On regular drawn symbolic picture languages

Drawn symbolic pictures are an extension of drawn pictures obtained by associating a symbol from an alphabet to each point of the picture. In the paper we will address some new interesting issues derived from the introduction of the symbols and we will identify the conditions, which ensure the preservation of properties holding for drawn pictures in the setting of the proposed extension.     

Photovoltaic characterization of amorphous hydrogenated and chlorinated silicon films

Hydrogenated and chlorinated silicon films were used to deposit Schottky barrier solar cells. Photovoltaic characterization, together with the results of electronic transport measurements, led to the conclusion that the presence of chlorine is detrimental to the properties of this kind of device.     

Simple and accurate scheme for fluid velocity interpolation for Eulerian-Lagrangian computation of dispersed flows in 3D curvilinear grids

Particle tracking in turbulent flows in complex domains requires accurate interpolation of the fluid velocity field. If grids are non-orthogonal and curvilinear, the most accurate available interpolation methods fail. We propose an accurate interpolation scheme based on Taylor series expansion of the local fluid velocity about the grid point nearest to the desired location. The scheme is best suited for curvilinear grids with non-orthogonal computational cells. We present the scheme with second-order accuracy, yet the order of accuracy of the method can be adapted to that of the Navier-Stokes solver.An application to particle dispersion in a turbulent wavy channel is presented, for which the scheme is tested against standard linear interpolation. Results show that significant discrepancies can arise in the particle displacement produced by the two schemes, particularly in the near-wall region which is often discretized with highly-distorted computational cells.     

Degradation of lincomycin in aqueous medium: Coupling of solar photocatalysis and membrane separation

The photocatalytic oxidation of a common antibiotic, the lincomycin was carried out in aqueous suspensions of polycrystalline TiO₂ Degussa P25 irradiated by sunlight. In order to improve the performance of the lincomycin degradation a hybrid system consisting of a solar photoreactor with the photocatalyst in suspension coupled with a membrane module, used to confine both photocatalyst and pollutants in the reaction environment, was tested.A preliminary study was carried out in order to determine some kinetics parameters of the drug photodegradation. The influence of initial substrate concentration on the lincomycin photooxidation rate was investigated. The photooxidation rate follows a pseudo-first order kinetics with respect to the lincomycin concentration under the used experimental conditions. The presence of the membrane reactor allows the catalyst separation and to operate in continuous mode as the membranes rejection for lincomycin and its oxidation products was quite high.     

A method based on Graph Theory and Three Way Decisions to evaluate critical regions in epidemic diffusion:

Applied Intelligence - The paper reports the results of an analysis of COVID-19 diffusion in Italy. The analysis was carried out with a new method based on the combined use of a 3 Way Decisions...     

Semantic annotation of narrative media objects

This paper addresses the annotation of the narrative features of media objects. Based on a relevant narratological and computational background, we introduce an ontology?Cbased model called Drammar, an annotation schema for the narrative features of media objects based on Drammar and a software tool, Cinematic, for annotating these objects and validating the annotation. Annotated media objects can also be automatically edited into sequences, with the twofold goal of testing the validity of the annotation??through the reconstruction of the baseline sequence??and exploring the possibility of alternative sequences. The software tool encodes both the narrative model and the annotation itself in ontological format, and relies on external ontologies for representing world knowledge and limit the arbitrariness of the annotation. The paper opens the way to the design of a general annotation schema for narrative multimedia with the long?Cterm goal of building large corpora of annotated video material and of bridging the gap between the low?Clevel signal analysis and the high?Clevel semantic representation of the narrative content of the media objects. Finally, the paper illustrates a few projects elaborated with the Drammar annotation and the Cinematic tool, with purposes of artistic research and cross?Cmedia analysis, that provide an empirical validation of the annotation process.     

The GAUGAA Motif Is Responsible for the Binding between circSMARCA5 and SRSF1 and Related Downstream Effects on Glioblastoma Multiforme Cell Migration and Angiogenic Potential

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a large class of RNAs with regulatory functions within cells. We recently showed that circSMARCA5 is a tumor suppressor in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and acts as a decoy for Serine and Arginine Rich Splicing Factor 1 (SRSF1) through six predicted binding sites (BSs). Here we characterized RNA motifs functionally involved in the interaction between circSMARCA5 and SRSF1. Three different circSMARCA5 molecules (Mut1, Mut2, Mut3), each mutated in two predicted SRSF1 BSs at once, were obtained through PCR-based replacement of wild-type (WT) BS sequences and cloned in three independent pcDNA3 vectors. Mut1 significantly decreased its capability to interact with SRSF1 as compared to WT, based on the RNA immunoprecipitation assay. In silico analysis through the “Find Individual Motif Occurrences” (FIMO) algorithm showed GAUGAA as an experimentally validated SRSF1 binding motif significantly overrepresented within both predicted SRSF1 BSs mutated in Mut1 (q-value = 0.0011). U87MG and CAS-1, transfected with Mut1, significantly increased their migration with respect to controls transfected with WT, as revealed by the cell exclusion zone assay. Immortalized human brain microvascular endothelial cells (IM-HBMEC) exposed to conditioned medium (CM) harvested from U87MG and CAS-1 transfected with Mut1 significantly sprouted more than those treated with CM harvested from U87MG and CAS-1 transfected with WT, as shown by the tube formation assay. qRT-PCR showed that the intracellular pro- to anti-angiogenic Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A (VEGFA) mRNA isoform ratio and the amount of total VEGFA mRNA secreted in CM significantly increased in Mut1-transfected CAS-1 as compared to controls transfected with WT. Our data suggest that GAUGAA is the RNA motif responsible for the interaction between circSMARCA5 and SRSF1 as well as for the circSMARCA5-mediated control of GBM cell migration and angiogenic potential.     

<Superscript>1</Superscript>H NMR characterization of milk lipids: A comparison between cow and buffalo milk

Characterization of the lipid fraction of raw cow and buffalo milk samples, collected in different breeding areas in Apulia, a region of southern Italy, were performed by means of ¹H NMR. The aim of this work was to establish whether FA composition data obtained by ¹H NMR can be used in the differentiation of buffalo and cow milk samples according to species. A complete assignment of the signals present in the spectrum was attempted by COSY, heteronuclear coherence spectra. Quantification of FA was carried out by inserting the integrals of particular peaks in suitable calculations. Multivariate statistical analysis, conducted on the results of the quantification, permitted buffalo and cow milks to be distinguished.