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Introduction Language and conversation are deeply interrelated: language is acquired, structured, practiced in social interactions and linguistic resources (specifically syntactic, prosodic and pragmatic aspects) contribute to finely tuning turn-taking. Nevertheless, most studies focused on verbal aspects of speech in schizophrenia, with scant attention to their relation to conversation, where language is experienced at most. Objectives The present study was aimed at investigating a possible association between language impairment and conversational characteristics in a sample of clinically stable patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (N = 35, ages 18-65). Methods A spontaneous speech sample was recorded. For the assessment of language skills, the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language and Communication (TLC) and the Clinical Language Disorder Rating Scale (CLANG) were used, while conversational variables were extracted with an innovative method of semi-automatic analysis. The possible associations were investigated through the Pearson Correlation. Results Figure 1 represents graphically the correlational matrix between conversational variables and linguistic scale scores. In the heatmap, blue means negative and red positive correlations, the stronger the colour, the larger the correlation magnitude. Moreover, the significant associations are indicated with stars. Conclusions The results suggest that in schizophrenia spectrum disorders the disturbances of language, at a syntactic, prosodic and pragmatic level, have significant impact on communicative interaction. Thus, conversation analysis might be a promising method to quantify objectively communicative impairment with the benefit of representing an ecological assessment, examining the performance of patients in the real situation of language use, which is social interaction. Disclosure No significant relationships.

We explore the potential multistability of the climate for a planet around the habitable zone. We focus on conditions reminiscent to those of the Earth system, but our investigation aims at presenting a general methodology for dealing with exoplanets. We provide a thorough analysis of the non-equilibrium thermodynamical properties of the climate system and explore, using a a flexible climate model, how such properties depend on the energy input of the parent star, on the infrared atmospheric opacity, and on the rotation rate. It is possible to reproduce the multi-stability properties reminiscent of the paleoclimatologically relevant snowball (SB) - warm (W) conditions. We then study the thermodynamics of the W and SB states, clarifying the role of the hydrological cycle in shaping the irreversibility and the efficiency of the W states, and emphasizing the extreme diversity of the SB states, where dry conditions are realized. Thermodynamics provides the clue for studying the tipping points of the system and leads us to constructing parametrizations where the main thermodynamic properties are expressed as functions of the emission temperature of the planet only. Such functions are rather robust with respect to changing the rotation rate of the planet from the current terrestrial one to half of it. We then explore the dynamical range of slowy rotating and phase locked planets. There is a critical rotation rate below which the multi-stability properties are lost. Such critical rotation rate corresponds roughly to the phase lock 2:1 condition. Therefore, if an Earth-like planet is 1:1 phase locked with respect to the parent star, only one climatic state would be compatible with a given set of astronomical and astrophysical parameters. These results have relevance for the general theory of planetary circulation and for the definition of necessary and sufficient conditions for habitability., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1207.1254

A general circulation model of intermediate complexity with an idealized Earth-like aquaplanet setup is used to study the impact of changes in the oceanic heat transport on the global atmospheric circulation. Focus is on the atmospheric mean meridional circulation and global thermodynamic properties. The atmosphere counterbalances to a large extent the imposed changes in the oceanic heat transport, but, nonetheless, significant modifications to the atmospheric general circulation are found. Increasing the strength of the oceanic heat transport up to 2.5 PW leads to an increase in the global mean near-surface temperature and to a decrease in its equator-to-pole gradient. For stronger transports, the gradient is reduced further, but the global mean remains approximately constant. This is linked to a cooling and a reversal of the temperature gradient in the tropics. Additionally, a stronger oceanic heat transport leads to a decline in the intensity and a poleward shift of the maxima of both the Hadley and Ferrel cells. Changes in zonal mean diabatic heating and friction impact the properties of the Hadley cell, while the behavior of the Ferrel cell is mostly controlled by friction. The efficiency of the climate machine, the intensity of the Lorenz energy cycle and the material entropy production of the system decline with increased oceanic heat transport. This suggests that the climate system becomes less efficient and turns into a state of reduced entropy production as the enhanced oceanic transport performs a stronger large-scale mixing between geophysical fluids with different temperatures, thus reducing the available energy in the climate system and bringing it closer to a state of thermal equilibrium.

Kramers-Kronig type dispersion relations for integer powers of complex reflection coefficient are introduced for testing the consistency of terahertz reflection spectra. By using numerical simulations we show that such dispersion relations can be applied for distillation from data with some experimental artifacts without data extrapolations beyond the measured spectral range. These dispersion relations, due to causality, provide a powerful and yet uncommon tool to examine the consistency of the spectroscopic data obtained in reflection spectroscopy at terahertz range. In particular we show that real and imaginary parts of the complex reflection coefficient obtained from raw data with systematic phase error caused by sample misplacement, not necessarily obey dispersion relations, while the ones corrected with maximum entropy method obey these relations., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures

We present an analysis of seasonal cycle of the last 50 years of records of surface temperature in Italy. We consider two data sets which synthesize the surface temperature fields of Northern and Southern Italy. Such data sets consist of records of daily maximum and minimum temperature. We compute the best estimate of the seasonal cycle of the variables considered by adopting the cyclograms' technique. We observe that in general the minimum temperature cycle lags behind the maximum temperature cycle, and that the cycles of the Southern Italy temperatures records lag behind the corresponding cycles referring to Northern Italy. All seasonal cycles lag considerably behind the solar cycle. The amplitude and phase of the seasonal cycles do not show any statistically significant trend in the time interval considered., 30 pages, 6 figures, submitted to IJC

Data assimilation (DA) aims at optimally merging observational data and model outputs to create a coherent statistical and dynamical picture of the system under investigation. Indeed, DA aims at minimizing the effect of observational and model error, and at distilling the correct ingredients of its dynamics. DA is of critical importance for the analysis of systems featuring sensitive dependence on the initial conditions, as chaos wins over any finitely accurate knowledge of the state of the system, even in absence of model error. Clearly, the skill of DA is guided by the properties of dynamical system under investigation, as merging optimally observational data and model outputs is harder when strong instabilities are present. In this paper we reverse the usual angle on the problem and show that it is indeed possible to use the skill of DA to infer some basic properties of the tangent space of the system, which may be hard to compute in very high-dimensional systems. Here, we focus our attention on the first Lyapunov exponent and the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, and perform numerical experiments on the Vissio-Lucarini 2020 model, a recently proposed generalisation of the Lorenz 1996 model that is able to describe in a simple yet meaningful way the interplay between dynamical and thermodynamical variables., 23 pages, 10 figures

The climate is a forced and dissipative nonlinear system featuring non-trivial dynamics of a vast range of spatial and temporal scales. The understanding of the climate's structural and multiscale properties is crucial for the provision of a unifying picture of its dynamics and for the implementation of accurate and efficient numerical models. We present some recent developments at the intersection between climate science, mathematics, and physics, which may prove fruitful in the direction of constructing a more comprehensive account of climate dynamics. We describe the Nambu formulation of fluid dynamics, and the potential of such a theory for constructing sophisticated numerical models of geophysical fluids. Then, we focus on the statistical mechanics of quasi-equilibrium flows in a rotating environment, which seems crucial for constructing a robust theory of geophysical turbulence. We then discuss ideas and methods suited for approaching directly the non-equilibrium nature of the climate system. First, we describe some recent findings on the thermodynamics of climate and characterize its energy and entropy budgets, and discuss related methods for intercomparing climate models and for studying tipping points. These ideas can also create a common ground between geophysics and astrophysics by suggesting general tools for studying exoplanetary atmospheres. We conclude by focusing on non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, which allows for a unified framing of problems as different as the climate response to forcings, the effect of altering the boundary conditions or the coupling between geophysical flows, and the derivation of parametrizations for numerical models., Comment: 44 pages, 22 figures. Major revision with respect to previous version. A glossary of terms is included at the end

An extensive analysis of an optically thin, dry atmosphere at different values of the thermal Rossby number R o and of the Taylor number F f is performed with a general circulation model by varying the rotation rate Ω and the surface drag τ in a wide parametric range. By using nonequilibrium thermodynamics diagnostics such as material entropy production, efficiency, meridional heat transport and kinetic energy dissipation we characterize in a new way the different circulation regimes. Baroclinic circulations feature high mechanical dissipation, meridional heat transport, material entropy production and are fairly efficient in converting heat into mechanical work. The thermal dissipation associated with the sensible heat flux is found to depend mainly on the surface properties, almost independent from the rotation rate and very low for quasi-barotropic circulations and regimes approaching equatorial super-rotation. Slowly rotating, axisymmetric circulations have the highest meridional heat transport. At high rotation rates and intermediate-high drag, atmospheric circulations are zonostrophic with very low mechanical dissipation, meridional heat transport and efficiency. When τ is interpreted as a tunable parameter associated with the turbulent boundary layer transfer of momentum and sensible heat, our results confirm the possibility of using the Maximum Entropy Production Principle as a tuning guideline in the range of values of Ω . This study suggests the effectiveness of using fundamental nonequilibrium thermodynamics for investigating the properties of planetary atmospheres and extends our knowledge of the thermodynamics of the atmospheric circulation regimes.

We review the skill of thirty coupled climate models participating in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 in terms of reproducing properties of the seasonal cycle of precipitation over the major river basins of South and Southeast Asia (Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra and Mekong) for historical period (1961-2000). We also present projected changes by these models by end of century (2061-2100) under extreme scenario RCP8.5. First, we assess their ability to reproduce observed timings of the monsoon onset and the rate of rapid fractional accumulation (RFA slope) - a measure of seasonality within active monsoon period. Secondly, we apply a threshold-independent seasonality index (SI) - a multiplicative measure of precipitation and extent of its concentration relative to the uniform distribution (relative entropy - RE). We apply SI distinctly for monsoonal precipitation regime (MPR), westerly precipitation regime (WPR) and annual precipitation regime. For present climate, neither any single model nor the multi-model mean performs best in all chosen metrics. Models show overall a modest skill in suggesting right timings of the monsoon onset while the RFA slope is generally underestimated. One third of models fail to capture the monsoon signal over the Indus basin. Mostly, SI estimates for WPR are simulated higher than observed for all basins, while for MPR, it is simulated higher (lower) for Ganges and Brahmaputra (Indus and Mekong) basins, following the pattern of overestimation (underestimation) of precipitation. However, models are biased positive (negative) for RE estimates over Indus and Ganges (Brahmaputra and Mekong) basins, implying the extent of precipitation concentration for MPR and number of dry days within WPR higher (lower) than observed for these basins. Under the RCP8.5 scenario, most of models project a slightly delayed monsoon onset, and a general increase in the RFA slope..., Comment: under review for Journal of Atmospheric Research

We investigate how CMIP3 climate models describe the hydrological cycle over four major South and Southeast Asian river basins (Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra and Mekong) for the XX, XXI, and XXII centuries. For the XX century, models' simulated water balance and total runoff quantities are neither consistent with the observed mean river discharges nor among the models. Most of the models underestimate the water balance for the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Mekong basin and overestimate it for the Indus basin. The only modest inter-model agreement is found for the Indus basin in terms of precipitation, evaporation and the strength of the hydrological cycle and for the Brahmaputra basin in terms of evaporation. While some models show inconsistencies for the Indus and the Ganges basins, most of the models seem to conserve water at the river basin scale up to a good degree of approximation. Models agree on a negative change of the water balance for Indus and a positive change in the strength of the hydrological cycle, whereas for Brahmaputra, Mekong and Ganges, most of the models project a positive change in both quantities. Most of the models foresee an increase in the inter-annual variability of the water balance for the Ganges and Mekong basins which is consistent with the projected changes in the Monsoon precipitation. No considerable future change in the inter-annual variability of water balance is found for the Indus basin, characterized by a more complex meteorology, because its precipitation regime is determined not only by the summer monsoon but also by the winter mid-latitude disturbances.