The relationships of the enigmatic gastropod Tritonoharpa (Neogastropoda): New data on early neogastropod evolution?

In this paper, the relationships of Tritonoharpa Dall, 1908, within Neogastropoda are discussed. Tritonoharpa is indeed similar to Colubraria in the morphology of its head-foot, pallial complex, reproductive and excretory systems, in the presence of an extremely long and coiled proboscis, and a very large stomach. However, it differs from Colubraria in the rest of its foregut anatomy, revealing a cancellariid affinity, and a typical nematoglossan radula. The molecular data confirms Beu and Maxwell's placement of Tritonoharpa in the Cancellariidae, close to Plesiotriton. It is also suggested that cancellariids may be the sister-group to the rest of neogastropods. Tritonoharpa has a rather large and well developed midgut gland, resembling the gland of Leiblein. As previously studied cancellarioideans have been shown to lack a well differentiated gland of Leiblein, the present study raises some interesting questions about the evolution of the foregut in Neogastropoda. In fact, if this glandular structure were confirmed as a true homologue of the gland of Leiblein, and the cancellarioideans proved to be the sister group to the remaining neogastropods, the possession of the gland should be considered a synapomorphy of the Neogastropoda

Aquaculture in Sicily: the state of the art

Aquaculture in Sicily, represented almost exclusively by seabass and sea bream production, together with capture fishery, plays a significant role in the regional economy. On a national basis, the regional production covers about 20% of Italian euryhaline fish production. Fingerling supply is guaranteed by the two hatcheries present on the Island. Twelve floating cage farms and two inshore farms annually produce about 4,000 t of fish. A small extensive production arises from the storage basins of the salt work of Trapani. This niche production could represent an opportunity to realize a new distinctive organic aquaculture, preferred by the consumers respect to intensive produced fish, that could contribute to promote the Territory. Two bluefin tuna fattening farms produce about 1,300 t of sashimi grade tuna annually. The aquaculture sector in Sicily faces the same problems of the Italian and Mediterranean sectors. However, Sicily is considered a Convergence Region by the European Union Cohesion Policy and is legible for special funding. The operational program 2007/2013 “European Fishery Found” will be an effective instrument to stimulate investment and technological innovation and to promote sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture in the Region

Sharp interface limit for a phase field model in structural optimization

We formulate a general shape and topology optimization problem in structural optimization by using a phase field approach. This problem is considered in view of well-posedness and we derive optimality conditions. We relate the diffuse interface problem to a perimeter penalized sharp interface shape optimization problem in the sense of $\Gamma$-convergence of the reduced objective functional. Additionally, convergence of the equations of the first variation can be shown. The limit equations can also be derived directly from the problem in the sharp interface setting. Numerical computations demonstrate that the approach can be applied for complex structural optimization problems

Singular kernels, multiscale decomposition of microstructure, and dislocation models

We consider a model for dislocations in crystals introduced by Koslowski, Cuiti\~no and Ortiz, which includes elastic interactions via a singular kernel behaving as the $H^{1/2}$ norm of the slip. We obtain a sharp-interface limit of the model within the framework of $\Gamma$-convergence. From an analytical point of view, our functional is a vector-valued generalization of the one studied by Alberti, Bouchitt\'e and Seppecher to which their rearrangement argument no longer applies. Instead we show that the microstructure must be approximately one-dimensional on most length scales and exploit this property to derive a sharp lower bound

Frontal brain asymmetries as effective parameters to assess the quality of audiovisual stimuli perception in adult and young cochlear implant users

How is music perceived by cochlear implant (CI) users? This question arises as "the next step" given the impressive performance obtained by these patients in language perception. Furthermore, how can music perception be evaluated beyond self-report rating, in order to obtain measurable data? To address this question, estimation of the frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha activity imbalance, acquired through a 19-channel EEG cap, appears to be a suitable instrument to measure the approach/withdrawal (AW index) reaction to external stimuli. Specifically, a greater value of AW indicates an increased propensity to stimulus approach, and vice versa a lower one a tendency to withdraw from the stimulus. Additionally, due to prelingually and postlingually deafened pathology acquisition, children and adults, respectively, would probably differ in music perception. The aim of the present study was to investigate children and adult CI users, in unilateral (UCI) and bilateral (BCI) implantation conditions, during three experimental situations of music exposure (normal, distorted and mute). Additionally, a study of functional connectivity patterns within cerebral networks was performed to investigate functioning patterns in different experimental populations. As a general result, congruency among patterns between BCI patients and control (CTRL) subjects was seen, characterised by lowest values for the distorted condition (vs. normal and mute conditions) in the AW index and in the connectivity analysis. Additionally, the normal and distorted conditions were significantly different in CI and CTRL adults, and in CTRL children, but not in CI children. These results suggest a higher capacity of discrimination and approach motivation towards normal music in CTRL and BCI subjects, but not for UCI patients. Therefore, for perception of music CTRL and BCI participants appear more similar than UCI subjects, as estimated by measurable and not self-reported parameters

Surgical treatment of solitary sternal metastasis from breast cancer Case report

Bone metastasis is a frequent and early complication of breast cancer. This case report describes a technique for a partial exeresis of the sternum and the reconstruction of the pleura with autologous dermis from the lower abdomen and the loss of substance with a myocutaneous flap

The chemical composition of the aerial parts essential oil of Acinos alpinus subsp. nebrodensis (Lamiaceae) growing in Sicily (Italy)

Acinos is a small genus of economically important plants belonging to Lamiaceae family whose botanical collocation is quite problematic due to the disagreement among the botanists and the presence in litera- ture of several names and synonyms from different sources. In the pre- sent study the chemical composition of the essential oil from aerial parts of Acinos alpinus subsp. nebrodensis (Strobl) Brullo & Brullo col- lected in Central Sicily was analyzed by GC-MS. The result showed the presence of large quantity of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons with germa- crene D (37.9%) as the most abundant component followed by (E)- b-caryophyllene (5.1%). Among the oxygenated monoterpenes thymol (8.3%) was the most abundant; good quantity of hexadecanoic acid (6.8%) was also observed. Chemotaxonomic considerations with respect all the other oils of Acinos taxa, studied so far, were carried out

Relationships between absence of functional swimbladder, calculosis and larval mortality in hatcheryreared gilthead sea bream, Sparus aurata L.

Abstract. The relationship between absence of functional swim-bladder, calculosis and larval mortality of hatchery-reared sea bream, Sparus aurata L., was observed. There was a temporal variation in the main causes of mortality, i.e. not inflated swim-bladder appears to be the main cause up to the 47th day, and the presence of calculi around the 55th day. Histological sections, semi-quantitative analysis and scanner electron microscope photographs were carried out

Characterizing historical transformation trajectories of the forest landscape in Rome's metropolitan area (Italy) for effective planning of sustainability goals

With the aim at developing a landscape dynamics framework for environmental planning and management and testing the effectiveness of protected areas in achieving the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations sustainability goals, we characterized the historical transformation trajectories of forest area changes from 1936 to 2010 in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital (Italy). Remote sensing-based products coupled with landscape pattern metrics and fragmentation analysis have been implemented, comparing different historical forest maps. The results show a remarkable forest area gain – from 17.6% to 25.5% – thanks to 68,299 ha of recently established forest. Statistical descriptors showed that the highest relative gain occurred in mountain zones, confirming a wide European forest recovery pattern in marginal areas from past deforestation and overexploitation. Deforestation mainly occurred in the flat and hilly areas where almost 26,000 ha of forests were lost since 1936. In summary, two main forest landscape dynamics were reconstructed: (I) the increase of forest cover fragmentation in the lowland areas; and (II) the rise in the forest area in the interior sectors of the mountain landscape, mainly within protected areas. Restoring the forest ecosystem's bioecological integrity has been highlighted as an urgent action for biodiversity conservation and carbon mitigation. In lowland areas, the study revealed the urgent need to establish new protected areas and rewilding spaces as landscape metrics are relatively below the sustainability targets for healthy forest ecosystems. The proposed framework can be used for testing the effectiveness of environmental planning and management in other forest landscapes to achieve the Agenda 2030 goals

Multi-step approach for automated scaling of photogrammetric micro-measurements

[EN] Photogrammetry can be used for the measurement of small objects with micro-features, with good results, low costs, and the possible addition of texture information to the 3D models. The performance of this technique is strongly affected by the scaling method, since it retrieves a model that must be scaled after its elaboration. In this paper, a fully automated multi-step scaling system is presented, which is based on machine vision algorithms for retrieving blurred areas. This method allows researchers to find the correct scale factor for a photogrammetric micro model and is experimentally compared to the existing manual method basing on the German guideline VDI/VDE 2634, Part 3. The experimental tests are performed on millimeter-sized certified workpieces, finding micrometric errors, when referred to reference measurements. As a consequence, the method is candidate to be used for measurements of micro-features. The proposed tool improves the performance of the manual method by eliminating operator-dependent procedures. The software tool is available online as supplementary material and represents a powerful tool to face scaling issues of micro-photogrammetric activities.Frangione, A.; Sánchez Salmerón, AJ.; Modica, F.; Percoco, G. (2019). Multi-step approach for automated scaling of photogrammetric micro-measurements. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. 102(1-4):747-757. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-018-03258-w7477571021-