Current theories of schizophrenia emphasize the role of altered information integration as the core dysfunction of this illness. While ample neuroimaging evidence for such accounts comes from investigations of spatial connectivity, understanding temporal disruptions is important to fully capture the essence of dysconnectivity in schizophrenia. Recent electrophysiology studies suggest that long-range temporal correlation (LRTC) in the amplitude dynamics of neural oscillations captures the integrity of transferred information in the healthy brain.Thus, in this study, 25 schizophrenia patients and 25 controls (8 females/group) were recorded during two five-minutes of resting-state magnetoencephalography (once with eyes-open and once with eyes-closed). We used source-level analyses to investigate temporal dysconnectivity in patients by characterizing LRTCs across cortical and sub-cortical brain regions. In addition to standard statistical assessments, we applied a machine learning framework using support vector machine to evaluate the discriminative power of LRTCs in identifying patients from healthy controls.We found that neural oscillations in schizophrenia patients were characterized by reduced signal memory and higher variability across time, as evidenced by cortical and subcortical attenuations of LRTCs in the alpha and beta frequency bands. Support vector machine significantly classified participants using LRTCs in key limbic and paralimbic brain areas, with decoding accuracy reaching 82%. Importantly, these brain regions belong to networks that are highly relevant to the symptomology of schizophrenia. These findings thus posit temporal dysconnectivity as a hallmark of altered information processing in schizophrenia, and help advance our understanding of this pathology.

The T-box transcription factor TBX1 has critical roles in the cardiopharyngeal lineage and the gene is haploinsufficient in DiGeorge syndrome, a typical developmental anomaly of the pharyngeal apparatus. Despite almost two decades of research, if and how TBX1 function triggers chromatin remodeling is not known. Here, we explored genome-wide gene expression and chromatin remodeling in two independent cellular models of Tbx1 loss of function, mouse embryonic carcinoma cells P19Cl6, and mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). The results of our study revealed that the loss or knockdown of TBX1 caused extensive transcriptional changes, some of which were cell type-specific, some were in common between the two models. However, unexpectedly we observed only limited chromatin changes in both systems. In P19Cl6 cells, differentially accessible regions (DARs) were not enriched in T-BOX binding motifs; in contrast, in mESCs, 34% (n = 47) of all DARs included a T-BOX binding motif and almost all of them gained accessibility in Tbx1 -/- cells. In conclusion, despite a clear transcriptional response of our cell models to loss of TBX1 in early cell differentiation, chromatin changes were relatively modest.

In this paper we propose and study a hybrid discrete-continuous mathematical model of collective motion under alignment and chemotaxis effect. Starting from paper [23], in which the Cucker-Smale model [22] was coupled with other cell mechanisms, to describe the cell migration and self-organization in the zebrafish lateral line primordium, we introduce a simplified model in which the coupling between an alignment and chemotaxis mechanism acts on a system of interacting particles. In particular we rely on a hybrid description in which the agents are discrete entities, while the chemoattractant is considered as a continuous signal. The proposed model is then studied both from an analytical and a numerical point of view. From the analytic point of view we prove, globally in time, existence and uniqueness of the solution. Then, the asymptotic behaviour of a linearised version of the system is investigated. Through a suitable Lyapunov functional we show that for t -> +infinity, the migrating aggregate exponentially converges to a state in which all the particles have a same position with zero velocity. Finally, we present a comparison between the analytical findings and some numerical results, concerning the behaviour of the full nonlinear system.

The dynamic behaviour of rigid blocks subjected to support excitation is represented by discontinuous differential equations with state jumps. In the numerical simulation of these systems, the jump times corresponding to the numerical trajectory do not coincide with the ones of the given problem. When multiple state jumps occur, this approximation may affect the accuracy of the solution and even cause an order reduction in the method. Focus here is on the error behaviour in the numerical dynamic. The basic idea is to investigate how the error propagates in successive impacts by decomposing the numerical integration process of the overall system into a sequence of discretized perturbed problems.

The integral representation of some biological phenomena consists in Volterra equations whose kernels involve a convolution term plus a non convolution one. Some significative applications arise in linearised models of cell migration and collective motion, as described in Di Costanzo et al. (Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. Ser. B 25 (2020) 443-472), Etchegaray et al. (Integral Methods in Science and Engineering (2015)), Grec et al. (J. Theor. Biol. 452 (2018) 35-46) where the asymptotic behaviour of the analytical solution has been extensively investigated. Here we consider this type of problems from a numerical point of view and we study the asymptotic dynamics of numerical approximations by linear multistep methods. Through a suitable reformulation of the equation, we collect all the non convolution parts of the kernel into a generalized forcing function, and we transform the problem into a convolution one. This allows us to exploit the theory developed in Lubich (IMA J. Numer. Anal. 3 (1983) 439-465) and based on discrete variants of Paley-Wiener theorem. The main effort consists in the numerical treatment of the generalized forcing term, which will be analysed under suitable assumptions. Furthermore, in cases of interest, we connect the results to the behaviour of the analytical solution.

The optimal Orlicz target space and the optimal rearrangement- invariant target space are exhibited for embeddings of fractional-order Orlicz- Sobolev spaces W^{s,A}(R^n). Related Hardy type inequalities are proposed as well. Versions for fractional Orlicz-Sobolev seminorms of the Bourgain-Brezis-Mironescu theorem on the limit as s->1^- and of the Maz'ya-Shaposhnikova theorem on the limit as s ->0^+ are established. This is a joint work with Andrea Cianchi, Lubos Pick and Lenka Slavikova.

We provide a brief survey of our current developments in the simulation-based design of novel families of mesoscale porous materials using computational kinetic theory. Prospective applications on exascale computers are also briefly discussed and commented on, with reference to two specific examples of soft mesoscale materials: microfluid crystals and bi-continuous jels.

We numerically study the dynamic behavior under a symmetric shear flow of selected examples of concentrated phase emulsions with multicore morphology confined within a microfluidic channel. A variety of nonequilibrium steady states is reported. Under low shear rates, the emulsion is found to exhibit a solidlike behavior, in which cores display a periodic planetarylike motion with approximately equal angular velocity. At higher shear rates, two steady states emerge, one in which all inner cores align along the flow and become essentially motionless and a further one in which some cores accumulate near the outer interface and produce a dynamical elliptical-shaped ring chain, reminiscent of a treadmillinglike structure, while others occupy the center of the emulsion. A quantitative description in terms of the (i) motion of the cores, (ii) rate of deformation of the emulsion, and (iii) structure of the fluid flow within the channel is also provided.

We consider a natural generalization of the eigenvalue problem for the Laplacian with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. This corresponds to look for the critical values of the Dirichlet integral, constrained to the unit Lq sphere. We collect some results, present some counter-examples and compile a list of open problems.

We show that by using evolutionary game theory, we are able to formulate a game that predicts the percentage of necrosis and apoptosis when exposed to various levels of insults. Background: Neutrophils are one of the key players in the human innate immune system (HIIS). In the event of an insult where the body is exposed to inflammation triggering moieties (ITMs), neutrophils are mobilized towards the site of insult and antagonize the inflammation. If the inflammation is cleared, neutrophils go into a programmed death called apoptosis. However, if the insult is intense or persistent, neutrophils take on a violent death pathway called necrosis, which involves the rupture of their cytoplasmic content into the surrounding tissue that causes local tissue damage, thus further aggravating inflammation. This seemingly paradoxical phenomenon fuels the inflammatory process by triggering the recruitment of additional neutrophils to the site of inflammation, aimed to contribute to the complete neutralization of severe inflammation. This delicate balance between the cost and benefit of the neutrophils' choice of death pathway has been optimized during the evolution of the innate immune system. The goal of our work is to understand how the tradeoff between the cost and benefit of the different death pathways of neutrophils, in response to various levels of insults, has been optimized over evolutionary time by using the concepts of evolutionary game theory.

In a recent paper, we have introduced new sets of Sheffer and Brenke polynomial sequences based on higher order Bell numbers. In this paper, by using a more compact notation, we show another family of exponential polynomials belonging to the Sheffer class, called, for shortness, Sheffer-Bell polynomials. Furthermore, we introduce a set of logarithmic numbers, which are the counterpart of Bell numbers and their extensions.

The aim of this paper is to prove the strong convergence of the solutions to a vector-BGK model under the diffusive scaling to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations on the two-dimensional torus. This result holds in any interval of time [0,T], with T>0. We also provide the global in time uniform boundedness of the solutions to the approximating system. Our argument is based on the use of local in time H-estimates for the model, established in a previous work, combined with the L-relative entropy estimate and the interpolation properties of the Sobolev spaces.

We consider a simple example of a partially dissipative hyperbolic system violating the Shizuta-Kawashima condition, ie such that some eigendirections do not exhibit dissipation at all. In the space-time resonances framework introduced by Germain, Masmoudi and Shatah, we prove that, when the source term has a Nonresonant Bilinear Form, as proposed by Pusateri and Shatah CPAM 2013, the formation of singularities is prevented, despite the lack of dissipation. This allows us to show that smooth solutions to this preliminary case-study model exist globally in time.

We revisit a method introduced by Tartar for proving global well-posedness of a semilinear hyperbolic system with null quadratic source in one space dimension. A remarkable point is that, since no dispersion effect is available for 1D hyperbolic systems, Tartar's approach is entirely based on spatial localization and finite speed of propagation.

We construct an open set ? ? ? R on which an eigenvalue problem for the p-Laplacian has no isolated first eigenvalue and the spectrum is not discrete. The same example shows that the usual Lusternik-Schnirelmann minimax construction does not exhaust the whole spectrum of this eigenvalue problem.

Given (Formula presented.), we discuss the embedding of (Formula presented.) in (Formula presented.). In particular, for (Formula presented.) we deduce its compactness on all open sets (Formula presented.) on which it is continuous. We then relate, for all q up the fractional Sobolev conjugate exponent, the continuity of the embedding to the summability of the function solving the fractional torsion problem in (Formula presented.) in a suitable weak sense, for every open set (Formula presented.). The proofs make use of a non-local Hardy-type inequality in (Formula presented.), involving the fractional torsion function as a weight.

We study numerically the behaviour of a two-dimensional mixture of a passive isotropic fluid and an active polar gel, in the presence of a surfactant favouring emulsification. Focussing on parameters for which the underlying free energy favours the lamellar phase in the passive limit, we show that the interplay between nonequilibrium and thermodynamic forces creates a range of multifarious exotic emulsions. When the active component is contractile (e.g., an actomyosin solution), moderate activity enhances the efficiency of lamellar ordering, whereas strong activity favours the creation of passive droplets within an active matrix. For extensile activity (occurring, e.g., in microtubule-motor suspensions), instead, we observe an emulsion of spontaneously rotating droplets of different size. By tuning the overall composition, we can create high internal phase emulsions, which undergo sudden phase inversion when activity is switched off. Therefore, we find that activity provides a single control parameter to design composite materials with a strikingly rich range of morphologies.

Relazione fine primo anno assegno di ricerca CNR-IAC di tipologia A) "assegni professionalizzanti" nell'ambito del progetto europeo ERC Advanced Grant "COPMAT" (GA N. 739964), con elenco attività svolte e analisi dei risultati raggiunti e dei prossimi passi. Periodo 18/06/2018 - 17/06/2019.

Riporta i principali risultati ottenuti nell'ambito del progetto: "Support to MIPAS Level 2 processor Verification and Validation - Phase F", Contratto ESA 4000112093/14/I-LG, cioe' la messa a punto del codice ORM_V8 da utilizzare per la rianalisi di livello 2 dell'intera missione di MIPAS/ENVISAT, il dataset processato, i test di verifica e di validazione dei prodotti di Livello 2 generati.