During March 2025, three intrusions of Saharan dust affected southern Italy, with observable effects on atmospheric composition and, in particular, on greenhouse gases. A recent study conducted by the Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IMAA) documented these events through integrated in situ and remote sensing observations. Significant variations in CH4 and CO2 concentrations were detected in correspondence with the dust transport episodes. In this work, we propose an approach based on Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) to retrieve the vertical profile of CH4. The results are evaluated against high-precision ground-based measurements from CNR-IMAA, in order to assess the model’s predictive accuracy and its sensitivity to atmospheric variations associated with the presence of mineral aerosols.

In this paper we propose a mathematical model of the capillary and permeability properties of lime-based mortars from the historic built heritage of Catania (Sicily, Italy) produced by using two different types of volcanic aggregate, i.e. ghiara and azolo. In order to find a formulation for the capillary pressure and the permeability as functions of the saturation level inside the porous medium we calibrate the numerical algorithm against imbibition data. The validation of the mathematical model was done by comparing the experimental retention curve with the one obtained by the simulation algorithm. Indeed, with the proposed approach it was possible to reproduce the main features of the experimentally observed phenomenon for both materials.

This study introduces an explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) framework that couples legal-domain NLP with Structural Topic Modeling (STM) and WordNet semantic graphs to rigorously analyze over 1,900 GDPR enforcement decision summaries from a public dataset. Our methodology focuses on demonstrating the pipeline's validity respect to manual analyses by inspecting the results of four well-know research questions: (1) cross-country fine distribution disparities (automated metadata extraction); (2) the violation severity-fine amount relationship (keyness and semantic analysis); (3) structural text patterns (network analysis and STM); and (4) prevalent enforcement triggers (topic prevalence modeling) The pipeline's validity is underscored by its ability to replicate key findings from previous manual analyses while enabling a more nuanced exploration of GDPR enforcement trends. Our results confirm significant disparities in enforcement across EU member states and reveal that monetary penalties do not consistently correlate with violation severity. Specifically, serious infringements, particularly those involving video surveillance, frequently result in low-value fines, especially when committed by individuals or smaller entities. This highlights that a substantial proportion of severe violations are attributed to smaller actors. Methodologically, the framework's ability to quickly replicate such well-known patterns, alongside its transparency and reproducibility, establishes its potential as a scalable tool for transparent and explainable GDPR enforcement analytics.

This study investigates the optical properties and variability of the mass absorption coefficient (MAC) of carbonaceous aerosols produced by the combustion of different fuels. Emissions were also characterized in terms of particle size distribution and concentrations of elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC). Experiments were conducted in an atmospheric simulation chamber with a soot generator fueled with propane and a commercial diesel engine running on regular diesel and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). Different methods of sampling and analyzing carbonaceous aerosols were evaluated, focusing on workplace environments. The EC : TC (total carbon) ratios were found to be 0.7 ± 0.1 for propane, 0.15 ± 0.05 for diesel, and 0.4 ± 0.2 for HVO, indicating a higher proportion of OC in the diesel and HVO samples. Fresh soot particles showed monomodal log-normal distributions with peaks varying based on the fuel type and combustion process, with propane particles exhibiting a peak at larger particle sizes compared to HVO and diesel. The optical properties revealed that the MAC values varied across different fuel exhausts. Diesel combustion produced more light-absorbing particles compared to propane and HVO, with MAC values measured between 870 and 635 nm ranging from 6.2 ± 0.5 to 9.4 ± 0.4 m2g-1 for commercial diesel, 5.2 ± 0.5 to 7.8 ± 1.1 m2g-1 for propane, and 5.8 ± 0.2 to 8.4 ± 0.6 m2g-1 for HVO.

While the beneficial impacts of meditation are increasingly acknowledged, its underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. We examined the electrophysiological brain signals of expert Buddhist monks during two established meditation methods known as Samatha and Vipassana, which employ focused attention and open-monitoring technique. By combining source-space magnetoencephalography with advanced signal processing and machine learning tools, we provide an unprecedented assessment of the role of brain oscillations, complexity, and criticality in meditation. In addition to power spectral density, we computed long-range temporal correlations (LRTC), deviation from criticality coefficient (DCC), Lempel-Ziv complexity, 1/f slope, Higuchi fractal dimension, and spectral entropy. Our findings indicate increased levels of neural signal complexity during both meditation practices compared to the resting state, alongside widespread reductions in gamma-band LRTC and 1/f slope. Importantly, the DCC analysis revealed a separation between Samatha and Vipassana, suggesting that their distinct phenomenological properties are mediated by specific computational characteristics of their dynamic states. Furthermore, in contrast to most previous reports, we observed a decrease in oscillatory gamma power during meditation, a divergence likely due to the correction of the power spectrum by the 1/f slope, which could reduce potential confounds from broadband 1/f activity. We discuss how these results advance our comprehension of the neural processes associated with focused attention and open-monitoring meditation practices.

Conferences are invaluable for career progression, offering unique opportunities for networking, collaboration, and learning. However, there are challenges associated with the traditional in-person conference format. For example, there is a significant ecological impact from attendees’ travel behaviour, and there are social inequities in conference attendance, with historically marginalised groups commonly facing barriers to participation. Innovative practices that enable academic conferences to be ‘done differently’ are crucial for addressing these ecological and social sustainability challenges. However, while some such practices have emerged in recent years, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, little research has been done on their effectiveness. Our study addresses this gap using a mixed methods approach to analyse a real-world decentralised multi-hub conference held in 2023, comparing it to traditional in-person conference and fully online conference scenarios. The decentralised multi-hub format consists of local in-person hubs in different locations around the world, each with a unique local programme developed around a shared core global programme; there is no single centralised point of control. We calculated the CO2 emissions from transport for each scenario and found the decentralised multi-hub conference had significantly lower emissions than a traditional in-person conference, but higher emissions than a fully online conference. We also interviewed 14 local hub organisers and attendees to gain their perspectives about the ecological and social sustainability benefits of the decentralised multi-hub format. We found that the more accessible and inclusive format attracted a more diverse range of attendees, meaning that the benefits attributed to conference attendance were able to be shared more equitably. These findings demonstrate the ecological and social sustainability benefits of doing conferences differently, and can be used as further evidence in the argument to help transition conferences to a more desirable state in terms of ecological and social sustainability.

Questo rapporto tecnico documenta in modo sistematico lo stato attuale della Biblioteca “Mauro Piconeˮ dellʼIstituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo (IAC-CNR), con particolare attenzione allʼorganizzazione fisica del patrimonio (circa 26.000 unità), alla stratificazione dei sistemi di catalogazione (MSC/AMS, ordinamento alfabetico, inventario SIGLA/U‐GOV) e alle ricadute operative sulla ricerca e sulla fruizione scientifica. Viene presentato un audit quantitativo su un campione del 10% del posseduto, volto a misurare tempi medi di ricerca, tassi di errore nella localizzazione e livello di digitalizzazione dei dati bibliografici, evidenziando criticità di standardizzazione, interoperabilità e visibilità rispetto al Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale (SBN) e alle normative ICCU. Il documento propone una roadmap di migrazione verso un sistema integrato di gestione bibliotecaria (ILS, con particolare riferimento a Koha), basato su UNIMARC/MARC21, REICAT e sui modelli FRBR/RDA, delineando linee guida tecniche e organizzative per lʼallineamento alla cooperazione SBN e per la valorizzazione del patrimonio nel periodo 2025‐2028

Increasing use of new digital services offers tremendous opportunities for modern society, but also entails new risks. One tool for managing cyber risk is cyber insurance. While cyber insurance has attracted much attention and optimism, interdependent cyber risks and lack of actuarial data have prompted some insurers to adopt a more proactive role, not only insuring losses but also assisting clients with preventive work such as managed detection and response solutions, i.e., investments in their own cybersecurity. The purpose of this paper is to propose and theoretically investigate yet a further extension of this role, where insurers facilitate security investments between interdependent firms, which get the opportunity to invest a share of their insurance premiums to improve the security of each other. It is demonstrated that if insurers can facilitate such investments, then under common theoretical assumptions this can make a positive contribution to overall welfare. The paper is concluded by a discussion of the relevance and applicability of this theoretical contribution in practice.

Topological stars are solutions of Einstein-Maxwell theory in D=5. For specific choices of the parameters, the solution is capped and thus smooth and horizonless and can be reduced to D=4 along a circle. We study the energy and angular momentum radiated by a scalar particle moving on a circular orbit in the D=4 noncompact directions, extending a previous study [Phys. Rev. D 110, 084077 (2024)PRVDAQ2470-001010.1103/PhysRevD.110.084077]. We also discuss self-force effects on the motion of a spinless probe.

We compute the conservative scattering angle of two classical charged particles at the sixth order in electromagnetic coupling, and at the fourth order in velocity, thereby going beyond the current state of the art [fifth order in coupling, derived by Bern et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 251601 (2024)]. Our result is obtained by using the electromagnetic version of the effective one-body formalism to transfer information from the exact circular binary-charge solution of Schild [Phys. Rev. 131, 2762 (1963)] to the postLorentzian expansion of the scattering angle.

Starting from the recently derived conservative tail-of-tail action [High precision black hole scattering: Tutti Frutti vs worldline effective field theory, arXiv:2504.20204.] we compute several dynamical observables of binary systems (Delaunay Hamiltonian, scattering angle), at the 6.5 post-Newtonian accuracy and up to the eighth post-Minkowskian order. We find perfect agreement with previous self-force results, and (when inserting a recent high-post-Newtonian order derivation of radiated angular momentum [Scattering of a point mass by a Schwarzschild black hole: Radiated energy and angular momentum, arXiv:2507.03442.]) with state-of-the-art post-Minkowskian scattering results [Emergence of Calabi–Yau manifolds in high-precision black-hole scattering, Nature (London) 641, 603 (2025).].

After studying properties of the Nariai solution, including its geodesics, in spherical and de Sitter coordinates, two kinds of accelerated motion are investigated in detail: either observers at rest with respect to the coordinates, or observers in radial motion. Next, massless scalar perturbations of Nariai spacetime in absence of sources are worked out, and an explicit example out of the black hole context of analytic self-force calculation is obtained. Last, self-force effects are studied as well, together with some variant of the type of Poynting-Robertson external force, and also building a test electromagnetic field and a test gravitational field in Nariai spacetime geometry.

We consider black hole scattering up to the fifth post-Minkowskian (G5) order and compare the predictions of the tutti frutti formalism to the results obtained within two different versions of worldline effective field theory. At the G4 order we highlight the complete agreement between tutti frutti results and the results of [C. Dlapa et al., [Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 101401 (2023)]], and show how the tutti frutti approach allows one to extract the O(G3) angular momentum loss from the O(G4) impulse. We compare the sixth post-Newtonian (6PN) accurate tutti frutti predictions to the recent results of [M. Driesse et al., [Nature 641, 603 (2025)]], which are at the G5 order, and at the leading order in the two mass ratios, finding complete agreement. We highlight that this agreement involves the presence at the 5.5PN level of a nonlocal tail-of-tail contribution to the scattering (first computed in [D. Bini et al., [Phys. Rev. D 102, 084047 (2020)]]), and involves, at the 6PN level, the presence of a O(G4) contribution to the angular momentum loss [C. Heissenberg, [Phys. Rev. D 111, 126012 (2025)]]. At the second order in the mass ratios of the O(G5) order we predict two independent gauge-invariant observables to high-PN accuracy.

This paper proves that, in a four-dimensional spherically symmetric spacetime manifold, one can consider coordinate transformations expressed by fractional linear maps which give rise to isometries and are the simplest example of coordinate transformation used to bring infinity down to a finite distance. The projective boundary of spherically symmetric spacetimes here studied is the disjoint union of three points: future timelike infinity, past timelike infinity, spacelike infinity, and the three-dimensional products of half-lines with a 2-sphere. Geodesics are then studied in the projectively transformed (t′,r′,θ′,φ′) coordinates for Schwarzschild spacetime, with special interest in their way of approaching our points at infinity. Next, Nariai, de Sitter and Gödel spacetimes are studied with our projective method. Since the kinds of infinity here defined depend only on the symmetry of interest in a spacetime manifold, they have a broad range of applications, which motivate the innovative analysis of Schwarzschild, Nariai, de Sitter and Gödel spacetimes.

We compute the next-to-leading-order radiation-reaction modification to the harmonic coordinate quasi- Keplerian parametrization of the binary dynamics, the two bodies undergoing a scattering process. The solution for the radiation-reaction corrections to the orbital parameters is examined both in the time domain (exact results) and in the frequency domain (results presented in the limit of large angular momentum, i.e., as a post-Minkowskian series expansion). The knowledge of the radiation-reaction corrected orbit is a key ingredient for the calculation of the fractional 3.5 post-Newtonian corrections to the radiative losses as well as to the radiative multipole moments needed to build up the waveform at the same accuracy.

We show that the null geodesic radial action for unbound orbits in the Kerr spacetime, and consequently the scattering angle, can be resummed in terms of hypergeometric functions, extending previous results [Ivanov et al., Resummation of universal tails in gravitational waveforms, arXiv:2504.07862.]. We provide explicit expressions as series expansions in powers of the Kerr rotational parameter up to the fourth order included.We finally use the Mano-Suzuki-Takasugi formalism to prove the relation between the renormalized angular momentum and the radial action highlighted in previous works.

We show that for a topological star the renormalized angular momentum parameter, ν, appearing in the Mano-Suzuki-Takasugi-type or in the quantum-Seiberg-Witten-type approaches of the perturbation equations, (1) has a direct link with the geodesic radial action computed along the null orbits of the background and (2) admits an exact resummation in terms of hypergeometric functions, generalizing previous results valid in the Schwarzschild case; see [M. M. Ivanov, Y. Z. Li, J. Parra-Martinez, and Z. Zhou, Resummation of universal tails in gravitational waveforms, arXiv:2504.07862.].

We compute the scattering angle for a scalar neutral probe undergoing unbound motion around a topological star, including self-force effects. Moreover, we identify the “electromagnetic” source of the background as a Papapetrou field compatible with the isometries and characterize topological stars by studying their sectional curvature, geometric transport along special curves, and gravitational energy content in terms of the superenergy tensors.

We analyze scalar wave emission from unbound orbits in a topological star spacetime. Our study uses a self-force approach and leads to a post-Newtonian reconstruction of the field along the orbit, both in the time domain and in the frequency domain. We also compute leading-order radiation losses, namely energy and angular momentum.

We study deviations from geodesic motions in a topological star spacetime for either massive, charged and spinning particles, elucidating different behaviors with the Schwarzschild spacetime. We also consider the deviations for the motion of electrically charged stringy probes in D = 5, framing all cases within a unified picture.