Ecological notes on an endemic freshwater lamprey, Lampetra zanandreai (Vladykov, 1955)

Lampetra zanandreai (Vladykov, 1955) is a non-parasitic, freshwater lamprey endemic to the ancient Po basin. A few, mostly very dated studies have investigated some aspect of the biology of this lamprey, but surprisingly, despite it being considered a threatened species, information on its ecology is practically absent. Specifically, information about habitat preferences is generic and qualitative. Since most of the life cycle is spent in the fossorial larval stage, which is also the only one in which organisms feed, information about ecological requirements of ammocoetes is essential for any conservation strategy. In this study we provide the first data about physical habitat preferences for lamprey ammocoetes by analyzing their presence within sampled hydromorphological units (HMUs), following the approach of habitat attribute description of the MesoHABSIM (MesoHABitat SImulation Model) methodology. To explore the relationship between lamprey presence and HMU characteristics, a random forest (RF) model was developed and tested using data collected in five stream reaches of the Po basin (NW Italy). The final parsimonious RF model performed well in terms of accuracy (95.2%) and true skill statistic (90.4%), allowing us to identify the most significant mesohabitat attributes for the considered species. Furthermore, in the Ghiandone River, where the highest density and number of individuals were found, a granulometric analysis of the riverbed material was carried out. Results showed that selected strains of sand and fine gravel, with low organic content, are preferred by ammocoetes. To our knowledge, this is the first study exploring the habitat preference of this endangered species, listed in Annex II of the European Habitats Directive

Fly fishing no-kill zones: a possible way to conjugate conservation issues, sustainable sport enhancement and local development in Alpine areas?

The promotion of sustainable tourism and outdoor sports can represent an important way to couple environmental conservation strategies and economic enhancement in marginal and Alpine areas. In this context catch and release fly fishing zones can represent an interesting tool, although no data is available on the effectiveness of these practices on Alpine salmonid population dynamics. Salmonids are the main group of fish in alpine rivers and they are the only actively targeted by anglers. Aim of this work is filling this gap, with a pilot study on two no-kill zones (Po and Pellice rivers, NW Italy). We conducted a temporal and spatial comparison between free-fishing and catch and release management river sections, with a detailed analysis on the Po River site. Our results support the hypothesis that catch and release management allows a numerical increase in wild trout populations. In particular, we detected a massive and rapid increase in younger individuals, possibly linked to a stop on the removal of large-sized reproducers. Protecting trout by the implementation of this practice can at the same time allow the increase of sustainable economic development and sport in marginal areas

Application of martensitic SMA alloys as passive dampers of GFRP laminated composites

This paper describes the application of SMA (Shape Memory Alloy) materials to enhance the passive damping of GFRP (Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic) laminated composite. The SMA has been embedded as reinforcement in the GFRP laminated composite and a SMA/GFRP hybrid composite has been obtained. Two SMA alloys have been studied as reinforcement and characterized by thermo-mechanical tests. The architecture of the hybrid composite has been numerically optimized in order to enhance the structural damping of the host GFRP laminated, without significant changes of the specific weight and of the flexural stiffness. The design and the resultant high damping material are interesting and will be useful in general for applications related to passive damping. The application to a new designed lateral horn of railway collector of the Italian high speed trains is discussed

Design for the Damping of a Railway Collector Based on the Application of Shape Memory Alloys

A new design of a Cu based SMA/GFRP lateral horn of a railway collector is proposed. Synergistic contribution of the performance parameters associated with the SMA, including specific damping, specific stiffness, and volume fraction, as well as those associated with the host composite such as flexural rigidity, SMA through-the-thickness location, and SMA-host interfacial strength, is taken into account. The aim is to increase the structural damping of the first flexural mode of the horn without significantly changing its flexural stiffness and weight. The focus of this work also applies to manufacturability and the cost effectiveness of the component for future industrial production

Application of martensitic SMA alloys as passive dampers of GFRP laminated composites

This paper describes the application of SMA (Shape Memory Alloy) materials to enhance thepassive damping of GFRP (Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic) laminated composite. The SMA has been embeddedas reinforcement in the GFRP laminated composite and a SMA/GFRP hybrid composite has been obtained.Two SMA alloys have been studied as reinforcement and characterized by thermo-mechanical tests. Thearchitecture of the hybrid composite has been numerically optimized in order to enhance the structural dampingof the host GFRP laminated, without significant changes of the specific weight and of the flexural stiffness. Thedesign and the resultant high damping material are interesting and will be useful in general for applicationsrelated to passive damping. The application to a new designed lateral horn of railway collector of the Italianhigh speed trains is discussed

Spin-orbit torque-driven magnetization switching and thermal effects studied in Ta\CoFeB\MgO nanowires

We demonstrate magnetization switching in out-of-plane magnetized Ta\CoFeB\MgO nanowires by current pulse injection along the nanowires, both with and without a constant and uniform magnetic field collinear to the current direction. We deduce that an effective torque arising from spin-orbit effects in the multilayer drives the switching mechanism. While the generation of a component of the magnetization along the current direction is crucial for the switching to occur, we observe that even without a longitudinal field thermally generated magnetization fluctuations can lead to switching. Analysis using a generalized Néel-Brown model enables key parameters of the thermally induced spin-orbit torques-driven switching process to be estimated, such as the attempt frequency and the effective energy barrier

FragmentStore—a comprehensive database of fragments linking metabolites, toxic molecules and drugs

Consideration of biomolecules in terms of their molecular building blocks provides valuable new information regarding their synthesis, degradation and similarity. Here, we present the FragmentStore, a resource for the comparison of fragments found in metabolites, drugs or toxic compounds. Starting from 13 000 metabolites, 16 000 drugs and 2200 toxic compounds we generated 35 000 different building blocks (fragments), which are not only relevant to their biosynthesis and degradation but also provide important information regarding side-effects and toxicity. The FragmentStore provides a variety of search options such as 2D structure, molecular weight, rotatable bonds, etc. Various analysis tools have been implemented including the calculation of amino acid preferences of fragments’ binding sites, classification of fragments based on the enzyme classification class of the enzyme(s) they bind to and small molecule library generation via a fragment-assembler tool. Using the FragmentStore, it is now possible to identify the common fragments of different classes of molecules and generate hypotheses about the effects of such intersections. For instance, the co-occurrence of fragments in different drugs may indicate similar targets and possible off-target interactions whereas the co-occurrence of fragments in a drug and a toxic compound/metabolite could be indicative of side-effects. The database is publicly available at: http://bioinformatics.charite.de/fragment_store

Data growth and its impact on the SCOP database: new developments

The Structural Classification of Proteins (SCOP) database is a comprehensive ordering of all proteins of known structure, according to their evolutionary and structural relationships. The SCOP hierarchy comprises the following levels: Species, Protein, Family, Superfamily, Fold and Class. While keeping the original classification scheme intact, we have changed the production of SCOP in order to cope with a rapid growth of new structural data and to facilitate the discovery of new protein relationships. We describe ongoing developments and new features implemented in SCOP. A new update protocol supports batch classification of new protein structures by their detected relationships at Family and Superfamily levels in contrast to our previous sequential handling of new structural data by release date. We introduce pre-SCOP, a preview of the SCOP developmental version that enables earlier access to the information on new relationships. We also discuss the impact of worldwide Structural Genomics initiatives, which are producing new protein structures at an increasing rate, on the rates of discovery and growth of protein families and superfamilies. SCOP can be accessed at http://scop.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/scop