Use of Robotics kits for the enhancement of metacognitive skills of mathematics: a possible approach

The present study is aimed at analyzing the process of building and programming robots as a metacognitive tool of mathematics. Quantitative data from a study performed on a sample of students attending an Italian secondary school are described. Results showed that robotics activities may be used as a new metacognitive environment allowing students to improve their attitude towards mathematics, and to increase their attitude to reflect on themselves and on their own learning, and their higher-level control components, such as forecasting, planning, monitoring and evaluation exercises and problems related to implementation

CHANTI: a Fast and Efficient Charged Particle Veto Detector for the NA62 Experiment at CERN

The design, construction and test of a charged particle detector made of scintillation counters read by Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) is described. The detector, which operates in vacuum and is used as a veto counter in the NA62 experiment at CERN, has a single channel time resolution of 1.14 ns, a spatial resolution of ~2.5 mm and an efficiency very close to 1 for penetrating charged particles

QCALT: a tile calorimeter for KLOE-2 upgrade

The upgrade of the DA$\Phi$NE machine layout requires a modification of the size and position of the inner focusing quadrupoles of KLOE-2 thus asking for the realization of two new calorimeters covering the quadrupoles area. To improve the reconstruction of $K_L\to 2\pi^0$ events with photons hitting the quadrupoles a calorimeter with high efficiency to low energy photons (20-300 MeV), time resolution of less than 1 ns and space resolution of few cm, is needed. To match these requirements, we are designing a tile calorimeter, QCALT, where each single tile is readout by mean of SiPM for a total granularity of 2400 channels. We show first tests of the different calorimeter components

The Low Energy Tagger for the KLOE-2 experiment

The KLOE experiment at the upgraded DAFNE e+e- collider in Frascati (KLOE-2) is going to start a new data taking at the beginning of 2010 with its detector upgraded with a tagging system for the identification of gamma-gamma interactions. The tagging stations for low-energy e+e- will consist in two calorimeters The calorimeter used to detect low-energy e+e- will be placed between the beam-pipe outer support structure and the inner wall of the KLOE drift chamber. This calorimeter will be made of LYSO crystals readout by Silicon Photomultipliers, to achieve an energy resolution better than 8% at 200 MeV.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, in the proceedings of "Frontier detectors for frontier physics", isola d'Elba, Italy, May 200

Study of gender differences in VR response following cardiac surgery

Cardiac and other invasive surgical procedures cause significant anxiety and stress to patients and their family members. In this study Virtual Reality (VR) was used as a method to reduce stress, anxiety and pain in patients undergoing surgical procedures. This study compared a cohort of patients in the interval prior to and successive to the surgery, differentiating the responses achieved by males and females and comparing the effectiveness. The results are encouraging: they demonstrate the efficacy of VR treatment and the safety of the method and detection of differences in the responses based on gender

Break in volition: a virtual reality study in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Research in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) produced inconsistent results in demonstrating an association between patients' symptom severity and their cognitive impairments. The process involved in volition aspects of behavioral syndromes can be extensively analyzed using specific tests developed in virtual environments, more suitable to manipulate rules and possible breaks of the normal task execution with different, confusing or stopping instructions. The study involved thirty participants (15 OCD patients and 15 controls) during task execution and the relative interferences. At this purpose, the virtual version of Multiple Errands Test was used. Virtual reality setting, with a higher ecological validity respect to a classic neuropsychological battery, allowed us to take into account deficits of volition and the relative dysexecutive functions associated with OCD patients. The proposed paradigm also allows the development of innovative prototypes of coevolving technologies based on new theories and models and deeper understanding of human behavior

Potential Role of ANGPTL4 in the Cross Talk between Metabolism and Cancer through PPAR Signaling Pathway

The angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) protein belongs to a superfamily of secreted proteins structurally related to factors modulating angiogenesis known as angiopoietins. At first, ANGPTL4 has been identified as an adipokine exclusively involved in lipid metabolism, because of its prevalent expression in liver and adipose tissue. This protein regulates lipid metabolism by inhibiting lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity and stimulating lipolysis of white adipose tissue (WAT), resulting in increased levels of plasma triglycerides (TG) and fatty acids. Subsequently, ANGPTL4 has been shown to be involved in several nonmetabolic and metabolic conditions, both physiological and pathological, including angiogenesis and vascular permeability, cell differentiation, tumorigenesis, glucose homoeostasis, lipid metabolism, energy homeostasis, wound healing, inflammation, and redox regulation. The transcriptional regulation of ANGPTL4 can be modulated by several transcription factors, including PPAR\uce\ub1, PPAR\uce\ub2/\uce\ub4, PPAR\uce\ub3, and HIF-1\uce\ub1, and nutritional and hormonal conditions. Several studies showed that high levels of ANGPTL4 are associated with poor prognosis in patients with various solid tumors, suggesting an important role in cancer onset and progression, metastasis, and anoikis resistance. Here, we have discussed the potential role of ANGPTL4 in mediating the cross talk between metabolic syndromes, such as diabetes and obesity, and cancer through regulation of its expression by PPARs

NEUTRAL LOSS ANALYSIS OF AMINO ACIDS BY DESORPTION ELECTROSPRAY IONIZATION USING AN UNMODIFIED TANDEM QUADRUPOLE MASS SPECTROMETER.

A new method to analyze free amino acids using desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) has been implemented. The method is based on the neutral loss mode determination of underivatized amino acids using a tandem quadrupole mass spectrometer equipped with an unmodified atmospheric interface. Qualitative and quantitative optimization of DESI parameters, including ESI voltage, solvent flow rate, angle of collection and incidence, gas flow and temperatures, was performed for amino acids detection. The parameters for DESI analysis were evaluated using a mixture of valine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine and tyrosine standards. A few microliters of this mixture were deposited on a slide, dried and analyzed at a flow rate of 2mL/min. The optimal ionization response was obtained using laboratory glass slides and an equivalent solution of water/methanol doped with 2% of formic acid. The method specificity was evaluated by comparing product ion spectra and neutral loss analysis of amino acids obtained either by DESI or by electrospray ionization flow injection analysis (ESI-FIA). To evaluate the quantitative response on amino acids analyzed by DESI, calibration curves were performed on amino acid standard solutions spiked with a fixed amount of labelled amino acids. The method was also employed to analyze free amino acids from blood spots, after a rapid solvent extraction without other sample pretreatment, from positive and negative subjects. The method enables one to analyze biological samples and to discriminate healthy subjects from patients affected by inherited metabolic diseases. The intrinsic high-throughput analysis of DESI represents an opportunity, because of its potential application in clinical chemistry.....

MYC, cell competition, and cell death in cancer: The inseparable triad

Deregulation of MYC family proteins in cancer is associated with a global reprogramming of gene expression, ultimately promoting glycolytic pathways, cell growth, and proliferation. It is well known that MYC upregulation triggers cell-autonomous apoptosis in normal tissues, while frankly malignant cells develop resistance to apoptotic stimuli, partly resulting from MYC addiction. As well as inducing cell-autonomous apoptosis, MYC upregulation is able to trigger non cell-autonomous apoptotic death through an evolutionarily conserved mechanism known as “cell competition”. With regard to this intimate and dual relationship between MYC and cell death, recent evidence obtained in Drosophila models of cancer has revealed that, in early tumourigenesis, MYC upregulation guides the clonal expansion of mutant cells, while the surrounding tissue undergoes non-cell autonomous death. Apoptosis inhibition in this context was shown to restrain tumour growth and to restore a wild-type phenotype. This suggests that cell-autonomous and non cell-autonomous apoptosis dependent on MYC upregulation may shape tumour growth in different ways, soliciting the need to reconsider the role of cell death in cancer in the light of this new level of complexity. Here we review recent literature about MYC and cell competition obtained in Drosophila, with a particular emphasis on the relevance of cell death to cell competition and, more generally, to cancer. Possible implications of these findings for the understanding of mammalian cancers are also discussed