Search

In the woodlands of Sardinia, as in many other areas of the Mediterranean region, grazing of domestic animals is still very common, though often in the absence of any sustainable management logic or technique. The present work analyzes the effects of excessive grazing pressure on a wooded pasture in the municipality of Orgosolo (Nuoro province), emphasizing the effects on the natural regeneration of the oak species (Quercus ilex and Quercus pubescens). This study has revealed the positive effects of the interaction between shrubs and seedlings of tree species. Crataegus monogyna proved to be the most efficient shrub species in favouring the establishment and growth of saplings; Rubus ulmifolius is efficient in the establishing phase but somewhat less so in the following stages. The other shrub species (Prunus spinosa, Genista pichi-sermolliana, Stachys glutinosa) play a lesser facilitating role. Despite the fact that seedlings are found in more than half (56%) of the shrub patches, the average age of the seedlings (14±0.6 yrs) and their small average size (height 24±1.4cm) lead to think that the present grazing pressure is incompatible with any concrete chance of success for their natural regeneration.

Sergi Blancafort Alias,1 Zoraida Del Campo Carrasco,2 Ignacio Salvador-Miras,2 Sabina Luna Mariné,2 María José Gómez Prieto,2 Francesca Liñán Martín,2 Antoni Salvà Casanovas1 1Fundació Salut i Envelliment (Health and Ageing Foundation), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, 08041, Spain; 2Service of Ophthalmology, Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona, 08025, SpainCorrespondence: Sergi Blancafort Alias, Fundació Salut i Envelliment (Health and Ageing Foundation), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 171, Barcelona, 08041, Spain, Tel +34 93 433 50 30, Email sergi.blancafort@uab.catPurpose: To explore quality of life related with intermediate vision of patients before and after cataract surgery, and to make patients’ experience available for the design of future scales that assess visual function related with intermediate distance.Patients and Methods: A qualitative research methodology based on thematic content analysis was used to explore vision-related quality of life based on the experiences of patients with cataract. Patients were recruited at the Service of Ophthalmology of the Hospital de Sant Pau (Barcelona, Spain). Data were collected through nineteen semi-structured interviews conducted with patients diagnosed with cataract and implanted with a standard aspheric monofocal intraocular lens (IOL) (Tecnis® ZA9003) (n = 6), an enhanced monofocal IOL (Tecnis® Eyhance ICB000) (n = 6), and patients from the waiting list (n = 7). The data analysis consisted in coding, aggregation, and theme development of the transcribed audios.Results: Patients on waiting lists reported difficulty and insecurity in performing daily and meaningful tasks related to near visual ranges (eg: threading a needle, reading price tags), intermediate (eg: using a computer or dialling numbers on a smartphone), and distant (eg: recognizing faces, walking on uneven surfaces). Patients after surgery with the standard IOL reported improvement in performing activities mainly in the distant visual range, but also the need for a better communication with clinical staff to adjust their own expectations on the results of the surgery. Finally, patients implanted with the enhanced IOL reported satisfaction and improved visual function in performing daily activities, especially those related to the intermediate visual range.Conclusion: Our exploratory study found that patients after cataract surgery with the enhanced IOL reported a better performance in activities that require the intermediate vision. These results will inform the development of scales to assess vision-related quality of life in the intermediate visual range prioritizing outcomes according to patients’ daily and meaningful activities.Keywords: quality of life, cataract, qualitative research, intraocular lenses

Rare earth ions-doped oxide glasses with improved traits are needed for sundry applications. Based on this fact, physiochemical and magnetic characteristics of Er3+ -doped lead–tellurite glasses embedded with gold nanoshapes (Au-NSPs) were customized via preparation and characterization. Glasses of composition 78.95TeO2–15PbO–5PbCl2–1Er2O3–0.05AuCl3 were made using conventional melt-quenching techniques at varying (1, 6, 16, and 24 h) heat treatment durations (HTDs) to optimize their morphology, structure, chemical, and magnetic properties. Structure analysis verified the amorphous nature of the as-quenched samples and the homogeneous distribution of Au-NSPs within a network matrix with an average diameter ranged from 1.32 to 7.12 nm. Significant chemical functional groups of the glasses were detected at 360 and 598 cm‒1, attributed to the number of non-bridging oxygen (NBO) in glass and the conversion of TeO4 tbp into TeO3 polyhedra through TeO3+1. The magnetic behavior of the glasses was due to the diffusion-limited growth of Au-NSPs as evidenced from the ESR and VSM results. Saturation magnetization and magnetic coercivity were in the range of 4.61 × 10–2 to 10.614 × 102 emu/g) and 1441.60 to 1992.20 Oe, respectively. The variations of g-factor, resonant magnetic field, and peak-to-peak line-width of the glasses were established to be promising for various functional applications especially for biomedical devices as antiviral screen protectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study introduces a hybrid weighted similarity measure (HWSM) for the analysis of symptoms and diseases in patients using a neutrosophic set (NS). NS proves valuable for modeling uncertainty by accommodating contradictory and ambiguous information. The development of a similarity measure for NS information is crucial in various applications, particularly in medical diagnostics, to quantify similarity between sets. While existing literature provides various similarity measures for NS, only a limited number incorporates hybrid techniques. This study proposes a hybrid similarity measure that combines existing measures and integrates them with an entropy weight measure. To elaborate, distance- based similarity measures for NS are initially considered. Subsequently, an entropy weight measure is employed to calculate the attributes' weight of the attributes. The work includes formulating the properties of the proposed HWSM and its practical application in medical diagnosis, focusing on assessing the possibility of medical diagnoses in a patient. The study examines five symptoms which are fever, headache, stomach pain, cough, and chest pain. The HWSM is applied to analyze these symptoms across five different diseases, resulting in consistent and reliable outcomes. This research contributes to the ongoing enhancement of diagnostic tools for medical practitioners, addressing challenges associated with uncertainty in patient information.

Rough neutrosophic multisets (RNM) is an uncertainty set theory generalized from the rough neutrosophic set. In the same equivalence relation, the universal set is a neutrosophic multisets with boundary regions involving lower and upper approximation. To date, to handle the multiplicity of information collected, the rough neutrosophic multisets geometric aggregation operator (RNMGAO) is introduced. The algebraic operations of RNM used in the derivation of RNMGAO are defined. The entropy measure of RNM is also discussed as a weighted assign for each criterion simultaneously with the geometric aggregation operator. The roughness Dice similarity measure of RNM is combined in methodology for ranking purposed. The application in medical diagnosis of three epidemic diseases Coronavirus, Influenza, and Pneumonia is implemented as a case study.