IMPLEMENTATION OF HIDROGEOLOGICAL MAPS WITHIN GIS: THE APPLICATION EXPERIENCE OF QUADERNO N. 5 (SGN)

Viene presentata la sperimentazione effettuata dal Settore Cartografico del Servizio Geologico d’Italia nell’applicazione delle linee guida per la Carta Idrogeologica alla scala 1: 50.000 (Quaderno n. 5 del 1995). Essa è effettuata su aree caratterizzate da differenti situazioni geologiche ed idrogeologiche. Sono presentati alcuni risultati cartografici ritenuti significativi ottenuti con l’ausilio di GIS. Lo scopo è quello di mantenere elevata la qualità cartografica attesa da un Organo Cartografico di Stato legge 2/2/60 n. 68.We present the experimentation realized by the Cartographic Sector of the Geologic Survey of Italy on the application of the “Hydrogeological Map with a scale of 1 : 50 000” guidelines (Quaderno n. 5 del 1995). The experimentation was conducted on areas with different geological and hydrological situations. Some significant cartographic outcomes are displayed obtained with the support of GIS. The goal is to keep a high cartographic quality which is supposed to be achieved by the National Cartographic body – Law n. 68, February 2, 1960

GEOLOGY AND WINE PRODUCTION: A PRELIMINARY CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEFINITION OF THE IRPINIA AREA TERROIR (AVELLINO PROVINCE)

Il comprensorio irpino, una delle aree di più antico insediamento, coltivazione, studio e diffusione della vite, è un territorio di estremo interesse per la vitivinicoltura nazionale caratterizzato, come è, da una produzione di pregio, tra le più importanti nel mondo, che s’identifica in tre DOCG: Taurasi, Greco di Tufo e Fiano di Avellino. Di quell’area, larga parte della quale ricade entro il Parco Regionale dei Monti Picentini, vengono descritte le caratteristiche litologiche, morfologiche ed idrogeologiche. Viene, poi, formulata la proposta di inserire gli areali di quelle DOCG entro gli itinerari disegnati a collegare, illustrandoli e rendendoli fruibili a tutti, Patrimonio Geologico e Patrimonio Biotico di quell’Area Naturale Protetta.The Irpinia district, one of the oldest areas of settlement, cultivation, study and diffusion of the grapevine, is a territory of great interest for the national wine growing. This area is characterized of high quality production, among the most important in the world, corresponding to three DOCG (Controlled and Guaranteed Designation of Origin): “Taurasi”, “Greco di Tufo” and “Fiano di Avellino”. The lithological, morphological and hydrogeological features of this area, a large part of which is included within the Parco Regionale dei Monti Picentini, are described. The proposal to include the DOCG areas within designed routes to connect the Geological and Biotic Heritage of the Natural Protected Area of the Monti Picentini is then formulated

Alimentazione, Cultura e Società in Africa. Crisi globali, risorse locali

Il volume è dedicato al rapporto tra alimentazione, cultura e società nell’Africa contemporanea. Ricercatori di diverse discipline (geografia, letteratura, antropologia, economia) si confrontano con operatori della cooperazione internazionale per approfondire le criticità nell’accesso al cibo in Africa e analizzare le risorse materiali e immateriali che le società africane attivano in questo settore. Una particolare attenzione è dedicata alle strategie delle comunità locali in ambito agricolo e alimentare: in un contesto globale caratterizzato da forti squilibri, la dimensione locale costituisce un’importante opportunità per garantire un’alimentazione sufficiente e di qualità, conservando e valorizzando l’ambiente e le culture africane

Observations on midgut of Apis mellifera workers (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) under controlled acute exposures to a Bacillus thuringiensis-based biopesticide

International audienceAbstractMorphostructural investigations have been carried out on Apis mellifera workers treated with single controlled acute exposures to a biopesticide containing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), to detect midgut changes until 96 h. Our findings show concentration-dependence of these changes, reflecting in different degrees on both mortality and behaviour. In particular, some midgut changes are also found 96 h after treatment. Our results show that the tested product does not affect survival at presumable environmental concentrations, so confirming the lesser toxicity of Bt-based biopesticides compared to other pesticides. However, in the light of the discovered long-term changes, we discuss the opportunity of taking into account possible chronic exposures to Bt-based products on A. mellifera

Altered spreading of neuronal avalanches in temporal lobe epilepsy relates to cognitive performance: A resting-state hdEEG study

Objective: Large aperiodic bursts of activations named neuronal avalanches have been used to characterize whole-brain activity, as their presence typically relates to optimal dynamics. Epilepsy is characterized by alterations in large-scale brain network dynamics. Here we exploited neuronal avalanches to characterize differences in electroencephalography (EEG) basal activity, free from seizures and/or interictal spikes, between patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and matched controls.Method: We defined neuronal avalanches as starting when the z-scored source-reconstructed EEG signals crossed a specific threshold in any region and ending when all regions returned to baseline. This technique avoids data manipulation or assumptions of signal stationarity, focusing on the aperiodic, scale-free components of the signals. We computed individual avalanche transition matrices to track the probability of avalanche spreading across any two regions, compared them between patients and controls, and related them to memory performance in patients.Results: We observed a robust topography of significant edges clustering in regions functionally and structurally relevant for the TLE, such as the entorhinal cortex, the inferior parietal and fusiform area, the inferior temporal gyrus, and the anterior cingulate cortex. We detected a significant correlation between the centrality of the entorhinal cortex in the transition matrix and the long-term memory performance (delay recall Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test).Significance: Our results show that the propagation patterns of large-scale neuronal avalanches are altered in TLE during the resting state, suggesting a potential diagnostic application in epilepsy. Furthermore, the relationship between specific patterns of propagation and memory performance support the neurophysiological relevance of neuronal avalanches

Bioactive compound profiling of olive fruit: the contribution of genotype

The health, therapeutic, and organoleptic characteristics of olive oil depend on functional bioactive compounds, such as phenols, tocopherols, squalene, and sterols. Genotype plays a key role in the diversity and concentration of secondary compounds peculiar to olive. In this study, the most important bioactive compounds of olive fruit were studied in numerous international olive cultivars during two consecutive seasons. A large variability was measured for each studied metabolite in all 61 olive cultivars. Total phenol content varied on a scale of 1–10 (3831–39,252 mg kg1) in the studied cultivars. Squalene values fluctuated over an even wider range (1–15), with values of 274 to 4351 mg kg1. Total sterols ranged from 119 to 969 mg kg1, and total tocopherols varied from 135 to 579 mg kg1 in fruit pulp. In the present study, the linkage among the most important quality traits highlighted the scarcity of cultivars with high content of at least three traits together. This work provided sound information on the fruit metabolite profile of a wide range of cultivars, which will facilitate the studies on the genomic regulation of plant metabolites and development of new olive genotypes through genomics-assisted breeding.EEA San JuanFil: Mousavi, Soraya. National Research Council. Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources; ItaliaFil: Stanzione, Vitale. National Research Council. Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems of the Mediterranean; ItaliaFil: Mariotti, Roberto. National Research Council. Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources; ItaliaFil: Mastio, Valerio.Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Juan; Argentina.Fil: Mastio, Valerio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Azariadis, Aristotelis. Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania. Department of Horticultural Genetics and Biotechnology; GreciaFil: Passeri, Valentina. National Research Council. Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems of the Mediterranean; ItaliaFil: Valeri, Maria Cristina. National Research Council. Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources; ItaliaFil: Baldoni, Luciana. National Research Council. Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources; ItaliaFil: Bufacchi, Marina. National Research Council. Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems of the Mediterranean; Itali

Extracellular Vesicles in Lung Cancer: Implementation in Diagnosis and Therapeutic Perspectives

: Lung cancer represents the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, with around 1.8 million deaths in 2020. For this reason, there is an enormous interest in finding early diagnostic tools and novel therapeutic approaches, one of which is extracellular vesicles (EVs). EVs are nanoscale membranous particles that can carry proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), mediating various biological processes, especially in cell-cell communication. As such, they represent an interesting biomarker for diagnostic analysis that can be performed easily by liquid biopsy. Moreover, their growing dataset shows promising results as drug delivery cargo. The aim of our work is to summarize the recent advances in and possible implications of EVs for early diagnosis and innovative therapies for lung cancer

Quantifying the evidence for primordial black holes in LIGO/Virgo gravitational-wave data

With approximately 50 binary black hole events detected by LIGO/Virgo to date and many more expected in the next few years, gravitational-wave astronomy is shifting from individual-event analyses to population studies. We perform a hierarchical Bayesian analysis on the GWTC-2 catalog by combining several astrophysical formation models with a population of primordial black holes. We compute the Bayesian evidence for a primordial population compared to the null hypothesis, and the inferred fraction of primordial black holes in the data. We find that these quantities depend on the set of assumed astrophysical models: the evidence for primordial black holes against an astrophysical-only multichannel model is decisively favored in some scenarios, but it is significantly reduced in the presence of a dominant stable-mass-transfer isolated formation channel. The primordial channel can explain mergers in the upper mass gap such as GW190521, but (depending on the astrophysical channels we consider) a significant fraction of the events could be of primordial origin even if we neglected GW190521. The tantalizing possibility that LIGO/Virgo may have already detected black holes formed after inflation should be verified by reducing uncertainties in astrophysical and primordial formation models, and it may ultimately be confirmed by third-generation interferometers.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. v2: Version submitted to journal. The Bayesian analysis was extended to additional astrophysical channels by taking into account feedback from the community, and the conclusions were revised accordingl

Data series subtraction with unknown and unmodeled background noise

LISA Pathfinder (LPF), ESA's precursor mission to a gravitational wave observatory, will measure the degree to which two test-masses can be put into free-fall, aiming to demonstrate a residual relative acceleration with a power spectral density (PSD) below 30 fm/s$^2$/Hz$^{1/2}$ around 1 mHz. In LPF data analysis, the measured relative acceleration data series must be fit to other various measured time series data. This fitting is required in different experiments, from system identification of the test mass and satellite dynamics to the subtraction of noise contributions from measured known disturbances. In all cases, the background noise, described by the PSD of the fit residuals, is expected to be coloured, requiring that we perform such fits in the frequency domain. This PSD is unknown {\it a priori}, and a high accuracy estimate of this residual acceleration noise is an essential output of our analysis. In this paper we present a fitting method based on Bayesian parameter estimation with an unknown frequency-dependent background noise. The method uses noise marginalisation in connection with averaged Welch's periodograms to achieve unbiased parameter estimation, together with a consistent, non-parametric estimate of the residual PSD. Additionally, we find that the method is equivalent to some implementations of iteratively re-weighted least-squares fitting. We have tested the method both on simulated data of known PSD, and to analyze differential acceleration from several experiments with the LISA Pathfinder end-to-end mission simulator.Comment: To appear Phys. Rev. D90 August 201