An harmonic radar prototype for insect tracking in harsh environments

Harmonic entomological radars have been used in the last decades to track small and lightweight passive tags carried by various insects, usually flying at low altitude and over flat terrain. Despite being exploited in many applications, not a lot of progress was achieved in terms of performances over the years. This paper reviews the research work done in this topic throughout the European LIFE project STOPVESPA, from 2015 to 2019. The main objective of LIFE STOPVESPA was to contain the invasive Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) and prevent it from further invading Italy. Among the foreseen activities, a new harmonic radar has been developed as an effective tool to locate the hornets nests to be destroyed. A preliminary prototype, based on a magnetron generator, was tested in 2015, showing a detection range of about 125 m. A first upgrade of this prototype was released in 2016, allowing to increase the detection range up to 150 m. A new approach, based on a solid state power amplifier and a digitally modulated signal, was then adopted for the second prototype developed in 2017 and extensively run in 2018; the detection range raised to 500 m. A last engineered prototype was eventually built for the 2019 summer campaign with additional improvements. This tool has been extensively validated over the last years with the Asian hornet but it has potential for tracking and monitoring many other flying insects

An innovative harmonic radar prototype for miniaturized lightweight passive tags tracking

Harmonic radars can be generally used to track very small (1.5 cm) and lightweight (15 mg) passive tags; as an example, they have been adopted to track various insects for almost 30 years now. In most of the cases, their usage was motivated by the entomological interest in better knowing the habits of the observed insect; in fewer applications, like ours, prevailed the need of protecting the environment from invasive species. However, despite the purpose of the research involving entomological radars, not a lot of engineering resources have been invested during the last decades with the aim of improving what was basically considered a mere tool in the hands of entomologists. The goal of this paper is to show how modern radar techniques, the progresses in the available hardware and a three years long design effort helped us to build and test an harmonic radar system with considerably improved performances. The prototype herein described is able to detect the flight of tagged insects in real time, up to 500 meters with a quite large field of view in elevation, and can be therefore adopted also in harsh environments

Serotoninergic system changes during heroin abuse and their reversibility after abuse discontinuation

Subjects affected by heroin dependence have a decreased funcionality of the central serotoninergic system potentially reversible after prolonged drug-abuse discontinuation and treatment with antagonist

A branch-and-regret algorithm for the same-day delivery problem

We study a dynamic vehicle routing problem where stochastic customers request urgent deliveries characterized by restricted time windows. The aim is to use a fleet of vehicles to maximize the number of served requests and minimize the traveled distance. The problem is known in the literature as the same-day delivery problem, and it is of high importance because it models a number of real-world applications, including the delivery of online purchases. We solve the same-day delivery problem by proposing a novel branch-and-regret algorithm in which sampled scenarios are used to anticipate future events and an adaptive large neighborhood search is iteratively invoked to optimize routing plans. The branch-and-regret is equipped with four innovation elements: a new way to model the subproblem, a new policy to generate scenarios, new consensus functions, and a new branching scheme Extensive computational experiments on a large variety of instances prove the outstanding performance of the branch-and-regret, also in comparison with recent literature, in terms of served requests, traveled distance, and computational effort

Oxidative stress occurs during soybean nodule senescence

10.1007/s004250050536Planta208173-79PLAN

Different physiological and behavioural effects of e-cigarette vapour and cigarette smoke in mice

Nicotine is the primary addictive substance in tobacco smoke and electronic cigarette (e-cig) vapour. Methodological limitations have made it difficult to compare the role of the nicotine and non-nicotine constituents of tobacco smoke. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of traditional cigarette smoke and e-cig vapour containing the same amount of nicotine in male BALB/c mice exposed to the smoke of 21 cigarettes or e-cig vapour containing 16.8mg of nicotine delivered by means of a mechanical ventilator for three 30-min sessions/day for seven weeks. One hour after the last session, half of the animals were sacrificed for neurochemical analysis, and the others underwent mecamylamine-precipitated or spontaneous withdrawal for the purposes of behavioural analysis. Chronic intermittent non-contingent, second-hand exposure to cigarette smoke or e-cig vapour led to similar brain cotinine and nicotine levels, similar urine cotinine levels and the similar up-regulation of α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in different brain areas, but had different effects on body weight, food intake, and the signs of mecamylamine-precipitated and spontaneous withdrawal episodic memory and emotional responses. The findings of this study demonstrate for the first time that e-cig vapour induces addiction-related neurochemical, physiological and behavioural alterations. The fact that inhaled cigarette smoke and e-cig vapour have partially different dependence-related effects indicates that compounds other than nicotine contribute to tobacco dependence

Effect of overuse of the antimigraine combination of indomethacin, prochlorperazine and caffeine (IPC) on the disposition of its components in chronic headache patients

Background: The combination of indomethacin, prochlorperazine and caffeine (IPC) is one of the most utilized formulations for the treatment of migraine attacks in Italy. Several patients suffering from chronic headache overuse this symptomatic medication in the attempt to control their headache. Objective: To verify whether overuse of IPC combination by chronic headache patients is associated with modified disposition of its components. Methods: We studied indomethacin, prochlorperazine, and caffeine disposition in 34 female subjects suffering from primary headaches, subdivided into four groups: eight migraine patients occasionally using IPC combination suppositories-group 1; nine patients with chronic headache and probable medication-overuse headache, daily taking one or more suppositories of the IPC combination-group 2; 11 migraine patients occasionally using mild suppositories of the IPC combination-group 3; six migraine patients occasionally taking tablets of the IPC combination-group 4. The IPC combination habitually used was administered to each patient. Blood samples were taken at baseline and at fixed intervals up to 6 h after administration. Plasma levels of indomethacin and prochlorperazine were assayed by high-pressure liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method; caffeine levels were assayed by enzyme multiplied immunoassay test (EMIT). Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated by means of a computer software (P K Solutions 2.0. Summit Research Services, Montrose, CO, USA). Results: Half-life of indomethacin was longer, and clearance lower, in group 2 than in the other groups; AUC of indomethacin in group 2 was twice that in group 1 (P infinity) of caffeine were significantly higher in group 2 than in the other groups (P < 0.05, Newman-Keuls´ test). We could not define prochlorperazine disposition because it was not detectable in the majority of blood samples. Conclusion: Overuse of IPC combination in chronic headache patients is associated with increased plasma levels of indomethacin and caffeine, and with delayed elimination of indomethacin; the high and sustained concentrations of these drugs may cause rebound headache, organ damages, and perpetuate medication-overuse headache