αV β6 Integrin: An Intriguing Target for COVID-19 and Related Diseases

The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 has been an extraordinary event that constituted a global health emergency. As the novel coronavirus is continuing to spread over the world, the need for therapeutic agents to control this pandemic is increasing. αV β6 Integrin may be an intriguing target not only for the inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 entry, but also for the diagnosis/treatment of COVID-19 related fibrosis, an emerging type of fibrotic disease which will probably affect a significant part of the recovered patients. In this short article, the possible role of this integrin for fighting COVID-19 is discussed on the basis of recently published evidence, showing how its underestimated involvement may be interesting for the development of novel pharmacological tools

Indicators for urban quality evaluation at district scale and relationships with health and wellness perception

The paper is related with a research that was aimed to better define urban quality and sustainability at a district scale (4000-10000 inhabitants), specifically referred to European towns and settlements. An innovative set of indicators (72) has been developed, starting from and taking into consideration also existing literature, both in terms of indicators and sets of indicators (OECD, UN, Agenda 21, and existing European databases as CRISP), four “thematic” areas have been defined dealing with architectural quality, accessibility, environment and services. Within each of these areas some macroindicators and micro-indicators have been defined. The aim is to translate something that is usually considered subjective into something “objective” and finally defined with a number (0-100). Microindicators and macro-indicators are weighted thanks to a mathematical method based on symmetrical matrixes, so that there is a correct balance between different areas. Indicators are both qualitative and quantitative, so they are not just referred to urban planning procedures. The research has been already successfully applied to some Italian districts in towns as Lodi, Genova and Milano. The set of indicators was needed also to work within a multi disciplinary team that has already included engineers, architects, planners as well as doctors and physicians. As a matter of fact the results in terms of urban quality have been compared with medical results concerning health and wellness perception (using SF-36 international recognized questionnaires) by users (inhabitants), finding (non linear) relationships between urban quality and well being perception by inhabitants. The results of this research can be used to: better define design strategies (by designers) accordingly to users wellness, or evaluate ex-post the results of design activities (by municipalities or public authorities)

Human plasmacytoid dendritic cells and cutaneous melanoma

The prognosis of metastatic melanoma (MM) patients has remained poor for a long time. However, the recent introduction of effective target therapies (BRAF and MEK inhibitors for BRAFV600-mutated MM) and immunotherapies (anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1) has significantly improved the survival of MM patients. Notably, all these responses are highly dependent on the fitness of the host immune system, including the innate compartment. Among immune cells involved in cancer immunity, properly activated plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) exert an important role, bridging the innate and adaptive immune responses and directly eliminating cancer cells. A distinctive feature of pDCs is the production of high amount of type I Interferon (I-IFN), through the Toll-like receptor (TLR) 7 and 9 signaling pathway activation. However, published data indicate that melanoma-associated escape mechanisms are in place to hijack pDC functions. We have recently reported that pDC recruitment is recurrent in the early phases of melanoma, but the entire pDC compartment collapses over melanoma progression. Here, we summarize recent advances on pDC biology and function within the context of melanoma immunity

The intelligent recoater: a new solution for in-situ monitoring of geometric and surface defects in powder bed fusion

Powder bed homogeneity, contaminations, and printed surface quality are crucial in powder bed-based AM processes to obtain a defect-free part, but the scale at which these defects are seen is not compatible with the resolution of current industrial image-based monitoring solutions. In this work, we explore the implementation of an optical scanner in an industrial laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) machine to detect powder bed and part-related defects. The sensor is mounted ”parasitically” on the recoater and exploits its movement to scan across the build platform before and after powder deposition to obtain high-resolution images. The acquisition seamlessly integrates with the process, without delaying the production as the acquisition occurs in parallel with the new layer deposition. The system was used to monitor test builds as well as longer builds (1000+ layers) to prove its robustness to the challenging L-PBF chamber environment. The in-situ powder bed images of the new monitoring system were compared to the acquisitions of a standard external camera setup. The improved image quality and resolution of the new system were demonstrated on both large-scale (>1 mm) and small-scale features. The new system proved to be capable of capturing printed surface topography anomalies and powder bed contaminations (<100 µm), opening a whole new range of possibilities for detecting small-scale defects via in-situ monitoring

A Video Indexing Approach Based on Audio Classification

This paper presents a video indexing approach based only on audio classification. Indeed, we apply to an audio-visual document a set of methods for partitioning the associated audio data into homogeneous segments. The aim is to highlight semantically relevant items of a multimedia document by relying only on simple audio processing techniques. A simple algorithm to identify audio segments belonging to silence, music, speech and noise classes has been proposed

Audio Classification in Speech and Music: A Comparison between a Statistical and a Neural Approach

We focus the attention on the problem of audio classification in speech and music for multimedia applications. In particular, we present a comparison between two different techniques for speech/music discrimination. The first method is based on Zero crossing rate and Bayesian classification. It is very simple from a computational point of view, and gives good results in case of pure music or speech. The simulation results show that some performance degradation arises when the music segment contains also some speech superimposed on music, or strong rhythmic components. To overcome these problems, we propose a second method, that uses more features, and is based on neural networks (specifically a multi-layer Perceptron). In this case we obtain better performance, at the expense of a limited growth in the computational complexity. In practice, the proposed neural network is simple to be implemented if a suitable polynomial is used as the activation function, and a real-time implementation is possible even if low-cost embedded systems are used

CoulArray electrochemical evaluation of tocopherol and tocotrienol isomers in barley, oat and spelt grains.

Hexane extracts obtained from Hordeum vulgare L. (barley), Avena sativa L. (oat), Triticum spelta Schrank and Triticum dicoccum Schrank ex Schübler (spelt or emmer) whole grains, were examined for their tocochromanol (tocopherol and tocotrienol) content. The analyses were carried out on fatty extracts by means of HPLC coupled with a coulometric array electrochemical detector (ECD). Due to the specific high selectivity of the detector, the sample can be directly injected without any preliminary treatment (e.g. saponification). Eight tocochromanol isomers have been detected in barley grains. Different barley cultivars examined showed a tocochromanol content ranging from 1620 to 1852 ng/g caryopses. Oat grains contained ca. 45 ng/g caryopses and Triticum species ca. 1070 ng/g caryopses. The results are considered in view of a potential use of vitamin E derivatives as human health enhancer and as sources of antioxidants for food lipid preservation

Proposals for OrderingKey DS instantiation in MPEG-7 description

This document identifies some solutions to the problem stated in the Editor’s Note in clause 7.7.1.1 of the MDS Study of CD, document ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11/N3816. Therefore this document is intended as a contribution to the MDS group. Presently there is no way to instantiate an Ordering Key DS within a “valid” MPEG-7 description. To solve this problem three proposals are here considered and their respective implication are discussed. The first proposal is to derive the OrderingKeyType as an extension of the HeaderType allowing the instantiation, at the header level, of any MPEG-7 Complete/Unit Description and DSType instances. The second solution is to include the OrderingKey DS as a component of the BasicDescriptionType. This allows to apply the ordering tool only in an MPEG-7 Complete Description, but no Unit Description. The third solution is to adopt both the first and second proposals. In Section 2 the three solutions are detailed and the required modification in terms of syntax and usage are discussed. In Section 3 the three solutions are compared

Validation Experiment on the Ordering Key DS and an Unified Syntax for the Weight DS

This document presents the experimental results for validating the Ordering Key DS (DS5) in the context of the core experiment of the Weight DS [6]. At the Melbourne MPEG meeting, in October 1999, the aforementioned core/validation experiment was planned in order to show the validity of a set of proposals (Weight DS [5], Descriptor Usage DS [8], Fidelity DS [9], Pointofview DS [4] and Ordering Key DS [7]). In a few words, all these DSs play the role of highlighting, by means of some kinds of weights, description information (DSs or Ds) relevant to user queries. They can provide, for example, confidence measure, priority, fidelity, relevance feedback, information for ordering etc. in order to facilitate user queries and browsing. As we said, the document focuses on the VE of the Ordering Key DS. Besides it presents an unified DS, in MPEG-7 DDL syntax, that addresses all the different functionalities proposed by the several DSs involved in the CE. In our case, the provided functionality deals with the concept of ordering, as we consider the need of providing users with ordering mechanisms a very relevant issue for MPEG-7. Such ordering mechanisms are derivable from descriptors (e.g. a set of key – frames ordered on the basis a color descriptor or a set of sounds ordered by means of an audio loudness D). However a possible large variety in the types of descriptors composing a description could lead to a consequent high number of ordering criteria to arrange description items. Therefore we propose that the description provider (it could be different from the content provider) should also select a reduced set of descriptors allowing to order a subset of description elements (e.g. key frames, events etc.) pertinent to the MM document being described [7]. This contribution is organized as follows. In Section 2, the motivations for introducing Ordering Key DS in the Generic AV DS are given. Section 3 briefly presents the structure of the Ordering Key DS by means of UML notation and MPEG-7 DDL as well. Moreover the section discusses about the possible locations of the DS within the Generic AV DS. In Section 4 is shown the output of the experiment: a smart browsing of ordered elements belonging to the test set of MPEG-7 video material. Finally, in Section 5, is proposed a unified DDL structure for the DSs involved in the CE