Improving Knowledge of Risk in Dangerous Goods Transport

In order to increase safety as far as dangerous goods transport is concerned, the DESTINATION project has been developed since 2010 in the framework of the Italy/Switzerland Operational Program for Transfrontier Co-operation 2007-2013. The project was born to satisfy the increasing needs of public bodies to share data on hazardous material land transportation and to develop instruments and methodologies to ensure territorial and environmental protection. The project aims to reach this purpose through the increased knowledge of the vulnerable subjects, people and environment, and of the transport activity itself, by using and defining an architecture of data acquisition based on “On Ground Units” (OGU) and “On Board Units” (OBU). These data will be used as an input for a new information system called GIIS (Global Integrated Information System), which manages a risk analysis model of the land transportation of hazardous materials to assess human and environmental vulnerabilities. The GIIS will provide a more effective management of land planning by providing authorities with the possibility of implementing a rational restriction to vehicles transporting dangerous goods within specific areas

Cross-border Digital Platform for Transport Critical Infrastructure Resilience: Functionalities and Use-case

The resilience of increasingly interdependent Critical Infrastructure (CI) systems hugely depends on the stakeholder organizations’ ability to exchange information and coordinate, while CI’s cross-border dimension further increases the complexity and challenges. This paper presents the progress in the Lombardy Region (Italy) and Canton Ticino (Switzerland) on the joint capacity to manage disruptive events involving transportation CI between the two countries. We present a cross-border digital platform (Critical Infrastructure Platform – PIC) and its main functionalities for improved cross-border risk and resilience management of CI. A use case, based on a scenario of an intense snowfall along the transboundary motorway impacting both countries, demonstrates how PIC advances the exchange of information, its visualization and analysis in real-time. The use case also shows the practical value of the digital platform and its potential to support the management of cross-border events (and their cascading events) that require the cooperation of Italian and Swiss actors

The effect of age, anatomical site and bone structure on osteogenesis in New Zealand White rabbit

Among animal models, rabbits are widely used in medical research, as they fill the gap between smaller models, commonly employed in basic science, and larger ones, which are better suited for preclinical trials. Given their rapid growth, rabbits provide a valuable system for the evaluation of bone implants for tissue regeneration. By means of a histomorphometric analysis, here we quantified the mineral apposition rates (MARs) in osteonic, periosteum and endosteum osteogenic fronts, of skeletal elements within femur, tibia, radius, ulna, frontal and parietal bones in New Zealand White rabbits aged 6, 7 and 8 months. Our hypothesis is that the MAR varies according to the skeletal maturity of the animal, and also within the skeletal elements and the osteogenic fronts considered. In the present study we show that the MAR in both femur and tibia is significantly higher than in ulna and radius. We also demonstrate that the MAR in parietal bones is significantly higher compared to the MAR of both frontal and forelimb bones. Contrary to what was expected, the MARs of all the skeletal elements considered were not decreased following full skeletal maturity. Finally, the MAR of the osteonic-osteogenic front is the lowest in all of the skeletal elements considered. In conclusion, these results provide new important insights for the evaluation of bone implants, casting a light on the role of both age and osteogenic fronts on the bone MAR, and providing valuable information on the physiological bone turnover in New Zealand White rabbits

The University of California San Diego performance-based skills assessment: a useful tool to detect mild everyday functioning difficulties in HIV-infected patients with very good immunological condition

Everyday functioning (EF) impairment is frequent in people living with HIV (PLWH). Our aim was to better explore EF and its association with PLWH cognition, by administering both the IADL scale, the most common functional scale, and a new and ecologic multi-domain (communication and financial skills) tool to measure EF as the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Performance-Based Skills Assessment-Brief Version (UPSA-B). Eighty-five PLWH on cART with very good immunological condition and 23 age- and education-matched healthy controls (HC) were enrolled. PLWH underwent a standardized neuropsychological battery plus IADL, and cognitive impairment was defined according to Frascati criteria. Both groups underwent the UPSA-B. Only 6 subjects (7%) were affected by cognitive impairment (asymptomatic profile). While IADL score was at ceiling for all patients, the UPSA-B total score was significantly worse in PLWH when compared with HC [mean 82.1 (SD 9.3) vs 89.2 (SD 6.2); p < 0.001]. At communication subtest, PLWH group and HC were significantly different (p = 0.002), while no difference emerged at financial skills (p = 0.096). Higher score at UPSA-B was independently associated with better global cognitive performance (composite Z-score) (\u3b2 7.79; p < 0.001). Also considering each single cognitive domain, UPSA-B performance (both total and at subtests) confirmed the association with neurocognitive performance. In conclusion, UPSA-B seems to better discriminate EF impairment than IADL in PLWH, and it was associated with cognitive functions, also in the absence of symptomatic cognitive impairment. Thus, it appears a promising tool in the context of HIV infection to avoid misdiagnosis and to better detect also mild EF

Immune B cell responsiveness to single-dose intradermal vaccination against Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae

Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae is a major pathogen affecting pig herds and vaccination is the most utilized approach, despite providing partial protection. Age at vaccination, the delivery route, and vaccination protocol can influence vaccine efficacy. The influence of age and the presence of maternally-derived antibodies at vaccination on single-dose needle-less intradermal (ID) administration of an inactivated bacterin-based vaccine (Porcilis® M Hyo ID Once) were assessed in conventional pigs under field conditions. The induction of IgA+ and IgG+ B cell responses and the expression of the activation markers TLR2, TLR7, CCR9, and CCR10 were determined in PBMC. Vaccination at 4 weeks efficiently elicited an anamnestic antibody response associated with TLR2 and TLR7 upregulation. Although animals vaccinated at 1 week did not show seroconversion and a recall response upon infection, the responsiveness of Mycoplasma-recalled IgA+ B cells suggests the activation of mucosal immune cells after vaccination and infection. Vaccination at 1 week induced TLR2, TLR7, and CCR9 upregulation, suggesting the potential for systemic and local activation of immune cell trafficking between blood and target tissues. Vaccination at 4 weeks induced a CCR10 increase, suggesting that recalled IgA+ and IgG+ B cells can display an activated status upon infection. The antibody response after Mycoplasma infection in 4-week-old ID-vaccinated pigs was associated with TLR2 and CCR10 increases, confirming the potential use of this vaccination schedule for the safe and efficient delivery of single-dose M. hyopneumoniae vaccines. ID vaccination, especially at 4 weeks, was associated with a great degree of protection against enzootic pneumonia (EP)-like lung lesions

Dysfunction of the magnocellular stream in Alzheimer's disease evaluated by pattern electroretinograms and visual evoked potentials

Background: Visuo-spatial disturbances could represent a clinical feature of early stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). The magnocellular (M) pathway has anatomo-physiological characteristic which make it more suitable for detecting form, motion and depth compared with parvocellular one (P). Objective: Aim of our study was to evaluate specific visual subsystem involvement in a group of AD patients, recording isoluminant chromatic and luminance pattern electroretinograms and pattern visual evoked potentials. Material and methods: data were obtained from 15 AD patients (9 females and 6 males, mean age \ub1 1SD: 77.6 \ub1 4.01 years) not yet undergoing any treatment, and from 10 age-matched healthy controls. Diagnosis of probable AD was clinically and neuroradiologically established. PERGs were recorded monocularly in response to equiluminant red-green (R-G), blue-yellow (B-Y) and luminance yellow-black (Y-Bk) horizontal square gratings of 0.3. c/deg and 90% contrast, reversed at 1. Hz. VEPs were recorded in response to full-field (14 deg) equiluminant chromatic R-G, B-Y and luminance Y-Bk sinusoidal gratings of 2. c/deg, presented in onset (300. ms)-offset (700. ms) mode, at the contrast levels of 90%. Results: All data were retrieved in terms of peak-amplitude and latency and assessed using the Student's t-test for paired data. Temporal differences of PERGs and VEPs, evoked by Y-Bk grating in AD patients compared with controls, suggest a specific impairment of the magnocellular stream. Conclusions: Our study support the hypothesis that the impairment of the PERGs and VEPs arising from the magnocellular streams of visual processing may indicate a primary dysfunction of the M-pathways in AD

Topography modulates near-ground microclimate in the Mediterranean Fagus sylvatica treeline

Understanding processes controlling forest dynamics has become particularly important in the context of ongoing climate change, which is altering the ecological fitness and resilience of species worldwide. However, whether forest communities would be threatened by projected macroclimate change or unaffected due to the controlling effect of local site conditions is still a matter for debate. After all, forest canopy buffer climate extremes and promote microclimatic conditions, which matters for functional plant response, and act as refugia for understory species in a changing climate. Yet precisely how microclimatic conditions change in response to climate warming will depend on the extent to which vegetation structure and local topography shape air and soil temperature. In this study, we posited that forest microclimatic buffering is sensitive to local topographic conditions and canopy cover, and using meteorological stations equipped with data-loggers we measured this effect during 1 year across a climate gradient (considering aspect as a surrogate of local topography) in a Mediterranean beech treeline growing in contrasting aspects in southern Italy. During the growing season, the below-canopy near-ground temperatures were, on average, 2.4 and 1.0 °C cooler than open-field temperatures for south and north-west aspects, respectively. Overall, the temperature offset became more negative (that is, lower under-canopy temperatures at the treeline) as the open-field temperature increased, and more positive (that is, higher under-canopy temperatures at the treeline) as the open-field temperature decreased. The buffering effect was particularly evident for the treeline on the south-facing slope, where cooling of near-ground temperature was as high as 8.6 °C for the maximum temperature (in August the offset peaked at 10 °C) and as high as 2.5 °C for the average temperature. In addition, compared to the south-facing slope, the northern site exhibited less decoupling from free-air environment conditions and low variability in microclimate trends that closely track the free-air biophysical environment. Although such a decoupling effect cannot wholly isolate forest climatic conditions from macroclimate regional variability in the south-facing treeline, it has the potential to partly offset the regional macroclimatic warming experienced in the forest understory due to anthropogenic climate change

An engineered anti-idiotypic antibody-derived killer peptide (KP) early activates swine inflammatory monocytes, CD3+CD16+ natural killer T cells and CD4+CD8α+ double positive CD8β+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes associated with TNF-α and IFN-γ secretion

This study evaluated the early modulation of the phenotype and cytokine secretion in swine immune cells treated with an engineered killer peptide (KP) based on an anti-idiotypic antibody functionally mimicking a yeast killer toxin. The influence of KP on specific immunity was investigated using porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) as ex vivo antigens. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy pigs were stimulated with KP and with a scramble peptide for 20 min, 1, 4 and 20 h or kept unstimulated. The cells were analyzed using flow cytometry and ELISA. The same time-periods were used for KP pre-incubation/co-incubation to determine the effect on virus-recalled interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) secreting cell (SC) frequencies and single cell IFN-γ productivity using ELISPOT. KP induced an early dose-dependent shift to pro-inflammatory CD172α+CD14+high monocytes and an increase of CD3+CD16+ natural killer (NK) T cells. KP triggered CD8α and CD8β expression on classical CD4−CD8αβ+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and double positive (DP) CD4+CD8α+ Th memory cells (CD4+CD8α+low CD8β+low). A fraction of DP cells also expressed high levels of CD8α. The two identified DP CD4+CD8α+high CD8β+low/+high CTL subsets were associated with tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and IFN-γ secretion. KP markedly boosted the reactivity and cross-reactivity of PRRSV type-1- and PCV2b-specific IFN-γ SC. The results indicate the efficacy of KP in stimulating Th1-biased immunomodulation and support studies of KP as an immunomodulator or vaccine adjuvant

Decacyclene Trianhydride at Functional Interfaces: An Ideal Electron Acceptor Material for Organic Electronics

We report the interface energetics of decacyclene trianhydride (DTA) monolayers on top of two distinct model surfaces, namely, Au(111) and Ag(111). On the latter, combined valence band photoemission and X-ray absorption measurements that access the occupied and unoccupied molecular orbitals, respectively, reveal that electron transfer from substrate to surface sets in. Density functional theory calculations confirm our experimental findings and provide an understanding not only of the photoemission and X-ray absorption spectral features of this promising organic semiconductor but also of the fingerprints associated with the interface charge transfer

Paired comparisons of carbon exchange between undisturbed and regenerating stands in four managed forests in Europe

The effects of harvest on European forest net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of carbon and its photosynthetic and respiratory components (GPP (gross primary production) and TER (total ecosystem respiration)) were examined by comparing four pairs of mature/harvested sites in Europe via a combination of eddy covariance measurements and empirical modeling. Three of the comparisons represented high coniferous forestry (spruce in Britain, and pines in Finland and France), while a coppice-with-standard oak plantation was examined in Italy. While every comparison revealed that harvesting converted a mature forest carbon sink into a carbon source of similar magnitude, the mechanisms by which this occurred were very different according to species or management practice. In Britain, Finland, and France the annual sink (source) strength for mature (clear-cut) stands was estimated at 496 (112), 138 (239), and 222 (225) g C m−2, respectively, with 381 (427) g C m−2 for the mature (coppiced) stand in Italy. In all three cases of high forestry in Britain, Finland, and France, clear-cutting crippled the photosynthetic capacity of the ecosystem – with mature (clear-cut) GPP of 1970 (988), 1010 (363), and 1600 (602) g C m−2– and also reduced ecosystem respiration to a lesser degree – TER of 1385 (1100), 839 (603), and 1415 (878) g C m−2, respectively. By contrast, harvesting of the coppice oak system provoked a burst in respiration – with mature (clear-cut) TER estimated at 1160 (2220) gC m−2– which endured for the 3 years sampled postharvest. The harvest disturbance also reduced GPP in the coppice system – with mature (clear-cut) GPP of 1600 (1420) g C m−2– but to a lesser extent than in the coniferous forests, and with near-complete recovery within a few years. Understanding the effects of harvest on the carbon balance of European forest systems is a necessary step towards characterizing carbon exchange for timberlands on large scales