Scritture epistemiche: progettare la didattica intrecciando tradizione e innovazione

The article describes the first year of a project called “Vertical, transpositive and epistemic writings” (Indire and UniTo), whose goal is based on focusing on new forms of writing in the school environment. Over time, the approach to new technologies has oriented the use of various “written” production methods, intertwining different media languages: these are combinations ofwords, sounds, images, already present in the technologies themselves, partly of “scriptural ideas fruit of the creativity of millennials. The project intends to consider the previous thirty years of the web, the actuality and the gap of writing “inside” and “outside” the school in the perspective of a varied and effective capacity for expression. This can happen thanks to a conscious approach and to a fruitful collaboration between students, teachers and the community of the web, through playful, poetic, ironic and autobiographical methods, among others. It is therefore not a “writing workshop”, but a path of awareness of the self and the other that can guide the choices of teachers and students. This path can allow, at the same time, personal/individual development, but also group and community. Media education must therefore undertake to monitor the sudden changes in the expressive behaviors of young people, accompanying these paths aimed at developing media/digitalskills useful for their future life projects.L’articolo descrive il primo anno di un progetto denominato “Scritture verticali, traspositive ed epistemiche” (Indire e UniTo), il cui obiettivo si basa sulla focalizzazione di nuove forme di scrittura in ambito scolastico. L’approccio alle nuove tecnologie ha orientato nel tempo l’utilizzo di varie modalità di produzione “scritta”, intrecciando differenti linguaggi mediali: combinazioni di parole, suoni, immagini in “idee scritturali” generate da nuovi ambienti comunicativi ed dalla creatività dei millennials. Il progetto intende considerare il pregresso di trent’anni di web, l’attualità e il divario della scrittura “dentro” e “fuori” la scuola, nella prospettiva di una variegata ed efficace capacità di espressione. Ciò può avvenire grazie a un approccio consapevole e a una proficua collaborazione tra allievi, insegnanti e nuove strumentazioni, attraverso modalità, tra le altre, ludiche, poetiche, ironiche e autobiografiche. Non si tratta quindi di un “laboratorio di scrittura”, ma di un percorso di consapevolezza del sé e dell’altro che possa orientare le scelte di insegnanti e alunni. Tale percorso può consentire, allo stesso tempo, uno sviluppo personale/individuale, ma anche gruppale e comunitario. La media education si impegna a monitorare i cambiamenti repentini delle condotte espressive dei ragazzi, accompagnando questi percorsi orientati allo sviluppo di competenze mediali/digitali utili ai loro futuri progetti di vita

Vacuum-assisted closure device enhances recovery of critically ill patients following emergency surgical procedures

Introduction: Critically ill surgical patients frequently develop intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) leading to abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) with subsequent high mortality. We compared two temporary abdominal closure systems (Bogota bag and vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) device) in intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) control. Methods: This prospective study with a historical control included 66 patients admitted to a medical and surgical intensive care unit (ICU) of a tertiary care referral center (Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy) from January 2006 to April 2009. The control group included patients consecutively treated with the Bogota bag (Jan 2006-Oct 2007), whereas the prospective group was comprised of patients treated with a VAC. All patients underwent abdominal decompressive surgery. Groups were compared based upon their IAP, SOFA score, serial arterial lactates, the duration of having their abdomen open, the need for mechanical ventilation (MV) along with length of ICU and hospital stay and mortality. Data were collected from the time of abdominal decompression until the end of pressure monitoring. Results: The Bogota and VAC groups were similar with regards to demography, admission diagnosis, severity of illness, and IAH grading. The VAC system was more effective in controlling IAP (P < 0.01) and normalizing serum lactates (P < 0.001) as compared to the Bogota bag during the first 24 hours after surgical decompression. There was no significant difference between the SOFA scores. When compared to the Bogota, the VAC group had a faster abdominal closure time (4.4 vs 6.6 days, P = 0.025), shorter duration of MV (7.1 vs 9.9 days, P = 0.039), decreased ICU length of stay (LOS) (13.3 vs 19.2 days, P = 0.024) and hospital LOS (28.5 vs 34.9 days; P = 0.019). Mortality rate did not differ significantly between the two groups. Conclusions: Patients with abdominal compartment syndrome who were treated with VAC decompression had a faster abdominal closure rate and earlier discharge from the ICU as compared to similar patients treated with the Bogota bag

Cancer immunotherapy:From the lab to clinical applications - Potential impact on cancer centres' organisation

This report covers the Immunotherapy sessions of the 2016 Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI) Oncology Days meeting, which was held on 15th–17th June 2016 in Brussels, Belgium. Immunotherapy is a potential cancer treatment that uses an individual’s immune system to fight the tumour. In recent years significant advances have been made in this field in the treatment of several advanced cancers. Cancer immunotherapies include monoclonal antibodies that are designed to attack a very specific part of the cancer cell and immune checkpoint inhibitors which are molecules that stimulate or block the inhibition of the immune system. Other cancer immunotherapies include vaccines and T cell infusions. This report will summarise some of the research that is going on in this field and will give us an update on where we are at present

Artificial Antigen Presenting Cells With Preclustered anti-CD28/-CD3/-LFA-1 Monoclonal Antibodies Are Highly Effective To Induce The Ex-Vivo Expansion Of Functional Human Antitumor T Cells

Effective adoptive T cell therapy requires the _ex vivo_ generation of functional T lymphocytes with a long lifespan _in vivo_. We evaluated _in vitro_ T cell expansion by artificial antigen presenting cells (aAPC) generated with activating (human anti-CD3), co-stimulating (human anti-CD28) and adhesion (human anti-LFA-1) monoclonal antibodies pre-clustered in microdomains (MDs) held by a liposome scaffold. The co-localization of T cell ligands in MDs and the targeting of an adhesion protein, increasing the efficiency of immunological synapse formations, represent the novelties of our system. These aAPCs allowed increased expansion of polyclonal CD4^+^ and CD8^+^ T cells and of tumor antigen-specific CD8^+^ T cells compared to anti-CD28- and anti-CD3-coated microbeads and to immobilized anti-CD3. These aAPCs allowed the generation of T cells displaying an immunophenotype consistent with long-term _in vivo_ persistence, without increasing the frequency of regulatory T cells. Finally, our aAPCs proved to be suitable for large scale T cell expansion required in immunotherapy trials

An Expanded Peripheral T Cell Population to a Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte (Ctl)-Defined, Melanocyte-Specific Antigen in Metastatic Melanoma Patients Impacts on Generation of Peptide-Specific Ctls but Does Not Overcome Tumor Escape from Immune Surveillance in Metastatic Lesions

It is not known if immune response to T cell–defined human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I–restricted melanoma antigens leads to an expanded peripheral pool of T cells in all patients, affects cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) generation, and correlates with anti-tumor response in metastatic lesions. To this end, a limiting dilution analysis technique was developed that allowed us to evaluate the same frequency of peptide-specific T cells as by staining T cells with HLA–peptide tetrameric complexes. In four out of nine patients, Melan-A/Mart-127–35–specific CTL precursors (CTLp) were ≥1/2,000 peripheral blood lymphocytes and found mostly or only in the CD45RO+ memory T cell subset. In the remaining five patients, a low (<1/40,000) peptide-specific CTLp frequency was measured, and the precursors were only in the CD45RA+ naive T cell subset. Evaluation of CTL effector frequency after bulk culture indicated that peptide-specific CTLs could be activated in all patients by using professional antigen-presenting cells as dendritic cells, but CTLp frequency determined the kinetics of generation of specificity and the final number of effectors as evaluated by both limiting dilution analysis and staining with HLA-A*0201–Melan-A/Mart-1 tetrameric complexes. Immunohistochemical analysis of 26 neoplastic lesions from the nine patients indicated absence of tumor regression in most instances, even in patients with an expanded peripheral T cell pool to Melan-A/Mart-1 and whose neoplastic lesions contained a high frequency of tetramer-positive Melan-A/Mart-1–specific T cells. Furthermore, frequent lack of a “brisk” or “nonbrisk” CD3+CD8+ T cell infiltrate or reduced/absent Melan-A/Mart-1 expression in several lesions and lack of HLA class I antigens were found in some instances. Thus, expansion of peripheral immune repertoire to Melan-A/Mart-1 takes place in some metastatic patients and leads to enhanced CTL induction after antigen-presenting cell–mediated selection, but, in most metastatic lesions, it does not overcome tumor escape from immune surveillance

Human Cutaneous Melanomas Lacking MITF and Melanocyte Differentiation Antigens Express a Functional Axl Receptor Kinase

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