Tuning non-Markovianity by spin-dynamics control

We study the interplay between forgetful and memory-keeping evolution enforced on a two-level system by a multi-spin environment whose elements are coupled to local bosonic baths. Contrarily to the expectation that any non-Markovian effect would be buried by the forgetful mechanism induced by the spin-bath coupling, one can actually induce a full Markovian-to-non-Markovian transition of the two-level system's dynamics, controllable by parameters such as the mismatch between the energy of the two-level system and of the spin environment. For a symmetric coupling, the amount of non-Markovianity surprisingly grows with the number of decoherence channels. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.87.022317

Genome-wide association analysis identifies 13 new risk loci for schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is an idiopathic mental disorder with a heritable component and a substantial public health impact. We conducted a multi-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) for schizophrenia beginning with a Swedish national sample (5,001 cases and 6,243 controls) followed by meta-analysis with previous schizophrenia GWAS (8,832 cases and 12,067 controls) and finally by replication of SNPs in 168 genomic regions in independent samples (7,413 cases, 19,762 controls and 581 parent-offspring trios). We identified 22 loci associated at genome-wide significance; 13 of these are new, and 1 was previously implicated in bipolar disorder. Examination of candidate genes at these loci suggests the involvement of neuronal calcium signaling. We estimate that 8,300 independent, mostly common SNPs (95% credible interval of 6,300-10,200 SNPs) contribute to risk for schizophrenia and that these collectively account for at least 32% of the variance in liability. Common genetic variation has an important role in the etiology of schizophrenia, and larger studies will allow more detailed understanding of this disorder.

Revised response criteria for polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia:an ELN and IWG-MRT consensus project

Standardized response criteria to interpret and compare clinical trials are needed for approval of new therapeutic agents by regulatory agencies. The European LeukemiaNet (ELN) response criteria for essential thrombocythemia (ET) and polycythemia vera (PV) issued in 2009 have been widely adopted as end points in a number of recent clinical trials. However, evidence exists that they do not predict response or provide clinically relevant measures of benefit for the patients. This article presents revised recommendations for assessing response in ET and PV provided by a working group established by ELN and International Working Group-Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Research and Treatment. New definitions of complete and partial remission incorporate clinical, hematological, and histological response assessments that include a standardized symptom assessment form and consider absence of disease progression and vascular events. We anticipate that these criteria will be adopted widely to facilitate the development of new and more effective therapies for ET and PV.

Probing Bias-Dependent Electrochemical Gas-Solid Reactions in (LaxSr1-x)CoO3-delta Cathode Materials

Spatial variability of bias-dependent electrochemical processes on a (La0.5Sr0.5)(2)CoO4 +/- modified (LaxSr1-x)CoO3- surface is studied using first-order reversal curve method in electrochemical strain microscopy (ESM). The oxygen reduction/evolution reaction (ORR/OER) is activated at voltages as low as 3-4 V with respect to bottom electrode. The degree of bias-induced transformation as quantified by ESM hysteresis loop area increases with applied bias. The variability of electrochemical activity is explored using correlation analysis and the ORR/OER is shown to be activated in grains at relatively low biases, but the final reaction rate is relatively small. At the same time, at grain boundaries, the onset of reaction process corresponds to larger voltages, but limiting reactivity is much higher. The reaction mechanism in ESM of mixed electronic-ionic conductor is further analyzed. These studies both establish the framework for probing bias-dependent electrochemical processes in solids and demonstrate rich spectrum of electrochemical transformations underpinning catalytic activity in cobaltites.

Il Piano della Performance 2011-2013 dei Comuni italiani di medie e grandi dimensioni: allineamento normativo e adeguatezza programmatica in ottica economico-aziendale

Il presente lavoro intende individuare le possibili configurazioni di Piano della Performance (PdP) utilizzabili dagli enti locali, provvedendo poi a delineare il livello di distribuzione e di allineamento dei PdP 2011-2013 dei Comuni medi e grandi rispetto alle suddette configurazioni. Inoltre, verrà valutato, tramite una griglia predisposta dagli autori, il livello di adeguatezza programmatica dei Piani della Performance dei Comuni medi e grandi, al fine di confermare le configurazioni esistenti o di proporne una nuova in caso di inadeguatezza delle prime.

La contabilità come mezzo per diffondere i valori religiosi. Il caso della diocesi di Ferrara del XV secolo.

Il tema del ruolo della contabilità nella Chiesa, con particolare riferimento al legame esistente tra contabilità e valori religiosi, non appare ad oggi sufficientemente studiato, soprattutto se si considera l’importanza economica e sociale di tale istituzione nel passato e nel presente. Il lavoro intende contribuire a tale indagine analizzando la realtà della Diocesi di Ferrara del XV secolo. Il Quattrocento rappresenta per la Chiesa italiana un’epoca di grande importanza, in quanto caratterizzato da un tentativo di riforma promosso da Papa Eugenio IV, volto a combattere la dilagante corruzione morale all’interno del clero e a riportare quest’ultimo alla sua funzione pastorale. L’appello pontificio venne accolto con particolare attenzione da due vescovi ferraresi, Giovanni Tavelli da Tossignano e Francesco Dal Legname, che attraverso le loro visite pastorali cercarono di divulgare i valori della riforma nella propria Diocesi. La promozione della nuova moralità, nell’esperienza ferrarese, era basata anche sulla diffusione degli strumenti contabili, mezzo essenziale per mettere in luce l’operato dei diversi membri del clero ed in particolare l’utilizzo da parte loro dei beni della Chiesa. Attraverso lo studio di documenti originali del XV secolo, scritti in lingua latina, il contributo si propone di mettere in luce come la contabilità possa assumere un ruolo complementare alla promozione dei valori religiosi.

Relatively Absolute? The Undermining of Article 3 ECHR in Ahmad v UK

The recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Ahmad v UK dangerously undermines the well-established case law of the Court on counter-terrorism and non-refoulement towards torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. Although ostensibly rejecting the ‘relativist’ approach to Article 3 ECHR adopted by the House of Lords in Wellington v Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Court appeared to accept that what is a breach of Article 3 in a domestic context may not be a breach in an extradition or expulsion context. This statement is difficult to reconcile with the jurisprudence constante of the Court in the last fifteen years, according to which Article 3 ECHR is an absolute right in all its applications, including non-refoulement, regardless of who the potential victim of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment is, what she may have done, or where the treatment at issue would occur.

Geometrical characterization of non-Markovianity

We introduce a tool for the quantitative characterization of the departure from Markovianity of a given dynamical process. Our tool can be applied to a generic N-level system and extended straightforwardly to Gaussian continuous-variable systems. It is linked to the change of the volume of physical states that are dynamically accessible to a system and provides qualitative expectations in agreement with some of the analogous tools proposed so far. We illustrate its predictive power by tackling a few canonical examples.

Novel genetic susceptibility loci for diabetic end-stage renal disease identified through robust naive Bayes classification

Aims/hypothesis: Diabetic nephropathy is a major diabetic complication, and diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Family studies suggest a hereditary component for diabetic nephropathy. However, only a few genes have been associated with diabetic nephropathy or ESRD in diabetic patients. Our aim was to detect novel genetic variants associated with diabetic nephropathy and ESRD. Methods: We exploited a novel algorithm, ‘Bag of Naive Bayes’, whose marker selection strategy is complementary to that of conventional genome-wide association models based on univariate association tests. The analysis was performed on a genome-wide association study of 3,464 patients with type 1 diabetes from the Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy (FinnDiane) Study and subsequently replicated with 4,263 type 1 diabetes patients from the Steno Diabetes Centre, the All Ireland-Warren 3-Genetics of Kidneys in Diabetes UK collection (UK–Republic of Ireland) and the Genetics of Kidneys in Diabetes US Study (GoKinD US). Results: Five genetic loci (WNT4/ZBTB40-rs12137135, RGMA/MCTP2-rs17709344, MAPRE1P2-rs1670754, SEMA6D/SLC24A5-rs12917114 and SIK1-rs2838302) were associated with ESRD in the FinnDiane study. An association between ESRD and rs17709344, tagging the previously identified rs12437854 and located between the RGMA and MCTP2 genes, was replicated in independent case–control cohorts. rs12917114 near SEMA6D was associated with ESRD in the replication cohorts under the genotypic model (p < 0.05), and rs12137135 upstream of WNT4 was associated with ESRD in Steno. Conclusions/interpretation: This study supports the previously identified findings on the RGMA/MCTP2 region and suggests novel susceptibility loci for ESRD. This highlights the importance of applying complementary statistical methods to detect novel genetic variants in diabetic nephropathy and, in general, in complex diseases.

Relative Biological Effectiveness Variation Along Monoenergetic and Modulated Bragg Peaks of a 62-MeV Therapeutic Proton Beam: A Preclinical Assessment

iological optimization of proton therapy critically depends on detailed evaluation of relative biological effectiveness (RBE) variations along the Bragg curve. The clinically accepted RBE value of 1.1 is an oversimplification, which disregards the steep rise of linear energy transfer (LET) at the distal end of the spread-out Bragg peak. We observed significant cell killing RBE variations dependent on beam modulation, intrinsic radiosensitivity, and LET in agreement with the LEM predicted values, indicating dose-averaged LET as a suitable parameter for biological effectiveness. Data have also been used to validate a RBE parameterized model.

A high resolution study of complex organic molecules in hot cores

We present the results of a line identification analysis using data from the IRAM Plateau de Bure Inferferometer, focusing on six massive star-forming hot cores: G31.41+0.31, G29.96-0.02, G19.61-0.23, G10.62-0.38, G24.78+0.08A1 and G24.78+0.08A2. We identify several transitions of vibrationally excited methyl formate (HCOOCH$_3$) for the first time in these objects as well as transitions of other complex molecules, including ethyl cyanide (C$_2$H$_5$CN), and isocyanic acid (HNCO). We also postulate a detection of one transition of glycolaldehyde (CH$_2$(OH)CHO) in two new hot cores. We find G29.96-0.02, G19.61-0.23, G24.78+0.08A1 and 24.78+0.08A2 to be chemically very similar. G31.41+0.31, however, is chemically different: it manifests a larger chemical inventory and has significantly larger column densities. We suggest that it may represent a different evolutionary stage to the other hot cores in the sample, or it may surround a star with a higher mass. We derive column densities for methyl formate in G31.41+0.31, using the rotation diagram method, of $\times$10$^{17}$ cm$^{-2}$ and a T$_{rot}$ of $\sim$170 K. For G29.96-0.02, G24.78+0.08A1 and G24.78+0.08A2, glycolaldehyde, methyl formate and methyl cyanide all seem to trace the same material and peak at roughly the same position towards the dust emission peak. For G31.41+0.31, however, glycolaldehyde shows a different distribution to methyl formate and methyl cyanide and seems to trace the densest, most compact inner part of hot cores.

The Pan-STARRS Moving Object Processing System

We describe the Pan-STARRS Moving Object Processing System (MOPS), a modern software package that produces automatic asteroid discoveries and identifications from catalogs of transient detections from next-generation astronomical survey telescopes. MOPS achieves >99.5% efficiency in producing orbits from a synthetic but realistic population of asteroids whose measurements were simulated for a Pan-STARRS4-class telescope. Additionally, using a nonphysical grid population, we demonstrate that MOPS can detect populations of currently unknown objects such as interstellar asteroids. MOPS has been adapted successfully to the prototype Pan-STARRS1 telescope despite differences in expected false detection rates, fill-factor loss, and relatively sparse observing cadence compared to a hypothetical Pan-STARRS4 telescope and survey. MOPS remains highly efficient at detecting objects but drops to 80% efficiency at producing orbits. This loss is primarily due to configurable MOPS processing limits that are not yet tuned for the Pan-STARRS1 mission. The core MOPS software package is the product of more than 15 person-years of software development and incorporates countless additional years of effort in third-party software to perform lower-level functions such as spatial searching or orbit determination. We describe the high-level design of MOPS and essential subcomponents, the suitability of MOPS for other survey programs, and suggest a road map for future MOPS development.

Microbial community of the deep-sea brine Lake Kryos seawater-brine interface is active below the chaotropicity limit of life as revealed by recovery of mRNA

Within the complex of deep, hypersaline anoxic lakes (DHALs) of the Mediterranean Ridge, we identified a new, unexplored DHAL and named it ‘Lake Kryos’ after a nearby depression. This lake is filled with magnesium chloride (MgCl2)-rich, athalassohaline brine (salinity > 470 practical salinity units), presumably formed by the dissolution of Messinian bischofite. Compared with the DHAL Discovery, it contains elevated concentrations of kosmotropic sodium and sulfate ions, which are capable of reducing the net chaotropicily of MgCl2-rich solutions. The brine of Lake Kryos may therefore be biologically permissive at MgCl2 concentrations previously considered incompatible with life. We characterized the microbiology of the seawater–Kryos brine interface and managed to recover mRNA from the 2.27–3.03 MMgCl2 layer (equivalent to 0.747–0.631 water activity), thereby expanding the established chaotropicity window-for-life. The primary bacterial taxa present there were Kebrit Deep Bacteria 1 candidate division and DHAL-specific group of organisms, distantly related toDesulfohalobium. Two euryarchaeal candidate divisions, Mediterranean Sea Brine Lakes group 1 and halophilic cluster 1, accounted for > 85% of the rRNA-containing archaeal clones derived from the 2.27–3.03 M MgCl2 layer, but were minority community-members in the overlying interface-layers. These findings shed light on the plausibility of life in highly chaotropic environments, geochemical windows for microbial extremophiles, and have implications for habitability elsewhere in the Solar System.

The Kepler-10 Planetary System Revisited by HARPS-N: A Hot Rocky World and a Solid Neptune-Mass Planet

Kepler-10b was the first rocky planet detected by the Kepler satellite and confirmed with radial velocity follow-up observations from Keck-HIRES. The mass of the planet was measured with a precision of around 30%, which was
insufficient to constrain models of its internal structure and composition in detail. In addition to Kepler-10b, a second planet transiting the same star with a period of 45 days was statistically validated, but the radial velocities were only
good enough to set an upper limit of 20 M⊕ for the mass of Kepler-10c. To improve the precision on the mass for planet b, the HARPS-N Collaboration decided to observe Kepler-10 intensively with the HARPS-N spectrograph
on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo on La Palma. In total, 148 high-quality radial-velocity measurements were obtained over two observing seasons. These new data allow us to improve the precision of the mass determination for Kepler-10b to 15%. With a mass of 3.33 ± 0.49 M⊕ and an updated radius of 1.47+0.03 −0.02 R⊕, Kepler-10b has a density of 5.8 ± 0.8 g cm−3, very close to the value predicted by models with the same internal structure and composition as the Earth. We were also able to determine a mass for the 45-day period planet Kepler-10c, with an even better precision of 11%. With a mass of 17.2 ± 1.9 M⊕ and radius of 2.35+0.09 −0.04 R⊕, Kepler-10c has a density of 7.1 ± 1.0 g cm−3. Kepler-10c appears to be the first strong evidence of a class of more massive solid planets with longer orbital periods