LIFELONG EDUCATION BETWEEN THE USEFUL AND THE USELESS : LEARNING CITY TOPONYMY

The aim of the paper is to discuss the balance between the useful and the useless in the actual lifelong learning, in a conceptual scheme that goes beyond purely economical or technical evaluations. The authors chose an exemplary field starting from last year’s paper on the exploration of nets. In order to delimitate the research field, the official city toponymy has been considered, both in the structure of hypernyms and in the choices of proper names. The analysis considers Italian city hypernyms, with some regional or local varieties, explaining the underlying historical and contact phenomena. The grouping of similar proper names is then analyzed, finding out segmentations and some strange aversions. The non correspondence between the conceptual hierarchy and the perceptual geographical hierarchy is highlighted. Useful practical reference systems are compared with official ones

Phenotypic characterization of human prostatic stromal cells in primary cultures derived from human tissue samples

Emerging evidence has shown that the tumor microenvironment plays a crucial role in prostate cancer (PCa) development and progression. However, the mechanism(s) through which stromal cells regulate epithelial cells and the differences among prostatic stromal cells of different histological/pathological origin in PCa progression remain unclear. Therefore, it is necessary to characterize the stromal cell populations present in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and PCa. To this end, we used cultures from stromal cells obtained from BPH-derived (15 cases) and PCa-derived (30 cases) primary cultures. In culture, stromal cells are a mixture of fibroblasts, myofibroblasts (MFs) and muscle cells. Fibroblasts are characterized for the expression of vimentin, MFs for the co-expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and vimentin, whereas muscle cells for the expression of α-SMA and desmin. Fibroblasts were present in large amounts in the BPH-compared to the PCa-derived cultures, whereas MFs were more representative of PCa-as opposed to BPH-derived cultures. Some α-SMA-positive cells retained the expression of basal cytokeratin K14. This population was defined as myoepithelial cells and was associated with senescent cultures. The percentage of MFs was higher in high-grade compared to moderate-and low-grade PCa-derived cultures, whereas the number of myoepithelial cells was lower in high-grade compared to moderate-and low-grade PCa-derived cultures. In addition, we analyzed the expression of p75NTR, as well as the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9 and tissue inhibitors of MMPs (TIMPs). p75NTR expression was elevated in the stromal cultures derived from PCa compared to those derived from BPH and in cultures derived from cases with Gleason scores.7 compared to those derived from cases with Gleason scores <7, as well as in cultures with a high concentration of MFs compared to those with a high concentration of fibroblasts. MMP-2 was secreted by all primary cultures, whereas MMP-9 secretion was observed only in some PCa-derived stromal cells, when the percentage of MFs was significantly higher compared to BPH-derived cultures. TIMP1, TIMP2 and TIMP3 were secreted in elevated amounts in the BPH-compared to the PCa-derived stromal cultures, suggesting the differential regulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation. When we used 22rv1 and PC3 PCa xenograft models for the isolation and characterization of murine cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) we noted that the angiogenic wave was concurrent with the appearance of a reactive stroma phenotype, as determined by staining for α-SMA, vimentin, tenascin, calponin, desmin and Masson's trichrome. In conclusion, MF stromal cells from PCa participate in the progression and metastasis of PCa, modualting inflammation, angiogenesis and epithelial cancer cell proliferation

Combate aos crimes ambientais: possibilidades de melhoria nos processos administrativos e processuais penais em âmbito federal

O artigo aborda a avaliação da persecução penal em infrações e crimes contra o meio ambiente, na perspectiva da Polícia Federal no Distrito Federal (DF), para explorar as possibilidades de interlocução com os principais órgãos envolvidos no combate às infrações e a prática criminal, representados pelo ICMBio e IBAMA e Ministério Público da União. A partir de um estudo preliminar de demanda, são identificadas algumas limitações e exploradas possibilidades de desenvolvimento de alternativas que permitam a busca por ganhos de eficiência nos procedimentos de investigação criminal desenvolvidos pela Superintendência da Polícia Federal no Distrito Federal.38 páginasGestão PúblicaMeio Ambient

Hydrogeological mapping of the highly anthropogenically influenced Peligna Valley intramontane basin (Central Italy)

This paper presents hydrogeological mapping of the Peligna Valley (Central Italy) intramontane basin. The basin is hydrogeologically complex due to the significant surface and underground water resources which are extensively used for potable, industrial, agricultural and healing purposes. The basin history is characterised by significant fluvio-lacustrine deposition whose thickness can reach as much as 500 m. The depositional environment is completely surrounded by calcareous mountains. These represent extensive aquifers which feed large regional point and linear springs with total discharges of 16 m3/s. The highly complex hydrogeology of the study area and the varied use of water resources required extensive data collation and geological and hydrogeological assessments. Two years worth of hydrodynamic and hydrochemical monitoring of wells, springs, rivers and particularly artificial channels that convey water for industrial, hydroelectric and irrigational purposes were also undertaken. The construction ..

Perception, Connotation, Translation of Numbers

The purpose of the note is to discuss the translation of the numbers from one language to another in order to retain their meaning (in this case it is easy) and to preserve their connotations (and this is the hard part, as in every translation). The lexical system of numbers is an excellent laboratory to study the semiotic phenomena of hypocoding and hypercoding at an intermediate level of complexity, that does not avoid the problems but still allows rigorous solutions. This problem takes a well-defined role in the two sections dedicated to perception and connotations, when some numbers assume the role of hypernyms similar to adjectives "some, many, too many". The various languages do not use the same system of hypernyms, so the translation, beyond the literal meaning, requires a particular knowledge, typical of bilingualism

Spontaneous Opinion Swings in the Voter Model with Latency

The cognitive process of opinion formation is often characterized by stubbornness or resistance of agents to changes of opinion. To capture such a feature we introduce a constant latency time in the standard voter model of opinion dynamics: after switching opinion, an agent must keep it for a while. This seemingly simple modification drastically changes the stochastic diffusive behavior of the original model, leading to deterministic dynamical oscillations in the average opinion of the agents. We explain the origin of the oscillations and develop a mathematical formulation of the dynamics that is confirmed by extensive numerical simulations. We further characterize the rich phase space of the model and its asymptotic behavior. Our work offers insights into understanding and modeling opinion swings in diverse social contexts

Increased levels of DNA methyltransferases are associated with the tumorigenic capacity of prostate cancer cells

DNA methylation might be the earliest somatic genome changes in prostate cancer that also play an important role in the process of tumor invasion, growth and metastasis. In recent years, several inhibitors of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTis) have been developed and evaluated in pre-clinical models and in clinical trials. While these compounds are effective in the treatment of hematological conditions, clinical trials in solid tumors and in prostate cancer have shown limited or no efficacy. This may be attributed to inappropriate dose regimens leading to toxicity-related adverse events. As with other anti-target compounds, one of the obstacles encountered with DNMTis in prostate cancer could be the inability to select patients for the clinical studies as well as the inability to monitor the efficacy of the drug if not the conclusion of the study. Primary cultures derived from human prostatic tissues harvested from patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PCa) as well as neoplastic and non-neoplastic prostate cell lines were tested for DNMT expression/activity and to monitor azacitidine molecular efficacy. We observed that in primary cultures the levels of DNMT activity as well as the protein levels of DNMT1, DNMT3a and DNMT3b were higher in cultures derived from PCa compared to BPH tissue samples and significantly higher in cultures derived from PCa with Gleason scores ≥7 compared to those observed in cultures derived from Gleason scores <7. In addition, DNMT activity as well as DNMT1, DNMT3a and DNMT3b levels were higher in PCa cell lines compared to their non-neoplastic counterparts. Although DNMT activity was higher in high tumorigenic/aggressive PCa cell lines compared to low tumorigenic/aggressive cell lines, only the levels of DNMT3a and DNMT3b were significantly higher in the first group of cells, suggesting that DNMT1 activity is related to the transition to non-neoplastic versus neoplastic phenotype whereas the de novo methylation enzymes were mainly related to progression. Nevertheless, the comparison in the more aggressive PC3 cell derivatives (PC3-LN4 cells) also possessed higher levels of DNMT1 compared to PC3 and PC3M from which these cells were derived. Collectively, our results confirm previous data on the increased methylation in more aggressive tumors supporting the use of DNMTis in advanced prostate cancer. In addition, since glutathione S-transferase-π (GSTP1) was re-expressed or its protein levels were increased after treatment with non-toxic azacitidine doses and since GSTP1 can easily be measured in patient sera, the monitoring of this protein may aide in the evaluation of therapy in future clinical trials