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Several bamboo species, suitable for temperate climates, have been introduced from southern China as ornamental plants in Europe and in Italy since the XIX century. Bamboos were appreciated also for other commercial purposes afterwards (e.g., food and structural applications) and nowadays in NW Italy (Piedmont and Aosta Valley Regions) the interest in their plantation has been growing. Consequently, many public authorities responsible for environment and biodiversity protection expressed a precautionary attitude for the commerce of bamboos. ‘BambApp’ project was implemented to scrutinize the invasive potential of naturalized bamboo species with a ‘citizen science’ approach, which implied the support of volunteers to collect scientific information through the use of “iNaturalist” app for smartphones. Citizens described each recorded bamboo clump in terms of maximum height, maximum stem diameter, and clump size. The coordinates and a description of the habitat type on the border of the four sides for each clump were required to volunteers as well. Moreover, surveyors had to upload four pictures of the clump, which were used to identify the bamboos at species level. In a ten-month period, 871 validated bamboo populations were recorded in the two regions and nine different species identified. The most widespread species was Phyllostachys aurea (67%), followed by Phyllostachis viridiglaucescens (16%), Pseudosasa japonica (6%), Phyllostachys reticulata (5%), Phyllostachys nigra (2%), Phyllostachys flexuosa (2%), Phyllostachys sulfurea (2%), and Phyllostachys edulis (1%). To quantify the invasive potential of bamboo species a Principal Component Analysis was carried out by using variables related to clump growth. Average elevation ranged between 252 m and 431 m a.s.l. and the clump size ranged between an average of about 27 m2 and about 2160 m2. Phyllostachis reticulata and P. sulfurea were the tallest species with the largest stem diameters, whereas P. aurea was the species forming the largest clumps in terms of occupied surface. The 82% of populations bordered for at least one side with anthropic habitats, 60% with agricultural habitats, and 45% with natural habitats. ‘BambApp’ project, through a citizen science network, successfully provided reliable and comprehensive information to public authorities for re-evaluating the invasive potential of bamboo species in NW Italy and for regulating their commerce.

The Hubble Source Catalog (HSC) combines lists of sources detected on images obtained with the WFPC2, ACS and WFC3 instruments aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and now available in the Hubble Legacy Archive. The catalogue contains time-domain information for about two million of its sources detected using the same instrument and filter on at least five HST visits. The Hubble Catalog of Variables (HCV) aims to identify HSC sources showing significant brightness variations. A magnitude-dependent threshold in the median absolute deviation of photometric measurements (an outlier-resistant measure of light-curve scatter) is adopted as the variability detection statistic. It is supplemented with a cut in χred2 that removes sources with large photometric errors. A pre-processing procedure involving bad image identification, outlier rejection and computation of local magnitude zero-point corrections is applied to the HSC light-curves before computing the variability detection statistics. About 52 000 HSC sources have been identified as candidate variables, among which 7,800 show variability in more than one filter. Visual inspection suggests that ∼70% of the candidates detected in multiple filters are true variables, while the remaining ∼30% are sources with aperture photometry corrupted by blending, imaging artefacts or image processing anomalies. The candidate variables have AB magnitudes in the range 15-27m, with a median of 22m. Among them are the stars in our own and nearby galaxies, and active galactic nuclei. © International Astronomical Union 2019.

We aim to construct an exceptionally deep (V less than or similar to 27) catalog of variable objects in selected Galactic and extragalactic fields visited multiple times by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). While HST observations of some of these fields were searched for specific types of variables before ( most notably, the extragalactic Cepheids), we attempt a systematic study of the population of variable objects of all types at the magnitude range not easily accessible with ground-based telescopes. The variability timescales that can be probed range from hours to years depending on how often a particular field has been visited. For source extraction and cross-matching of sources between visits we rely on the Hubble Source Catalog which includes 107 objects detected with WFPC2, ACS, and WFC3 HST instruments. The lightcurves extracted from the HSC are corrected for systematic effects by applying local zero-point corrections and are screened for bad measurements. For each lightcurve we compute variability indices sensitive to a broad range of variability types. The indices characterize the overall lightcurve scatter and smoothness. Candidate variables are selected as having variability index values significantly higher than expected for objects of similar brightness in the given set of observations. The Hubble Catalog of Variables will be released in 2018.

This paper describes an accurate method to determine esterified glycerol in the glycerides of edible fats and oils and, in general, in all triglyceride fat or oil. Esterified glycerol is released by means of a transesterification reaction with potassium hydroxide in methanol, which simultaneously produces fatty acid methyl esters. Free glycerol is oxidized selectively to formic acid and without any interference in the same environment in which the transesterification reaction occurs by the addition of periodate. The formic acid produced is then potentiometrically titrated using an acid–base reaction. By knowing the acidic composition and the distribution of the glycerol between triglycerides, diglycerides and monoglycerides, the determination of glycerol also makes it possible to evaluate the content of glycerides present in the fats. The most accurate glyceride determination was obtained by suitably combining the determination of bound glycerol and the distribution of fatty acids obtained by means of gas chromatographic analysis. With little modifications, the proposed method also makes it possible to successfully analyse edible fat in terms of glycerol content in aqueous containing matrixes.

Communities of practices (CoPs) bring high value to product and process innovation in the actual context of economic depression and enable the development of small and medium enterprises. We aim to contribute to the improvement of their value promoting an integrated model based on vSa and DKMF models finalized to promote the knowledge transfer among community members of cooperating CoPs. The model enables to generate new knowledge and to amplify innovative cooperation when the governance effort in planning community development finds an equilibrium with structural characteristic of meta-CoP emerging from cooperating CoPs. The model is expected to help with needs of next organization scenario: big projects collecting activities shared between many actors and emerging complex social systems based on networking.

In this paper we propose Eclipse platform as a great solution to the problem of designing and developing mashup applications. Thanks to its modular and pliable architecture, Eclipse can be used to satisfy all mashup’s application need, allowing developers to act at each level of a mashup application, from the simple action of retrieving, managing and mashing data to combine complex structures or architectures to obtain real mashup applications and to bring them to web, using all new eclipse’s web 2.0 features. The combined use of the Open Source technology of eclipse and the mashup philosophy gives to enterprises, universities, research centres, freelancers, industries, and to each person that needs an application built to satisfy his own needs, the possibilities to obtain the application they need in a simple and quick way, with all the support of the eclipse community. For enterprises this means building situational applications to manage all the enterprise business processes that the major Enterprise Applications cannot treat due to the particularities of them. The specific nature of these processes and their less relevance in the global mission of an enterprise make them less attractive for software houses and customers due to the high costs of designing and development. Costs that the proposed solution can cut easily. For universities and research centres this solution can be the right way to integrate and mash information and data belonging to these two worlds, often too less interconnected. For freelancers and other people this can be a real possibility to simplify their activities and improve productivity. In conclusion we show also the aim the governs the eclipse community and the constant rejuvenation process that gives us more trust on the future possibility in this way.

In una organizzazione che lavora per obiettivi la determinazione del fabbisogno di conoscenza è di fondamentale importanza per comprendere quali sono i passi da attuare e le risorse da impiegare per raggiungere un obiettivo prestabilito. Si tratta di un processo complesso che può ricevere supporto da organizzazioni disposte a cedere il proprio know how ad altre organizzazioni appartenenti ad una rete al fine di diffondere conoscenza nei nodi cooperanti. In questo lavoro proponiamo un framework distribuito per la gestione della conoscenza in una rete di organizzazioni che perseguono obiettivi simili o condivisi. A partire dalla definizione degli obiettivi, la stima del fabbisogno di conoscenza necessaria a raggiungerli viene valutata con un approccio basato sul metodo Goal/ Question/Metrics. L’organizzazione che vuole acquisire conoscenza utile al raggiungimento di obiettivi condivisibili valuta lo sforzo necessario e mette a disposizione agli altri nodi, in forma esplicita, la conoscenza acquisita e la valutazione delle competenze e delle risorse necessarie a raggiungerla. Una discussione sulle possibili applicazioni chiude il lavoro.

The nicotine content of the tobacco powder completely degrades in one week when it is added to a non manured soil. If some organic manure is added to the soil so as to sensibly increase the microbial flora, then nicotine degrades in less than twenty-four hours. In sterilized soil nicotine content is constant over the time because of the total absence of microorganism. In the determination of the nicotine in the soil, accurate analytical results can be obtained by adding methanol to the soil sample at the moment of the sampling. Methanol degrades the enzymatic systems causing a soil sterilization and avoids, therefore, the degradation of the alkaloid. The extracted nicotine is analyzed by means of high performance liquid chromatography in a rapid and accurate manner.

The interference of triglycerides in the analysis of sterols and their esters in fats can be eliminated by transesterification of the sample dissolved in n-hexane with a solution of sodium hydroxide 2 mol/L. Since the analytes are distributed equally in n-hexane and in methanol, better results can be obtained by accurate measurements of the volumes, and processing the standards as the samples. Triglycerides and steryl esters are transesterified quantitatively by a solution of sodium hydroxide 2 mol/L using diethyl ether as solvent. At 40°C, ten minutes are sufficient to complete the reaction. The sterols are determined in fats using a mass spectrometer detector, at concentrations as low as 5 mg/Kg. Using FID, it was possible to analyze sterols present in concentrations higher than 100 mg/Kg.

A simpler and faster procedure than the official one described in document IV of European Economic Community Regulation 183/93 is proposed. The wax ester fraction is isolated from triglycerides using a commercially available silica gel column and carbon tetrachloride as eluent. The recovered wax ester fraction, with the addition of a suitable internal standard solution, is analyzed by gas chromatography. A column with a 65% phenyl methyl silicone stationary phase allows a satisfying separation of wax ester fraction in comparison with both a steryl ester and a light fraction eluted before the internal standard. Furthermore, also the single components of the wax ester fraction are suitably separated.

In this paper we present an innovative device designed and constructed to improve the fumigation process for stored foodstuffs with the use of phosphine gas in sealed chambers. The device allowed a considerable reduction in phosphine production time (from about 5 to 7 days for traditional systems to 2 days for the equipment considered), maintaining the system below the inflammability threshold, and at the same time achieving the total exhaustion of aluminum (or magnesium) phosphide so as to avoid toxic residues at the end of the process. With the standard device currently available on the market, after the normal 5–7 day fumigating period, the powder residue contains as much as 1–2% (w/w) of phosphide. Thus the residues, according to current legislation, have to be considered toxic and harmful. To overcome this disadvantage, appropriate modifications were made to the cylindrical tray used for the fumigation process: a nebulizer was installed, which has the function of increasing the moisture of the air spreading around the phosphide pellets and allowing a more rapid reaction with phosphide. Moreover, the cylindrical tray was also heated by means of an electrical resistance, and temperature was checked by a thermostat, so as to always obtain the same efficiency, independently of outside temperature, for both hot and cold periods, since reaction speed depends on the system temperature considered. In addition, a control device for air saturation allows condensation processes to be avoided. Using the modified cylindrical tray we performed tests to determine the best values of humidity and temperature for the process concerned, avoiding phosphine concentrations that might result in a fire hazard, and the remixing of phosphide pellets inside the cylindrical tray. Our experimental data allowed us to obtain a mathematical model used to gain an insight into the process in question.

To be effective, organizations have to cope with uncertainty, in particular when they are involved in the realization of projects. In this work we discuss a peculiar aspect of uncertainty arising from contractual relationships that regulate a project execution: the dispute management. Disputes may arise by the degree of uncertainty inherently existing in each project and have the potential to produce further uncertainty that can seriously threat the project success. Starting from the fundamental definition of view that a contractor has at a given time on the progress of a project, we propose a model for the management of potential disputes between parties that should help the reconciliation of diverging views.The software tool supports the main stakeholders (contractors, mediator, project managers) to better control an important cause of project failure, i.e. unresolved controversies.

This article gives a description of the setup in a laboratory of a pilot system to reduce phosphine following the smoking process of foodstuffs. At present, this fumigant is released into the atmosphere and causes serious damage to the environment due to its transformation into aggressive compounds. However, phosphine may prove a good alternative to methyl bromide, which will legally be used as a fumigant until the year 2002, provided it is made inert after the smoking process and transformed into nontoxic and easily disposable substances. Oxidant solutions containing potassium permanganate or potassium bichromate in suitable concentrations proved moderately effective in reducing phosphine. The addition of traces of silver nitrate as a catalyst to the oxidant solutions increased the efficiency in reducing the fumigant, although not completely. Thus it was necessary to use a recycling system to decontaminate air from phosphine, as such an apparatus ensures the complete reduction of phosphine. The mathematical function describing how the concentration of phosphine varies in the smoking chamber also makes it possible to estimate the time necessary to reduce a phosphine concentration from any initial value to a fixed final value.

Background Truvada, a fixed-dose combination of antiretroviral drugs (emtricitabine and tenofovir fumarate) indicated for HIV-1, was the 12th most expensive drug prescribed in Piedmont during 2009–2010, with a growth of 12%. Since July 2011 the School of Hospital Pharmacy in Turin has developed a two-year pharmacoeconomic project regarding high-cost drugs. Purpose To provide to the decision-makers with a management tool to evaluate the treatment costs of HIV patients. Materials and Methods The legislation and articles in epidemiology and pharmacoeconomic journals were reviewed. Drummond’s Weighted Checklist method was used to evaluate the pharmacoeconomic articles. A Budget Impact model, based only on the drug costs, was built. The treatment-naive population (290) was extrapolated from the incidence data in Piedmont in 2010. The treatment options relied on the US Department of Health and Human Services guidelines and on the pharmacoeconomic studies. The model suggested a combination of Truvada with: i) efavirenz (NNRTI, Sustiva), ii) atazanavir (PI, Reyataz)+ritonavir (PI booster, Norvir); iii) darunavir (PI, Prezista)+ritonavir (PI booster, Norvir). Results The daily treatment cost for a treatment-naive patient varies from €21.78 to €30.64, while the annual expenditure varies from €7,949.17 to €11,184.45. The Budget Impact was calculated assuming that the 290 new HIV cases had been treated for one year with one of the therapeutic strategies provided. The variation in comparison with association i) were respectively +24.64% for combination ii) and +40.70% for combination iii). Treatment iii) was the most expensive (€324,3491.37) and increased the annual expenditure by 40.70% (€938,233.23) as compared with treatment i) (€2305,258.14). Conclusions The Budget Impact analysis will be used to perform pre-assessments of expenditure in order to set up health care programmes for the allocation of the economic resources. A pharmacoeconomic analysis of cost-effectiveness will be performed between the associations Truvada + Reyataz and Truvada + Sustiva. No conflict of interest.

The availability of executable specification languages allows testing to be carried out soon after or concurrently with the requirements specification phase. In addition, it becomes possible to use these languages for rapid prototyping, making it possible to gather information on properties of the specified target system including its behavior in response to external events. The inspection of software behavior is viewed as the querying of executable specifications. A language RSQ is defined for the purpose of constructing queries against executable specifications expressed in RSF, a language for the description of systems with time constraints. A query is able to single out a subclass of possible behaviors based on properties supplied by the query. The integration of RSQ with RSF enhances the analytical abilities of the software designer and developer. >

A simple method for the determination of trace amounts of CN− and/or SCN− in water is suggested. The method is based on the prior transformation of CN− or SCN− into HCN; the HCN is separated from the aqueous sample by the headspace technique, analysed by gas-solid chromatography and selectively detected with a nitrogen-phosphorus detector. Cyanides and/or thiocyanates at concentrations between 0.01 and 100 ppm can be detected with a linear response. The procedure has been used for the determination of CN− in coke-oven water and in coke-oven waste effluent.

Comparaison des R F d'une serie d'alcanes, alcools aromatiques, avec N 2 O, freon-22, propene, propane, butane, hexane

The critical factor in the preparation of glass capillary columns is the coating of the inner wall with stationary phase. Difficulty is usually met when a very polar compound has to be coated and statisfactory results are obtained only when the inside surface is roughened. Though a number of devices have been suggested, reproducible results are seldom obtained. The outstanding properties of graphitized carbon black (GCB) permit the formation of an ideal precoating of a glass capillary upon which any stationary phase can be applied. The precoating is carried out by flowing through the capillary a colloidal solution of GCB obtained by exposing a 1% solution in methylene chloride to an ultrasonic generator. A colloidal solution is obtained by means of this treatment, which after introduction into the capillary and evaporation of the solvent leaves a layer, which strongly adheres to the surface and is not even removed by washing with polar and non polar solvents. After washing the graphite surface a new stationary phase can be coated on it. A great variety of columns of different polarity can be prepared such as SP 1000, apiezon, carbowax, SE 30 and SE 52, and their characteristics are evaluated. The use of a colloidal solution prepared by ultrasonic means can be extended also to the preparation of gas solid columns.

Les cyanhydrines formees par reaction avec le cyanure sont analysees par chromatographie gaz solide et detectees selectivement avec un detecteur azote phosphore

Acoustical, underwater photographic, and bottom sediment sampling data indicated that the major geomorphological features of the shelf throughout the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence are not related to the present environmental conditions. Submarine troughs and tunnel valleys give ample morphological evidence of extensive Pleistocene glaciation. Bottom samples and acoustical records revealed that sandstone bedrock with an intermittent veneer of sediments occurs on the sea floor between Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen Islands, as well as to the north of the Magdalen Islands. In contrast, the shelf areas west and east of the Magdalen Islands have an almost continuous sediment cover with only small exposures of bedrock. These sediments are considered to be mainly the erosional products of the local bedrock. Areas of elevated bottom relief such as Bradelle Bank are bedrock elevations on top of which there is a nearly continuous but relatively thin sediment cover. A submarine terrace between approximately 28 and 34 fath, well developed around the Magdalen Islands, is considered to mark a former sea level.

Flint pebbles and nodules from the Upper Cretaceous chalks of Europe occur offshore and at many seaports along the Atlantic coast of North America, where they were brought as ship's ballast. Isolated pieces imported from Europe as gunflints also are present.

In glacial marine sediments from the St. Lawrence estuary, iron varies between 1.32 and 5.42%, manganese between 0.043 and 0.28%, and titanium between 0.31 and 0.64%. The regional distributions of these elements are related to sediment texture. Analyses of individual sediment size-fractions show that Fe, Mn, and Ti concentrations generally increase with decreasing grain size. Variations in elemental ratios between the different grades suggests that not all of the Fe and Mn is located in detrital silicate minerals. Dithionite extraction of selected sediments resulted in preferential dissolution of 3–16% of the total iron, presumably that derived from amorphous and crystalline iron oxides and from sorbed material.Hydroxylamine–hydrochloride removed 5–60% of the total manganese, presumably that derived from exchangeable Mn, easily reducible Mn oxides, and sorbed Mn material. The soluble fraction is highest in freshly deposited pelites from the center of the estuary. Soluble Fe and Mn occur as oxide films on the particles deposited from suspension, and the amount held depends on rate of deposition and on the physicochemical conditions in the waters and in the sediments. In contrast, Ti occurs in detrital minerals and accumulates at the same rate as detrital sedimentary material. It is unaffected by environmental changes. This investigation shows that, despite the derivation of the sedimentary material from the Canadian Shield predominantly by nonchemical erosional processes, small but significant chemical modification of iron- and manganese-bearing material is taking place in response to present physicochemical conditions.

Die Morphologie des untersuchten Schelfgebietes und die Eigenschaften seiner Sedimente an der Oberflache und dicht darunter weisen deutlich darauf hin, das der Meeresspiegel uber dem westlichen Guyana-Schelf seit Ablauf des Pleistozan angestiegen ist. Sowohl aus den morphologischen wie auch aus den lithologischen Gegebenheiten kann man auf fruhere niedrigere Meeresstande schliesen. An Hand der verschiedenen Eigenschaften der unterschiedenen Sedimenttypen werden die gegenwartigen Sedimentationsverhaltnisse in dem untersuchten Schelfgebiet dargestellt.

A gas-chromatographic procedure has been used for the determination of CN - in coke-oven water and in coke-oven waste effluent into the sea. It is based on the treatment of the sample with bromine water and on the direct selective detection of CNBr by gas-solid chromatography. The procedure avoids the preliminary treatments of the sample described in the “Standard Methods” (APHA, 1971) being much faster and more reliable than the previously suggested method.

Pivalyl chloride and benzoyl chloride are utilized as reagents for the N-terminal analysis of polypeptide chains. Pivalyl and benzoyl derivatives obtained are analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography using glass capillary columns. The chromatographic resolution of the most common amino acid derivatives allows a quantitative estimation of the N-terminal residues even in the case of complicated peptide mixtures.

A homogeneous cerebroside was isolated from a strain of Fusicoccum amygdali Del., a fungus pathogenic to almond and peach. Chemical degradations, together with extensive application of nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry techniques, led to elucidation of its structure. This corresponds to N-2′- hydroxy -3 ′-trans- octadecenoyl -1-O-β- d - glucosyl -9- methyl -cis-4 , x-8-sphingadienine.

The issue of knowledge management in a distributed network is receiving increasing attention from both scientific and industrial organizations. Research efforts in this field are motivated by the awareness that knowledge is more and more perceived as a primary economic resource and that, in the context of organization of organizations, the augmented management complexity of its whole life cycle requires new reference models. In this paper, we build on recent research work to propose a distributed knowledge management framework that can be used in several application domains. We characterize the dimension of social influences in terms of identity, negotiation and trust modeling them within a framework that can augment learning and cooperation capabilities through knowledge sharing and effective communication. A particular instance of the presented framework, to handle the problem of risk management in enterprise alliance partnership, is discussed as a case study that shows the practical applicability of our approach.