IL QUADRO DI RIFERIMENTO DEGLI APPROCCI PLURALI ALLE LINGUE E ALLE CULTURE (CARAP)

editorial

Between Past and Future: The Mission of University of L’Aquila and Its Action on Energy and Climate Change

For the University of L’Aquila, sustainability and civic engagement are key commitments. Actions to enhance and safeguard the territory and to improve the community wellbeing are even more meaningful in a city that, after the earthquake of 2009, is re-thinking its social and economic backbone. The aim to provide buildings with a high level of seismic security, of energy efficiency and resources saving, has been particularly challenging, but that also offered an opportunity. The participation to the UI Green Metric WUR has been a natural consequence of this process of renovation. Moreover, throughout the data collection and analysis, UI GM rankings stimulates the cross disciplinary cooperation in research, innovation, social and civic engagement.Concerning “Energy and Climate Change” the University could take the opportunity to exploit the competencies of research teams worldwide known working in renewable energies production (solar, wind, hydropower), building efficiency and retrofitting, environmental impacts. The University is member of the Italian University Network for Sustainable Development, which offered guidelines to implement energy and climate change related politics. The improvements of building focused on: smart illumination appliances (61% of the area), smart automation of heating/cooling (90% of the area), renewable energy production (PV and solar thermal), and integration of climate action into the strategic plan

Concerning the reactivity of dioxiranes. Observations fromexperiments and theory

The challenging hypothesis of a “biphilic” (i.e., electrophilic vs nucleophilic) character for dioxirane reactivity, which envisages that electron-poor alkenes are attacked by dioxiranes in a nucleophilic fashion, could not be sustained experimentally. Rate data, which estimate Hammett “rho” values for the epoxidation of 3- or 4-substituted cinnamonitriles XâPhsCHdCHsCN, unequivocally allow one to establish that dioxiranes epoxidize electrophilically even alkenes carrying electron-withdrawing groups. The greater propensity of methyl(trifluoromethyl)dioxirane TFDO (1b) to act as an electrophilic oxidant with respect to dimethyldioxirane DDO (1a) parallels the cathode reduction potentials for the two dioxiranes, as measured by cyclic voltammetry. A simple FMO approach for alkene epoxidation is helpful to conceive a likely rationale for the greater oxidizing power of TFDO as compared to DDO

SARS-CoV-2 infection in fully vaccinated patients with multiple myeloma

No abstract availabl

Building a local climate reference dataset: application to the Abruzzo region (Central Italy), 1930–2019

Reliable secular time series of essential climatic variables are a fundamental element for the assessment of vulnerability, impact and adaptation to climate change. Here, we implement a readily portable procedure for building an upgradable long‐term homogeneous climate dataset using monthly and daily observations of temperature and precipitation over a given area of interest, exemplified here with Abruzzo, a region in Central Italy characterized by complex orography. We process the dataset according to a preliminary ranking of stations based on data quantity and quality, and we exploit the Climatol algorithm for inhomogeneity correction. The corrected time series show trends in broad agreement with external databases (CRU, Berkeley Earth, E‐OBS), and highlight the importance of relying on a local network for a better representation of gradients and variability over the territory. We estimate that maximum (TX) and minimum temperature (TN) increased by ~1.6 and ~2.2°C/century, respectively, over the period 1930–2019, while in the recent decades 1980–2019 we found an accelerated trend of ~5.7 and ~3.9°C/century. Precipitation (RR) decreased by ~10%/century in 1930–2019, while it has been increasing at a rate of ~26%/century in 1980–2019. The Köppen–Geiger climate classification is sensitive to the increase of precipitation in the recent decades, which is attributable to decreased summer precipitation overcompensated by more rain in late spring and early autumn. The cold climate types are retreating upwards along the slopes of the mountain ranges. Over the period 1980–2019, extreme values are also displaying significant trends. Every 2 years, there is one less frost day (TN 25°C) in the Apennines area, while there is one more tropical night (TN >20°C) in the Adriatic coastal area. Precipitation extremes are increasing, especially along the coast, with rain accumulated in the rainiest days increasing at a rate of 1–2%/year

Identification and monitoring of Copy Number Variants (CNV) in monoclonal gammopathy

Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) represents the pre-clinical stage of Multiple Myeloma (MM) with the 5% of MGUS progresses to MM. Although the progression from MGUS to MM has not been completely characterized, it is possible to monitor the DNA modifications of patients diagnosed with MGUS to detect early specific genomic abnormalities, including copy number variations (CNV). The CNVs of chromosome 1q and chromosome 13q are associated with a worse prognosis in MM.In the present study, we showed that it is possible to monitor the 1q21 gain and 13q deletion frequencies in gDNA using digital PCR. The CNV analysis of three cell lines with a well-characterized cytogenetic profile were compared with measures performed by a real-time PCR approach and with a digital PCR approach. Then, we analyzed CNVs in CD138+ plasma cells isolated from bone marrow of MGUS and MM patients.Our results show that digital PCR and targeted DNA monitoring represent a specific and accurate technique for the early detection of specific genomic abnormalities both in MM and in MGUS patients.Our results could represent a remarkable advancement in MM and MGUS diagnosis and in CNV analysis for the evaluation of the risk of progression from MGUS to MM

A transcriptomic study of Hereditary Angioedema attacks

Background: Hereditary angioedema (HAE) caused by C1-inhibitor deficiency is a lifelong illness characterized by recurrent acute attacks of localized skin or mucosal edema. Activation of the kallikrein/bradykinin pathway at the endothelial cell level has a relevant pathogenetic role in acute HAE attacks. Moreover, other pathways are involved given the variable clinical expression of the disease in different patients. Objective: We sought to explore the involvement of other putative genes in edema formation. Methods: We performed a PBMC microarray gene expression analysis on RNA isolated from patients with HAE during an acute attack and compared them with the transcriptomic profile of the same patients in the remission phase. Results: Gene expression analysis identified 23 genes significantly modulated during acute attacks that are involved primarily in the natural killer cell signaling and leukocyte extravasation signaling pathways. Gene set enrichment analysis showed a significant activation of relevant biological processes, such as response to external stimuli and protein processing (q < 0.05), suggesting involvement of PBMCs during acute HAE attacks. Upregulation of 2 genes, those encoding adrenomedullin and cellular receptor for urokinase plasminogen activator (uPAR), which occurs during an acute attack, was confirmed in PBMCs of 20 additional patients with HAE by using real-time PCR. Finally, in vitro studies demonstrated the involvement of uPAR in the generation of bradykinin and endothelial leakage. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the increase in levels of adrenomedullin and uPAR in PBMCs during an acute HAE attack. Activation of these genes usually involved in regulation of vascular tone and in inflammatory response might have a pathogenic role by amplifying bradykinin production and edema formation in patients with HAE

High levels of gut-homing immunoglobulin A+ B lymphocytes support the pathogenic role of intestinal mucosal hyperresponsiveness in immunoglobulin A nephropathy patients

No abstract availabl

Renal progenitor cells revert LPS-induced endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition by secreting CXCL6, SAA4, and BPIFA2 antiseptic peptides

Endothelial dysfunction is a hallmark of LPS-induced acute kidney injury (AKI). Endothelial cells (ECs) acquired a fibroblast-like phenotype and contributed to myofibroblast generation through the endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) process. Of note, human adult renal stem/progenitor cells (ARPCs) enhance the tubular regenerative mechanism during AKI but little is known about their effects on ECs. Following LPS exposure, ECs proliferated, decreased EC markers CD31 and vascular endothelial cadherin, and up-regulated myofibroblast markers, collagen I, and vimentin. The coculture with ARPCs normalized the EC proliferation rate and abrogated the LPS-induced EndMT. The gene expression analysis showed that most of the genes modulated in LPS-stimulated ARPCs belong to cell activation and defense response pathways. We showed that the ARPC-specific antifibrotic effect is exerted by the secretion of CXCL6, SAA4, and BPIFA2 produced after the anaphylatoxin stimulation. Next, we investigated the molecular signaling that underlies the ARPC protective mechanism and found that renal progenitors diverge from differentiated tubular cells and ECs in myeloid differentiation primary response 88-independent pathway activation. Finally, in a swine model of LPS-induced AKI, we observed that activated ARPCs secreted CXCL6, SAA4, and BPIFA2 as a defense response. These data open new perspectives on the treatment of both sepsis- and endotoxemia-induced AKI, suggesting an underestimated role of ARPCs in preventing endothelial dysfunction and novel strategies to protect the endothelial compartment and promote kidney repair.-Sallustio, F., Stasi, A., Curci, C., Divella, C., Picerno, A., Franzin, R., De Palma, G., Rutigliano, M., Lucarelli, G., Battaglia, M., Staffieri, F., Crovace, A., Pertosa, G. B., Castellano, G., Gallone, A., Gesualdo, L. Renal progenitor cells revert LPS-induced endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition by secreting CXCL6, SAA4, and BPIFA2 antiseptic peptides

Joint resummation in electroweak boson production

We present a phenomenological application of the joint resummation formalism to electroweak annihilation processes at measured boson momentum Q_T. This formalism simultaneously resums at next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy large threshold and recoil corrections to partonic scattering. We invert the impact parameter transform using a previously described analytic continuation procedure. This leads to a well-defined, resummed perturbative cross section for all nonzero Q_T, which can be compared to resummation carried out directly in Q_T space. From the structure of the resummed expressions, we also determine the form of nonperturbative corrections to the cross section and implement these into our analysis. We obtain a good description of the transverse momentum distribution of Z bosons produced at the Tevatron collider.Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX, 8 figures as eps files. Some additions to earlier version, this version as published in Phys. Rev. D66 (2002) 01401