Density correlations in ultracold atomic Fermi gases

We investigate density fluctuations in a coherent ensemble of interacting fermionic atoms. Adapting the concept of full counting statistics, well-known from quantum optics and mesoscopic electron transport, we study second-order as well as higher-order correlators of density fluctuations. Using the mean-field BCS state to describe the whole interval between the BCS limit and the BEC limit, we obtain an exact expression for the cumulant-generating function of the density fluctuations of an atomic cloud. In the two-dimensional case, we obtain a closed analytical expression. Poissonian fluctuations of a molecular condensate on the BEC side are strongly suppressed on the BCS side. The size of the fluctuations in the BCS limit is a direct measure of the pairing potential. We also discuss the BEC-BCS crossover of the third cumulant and the temperature dependence of the second cumulant.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. A. New calculation of the bin statistics of a free Bose gas; updated and extended bibliograph

Ampelographic and Molecular Characterisation of Aglianico Accessions (Vitis vinifera L.) Collected in Southern Italy

To characterise 31 different Aglianico accessions randomly collected in Southern Italy, 30 ampelographicdescriptors, 13 SSRs and 10 AFLP primer combinations were analysed. An appreciable variation ofampelographic descriptors was revealed mainly by mature leaf traits, while very few variations wererecorded for shoot and berry traits. Similarly, all SSR loci revealed molecular monomorphism and AFLPswith a very high genetic similarity (Dice coefficient) among all the accessions considered. One of the aimsof this study was to clarify the genetic assessment of Aglianico Nero and Aglianico del Vulture Nero,since they are registered as two different cultivars with distinct varietal codes at the Italian Register ofGrape Varieties. Registered Aglianico Nero and Aglianico del Vulture Nero were included in the analyses,compared and used as reference material. Our plants showed that all the accessions tested, independentfrom the biotype, and the two registered cultivars belong to the same genotype, suggesting that, as reportedby the Vitis International Variety Catalogue, a case of synonymy occurred between Aglianico Nero andAglianico del Vulture Nero. These cultivars could therefore be considered as a single cultivar. Moreover,the AFLP data revealed a partial match between morphological and molecular data, showing that theAFLP molecular method was able to discriminate between different accessions belonging to the samecultivar

Benign blockage: gastric outlet obstruction due to a prolapsing gastric pedunculated polyp. Case report and literature review

NO ABSTRACT AVAILABLEAn 89-year-old woman was admitted to the emergency department at “Ospedale Civile Umberto I” in Lugo (Ravenna) for 1 month of vomiting, mild epigastric pain, and postprandial diarrhea without fever. Main comorbidities included chronic atrial fbrillation treated with a direct-acting oral anticoagulant, previous MI, hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia, though despite her age the patient was autonomous in her daily activities. On admission, laboratory tests included normal WBC count, Hgb, and CRP. Abdominal X-ray demonstrated a stomach flled by ingested food (Fig. 1a) and difuse air–fuid levels accompanied by abdominal distension (Fig. 1b). A surgical consultation was requested; a CT scan was performed confrming gastric distension by ingested food (Fig. 2). Since gastric outlet obstruction was suspected, the patient was hospitalized in a medical unit, treated with NPO and IV fuids. After 2 weeks, a second surgical consultation was requested due to the recurrence of clinical symptoms with unchanged laboratory tests. An upper GI series reported normal gastric and duodenal transit (Fig. 3) while colonoscopy was negative. The patient underwent EGD that showed a 4-cm pedunculated polyp situated in the gastric antrum; the polyp prolapsed into the duodenal bulb creating a “ball valve”-type intermittent obstruction. Biopsy was consistent with a hyperplastic polyp which was endoscopically resected (Fig. 4a–c). The fnal histological report confrmed a benign lesion; the patient was discharged from the hospital without any further invasive treatment in good general condition

Evidence of non-seed transmission of viruses in grapevine breeding material

The vertical transmission of viruses is an important phenomenon affecting a wide range of viruses and host plants. Nevertheless, the presence of virus in a seed does not always lead to seedling infection. In grapevine, seed transmission has been reported for many nepoviruses, but little is known about Leafroll, Rugose wood complex and Fleck diseases. Thus, the aim of this study is to monitor the virological condition of seedlings obtained by crosses between infected parents, analyzing the sanitary status of seedlings after the transfer in experimental fields. It was observed that, although the viral state of parents was quite compromised, viruses were not detected in any of the 150 progeny plants, demonstrating that the main grapevine viruses are at low risk for seed transmission

Mapping and classification of ports and marinas for the definition of long-term development strategy

Mapping and classification of ports may be of great help to define effective development strategies based on the concept of “intelligent, green and integrated port”, within the frame of sustainable development. To this end, classification tools and knowledge of the initial situation are crucial points needed, just as an example, to boost the maritime and short-sea connectivity by promoting the creation of regional touristic port network, capable of implementing a smart, green, and integrated transport system. This work deals with the mapping and classification of ports and marinas. A possible methodology to define a priority matrix intervention rank is proposed and applied to all the harbors in the Puglia region, as a case study. The collected open data aim to describe several aspects: the services, the urban planning whereby the port is thought, the facilities and structures, the connection with multi-modal local transport. The mapping activity has been performed within the frame of the AI-SMART project funded by the European Regional Development Fund that aims to implement and develop a common port network in the Adriatic-Ionian area. The case study served to highlight the feasibility and applicability of the proposed method to a real case

Quantification of plaque stiffness by Brillouin microscopy in experimental thin cap fibroatheroma

Plaques vulnerable to rupture are characterized by a thin and stiff fibrous cap overlaying a soft lipid-rich necrotic core. The ability to measure local plaque stiffness directly to quantify plaque stress and predict rupture potential would be very attractive, but no current technology does so. This study seeks to validate the use of Brillouin microscopy to measure the Brillouin frequency shift, which is related to stiffness, within vulnerable plaques. The left carotid artery of an ApoE-/- mouse was instrumented with a cuff that induced vulnerable plaque development in nine weeks. Adjacent histological sections from the instrumented and control arteries were stained for either lipids or collagen content, or imaged with confocal Brillouin microscopy. Mean Brillouin frequency shift was 15.79±0.09 GHz in the plaque compared with 16.24±0.15 (p \u3c 0.002) and 17.16±0.56 GHz (p \u3c 0.002) in the media of the diseased and control vessel sections, respectively. In addition, frequency shift exhibited a strong inverse correlation with lipid area of 20.67±0.06 (p \u3c 0.01) and strong direct correlation with collagen area of 0.71±0.15 (p \u3c 0.05). This is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, to apply Brillouin spectroscopy to quantify atherosclerotic plaque stiffness, which motivates combining this technology with intravascular imaging to improve detection of vulnerable plaques in patients

Novel atrazine-binding biomimetics inspired to the D1 protein from the photosystem II of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Biomimetic design represents an emerging field for improving knowledge of natural molecules, as well as to project novel artificial tools with specific functions for biosensing. Effective strategies have been exploited to design artificial bioreceptors, taking inspiration from complex supramolecular assemblies. Among them, size-minimization strategy sounds promising to provide bioreceptors with tuned sensitivity, stability, and selectivity, through the ad hoc manipulation of chemical species at the molecular scale. Herein, a novel biomimetic peptide enabling herbicide binding was designed bioinspired to the D1 protein of the Photosystem II of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The D1 protein portion corresponding to the QB plastoquinone binding niche is capable of interacting with photosynthetic herbicides. A 50-mer peptide in the region of D1 protein from the residue 211 to 280 was designed in silico, and molecular dynamic simulations were performed alone and in complex with atrazine. An equilibrated structure was obtained with a stable pocked for atrazine binding by three H-bonds with SER222, ASN247, and HIS272 residues. Computational data were confirmed by fluorescence spectroscopy and circular dichroism on the peptide obtained by automated synthesis. Atrazine binding at nanomolar concentrations was followed by fluorescence spectroscopy, highlighting peptide suitability for optical sensing of herbicides at safety limits

The Interreg Project AdSWiM: Managed Use of Treated Wastewater for the Quality of the Adriatic Sea

The Italy-Croatia Cross Border Cooperation (CBC) Programme is the financial instrument supporting the cooperation between the two European Member States overlooking the Adriatic Sea. The first call for proposals was launched in 2017, identifying four priority axes of intervention. Subsequently, in 2019, the kick-off of the AdSWiM project “Managed use of treated urban wastewater for the quality of the Adriatic Sea” took place in Udine (IT). Adriatic marine waters are generally classified as good to excellent based on the Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC). Nevertheless, issues of low productivity or the lack of nutrients have been often suggested, especially on the Italian side. The project addresses the question of whether wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) discharging to the sea, after applying appropriate pollution control and management technologies, can modulate the nutrient content of their effluents to support localized depleted areas. This idea is borrowed from one of the motivations that support the reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation, thus leading to the return of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, etc.) to natural biogeochemical cycles. However, the hypothesis of modulating the nutrient composition of wastewater opens up to several critical aspects, including legislative and technological ones. Being aware of the delicate environmental implications, we have undertaken the project involving WWTPs, research centers, municipalities, and legal experts with the aim of investigating in detail the problems related to wastewater reuse, especially with regard to the content of nutrients. Our experimental approach aimed to evaluate appropriate and possibly new treatment technologies to reduce the microbial load and to implement chemical and microbiological tests on the treated wastewater. Results have shown that it can be tricky to draw decisive conclusions because (i) the wastewater management systems differ between the two sides of the Adriatic sea due to the different levels of technological development of WWTPs; (ii) the Italian and Croatian coasts deeply differ in geographic characteristics (i.e., topography, orography, current circuits, presence of rivers) and anthropogenic pressure (i.e., exploitation levels, population density); (iii) the new treatment technologies to lower bacterial contamination need further efforts to raise their technological level of readiness (TRL) and make them implementable in the existing WWTPs. However, in terms of chemical control methodologies, the proposed sensors and biosensors gave positive results, managing to decrease the detection limits for the measured parameters, and the tested technologies for microbiological monitoring were also effective. In particular, the latter was carried out by using recent molecular biology techniques, capable of resolving the microbiota in treated wastewater, which emerged to be strictly related to the features of the WWTPs

IoTwins: Design and implementation of a platform for the management of digital twins in industrial scenarios

With the increase of the volume of data produced by IoT devices, there is a growing demand of applications capable of elaborating data anywhere along the IoT-to-Cloud path (Edge/Fog). In industrial environments, strict real-time constraints require computation to run as close to the data origin as possible (e.g., IoT Gateway or Edge nodes), whilst batch-wise tasks such as Big Data analytics and Machine Learning model training are advised to run on the Cloud, where computing resources are abundant. The H2020 IoTwins project leverages the digital twin concept to implement virtual representation of physical assets (e.g., machine parts, machines, production/control processes) and deliver a software platform that will help enterprises, and in particular SMEs, to build highly innovative, AI-based services that exploit the potential of IoT/Edge/Cloud computing paradigms. In this paper, we discuss the design principles of the IoTwins reference architecture, delving into technical details of its components and offered functionalities, and propose an exemplary software implementation