Gender and Rapid Alterations of Hemispheric Dominance during Planning

Background: Mental planning and carrying out a plan provoke specific cerebral hemodynamic responses. Gender aspects of hemispheric laterality using rapid cerebral hemodynamics have not been reported. Method: Here, we applied functional transcranial Doppler sonography to examine lateralization of cerebral hemodynamics of the middle cerebral arteries of 28 subjects (14 women and 14 men) performing a standard planning task. There were easy and difficult problems, and mental planning without motor activity was separated from movement execution. Results: Difficult mental planning elicited lateralization to the right hemisphere after 2 or more seconds, a feature that was not observed during movement execution. In females, there was a dominance to the left hemisphere during movement execution. Optimized problem solving yielded an increased laterality change to the right during mental planning. Conclusions: Gender-related hemispheric dominance appears to be condition-dependent, and change of laterality to the right may play a role in optimized performance. Results are of relevance when considering laterality from a perspective of performance enhancement of higher cognitive functions, and also of psychiatric disorders with cognitive dysfunctions and abnormal lateralization patterns such as schizophrenia. Copyright (C) 2012 S. Karger AG, Base

A comparison of efficient permutation tests for unbalanced ANOVA in two by two designs--and their behavior under heteroscedasticity

We compare different permutation tests and some parametric counterparts that are applicable to unbalanced designs in two by two designs. First the different approaches are shortly summarized. Then we investigate the behavior of the tests in a simulation study. A special focus is on the behavior of the tests under heteroscedastic variances.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, Working Paper of the Department of Management And Enigineering of the University of Padov

Design and advancement status of the Beam Expander Testing X-ray facility (BEaTriX)

The BEaTriX (Beam Expander Testing X-ray facility) project is an X-ray apparatus under construction at INAF/OAB to generate a broad (200 x 60 mm2), uniform and low-divergent X-ray beam within a small lab (6 x 15 m2). BEaTriX will consist of an X-ray source in the focus a grazing incidence paraboloidal mirror to obtain a parallel beam, followed by a crystal monochromation system and by an asymmetrically-cut diffracting crystal to perform the beam expansion to the desired size. Once completed, BEaTriX will be used to directly perform the quality control of focusing modules of large X-ray optics such as those for the ATHENA X-ray observatory, based on either Silicon Pore Optics (baseline) or Slumped Glass Optics (alternative), and will thereby enable a direct quality control of angular resolution and effective area on a number of mirror modules in a short time, in full X-ray illumination and without being affected by the finite distance of the X-ray source. However, since the individual mirror modules for ATHENA will have an optical quality of 3-4 arcsec HEW or better, BEaTriX is required to produce a broad beam with divergence below 1-2 arcsec, and sufficient flux to quickly characterize the PSF of the module without being significantly affected by statistical uncertainties. Therefore, the optical components of BEaTriX have to be selected and/or manufactured with excellent optical properties in order to guarantee the final performance of the system. In this paper we report the final design of the facility and a detailed performance simulation.Comment: Accepted paper, pre-print version. The finally published manuscript can be downloaded from http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.223895

Active shape correction of a thin glass/plastic X-ray mirror

Optics for future X-ray telescopes will be characterized by very large aperture and focal length, and will be made of lightweight materials like glass or plastic in order to keep the total mass within acceptable limits. Optics based on thin slumped glass foils are currently in use in the NuSTAR telescope and are being developed at various institutes like INAF/OAB, aiming at improving the angular resolution to a few arcsec HEW. Another possibility would be the use of thin plastic foils, being developed at SAO and the Palermo University. Even if relevant progresses in the achieved angular resolution were recently made, a viable possibility to further improve the mirror figure would be the application of piezoelectric actuators onto the non-optical side of the mirrors. In fact, thin mirrors are prone to deform, so they require a careful integration to avoid deformations and even correct forming errors. This however offers the possibility to actively correct the residual deformation. Even if other groups are already at work on this idea, we are pursuing the concept of active integration of thin glass or plastic foils with piezoelectric patches, fed by voltages driven by the feedback provided by X-rays, in intra-focal setup at the XACT facility at INAF/OAPA. In this work, we show the preliminary simulations and the first steps taken in this project

Evaluation of the surface strength of glass plates shaped by hot slumping process

The Hot Slumping Technology is under development by several research groups in the world for the realization of grazing-incidence segmented mirrors for X-ray astronomy, based on thin glass plates shaped over a mould at temperatures above the transformation point. The performed thermal cycle and related operations might have effects on the strength characteristics of the glass, with consequences on the structural design of the elemental optical modules and consecutively on the entire X-ray optic for large astronomical missions like IXO and ATHENA. The mechanical strength of glass plates after they underwent the slumping process was tested through destructive double-ring tests in the context of a study performed by the Astronomical Observatory of Brera with the collaboration of Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro and BCV Progetti. The entire study has been realized on more than 200 D263 Schott borosilicate glass specimens of dimension 100 mm x 100 mm and thickness 0.4 mm, either flat or bent at a Radius of Curvature of 1000 mm through the particular pressure assisted hot slumping process developed by INAF-OAB. The collected experimental data have been compared to non-linear FEM analyses and treated with Weibull statistic to assess the current IXO glass X-ray telescope design, in terms of survival probability, when subject to static and acoustic loads characteristic of the launch phase. The paper describes the activities performed and presents the obtained results.Comment: Accepted for publication in Optical Enginnering (Jun 26, 2014

Estimating and comparing food availability for tree-seed predators in typical pulsed-resource systems: alpine conifer forests.

Alpine conifers produce pulsed resources for the community of tree-seed consumers. Here, we describe field and statistical methods to estimate spatio-temporal variation in seed-crops in forests with different species composition. Annual and between-site variation in seed production was high and characterised by occurrence of mast-crops followed by seed-crop failure the following year. Seed-crops of different species did not fluctuate in parallel. Please see also: Plant Biosystem 143(3), Page 643 for Corrigendu

A7. SITUAZIONE NAZIONALE: CORPI IDRICI INTERESSATI DA CIANOBATTERI TOSSICI

I cianobatteri sono diffusi in moltissimi ambienti acquatici, dove possono produrre cianotossine con diversi profili tossicologici. Il presente rapporto riporta le linee guida per la gestione delle fioriture di cianobatteri nelle acque di balneazione, elaborate da un gruppo di esperti. La prima parte sintetizza le attuali conoscenze scientifiche su vari aspetti, fra cui la loro presenza nei laghi italiani, le caratteristiche chimiche e tossicologiche delle varie cianotossine, gli effetti osservati sulla salute dell\u2019uomo e la valutazione del rischio. La seconda parte definisce le linee guida per prevenire effetti dannosi per la salute dei bagnanti e gestire il rischio associato alle fioriture. Vengono fornite indicazioni per pianificare attivit\ue0 di monitoraggio ambientale e sorveglianza sanitaria nelle aree a maggiore criticit\ue0. Viene inoltre presentato un sistema di reportistica, ambientale e sanitario, anche allo scopo di uniformare le informazioni a livello nazionale. Il rapporto \ue8 completato dalle indicazioni tecniche rivolte alle strutture territoriali preposte.Cyanobacteria thrive in many aquatic environments, where they can produce cyanotoxins with different toxicological profiles. This report provides the guidelines for the management of cyanobacterial blooms in bathing water, put together by a group of experts. The first part summarizes the current scientific knowledge on various aspects, including their presence in the Italian lakes, chemical and toxicological characteristics of different cyanotoxins, the observed effects on human health and the risk assessment. The second part defines the guidelines to prevent harmful effects on the health of bathers and manage the risk associated with blooms. It provides recommendations for planning environmental monitoring activities and a health surveillance system in most critical areas. It also introduces an environmental and health reporting system, with the purpose to standardize the information at national level too. The report is supplemented by technical information aimed at territorial authorities in charge

Transcriptome profiling of grapevine seedless segregants during berry development reveals candidate genes associated with berry weight

Indexación: Web of Science; PubMedBackground Berry size is considered as one of the main selection criteria in table grape breeding programs. However, this is a quantitative and polygenic trait, and its genetic determination is still poorly understood. Considering its economic importance, it is relevant to determine its genetic architecture and elucidate the mechanisms involved in its expression. To approach this issue, an RNA-Seq experiment based on Illumina platform was performed (14 libraries), including seedless segregants with contrasting phenotypes for berry weight at fruit setting (FST) and 6–8 mm berries (B68) phenological stages. Results A group of 526 differentially expressed (DE) genes were identified, by comparing seedless segregants with contrasting phenotypes for berry weight: 101 genes from the FST stage and 463 from the B68 stage. Also, we integrated differential expression, principal components analysis (PCA), correlations and network co-expression analyses to characterize the transcriptome profiling observed in segregants with contrasting phenotypes for berry weight. After this, 68 DE genes were selected as candidate genes, and seven candidate genes were validated by real time-PCR, confirming their expression profiles. Conclusions We have carried out the first transcriptome analysis focused on table grape seedless segregants with contrasting phenotypes for berry weight. Our findings contributed to the understanding of the mechanisms involved in berry weight determination. Also, this comparative transcriptome profiling revealed candidate genes for berry weight which could be evaluated as selection tools in table grape breeding programs.http://bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12870-016-0789-