High-frequency spectral decay in P-wave acceleration spectra and source parameters of microearthquakes in southeastern Sicily, Italy

In widely used -2 source models the characteristics of high frequency radiation are described as being flat for frequencies between the source corner frequency and an upper limiting frequency fmax. Deviations from this behavior are described in a parameter which is understood as a general measure of the changes the signal undergoes on its way from the source to the receiver. In this study, we calculated  in Southeastern Sicily by using microearthquakes belonging to three different seismic sequences occurring in the area in 1990, 1999-2001, and 2002. The selected events form four different clusters whose seismic sources are located within a 2 km radius. Although the source-to-station paths are approximately the same inside a given cluster, the values of  change considerably at the same recording site from one event to another, also in the case of events having the same magnitude. We parameterized  in terms of event (E), and path (P and Diff) contributions. The term P represents the contribution on total  of both the whole source-to- station path and the near-surface geology, while Diff models the possible spatial variation in the parameter measured with respect to a reference source-station direction. Results show that the source contribution is not negligible and that there is a positive correlation with source size exists. Moreover, the hypothesis of a laterally homogeneous crustal structure within the area in question is not appropriate and significant variation in attenuating properties of the medium may occur in a very small distance range (also in the order of a few tens of meters). Our analysis suggests that the origin of the above mentioned variability is located near the recording site. Synthetic spectra are also computed in order to verify the actual significance of the parameterization employed and its capacity to separate the source and the path contribution to . We describe our spectra as a product of a Brune-type source spectrum and an exponential shaping term accounting for propagation effects. The seismic moments range between 3.8 ×1011 and 5.2 ×1013 N·m, the source radii range between 176 and 669 m, while the stress drop varies from 0.01 to 0.67 MPa

Acetaldehyde, motivation and stress: Behavioral evidence of an addictive ménage à trois

Acetaldehyde (ACD) contributes to alcohol’s psychoactive effects through its own rewarding properties. Recent studies shed light on the behavioral correlates of ACD administration and the possible interactions with key neurotransmitters for motivation, reward and stress-related response, such as dopamine and endocannabinoids. This mini review article critically examines ACD psychoactive properties, focusing on behavioral investigations able to unveil ACD motivational effects and their pharmacological modulation in vivo. Similarly to alcohol, rats spontaneously drink ACD, whose presence is detected in the brain following chronic self-administration paradigm. ACD motivational properties are demonstrated by operant paradigms tailored to model several drug-related behaviors, such as induction and maintenance of operant self-administration, extinction, relapse and punishment resistance. ACD-related addictive-like behaviors are sensitive to pharmacological manipulations of dopamine and endocannabinoid signaling. Interestingly, the ACD-dopamine-endocannabinoids relationship also contributes to neuroplastic alterations of the NPYergic system, a stress-related peptide critically involved in alcohol abuse. The understanding of the ménage-a-trois among ACD, reward- and stress-related circuits holds promising potential for the development of novel pharmacological approaches aimed at reducing alcohol abuse

Environmental Enrichment During Adolescence Mitigates Cognitive Deficits and Alcohol Vulnerability due to Continuous and Intermittent Perinatal Alcohol Exposure in Adult Rats

Perinatal alcohol exposure affects ontogenic neurodevelopment, causing physical and functional long-term abnormalities with limited treatment options. This study investigated long-term consequences of continuous and intermittent maternal alcohol drinking on behavioral readouts of cognitive function and alcohol vulnerability in the offspring. The effects of environmental enrichment (EE) during adolescence were also evaluated. Female rats underwent continuous alcohol drinking (CAD)—or intermittent alcohol drinking paradigm (IAD), along pregestation, gestation, and lactation periods—equivalent to the whole gestational period in humans. Male offspring were reared in standard conditions or EE until adulthood and were then assessed for declarative memory in the novel object recognition test; spatial learning, cognitive flexibility, and reference memory in the Morris water maze (MWM); alcohol consumption and relapse by a two-bottle choice paradigm. Our data show that perinatal CAD decreased locomotor activity, exploratory behavior, and declarative memory with respect to controls, whereas perinatal IAD displayed impaired declarative memory and spatial learning and memory. Moreover, both perinatal alcohol-exposed offspring showed higher vulnerability to alcohol consummatory behavior than controls, albeit perinatal IAD rats showed a greater alcohol consumption and relapse behavior with respect to perinatal-CAD progeny. EE ameliorated declarative memory in perinatal CAD, while it mitigated spatial learning and reference memory impairment in perinatal-IAD progeny. In addition, EE decreased vulnerability to alcohol in both control and perinatal alcohol-exposed rats. Maternal alcohol consumption produces drinking pattern-related long-term consequences on cognition and vulnerability to alcohol in the offspring. However, increased positive environmental stimuli during adolescence may curtail the detrimental effects of developmental alcohol exposure

Selective leaching of precious metals from electrical and electronic equipment through hydrometallurgical methods

The rapid human evolution has improved the quality of our lives through the use of technology. This not only resulted in increased raw materials extraction but also in the production of a worrying amount of electronic wastes. Indeed, in 2019 worldwide production of Electronic and Electric Equipment Waste (WEEE) was worth 50 million tons, causing several disadvantages such as the reduced space in landfills and massive shipping to countries with less restrictive regulations. On the other side, the billionaire electrical devices market is causing a significant increase in Precious Metals (PM) demand. Nowadays, the economic importance of PMs is as high as their supply risk. The answer to this problem consists of finding selective methods to extract and raffinate precious metals from disposed WEEE. On average, WEEEs contain around 30 % of plastics, 30 % ceramics, and 40 % metals; among these only around 0.1 % is characterized by PMs, such as gold, silver, rhodium, platinum, and palladium. The separation of PMs from other non-precious components is generally obtained using pyrometallurgy, which consists of fusing the wastes at temperatures up to 1500 ÷ 1700 °C. However, this method produces toxic gaseous byproducts and implies high energy costs. A possible alternative is given by hydrometallurgical processes, consisting of leaching the WEEE with solutions containing acids and oxidants at temperatures lower than 100°C. One of the main issues of the hydrometallurgical process is to leach copper and other non-precious base-metals selectively while keeping PMs in the solid-state. In this work, we report preliminary results of equilibrium and kinetic leaching tests in a well-stirred batch reactor, aimed at the optimization of the main operating parameters of a hydrometallurgical process for selective leaching of copper and other base-metals from Wasted Printed Circuit Boards (WPCBs). In particular, experiments have been carried out at different HCl and NaCl concentrations of the leaching solutions, exploring also the effect of temperature variation (20, 50, and 70 °C)

Cementitious composite materials for thermal energy storage applications: a preliminary characterization and theoretical analysis

The lack of robust and low-cost sorbent materials still represents a formidable technological barrier for long-term storage of (renewable) thermal energy and more generally for Adsorptive Heat Transformations—AHT. In this work, we introduce a novel approach for synthesizing cement-based composite sorbent materials. In fact, considering the number of available hygrosopic salts that can be accommodated into a cementitious matrix—whose morphological properties can be also fine-tuned—the new proposed in situ synthesis paves the way to the generation of an entire new class of possible sorbents for AHT. Here, solely focusing on magnesium sulfate in a class G cement matrix, we show preliminary morphological, mechanical and calorimetric characterization of sub-optimal material samples. Our analysis enables us to theoretically estimate one of the most important figures of merit for the considered applications, namely the energy density which was found to range within 0.088–0.2 GJ/m3 (for the best tested sample) under reasonable operating conditions for space heating applications and temperate climate. The above estimates are found to be lower than other composite materials in the literature. Nonetheless, although no special material optimization has been implemented, our samples already compare favourably with most of the known materials in terms of specific cost of stored energy. Finally, an interesting aspect is found in the ageing tests under water sorption-desorption cycling, where a negligible variation in the adsorption capability is demonstrated after over one-hundred cycles

One-step functionalization of mildly and strongly reduced graphene oxide with maleimide: An experimental and theoretical investigation of the Diels-Alder [4+2] cycloaddition reaction

For large-scale graphene applications, such as the production of polymer-graphene nanocomposites, exfoliated graphene oxide (GO) and its reduced form (rGO) are presently considered to be very suitable starting materials, showing enhanced chemical reactivity with respect to pristine graphene, in addition to suitable electronic properties (i.e., tunable band gap). Among other chemical processes, a suitable way to obtain surface decoration of graphene is through a direct one-step Diels-Alder (DA) reaction, e.g. through the use of dienophile or diene moieties. However, the feasibility and extent of decoration largely depends on the specific graphene microstructure that in the case of rGO sheets is not easy to control and generally presents a high degree of inhomogeneity owing to various on-plane functionalization (e.g., epoxide and hydroxyl groups) or in-plane lattice defects. In an effort to gain some insights into the covalent functionalization of variably reduced GO samples, we present a combined experimental and theoretical study on the DA cycloaddition reaction of maleimide, a dienophile functional unit well-suited for chemical conjugation of polymers and macromolecules. In particular, we considered both mildly and strongly reduced GOs. Using thermogravimetry, Raman and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and elemental analysis we show evidence of variable chemical reactivity of rGO as a function of the residual oxygen content. Moreover, from quantum mechanical calculations carried out at the DFT level on different graphene reaction sites, we provide a more detailed molecular view to interpret experimental findings and to assess the reactivity series of different graphene modifications. This journal i

Bystander Program Effectiveness to Reduce Violence Acceptance: RCT in High Schools

Bystander-based violence prevention interventions have shown efficacy to reduce dating violence and sexual violence acceptance at the individual level yet no large randomized controlled trial (RCT) has evaluated this effect at the high-school level and over time. This rigorous cluster-randomized controlled trial addresses this gap by evaluating intervention effectiveness at both school and individual levels. Kentucky high schools were randomized to intervention or control conditions. In intervention schools educators provided school-wide ‘Green Dot’ presentations and bystander training with student popular opinion leaders. Each spring from 2010 to 2014; 73,044 students completed anonymous surveys with no missing data on relevant outcomes. Dating violence and sexual violence acceptance were the primary outcomes for this analysis. At the school level, slopes from linear mixed models using averaged school-level dating violence acceptance (condition–time, p \u3c 0.001) and sexual violence acceptance (condition–time interaction, p \u3c 0.001) differed indicating a significant reduction in the violence acceptance in the intervention relative to control schools over time and specifically in years 3 and 4 when ‘Green Dot’ was fully implemented. Analyses based on student’s self-reported receipt of ‘Green Dot’ training by condition confirmed the school level finding of significant reductions in both dating violence and sexual violence acceptance in years 3 and 4 for both males and females. In this RCT we find evidence that the bystander-based violence prevention intervention ‘Green Dot’ works, as hypothesized and as implemented, to reduce acceptance of dating violence and sexual violence at the school and individual levels

PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLING: AN ASSOCIATION WITH ALEXITHYMIA, PERSONALITY DISORDERS AND CLINICAL SYNDROMES

Pathological gambling (PG) is a disorder recently conceptualized as a behavioural addiction, because of its neurobiological, neurophysiological and psychological features (American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders - 5th ed., 2013; Potenza et al., 2012). PG represents both a social and a sanitary cost, in terms of pharmacological and psychological therapies. The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between personality disorders, clinical syndromes and alexithymia levels in a group of pathological gamblers. Furthermore this study aimed at highlighting a relationship between PG and alexithymia, over and above the relationship between personality disorders, clinical syndromes and PG. Sixty treatment- seeking pathological gamblers and 60 healthy controls were included in the study. Psychological assessment included the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Pathological gamblers displayed Axis I disorders, such as anxiety, somatoform symptoms, bipolar symptoms, dysthymia, thought disorders and major depression, as well as Axis II disorders such as depressive, antisocial, sadistic, passive-aggressive, self-defeating and paranoid disorders, and greater alexithymia levels. Alexithymia was detected in PG independently from the presence of other psychiatric disorders. Our data show that comorbid psychiatric disorders have been evidentiated in PG. Interestingly alexithymia is related to PG indipendently from other psychopathological disorders, representing a relevant feature, helpful for assessing PG diagnosis and for orienting to the correct therapeutical strategy. REFERENCES American Psychiatric Association. 2013. American Psychiatric Publishing Potenza et al.,2012Psychoph219(2):469-49

Pulsed electromagnetic fields in bone healing: Molecular pathways and clinical applications

In this article, we provide an extensive review of the recent literature of the signaling pathways modulated by Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields (PEMFs) and PEMFs clinical application. A review of the literature was performed on two medical electronic databases (PubMed and Embase) from 3 to 5 March 2021. Three authors performed the evaluation of the studies and the data extraction. All studies for this review were selected following these inclusion criteria: studies written in English, studies available in full text and studies published in peer‐reviewed journal. Molecular biology, identifying cell membrane receptors and pathways involved in bone healing, and studying PEMFs target of action are giving a solid basis for clinical applications of PEMFs. However, further biology studies and clinical trials with clear and standardized parameters (intensity, frequency, dose, duration, type of coil) are required to clarify the precise dose–response relationship and to understand the real applications in clinical practice of PEMFs