The snakes of Emilia Romagna and especially of the province of Bologna (Northern Italy)

Geographical distribution and some morphological aspects of Emilia-Romagna snakes, and particularly of the Bologna Province (North Italy), are discussed. The study is based on about 6.000 reptiles, 4.185 of which are Vipera aspis, collected or killed during 7 years in the Bologna Province. Coronella girondica, Elaphe longissima and Vipera aspis seems to be absent today in the vegatational lower lever. Coluber viridiflavus, Natrix natrix and Natrix tessellata seems to be more spread on the hills and on the mountains than on the plain. Coronella austriaca was found only on the plain. Elaphe quatuorlineata was recorded in many North Italy localities. Probably sometimes it was mistaken with the back lined Elaphe longissima and sometimes the recorded specimens were introduced (normally without acclimatization from Central Italy or West Jugoslavija. On the other hand it is possible that during XIX century a relicted population was present in the Bologna surroundings. The recent recordings for the Romagna Region are doubtful and those for the Piacenza Province are probably referred to indigenous relict specimens or to imported and acclimatizated ones. In Italy Elaphe situla is present surely in Sicilia (especially in the East), in the East Basilicata and in the South and Central Puglia. It was mentioned for the SE Basilicata in many news of the XIX Century end and in papers of '50 and '60 of the XX Century, but its current presence has to be confirmed. The specimens recorded in Emilia Romagna were imported or were mistaken with Coronella girondica or with Elaphe quatuorlineata youngs (perhaps alloctonous). In the XIX Century second half it was mentioned for the Abruzzo (Central Italy), but probably a locality mistake exists: Abruzzo instead Dalmatia. Contrary to what believed until '70 of this Century, Natrix mama in Emilia Romagna is apparently more localized than rare and, perhaps, more spread than deducible from the bibliography. During XIX Century and the beginning of XX one, Vipera berus was present in many localities of the Po Plain. After about 1915-1918 it was not observed again. Probably it came extincted because of different anthropic reasons. In Italy is actually present in the Alpine Region. Anyway times to times, especially after years '50, it was recorded in Emilia Romagna at the Apennine Mounts base. During July 1969 a Young specimen was collected in the Sasso Marconi territory (Bologna Pre-Appennine) and during summer 1983 another young was captured at the Salse di Nirano (Modena). We don't know if those specimens are autochthonous. More researches to confirm the presence of this species in Emilia Romagna have to be carried on

numerical analyses of a high pressure sooting flame with multiphysics approach

Abstract The development of a new standard for soot emissions proposed by ICAO-CAEP to reduce the environmental impact of civil aviation is moving increasingly research effort on the investigation of sooting flames. Formation and oxidation of the particulate matter are strongly affected by gas temperature, requiring an accurate prediction of the flow field from a numerical point of view. On the other hand, the temperature distribution within the combustor is modified by radiation, which depends on the soot concentration, leading to a very challenging coupled problem. In this work, a series of sensitivity analyses in RANS context are performed on soot, radiation and heat transfer modelling to assess their impact on the prediction of soot emission, gas temperature as well as wall heat fluxes distribution in the context of a high pressure sooting flame which is representative of a RQL combustor. These results are employed to set up a CHT (Conjugate Heat Transfer) simulation, using the multiphysics THERM3D procedure in a loosely-coupled manner where reactive CFD, radiation and heat conduction calculations are computed sequentially with a separate solver in a dedicated framework. These sensitivities can provide useful information for the numerical setup in high-fidelity simulations, as Scale Resolving Simulations

Effusion Cooling Plates for Combustor Liners: Experimental and Numerical Investigations on the Effect of Density Ratio

AbstractEffusion cooling represents the state-of-the-art of liner cooling technology for modern combustors. The present paper describes experimental tests aiming at evaluating the cooling performance of a multi-perforated plate in real engine representative fluid- dynamic conditions. Adiabatic effectiveness maps were obtained following the mass transfer analogy by the use of Pressure Sensitive Paint. In addition, a CFD campaign was performed in order to benchmark the reliability in estimating the cooling performance of effusion cooling liners. In order to include anisotropic diffusion effects, the k − ω SST turbulence model was corrected considering a tensorial definition of the eddy viscosity with an algebraic correction to dope its stream-span components

Common polymorphisms in nitric oxide synthase (NOS) genes influence quality of aging and longevity in humans

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Can timber provision from Amazonian production forests be sustainable?

Around 30 Mm3 of sawlogs are extracted annually by selective logging of natural production forests in Amazonia, Earth's most extensive tropical forest. Decisions concerning the management of these production forests will be of major importance for Amazonian forests' fate. To date, no regional assessment of selective logging sustainability supports decision-making. Based on data from 3500 ha of forest inventory plots, our modelling results show that the average periodic harvests of 20 m3 ha−1 will not recover by the end of a standard 30 year cutting cycle. Timber recovery within a cutting cycle is enhanced by commercial acceptance of more species and with the adoption of longer cutting cycles and lower logging intensities. Recovery rates are faster in Western Amazonia than on the Guiana Shield. Our simulations suggest that regardless of cutting cycle duration and logging intensities, selectively logged forests are unlikely to meet timber demands over the long term as timber stocks are predicted to steadily decline. There is thus an urgent need to develop an integrated forest resource management policy that combines active management of production forests with the restoration of degraded and secondary forests for timber production. Without better management, reduced timber harvests and continued timber production declines are unavoidable