Search results for "UPS"
showing 10 items of 1425 documents
Solidarity Purchase Groups and the new critical and ethical consumer trends: first results of a direct study in Sicily
2011
Recently in Italy, the evolution of food consumption occurs through the purchase of healthy and environmentally friendly foods. This trend is confirmed by the birth, in Italy of many solidarity purchase groups (called in Italy Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale or GAS),made up of individuals or families who choose to purchase products with a high ethical value. In this paper we try to identify socio-economic conditions and motivation of individual members of GAS, and for this purpose we developed over 205 questionnaires.
Comparing biological classifications of freshwater phytoplankton: a case study from South China
2012
The use of ecological classification systems is becoming more and more widely used when studying phytoplankton. Grouping phytoplankton species into ecologically coherent groups allow to reduce redundancy and in this way, to handle a minor number of biological variables when investigating the ecological status of aquatic ecosystems. Three ecological classifications are mostly used when freshwater phytoplankton is studied: functional groups or coda, morpho-functional groups (MFGs) and morphology-based functional groups (MBFGs). In this study, these three ecological classifications were comparatively used along with two taxonomic classifications based on species and genera to analyse phytoplan…
Proximal-sensing-powered modelling of energy-water fluxes in a vineyard: A spatial resolution analysis
2021
Spatial resolution is a key parameter in energy–water surface flux modelling. In this research, scale effects are analyzed on fluxes modelled with the FEST-EWB model, by upscaling both its inputs and outputs separately. The main questions are: (a) if high-resolution remote sensing images are necessary to accurately model a heterogeneous area; and (b) whether and to what extent low-resolution modelling provides worse/better results than the upscaled results of high-resolution modelling. The study area is an experimental vineyard field where proximal sensing images were obtained by an airborne platform and verification fluxes were measured via a flux tower. Modelled fluxes are in line with th…
Molecular Evolution and the Phylogenetic Relationships of the African Toad, Bufo danielae PERRET, 1977 (Salientia : Bufonidae)
1980
Abstract Phylogenetic relationships of the African toad Bufo danielae are investigated using a variety of biochemical approaches. Nuclear DNA content was assayed and compared to representatives of three species groups of African Bufo. Cellogel electrophoresis of plasma proteins was performed and patterns of B. danielae compared with those of representatives of the African B. regularis species complex. Finally microcomplement fixation analyses of albumin relationships of B. danielae and African Bufo were carried out. The strengths of the varied approaches for phylogenetic analysis are discussed. B. danielae appears most closely related to B. maculatus and B. pusillus, it being some 5-6 mill…
Commutators, C0-semigroups and resolvent estimates
2004
Abstract We study the existence and the continuity properties of the boundary values on the real axis of the resolvent of a self-adjoint operator H in the framework of the conjugate operator method initiated by Mourre. We allow the conjugate operator A to be the generator of a C 0 -semigroup (finer estimates require A to be maximal symmetric) and we consider situations where the first commutator [ H ,i A ] is not comparable to H . The applications include the spectral theory of zero mass quantum field models.
Algebraic study of pyramidal molecules in the very excited vibrational states.
2005
In the frame of the algebraic formalism U(p+1), we developed the method to build a vibrational Hamiltonian corresponding to a set of three identical oscillators. In order to test the model, we apply it to the molecules of stibine and arsine. We introduce a supplementary intermediate group K(3) inspired by the similar formalism used in nuclear physics. This group K(3) gives additional labels for classification of the energy levels. The eigenvalues of these invariant operators distinguish the local states of the molecule. Then we study the coupling of the vibrational modes of stretching and bending for the non plane XY3 molecules. We present the construction of an algebraic operator of coupli…
The Molecular Basis of X-Linked Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia Tarda
2001
The X-linked form of spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda (SEDL), a radiologically distinct skeletal dysplasia affecting the vertebrae and epiphyses, is caused by mutations in the SEDL gene. To characterize the molecular basis for SEDL, we have identified the spectrum of SEDL mutations in 30 of 36 unrelated cases of X-linked SEDL ascertained from different ethnic populations. Twenty-one different disease-associated mutations now have been identified throughout the SEDL gene. These include nonsense mutations in exons 4 and 5, missense mutations in exons 4 and 6, small (2–7 bp) and large (>1 kb) deletions, insertions, and putative splicing errors, with one splicing error due to a complex deleti…
Starvation endurance in the antTemnothorax nylanderidepends on group size, body size and access to larvae
2013
Social interactions in animal groups can buffer environmental stress and may enhance survival under unfavourable conditions. In the present study, the impact on starvation endurance of social group, access to larvae and cold shock is studied in the ant Temnothorax nylanderi Forster. Resource sharing is expected to lead to grouped workers surviving longer than isolated ones. Access to larvae may increase longevity if larvae serve as food, or may interfere with survival if they induce caring behaviour in workers. Cold shock serves as a stress factor and a negative influence on survival is expected. The results show that isolated workers have a shorter lifespan than grouped workers, which in t…
Temporal evolution of some mortality indicators: Application to Spanish data
2012
[EN] In Spain, as in other developed countries, significant changes in mortality patterns have occurred during the 20th and 21st centuries. One reflection of these changes is life expectancy, which has improved in this period, although the robustness of this indicator prevents these changes from being of the same order as those for the probability of death. If, moreover, we bear in mind that life expectancy offers no information as to whether this improvement is the same for different age groups, it is important and necessary to turn to other mortality indicators whose past and future evolution in Spain we are going to study. These indicators are applied to Spanish mortality data for the pe…
Extremal polynomials in stratified groups
2018
We introduce a family of extremal polynomials associated with the prolongation of a stratified nilpotent Lie algebra. These polynomials are related to a new algebraic characterization of abnormal subriemannian geodesics in stratified nilpotent Lie groups. They satisfy a set of remarkable structure relations that are used to integrate the adjoint equations.