Less Stress : Oxidative stress and glutathione kinetics in preterm infants

Due to immature antioxidant defenses, preterm infants are at susceptible to oxidative stress, which is associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia, retinopathy of prematurity and periventricular leukomalacia. The general aim of this thesis was to study oxidative stress in preterm infants and to explore possible options to reduce the impact of oxidative stress in neonatal care. The studies presented in this thesis concern the optimal oxygen concentration for the resuscitation at birth, the effect of early parenteral nutriotion on oxidative stress and other modulators of oxidatove stress in preterm infants

Convalescence

This composition is intended to unfold more or less linearly, as a progression of temperament or attitude. Its most prominent compositional characteristic is recurring motive for cohesion and unification, both within and across movements, as opposed to much direct repetition. Each movement is tonally based and establishes at least one principle key area, but each also employs the common use of mode mixture, sometimes frequent modulation, and some extent of chromatic passages

Old African fossils provide new evidence for the origin of the American crocodiles

Molecular and morphological phylogenies concur in indicating that the African lineages formerly referred to Crocodylus niloticus are the sister taxon the four Neotropical crocodiles (Crocodylus intermedius, C. moreleti, C. acutus and C. rhombifer), implying a transoceanic dispersal from Africa to America. So far the fossil record did not contribute to identify a possible African forerunner of the Neotropical species but, curiously, the oldest remains referred to the African C. niloticus are Quaternary in age, whereas the oldest American fossils of Crocodylus are older, being dated to the early Pliocene, suggesting that another species could be involved. We re-described, also thanks to CT imaging, the only well-preserved topotipic skull of Crocodylus checchiai Maccagno, 1947 from the late Miocene (Messinian) African site of As Sahabi in Libya. As previously suggested on the basis of late Miocene material from Tanzania, C. checchiai is a valid, diagnosable species. According to our phylogenetic analyses, C. checchiai is related to the Neotropical taxa and could be even located at the base of their radiation, therefore representing the missing link between the African and the American lineages

Impact of the continuum Coulomb interaction in quantum-orbit-based treatments of high-order above-threshold ionization

We perform a systematic comparison between photoelectron momentum distributions computed with the rescattered-quantum orbit strong-field approximation (RQSFA) and the Coulomb-quantum orbit strong-field approximation (CQSFA). We exclude direct, hybrid, and multiple scattered CQSFA trajectories, and focus on the contributions of trajectories that undergo a single act of rescattering. For this orbit subset, one may establish a one-to-one correspondence between the RQSFA and CQSFA contributions for backscattered and forward-scattered trajectory pairs. We assess the influence of the Coulomb potential on the ionization and rescattering times of specific trajectory pairs, kinematic constraints determined by rescattering, and quantum interference between specific pairs of trajectories. We analyze how the Coulomb potential alters their ionization and return times, and their interference in photoelectron momentum distributions. We show that Coulomb effects are not significant for high or medium photoelectron energies and shorter orbits, while, for lower momentum ranges or longer electron excursion times in the continuum, the residual Coulomb potential is more important. We also assess the agreement of both theories for different field parameters, and show that it improves with the increase of the wavelength.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in Physical Review

How language shapes anti-fat bias: comparing the effects of disease and fat-rights framing

Being fat is often described as a “disease”—a form of linguistic framing that may exacerbate bias against fat people rather than reduce it as intended. Framing fatness as a matter of equal treatment and respect (“fat rights”) may be more effective for bias reduction. In a preregistered experiment (N = 401), we directly compared the effects of disease and fat-rights framing on attitudes toward fat people. Participants read a news article that affirmed or negated (a) the claim that fatness is a disease and (b) the unacceptability of weight discrimination, and then expressed their attitudes toward fat people. Disease-affirming articles yielded more negative attitudes than disease-negating articles, but only for participants who explicitly recognized that the article influenced their attitudes. For these participants, fat-rights framing also had a significant impact: those who read a disease-affirming article expressed less negative attitudes toward fat people when the article also affirmed rather than negated fat rights. These results show that language can shift public opinion about fatness when people are aware of its persuasive power. Our findings support a social-pragmatic account of linguistic framing and have implications for real-world anti-bias efforts

Plasma Magnetohydrodynamics and Energy Conversion

Contains reports on four research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant G-24073)United States Air Force, Aeronautical Systems Division (Contract AF33(615)-1083

Insights into the lower torso in late Miocene hominoid Oreopithecus bambolii

Oreopithecus bambolii (8.3-6.7 million years old) is the latest known hominoid from Europe, dating to approximately the divergence time of the Pan-hominin lineages. Despite being the most complete nonhominin hominoid in the fossil record, the O. bambolii skeleton IGF 11778 has been, for decades, at the center of intense debate regarding the species' locomotor behavior, phylogenetic position, insular paleoenvironment, and utility as a model for early hominin anatomy. Here we investigate features of the IGF 11778 pelvis and lumbar region based on torso preparations and supplemented by other O. bambolii material. We correct several crucial interpretations relating to the IGF 11778 anterior inferior iliac spine and lumbar vertebrae structure and identifications. We find that features of the early hominin Ardipithecus ramidus torso that are argued to have permitted both lordosis and pelvic stabilization during upright walking are not present in O. bambolii. However, O. bambolii also lacks the complete reorganization for torso stiffness seen in extant great apes (i.e., living members of the Hominidae), and is more similar to large hylobatids in certain aspects of torso form. We discuss the major implications of the O. bambolii lower torso anatomy and how O. bambolii informs scenarios of hominoid evolution