Archivio della ricerca della Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
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Novel insights into courtship and mating behavior of Anastatus japonicus enhance pest control and mass-rearing efficiency
No full textThe solitary egg endoparasitoid, Anastatus japonicus (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae), holds substantial potential for effectively controlling hemipterous and lepidopterous pests. The present study endeavors to elucidate the courtship and mating behavior of this parasitoid, as a comprehensive understanding of female and male mating status and its implications on offspring production remains inadequately documented. Courtship and mating behavior process impacted by food, age, host, body size, virgin and mated both sexes were monitored by direct observation, while fecundity and female proportion of virgin and mated females were tested in Petri dishes. During courtship, only males make physical contact with the antennae and thorax-abdomen regions of females. Mating success was quicker at younger age of both sexes (i.e. < 24 h old), and higher when A. japonicus males approached the female from the left side (right biased) and preferential turning on the right (left biased) to attempt copula resulting in monandry and polygyny behavior in female and male, respectively. Females prefer to mate with virgin males over mated, and honey fed males were preferred over starved ones. Anastatus japonicus unmated females are haploid and produced only males, however mated females are diploid and produced both progenies. Furthermore, females showed synovigenic strategy and produce more offspring numbers (11-14) and females' proportion (83-92%) at older age (10-30 d old) rather than younger aged (0-5 d, offspring number: 5-10; female proportion: 62-72%). Female wasps that mated with already mated males produce a smaller proportion of females (with virgin male: 61.88%, mated male: 37.17%), exhibiting possible sperm depletion effect. It is highly expected that a tailor-made large-scale rearing system of A. japonicus will be developed to optimize mating success and female-biased progeny production to fully utilize its reproduction potential and to ultimately improve mass-rearing efficiency
Understanding Gender Pay Inequalities: A Comparative Analysis of Women and Male Salaries
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Exploring consumer adoption of zero-emission vehicles: Integrating behavioural reasoning and construal level theory in early technology diffusion
No full textThe environmental crisis has made the development and diffusion of green products a critical challenge, compelling companies to adopt eco-innovator roles and align with consumer preferences for sustainable solutions. However, limited attention has been paid to understanding the evolution of consumer cognitive processes when evaluating solutions that are not yet market-ready. Drawing on Behavioural Reasoning Theory (BRT), this paper integrates insights from the Construal Level Theory to explain how cognitive mechanisms shape consumers' attitudes towards zero-emission vehicles. Specifically, the study examines how these mechanisms change when consumers evaluate existing products, prospective products, or the broader product category, by introducing targeted manipulations to test a BRT model extended with familiarity as an attitudinal antecedent. The research uses a between-group experimental design in which 1071 Italian consumers were randomly assigned to a specific evaluative condition. The findings show that familiarity negatively relates to reasons against, and values positively influence reasons for and attitudes. Both relationships are valid regardless of manipulation. Instead, familiarity positively impacts reasons for, and values negatively affect reasons against, varying with product diffusion stages and abstraction levels. This study enriches green technology adoption literature by advancing BRT, emphasising the role of familiarity and psychological distance in impacting consumer cognition. Managerial implications underscore the need for an iterative product development process, driven by continuous customer analysis to capture shifts in perceptions and preferences across diffusion stages. They also stress the importance of tailored communication strategies, balancing value-driven and feature-based messaging to trigger relevant cognitive drivers at each adoption stage
The Role of Imaging in Cardiovascular Prevention: A Comprehensive Review
Get PDFCardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and traditional preventive measures focus on lifestyle modifications, pharmacologic interventions, and risk stratification. Recently, imaging has emerged as an interesting tool in cardiovascular prevention. This review explores the role of various imaging modalities in early detection, risk assessment, and disease monitoring. Noninvasive techniques such as carotid ultrasound, arterial stiffness assessment, echocardiography, and coronary artery calcium scoring enable the identification of subclinical atherosclerosis and ventricular dysfunction, providing insights that complement conventional risk factors. Coronary computed tomography angiography and cardiac magnetic resonance offer high‐resolution visualization of vascular and myocardial pathology, contributing to refined risk stratification. Furthermore, emerging markers such as epicardial adipose tissue and hepatic steatosis are gaining recognition as potential predictors of cardiovascular risk. Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are revolutionizing cardiovascular imaging by enhancing image interpretation, automating risk prediction, and facilitating personalized medicine. Future research should focus on optimizing the integration of imaging into clinical workflows, improving risk prediction models, and exploring AI‐driven innovations. By exploiting imaging technologies, clinicians could enhance primary and secondary prevention strategies, ultimately reducing the global burden of CVDs
Intermittent UV-B irradiation optimizes secondary metabolite production and growth in red rubin basil
Get PDFUnderstanding the plant growth responses and secondary metabolite synthesis to artificial ultraviolet-B irradiation (UV-B) is important for selecting the crop, UV-B doses, wavelength, and exposure time for the application. Red rubin basil was grown in a glasshouse under supplemental LED lights and periodically irradiated with artificial 4 W UV-B lamp at a single wavelength of 315 nm, in an indoor UV-B chamber for 3 h and 6 h. These treatments resulted in cumulative UV-B of 43.2 kJ m−2 and 86.4 kJ m−2 respectively. Both UV-Bs improved the overall production, indicating a significant potential of artificial UV-B in development and improvement of red rubin basil. A thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) assay was carried out to assess the membrane oxidative damage to basil plants after the UV-B treatments. The results showed significant higher lipid peroxidation in UV-B treated basil in relation to control plants. Significantly increased concentrations of carotenoids was found for 43.2 kJ m−2 UV-B compared to 86.4 kJ m−2 while similar chlorophyll a and b concentrations were observed for 43.2 kJ m−2 UV-B compared to both 86.4 kJ m−2 and control. In vivo analysis revealed an increase of flavanols under post 86.4 kJ m−2 UV-B while the overall leaf performance index significantly reduced under this UV-B. The maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II declined for both UV-B treatments compared to the control while a significant increment was seen in terms of absorption and dissipation of heat on active reaction centers in post UV-B 86.4 kJ m−2 compared to post 43.2 kJ m−2 UV-B. Similarly, significant increment in phenolic index and total anthocyanins concentrations was seen for 86.4 kJ m−2 UV-B treated plants. The UV-B of 86.4 kJ m−2 exhibited a significant higher nitrate concentration compared to the control. Furthermore, the basil under 43.2 kJ m−2 UV-B significantly outperformed other treatments in terms of reducing sugars and sucrose while 86.4 kJ m−2 treated plants yielded lower total sugars between the treatments. The present findings provided an insight into how artificial UV-B could potentially affect the accumulation of phytochemical compounds
Optimality-Preserving Reduction of Chemical Reaction Networks
Get PDFAcross many disciplines, chemical reaction networks (CRNs) are an established population model defined as a system of coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations. In many applications, for example, in systems biology and epidemiology, CRN parameters such as the kinetic reaction rates can be used as control inputs to steer the system toward a given target. Unfortunately, the resulting optimal control problem is nonlinear, therefore, computationally very challenging. We address this issue by introducing an optimality-preserving reduction algorithm for CRNs. The algorithm partitions the original state variables into a reduced set of macro-variables for which one can define a reduced optimal control problem with provably identical optimal values. The reduction algorithm runs with polynomial time complexity in the size of the CRN. We use this result to reduce verification and control problems of large-scale vaccination models over real-world networks
