Search results for " SIC"
showing 10 items of 3587 documents
Ancient and recent admixture layers in Sicily and Southern Italy trace multiple migration routes along the Mediterranean
2017
The Mediterranean shores stretching between Sicily, Southern Italy and the Southern Balkans witnessed a long series of migration processes and cultural exchanges. Accordingly, present-day population diversity is composed by multiple genetic layers, which make the deciphering of different ancestral and historical contributes particularly challenging. We address this issue by genotyping 511 samples from 23 populations of Sicily, Southern Italy, Greece and Albania with the Illumina GenoChip Array, also including new samples from Albanian-and Greek-speaking ethno-linguistic minorities of Southern Italy. Our results reveal a shared Mediterranean genetic continuity, extending from Sicily to Cypru…
The spread of steppe and Iranian-related ancestry in the islands of the western Mediterranean
2020
Steppe-pastoralist-related ancestry reached Central Europe by at least 2500 bc, whereas Iranian farmer-related ancestry was present in Aegean Europe by at least 1900 bc. However, the spread of these ancestries into the western Mediterranean, where they have contributed to many populations that live today, remains poorly understood. Here, we generated genome-wide ancient-DNA data from the Balearic Islands, Sicily and Sardinia, increasing the number of individuals with reported data from 5 to 66. The oldest individual from the Balearic Islands (~2400 bc) carried ancestry from steppe pastoralists that probably derived from west-to-east migration from Iberia, although two later Balearic individ…
‘Green’ Wine through a Responsible and Efficient Production: A Case Study of a Sustainable Sicilian Wine Producer
2016
Abstract Sustainability is progressively gaining importance in the winegrowing sector. Implementing this concept implies environmental soundness, social equity and economic feasibility. A proliferation of initiatives to develop the sustainable production of wine started officially in Italy since the year 2010. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the reshaping of Sicilian winegrowing according to the ‘Triple bottom line’ approach to sustainability. By analyzing the case-study of the Tasca d’Almerita firm, pilot farm of various national projects in wine-sustainability, we found that adopting sustainable operative, organizational and competitive strategies has lead to a well-managed a…
Deciphering function of the pulmonary arterial sphincters in loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta)
2018
To provide new insight to the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying gas emboli (GE) in bycaught loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta), the present study investigated the vasoactive characteristics of the pulmonary and systemic arteries, and the lung parenchyma (LP). Tissues were opportunistically excised from recently dead animals for in vitro studies of vasoactive responses to four different neurotransmitters: acetylcholine (ACh, parasympathetic), serotonin (5HT), epinephrine (Epi, sympathetic) and histamine. The significant amount of smooth muscle in the LP contracted in response to ACh, Epi and histamine. The intrapulmonary and systemic arteries contracted under both parasympatheti…
Antiprotozoal and cysteine proteases inhibitory activity of dipeptidyl enoates
2018
A family of dipeptidyl enoates has been prepared and tested against the parasitic cysteine proteases rhodesain, cruzain and falcipain-2 related to sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and malaria, respectively. They have also been tested against human cathepsins B and L1 for selectivity. Dipeptidyl enoates resulted to be irreversible inhibitors of these enzymes. Some of the members of the family are very potent inhibitors of parasitic cysteine proteases displaying k2nd (M−1s−1) values of seven orders of magnitude. In vivo antiprotozoal testing was also performed. Inhibitors exhibited IC50 values in the micromolar range against Plasmodium falciparum, Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi and ev…
The best way to assess visually induced motion sickness in a fixed-base driving simulator
2017
Abstract Objective Driving simulator usage is becoming more widespread, yet many users still experience substantial motion sickness-like symptoms induced by optical flow, called visually induced motion sickness (VIMS). The Fast Motion sickness Scale (FMS) allows for continuous on-line assessment of VIMS. Using mixed models for ordinal data, this study investigated how to optimally analyze FMS data, and then used the resulting models to examine the development of symptoms over time in detail. Additionally, the study explored the impact of specific VIMS-inducing road elements. Methods Twenty-eight healthy young adults without prior simulator experience completed six courses on two days in a f…
The effect of visual motion stimulus characteristics on vection and visually induced motion sickness
2019
Abstract Several factors contribute to the likelihood of experiencing illusory sensations of self-motion (i.e., vection) in Virtual Reality (VR) applications. VR users can also experience adverse effects such as disorientation, oculomotor issues, or nausea known as visually induced motion sickness (VIMS). The goal of the present study was to systematically investigate three characteristics of visual motion stimuli—speed, density, and axis of rotation—and how they relate to both vection and VIMS. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, a stereoscopic stimulus containing a star field of white spheres on a black background was presented to 21 participants. The stimulus contained linea…
The behavioral validity of dual-task driving performance in fixed and moving base driving simulators
2016
Abstract Next generation automotive hardware and user interfaces are increasingly pre-tested in driving simulators. What are the potential limitations of such simulations? We determined the relative and absolute validity of five different driving simulators at the Daimler AG by evaluating five functions of an in-vehicle system based on the guideline of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (2006). The simulations were compared to on-road driving. We hypothesized that not only simulator characteristics, but also user characteristics, such as simulator sickness, gender, or age, influence behavioral validity. Even though relating simulator characteristics and user characteristics to driving…
MUTAZIONI IN CORSA: L’AVVENTURA DELLA COSTRUZIONE DI UNA FACCIATA DEL SETTECENTO. LA CHIESA DI SAN GIOVANNI A VIZZINI
2022
A series of documents helps to define the history of the genesis of an eighteenth-century church façade in Sicily: the church of San Giovanni in Vizzini. The history reveals a constant change of intentions and an empirical approach where, without necessarily proceeding to demolish the already built, the project is subjected to continuous revisions and additions. The process therefore reveals a radical alternative to the idea of an orderly succession between drawing and execution.
Elusive active faults in a low strain rate region (Sicily, Italy): Hints from a multidisciplinary land-to-sea approach
2022
Low Strain Rate regions (LSRrs), i.e., areas undergoing tectonic deformation at rates of 1 mm/yr or less, often host important cities and highly vulnerable anthropogenic assets, and due to their subdued topography and relatively infrequent seismicity, are often considered low seismic hazard areas. Despite this, infrequent but high-magnitude earthquakes in such regions suggest that identifying active structures in the LSRr is one of the primary challenges for both the scientific community and modern societies. In such regions, one of the main issues in identifying active faults is the lack of valuable outcrop data due to erosional/sedimentation rates overwhelming the fault deformation, causi…