Eiha?!?: XML per l'organizzazione di URL con distribuzione multimodale

La crescita esponenziale di risorse presenti in rete ed il largo sviluppo di strumenti per l'accesso multimodale ad internet fanno sorgere nuovi problemi di gestione dell'informazione quali la ricerca di contenuti e la formattazione dei contenitori. In questo contesto ed all'interno del progetto europeo Vision abbiamo costruito un manuale telematico interattivo della cultura e del territorio della Sardegna. Questa raccolta di dati e stata progettata anche come piattaforma di sperimentazione di nuove tecnologie quali l'XML e le sue applicazioni. Il risultato ottenuto e un servizio multimodale, denominato Eiha?!?, fruibile attraverso PC, cellulari e PDA

A Petri Net Model of the Meeting Design Pattern for Mobile-Stationary Agent Interaction

A framework for modelling performance of agent design patterns (ADPs) as Petri net (PN) models is presented. We explore the Meeting ADP in IBMs Aglets. The framework is extendable to other ADPs, and user specified control conditions. Development of the PN will allow a programmer/ systems designer to calculate bounds on performance for the Meeting ADP, and enable better resource management in a distributed computing environment. Our PN model can cater for multiple mobile and stationary agents, and also for stochastic variables such as network latency and port contention at a host

Small Amounts of Gluten in Subjects With Suspected Nonceliac Gluten Sensitivity: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Cross-Over Trial

There is debate over the existence of nonceliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) intestinal and extraintestinal symptoms in response to ingestion of gluten-containing foods by people without celiac disease or wheat allergy. We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial to determine the effects of administration of low doses of gluten to subjects with suspected NCGS. Methods: We enrolled 61 adults without celiac disease or a wheat allergy who believed ingestion of gluten-containing food to be the cause of their intestinal and extraintestinal symptoms. Participants were assigned randomly to groups given either 4.375 g/day gluten or rice starch (placebo) for 1 week, each via gastrosoluble capsules. After a 1-week gluten-free diet, participants crossed over to the other group. The primary outcome was the change in overall (intestinal and extraintestinal) symptoms, determined by established scoring systems, between gluten and placebo intake. A secondary outcome was the change in individual symptom scores between gluten vs placebo. Results: According to the per-protocol analysis of data from the 59 patients who completed the trial, intake of gluten significantly increased overall symptoms compared with placebo ( P = .034). Abdominal bloating (P = .040) and pain (P = .047), among the intestinal symptoms, and foggy mind (P = .019), depression (P = .020), and aphthous stomatitis (P = .025), among the extraintestinal symptoms, were significantly more severe when subjects received gluten than placebo. Conclusions: In a cross-over trial of subjects with suspected NCGS, the severity of overall symptoms increased significantly during 1 week of intake of small amounts of gluten, compared with placebo. Clinical trial no: ISRCTN72857280

Expanding the Clinical and Magnetic Resonance Spectrum of Leukoencephalopathy with Thalamus and Brainstem Involvement and High Lactate (LTBL) in a Patient Harboring a Novel EARS2 Mutation.

Leukoencephalopathy with thalamus and brainstem involvement and high lactate (LTBL) is a novel mitochondrial disease caused by mutations in EARS2, which encodes the mitochondrial glutamyl-tRNA synthetase (mtGluRS). A distinctive brain MRI pattern is the hallmark of the disease. A 6-year-old boy presented at 3 months with feeding difficulties and muscle hypotonia. Brain MRI, at 8 months, showed hyperintensity of the deep cerebral and cerebellar white matter, thalamus, basal ganglia, brainstem, and thin corpus callosum. From the second year of life onward, the child reported global clinical improvement, parallel to partial resolution of brain MRI pattern. However, the last neuroimaging assessment revealed novel lesions within the left caudate and pallidum nuclei. DNA genomic sequencing analysis identified a novel EARS2 mutation. This case expands the clinical and neuroradiological phenotype of LTBL presenting intermediate clinical manifestations between the severe and milder forms of the disease and previously unreported brain MRI features

Abnormal anandamide metabolism in celiac disease

The endocannabinoid system has been extensively investigated in experimental colitis and inflammatory bowel disease, but not in celiac disease, where only a single study showed increased levels of the major endocannabinoid anandamide in the atrophic mucosa. On this basis, we aimed to investigate anandamide metabolism in celiac disease by analyzing transcript levels (through quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction), protein concentration (through immunoblotting) and activity (through radioassays) of enzymes responsible for anandamide synthesis (N-acylphosphatidyl-ethanolamine specific phospholipase D, NAPE-PLD) and degradation (fatty acid amide hydrolase, FAAH) in the duodenal mucosa of untreated celiac patients, celiac patients on a gluten-free diet for at least 12 months and control subjects. Also, treated celiac biopsies cultured ex vivo with peptic-tryptic digest of gliadin were investigated. Our in vivo experiments showed that mucosal NAPE-PLD expression and activity are higher in untreated celiac patients than treated celiac patients and controls, with no significant difference between the latter two groups. In keeping with the in vivo data, the ex vivo activity of NAPE-PLD was significantly enhanced by incubation of peptic-tryptic digest of gliadin with treated celiac biopsies. On the contrary, in vivo mucosal FAAH expression and activity did not change in the three groups of patients, and accordingly, mucosal FAAH activity was not influenced by treatment with peptic-tryptic digest of gliadin. In conclusion, our findings provide a possible pathophysiological explanation for the increased anandamide concentration previously shown in active celiac mucosa

Valutazione dei rischi e sorveglianza sanitaria in ottica di genere: proposta di strumenti operativi [Gender-sensitive risk assessment and health medical surveillance: some operative tools.]

A thorough and fully application of the principles of gender mainstreaming, in accordance with the European Community guidelines, to the health and safety at work, implies the systematic review of the whole prevention from the gendered point of view. This means that both biology- and gender-based differences between male and female workers should be conceived not only as determinants of health but also as factors affecting either positively or negatively the health and safety risk prevention. In this evolutionary cultural step the role of the occupational physician is particularly important. In this paper we propose some operative tools that can concretely implement gender perspective in all the various areas of prevention, where the occupational physician has a leading, if not even exclusive, role such as risk assessment, training and health medical surveillance