Anti-transpirant effects on vine physiology, berry and wine composition of cv. Aglianico (Vitis vinifera L.) Grown in South Italy

In viticulture, global warming requires reconsideration of current production models. At the base of this need there are some emerging phenomena: modification of phenological phases; acceleration of the maturation process of grapes, with significant increases in the concentration of sugar musts; decoupling between technological grape maturity and phenolic maturity. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of a natural anti-transpirant on grapevine physiology, berry, and wine composition of Aglianico cultivar. For two years, Aglianico vines were treated at veraison with the anti-transpirant Vapor Gard and compared with a control sprayed with only water. A bunch thinning was also applied to both treatments. The effectiveness of Vapor Gard were assessed through measurements of net photosynthesis and transpiration and analyzing the vegetative, productive and qualitative parameters. The results demonstrate that the application of antitranspirant reduced assimilation and transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, berry sugar accumulation, and wine alcohol content. No significant differences between treatments were observed for other berry and wine compositional parameters. This method may be a useful tool to reduce berry sugar content and to produce wines with a lower alcohol content

Determination of hidden variable models reproducing the spin-singlet

The experimental violation of Bell inequality establishes necessary but not sufficient conditions that any theory must obey. Namely, a theory compatible with the experimental observations can satisfy at most two of the three hypotheses at the basis of Bell's theorem: free will, no-signaling, and outcome-Independence. Quantum mechanics satisfies the first two hypotheses but not the latter. Experiments not only violate Bell inequality, but show an excellent agreement with quantum mechanics. This fact restricts further the class of admissible theories. In this work, the author determines the form of the hidden-variable models that reproduce the quantum mechanical predictions for a spin singlet while satisfying both the hypotheses of free will and no-signaling. Two classes of hidden-variable models are given as an example, and a general recipe to build infinitely many possible models is provided.Comment: Slightly revised version, 7 pages, no figures, to appear in PRA. Final version, removed extra references no longer cite

Patterns of variability in early life traits of a Mediterranean coastal fish

Spawning dates and pelagic larval duration (PLD) are early life traits (ELT) crucial for understanding life cycles, properly assessing patterns of connectivity and gathering indications about patchiness or homogeneity of larval pools. Considering that little attention has been paid to spatial variability in these traits, we investigated variability of ELT from the analysis of otolith microstructure in the common two-banded sea bream Diplodus vulgaris. In the southwestern Adriatic Sea, along ~200 km of coast (∼1° in latitude, 41.2° to 40.2°N), variability of ELT was assessed at multiple spatial scales. Overall, PLD (ranging from 25 to 61 d) and spawning dates (October 2009 to February 2010) showed significant variability at small scales (i.e. <6 km), but not at larger scales. These outcomes suggest patchiness of the larval pool at small spatial scales. Multiple causal processes underlying the observed variability are discussed, along with the need to properly consider spatial variability in ELT, for example when delineating patterns of connectivity. Copyright © 2013 Inter-Research

Variation in the μ-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) moderates the influence of early maternal care on fearful attachment

There is evidence that both early experience and genetic variation play a role in influencing sensitivity to social rejection. In this study, we aimed at ascertaining if the A118G polymorphism of the k-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) moderates the impact of early maternal care on fearful attachment, a personality trait strongly related to rejection sensitivity. In 112 psychiatric patients, early maternal care and fearful attachment were measured using the Parental Bonding Inventory and the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ), respectively. The pattern emerging from the RQ data was a crossover interaction between genotype and maternal caregiving. Participants expressing the minor 118 G allele had similar and relatively high scores on fearful attachment regardless of the quality of maternal care. By contrast, early experience made a major difference for participants carrying the A/A genotype. Those who recalled higher levels of maternal care reported the lowest levels of fearful attachment whereas those who recalled lower levels of maternal care scored highest on fearful attachment. Our data fit well with the differential susceptibility model which stipulates that plasticity genes would make some individuals more responsive than others to the negative consequences of adversity and to the benefits of environmental support and enrichment

Two-loop Euler-Heisenberg effective actions from charged open strings

We present the multiloop partition function of open bosonic string theory in the presence of a constant gauge field strength, and discuss its low-energy limit. The result is written in terms of twisted determinants and differentials on higher-genus Riemann surfaces, for which we provide an explicit representation in the Schottky parametrization. In the field theory limit, we recover from the string formula the two-loop Euler-Heisenberg effective action for adjoint scalars minimally coupled to the background gauge field.Comment: 32 pages, 3 eps figures, plain LaTeX. References added, minor changes to the text. Published version, affiliation correcte

Crisi e rimobilitazione: gli italiani, la politica, i partiti nelle indagini campionarie del CISE (2011-2012)

Nella primavera 2012, pochi mesi dopo l\u2019insediamento del governo Monti, i partiti italiani toccavano il punto pi\uf9 basso della loro presa sull\u2019opinione pubblica italiana: altissime percentuali di astenuti e indecisi, con un elettorato demotivato da un\u2019offerta politica ancora incerta (anche a causa della difficile convivenza con un governo tecnico) e quindi incapace di strategie innovative. Tuttavia, \ue8 forse vero che la politica ha orrore del vuoto: l\u2019imminenza delle elezioni amministrative (del maggio 2012) e soprattutto l\u2019ingresso nell\u2019ultimo anno prima delle elezioni politiche segnano una ripresa dell\u2019iniziativa politica, sia da parte dei partiti esistenti che da parte di nuovi attori politici. Il primo a muoversi \ue8 il Movimento 5 Stelle, con un\u2019aggressiva strategia per le elezioni amministrative, in cui registrer\ue0 un grande successo. Ma in secondo luogo \ue8 il centrosinistra a gettarsi in una impegnativa e rischiosa strategia politica basata sulle primarie, che otterr\ue0 tuttavia il grande risultato di una significativa rimobilitazione del proprio elettorato. Tutte queste tendenze sono state puntualmente registrate dalla serie di indagini demoscopiche Osservatorio Politico CISE, condotte ogni sei mesi a partire dalla primavera 2011. I risultati di queste indagini, gi\ue0 pubblicati sul sito web Cise nel corso del 2012, sono raccolti oggi in questo secondo Dossier CISE. Una riflessione sul clima di opinione pubblica che conduce alle elezioni politiche del 2013, che vuole fornire dati utili per interpretare le ultime fasi della campagna elettorale e per inquadrare l\u2019ormai imminente risultato delle elezioni