The trophic niche is one of the most important ecological traits for any species, as it provides information about trophic position in a food web, preference on foraging sites, intra- and interspecific interactions. In this study we examined seasonal variations in the diet composition of two sympatric salamanders from central Italy, the Italian cave salamander (Speleomantes italicus) and the Fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra). Adults of these two species are generalist predators which mostly feed on terrestrial invertebrates. The diet of both species has been previously studied under allopatric conditions; only one study, performed in spring, aimed to assess their diet when the two species are in sympatry. In this follow-up study we surveyed the same sympatric population in autumn, performing two night surveys in rainy weather. Our study aimed to evaluate the species' autumn diet and compare it with data obtained in spring, to assess potential seasonal variations in their trophic niche. Captured salamanders of both species were measured (SVL) and we inspected the residuals of their last foraging activity through stomach flushing. Overall, we sampled 75 S. italicus and 34 S. salamandra, from which we recognized more than 1200 prey items belonging to 31 prey categories. Similarly to what has been observed in spring, there is a significant divergence in the diet composition of both species during autumn. Compared to spring, S. italicus reduced by 20% the diversity of consumed prey, while S. salamandra increased it by 13%. In spring, the Fire salamander consumed more slugs, larvae of Diptera and anellids, while in autumn it increased the consumption of millipedes. In spring, S. italicus consumed more adult insects (Diptera and Coleoptera), spiders, and Entomobryomorpha springtails, while in autumn the majority of consumed prey were Symphypleona springtails and adult Diptera. In both species larger individuals consumed more prey, while we did not find any significant predictor for the diversity of consumed prey. Analysis on individual diet specialization identified a high proportion of generalist individuals in both species, although the results were significant only for S. italicus. We conclude that also during autumn the trophic niche of these two sympatric salamanders do not significantly overlap, allowing their coexistence with low (if any) competition for food resources.

Increasing experimental evidence suggests the occurrence of filamentary superconductivity in different (quasi) two-dimensional physical systems. In this piece of work, we discuss the proposal that under certain circumstances, this occurrence may be related to the competition with a phase characterized by charge ordering in the form of charge-density waves. We provide a brief summary of experimental evidence supporting our argument in two paradigmatic classes of materials, namely transition metal dichalcogenides and cuprates superconductors. We present a simple Ginzburg-Landau two-order-parameters model as a starting point to address the study of such competition. We finally discuss the outcomes of a more sophisticated model, already presented in the literature and encoding the presence of impurities, and how it can be further improved in order to really address the interplay between charge-density waves and superconductivity and the possible occurrence of filamentary superconductivity at the domain walls between different charge-ordered regions.

The trophic niche of a species is one of the fundamental traits of species biology. The ideal trophic niche of a species is realized in the absence of interspecific competition, targeting the most profitable and easy-to-handle food resources. However, when a competitor is present, species adopt different strategies to reduce competition and promote coexistence. In this study, we assessed the potential mechanisms that allow the coexistence of two generalist salamanders: the Italian cave salamander (Speleomantes italicus) and the fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra). We surveyed, in April 2021, a forested area of Emilia-Romagna (Italy) during rainy nights. Analyzing the stomach contents of the captured individuals, we obtained information on the trophic niche of these two sympatric populations. Comparing our results with those of previous studies, we found that the two species did not modify their trophic niche, but that alternative mechanisms allowed their coexistence. Specifically, different prey preferences and predator metabolisms were likely the major factors allowing reduced competition between these two generalist predators.

Increases in drought frequency in combination with overgrazing may result in degradation of (semi-) arid ecosystems. Facilitative interactions between plants are a key mechanism in preventing degradation, but it is poorly understood how they respond to increased stress by combined drought and herbivory. In this study, we used an ecohydrological model, to simulate the plant growth of two plant species interacting with each other under different rainfall and herbivory pressure scenarios. The functional traits of the two modeled plants were based on a prior field experiment in southeastern Spain, in which an unpalatable "nurse" species protected a palatable protégé' species from herbivory. Moreover, the nurse species was more drought-resistant; that is, it had a lower wilting point, whereas the protégé species had a higher optimal growth rate. Firstly, we investigated the coexistence of the two plant species growing under a single limiting resource, focusing on the effect of intra-seasonal rainfall variability. We found that longer periods without rainfall within the wet season resulted in stable coexistence, whereas nearly constant rainfall led to competitive exclusion of the protégé by the nurse species. Secondly, we investigated how plant interactions varied along our studied gradients. Using the neighbor effect intensity and importance indices, we found that competitive effects increased with more constant rainfall. Moreover, higher herbivory rates resulted in increased facilitative effects of the nurse on the protégé species, but facilitative effects could only prevail over competitive effects under currently observed or higher intra-seasonal rainfall variability. This study highlights the relevance of intra-seasonal rainfall variability in explaining coexistence of species in dryland ecosystems and shows that increasing intra-seasonal rainfall variability or herbivory pressure can result in more facilitative effects from a nurse species. This information is crucial to obtain a better insight into the long-term coexistence of species, and the resulting stability of dryland ecosystems in response to future climate change.

Among mammals, interspecific interference is common in carnivores, primates and rodents, but it seems to be a rare occurrence in ungulate communities. We summarised the knowledge on interspecific displacements through behavioural interactions between ungulate species in temperate areas to evaluate the conditions under which ungulate behavioural competitive interactions may occur. We found 18 studies reporting interspecific behavioural dominance between wild ungulates, for a total of 37 reports of interspecific displacement, involving 15 species. Only eight reports showed over more than 10 displacements. Over 60% reports involved at least one alien species. The larger one displaced the smaller one in 69% reports involving only native species and in 58% reports involving at least one alien species. Among ungulates, resource exploitation rather than behavioural interference seems to be the main mechanism for interspecific competition. Behavioural interference may increase when non-coevolved species come into contact (e.g. alien taxa, or species expanding their distribution range following environmental changes), in turn generating the potential for interspecific competition.

The Mediterranean is the main world tourist destination with 30% of international tourist arrivals and coastal tourism, although mostly seasonal, is constantly growing. In terms of environmental sustainability and safeguarding of eco-systems, the impact of the infrastructures on the coasts weight for the highest percentage. The ANSWERS A New Sustainable World thanks to renewable Energies, Recycling and sea Safeguarding project addresses its actions to the touristic SMEs operating along the coasts through 3 main pillars: reporting on the state of the art to induce the necessary awareness of the need of sustainable tourism strengthening, growing and scaling up of 60 tourism enterprises; training on renewable energies, recycling of waste materials, abatement of carbon emissions, landscape and cultural heritage protection; exchange of good practices; study visits; models of tourism enterprise according to sustainable development; quality certification ISO 14001; working environment and safety; twinning monitoring of results achieved; diffusion and exploitation actions at regional, national and european level In order to provide a wide range of experiences, skills and transnational competences the actions will see the involvement of 8 complementary partners from 6 different countries: the Interuniversity Research Centre on Sustainable Development (IT) leading company with deep experience on sustainable development, renewable energies and sharing economy; Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IT) with its Institute on Mediterranean Studies with competences on sustainability and safeguard of the sea and the coasts and its EEN ELSE, CCI Bretagne (FR) and CCI Xanthi (GR) with competences on business and network of enterprises, EUCI (MT) a certification body on quality, environment and safety, Hochfeiler (IT) with competences on communication and exploitation of results, Inmedia Solutions (ES) with competences in tourism auditing, and Cluster Trakia (BG) with experience in ICT services addressed to SMEs.

Frailty is a clinical condition affecting the elderly population which results in an increased risk of falls. Previous studies demonstrated that falls prevention programs are effective, but they suffer from low adherence, especially when subjects have to train unsupervised in their homes. To try to improve treatment adherence, virtual reality and social media have been proposed as promising strategies for the increase of users' motivation and thus their willingness to practice. In the context of smart homes, this work presents SocialBike, a virtual reality-based application aimed at improving the clinical outcomes of older frail adults in their houses. Indeed, SocialBike is integrated in the "house of the future" framework and proposes a Dual Task training program in which the users are required to cycle on a stationary bike while recognizing target animals or objects appearing along the way. It also implements the possibility of training with other users, thus reducing the risk of social isolation. Within SocialBike, users can choose the multiplayer mode they prefer (ie, collaborative or competitive), and are allowed to train following their own attitude. SocialBike's validation, refinement, and business model are currently under development, and are briefly discussed as future works.

Grooming is the most common primate affiliative behaviour, and primates compete for accessing grooming partners. We studied a captive group of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) to evaluate the role of different types of competitive interactions in shaping the distribution of grooming among females. Mandrill females preferentially groomed high-ranking individuals, but low-ranking females were less able to do so. Interference in others' grooming and a (consequent) reluctance of low-ranking females to access dominant group mates occurred frequently and contributed to the observed pattern of grooming distribution, while takeovers of grooming partners was relatively rare. Interference in others' affiliation was possibly used to prevent the formation of revolutionary alliances. Difficulties in accessing individuals already engaged in grooming exerted a strong but rank-independent effect on grooming interactions. These results highlight the role of competition in determining access to preferred social partners.

Competitive exclusion by atoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus is worldwide accepted as the only preventive action, effective to minimize aflatoxins contamination in several crops, maize included. Maize lots, uncompliant with the European legislation, were signaled almost all years. After the first outbreak of aflatoxin in maize in 2003 in Italy, followed by severe contamination in 2012 and 2015, but lot uncompliant with the European legislation signaled almost all years, the selection of candidate biocontrol agents among native strains started. USA, Africa and Italy have now commercial products available, but Eastern Europe need to be considered too. The aim of this study was select A. flavus candidate biocontrol agents in Romania. For this purpose, 139 maize flour samples, representative of the whole Romanian maize growing areas, were used for the isolation of Aspergillus section Flavi strains. Among them, 188 representative strains were chosen, identified (sequencing the beta-tubulin gene region), processed and characterized. Deletions of the aflatoxin gene cluster region were investigated by multiplex PCR analyses (using a set of 16 primer pairs) to select potential biocontrol agents to be included in competition tests. The size of microsatellite alleles retrieved from 18 markers, out of the 24 tested, were bioinformatically analysed to uncover the population structure. 169 strains were confirmed as A. flavus; 71 strains seems to lack at least one gene of the aflatoxin cluster and, among these, 7 strains seems to lack all the genes and were chosen for further investigations. Microsatellites analysis allowed us to identify two main groups by bayesian cluster analysis, genetic distance based analyses and population assignment. The 7 atoxigenic strains demonstrated to be very effective in reducing aflatoxins (ranged between 80 and 96%) when co-inoculated with toxigenic strains. A potential candidate to be used as biocontrol agent was finally selected on the basis of competition tests and microsatellites results and, its efficacy, will be hopefully confirmed during in field trials.

Measurements of competition and facilitation between plants often rely upon intensity and importance indices that quantify the net effect of neighbours on the performance of a target plant. A systematic analysis of the mathematical behaviour of the indices is lacking and leads to structural pitfalls, e.g. statistical problems detected in importance indices. We summarize and analyse the mathematical properties that the indices should display. We review the properties of the commonly used indices focusing on standardization and symmetry, which are necessary to avoid compromising data interpretation. We introduce a new family of indices 'Neighbour-effect Indices' that meet all the proposed properties. Considering the commonly used indices, none of the importance indices are standardized, and only RII (Relative Interaction Index) displays all the required mathematical properties. The existing indices show two types of symmetries, namely, additive or commutative, which are currently confounded, potentially resulting in misleading interpretations. Our Neighbour-effect Indices encompass two intensity and two importance indices that are standardized and have different and defined symmetries. Our new additive intensity index, NInt, is the first of its kind, and it is generally more suitable for assessing competition and facilitation intensity than the widely used RII, which may underestimate facilitation. Our new standardized importance indices solve the main statistical problems that are known to affect C and I. Intensity and importance with the same symmetry should be used within the same study. The Neighbour-effect Indices, sharing the same formulation, will allow for unbiased comparisons between intensity and importance, and between types of symmetry.

AimTo describe the distribution of two congeneric species of cave-dwelling spiders under current climatic conditions and future warming scenarios, keeping into account their bioclimatic requirements, dispersal capacity and competition dynamics.

The paper deals with questions related to contemporary cities and competition deriving from innovation and integration topics

Growth models represent important tools for forest researchers and managers, particularly because of their ability in exploring management options and silvicultural alternatives. For example, foresters may wish to compare the long-term effect of two management strategies on both the forest and on future harvests. With a growth model, they can examine the forecasted outcomes of the two strategies and can make their decision objectively. The process of developing a growth model may also offer interesting new insights into stand dynamics.

The vulnerability of finger vein recognition to spoofing attacks has emerged as a crucial security problem in the recent years mainly due to the high security applications where biometric technology is used. Recent works shown that finger vein biometrics is vulnerable to spoofing attacks, pointing out the importance to investigate counter-measures against this type of fraudulent actions. The goal of the 1st Competition on Counter Measures to Finger Vein Spoofing Attacks is to challenge researchers to create countermeasures that can detect printed attacks effectively. The submitted approaches are evaluated on the Spoofing-Attack Finger Vein Database and the achieved results are presented in this paper.

The role of the policy-maker in Italy (Tesauro, 2011) ideally has always been associated with institutional actors in the public sector, while it really also involves individuals operating in private organizations which, by their nature, are strongly linked with the socio economic environment. The most obvious example of private policy-maker is represented by companies for the provision of infrastructure services which, with their policies, generate significant impacts on the socio economic context (Campisi, Tesauro 1997) (Tesauro, 2007). In Italy, most of the infrastructure service companies, certainly the most important ones at the national level, until a few years ago were managed by public corporations, as for example: telephone, electricity, household gas, rail, highways, airlines, ferries and so on. For this reason, their activities were subject to the control of national policy and therefore, even if indirectly, to the control of the citizens, the "policy-takers", through the normal tools of institutional democracy, as is the case for the activity of local authorities policy-makers ie municipalities, regions, provinces and so on. In recent years, however, the process of privatization of public enterprises has effectively removed from the policy, and thus indirectly to the citizens, the control over the policies adopted by these companies. This effect is further amplified by the fact that many of these activities are currently, or will be shortly, managed by companies with foreign capital, so increasing the distance with the subjects assigned to the control. In addition, the ranks of private organizations capable of generating induced effects on the territory increased by a substantial number of companies linked to other economic sectors, through pricing policies based on "custom" criteria generate meaningful effects in the socio economic national context, then becoming as real blind policy-makers. The objective of this paper is therefore to analyze how many and what types of economic activities constitute in fact new forms of policy makers in the context of national socio economic environment, if the national public subjects are aware of their activities, including the effects they generate, and what instruments are adopted to control their actions.

In the recent years, a huge number of human transcripts have been found in the human genome that do not encode for proteins, which have been named non-coding RNAs (npcRNAs) containing secondary structures or short regions highly conserved within mammalian sequences. Long RNAs (antisense RNA, structured RNA, and long interspersed ncRNAs) and small RNAs (miRNAs, siRNAs, snoRNAs) have shown to exert many roles: functioning as regulators of other mRNAs, at transcriptional and post-transcriptional level, controlling protein ubiquitination and degradation, regulating epigenetic marks and affecting chromosome structure. One group of npcRNAs that is well-characterized, at the biochemical level, is represented by miRNAs. This group comprises a large class of small npcRNAs (~22-nucleotide RNAs) acting through base pairing to partially complementary sites in the 3'untranslated regions (3'UTR) of the targeted messenger RNA. Circular RNAs, competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) acting as RNA sponges, natural antisense RNAs (NAT), enhancer RNAs (eRNAs), and RNA decoys are further expanding the wide array of functionalities exerted by ncRNAs. In the last case, as example, Growth Arrest Suppressor 5 (GAS5) forms a structured RNA tha is a decoy for the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), mimicking the DNA structure of the GR element (GRE). Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as key players in regulating various fundamental cellular processes. Many of the mechanisms that modify the 3' UTRs, or that affect differential splicing, make use of RNA regulation, antisense RNAs, and may involve RNP complexes. Many human ncRNAs have been characterized in terms of function or expression profiles. HOTAIR, described in detail in the review by Ge Shan, is a structured RNA that assemble several proteins to form an epigenetic regulation complex: it assembles Polycomb Repressive Complex (PRC) proteins and determines the silencing of specific genes. Terminal differentiation induced ncRNA (TINCR) destabilises ALU elements in mRNAs through the RNA binding protein Staufen 1 binding to polypurine tract. Thus, proteins involved in the functioning of ncRNAs are highly varied: RNA binding proteins, ribonucleoprotein complexes, alternative splicing proteins, alternative polyadenylation proteins, chromatin remodeling complexes, and gene activation and repression complexes (PRC) and enzymes positioning or eliminating histone marks. Then, it is clear that the changes determined in several diseases and in cancer are caused non only by mutated genes but also by epigenetic deregulation and by alternative spliced genes and alternative polyA tails that evade microRNA recognition. Concerning miRs, the varied presence of Argonaute family of proteins and the link with diseases are well detailed in more than one review in this special issue.

More than 16% of parrot species (Aves Psittaciformes) of the world have currently established at least one breeding population outside their natural distribution ranges. Though including the most introduced bird species all over the world, their interactions with native biodiversity and environments are still poorly known. In this paper, we summarize current knowledge about impacts of introduced Psittaciformes and we identify possible gaps to be filled with future research. Breeding site requirements of alien parrots, e.g. trunk cavities, indicate potential routes of direct and indirect competition with native hole-nesting bird species. Interactions with arboreal rodents, bats and insects are poorly documented, but appear to be limited. Psittaciformes potentially affect economy and human wellness, being responsible for damage to crops and to electrical infrastructures. Association with noise pollution has also been suggested, as many alien populations breed in urban parks or close to human settlements. Psittaciformes are potential reservoirs of Chlamydophila psittaci, the etiological agent of human psittacosis, and other diseases transmittable to humans and wildlife. Less is known about impact on native flora as well as on ecosystem functions. Predictive research and information on ecosystem recovery after parrot removal are scarce too, as eradication programs are often hampered by the emotional affiliation linked to these birds.

Interspecific microbial interactions are important for community structure, function and evolution, but it is not fully understood how interactions among bacterial species are influenced by some types of abiotic environmental variation, such as exposure to antibiotics. We tested for the effect of an antibiotic, tetracycline, on interspecific interactions in vitro among four species of aquatic bacteria isolated from European water bodies. Interactions among species in experimental microcosms containing artificial lake water (ALW) supplemented with glucose were largely competitive, as detected by comparing mixed cultures to pure cultures of their constituent species. Sublethal concentrations of tetracycline changed the relative competitive abilities of different species and revealed considerable variation in antibiotic sensitivity, but did not reduce the average strength of competition. Interspecific interactions at a given concentration were largely predictable from growth in pure cultures and indirect interactions with other species. These results suggest that antibiotics such as tetracycline may have important consequences for interactions among bacterial species, but in our experiments this was because species varied in their capacities for growth in the presence of tetracycline, rather than reduced competition at increasing tetracycline concentrations.

Agro-food industry has great relevance in Italy. However few studies have analyzed factors affecting global competitiveness of small and medium agro-food firms. At the aim to fill this literature gap we investigate factors supporting the Made in Italy in the world. The paper presents a qualitative analysis realized through some semi-structured questionnaire and a case study. We evidenced that innovation and internationalization affect competitiveness of Italian agro-food firms in the world. This paper offers a new perspective on agro-food firms' strategies to compete globally