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Some insular lizards show a high degree of differentiation from their conspecific mainland populations, like Licosa island lizards, which are described as affected by Reversed Island Syndrome (RIS). In previous works, we demonstrated that some traits of RIS, as melani-zation, depend on a differential expression of gene encoding melanocortin receptors. To better understand the basis of syndrome, and providing raw data for future investigations, we generate the first de novo transcriptome of the Italian wall lizard. Comparing mainland and island transcriptomes, we link differences in life-traits to differential gene expression. Our results, taking together testis and brain sequences, generated 275,310 and 269,885 transcripts, 18,434 and 21,606 proteins in Gene Ontology annotation, for mainland and island respectively. Variant calling analysis identified about the same number of SNPs in island and mainland population. Instead, through a differential gene expression analysis we found some putative genes involved in syndrome more expressed in insular samples like Major Histocompatibility Complex class I, Immunoglobulins, Melanocortin 4 receptor, Neu-ropeptide Y and Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen.

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Hardware implementation of the proposed direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms based on Cholesky and LDL decomposition is presented in this paper. The proposed algorithms are implemented for execution on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) as well as a PC (running LabVIEW) for the multiple non-coherent sources located in the far-field region of a uniform linear array (ULA). Prototype testbeds built using the national instruments (NI) universal software radio peripheral (USRP) software defined radio (SDR) platform and Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA are originally constructed for the experimental validation of the proposed algorithms. The results from LabVIEW simulations and real-time hardware experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. Specifically, the implementation of the proposed algorithms on a Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA using the LabVIEW software clarifies their efficiency in terms of computation time and resource utilization, which make them suitable for the real-time practical applications. Moreover, the performance comparison with the QR decomposition-based DOA algorithms as well as similar FPGA-based implementations reported in the literature is conducted in terms of the estimation accuracy, computation speed, and FPGA resources consumed.

Automated sorting for plastic recyclables has been seen as the way forward in the plastic recycling industry. Automated sorting provides significant improvements in terms of efficiency and consistency in the sorting process. In the case of macro sorting, which is the most common type of automated sorting, efficiency is determined by the mechanical details of the material handling system as well as the detection system. This paper provides a review on the state of-the-art technologies that have been deployed by some of the recycling facilities abroad. The design and development of a cost effective prototype automated system for sorting plastic recyclables is proposed and discussed.

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