Assessing the volcanic hazard for Rome. 40Ar/39Ar and In-SAR constraints on the most recent eruptive activity and present-day uplift at Colli Albani Volcanic District

We present new 40Ar/39Ar data which allow us to refine the recurrence time for the most recent eruptive activity occurred at Colli Albani Volcanic District (CAVD) and constrain its geographic area. Time elapsed since the last eruption (36 kyr) overruns the recurrence time (31 kyr) in the last 100 kyr. New interferometric synthetic aperture radar data, covering the years 1993–2010, reveal ongoing inflation with maximum uplift rates (>2 mm/yr) in the area hosting the most recent (<200 ka) vents, suggesting that the observed uplift might be caused by magma injection within the youngest plumbing system. Finally, we frame the present deformation within the structural pattern of the area of Rome, characterized by 50 m of regional uplift since 200 ka and by geologic evidence for a recent (<2000 years) switch of the local stress-field, highlighting that the precursors of a new phase of volcanic activity are likely occurring at the CAVD

Upotreba koncentrata dušika iz krumpira u proizvodnji α-amilaze s pomoću plijesni Aspergillus oryzae

The influence of various nitrogen sources and media supplements on α-amylase (EC 3.2.1.1) formation by Aspergillus oryzae ATCC 1011 was investigated in shake flask experiments and batch fermentations. Both inorganic and organic nitrogen-containing supplements have been applied, while corn starch and ammonium sulphate were used as the major source of carbon and nitrogen, respectively. Shake flask experiments revealed that potato nitrogen concentrate (PNC) is almost equivalent to corn steep liquor (CSL) in supporting amylase formation. A pretreatment step consisting of clarification of the turbid material did not show any significant effect. The replacement of the inorganic nitrogen source by sodium nitrate led to lower enzyme yields. Other complex supplements may reduce the enzyme level formed, e.g. casein hydrolysate, or increase the amylase titre slightly, e.g. yeast extract or malt extract. Cultivations in instrumented bench top reactors on media supplemented with PNC led to higher cell growth rates and yields of α-amylase in comparison with the medium without any supplement. Replacement of PNC by CSL revealed a slightly increased enzyme level, which is in the range of 9–17 % after 100 h of cultivation. Only minor differences were revealed in the growth kinetics and enzyme formation when PNC was used as the sole nitrogen source, replacing a mixture of soybean meal, yeast extract, malt extract and casein hydrolysate in bioreactor cultivations with lactose as the carbon source. However, metabolic differences as seen from the course of dissolved oxygen tension (DOT), α-amino nitrogen concentration and the amount of acid needed to maintain a constant pH were observed.Istražen je utjecaj različitih izvora dušika i dodataka podlozi na proizvodnju α-amilaze (EC 3.2.1.1) s pomoću plijesni Aspergillus oryzae ATCC 1011 u pokusu na tresilici i šaržnim uzgojem. Primijenjeni su anorganski i organski dušikovi spojevi, a kao glavni izvori ugljika i dušika korišteni su kukuruzni škrob i amonijev sulfat. Pokusima na tresilici dokazano je da je utjecaj koncentrata dušika iz krumpira (potato nitrogen concentrate – PNC) na proizvodnju amilaze skoro jednak onom ekstrakta kukuruza (corn steep liquor – CSL). Pročišćavanjem zamućenog materijala prije obrade nije se postigao značajan učinak. Zamjenom anorganskog izvora dušika natrijevim nitratom dobiveni su manji prinosi enzima. Dodatkom drugih kompleksnih spojeva, kao što je hidrolizat kazeina, smanjio se prinos enzima, a dodatkom ekstrakta kvasca ili slada neznatno se povećao titar amilaze. Veći rast stanica i bolji prinos α-amilaze postignut je uzgojem na podlozi obogaćenoj s PNC u reaktoru na postolju nego bez tih dodataka. Zamjenom PNC sa CSL postignuto je povećanje prinosa enzima za 9-17 % nakon 100 sati uzgoja. Upotreba PNC kao jedinog izvora dušika, uz zamjenu sojine kaše, ekstrakta kvasca i slada te hidrolizata kazeina laktozom kao izvorom ugljika, dovela je do neznatnih razlika u kinetici rasta i formiranju enzima u bioreaktoru. Međutim, uočene su metaboličke razlike u zasićenosti otopljenim kisikom (dissolved oxygen tension – DOT), koncentraciji α-amino dušika i količini kiseline potrebne za održavanje konstantnog pH

Feedback control of arm movements using Neuro-Muscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) combined with a lockable, passive exoskeleton for gravity compensation

Within the European project MUNDUS, an assistive framework was developed for the support of arm and hand functions during daily life activities in severely impaired people. This contribution aims at designing a feedback control system for Neuro-Muscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) to enable reaching functions in people with no residual voluntary control of the arm and shoulder due to high level spinal cord injury. NMES is applied to the deltoids and the biceps muscles and integrated with a three degrees of freedom (DoFs) passive exoskeleton, which partially compensates gravitational forces and allows to lock each DOF. The user is able to choose the target hand position and to trigger actions using an eyetracker system. The target position is selected by using the eyetracker and determined by a marker-based tracking system using Microsoft Kinect. A central controller, i.e., a finite state machine, issues a sequence of basic movement commands to the real-time arm controller. The NMES control algorithm sequentially controls each joint angle while locking the other DoFs. Daily activities, such as drinking, brushing hair, pushing an alarm button, etc., can be supported by the system. The robust and easily tunable control approach was evaluated with five healthy subjects during a drinking task. Subjects were asked to remain passive and to allow NMES to induce the movements. In all of them, the controller was able to perform the task, and a mean hand positioning error of less than five centimeters was achieved. The average total time duration for moving the hand from a rest position to a drinking cup, for moving the cup to the mouth and back, and for finally returning the arm to the rest position was 71 s.EC/FP7/248326/EU/MUltimodal Neuroprostesis for Daily Upper limb Support/MUNDU

MUNDUS project : MUltimodal neuroprosthesis for daily upper limb support

Background: MUNDUS is an assistive framework for recovering direct interaction capability of severely motor impaired people based on arm reaching and hand functions. It aims at achieving personalization, modularity and maximization of the user’s direct involvement in assistive systems. To this, MUNDUS exploits any residual control of the end-user and can be adapted to the level of severity or to the progression of the disease allowing the user to voluntarily interact with the environment. MUNDUS target pathologies are high-level spinal cord injury (SCI) and neurodegenerative and genetic neuromuscular diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Friedreich ataxia, and multiple sclerosis (MS). The system can be alternatively driven by residual voluntary muscular activation, head/eye motion, and brain signals. MUNDUS modularly combines an antigravity lightweight and non-cumbersome exoskeleton, closed-loop controlled Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation for arm and hand motion, and potentially a motorized hand orthosis, for grasping interactive objects. Methods: The definition of the requirements and of the interaction tasks were designed by a focus group with experts and a questionnaire with 36 potential end-users. Five end-users (3 SCI and 2 MS) tested the system in the configuration suitable to their specific level of impairment. They performed two exemplary tasks: reaching different points in the working volume and drinking. Three experts evaluated over a 3-level score (from 0, unsuccessful, to 2, completely functional) the execution of each assisted sub-action. Results: The functionality of all modules has been successfully demonstrated. User’s intention was detected with a 100% success. Averaging all subjects and tasks, the minimum evaluation score obtained was 1.13 ± 0.99 for the release of the handle during the drinking task, whilst all the other sub-actions achieved a mean value above 1.6. All users, but one, subjectively perceived the usefulness of the assistance and could easily control the system. Donning time ranged from 6 to 65 minutes, scaled on the configuration complexity. Conclusions: The MUNDUS platform provides functional assistance to daily life activities; the modules integration depends on the user’s need, the functionality of the system have been demonstrated for all the possible configurations, and preliminary assessment of usability and acceptance is promising

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Einführung einer Stabstelle Controlling & Monitoring in einer NGO : am Beispiel der Steirischen Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesellschaft (STVG)

nicht vorhande

Datenschutz : die Verwaltung im Spannungsfeld zwischen Verschwiegenheitsverpflichtung und Auskunftspflicht mit Schwerpunkt Sicherheitsverwaltung

Der erste Teil der Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit allgemeinen Fragen zur Amtsverschwiegenheit und Auskunftsverpflichtung auf Ebene des Verfassungsrechts sowie einschlägiger einfachgesetzlicher Bestimmungen. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wird auf die spezifischen Bestimmungen im Bereich der Sicherheitsverwaltung eingegangen.eingereicht von Werner KarnerUniversität Linz, Diplomarbeit, 2017(VLID)194337