Enhanced models for privacy and utility in continuous-time diffusion networks

International Journal of Information Security - Controlling the propagation of information in social networks is a problem of growing importance. On one hand, users wish to freely communicate and...     

Extending the Lifetime of Nano-Blimps via Dynamic Motor Control

Journal of Signal Processing Systems - Nano-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), e.g. quadcopters, have received significant attention in recent years. Although their capabilities have grown,...     

Growth and Viability of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Lines Display Different Sensitivities to Isoform-Specific Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase Inhibitors

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas (cSCCs) account for about 20% of keratinocyte carcinomas, the most common cancer in the UK. Therapeutic options for cSCC patients who develop metastasis are limited and a better understanding of the biochemical pathways involved in cSCC development/progression is crucial to identify novel therapeutic targets. Evidence indicates that the phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks)/Akt pathway plays an important role, in particular in advanced cSCC. Questions remain of whether all four PI3K isoforms able to activate Akt are involved and whether selective inhibition of specific isoform(s) might represent a more targeted strategy. Here we determined the sensitivity of four patient-derived cSCC cell lines to isoform-specific PI3K inhibitors to start investigating their potential therapeutic value in cSCC. Parallel experiments were performed in immortalized keratinocyte cell lines. We observed that pan PI3Ks inhibition reduced the growth/viability of all tested cell lines, confirming the crucial role of this pathway. Selective inhibition of the PI3K isoform p110α reduced growth/viability of keratinocytes and of two cSCC cell lines while affecting the other two only slightly. Importantly, p110α inhibition reduced Akt phosphorylation in all cSCC cell lines. These data indicate that growth and viability of the investigated cSCC cells display differential sensitivity to isoform-specific PI3K inhibitors.     

Adiponectin Role in Neurodegenerative Diseases: Focus on Nutrition Review

Adiponectin is an adipokine produced by adipose tissue. It has numerous beneficial effects. In particular, it improves metabolic effects and glucose homeostasis, lipid profile, and is involved in the regulation of cytokine profile and immune cell production, having anti-inflammatory and immune-regulatory effects. Adiponectin’s role is already known in immune diseases and also in neurodegenerative diseases. Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, are a set of diseases of the central nervous system, characterized by a chronic and selective process of neuron cell death, which occurs mainly in relation to oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. Lifestyle is able to influence the development of these diseases. In particular, unhealthy nutrition on gut microbiota, influences its composition and predisposition to develop many diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases, given the importance of the “gut-brain” axis. There is a strong interplay between Adiponectin, gut microbiota, and brain-gut axis. For these reasons, a healthy diet composed of healthy nutrients such as probiotics, prebiotics, polyphenols, can prevent many metabolic and inflammatory diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases and obesity. The special Adiponectin role should be taken into account also, in order to be able to use this component as a therapeutic molecule.     

A visitors’ presence model for a museum environment: Description and validation

The correct simulation of energy needs for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning of the rooms of a museum is strictly correlated to the estimation of internal loads deriving from the presence of visitors, who are responsible for both sensible and latent gains. However, visitors’ profiles on short time scales (e.g., 15 minutes) in museum rooms are often not available data. In this work, we present a correlation between the statistical distribution of visitors’ presence in the main exhibition rooms of a museum and the profile of sold tickets, which is usually readily accessible. We apply the procedure to a real museum, using the results of a monitoring campaign for the best-fitting of the correlation curves and for the validation of the model. The fitting curves are the superposition of three Gaussian distributions, where daily and weekly peaks are taken into account. Each distribution refers to a period of the day (late morning/early afternoon, afternoon, and late afternoon), and has a standard deviation obtained by a best-fit procedure, and an integral corresponding to the sum of the sold tickets in its specific period of the day. The model is validated comparing monitored data of temperature and specific humidity in the rooms with the results of a dynamic simulation, run on TRNSYS 17, using the modeled correlation. By means of this validated model, energy-saving measures on the examined museum can be reliably simulated. At the same time, it is reasonable to assume that the same method could be applicable to other buildings with similar occupancy (e.g., galleries, exhibitions).     

A formal framework to represent spatial knowledge

Visual representations are an essential element in human–computer interaction and can be conceived as a collection of graphical objects arranged in a two-dimensional space. It is quite natural to model visual representations through the qualitative relationships holding between their objects, and therefore, qualitative spatial relations are a fundamental way of representing spatial knowledge. To this aim, in this paper we present a framework of qualitative spatial relations providing a general, domain-independent approach to specify visual representations.     

Bioconversion of residual glycerol from biodiesel synthesis into 1,3-propanediol and ethanol by isolated bacteria from environmental consortia

Residual (raw) glycerol originated from biodiesel synthesis is becoming of great environmental and economical concern due to its ever-growing surplus. In the present study, several bacterial strains were isolated and characterized for their ability to convert this raw glycerol into 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) and ethanol. The best producers of both 1,3-PD and ethanol were identified by 16S rDNA sequences to be Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pantoea agglomerans strains. Batch bioreactor cultivations under anaerobic and aerobic conditions were carried out in order to access the kinetics of glycerol consumption and product formation. Results showed that one isolated, K. pneumoniae BLh-1, was able to simultaneously produce up to 9.4 g/L of 1,3-PD with yields of 0.41 mol product mol⁻¹ glycerol, and 6.1 g/L of ethanol with yields of 0.14 mol product mol⁻¹ glycerol under anaerobic conditions, showing great potential for bioprocesses.     

Dynamics of conformational Ca2+-switches in signaling networks detected by a planar plasmonic device

Ca(2+)-sensor proteins regulate a variety of intracellular processes by adopting specific conformations in response to finely tuned changes in Ca(2+)-concentration. Here we present a surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based approach, which allows for simultaneous detection of conformational dynamics of four Ca(2+)-sensor proteins (calmodulin, recoverin, GCAP1, and GCAP2) operating in the vertebrate phototransduction cascade, over variations in Ca(2+) concentration in the 0.1-0.6 μM range. By working at conditions that quantitatively mimic those found in the cell, we show that the method is able to detect subtle differences in the dynamics of each Ca(2+)-sensor, which appear to be influenced by the presence of free Mg(2+) at physiological concentration and by posttranslational modifications such as myristoylation. Comparison between the macroscopic Ca(2+)-binding constants, directly measured by competition with a chromophoric chelator, and the concerted binding-conformational switch detected by SPR at equilibrium reveals the relative contribution of the conformational change process to the SPR signal. This process appears to be influenced by the presence of other cations that perturb Ca(2+)-binding and the conformational transition by competing with Ca(2+), or by pure electrostatic screening. In conclusion, the approach described here allows a comparative analysis of protein conformational changes occurring under physiologically relevant molecular crowding conditions in ultrathin biosensor layers.