Search results for " variability"
showing 10 items of 853 documents
Genetic Variability and Taxonomical Considerations about Six Species of European Cardueline Finches (Aves, Passeriformes)
1997
Abstract Electrophoretic patterns of seven enzyme systems and two nonenzymatic proteins, albumin and haemoglobin, representing 13 loci, have been investigated in six species of cardueline finches with Palearctic distribution. A new locus, SOD-3, has been characterized in this subfamily. The two nonenzymatic proteins turned out to be the best genetic markers. From the analysis of the genetic distances it emerges that the mean values between species are higher than those reported for other groups of birds. However, the same results were obtained for other species of the same subfamily native to North America. In both cases this result is probably due to a classification that disagrees with th…
Reliability of Short-Term Heart Rate Variability Indexes Assessed through Photoplethysmography
2018
The gold standard method to monitor heart rate variability (HRV) comprises measuring the time series of interbeat interval durations from electrocardiographic (ECG) recordings. However, due to the widespread use, simplicity and usability of photoplethysmographic (PPG) techniques, monitoring pulse rate variability (PRV) from pulse wave recordings has become a viable alternative to standard HRV analysis. The present study investigates the accuracy of PRV, measured as a surrogate of HRV, for the quantification of descriptive indexes computed in the time domain (mean, variance), frequency domain (low-to-high frequency power ratio LF/HF, HF band central frequency) and information domain (entropy…
Cardiovascular and respiratory variability during orthostatic and mental stress: A comparison of entropy estimators
2017
The aim of this study is to characterize cardiovascular and respiratory signals during orthostatic and mental stress as reflected in indices of entropy and complexity, providing a comparison between the performance of different estimators. To this end, the heart rate variability, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and respiration time series were extracted from the recordings of 61 healthy volunteers undergoing a protocol consisting of supine rest, head-up tilt test and mental arithmetic task. The analysis was performed in the information domain using measures of entropy and conditional entropy, estimated through model-based (linear) and model-free (binning, nearest neighbor)…
Disentangling cardiovascular control mechanisms during head-down tilt via joint transfer entropy and self-entropy decompositions
2015
A full decomposition of the predictive entropy (PE) of the spontaneous variations of the heart period (HP) given systolic arterial pressure (SAP) and respiration (R) is proposed. The PE of HP is decomposed into the joint transfer entropy (JTE) from SAP and R to HP and self-entropy (SE) of HP. The SE is the sum of three terms quantifying the synergistic/redundant contributions of HP and SAP, when taken individually and jointly, to SE and one term conditioned on HP and SAP denoted as the conditional SE (CSE) of HP given SAP and R. The JTE from SAP and R to HP is the sum of two terms attributable to SAP or R plus an extra term describing the redundant/synergistic contribution to the JTE. All q…
A semi-empirical approach for surface soil water content estimation from radar data without a-priori information on surface roughness
2006
Abstract In this study, the spatial distribution of soil water content in an agricultural area of 30 km 2 in Southern Italy has been estimated by using high-resolution space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar data. Multi-polarised SAR images acquired during the SIR-C mission in April 1994 have been analysed by using the semi-empirical surface backscattering model derived by Oh, Y., Sarabandi K., Ulaby F.T., 1992. An empirical model and an inversion technique for radar scattering from bare soil surface. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing, 30(2), 370381. A site-specific calibration procedure of the cited model has been proposed to derive soil dielectric constant values without a-priori informatio…
Power sensitivity analysis of multi-frequency, multi-polarized, multi-temporal SAR data for soil-vegetation system variables characterization
2017
Abstract: The knowledge of spatial and temporal variability of soil water content and others soil-vegetation variables (leaf area index, fractional cover) assumes high importance in crop management. Where and when the cloudiness limits the use of optical and thermal remote sensing techniques, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery has proven to have several advantages (cloud penetration, day/night acquisitions and high spatial resolution). However, measured backscattering is controlled by several factors including SAR configuration (acquisition geometry, frequency and polarization), and target dielectric and geometric properties. Thus, uncertainties arise about the more suitable configurati…
Allozymic variation and divergence in three species of Antirrhinum L. (Scrophulariaceae-Antirrhineae)
1999
Abstract An allozymic study of three wild species of Antirrhinum L.—A. lopesianum RothmA. mollissimum Rothm. and A. microphyllum Rothm.—is described. All are members of subsectionKickxiella Rothmand are narrow-range endemics of the Iberian Peninsula. The variability of the different loci, as well as the number and mobility of the alleles, differ among the three species, a demonstration of the usefulness of allozymes for the systematics of the genus. The finding of alleles unique to each species indicates high divergence among species suggesting ancient diversification, and supports the hypothesis of a geographical model of speciation. All three species show high levels of within-species var…
SNP variation in the bitter taste TAS2R38 gene evaluated in student populations of several italian universities and isolates
2007
People vary widely in their sensitivities to bitter compounds, but the all intercorrelation of these sensitivities is unknown. The study of genetic influences on bitter taste perception originated from the discovery in the 1930s that some individuals had taste to phenylthiocarbamide(PTC), whereas others found it extremely bitter. Subsequently, many studies were carried out on PTC and the structurally related compound propylthiouracil (PROP) to assess this viability and to determine the root causes. Initial family studies strongly suggested that PTC no tasting was due to a recessive allele in a single gene and heritability was estimated at 0,5. 55-85% of variation in PTC detection. The PTC ge…
Optical pulsations from a transitional millisecond pulsar
2017
Weakly magnetic, millisecond spinning neutron stars attain their very fast rotation through a 1E8-1E9 yr long phase during which they undergo disk-accretion of matter from a low mass companion star. They can be detected as accretion-powered millisecond X-ray pulsars if towards the end of this phase their magnetic field is still strong enough to channel the accreting matter towards the magnetic poles. When mass transfer is much reduced or ceases altogether, pulsed emission generated by particle acceleration in the magnetosphere and powered by the rotation of the neutron star is observed, preferentially in the radio and gamma-ray bands. A few transitional millisecond pulsars that swing betwee…
A 5500-year oxygen isotope record of high arctic environmental change from southern Spitsbergen
2017
The oxygen isotope composition of chironomid head capsules in a sediment core spanning the past 5500 years from Lake Svartvatnet in southern Spitsbergen was used to reconstruct the oxygen isotope composition of lake water (δ18Olw) and local precipitation. The δ18Olw values display shifts from the baseline variability consistent with the timing of recognized historical climatic episodes, such as the Roman Warm Period, the Dark Ages Cold Period and the ‘Little Ice Age’. The highest values of the record, ca. 3‰ above modern δ18Olw values, occur at ca. 1900–1800 cal. yr BP. Three negative excursions increasing in intensity toward the present, at 3400–3200, 1250–1100, and 350–50 cal. yr BP, are…