Metamodeling and metaquerying in OWL 2 QL

OWL 2 QL is a standard profile of the OWL 2 ontology language, specifically tailored to Ontology-Based Data Management. Inspired by recent work on higher-order Description Logics, in this paper we present a new semantics for OWL 2 QL ontologies, called Metamodeling Semantics (MS), and show that, in contrast to the official Direct Semantics (DS) for OWL 2, it allows exploiting the metamodeling capabilities natively offered by the OWL 2 punning. We then extend unions of conjunctive queries with both metavariables, and the possibility of using TBox atoms, with the purpose of expressing meaningful metalevel queries. We first show that under MS both satisfiability checking and answering queries including only ABox atoms, have the same complexity as under DS. Second, we investigate the problem of answering general metaqueries, and single out a new source of complexity coming from the combined presence of a specific type of incompleteness in the ontology, and of TBox axioms among the query atoms. Then we focus on a specific class of ontologies, called TBox-complete, where there is no incompleteness in the TBox axioms, and show that general metaquery answering in this case has again the same complexity as under DS. Finally, we move to general ontologies and show that answering general metaqueries is coNP-complete with respect to ontology complexity, Π2p-complete with respect to combined complexity, and remains AC0 with respect to ABox complexity

Corporate governance and sustainability in water utilities. The effects of decorporatisation in the city of Naples, Italy

The recent economic literature has largely investigated sustainability in the provision of public utilities, highlighting the role of governance models in the determination of economic results. Little attention however has been devoted to the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. In Italy, a long‐lasting debate on governance structures in the water sector has been fuelled by scholars and policymakers for more than 30 years, whereas the first (and unique) experiment involving the return of full public management in water provision is taking place in the city of Naples. The present work analyses this peculiar case study, aiming to assess the effects of a major governance shift that occurred in the early 2010s—that is, decorporatisation—in terms of economic, social and environmental sustainability. We resort to a bundle of qualitative and quantitative techniques to address the research question and our exploratory results suggest that decorporatisation was overall beneficial: Although little changed in terms of economic sustainability, the social and environmental dimensions benefitted from the shift in governance

Evaluating the potential of hyperpolarised [1-13C] L-lactate as a neuroprotectant metabolic biosensor for stroke.

Cerebral metabolism, which can be monitored by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), changes rapidly after brain ischaemic injury. Hyperpolarisation techniques boost <sup>13</sup> C MRS sensitivity by several orders of magnitude, thereby enabling in vivo monitoring of biochemical transformations of hyperpolarised (HP) <sup>13</sup> C-labelled precursors with a time resolution of seconds. The exogenous administration of the metabolite L-lactate was shown to decrease lesion size and ameliorate neurological outcome in preclinical studies in rodent stroke models, as well as influencing brain metabolism in clinical pilot studies of acute brain injury patients. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of measuring HP [1- <sup>13</sup> C] L-lactate metabolism in real-time in the mouse brain after ischaemic stroke when administered after reperfusion at a therapeutic dose. We showed a rapid, time-after-reperfusion-dependent conversion of [1- <sup>13</sup> C] L-lactate to [1- <sup>13</sup> C] pyruvate and [ <sup>13</sup> C] bicarbonate that brings new insights into the neuroprotection mechanism of L-lactate. Moreover, this study paves the way for the use of HP [1- <sup>13</sup> C] L-lactate as a sensitive molecular-imaging biosensor in ischaemic stroke patients after endovascular clot removal

Sperm ultra-structure of <i>Odontosyllis ctenostoma</i> (Polychaeta: Syllidae) with inferences on syllid phylogeny and reproductive biology

The analysis of the complex reproductive patterns of Syllidae may drastically change the taxonomic hierarchy of the family. To further contribute to the knowledge of Syllidae we have described the sperm ultra-structure and some steps of spermiogenesis of Odontosyllis ctenostoma Claparède, 1868, the first non interstitial eusylline investigated. The mature sperm has a bell-shaped acrosome and contains electron-dense granular material and thin filaments. The barrel-shaped nucleus bears two depressions: one anterior facing the acrosome and the other posterior partially containing the distal centriole and up to six mitochondria. Odontosyllis ctenostoma spermatozoa can be ascribed to the ect-aquasperm type typical of species practising external fertilisation. This morphology is not in complete accordance either with the particular brood protection reported for the species or the egg size. The sperm is similar to those of the Syllinae species thus far investigated, but the acrosome resembles that of the exogonine spermatid. Some authors consider Odontosyllis to be phylogenetically closer to Syllinae, though it shares epigamy with Exogoninae. Others have hypothesised that the exogonine sperm could have been derived from sylline sperm by simplification. In our hypothesis this could have happened through a gradual passage from an Odontosyllis-like eusylline ancestor

Radon concentration in self-bottled mineral spring waters as a possible public health issue

Since 2013, the Council Directive 2013/51/Euratom has been regulating the content of radioactive substances in water intended for human consumption. However, mineral waters are exempted from this regulation, including self-bottled springs waters, where higher radon concentration are expected. Therefore, a systematic survey has been conducted on all the 33 mineral spring waters of Lazio (a region of Central Italy) in order to assess if such waters, when self-bottled, may be of concern for public health. Waters have been sampled in two different ways to evaluate the impact of bottling on radon concentration. Water sampling was possible for 20 different spring waters, with 6 samples for each one. The results show that 2 (10%) of measured mineral spring waters returned radon concentrations higher than 100 Bq L−1, i.e., the parametric value established by the Council Directive. These results, if confirmed by other surveys involving a higher number of mineral spring waters, would suggest regulating also these waters, especially in countries like Italy for which: (i) mineral water consumption is significant; (ii) mineral concession owners generally allow the consumers to fill bottles and containers, intended for transport and subsequent consumption, directly from public fountains or from fountains within the plant; (iii) the consumers’ habit of drinking self-bottled mineral water is widespread