Ecodynamics: Towards an evolutionary thermodynamics of ecosystems

a b s t r a c t This paper collects, with few minor formal changes, two of the latest scientific contributions Particular attention is devoted to goal functions, to the relation of matter, energy, space and time and to the interdisciplinary approach connecting thermodynamics and biology. Entropy is discussed as a fundamental goal function in the far from equilibrium framework. The relationship between entropy, as a non-state function, and the state-function energy is stressed and discussed, at the light of the role of information. The theory of probability is also discussed in the light of new theoretical findings related to the role of events, also in terms of entropy and evolutionary thermodynamics. Confined Ontic Open Systems (COOS) represent the latest model proposed by Prof. Tiezzi based on his Ecodynamic theory, evolutionary thermodynamics, Ulanowicz's ontic. The model has a wide range of applications, including ecosystems, ecological economics, urban organization, the supra-molecular structure of water and global biosphere's models. The model is explained in terms of evolutionary thermodynamics and Jørgensen's ecosystems theory

Liquid and vapour phase of lavandin (Lavandula × intermedia) essential oil: chemical composition and antimicrobial activity

Essential oils from Lavandula genus and the obtained hybrids are widely used for different purposes such as perfume production in the cosmetic field and for its biological properties. This is the first study on the liquid and vapour phase of Lavandula × intermedia “Grosso” essential oil grown in the Lazio Region, Italy, investigated using headspace coupled to gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (HS-GC/MS). The results showed the most abundant components were linalool and linalyl acetate, followed by 1,8-cineole and terpinen-4-ol, while lavandulyl acetate and borneol were identified as minor compounds, maintaining the same proportion in both the liquid and vapour phase. Furthermore, we tested lavandin liquid and vapour phase essential oil on gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter bohemicus, and Pseudomonas fluorescens) and gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus cereus and Kocuria marina)

Chemical investigation of a biologically active schinus molle L. leaf extract

The pepper tree Schinus molle L. is an evergreen ornamental plant belonging to the Anacardiaceae family, native to South America and widespread throughout the world. It has biological activities and is used in folk medicine. This paper aims to contribute to a deeper knowledge of its chemical composition and biological properties. S. molle leaf extracts were obtained by sequential extraction with solvents of different polarities and subsequently tested on the HL-60 human leukaemia cell line to define a possible cytotoxic activity. Among the investigated extracts, the petroleum ether extract revealed a high cytotoxic activity, and its chemical composition was further investigated. By a silica column chromatography, eight fractions were obtained, and their compositions were determined by GC-MS analysis. Compounds and relative abundance differed widely among the fractions; sesquiterpenes resulted the main component and alcoholic sesquiterpenes the most abundant

An emergy evaluation of a medieval water management system: The case of the underground "Bottini" in Siena (Italy)

In the middle ages, Siena had a high population density and had to face the problem of water supply within the city walls for housing, crafts, industrial activities and fire risks. With this aim, a series of underground drifts, namely "Bottini", was built at the beginning of the 13th century and achieved a total length of 25 km in the 14th century. Bottini have been capturing rain water and conducting it from the countryside to the fountains in the city centre for centuries. Brick pavements and other structures, such as brick vaults (where necessary), guaranteed water clearness and allowed a special team of workers, "bottinieri", to move throughout the tunnels for management and maintenance. Bottini still bring 9.5 l/s of clear water. Currently water is only used to fill the fountains and is then wasted. Based on statistics on water use, we argued that the activity of maintaining Bottini is not only a good practice for the conservation of a precious cultural heritage, but could also be potentially an opportunity for improving urban ecology. In this paper, we propose to investigate the environmental impact of water use comparing Bottini with a contemporary water management system. In particular, an "emergy evaluation" was developed for providing information about the sustainability of water use, both nowadays and in the past. Preliminary results showed that Bottini have a much lower environmental impact and can be potentially reused by withdrawing water and using it for some activities - such as irrigation of gardens and playgrounds, street washing and sanitary use - within the historical centre of Siena

Stochastic Coherence Over Attention Trajectory For Continuous Learning In Video Streams

Devising intelligent agents able to live in an environment and learn by observing the surroundings is a longstanding goal of Artificial Intelligence. From a bare Machine Learning perspective, challenges arise when the agent is prevented from leveraging large fully-annotated dataset, but rather the interactions with supervisory signals are sparsely distributed over space and time. This paper proposes a novel neural-network-based approach to progressively and autonomously develop pixel-wise representations in a video stream. The proposed method is based on a human-like attention mechanism that allows the agent to learn by observing what is moving in the attended locations. Spatio-temporal stochastic coherence along the attention trajectory, paired with a contrastive term, leads to an unsupervised learning criterion that naturally copes with the considered setting. Differently from most existing works, the learned representations are used in open-set class-incremental classification of each frame pixel, relying on few supervisions. Our experiments leverage 3D virtual environments and they show that the proposed agents can learn to distinguish objects just by observing the video stream. Inheriting features from state-of-the art models is not as powerful as one might expect

Apoptotic effects on HL60 human leukaemia cells induced by lavandin essential oil treatment

Recent scientific investigations have reported a number of essential oils to interfere with intracellular signalling pathways and to induce apoptosis in different cancer cell types. In this paper, Lavandin Essential Oil (LEO), a natural sterile hybrid obtained by cross-breeding L. angustifolia × L. latifolia, was tested on human leukaemia cells (HL60). Based on the MTT results, the reduced cell viability of HL60 cells was further investigated to determine whether cell death was related to the apoptotic process. HL60 cells treated for 24 h with LEO were processed by flow cytometry, and the presence of Annexin V was measured. The activation of caspases-3 was evaluated by western blot and immunofluorescence techniques. Treated cells were also examined by scanning and transmission electron microscopy to establish the possible occurrence of morphological alterations during the apoptotic process. LEO main compounds, such as linalool, linalyl acetate, 1,8-cineole, and terpinen-4-ol, were also investigated by MTT and flow cytometry analysis. The set of obtained results showed that LEO treatments induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent, but not time-dependent, manner on HL60 cells, while among LEO main compounds, both terpinen-4-ol and linalyl acetate were able to induce apoptosis

A Logical Verification Methodology for Service-Oriented Computing

We introduce a logical verification methodology for checking behavioural properties of service-oriented computing systems. Service properties are described by means of SocL, a branching-time temporal logic that we have specifically designed to express in an effective way distinctive aspects of services, such as, e.g., acceptance of a request, provision of a response, and correlation among service requests and responses. Our approach allows service properties to be expressed in such a way that they can be independent of service domains and specifications. We show an instantiation of our general methodology that uses the formal language COWS to conveniently specify services and the expressly developed software tool CMC to assist the user in the task of verifying SocL formulae over service specifications. We demonstrate feasibility and effectiveness of our methodology by means of the specification and the analysis of a case study in the automotive domain