Analisi morfo-funzionale dello scheletro post-craniale di Ziphius cavirostris, Mesoplodon bowdoini e Hyperoodon ampullatus (Cetacea: Ziphhidae)

Sulla base di osservazioni dirette, gli zifidi sono i cetacei che si spingono a maggiori profondità (superano i 1900m) e per una durata maggiore (1 h circa). Tra le tendenze evolutive dello scheletro degli zifidi compaiono caratteristiche peculiari, quali una pinna caudale la cui superficie idrodinamica è evidentemente poco sviluppata, pinne pettorali di ridotte dimensioni, una testa ridotta se paragonata alla lunghezza totale dell’animale e un rostro particolarmente denso. Durante la maturazione dell’individuo il rostro è soggetto a pachiostosi e osteosclerosi, caratteristiche dimorfiche e soggette a variazioni ontogenetiche. È stato proposto che questa struttura si sia evoluta per agevolare l’immersione; si tratta infatti dell’osso più denso in natura (in M. densirotris la densità di questa struttura è di 2.60 g/cm3). Sulla base di questa ipotesi, è stata condotta un’analisi morfo-funzionale della colonna vertebrale, al fine di stabilire se l’incremento ontologico della densità del rostro è enfatizzato da una ridotta densità dello scheletro post-craniale. Per ogni vertebra del rachide degli zifidi esaminati (Z. cavirostris, M. bowdoini e H. ampullatus) sono stati misurati la lunghezza, l’altezza e la larghezza del corpo vertebrale (CL, CH e CW rispettivamente), l‘altezza dei processi neurali (NPH, NAH e NSH) e il grado di inclinazione (NAI e NSI), tenendo conto del fatto che questi processi offrono punti d’inserzione per i muscoli coinvolti nella spinta propulsiva, quali il muscolo multifido e il lunghissimo del dorso. Per ognuna delle specie esaminate è stato calcolato il momento di forza e il momento di resistenza alla curvatura dorso-ventrale e latero-laterale ed è stato stimato il baricentro delle componenti assili. Il baricentro dello scheletro assile è stato stimato anche per Delphinus delphis – un piccolo delfinide che non si immerge oltre i 200 m di profondità – ed è stato confrontato con quello degli zifidi presi in esame, avvalorando l’ipotesi di partenza (il baricentro degli zifidi è notevolmente spostato in avanti). È stata eseguita una TAC (Tomografia Assile Computerizzata) sulla prima vertebra caudale (Ca1) dello zifio e del delfino comune, che ha messo in evidenza differenze notevoli tra le due specie, riconducibili probabilmente alla loro ecologia e quindi alla profondità preferenziale e alla dinamica del nuoto: in Z. cavirostris si osserva ρmean= - 423.03, mentre in D. delphis ρmean= - 104.54). In seguito alla micro-TAC, eseguita sulle falangi degli zifidi e del delfino comune, è emerso che M. bowdoini è caratterizzato da un tessuto trabecolare rarefatto (BV/TV=0.19, Conn.=846.88 e TbSpmean=0.82). Le trabecole di tutte le falangi esaminate sono tendenzialmente tubulari (SMI>2, tranne per H. ampullatus per il quale SMI<0)

The Historical Evolution of the German Present Perfect from the Perspective of Complexity Theory and Emergent Grammar

The purpose of this study is to understand the meaning of the present perfect in Modern German and also, to trace its development in the early stages of German. Therefore, the synchronic analysis, in which I analyze articles from a famous German magazine, is combined with the diachronic study of the present perfect attestations in Old High German and Middle High German. This study is conducted within a Complexity-Theory and Emergent Grammar approach in which languages are viewed as dynamic system that changes over time, and grammar is seen as an epiphenomenon and a result of communicative needs among speakers

The Speaking Birds: a Cognitive Approach to the Symbolic Representation of Animals in Literature

In this paper, I analyze the metaphoric and symbolic associations of birds with wisdom and knowledge, which was triggered by the long historical observation of these animals from sides of scientists and writers. In particular, I focus on the use of animals to create metaphorical symbols in literature and on the representation of birds in active figures in the narration in The Saga of the Volsungs , The Poetic Edda , Richard Wagner\u27s Ring of the Nibelungs and the Brother Grimm\u27s Version of Cinderella . In these works, birds are not just merely objects of descriptions and passive presences in the writers\u27 minds: but they are humanized, interact with the protagonists and play crucial roles in the narration

Exploring the application of Corynebacterium glutamicum single cell protein in the diet of flathead grey mullet (Mugil cephalus): effects on growth performance, digestive enzymes activity and gut microbiota

The capacity of utilising a single cell protein (SCP) ingredient coming from Corynebacterium glutamicum was assessed on adult grey mullet (Mugil cephalus) reared in captive conditions. The experiment was carried out using triplicate groups of grey mullet of 68 g average initial body weight. Three diets, SCP0, SCP10 and SCP20 with increasing inclusion of SCP (0%, 10% and 20%) in substitution of soybean, poultry and fish meal were formulated to contain 30% protein, 10% fat and 18.5 Mj/kg feed of digestible energy. After 113 days, fish fed SCP diets presented significantly lower growth performance and a significant lower activity of the alkaline proteases and aminopeptidases compared to fish fed diet without SCP inclusion. Gut microbiota appeared modulated by SCP inclusion being dominated at the phylum level by Fusobacteria in fish fed SCP0 (51.1%), while in fish fed SCP10 (67.3%) and SCP20 (53.2%) Proteobacteria was dominant. Data evinces a deficiency in the protein utilisation as a cause of the poor growth performance in fish fed the SCP diets. A hypothesis has been proposed that an incomplete SCP cell-wall lysis accounts for this outcome because of the particular organisation of the digestive system of grey mullet (which lack of an acidic stomach digestion) and the failing in the development of a functional gizzard (no access to sand in captive conditions). Even though the outcomes of this research were quite unexpected, they will improve our knowledge on the digestive system of flathead grey mullet and provide some theoretical basis for an improved development of low FM and SBM aquafeed for the species.This research was undertaken as a part of the FEAMP 2014-2020 project, action 3A. Pilot project for the application of techniques and methods aimed at the enhancement and diversification of fish products from Valliculture financed by Emilia Romagna region. Analyses of digestive enzymes conducted at IRTA were supported by the ACUISOST project funded by the Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación from the Spanish Government and EU Next Generation funds (PRTR).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Spectro-polarimetric observations of the CIZA J2242.8+5301 northern radio relic: no evidence of high-frequency steepening

Observations of radio relics at very high frequency (>10 GHz) can help to understand how particles age and are (re-)accelerated in galaxy cluster outskirts and how magnetic fields are amplified in these environments. In this work, we present new single-dish 18.6 GHz Sardinia Radio Telescope and 14.25 GHz Effelsberg observations of the well known northern radio relic of CIZA J2242.8+5301. We detected the relic which shows a length of $\sim$1.8 Mpc and a flux density equal to $\rm S_{14.25\,GHz}=(9.5\pm3.9)\,mJy$ and $\rm S_{18.6\,GHz}=(7.67\pm0.90)\,mJy$ at 14.25 GHz and 18.6 GHz respectively. The resulting best-fit model of the relic spectrum from 145 MHz to 18.6 GHz is a power-law spectrum with spectral index $\alpha=1.12\pm0.03$: no evidence of steepening has been found in the new data presented in this work. For the first time, polarisation properties have been derived at 18.6 GHz, revealing an averaged polarisation fraction of $\sim40\%$ and a magnetic field aligned with the 'filaments' or 'sheets' of the relic.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

A real-time FFT-KLT implementation for SETI research at the Sardinia Radio Telescope

The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a project whose goal is to find possible life signatures emitted (intentionally or unintentionally) by possible civilizations from other habitable planets. Historically, the narrow-band FFT approach has been used, since a quasi-monochromatic signal is the most probable signal one would use to send a message to another world, that is in the case of intentionally- transmitted signals. Nevertheless, we could receive an unintentionally-transmitted signal as well. In that case, it would most certainly not be a quasi-monochromatic signal, but would probably be similar (with a wider bandwidth, of the order of MHz) to the signals that we use for conventional communications on Earth. The Kahrunen-Loève Transform (KLT) is a powerful algorithm for such a kind of research. However, a real-time implementation of the KLT has thus far not worked due to a lack of technological resources. We describe a hardware-software infrastructure at the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) that, in real-time, makes it possible to perform the KLT in parallel to the FFT