Quality-Driven Detection and Resolution of Metamodel Smells

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Defoliation, Recovery and Increasing Mortality in Italian Forests: Levels, Patterns and Possible Consequences for Forest Multifunctionality

Forest health and multifunctionality are threatened by global challenges such as climate change. Forest health is currently assessed within the pan-European ICP Forests (International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests) programme through the evaluation of tree crown conditions (defoliation). This paper analyses the results of a 24-year assessment carried out in Italy on 253 permanent plots distributed across the whole forested area. The results evidenced a substantial stability of crown conditions at the national level, according to the usual defoliation thresholds Defoliation > 25% and Defoliation > 60%, albeit with species-specific patterns. Within this apparent temporal stability, an increased fraction of extremely defoliated and dead trees was observed. Extreme defoliation mostly occurred in years with severe summer drought, whereas mortality was higher in the years after the drought. The results for singular species evidenced critical conditions for Castanea sativa Mill. and Pinus species, whereas Quercus species showed a progressive decrease in defoliation. Deciduous species, such as Fagus sylvatica L., Ostrya carpinifolia Scop. and Quercus pubescens Willd. suffer the loss of leaves in dry years as a strategy to limit water loss by transpiration but recover their crown in the following years. The recurrence of extreme heat waves and drought from the beginning of the XXI century may increase the vulnerability of forests, and increased tree mortality can be expected in the future

Status and change of tree crown condition at the CONECOFOR plots, 1996 - 2005

Between 1996 and 2005 crown condition at Italian Level II plots was assessed annually within the CONECOFOR programme. Three different assessment forms and manuals were adopted over this period of time (the first in 1996-97, the second between 1998 and 2004, the last starting in 2005); as a result, many of the parameters investigated and the data collected are neither homogeneous nor comparable over time. Since, however, neither the definition nor the assessment criteria for transparency changed, this parameter was chosen to represent crown condition variations over time. (In this survey, transparency is used as a proxy for defoliation.) Yearly field surveys were always preceded by an inter-calibration course, and were followed up by Quality Control surveys done by one or more Reference Teams. After 10 years, the results suggest that statistically significant variations in transparency, from one year to the next, are only scattered and display no recognizable trend. Overall, there were 15 variations, of which 7 were positive (i.e. increase in transparency), and 8 negative (i.e. decrease in transparency). The majority of variations is concentrated in the 1997-98 period. Significant defoliation trends were identified in 11 out of the 27 considered plots. In 4 cases these trends were positive (increased transparency)

Diagnostic Accuracy of a New Antigen Test for SARS-CoV-2 Detection

Background and aims: Quick and reliable diagnostic tools play an important role in controlling the spread of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a new cyto-salivary antigen test aimed at detecting the presence of antigens for SARS-CoV-2, as compared by the gold standard RT-PCR and a lateral flow test. Methods: A total of 433 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study and the sensitivity and specificity of the new cyto-salivary antigen test were calculated, as compared to the RT-PCR nasopharyngeal swab and to the lateral flow test. Results: A total of 433 samples were collected and tested at the Mediterranean Fair in Palermo from February 2021 until April 2021. The new cyto-salivary antigen had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 94.2%. The sensitivity and the specificity of the lateral flow test were 55% and 100%, respectively. Conclusions: The new cyto-salivary antigen test detected more positive cases than the RT-PCR in a sample of asymptomatic subjects, demonstrating to be a promising tool for a more sensitive diagnosis of COVID-19. Further studies are warranted to better characterize its diagnostic accuracy

Choreographies with Secure Boxes and Compromised Principals

We equip choreography-level session descriptions with a simple abstraction of a security infrastructure. Message components may be enclosed within (possibly nested) "boxes" annotated with the intended source and destination of those components. The boxes are to be implemented with cryptography. Strand spaces provide a semantics for these choreographies, in which some roles may be played by compromised principals. A skeleton is a partially ordered structure containing local behaviors (strands) executed by regular (non-compromised) principals. A skeleton is realized if it contains enough regular strands so that it could actually occur, in combination with any possible activity of compromised principals. It is delivery guaranteed (DG) realized if, in addition, every message transmitted to a regular participant is also delivered. We define a novel transition system on skeletons, in which the steps add regular strands. These steps solve tests, i.e. parts of the skeleton that could not occur without additional regular behavior. We prove three main results about the transition system. First, each minimal DG realized skeleton is reachable, using the transition system, from any skeleton it embeds. Second, if no step is possible from a skeleton A, then A is DG realized. Finally, if a DG realized B is accessible from A, then B is minimal. Thus, the transition system provides a systematic way to construct the possible behaviors of the choreography, in the presence of compromised principals

Twenty years of coordination technologies: State-of-the-art and perspectives

Since complexity of inter- and intra-systems interactions is steadily increasing in modern application scenarios (e.g., the IoT), coordination technologies are required to take a crucial step towards maturity. In this paper we look back at the history of the COORDINATION conference in order to shed light on the current status of the coordination technologies there proposed throughout the years, in an attempt to understand success stories, limitations, and possibly reveal the gap between actual technologies, theoretical models, and novel application needs

Neutralizing antibodies to Omicron after the fourth SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine dose in immunocompromised patients highlight the need of additional boosters

IntroductionImmunocompromised patients have been shown to have an impaired immune response to COVID-19 vaccines.MethodsHere we compared the B-cell, T-cell and neutralizing antibody response to WT and Omicron BA.2 SARS-CoV-2 virus after the fourth dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in patients with hematological malignancies (HM, n=71), solid tumors (ST, n=39) and immune-rheumatological (IR, n=25) diseases. The humoral and T-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination were analyzed by quantifying the anti-RBD antibodies, their neutralization activity and the IFN-γ released after spike specific stimulation.ResultsWe show that the T-cell response is similarly boosted by the fourth dose across the different subgroups, while the antibody response is improved only in patients not receiving B-cell targeted therapies, independent on the pathology. However, 9% of patients with anti-RBD antibodies did not have neutralizing antibodies to either virus variants, while an additional 5.7% did not have neutralizing antibodies to Omicron BA.2, making these patients particularly vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection. The increment of neutralizing antibodies was very similar towards Omicron BA.2 and WT virus after the third or fourth dose of vaccine, suggesting that there is no preferential skewing towards either virus variant with the booster dose. The only limited step is the amount of antibodies that are elicited after vaccination, thus increasing the probability of developing neutralizing antibodies to both variants of virus.DiscussionThese data support the recommendation of additional booster doses in frail patients to enhance the development of a B-cell response directed against Omicron and/or to enhance the T-cell response in patients treated with anti-CD20

Anatomy of the Lacrimal Drainage System

The knowledge of the anatomy is mandatory for both opthalmologies and otorhinolaryngologies to understand the physiology, the pathology, and the surgical approaches to the nasolacrimal system

Highly Polymorphic Materials and Dissolution Behaviour: The Peculiar Case of Rifaximin

Rifaximin is a locally acting antibiotic practically insoluble in water. It presents several crystal phases characterized by different degrees of hydration. The aim of this work is to investigate the dissolution behaviour of rifaximin α, β, and amorphous forms in relation to their relative thermodynamic stability to contribute to clarifying possible solvent- or humidity-mediated conversion patterns. Kinetic and intrinsic solubility were investigated along with particle size distribution, specific surface area, and external morphology. The solution and moisture mediated conversion from metastable α and amorphous forms to stable β form were elucidated by coupling intrinsic dissolution test with chemometric analysis as well as by dynamic vapour sorption measurements. The dissolution behaviour of the α form stems mainly from the transition to β form that occurs upon exposition to relative humidity higher than 40%. The α form converted more rapidly than the amorphous form due to the smaller supersaturation ratio. It can be concluded that, due to its marked tendency to transform into β form, the dissolution test for the α form, even if conducted according to compendial procedures, needs to be accompanied by a panel of further tests that allow to uniquely identify the solid phase under investigation