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"Pagano, A."
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Glyphosate affects the larval development of honey bees depending on the susceptibility of colonies
As the main agricultural insect pollinator, the honey bee (Apis mellifera) is exposed to a number of agrochemicals, including glyphosate (GLY), the most widely used herbicide. Actually, GLY has been detected in honey and bee pollen baskets. However, its impact on the honey bee brood is poorly explored. Therefore, we assessed the effects of GLY on larval development under chronic exposure during in vitro rearing. Even though this procedure does not account for social compensatory mechanisms such as brood care by adult workers, it allows us to control the herbicide dose, homogenize nutrition and minimize environmental stress. Our results show that brood fed with food containing GLY traces (1.25-5.0 mg per litre of food) had a higher proportion of larvae with delayed moulting and reduced weight. Our assessment also indicates a non-monotonic dose-response and variability in the effects among colonies. Differences in genetic diversity could explain the variation in susceptibility to GLY. Accordingly, the transcription of immune/detoxifying genes in the guts of larvae exposed to GLY was variably regulated among the colonies studied. Consequently, under laboratory conditions, the response of honey bees to GLY indicates that it is a stressor that affects larval development depending on individual and colony susceptibility.
Journal Article
High-energy, high-fat lifestyle challenges an Arctic apex predator, the polar bear
Polar bears appear to be well adapted to the extreme conditions of their Arctic habitat. Pagano et al. , however, show that the energy balance in this harsh environment is narrower than we might expect (see the Perspective by Whiteman). They monitored the behavior and metabolic rates of nine free-ranging polar bears over 2 years. They found that high energy demands required consumption of high-fat prey, such as seals, which are easy to come by on sea ice but nearly unavailable in ice-free conditions. Thus, as sea ice becomes increasingly short-lived annually, polar bears are likely to experience increasingly stressful conditions and higher mortality rates. Science , this issue p. 568 ; see also p. 514 Polar bears’ high-energy lifestyle makes then reliant on sea ice–associated prey. Regional declines in polar bear ( Ursus maritimus ) populations have been attributed to changing sea ice conditions, but with limited information on the causative mechanisms. By simultaneously measuring field metabolic rates, daily activity patterns, body condition, and foraging success of polar bears moving on the spring sea ice, we found that high metabolic rates (1.6 times greater than previously assumed) coupled with low intake of fat-rich marine mammal prey resulted in an energy deficit for more than half of the bears examined. Activity and movement on the sea ice strongly influenced metabolic demands. Consequently, increases in mobility resulting from ongoing and forecasted declines in and fragmentation of sea ice are likely to increase energy demands and may be an important factor explaining observed declines in body condition and survival.
Journal Article
The return of the neighborhood as an urban strategy
\"In this new volume, Michael A. Pagano curates essays focusing on the neighborhood's role in urban policy solutions. The papers emerged from dynamic discussions among policymakers, researchers, public intellectuals, and citizens at the 2014 UIC Urban Forum. As the writers show, the greater the city, the more important its neighborhoods and their distinctions. The topics focus on sustainable capital and societal investments in people and firms at the neighborhood level. Proposed solutions cover a range of possibilities for enhancing the quality of life for individuals, households, and neighborhoods. These include everything from microenterprises to factories; from social spaces for collective and social action to private facilities; affordable housing and safety to gated communities; and from neighborhood public education to cooperative, charter, and private schools.\"--Back cover.
Book
Ursids evolved dietary diversity without major alterations in metabolic rates
The diets of the eight species of ursids range from carnivory (e.g., polar bears,
Ursus maritimus
) to insectivory (e.g., sloth bears,
Melursus ursinus
), omnivory (e.g., brown bears,
U. arctos
), and herbivory (e.g., giant pandas,
Ailuropoda melanoleuca
). Dietary energy availability ranges from the high-fat, highly digestible, calorically dense diet of polar bears (~ 6.4 kcal digestible energy/g fresh weight) to the high-fiber, poorly digestible, calorically restricted diet (~ 0.7) of giant pandas. Thus, ursids provide the opportunity to examine the extent to which dietary energy drives evolution of energy metabolism in a closely related group of animals. We measured the daily energy expenditure (DEE) of captive brown bears in a relatively large, zoo-type enclosure and compared those values to previously published results on captive brown bears, captive and free-ranging polar bears, and captive and free-ranging giant pandas. We found that all three species have similar mass-specific DEE when travel distances and energy intake are normalized even though their diets differ dramatically and phylogenetic lineages are separated by millions of years. For giant pandas, the ability to engage in low-cost stationary foraging relative to more wide-ranging bears likely provided the necessary energy savings to become bamboo specialists without greatly altering their metabolic rate.
Journal Article
Novel approaches for understanding and improving the effectiveness of seed biopriming
An ‘on-farm’ hybrid priming treatment, that combines hydropriming and biopriming with
Bacillus subtilis
spores was developed for the neglected legumes grass pea, forage pea, and fenugreek. The seed response to treatments highlighted the predominant effect of hydropriming. In the attempt to improve the efficacy of biopriming and enhance the overall value of the combined protocol, an in-depth investigation of the seed-spore interaction was performed. Scanning electron microscopy was used to analyse the seed sculpture roughness. Multispectral imaging analysis was applied to monitor the presence of increasing doses of
Bacillus subtilis
spores and test the potential of this tool for the optimization of biopriming protocols. Within the wavelengths applied using multispectral imaging, only 645 nm, 660 nm, and 690 nm were able to detect the presence of the spores in the bioprimed seeds, providing a range of analysis potentially effective for discrimination. Grass pea varieties, showing the most contrasting roughness profiles, were selected for multispectral imaging analysis. The investigation highlighted the relevance of the seed sculpture roughness in determining the reflectance of untreated and bioprimed seeds, and the occurrence of variety-specific profiles. Results are discussed in view of the potential use of this model to expand the current applications of multispectral imaging in the context of seed biopriming design.
Journal Article
Microscale damper prototype: A preliminary study on suppressing air flow oscillations within microchannels
This research introduces a novel micro-damper designed to mitigate pressure and velocity oscillations from a piezoelectric micropump in microfluidic environments. Unlike existing research focusing on damping in incompressible liquid flows with methods like elastic films and PDMS membranes, this study proposes a novel micro-damper prototype. Integrated into a microdevice for particle granulometric separation and detection, the damper connects to a piezoelectric micropump outlet and to a focusing microchannel inlet, followed by a capacitive sensor for size-based particle counting. Preliminary analysis determined an optimal airflow velocity at w = 0.5 m/s for accurate focusing and counting under laminar conditions. The micro-damper, constrained by the piezoelectric pump’s geometry, features a 27 µm high and 1000 µm wide cross section. Its outlet supports two potential focusing microchannel inlet configurations of 30 µm or 40 µm. Distinctively, it incorporates two symmetrical backward micro-channels connecting to the atmosphere, allowing direct piezometric contact between the main flow and an infinite compliant volume. OpenFOAM simulations confirm the damper’s effectiveness in maintaining laminar outlet flow and suppressing micropump disturbances. Thus, the proposed micro-damper ensures optimal inlet conditions for subsequent microchannel processes, enabling stable particle separation and detection in controlled airflow samples.
Journal Article
RadioLab project: knowledge of radon gas in Italy
RadioLab is an Italian project, addressed to school-age people, and designed for the dissemination of scientific culture on the theme of environmental radioactivity, with particular regards to the importance of knowledge of radon gas exposure. The project is a nationwide initiative promoted by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics- INFN. First tool used by the project, and of immediate impact to assess the public awareness on radon, is the administration of the survey “do you know the radon gas?”. In the survey, together with the knowledge of radon and of its sources, information on personal, cultural and territorial details regarding the interviewees are also taken. Reasonably, the survey invests not only young people, but also their relatives, school workers and, gradually, the public. The survey is administrated during exhibitions or outreach events devoted to schools, but also open to the public. The survey is in dual form: printed and online. The online mode clearly leads RadioLab project even outside the school environment. Based on the results of the survey, several statistical analyses have been performed and many conclusions are drawn about the knowledge of the population on the radon risk. The RadioLab benefit and the requirement to carry on the project goals, spreading awareness of environmental radioactivity from radon, emerge. The dataset involves all twenty Italian regions and consists of 28,612 entries covering the 5-year period 2018–2022.
Journal Article
Evolution of fragment production at the onset of Multifragmentation
The onset of Multifragmentation phenomenon is investigated at low excitation energies. A detailed study on the origin of Intermediate Mass Fragment (IMF, Z>=3) produced in central collisions in the 58 Ni+ 40 Ca reaction at 25 AMeV is presented. The experimental campaign was performed with CHIMERA multi-detector at INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud in Catania (Italy). The multiple identification techniques of the 4p apparatus, together with low detection thresholds, enable the performance of a careful selection of Fusion-evaporation residues, Multifragmentation sources and their decay products. Comparisons with dynamical approach based on Boltzmann-Langevin-One-Body (BLOB) model predictions coupled with sequential emission code, were used as useful tools to depict and understand the characteristics of fragments emitted from an equilibrated compound nucleus or formed simultaneously in the multifragmenting source. A comparison with the preliminary results obtained for fragment production in central collisions of the same system, 58 Ni+ 40 Ca, at higher incident energies E beam =35AMeV, allows to study and characterize the evolution of multifragmentation phenomenon at the lower end of Fermi energies.
Journal Article