Search results for "Tact"

Noli Me Tangere: Social Touch, Tactile Defensiveness, and Communication in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

2019

Tactile defensiveness is a common feature in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Since the first studies, tactile defensiveness has been described as the result of an abnormal response to sensory stimulation. Moreover, it has been studied how the tactile system is closely linked to socio-communicative development and how the interoceptive sensory system supports both a discriminating touch and an affective touch. Therefore, several neurophysiological studies have been conducted to investigate the neurobiological basis of the development and functioning of the tactile system for a better understanding of the tactile defensiveness behavior and the social touch of NDDs. Given the lack of rece…

Altered host behaviour and brain serotonergic activity caused by acanthocephalans: evidence for specificity

2006

Manipulative parasites can alter the phenotype of intermediate hosts in various ways. However, it is unclear whether such changes are just by-products of infection or adaptive and enhance transmission to the final host. Here, we show that the alteration of serotonergic activity is functionally linked to the alteration of specific behaviour in the amphipodGammarus pulexinfected with acanthocephalan parasites.Pomphorhynchus laevisand, to a lesser extent,Pomphorhynchus tereticollisaltered phototactism, but not geotactism, inG. pulex, whereas the reverse was true forPolymorphus minutus. Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) injected to uninfectedG. pulexmimicked the altered phototactism, but ha…

Los contactos internacionales de la arqueología valenciana en el periodo 1900-1936

2017

En las dos primeras décadas del siglo XX la arqueología valenciana estuvo impulsada por aficionados y coleccionistas que llevaron a cabo diversos descubrimientos y excavaciones. En este periodo varios investigadores extranjeros exploraron numerosos yacimientos valencianos sin otro contacto que algunos de estos aficionados. En 1927, la concurrencia de la fundación del Servicio de Investigación Prehistórica (SIP) en Valencia por Isidro Ballester y la llegada a la universidad del profesor Luis Pericot fueron dos hechos determinantes en la proyección internacional de la arqueología valenciana. El SIP pasó a ser un órgano estable de interlocución con los investigadores foráneos, y sus publicacio…

The behavioral responses of the egg parasitoid Ooencyrtus telenomicida to semiochemicals from first and second trophic level

2009

In this study the responses of females of the egg parasitoid Ooencyrtus telenomicida (Vassiliev) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) to volatile and contact chemicals from its host Nezara viridula (L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) and from host plant Solanum lycopersicum L. were investigated in a Y-tube olfactometer and in open arena. Our results in the Y-tube olfactometer tests showed that: (1) female wasps were attracted to volatiles from adult host virgin male and to volatiles from a host mated female, showing a clear preference for the volatiles emitted from the former; volatiles from host virgin females did not attract O. telenomicida females; (2) only volatiles produced by host-damaged plant com…

Semiochemical exploitation by two egg parasitoids,Trissolcus basalis and Trissolcus brochymenae (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae)

Chemo-orientation in egg parasitoids, a self-controlled movement in time and space, is led by volatile or substrate-borne chemicals distribution in the environment for purposes of locating host, food, mates and other resources. The perception of these chemical stimuli can be either from a distance by exploiting long-range infochemicals in the case of volatile chemoreception and/or upon contact with the cues when wasps are relatively close to the host in the case of contact chemo-reception by perceiving short-range infochemicals. In the present thesis, two different examples of chemo-orientation were treated. The first is an olfactory chemo-reception concerning Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston)…

Endogenous and exogenous factors affecting host chemical footprint exploitation by a hymenopterous egg parasitoid

2014

During the host location process, parasitoids encounter and explore a great variety of volatile and contact semiochemicals from the host-plant complex. In the system Nezara viridula and its egg parasitoid Trissolcus basalis, when wasps land on a plant, they can taste chemical footprints left by walking adult hosts. These cues represent a set of indirect host-related contact kairomones that induce arrestment and motivated searching behavior, as they drive wasps in an area where there is a high probability of finding hosts but are not able to “promise” the presence of the suitable host stage. Patch time allocation is strongly modified by experience gained during foraging on host traces. In fa…

Jennet milk production during the lactation in a Sicilian farming system

2012

Abstract In Italy, the interest for jennet milk production has recently developed. An 18-month-long experiment was carried out on a jennet farm near Milo (CT), where 24 jennets, which derived from the Ragusana breed, were tested for milk yield and composition over an entire lactation period. The jennets were fed with hay and concentrate in a large paddock. From the 28th post-foaling day to the end of the lactation, the jennets were machine-milked twice a day with an in-between milking interval of 5 h. The milk amount from each jennet was recorded every 3 weeks and individual samples were collected and analyzed for fat, protein, casein, non-proteic nitrogen, lactose and somatic cell count. T…

Priority areas for the conservation of Atlantic forest large mammals

2009

Large mammal faunas in tropical forest landscapes are widely affected by habitat fragmentation and hunting, yet the environmental determinants of their patterns of abundance remain poorly understood at large spatial scales. We analysed population abundance and biomass of 31 species of medium to large-bodied mammal species at 38 Atlantic forest sites (including three islands, 26 forest fragments and six continuous forest sites) as related to forest type, level of hunting pressure and forest fragment size using ANCOVAs. We also derived a novel measure of mammal conservation importance for each site based on a "Mammalian Conservation Priority index" (MPi) which incorporates information on spec…

Dose verification with EPR/alanine dosimeters in Helical Tomotherapy Stereotactic Radiosurgery (HT SRS) treatments

2016

Intracranial stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a technique to deliver an ablative radiation dose with an extremely sharp dose gradient to small brain tumors. This tecnique allows to deliver high doses of radiation to the tumor sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. In this study the accuracy of the dose delivered in a SRS session by a non conventional radiotherapy machine, the TomoTherapy Hi-Art System, was investigated using an "end-to-end" test. This is perfome d by means of alanine Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) pe llets. The response of these dosimeters is compared to that of gafchromic films which are particularly suitable for two-dimensional dose verification providing accura…

UNA PROCEDURA AUTOMATIZZATA PER LA DETERMINAZIONE DELLE CARATTERISTICHE MICROSTRUTTURALI DELLE SABBIE MEDIANTE ANALISI DI IMMAGINI DI SEZIONI SOTTILI

2012

È ben noto che il comportamento meccanico microscopico delle sabbie - e in generale dei terreni granulari - trae origine dalle loro caratteristiche microstrutturali, quali, per esempio, il numero di coordinazione dei singoli grani, l’indice di contatto intergranulare (grain contact ratio) e l’indice di addensamento dei grani (packing density index). Appare, quindi, di notevole importanza la determinazione degli indici predetti con alto grado di affidabilità e di ripetibilità. Lo studio dell’assetto dei contatti intergranulari e il calcolo degli indici che lo caratterizzano, viene condotta comunemente su immagini piane dell’insieme di grani mediante esame visuale e restituzione grafica assis…