The genetic variability of microsatellites was investigated among allochthonous populations of Ruditapes philippinarum (Bivalvia, Veneridae) at six sites in the Gulf of Olbia (North-East Sardinia) ...and one site in the Lagoon of Sacca di Goro (North Adriatic Sea). Our results demonstrate the lack of genetic substructuring of R. philippinarum populations within the Gulf of Olbia. Furthermore, we found highly similar estimates of within-population genetic variability without evidence of genetic differentiation between Sardinian and Adriatic populations. The lack of a signature of a founder effect in the Sardinian samples, notwithstanding their recent introduction, indicates that the number of R. philippinarum individuals released into the Gulf of Olbia may have been high enough to reduce the loss of genetic variability due to genetic drift. Furthermore, the absence of genetic differentiation observed between samples from the two areas suggests that the two populations belong to the same gene pool. Our results also indicated that R. philippinarum is rapidly colonizing the Gulf of Olbia and the neighboring areas, which is likely favored by its high potential for dispersal.
► We analyzed 7 R. philippinarum samples, 6 from NE Sardinia and 1 from N Adriatic. ► We surveyed the genetic variability at six microsatellite loci. ► We found lack of genetic population substructuring within the NE Sardinia. ► Lack of differentiation between the two areas suggests a common gene pool of origin. ► Concerns arise for the conservation in NE Sardinia of the autochthonous R. decussatus.
Nanocomposites formed by hard and soft magnetic phases are very promising for magnetic energy storage and biomedical applications. Highly challenging is the development of simple synthesis methods ...able to tune the phase composition and a thorough structural, morphologic and magnetic characterization in order to understand and optimize the interactions between hard and soft magnetic phases. Mainly depending on Fe:Pt atomic ratio, multi-phase or single phase FePt nanocomposites have been prepared by thermal treatment of core–shell FePt(Ag)@Fe3O4 nanoparticles at 750 °C for 1 h under flow of a Ar + 5% H2 gas mixture (H2 is necessary to reduce Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions of Fe3O4 to Fe0 atoms and the thermal treatment to form the crystalline soft and hard magnetic FePt phases). Performing Rietveld refinement of the XRD data as well as HR-TEM and electron diffraction analyses, the different phases have been singled out. Besides single phase hard L10 FePt and soft magnetic L12 Fe3Pt nanoparticles, two phase soft α-FePt and γ-FePt and hard and soft magnetic L10 FePt and L12 FePt3 nanocomposites have been formed and the structure and morphology correlated to their magnetic behavior.
Moreover, for possible applications, it is important to form stable nanoparticle layers; as-prepared FePt(Ag)@Fe3O4 nanoparticles have been chemically attached on a Si substrate, thermally annealed and the morphology, structure and magnetic properties of the layered nanoparticle sample investigated.
•Chemical one-pot preparation of multi-phase magnetic soft and hard FePt nanoparticles.•Easily tuning the phase composition by varying the concentration of the Fe reagent.•Stable chemical attachment of the nanoparticles on Si substrate.•Good agreement between the magnetic and structural data.
Engineer To Order (ETO) companies have to face the difficulty to manage high uncertainty in customer requirements, and, consequently, to organize all the activities for efficiently and effectively ...answering customer orders. In these contexts, planning the activities of design, production and assembly departments is a complex task, also given the variability of lead times and the difficulties in forecasting resources workload. Literature has mainly devoted attention to planning tools for standardized make to stock environments, often neglecting ETO companies’ needs. This paper aims to present a methodology for supporting design, production and assembly planning in an ETO context. The methodology combines project requirements planning with lean management tools, i.e. Asaichi and visual control and management tools. It has been successfully applied in a company showing its potential for increasing planning performance, company flexibility and, in the end, delivery performance.
We report the synthesis and characterization of a novel type of nanohoop, consisting of a cycloparaphenylene derivative incorporating a curved heptagon‐containing π‐extended polycyclic aromatic ...hydrocarbon (PAH) unit. We demonstrate that this new macrocycle behaves as a supramolecular receptor of curved π‐systems such as fullerenes C60 and C70, with remarkably large binding constants (ca. 107 M−1), as estimated by fluorescence measurements. Nanosecond and femtosecond spectroscopic analysis show that these host‐guest complexes are capable of quasi‐instantaneous charge separation upon photoexcitation, due to the ultrafast charge transfer from the macrocycle to the complexed fullerene. These results demonstrate saddle‐shaped PAHs with dibenzocycloheptatrienone motifs as structural components for new macrocycles displaying molecular receptor abilities and versatile photochemical responses with promising electron‐donor properties in host‐guest complexes.
A saddle‐shaped heptagon‐containing nanographene and a 10cycloparaphenylene are merged into a single nanohoop. The intrinsic curvature of the nanographene diminishes the strain energy of the hoop, increases the binding constant and enables a fast electron transfer toward fullerenes.
IntroductionCOVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2, has been one of the most highly contagious and rapidly spreading virus outbreak. The pandemic not only has catastrophic impacts on physical health and ...economy around the world, but also the psychological well-being of individuals, communities and society. The psychological and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic internationally have not been well described. There is a lack of international study assessing health-related impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially on the degree to which individuals are fearful of the pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to (1) assess the health-related impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in community-dwelling individuals around the world; (2) determine the extent various communities are fearful of COVID-19 and (3) identify perceived needs of the population to prepare for potential future pandemics.Methods and analysisThis global study involves 30 countries. For each country, we target at least 500 subjects aged 18 years or above. The questionnaires will be available online and in local languages. The questionnaires include assessment of the health impacts of COVID-19, perceived importance of future preparation for the pandemic, fear, lifestyles, sociodemographics, COVID-19-related knowledge, e-health literacy, out-of-control scale and the Patient Health Questionnaire-4. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe participants’ characteristics, perceptions on the health-related impacts of COVID-19, fear, anxiety and depression, lifestyles, COVID-19 knowledge, e-health literacy and other measures. Univariable and multivariable regression models will be used to assess the associations of covariates on the outcomes.Ethics and disseminationThe study has been reviewed and approved by the local ethics committees in participating countries, where local ethics approval is needed. The results will be actively disseminated. This study aims to map an international perspective and comparison for future preparation in a pandemic.
The synthesis of ZnO-SiO2 nanocomposites through impregnation of a commercial mesoporous silica with zinc nitrate aqueous or ethanolic solutions is reported. During thermal treatment the samples ...evolve toward the formation of nanocrystalline ZnO particles (zincite phase) dispersed onto amorphous silica stable up to the temperature of 700DGC. The nanoparticle size distribution is affected by the process parameters used in the impregnation. A narrower and more homogeneous distribution is obtained using ethanolic instead of aqueous solutions. At higher temperatures the samples evolve towards the formation of a zinc silicate phase.
Using data from the PRIAMO study, we investigated non-motor symptoms (NMS) versus frontal lobe dysfunction in patients with idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD); 808 patients with PD and 118 with ...atypical parkinsonisms (AP) were consecutively enrolled at 55 Centers in Italy. Twelve categories of NMS were investigated. Cognitive impairment was defined as a Mini-Mental Status Evaluation score ≤23.8 and frontal lobe dysfunction as a Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) score ≤13.48. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictor of frontal lobe dysfunction in 524 PD patients, and a generalized linear model was used for each of the six FAB items. Not only the total FAB scores but also the single FAB items were lower in AP versus PD (
p
≤ 0.005). Age (OR = 1.05), cognitive impairment (OR = 9.54), lack of cardiovascular symptoms (OR = 3.25), attention or memory problems (OR = 0.59) and treatment with
l
-DOPA (OR = 5.58) were predictors of frontal lobe dysfunction. MMSE was negatively associated with all FAB items (β ≤ −0.16) and age with all FAB items but prehension behavior (β ≤ −0.01). Previous use of
l
-DOPA was negatively associated with verbal fluency (β = −0.32) possibly acting as surrogate marker of disease duration. Cognitive impairment is a predictor of frontal lobe dysfunction. Among NMS, lack of attention or memory problems were negatively associated with frontal impairment. Further studies are nonetheless needed to better identify the predictors of frontal impairment in PD patients.
Knowledge discovery consists of finding new knowledge from databases where dimension, complexity, or amount of data is prohibitively large for human observation alone. The need for efficient data ...visualization and clustering is often faced, for instance, in the analysis, monitoring, fault detection, or prediction of various engineering plants. In this paper, two clustering techniques,
K
-means and Self-Organizing Maps, are used for the identification of characteristic regions for plasma scenario in nuclear fusion experimental devices. The choice of the number of clusters, which heavily affects the performance of the mapping, is firstly faced. Then, the ASDEX Upgrade Tokamak high-dimensional operational space is mapped into lower-dimensional maps, allowing to detect the regions with high risk of disruption, and, finally, the current process state and its history in time are visualized as a trajectory on the Self-Organizing Map, in order to predict the safe or disruptive state of the plasma.
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