Variability, Statistical Distributions and Trends of Precipitation Extremes on the Island of Sardinia, 1951–2000: Result Dependence on Network Density

An analysis of high resolution network data of daily precipitation in Sardinia from 1951 to 2000 is presented. The mean distance between the stations is about 10 km. Comparison between monthly series shows significantly higher extreme values in October and November. Decadal mobile window Wilkoxon–Mann–Whitney test indicates that the decade 1965–1975 has significantly higher values than the rest of the yearly series, while the decade 1976–1985 has lower values. Trends according to Mann-Kendall test do not present significant results except for March (decreasing) and July (increasing). The monthly and yearly series are fitted by the Gumbel distribution. The dependence of the previous results on the network density has been investigated. A second set of data has been selected by excluding about 20% of stations in a uniform way, so that the mean distance between stations raises to about 12 km; a third set of data has then been obtained by excluding about 80% of the stations, further increasing mean distance to 20 km. The previous analysis have been repeated with the two other sets. Comparison between the original data set and the second one by Wilkoxon–Mann–Whitney test shows that they are very similar; on the contrary the third one is very different. The fitting distributions of the original data set and of the second one are almost identical, while the fitting distributions of the third data set are very different. Different results have also been obtained for the third data set in the trend test

Effects of exogenous lactase administration on hydrogen breath excretion and intestinal symptoms in patients presenting lactose malabsorption and intolerance

To establish whether supplementation with a standard oral dose of Beta-Galactosidase affects hydrogen breath excretion in patients presenting with lactose malabsorption. METHODS: Ninety-six consecutive patients positive to H2 Lactose Breath Test were enrolled. Mean peak H2 levels, the time to reach the peak H2, the time to reach the cut-off value of 20 ppm, the cumulative breath H2 excretion, the areas under the curve, and a Visual Analogical 10-point Scale for symptoms were calculated. Genotyping of the C/T-13910 variant was carried out. RESULTS: Following the oral administration of Beta-Galactosidase, in 21.88% of the cases, H2 Lactose Breath Test became negative (Group A), while mean peak H2 levels (74.95 ppm versus 7.85), P < 0.0000, in 17.71% (Group B) were still positive, with the H2 level 20 ppm above the baseline, but the peak H2 levels were significantly lower than those observed at the baseline test (186.7 ppm versus 66.64), P < 0.0000, while in 60.41% (Group C) they were still positive with the peak H2 levels similar to those observed at the baseline test (94.43 versus 81.60 ppm). All 96 individuals tested presented the C/C-13910 genotype nonpersistence. CONCLUSIONS: The response to oral administration of Beta-Galactosidase in patients with symptoms of lactose malabsorption presents a significant variability

Numerical Optimization of Underactuated Flexure-Based Grippers

Robotic manipulation in the agri-food industry faces several issues, including object variation, fragility and food safety. Underactuated flexure-based gripper allow passive adaptation to object variation, whilst monolithic flexure joints drive down cost, part-count, hygiene requirements, contamination and wear. However, designing flexure-based grippers presents challenges in achieving sufficient support stiffness, load-bearing capacity and joint deflection. Additionally, modeling the non-linear flexure behavior may become computationally expensive, especially under wide a variety of load cases, limiting the optimization approaches to simple structures and joints. In this work we present an interleaved computational optimization algorithm for underactuated flexure-based grippers, aimed at maximizing the range of graspable circular objects under a given load. This method achieves a superior design faster than state-of-the-art methods that optimize all design parameters simultaneously. A prototype constructed using rapid-prototyping validates the usage of the design method, and experimentally illustrates gripper performance

Post Quantum Cryptography from Mutant Prime Knots

By resorting to basic features of topological knot theory we propose a (classical) cryptographic protocol based on the `difficulty' of decomposing complex knots generated as connected sums of prime knots and their mutants. The scheme combines an asymmetric public key protocol with symmetric private ones and is intrinsecally secure against quantum eavesdropper attacks.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Sound Transmission through Stiffened Double-Panel Structures Lined with Elastic Porous Materials

This paper presents transmission loss prediction models for a periodically stiffened panel and and stiffened double panel structures using the periodic structure theory. The inter-panel cavity in the double-panels structures can be modelled as being separated by an airspace or filled with an elastic porous layer in various configurations. The acoustic behavior of the elastic porous layer is described by a theory capable of accounting fully for multi-dimensional wave propagation in such materials. The predicted transmission loss of a single stiffened panel is compared with the measured data

Optimizing detection of RET and PPARg rearrangements in thyroid neoplastic cells using a home-brew tetracolor probe

BACKGROUND Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to identify specific DNA target sequences in the nuclei of nondividing cells of numerous solid neoplasms has contributed to the introduction of molecular cytogenetics as a useful adjunct to cytology, leading recently to the "marriage" of the 2 disciplines. Numerous cancer molecular markers can now be investigated using different technical approaches, at both the gene and expression levels, in biopsies of various suspected cancers, including differentiated thyroid carcinoma. The limited amount of bioptic material is often insufficient to carry out multiple tests, and optimizing handling of the biopsy is desirable. METHODS We have developed a home-brew tetracolor break-apart probe able to simultaneously identify the 2 most common genetic alterations in differentiated thyroid carcinoma: RET/PTC variants in papillary thyroid carcinoma and PAX8/PPARg fusion and variants in follicular thyroid carcinoma. RESULTS The probe had 100% specificity, 99.5% sensitivity, and >= 3% cutoff. The probe was tested on RET/PTC and PAX8/PPARg RT-PCR positive controls, and feasibility was assessed in 368 thyroid nodule fine-needle aspirations (FNA). In the latter analysis, 24 FNAs had split RET signal, and 9 had split PPARg signal. FISH analysis of available surgically removed nodules confirmed the sensitivity of FISH in detecting abnormal clones and oligoclones. CONCLUSIONS The home-brew tetracolor probe showed high feasibility, optimizing the use of the biological material in relation to the available molecular tests and maximizing the FISH experimental and slide-scoring times. This probe may be considered an alternative to RT-PCR when recovery and quality of RNA amplification from FNA are insufficient