1,098 research outputs found

    Origin of high radon levels in karst spring mixed waters – the casestudy of the Capodifiume spring group, National Park of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano -European Geopark (Southern Italy)

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    Based on results of previous geological, hydrogeological and geomorphological surveys, hydrochemical and isotopic tracer techniques were applied for investigating the origin of significantly elevated radon (222Rn) activity concentrations detected at the highly NaCl / CaCO3 mineralized Capodifiume karst spring group, located near the archaeological site of Poseidon-Paestum, Southern Italy. Compared to other karst springs in the Cilento and Vallo di Diano Geopark both, radon concentration and salinity, show remarkably high values as well as a good correlation. Radon concentrations range between 367±20 and 111±8 Bq/l with an average of 230 Bq/l. The high radon levels of the spring water can neither be explained by the composition of the karst aquifer rocks or the attached travertine deposits (limestone and dolomite), which both show low radium (226Ra) concentrations, nor by the dissolved radium content of the spring water. In the study it was shown that there must be a separate radon source inside the aquifer system close to the spring complex. The results suggest that radon source to be mainly represented by the Miocene, paleo-karst “red clays” (laterites) of the Alburni-Cervati Unit, a local discontinuous aquitard that is rich in iron and manganese oxides / hydroxides. The geological unit, which is widely outcropping in the area surrounding the spring complex, has accumulated radium by adsorption, thus generating radon, which is transported to the spring with the fast flowing groundwater. The temporal and local variability of both, the radon content and the salinity of the spring water, can be explained by a variable mixing process of waters from two different aquifer sub-systems: (i) a “normal” karst aquifer with conduits by-passing the “red clay” deposits and (ii) a “red clay” aquifer that is hydrologically connected to the laterites and that is discharging waters of higher salinity and radon concentration

    Chromosomal location of a gene that controls sterol esterification in Triticum aestivum L.

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    A previously described D genome locus (Pln) that controls sterol esterification in the wheat kernel has been assigned to the short arm of chromosome 7 D by comparison of the steryl ester phenotype of euploid kernels of Triticum aestivum variety Chinese Spring with those of the compensated nulli-tetrasomic lines and the 7 D S ditelosomic. Palmitate is the predominant ester in all but the 7 D nullisomic combinations, which have linoleate as the main ester. These lines also show a marked decrease in sterol esterification and a two-fold increase in free sterol, indicating that chromosomes 7 A and 7 B do not compensate for the loss of esterification capacity associated with 7 D

    Correction to: Curve of Spee modification in different vertical skeletal patterns after clear aligner therapy: a 3D set-up retrospective study (Progress in Orthodontics, (2024), 25, 1, (5), 10.1186/s40510-023-00503-1)

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    Correction to: Prog Orthod.25, 5 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1186/s40510-023-00503-1. Following publication of the original article [1], the authors identified an error in the author names of the author group as the given name and family name were erroneously transposed. The incorrect author names are: Ciavarella Domenico, Fanelli Carlotta, Suriano Carmela1, Campobasso Alessandra, Lorusso Mauro, Ferrara Donatella, Maci Marta, Esposito Rosa and Tepedino Michele The correct author names are: Domenico Ciavarella, Carlotta Fanelli, Carmela Suriano, Alessandra Campobasso, Mauro Lorusso, Donatella Ferrara, Marta Maci, Rosa Esposito and Michele Tepedino The author group has been updated above and the original article [1] has been corrected

    “Using Radon as a Naturally Occurring Tracer in the Bussento river karst systems (National Park of the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni, - European and Global Geopark, Southern Italy)”

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    Karst aquifers provide 25% of the overall drinking water resources to the world‟s population and sustain aquatic life in most fluvial systems, providing several ecological services to human beings, although, because of their complex links between surface and groundwater, turn out to be very vulnerable to contamination and pollution. This paper describes the preliminary findings from Radon-222 activity concentration measurement data collected in streamflow and instream springs during monthly field campaigns in a typical Mediterranean karst river: the Bussento river (Campania region, Southern Italy). The general aim is to investigate the complex interactions and exchanges between streamflow and groundwater, at scales that are imperceptible to standard hydrological and hydraulic analyses. Experimental data about 222Rn activity concentrations in streamflow and inflow spring waters, from selected sampling stations, have been acquired and managed by means of the Radon-in-Air analyzer, RAD7, together with the Radon-in-water accessories, Radon Water Probe and RADH2O (DURRIDGE Co. Inc.), for continuous and batch sampling measurements, respectively. In addition, data about physical-chemical and streamflow rate have been, also, collected in-situ. During preliminary surveys, appropriate sampling procedures and measurement protocols have been tested, taking into account the different local hydrogeological and hydrological situations occurring along the Bussento river basin

    Personal and Environmental Risk Factors at Birth and Hospital Admission: Direct and Vitamin D-Mediated Effects on Bronchiolitis Hospitalization in Italian Children

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    Seasonal variations in UV-B radiation may influence vitamin D status, and this, in turn, may influence the risk of bronchiolitis hospitalization. The aim of this study was using a causal inference approach to investigate, simultaneously, the interrelationships between personal and environmental risk factors at birth/hospital admission (RFBH), serum vitamin D levels and bronchiolitis hospitalization. A total of 63 children (<2 years old) hospitalized for bronchiolitis (34 RSV-positive) and 63 controls were consecutively enrolled (2014-2016). Vitamin D levels and some RFBH (birth season, birth weight, gestational age, gender, age, weight, hospitalization season) were recorded. The discovered RFBH effects on the risk ok bronchiolitis hospitalization were decomposed into direct and vitamin-D mediated ones through Mediation Analysis. Winter-spring season (vs. summer-autumn) was significantly associated with lower vitamin D levels (mean difference -11.14 nmol/L). Increasing serum vitamin D levels were significantly associated with a lower risk of bronchiolitis hospitalization (OR = 0.84 for a 10-nmol/L increase). Winter-spring season and gestational age (one-week increase) were significantly and directly associated with bronchiolitis hospitalization (OR = 6.37 and OR = 0.78 respectively), while vitamin D-mediated effects were negligible (1.21 and 1.02 respectively). Using a comprehensive causal approach may enhance the understanding of the complex interrelationships among RFBH, vitamin D and bronchiolitis hospitalization

    Two characterization of BV functions on Carnot groups via the heat semigroup

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    In this paper we provide two different characterizations of sets with finite perimeter and functions of bounded variation in Carnot groups, analogous to those that hold in Euclidean spaces, in terms of the short-time behavior of the heat semigroup. The second one holds under the hypothesis that the reduced boundary of a set of finite perimeter is rectifiable, a result that presently is known in Step 2 Carnot groups. © 2011 The Author(s)

    Diverging trends in plant phenology and productivity across European mountains in a warming world

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    Global warming is affecting phenology and productivity of terrestrial ecosystems, with large implications for carbon cycling. However, how plant phenological trends are shifting in climatically heterogenous mountains, and how these trends affect ecosystem productivity remains unclear. Using moderate resolution satellite data (500 m), we analyzed differences in phenological trends and productivity between vegetation types and along elevation in Europe’s major mountain ranges between 2001 and 2023. End-of-season shifts outpaced start-of-season changes in broadleaved forests (+0.15 vs. -0.05 d y⁻¹), while patterns in natural grasslands were opposite (+0.03 vs. -0.23 d y⁻¹). The magnitude of these shifts varied significantly with elevation: grassland spring phenology consistently advanced more at high than at low elevations, while broadleaved forest spring phenology exhibited mountain range-specific elevation responses—advancing more at low than at high elevations in the Alps and in the Carpathians, but not in the Pyrenees and in the Scandinavian Mountains. Autumn phenology of broadleaved forests showed greater delays at high than at low elevations, likely due to spring and summer droughts. Climate anomalies, calculated as Z-scores across the 23-year time-series, predicted phenological anomalies well (max R² = 0.51), although trends in climate over 23 years and phenological variables were related only weakly (max R² = 0.27), suggesting that plants adjusted to long-term differently than to short-term climate change. Growing season length (GSL) was strongly coupled with productivity (max R2 = 0.60), especially in “cold-limited” vegetation. Nonetheless, temporal trends in GSL and productivity were not related (R² < 0.03). In the last 23 years, GSL significantly increased in only 22 % of forest and 16 % of grassland pixels, but productivity in 20 % of forest and 53 % of grassland pixels. Our results suggested that factors beyond GSL affect ecosystem productivity, indicating that longer growing seasons will not necessarily translate into increasing productivity across European mountains

    Karl Polanyi’s the great transformation: Perverse effects, protectionism and gemeinschaft

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    Drawing upon Karl Polanyi’s journalistic writings and unpublished lectures from the 1920s and 1930s, this article reconstructs the lineaments of his research programme that was to assume its finished form in The Great Transformation. It identifies and corrects a common misinterpretation of the thesis of that book, and argues that Polanyi’s basic theoretical framework is best conceived as Tönniesian: the ‘protective counter-movement’ of The Great Transformation is Gemeinschaft, understood dynamically, while the market society is Gesellschaft. It examines the two central mechanisms by which, in Polanyi’s understanding, Gesellschaft broke down in the mid-twentieth century: the ‘clash between democracy and capitalism,’ and a doctrine of ‘perverse effects’ whereby political intervention in markets impairs profitability and saps the vitality of the market system

    Relazioni ed entità emergenti: da Broad e Lloyd Morgan a Kim

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    The author tries to argue that J. Kim’s exclusion argument is not incompatible with the acceptance of a certain form of ontological emergence and that C. D. Broad’s and C. Lloyd Morgan’s doctrines should be actually taken as weakly emergentist doctrines – even if Lloyd Morgan’s doctrine can be also interpreted in strongly emergentist terms. The crucial point of such versions of emergentism – what grounds the very occurrence of emergence – lies in external relations’ being involved in the emergence bases. First, the author distinguishes between weak and strong ontological emergence and between internal and external relations. Secondly, he reconstructs Broad’s and Lloyd Morgan’s doctrines. Thirdly, he examines Kim’s exclusion argument and he argues for the general conclusion of the article. In conclusion, insofar as physicalists accept that non-physical entities can depend in special ways on physical ones (e.g., by involving irreducible, external relations in the dependence bases), they can also accept certain forms of ontological emergence

    Sediment resuspension and nepheloid layers induced by long internal solitary waves shoaling orthogonally on uniform slopes

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    Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2013. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Continental Shelf Research 72 (2014): 21-33, doi:10.1016/j.csr.2013.10.019.Two-dimensional, nonlinear and nonhydrostatic field-scale numerical simulations are used to examine the resuspension, dispersal and transport of mud-like sediment caused by the shoaling and breaking of long internal solitary waves on uniform slopes. The patterns of erosion and transport are both examined, in a series of test cases with varying conditions. Shoreward sediment movement is mainly within boluses, while seaward movement is within intermediate nepheloid layers. Several relationships between properties of the suspended sediment and control parameters are determined such as the horizontal extent of the nehpeloid layers, the total mass of resuspended sediment and the point of maximum bed erosion. The numerical results provide a plausible explanation for acoustic backscatter patterns observed during and after the shoaling of internal solitary wavetrains in a natural coastal environment. The results may further help interpret sedimentary structures that may have been shaped by internal waves and add an another e ective mechanism for o shore dispersal of muddy sediments.This research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (D. Bourgault) and by the Spanish Research Project CGL2009-13254 (M. Morsilli)
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