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Quali-Quantitative Assessment and Protection to Pollution of Fissured Aquifers’ Strategic Groundwater Resources of the Lucanian and Calabrian Apennines in the Framework of the Tech4You Research Project
No full textFormazione insegnanti e tecnologie digitali per la matematica: un’esperienza con GeoGebra
No full textNumerical solution of metastatic tumor growth models with treatment
No full textIn this paper we introduce an efficient numerical method in order to solve Volterra integral equations (VIE) of the second type. We are motivated by the fact that the coupled PDE-ODE
model, used to describe the metastatic tumor growth, can be reformulated in terms of VIE, whose unknowns are biological observables, such as the cumulative number of metastases and the total metastatic mass. Here in particular we focused our attention on the 2D non autonomous case, where also the treatment is considered. After reformulating the model as a VIE and introducing and studying the numerical method, we first compare it with a method previously introduced by the authors for the 1D case, and extended to the 2D case only for the sake of comparison, in term of efficiency in the run time execution. Secondly, we present numerical results on the effectiveness of different treatment protocols on the total cumulative number of metastases and
the total metastatic mass
Imino and Thioureidic Derivatives as New Tools for Alzheimer's Disease: Preliminary Studies
Full text linkAlzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative chronic disease with a severe social and economic impact in the societies, which still lacks an efficient therapy. Several pathophysiological events (β-amyloid [Aβ] deposits, τ-protein aggregation, loss of cholinergic activity, and oxidative stress) occurs in the progression of the disease. Therefore, the search for efficient multi-targeted agents for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease becomes indispensable. In this paper we evaluated the AChE inhibition by Ellman's method and antioxidant activity by DPPH assay of nine synthetic compounds: two hydroxy-benzene derivatives (1 and 2), three bis-thioureidic derivatives (3–5), two imidazole derivatives (6 and 7), and two phenylacetamide derivatives (8 and 9). The compound 2, (3s,5s,7s)-adamantan-1-yl4-(((E)-2,5-dihydroxybenzylidene)amino)benzoate, exhibited the best antioxidant activity (30.00 ± 1.05 μM eq Trolox) and compound 4 showed the highest AChE inhibition value (IC50 [μM] 8.40 ± 0.32). In the search for a compound showing combined activities (antioxidant and AChE inhibition), the compound 4, octane-1,8-diyl-bis-S-amidinothiourea dihydrobromide, (19.02 ± 1.52 μM eq Trolox; IC50 [μM] 8.40 ± 0.32) was chosen to carry out a molecular docking study. The results showed that compound 4 has the ability to bind the active site of acetylcholinesterase with considerable affinity (estimated binding energies of −8.5 kcal/mol). All data indicate that compound 4 has the potential to be further investigated as a possible candidate in the Alzheimer's disease treatment
Predicting fiber content in herbivore fecal samples using a multispecies NIRS model
Full text linkFiber is essential for rumen health, microbial fermentation, and the energy supply of herbivores. Even though the study of fecal fiber contents (neutral detergent fiber NDF, acid detergent fiber ADF, and acid detergent lignin ADL) using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) has allowed investigating nutritional ecology of different herbivore species, NIRS calibrations are species-specific and require a large number of samples for predictions. A multispecies calibration would be an advantage since samples from different herbivores could be used to calibrate a model capable of predicting the fecal fiber content of other herbivores. To date, however, multispecies models have not been developed to predict fiber contents in the feces of herbivores. Here, we fill this gap by calibrating three fiber multispecies models (NDF, ADF and ADL) using fecal samples from domestic and wild herbivore species. We also evaluated the effect of incorporating sodium sulfite in fiber determination protocol. The initial dataset consisting of 445 samples of six herbivore species was used to calibrate (80% of the samples) and validate (20% of the samples) the models. Subsequently, 63 samples of five herbivores not included in the calibration set were used for the external validation of the model. Since sodium sulfite did not significantly improve fecal fiber prediction, our model was developed without this compound. The multispecies models obtained were highly accurate determining NDF, ADF and ADL (R2CAL, coefficient of determination in calibration, ≥ 0.93, R2VAL, coefficient of determination in validation, ≥ 0.91) and independent of external confounders. For external validation, the accuracy in predicting fecal samples in other herbivore species was also satisfactory, with consistently better values for NDF (R2VAL, 0.86–0.94) and ADF (R2VAL, 0.80–0.95) than for ADL (R2VAL, 0.66–0.89). We show that multispecies NIRS calibrations can be used with high accuracy to assess fecal fiber contents across diverse herbivore species. This finding represents a significant advance in the study of the nutritional ecology of herbivores with contrasting foraging patterns. In the future, widening the data range (e.g., species and locations) of the initial dataset could further improve the accuracy of these models
Seismic resilience-based strategies for prioritization of interventions on a subregional area
No full textThe study focuses on seismic resilience at a sub-regional level and its effect on proactive planning of seismic strengthening. The case study for application is the sub-regional community of Agri Valley in Southern Italy. A resilience priority index is proposed and quantified, to determine the priority ranking of communities requiring retrofit interventions. In this study, the role of residential building stock is emphasized, since as this paper shows, it can strongly affect community resilience and mitigation strategies. The analysis presented in the study is only seemingly simplistic. In reality, its goal is to provide simple tools that are easy to apply. In this way, the study could improve mid and long-term resilience through the implementation of financially sustainable mitigation strategies based on a multidisciplinary approach. It considers a quantitative approach to resilience and combines the latter with socio-economic data in order to set priorities in the large-scale application of seismic risk mitigation strategies. The resilience values of the considered housing systems are calculated and are integrated with the processed economic and social data in order to prioritize retrofit interventions in the study area
Minimal ∗-varieties and superinvolutions
No full textWe introduce a class of finite-dimensional superalgebras over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, whose Grassmann envelopes generate all ∗-minimal varieties. Moreover, we prove that any affine minimal variety of superalgebras with superinvolution is generated by a suitable element in this selected class
A brief outlook at the environmental consequences of rural development: Evidence from a Southern European country
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Progresses in the development of the tritium extraction and removal system for the water-cooled lithium-lead breeding blanket in EUROfusion
Full text linkIn the EU DEMO reactor, the Water-Cooled Lithium-Lead Tritium Extraction and Removal system (WCLL TER) is
dedicated to transporting tritium-rich PbLi from the Breeding Blanket to the Tritium Extraction Unit and then
back to it, after tritium is extracted and routed to the fuel cycle. In addition to circulating PbLi and extracting
tritium, the TER system maintains constant PbLi temperature of 330 ◦C, provides safe storage of PbLi during
reactor shutdowns as well as PbLi purification from by-products and contaminants linked both to structural
materials corrosion processes and neutronic reactions of Pb, Li and other dissolved species. This contribution
presents the latest developments in the design of the WCLL TER and in some of the related key areas of research.
Among the most significant outcomes, the Permeator Against Vacuum was selected as a reference tritium
extraction technology, preferred over the Gas-Liquid Contactor and the Liquid Vacuum Contactor, and its design
was updated based on recent experimental evidence. All components of the TER such as tanks, pipelines, valves
and other equipment were integrated into the tokamak building, ensuring compliance with fundamental operating principles