A distinction concerning vision-for-action and affordance perception.

In this paper, I offer a discussion concerning the conceptual connection between the notion of vision-for-action and the one of affordance perception. I first analyze the notion of vision-for-action. I then analyze a notion usually coupled with it: the notion of affordance perception, the main insights behind which are guiding several current neuroscientific enterprises and the related philosophical speculations.

Walking-related locomotion is facilitated by the perception of distant targets in the extrapersonal space.

The Gibsonian notion of affordance has been massively employed in cognitive sciences to characterize the tight interdependence between hand-related actions, manipulable objects and peripersonal space. A behavioural facilitation effect, indeed, is observed for grasping actions directed to objects located in the 'reachable' peripersonal space. Relevantly, this relationship is supported by dedicated neural systems in the brain.

Long-range dependence in earthquake-moment release and implications for earthquake occurrence probability.

Since the beginning of the 1980s, when Mandelbrot observed that earthquakes occur on 'fractal' self-similar sets, many studies have investigated the dynamical mechanisms that lead to self-similarities in the earthquake process. Interpreting seismicity as a self-similar process is undoubtedly convenient to bypass the physical complexities related to the actual process. Self-similar processes are indeed invariant under suitable scaling of space and time.

Revealing timid pseudo-scalars with taus at the LHC.

A light pseudo-scalar that is copiously produced at the LHC may still be allowed by present searches. While masses above 65 GeV are effectively covered by di-photon searches, the lower mass window can be tested by a new search for boosted di-tau resonances. We test this strategy on a set of composite Higgs models with top partial compositeness, where most models can be probed with an integrated luminosity below 300 .

Jet-associated resonance spectroscopy.

We present a model-independent study aimed at characterising the nature of possible resonances in the jet-photon or jet- final state at hadron colliders. Such resonances are expected in many models of compositeness and would be a clear indication of new physics. At leading order, in the narrow width approximation, the matrix elements are parameterised by just a few constants describing the coupling of the various helicities to the resonance.

Semantic and pragmatic integration in vision for action.

According to an influential view, the detection of action possibilities and the selection of a plan for action are two segregated steps throughout the processing of visual information. This classical approach is committed with the assumption that two independent types of processing underlie visual perception: the semantic one, which is at the service of the identification of visually presented objects, and the pragmatic one which serves the execution of actions directed to specific parts of the same objects. However, as our knowledge of vision has improved over the years, this established view has turned out to be only an approximation.

Through the forest of motor representations.

Following neuroscience, and using different labels, several philosophers have addressed the idea of the presence of a single representational mechanism lying in between (visual) perceptual processes and motor processes involved in different functions and useful for shaping suitable action performances: a motor representation (MR). MRs are the naturalized mental antecedents of action. This paper presents a new, non-monolithic view of MRs, according to which, contrarily to the received view, when looking at in between (visual) perceptual processes and motor processes, we find not only a single representational mechanism with different functions, but an ensemble of different sub-representational phenomena, each of which with a different function.

Monojetlike Searches for Top Squarks with a b Tag.

The LHC searches for light compressed top squarks have resulted in considerable bounds in the case where the top squark decays to a neutralino and a charm quark. However, in the case where the top squark decays to a neutralino, a bottom quark, and two fermions via an off-shell W boson, there is currently a significant unconstrained region in the top-squark-neutralino mass plane, still allowing for top squark masses in the range 90-140 GeV. In this Letter we propose a new monojetlike search for light top squarks, optimized for the four-body decay mode, in which at least one b-tagged jet is required.

Dieulafoy's disease of the bronchus: a possible mistake.

We present a case of a 57 year old woman who suffered from massive hemoptysis; she was sent to our Department for a suspect neoformant lesion. We assumed it might be a Dielafoy's disease and proceeded with an imaging study that confirmed the diagnosis. After embolization the patient no longer showed signs of bleeding.