Fidia (Italy)

The red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) is the most widely introduced crayfish species worldwide. Its spread causes massive environmental impacts on native species and ecosystems. Owing to its commercial value and impacts in introduced countries, the literature on P. clarkii has increased exponentially, making necessary studies for synthesising the collected information. In this study, a text mining and topic modelling approach was used to analyse the scientific literature on P. clarkii as an invasive species, to identify the interests and trends of research lines through time and space. A keyword-based search of research databases was performed, and the abstracts of 519 articles were analysed to identify the most characterising terms. These included both descriptive terms of the species and terms related to its invasiveness and impacts. The analysis of the scientific literature allowed us to identify 14 research topics focusing on the ecological impacts of P. clarkii and its geographical distribution, with a growing interest in invasion mechanisms and dispersal pathways. On the contrary, management studies are less abundant, despite their scientific value is highlighted by their increasing number of citations. This reflects the fact that most management-related studies are found in the grey literature and are therefore underrepresented in the scientific literature. The limited accessibility to data and the complexity of control strategies are obstacles to the effective management of this species. Improvement in information sharing through the creation of digital platforms that support distribution data suitable for modelling species spread, and the integration of knowledge from non-academic sources may help fill current knowledge gaps and provide new perspectives for the management of P. clarkii.

The European research project INT-MANUS embedded in the I*PROMS European network of excellence addresses the increasing demand for flexibility and adaptivity, which is summarised by rapid reconfiguration of complete factories, flexible reaction to new demands as well as related aspects in human computer interaction (HCI), software, and production systems. The project's main goal has been to develop a new technology for the production plants of the future: the Smart Connected Control Platform (SCCP). This platform allows controlling a factory with the help of an open distributed and learning agent platform that integrates machines, robots, and human personnel. It offers an enterprise service bus like concept for dynamic and decentrally controlled production systems, which flexibly connects machines and IT systems like robotic transport systems, terminals, mobile control systems, etc.

Mono[(2R)-2,3-dihydropropyl] esters of the four 3′-nucleotides of DNA, prepared from protected nucleoside phosphoramidites and [(4S)-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl]methanol, were regioselectively acylated at the C-1 hydroxyl of the glycerol moiety by a lipase-catalyzed transacylation with activated palmitic acid ester in organic solvent, giving the relevant 3′-O-lysophosphatidyl-2′-deoxynucleosides. The synthesis was also adapted for the preparation of 3′-O-lysophosphatidyl derivatives of 5′-deoxy-5-fluorouridine and 5′-deoxy-5′-(methylthio)adenosine, with the 2′-O-isomer of the latter compound also being prepared. The enhanced ability of lysophosphatidyl compounds to interact with lipid monolayers was also tested in comparison with that of the relevant free nucleosides. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2002)

The ocular surface changes of keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) could be the result of the effect of an altered tear film on the epithelial environment. To evaluate the possibility of improving the environmental conditions of the ocular surface by lowering tear osmolarity, increasing tear film volume and stabilising the tear film. Also, to study the effect of such an improvement on the epithelial cells of the ocular surface. One hundred and thirty-five patients with a diagnosis of KCS were treated on a randomised basis with either unpreserved hypotonic 0.4% hyaluronic acid (HHA) eye drops or 0.3% hydroxypropylmethylcellulose plus 0.1% Dextran 70 (HPMC) eye drops 6 times a day for 60 or 90 days. In all patients a Schirmer I test, break-up time (BUT), ocular surface staining with 1% Bengal Rose, or 2% fluorescein, as well as subjective symptoms, were recorded before and 15, 30 and 60 days after the beginning of the study. Patients were divided into three subgroups and the effect of the treatment was studied using three different techniques: the tear ferning test, conjunctival impression cytology and tear osmolarity measurement. Improvements in BUT, vital staining, Schirmer I and symptoms were recorded in both groups of treatment, with significant differences for patients treated with 0.4% HHA. On day 60, 30 min after installation: tear ferning patterns changed from 100% pathological (types III-IV) to 93% physiological (types I-II) in the 0.4% HHA group and from 100% pathological to 78% physiological in the 0.3% HPMC group (p < 0.01 between groups). Tear osmolarity shifted from 353 +/- 23 to 305 +/- 6 mosmol/l in the 0.4% HHA group and from 346 +/- 15 to 336 +/- 8 mosmol/l in the 0.3% HPMC group (p < 0.001 between groups). On day 90, the impression cytology score improved from 1.2 to 1.9 in the 0.4% HHA group while it did not change in the 0.3% HPMC group (p < 0.05 between groups). In KCS appropriate treatment with a hypotonic 0.4% HHA tear substitute can change the tear environment and results in improvement of the epithelial conditions of the ocular surface.

Abstract The realization of sculptured shapes using CAD systems is still today a very complex and time consuming operation. For these reasons, design by physical modeling is still in use and remains in force in many industries (automotive, ski boots, sport articles). For the manufacturing of complex free-form surfaces, in situations in which it is more desirable to proceed from a physical model to a numerical definition rather than use mathematics to derive the physical part, copy milling techniques are widely used. This paper gives a brief overview about copy milling techniques for 3 axis copy milling machines, and proposes a feature based method to support an automatic tool path generation for the super-finishing phase. The proposed method is divided in two parts: super-finishing features recognition and tool path generation. Using copy milling techniques, the model of the object to be milled is obtained by digitizing. Therefore a global mathematical surface description of the model does not exist. In such a situation a model interpretation phase is required to recognize the super-finishing features and thus proceed to the tool path generation. A two step algorithm for super-finishing feature recognition on a digitized model is proposed: features arc recognized on the basis of the digitized point density and the normal vectors of the triangles generated by the surface reconstruction (based on Delaunay triangulation method). The tool path is then generated using a method based on the calculation of the Voronoi diagram on the area identified as super-finishing feature. The super-finishing feature recognition and tool path generation modules have been integrated as part of a more general CAM system for copy milling called HICAM. The architecture of such a system will be presented together with examples of solutions obtained by means of the use of the implemented prototype modules.

In the present work we characterized both the presynaptic and postsynaptic components of cholinergic transmission in a primary culture of corticostriatal neurons prepared from newborn rat brain. This culture preparation contains a small population of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunoreactive neurons, corresponding to approximately 3% of the total cell number, and synthesizes increasing amounts of acetylcholine (ACh) from the third day in vitro (DIV), which reaches a plateau around the 10 day of culture. Muscarinic cholinergic receptors (mAChR), measured by the binding of the muscarinic antagonist [3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate ([3H]QNB), are detectable from the fifth DIV and increase linearly during the time of culture. At the twelfth DIV, the density of mAChRs (approximately 600 fmol/mg protein) is comparable to the density of mAChR in adult rat cortex. These receptors are coupled to second messenger systems, since muscarinic agonists inhibit adenylate cyclase activity and stimulate phosphoinositide breakdown with efficacies and potencies similar to those found in adult rat cortex. Moreover, by using the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique, we were able to demonstrate the presence of the m1, m3, and m4 mAChR subtype mRNAs in this neuronal culture at 12 DIV. Our data suggest that corticostriatal neuronal cultures develop in vitro ACh-synthesizing neurons and functionally active cholinergic receptors. This therefore makes them ideally suited to study the development and properties of brain mAChR subtypes.