Aspetti e dinamiche Fondo Europeo per la Pesca (FEP)

Si avvicina il momento della transizione della Politica europea della pesca relativa al periodo 2007-2013 gestita secondo le regole del FEP verso le nuove prospettive per il periodo 2014-2020. Sono già noti gli orientamenti che la Commissione intende proporre in tema di obiettivi, assi prioritari, competenze, quadro finanziario per dare nuovi impulsi alla politica comunitaria del settore, attraverso il Fondo Europeo per gli Affari Marittimi e la Pesca (FEAMP). La Commissione a tal fine ha già posto in essere un dibattito con gli stati membri al fine di valutare i programmi compiuti nell’attuazione dei piani strategici sulla base dei risultati intermedi. E’ il momento, quindi, di fare una verifica, con particolare riferimento alla Sicilia, non soltanto dei risultati finora conseguiti, ma anche delle logiche o meglio delle strategie del cambiamento che sta emergendo. L’attenzione è rivolta ad esaminare l’esperienza ormai ampiamente vissuta sotto l’egida del FEP, nonché la rispondenza dei nuovi orientamenti alle pressanti esigenze che il settore pone all’attenzione di chi ne ha la responsabilità di governo. Si tratta di affrontare questioni cruciali per evitarne l’ulteriore emarginazione del settore a causa dell’accentuarsi dei problemi occupazionali e dell’aggravarsi delle difficoltà economico finanziarie delle aziende, strette da una morsa costituita dai costi operativi crescenti, da un lato, e da condizioni oggettivamente critiche di sostenibilità ambientale, dall’altro. Si richiedono pertanto orientamenti di politica europea certamente più rispondenti di quelli attuali alle particolari condizioni dell’ambiente mediterraneo e alle “logiche operative” degli imprenditori che occupano l’intera filiera, dall’armamento e la cattura alla distribuzione, trasformazione, commercializzazione, ecc. Il distretto di Mazara del Vallo costituisce un interessante osservatorio per l’intera area mediterranea anche in funzione della sua esperienza di cooperazione con i paesi rivieraschi all’interno di una visione strategica che guarda al Mediterraneo come sistema economico-ambientale ma come luogo ove, attraverso la pesca e le attività collaterali, può sperimentarsi la soluzione del problema della sostenibilità sociale con riferimento all’integrazione culturale e religiosa

Challenges faced by science teachers in continuing & distance education

Este estudo investigou as características pessoais, as preocupações, os desafios do processo\ud de estudo e os investimentos (esforços) de um grupo de professores de ciências que participou, com sucesso, de cursos de formação contínua a distância (FCD) em uma universidade pública. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas e analisados qualitativamente com a utilização de códigos e descritores. Autonomia, motivação, disciplina e responsabilidade foram algumas características pessoais encontradas nesta pesquisa. Preocupações relacionadas às exigências da formação, às expectativas em relação ao sucesso no curso, ao processo de interação, aos conhecimentos adquiridos e às tecnologias foram catalogadas. Os maiores desafios enfrentados pelos professores para conduzir, de forma satisfatória, o processo de estudo a distância estão relacionados com a organização, a disciplina e a autonomia. Os resultados mostraram, por fim, que são necessários investimentos intelectuais e emocionais para participar desse tipo de formação. Esses dados podem auxiliar os formadores na gestão do curso, assessorando os professores ao longo da FDC e potencializando suas aprendizagens.This study examines the personal characteristics, the current concerns, and the challenges\ud of academic study. In addition, it examines the investment (efforts) of science teachers who\ud participated in distance continuing education courses (DCEC) within a public university. Data\ud were collected from interviews and then analyzed qualitatively using codes and descriptors.\ud Autonomy, motivation, discipline and responsibility were some of the key characteristics of\ud the teachers evaluated in this study. Concerns regarding training needs, students’ expectations with regard to their success in the course, the interaction process, the acquired skills, and the\ud technologies used, were identified and later recorded on paper. The greatest challenges faced\ud by professors in successfully managing the distance education process were related to personal\ud study skills (organization), personal discipline, and autonomy. Finally, the results show that\ud intellectual and emotional effort is required to participate in this type of online training.\ud Furthermore, the findings from this study may facilitate course management trainers, thereby\ud assisting DCEC professors during the entire learning process, and maximize the potential of\ud science education

Hierarchical physically based machine learning in material science: the case study of spider silk

Multiscale phenomena exhibit complex structure-function relationships, and predicting their macroscopic behavior requires deducing differential equations at different scales. The complexity of these equations and the number of essential parameters make developing effective, predictive models challenging. To overcome this, researchers explore leveraging advanced numerical techniques from artificial intelligence and machine learning. Here, we focus on a fundamental aspect in multiscale phenomena, i.e the recognition of the hierarchical role of variables. By adopting a Pareto front interpretation, we aim to deduce simple and accurate relations for material modeling, starting from experimental multiscale analyses. From a physical point of view, the aim is to deduce information at higher scales from lower scales data, possibly respecting their hierarchical order. A crucial aspect of the proposed approach is the deduction of causality relations among the different variables to be compared with the available theoretical notions and possibly new interpretations resulting by the data modelling. This result in a stepwise approximation going from data modelling to theoretical equations and back to data modelling. To demonstrate the key advantages of our multiscale numerical approach, compared to classical, non-physically based data modelling techniques, we consider the explicit example of spider silk, known for its exceptional properties and bioinspiration potential. Indeed, it presents a complex behavior resulting from mesostructures formed by the aggregation of amino acids at the molecular scale. We argue that, due to the generality of our results, our approach may represent a proof of concept in many fields where multiscale, hierarchical differential equations regulate the observed phenomenon

Recovery from repeated sudden hearing loss in a patient with Takayasu’s arteritis treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy: the first report in the literature

Hearing loss has been rarely reported in Takayasu's arteritis, presents as sudden sensorineural hearing loss and usually responds well to corticosteroid therapy. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is commonly used as a supplementary treatment to corticosteroids for sudden hearing loss. We present the case of a woman with Takayasu's arteritis who had two episodes of hearing loss involving one ear at a time with a 11-month delay between each episode. During the first episode, the patient was treated with high-dose intramuscular corticosteroids with a temporary improvement of auditory threshold, that deteriorated close to previous level 14 days after cessation of therapy. In the second episode, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy was associated to corticosteroids, with a significant, longer term improvement in both ears, including the one that had shown to be unresponsive to previous pharmacologic therapy. Oxygen therapy could have played a role in hearing restoration in this patient, as it could have acted synergically with corticosteroids amplifying their effect

Cadmium, Copper and Tributyltin effects on fertilization of Paracentrotus lividus (Echinodermata)

Marine environments are continuously being threatened by a large number of xenobi- otics from anthropogenic sources. The effect of chemical pollution on living organisms are numerous and may impair reproductive success of adults species of marine invertebrate and vertebrate through effects on gamete quality. Echinoderms are characterized by external fertilizzation and gametes, free of any type of protection, may be in contact with toxic substances so the reproductive success depends largely on the environment conditions. The purpose of this work is to assess the effects on the in vitro fertiliza- tion of exposure of sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus gametes to xenobiotic substances as CuSO4, CdCl2 and TBTCl. The effect of contaminant were assessed by two experimental set in which gametes were treated with different concentration (0, 10-3, 10-5 10-7 10-9 M) of different substances as CdCl2, CuSO4 and TBTCl. The effects were evaluated as percentage of fertilization. The results showed that the gametes exposure to xenobiotic decreased the percentage of fertilization and that more sensitive to treatment were the sperm cells, propably because the toxic effect affected the motility of the sperm. In conclusion, the absence of fertilization (spermiotoxicity) may submit the toxic effects of these substances to the level of body and may candidate the sea urchis as biosensors for the evaluation of environmental quality

Determination of the Heavy Metal Bioaccumulation Patterns in Muscles of Two Species of Mullets from the Southern Caspian Sea

Although fish is a food that supplies nutrients of a high biological value, they can also be a source of some harmful substances, such as heavy metals. In the same context, some human activities in the Caspian Sea have contaminated this ecosystem during the past few years. For those reasons, our objective consisted of determining the concentrations of heavy metals and evaluating their bioaccumulation patterns in the different types of musculature in two species of mullets of commercial interest, Chelon auratus and Chelon saliens, from the southern coast of this sea. For this purpose, 20 C. auratus and 29 C. saliens were caught off this coastline and the metal concentrations in 3 different muscle locations were analyzed: the ventral, dorsal and caudal muscles of each fish. The caudal muscle had higher concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn, whereas As, Hg and Ni accumulation seemed to be independent of the musculature type. Overall, the Cd, Hg, and Pb concentrations exceeded the maximum levels permitted in fish by the European Union. In addition, the relationships between pairs of metals were positive and elevated in all the cases, which could be a sign of heavy metal pollution in the region sampled. Therefore, it will be necessary to continue monitoring and evaluating the degree of pollution in the Caspian Sea

The He + H2+ → HeH+ + H reaction: Ab initio studies of the potential energy surface, benchmark time-independent quantum dynamics in an extended energy range and comparison with experiments

The following article appeared in Journal of Chemical Physics 137.24 (2012): 244306 and may be found at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jcp/137/24/10.1063/1.4772651In this work we critically revise several aspects of previous ab initio quantum chemistry studies [P. Palmieri, Mol. Phys. 98, 1835 (2000); C. N. Ramachandran, et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 469, 26 (2009)] of the HeH2+ system. New diatomic curves for the H2+ and HeH+ molecular ions, which provide vibrational frequencies at a near spectroscopic level of accuracy, have been generated to test the quality of the diatomic terms employed in the previous analytical fittings. The reliability of the global potential energy surfaces has also been tested performing benchmark quantum scattering calculations within the time-independent approach in an extended interval of energies. In particular, the total integral cross sections have been calculated in the total collision energy range 0.955-2.400 eV for the scattering of the He atom by the ortho- and para-hydrogen molecular ion. The energy profiles of the total integral cross sections for selected vibro-rotational states of H2+ (v = 0,...,5 and j = 1,... ,7) show a strong rotational enhancement for the lower vibrational states which becomes weaker as the vibrational quantum number increases. Comparison with several available experimental data is presented and discussedThe work has been performed under the HPC-EUROPA2 project (Project No.: 228398) with the support of the European Commission - Capacities Area - Research Infrastructures. D.D.F., V.A., and S.C. thank also the Italian MIUR for PRIN contracts. A.A. acknowledges support by the program CONSOLIDERINGENIO of Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain) under Grant No. CSD2009-00038, entitled “Molecular Astrophysics: the Herschel and Alma Era,” Grant No. FIS2011-29596-C02-02, and by Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid (CAM) under Grant No. S-2009/MAT/146

Quantum Dynamics and Kinetics of the F + H2 and F + D2 Reactions at Low and Ultra-Low Temperatures

Integral cross sections and rate constants for the prototypical chemical reactions of the fluorine atom with molecular hydrogen and deuterium have been calculated over a wide interval of collision energy and temperature ranging from the sub-thermal (50 K) down to the ultra-cold regimes (0.5 mK). Rigorous close coupling time-independent quantum reactive scattering calculations have been carried out on two potential energy surfaces, differing only at long-range in the reactants' channel. The results show that tunnel, resonance and virtual state effects enhance under-barrier reactivity giving rise to pronounced deviations from the Arrhenius law as temperature is lowered. Within the ultra-cold domain (below 1 mK), the reactivity is governed by virtual state effects and by tunneling through the reaction barrier; in the cold regime (1 mK–1 K), the shape resonances in the entrance channel of the potential energy surface make the quantum tunneling contribution larger so enhancing cross sections and rate constants by about one order of magnitude; at higher temperatures (above 10 K), the tunneling pathway enhanced by the constructive interference between two Feshbach resonances trapped in the reaction exit channel competes with the thermally activated mechanism, as the energy gets closer to the reaction barrier height. The results show that at low temperatures cross sections and rate constants are extremely sensitive to small changes in the long-range intermolecular interaction in the entrance channel of the potential energy surface, as well as to isotopic substitution

Blood flow cytometry in Mugil cephalus and Carassius auratus: a comparative study

Blood and its parameters can give specific indications on the welfare of fishes.Many endogenous and exogenous factors exert influences on the characteristics of blood. The correct interpretation of fish hematology for a given species depends on the availability of reference values. The purpose of the present study was therefore to build a database with data on haematological profiles of Mugil cephalus (Linnaeus 1758) and goldfish Carassius auratus (Linnaeus 1758), in particular of some blood cells, namely red blood cells (RBC), white blood cells (WBC) and thrombocytes (TC). All the blood parameters studied showed significant differences in the two fish species considered, using flow cytometry and optical microscopy coupled with an automated system. In particular, RBC showed an increase in mullets in respect to goldfish, while WBC and TC decreased. The differences found may be due to the environmental conditions and the different eating habits of the two species. The results of this research will allow to better understand how the different dietary habits and environmental conditions can influence the haematological parameters of fishes. Flow cytometry represents a modern diagnostic technique in human. Moreover, the technique used by combining flow cytometry with automated haematological counting, has proved very effective in the early evaluation of haematological parameters of various fish species