U and Th content in the Central Apennines continental crust: a contribution to the determination of the geo-neutrinos flux at LNGS

The regional contribution to the geo-neutrino signal at Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) was determined based on a detailed geological, geochemical and geophysical study of the region. U and Th abundances of more than 50 samples representative of the main lithotypes belonging to the Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary cover were analyzed. Sedimentary rocks were grouped into four main "Reservoirs" based on similar paleogeographic conditions and mineralogy. Basement rocks do not outcrop in the area. Thus U and Th in the Upper and Lower Crust of Valsugana and Ivrea-Verbano areas were analyzed. Based on geological and geophysical properties, relative abundances of the various reservoirs were calculated and used to obtain the weighted U and Th abundances for each of the three geological layers (Sedimentary Cover, Upper and Lower Crust). Using the available seismic profile as well as the stratigraphic records from a number of exploration wells, a 3D modelling was developed over an area of 2^{\circ}x2^{\circ} down to the Moho depth, for a total volume of about 1.2x10^6 km^3. This model allowed us to determine the volume of the various geological layers and eventually integrate the Th and U contents of the whole crust beneath LNGS. On this base the local contribution to the geo-neutrino flux (S) was calculated and added to the contribution given by the rest of the world, yielding a Refined Reference Model prediction for the geo-neutrino signal in the Borexino detector at LNGS: S(U) = (28.7 \pm 3.9) TNU and S(Th) = (7.5 \pm 1.0) TNU. An excess over the total flux of about 4 TNU was previously obtained by Mantovani et al. (2004) who calculated, based on general worldwide assumptions, a signal of 40.5 TNU. The considerable thickness of the sedimentary rocks, almost predominantly represented by U- and Th- poor carbonatic rocks in the area near LNGS, is responsible for this difference.Comment: 45 pages, 5 figures, 12 tables; accepted for publication in GC

The impact of emotional stressors on distractor filtering

Human beings constantly deal with an enormous amount of information that cannot be processed at once. Given the limited cognitive resources available for the processing of incoming information, visual selective attention has the role to differentiate between competing stimuli in order to facilitate the processing of stimuli that are relevant for adaptive behaviours. From an evolutionary perspective, stimuli with emotional content, in particular those signalling danger or threat, are very powerful in attracting and holding attention even if they are task-irrelevant. Moreover, emotional stimuli get higher processing priority compared with other competing stimuli and their access to further processing and conscious perception is thought to be automatic, at least when sufficient cognitive resources are available. Therefore, avoiding emotional stimuli, especially those with negative content, requires a conspicuous amount of resources that, if engaged for a prolonged period of time in a highly demanding cognitive task, they can undergo depletion, and eventually lead to the mental fatigue phenomenon. We propose that the amount of resources specifically dedicated to selective attention are also limited, and that they can be depleted specifically, and possibly independently, from the resources available for other cognitive mechanisms. This work was planned in order to directly explore this possibility, assuming that the crucial resources necessary to overcome the impact of irrelevant emotional distractors are also involved in attentional processing, and \u2013 more specifically \u2013 in the filtering of distracting visual information. We expected that by heavily engaging these inhibitory mechanisms, providing conditions of heavy and persistent distraction, we would observe phenomena suggesting that they were being depleted during the course of the experimental session (i.e. one-hour session). In a series of visual search experiments, young adult participants had to discriminate a target stimulus, while ignoring a task-irrelevant distractor that could be present in a portion of trials. According to the aim of our research, in order to increase, on the one hand, the attentional load and, on the other, the need to filter out distracting information, task-irrelevant stimuli with emotional content were introduced prior to each visual search trial. I then measured performance to evaluate the overall impact of emotional stimuli, revealing that while the onset of all emotional stimuli affected attentional deployment in the subsequent trial, such impact was different according to the valence of the stimuli involved. Analysing the efficiency of distractor filtering processes over the experimental session, I observed changes in performance suggesting that the attentional resources specifically involved during the inhibition of distractors in the visual search task could indeed be depleted. By this new approach, in this series of studies I offered new evidence relative to the depletion of cognitive resources specific associated with selective attention. I demonstrated that these domain-specific resources can be depleted in a relatively short period of time (i.e., one-hour session). Moreover, I highlighted how emotional activation can either enhance or impair cognitive performance depending on the emotional valence of the stimuli involved, with negative emotions leading to detrimental effects and positive emotions leading to restorative effects on cognitive resources. I also provided evidence on the fact that under condition of high load on attentional processing, the active engagement of top-down behavioural control may limit, or even abolish, the detrimental effects of negative emotional stimuli

The Plio-Pleistocene thrust belt-foredeep system in the Southern Apennines and Sicily (Italy)

The upper Pliocene-lower Pleistocene terrigenous deposits of the Southern Apennines and Sicily have significantly contributed to the understanding of the primary relationships between tectonics and sedimentation in an active thrust beltforedeep system. An integrated stratigraphic and structural investigation allowed the identification of thrust-related depositional sequences with systems tracts defined by specific stratigraphic signatures recording the complex migration path of the active thrusts in the mountain chain. In the foredeep basin, where thrust-related depositional sequences are better preserved, five basic depositional units have been distinguished: 1. Condensed section, underlying at the scale of the entire basin the major truncation surface at the base of the sequence. The deposition of this unit, indicative of a strongly reduced sediment supply, corresponds to a moment of forward transport of the allochthonous sheets over a long thrust flat (active-thrust-flat systems tract); 2. Syn-ramp wedge, made up of a prograding slope-fan system constituted of a thick body of gravity-driven deposits truncated upsection by the active frontal ramp of the allochthonous sheets (active-frontal-ramp systems tract). 3. Onlap-slope system, represented by retrograding basinal deposits onlapping the edge of the allochthonous sheets and featuring a backstepping passive margin (early stage of the backward-thrust-migration systems tract). 4. Transgressive system, made up of basinal deposits matching the maximum marine flooding of the tectonic wedge (late stage of the backward-thrust-migration systems tract); 5. Prograding shelf-margin system laterally grading into a prograding system of basin-floor turbidites (forward-thrustmigration systems tract). In the foreland areas, these depositional units grade into more or less condensed pelagic deposits, with the exception of unit 5 that may laterally pass towards the foreland into a shallower, flexure-related transgressive system. On top of the allochthonous sheets, both the active-thrustflat systems tract and the active-frontal-ramp systems tract are represented by shallowing-upward shelfal deposits (nappe sheet drape). In an early stage of the backward-thrust-migration systems tract, a retrograding fandelta/shelf system represents in the mountain chain the counterpart of the onlap-slope system. In a late stage, the retrograding fandelta/shelf system is overlain by a muddier transgressive system recording the progressive flooding of the tectonic wedge. The forward-thrust-migration systems tract is commonly represented by a prograding shoalwater delta/shelf system. Two different depositional settings, depending on the trajectories of the active thrusts in the mountain chain, have been recognized: mobile piggyback basin, developed in the hangingwall of an active thrust and flanked toward the foreland by an active ridge; wide passive shelf developed in thefootwall of an active thrust, open toward the foredeep basin

The Miocene vertebrate-bearing deposits of Scontrone (Abruzzo, Central Italy): Stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental analysis.

The Miocene carbonate deposits of Scontrone (Abruzzo, Central Italy) are well known among palaeontologists because of their fossil vertebrate content that exhibits striking similarities to those of the remarkable ‘‘Terre Rosse’’ faunal complex of the Gargano region, defining the existence of the Miocene Central Mediterranean Apulia paleobioprovince. The main goal of this paper is to establish the age and environment of the Scontrone vertebrate bonebeds. The vertebrate remains are embedded in the basal portion of the Lithothamnion Limestone, a widespread carbonate-ramp lithosome representative of the Tortonian-early Messinian transgression over the entire Apulia Platform. The bonebeds belong to marginal-marine deposits (here called ‘‘Scontrone calcarenites’’) preserved in a small area below transgressive ravinement surfaces. The rapid vertical and lateral facies variations displayed by the ‘‘Scontrone calcarenites’’, together with paleoenvironmental considerations deriving from the vertebrate association, document a complex wave-dominated river-mouth depositional setting developed over a large, flat and semi-arid carbonate ramp. The ‘‘Scontrone calcarenites’’ have been split herein into five facies associations representing the stratigraphic response to a discontinuous or punctuated transgression within an overall rise of the relative sea level. Because of the absence of age-diagnostic fossils, the age of the ‘‘Scontrone calcarenites’’ cannot be directly defined through their paleontological content. However, a regional stratigraphic correlation between the Lithothamnion Limestone of Scontrone and the Lithothamnion Limestone of northern Majella, which is biostratigraphically well constrained, allows the attribution of the ‘‘Scontrone calcarenites’’ to the Tortonian

Main recent deformation and seismotectonics in the Central Mediterranean Region.

Late Neogene-Quaternary tectonics in the Central Mediterranean region has been entirely controlled by the Africa-Adria-Europe plate interaction and by the passive subduction of the south-western margin of Adria. Presently the western, northern and eastern boundaries of Adria are outlined by first-order geological features (Apennines, Alps and Dinarides); the southern boundary, on the contrary, is still undefined and its location is controversial. The reconstruction of the Neogene-Quaternary relative motion of Adria versus Europe is well constrained by the geometrical configuration of the Insubric indenter and by the geometry of the young thrust systems in the Southern Alps, Dinarides and Hellenides. The major structural features of these areas may be simultaneously justified by a counterclockwise rotation of Adria around a pole located in the Western Mediterranean Sea not far from the Corsica coast. The slip vectors obtained by such a rotation pole satisfactorily account for the overall kinematic processes along the external margin of Adria during Neogene-Quaternary times

A deep solver for BSDEs with jumps

The aim of this work is to propose an extension of the Deep BSDE solver by Han, E, Jentzen (2017) to the case of FBSDEs with jumps. As in the aforementioned solver, starting from a discretized version of the BSDE and parametrizing the (high dimensional) control processes by means of a family of ANNs, the BSDE is viewed as model-based reinforcement learning problem and the ANN parameters are fitted so as to minimize a prescribed loss function. We take into account both finite and infinite jump activity by introducing, in the latter case, an approximation with finitely many jumps of the forward process.Comment: 31 page

A deep solver for BSDEs with jumps

The aim of this work is to propose an extension of the Deep BSDE solver by Han, E, Jentzen (2017) to the case of FBSDEs with jumps. As in the aforementioned solver, starting from a discretized version of the BSDE and parametrizing the (high dimensional) control processes by means of a family of artificial neural networks (ANNs), the BSDE is viewed as model-based reinforcement learning problem and the ANN parameters are fitted so as to minimize a prescribed loss function. We take into account both finite and infinite jump activity by introducing, in the latter case, an approximation with finitely many jumps of the forward process