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Saproxylic beetle assemblages in the Mediterranean region:Impact of forest management on richness and structure

2010

Forests cover almost 30% of the Mediterranean region today, yet forest management activities have influenced structure and composition of both natural and planted forests. To date no study has been conducted to evaluate the impact of forest management on saproxylic beetle assemblages, although it is known that the Mediterranean is a biodiversity hotspot with a long-lasting human pressure on natural habitats. We provide an overview of saproxylic beetle assemblages of three forest types (mature Pinus halepensis forests, mature Pinus brutia forests, young Quercus calliprinos forests) in the East Mediterranean region using a one-year sample from 12 forest plots located in the north of Israel. T…

Chemical and acidic composition of Longissimus dorsi muscle of Comisana lambs fed with Trifolium subterraneum and Lolium multiflorum

2010

Aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of grazing on Trifolium subterraneum and Lolium multiflorum, as pure or associated crops, on the chemical composition and on the fatty acid profile of the intramuscular lipids of the meat of lambs. Forty Comisana male lambs, on average weighing 13.75±1.90 kg, were divided into four homogenous groups of ten and called, in relation to the diet: group T those grazing on T. subterraneum; Group L on L. multiflorum; Group TL on adjacent monocultures of T. subterraneum and L. multiflorum (66.6 and 33.3% of surface, respectively); Group LT on adjacent monocultures of T. subterraneum and L. multiflorum (33.3 and 66.6% of surface, respectively). Every 10 …

Wastewater modification processes in a stabilization reservoir: a new mathematical model

2018

The paper presents a mathematical model for the simulation of the ecology of a wastewater stabilization reservoir (WSR). WSRs are hypertrophic aquatic systems devoted to water storage in warm countries where shortage conditions are often encountered. Several factors that affect the stabilization reservoir’s effluent quality were taken into account: hydraulics and hydrology, solar radiation, reaeration, algae, zooplankton, organic matter, pathogens, and sediment-water interactions. The model quantifies the specific influence of each factor on effluent quality, and evaluating the correlation between the different factors. State variables included in the model were: algae, dissolved oxygen, or…

The importance of consecutive spells of poverty: a longitudinal poverty index

2009

Traditional measures of poverty persistence, such as ’poverty rate’ (i.e., the number of years spent in poverty upon the total number of observations) or the ’persistent-risk-of-poverty rate’, do not devote enough attention to the sequence of poverty spells. In particular, they are insufficient in underlining the different effects associated with occasional single spells of poverty and the consecutive years of poverty. Here, we propose a new index which measures the severity of poverty, taking into account the way poverty and non-poverty spells follow one another along individual life courses. The index is normalized and increases with the number of consecutive years in poverty along the se…

Asymptotic behavior of positive solutions of a Dirichlet problem involving supercritical nonlinearities

2013

Exploring the relationships between flow, mindfulness, & self-talk : a correlational study

2013

Flow (peak performance) and mindfulness (nonjudgemental present-moment awareness) appear to be conceptually closely related to one another (e.g., Gardner & Moore, 2004). Theoretically, self-talk can be reasoned to play a key role in influencing the afore mentioned constructs. The interconnectivity of these three key variables of interest is illustrated and explained in a proposed overarching theoretical framework. Therefore, the main purpose of the current correlational study was to explore the relationships between flow, mindfulness, and self-talk, at the dispositional level. 212 international participants with experience in competitive sports completed an on-line questionnaire comprising …

Managing Municipal Solid Waste: Energetic and Environmetal Comparison among different options

2001

Goal. This research aims to assess the environmental effects of integrated strategies in a municipal waste management system. In particular, analysis is focused on a waste stream in Palermo, where landfill involves the prompt disposal of the most waste after collection. The current local management system is compared with two integrated waste management alternatives. Both the options comply with Italian regulations, but each one predicts adopting the available technologies in different ways. Methods and objectives. Energetic and environmental balances are carried out in each management system referring to local waste composition in order to quantify energy consumption, the recovery of mater…

Measuring nuclear reaction cross sections to extract information on neutrinoless double beta decay

2017

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0v\b{eta}\b{eta}) is considered the best potential resource to access the absolute neutrino mass scale. Moreover, if observed, it will signal that neutrinos are their own anti-particles (Majorana particles). Presently, this physics case is one of the most important research "beyond Standard Model" and might guide the way towards a Grand Unified Theory of fundamental interactions. Since the 0v\b{eta}\b{eta} decay process involves nuclei, its analysis necessarily implies nuclear structure issues. In the NURE project, supported by a Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), nuclear reactions of double charge-exchange (DCE) are used as a tool to extr…

Aproximación al higienismo en la arquitectura de Rafael Guastavino

2021

La obra de Rafael Guastavino Moreno (1842-1908) está vinculada habitualmente a la construcción con bóveda tabicada, un sistema constructivo tradicional originario del Levante peninsular que este arquitecto combinó con el mortero de cemento para erigir un gran número de edificios de muy diverso tipo tanto en Barcelona como posteriormente en Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, estos autores han defendido en otras ocasiones la versatilidad de Guastavino como arquitecto y hasta qué punto la bóveda tabicada no supuso en un principio el cuaderno de bitácora único ni principal para su trayectoria profesional. La bóveda tabicada representó una herramienta más en la panoplia de sus habilidades, entre las c…

A Curvature Based Method for Blind Mesh Visual Quality Assessment Using a General Regression Neural Network

2016

International audience; No-reference quality assessment is a challenging issue due to the non-existence of any information related to the reference and the unknown distortion type. The main goal is to design a computational method to objectively predict the human perceived quality of a distorted mesh and deal with the practical situation when the reference is not available. In this work, we design a no reference method that relies on the general regression neural network (GRNN). Our network is trained using the mean curvature which is an important perceptual feature representing the visual aspect of a 3D mesh. Relatively to the human subjective scores, the trained network successfully asses…