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Bio‐active ethylcellulose (EC) polymeric films have been obtained by incorporating curcumin (curc) and Ag(I)‐based compounds, known for their antioxidant and antimicrobial activity, respectively, within the polymeric matrix. The recently reported Ag(I) coordination polymer, in both its structural forms (α‐[(bpy)Ag(OTf)]∞ and β‐{[(bpy)Ag][OTf]}∞), and the [(bpy)Ag(OTf)]∞‐curc polymeric co‐crystal (bpy=2,2′‐bipyridine; OTf=trifluoromethanesulfonate) have been selected as Ag(I) species. The hybrid composite films have been prepared through the simple solvent casting method and characterized through Powder X‐Ray Diffraction (PXRD), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), UV‐vis spectroscopy. The deep investigation of the film samples highlighted the non‐inert behaviour of EC towards these specific active ingredients. Antimicrobial tests showed that EC films embedding the Ag(I)‐based compounds present good antimicrobial performance, in particular against Staphylococcus aureus, used as a model of Gram‐positive bacteria. In addition, Silver migration tests, performed on the Ag(I)‐incorporating EC films, evidenced low values of silver release particularly in the case of the EC films incorporating [(bpy)Ag(OTf)]∞‐curc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chemical reactivity between Pr4Ni3O10±δ (3‐PNO) electrodes and Y0.08Zr0.92O1.96 (YSZ), Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95 (GDC), and La0.9Sr0.1Ga0.8Mg0.2O2.85 (LSGM) electrolytes was analyzed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and X‐ray diffraction. 3‐PNO powders were synthesized by two different chemical routes, one of them uses hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) as a complexing agent (route A) while the other citrates (route B). The samples observed by scanning electron microscopy presented different microstructures; route A powders present small submicronic grains with an open microstructure while route B powders are formed by larger well‐connected grains. The polarization resistance (RP) values for 3‐PNO/YSZ cells are one order of magnitude higher than those of 3‐PNO/GDC and 3‐PNO/LSGM cells. The RP for both cells 3‐PNO/GDC and 3‐PNO/LSGM and its evolution in time suggest that chemical reactivity takes place during the adhesion treatment and electrochemical measurements. The microstructure plays a crucial role in RP and the degradation rate; 3‐PNO obtained by route A (3‐PNO‐HMTA) exhibits the best electrochemical performance since these powders present a well‐loose morphology and a large exposed area. However, this fact makes them active chemically, so the increase of RP with time is slower for 3‐PNO electrodes prepared by route B (3‐PNO‐Cit), since the rate of chemical reactivity with the electrolyte is slower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first report of the presence of the pine tortoise scale Toumeyella parvicornis Cockerell (Hemiptera: Coccidae) in the Italian region of Puglia (South‐Eastern Italy). The pine tortoise scale was observed in July 2021 on Pinus pinea in the city of Bari. Pinus halepensis trees growing near infested P. pinea were not found to be infested. None of the monitored plants in the other surveyed municipalities within the region had apparent signs of T. parvicornis infestation. Overall, the rapid expansion of T. parvicornis in the Italian Peninsula represents a serious threat to the Pinus species of the entire Mediterranean basin, thus the development of sustainable integrated management strategies is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mercury removal efficiency of a novel metal‐organic framework (MOF) derived from the amino acid S‐methyl‐L‐cysteine is presented and the process is characterized by single‐crystal X‐ray crystallography. A feasibility study is further presented on the performance of this MOF—and also that of another MOF derived from the amino acid L‐methionine—when used as the sorbent in mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). These MOF‐based MMMs exhibit high efficiency and selectivity—in both static and dynamic regimes—in the removal of Hg2+ from aqueous environments, due to the high density of thioalkyl groups decorating MOF channels. Both MMMs are capable to reduce different concentration of the pollutant to acceptable limits for drinking water (<2 parts per billion). In addition, a novel device, consisting of the recirculation and adsorption of contaminated solutions through the MOF–MMMs, is designed and successfully explored in the selective capture of Hg2+. Thus, filtration of Hg2+ solutions with multiple passes through the permeation cell shows a gradual decrease of the pollutant concentration. These results suggest that MOF‐based MMMs can be implemented in water remediation, helping to reduce either contaminants from accidental unauthorized or deliberate metal industrial dumping and to ensure access for clean and potable freshwater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the following work, a new method for the analysis of the phthalate monoesters in human urine was reported. Phthalate monoesters are metabolites generated as a result of phthalate exposure. In compliance with the dictates of Green Analytical Chemistry, a rapid and simple protocol was developed and optimized for the quantification of phthalate monoesters (i.e., monoethyl phthalate, monoisobutyl phthalate, mono‐n‐butyl phthalate, mono‐(2‐ethylhexyl) phthalate, mono‐n‐octyl phthalate, monocyclohexyl phthalate, mono‐isononyl phthalate) in human urine, which entails preceding derivatization with methyl chloroformate combined with the use of commercial solid phase microextraction and the analysis by gas chromatography‐triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. The affinity of the derivatized analytes toward five commercial coatings was evaluated, and in terms of analyte extraction, the best results were reached with the use of the divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane fiber. The multivariate approach of experimental design was used to seek for the best working conditions of the derivatization reaction and the solid phase microextraction, thus obtaining the optimum response values. The proposed method was validated according to the guidelines issued by the Food and Drug Administration achieving satisfactory values in terms of linearity, sensitivity, matrix effect, intra‐ and inter‐day accuracy, and precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pd‐catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura cross‐coupling between (hetero)aryl halides (Cl, Br, I) and versatile, moisture‐stable mono‐ and bifunctional potassium aryltrifluoroborates proceeded efficiently and chemoselectively in air and under generally mild conditions; a catalyst loading as low as 1 mol % combined with Na2CO3 as a base in choline chloride/glycerol (1:2) deep eutectic solvent (DES) was used as a sustainable and environmentally responsible medium. The catalyst, base, and DES were easily and successfully recycled up to six times with an E‐factor as low as 8.74. Valuable biaryls and terphenyl derivatives were furnished in yields of up to 98 %; over 50 reactions were compared and discussed. The methodology was applied for the synthesis of the nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs Felbinac and Diflunisal. Sustainable Suzuki–Miyaura! Biaryl and terphenyl derivatives were successfully synthesized through a Pd‐catalyzed one‐pot, two‐ or three‐component mixture of mono‐ and bifunctional aryltrifluoroborates with (hetero)aryl halides in environmentally responsible and recyclable deep eutectic solvents. The methodology was applied for the synthesis of the nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs Felbinac and Diflunisal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this work, a polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene fiber overcoated with a layer of polydimethylsiloxane was evaluated as analytical sampling tool for the first time in human urine. Urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with 2–6 aromatic rings were considered as target compounds. The analyte uptake in kinetic and thermodynamic regime was evaluated and compared to the performances of polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene and polydimethylsiloxane fibers. The assessment of the robustness and endurance of the overcoated fiber was carried out by direct immersion solid‐phase microextraction in undiluted urine performing up to 120 consecutive extractions. The overcoated fiber was then used to develop a fast and easy direct immersion solid‐phase microextraction with gas chromatography and triple quadrupole mass spectrometry protocol for the quantification of the target polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The attained values of accuracy and precision were 75–114% and 2–19%, respectively, while the limits of quantification ranged between 0.05 and 1 ng/L. The proposed protocol was applied to the screening of urine samples collected from smoking and nonsmoking volunteers. The successful results obtained by using the overcoated fiber create not only new alternatives for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure assessment but also new perspectives for the application of direct immersion solid‐phase microextraction to the analysis of bioclinical matrixes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, we show how, through time, an ethnic mosaic and a changing social and economic context translated into intrapopulation differentiation and a change in genetic barriers between populations. Surname analysis was applied to a sample drawn from two centuries of marriage records in ten Arbëreshe and nine Italian villages of southern Italy to evaluate the evolution of internal differentiation and changes in genetic relationships between populations. Marital Isonymy and subdivision into subpopulations was higher in the Arbëreshe. Genetic barriers coinciding with ethnic boundaries characterized the 1800s. In the second half of the 1900s, ethnic differentiation disappeared. We hypothesize that socioeconomic changes, such as increased outmigration and regional mobility, were the forces that progressively eliminated the ethnic-related genetic differentiation in the region. This study has important implications for an understanding of the relationship between genetic evolution and the cultural milieu involving enforcement of ethnic differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present work was to ascertain, through the administration of a psychosocial questionnaire, the difficulties that subjects with defective colour vision experience in carrying out everyday tasks and work, including driving a car with a driver's licence held for no more than 3 years. Subjects with defective colour vision ( n = 151) and subjects with normal vision ( n = 302) completed a psychosocial questionnaire regarding the difficulties associated with congenital colour vision deficiency in daily life, work and driving a car. Subjects were diagnosed as colour-blind using the Ishihara test. Statistically significant differences between the two samples were found for daily life activities. Subjects with defective colour vision preferred daytime driving. At night, subjects with defective colour vision had difficulty identifying reflectors on the road and the rear signal lights of cars ahead of them. Colour-blind Calabrian subjects admitted to experiencing colour-related difficulties with a wide range of occupational tasks and leisure pursuits. In particular, colour-blind Calabrian subjects preferred daytime driving, and fewer drove regularly, compared to orthochromatics, who were indifferent to night or daytime driving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looks into the studies conducted by Hans Spemann, a scientist who was known to be the Father of Experimental Embroyology. Two concepts involved in Spemann's work; Impact of Spemann's experiments and discoveries on the course of embryology; Basis of the modern science of experimental morphogenesis and the actual biochemical studies.

A novel approach for the rapid discrimination of bergamot essential oil from other citrus fruits oils is presented. The method was developed using paper spraymass spectrometry (PS-MS) allowing for a rapid molecular profiling coupled with a statistic tool for a precise and reliable discrimination between the bergamot complex matrix and other similar matrices, commonly used for its reconstitution. Ambient mass spectrometry possesses the ability to recordmass spectra of ordinary samples, in their native environment, without sample preparation or pre-separation by creating ions outside the instrument. The present study reports a PS-MS method for the determination of oxygen heterocyclic compounds such as furocoumarins, psoralens and flavonoids present in the non-volatile fraction of citrus fruits essential oils followed by chemometric analysis. The volatile fraction of Bergamot is one of the most known and fashionable natural products, which found applications in flavoring industry as ingredient in beverages and flavored foodstuff. The development of the presented method employed bergamot, sweet orange, orange, cedar, grapefruit and mandarin essential oils. PS-MS measurements were carried out in full scan mode for a total run time of 2 min. The capability of PS-MS profiling to act as marker for the classification of bergamot essential oils was evaluated by using multivariate statistical analysis. Two pattern recognition techniques, linear discriminant analysis and soft independent modeling of class analogy, were applied to MS data. The cross-validation procedure has shown excellent results in terms of the prediction ability because both models have correctly classified all samples for each category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Red-green colour blindness, an inherited X-linked anomaly, was analyzed both in its biological aspects (genetic frequency) and its pedagogical and psychological implications (only the latter are the exhaustive subject of this analysis). A mass screening was carried out by means of the Ishihara test between 1998 and 2000 in Calabria and Basilicata (South of Italy). A total of 63,933 male and female schoolchildren were investigated, belonging to 351 towns and 655 secondary schools (age range 11–14 years). Then, a psychological questionnaire was administered to the entire sample, while the psychological statistical analysis was made on the answers given by two sub-samples composed of 34,309 orthochromatic subjects of both sexes and 831 colour-blind subjects of both sexes. Their answers strengthen the hypothesis that dyschromatopsia could affect the human relations of its recipients starting from their childhood, forcing them to manage their diversity in order to adapt to rules, tools and didactic media and, generally, that dyschromates carry a common feeling which presupposes and takes for granted the univocality of the visual experience. Additionally, 3,082 teachers of different subjects have been submitted to a pedagogical questionnaire, consisting of 13 closed-open questions, in order to analyze the behavior of the school toward the colour-blind subject. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 28, 216–220, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.10148 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrophilic porous polyethersulfone (PES) membranes and microcapsules were prepared via Non-Solvent Induced Phase Separation (NIPS) with the ionic liquid (IL) 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([BMIM][PF6]) as structure control agent, added to the conventionally employed PVPK17 pore former. The introduction of [BMIM][PF6] affects the phase inversion mechanism, resulting in different morphologies of the materials. Optimal conditions for the preparation of membranes (ILMs) were: 10-15 wt.% PES, 0-4 wt.% PVPK17, 5-25 wt.% [BMIM][PF6], while slightly different conditions were applied for the preparation of microcapsules (ILMCs): 10% wt.% PES, 0-4% wt.% PVPK17, and 5-15 wt.% [BMIM][PF6]. Thus, the produced porous spongy microcapsules (average diameter ∼800 μm) and flat sheet ionic liquid membranes (ILMs) were characterized by electronic microscopy (SEM), FTIR and Raman spectroscopy and thermal analysis. [BMIM][PF6] concentration is a key factor for controlling the internal membrane morphology. Indeed, higher concentrations of [BMIM][PF6] additive increases the viscosity of casting solution and reduces solvent exchange speed, thereby altering the membrane morphology from a channelled structures (finger-like) to a spongy type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) and easy ambient sonic-spray ionization mass spectrometry (EASI-MS) are employed here in the forensic analysis of chemical compounds found in condoms and relative traces, and their analytical performances are compared. Statistical analysis of data obtained from mass spectra only was applied in order to obtain classification rules for distinguishing ten types of condoms. In particular, two supervised chemometric techniques [linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA)] were carried out on absolute and relative intensity values to test the performances of statistical models in terms of predictive capacity. The achieved classification of samples was excellent because of the high prediction percentages of the method used both for DESI and EASI mass spectrometry analyses, confirming these two as potential ambient ionization techniques for forensic analyses in case of sexual assault crimes. EASI-MS showed 99% prediction ability for LDA using relative data and 100% prediction ability for SIMCA using both absolute and relative ones, while DESI showed 94% prediction ability for both LDA and SIMCA. The absence of any sample preparation technique gives advantages in terms of sample preservation and reduced contamination, allowing successive analyses to be performed on the same sample by other techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in clustering uncertain objects. In contrast to traditional, 'sharp' data representation models, uncertain objects are modeled as probability distributions defined over uncertainty regions. In this context, a major issue is related to the poor efficiency of existing algorithms, which is mainly due to expensive computation of the distance between uncertain objects. In this work, we extend our earlier work in which a novel formulation to the problem of clustering uncertain objects is defined based on the minimization of the variance of the mixture models that represent the clusters being discovered. Analytical properties about the computation of variance for cluster mixture models are derived and exploited by a partitional clustering algorithm, called MMVar. This algorithm achieves high efficiency since it does not need to employ any distance measure between uncertain objects. Experiments have shown that MMVar is scalable and outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of efficiency, while achieving better average performance in terms of accuracy. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining 6: 116-135, 2013 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective and subjects Goitre prevalence in school-age children is an indicator of the severity of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) in an endemic area. The aims of the present study were (i) to provide ultrasound thyroid volume (TV) reference values in a healthy population of school-children aged 11–14 year living in iodine-sufficient areas of Calabria region (ii) to assess both goitre prevalence and urinary iodine (UI) concentration in all children aged 11–14 year from four mildly iodine-deficient areas in which we have carried out a program of salt iodization and (iii) to evaluate the efficacy of the iodoprophylaxis in an adult population living in a small village of the same endemic area. Design Cross-sectional and prospective studies. Methods TV was assessed by ultrasonography and iodine intake was estimated by measuring iodine excretion in spot urine samples. Results We provided the ultrasound normal reference values as a function of age and body surface area, which displayed significant differences from those recommended by the World Health Organization. By adopting local criteria, the prevalence of goitre in children ranged from 23·4% to 27·7% normalized for age and body surface area, respectively, while the UI excretion was < 100 µg/l in 38% of subjects studied. In an adult population living in the same endemic area, goitre prevalence was lowest in the 18–27-year-old age group, and increased progressively with age. Conclusion We propose for the first time local reference ultrasound values for TV in a population of 11–14-year-old school-children that should be used for monitoring IDDs and have demonstrated the beneficial effects of iodoprophylaxis in consistent with reduced goitre prevalence in children and in the young adult population studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study documents the defensive function of flavored humor secreted by the abdominal glands of Carabus lefebvrei pupae. The morphology and the ultrastructure of these glands were described and the volatile compounds of glands secretion were identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The ultrastructure analysis shows an acinose complex formed by about 50 clusters. Each cluster has 20 glandular units and the unit-composed of one secretory and one canal cell lying along a duct-belongs to the class 3 cell type of Quennedey (1998). In the cytoplasm, the secretory cell contains abundant rough endoplasmatic reticula, glycogen granules, numerous mitochondria, and many well-developed Golgi complexes producing electron-dense secretory granules. Mitochondria are large, elongated, and often adjoining electronlucent vesicles. The kind and the origin of secretory granules varying in size and density were discussed. The chemical analysis of the gland secretion revealed the presence of a mixture of low molecular weight terpenes, ketones, aldehydes, alcohols, esters, and carboxylic acids. Monoterpenes, especially linalool, were the major products. We supposed that ketones, aldehydes, alcohols, esters, and carboxylic acids have a deterrent function against the predators and monoterpenes provide a prophylaxis function against pathogens. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hematological and gene mapping studies of two Southern Italian children doubly heterozygous for δ0-thalassemia and δ0β0-thalassemia have been carried out. No HbA2 was detectable by electrophoresis of total hemoglobin in these patients. Restriction enzyme analysis of the globin gene cluster with δ, γ, ∊ and RIH cloned probes showed all the expected normal bands, in addition to the abnormal fragments related to a previously described type of δ0β0-thalassemic deletion, demonstrating an apparently intact globin gene cluster on the thalassemic chromosome. The relevance of this finding to models for coordinated expression of non α globin genes is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]