Esiste un nono pianeta nel sistema solare?

Le recenti scoperte riguardanti le orbite degli oggetti trans-nettuniani hanno indotto molti autori a ipotizzare l'esistenza di un corpo perturbatore massiccio posto ai limiti del sistema solare, denominato Pianeta Nove, per spiegare alcune peculiarità quali clustering in argomento del perielio, longitudine del nodo ascendente e longitudine del perielio di alcuni oggetti distanti noti. Questi effetti non sembrano essere causati da bias osservativi. La presenza di tale pianeta potrebbe anche spiegare l'esistenza di oggetti altamente inclinati e retrogradi e l'inclinazione assiale del Sole. Numerose simulazioni effettuate da moltissimi autori hanno portato a varie ipotesi per il Pianeta Nove restringendo il range di parametri a massa m9=5-20mT, semiasse maggiore a9=350-1000 UA, inclinazione i9=22°-40°, eccentricità e9=0,5-0,8, argomento del perielio ω9=138°, longitudine del perielio Ω9=251° e longitudine del nodo ascendente ϖ9=113°. La posizione attuale del pianeta è stimata essere ν9=117,8°+11°-10° o in una regione vicina all'afelio della sua orbita. Varie ipotesi (migrazione, formazione in situ, cattura) falliscono nello spiegare a pieno l'origine di un pianeta a tale distanza. La presenza di due pianeti, invece che uno solo, è stata proposta per spiegare ulteriori anomalie della Fascia di Kuiper non implicabili al Pianeta Nove. La ricerca di pianeti nel sistema solare esterno è molto diffcile e le ipotesi su massa, orbita e posizione sono limitate dal ridotto numero di oggetti trans-nettuniani estremi noti. Ad oggi la presenza del Pianeta Nove sembra probabile anche se le teorie presentano ancora alcuni punti deboli, ma nel prossimo futuro nuove survey e nuovi telescopi potrebbero portare a una risoluzione definitiva della questione, con la scoperta del pianeta o l'esclusione della sua esistenza.ope

Women in New England Politics

This essay addresses a serious deficiency in the literature on women and politics in the United States today: the lack of attention to regional variation and, more specifically, the absence of research on women’s representation in New England. This deficiency is particularly troubling since political analysts of all stripes typically portray New England as imbued with ideological, individual, and structural characteristics likely to lead to rates of political representation higher than the nation as a whole. This essay provides a brief history of women in politics for New England as a whole; describes the current status of women at congressional, statewide, state legislative, and municipal levels of government in each of the states (with a comparison to other regions and the nation as a whole); and analyzes the prospects for increasing women’s political representation in the region. This essay concludes that it is unlikely that the New England states will achieve anything close to parity in the higher-level offices if the numbers do not increase substantially in the city or town councils, boards of selectmen, boards of aldermen, and other local governing bodies

Identification and analysis of conserved pockets on protein surfaces

BACKGROUND: The interaction between proteins and ligands occurs at pockets that are often lined by conserved amino acids. These pockets can represent the targets for low molecular weight drugs. In order to make the research for new medicines as productive as possible, it is necessary to exploit "in silico" techniques, high throughput and fragment-based screenings that require the identification of druggable pockets on the surface of proteins, which may or may not correspond to active sites. RESULTS: We developed a tool to evaluate the conservation of each pocket detected on the protein surface by CastP. This tool was named DrosteP because it recursively searches for optimal input sequences to be used to calculate conservation. DrosteP uses a descriptor of statistical significance, Poisson p-value, as a target to optimize the choice of input sequences. To benchmark DrosteP we used monomeric or homodimer human proteins with known 3D-structure whose active site had been annotated in UniProt. DrosteP is able to detect the active site with high accuracy because in 81% of the cases it coincides with the most conserved pocket. Comparing DrosteP with analogous programs is difficult because the outputs are different. Nonetheless we could assess the efficacy of the recursive algorithm in the identification of active site pockets by calculating conservation with the same input sequences used by other programs. We analyzed the amino-acid composition of conserved pockets identified by DrosteP and we found that it differs significantly from the amino-acid composition of non conserved pockets. CONCLUSIONS: Several methods for predicting ligand binding sites on protein surfaces, that combine 3D-structure and evolutionary sequence conservation, have been proposed. Any method relying on conservation mainly depends on the choice of the input sequences. DrosteP chooses how deeply distant homologs must be collected to evaluate conservation and thus optimizes the identification of active site pockets. Moreover it recognizes conserved pockets other than those coinciding with the sites annotated in UniProt that might represent useful druggable sites. The distinctive amino-acid composition of conserved pockets provides useful hints on the fundamental principles underlying protein-ligand interaction. AVAILABILITY: http://www.icb.cnr.it/project/drosteppy

Prediction of the responsiveness to pharmacological chaperones: lysosomal human alpha-galactosidase, a case of study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The pharmacological chaperones therapy is a promising approach to cure genetic diseases. It relies on substrate competitors used at sub-inhibitory concentration which can be administered orally, reach difficult tissues and have low cost. Clinical trials are currently carried out for Fabry disease, a lysosomal storage disorder caused by inherited genetic mutations of alpha-galactosidase. Regrettably, not all genotypes respond to these drugs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We collected the experimental data available in literature on the enzymatic activity of ninety-six missense mutants of lysosomal alpha-galactosidase measured in the presence of pharmacological chaperones. We associated with each mutation seven features derived from the analysis of 3D-structure of the enzyme, two features associated with their thermo-dynamic stability and four features derived from sequence alone. Structural and thermodynamic analysis explains why some mutants of human lysosomal alpha-galactosidase cannot be rescued by pharmacological chaperones: approximately forty per cent of the non responsive cases examined can be correctly associated with a negative prognostic feature. They include mutations occurring in the active site pocket, mutations preventing disulphide bridge formation and severely destabilising mutations. Despite this finding, prediction of mutations responsive to pharmacological chaperones cannot be achieved with high accuracy relying on combinations of structure- and thermodynamic-derived features even with the aid of classical and state of the art statistical learning methods.</p> <p>We developed a procedure to predict responsive mutations with an accuracy as high as 87%: the method scores the mutations by using a suitable position-specific substitution matrix. Our approach is of general applicability since it does not require the knowledge of 3D-structure but relies only on the sequence.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Responsiveness to pharmacological chaperones depends on the structural/functional features of the disease-associated protein, whose complex interplay is best reflected on sequence conservation by evolutionary pressure. We propose a predictive method which can be applied to screen novel mutations of alpha galactosidase. The same approach can be extended on a genomic scale to find candidates for therapy with pharmacological chaperones among proteins with unknown tertiary structures.</p

A novel integrated industrial approach with cobots in the age of industry 4.0 through conversational interaction and computer vision

From robots that replace workers to robots that serve as helpful colleagues, the field of robotic automation is experiencing a new trend that represents a huge challenge for component manufacturers. The contribution starts from an innovative vision that sees an ever closer collaboration between Cobot, able to do a specific physical job with precision, the AI world, able to analyze information and support the decision-making process, and the man able to have a strategic vision of the future

Lumbar Degenerative Disc Disease: Current and Future Concepts of Diagnosis and Management

Low back pain as a result of degenerative disc disease imparts a large socioeconomic impact on the health care system. Traditional concepts for treatment of lumbar disc degeneration have aimed at symptomatic relief by limiting motion in the lumbar spine, but novel treatment strategies involving stem cells, growth factors, and gene therapy have the theoretical potential to prevent, slow, or even reverse disc degeneration. Understanding the pathophysiological basis of disc degeneration is essential for the development of treatment strategies that target the underlying mechanisms of disc degeneration rather than the downstream symptom of pain. Such strategies ideally aim to induce disc regeneration or to replace the degenerated disc. However, at present, treatment options for degenerative disc disease remain suboptimal, and development and outcomes of novel treatment options currently have to be considered unpredictable

Like si te gusta. Análisis del discurso de Paulina Cocina en Instagram

Trabajo Final para optar al grado académico de Licenciatura en Comunicación Social, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Orientación MIxta Institucional y Gráfica Calificación 9 (Nueve)Fil: Figueroa, Lucía: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación; Argentina.Fil: Gigena Cammisa, Martín Horacio: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación; Argentina.Fil: Rodríguez, Noelia: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación; Argentina.En el presente trabajo final de grado para aspirar a la Licenciatura en Comunicación Social optamos como modalidad de abordaje la investigación científica. Los interrogantes que nos planteamos al iniciar nuestro recorrido fueron: ¿De qué manera se construye el sentido de las prácticas del comer en Instagram? ¿Cómo lo realiza la creadora de contenidos Paulina Cocina? En la actualidad Instagram funciona como uno de los medios de comunicación más utilizados, con mayor inserción social y con una creciente proyección dentro del mundo de las redes sociales. A partir de este hecho surge una nueva figura denominada influencer , que ostenta una gran capacidad para comunicarse con sus públicos. Carolina Puga, nombre real de Paulina Cocina, es la influencer gastronómica más reconocida de Argentina, producto de las interacciones que su perfil genera y por la cantidad de seguidores que tiene, alcanzando casi tres millones de usuarios. Una de las temáticas más recurrentes en Instagram es la comida, presentada desde diferentes perspectivas. Las prácticas del comer no sólo se rigen por una necesidad biológica de alimentarse, sino que presentan una connotación social y cultural compartida de manera colectiva. Es por ello que en este trabajo damos cuenta de cómo Paulina Cocina incorpora estos discursos socialmente aceptados en su comunidad virtual, como así también interpretaremos los motivos por los cuales logra su legitimidad como enunciadora.Fil: Figueroa, Lucía: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación; Argentina.Fil: Gigena Cammisa, Martín Horacio: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación; Argentina.Fil: Rodríguez, Noelia: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación; Argentina

A novel integrated industrial approach with cobots in the age of industry 4.0 through conversational interaction and computer vision

From robots that replace workers to robots that serve as helpful colleagues, the field of robotic automation is experiencing a new trend that represents a huge challenge for component manufacturers. The contribution starts from an innovative vision that sees an ever closer collaboration between Cobot, able to do a specific physical job with precision, the AI world, able to analyze information and support the decision-making process, and the man able to have a strategic vision of the future

Total knee arthroplasty in valgus knee deformity: is it still a challenge in 2021?

Total knee arthroplasty in valgus knee deformities continues to be a challenge for a surgeon. Approximately 10% of patients who undergo total knee arthroplasty have a valgus deformity. While performing total knee arthroplasty in a severe valgus knee, one should aware with the technical aspects of surgical exposure, bone cuts of the distal femur and proximal tibia, medial and lateral ligament balancing, flexion and extension gap balancing, creating an appropriate tibiofemoral joint line, balancing the patellofemoral joint, preserving peroneal nerve function, and selection of the implant regarding constraint. Restoration of neutral mechanical axis and correct ligament balance are important factors for stability and longevity of the prosthesis and for good functional outcome. Thus, our review aims to provide step by step comprehensive knowledge about different surgical techniques for the correction of severe valgus deformity in total knee arthroplasty