Aiutateci a migliorare: un questionario sulla qualit\ue0 dei servizi offerti dalle biblioteche scientifiche e biomediche dell'Universit\ue0 degli studi di Trieste

Di fronte ad un\u2019evidente criticit\ue0 i sondaggi possono essere un potente strumento per orientare pi\uf9 efficacemente le decisioni. Ad esempio nelle biblioteche scientifiche e biomediche dell\u2019Universit\ue0 di Trieste si osserva uno scarso utilizzo delle risorse e dei servizi, motivo per cui a fine 2016 si \ue8 deciso di somministrare un sondaggio qualitativo agli utenti attivi per conoscerne gli atteggiamenti, le valutazioni e i suggerimenti. Il risultato \ue8 stato molto interessante e utile ai fini di un\u2019azione pi\uf9 mirata rispetto alle loro aspettative. Con questo contributo si vuole darne conto, mettendo in evidenza come con strumenti di pianificazione strategica, come l\u2019analisi SWOT, sia poi possibile programmare delle azioni coordinate per raggiungere l\u2019obiettivo prestabilito

Regional Portal FVG: Effective Interoperability Trough DSpace-CRIS and Open Standards

Friuli-VeneziaGiulia (FVG) Regional Scientific System includes three Public Research Institutions, three Universities, four International Institutions, four Technological Parks in FVG region in North-East Italy. In 2014 the three Universities started to cooperate for a common research output inside a project named UnityFVG: United Universities-FVG. They already have 10 years experience in OA with four Institutional Repositories (DSpace/DSpace-CRIS based) and more than 100,000 Research Publications. So they decided to provide a single point of access under a new Regional Research Portal based on DSpace-CRIS. The project, with the technical support of Cineca consortium, offers a great opportunity to improve the interoperability of DSpace-CRIS based solutions. The European standard for the research domain, CERIF, is the best option to drive rich information to the portal in a standard and reusable way. A plugin/patch for DSpace will be freely available to enable data export using CERIF-XML over OAI-PMH. CERIF-XML will be available for all the main entities (People, Projects, Organizations, Journals, Conferences, Dataset, Publications and metrics). The DSpace OAI-PMH harvester will be extended to support ingestion of complex, interconnected information as provided by the CERIF-XML format. This will enable content replication between DSpace-CRIS instances and easy setup of public OA oriented portal

Regional Portal UnityFVG: interoperability through DSpace-CRIS and open standards

Friuli-VeneziaGiulia (FVG) "Regional Scientific System" includes three Public Research Institutions, three Universities, four International Institutions, four Technological parks in FVG region in North-East Italy. In 2014 the three Universities started to cooperate for a common research output inside a project named UnityFVG: UnitedUniversities-FVG. They already have 10 years experience in OA with four Institutional Repositories (DSpace/DSpace-CRIS based) and more than 100,000 Research Publications. So they decided to provide a single point of access under a new Regional Research Portal based on DSpace-CRIS. The project, with the technical support of Cineca consortium, offers a great opportunity to improve the interoperability of DSpace-CRIS based solutions. The European standard for the research domain, CERIF, is the best option to drive rich information to the portal in a standard and reusable way. A plugin/patch for DSpace will be freely available to enable data export using CERIF-XML over OAI-PMH. CERIF-XML will be available for all the main entities (People, Projects, Organizations, Journals, Conferences, Dataset, Publications and metrics). The DSpace OAI-PMH harvester will be extended to support ingestion of complex, interconnected information as provided by the CERIF-XML format. This will enable content replication between DSpace-CRIS instances and easy setup of public OA oriented portals

First Characterization of Human Amniotic Fluid Stem Cell Extracellular Vesicles as a Powerful Paracrine Tool Endowed with Regenerative Potential

Human amniotic fluid stem cells (hAFS) have shown a distinct secretory profile and significant regenerative potential in several preclinical models of disease. Nevertheless, little is known about the detailed characterization of their secretome. Herein we show for the first time that hAFS actively release extracellular vesicles (EV) endowed with significant paracrine potential and regenerative effect. c-KIT(+) hAFS were isolated from leftover samples of amniotic fluid from prenatal screening and stimulated to enhance EV release (24 hours 20% O2 versus 1% O2 preconditioning). The capacity of the c-KIT(+) hAFS-derived EV (hAFS-EV) to induce proliferation, survival, immunomodulation, and angiogenesis were investigated in vitro and in vivo. The hAFS-EV regenerative potential was also assessed in a model of skeletal muscle atrophy (HSA-Cre, Smn(F7/F7) mice), in which mouse AFS transplantation was previously shown to enhance muscle strength and survival. hAFS secreted EV ranged from 50 up to 1,000 nm in size. In vitro analysis defined their role as biological mediators of regenerative, paracrine effects while their modulatory role in decreasing skeletal muscle inflammation in vivo was shown for the first time. Hypoxic preconditioning significantly induced the enrichment of exosomes endowed with regenerative microRNAs within the hAFS-EV. In conclusion, this is the first study showing that c-KIT(+) hAFS dynamically release EV endowed with remarkable paracrine potential, thus representing an appealing tool for future regenerative therapy. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:1340-1355

The Italian National Project of Astrobiology-Life in Space-Origin, Presence, Persistence of Life in Space, from Molecules to Extremophiles

The \u2018\u2018Life in Space\u2019\u2019 project was funded in the wake of the Italian Space Agency\u2019s proposal for the development of a network of institutions and laboratories conceived to implement Italian participation in space astrobiology experiments

Evidence for Sub-Haplogroup H5 of Mitochondrial DNA as a Risk Factor for Late Onset Alzheimer's Disease

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease and the leading cause of dementia among senile subjects. It has been proposed that AD can be caused by defects in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. Given the fundamental contribution of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) for the respiratory chain, there have been a number of studies investigating the association between mtDNA inherited variants and multifactorial diseases, however no general consensus has been reached yet on the correlation between mtDNA haplogroups and AD. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We applied for the first time a high resolution analysis (sequencing of displacement loop and restriction analysis of specific markers in the coding region of mtDNA) to investigate the possible association between mtDNA-inherited sequence variation and AD in 936 AD patients and 776 cognitively assessed normal controls from central and northern Italy. Among over 40 mtDNA sub-haplogroups analysed, we found that sub-haplogroup H5 is a risk factor for AD (OR=1.85, 95% CI:1.04-3.23) in particular for females (OR=2.19, 95% CI:1.06-4.51) and independently from the APOE genotype. Multivariate logistic regression revealed an interaction between H5 and age. When the whole sample is considered, the H5a subgroup of molecules, harboring the 4336 transition in the tRNAGln gene, already associated to AD in early studies, was about threefold more represented in AD patients than in controls (2.0% vs 0.8%; p=0.031), and it might account for the increased frequency of H5 in AD patients (4.2% vs 2.3%). The complete re-sequencing of the 56 mtDNAs belonging to H5 revealed that AD patients showed a trend towards a higher number (p=0.052) of sporadic mutations in tRNA and rRNA genes when compared with controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that high resolution analysis of inherited mtDNA sequence variation can help in identifying both ancient polymorphisms defining sub-haplogroups and the accumulation of sporadic mutations associated with complex traits such as AD

Vaginal angiomatosis: Differential diagnosis of a rare case

Vaginal angiomatosis is regarded as part of a very rare entity of benign vascular tumors of the female genital tract. The incidence of these tumors is extremely low. The rarity of this disease and lack of distinctive features poses a problem of differential diagnosis. We present the case of a 51-year-old female with grade III uterine prolapse and a bleeding vaginal wall mass. Violaceous irregular soft tissue with hemorrhagic spots was observed in the lower third of the posterior vaginal wall. The patient underwent surgery for colpohysterectomy with vaginal wall mass excision. Surgical excision was curative, and no recurrences were observed after 12 months of follow-up. The aim of our study is to present a rare but representative case. This will hopefully increase the level of awareness regarding this condition so that physicans will keep it in mind during differential diagnosis of similar clinical cases. Furthermore, it highlights the important role of pathological examination for the definitive diagnosis of angiomatosis

Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles as mediators of anti-inflammatory effects: Endorsement of macrophage polarization

Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) are effective therapeutic agents enhancing the repair of injured tissues mostly through their paracrine activity. Increasing evidences show that besides the secre- tion of soluble molecules, the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) represents an alternative mech- anism adopted by MSCs. Since macrophages are essential contributors toward the resolution of inflammation, which has emerged as a finely orchestrated process, the aim of the present study was to carry out a detailed characterization of EVs released by human adipose derived-MSCs to investigate their involvement as modulators of MSC anti-inflammatory effects inducing macro- phage polarization. The EV-isolation method was based on repeated ultracentrifugations of the medium conditioned by MSC exposed to normoxic or hypoxic conditions (EVNormo and EVHypo). Both types of EVs were efficiently internalized by responding bone marrow-derived macrophages, eliciting their switch from a M1 to a M2 phenotype. In vivo, following cardiotoxin-induced skeletal muscle damage, EVNormo and EVHypo interacted with macrophages recruited during the initial inflammatory response. In injured and EV-treated muscles, a downregulation of IL6 and the early marker of innate and classical activation Nos2 were concurrent to a significant upregulation of Arg1 and Ym1, late markers of alternative activation, as well as an increased percentage of infil- trating CD206pos cells. These effects, accompanied by an accelerated expression of the myogenic markers Pax7, MyoD, and eMyhc, were even greater following EVHypo administration. Collectively, these data indicate that MSC-EVs possess effective anti-inflammatory properties, making them potential therapeutic agents more handy and safe than MSCs

Long-Term Efficacy of Mepolizumab at 3 Years in Patients with Severe Asthma: Comparison with Clinical Trials and Super Responders

The efficacy mepolizumab in severe asthmatic patients is proven in the literature. Primarily to study the effect of mepolizumab on exacerbations, steroid dependence, and the continuation of efficacy in the long term. Secondarily to evaluate the effect of the drug on nasal polyps. Analyzing data from SANI (Severe Asthma Network Italy) clinics, we observed severe asthmatic patients treated with mepolizumab 100 mg/4 weeks, for a period of 3 years. 157 patients were observed. Exacerbations were reduced from the first year (−84.6%) and progressively to 90 and 95% in the second and third ones. Steroid-dependent patients decreased from 54% to 21% and subsequently to 11% in the second year and 6% in the third year. Patients with concomitant nasal polyps, assessed by SNOT-22, showed a 49% reduction in value from baseline to the third year. The study demonstrated the long-term efficacy of mepolizumab in a real-life setting