Survey of Italian pediatricians on awareness, experiences and beliefs regarding direct-to-consumer genetic testing in minors

Background: Our study wanted to assess Italian pediatricians’ awareness, experience and beliefs regarding directto- consumer (DTC) genetic tests (GT) in minors, with a focus on those for predisposition to complex disease, lyfestyle, athletic ability and other inborn talents. Methods: A 28-item questionnaire was administered through the SurveyMonkey® web platform to the 9,086 members of the Italian Society of Pediatrics for which a valid email address was available. The survey was opened from April through November 2017. Statistical analyses were performed using the Graphpad software package. Results: 36.2% of the 442 respondents were aware of DTC-GT, but only 23.1% of them felt adequately prepared to meet families’ information needs. The first three sources of knowledge were the Internet (20.98%), magazines/ newspapers (16.78%) and TV/Radio (14.33%), while companies’ direct marketing activity influenced knowledge only in 2.45% of the cases. Only 16.4% of the aware respondents had been already approached for advice. More than 95% of the pediatricians who were aware would not advise DTC-GT for lifestyle, athletic performance or other inborn skills. 69.2% was unfavourable to susceptibility tests for complex diseases. Most of them expressed an interest in learning more and indicated as preferred sources of information public policies issued by professional societies. Conclusion: The low awareness and experience and the vendors’ tiny contribution to knowledge suggest a still limited penetration of DTC-GT companies in Italy. A great interest in learning more was found. Scientific societies are best positioned to support health professionals in this educational goal thanks to their role of trusted sources of information and guidance

Influence of cold storage time on the softening prediction in Spring Bright nectarines

With Time-resolved Reflectance Spectroscopy (TRS) the maturity of nectarines at harvest can be assessed by measuring the absorption coefficient at 670 nm (µa 670) in the fruit flesh. A kinetic model has been developed linking the optical properties as measured by TRS with the models of µa 670 and firmness decay in shelf-life at 20°C, making the prediction of the softening time for individual fruit possible. In order to study the influence of cold storage time prior to shelf life on the softening prediction, 540 (year 2003) and 870 (year 2004) ‘Spring Bright’ nectarines were measured at harvest with TRS; then fruit were put in shelf life after various periods of cold storage at 0°C (4 and 10 d, year 2003; 6, 13 and 20 days, year 2004). During the 5-day period of shelf life at 20°C, fruit were analysed for firmness by pressure test after 30, 48, 54, 72, 78, 96, 102 and 120h in 2003 and after 36, 43, 62, 87, 108 and 135h in 2004. For each year and cold storage time, the parameters of the logistic model of softening as a function of µa 670 at harvest were computed. The cold storage up to 13 days did not significantly influence the estimates of the softening rate constant (kf), of the maximum firmness at minus infinite time (Fmax) and of parameter alpha (a) in both years, whereas parameter beta (ß) in 2003 significantly decreased from -1.867 at day 4 to -2.237 at day 10. The further 7 days of cold storage in 2004 significantly affected kf, which decreased from 0.00084 at days 6 and 13 to 0.00069 at day 20, and ß which increased from -2.395 at day 6 to -2.053 at day 20. Our results indicate that the cold storage time significantly influences the softening prediction of nectarines as the longer the cold storage, the lower the softening rat

A necessary condition for extremality of solutions to autonomous obstacle problems with general growth

Let us consider the autonomous obstacle problemmin(v) integral(Omega) F(Dv(x)) dxon a specific class of admissible functions, where we suppose the Lagrangian satisfies proper hypotheses of convexity and superlinearity at infinity. Our aim is to find a necessary condition for the extremality of the solution, which exists and it is unique, thanks to a primal-dual formulation of the problem. The proof is based on classical arguments of Convex Analysis and on Calculus of Variations' techniques. (c) 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Different approaches to integrate sustainability in corporate valuation

Against the increased attention to sustainability in corporate valuation, the scope of this paper is to compare alternative methods, both traditional and innovative, to gauge the role of sustainability when determining a company's fair value. A few main findings emerge from the empirical analysis on Eni S.p.A, a global Italian company operating in the utilities and energy sector. First, all corporate valuation methods accounting for sustainability (Sum of the Part (SOP) adjusted and Real Option Pricing Method) provide a stock price higher than the analysts’ and market one, pointing to sustainability not being valued (or being negatively valued) by the analysts and the market. Second, the quantification of the sustainability intangible, although different according to the approach taken, is positive. Third, such a difference may be reconnected to the rating used to adjust the SOP, whereby such a rating appears to be insufficient to fully capture Eni’s sustainability commitments. Our results suggests that the sustainability asset may drive-up stock prices once analysts factor it in in their valuations

TRS-measurements as a nondestructive method assessing stage of maturity and ripening in plum (Prunus domestica L.)

n plum fruit with dark red or blue blush colour covering the whole fruit, the change in ground colour from green to yellow during maturation and ripening is masked. Hence, the maturity stage is difficult to judge. Time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy (TRS) has been used as a nondestructive method to assess changes in important internal quality factors in ‘Jubileum’ plums (Prunus domestica L.). Absorption coefficients (µa) and scattering coefficients (µs) were measured at both 670 and 758 nm during 5 days of storage. The changes in soluble solids content, titratable acidity and firmness were as expected. No change in soluble solids content was observed, while the plums became less acid and softer during storage. The TRS-measurements of plums indicated that TRS could give interesting information on internal quality factors in plums as the absorption at 670 nm was closely related to firmness, TA and TSS at the time of picking. Absorption at 758 nm was more closely related to the quality parameters after storage. The study did not indicate that scattering could be used in assessing maturity stage in plum

Assessing the Harvest Maturity of Brazilian Mangoes

No clear criterion exists to determine the optimum time to harvest mango. Some empirical relations are used to assess maturity, such as shoulder development. Moreover, as a result of the typical growing conditions in tropical climates, a huge variation in maturity and ripeness exists, seriously hampering the export of fruit in the global chain. The consequence for consumers in western countries is that sometimes mangoes are overripe at the retailer, or have to be kept for several days, even weeks, to reach the edible state, provided they do not rot in the meantime. To ensure an edible quality, the chlorophyll content in the fruit flesh, measured at harvest by Time-resolved Reflectance Spectroscopy (TRS), could be used as a maturity criterion for mango fruit. Commercially grown fruit were harvested in Brazil and transported to Italy by plane. Fruits were measured using TRS at 630 nm for absorption coefficient (µa) and skin colour. The development of µa was followed on 60 fruits during 15 days of storage at 20°C. The remainders of fruit were used to measure firmness destructively. Absorption coefficient decreased during shelf life according to a logistic pattern, as expected for colour development. Taking the variation between the individual fruit into account, 72% of the variation was accounted for. Nevertheless, µa assessed at harvest could be converted into a biological shift factor (BSF), as an expression of the maturity at harvest of each individual fruit. This biological shift factor explained about 70% of the variation in firmness development in individual fruit. These preliminary results indicate that TRS methodology coupled with BSF theory could be useful in assessing maturity at harvest and assuring acceptable eating quality of mango

Feeding behaviour of larval European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) in relation to temperature and prey density

The feeding behaviour of larval European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, L.) was analysed in relation to temperature and prey density under controlled laboratory conditions with the aim to assess the ability of larval fish to change the feeding tactic as a response to environmental changes. Larvae were acclimated for 20 days at three different temperatures (19, 22 and 26°C), and their feeding behaviour was then video-recorded in experimental trials, at two prey densities, consisting of swarms of 400/l and 1440/l Artemia nauplii. Results showed that there was a significant effect of the interaction between temperature and prey density on the proportion of swimming activity that was reduced at the high temperature-high prey density combination. This suggested a switching in the larval feeding behaviour from an active to an ambush tactic, when the temperature reached 26°C and the prey density was 1440 /l Artemia nauplii. These results are consistent with the current literature on fish larval behaviour in showing that the foraging tactic can be modulated by the interaction of different abiotic and biotic factors characterising the rearing environment

Asymptotic analysis of a family of non-local functionals on sets

We study the asymptotic behavior of a family of functionals which penalize a short-range interaction of convolution type between a finite perimeter set and its complement. We first compute the pointwise limit and we obtain a lower estimate on more regulars sets. Finally, some examples are discussed

Non-Thermal Emission from AGN Coronae

Accretion disk coronae are believed to account for X-ray emission in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). In this paper the observed emission is assumed to be due to a population of relativistic, non-thermal electrons (e.g. produced in a flare) injected at the top of an accretion disk magnetic loop. While electrons stream along magnetic field lines their energy distribution evolves in time essentially because of inverse Compton and synchrotron losses. The corresponding time dependent emission due, in the X-ray energy range, to the inverse Compton mechanism, has been computed. Since the typical decay time of a flare is shorter than the integration time for data acquisition in the X-ray domain, the resulting spectrum is derived as the temporal mean of the real, time-dependent, emission, as originated by a series of consecutive and identical flares. The model outcome is compared to both the broad band BeppoSAX X-ray data of the bright Seyfert 1 NGC 5548, and to a few general X-ray spectral properties of Seyfert 1s as a class. The good agreement between model and observations suggests that the presently proposed non-thermal, non-stationary model could be a plausible explanation of AGN X-ray emission, as an alternative to thermal coronae models.Comment: 15 pages, 4 postscript figure