La coltivazione del grano tenero in Sicilia: prime valutazioni economiche

The Sicilian 2007-2013 Rural Development Program of Sicily, by the measure 1.2.3 "Enhance of the added value of agricultural and forestry products", created the conditions for the conclusion of supply contracts between a milling company and 18 Sicilian farmers who are committed to annually grow about 600 hectares of common wheat in 2010-2013. With reference to the years 2010-2012, a survey was conducted using data collected from 4 of the 18 grain farms involved in the initiative that have grown in this period both durum and common wheat, in order to quantify the key economic parameters and to allow an initial comparison. The evaluation showed interesting results for the common wheat both from the point of view of production (average yield of 47,7 q/ha), and in terms of the gross salable production (average 1.606 €/ha). The most significant economic parameters to evaluate the productive outcome, such as EBITDA and net, average resulted respectively 859 and 444 €/ha, about 100 €/ha more than what has been recorded for durum wheat; also the unit cost of production for the common wheat grain was significantly lower than that of durum wheat (-13%)

Autonomic nervous system and lipid metabolism: findings in anxious-depressive spectrum and eating disorders

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To correlate lipid metabolism and autonomic dysfunction with anxious-depressive spectrum and eating disorders. To propose the <it>lipid index </it>(LI) as a new possible biomarker.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>95 patients and 60 controls were enrolled from the University Psychiatry Unit of Catania and from general practitioners (GPs). The patients were divided into four pathological groups: Anxiety, Depression, Anxious-Depressive Disorder and Eating Disorders [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) official/appendix criteria]. The levels of the cholesterol, triglycerides and apolipoproteins A and B were determined. The LI, for each subject, was obtained through a mathematical operation on the values of the cholesterol and triglycerides levels compared with the maximum cut-off of the general population. The autonomic functioning was tested with Ewing battery tests. Particularly, the correlation between heart rate variability (HRV) and lipid metabolism has been investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Pathological and control groups, compared among each other, presented some peculiarities in the lipid metabolism and the autonomic dysfunction scores. In addition, a statistically significant correlation has been found between HRV and lipid metabolism.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Lipid metabolism and autonomic functioning seem to be related to the discussed psychiatric disorders. LI, in addition, could represent a new possible biomarker to be considered.</p

Fatal cranial injury in an individual from Messina (Sicily) during the times of the Roman Empire

Forensic and archaeological examinations of human skeletons can provide us with evidence of violence. In this paper, we present the patterns of two cranial lesions found on an adult male (T173) buried in a grave in the necropolis ‘Isolato 96’, Messina, Sicily, dating back to the Roman Empire (1st century BC - 1st century AD). The skull reveals two perimortem traumatic lesions, one produced by a sharp object on the right parietal bone and the other one on the left parietal bone, presumably the result of a fall. The interpretation of fracture patterns found in this cranium are an illustration of how forensic approaches can be applied with great benefit to archaeological specimens. 2013 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved

Resting energy expenditure and fat-free mass do not decline during aging in severely obese women

Background & aims: Few studies have investigated the age-related modification of resting energy expenditure (REE) and free fat mass (FFM) in severe obesity. This cross-sectional study analyzed REE and FFM in severely and moderately obese women and in lean subjects at different ages to find the possible differences between obese and lean subjects during aging. Methods: Sedentary women (n = 261) were divided into three groups with different body mass indexes (BMIs): 20.0-24.9; 30-34.9; >40 kg/m2. Each group was then divided into five subgroups: 20-29; 30-39; 40-49; 50-59; 60-69 years. REE was measured with an indirect calorimetric device. The FFM was calculated by bioelectric impedance. Results: The REE in severely obese women was higher than the REE in lean or moderately obese women. The FFM of severely obese women was lower than that of moderately obese or lean women. The aging induced reductions of the REE and FFM in lean and moderately obese subjects, but not in women with severe obesity. Conclusions: This experiment indicates that REE and FFM do not decline during aging in women with BMI > 40, suggesting that the severe obesity induces different age-related adaptations of metabolism and body composition. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism

Surgical treatment of retrosternal extraosseous Ewing Sarcoma in a 6-years old female: a clamshell approach with hemysternectomy and application of a non-crosslinked extracellular matrix

Background Ewing Sarcoma (ES) and Neuroblastoma (NB) belong to a family of tumours of primitive neuroectodermal origin (PNET) that occurs in both bone and soft tissue. Notwithstanding ES and NB are two distinct malignant tumours, sometimes there could be a link between them. Case report We describe a case of an extraosseous ES localized in the retrosternal region and the upper lobe of the right lung, which had been previously treated for NB in a 6 years old female. We treated this case with a clamshell approach which allows, in a one-step surgery, a complete excision of the mass reconstructing the hemysternectomy with a non-crosslinked matrix. Conclusion the clamshell approach is therefore useful to achieve the retrosternal space and the lung with a single surgical access. According to our experience, we consider appropriate to use a non-crosslinked matrix for sternal reconstruction

Summarize Dates First: A Paradigm Shift in Timeline Summarization

Timeline summarization aims at presenting long news stories in a compact manner. State-of-the-art approaches first select the most relevant dates from the original event timeline then produce per-date news summaries. Date selection is driven by either per-date news content or date-level references. When coping with complex event data, characterized by inherent news flow redundancy, this pipeline may encounter relevant issues in both date selection and summarization due to a limited use of news content in date selection and no use of high-level temporal references (e.g., the past month). This paper proposes a paradigm shift in timeline summarization aimed at overcoming the above issues. It presents a new approach, namely Summarize Date First, which focuses on first generating date-level summaries then selecting the most relevant dates on top of summarized knowledge. In the latter stage, it performs date aggregations to consider high-level temporal references as well. The proposed pipeline also supports frequent incremental timeline updates more efficiently than previous approaches. We tested our unsupervised approach both on existing benchmark datasets and on a newly proposed benchmark dataset describing the COVID-19 news timeline. The achieved results were superior to state-of-the-art unsupervised methods and competitive against supervised ones