L'invenzione della regione. La soggettività della regionalizzazione e il caso della Brianza.

\u201cRegion\u201d is a keyword that has dominated geographical discourse ever since this field became institutionalized. It is usually defined as a part of the surface of the Earth that presents characteristics that differentiate it from other areas. Many scholars outlined the objectivity of this concept claiming that regions exist even before being identified. Moving away from this view, the main aim of this research is to prove that regions are inventions, namely human constructs specially created for some purpose. For example, researchers may need to define a region in order to study the areal distribution of a particular element and governments usually divide their territory in regional units in order to share powers and functions with local authorities. Mirroring people\u2019s mental maps, both individual and shared, and human feelings and attitudes towards territories, a region may be also defined by the subjective images of those areas. These subjective images result from everyday life practices in which the direct experience of the territory occurs through physical senses. As a result, regions are human constructs whose boundaries and characteristics are derived from a criterion or from sets of specific criteria. If defined by several criteria and by their interaction, regions are considered \u201ccomplex regions\u201d. Moreover, regions are likely to vary over time in both spatial extent and characteristic. Hence the kind of region that we define depends on which types of characteristics we choose to analyze. Brianza can be specifically regarded as a complex region, difficult to be determined by just one criterion. As a matter of fact, Brianza is a perceptual region that is thought of as being a spatial unit, although it does not have precise borders or even commonly accepted regional characteristics. Therefore, problems arise when trying to map this region. In particular, it is difficult to border Brianza according to the numerous elements constituting the region and that can be singled out in its landscape. In such cases, the introduction of a new methodology of regionalization is strongly advisable. The first step is the identification of the most important characteristics pertaining to the regional landscape. The second is the analysis of their spatial distribution. Then it is crucial to ask the inhabitants about their recognition of these features in the territory. It is also fundamental to inquire about the perceived extension of their region, in order to find a common view. Finally, these distributions and perceptions can be mapped to try to establish a core territory and some possible boundaries of the region. This methodology could definitely be considered a new interesting way to tackle the problem of describing complex regions and to continue to make use of the region as a tool for geographical studies

Composição E Diversidade De Anuros Na Restinga Do Município De Conde, Litoral Norte Do Estado Da Bahia, Nordeste Do Brasil

The Conde municipality is located in the northern coast of the state of Bahia (NC), northeastern Brazil, and is part of the Atlantic Tropical domain. The anuran fauna of the northern portion of the NC is still poorly known if compared to the southern portion. The Restinga is one of the predominant environments of the coastal plains of the NC and it is characterized essentially by presenting sandy soil covered by herbaceous and shrubby vegetation. The objective of this study was to determine the anuran species composition and diversity for the Restinga of the Conde municipality. Sampling was carried out at night by active search over four periods of five consecutive days each, two over the ‘main rainy season’ and two in a ‘lesser rainy season’, using 14 sample units (SUs) and five extra sample plots (EPs). We calculated dominance and species diversity using the Berger-Parker and Shannon-Wiener H’ indices, respectively. We used accumulation curves and the Jackknife 1 estimator to estimate anuran species richness, considering only the data obtained from the SUs. We recorded 713 anuran specimens distributed within 33 species, 13 genera and five families (Bufonidae, Craugastoridae, Hylidae, Leptodactylidae and Microhylidae). The Hylidae and Leptodactylidae families had the highest species richness. Considering only the SUs (Jackknife 1 estimator in brackets), we recorded 28 species in the study area (33.9 ± 2.3), 13 in Shrubby Vegetation Zones-SVZ (20.8 ± 2.9) and 25 in Freshwater Wetland Zones-FWZ (28.9 ± 1.9). The abundance and species diversity of the FWZ (n = 638 specimens; H’= 2.4) were higher than those recorded for the SVZ (n = 52 specimens; H’ = 1.9). The SVZ and FWZ showed distinct dominant species, wherein Pristimantis paulodutrai was the dominant species in SVZ and Scinax fuscomarginatus in FWZ. The Restinga of the Conde municipality stands out as the one with the highest anuran species richness already recorded considering only SVZ and FWZ. Moreover, its anuran species composition represented 55% of the anuran species known for the NC and included taxa common to three different morphoclimatic domains (Tropical Atlantic, Cerrado and Caatinga). © 2016, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved.16

Study of the doubly charmed tetraquark T+cc

Quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force, describes interactions of coloured quarks and gluons and the formation of hadronic matter. Conventional hadronic matter consists of baryons and mesons made of three quarks and quark-antiquark pairs, respectively. Particles with an alternative quark content are known as exotic states. Here a study is reported of an exotic narrow state in the D0D0π+ mass spectrum just below the D*+D0 mass threshold produced in proton-proton collisions collected with the LHCb detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The state is consistent with the ground isoscalar T+cc tetraquark with a quark content of ccu⎯⎯⎯d⎯⎯⎯ and spin-parity quantum numbers JP = 1+. Study of the DD mass spectra disfavours interpretation of the resonance as the isovector state. The decay structure via intermediate off-shell D*+ mesons is consistent with the observed D0π+ mass distribution. To analyse the mass of the resonance and its coupling to the D*D system, a dedicated model is developed under the assumption of an isoscalar axial-vector T+cc state decaying to the D*D channel. Using this model, resonance parameters including the pole position, scattering length, effective range and compositeness are determined to reveal important information about the nature of the T+cc state. In addition, an unexpected dependence of the production rate on track multiplicity is observed

Inertial microfluidic purification of CAR-T-Cell products

Published online: December 8, 2021Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy is rapidly becoming a frontline cancer therapy. However, the manufacturing process is time-, labor- and cost-intensive, and it suffers from significant bottlenecks. Many CAR-T products fail to reach the viability release criteria set by regulators for commercial cell therapy products. This results in non-recoupable costs for the manufacturer and is detrimental to patients who may not receive their scheduled treatment or receive out-of-specification suboptimal formula-tion. It is demonstrated here that inertial microfluidics can, within minutes, efficiently deplete nonviable cells from low-viability CAR-T cell products. The percentage of viable cells increases from 40% (SD ± 0.12) to 71% (SD ± 0.09) for untransduced T cells and from 51% (SD ± 0.12) to 71% (SD ± 0.09) for CAR-T cells, which meets the clinical trials’ release parameters. In addition, the processing of CAR-T cells formulated in CryStor yields a 91% reduction in the amount of the cryoprotectant dimethyl sulfoxide. Inertial microfluidic processing has no detrimental effects on the proliferation and cytotoxicity of CAR-T cells. Interestingly, ≈50% of T-regulatory and T-suppressor cells are depleted, suggesting the potential for inertial microfluidic processing to tune the phenotypical composition of T-cell products.Mona T. Elsemary, Michelle F. Maritz, Louise E. Smith, Majid Warkiani, Veronika Bandara, Silvana Napoli, Simon C. Barry, Justin T. Coombs, and Benjamin Thie