showing 36 of ~574560 from 574555 documents
Early pastoral communities in the mountains of Sicily. Prehistoric evidence from Vallone Inferno (Scillato) in the palaeoenvironmental framework of t…
2021
Abstract This paper discusses the Middle Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age phases of the occupation of a rock shelter at Vallone Inferno (Scillato, Palermo) in Sicily. Vallone Inferno is a key site for studying the early establishment and development of pastoralism in the prehistoric mountainous environments of Sicily. Seasonal use of the site as a shelter is documented for the earliest pastoral communities that exploited the Madonie mountain range. The results of the analysis of pottery and lithic assemblages contribute to the definition of two chronocultural frameworks that were linked by the same economic subsistence base. The special role of obsidian emerges, while the mobility pattern…
The endophytic microbiota of Citrus limon is transmitted from seed to shoot highlighting differences of bacterial and fungal community structures
2021
AbstractCitrus limon (L.) Burm. F. is an important evergreen fruit crop whose rhizosphere and phyllosphere microbiota have been characterized, while seed microbiota is still unknown. Bacterial and fungal endophytes were isolated from C. limon surface-sterilized seeds. The isolated fungi—belonging to Aspergillus, Quambalaria and Bjerkandera genera—and bacteria—belonging to Staphylococcus genus—were characterized for indoleacetic acid production and phosphate solubilization. Next Generation Sequencing based approaches were then used to characterize the endophytic bacterial and fungal microbiota structures of surface-sterilized C. limon seeds and of shoots obtained under aseptic conditions fr…
Correspondence between some metabelian varieties and left nilpotent varieties
2021
Abstract In the class of left nilpotent algebras of index two it was proved that there are no varieties of fractional polynomial growth ≈ n α with 1 α 2 and 2 α 3 instead it was established the existence of a variety of fractional polynomial growth with α = 7 2 . In this paper we investigate similar problems for varieties of commutative or anticommutative metabelian algebras. We construct a correspondence between left nilpotent algebras of index two and commutative metabelian algebras or anticommutative metabelian algebras and we prove that the codimensions sequences of the corresponding algebras coincide up to a constant. This allows us to transfer the above results concerning varieties of…
Endocrine Challenges in Patients with Continuous-Flow Left Ventricular Assist Devices
2021
Heart failure (HF) remains a leading cause of morbidity, hospitalization, and mortality worldwide. Advancement of mechanical circulatory support technology has led to the use of continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), reducing hospitalizations, and improving quality of life and outcomes in advanced HF. Recent studies have highlighted how metabolic and endocrine dysfunction may be a consequence of, or associated with, HF, and may represent a novel (still neglected) therapeutic target in the treatment of HF. On the other hand, it is not clear whether LVAD support, may impact the outcome by also improving organ perfusion as well as improving the neuro-hormonal state of the pat…
Italian Community Psychology in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Shared Feelings and Thoughts in the Storytelling of University Students
2021
This study investigated how young Italian people experienced the period of peak spread of COVID-19 in their country by probing their emotions, thoughts, events, and actions related to interpersonal and community bonds. This approach to the pandemic will highlight social dimensions that characterized contextual interactions from the specific perspective of Community Psychology. The aim was to investigate young people's experiences because they are the most fragile group due to their difficulty staying home and apart from their peers and because they are, at the same time, the most potentially dangerous people due to their urge to gather in groups. The research involved 568 university student…
Characterisation of scheelite LaW0.16Nb0.84O4.08 ion conductor by combined synchrotron techniques: Structure, W oxidation state and interdiffusion
2021
Abstract Scheelite-type materials such as LaNbO4 are increasingly attracting attention as a possible alternative to the most common fluorite and perovskite structure as ion conductors. However, they are much less used and investigated. The introduction of tungsten in lanthanum orthoniobate leads to conduction properties that are compatible with oxygen ion conductivity. In this paper, we studied the effect of the introduction of tungsten in the LaNbO4 structure. High resolution X-ray diffraction showed that in LaNb1-xWxO4+x/2 with x = 0.16 the monoclinic distortion is largely suppressed and the tetragonal phase is predominant at room temperature. By XANES/EXAFS we proved that tungsten is in …
Immune Response Failure in Paucisymptomatic Long-Standing SARS-CoV-2 Spreaders
2021
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has rapidly spread throughout the world. This disease has a spectrum of different clinical pictures with different outcomes. Herein, we report all the data from three paucisymptomatic patients during a hospital stay that might represent a paradigmatic example of the method by which SARS-CoV-2 is shed. We demonstrated the lack of an adequate qualitative and quantitative immune response by multiparametric flow cytometry analysis. Our data can provide a new perspective about the method by which SARS-CoV-2 is shed and the clinical weight of viral persistence. In all three cases, the …
Effetti della Terapia con Sacubitril/Valsartan sulla Capacità di Esercizio dei pazienti con Scompenso Cardiaco a Frazione di Eiezione Ridotta (HFrEF)…
2021
Introduzione: La terapia con Sacubitril/Valsartan nei pazienti con scompenso cardiaco a frazione di eiezione ridotta (HFrEF) si è dimostrata superiore alla singola terapia con Enalapril nella riduzione del rischio di morte ed ospedalizzazione per scompenso cardiaco. Obiettivo del presente studio è stato quello di valutare, nei pazienti con HFrEF, gli effetti della terapia con sacubitril/valsartan sulla capacità di esercizio valutata mediante Test Cardiorespiratorio e l’eventuale correlazione con il grado di fibrosi miocardica valutata mediante Risonanza Magnetica Cardiaca (CMR). Metodi: E’ stato condotto uno studio osservazionale, prospettico. 134 pazienti ambulatoriali con HFrEF sono stati…
Implementation of a gene panel for genetic diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia
2021
Abstract Introduction Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is characterized by an alteration in the ciliary structure causing difficulty in the clearance of respiratory secretions. Diagnosis is complex and based on a combination of techniques. The objective of this study was to design a gene panel including all known causative genes, and to corroborate their diagnostic utility in a cohort of Spanish patients. Methods This was a multicenter cross-sectional study of patients with a high suspicion of PCD according to European Respiratory Society criteria. We designed a gene panel for massive sequencing using SeqCap EZ capture technology that included 44 genes associated with PCD. Results We includ…
Gustava Vanaga darba galds
2021
Par godu ķīmiķa organiķa Gustava Vanaga (1891-1965) 130. dzimšanas gada dienai izveidota virtuālā izstāde "Gustava Vanaga darba galds", kurā attēlots profesora Vanaga memoriālais darba galds Latvijas Ķīmijas vēstures muzejā Rīgā, Kronvalda bulvārī 4 un uz tā izvietotie objekti - piemiņas albumi, darbinieka un studenta apliecības, laboratorijas žurnāls, sekmju grāmatiņa, piezīmju lapiņas, jubilejās saņemtās dāvanas no studentiem un kolēģiem u.c. piemiņas lietas.
Pharmacological targeting of the novel β-catenin chromatin-associated kinase p38α in colorectal cancer stem cell tumorspheres and organoids
2021
AbstractThe prognosis of locally advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) is currently unsatisfactory. This is mainly due to drug resistance, recurrence, and subsequent metastatic dissemination, which are sustained by the cancer stem cell (CSC) population. The main driver of the CSC gene expression program is Wnt signaling, and previous reports indicate that Wnt3a can activate p38 MAPK. Besides, p38 was shown to feed into the canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Here we show that patient-derived locally advanced CRC stem cells (CRC-SCs) are characterized by increased expression of p38α and are “addicted” to its kinase activity. Of note, we found that stage III CRC patients with high p38α levels display…
Using English as the Language of Science
2021
This article presents the development and testing of a content-based video exchange model as a motivating means to introduce lower secondary English learners to English as the language of science. The central goal was that students reach the required curricular content knowledge despite learning some of the content in a foreign language. The model was tested in German seventh-grade classes (n = 133), in which the students communicated with U.S. eighth-graders on the topic of ecology. Following field trips to a forest and a desert ecosystem, students presented and compared biotic and abiotic data in videos. The German students’ content knowledge and their motivation were assessed in a pretes…
I batteri lattici delle cariossidi del grano: influenza geografica, varietale e del periodo di invecchiamento
2021
Il presente articolo riporta i dati di alcune ricerche volte a risalire all’origine dei batteri lattici degli impasti acidi. A tal proposito, i batteri lattici del frumento di quattro varietà moderne sono stati monitorati a partire dalle spighe. Le cariossidi ospitavano livelli di microrganismi inferiori rispetto a quelli rilevati sulle spighe e queste ultime livelli inferiori rispetto alle semole. La minore biodiversità lattica è stata riscontrata sulle cariossidi, mentre le semole hanno mostrato la maggiore ricchezza di specie e ceppi. Al fine di valutare la resistenza dei batteri lattici del grano durante l’invecchiamento, le cariossidi di due varietà antiche e due moderne di grani duri …
Human Coaching Methodologies for Automatic Electronic Coaching (eCoaching) as Behavioral Interventions With Information and Communication Technology:…
2021
Background We systematically reviewed the literature on human coaching to identify different coaching processes as behavioral interventions and methods within those processes. We then reviewed how those identified coaching processes and the used methods can be utilized to improve an electronic coaching (eCoaching) process for the promotion of a healthy lifestyle with the support of information and communication technology (ICT). Objective This study aimed to identify coaching and eCoaching processes as behavioral interventions and the methods behind these processes. Here, we mainly looked at processes (and corresponding models that describe coaching as certain processes) and the methods th…
Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies New Candidate Markers for Somatic Cells Score in a Local Dairy Sheep
2021
In the Mediterranean basin countries, the dairy sheep production is usually based on local breeds, which are very well-adapted to their production systems and environments and can indeed guarantee income, employment, and economic viability in areas where production alternatives are scarce or non-existent. Mastitis is still one of the greatest problems affecting commercial milk production. However, genetic evaluation of mastitis is particularly difficult because of its low heritability and the categorical nature of the trait. The aim of this study was to identify genomic regions putatively associated with somatic cells count (SCC) in the local economically important Valle del Belice sheep br…
Solar-assisted heat pumps systems for domestic hot water production in small energy communities
2021
Abstract The paper investigates the energy performances of several configurations of solar-assisted heat pumps equipped with photovoltaic (PV) and photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) panels as well as solar thermal collectors for domestic hot water production. The systems are sized to serve small aggregates of users assumed as micro energy communities in low housing density context in the South of Italy. Electricity storages are also considered to smooth the interaction with the electric grid. Several indices are defined and calculated to guide toward a correct sizing, to check users’ satisfaction and to assess primary energy savings. The results show how the energy consumption from the analysed sys…
Wild
2021
Graphical abstract
Accentuating the Interrelation between Consumer Intention and Healthy Packaged Food Selection during COVID-19: A Case Study of Pakistan
2021
This study contemplates the factors that influence consumer intention, before and during the eruption of COVID-19, for the selection of healthy packaged food in Pakistan. The extant studies have identified two distinct attitudes of consumers about food label information: one is its usefulness and the second elucidates the avoidance. Hence forth, the current study contributes to the extant literature while signifying both reasons which motivate consumers to read food labels and reasons which discourage consumers from consult food labels at the point of purchase. Moreover, the impact of subjective norms and self-efficacy for healthy packaged food intentions has also been examined for both bef…
MODELLISTICA MATEMATICA E PIATTAFORME INFORMATICHE A SUPPORTO DELLA RICERCA AMBIENTALE
2021
La modellizzazione matematica è diventata ormai uno strumento essenziale nell’avanzamento delle conoscenze in qualsiasi campo della scienza, dall’econometria alla psicologia, dalla chimica all’epidemiologia, come vissuto di recente nella pandemia da SARS-coV-2. Anche quelle che erano una volta discipline “soft” come la biomedicina o l’ecologia possono ora usufruire di tecniche di rappresentazione ed esplicazione dei processi estremamente utili alla comprensione delle dinamiche in gioco. Questa evoluzione, dovuta in non piccola parte all’attuale disponibilità di abbondante potenza di calcolo elettronico a costi ridotti, non è però opera ed appannaggio soltanto della nostra generazione. Lo st…
Business models of FinTechs – Difference in similarity?
2021
Abstract The FinTech industry is gradually maturing and offers a wide range of financial services on the global stage. Still, the understanding of FinTech business models remains at its infancy with a shortage of cross-country comparisons. This paper aims to determine the differences in business model attributes of FinTechs in five rapidly emerging FinTech hotspots in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Survey results from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia, accompanied by cluster analysis, enable us to provide unique in-depth evidence on FinTech business models. Across the selected countries, we observe significant differences in the attributes of FinTech business models: key act…
Perfil de sensibilidad antibiótica de Raoultella spp. en la Comunidad Valenciana: resultados de la Red de Vigilancia Microbiológica durante un períod…
2021
The Sources of Global Administrative Law
2021
International audience; The "Global administrative law" emerged in the United States in the mid-2000s as a research project aimed at observing and promoting the development of administrative-type norms beyond the state: transparency of international decision-making processes, motivation of decisions, emergence of appeals, etc. GAL's doctrine starts from the questionable assumption that classical international law, too stato-centric, would not allow the analysis of these phenomena. In particular, it rejects the notion of the source of law, but retains certain reflexes marked by classicism by excluding multinational companies from the reflection. An analysis of the limits of the GAL has there…
Catalytic treatment of rapeseed straw for enhanced production of furfural and glucose for bioethanol production
2021
Abstract Ethanol produced from renewable biomass, such as lignocellulosic feedstock, is one of the most promising future biofuels. In this paper, rapeseed straw was tested as an abundant and cost-effective renewable resource material for the production of cellulosic glucose. Pre-treatment of this material is an important step to improve the efficiency of subsequent cellulose hydrolysis. In this study, we used two pre-treatment methods – hydrothermochemical and ultrasound. Studies have shown that, in the initial hydrothermal pre-treatment of rapeseed straw, Al2(SO4)3 may be used as an efficient catalyst, at least in procedures for obtaining glucose. An increase in the amount of this catalyst…
L’«infinito caso Contrada»: la Cassazione annulla con rinvio la decisione che ha riconosciuto la riparazione per ingiusta detenzione
2021
Il “caso Contrada” rappresenta uno degli esempi di diritto giurisprudenziale più dibattuti degli ultimi anni: terreno controverso in cui si sono affrontati il tema della ottemperanza diretta e indiretta delle decisioni europee, della tipologia degli strumenti interni di attuazione, della fluidità del giudicato a fronte delle violazioni dei diritti umani.
New skulls of the basal sauropodomorph Plateosaurus trossingensis from Frick, Switzerland: is there more than one species?
2021
The Triassic basal sauropodomorph Plateosaurus trossingensis is well-known from mass accumulations at the German localities of Trossingen and Halberstadt and the Swiss locality of Frick, and is significant especially regarding its ta-phonomy and proposed developmental plasticity. These implications, however, rely on the assumption that this material derives from a single species, which has been questioned. Here we describe new skull material from Frick including eight complete and six partial skulls, more than doubling the number of known skulls of P. trossingensis. This exceptional sample size allows for gaining a deeper understanding of variability that may occur in a single species. The …
Neighborhood environment, social participation, and physical activity in older adults with lower limb osteoarthritis: A mediation analysis
2021
Older adults with lower limb osteoarthritis (LLOA) are highly dependent on their physical and social environment for being physically active. Longitudinal data from 2286 older adults (M age = 73.8 years; 50.3% female) in six European countries were analyzed using cross-lagged Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and multi-group SEM. In cross-sectional analyses, neighborhood resources were associated with physical activity (r = 0.26;p <.001) and social participation (r = 0.13;p =.003). Physical activity at follow-up was associated with neighborhood resources, with this relationship mediated by social participation in people with LLOA (β = 0.018;p =.013). To promote future physical activity,…
Immobilised Humic Substances as Low-Cost Sorbents for Emerging Contaminants
2021
Environmental pollution with contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) is a worldwide problem that is receiving increasing attention. Although these substances have been released in the aquatic environment for a long time, wastewater treatment plants are still incapable of removing emerging contaminants completely. Consequently, trace metals, metalloids and pharmaceuticals, as well as surfactant leftovers, are often found in environmental samples. Environmentally friendly and cost-effective sorbents such as humic substances can be used for purification if their sorption properties are increased by immobilization. To our knowledge, immobilized humic substances have not been widely studied as s…
Synthesis, X-Ray Structure, Tautomerism Aspect, and Chemical Insight of The 3-(1H-Indol-2-yl)-7H-[1,2,4]triazolo[3,4-b][1,3,4]thiadiazin-6-ol
2021
The 3-(1H-indol-2-yl)-7H-[1,2,4]triazolo[3,4-b][1,3,4]thiadiazin-6-ol 2 was obtained exclusively in the enol configuration starting from triazolyl-indole derivative 1 and alkyl halo-esters in the presence of K2CO3. Chemical structure elucidations with the aid of physicochemical characterizations were used to predict its molecular structure while single crystal X-ray diffraction technique was used to shed the light on the supramolecular structure of 2. DFT calculations agreed very well with the reported X-ray structure where the most stable form thermodynamically is the enol form. Its optimized geometry agreed very well with the experimental structure where the correlation coefficients betwe…
Challenges in the atmospheric characterization for the retrieval of spectrally resolved fluorescence and PRI region dynamics from space
2021
Abstract In the coming years, Earth Observation missions like the FLuorescence EXplorer (FLEX) will acquire the radiance signal from the visible to the near-infrared at a very high spectral resolution, enabling exciting prospects for new insights in satellite-based photosynthetic studies. In this context, the process of de-coupling atmospheric and vegetation-related spectral signatures will become essential to guarantee a reliable estimation of the vegetation photosynthetic activity from space. Dynamic changes related to the vegetation photosynthetic status result in subtle contributions to the top of atmosphere radiance signal, e.g. due to the emission of the solar-induced chlorophyll fluo…
Correction: Size does matter—the eco-evolutionary effects of changing body size in fish
2021
Preface to “Health Promotion in Children and Adolescents through Sport and Physical Activities—2nd Edition”
2021
The second edition of the Special Issue entitled “Health Promotion in Children and Adolescents through Sport and Physical Activities” has been successfully completed, as expected [...]
A 2-D model of electrodialysis stacks including the effects of membrane deformation
2021
Abstract Membrane-based processes have gained a relevant role in many engineering applications. Much effort has been devoted to thoroughly understand the fundamental phenomena behind them. However, membrane deformation has been taken into consideration only recently, although much evidence has shown its impacts in many applications. This work presents a novel 2-D, multi-scale, semi-empirical process model able to predict the behavior and the performance of Electrodialysis (ED) systems in cross-flow configurations in the presence and absence of local membrane deformations. The model exploits the results and the simulation approaches of previous fluid-structure investigations performed by the…
Adversarial reverse mapping of condensed-phase molecular structures: Chemical transferability
2021
Switching between different levels of resolution is essential for multiscale modeling, but restoring details at higher resolution remains challenging. In our previous study we have introduced deepBackmap: a deep neural-network-based approach to reverse-map equilibrated molecular structures for condensed-phase systems. Our method combines data-driven and physics-based aspects, leading to high-quality reconstructed structures. In this work, we expand the scope of our model and examine its chemical transferability. To this end, we train deepBackmap solely on homogeneous molecular liquids of small molecules, and apply it to a more challenging polymer melt. We augment the generator's objective w…
Perioperative diaphragm point-of-care ultrasound as a prediction tool of postoperative respiratory failure in high-risk patients: A feasibility study…
2021
Abstract Introduction Respiratory muscle function in the postoperative period is a key to whether a patient develops Postoperative Respiratory Failure (PRF) or not. PRF occurs when the gas exchange does not meet metabolic needs. Ipsilateral paralysis of the hemidiaphragm after interscalenic brachial plexus block (ISB) causes an acute reduction of respiratory muscle function. This reduction does not cause PRF when the contralateral hemidiaphragm generates enough gas exchange to meet metabolic demands. Objectives To study the evolution of hemidiaphragmatic muscle function during the perioperative period with diaphragmatic ultrasound (D-POCUS), and use it as an innovative tool to predict PRF, …
How much is enough? : The convergence of finite sample scattering properties to those of infinite media
2021
We study the scattering properties of a cloud of particles. The particles are spherical, close to the incident wavelength in size, have a high albedo, and are randomly packed to 20% volume density. We show, using both numerically exact methods for solving the Maxwell equations and radiative-transfer-approximation methods, that the scattering properties of the cloud converge after about ten million particles in the system. After that, the backward-scattered properties of the system should estimate the properties of a macroscopic, practically infinite system. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.o…
Epidemiology, Clinical Features and Prognostic Factors of Pediatric SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Results From an Italian Multicenter Study
2021
Background: Many aspects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents remain unclear and optimal treatment is debated. The objective of our study was to investigate epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic characteristics of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infection, focusing on risk factors for complicated and critical disease.Methods: The present multicenter Italian study was promoted by the Italian Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, involving both pediatric hospitals and general pediatricians/family doctors. All subjects under 18 years of age with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection and referred to the coordinating center were enrolled from March 2020.Results: As of 15 September 2020, 75…