Plant Neurobiology,a Fascinating Perspective in the Field of Research on Plant Secondary Metabolites

In this Editorial, I comment on the exciting and original topic of plant neurobiology, focusing on natural products whose biosynthesis is shared by animal and plant organisms, i.e., indoleamines (melatonin and serotonin) and catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine).     

Relation of anodic and cathodic performance to pH variations in membraneless microbial fuel cells

One-compartment (membraneless) microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are effective tools to test new bio-technology at a laboratory level. More efforts in MFC design and materials are necessary to move from laboratory tests to real applications.     

An android for enhancing social skills and emotion recognition in people with autism.

It is well documented that the processing of social and emotional information is impaired in people with autism. Recent studies have shown that individuals, particularly those with high functioning autism, can learn to cope with common social situations if they are made to enact possible scenarios they may encounter in real life during therapy. The main aim of this work is to describe an interactive life-like facial display (FACE) and a supporting therapeutic protocol that will enable us to verify if the system can help children with autism to learn, identify, interpret, and use emotional information and extend these skills in a socially appropriate, flexible, and adaptive context. The therapeutic setup consists of a specially equipped room in which the subject, under the supervision of a therapist, can interact with FACE. The android display and associated control system has automatic facial tracking, expression recognition, and eye tracking. The treatment scheme is based on a series of therapist-guided sessions in which a patient communicates with FACE through an interactive console. Preliminary data regarding the exposure to FACE of two children are reported.     

Accessing the spoken word

Spoken-word audio collections cover many domains, including radio and television broadcasts, oral narratives, governmental proceedings, lectures, and telephone conversations. The collection, access, and preservation of such data is stimulated by political, economic, cultural, and educational needs. This paper outlines the major issues in the field, reviews the current state of technology, examines the rapidly changing policy issues relating to privacy and copyright, and presents issues relating to the collection and preservation of spoken audio content .     

Direct determination of phenolic compounds in Sicilian wines by liquid chromatography with PDA and MS detection

Phenolic compounds in Sicilian wines were directly detected using an HPLC with a PDA detector coupled on-line with a MS system equipped with Electrospray Ionisation (ESI) source operated in the negative-ion mode and a quadrupole mass analyzer. In this work, MS spectra were recorded at different voltage, to obtain structural elucidations in addition to molecular mass informations. The different response of the compounds identified has been also evaluated. MS characteristics of cis- and trans-piceid were determined on the basis of the response obtained with the ESI interface.     

Synthesis of new boron-rich building blocks for boron neutron capture therapy or energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy

The synthesis of a new ortho-carborane derivative, tetracarboranylketone 4, is reported here. Ketone 4 was prepared from a tetraalkynylated ketone by the addition of decaborane. The keto group was then easily modified to yield the glycosides 17alpha and 18beta, which contain glucose or galactose, respectively, and the nucleotide 13b. In addition to ketone 4, which is acyclic, cyclic ketone 8 was also synthesised. X-ray diffraction analysis of compound 4 indicated the presence of two toluene guest molecules per molecule of the host compound. Furthermore, compound 4 displays a rather low cytotoxicity. These novel products can be used as building blocks to create a new class of biomolecules containing high-density carborane clusters. Such molecules may constitute powerful tools for applications like Boron Neutron Capture Therapy or Energy-Filtering Transmission Electron Microscopy.     

Energy policies of industrialized countries

The energy and economy scenarios between the end of World War II and the oil crisis of 1973 are critically evaluated. The profound changes produced by the oil crisis of 1973–1974 are noted. An examination is then made, in a historical and economic context, of the energy policies of the Western industrialized countries after 1973. This assessment examines not only the potentials of these policies in satisfying short-to medium-term energy requirements, but also their impact on the basic, longer-term development problems of industrialized and developing countries.     

A tabu search heuristic for the quay crane scheduling problem

This paper proposes a tabu search heuristic for the Quay Crane Scheduling Problem (QCSP), the problem of scheduling a fixed number of quay cranes in order to load and unload containers into and from a ship. The optimality criterion considered is the minimum completion time. Precedence and non-simultaneity constraints between tasks are taken into account. The former originate from the different kind of operations that each crane has to perform; the latter are needed in order to avoid interferences between the cranes. The QCSP is decomposed into a routing problem and a scheduling problem. The routing problem is solved by a tabu search heuristic, while a local search technique is used to generate the solution of the scheduling problem. This is done by minimizing the longest path length in a disjunctive graph. The effectiveness of our algorithm is assessed by comparing it to a branch-and-cut algorithm and to a Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP).     

Design of flexible transfer lines: A case-based reconfiguration cost assessment

Shortening product life cycles leads competing companies to continually release new products or modifying the existing ones; this is one of the major issues in production systems design. According to the changes in product features, production systems need to be properly configured or reconfigured to efficiently tackle new production requirements. A configuration approach for multi-product flexible transfer lines is presented which aims at minimizing the equipment cost. The approach is applied to a manufacturing case in the automotive sector. The robustness of the solution is tested against changes that affect the products to highlight reconfiguration costs and the penalty associated to the lack of a pro-active configuration approach.