Airspace effects on the yield and quality of ewe milk.

Abstract Three groups of 12 midlactating Comisana ewes were housed in separate rooms of the same building and assigned to treatments of low (LV, 4.1m 3 ), medium (MV, 5.6m 3 ), or high (HV, 7.3m 3 ) airspace/animal. The concentrations of airborne microorganisms in the experimental rooms were measured twice weekly at 0930 and 1630. Ewe milk yield was recorded daily. Individual milk samples were analyzed weekly for milk composition, coagulating properties, somatic cell concentration (SCC), and polymorphonuclear neutrophil leukocyte count (PMNLC), and fortnightly for bacteriological characteristics; samples with more than 10 6 somatic cells/ml were cultured for mastitis-related pathogens. The LV and MV treatments resulted in higher relative humidity and air concentrations of staphylococci than the HV treatment. Greater amounts of air mesophilic bacteria were also found in the LV than in the HV room. Ewes in the HV group gave greater yields of milk than those in the LV and MV groups. LV milk also had a lower casein content than HV milk. Significant interactions of treatment x time were found for milk protein and fat content as well as for clotting time and clot firmness, with LV milk having the poorest composition and deteriorated renneting ability during the last 3 wk of the trial. The HV ewes had lower SCC and PMNLC and psychrotroph counts in their milk than LV and MV ewes and smaller amounts of mesophilic bacteria and fecal coliforms than LV animals. Subclinical mastitis occurred in two ewes of the LV and one of the MV groups, while no cases were recorded in the HV group. Results suggest that airspace is a critical factor in dairy sheep housing and indicate that a volume allocation of less than 7m 3 /animal may adversely affect the performance and health of the lactating ewe

How accelerated biological aging can affect solar reflective polymeric based building materials

Among the main issues concerning building materials, in particular outdoor ones, one can identify the colonization by microorganisms referred to as biological aggression. This can affect not only the aesthetical aspect but also the thermal performance of solar reflective materials. In order to improve the reliability of tests aimed to assess the resistance to biological aggression and contextually reduce the test duration, an accelerated test method has been developed. It is based on a lab reproducible setup where specific and controlled environmental and boundary conditions are imposed to accelerate as much as possible biological growth on building materials. Due to their widespread use, polymeric materials have been selected for the present analysis, in the aim of reaching an advanced bio-aged level in a relatively short time (8 weeks or less) and at the same time comparatively evaluate different materials under a given set of ageing conditions. Surface properties before, during and after ageing have been investigated by surface, microstructural and chemical analyses, as well as by examination of time progressive images to assess bacterial and algal growth rate

Thermal Stabilization of Digesters of Biogas Plants by Means of Optimization of the Surface Radiative Properties of the Gasometer Domes

A new incentive scheme for power generation from biogas is favoring in Italy the construction of small plants. These ones, however, have poorer financial viability and biological stability than larger plants. In order to ensure adequate performance and a reasonable payback period it is therefore essential that every aspect of their operations is carefully designed. In this respect, summer overheating of anaerobic digesters due to solar gains must be prevented. A solution relies upon the implementation of a ‘cool’ gasometer dome with properly chosen solar reflectance, whose effectiveness was assessed through the use of a calculation code specifically built and validated by comparison with experimental data

Alterations in sheep peripheral blood mononuclear cell proliferation and cytokine release by polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation in the diet under high ambient temperature.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation from different sources in the diet of dairy sheep under high ambient temperatures on ex vivo lymphocyte proliferation and inflammatory responses. The experiment was carried out during summer: 32 Comisana ewes were divided into 4 groups of 8. The FS group was supplemented with whole flaxseed, the AG group was supplemented with Ascophyllum nodosum, the FS+AG group was supplemented with a combination of flaxseed and A. nodosum. The fourth group (CON group) was a control and received a diet containing no supplement. The average maximum temperature was around 33°C during wk 2 and 3, whereas the mean temperature never decreased below 26°C. Following 15 d of treatment with respective diets, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from sheep who received a diet supplemented with A. nodosum had impaired cell proliferation responses and IL-6 production after mitogen stimulation compared with PBMC from FS+AG sheep. In addition, PBMC from AG sheep displayed impaired cell proliferation compared with cells from the CON group. The FS+AG cells produced lower levels of IL-10 than CON cells, and higher IL-6 than AG and CON cells. Results demonstrated that the supplementation with PUFA from different sources in a sheep's diet can influence their immunological responses under high ambient temperatures depending on the composition of fatty acid supplementation. In particular, synergistic effects of different PUFA from flaxseed and A. nodosum, simultaneously administrated in the sheep diet, were observed on activation of inflammation response

6D physical interaction with a fully actuated aerial robot

This paper presents the design, control, and experimental validation of a novel fully-actuated aerial robot for physically interactive tasks, named Tilt-Hex. We show how the Tilt-Hex, a tilted-propeller hexarotor is able to control the full pose (position and orientation independently) using a geometric control, and to exert a full-wrench (force and torque independently) with a rigidly attached end-effector using an admittance control paradigm. An outer loop control governs the desired admittance behavior and an inner loop based on geometric control ensures pose tracking. The interaction forces are estimated by a momentum based observer. Control and observation are made possible by a precise control and measurement of the speed of each propeller. An extensive experimental campaign shows that the Tilt-Hex is able to outperform the classical underactuated multi-rotors in terms of stability, accuracy and dexterity and represent one of the best choice at date for tasks requiring aerial physical interaction

The largest prehistoric mound in Europe is the Bronze-Age Hill of Udine (Italy) and legend linked its origin to Attila the Hun

Prehistoric monuments often constitute evident landmarks and sometimes, after falling into disuse, fascinated local people enough to stimulate speculations about their origin over time. According to legend, the Hill of Udine (NE Italy) was built by Attila the Hun's soldiers, but its origin (natural or anthropogenic) has been debated until now. Our research analyzed five new 40-m long stratigraphic cores, investigating for the first time the total thickness of the hill and compared the data with the available archaeological information. Moreover, we considered other hills and mounds in northern Italy and other European regions where folklore traditions relate their origin to Attila. The geoarchaeological and ethnographic data prove that the Hill of Udine is a Bronze Age anthropogenic mound erected between 1400 and 1150 BCE and that, later, folklore has transformed the ancestral memory of its origin into legend. By measuring 30 m in height and over 400,000 m(3) in volume, the flat-topped hill is the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. This discovery reveals unprecedented skills in earth construction and confirms significant anthropogenic modifications of the environment during Bronze Age

Effects of soiling and weathering on the albedo of building envelope materials: Lessons learned from natural exposure in two European cities and tuning of a laboratory simulation practice

Chemical and physical stress, weathering, organic and inorganic matter deposition, and microbial growth over time, or \u201caging\u201d, affect the optical-radiative performance of building envelope materials. Natural exposure helps to quantify these effects, but it usually requires several years. Further, the contribution of the different degradation agents cannot be isolated, and results from different campaigns cannot be easily compared because of the variability in the boundary conditions producing aging. Here we present an adaptation of the protocol implemented by ASTM as D7897-18 \u201cStandard Practice for Laboratory Soiling and Weathering of Roofing Materials to Simulate Effects of Natural Exposure on Solar Reflectance and Thermal Emittance\u201d. The aim is to reproduce in the laboratory the changes in albedo (solar reflectance) and thermal emittance experienced by building envelope materials in European urban areas rather than in the United States. We tuned the spraying duration and weathering cycles, and we compared the UV\u2013vis\u2013NIR reflectances of naturally-aged specimens (48 months in Rome and Milan) of roofing and wall finish materials to those exposed to laboratory weathering and soiling. Excluding those materials that show early physical-chemical degradation, the mean absolute deviation between natural and laboratory exposure of roofing products is equal to 0.027 in albedo. This is a lower value than the differences between two natural exposure campaigns at the same site. We clearly defined the limits of application of the protocol, providing an appraisal of the repeatability of natural aging. Moreover, we identified possible improvements in the methodology to conduct both natural and laboratory exposure

Medical Informatics Platform (MIP): A Pilot Study Across Clinical Italian Cohorts

Introduction: With the shift of research focus to personalized medicine in Alzheimer's Dementia (AD), there is an urgent need for tools that are capable of quantifying a patient's risk using diagnostic biomarkers. The Medical Informatics Platform (MIP) is a distributed e-infrastructure federating large amounts of data coupled with machine-learning (ML) algorithms and statistical models to define the biological signature of the disease. The present study assessed (i) the accuracy of two ML algorithms, i.e., supervised Gradient Boosting (GB) and semi-unsupervised 3C strategy (Categorize, Cluster, Classify—CCC) implemented in the MIP and (ii) their contribution over the standard diagnostic workup. / Methods: We examined individuals coming from the MIP installed across 3 Italian memory clinics, including subjects with Normal Cognition (CN, n = 432), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI, n = 456), and AD (n = 451). The GB classifier was applied to best discriminate the three diagnostic classes in 1,339 subjects, and the CCC strategy was used to refine the classical disease categories. Four dementia experts provided their diagnostic confidence (DC) of MCI conversion on an independent cohort of 38 patients. DC was based on clinical, neuropsychological, CSF, and structural MRI information and again with addition of the outcome from the MIP tools. / Results: The GB algorithm provided a classification accuracy of 85% in a nested 10-fold cross-validation for CN vs. MCI vs. AD discrimination. Accuracy increased to 95% in the holdout validation, with the omission of each Italian clinical cohort out in turn. CCC identified five homogeneous clusters of subjects and 36 biomarkers that represented the disease fingerprint. In the DC assessment, CCC defined six clusters in the MCI population used to train the algorithm and 29 biomarkers to improve patients staging. GB and CCC showed a significant impact, evaluated as +5.99% of increment on physicians' DC. The influence of MIP on DC was rated from “slight” to “significant” in 80% of the cases. / Discussion: GB provided fair results in classification of CN, MCI, and AD. CCC identified homogeneous and promising classes of subjects via its semi-unsupervised approach. We measured the effect of the MIP on the physician's DC. Our results pave the way for the establishment of a new paradigm for ML discrimination of patients who will or will not convert to AD, a clinical priority for neurology

‘We are not calling her Italian’: narratives and images of ethnic incorporation in Isa Miranda’s American persona.

This article discusses the impact of Hollywood standards of homogenisation on Isa Miranda’s cosmopolitan appeal during her work for Paramount. The article suggests that Miranda’s American image was constructed in an attempt to establish her as a Marlene Dietrich type in order to defuse the potential threat represented by her ethnic Otherness; meanwhile, the Italian actress was framed within film narratives that played out (albeit indirectly) an idealised conception of successful American assimilation of European immigrants. In the process, Miranda was visually constructed through images that effectively ‘whitened’ her, and her Italianness was thus displaced onto an ideal of Northern European whiteness that bespoke a desire to reassert whiteness as the norm in 1930s America