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Additional file 1: Fig. S1. The sketch map for NGBs counting. (A) A schematic representation of the rationale behind the calculation of NGBs. We counted only the adjacent genes with the same relative transcription direction as one gene boundary. (B) An example of NGBs counting. The circular chromosome A and B have five genes (gene A, gene B, gene C, gene D, gene E). The gene boundaries for species A are A-B, B-C, C-D, D-E, E-A while those for species B are A-B, B-C, C-E, E-D, D-A. The only matched gene boundary between the two species is A-B. So the NGBs between A and B is 1. We used the same method to calculate the NGBs between two mitochondrial genomes. Fig. S2. Newly constructed phylogenies of booklice. We inferred the phylogenetic relationship of Liposcelis species using mt-genome sequences with four datasets and three softwares. Details were introduced in ���Materials and Methods��� section. The numbers in each node represents BI posterior probability or ML boostrap value for each datasets/methods: PCG123rRNA/MrBayes+PCG123/MrBayes+PCG12rRNA/MrBayes+PCG12/MrBayes+PCG123rRNA/IQtree+PCG123/IQtree+PCG12rRNA/IQtree+PCG12/IQtree+PCG123rRNA/PhyML+PCG123/PhyML+PCG12rRNA/PhyML+PCG12/PhyML. The best substitution models for different methods are listed in Additional file 3: Table S4. All three methods supported the same topology among booklice species. Fig. S3. Agarose gel electrophoresis Long-PCR products of the three booklice. (A) Agarose gel electrophoresis PCR products of L. corrodens KS strain. Amplicons 1-6 are from LcCZLF/LcCZLR, LcCZC1F/LcCZLF, LcCZC1R/LcCZLR, LcCZLF/LcCZLR, LcCZC1F/LcCZLF and LcCZC1R/LcCZLR. Marker (M): 1 kb DNA ladder marker: 10 kb, 8 kb, 6 kb, 5 kb, 4 kb, 3 kb, 2.5 kb, 2 kb, 1.5 kb, 1 kb, 700 bp, 500 bp, 300 bp. 1 ��L Long-PCR product was used for every sample of each run. (B) Agarose gel electrophoreses PCR products of L. pearmani KS strain. Amplicons 1-3, 5-8 are from LpearC1F/LpearC1R, LpearLF/LpearLR, LpearSF/LpearSR, LpearLF/LpearSF, LpearLR/LpearSR, LpearC1F/LpearSR and LpearC1R/LpearSF. (C) Agarose gel electrophoreses PCR products of L. rufa KS strain. Amplicons 1-5 are from LruLF/LruLR, LruLF/LruSR, LruLR/LruSF, LruC1F/LruSF and LruC1R/LruSR.

Males of most amphibian species possess specialized cutaneous glands, known as sexually dimorphic skin glands (SDSGs). SDSGs are usually clustered in specific body regions and are externally visible, but in some cases, external differences between males and females can be slight or absent, and the occurrence of SDSGs can only be disclosed by histological studies. Chemical signals produced by SDSGs markedly affect amphibian behaviour and reproduction, and therefore their occurrence, features, and location in the body could provide information on potential mechanisms of intraspecific communication in a particular species. In the present study, we perform light microscope (both histological and histochemical), and scanning electron microscope studies of skin samples from male and female adult specimens of the invasive bullfrog Lithobates catesbeianus, covering several body regions that could hold SDSGs. Most skin areas analysed showed only ordinary granular and mucous glands despite remarkable sexual dimorphism that could be externally observed. By contrast, the male nuptial pads contained exclusively SDSGs that were hypertrophied specialized mucous glands (SMGs), closely resembling breeding glands described in other anurans. Our histochemical study revealed that these SMGs contain heterogeneous populations of secretory cells, possibly involved in pheromone production. We discuss these characteristics of the SDSGs found in L. catesbeianus, as well as the surface specialization of the nuptial pads (achieved by scanning electron microscopy) in the light of their potential role in the chemical communication in this invasive species.

In this thesis, we characterized a new class of small RNAs encoded within the mitochondrial genome. We present evidence that these small RNAs are involved in a process called RNA interference and that they are conserved across animals. We document evidence that the small mitochondrial RNAs are able to interact with nuclear mRNAs, thus suggesting that these RNAs can influence cell regulation and animal phenotypes.

Lithium-ion battery packs are usually composed of hundreds of cells arranged in series and parallel connections. The proper functioning of these complex devices requires suitable Battery Management Systems (BMSs). Advanced BMSs rely on mathematical models to assure safety and high performance. While many approaches have been proposed for the management of single cells, the control of multiple cells has been less investigated and usually relies on simplified models such as equivalent circuit models. This paper addresses the management of a battery pack in which each cell is explicitly modelled as the Single Particle Model with electrolyte and thermal dynamics. A nonlinear Model Predictive Control (MPC) is presented for optimally charging the battery pack while taking voltage and temperature limits on each cell into account. Since the computational cost of nonlinear MPC grows significantly with the complexity of the underlying model, a sensitivity-based MPC (sMPC) is proposed, in which the model adopted is obtained by linearizing the dynamics along a nominal trajectory that is updated over time. The resulting sMPC optimizations are quadratic programs which can be solved in real-time even for large battery packs (e.g. fully electric motorbike with 156 cells) while achieving the same performance of the nonlinear MPC., Comment: Will be submitted to Journal of Power Sources

Sequences of the 14 putative smithRNAs in Ruditapes philippinarum mitochondrial genome.

In the last few years, low cost carriers produced a significant increase of tourist flows in the areas around the airports they're based at. However, these airlines are motivated to achieve the highest load factor not considering the type of passenger transported. The economic changes recently occurred in Europe (such as economic crisis, income decrease, evolution of exchange rates, etc.) has led the Low Cost Carriers to change flight connections on the basis of the evolution of transportation market and the economic advantages; this caused strong differences in the profile of passengers at the airports and in the surrounding areas and, consequently, new implications on the local tourism, which requires a new strategy profile. Bergamo Orio al Serio Airport, also due to its proximity to Milan (50 km), became popular with low cost airlines at the beginning of 2000. Currently, it - which is entirely charged by low cost carriers - is the third airport in Italy in terms of passengers (about 9 mln), behind Fiumicino (Rome) and Malpensa (Milan). This paper aims to show the trends described previously, focusing on the Orio al Serio Airport through an analysis based on the data from the annual survey on international tourism carried on by Bank of Italy.

We survey the empirical literature analyzing the consequences of entry regulation in retail industries. We begin by providing some background on the most common forms of entry regulation and their rationales. We use OECD data to show evidence of a general trend towards less stringent entry regulation in the past 15 years. However, substantial heterogeneity persists across countries. Next, we review a number of empirical contributions that analyze the effects of entry regulation on market outcomes. We compare studies relying on quasi-experimental variation in regulation to those based on structural models and comment on strengths and challenges of each approach. We summarize the results obtained by the literature with respect to several important outcomes that entry regulation can be expected to affect, such as market structure, entry, productivity and employment. We conclude presenting a few relevant topics that the literature has yet to address and, therefore, represent promising avenues for future research.

We disentangle the contribution of unobserved heterogeneity in idiosyncratic demand and productivity to firm growth. We use a model of monopolistic competition with Cobb-Douglas production and a dataset of Italian manufacturing firms containing unique information on firm-level prices to reach three main conclusions. First, demand shocks are at least as important as productivity shocks for firm growth. Second, firms respond to shocks less than a frictionless model would predict, suggesting the existence of adjustment frictions. Finally, the degree of under-response is much larger for TFP shocks. This implies the existence of frictions with differential effects according to the nature of the shock, unlike the typical frictions studied by the literature on factor misallocation. We consider hurdles to firm reorganization as one such friction and show that they hamper firms’ responses to TFP shocks but not to demand shocks.