IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

Polarization and echo chambers in Reddit’s political discourse

Online social media have become important arenas for political debate, with election periods amplifying ideological engagement. Polarization and echo chamber effects were shown to be important for platforms like Twitter or Facebook but less for others like Reddit. Here we challen...

Underpricing and Overachievement: Celebrating Jay Ritter's IPO Research

ABSTRACT This tribute celebrates Jay Ritter's scholarship on the occasion of his election as Fellow of the American Finance Association. Best known for documenting and IPO underpricing, hot issue markets, and the long‐run underperformance of new issues, Jay has shaped how academi...

From breakdown to breakthrough: How entrepreneurs craft vulnerability narratives on social media

Entrepreneurial narratives are widely understood as strategic tools for building legitimacy and mobilizing resources. Yet we observed that some entrepreneurs openly share stories of fear, doubt, and struggle on social media - foregrounding emotional exposure rather than demonstra...

Relaxation via separable estimators: arithmetic and implementation

Abstract This article presents an arithmetic, called superposition relaxation, for bracketing the graph of a multivariate factorable function on a compact domain between a pair of underestimating and overestimating functions that are both separable. Propagation rules are establis...

Knowledge of lactose intolerance in Italian adults: a cross‑sectional assessment

Abstract Purpose To assess knowledge of lactose intolerance (LI) in Italian adults, identifying major knowledge gaps and factors associated with awareness. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2024 and March 2025 among Italian adults (≥ 18 years). A newl...

Thermo-Mechanically Coupled Phase-field Fracture Model Considering Elastocaloric Effect of Shape Memory Alloy

Modeling the fracture behaviour of the shape memory alloy (SMA) that interacts with martensitic transformation and the associated elastocaloric effect (eCE) still remains challenging. Herein, a thermo-mechanically coupled phase-field fracture model considering the elastocaloric e...

Characterization of quasi-periodic and chaotic dynamics in a memristive MEMS: parameter-induced transitions and thermo-sensitive modulation

Abstract This work presents the mathematical modeling and numerical characterization of a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) integrating an HP memristor coupled to electrical and mechanical resonators. Based on the linear-drift HP memristor model, the nonlinear electromechani...

Emerging Personality Pathology in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Clinical Correlates and Assessment Implications

The link between neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions is increasingly recognized in developmental psychiatry, yet the relationship between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Personality Disorders (PDs) remains underexplored in adolescence. Dysfunctional personality trait...

Redefining Secondary Immunodeficiency: a Systematic Review of Therapy-Driven Risk, Functional Immune Deficits, Diagnostic Inconsistencies, and Global Gaps in Standardized Care

Secondary immunodeficiency is an acquired immune deficiency caused by various factors, including cancer treatment, organ failure, chronic disease, nutritional deficiency, and physiological aging. It impairs antibody production, attenuates T-cell immune function, disrupts mucosal...

Unveiling the entrepreneurial ecosystems black box: An interpretable machine learning approach

Multidimensionality, interdependence, and non-linearity characteristics of complex systems make the measurement of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems a very challenging task. A known limitation of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem frameworks is the difficulty of quantifying the impact of dis...