Winter temperature predicts prolonged diapause in pine processionary moth species across their geographic range

Prolonged diapause occurs in a number of insects and is interpreted as a way to evade adverse conditions. The winter pine processionary moths (Thaumetopoea pityocampa and Th. wilkinsoni) are important pests of pines and cedars in the Mediterranean region. They are typically univoltine, with larvae feeding across the winter, pupating in spring in the soil and emerging as adults in summer. Pupae may, however, enter a prolonged diapause with adults emerging one or more years later. We tested the effect of variation in winter temperature on the incidence of prolonged diapause, using a total of 64 individual datasets related to insect cohorts over the period 1964 2015 for 36 sites in seven countries, covering most of the geographic range of both species. We found high variation in prolonged diapause incidence over their ranges. At both lower and upper ends of the thermal range in winter, prolonged diapause tended to be higher than at intermediate temperatures. Prolonged diapause may represent a risk-spreading strategy to mitigate climate uncertainty, although it may increase individual mortality because of a longer exposure to mortality factors such as predation, parasitism, diseases or energy depletion. Climate change, and in particular the increase of winter temperature, may reduce the incidence of prolonged diapause in colder regions whereas it may increase it in warmer ones, with consequences for population dynamics.Work supported by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo to Md H.R. Salman, University of Padova to Myron P. Zalucki and Folco Giomi, Spanish Ministry of the Environment (PROPINOL PN22/2008 and CONSOLIDER-MONTES CSD2008- 00040) to José A. Hodar, DIAMETABO project of the INRA EFPA department to Mathieu Laparie, European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N. 771271 HOMED (Holistic Management of Emerging forest pests and Diseases) to Andrea Battisti

Evaluating the Surgeons' Perception of Difficulties of Two Techniques to Perform STARR for Obstructed Defecation Syndrome: A Multicenter Randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND After initial enthusiasm in the use of a dedicated curved stapler (CCS-30 Contour Transtar) to perform stapled transanal rectal resection (STARR) for obstructed defecation syndrome (ODS), difficulties have emerged in this surgical technique. OBJECTIVE First, to compare surgeons' perception of difficulties of STARR performed with only Transtar versus STARR performed with the combined use of linear staplers and Transtar to cure ODS associated with large internal prolapse and rectocele; second, to compare the postoperative incidence of the urge to defecate between the 2 STARR procedures. DESIGN AND SETTING An Italian multicenter randomized trial involving 25 centers of colorectal surgery. PATIENTS Patients with obstructed defecation syndrome and rectocele or rectal intussusception, treated between January and December 2012. INTERVENTIONS Participants were randomly assigned to undergo STARR with a curved alone stapler (CAS group) or with the combined use of linear and curved staplers (LCS group). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Primary end-points were the evaluation of surgeons' perception of difficulties score and the incidence of the "urge to defecate" at 3-month follow up. Secondary end-points included duration of hospital stay, rates of early and late complications, incidence of "urge to defecate" at 6 and 12 months, success of the procedures at 12 months of follow-up. RESULTS Of 771 patients evaluated, 270 patients (35%) satisfied the criteria. Follow-up data were available for 254 patients: 128 patients (114 women) in the CAS group (mean age, 52.1; range, 39-70 years) and 126 (116 women) in LCS group (mean age, 50.7 years; range, 41-75 years). The mean surgeons' perception score, was 15.36 (SD, 3.93) in the CAS group and 12.26 (SD, 4.22) in the LCS group (P < .0001; 2-sample t test). At 3-month follow-up, urge to defecate was observed in 18 (14.6%) CAS group patients and in 13 (10.7%) LCS group patients (P = .34; Fisher's exact test). These values drastically decrease at 6 months until no urge to defecate in all patients at 12 months was observed. At 12-month follow-up, a successful outcome was achieved in 100 (78.1%) CAS group patients and in 105 (83.3%) LCS group patients (P = .34; Fisher's exact test). No significant differences between groups were observed in the hospital stay and rates of early or late complications occurring after STARR. CONCLUSIONS STARR with Transtar associated with prior decomposition of prolapse, using linear staplers, seems to be less difficult than that without decomposition. Both procedures appear to be safe and effective in the treatment of obstructed defecation syndrome resulting in similar success rates and complications

On the Integration of Blockchain and SDN: Overview, Applications, and Future Perspectives

Blockchain (BC) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) are leading technologies which have recently found applications in several network-related scenarios and have consequently experienced a growing interest in the research community. Indeed, current networks connect a massive number of objects over the Internet and in this complex scenario, to ensure security, privacy, confidentiality, and programmability, the utilization of BC and SDN have been successfully proposed. In this work, we provide a comprehensive survey regarding these two recent research trends and review the related state-of-the-art literature. We first describe the main features of each technology and discuss their most common and used variants. Furthermore, we envision the integration of such technologies to jointly take advantage of these latter efficiently. Indeed, we consider their group-wise utilization -- named BC-SDN -- based on the need for stronger security and privacy. Additionally, we cover the application fields of these technologies both individually and combined. Finally, we discuss the open issues of reviewed research and describe potential directions for future avenues regarding the integration of BC and SDN. To summarize, the contribution of the present survey spans from an overview of the literature background on BC and SDN to the discussion of the benefits and limitations of BC-SDN integration in different fields, which also raises open challenges and possible future avenues examined herein. To the best of our knowledge, compared to existing surveys, this is the first work that analyzes the aforementioned aspects in light of a broad BC-SDN integration, with a specific focus on security and privacy issues in actual utilization scenarios.Comment: 42 pages, 14 figures, to be published in Journal of Network and Systems Management - Special Issue on Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers in Network and Service Managemen

ST Elevation in a Patient With COVID-19 Infection-Associated Fever: A Case of Brugada Pattern.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic presenting with various cardiovascular manifestations. Although Brugada pattern ST-segment elevation (STE) is well described in patients admitted with febrile illness, the implication of recognizing this abnormality in patients with COVID-19 is critical in providing appropriate care for the patient and also reducing the exposure of healthcare professionals to the risk of infection. We report a patient with COVID-19 infection presenting with STE due to fever-related unmasking of Brugada pattern, who was managed conservatively

Effectiveness of a Cognitive Behavioral Weight Management Intervention in Obese Patients with Psychotic Disorders Compared to Patients with Non-Psychotic Disorders or No Psychiatric Disorders: Results from a 12-month, Real-World Study

Objective—Studies of behavioral weight loss intervention in psychotic patients are sparse and its efficacy compared to other obese patients is unknown. Therefore, we compared the effect of a cognitive-behavioral weight loss intervention in obese subjects with psychotic disorders, other psychiatric diagnoses and without psychiatric disorders. Methods—12-month, naturalistic study of weekly group or individual cognitive-behavioral weight management in 222 consecutively enrolled obese patients (body mass index (BMI): 43.7±9.6) with psychotic-spectrum disorders (PSD, n=47), other psychiatric disorders (OPD, n=49) and no psychiatric disorder (NPD, n=126). Results—PSD patients had greater treatment persistence (48.9%) and longer treatment duration (8.7±4.4 months) than OPD (22.4%, 5.4±4.3 months) and NPD (22.2%, 4.9±4.7 months) patients (p’s\u3c.01, number-needed-to-treat (NNT)=3). In last-observation-carried-forward analyses, PSD patients had greater percent baseline weight loss at 12 months (5.1±9.3%) than OPD and NPD patients (2.7±5.5% and 2.4±6.3%); greater percent BMI loss at 9 and 12 months than both groups (p’s\u3c.05), and greater BMI loss at 9 months (2.1±3.5) and 12 months (2.3±4.1) than NPD patients (1.1±2.3 and 1.2±2.4). Furthermore, weight loss ≥5%, occurred in 42.6% of PSD patients vs. 18.4% and 23.0% in OPD and NPD patients (p’s\u3c.01, NNT=5 and 6). The strongest weight loss predictor was treatment duration (β=.51–.54, p\u3c.001). Attrition was predicted by NPD (p=.001) and OPD group status (p=.036), lower proportion of group sessions (p=.002), higher depression (p=.028), and lower baseline BMI (p=0.030). Conclusions—Psychosis-spectrum disorder patients had greater weight loss than other obese patients. Non-adherence and depression should be targeted to enhance weight loss success

The Boltzmann constant from the shape of a molecular spectral line

We report on our recent determination of the Boltzmann constant, k(B), by means of Doppler broadening thermometry. This relatively new method of primary gas thermometry was implemented by using a pair of offset-frequency locked extended-cavity diode lasers at 1.39 mu m, to probe a particular vibration-rotation transition of the (H2O)-O-18 molecule. Adopting a rather sophisticated and extremely refined line shape model in the spectral analysis procedure, we were able to determine the Doppler width from high-quality absorption spectra with unprecedented accuracy. Our spectroscopic determination of kB exhibits a combined (type A plus type B) uncertainty of 24 parts over 10(6). The complete uncertainty budget is presented and discussed