INVENTORY AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SICILIAN BADLANDS

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD, 1994) addressed desertification as a global problem defining it as \u201cland degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas, resulting from various factors, including climate variations and human activity\u201d. In the Mediterranean areas, this phenomenon results from the interaction of various factors such as climate, lithology, vegetation and land use. The study of the predisposing factors allows the time/space assessment of the phenomenon and a continuous field monitoring allows to quantify the data in terms of vulnerability degree and to develop decision-making tools for integrated land use planning. One of the most fragile ecosystems are the badlands areas in Sicily. Their geological and climatic features (erosive rocks and marginal soils, and highly variable rainfall) and often a negative human impacts (inadequate land use and agricultural practices) led to increasing soil erosion and vegetation degradation, predisposing the terrain to the badlands. Moreover, the slope topography can be considered as a driver factor for the inception and the evolution of the badlands, in particular if we considered the badlands as miniature drainage systems, fully comparable to small river basins. The present work focused on the role of the pre-incision slope topography on the typologies and characteristics of the Sicilian badlands. The badlands areas of the entire Sicily were mapped in order to create an inventory of landforms based on morphological criteria. The digital orthophotos (2007-2008) at a nominal scale of 1:10.000 available in the WebGIS server of the Regione Sicilia and the Google Earth images of the same periods were closely examined. The landforms were digitized as polygons by means of a GIS software and recorded into a geo-database. The channel networks of each badland were traced and their drainage density (D) were calculated. The numbers of furrows directly tributary to the external drainage network were measured by using the index Gully Tributary (GT). This allowed to distinguish two typologies of badlands drainage pattern: dendritic for GT=1 (with only one main furrow) and parallel for GT>1 (with several parallel furrows). For each landform, the pre-erosion topography was reconstructed by filling the incision, using the heights of the watershed divide as point values in a topography interpolation tool in GIS. It represented the slope topography prior to the development of the current drainage network. The pre-incision slope morphometry of each landform was characterized by calculating the Morphometric Slope Index (MSI) considered as general index for slope morphometry. MSI, GT and D were compared via statistics in order to detect the influence of pre-erosion slope morphometry on the typology and the arrangement of the badlands drainage networks

Magic mirror on the wall: Selfie-related behavior as mediator of the relationship between narcissism and problematic smartphone use

Objective: Recent research has suggested that problematic smartphone use is associated with several psychological factors and that mobile apps and smartphone-related behavior (i.e. selfi e behavior) may encourage the development of problematic smartphone use. However, little is known about how the interplay between dysfunctional personality characteristics and selfi e-related behavior can infl uence problematic smartphone use. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between narcissism and problematic smartphone use, as well as the mediating role of selfi e-related behavior in this relationship among young men and women. Method: In the current study, a total of 627 undergraduate students (283 males and 344 females) completed a cross-sectional survey. A structural equation model was tested separately for males and females in order to evaluate the associations between narcissism, selfi e-related behavior and problematic smartphone use. Results: The results showed that greater narcissism was related to increased selfi e-related behavior, which in turn were positively associated with problematic smartphone use both for males and females. However, selfi e-related behavior mediated the relationship between narcissism and problematic smartphone use only for females. Conclusions: The study provides fresh insight into our understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying problematic smartphone use, which may inform prevention and treatment interventions

Alternative Fiber Sources From Gracilaria SP and Eucheuma Cottonii for Papermaking

Private sectors have invested in the technology to grow some Gelidialian red algae families and also tried to convert the algae to pulp and paper over the last few years in order to replace raw materials from wood. Several modern systems with their all complexities which are similar to the wood pulp-based papermaking technology have been offered to overcome any recent issues settle in the converting process. Chemical bleaching agents have even been still a standard treatment that must be established for properly converting the algae pulp to a sheet of paper. In this present work, the two genus of red algae, called Gracilaria and Eucheuma, were simply processed to make pulps without use of any bleaching chemical agents. The potential use of pulps made of the red algae as raw materials for papermaking was mechanically studied by testing the sheets made of the red algae through a tensile test at a room temperature under 20 mm/min according to ASTM D 828-97 (2002). Tensile properties of the proposed algae-based paper sheets obtained under the constant rate are discussed. Tensile properties of the selected wood-based paper sheets obtained under the same condition are also presented in this paper. The results showed that pulps made of the red algae would be the alternative to those of the wood and other natural fibers as raw materials for papermaking. Doi: 10.12777/ijse.6.1.1-10 [How to cite this article: Arham, N.A., Mohamad, N.A.N., Jai, J., Krishnan, J., Noorsuhana Mohd Yusof, N.M. (2013). Application of Response Surface Methodology in Extraction of Bioactive Component from Palm Leaves (Elaeis guineensis). International Journal of Science and Engineering, 6(1),1-10. Doi: 10.12777/ijse.6.1.1-1

SENSE: A comparison of photon detection efficiency and optical crosstalk of various SiPM devices

This paper describes a comparison of photon detection efficiency and optical crosstalk measurements performed by three partners: Geneva University, Catania Observatory and Nagoya University. The measurements were compared for three different SiPM devices with different active areas: from 9 $mm^2$ up to 93.6 $mm^2$ produced by Hamamatsu. The objective of this work is to establish the measurements and analysis procedures for calculating the main SiPM parameters and their precision. This work was done in the scope of SENSE project which aims to build roadmap for the last developments in field of sensors for low light level detection

Stroke after tadalafil use

No abstract availabl

The patient-physician relationship in the face of oncological disease: A review of literature on the emotional and psychological reactions of patients and physician

The physician-patient relationship is daily destabilized by emotional reactions and psychic defenses that cancer arises in the two partners. Continued scientific and technological progresses which were reached by medicine in recent years, and particularly oncologic clinical discoveries, increased the chance of not only survival but also healing. Nevertheless, cancer diagnosis is still a hard existential text that destabilizes everyday life, all the psychic and relational balance, inevitably causing a psychological and social change not only in the patient who is affected but also into the wide social network around him (family, friends, doctors, healthcare team). The aim of this review is to understand how problems, feelings, emotions, distresses or defense mechanisms could garble the relation and the communication dynamics between physician and patients and then prejudicing the efficacy of oncologic therapeutic compliance. Pubmed and Scopus were searched, using strings related to "cancer", "physician-patient relations", burn-out", "compliance", and "communication", identifying literature published from 2000 to January 2015. Extracted papers were assessed for their relevance (10 of 412 papers initially reviewed). Results indicate that a good and empathetic relationship between physician and patient were related to good therapeutic adherence. In particular, a good physician-patient relation maximizes the impact of clinical therapies and reduces psychophysical implications

Short-range correlations in low-lying nuclear excited states

The electromagnetic transitions to various low-lying excited states of 16O, 48Ca and 208Pb are calculated within a model which considers the short-range correlations. In general the effects of the correlations are small and do not explain the required quenching to describe the data.Comment: 6 pages, 2 postscript figures, 1 tabl