Biology, damage and control of the edible dormouse (Glis glis L.) in central Italy

The remarkable increase in the number of colonies of edible dormouse (Glis glis L.) registered in the litoranean industrial cultivations of Pinus pinea L. in northern Tuscany over the last ten years and the grave damage to the production of pine-seeds consequent on it has created the necessity of studying systems which may reduce the dormouse menace. Going on what has previously been discovered about the habits of the species in this particular habitat, three different methods of control were experimented: direct capture in their nests, which were in this case cavities in the tree trunks which woodpeckers' activities had made accessible to the dormice; capture by means of specially built artificial nests; distribution of bait composed of pine seeds poisoned with chlorophacinone. All three systems - the first two of which can be conveniently used together - are worth further investigation and experiment, considering their results, to examine their individual advantages

The habits and influence on the environment of the old world porcupine Hystrix cristata L. in the nothernmost part of its range

The crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata L.) has been shown to have considerably increased in numbers and to have occupied new territories in Tuscany, which is the northernmost part of its range. New data on its ecology and biology, and the negative effects of an excessive density of these rodents on the rural and natural environment are reported. Since this species is protected by law in Italy, because of its high value from the faunistic point of view, some possible techniques, to be improved upon, for the capture and redistribution of live specimens are discussed

Historia de la mejora del olmo

Breeding elms resistant to Dutch elm disease (DED) started in the Netherlands in the year 1928 on the initiative of a group of women scientists. They were active until 1954, when Hans Heybroek took over at the Dorschkamp Research Institute and carried on until his retirement in 1992. Two more programmes were initiated in Europe, in Italy and Spain, in 1978 and 1993 respectively, under the impulse of Dutch breeding activities. Elm breeding in America began in 1937 in the USDA-Agricultural Research Service Laboratories and is still being pursued under the leadership of Alden Townsend. Another programme was set up at the University of Wisconsin in 1958, led by Eugene Smalley and was closed after his retirement and death in 2002. A third programme found birth at the Morton Arboretum, Chicago, in 1972 where activities are still carried out by George Ware since his retirement. The number of resistant elm clones released on the market and the scientific progress fostered by breeding activities indicate that the long work needed to carry them on is a positive one. Among the key points considered are: elm germplasm collection, elm species crossability, inoculation system and disease evaluation, building up of resistance, and the possible consequences from introducing foreign species and hybrids to native elms. Because of shortage of funding long-term research and the perception that biotechnology will provide rapid solutions to long-term problems, traditional elm breeding activities seem now to be in difficulty. In this context, it seems wise to take all possible steps to avoid a loss in the precious gene resources so far collected and not to give up on traditional elm breeding activities, which so far has been found to be the sole means in providing tangible results for controlling DED.La mejora genética de olmos resistentes a la grafiosis se inició en los Países Bajos en 1928 debido a la iniciativa de un grupo de investigadoras que estuvieron activas hasta 1954, año en que Hans Heybroek se hizo cargo del Dorschkamp Research Institute, donde prosiguió con los trabajos hasta su jubilación en 1992. Otros dos programas se iniciaron en Europa, en Italia y España, en 1978 y 1993 respectivamente, contando con el apoyo inicial de las actividades holandesas de mejora. La mejora genética del olmo en Norteamérica comenzó en 1937 en los USDA-Agricultural Research Service Laboratories, y está actualmente dirigida por Alden Townsend. Otro programa, establecido en la Universidad de Wisconsin en 1958, fue liderado por Eugene Smalley hasta que se clausuró tras su jubilación y muerte en 2002. Un tercer programa surgió en el Morton Arboretum, Chicago, en 1972, donde las actividades siguen dirigidas por George Ware desde su jubilación. El número de olmos resistentes comercializados y el progreso científico obtenido gracias a las actividades de mejora indican que el largo periodo de trabajo necesario para desarrollarlas merece la pena. Entre los elementos clave a considerar destacan: la recolección de germoplasma, la posibilidad de realización de cruzamientos, los sistemas de inoculación y de evaluación de la enfermedad, la obtención de resistencia, y las posibles consecuencias para los olmos nativos de la introducción de híbridos y especies alóctonas. Debido a la escasez de fondos para trabajos a largo plazo y a la percepción de que la biotecnología podría proporcionar en el futuro soluciones rápidas a los problemas, la mejora tradicional del olmo parece estar actualmente en dificultades. En este contexto, parece prudente dar todos los pasos necesarios para evitar la perdida de los preciosos recursos genéticos acumulados hasta el momento y no abandonar las actividades tradicionales de mejora que hasta el momento han sido las únicas que han proporcionado resultados tangibles para el control de la grafiosis

Bell lysaker emotion recognition test: a contribution for the italian validation

INTRODUCTION: Emotion recognition deficits in psychopathology have been extensively studied with a variety of measures. The Bell Lysaker Emotion Recognition Test (BLERT; Bell et al., 1997) is an effective method to assess emotion recognition by presenting affect stimuli which may have greater verisimilitude with real life events. Indeed, BLERT combines facial expressions with affective information transmitted in prosody or body posture. This method has allowed the study of emotion recognition deficit in psychotic patients, as well as its relationships with other aspects of psychopathology (Vohs et al., 2014). OBJECTIVES: We aimed at testing the validity and reliability of an Italian version of the BLERT. AIMS: First, a group-comparison was carried out between clinical and nonclinical participants. Then, correlations among BLERT scores and other indices of psychological functioning were explored. METHODS: We recruited 12 inpatients with psychotic disorders (mean age= 54.75; 58.3% female) and 45 nonclinical participants (mean age= 24.04; 75.6% female). We administered the BLERT (Bell et al., 1997), along with the following measures: Empathy Quotient (Lawrence et al., 2004), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004), and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-47 (Pilkonis et al., 1996). RESULTS: Clinical participants resulted impaired in all indices of the BLERT. Further, the construct validity of the BLERT was confirmed by associations with measures of empathy, emotion dysregulation, and interpersonal problems. CONCLUSIONS: The use of the Italian version of the BLERT seemed promising for the study of emotion recognition in both clinical and nonclinical samples

The influence of stochasticity, landscape structure and species traits on abundant–centre relationships

Species have been commonly hypothesized to have high population densities in geographic areas which correspond to either the centre of the species geographic range or climatic niche (abundant–centre hypothesis). However, there is mixed empirical support for this relationship, and little theoretical underpinning. We simulate a species spreading across a set of replicated artificial landscapes to examine the expected level of support for abundant–centre relationships in geographic and niche space. Species niche constraints were modeled as a single axis which was related directly to population growth rates. We found strong evidence for abundant–centre relationships when populations follow deterministic growth, dispersal is high, environmental noise is absent and intraspecific competition is low. However, the incorporation of ecological realism reduced the detectability of abundant–centre relationships considerably. Our results suggest that even in carefully constructed artificial landscapes designed to demonstrate abundant–centre dynamics, the incorporation of small amounts of demographic stochasticity, environmental heterogeneity or landscape structure can strongly influence the relationship between species population density and distance to species geographic range or niche centre. While some simulated relationships were of comparable strength to common empirical support for abundant–centre relationships, our results suggest that these relationships are expected to be fairly variable and weak

Economic and demographic issues related to deployment of the Satellite Power System (SPS)

Growth in energy consumption stimulated interest in exploitation of renewable sources of electric energy. One technology that was proposed is the Satellite Power System (SPS). Before committing the U.S. to such a large program, the Department of Energy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are jointly participating in an SPS Concept Development and Evaluation Program. This white paper on industrial and population relocation is part of the FY 78 preliminary evaluation of related socio-economic issues. Results of four preliminary assessment activities are documented

Might EPR particles communicate through a wormhole?

We consider the two-particle wave function of an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen system, given by a two dimensional relativistic scalar field model. The Bohm-de Broglie interpretation is applied and the quantum potential is viewed as modifying the Minkowski geometry. In this way an effective metric, which is analogous to a black hole metric in some limited region, is obtained in one case and a particular metric with singularities appears in the other case, opening the possibility, following Holland, of interpreting the EPR correlations as being originated by an effective wormhole geometry, through which the physical signals can propagate.Comment: Corrected version, to appears in EP

An automatic deep learning approach for coronary artery calcium segmentation

Coronary artery calcium (CAC) is a significant marker of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events. In this work we present a system for the automatic quantification of calcium score in ECG-triggered non-contrast enhanced cardiac computed tomography (CT) images. The proposed system uses a supervised deep learning algorithm, i.e. convolutional neural network (CNN) for the segmentation and classification of candidate lesions as coronary or not, previously extracted in the region of the heart using a cardiac atlas. We trained our network with 45 CT volumes; 18 volumes were used to validate the model and 56 to test it. Individual lesions were detected with a sensitivity of 91.24%, a specificity of 95.37% and a positive predicted value (PPV) of 90.5%; comparing calcium score obtained by the system and calcium score manually evaluated by an expert operator, a Pearson coefficient of 0.983 was obtained. A high agreement (Cohen's k = 0.879) between manual and automatic risk prediction was also observed. These results demonstrated that convolutional neural networks can be effectively applied for the automatic segmentation and classification of coronary calcifications

On the heavenly equation hierarchy and its reductions

Second heavenly equation hierarchy is considered using the framework of hyper-K\"ahler hierarchy developed by Takasaki. Generating equations for the hierarchy are introduced, they are used to construct generating equations for reduced hierarchies. General $N$-reductions, logarithmic reduction and rational reduction for one of the Lax-Sato functions are discussed. It is demonstrated that rational reduction is equivalent to the symmetry constraint.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, minor misprints corrected, references adde