The application of an effective and ready-to-use tool for discovering clandestine graves is crucial for solving a number of cases where disappearance of people is involved. This is the case in ...Mexico, where the government drug war has resulted in a large number of missing people that has been estimated to be over 40,000 since the year 2006. In this article, we report results from an experimental study on simulated animal graves detection using several techniques from optical remote sensing. Results showed that several spectral indices from hyperspectral and/or multispectral sensors may be used to detect N-enriched vegetation. Thermal imagery was also effective to detect underground voids through differential thermography, although this was only effective for detecting large graves with bare terrain. Lastly, while dense pointclouds reconstructed from oblique aerial photography was able to detect vegetation regrowth over the pits, the terrain subsidence was not sufficiently large to be detected with this technique, even in the case of mechanical removal of vegetation.
•Grave size, spatial resolution and some buried objects seemed to affect the spectral discrimination of grave surface.•Chlorophyll-sensitive spectral indices could detect graves after the fourth month since interment.•Differential thermography allowed to detect multiple graves and buried impermeable clothes due to a higher thermal inertia.•UAV-photogrammetry could not detect subtle changes of grave surface, mainly due to occlusion by vegetation.
Both modern humans (MHs) and Neanderthals successfully settled across western Eurasian cold-climate landscapes. Among the many adaptations considered as essential to survival in such landscapes, ...changes in the nasal morphology and/or function aimed to humidify and warm the air before it reaches the lungs are of key importance. Unfortunately, the lack of soft-tissue evidence in the fossil record turns difficult any comparative study of respiratory performance. Here, we reconstruct the internal nasal cavity of a Neanderthal plus two representatives of climatically divergent MH populations (southwestern Europeans and northeastern Asians). The reconstruction includes mucosa distribution enabling a realistic simulation of the breathing cycle in different climatic conditions via computational fluid dynamics. Striking across-specimens differences in fluid residence times affecting humidification and warming performance at the anterior tract were found under cold/dry climate simulations. Specifically, the Asian model achieves a rapid air conditioning, followed by the Neanderthals, whereas the European model attains a proper conditioning only around the medium-posterior tract. In addition, quantitative-genetic evolutionary analyses of nasal morphology provided signals of stabilizing selection for MH populations, with the removal of Arctic populations turning covariation patterns compatible with evolution by genetic drift. Both results indicate that, departing from important craniofacial differences existing among Neanderthals and MHs, an advantageous species-specific respiratory performance in cold climates may have occurred in both species. Fluid dynamics and evolutionary biology independently provided evidence of nasal evolution, suggesting that adaptive explanations regarding complex functional phenotypes require interdisciplinary approaches aimed to quantify both performance and evolutionary signals on covariation patterns.
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•Optimized HS-SPME-GC-MS analysis for VOC fingerprinting of aromatic plants.•Optimization of the essential oil extraction procedure by hydrodistillation.•Statistical multivariate ...approach by ANOVA and PCA for the study of aroma profiles.•Characterization of essential oils as sources of natural bioactive compounds.•Analytical fingerprinting to assess product safety and quality of aromatic herbs.
In this study a volatolomic approach is proposed for the characterization of the volatile organic compound (VOC) composition of essential oils (EOs) extracted from common aromatic plants. Five species (Prunus spinosa L., Salvia officinalis L., Eucalyptus globulus L., Melissa officinalis L. and Mentha x piperita L.), particularly widespread in Southern Italy, were selected as recognized sources of natural bioactive compounds with beneficial properties.
Hydro distillation and solid-liquid extraction with ethanol at different percentages were used to obtain EOs, and their extraction capabilities were compared analyzing chromatographic profiles obtained by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The analytical procedure was optimized in term of SPME fiber, adsorption time and desorption time. GC–MS analyses were performed allowing the profiling of the VOC fingerprint in each plant extract. Experimental data were processed by a statistical multivariate approach (Analysis of Variance and Principal Component Analysis obtained for compounds and chemical classes), confirming that EO aroma profiles were statistically different for each of the selected five plants. The proposed volatolomic approach has proved to be an easy and efficient tool to study the aroma profile, allowing the collection of specific information and opening new perspectives and opportunities for the detection and identification of VOCs in agricultural and ecological applications.
A new method for the determination of aflatoxins B
1, B
2, G
1, and G
2 (AFB
1, AFB
2, AFG
1, AFG
2) in cereal flours based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with high performance liquid ...chromatography with post-column photochemical derivatization and fluorescence detection (SPME–HPLC–PD–FD) has been developed. Aflatoxins were extracted from cereal flour samples by a methanol:phosphate buffer (pH 5.8,
I
=
0.1) (80:20, v/v) solution, followed by a SPME step. Different SPME and HPLC–PD–FD parameters (fiber polarity, temperature, pH, ionic strength, adsorption and desorption time, mobile phase) have been investigated and optimized. This method, which was assessed for the analysis of different cereal flours, showed interesting results in terms of LOD (from 0.035 to 0.2
ng
g
−1), LOQ (from 0.1 to 0.63
ng
g
−1, respectively), within and inter-day repeatability (2.27% and 5.38%, respectively) linear ranges (up to 20
ng
g
−1 for AFB
1 and AFG
1 and 6
ng
g
−1 for AFB
2 and AFG
2), and total raw extraction efficiency (in the range 55–59% at concentrations in the range 0.3–1
ng
g
−1 and 49–52% at concentrations in the range 1–10
ng
g
−1). The results were also compared with the purification step carried out by conventional immunoaffinity columns.
In the present work, the consideration of a dynamic charge to describe the non-Coulomb potential of the residual target for ionisation in bare ion–multielectron atom collisions is studied. This is ...based on the well-known Belkić’s prescription. It is shown that using an emission-angle-dependent charge in the final residual target continuum state improves the doubly differential cross sections for backward emission angles. It appears as an excellent choice to avoid large time-consuming calculations, associated with the use of numerical continuum functions. Improving the physical description of the ionisation reaction whilst keeping calculation times as low as possible is necessary for multiple applications that require large cross sections databases.
Graphic abstract
The TOTEM collaboration at the CERN LHC has measured the differential cross-section of elastic proton–proton scattering at
s
=
8
TeV
in the squared four-momentum transfer range
0.2
GeV
2
<
|
t
|
<
...1.9
GeV
2
. This interval includes the structure with a diffractive minimum (“dip”) and a secondary maximum (“bump”) that has also been observed at all other LHC energies, where measurements were made. A detailed characterisation of this structure for
s
=
8
TeV
yields the positions,
|
t
|
dip
=
(
0.521
±
0.007
)
GeV
2
and
|
t
|
bump
=
(
0.695
±
0.026
)
GeV
2
, as well as the cross-section values,
d
σ
/
d
t
dip
=
(
15.1
±
2.5
)
μ
b
/
GeV
2
and
d
σ
/
d
t
bump
=
(
29.7
±
1.8
)
μ
b
/
GeV
2
, for the dip and the bump, respectively.
Cationic and hydrophilic coatings based on casting and drying water dispersions of two different nanoparticles (NPs) onto glass are here described and evaluated for antimicrobial activity. Discoid ...cationic bilayer fragments (BF) surrounded by carboxy-methylcellulose (CMC) and poly (diallyl dimethyl ammonium) chloride (PDDA) NPs and spherical gramicidin D (Gr) NPs dispersed in water solution were cast onto glass coverslips and dried, forming a coating quantitatively evaluated against
,
and
. From plating and colony forming units (CFU) counting, all strains interacting for 1 h with the coatings lost viability from 10
to 10
, to zero CFU, at two sets of Gr and PDDA doses: 4.6 and 25 μg, respectively, or, 0.94 and 5 μg, respectively. Combinations produced broad spectrum, antimicrobial coatings; PDDA electrostatically attached to the microbes damaging cell walls, allowing Gr NPs interaction with the cell membrane. This concerted action promoted optimal activity at low Gr and PDDA doses. Further washing and drying of the deposited dried coatings showed that they were washed out so that antimicrobial activity was no longer present on the glass surface. Significant applications in biomedical materials can be foreseen for these transient coatings.
Abstract The TOTEM collaboration has measured the elastic proton-proton differential cross section $$\mathrm{d}\sigma /\mathrm{d}t$$ d σ / d t at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ s = 13 TeV LHC energy using ...dedicated $$\beta ^{*}=90$$ β ∗ = 90 m beam optics. The Roman Pot detectors were inserted to 10 $$\sigma $$ σ distance from the LHC beam, which allowed the measurement of the range 0.04 GeV $$^{2}$$ 2 ; 4 GeV $$^{2}$$ 2 $$$$ in four-momentum transfer squared | t |. The efficient data acquisition allowed to collect about 10 $$^{9}$$ 9 elastic events to precisely measure the differential cross-section including the diffractive minimum (dip), the subsequent maximum (bump) and the large-| t | tail. The average nuclear slope has been found to be $$B=(20.40 \pm 0.002^{\mathrm{stat}} \pm 0.01^{\mathrm{syst}})~$$ B = ( 20.40 ± 0 . 002 stat ± 0 . 01 syst ) GeV $$^{-2}$$ - 2 in the | t |-range 0.04–0.2 GeV $$^{2}$$ 2 . The dip position is $$|t_{\mathrm{dip}}|=(0.47 \pm 0.004^{\mathrm{stat}} \pm 0.01^{\mathrm{syst}})~$$ | t dip | = ( 0.47 ± 0 . 004 stat ± 0 . 01 syst ) GeV $$^{2}$$ 2 . The differential cross section ratio at the bump vs. at the dip $$R=1.77\pm 0.01^{\mathrm{stat}}$$ R = 1.77 ± 0 . 01 stat has been measured with high precision. The series of TOTEM elastic pp measurements show that the dip is a permanent feature of the pp differential cross-section at the TeV scale.
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