Morphological variation of the newly confirmed population of the javelin sand boa, Eryx jaculus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Serpentes, erycidae) in Sicily, Italy

The presence of the Javelin sand boa in Sicily has recently been confirmed. Here the morphological characters and sexual dimorphism of the Sicilian population of Eryx jaculus are presented. Seven meristic and six metric characters in 96 specimens from Sicily were examined. The results show that tail length, snout-vent length, the distance between nostrils and the number of ventral and subcaudal scales are different between sexes. The characters found in the Sicilian population of the Javelin sand boa resemble those of the African population (ssp. jaculus) rather than the Eurasian population (ssp. turcicus), but biomolecular studies are necessary to understand its taxonomic identity

On the occurrence of the invasive Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus Rathbun 1896 (Decapoda: Brachyura: Portunidae) in Sicilian inland waters

- The Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus Rathbun 1896 is included among the worst invasive alien species in the Mediterranean Sea. Here we report the finding of the species in two Sicilian rivers, the Irminio and the Imera Meridionale, where it was collected up to 6 km distant from the river mouths. Although several records of the species are already available from Italy, this is the first evidence of the occurrence of this invasive crab this far from the coastline throughout the Country. In the light of the well-known impact of the Atlantic blue crab on the invaded water bodies, the monitoring of the species and appropriate mitigation strategies should be implemented in order to protect the threatened native biota of the Sicilian inland waters

Canine Mesenchymal Stem Cells from visceral and subcutaneuous adipose tissue for cell-based therapy

This study compared some characteristics of canine Adipose tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (cAD-MSCs) from subcutaneous and visceral fat. These findings were directed to obtain high quantity and quality cAD-MSCs for clinical cell-based therapy

THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common pediatric disability causing long-term functional limitations. CP remarkably influences the life of those affected and their families. For this reason it is important and necessary to direct attention not only type of the CP, but also the impact the disorder has on the child, parents, siblings and the entire family as a whole. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of CP on the child’s quality of life, considering parents’ perceptions about their child's illness, in order to underline the impact the illness has not only on the child but also his/her family. Methods: The study included both parents of the 36 subjects enrolled (19 males and 17 females), with established CP diagnosis. The effect of CP on the families was assessed using the Impact of Childhood Illness Scale. This questionnaire assesses the quality of life in children with epilepsy and other chronic pathologies and in their families. All questions refer to effect to the illness family. The scale comprises 30 questions divided into four sections: impact of illness and its treatment ; impact on development and child s adjustment; impact on parents and impact on the family. Descriptive analyses were used for data analysis and it is also calculated the rank correlation coefficient Spearman’s rho. Results and conclusion: The mothers’ group presents little higher average scores than the group of fathers in two four subscales or in the basement “Impact on the child” and “Family impact on the organization”. This could be due to the fact that mothers are concerned most of the child's caregiver, living most of all the difficulties that entails; mothers show greater concerns than fathers. In subscale “Impact on parents” the average score of the answers of the group of mothers coincide with that of the fathers; the experience and the experience of his son's illness is analogous for both parents. No significant differences were found from the correlational analysis between the individual items of the subscales and the different forms of CP. In families of children with CP, strategies for optimizing caregiver physical and psychological health include supports for behavioral management and daily functional activities as well as stress management and self-efficacy techniques

Alpha-particle clustering in excited expanding self-conjugate nuclei

The fragmentation of quasi-projectiles from the nuclear reaction 40Ca + 12C at 25 MeV/nucleon was used to produce alpha-emission sources. From a careful selection of these sources provided by a complete detection and from comparisons with models of sequential and simultaneous decays, strong indications in favour of $\alpha$-particle clustering in excited 16O, 20Ne and 24}Mg are reported.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 12th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus collisions (NN2015), 21-26 June 2015, Catania, Ital

Production of α\alpha-particle condensate states in heavy-ion collisions

The fragmentation of quasi-projectiles from the nuclear reaction $^{40}Ca$ + $^{12}C$ at 25 MeV/nucleon was used to produce excited states candidates to $\alpha$-particle condensation. The experiment was performed at LNS-Catania using the CHIMERA multidetector. Accepting the emission simultaneity and equality among the $\alpha$-particle kinetic energies as experimental criteria for deciding in favor of the condensate nature of an excited state, we analyze the $0_2^+$ and $2_2^+$ states of $^{12}$C and the $0_6^+$ state of $^{16}$O. A sub-class of events corresponding to the direct 3-$\alpha$ decay of the Hoyle state is isolated.Comment: contribution to the 2nd Workshop on "State of the Art in Nuclear Cluster Physics" (SOTANCP2), Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), May 25-28, 2010, to be published in the International Journal of Modern Physics

Projected Quasi-particle Perturbation theory

The BCS and/or HFB theories are extended by treating the effect of four quasi-particle states perturbatively. The approach is tested on the pairing hamiltonian, showing that it combines the advantage of standard perturbation theory valid at low pairing strength and of non-perturbative approaches breaking particle number valid at higher pairing strength. Including the restoration of particle number, further improves the description of pairing correlation. In the presented test, the agreement between the exact solution and the combined perturbative + projection is almost perfect. The proposed method scales friendly when the number of particles increases and provides a simple alternative to other more complicated approaches

Kinematical coincidence method in transfer reactions

A new method to extract high resolution angular distributions from kinematical coincidence measurements in binary reactions is presented. Kinematic is used to extract the center of mass angular distribution from the measured energy spectrum of light particles. Results obtained in the case of 10Be+p-->9Be+d reaction measured with the CHIMERA detector are shown. An angular resolution of few degrees in the center of mass is obtained.Comment: 6 Page 10 Figures submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods