The first extensive study of an Imperial Roman Garden in the city of Rome. The Horti Lamiani

This paper presents the first systematic results of integrated plant macrofossil and pollen analyses from the Horti Lamiani (1st-3rd century ce), an aristocratic residence with a luxury garden which was established on the Esquilino (Esquiline Hill) in Rome during the time of the first Emperor, Caesar Augustus (27 bce-14 ce) and later became one of the most famous Imperial gardens around the ancient city. Different types of plant remains such as charcoal, seeds and fruits and pollen were recovered from pits and pots in the garden and reflect the presence of plants there. There seem to have been ornamental shrubs which were probably grown as decorative modelled hedges and/or isolated bushes, as well as cultivated trees. Several ornamental flowering plants grew in pots. Although this archaeobotanical assemblage could represent some patches of wild vegetation still growing in the study area at the time of the Imperial garden, it is likely that most of the identified plants were intentionally planted and organised to create a glimpse of the past wild landscape of Rome. They have special characteristics, such as bearing coloured flowers or fruits and offering shade, that made them suitable for embellishing a magnificent garden. Moreover this reflects the Roman desire to control nature, testified by the expansion of luxury gardens during the Imperial period and the spread of decorative horticultural techniques, like the miniaturisation of trees and shaping of trees and shrubs by topiary

Optimal interpolation of satellite and ground data for irradiance nowcasting at city scales

We use a Bayesian method, optimal interpolation, to improve satellite derived irradiance estimates at city-scales using ground sensor data. Optimal interpolation requires error covariances in the satellite estimates and ground data, which define how information from the sensor locations is distributed across a large area. We describe three methods to choose such covariances, including a covariance parameterization that depends on the relative cloudiness between locations. Results are computed with ground data from 22 sensors over a 75×80 km area centered on Tucson, AZ, using two satellite derived irradiance models. The improvements in standard error metrics for both satellite models indicate that our approach is applicable to additional satellite derived irradiance models. We also show that optimal interpolation can nearly eliminate mean bias error and improve the root mean squared error by 50%

Clinical and biological heterogeneity in children with moderate asthma

To evaluate the relationship between inflammatory markers and severity of asthma in children, the amount of interleukin-8 (IL-8) and granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) released by peripheral blood mononuclear cells, exhaled nitric oxide (FE NO) levels, p65 nuclear factor-kappaB subunit, and phosphorylated IkBalpha expression by peripheral blood mononuclear cells were assessed in six control subjects, 12 steroid-naives subjects with intermittent asthma, and 17 children with moderate asthma. To investigate their predictive value, biomarker levels were correlated with the number of exacerbations during a 18-month follow-up period. We found that GM-CSF release was higher in moderate and intermittent asthmatics than in control subjects, whereas IL-8 release was higher in moderate than in intermittent asthmatics and control subjects. FE NO levels were similar among study groups. In moderate asthmatics, IL-8, GM-CSF, and FE NO significantly correlated with the exacerbation numbers. Moreover, p65 and phosphorylated IkBalpha levels were greater in moderate than in intermittent asthmatics and control subjects. According to GM-CSF, IL-8, and FE NO levels, two distinct subgroups of moderate asthmatics (low and high producers) were identified. High producers experienced more exacerbations than low producers. This study shows ongoing inflammation associated with biological and clinical heterogeneity in moderate asthmatics despite regular treatment and proposes that large prospective studies confirm the importance of biomarkers to assess inflammation and asthma control in children with asthma

BiodiverCities: A roadmap to enhance the biodiversity and green infrastructure of European cities by 2030

BiodiverCities is a European Parliament Pilot Project, developed with the aim of enhancing the use of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) to enhance the condition of urban ecosystems, providing benefits for people and nature. In this report, an evaluation around the most appropriate reporting unit for an urban ecosystems assessment is carried out, comparing Functional Urban Areas (FUA) and Local Administrative Units (LAU). Furthermore, UGI are assessed from a multi-scale perspective. The status and scenarios of UGI in European urbanised areas is first analysed measuring the urban green areas and the tree canopy cover. Secondly, the contribution of UGI to the overall European Green Infrastructure (EU-GI) is quantified, evaluating the respective role of FUA and LAU. Finally, the effect of urban characteristics on biotic homogenization is analysed exploring how urbanised areas impact on avian population and communities in French cities. The results of this study will inform the development of a roadmap for greening cities in Europe in the 2020-2030 decade

Airway remodelling assessed by sputum and high resolution computed tomography in asthma and COPD

It is not known whether sputum elastase, metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 and tissue-inhibitor metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 are related to structural changes of the airways, as assessed by high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan. The relationships between these markers and the magnitude of structural changes of the airways in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were assessed. Induced sputum and HRCT scan were performed in 30 asthmatics (14 mild and 16 severe) and in 12 patients with COPD. A greater extent of HRCT scan abnormalities was found in COPD than in severe and mild asthmatics. HRCT scan abnormalities correlated with the degree of airway obstruction in COPD and in severe asthma. HRCT scan abnormalities also correlated with the levels of sputum elastase both in COPD and in severe asthma. HRCT scan abnormalities were associated with sputum MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio in mild asthma, severe asthma and COPD. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that sputum elastase and the metalloproteinase-9/tissue-inhibitor metalloproteinase-1 ratio are associated with the magnitude of high-resolution computed tomography scan abnormalities of the airways in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and suggests that the levels of these markers reflect the extent of structural changes of the airway

How different husbandry conditions influence hind-gut microbiome, cortisol level and behaviour in lambs?

The gut microbiota\u2013brain axis is a bidirectional pathway through which the brain regulates the activity of the gut and vice versa. The intestinal microbiota was proven to influence and be influenced by stressrelated responses caused by management conditions. The aim of this work was to evaluate whether different husbandry conditions in lambs influenced gut microbiome (composition and diversity), cortisol level and behaviour. Fifteen Sarda breed lambs, aged 6 months, were randomly assigned to three groups of 5 animals each: Isolation (tactile and visual isolation; 3 h/day for 8 weeks); Enriched (in group in a outdoor grassy pen with a new enrichment each week; 3 h/day for 8 weeks); Control (habitual farm environment). Every week, 2 video-recordings of 1-hour each were collected respectively during and after each treatment, and analysed using a scan sampling technique (60 scans per video). Every two weeks hair was collected from the right shoulder using a shave and re-shave method. Cortisol concentration was measured by means of an ELISA test conducted on hair samples and expressed as pg/ml. At week 8 faecal material was collected directly from the rectal ampulla and immediately frozen at 1220\ub0C until DNA extraction was performed using a QIAmp DNA Stool kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). DNA quality and quantity were assessed using a NanoDrop ND-1000 spectrophotometer (NanoDrop Technologies, Wilmington, DE, USA). The microbiota of enriched animals was clearly different from the other two groups and showed lower within group variability. During treatment, only isolated sheep showed escape attempts (23% of scans during the first week) and freezing (58% of scans during the first week). In the home pen, after treatment, lambs did not show any stress-related behaviour. After one month of treatment, hair cortisol increased only in the isolated group. In conclusion, differences in microbiome could be related to the different stimulating enrichment and addition of grass on the diet. Although, from a behavioural point of view, sheep apparently habituated to the isolation, increase in cortisol levels could be related to experiencing a stressful situation

CTF3: Design of Driving Beam Combiner Ring

In CTF3 the beam compression of the driving beam structure between the main linac and the decelerating section is obtained with a delay loop and a combiner ring which increase the pulse current by a factor 10. The design of the combiner ring is presented. Tunable isochronicity condition, corrected up to second order, should assure preservation of the correlation in the longitudinal phase space during the compression. Path-length tuning devices are included in the combiner ring layout to compensate for orbit variations

High luminosity interaction region design for collisions inside high field detector solenoid

An innovatory interaction region has been recently conceived and realized on the Frascati DA{\Phi}NE lepton collider. The concept of tight focusing and small crossing angle adopted to achieve high luminosity in multibunch collisions has evolved towards enhanced beam focusing at the interaction point with large horizontal crossing angle, thanks to a new compensation mechanism for the beam-beam resonances. The novel configuration has been tested with a small detector without solenoidal field yielding a remarkable improvement in terms of peak as well as integrated luminosity. The high luminosity interaction region has now been modified to host a large detector with a strong solenoidal field which significantly perturbs the beam optics introducing new design challenges in terms of interaction region optics design, beam transverse coupling control and beam stay clear requirements. Interaction region design criteria as well as the luminosity results relevant to the structure test are presented and discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, submitted to JINS

A new Low Gain Avalanche Diode concept: the double-LGAD

This paper describes the new concept of the double-LGAD. The goal is to increase the charge at the input of the electronics, keeping a time resolution equal or better than a standard (single) LGAD; this has been realized by adding the charges of two coupled LGADs while still using a single front-end electronics. The study here reported has been done starting from single LGAD with a thickness of 25 \textmu{m}, 35 \textmu{m} and 50 \textmu{m}.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2208.0571