Biodiversity in eastern Mediterranean marine aquaculture: an approach to new species.

Aquaculture is an important agro-food activity to ensure the amount of EPA and DHA indicated by WOS for human health, on the top of precious proteins. In spite that in the Mediterranean area only few marine species (sea bass and sea bream) cover the 92.4% of the market, an increased biodiversity in the production would improve the nutritional quality, as well as the resource for the market and the possibility to better exploit natural resources. This research work is focused on the evaluation of biological and physiological functions of new species, such as rabbitfish (Siganus rivulatus) and common pandora (Pagellus erythrinus), in respect to their capacity for aquaculture production. Morphometric measurements on wild rabbitfish revealed that the TL-TW relationship is described by the equation y=0.068x+11.044. Condition factor (K) was 1.65\ub10.17, HSI was 1.4\ub10.4 and GSI was found to reach maximum values near the full moon during summer months. Respirometry on individual cultured rabbitfish was measured at 17, 20, 23 and 26\ub0C. Oxygen consumption rate increased with water temperature and it was varied between 2.4 710-3 mg O2/g BW/min at 17\ub0C and 1.1 710-2 mg O2/g BW/min at 26\ub0C. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1a, which responds to changes in available oxygen in the cellular environment, was identified in brain and liver samples. Growth experiment on rabbitfish that lasted for 1 year and tested two feeds with different protein content, 35 and 44%, showed no significant difference between the two treatments. Experiment on the effect of vitamin C and astaxanthin on the reproduction performance and quality of eggs and larvae in common pandora, showed that vitamin C improves the reproductive capacity of broodstock and the quality of offsprings

Biodiversity in eastern Mediterranean marine aquaculture: an approach to new species.

Aquaculture is an important agro-food activity to ensure the amount of EPA and DHA indicated by WOS for human health, on the top of precious proteins. In spite that in the Mediterranean area only few marine species (sea bass and sea bream) cover the 92.4% of the market, an increased biodiversity in the production would improve the nutritional quality, as well as the resource for the market and the possibility to better exploit natural resources. This research work is focused on the evaluation of biological and physiological functions of new species, such as rabbitfish (Siganus rivulatus) and common pandora (Pagellus erythrinus), in respect to their capacity for aquaculture production. Morphometric measurements on wild rabbitfish revealed that the TL-TW relationship is described by the equation y=0.068x+11.044. Condition factor (K) was 1.65±0.17, HSI was 1.4±0.4 and GSI was found to reach maximum values near the full moon during summer months. Respirometry on individual cultured rabbitfish was measured at 17, 20, 23 and 26°C. Oxygen consumption rate increased with water temperature and it was varied between 2.4×10-3 mg O2/g BW/min at 17°C and 1.1×10-2 mg O2/g BW/min at 26°C. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1a, which responds to changes in available oxygen in the cellular environment, was identified in brain and liver samples. Growth experiment on rabbitfish that lasted for 1 year and tested two feeds with different protein content, 35 and 44%, showed no significant difference between the two treatments. Experiment on the effect of vitamin C and astaxanthin on the reproduction performance and quality of eggs and larvae in common pandora, showed that vitamin C improves the reproductive capacity of broodstock and the quality of offsprings

Integration strategies of cortical neurons in the early postnatal neocortex

Over the course of the first three postnatal weeks the cells of the neocortex undergo considerable maturation. My aim was to track some of the changes that occur, to create a detailed electrophysiological study of the postnatal neocortex. This would allow me to better understand the developmental journeys taken by discrete neuronal populations within the maturing network. To this end, I used glutamate uncaging and whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology to record from neocortical pyramidal cells and Nkx2-1 derived interneurons located in different cortical layers and regions of the cortex between postnatal days (P) 5-21. In so doing I was able to track the maturation of their intrinsic electrophysiology and synaptic connectivity. The electrophysiological properties of cortical neurons develop markedly over the course of development and there is a gradual emergence of distinct electrophysiological firing types amongst both pyramidal cells and interneurons. In terms of their synaptic inputs pyramidal neurons and interneurons possess unique methods of synaptic integration. Pyramidal neurons show a stereotyped pattern of input maturation, whereby there is a gradual emergence of the mature, canonical pattern of input. This is predicted by translaminar, NMDA receptor mediated inputs at early ages, that likely act as the substrate for the formation of mature AMPA receptor containing synapses. In contrast Nkx2-1 derived interneurons showed no shift in laminar input organization over the course of development, with prominent inputs observed from the earliest ages of the study. However, there seems to be a significant degree of heterogeneity in the organization of these inputs and I provide some insight into this variation. Taken together these findings provide a picture of the connectivity of the early network and using these data I am able to produce a final hypothesis, which shows how interneurons and pyramidal cells may interact to produce the canonical pattern of cortical connectivity

Efficient content delivery through fountain coding in opportunistic information-centric networks

Opportunistic networks can increase network capacity, support collaborative downloading of content and offload traffic from a cellular to a cellular-assisted, device-to-device network. They can also support communication and content exchange when the cellular infrastructure is under severe stress and when the network is down or inaccessible. Fountain coding has been considered as espe- cially suitable for lossy networks, providing reliable multicast transport without requiring feedback from receivers. It is also ideal for multi-path and multi- source communication that fits exceptionally well with opportunistic networks. In this paper, we propose a content-centric approach for disseminating con- tent in opportunistic networks efficiently and reliably. Our approach is based on Information-Centric Networking (ICN) and employs fountain coding. When tied together, ICN and fountain coding provide a comprehensive solution that overcomes significant limitations of existing approaches. Extensive network simulations indicate that our approach is viable. Cache hit ratio can be increased by up to five times, while the overall network traffic load is reduced by up to four times compared to content dissemination on top of the standard Named Data Networking architecture

Emergency Networks for Post-Disaster Scenarios

The focus of this chapter is on communication (and partially, computing) solutions which allow satisfying demands from the immediate aftermath of a disaster until full restoration of pre-disaster communication infrastructure and services. As traffic demand might differ substantially from the one in the pre-disaster scenario, due to the specific needs of post-disaster scenarios, it appears evident that a simple restoration of existing infrastructure and services might not be sufficient to satisfy it, and that specific solutions are required. This chapter reviews the most relevant post-disaster scenarios, outlining a set of reference use cases and their communication requirements. Then, it presents an overview of the state of the art for emergency and post-disaster communications. Finally, it focuses on a set of specific solutions of special relevance for disaster scenarios, outlining the main research challenges which are open to date