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Using a quantum tunneling derivation, we show the resilience of Hawking radiation in Lorentz violating gravity. In particular, we show that the standard derivation of the Hawking effect in relativistic quantum field theory can be extended to Lorentz breaking situations thanks to the presence of universal horizons (causal boundaries for infinite speed signals) inside black hole solutions. Correcting previous studies, we find that such boundaries are characterized by a universal temperature governed by their surface gravity. We also show that within the tunneling framework, given the pole structure and the tunneling path, only a vacuum state set in the preferred frame provides a consistent picture. Our results strongly suggest that the robustness of black hole thermodynamics is ultimately linked to the consistency of quantum field theories across causal boundaries., 16 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the proceedings of the conference: "Avenues of Quantum Field Theory in Curved Space-time", Genova, 14-16. September 2022

This paper provides a multi-decomposition (or joint decomposition) of the Zenga-84 inequality index, considering simultaneously different sources and subpopulations. The suggested procedure consists of two different stages: in the first one, each inequality pointwise measure is decomposed by sources and by subpopulations; in the second one, the decomposition of the synthetic index is obtained, by averaging the previously decomposed pointwise measures. An important feature of this multi-decomposition is that it allows to assess the portion of the global inequality related to each source in each subpopulation, since most of the decomposition procedures proposed in the literature are not able to achieve such goal. The proposed joint decomposition permits also to obtain, as particular cases, two ‘‘marginal’’ decompositions by sources and by subpopulations of the Zenga-84 index, already introduced in the literature. To show the usefulness of the described multi-decomposition, an application about the household consumption is provided. The real considered dataset comes from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey provided by ISTAT.

In this paper, a multi-decomposition of the Pietra index is presented. This innovative methodology allows to achieve a relevant task, since it combines simultaneously the two most celebrated kinds of decomposition: by sources and by subpopulations. The key result of the proposed procedure is the detail level of decomposition: it allows to split the value of the index, by assessing the contribution of each source in each subpopulation. It is worth noting that this final result is not reached by all the decomposition procedures, since most of them do not permit to identify the contributions at so detailed level. The proposed joint decomposition is a sort of generalization, since from it two decompositions by sources and by subpopulations of the Pietra index, already proposed in the literature, can be obtained. Beyond the methodological details, an application based on the Survey Household Income and Wealth 2018 – carried out by Bank of Italy – is provided in order to clarify the advantages of the procedure.

When calculating the Gini coefficient for distributions which include negative values, the Gini coefficient can be greater than one, which does not make evident its interpretation. In order to avoid this awkward result, common practice is either replacing the negative values with zeros, or simply dropping out units with negative values. We show how these practices can neglect significant variability shares and make comparisons unreliable. The literature also presents some corrections or normalizations which restrict the modified Gini coefficient into the range [0-1]: unluckily these solutions are not free of deficiencies. When negative values are included, the Gini coefficient is no longer a concentration index, and it has to be interpreted just as relative measure of variability, taking account of its maximum inside each particular situation. Our findings and suggestions are illustrated by an empirical analysis, based on the Survey of Household Income and Wealth, released by Banca d'Italia.

The inequality level in the income distribution is a very important indicator for many analyses regarding the structure and the wealth degree of a society. A deep study of the inequality can often help to provide important highlights and sometimes can even explain the trends of many fundamental macro-indicators in economics as well as in finance. In the last years, thanks also to the explosion of the data availability, the use of the geolocalization is increasingly widespread in every research field. Many analyses of economic and financial phenomena have been approached by using ever more complex geostatistical tools. The scope of the present paper is to propose and investigate the features of a new model for representing the inequality in the income distribution within a particular geographical area. The main innovation of this model is the capacity to simultaneusly model the temporal behaviour of the inequality and the modification of it due to the spatial component: such more information can improve the model performances in terms of prediction. The theoretical findings will be illustrated by an application with real data from the Household Income and Wealth sample survey, provided every two years by The Bank of Italy.

In this paper the features of some distribution models used in the literature to depict income distributions are analysed. The analysis is based on the inequality curves generated by such models. In particular, the role of the parameters related to the inequality curves is investigated, also by considering the influence of their variations from a pointwise perspective.

In this work the characteristics of some distribution models used in the literature for describing income distribution are analysed. The analysis focuses on the inequality curves generated by such models. In particular, the role of the parameters related to the inequality curves is analysed, also by considering the influence of their variations from a pointwise perspective

As of the past century, the analysis and the graphical representation of inequality play a very important role in economics. In the literature, several curves have been proposed and developed to simplify the description of inequality. The aim of this paper is a review and a comparison of the most known inequality curves, evaluating the features of each, with a particular focus on interpretation.

Objectives: This study aims to assess the relationships between measures of mindfulness, self-report, and interview measures of personality disorders (PDs) in a sample of 111 consecutively admitted adult outpatients. Results: When PDs were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders, Version 2.0, borderline and histrionic PD, as well as the overall number of PD criteria met by each participant, were significantly predicted by mindfulness measures. When the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+) scale scores were entered in the regression equations as dependent variables, only the obsessive-compulsive PD seemed to be unrelated with mindfulness. The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale total score and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Act with Awareness scale were consistent, negative, and nonredundant predictors of PDQ-4+ dimensionally assessed PDs. Conclusion: As a whole, our findings support the hypothesis that low levels of mindfulness play a significant role in personality psychopathology, and particularly in borderline PD.

International audience

In ischaemic stroke, thrombolytic drugs speed the recanalisation of intracerebral arteries. The effects of aspirin are not known. A trial was conducted to determine whether, separately or together, streptokinase and aspirin have clinical benefits in acute ischaemic stroke similar to those in acute myocardial infarction. 622 patients with acute ischaemic stroke within 6 hours of symptom onset were randomised with a 2x2 factorial design to (i) a 1-hour intravenous infusion of 1 . 5 MU streptokinase, (ii) 300 mg/day buffered aspirin for 10 days, (iii) both active treatments, or (iv) neither. Early results raised a question whether the trial should be continued. Streptokinase (alone or with aspirin) was associated with an excess of 10-day case fatality (odds ratio 2 . 7; 95% confidence interval 1 . 7-4 . 3; 2p

Summary. Background: A prolonged treatment with oral anticoagulants has been claimed to reduce the incidence of newly diagnosed cancer in the long-term follow-up of patients with venous thromboembolism. Objectives: In a multicenter prospective study we assessed the incidence of newly diagnosed clinically overt cancer in patients with a first episode of idiopathic venous thromboembolism (VTE) treated with oral anticoagulants for 3 months or 1 year. Patients and methods: Consecutive patients with an idiopathic venous thromboembolism who had completed 3 months of oral anticoagulant therapy without having a recurrence, bleeding or newly diagnosed cancer were randomized to discontinue oral anticoagulant therapy or to continue it for nine additional months. Idiopathic venous thromboembolism was defined as thrombosis occurring in the absence of known cancer, known thrombophilia, or temporary risk factors for venous thromboembolism. All patients were followed up for at least 1 year after randomization. Results: A total of 429 patients, 265 patients with DVT and 164 with PE, were followed up for an average of 43.7 months after randomization. A newly diagnosed cancer occurred in 32 patients (7.5%), 13 (6.2%) of the 210 patients treated for 3 months and 19 (8.7%) of the 219 patients treated for 1 year (RR = 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.36–1.41). Conclusions: The incidence of newly diagnosed clinically overt cancer is not reduced in patients with idiopathic venous thromboembolism treated with 1-year anticoagulant treatment compared with patients treated for 3 months.

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The membrane skeleton, a dynamic network of proteins associated with the plasma membrane, determines the shape and mechanical properties of erythrocytes. Deficiencies or defects in membrane skeletal proteins are associated with inherited disorders of erythrocyte morphology and function. Adducin is one of the proteins localized at the spectrin-actin junction of the membrane skeleton. In this work we show that deficiency of β-adducin produces an 80% decrease of -adducin and a fourfold up-regulation of γ-adducin in erythrocytes. β-Adducin or any other isoform generated by translation of abnormally spliced messenger RNAs could not be detected by our antibodies either in ghosts or in cytoplasm of −/− erythrocytes. Actin levels were diminished in mutant mice, suggesting alterations in the actin-spectrin junctional complexes due to the absence of adducin. Elliptocytes, ovalocytes, and occasionally spherocytes were found in the blood film of −/− mice. Hematological values showed an increase in reticulocyte counts and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, decreased mean corpuscular volume and hematocrit, and normal erythrocyte counts that, associated to splenomegaly, indicate that the mice suffer from mild anemia with compensated hemolysis. These modifications are due to a loss of membrane surface and dehydration that result in an increase in the osmotic fragility of red blood cells. The marked alteration in osmotic fragility together with the predominant presence of elliptocytes is reminiscent of the human disorder called spherocytic hereditary elliptocytosis. Our results suggest that the amount of adducin remaining in the mutant animals (presumably γ adducin) could be functional and might account for the mild phenotype.

Systemic risk is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that needs to be addressed from different perspectives. In this work we propose a Compositional Data (CoDa) approach to analyze the distribution of relative contributions to systemic risk associated with major European countries during the period 2008–2021. We represent systemic risk measures corresponding to those countries as percentage shares, or parts, of a compositional dataset and we perform a multivariate statistical analysis using specific CoDa procedures. The proposed approach sheds new light on some variability patterns and cross-country relationships that appear to be linked to the composition of systemic risk parts in the system.

In this paper, a method for evaluating systemic risk in different geographic areas is presented. The proposed methodology is based on the decomposition by subpopulations of the Gini index, largely used to assess the inequality of income and wealth. This decomposition procedure follows a two-step approach that goes beyond the “classical” decomposition Within and Between components, also allowing the assessment of the contribution to the total inequality for each subpopulation.

This paper describes an innovative procedure to decompose by subpopulations the values assumed by the Zenga-84 inequality curve Z(p). This decomposition allows to identify the contributions to the inequality at the subpopulation level, feature that the most of the decomposition procedures do not have. Since the synthetic inequality index $$\zeta $$ is obtained as the average of the values of Z(p)—which are appropriate relative variations—the results of such first decomposition can be used to obtain many other different decompositions of the synthetic index $$\zeta $$. In this framework, the classical decomposition of the index $$\zeta $$ in the “Between” and the “Within” components can be performed as a special case. The proposed procedure is illustrated through an application with real data from a sample survey provided by Bank of Italy in 2015.

Partendo dall'analisi del repository digitale degli atti dei convegni dell’International Commission On Occupational Health (ICOH), il contributo affronta il tema della sicurezza degli archivi digitali, che presentano analogie e differenze nel confronto con gli archivi cartacei. Ad esempio, le minacce fisiche (alluvioni, inondazioni, incendi, etc.) sono sostanzialmente le stesse; vi sono poi dei fenomeni di natura tecnologica, come quelli legati alla corruzione dei bit, che presentano forti analogie con fenomeni simili che avvengono nel mondo analogico (si pensi ai danni provocati alla carta da alcune specie di agenti biologici). Vi sono, infine, minacce di tipo logico, come quelle legate agli attacchi di virus e ransomware, per le quali non è possibile trovare un corrispondente nel mondo analogico, ma che hanno un carico distruttivo che ha numerosi equivalenti nel dominio analogico (si pensi ai danni provocati da un incendio o da una alluvione). Tuttavia, tra i due mondi vi sono almeno due differenze sostanziali. La prima consiste nel fatto che mentre con gli archivi cartacei nel caso di un evento calamitoso (come un incendio) c’è il rischio concreto di perdere tutto, con gli archivi digitali, invece, un evento calamitoso non sarebbe così catastrofico perché, teoricamente, sarebbe possibile evitare qualsiasi perdita grazie alla possibilità di recuperare integralmente l’archivio a partire da una sua copia sincrona. La seconda, che costituisce il rovescio dalla medaglia, è costituita dal fatto che gli archivi digitali sono afflitti dal problema della conservazione digitale che li rende bisognosi di una “cura” continua, ben superiore rispetto a quella richiesta dagli archivi analogici.

We announce the formation of the “GLORIA ITALIA NETWORK” and present an overview of the Italian alpine plant communities changes that have occurred in the last 20 years. This network will provide coordination between Italian GLORIA sites and enhance public awareness of changes in alpine plant diversity under climate change.

In this paper two innovative procedures for the decomposition of the Pietra index are proposed. The first one allows the decomposition by sources, while the second one provides the decomposition by subpopulations. As special case of the latter procedure, the “classical” decomposition in two components (within and between) can be easily obtained. A remarkable feature of both the proposed procedures is that they permit the assessment of the contribution to the Pietra index at the smallest possible level: each source for the first one and each subpopulation for the second one. To highlight the usefulness of these procedures, two applications are provided regarding Italian professional football (soccer) teams.

Two innovative procedures for the decomposition of the Pietra inequality index are proposed. Both are based on a two-step approach, already successfully applied in the literature to decompose other indexes. The first procedure allows the decomposition of the index by sources, while the second one provides the decomposition by subpopulations. A very important advantage of these two new procedures is that the first one allows to assess the relevance of each source, while the second one provides the contribution due to each subpopulation. The ”classical” decomposition of the Pietra index in the Within and the Between components can be easily obtained as a special case of the proposed decomposition procedure by subpopulations. Beyond the methodological details, two applications with real data regarding the professional football teams in Italy are illustrated.

In this paper an innovative method to decompose by subpopulations the Pietra index is presented. The decomposition procedure is based on a two-step procedure that has been used in the literature to decompose also other inequality indexes. A such decomposition allows the evaluation of the contributions related to each subpopulation to the total value of the index. Beyond the methodological details, an application with real data about the professional football teams in Italy is described.

Mountain ecosystems are sensitive indicators of climate change. Long-term studies may be extremely useful in assessing the responses of high-elevation ecosystems to climate change and other anthropogenic drivers. Mountain research sites within the LTER (Long-Term Ecosystem Research) network are representative of various types of ecosystems and span a wide bioclimatic and elevational range. Here, we present a synthesis and a review of the main results from long-term ecological studies in mountain ecosystems at 20 LTER sites in Italy, Switzerland and Austria. We analyzed a set of key climate parameters, such as temperature and snow cover duration, in relation to vascular species composition, plant traits, abundance patterns, pedoclimate, nutrient dynamics in soils and water, phenology and composition of freshwater biota. The overall results highlight the rapid response of mountain ecosystems to climate change. As temperatures increased, vegetation cover in alpine and subalpine summits increased as well. Years with limited snow cover duration caused an increase in soil temperature and microbial biomass during the growing season. Effects on freshwater ecosystems were observed, in terms of increases in solutes, decreases in nitrates and changes in plankton phenology and benthos communities. This work highlights the importance of comparing and integrating long-term ecological data collected in different ecosystems, for a more comprehensive overview of the ecological effects of climate change. Nevertheless, there is a need for i) adopting co-located monitoring site networks to improve our ability to obtain sound results from cross-site analysis, ii) carrying out further studies, with fine spatial and temporal resolutions to improve understanding of responses to extreme events, and iii) increasing comparability and standardizing protocols across networks to clarify local from global patterns., 30 pages plus references, 7 figures, 23 tables Paper from the LTER Europe and ILTER network

From fractal point of view, there exist two types of cancer tissues. Those having multifractal (or fractal) structure, and the rest, for example, Wilms tumors. To support the diagnostics, we shall be aware of this differentiation and we shall use robust methods for measuring of multifractality. The main reason a robust discrimination is needed is the simple fact that histopathological discrimination between mastopathy and cancer is difficult in many cases. As we show in this article, using spectra or energy for multifractal model can be of help. However, it needs robustness since many mastopathic tissues are mimicking cancer ones. This article tackles this multidisciplinary topic. In particular, we provide diffusion model for metabolic heat for both cancer and mastopathy related tissues and novel concept of metabolism related energy.

Background: Patterns of white blood cells differential count with low lymphocyte number have been associated with poor outcome following sepsis, burns and trauma. Lymphocytopenia, measured preoperatively or in response to surgical stress, may affect complications after bowel resection. Methods: Clinical characteristics and white blood cells differential count values, measured both pre- and post-operatively of a cohort of patients submitted to intestinal resection and anastomosis from June 2014 to June 2017 in our General Surgery Division, were retrospectively analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the dependence of mortality and postoperative complications from the clinical characteristics of patients and white blood cells differential count values. Results: A total of 301 consecutive patients were studied; 165 (54.8%) were male; mean age was 70 years. Overall, the rate of in-hospital 30-day mortality was 4%. Post-operative morbidity was observed in 124 (41.2%). On multivariate analysis, age adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index, low preoperatively lymphocyte count, high preoperative monocyte count, high postoperative neutrophil count and anastomotic leak were independently associated with increased in-hospital mortality. Preoperative lymphocytopenia and rectal resection were independently associated with high morbidity rate, while low postoperative lymphocyte count was associated with an increased risk of anastomotic leak. Conclusions: Perioperative lymphocytopenia is associated with 30-days mortality, severe complications and anastomotic leak after bowel resection surgery. These routinely available laboratory data could help to identify patients at high-risk for developing complications.

The influence of age on predisposing factors, diagnostic tests, and clinical presentation of pulmonary embolism was evaluated in 582 subjects with suspected pulmonary embolism (180 aged 65 years. Age was directly related to the diagnosis, and the observed probability was higher than the expected probability in the 70 to 79 year subgroup. Score at the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale significantly increased as a function of both age and pulmonary embolism. Dyspnea, syncope, jugular distension, and history of previous venous thromboembolism were more frequently observed in elderly patients. In-hospital mortality rate among the elderly and younger patients was 2% and 0.2%, respectively. The authors conclude that age ≥65 years and high comorbidity are risk factors for pulmonary embolism.

We evaluated a simplified algorithm for safely postponing diagnostic imaging for pulmonary embolism (PE). At the index visit, patients were identified as being at high or low risk of PE; the former received full dosage low molecular weight heparin while the latter were left untreated until performance of diagnostic imaging (max 72 hours). During this period, no thromboembolic events occurred in low-risk patients (0/211, 0.% [upper 95% CI 0.9%]); only one event occurred in those at high-risk (1/125, 0.8% [upper 95% CI, 1.2]). Our study demonstrates that diagnostic imaging for PE can be safely deferred for up to 3 days.

The aim of this article is to establish an ordering related to the inequality for the recently introduced Zenga distribution. In addition to the well-known order based on the Lorenz curve, the order based on I(p) curve is considered. Since the Zenga distribution seems to be suitable to model wealth, financial, actuarial, and, especially, income distributions, these findings are fundamental in the understanding of how parameter values are related to inequality. This investigation shows that for the Zenga distribution, two of the three parameters are inequality indicators.

The subject of this paper is a two-stage hypothesis test, which has interesting applications in several situations related to the opinion research field. Such test is based on the components of a Bivariate Correlated Normal random variable. In particular, it is based on the exact distribution of their minimum and maximum modulus. This test was proposed for the first time by Duncan [Miller, 1981], and was recently improved by Pollastri [2008]. In this paper a variant of such test is described, since two samples in two different times or situations are considered. Two kinds of applications are provided to show the wide range of usage

This paper describes a new procedure to unbiasedly estimate the proportions of t population groups, which at least one is very small and then it can be considered a rare group. This procedure guarantees the privacy protection of the interviewees, as it is based on an extension of the Warner randomized response model. As the estimation regards rare groups, the sampling design considered is the inverse sampling. Some characteristics of the proposed estimators are investigated.

For assessing the effect of undiversified idiosyncratic risk, Basel II has established that banks should measure and control their credit concentration risk. Concentration risk in credit portfolios comes into being through an uneven distribution of bank loans to individual borrowers (single-name concentration) or through an unbalanced allocation of loans in productive sectors and geographical regions (sectoral concentration). In this paper six properties that ensure a coherent measure of single-name concentration are identified. To evaluate single-name concentration risk in the literature, Herfindahl-Hirschman index has been used. This index represents a particular case of Hannah-Kay index proposed in monopoly theory. In this work the proof that Hannah-Kay index satisfies all the six properties is given. Finally, the impact of the elasticity parameter in Hannah-Kay index on the single-name concentration measure is analysed by numerical applications. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.

The inequality analysis plays an important role since the beginning of the last century, in the economic, social and political debate. From the first pioneering paper of Gini, this subject has become more and more fascinating. The several tools proposed in the literature for evaluating the inequality belong basically to two families: on the one hand there are inequality curves which represent (also graphically) the local pattern of inequality in all segments of the considered population; on the other hand, inequality indexes (that often can be derived from a particular inequality curve) which summarize its measure in one number. Different indexes are needed to reveal different viewpoints toward inequality. In this paper, the features of the relatively new inequality I(p) curve are described. Beyond many theoretical results, also an empirical analysis based on real income data of Flint is performed.

When a survey deals with sensitive characteristics such as drug abuse, illegal activities, or embarrassing behaviors, sometimes it is not easy to obtain trustworthy answers. To solve this problem, Warner (1965) was the first to propose a randomized response model which allows to collect data respecting the privacy of the respondents. Starting from that innovative paper, many improvements and evolutions were developed in literature. Haldane (1945) was the first to describe and analyze a new original method of sampling. In such method, called inverse sampling, the sample size is not decided a priori: the random drawing goes on until a pre-fixed number of elements with the considered characteristic is drawn. After that article, the inverse sampling has been studied and many papers showed that in some situations, it is very feasible and convenient, for example when the proportion of people bearing the considered characteristic is very small. The aim of the present paper is to describe a new sampling design in which the both two aforementioned techniques are applied, introducing one more feature: the unequal probabilities of selection. For this new method, some estimators and the analysis of their features are provided. References: [1] Haldane, J.B.S. (1945) On a method of estimating frequencies, Biometrika 33, 222--225. [2] Warner, S.L. (1965) Randomized response: a survey technique for eliminating evasive answer bias, Journal of American Statistical Association 60, 63--69.

Hydrophobins are small proteins secreted by fungi, which self-assemble into amphipathic membranes at air–liquid or liquid–solid interfaces. The physical and chemical properties of some hydrophobins, both in solution and as a biofilm, are affected by poly or oligosaccharides. We have studied the interaction between glucose and the hydrophobin Vmh2 from Pleurotus ostreatus by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and water contact angle (WCA). We have found that Vmh2–glucose complexes forms a chemically stable biofilm, obtained by drop deposition on silicon, 1.6 nm thick and containing 35 per cent of glucose, quantified by SE. AFM highlighted the presence of nanometric rodlet-like aggregates (average height, width and length being equal to 3.6, 23.8 and 40 nm, respectively) on the biofilm surface, slightly different from those obtained in the absence of glucose (4.11, 23.9 and 64 nm). The wettability of a silicon surface, covered by the organic layer of Vmh2–glucose, strongly changed: WCA decreased from 90° down to 17°.

In 2010 Zenga introduced a new three-parameter model for distributions by size that can be used to represent income, wealth, financial and actuarial variables. This paper proposes a summary of its main properties, followed by a focus on the interpretation of the parameters in terms of inequality. The scale parameter μ is equal to the expectation, and it does not affect the inequality, while the two shape parameters α and θ are inverse and direct inequality indicators respectively. This result is obtained through stochastic orders based on inequality curves. A procedure to generate a random sample from Zenga distribution is also proposed. The second part of this article looks at the parameter estimation. Analytical solution of method of moments is obtained. This result is used as a starting point of numerical procedures to obtain maximum likelihood estimates both on ungrouped and grouped data. In the application, three empirical income distributions are considered and the aforementioned estimates are evaluated. A comparison with other well-known models is provided, by the evaluation of three goodness-of-fit indexes.