Monitoring of Plant Species and Communities on Coastal Cliffs: Is the Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Suitable?

Cliffs are reservoirs of biodiversity; therefore, many plant species and communities of inland and coastal cliffs are protected by Council Directive 92/43/EEC (European Economic Community), and their monitoring is mandatory in European Union countries. Surveying plants on coastal cliff by traditional methods is challenging and alternatives are needed. We tested the use of a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) as an alternative survey tool, gathering aerial images of cliffs at Palinuro Cape (Southern Italy). Four photo-interpreters analysed independently the derived orthomosaic and plotted data needed for the monitoring activity. Data showed to be not affected by photo-interpreters and reliable for the prescribed monitoring in the European Union (EU). Using the GIS analysis tools, we were able to: (a) recognise and map the plant species, (b) derive and measure the area of distribution on the cliff of habitat and species, and (c) count Eokochia saxicola individuals and gather quantitative data on their projected area. Quality of the images represented the main constraint, but incoming technological improvements of sensors and UAVs may overcome this problem. Overall results support the use of UAVs as an affordable and fast survey technique that can rapidly increase the number of studies on cliff habitats and improve ecological knowledge on their plant species and communitie

Evolution of protein bound Maillard reaction end-products and free Amadori compounds in low lactose milk in presence of fructosamine oxidase I

Thermal treatments and storage influence milk quality, particularly in low lactose milk as the higher concentration of reducing sugars can lead to the increased formation of the Maillard reaction products (MRPs). The control of the Amadori products (APs) formation is the key step to mitigate the Maillard reaction (MR) in milk. The use of fructosamine oxidases, (Faox) provided promising results. In this paper, the effects of Faox I were evaluated by monitoring the concentration of free and bound MRPs in low lactose milk during shelf life. Results showed that the enzyme reduced the formation of protein-bound MRPs down to 79% after six days at 37 °C. Faox I lowered the glycation of almost all the free amino acids resulting effective on basic and polar amino acids. Data here reported corroborate previous findings on the potentiality of Faox enzymes in controlling the early stage of the MR in foods

Randomized Controlled Trials on Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone System Inhibitors in Chronic Kidney Disease Stages 3–5: Are They Robust? A Fragility Index Analysis

Inhibition of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) is broadly recommended in many nephrological guidelines to prevent chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression. This work aimed to analyze the robustness of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the renal and cardiovascular outcomes in CKD stages 3–5 patients treated with RAAS inhibitors (RAASi). We searched for RCTs in MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE databases, and the Cochrane register. Fragility indexes (FIs) for every primary and secondary outcome were calculated according to Walsh et al., who first described this novel metric, suggesting 8 as the cut-off to consider a study robust. Spearman coefficient was calculated to correlate FI to p value and sample size of statistically significant primary and secondary outcomes. Twenty-two studies met the inclusion criteria, including 80,455 patients. Sample size considerably varied among the studies (median: 1693.5, range: 73–17,276). The median follow-up was 38 months (range 24–58). The overall median of both primary and secondary outcomes was 0 (range 0–117 and range 0–55, respectively). The median of FI for primary and secondary outcomes with a p value lower than 0.05 was 6 (range: 1–117) and 7.5 (range: 1–55), respectively. The medians of the FI for primary outcomes with a p value lower than 0.05 in CKD and no CKD patients were 5.5 (range 1–117) and 22 (range 1–80), respectively. Only a few RCTs have been shown to be robust. Our analysis underlined the need for further research with appropriate sample sizes and study design to explore the real potentialities of RAASi in the progression of CKD

Spatial dependence of the Star Formation History in the Central Regions of the Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

We present the Star Formation History (SFH) and the age-metallicity relation (AMR) in three fields of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. They sample a region spanning from the centre of the galaxy to beyond one core radius, which allows studying galactocentric gradients. In all the cases, we found stars as old as 12 Gyr, together with intermediate-age and young stellar populations. The last star formation events, as young as 1 Gyr old, are mainly located in the central region, which may indicate that the gas reservoir in the outer parts of the galaxy would have been exhausted earlier than in the centre or removed by tidal interactions. The AMR is smoothly increasing in the three analyzed regions and similar to each other, indicating that no significant metallicity gradient is apparent within and around the core radius of Fornax. No significant traces of global UV-reionization or local SNe feedback are appreciated in the early SFH of Fornax. Our study is based on FORS1@VLT photometry as deep as I~24.5 and the IAC-star/IAC-pop/MinnIAC suite of codes for the determination of the SFH in resolved stellar populations.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 4 table

D-branes and Cosmology

D-branes, topological defects in string theory on which string endpoints can live, may give new insight into the understanding of the cosmological evolution of the Universe at early epochs. We analyze the dynamics of D-branes in curved backgrounds and discuss the parameter space of M-theory as a function of the coupling constant and of the curvature of the Universe. We show that D-branes may be efficiently produced by gravitational effects. Furthermore, in curved spacetimes the transverse fluctuations of the D-branes develop a tachyonic mode and when the fluctuations grow larger than the horizon the branes become tensionless and break up. This signals a transition to a new regime. We discuss the implications of our findings for the singularity problem present in string cosmology, suggesting the existence of a limiting value for the curvature which is in agreement with the value suggested by the cosmological version of the holography principle. We also comment on possible implications for the so-called brane world scenario, where the Standard Model gauge and matter fields live inside some branes while gravitons live in the bulk.Comment: LaTeX file, 30 pages, 2 eps figures, 1 reference adde

Efficacy and Tolerability of a New Formulation in Rectal Ointment Based on Zn-L-Carnosine (Proctilor®) in the Treatment of Haemorrhoidal Disease

Haemorrhoidal disease (HD) shows high prevalence in western countries, reaching 4.4% per year in the US. Topical preparations are the first-line treatments, which are readily available as "over-the-counter" (OTC) products, often containing a nonstandardised mixture of "natural" remedies, or anaesthetics or cortisol;those latter are not free from undesirable effects. The Zinc-L-Carnosine is a cytoprotective compound, promoting mucosal repair in the gastrointestinal tract and also in mucosal repair, following radiation injuries to the rectum as well as in ulcerative colitis. Our aim was to study the efficacy of Zinc-L-Carnosine in relieving acute symptoms of HD, testing a preparation in the rectal ointment, Proctilor (R), in patients complaining of bleeding or thrombosed piles. In a multicentre open trial, 21 patients older than 18 years of age were enrolled. The symptoms of HD were graded according to the Haemorrhoidal Disease Symptoms Score (HDSS) in association with the Short Health Scale (SHS) to assess the influence of HD on quality of life. The pain was assessed with the VAS score, bowel habit by means of the Bristol scale. The patients were evaluated at enrolment (T0) and 2 (T1) and 4 (T2) weeks of treatment with Proctilor (R) rectal ointment. There were 10 men and 11 women; mean age, 49 years. Pain, bleeding, and thrombosis were all significantly reduced after treatment; the mean VAS score decreased from 4.71 +/- 3.05 at T0 to.52 +/- 0.87 and.05 +/- 0.22 at T1 and T2, respectively; (mean +/- SD; p < 0.001 in both cases). Similarly, the HDSS score showed to be significantly reduced between T0, T1 (8.05 +/- 4.55 vs. 1.14 +/- 1.01), and T2 (8.05 +/- 4.55 vs. 24 +/- 0.44) (mean +/- SD; p < 0.001 in both cases). Quality of life showed to be improved as the SHS score decreased significantly with treatment (7.90 +/- 4.17 at T0 vs. 4.24 +/- 0.44 at T1 vs. 4.05 +/- 0.22 at T2; mean +/- SD; p < 0.001 in both cases). The Bristol score of defecation remained substantially unchanged. No side effects or discontinuation of treatment were reported. Results of our investigation suggest a role of Proctilor (R) rectal ointment in treating symptomatic HD with good results and an excellent safety profile. However, our preliminary results encourage further studies on a larger number of patients to confirm the role of Zinc-L-Carnosine in the rectal ointment for the topical treatment of HD

Ventilation strategies to minimise the airborne virus transmission in indoor environments

A key challenge to fight the Covid-19 pandemic is to minimise the airborne transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Highly crowded indoor environments, such as schools, become possible hotspots for virus spreading because the basic non-pharmaceutical mitigation measures applied until now are not effective in reducing the virus airborne transmission mode, which is the principal one in indoor environments and requires improved ventilation. In the present study, a mass balance equation was applied to typical school scenarios to evaluate (i) required air exchange rates for mechanically-ventilated classrooms and (ii) adequate airing procedures for naturally ventilated classrooms. In the case of naturally ventilated classrooms, a feedback control strategy was evaluated using the measurements of indoor CO2. Our results show how these procedures can be applied in real life to support continued in-person instruction during a pandemic.publishedVersio

Intent Classification in Question-Answering Using LSTM Architectures

Question-answering (QA) is certainly the best known and probably also one of the most complex problem within Natural Language Processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI). Since the complete solution to the problem of finding a generic answer still seems far away, the wisest thing to do is to break down the problem by solving single simpler parts. Assuming a modular approach to the problem, we confine our research to intent classification for an answer, given a question. Through the use of an LSTM network, we show how this type of classification can be approached effectively and efficiently, and how it can be properly used within a basic prototype responder.Comment: Presented at the 2019 Italian Workshop on Neural Networks (WIRN'19) - June 201

Combining Real Time Classifiers for Fast and Reliable Electronic Nose Response Analysis for Aerospace NDTs

AbstractFast response and reliability are a prerogative in non- destructive tests s p e c i f i c a l l y in aerospace industry for safety and efficiency reasons. Currently, composite panels bonding, in green aircraft concept, is lacking a validated NDT technique for the bond quality. E-noses equipped with PARC algorithms appear a promising choice to acquire speedily a complete pattern response maximizing reliability. In this paper, combining real time classifiers, we show how to obtain a rapid first- hand response with the possibility of increasing accuracy awaiting for the end of the e-nose measurement cycle. A reject option is casted on the base of classifier self-perceived reliability to nullify false negatives while keeping the false positive rate at minimum