RePIM in LOD: semantic technologies to manage, preserve, and disseminate knowledge about Italian secular music and lyric poetry from the 16th-17th centuries

Il progetto RePIM in LOD si è posto l’obiettivo di pubblicare il "Repertorio della Poesia Italiana in Musica, 1500-1700" (RePIM) come dataset Linked Open Data (LOD). Per l'ampiezza e il dettaglio dei suoi contenuti, il RePIM è un archivio di riferimento per la ricerca sulla musica profana italiana dei secoli XVI-XVII. Negli ultimi anni, gli studiosi hanno potuto accedervi attraverso un'applicazione web realizzata nei primi anni Duemila. A causa dell'obsolescenza della sua piattaforma informatica, l'archivio RePIM era destinato a essere messo offline. Per preservare questa preziosa fonte, il progetto ha migrato i suoi contenuti in una base di conoscenza adottando tecnologie semantiche e progettando un'applicazione aggiornata per l'utente finale. L'articolo illustra le problematiche poste dalla gestione delle informazioni sulla tradizione madrigalistica e della conservazione digitale delle informazioni bibliografiche e filologiche nel campo della musica profana italiana e della poesia lirica dei secoli XVI-XVII.The RePIM in LOD project aimed to publish the "Repertorio della Poesia Italiana in Musica, 1500-1700" (RePIM) as Linked Open Data (LOD) dataset. For the extent and detail of its contents, RePIM is a reference archive for research on Italian secular music from the 16th-17th centuries. In recent years, scholars have been able to access it through a public web-based application. Due to the obsolescence of its information technology platform, the RePIM repository was set to be taken offline. To preserve this precious source, the project migrated its contents into a knowledge base adopting semantic technologies and designing an up-to-date enduser application. The article illustrates the challenges of managing information about madrigal tradition and the digital knowledge preservation of bibliographic and philological information in the field of Italian secular music and lyric poetry of the 16th-17th centuries

Corago in LOD. The debut of an Opera repository into the Linked Data arena

The paper examines the adoption of the Semantic Web (SW) technologies and Linked Data (LD) principles to manage a knowledge base about opera. The Corago repository collects historical data and documentation about opera works, performances and librettos from the 16th to the 20th century. We experimented the use of semantic technologies to manage the repository’s knowledge catalogued following the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) relational model. Cultural Heritage Knowledge Bases (CHKB) as Corago could leverage SW and LD to overcome proprietary models and to introduce new information to better satisfy user’s requirements. Two well-established reference ontologies as CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC CRM) and FRBR Object Oriented (FRBRoo) are adopted to transpose contents form the legacy conceptual model to RDF. Through the process, we observed that formal semantics allow, not only to adequately represent the opera domain, but also enable to define the way information is being presented to users. This led to the definition of “reception pathways” which become themselves part of the knowledge about opera within the KB. This novel semantic approach is introduced with the Corago Semantic Model (Corago SM), a domain ontology dedicated to functional representation of opera’s historical data. Advancements have been tested with an experimental system and assessed through a questionnaire submitted to a panel of users

Late Miocene Submarine Volcanism in the Ross Embayment, Antarctica

Abstract: The ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) initiative recovered a 1285 m-long core (MIS AND-1B) composed of cyclic glacimarine sediments with interbedded volcanic deposits. By far the thickest continuous volcanic sequence is about 175 m long and is found at midcore depths from 584.19 to 759.32 meters below sea floor (mbsf). The sequence was logged and initial interpretations of lithostratigraphic subdivisions were made on-ice during drilling in late 2006. Subsequent observations, based on image, petrographic, and SEM-EDS analyses, provide a more detailed, revised interpretation of a thick submarine to emergent volcanic succession. The sequence is subdivided into two main subsequences on the basis of sediment composition, texture and alteration style. The ~70 m thick lower subsequence consists mostly of monothematic stacked volcanic-rich mudstone and sandstone deposits, which are attributed to epiclastic gravity flow turbidite processes. This subsequence is consistent with abundant active volcanism that occurred at a distal site with respect to the drill site. The ~105 m thick upper subsequence consists mainly of interbedded tuff, lapilli tuff, and volcanic diamictite. A late Miocene (6.48 Ma) 2.81 m-thick subaqueously emplaced lava flow occurs within the second subsequence. This second subsequence is attributed to recurring cycles of submarine to emergent volcanic activity that occurred proximal to the drill site. This new dataset provides 1) the first rock evidence of significant late Miocene submarine volcanic activity in the Ross Embayment during a period of no to limited glaciation , and 2) a rich stratigraphic record that elucidates submarine volcano-sedimentary processes in an off-shore setting

Connecting Galaxy Evolution, Star Formation and the X-ray Background

As a result of deep hard X-ray observations by Chandra and XMM-Newton a significant fraction of the cosmic X-ray background (CXRB) has been resolved into individual sources. These objects are almost all active galactic nuclei (AGN) and optical followup observations find that they are mostly obscured Type 2 AGN, have Seyfert-like X-ray luminosities (i.e., L_X ~ 10^{43-44} ergs s^{-1}), and peak in redshift at z~0.7. Since this redshift is similar to the peak in the cosmic star-formation rate, this paper proposes that the obscuring material required for AGN unification is regulated by star-formation within the host galaxy. We test this idea by computing CXRB synthesis models with a ratio of Type 2/Type 1 AGN that is a function of both z and 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity, L_X. The evolutionary models are constrained by parameterizing the observed Type 1 AGN fractions from the recent work by Barger et al. The parameterization which simultaneously best accounts for Barger's data, the CXRB spectrum and the X-ray number counts has a local, low-L_X Type 2/Type 1 ratio of 4, and predicts a Type 2 AGN fraction which evolves as (1+z)^{0.3}. Models with no redshift evolution yielded much poorer fits to the Barger Type 1 AGN fractions. This particular evolution predicts a Type 2/Type 1 ratio of 1-2 for log L_X > 44, and thus the deep X-ray surveys are missing about half the obscured AGN with these luminosities. These objects are likely to be Compton thick. Overall, these calculations show that the current data strongly supports a change to the AGN unification scenario where the obscuration is connected with star formation in the host galaxy rather than a molecular torus alone. The evolution of the obscuration implies a close relationship between star formation and AGN fueling, most likely due to minor mergers or interactions.Comment: 36 pages, 8 figures, ApJ in press. Minor changes to match published versio

Intubación con paciente despierto con fibroscopio retromolar de Bonfils bajo sedación con dexmedetomidina Reporte de 7 casos

SUMMARYAcording to the “Practice Guidelines for management of a difficult airway”, and several algorithnes, an awake intubation is considered the first method to secure a suspected difficult airway. During last years the awake intubation was performed by flexible fiberoptic laringoscopy or with a rigid stylet. Within the last decade, many new devices have been developed to assist anesthesiologist with both routine and difficult airway management, one of wich is the Bonfils Retromolar Intubacion Fiberscope. It is a semi-rigid optical stylet 40 cm long of 5,0 external diameter and a tip curvature of 40 degrees; the adult stylet can accommodate a 6,5 mm endotracheal tube and sliding it in the superior airway, it is possible to entubate the glottis under direct vision. We present seven case report with difficult airway, managed with dexmedotomidine using the Bonfils retromolar fiberscope without topical anesthetic

State-Dependent Decisions Cause Apparent Violations of Rationality in Animal Choice

Normative models of choice in economics and biology usually expect preferences to be consistent across contexts, or “rational” in economic language. Following a large body of literature reporting economically irrational behaviour in humans, breaches of rationality by animals have also been recently described. If proven systematic, these findings would challenge long-standing biological approaches to behavioural theorising, and suggest that cognitive processes similar to those claimed to cause irrationality in humans can also hinder optimality approaches to modelling animal preferences. Critical differences between human and animal experiments have not, however, been sufficiently acknowledged. While humans can be instructed conceptually about the choice problem, animals need to be trained by repeated exposure to all contingencies. This exposure often leads to differences in state between treatments, hence changing choices while preserving rationality. We report experiments with European starlings demonstrating that apparent breaches of rationality can result from state-dependence. We show that adding an inferior alternative to a choice set (a “decoy”) affects choices, an effect previously interpreted as indicating irrationality. However, these effects appear and disappear depending on whether state differences between choice contexts are present or not. These results open the possibility that some expressions of maladaptive behaviour are due to oversights in the migration of ideas between economics and biology, and suggest that key differences between human and nonhuman research must be recognised if ideas are to safely travel between these fields

Precise Therapy for Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm in Marfan Syndrome: A Puzzle Nearing Its Solution.

Abstract Marfan Syndrome (MFS) is a rare connective tissue disorder, resulting from mutations in the fibrillin-1 gene, characterized by pathologic phenotypes in multiple organs, the most detrimental of which affects the thoracic aorta. Indeed, thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA), leading to acute dissection and rupture, are today the major cause of morbidity and mortality in adult MFS patients. Therefore, there is a compelling need for novel therapeutic strategies to delay TAA progression and counteract aortic dissection occurrence. Unfortunately, the wide phenotypic variability of MFS patients, together with the lack of a complete genotype-phenotype correlation, have represented until now a barrier hampering the conduction of translational studies aimed to predict disease prognosis and drug discovery. In this review, we will illustrate available therapeutic strategies to improve the health of MFS patients. Starting from gold standard surgical overtures and the description of the main pharmacological approaches, we will comprehensively review the state-of-the-art of in vivo MFS models and discuss recent clinical pharmacogenetic results. Finally, we will focus on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) as a technology that, if integrated with preclinical research and pharmacogenetics, could contribute in determining the best therapeutic approach for each MFS patient on the base of individual differences. Finally, we will suggest the integration of preclinical studies, pharmacogenetics and iPSC technology as the most likely strategy to help solve the composite puzzle of precise medicine in this condition

Clinical trials for elderly patients with multiple diseases (CHROMED) pilot study

The problem COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) is a significant socioeconomic burden which, particularly when associated with comorbidities such as Chronic Heart Failure (CHF), markedly affects patient outcomes. Care models based on telemedicine systems that enable early diagnosis and treatment of exacerbations are advocated to reduce the impact of chronic diseases on patient outcomes and health service costs. CHROMED (www.chromed.eu) is an international EU-funded project aimed at developing a multi-centre clinical trial to evaluate the impact of a new integrated home care approach to reduce care costs and improve quality of life in COPD. The approach We collaborated in a pilot study prior to the main trial which will include 300 patients from seven European countries (Italy, Spain, UK, Estonia, Slovenia, Sweden and Norway) with nine partners. The home monitoring system includes a novel forced oscillation technique (FOT) device for self-measurement of lung mechanics (RESMONPRO DIARY, Restech srl, Italy), a touch screen for collecting patients' symptoms and, where COPD is associated with CHF, by a device for measuring heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), pulse oximetry (SpO2) and body temperature (WRIST CLINIC, Medic4all, Israel). Findings The pilot included 16 patients (n=11 COPD, 5 COPD+CHF). The average monitoring period was 48.3±23.4 days resulting in a total of 504 patient days. The percentage of data correctly received within the period was: lung impedance and breathing pattern 90.0%; HR 91.7%, BP 91.7%; SpO2 74.0% and body temperature 71.4%. During the pilot, one patient was treated pharmacologically for an exacerbation of COPD. Offline processing demonstrated that the system identified warning of an exacerbation five days prior to admission. We also analysed qualitative data from patients and professionals about the acceptability of the telemedicine system and the interaction between patients, professionals and the monitoring system. Consequences The data suggest good acceptability and short-term compliance among patients with COPD. Lung function, HR and BP provided the most reliable data. The full RCT is currently under way and will be completed in August 2015