The contribution of hyperspectral remote sensing to identify vegetation characteristics necessary to assess the fate of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the environment

During recent years hyperspectral remote sensing data were successfully used to characterise the state and properties of vegetation. The information on vegetation cover and status is useful for a range of environmental modelling studies. Recent works devoted to the understanding of the fate of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the environment showed that forests and vegetation in general act as a «sponge» for chemicals present in air and the intensity of this «capture» effect depends on some vegetation parameters such as surface area, leaf composition, turnover etc. In the framework of the DARFEM experiment conducted in late June 2001, different airborne hyperspectral images were acquired and analysed to derive some vegetation parameters of relevance for multimedia models, such as the spatial distribution of plant species and their relative foliage biomass. The study area, south west of Milan, encompasses a range of land cover types typical of Northern Italy, including intensive poplar plantations and natural broad-leaf forest. An intensive field campaign was accomplished during the aerial survey to collect vegetation parameters and radiometric measurements. Results obtained from the analysis of hyperspectral images, map of vegetation species, Leaf Area Index (LAI) and foliage biomass are presented and discussed

Entrepreneurial intention studies: A hybrid bibliometric method to identify new directions for theory and research

Fragmentation is the main obstacle to scientific progress on entrepreneurial intention. To address this issue, we systematise the current literature with a hybrid bibliometric method that combines co-citation and bibliographic coupling analysis for the first time in entrepreneurial intention studies to show the field's knowledge base and research fronts and to examine how divergent perspectives have challenged the core knowledge of the field. We highlight three recurring dimensions of entrepreneurial intention studies: (1) personal factors, (2) social factors and (3) investigational settings. In addition to introducing new constructs, divergent perspectives have emphasised the interplay between these components and challenged the mechanisms connecting them. Based on these findings, we extend previous classifications in the literature by providing a framework that integrates divergent perspectives with the field's knowledge base, helping establish future research avenues and improving the theorising process of entrepreneurial intention

Determination of the photodisintegration reaction rates involving charged particles: systematical calculations and proposed measurements based on Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP)

Photodisintegration reaction rates involving charged particles are of relevance to the p-process nucleosynthesis that aims at explaining the production of the stable neutron-deficient nuclides heavier than iron. In this study, the cross sections and astrophysical rates of (g,p) and (g,a) reactions for about 3000 target nuclei with 10<Z<100 ranging from stable to proton dripline nuclei are computed. To study the sensitivity of the calculations to the optical model potentials (OMPs), both the phenomenological Woods-Saxon and the microscopic folding OMPs are taken into account. The systematic comparisons show that the reaction rates, especially for the (g,a) reaction, are dramatically influenced by the OMPs. Thus the better determination of the OMP is crucial to reduce the uncertainties of the photodisintegration reaction rates involving charged particles. Meanwhile, a gamma-beam facility at ELI-NP is being developed, which will open new opportunities to experimentally study the photodisintegration reactions of astrophysics interest. Considering both the important reactions identified by the nucleosynthesis studies and the purpose of complementing the experimental results for the reactions involving p-nuclei, the measurements of six (g,p) and eight (g,a) reactions based on the gamma-beam facility at ELI-NP and the ELISSA detector for the charged particles detection are proposed, and the GEANT4 simulations are correspondingly performed. The minimum required energies of the gamma-beam to measure these reactions are estimated. It is shown that the direct measurements of these photonuclear reactions within the Gamow windows at T_9=2.5 for p-process are fairly feasible and promising at ELI-NP. The expected experimental results will be used to constrain the OMPs of the charged particles, which can eventually reduce the uncertainties of the reaction rates for the p-process nucleosynthesis.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, Phys. Rev. C accepte

In silico drug repurposing for the identification of potential candidate molecules against arboviruses infection

Arboviral diseases caused by dengue (DENV), Zika (ZIKV) and chikungunya (CHIKV) viruses represent a major public health problem worldwide, especially in tropical areas where millions of infections occur every year. The aim of this research was to identify candidate molecules for the treatment of these diseases among the drugs currently available in the market, through in silico screening and subsequent in vitro evaluation with cell culture models of DENV and ZIKV infections. Numerous pharmaceutical compounds from antibiotics to chemotherapeutic agents presented high in silico binding affinity for the viral proteins, including ergotamine, antrafenine, natamycin, pranlukast, nilotinib, itraconazole, conivaptan and novobiocin. These five last compounds were tested in vitro, being pranlukast the one that exhibited the best antiviral activity. Further in vitro assays for this compound showed a significant inhibitory effect on DENV and ZIKV infection of human monocytic cells and human hepatocytes (Huh-7 cells) with potential abrogation of virus entry. Finally, intrinsic fluorescence analyses suggest that pranlukast may have some level of interaction with three viral proteins of DENV: envelope, capsid, and NS1. Due to its promising results, suitable accessibility in the market and reduced restrictions compared to other pharmaceuticals; the anti-asthmatic pranlukast is proposed as a drug candidate against DENV, ZIKV, and CHIKV, supporting further in vitro and in vivo assessment of the potential of this and other lead compounds that exhibited good affinity scores in silico as therapeutic agents or scaffolds for the development of new drugs against arboviral diseases. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, UTP: TRFCI-1P2016 National Institutes of Health, NIH National Institutes of Health, NIH: R01 AI24493 Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation, Queensland Government, DSITI: 811-2018 Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga, UNABThe authors wish to thank the Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia [Grant: Colciencias No. 811-2018 ], Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México [Grant: Programa de Becas Posdoctorales en la UNAM 2016 ], Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar [Grant: TRFCI-1P2016 ] and the National Institutes of Health [NIH grant R01 AI24493 ] for their financial support. Appendix AA continuación se relacionan los compuestos químicos y su número de registro CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service) antrafenine, 55300-29-3; conivaptan, 168626-94-6, 210101-16-9; ergotamine, 113-15-5, 52949-35-6; itraconazole, 84625-61-6; natamycin, 52882-37-8, 7681-93-8; nilotinib, 641571-10-0; novobiocin, 1476-53-5, 303-81-1, 39301-00-3, 4309-70-0; pranlukast, 103177-37-

The contribution of hyperspectral remote sensing to identify vegetation characteristics necessary to assess the fate of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the environment

During recent years hyperspectral remote sensing data were successfully used to characterise the state and properties of vegetation. The information on vegetation cover and status is useful for a range of environmental modelling studies. Recent works devoted to the understanding of the fate of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the environment showed that forests and vegetation in general act as a «sponge» for chemicals present in air and the intensity of this «capture» effect depends on some vegetation parameters such as surface area, leaf composition, turnover etc. In the framework of the DARFEM experiment conducted in late June 2001, different airborne hyperspectral images were acquired and analysed to derive some vegetation parameters of relevance for multimedia models, such as the spatial distribution of plant species and their relative foliage biomass. The study area, south west of Milan, encompasses a range of land cover types typical of Northern Italy, including intensive poplar plantations and natural broad-leaf forest. An intensive field campaign was accomplished during the aerial survey to collect vegetation parameters and radiometric measurements. Results obtained from the analysis of hyperspectral images, map of vegetation species, Leaf Area Index (LAI) and foliage biomass are presented and discussed

HCV and HIV co-infection in pregnant women attending St. Camille Medical Centre in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso

Five hundred and forty-seven pregnant women with less than 32 weeks of amenorrhoea, attending an antenatal clinic of St. Camille Medical Centre (SCMC) of Ouagadougou were enrolled for a hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV co-infection study. Fifty-eight (10.6%) were HIV positive and 18 (3.3%) were anti-HCV positive. Only seven pregnant women (i.e., 1.3%) had a documented HIV and HCV co-infection. HCV-RNA was found in 5 out of 18 (27.8%) patients, who had anti-HCV antibodies. The genotype analysis of these five patients showed that two were of 1b whereas three were of 2a genotype. Mother-to-infant transmission of the same HCV genotype (2a) was documented in only one case. High 1b prevalence has been reported in other parts of Africa, while 2a is the prevalent genotype (60%) in Burkina Faso. This genotype has a higher response rate to treatment. Serum transaminases were normal, also in presence of HCV-RNA. The higher than expected rate of co-infection in Burkina Faso seems to demonstrate a correlation between these two infections, which could influence the evolution of HIV and HCV diseases

Electromagnetic character of the competitive γγ/γ\gamma\gamma/\gamma-decay from 137m^{137\mathrm{m}}Ba

Second-order processes in physics is a research topic focusing attention from several fields worldwide including, for example, non-linear quantum electrodynamics with high-power lasers, neutrinoless double-$\beta$ decay, and stimulated atomic two-photon transitions. For the electromagnetic nuclear interaction, the observation of the competitive double-$\gamma$ decay from $^{137\mathrm{m}}$Ba has opened up the nuclear structure field for detailed investigation of second-order processes through the manifestation of off-diagonal nuclear polarizability. Here we confirm this observation with an $8.7\sigma$ significance, and an improved value on the double-photon versus single-photon branching ratio as $2.62\times10^{-6}(30)$. Our results, however, contradict the conclusions from the original experiment, where the decay was interpreted to be dominated by a quadrupole-quadrupole component. Here, we find a substantial enhancement in the energy distribution consistent with a dominating octupole-dipole character and a rather small quadrupole-quadrupole element in the decay, hindered due to an evolution of the internal nuclear structure. The implied strongly hindered double-photon branching in $^{137\mathrm{m}}$Ba opens up the possibility of the double-photon branching as a feasible tool for nuclear-structure studies on off-diagonal polarizability in nuclei where this hindrance is not present.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 2 tabel

Dolphin Morbillivirus in a Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), Italy

Dolphin Morbillivirus (DMV) has caused several mortality events in Mediterranean striped (Stenella coeruleoalba) and bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) dolphins populations since nineties; in the last 5 years, the virus was reported to infect new hosts in this basin, such as fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and even a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). Very recently, a calf Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) calf stranded on the Southern Italian coastline with mild pathological findings suggestive of morbilliviral infection, received the first confirmation of DMV infection in this species by biomolecular evidences on lung tissue. This new cross species infection report, along with 19% of the cetaceans specimens examined by the Italian Stranding Network being found positive to DMV, support the hypothesis of an endemic circulation of this virus among Mediterranean cetaceans