A method for modeling dispersed settlements: visualizing an early Roman colonial landscape as expected by conventional theory

This paper proposes a GIS quantitative method for simulating dispersed distribution of sites in a landscape. A certain number of sites might have escaped archaeological detection due to the adverse surface visibility conditions experienced during field survey (the so-called missing sites). As regards early Roman colonial landscapes of central-southern Italy, these surface visibility factors were traditionally seen to be so dramatic as to have allegedly hampered the detection of the conventionally expected dispersed and densely-settled colonial farm landscape. In this paper the regional and site-oriented field survey conducted in Venosa (Basilicata, Italy) is used as a case-study to simulate a large amount of hypothetical early colonial sites. The aim of this theoretical exercise is to show how the rural dispersed settlement pattern expected by the conventional theory could appear on a map, and to visually highlight the divergence between survey data and conventional spatial expectancies

Location preferences of rural settlements in the territory of Venusia: an inductive approach

Digital ArchaeologyClassical & Mediterranean Archaeolog

Effect of hyperbaric oxygenation and gemcitabine on apoptosis of pancreatic ductal tumor cells in vitro

Background: la gemcitabina rappresenta una terapia di prima linea nel trattamento dell\u2019adenocarcinoma pancreatico (PDAC), neoplasia ancora caratterizzata da una sopravvivenza scarsa e da una bassa risposta chemioterapica. La terapia iperbarica (HBO) aumenta la quantit\ue0 di ossigeno nelle cellule ed aumenta la risposta citotossica indotta dalla chemioterapia. Abbiamo pensato come l\u2019attivit\ue0 chemioterapica della gemcitabina (GEM) possa aumentare in ambiente ricco di ossigeno. In questo studio, infatti, \ue8 stata valutata l\u2019effetto della gemcitabina, della terapia iperbarica e della loro associazione nel processo apoptotico delle cellule neoplastiche di adenocarcinoma pancreatico. Materiale e metodi: Nello studio sono state utilizzate due tipi di cellule di adenocarcinoma pancreatico: PANC-1 e AsPc-1. Le cellule sono state trattate con la quantit\ue0 di GEM pari alla concentrazione inibente del 50% delle cellule neoplastiche (IC50), con HBP a 2.5 ATA per 90 minuti, con la combinazione di entrambi (HBO prima di GEM [HBO-GEM] e GEM prima di HBO [GEM-HBO]) e con la somministrazione contemporanea di GEM e HBO (GEM+HBO). Nel gruppo controllo (Ctrl) le cellule neoplastiche sono state trattate con PBS alla concentrazione usata per disciogliere la gemcitabina usata negli altri campioni sperimentali. Ventiquattro ore dopo, \ue8 stato valutato l\u2019indice apoptotico (AI) in ogni gruppo. Risultati: PANC-1: HBO da sola non presenta alcun effetto sull\u2019indice apoptotico rispetto al gruppo Ctrl AI: 6.5\ub10.1 vs. 5.9\ub10.1. HBO prima e dopo GEM non aumenta l\u2019indice apoptotico AI: 8.2\ub10.1 (HBO-GEM), 8.5\ub10.1 (GEM-HBO) vs. 8.1\ub10.1 (GEM). La combinazione di HBO e GEM aumenta significativamente AI: 10.7\ub10.02 (p<0.001 vs .tutti gli altri trattamenti). AsPc-1: HBO da sola non presenta alcun effetto sull\u2019indice apoptotico rispetto al gruppo Ctrl AI: 5.9\ub10.1 vs. 5.9\ub10.1. HBO prima e dopo GEM non aumenta AI: 8.2\ub10.1 (HBO-GEM), 8.4\ub10.1 (GEM-HBO) vs. 8.0\ub10.1 (GEM). La combinazione di HBO e GEM aumenta significativamente AI: 9.7\ub10.1 (p<0.001 vs. tutti gli altri trattamenti). Conclusione: HBO da sola o quando viene somministrata prima o dopo GEM non presenta alcun effetto nell\u2019indice apoptotico in cellule di PDAC. HBO aumenta significativamente l\u2019indice apoptotico quando somministrata contemporaneamente alla GEM. I nostri risultati suggeriscono come la finestra temporale sarebbe fondamentale per l'utilizzo di HBO come coadiuvante alla chemioterapia .Background: Gemcitabine is first-line therapy for advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) with a poor survival and response rate. Hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) enhances delivery of oxygen to hypoxic tumor cells and increases their susceptibility to cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy. We hypothesized that the anticancer activity of gemcitabine (GEM) may be enhanced if tumor cells are placed in an oxygen-rich environment. The present study evaluated the effects of gemcitabine, HBO and their combination on apoptosis of tumor cells. Materials and Methods: PANC-1 and AsPc-1 PDAC tumor cell lines were used. Cultured tumor cells were treated with GEM at its growth-inhibitory concentration (IC50) , HBO at 2.5 ATA for 90 min, a combination of both (HBO before GEM [HBO-GEM] and GEM before HBO [GEM-HBO]) and with the administration at the same time of GEM and HBO (GEM+HBO). In the control group (Ctrl) the tumor cells were treated with PBS (as placebo) equal in quantity to that used to dissolve gemcitabine for administering to the experimental samples. Twenty-four hours later, apoptotic cells in each group were analyzed and the apoptotic index (AI) was calculated. Results: PANC-1 cell line: HBO alone had no effect on AI: 6.5\ub10.1 vs. 5.9\ub10.1. HBO before and after gemcitabine did not further increase AI: 8.2\ub10.1 (HBO-GEM), 8.5\ub10.1 (GEM-HBO) vs. 8.1\ub10.1 (GEM). The combination of HBO and gemcitabine significantly increased AI: 10.7\ub10.02 (p<0.001 vs. all groups). AsPc-1 cell line:HBO-alone had no effect on AI: 5.9\ub10.1 vs. 5.9\ub10.1. HBO before and after gemcitabine did not further increase AI: 8.2\ub10.1 (HBO-GEM), 8.4\ub10.1 (GEM-HBO) vs. 8.0\ub10.1 (GEM). The combination of HBO and gemcitabine significantly increased AI: 9.7\ub10.1 (p<0.001 vs. all groups). Conclusion: HBO-alone, whether administered before and after gemcitabine has no effect on apoptosis of PDAC cells in vitro. HBO significantly enhanced gemcitabine-induced apoptosis when administered during gemcitabine. Our findings suggest that the time window would be critical for using HBO as adjuvant to chemotherapy

Archaeological Predictive modelling: a proposal for the CRM of the Veneto region

Classical Archaeology - OU

Clinical, laboratory and immunohistochemical characterization of in situ pulmonary arterial thrombosis in fatal COVID-19

Background: COVID-19 patients carry an increased rate of thrombosis. It is controversial to which extent thrombi in the pulmonary arterial tree really contribute to disease severity with hypoxemia secondary to microvascular/lung parenchymal damage with viral alveolitis considered to play the main role in critical disease. Objectives: The primary objective was to compare post-mortem lung disease from fatal COVID-19 pneumonia in patients with macroscopically evident pulmonary arterial tree thrombosis and patients without, by characterizing the immunohistochemical nature of thrombi, and by comparing clinical and laboratory features of these patients with other COVID-19 patients who died but without evidence of pulmonary arterial thrombosis (controls). Patients and methods: 13 COVID-19 pneumonia cases (mean age ± standard deviation: 74 ± 6.5 years) with macroscopically visible pulmonary arterial thrombosis were compared to 14 controls. Hematoxylin and Eosin stained slides were reviewed choosing those with visible pulmonary thrombi which were further characterized by immunohistochemistry, in particular for the inflammatory infiltrates. Ante mortem serum markers relevant to pulmonary embolism were evaluated in both groups. Results: Twenty arterial thrombi (5 cases with multiple thrombi) were selected for study and were composed by white blood cells (WBC) [median, IQR range: 10 % (5–12.25)], mainly neutrophils [58 % (35.2–64.5)]. Cases with thrombosis showed significantly higher levels of platelet count [median, IQR range: 195000/mmc (157750–274,500) vs 143,500 (113000–175,250), p = 0.011], LDH [854 U/L (731–1315) vs 539 (391.5–660), p = 0.003] at admission, and D-dimer at ICU transfer [25,072 FEU (6951–50,531) vs 1024 (620–5501), p = 0.003]. Conclusions: Immunothrombotically driven arterial thrombi in COVID-19 patients are associated with D-Dimer and LDH elevations, thus linking inflammation, coagulopathy and organ damage in fatal COVID-19

Good Plastic : Strumenti per l’innovazione sostenibile e la comunicazione dei prodotti in materiali polimerici

Good Plastic è un progetto di ricerca nell’ambito dei prodotti in materiali polimerici. Il risultato finale è una piattaforma web utile alle aziende e agli studi che lavorano nel settore delle materie plastiche, per avere a disposizione una serie di strumenti utili ad approcciarsi all’economia circolare e alla comunicazione sostenibile. Le scelte aziendali potranno così essere più consapevoli e circolari, mentre la progettazione e la comunicazione potranno essere volte a sostenere il cambiamento e a favorire l’innovazione ambientale

PROGRESS IN DUCTILE ALUMINIUM HIGH PRESSURE DIE CASTING ALLOYS FOR THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Today the die casting process is used to cast parts with high quality requirements such as engine cradles, cross members and nodes for space frame construction. This has presented the challenge to design alloys with superior mechanical properties. For crash relevant parts requiring high ductility (elongation &gt; 12 %) one option to meet these properties is by heat treating a low iron Al-Si alloy to a T4 or T7 temper. However heat treatment can lead to part distortion and blistering resulting in higher costs for the producer. The second option is Al-Mg alloys type which fulfill these requirements in the as-cast state but the alloys are not easy to cast. Research was started using the easy to cast Al-Si alloy system targeting a high elongation (&gt; 12 %) and yield-strength (&gt; 120 MPa) already in temper F and not showing any long term aging behavior. This paper will discuss the technical progress which began in the early 1990ies, gaining in importance with the first series space frame Aluminum car, continuing with structural parts applied in the as-cast state and approaching a future with an increasing amount of light weight components replacing steel and heat treated Aluminum designs

Surface visibility and the validity of settlement patterns in legacy survey datasets

The ground visibility of the terrain that is surveyed has a clear impact on detecting archaeological finds. Because the resulting distortions may influence the quality of the interpretation of single settlements and settlement patterns, various checks of the terrain and the collected data are needed. Therefore, in current survey projects different types of tests and data filtering are increasingly implemented both in the field and in the laboratory as a part of their methodology. However, some of the most important archaeological landscape projects were initiated long before an agreement on a standard methodology for field survey was reached. As a result, legacy datasets have been deemed to be of little value to present-day scholarship due to the current research standards. In this paper, we examine if legacy data can be useful to contemporary research by performing a study comparing legacy data collected by the Forma Italiae survey project to contemporary data collected by the LERC project. The Forma Italiae survey project was carried out in the late 20th century and produced a large dataset of archaeological sites in the area around the ancient town of Venusia (located in Southern Italy). We first analyzed the relationship between surface visibility and the density of identified Hellenistic-period sites by means of a statistical analysis, and then tested the reliability of the legacy site patterns by comparing them with new data recovered from the field in a recent re-survey of this region by our team as a part of the LERC project. We thus assessed the compatibility of the clustered pattern of sites detected by the Forma Italiae and the new LERC field surveys. At odds with more pessimistic estimations, we conclude that on the regional level and coarse scale of analysis the legacy survey data is representative and offers significant evidence to current scholarship for the study of ancient settlement patterns.NWODigital ArchaeologyClassical & Mediterranean ArchaeologyProvincial Roman and Medieval Archaeology, colonial expansio

Spatiotemporal dynamics of single-letter reading: a combined ERP-FMRI study

This work investigates the neural correlates of single-letter reading by combining event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), thus exploiting their complementary spatiotemporal resolutions. Three externally-paced reading tasks were administered with an event-related design: passive observation of letters and symbols and active reading aloud of letters. ERP and fMRI data were separately recorded from 8 healthy adults during the same experimental conditions. Due to the presence of artifacts in the EEG signals, two subjects were discarded from further analysis. Independent Component Analysis was applied to ERPs, after dimensionality reduction by Principal Component Analysis: some independent components were clearly related to specific reading functions and the associated current density distributions in the brain were estimated with Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography Analysis method (LORETA). The impulse hemodynamic response function was modeled as a linear combination of linear B-spline functions and fMRI statistical analysis was performed by multiple linear regression. fMRI and LORETA maps were superimposed in order to identify the overlapping activations and the activated regions specifically revealed by each modality. The results showed the existence of neuronal networks functionally specific for letter processing and for explicit verbal-motor articulation, including the temporo-parietal and frontal regions. Overlap between fMRI and LORETA results was observed in the inferior temporal-middle occipital gyrus, suggesting that this area has a crucial and multifunctional role for linguistic and reading processes, likely because its spatial location and strong interconnection with the main visual and auditory sensory systems may have favored its specialization in grapheme-phoneme matching