The clock gene period in the medfly Ceratitis capitata.

We have isolated the clock gene period (per) from the medfly Ceratitis capitata, one of the most economically important insect pest species. The overall pattern of conserved, non-conserved and functional domains that are observed within dipteran and lepidopteran per orthologues is preserved within the coding sequence. Expression analysis from fly heads revealed a daily oscillation in per mRNA in both light[ratio ]dark cycles and in constant darkness. However PER protein levels from head extracts did not show any significant evidence for cycling in either of these two conditions. When the Ceratitis per transgene under the control of the Drosophila per promoter and 3′UTR was introduced into Drosophila per-null mutant hosts, the transformants revealed a low level of rescue of behavioural rhythmicity. Nevertheless, the behaviour of the rhythmic transformants showed some similarities to that of Ceratitis, suggesting that Ceratitis per carries species-specific information that can evidently affect the Drosophila host's downstream rhythmic behaviour

Business analytics in industry 4.0: a systematic review

Recently, the term “Industry 4.0” has emerged to characterize several Information Technology and Communication (ICT) adoptions in production processes (e.g., Internet-of-Things, implementation of digital production support information technologies). Business Analytics is often used within the Industry 4.0, thus incorporating its data intelligence (e.g., statistical analysis, predictive modelling, optimization) expert system component. In this paper, we perform a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on the usage of Business Analytics within the Industry 4.0 concept, covering a selection of 169 papers obtained from six major scientific publication sources from 2010 to March 2020. The selected papers were first classified in three major types, namely, Practical Application, Reviews and Framework Proposal. Then, we analysed with more detail the practical application studies which were further divided into three main categories of the Gartner analytical maturity model, Descriptive Analytics, Predictive Analytics and Prescriptive Analytics. In particular, we characterized the distinct analytics studies in terms of the industry application and data context used, impact (in terms of their Technology Readiness Level) and selected data modelling method. Our SLR analysis provides a mapping of how data-based Industry 4.0 expert systems are currently used, disclosing also research gaps and future research opportunities.The work of P. Cortez was supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020. We would like to thank to the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions

CSF levels of cyclic nucleotides in primary intracranial neoplasms: a preliminary report

Recent evidence indicates that cyclic nucleotides are of importance for general and neurosurgical oncology, especially with respect to the contact-inhibition mechanisms and tumour cell growth. This preliminary report deals with the CSF levels of c-AMP and c-GMP in primary neoplasms in children and to problems related to the blood-brain barrier. Some cases of medulloblastoma were studied as well as a few cases of brain stem glioma and cystic astrocytoma. The importance of some rather unusual findings seems undebatable, i.e., the marked increase in c-GMP values usually observed in medulloblastoma and the decrease of c-AMP, that is fairly common in all malignant neoplasms. The main changes in the c-AMP/c-GMP ratio are also discussed

Osservazioni in classe: metodo, esiti, riflessioni

Il capitolo fa sintesi dei dati osservativi sulle pratiche didattiche raccolti - nell'ambito di una ricerca europea di durata biennale- in 20 classi prime di scuola primaria della provincia di Trento. La ricerca promossa da IPRASE nel periodo 2016-18 ha inteso focalizzarsi sull’efficacia delle pratiche di insegnamento/apprendimento della lettura e scrittura; lo scopo generale consisteva nell’esplorare le pratiche in uso nelle scuole trentine per identificare le soluzioni più efficaci e sviluppare azioni di accompagnamento e di potenziamento. L'osservazione qualitativa delle pratiche didattiche è stata analizzata in relazione ai risultati d'apprendimento sulla lettura e sulla scrittura rilevati - attraverso prove strutturate- all'inizio e alla fine dell'anno scolastico. La ricerca conferma un cambiamento di prospettiva nell’affrontare la questione della prima alfabetizzazione alla lingua scritta: basta contrapposizioni, spesso ideologiche, sui metodi didattici e la loro presunta efficacia, in direzione di un’attenzione alla didattica reale che avviene in classe. Si tratta di un atteggiamento più laico e maturo, in qualche misura più professionale con cui approcciarsi alla riflessione in ambito formativo, tutto da conquistare e consolidare non solo in relazione allo specifico oggetto della nostra ricerca. Le pratiche didattiche degli insegnanti si ispirano a un indirizzo metodologico, spesso veicolato attraverso il libro di testo o altri sussidi didattici, per interpretarlo e adattarlo in relazione al contesto classe e a una sensibilità di- dattica che porta a compensare i limiti e le debolezze dell’indirizzo stesso. Da un lato si punta a situare e riempire di senso i metodi a orientamento sintetico, con i loro rischi di arido tecnicismo, dall’altro si mira a integrare con attività più strutturate e di consolidamento i metodi a orientamento analitico, potenzialmente dispersivi e poco attenti alla gradualità degli apprendimenti. La risultante è il prevalere di pratiche didattiche con gradienti diversi di contamina- zione dei vari indirizzi metodologici che presentano tratti non molto dissimili dal punto di vista metodologico, laddove diventano altre le variabili didattiche che possono fare la differenza. Le pratiche didattiche risultate più efficaci sono quelle in cui l’avvicinamento al codice scritto si colloca in un contesto di esperienze e di interazioni dense di significato per i bambini, nel qua- le l’acquisizione e il consolidamento di abilità di decifrazione e composizione del codice si integra con lo sviluppo di processi di comprensione dei significati analitici e globali e di ideazione e realizzazione di messaggi comunicativi. L’intreccio tra abilità di comprensione e produzione rappresenta un principio di efficacia didattica che trova conferma nella ricerca, dove le classi che han- no ottenuto i maggiori incrementi nel risultati di apprendimento sono quelle in cui la quota di tempo dedicata ad attività stretta- mente circoscritte alla padronanza del codice sono più contenuti

Peripheral trigeminal nerve field stimulation: report of 6 cases

Object. Peripheral nerve field stimulation has been successfully used for many neuropathic syndromes. However, it has been reported as a treatment for trigeminal neuropathic pain or persistent idiopathic facial pain only in the recent years. Methods. The authors present a review of the literature and their own series of 6 patients who were treated with peripheral nerve stimulation for facial neuropathic pain, reporting excellent pain relief and subsequent better social relations and quality of life. Results. On average, pain scores in these patients decreased from 10 to 2.7 on the visual analog scale during a 17-month follow-up (range 0-32 months). The authors also observed the ability to decrease trigeminal pain with occipital nerve stimulation, clinically confirming the previously reported existence of a close anatomical connection between the trigeminal and occipital nerves (trigeminocervical nucleus). Conclusions. Peripheral nerve field stimulation of the trigeminal and occipital nerves is a safe and effective treatment for trigeminal neuropathic pain and persistent idiopathic facial pain, when patients are strictly selected and electrodes are correctly placed under the hyperalgesia strip at the periphery of the allodynia region

Functional characterisation of the antioxidant system in Drosophila melanogaster, after metals exposure.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a normal byproduct of aerobic metabolism playing an important role in cell signaling and immunity when their production is regulated or controlled by antioxidant enzymes. Reduced expression and/or activity of these proteins lead to an excess of ROS production and oxidative stress, accelerating aging and neurodegeneration. For example, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by motoneuron loss and some familial cases (fALS) are linked to mutations of superoxide dismutase type-1 (SOD1). Many animal models, such as Drosophila melanogaster, are used as useful tool to study this disease, focusing the attention on the different mutant SOD1s but not considering the complex relationships of functional complementarity between SOD1 and the other components of the enzymatic antioxidant system. In the present work we study, for the first time, the gene expression, by qRT-PCR, of SOD1 together with that of superoxide dismutase type-2, catalase, glutathione peroxidases and peroxiredoxins in wild type D. melanogaster, exposed to various concentration of copper or cadmium, used as pro-oxidants. The aim was to determine the adequate experimental condition to employ with D. melanogaster SOD1 mutants. On the basis of our results, copper is the major inducer of all considered enzymes, and the dose of 1.0 mM seems to be the more suitable. Catalase is temporally co-expressed with SOD1, at least in males and the gene expression of other enzymes seems to be temporally uncorrelated to SOD1. Other important indication will be obtained by biochemical quantification of activity for all considered enzymes and the evaluation of ROS production, that are now in progress