MiR-223 Exclusively Impairs In Vitro Tumor Growth through IGF1R Modulation in Rhabdomyosarcoma of Adolescents and Young Adults

Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) form a subgroup of patients whose optimal clinical management and best possible access to care remain a challenge and whose survival rates lag behind that of children diagnosed with histologically similar tumors. A better understanding of tumor biology that differentiates children (PEDS-) from AYA-RMS could provide critical information and drive new initiatives to improve their final outcome. We investigated the functional role of miRNAs implicated in AYA-RMS development, as they have the potential to lead to discovery of new targets pathways for a more tailored treatment in these age groups of young RMS patients. MiR-223 and miR-486 were observed de-regulated in nine RMS tissues compared to their normal counterparts, yet only miR-223 replacement impaired proliferation and aggressiveness of AYA-RMS cell lines, while inducing apoptosis and determining cell cycle arrest. Interestingly, IGF1R resulted in the direct target of miR-223 in AYA-RMS cells, as demonstrated by IGF1R silencing. Our results highlight an exclusive functional role of miR-223 in AYA-RMS development and aggressiveness.     

The Paradox Effect of Calcification in Carotid Atherosclerosis: Microcalcification Is Correlated with Plaque Instability

Background: this study aims to investigate the possible association among the histopathologic features of carotid plaque instability, the presence of micro- or macrocalcifications, the expression of in situ inflammatory biomarkers, and the occurrence of the major risk factors in this process in a large series of carotid plaques. Methods: a total of 687 carotid plaques from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients were collected. Histological evaluation was performed to classify the calcium deposits in micro or macrocalcifications according to their morphological features (location and size). Immunohistochemistry was performed to study the expression of the main inflammatory biomarkers. Results: results here reported demonstrated that calcifications are very frequent in carotid plaques, with a significant difference between the presence of micro- and macrocalcifications. Specifically, microcalcifications were significantly associated to high inflamed unstable plaques. Paradoxically, macrocalcifications seem to stabilize the plaque and are associated to a M2 macrophage polarization instead. Discussion: the characterization of mechanisms involved in the formation of carotid calcifications can lay the foundation for developing new strategies for the management of patients affected by carotid atherosclerosis. Data of this study could provide key elements for an exhaustive evaluation of carotid plaque calcifications allowing to establish the risk of associated clinical events.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Software-Based Technique Under SEEs Using FPGA-Based Fault Injection Approach

Nowadays, microprocessor-based system??s robustness under Single Event Effects (SEEs) represents a very important concern. A widely adopted solution to make a microprocessor-based system robust consists in modifying the application code by adding redundancy and fault tolerance capabilities. In this context, the main idea behind this paper is to evaluate a software-based technique named Optimized Embedded Signature Monitoring (OESM) using an FPGA-based fault injection technique, which is able to inject a high number of Single Event Upsets (SEUs) and Single Event Transients (SETs) in a short period of time. The obtained results demonstrated not only the increase of system??s robustness level, but also point out the remaining weak areas in the microprocessor-based system with respect to both types of SEEs.     

The effects of roof covering on the thermal performance of highly insulated roofs in Mediterranean climates

While the EU Directive 2002/91/CE on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) clearly establishes regulations for the thermal insulation of buildings for saving energy in winter, the summer strategy is described by a little more than qualitative provisions. As a consequence, in the national requirements, the high insulation of the building envelope is considered as the principal strategy to control energy consumption even in summer, regardless of the different climates. This approach leads to a homologation of the building trade, and imposes construction technology and materials which do not adhere to the traditional way of making buildings, like in Southern Europe. Here, the “over insulation” of buildings runs the risk of reducing the effectiveness of traditional passive cooling strategies (thermal mass, air permeability of the roof covering, roof ventilation) and could have adverse effects on internal comfort. In this paper, we focus on the effects of over insulation on the thermal performance of roofs in summer, by analyzing experimental data from monitoring a full-scale mock-up in Italy. Results show how an increase in insulation thickness reduces the effectiveness of traditional passive cooling strategies, as an effect of the thermal decoupling between the interior and the upper layers of the roofs.     

Accessibility of the Italian institutional web pages: a survey on the compliance of the Italian public administration web pages to the Stanca Act and its 22 technical requirements for web accessibility

Accessibility of the Italian public administration web pages is ruled by the Stanca Act and in particular the Decree of the Minister issued on July 8, 2005. In this paper, an objective test is performed on the official web pages of the Italian province and region chief towns to check their compliance to the 22 technical requirements defined by the Stanca Act. A sample of 976 web pages belonging to the websites of the Italian chief towns have been downloaded in the period October–December 2012. Such a data collection has been submitted to Achecker, the worldwide recognized syntax and accessibility validation service. Several accessibility and syntax errors have been found following the automatic analysis. Such errors have been classified, a statistic has been produced, and some graphs are included to offer an immediate view of the error distribution. Moreover, the most frequent errors are pointed out and explained in detail. Although the Stanca Act has been promulgated some years ago, and contains precise indications about updating a web page to be compliant to the 22 technical requirements, all the analyzed websites are not fully compliant to the law. Updating web pages to be compliant to the Stanca Act is a slow process and some grave errors are still present, both in terms of syntax and accessibility.     

Fatigue and healing properties of bituminous mastics reinforced with nano-sized additives

The research work described in the paper focused on fatigue and healing properties of bituminous mastics reinforced with nano-sized additives.Commercially available multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and montmorillonite nanoclay (NC) were combined with a single base bitumen and a standard mineral filler to produce bituminous mastics. These blends were prepared in the laboratory by making use of a technique consisting in simple shear mixing followed by sonication.Fatigue behaviour of mastics under repeated loading was investigated by means of time sweeps performed in the strain-controlled mode at various amplitudes. Healing potential was assessed by adopting a testing protocol specifically conceived to discriminate between recovery of damage induced by fatigue loading and other artefact phenomena which may affect material response. All rheological measurements were carried out with a dynamic shear rheometer in the parallel plates geometry.Outcomes of the experimental investigation were found to be highly dependent on the nature of additive type, as a result of the key role played by interaction mechanisms that nano-particles can establish within the bituminous mastic.     

Algorithm for Automatic Detection of Topological Changes in Water Distribution Networks

Topological and pressure-driven analyses are an integral part of reliability/risk considerations for a water distribution system. For example, it is often necessary to identify which parts of the distribution network are isolated from water sources after the valves have been closed in response to a mechanical pipe failure. Pressure-driven analysis is then necessary to ascertain the consequences of pipe failures in terms of the performance of the functioning subsystem while pipe breaks are being fixed in the isolated area. Therefore, it is extremely useful to have an algorithm for the automatic identification of nodes/pipes disconnected from the water source(s). However, this is a complex problem because valves sometimes significantly modify the network topology. Furthermore, the use of isolation valves can cause a demand shortage to some customers (due to pressure reduction) during the abnormal operating conditions in the system. Thus, pressure-driven simulation of the network behavior is required. For these reasons, a novel algorithm capable of automatic detection of topological network changes is coupled with a robust pressure-driven simulation model. This algorithm is tested on two case studies involving a small artificial water distribution system and a larger, real-life network. The results obtained clearly demonstrate the robustness of the algorithm developed.     

Energy and provision management study: A research activity on fuel cell design and breadboarding for lunar surface applications supported by European Space Agency

This paper addresses the findings of the European Space Agency (ESA) study (Energy and Provision Management Study), performed by an Italian consortium, aimed at designing and breadboarding of an Energy Provision and Management system (EPM), based on Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) technology. The EPM has been developed for supporting space exploration applications, specifically for lunar surface missions. The fuel cell technology has been selected through a trade-off activity, and the power requirements of a Lunar Base (LB) power plant and a Pressurized Lunar Rover (PLR) have been identified. A synergetic design of EPM has been proposed for both the LB and the PLR. Finally three technological demonstrators have been designed, manufactured and tested: i) a 1 kW PEFC stack, ii) a stand-alone power system based on the developed stack, iii) a regenerative power system based on the stand-alone stack connected with a commercial electrolyser. The tests carried out on breadboards, have demonstrated the ability of fuel cell power systems to meet the requirements of future space missions.     

Thallium and Other Potentially Toxic Elements in the Baccatoio Stream Catchment (Northern Tuscany,Italy) Receiving Drainages from Abandoned Mines

Acid mine drainages (AMD) have adversely affected the southern Apuan Alps (northern Tuscany, Italy). The study particularly focuses on the Baccatoio stream, which receives AMD from the abandoned Pollone and M. Arsiccio mines. The mine waters have an average pH of 2.2 and contain potentially toxic elements (PTE) at concentrations that exceed the Italian regulatory threshold for Al, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, As, Ni, Co, Cd, Sb, Pb, and Tl. The AMD flow directly into the stream, severely contaminating it. Downstream of the mined areas, the pH increases and most PTE (especially Fe, Al, As, and Pb) are readily scavenged from the stream waters by precipitation and/or adsorption. However, Tl, which peak at 1000 µg/L in the AMD, behaves almost conservatively along the stream flow path, undergoing only dilution, and remains at or above the concentration of concern of 4 µg/L almost to the coastline, before sharply decreasing to 0.5 µg/L where seawater is encountered. Since the stream water was locally used for irrigation, these observations may have important environmental and public health consequences in such a densely populated area.     

A visual approach for driver inattention detection

Monitoring driver fatigue, inattention, and lack of sleep is very important in preventing motor vehicles accidents. A visual system for automatic driver vigilance has to address two fundamental problems. First of all, it has to analyze the sequence of images and detect if the driver has his eyes open or closed, and then it has to evaluate the temporal occurrence of eyes open to estimate the driver's visual attention level. In this paper we propose a visual approach that solves both problems. A neural classifier is applied to recognize the eyes in the image, selecting two candidate regions that might contain the eyes by using iris geometrical information and symmetry. The novelty of this work is that the algorithm works on complex images without constraints on the background, skin color segmentation and so on. Several experiments were carried out on images of subjects with different eye colors, some of them wearing glasses, in different light conditions. Tests show robustness with respect to situations such as eyes partially occluded, head rotation and so on. In particular, when applied to images where people have eyes closed the proposed algorithm correctly reveals the absence of eyes. Next, the analysis of the eye occurrence in image sequences is carried out with a probabilistic model to recognize anomalous behaviors such as driver inattention or sleepiness. Image sequences acquired in the laboratory and while people were driving a car were used to test the driver behavior analysis and demonstrate the effectiveness of the whole approach.