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Organic neuromorphic platforms have recently received growing interest for the implementation and integration of artificial and hybrid neuronal networks. Here, achieving closed-loop and learning/training processes as in the human brain is still a major challenge especially exploiting time-dependent biosignalling such as neurotransmitter release. Here, we present an integrated organic platform capable of cooperating with standard silicon technologies, to achieve brain-inspired computing viaadaptive synaptic potentiation and depression, in a closed-loop fashion. The microfabricated platform could be interfaced and control a robotic hand which ultimately was able to learn the grasping of differently sized objects, autonomously.

Survival of juvenile ungulates represents an important demographic parameter that influences population dynamics within ecosystems. In many ecological systems, the mortality of juvenile ungulates is influenced by various factors, including predation by large carnivores, human hunting activities and weather. While wolves Canis lupusare known to prey on moose Alces alcesthroughout all seasons, brown bears Ursus arctosprimarily engage in predation during early summer, while human harvest primarily occurs in autumn and early winter. Hence, understanding the impacts of predation, harvest, and weather on the survival of juvenile moose is crucial for adaptive population management and the determination of sustainable harvest rates. To investigate the summer and autumn–winter survival of moose calves in relation to carnivore occurrence (wolf presence and bear density), summer habitat productivity, winter severity, human harvest, and migratory behaviour (migratory versus resident), we analysed data collected from 39 GPS‐collared female moose in south‐central Scandinavia. Our findings revealed significant interannual variation in summer survival rates, with areas with relatively higher bear densities exhibiting calf mortality rates twice as high as those in regions with low bear density. During the autumn–winter period, calf survival was lowest in the presence of wolves and deep snow, and it exhibited a negative correlation with the proportion of clearcuts and young forests within the mother's home range. Additionally, calf survival was negatively correlated with the risk of human hunting, and calves of stationary females displayed ten times higher survival rates compared to migratory individuals. Our study provides valuable insights into the survival of moose calves coexisting with two large carnivores and humans. Improving our understanding of the mechanisms causing calf survival to fluctuate has become increasingly important as many local moose populations in Scandinavia are declining and exposed to expanding predator populations, intense hunting pressure, and other threats associated with climate change.

Scavenging is an alternative foraging strategy to predation for many carnivore species, as they shift between predation and scavenging in response to changes in resource availability. The use of carrion may lead to interspecific competition and is thus influenced by a risk–reward trade‐off to balance coexistence with guild‐members, where smaller species are expected to be more vigilant due to their vulnerability to larger competitors. We used cameras to investigate the utilization of viscera from the annual moose Alces alceshunt by four sympatric carnivore species: wolf Canis lupus, wolverine Gulo gulo, red fox Vulpes vulpesand pine marten Martes martesin south–central Scandinavia, in relation to body size and habitat. Red foxes had highest probability of visiting viscera sites in both open and forested habitats. Visits by both red foxes and pine martens were longer in open habitats, while number of visits or activity did not differ between habitats. For pine martens, the probability of visiting viscera sites was twice as high in forest compared to open habitat; consequently, red foxes showed the highest overall use of viscera. Red foxes were most vigilant, especially in open habitat, whereas wolverines and pine martens spent a higher proportion of time feeding. Increased vigilance of red foxes facilitates extended resources use in open habitat, while for pine martens, the risk–reward decision occurs before leaving forest cover and entering open habitats. Viscera were not used to a large extent by wolves or wolverines. Wolves are generally less prone to scavenging and wolverines probably use other food resources, more suitable for caching. Overall, competition did not prevent use of viscera, probably due to small‐scale temporal segregation and limited use by the larger carnivores. Consequently, this pulse of human‐subsidized food resources before winter may have important implications for the smaller facultative scavengers. Keywords: carrion use, interspecific competition, pine marten, red fox, wolf, wolverine

ABSTRACTThe use of biomass to produce biofuels can lead to both direct and indirect Land Use Change (LUC). While the causes underlying LUCs are complex their quantification is a scientific challenge that hinders decision-making. Here we demonstrate the application of participatory modelling in combination with System Dynamics techniques to the analysis of the land-change dynamics associated with biofuel supply chains. The ambition is to provide decision-makers with useful and credible knowledge of direct and indirect LUCs. We illustrate the application of the approach by applying it to a real‐world project for the production of advanced biofuels in Sardinia (Italy). The results show that the land use displacements vary in intensity and persistence depending on the crop management regime applied and the future development of the market of sheep cheese. The results were considered credible by actors with direct knowledge of the ‘real’ system and useful by decision makers .

Motor inhibition is essential to adapt to an ever-changing environment and to noise in state prediction. As a consequence, inhibitory motor control must also play a key role during Joint Action (JA) tasks, where the motor system has to further integrate inferences about others' action. Yet, very little research has been carried out on the contribution of motor inhibition in JA tasks. Here, we used an interactive task in which subjects were required to open a bottle with one hand. The bottle was held and stabilized by a co-actor (JA) or by a mechanical holder (vice clamp, no-JA). A first motion capture study characterized the reaching and grasping kinematics of the two conditions. In a second study, by means of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), we measured (i) corticospinal excitability (CSE), (ii) cortical silent period (cSP) and (iii) short-interval intracortical inhibition (sICI), during the reaching phase of the task. These latter two indexes respectively reflect slow corticospinal (GABAb-mediated) and fast intracortical (GABAa-mediated) inhibition. We found no modulation for CSE, while cSP was increased and intracortical inhibition was downregulated during JA. Interestingly, the cSP correlated with partners' predictability as a whole and with partners’ behaviour in the previous trial. These results, beside showing clear dissociation between fast and slow inhibition during JA, also shed new light on the predictive role played by corticospinal inhibitory mechanisms in online mutual behavioural co-adaptation.

Byline: Dr. Rosanne D'Ausilio and Dr. Jon Anton In their book Customer Service and Human Experience, Drs. D'Ausilio and Anton, who believe that core competencies should be customized for each [...]

Visually impaired children and adults have difficulties in engaging in positive social interactions. This paper assesses social competence in sighted and visually impaired people and to propose a novel interventional strategy in visually impaired children. We designed a task that assesses the ability to initiate and sustain an interaction with the experimenter while performing free hand movements using a sonorous feedback on the experimenter's wrist. Both participant and experimenter kinematic data were recorded with a motion capture system. The level of social interaction between participant and experimenter has been computed through objective measurements based on Granger causality analysis applied to the participant arm kinematics. The interventional program followed by the visually impaired children lasted 12 weeks and consisted in a series of spatial and social games performed with the use of a sonorous bracelet which provides an auditory feedback of body actions in space. Visually impaired individuals present a poorer communication flow with the experimenter than sighted people, which indicates a less efficient social interaction. The amount of communication between the two agents resulted in a significant improvement after the interventional program. Thus, a specific intervention, based on the substitution of visual with auditory feedback of body actions, can enhance social inclusion for the blind population.

The Central Italy earthquake sequence nominally began on 24 August 2016 with a M6.1 event on a normal fault that produced devastating effects in the town of Amatrice and several nearby villages and hamlets. A major international response was undertaken to record the effects of this disaster, including surface faulting, ground motions, landslides, and damage patterns to structures. This work targeted the development of high-value case histories useful to future research. Subsequent events in October 2016 exacerbated the damage in previously affected areas and caused damage to new areas in the north, particularly the relatively large town of Norcia. Additional reconnaissance after a M6.5 event on 30 October 2016 documented and mapped several large landslide features and increased damage states for structures in villages and hamlets throughout the region. This paper provides an overview of the reconnaissance activities undertaken to document and map these and other effects, and highlights valuable lessons learned regarding faulting and ground motions, engineering effects, and emergency response to this disaster.

The Central Italy earthquake sequence initiated on 24 August 2016 with a moment magnitude M6.1 event, followed by two earthquakes (M5.9 and M6.5) on 26 and 30 October, caused significant damage and loss of life in the town of Amatrice and other nearby villages and hamlets. The significance of this sequence led to a major international reconnaissance effort to thoroughly examine the effects of this disaster. Specifically, this paper presents evidences of strong local site effects (i.e., amplification of seismic waves because of stratigraphic and topographic effects that leads to damage concentration in certain areas). It also examines the damage patterns observed along the entire sequence of events in association with the spatial distribution of ground motion intensity with emphasis on the clearly distinct performance of reinforced concrete and masonry structures under multiple excitations. The paper concludes with a critical assessment of past retrofit measures efficiency and a series of lessons learned as per the behavior of structures to a sequence of strong earthquake events.

Action observation, similarly to action execution, facilitates the observer's motor system and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) has been instrumental in exploring the nature of these motor activities. However, contradictory findings question some of the fundamental assumptions regarding the neural computations run by the Action Observation Network (AON). To better understand this issue, we delivered TMS over the observers' motor cortex at two timings of two reaching-grasping actions (precision vspower grip) and we recorded Motor-Evoked Potentials (4 hand/arm muscles; MEPs). At the same time, we also recorded whole-hand TMS Evoked Kinematics (8 hand elevation angles; MEKs) that capture the global functional motor output, as opposed to the limited view offered by recording few muscles. By repeating the same protocol twice, and a third time after continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over the motor cortex, we observe significant time-dependent grip-specific MEPs and MEKs modulations, that disappeared after cTBS. MEKs, differently from MEPs, exhibit a consistent significant modulation across pre-cTBS sessions. Beside clear methodological implications, the multidimensionality of MEKs opens a window on muscle synergies needed to overcome system redundancy. By providing better access to the AON computations, our results strengthen the idea that action observation shares key organizational similarities with action execution.

Human to human sensorimotor interaction can only be fully understood by modeling the patterns of bodily synchronization and reconstructing the underlying mechanisms of optimal cooperation. We designed a tower-building task to address such a goal. We recorded upper body kinematics of dyads and focused on the velocity profiles of the head and wrist. We applied recurrence quantification analysis to examine the dynamics of synchronization within, and across the experimental trials, to compare the roles of leader and follower. Our results show that the leader was more auto-recurrent than the follower to make his/her behavior more predictable. When looking at the cross-recurrence of the dyad, we find different patterns of synchronization for head and wrist motion. On the wrist, dyads synchronized at short lags, and such a pattern was weakly modulated within trials, and invariant across them. Head motion, instead, synchronized at longer lags and increased both within and between trials: a phenomenon mostly driven by the leader. Our findings point at a multilevel nature of human to human sensorimotor synchronization, and may provide an experimentally solid benchmark to identify the basic primitives of motion, which maximize behavioral coupling between humans and artificial agents.

We synthesize engineering procedures for estimating the seismic performance of major flood-control levees as given in guidelines documents and design codes from Canada (British Columbia), China, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States. Some guidelines carry the weight of law whereas compliance is optional for others. Most procedures combine a probabilistic ground motion characterization with deterministic assessments of levee performance (uncoupled approach). Ground motions are typically described using peak accelerations for reference site conditions at return periods typically ranging from 100 to 2,475 years. Those motions are deterministically modified for soil conditions using numerical simulations or ergodic site factors. Accompanying hydrological conditions are either not specified or are taken at a frequently encountered water level (ranging from mean annual to a four-month flood event). These demands are used in combination with various soil properties to assess the potential for liquefaction, flow failure, and permanent shear deformations. Drawing upon best practices identified from this review, we recommend procedures for levee risk assessment at the section-level and for levee systems.

With inherent advantages in environmental performance, land use, energy consumption and safety, railways are an essential component of a competitive and resource-efficient transport system. However, railways have still to face several important drawbacks in order to reinforce its competitiveness against the road mode. Reducing maintenance costs has been appointed as one key goal of Infrastructure Managers (IMs), as Western Europe spends annually between €15 and €25bn to maintain and renew a railway network of about 225,000 km (FP7 Mainline Project, 2011-2014). Future prospects of mobility growth (passenger-km is to be doubled in 40 years) will increase maintenance needs, evincing the need of innovative solutions that downsize maintenance costs.

Using biomass to provide energy services is a strategically important option for increasing the global uptake of renewable energy. Yet the practicalities of accelerating deployment are mired in controversy over the potential resource conflicts that might occur, particularly over land, water and biodiversity conservation. This calls into question whether policies to promote bioenergy are justified. Here we examine the assumptions on which global bioenergy resource estimates are predicated. We find that there is a disjunct between the evidence that global bioenergy studies can provide and policymakers' desire for estimates that can straightforwardly guide policy targets. We highlight the need for bottom-up assessments informed by empirical studies, experimentation and cross-disciplinary learning to better inform the policy debate.

What first caught my eye at Atio's (Edina, MN -- 612-837-4055) CT Demo Fall exhibit were the words "humanizing cyberspace." Since I humanize call centers for a living, it naturally […]

Picazo Communications (San Jose, CA -- 408-383-9300) designs, develops and markets server-based telephone software and systems for small to medium-sized businesses. The product I fell in love with at CT […]

Developmental stuttering (DS) is viewed as a motor speech-specific disorder, although several lines of research suggest that DS is a symptom of a broader motor disorder. We investigated corticospinal excitability in adult DS and normal speakers.

Listening to speech recruits a network of fronto-temporo-parietal cortical areas. Classical models consider anterior, motor, sites involved in speech production whereas posterior sites involved in comprehension. This functional segregation is more and more challenged by action-perception theories suggesting that brain circuits for speech articulation and speech perception are functionally interdependent. Recent studies report that speech listening elicits motor activities analogous to production. However, the motor system could be crucially recruited only under certain conditions that make speech discrimination hard. Here, by using event-related double-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on lips and tongue motor areas, we show data suggesting that the motor system may play a role in noisy, but crucially not in noise-free environments, for the discrimination of speech signals.

Synthesis and accumulation of conserved cell cycle regulators such as cyclins are thought to promote G1/S and G2/M transitions in most eukaryotes. 1When cells at different stages of the cell cycle are fused to form heterokaryons, the shared complement of regulators in the cytoplasm induces the nuclei to become synchronized.2However, multinucleate fungi often display asynchronous nuclear division cycles, even though the nuclei inhabit a shared cytoplasm. 3Similarly, checkpoints can induce nuclear asynchrony in multinucleate cells by arresting only the nucleus that receives damage. 4-6The cell biological basis for nuclear autonomy in a common cytoplasm is not known.  Here we show that in the filamentous fungus Ashbya gossypii, sister nuclei born from one mitosis immediately lose synchrony in the subsequent G1 interval.  A conserved G1 transcriptional regulatory circuit involving the Rb-analogue Whi5p promotes the asynchronous behavior yetWhi5 protein is uniformly distributed among nuclei throughout the cell cycle.  The homologous Whi5p circuit in S. cerevisiae employs positive feedback to promote robust and coherent entry into the cell cycle. We propose that positive feedback in this same circuit generates timing variability in a multinucleate cell.  These unexpected findings indicate that a regulatory program whose products (mRNA transcripts) are translated in a common cytoplasm can nevertheless promote variability in the individual behavior of sister nuclei.

The correct wiring of a neural network requires neuron to integrate an incredible repertoire of cues found in their extracellular environment. The astonishing efficiency of this process plays a pivotal role in the correct wiring of the brain during development and axon regeneration. Biologically inspired micro- and nanostructured substrates have been shown to regulate axonal outgrowth. In parallel, several studies investigated graphene’s potential as a conductive neural interface, able to enhance cell adhesion, neurite sprouting and outgrowth. Here, we engineered a 3D single- to few-layer fuzzy graphene morphology (3DFG), 3DFG on a collapsed Si nanowire (SiNW) mesh template (NT-3DFGc), and 3DFG on a noncollapsed SiNW mesh template (NT-3DFGnc) as neural-instructive materials. The micrometric protruding features of the NWs templates dictated neuronal growth cone establishment, as well as influencing axon elongation and branching. Furthermore, neurons-to-graphene coupling was investigated with comprehensive view of integrin-mediated contact adhesion points and plasma membrane curvature processes.

Purpose To analyse the evolution of impact on the healthcare expenditure of first and second line treatments for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) in Italy.Methods An economic model was developed in MSTM Excel (2010) and populated with data from three of the main Regions (Lombardy, Lazio, and Sicily) considered representative in Italy for location (North, Centre and South, respectively), population, and care organisation. Input data were retrieved from published sources and validated by a Board*of experts. The analysis considers an average from regional healthcare resource consumption, and national tariffs were used to economically quantify it. A sensitivity analysis was performed varying the market shares of second line treatments (fingolimod and natalizumab). *I nomi dei membri del Board sono riportati a fine articoloResults The results show that the total drug expenditure is €542,279,468 for both first and second line treatments. Among second line treatments, fingolimod showed to be less expensive than natalizumab with an annual mean saving per patient of €4,276 (of which €2,120 for routine management). The sensitivity analysis shows that, increasing the market shares of fingolimod from 59% of the base case to 80%, it is possible to achieve savings for almost €8.5 million/year.Conclusions Fingolimod is an affordable therapy for the Italian National Health Service. Moreover, due to a timely use of fingolimod in patients not responding to first line drugs, savings could be around €10 million due to avoided relapses.