P/CAF-mediated spermidine acetylation regulates histone acetyltransferase activity

Histones and polyamines are important determinants of the chromatin structure. Histones form the core of nucleosome particles and their modification by acetylation of N-terminal tails is involved in chromatin structural changes and transcriptional regulation. Polyamines, including spermidine, are also targets of both cytoplasmic and nuclear acetylation, which in turn alters their affinity for DNA and nucleosomes. Previous studies report the interplay between polyamines metabolism and levels of histone acetylation, but the molecular basis of this effect is still unclear. In this work, we have analyzed the in vitro effect of spermidine on histone H3 acetylation catalyzed by P/CAF, a highly conserved histone acetyltransferase (HAT) (E.C. 2.3.1.48). We have observed that spermidine at very low concentrations activates P/CAF, while it has an inhibitory effect at concentrations higher than 4 μM. In addition, the in vitro bimodal effect of spermidine on histone H3 acetylation was also distinctly observed in vivo on polytene chromosomes of Drosophila melanogaster. We also performed kinetic studies indicating that the activating effect of low spermidine concentrations on P/CAF-HAT activity is based on its involvement as a substrate for P/CAF to produce

Tavole di cubatura di popolamento per i soprassuoli forestali della Sicilia.

The aim of this study was to set up stand volume tables for easy and reliable estimation of the woody mass of coppices and high forest stands in Sicily. In this note we describe the statistical analyses which were carried out and we discuss results and their potential application. The use of stand volume tables is suggested mainly when it is possible to adopt quick, effective procedures for the assessment of the unitary basal area: in particular, the major potential is for surveys based upon relascope estimation of basal area in correspondence of sample points positioned according to probabilistic sampling scheme

Dai complessi scenari dell’apprendere ai decostruibili contesti didattici inclusivi

In the last decade, the evolving process of the school system has seen the radicalization of multifactorial changes. The globalizing economic and cultural processes and the increase of huge migration flows, related to socio-political and economic crisis, have produced heterogeneous school contexts and made the unequivocal crisis of the didactic unidirectional model more evident, a directive and transmissive model, within a school-centered approach. This calls for the need to accelerate the re-designation of polycentric integrated educational systems, able to cope with this complexity in a simplex way, through multisystemic designing research actions, which can re-structureand generate progressive inclusive socio-systemic geometries of cooperative support. It is necessary to activate an educating community system, in school and outside school contexts, formal and informal education, through the networking of negotiated and cooperative research/action and flexible organizations of continuous professional training, which can promote the change and the progressive development of inclusive competences.In the last decade, the evolving process of the school system has seen the radicalization of multifactorial changes. The globalizing economic and cultural processes and the increase of huge migration flows, related to socio-political and economic crisis, have produced heterogeneous school contexts and made the unequivocal crisis of the didactic unidirectional model more evident, a directive and transmissive model, within a school-centered approach. This calls for the need to accelerate the re-designation of polycentric integrated educational systems, able to cope with this complexity in a simplex way, through multisystemic designing research actions, which can re-structureand generate progressive inclusive socio-systemic geometries of cooperative support. It is necessary to activate an educating community system, in school and outside school contexts, formal and informal education, through the networking of negotiated and cooperative research/action and flexible organizations of continuous professional training, which can promote the change and the progressive development of inclusive competences

From Metabolism to Genetics and Vice Versa: The Rising Role of Oncometabolites in Cancer Development and Therapy

Over the last decades, the study of cancer metabolism has returned to the forefront of cancer research and challenged the role of genetics in the understanding of cancer development. One of the major impulses of this new trend came from the discovery of oncometabolites, metabolic intermediates whose abnormal cellular accumulation triggers oncogenic signalling and tumorigenesis. These findings have led to reconsideration and support for the long-forgotten hypothesis of Warburg of altered metabolism as oncogenic driver of cancer and started a novel paradigm whereby mitochondrial metabolites play a pivotal role in malignant transformation. In this review, we describe the evolution of the cancer metabolism research from a historical perspective up to the oncometabolites discovery that spawned the new vision of cancer as a metabolic disease. The oncometabolites' mechanisms of cellular transformation and their contribution to the development of new targeted cancer therapies together with their drawbacks are further reviewed and discussed

Metodologia Flipped tra sistemica inclusione e prospettive didattico-assertive

The concept of inclusion, centered on the value of development as a systemic contextual process, is reflected in the didactic perspective of the flipped classroom (Bergmann et al., 2011). This methodology focuses on overcoming the linear transmission of knowledge in teaching, in that it overturnsthe roles and the rhythms of the educational process. The research being conducted at the University of Salerno concentrates on the training-educational needs of inclusive teaching on the value of education viewed as the “phenomenology of the existential evolution in the distinction of the rapportamong formal, non formal and informal education (Margiotta, 2014a, p. 125 [my translation]). This work stems from a reflection on the problems connected to crossmedia and globalization (Beck, 2000a), the liquid society (Bauman, 2003a) and on the analysis of the social emergencies within an ecological-systematic development (Bronfenbrenner, 2002). This descriptive-transformative research(Cox et al., 2011) is articulated on two types of research contexts: general and situational, for a description and a critical reflection related to the individual and social transformations generated by a flipped teaching approach, which is not linear. To date the research data highlighted the importance of the influence of teaching and the planning of an integrated educational system (Hawks, 1992), of empowerment, in the social-contextual and transformative promotion, in an ecological-inclusive perspective, through a process of identity awareness, sharing of values and an emotional-assertive connection.Il concetto di inclusione, incentrato sul valore dello sviluppo, quale processo sistemico contestuale, viene declinato nella logica didattica del capovolgimento propria della flipped classroom (Bergman et al., 2011) che, incentrata sul superamento della didattica trasmissiva lineare, attua un ribaltamentodi ruoli e tempi dell’azione educativa. La ricerca sperimentale (Dewey,1961),dal titolo: “La flipped inclusion, tra impianto teoretico e sperimentale dell’aula aumentata”, in atto presso l’Università di Salerno, partendo dall’analisi sia delle problematiche connesse alla crossmediale e globale (Beck, 2000a) società liquida (Bauman, 2003a), sia delle emergenze sociali di uno sviluppo ecologico/sistemico (Bronfenbrenner, 2002), si sofferma sui bisogni formativo-educativo di inclusive teaching methodology ed sul valore della formazione, quale “fenomenologia dell’evoluzione esistenziale nella distinzione dei rapporti tra educazione formale, non formale, informale”(Margiotta, 2014a, p.125). Si colloca nella tipologia di ricerca, descrittivo-trasformativa (Cox et al., 2011) e si articola su due tipologie di contesto: generale e situazionale, per una descrizione ed una riflessione critica relativa alle tras-formazioni individuali e sociali generate da un agire didattiche capovolto e non lineare.Ad oggi i dati di ricerca avvalorano l’importanza dell’incidenza didattica e delle progettazione d’empowerment di sistema integrato educante (Hawks, 1992), nella promozione tras-formativa sociocontestuale, in prospettiva ecologico-inclusiva, attraverso percorsi di consapevolezza identitaria, condivisione di valori e connessione emotivo-assertiva

Autismo: tra prospettive teoriche emozionali ed investimenti educativi trasformativo-inclusivi

The social context in which we live, exerts a considerable influence on the individual, so as to define our personality and affect our development. The American psychologist Bronfenbrenner has, in the theory of Ecological Systems articulation of the social context within which they interact chains of interrelation systems, which affect individual and collective wellbeing. Any adjustments to the education system, means contributing to the creation of motivating significant relationships, in an exchange between systems-environment, what kind of family, class / school, community / society. In the seven points on which articulates the organization of inclusive education presented by the American psychotherapist Erickson, the main issue concerns the use of emotional and motivational management of pupils learning which of address carrier for a promotion of social welfare. The emotions are the driving force of conscious motivation to action, the result of interdependencebetween rationality and emotionality. In the presence of disorders of the relationship, even with autistic profiles, the teaching-educational investment in the management of emotions and different forms of conflict, towards oneself and with others, is a training challenge for a school that can be defined inclusive.The social context in which we live, exerts a considerable influence on the individual, so as to define our personality and affect our development. The American psychologist Bronfenbrenner has, in the theory of Ecological Systems articulation of the social context within which they interact chains of interrelation systems, which affect individual and collective wellbeing. Any adjustments to the education system, means contributing to the creation of motivating significant relationships, in an exchange between systems-environment, what kind of family, class / school, community / society. In the seven points on which articulates the organization of inclusive education presented by the American psychotherapist Erickson, the main issue concerns the use of emotional and motivational management of pupils learning which of address carrier for a promotion of social welfare. The emotions are the driving force of conscious motivation to action, the result of interdependencebetween rationality and emotionality. In the presence of disorders of the relationship, even with autistic profiles, the teaching-educational investment in the management of emotions and different forms of conflict, towards oneself and with others, is a training challenge for a school that can be defined inclusive

Il Mutismo selettivo e la didattica flipped in ottica sistemica

Selective mutism is a not well-known and seemingly rare disorder which strikes during childhood, but that, without a didactic intervention, can result in a chronic degenerative process. The educational action occurs as part of an anamnestic and psychoeducational evaluative analysis, a systemic plan for a didactic-pedagogical intervention aimed at the co-construction of inclusive social settings. The flipped inclusion, model of the didactic-transformative inclusiveness, enabling specific systemic paths to follow, drives a procedure of semantic and symbolic recognition, of logical and computational inferences, which transform the data into ontology and the intersubjectivity intorel-a(c)tion, in order to re-construct individual and contextual sense and meanings. The proposed socio-educational model, based on the ethical triad made of self-esteem, solicitude and communities/institutions, proves itself useful for the social multi-dimensional and multi-relational advancementof the person, especially when communicative specialties are there to be considered, understood and supported in a vicarious modality.Il Mutismo selettivo e la didattica flipped in ottica sistemic