recursive algorithm. The "is defined" formulas are constructed so that they themselves are always defined. The completeness proof relies on the Henkin construction. For each formula, precisely one of the formula, its negation, and the negation of its "is defined" formula is true on the constructed model. Many other ternary logics in the literature can be reduced to ours. Partial functions …

Translated and adaptation into Persian of the podiatric health questionnaire (PHQ)

2023

[Abstract] The Podiatric Health Questionnaire (PHQ) is a foot health psicometric tool consisting of six items for measuring foot health status. Currently, PHQ has been adapted into Spanish. Thus, this research focused on develop the Persian translation and adaptation of the PHQ. The translation into Persian and test-retest reliability methods were applied from english version questionnarie. As regards to the total mark for each sub-scale, internal consistency and reliability were determined by the Cronbach α and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) with a confidence interval (CI) of 95%. High internal consistency was shown for the six sub-scales: a) walk with a Cronbach α of 0.775; b) h…

Doing Math in Mussolini’s Pocket : Ernesto Rossi and Fascist Public Finance (1926-1930)

2023

This essay deals with the brief but intense collaboration of Ernesto Rossi with the «Riforma Sociale», a prestigious journal of economics and social sciences founded by Francesco Saverio Nitti in 1894 and directed by Luigi Einaudi since 1908. Between 1926 and 1930, Rossi authored seven long essays on issues of public finance, applied economics, and economic statistics that have been relatively neglected by historiography. The rereading of these contributions allows us to illuminate some central moments in his training as an economist. This essay focuses on four articles he devoted to a deep analysis of the Italian budget and public debt, recalculating public revenues and expenses, with rela…

Comparative study of indirect tensile test and uniaxial compression test on asphalt mixtures: Dynamic modulus and stress-strain state

2023

Dynamic modulus is an essential parameter for the performance characterisation of asphalt materials for performance prediction and pavement design. The Indirect Tensile (IDT) test and the Uniaxial Compression (UC) test are both well-known experiments performed in the laboratory to characterise the dynamic modulus of asphalt mixtures over a range of temperatures and loading frequencies. A considerable amount of research has investigated the difference between two test modes, while few studies analysed the fundamental difference in stress–strain distributions for the two test setups. This work aims at comparing the effect of the two test methods on dynamic modulus of asphalt mixtures, as well…

Citizen energy lost in sustainability transitions: Knowledge co-production in a complex governance context

2023

Funding Information: In the European Union, the Clean Energy Package with revised directives has created a framework for the member states to provide stronger legislative support for citizen engagement in community-level energy actions [10,11]. These regulatory reforms are geared towards transforming the operational conditions for active, efficient and inclusive citizen-led energy communities to emerge in diverse contexts [12–14]. More specifically, the market access rules and the information supporting the distributed energy producers have been improved [10]. The legitimacy of the EU policies on renewable energy, energy efficiency and market reforms is considered to be improved by enabling…

The prognostic role of tumor budding and tumor-stroma ratio in pulmonary metastasis of colorectal carcinoma

2023

Objective To evaluate the prognostic value of tumor budding and tumor-stroma ratio (TSR) in resected pulmonary metastases of colorectal carcinoma (CRC). Methods In total, 106 pulmonary metastasectomies were performed to 74 patients in two study hospitals during 2000–2020. All relevant clinical data were retrospectively collected. Tumor budding based on the International Tumor Budding Consensus Conference recommendations and TSR in the first resected pulmonary metastases and primary tumors were evaluated from diagnostic hematoxylin-eosin-stained histopathological slides. Results 60 patients (85.7%) had low tumor budding (≤5 buds/field) and 10 patients (14.3%) had high tumor budding (>5 buds/…

Mixed Reality Annotation of Robotic-Assisted Surgery videos with real- time tracking and stereo matching

2023

Robotic-Assisted Surgery (RAS) is beginning to unlock its potential. However, despite the latest advances in RAS, the steep learning curve of RAS devices remains a problem. A common teaching resource in surgery is the use of videos of previous procedures, which in RAS are almost always stereoscopic. It is important to be able to add virtual annotations onto these videos so that certain elements of the surgical process are tracked and highlighted during the teaching session. Including virtual annotations in stereoscopic videos turns them into Mixed Reality (MR) experiences, in which tissues, tools and procedures are better observed. However, an MR-based annotation of objects requires trackin…

A quest between fiscal and market discipline

2023

Fiscal rules are typically seen as government constraints. Yet, the extent to which they are substituted or complemented by market discipline (especially, during financial stress) remains unexplored. Using data for 71 countries over the period 1985–2015, we estimate an “augmented” fiscal reaction function to assess the impact of both fiscal and market discipline. We find that different market signals influence fiscal policy, but fiscal discipline depends on market incentives. In the EU and the OECD, market signals complement fiscal rules. These are less effective in the EMU and non-OECD countries that are “debt intolerant”. Yet, there are unintended consequences: (i) neither output and debt…

Trolligans : Conceptual Links Between Trolling and Hooliganism in Sports and Esports

2023

Both game-based trolling and hooliganism have existed in some form since the inception of online gaming and professional sports respectively. The two share many characteristics: provocation of an opposing entity, the tendency to taunt or trash-talk others based on their social or individual identity, and disruptive and/or destructive behaviour. However, despite this and the increasing similarity between the worlds of traditional sports and esports, research on the two negatively perceived phenomena has remained largely separate. The present article aims to both link and distinguish the two types of behaviour in terms of what motivates them, the agents involved, and the spaces in which they…

The regulatory environment and financial constraints of private firms in the European Union

2023

This study analyzes the influence of the institutional environment on firms' capital structure in the European Union (EU). Unlike other research, we focus on private firms and include data from all EU countries from 2010 to 2018. We split the sample into groups of small and large firms, which we consider financially constrained and unconstrained, respectively. Throughout the study, we posit that institutional effects on financing policies vary with size, with the effects being greater for constrained firms as they face more financing frictions. We also run regression models controlling for firm-level characteristics and relevant macroeconomic factors. Our findings reveal that a high-quality…

Design, mon amour

2023

Questo intrigante testo di Mariacarmela Scrudato, secondo me, non è risultato di un lavoro che si colloca nell’ambito della storia del design ma piuttosto nell’ambito della comunicazione della storia del design. Scrudato, infatti, non approfondisce un tema specifico della storia, non scende in verticale facendo ricerche puntuali. Non aggiunge conoscenza a quel che già abbiamo più volte letto nelle varie sto- rie. Eppure compie un lavoro eccellente: ricostruisce il percorso dando un senso tutto suo, volto a rendere agili e facilmente comprensibili argomenti complessi e a volte ostici. Ma soprattutto riesce a dare al tradizionale percorso storico un senso nuovo, tutto incentrato sull’attrazio…

Monocyte Distribution Width (MDW) as a biomarker of sepsis: An evidenced-based laboratory medicine approach.

2023

Monocyte Distribution Width (MDW) is a new generation cell blood count parameter providing a measure of monocyte anisocytosis. In the last decades, it has emerged as a reliable biomarker of sepsis in the acute setting, especially emergency department, and intensive care unit. MDW has several advantages over commonly used sepsis biomarkers, including low-cost, ease and speed of measurement. The clinical usefulness of MDW has been established in several studies and some clinical laboratory medicines have already implemented it in their routine. In this article, we describe the analytical and clinical features of MDW to guide its appropriate use in clinical practice by integrating the research…

Certifying battery usage for V2G and second life with a blockchain-based framework

2023

This paper describes a blockchain-based approach for sharing data among all the actors involved in Vehicle-to-Grid programs. The shared information is used both for monitoring the health status of the vehicle’s battery and for remuneration in Vehicle-to-Grid programs. A blockchain platform and a set of appropriate smart contracts have been developed for supporting the interactions among the different actors and for creating battery usage profiles. To protect sensitive data, we limit the visibility scope of such data only to subsets of actors using blockchain channels. This approach preserves the privacy of the car owner on one hand and guarantees the compliance to correct charging and disch…