La semplificazione delle procedure amministrative a seguito della attuazione in Italia della Direttiva Bolkestein

El Decreto Legislativo n. 59/2010, de 26 de marzo, ha adaptado en Italia la conocida como Directiva «Bolkestein», aprobada por el Parlamento Europeo y el Consejo el 12 de diciembre de 2006, relativa los servicios en el mercado interior. La norma italiana establece, a un nivel supranacional, normas que afectan a amplia gama de servicios, respetando las peculiaridades de cada tipo de actividad o profesión y teniendo en cuenta, al mismo tiempo, la regulación local que les afecte. El decreto legislativo n. 59/2010 consta de dos partes principales: la primera contiene las disposiciones generales relativas al acceso y ejercicio de las actividades de servicios (incluido el sistema de autorizaciones), la calidad de los servicios y la simplificación administrativa; la segunda se refiere a todos los procedimientos del ámbito de la competencia del Ministerio de Justicia y del Ministerio de Desarrollo Económico. La simplificación se hace con el objetivo de crear un mercado único, y para ello se acude a dos instrumentos fundamentales: la excepcionalidad el régimen de autorización expresa, que sólo se justifica por una razón imperiosa de interés general y la introducción de «ventanillas únicas», esto es, interlocutores institucionales para que los sujetos interesados puedan conocer toda la información sobre los procedimientos relativos a las actividades de servicios. Por cuanto se refiere al sistema de autorizaciones, el legislador italiano ha extendido el uso de la «declaración de inicio de actividad» (hoy SCIA «segnalazione certificata di inizio attività») con el fin de facilitar el acceso a una actividad de servicios. Por cuanto se refiere a la ventanilla única, también a través de la red, se pone a disposición de todos los sujetos que residan en un Estado miembro. Cada ventanilla única, una vez recibida la correspondiente solicitud, debe responder rápidamente y también informar sobre posibles irregularidades detectadas. Se regulan también ciertas normas relativas al derecho a la información en el artículo 26 del decreto de aplicación. El título IV del Decreto Legislativo, en relación con los instrumentos de simplificación administrativa, fija el principio general de que los documentos expedidos por otros Estados de la UE son válidos en Italia para acreditar los requisitos solicitados, siempre y cuando dichos documentos cumplan con unos requisitos mínimos. En definitiva, el Decreto Legislativo 59/2010 transpone la Directiva Bolkestein con respeto a las tradiciones nacionales y las competencias de las regiones de las autoridades locales italianas.The Legislative Decree march 26th, 2010, n. 59, has implemented – with some delay – the Directive Bolkestein approved by European Parliament and Council on december 12nd, 2006, about services in the Common market. The italian decree enforces the community provisions instituting, to a supranational level, general rules in order to guarantee and improve a wide range of services, having care of peculiarities of each kind of activity or profession and considering, at the same time, the local regulation concerning them. The decree n. 59/2010 consists of two main parts: the first one, regarding the general provisions about the access and practice of services’ activities (including the system of authorizations), the quality services and the administrative simplification; the second one, regarding all proceedings within the competence of Ministry of Justice and of Ministry of Economic Development. In regulating the application area, the implementing decree refers, at art. 1, to each economic activity, entrepreneurial or professional, practiced without any subordination bounds and directed to the goods trade or to an high quality services, also intellectual. The most important simplification instruments, through which the decree implements the european directive aiming to create a unique market, are mainly: the necessity of an express authorization in the only cases justified with imperative reason of general interest; the use of «single desks» as institutional interlocutors to which the interested subjects can turn to know all informations about the procedures concerning them activities; some facilitation about the exhibition of documents. For how concerns the system of authorizations, the italian legislator has extended the use of «dichiarazione di inizio attività» (d.i.a., today s.c.i.a. «segnalazione certificata di inizio attività») in order to access and practice services’activities, recurring to the derogatory system of implicit authorization (silent-assent), ex art. 20 of law n. 241/1990, only in case of an express rule. This last provision, in particular, regards only proceedings to be put on the register for the practice of regulated professions. For how concerns the single desks, they should be used – also through network – by all subjects practicing services’ activities and living in a EU State, as the only experts able to give informations and to carry out proceedings. Each single desk, once received a request, must quickly answer to, also informing about possible irregularities. In accordance with the rules regarding the right to informations, the article 26 of the implementing decree contains a specific list of informations which can be obtained by single desks. The title IV, regarding the simplification’s instruments, ends with article 27 that, for how concerns the documents exhibition, fixes the general principle in compliance with all documents issued by other EU States can prove the requested requisites, as long as the same documents have an equal aim and are able to demonstrate the existence of necessary requisites. The decree n. 59/2010 well implements the Directive Bolkestein in the respect of national traditions and competences of Regions and local authorities

Interoperability Among Unmanned Maritime Vehicles: Review and First In-field Experimentation

Complex maritime missions, both above and below the surface, have traditionally been carried out by manned surface ships and submarines equipped with advanced sensor systems. Unmanned Maritime Vehicles (UMVs) are increasingly demonstrating their potential for improving existing naval capabilities due to their rapid deployability, easy scalability, and high reconfigurability, offering a reduction in both operational time and cost. In addition, they mitigate the risk to personnel by leaving the man far-from-the-risk but in-the-loop of decision making. In the long-term, a clear interoperability framework between unmanned systems, human operators, and legacy platforms will be crucial for effective joint operations planning and execution. However, the present multi-vendor multi-protocol solutions in multi-domain UMVs activities are hard to interoperate without common mission control interfaces and communication protocol schemes. Furthermore, the underwater domain presents significant challenges that cannot be satisfied with the solutions developed for terrestrial networks. In this paper, the interoperability topic is discussed blending a review of the technological growth from 2000 onwards with recent authors' in-field experience; finally, important research directions for the future are given. Within the broad framework of interoperability in general, the paper focuses on the aspect of interoperability among UMVs not neglecting the role of the human operator in the loop. The picture emerging from the review demonstrates that interoperability is currently receiving a high level of attention with a great and diverse deal of effort. Besides, the manuscript describes the experience from a sea trial exercise, where interoperability has been demonstrated by integrating heterogeneous autonomous UMVs into the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) network, using different robotic middlewares and acoustic modem technologies to implement a multistatic active sonar system. A perspective for the interoperability in marine robotics missions emerges in the paper, through a discussion of current capabilities, in-field experience and future advanced technologies unique to UMVs. Nonetheless, their application spread is slowed down by the lack of human confidence. In fact, an interoperable system-of-systems of autonomous UMVs will require operators involved only at a supervisory level. As trust develops, endorsed by stable and mature interoperability, human monitoring will be diminished to exploit the tremendous potential of fully autonomous UMVs

Mediterranean Fin Whales (Balaenoptera physalus) Threatened by Dolphin MorbilliVirus

During 2011-2013, dolphin morbillivirus was molecularly identified in 4 stranded fin whales from the Mediterranean Sea. Nucleoprotein, phosphoprotein, and hemagglutinin gene sequences of the identified strain were highly homologous with those of a morbillivirus that caused a 2006-2007 epidemic in the Mediterranean. Dolphin morbillivirus represents a serious threat for fin whales

New Cross-Talk Layer between Ultraconserved Non-Coding RNAs, MicroRNAs and Polycomb Protein YY1 in Bladder Cancer

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are highly conserved elements in mammals, and exert key regulatory functions. Growing evidence shows that miRNAs can interact with another class of non-coding RNAs, so-called transcribed ultraconserved regions (T-UCRs), which take part in transcriptional, post-transcriptional and epigenetic regulation processes. We report here the interaction of miRNAs and T-UCRs as a network modulating the availability of these non-coding RNAs in bladder cancer cells. In our cell system, antagomiR-596 increased the expression of T-UCR 201+. Moreover, T-UCR 8+ silencing increased miR-596 expression, which in turn reduced total T-UCR 283+, showing that the perturbation of one element in this network changes the expression of other interactors. In addition, we identify the polycomb protein Yin Yang 1 (YY1) as mediator of binding between miR-596 and T-UCR 8+. These new findings describe for the first time a network between T-UCRs, miRNAs and YY1 protein, highlighting the existence of an additional layer of gene expression regulation

Multidisciplinary studies on a sick-leader syndrome-associated mass stranding of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) along the Adriatic coast of Italy

Mass strandings of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are rare in the Mediterranean Sea. Nevertheless, in 2014 a pod of 7 specimens stranded alive along the Italian coast of the Central Adriatic Sea: 3 individuals died on the beach after a few hours due to internal damages induced by prolonged recumbency; the remaining 4 whales were refloated after great efforts. All the dead animals were genetically related females; one was pregnant. All the animals were infected by dolphin morbillivirus (DMV) and the pregnant whale was also affected by a severe nephropathy due to a large kidney stone. Other analyses ruled out other possible relevant factors related to weather conditions or human activities. The results of multidisciplinary post-mortem analyses revealed that the 7 sperm whales entered the Adriatic Sea encountering adverse weather conditions and then kept heading northward following the pregnant but sick leader of the pod, thereby reaching the stranding site. DMV infection most likely played a crucial role in impairing the health condition and orientation abilities of the whales. They did not steer back towards deeper waters, but eventually stranded along the Central Adriatic Sea coastline, a real trap for sperm whales

Long non-coding RNA containing ultraconserved genomic region 8 promotes bladder cancer tumorigenesis

Ultraconserved regions (UCRs) have been shown to originate non-coding RNA transcripts (T-UCRs) that have different expression profiles and play functional roles in the pathophysiology of multiple cancers. The relevance of these functions to the pathogenesis of bladder cancer (BlCa) is speculative. To elucidate this relevance, we first used genome-wide profiling to evaluate the expression of T-UCRs in BlCa tissues. Analysis of two datasets comprising normal bladder tissues and BlCa specimens with a custom T-UCR microarray identified ultraconserved RNA (uc.) 8+ as the most upregulated T-UCR in BlCa tissues, although its expression was lower than in pericancerous bladder tissues. These results were confirmed on BlCa tissues by real-time PCR and by in situ hybridization. Although uc.8+ is located within intron 1 of CASZ1, a zinc-finger transcription factor, the transcribed non-coding RNA encoding uc.8+ is expressed independently of CASZ1. In vitro experiments evaluating the effects of uc.8+ silencing, showed significantly decreased capacities for cancer cell invasion, migration, and proliferation. From this, we proposed and validated a model of interaction in which uc.8+ shuttles from the nucleus to the cytoplasm of BlCa cells, interacts with microRNA (miR)-596, and cooperates in the promotion and development of BlCa. Using computational analysis, we investigated the miR-binding domain accessibility, as determined by base-pairing interactions within the uc.8+ predicted secondary structure, RNA binding affinity, and RNA species abundance in bladder tissues and showed that uc.8+ is a natural decoy for miR-596. Thus uc.8+ upregulation results in increased expression of MMP9, increasing the invasive potential of BlCa cells. These interactions between evolutionarily conserved regions of DNA suggest that natural selection has preserved this potentially regulatory layer that uses RNA to modulate miR levels, opening up the possibility for development of useful markers for early diagnosis and prognosis as well as for development of new RNA-based cancer therapies

Localization of anatomical changes in patients during proton therapy with in-beam PET monitoring: a voxel-based morphometry approach exploiting Monte Carlo simulations

Purpose: In-beam positron emission tomography (PET) is one of the modalities that can be used for in vivo noninvasive treatment monitoring in proton therapy. Although PET monitoring has been frequently applied for this purpose, there is still no straightforward method to translate the information obtained from the PET images into easy-to-interpret information for clinical personnel. The purpose of this work is to propose a statistical method for analyzing in-beam PET monitoring images that can be used to locate, quantify, and visualize regions with possible morphological changes occurring over the course of treatment. Methods: We selected a patient treated for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) with proton therapy, to perform multiple Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the expected PET signal at the start of treatment, and to study how the PET signal may change along the treatment course due to morphological changes. We performed voxel-wise two-tailed statistical tests of the simulated PET images, resembling the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) method commonly used in neuroimaging data analysis, to locate regions with significant morphological changes and to quantify the change. Results: The VBM resembling method has been successfully applied to the simulated in-beam PET images, despite the fact that such images suffer from image artifacts and limited statistics. Three dimensional probability maps were obtained, that allowed to identify interfractional morphological changes and to visualize them superimposed on the computed tomography (CT) scan. In particular, the characteristic color patterns resulting from the two-tailed statistical tests lend themselves to trigger alarms in case of morphological changes along the course of treatment. Conclusions: The statistical method presented in this work is a promising method to apply to PET monitoring data to reveal interfractional morphological changes in patients, occurring over the course of treatment. Based on simulated in-beam PET treatment monitoring images, we showed that with our method it was possible to correctly identify the regions that changed. Moreover we could quantify the changes, and visualize them superimposed on the CT scan. The proposed method can possibly help clinical personnel in the replanning procedure in adaptive proton therapy treatments

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for extraversion:Findings from the Genetics of Personality Consortium

Extraversion is a relatively stable and heritable personality trait associated with numerous psychosocial, lifestyle and health outcomes. Despite its substantial heritability, no genetic variants have been detected in previous genome-wide association (GWA) studies, which may be due to relatively small sample sizes of those studies. Here, we report on a large meta-analysis of GWA studies for extraversion in 63,030 subjects in 29 cohorts. Extraversion item data from multiple personality inventories were harmonized across inventories and cohorts. No genome-wide significant associations were found at the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) level but there was one significant hit at the gene level for a long non-coding RNA site (LOC101928162). Genome-wide complex trait analysis in two large cohorts showed that the additive variance explained by common SNPs was not significantly different from zero, but polygenic risk scores, weighted using linkage information, significantly predicted extraversion scores in an independent cohort. These results show that extraversion is a highly polygenic personality trait, with an architecture possibly different from other complex human traits, including other personality traits. Future studies are required to further determine which genetic variants, by what modes of gene action, constitute the heritable nature of extraversion

Marine Bioactives: Pharmacological Properties and Potential Applications against Inflammatory Diseases

Inflammation is a hot topic in medical research, because it plays a key role in inflammatory diseases: rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other forms of arthritis, diabetes, heart diseases, irritable bowel syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, allergies, asthma, even cancer and many others. Over the past few decades, it was realized that the process of inflammation is virtually the same in different disorders, and a better understanding of inflammation may lead to better treatments for numerous diseases. Inflammation is the activation of the immune system in response to infection, irritation, or injury, with an influx of white blood cells, redness, heat, swelling, pain, and dysfunction of the organs involved. Although the pathophysiological basis of these conditions is not yet fully understood, reactive oxygen species (ROS) have often been implicated in their pathogenesis. In fact, in inflammatory diseases the antioxidant defense system is compromised, as evidenced by increased markers of oxidative stress, and decreased levels of protective antioxidant enzymes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). An enriched diet containing antioxidants, such as vitamin E, vitamin C, β-carotene and phenolic substances, has been suggested to improve symptoms by reducing disease-related oxidative stress. In this respect, the marine world represents a largely untapped reserve of bioactive ingredients, and considerable potential exists for exploitation of these bioactives as functional food ingredients. Substances such as n-3 oils, carotenoids, vitamins, minerals and peptides provide a myriad of health benefits, including reduction of cardiovascular diseases, anticarcinogenic and anti-inflammatory activities. New marine bioactives are recently gaining attention, since they could be helpful in combating chronic inflammatory degenerative conditions. The aim of this review is to examine the published studies concerning the potential pharmacological properties and application of many marine bioactives against inflammatory diseases