Podarcis siculus latastei (Bedriaga, 1879) of the western pontine islands (italy) raised to the species rank, and a brief taxonomic overview of podarcis lizards

In recent years, great attention has been paid to many Podarcis species for which the observed intra-specific variability often revealed species complexes still characterized by an unresolved relationship. When compared to other species, P. siculus underwent fewer revisions and the number of species hidden within this taxon may have been, therefore, underestimated. However, recent studies based on genetic and morphological data highlighted a marked differentiation of the populations inhabiting the Western Pontine Archipelago. In the present work we used published genetic data (three mitochondrial and three nuclear gene fragments) from 25 Podarcis species to provide a multilocus phylogeny of the genus in order to understand the degree of differentiation of the Western Pontine populations. In addition, we analyzed new morphometric traits (scale counts) of 151 specimens from the main islands of the Pontine Archipelago. The phylogenetic analysis revealed five principal Podarcis groups with biogeographic consistency. The genetic distinctiveness of the Podarcis populations of the Western Pontine Islands is similar or even more ancient than those observed in numerous other pairs of Podarcis sister species. In the light of these evidences we raise the Western Pontine lizards to specific rank; thus they should be referred to as Podarcis latastei

Strong-field approximation for harmonic generation in diatomic molecules

The generation of high-order harmonics in diatomic molecules is investigated within the framework of the strong-field approximation. We show that the conventional saddle-point approximation is not suitable for large internuclear distances. An adapted saddle-point method that takes into account the molecular structure is presented. We analyze the predictions for the harmonic-generation spectra in both the velocity and the length gauge. At large internuclear separations, we compare the resulting cutoffs with the predictions of the simple-man's model. Good agreement is obtained only by using the adapted saddle-point method combined with the velocity gauge.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure

Challenges in dental statistics: data and modelling

The aim of this work is to present the reflections and proposals derived from the first Workshop of the SISMEC STATDENT working group on statistical methods and applications in dentistry, held in Ancona (Italy) on 28th September 2011. STATDENT began as a forum of comparison and discussion for statisticians working in the field of dental research in order to suggest new and improve existing biostatistical and clinical epidemiological methods. During the meeting, we dealt with very important topics of statistical methodology for the analysis of dental data, covering the analysis of hierarchically structured and over-dispersed data, the issue of calibration and reproducibility, as well as some problems related to survey methodology, such as the design and construction of unbiased statistical indicators and of well conducted clinical trials. This paper gathers some of the methodological topics discussed during the meeting, concerning multilevel and zero-inflated models for the analysis of caries data and methods for the training and calibration of raters in dental epidemiology

The Barthel index: italian translation, adaptation and validation

The Barthel Index (BI) is widely used to measure disability also in Italy, although a validated and culturally adapted Italian version of BI has not been produced yet. This article describes the translation and cultural adaptation into Italian of the original 10-item version of BI, and reports the procedures for testing its validity and reliability. The cultural adaptation and validation process was based on data from a cohort of disabled patients from two different Rehabilitation Centers in Rome, Italy. Forward and backward translation method was adopted by qualified linguist and independent native English official translators. The scale obtained was reviewed by 20 experts in psychometric sciences. The Italian adapted version of the BI was then produced and validated. A total number of 180 patients were submitted to the adapted scale for testing its acceptability and internal consistency. The total time of compilation was 5 ± 2,6 minutes (range 3-10). Validation of the scale was performed by 7 trained professional therapists that submitted both the translated and the adapted versions to a group of 62 clinically stable patients (T-test=-2.051 p=0.05). The internal consistency by Cronbach’s alpha resulted equal to 0.96. Test – retest intra – rater reliability was evaluated on 35 cases; at test-retest was ICC=0.983 (95%IC: 0.967-0.992). This is the first study that reports translation, adaptation and validation of the BI in Italian language. It provides a new tool for professionals to measure functional disability when appraising Italian speaking disable patients in health and social care settings along the continuum of care

Familial Mediterranean Fever: An unusual cause of liver disease

Background Familial Mediterranean Fever is an autoinflammatory disease typically expressed with recurrent attacks of fever, serositis, aphthous stomatitis, rash. Only a few reports describe the association with hepatic involvement. Case presentation We describe the clinical case of a child affected, since the age of 1 year, by recurrent fever, aphthous stomatitis, rash, arthralgia, associated with abdominal pain, vomiting, lymphadenopathy. The diagnosis of Familial Mediterranean Fever was confirmed by the genetic study of MEFV gene; the homozygous mutation M694 V in exon was documented. A partial control of attacks was obtained with colchicine. The child continued to manifest only recurrent episodes of abdominal pain without fever, however serum amyloid A persisted high, in association with enhanced levels of CRP, AST and ALT (1.5 x n.v.). The dosage of colchicine was increased step by step and the patient achieved a better control of symptoms and biochemical parameters. However, the patient frequently needed an increase in the dose of colchicine, suggesting the possible usefulness of anti-interleukin-1 beta treatment. Conclusions The unusual presentation of Familial Mediterranean Fever with liver disease suggests the role of inflammasome in hepatic inflammation. Colchicine controls systemic inflammation in most of the patients; however, subclinical inflammation can persist in some of them and can manifest with increased levels of CRP, ESR, serum amyloid A also in attack-free intervals

Italian Deprivation Index and Dental Caries in 12-Year-Old Children: A Multilevel Bayesian Analysis

Evidence from the literature has shown that people with a lower socioeconomic status enjoy less good health than people with a higher socioeconomic status. The Italian deprivation index (DI) was used with the aim to evaluate the association between the DMFT index and risk factors for dental caries, including city population and DI. The study included 4,305 12-year-old children living in 38 cities classified by demographic size as small, midsize and large. Zero-inflated negative binomial multilevel regression models were used to assess risk factors for DMFT and to address excess of zero DMFT and overdispersion through a Bayesian approach. The difference in the average level of DMFT among children living in cities with different DI quintile was not statistically significant (p = 0.578). The DI and ln(population), included as city-level fixed effects in the two-level variance components model, were not statistically significant. Consuming sweet drinks on average increased the mean DMFT of a susceptible child, while having a highly educated mother reduced it. Un-observed heterogeneity among cities was detected for the probability to be non-susceptible to caries (city-level variance = 0.26 with 95% credibility interval 0.09–0.57), while no territorial effect was found for the mean DMFT of the susceptible children. Our results suggest that the DI and city population did not play a role in explaining between-city variability. Interventions against social deprivation can be influential on the perception of oral health in Italian 12-year-old children to the extent that they can also affect individual level factors

In "defense" of Podarcis latastei, an Italian insular endemic species (Squamata: Lacertidae)

Based on genetic and morphological evidence, Senczuk et al. (2019) formally raised the Podarcis populations from the Western Pontine Islands, previously classified as several subspecies of P. siculus, to species rank, i.e. Podarcis latastei (Bedriaga, 1879). This taxonomic change was not accepted in the checklist of the European herpetofauna by Speybroeck et al. (2020), recently published on Amphibia-Reptilia. In this note we respond to the reasons given by Speybroeck and colleagues and support the validity of Podarcis latastei as an endemic Italian species

RELAP5-3D thermal hydraulic analysis of the target cooling system in the SPES experimental facility

The SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) experimental facility, under construction at the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) Laboratories of Legnaro, Italy, is a second generation Isotope Separation On Line (ISOL) plant for advanced nuclear physic studies. The UCx target-ion source system works at temperature of about 2273 K, producing a high level of radiation (10^5 Sv/h), for this reason a careful risk analysis for the target chamber is among the major safety issues. In this paper, the obtained results of thermofluid-dynamics simulations of accidental transients in the SPES target cooling system are reported. The analysis, performed by using the RELAP5-3D 2.4.2 qualified thermal-hydraulic system code, proves good safety performance of this system during different accidental conditions

The evolutionary history of a mammal species with a highly fragmented range: the phylogeography of the European snow vole.

The European snow vole Chionomys nivalis has a patchy distribution restricted to rocky habitats across southern Europe and the Near and Middle East. We carried out a phylogeographic study to provide a biogeographic scenario, based on molecular data, outlining the major processes that determined the current distribution of the species. The samples include 26 snow voles from 14 different populations across the entire species range from Spain to Anatolia and Israel. Nearly complete sequences (1037 bp) of the mitochondrial gene for cytochrome b were sequenced. Relationships among haplotypes were inferred with neighbourjoining, maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony analyses and minimum spanning network. An analysis of mismatch distribution was used to cast light on past demographic expansion. We found 22 different haplotypes that fall into six distinct lineages, all but one is supported by high bootstrap values with all methods. Four lineages are allopatric (Tatra Mts., Iberia, Balkans and Middle East) while divergent haplotypes from two lineages show sympatry in the Alps and the Apennines. The basal relationships of these lineages could not be established by any tree. The mean pairwise genetic distance between lineages ranges from 2.4 to 4.2%. The shape of the mismatch distribution indicated a past expansion event dating back to between 158 000 and 84 000 years ago. These data can be interpreted with the existence of southern glacial refugia (Iberia, Balkans, Middle East and Italy) and one additional northern glacial refugium. The lack of phylogenetic resolution among lineages and the shape of mismatch distribution are indicative of a simultaneous and rapid splitting due to a relatively fast initial expansion of populations. Moreover, the analysis supports the hypothesis of the European origin of C. nivalis and its subsequent eastward dispersion during the Middle Pleistocene

Dynamic reconfiguration of electrical connections for partially shaded PV modules: Technical and economical performances of an Arduino-based prototype

The partial shading phenomenon is a well known problem of photovoltaic plants. Partial shading leads to undesirable effects such the electrical mismatch, the generation of hot spots, and generally the decrease of production of electric energy. To mitigate the last effect, a dynamic reconfiguration of the electrical connections between modules was taken into account. In this paper, starting from an already developed system for a small-scale photovoltaic plant reconfiguration, the study of the economical benefits of the employment of a reconfigurator are traced. Five different incentive policies of diverse Countries have been considered to evaluate the increase of Net Present Value of system with and without a reconfigurator