Morphology, geometric morphometrics, and taxonomy in relict deciduous oaks woods in northern Italy

Abstract: The Euganean Hills are a well-known refugee site for thermophilous woody flora in northern Italy. Among the species recorded here, there is Quercus dalechampii. The Euganean Hills are the only northern Italy site where the occurrence of this oak species is considered. The aim of this paper was to verify the presence of Q. dalechampii in the study area and to select possible diagnostic morphological traits that are usable to distinguish it from Q. petraea and Q. pubescens. Forest stands dominated by Q. petraea, Q. pubescens, and the presumed Q. dalechampii were sampled using the phytosociological approach to highlight their ecological features. Leaf and fruit material from 104 oak individuals was analysed from a macro-morphological and micro-morphological point of view. Leaf shape was also analysed using the geometric morphometric approach. All multivariate analysis procedures applied on the matrices of leaf and fruit traits highlighted two main clusters of morphological diversity. One was restricted to Q. pubescens individuals, and the other one was a mix of Q. petraea and presumed Q. dalechampii individuals. According to the twig and leaf trichome traits, all presumed Q. dalechampii individuals were classified as belonging to the Q. petraea collective group. Morphological differences between Q. petraea and presumed Q. dalechampii were considered not significant. In conclusion, the occurrence of a third oak species, in addition to Q. petraea and Q. pubescens, was not confirmed for the study area by the results of this paper. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Functional and structural reliability of optic nerve head measurements in healthy eyes by means of optical coherence tomography angiography

Background and Objectives: the aim of the study was to evaluate the repeatability and reproducibility of optical microangiography (OMAG)-based optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) in the optic nerve head (ONH) and radial peripapillary capillary (RPC) perfusion assessment of healthy eyes. Materials and Methods: in this observational study, a total of 40 healthy subjects underwent ONH evaluation, using an OMAG-based OCTA system at baseline (T0), after 30 min (T1), and after 7 days (T2). The main outcome measures were the vessel density (VD) and flux index (FI) of the RPCs, as well as peri-papillary retinal nerve fibre layer (pRNFL) thickness. The analysis was performed by two observers independently. The coefficient of repeatability (CR), within the subject coefficient of variation (CVw) and intrasession correlation coefficient (ICC), to evaluate intrasession repeatability of measurements was calculated for each observer. Results: the high intrasession and intersession repeatability and reproducibility were assessed in the two observers for all three outcome measures. Of note, the CRs for the first and the second observer were 0.011 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.009–0.014) and 0.016 (95% CI 0.013–0.020) for FI, 0.016 (95% CI 0.013–0.021) and 0.017 (95% CI 0.014–0.021) for VD, and 2.400 (95% CI 1.948–3.092) and 3.732 (95% CI 3.064–4.775) for pRNFL thickness, respectively. The agreement between them was excellent for pRNFL assessment and very good for FI and VD. Conclusion: OCTA has a great potential in the accurate assessment of ONH and peri-papillary microcirculation. It allows for repeated and reproducible measurements without multiple scans-related bias, thus guaranteeing an independent operator analysis with good reproducibility and repeatability

Thrombosis of the left anterior descending artery due to compression from giant pseudoaneurysm late after a bentall operation.

BACKGROUND: A postoperative pseudoaneurysm may develop and gradually expand in the mediastinal space even late following Bentall operation for aortic root replacement, particularly in patients with dissection of the aorta. METHODS: A very large (148 mm) pseudoaneurysm originating of the right coronary ostium suture line was observed in a patient admitted with unstable angina 6 years after Bentall procedure for type A aortic dissection. Angiograms showed reduced flow in the right coronary and thrombotic subocclusion of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery due to extrinsic compression from the expanding mediastinal mass. RESULTS: Reoperation was performed during femoro-femoral cardiopulmonary bypass and brief period of circulatory arrest to clamp the tubular graft. After closure of the detected right coronary ostium in the tubular graft double bypass, grafting to the right coronary and LAD arteries was required. Postoperative course was uneventful. CONCLUSIONS: Close long-term follow-up after a Bentall procedure is required to minimize the risk of developing a large pseudoaneurysmal mass, in particular, after dissection of the aorta

Configurational Entropy and its Crisis in Metastable States: Ideal Glass Transition in a Dimer Model as a Paragidm of a Molecular Glass

We discuss the need for discretization to evaluate the configurational entropy in a general model. We also discuss the prescription using restricted partition function formalism to study the stationary limit of metastable states. We introduce a lattice model of dimers as a paradigm of molecular fluid and study metastability in it to investigate the root cause of glassy behavior. We demonstrate the existence of the entropy crisis in metastable states, from which it follows that the entropy crisis is the root cause underlying the ideal glass transition in systems with particles of all sizes. The orientational interactions in the model control the nature of the liquid-liquid transition observed in recent years in molecular glasses.Comment: 36 pages, 9 figure

'To school of prevention: the vaccinations', project in the ASL Roma 4

n/

Adaptive Density Estimation on the Circle by Nearly-Tight Frames

This work is concerned with the study of asymptotic properties of nonparametric density estimates in the framework of circular data. The estimation procedure here applied is based on wavelet thresholding methods: the wavelets used are the so-called Mexican needlets, which describe a nearly-tight frame on the circle. We study the asymptotic behaviour of the $L^{2}$-risk function for these estimates, in particular its adaptivity, proving that its rate of convergence is nearly optimal.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figure

Size-associated Variation and Factors Affecting the Morphology of Brown Bodies in Glycera tridactyla (Polychaeta:Glyceridae)

Size-associated variations in brown body morphology (size and shape) were studied from the individuals of Glycera tridactyla. Variables related to size, length (BL) and width (BW) of the brown bodies were measured. On the basis of these measurements, other variables such as the surface area (SA), volume (V), surface area/volume ratio (SA/V) and elongation degree (ED) were calculated. Brown body shape was quantified by the elongation degree. The immature brown bodies were significantly smaller than the mature bodies, and therefore the smaller bodies had a higher SA/V. Results obtained from the regression analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between all the variables with the exception of SA/V:BW for the immature bodies and ED: BL for both groups of the bodies. The body size (proboscis length) of the worm and the sampling time (months) were the affecting factors on size and shape of the brown body. Brown bodies tend to be elongated as the proboscis length increased. The variation in size and/or shape of the brown bodies could refer to an adaptation to the movement along the coelomic fluid

Inherent Structure Entropy of Supercooled Liquids

We present a quantitative description of the thermodynamics in a supercooled binary Lennard Jones liquid via the evaluation of the degeneracy of the inherent structures, i.e. of the number of potential energy basins in configuration space. We find that for supercooled states, the contribution of the inherent structures to the free energy of the liquid almost completely decouples from the vibrational contribution. An important byproduct of the presented analysis is the determination of the Kauzmann temperature for the studied system. The resulting quantitative picture of the thermodynamics of the inherent structures offers new suggestions for the description of equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium slow-dynamics in liquids below the Mode-Coupling temperature.Comment: 11 pages of Latex, 3 figure