Search

We present a software infrastructure for the research community working on turbulence and complex flows (TurBase), an easily accessible web platform for high quality data. Its main goal is to host, standardize and manage a large collections of heterogeneous experimental and numerical data sets from high-end European fluid dynamics experimental facilities and from High Performance Computational centres. TurBase offers scalable performances when accessing/uploading/searching data, providing at the same time maximum flexibility and power (through Jupyter notebooks) when doing online computation directly on big datasets.

© 2015 Siyanova-Chanturia, Warren, Pesciarelli and Cacciari. Most research to date on implicit gender stereotyping has been conducted with one age group - young adults. The mechanisms that underlie the on-line processing of stereotypical information in other age groups have received very little attention. This is the first study to investigate real time processing of gender stereotypes at different age levels. We investigated the activation of gender stereotypes in Italian in four groups of participants: third- and fifth-graders, young and older adults. Participants heard a noun that was stereotypically associated with masculine (preside "headmaster") or feminine roles (badante "social care worker"), followed by a male (padre "father") or female kinship term (madre "mother"). The task was to decide if the two words - the role noun and the kinship term - could describe the same person. Across all age groups, participants were significantly faster to respond, and significantly more likely to press 'yes,' when the gender of the target was congruent with the stereotypical gender use of the preceding prime. These findings suggest that information about the stereotypical gender associated with a role noun is incorporated into the mental representation of this word and is activated as soon as the word is heard. In addition, our results show differences between male and female participants of the various age groups, and between male- and female-oriented stereotypes, pointing to important gender asymmetries.

We report new HST/WFPC2 photometry for 10 globular clusters (GC) in M31 observed in F5555W(V) and F814W(I). Additionally we have reanalyzed HST archival data of comparable quality for 2 more GCs. Extraordinary care is taken to account for the effects of blended stellar images and required field subtraction. We thus reach 1 mag fainter than the horizontal branch (HB) even in unfavorable cases. We present the color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) and discuss their main features also in comparison with the properties of the Galactic GCs. This analysis is augmented with CMDs previously obtained and discussed by Fusi Pecci et al. (1996) on 8 other M31 clusters. We report the following significant results: 1. The locus of the red giant branches give reliable metallicity determinations which compare generally very well with ground-based integrated spectroscopic and photometric measures, as well as giving good reddening estimates. 2. The HB morphologies show the same behavior with metallicity as the Galactic GCs, with indications that the 2nd-parameter effect can be present in some GCs of our sample. However, at [Fe/H] ~ -1.7 we observe a number of GCs with red HB morphology such that the HB type versus [Fe/H] relation is offset from the MW and resembles that of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. One explanation for the offset is that they are younger than their MW counterparts by 1-2 Gyr. 3. The Mv(HB)-[Fe/H] relationship has been determined and the slope (~0.20) is very similar to the values derived from RR Lyrae stars in the MW and the LMC. The zero-point of this relation based on the assumed distance modulus (m-M)o(M31)=24.47+/-0.03 is consistent with (m-M)o(LMC)=18.55.

The three special projects sponsored by Commission 27: the Information Bulletin on Variable Stars (IVBS), the Archives of Unpublished Observations of Variable Stars, and the General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS) continue to serve the astronomical community. Katalin Olah, Laszlo Szabados, Andras Holl, Zsolt Kővari and their colleagues have made the Bulletin available in electronic form, including back issues. In addition, Andras Holl succeeded in setting up a WWW home page for our commission. Chris Sterken and the Editorial Board strived to maintain high scientific standard of the IVBS. The Archives, under Ed Schmidt, increased to over three hundred files. Nikolai N. Samus and his co-workers published the final volume of the 4th edition of the GCVS. The Catalogue is also available electronically. All these people should be highly prized for their hard work for the IAU and astronomers at large.

The Italian Health Care System is changing drastically and is obliging the medical profession to do likewise in its outlook. Hospitals are nowadays organised like a business, with new departmental organisations being created and budgets to be managed. Doctors are obliged to acquire both managerial capacities and a more in-depth knowledge of human behaviour. A better understanding of doctor/patient and working team relations therefore becomes mandatory. A course on human communications was organised in our department to highlight the problems involved and to improve our professionalism. A first level course consisting of 6 two-and-a-half-hour meetings was attended by the medical and nursing staff. The topics were: communicative exchange in a health-care setting; the role of non-verbal communication in doctor/patient relationships; working team relationships; the burn-out syndrome. Twelve months later the results of this experience were checked by an interview/questionnaire. Our communicative behaviour has not been revolutionised, but awareness of some communication problems have, however, changed our attitude. The concepts which have been assimilated more readily are: good communication does not mean just being “kind” in a therapeutical setting, but of being able to understand the real problems, needs and expectations of patients as well as ensuring that they also understand what they are told, so that they follow prescriptions and the percentage of recoveries consequently improves; in effective communication, verbal and non-verbal information should not be in conflict; it is impossible not to communicate and any attempt not to do so is interpreted as a refusal; particular attention should be paid in working team relationships to dysfunctional communication and the emergence of burn-out syndromes.

Introductionaggressive behavior in wards is associated to poor treatment compliance and low clinical insight. Most studies focused on the clinical and cognitive dimensions of insight, while the relationship between metacognitive dimension and aggressive behaviors was not investigated. Our aim was to understand what relationship occurs between dimensions of insight (metacognitive, cognitive, clinical), and specific aggressive behaviors in acute patients.Methodswe recruited 75 acute schizophrenic patients using: aQ; MO aS; IS; P aNSS; BCIS.Resultsa positive correlation between the IS score and the hostility, angry and physical aggression sub-scores of the aQ was highlighted, while no correlation between the score of IS and MO aS total score was found. No correlation between the score of the P aNSS G12 item and the aQ scores and MO aS was found, and no correlation between BCIS scores, MO aS and aQ scores was found.Conclusionsin our patients, a higher level of metacognitive insight, but not clinical nor cognitive insight, was associated to higher levels of hostility. we suggest that a higher ability to monitor and appraise one's own altered processes of thought and related discomfort, feeling of destabilization and loss of control, could contribute to enhance resentment and suspiciousness. Findings help develop specific therapeutic strategies to enhance metacognitive and self-monitoring abilities, helping patient's understanding of the illness, improving compliance with treatment, and patient's quality of life. Our results support the multidimensional nature of insight in schizophrenia, confirming that clinical, cognitive and metacognitive dimensions are independent though related facets of the phenomenon of insight in schizophrenia.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Obiettivo: approfondire i rapporti tra carico lavorativo, personalità ed alcuni indicatori biochimici di risposta allo stress le cui modificazioni possono contribuire a spiegare la suscettibilità/resistenza al rischio di malattie. Materiali e metodi: l’indagine è stata effettuata su un gruppo di Vigili del Fuoco (n°61) confrontati con un gruppo di controllo (ricercatori universitari); entrambi hanno aderito tramite consenso informato e fornito un campione di saliva per la misura del cortisolo e delle IgA in condizioni di base. Un sottogruppo di vigili ha fornito anche un campione di saliva dopo un turno lavorativo notturno (condizione di stress). Parallelamente si è effettuato un assessment psicologico tramite la somministrazione di questionari quali: lo State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, il Big Five Observer, il Locus of Control ed il Sensation Seeking Scale. Risultati: in condizioni basali i Vigili del Fuoco mostrano un livello di cortisolo salivare più elevato dei controlli (24,9 ± 11,3 vs 20,0 ± 8,6 nmol/l, p=0,091), mentre il livello di IgA è simile nei due gruppi. Nei vigili, dopo lo stress lavorativo, si è evidenziato un calo significativo delle IgA (296,5 ± 160,5 vs 191,9 ± 95,3 Bg/ml, p=0,014) ed una correlazione positiva tra il cortisolo salivare e l’ansietà di stato e di tratto.Conclusioni: i Vigili del Fuoco sono risultati meno ansiosi, più predisposti al rischio e con un profilo di personalità di tipo realistico in linea con la scelta professionale. Lo stress lavorativo si associa ad una riduzione significativa dell’ escrezione salivare di IgA, assunta come indice di attività del sistema immunitario, mentre il cortisolo salivare, che rappresenta un indicatore sensibile di attività neuroendocrina sotto stress, pur non modificandosi in termini assoluti si associa con il livello di ansietà dei vigili allo studio.

New CCD BVI observations of RR Lyrae variables in M3 are presented. Mean magnitudes and colours are derived, as well as their relations with periods and amplitudes, and comparisons are made with previous data (Sandage 1981, 1990). Preliminary results are presented on the temperature distribution of the variables and the period-shift effect with respect to M15 and M68.

Raman study on some applied or potential platinum drugs has been performed and results are reported. We have studied neutral platinum(II) complexes with Nalkilimidazole, NH3, halogenic and dicarboxylate (tartrate) ligands.

We have applied two slightly different formulations of the Baade-Wesselink (B-W) method : (i) the Infrared Flux (IF) method (Fernley et al 1990a), and (ii) the Surface Brightness (SB) method (Cacciari et al 1989a), to derive the absolute magnitude of the field RR Lyrae stars UU Cet, RV Phe and W Tuc. The photometric (BVRIJHK) and radial velocity data used in the analysis have been published in Cacciari et al (1987, 1989b, 1991) and Clementini et al (1990). The Walraven photometry used in the IF method is by Lub (1977). Typical accuracies for individual data points are ±0.01–0.02 mag for the magnitudes and colours, and ±l–2km/sec for the radial velocity data. Excluding RV Phe, which may be affected by Blazhko effects, the results obtained from the IF and SB methods are rather consistent especially when the V—K colour is used in the SB method. For details see Cacciari et al. (1991).

Empirical correlations are found between log ages and the intrinsic ultraviolet colors for 27 LMC clusters. The problems and limitations of using these correlations as age indicators for LMC clusters and other stellar populations are discussed. The correlations are used to estimate the ages of two LMC clusters of unknown age (NGC 1968 and NGC 1974) and the nuclei of two nearby blue compact dwarf galaxies (NGC 1705 and NGC 5253). For the latter two objects optical- and ultraviolet-based age estimates are in good agreement. 46 refs.

New BV photographic photometry for 56 RR Lyrae variables in M15, combined with original measures by Sandage, Katem and Sandage (1981), yield data of improved precision which enable a rediscussion of the RR Lyrae characteristics and Oosterhoff problem.

Twenty-four liver patients and seven healthy subjects underwent the enzymatic-fluorimetric assay of total serum bile acids during fasting and after a hyperlipidic meal, both alone and with the intramuscular administration of 0.3 microgram/kg of cerulein. A third test with cerulein alone was carried out on the control group and on 12 liver patients. The liver patients were divided into two groups; those with moderate and severe liver disease, according to the degree of liver function impairment and the clinical data. The best discriminant efficiency was observed in the test with the meal alone, even if, in the liver patients, the meal with cerulein caused a greater percentual increase of serum bile acids. After taking into account the most significant correlations between serum bile acids and liver function tests, the addition of cerulein to the meal may be recommended for liver patients with previous cholecystectomy or gallbladder pathology.

Retained-antrum syndrome is a rare condition, occurring in Billroth II gastrectomised patients, in which an ulcer recurs associated with high levels of circulating gastrin. Some gastrin tests are useful to differentiate a retained antrum from a gastrinoma, but a firm diagnosis is sometimes very difficult. We have studied two cases of retained-antrum syndrome both by gastrin tests and by [99mTc] pertechnetate scintiphotography. By this method a prominent area of activity was observed on the anatomic site of the duodenal stump bottom. It appeared after 20 or 30 min and lasted for the 2 hr of observation. After surgical resection, no area of activity was observed at the scintiphotographic followup. No false positive was observed out of the more than 30 subjects studied. Scintiphotography by pertechnetate seems able to demonstrate the presence and the size of retained gastric antrum in B II gastrectomised patients with recurrent ulcer.