growth performance and stress response of common sole subjected to varying stocking densities and rearing temperatures

AbstractEarlier short-term studies have shown productivity of intensively farmed common sole (S. solea) to be closely dependent on rearing density. Irrespective of fish size, elevating crowding conditions led to declining growth rates while the effect of density on mortality remains controversial. To what extent water temperature could affect productivity of growing sole subjected to varying crowding conditions, warrants investigation as very few studies have tried to quantify the effects of this fundamental rearing parameter on growth and survival in this fish species. This is particularly crucial for developing suitable farming protocols in Italy, where common sole may experience a broad range of water temperatures throughout the rearing cycle. The aim of this study was to evaluate productivity and blood cortisol level as a measure of stress response, in growing sole subjected to different stocking densities and temperature conditions. Six hundred juveniles (ind. weight 21.8±1.5g) were randomly allotted..

Validity and reliability of the Italian version of the Oral Assessment Guide

Mucositis is a frequent side-effect of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Assessment of oral cavity is important to detect alterations in the mouth and plan appropriate interventions. A reliable tool can help to have a better assessment of mucositis and a major knowledge about this phenomenon. Since no valid and reliable tool for the assessment of mucositis is still available in Italy, the aim of this study was to establish the validity and reliability of the Italian version of the Oral Assessment Guide (OAG). A panel of health care experts established the content validity of the tool both for the items and the descriptors. To establish the reliability of the tool, a sample of 14 inpatients with haematological diseases were recruited. Couples of dental hygienists separately performed 60 pairs of assessments (for a total of 120 assessments) on the sample. The Italian version of OAG was found to have an acceptable Content Validity Index (CVI) for items and related descriptors ranging between 0.67 and 1. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.84, agreement of assessment ranged between 0.87 and 0.65 with Cohen’s Kappa coefficient ranging from good to very good. This study showed that the Italian version of the OAG has good psychometric properties of validity and reliability to assess mucositis in patients undergoing chemotherapy. This tool will have a great importance to carry out future research in Italy aimed to improve the patient's outcomes particularly in terms of functional ability and quality of life

A new bioactive glass/collagen hybrid composite for applications in dentistry

Bioactive glasses (BGs) are currently employed in a wide range of medical and dentistry applications by virtue of their bone-bonding ability. The incorporation of BGs into a collagen matrix may be used to combine the regenerative potential of these materials with the specific biological advantages of collagen. However, most of the collagen/BG composites reported in the literature are scaffolds and there is a lack of moldable putties or injectable systems. Here, granules of an innovative BG containing strontium and magnesium were mixed with collagen and PEG to obtain a putty (BGMS/C) suitable for dental applications. For the sake of comparison, granules of 45S5 Bioglass\uae, the gold standard among BGs, were used to prepare a 45S5/collagen putty. Both the composites were evaluated in vitro with respect to murine fibroblasts. The materials showed an excellent biocompatibility, making them interesting for possible applications in dentistry and reconstructive surgery. Moreover, BGMS/C seems to stimulate cell proliferation.Bioactive glasses (BGs) are currently employed in a wide range of medical and dentistry applications by virtue of their bone-bonding ability. The incorporation of BGs into a collagen matrix may be used to combine the regenerative potential of these materials with the specific biological advantages of collagen. However, most of the collagen/BG composites reported in the literature are scaffolds and there is a lack of moldable putties or injectable systems. Here, granules of an innovative BG containing strontium and magnesium were mixed with collagen and PEG to obtain a putty (BGMS/C) suitable for dental applications. For the sake of comparison, granules of 45S5 Bioglass\uae, the gold standard among BGs, were used to prepare a 45S5/collagen putty. Both the composites were evaluated in vitro with respect to murine fibroblasts. The materials showed an excellent biocompatibility, making them interesting for possible applications in dentistry and reconstructive surgery. Moreover, BGMS/C seems to stimulate cell proliferation

Brain Responses to Surprising Stimulus Offsets: Phenomenology and Functional Significance

Abrupt increases of sensory input (onsets) likely reflect the occurrence of novel events or objects in the environment, potentially requiring immediate behavioral responses. Accordingly, onsets elicit a transient and widespread modulation of ongoing electrocortical activity: the Vertex Potential (VP), which is likely related to the optimisation of rapid behavioral responses. In contrast, the functional significance of the brain response elicited by abrupt decreases of sensory input (offsets) is more elusive, and a detailed comparison of onset and offset VPs is lacking. In four experiments conducted on 44 humans, we observed that onset and offset VPs share several phenomenological and functional properties: they (1) have highly similar scalp topographies across time, (2) are both largely comprised of supramodal neural activity, (3) are both highly sensitive to surprise and (4) co-occur with similar modulations of ongoing motor output. These results demonstrate that the onset and offset VPs largely reflect the activity of a common supramodal brain network, likely consequent to the activation of the extralemniscal sensory system which runs in parallel with core sensory pathways. The transient activation of this system has clear implications in optimizing the behavioral responses to surprising environmental changes

Machine learning supported next-maintenance prediction for industrial vehicles

Industrial and construction vehicles require tight periodic maintenance operations. Their schedule depends on vehicle characteristics and usage. The latter can be accurately monitored through various on-board devices, enabling the application of Machine Learning techniques to analyze vehicle usage patterns and design predictive analytics. This paper presents a data-driven application to automatically schedule the periodic maintenance operations of industrial vehicles. It aims to predict, for each vehicle and date, the actual remaining days until the next maintenance is due. Our Machine Learning solution is designed to address the following challenges: (i) the non-stationarity of the per-vehicle utilization time series, which limits the effectiveness of classic scheduling policies, and (ii) the potential lack of historical data for those vehicles that have recently been added to the fleet, which hinders the learning of accurate predictors from past data. Preliminary results collected in a real industrial scenario demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution on heterogeneous vehicles. The system we propose here is currently under deployment, enabling further tests and tunings