Metodi topografici per la ricostruzione dettagliata della piezometria nelle aree costiere: il caso del Parco Regionale della Maremma (Toscana meridionale)

Una metodologia topografica è stata messa a punto all'interno del Parco Regionale della Maremma (Grosseto) con l’obbiettivo di conseguire una determinazione dei dati plano-altimetrici della locale rete di monitoraggio piezometrico tale da assicurare un’elevata accuratezza nella ricostruzione della rete di flusso ed una sufficiente velocità di esecuzione in modo da garantirne la sostenibilità di tempi e costi. I rilievi effettuati tramite strumentazione GNSS e livellazione geometrica “dal mezzo” hanno consentito un significativo miglioramento delle conoscenze sull'idrodinamica della falda ed in particolare sui lo-cali fenomeni di intrusione marina. La procedura proposta è da ritenersi pertanto conveniente in tutte le applicazioni idrogeologiche delle zone costiere caratterizzate dalla concomitanza tra un basso gradiente idraulico ed una significativa variazione della quota altimetrica, tipica casistica geomorfologica dei litorali italiani

Acute treatment with relaxin attenuates the injury/ dysfunction induced by renal ischemia/reperfusion injury

Although preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated that relaxin (RLX) ameliorates impaired renal function by exerting antifibrotic and regenerative effects, its role in renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury has never been investigated. Using a well-known rat model of 1h bilateral renal artery occlusion followed by 6 h reperfusion, we investigated the effects of human recombinant RLX (5 μg /Kg e.v.) given both at the beginning and after 3 h reperfusion. Serum and urinary indicators of renal injury and dysfunction were measured. Interestingly, administration of the exogenous RLX attenuated all markers of renal injury and dysfunction caused by I/R. Overall, we document here, for the first time, that RLX protects against I/R-induced renal injury and dysfunction. The results of this study offer good perspectives for the clinical potential of RLX in the medical treatment of renal diseases

Xerostomia, gustatory and olfactory dysfunctions in patients with COVID-19

Background The novel Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) continues to have profound effect on global health. Our aim was to evaluate the prevalence and characterize specific symptoms associated with COVID-19. Methods This retrospective study included 326 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection evaluated at the Emergency Department of the Umberto I Polyclinic Hospital, Rome, Italy between March 6th and April 30th, 2020. In order to assess xerostomia, olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions secondary to COVID-19, a telephone-based a modified survey obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2013–2014 for taste and smell disorders and the Fox Questionnaire for dry mouth were administered to 111 patients (34%) after discharge between June 4th and June 12th. Results Taste dysfunction was the most common reported symptom (59.5%; n = 66), followed by xerostomia (45.9%; n = 51) and olfactory dysfunctions (41.4%; n = 46). The most severe symptom was olfactory dysfunction with a median severity score of 8.5 (range: 5–10). Overall 74.5% (n = 38) of patients with xerostomia, 78.8% (n = 52) of patients with gustatory dysfunctions and 71.1% (n = 33) of patients with olfactory dysfunctions reported that all symptoms appeared before COVID-19 diagnosis. Overall, the majority of patients reported one symptom only (45.9%, n = 51), 37 (33.3%) reported the association of two symptoms, and 23 (20.7%) patients reported the association of three symptoms at the same time. Conclusion Xerostomia, gustatory and olfactory dysfunctions may present as a prodromal or as the sole manifestation of COVID-19. Awareness is fundamental to identify COVID-19 patients at an early stage of the disease and limit the spread of the virus

B7h triggering inhibits the migration of tumor cell lines

Vascular endothelial cells (ECs) and several cancer cells express B7h, which is the ligand of the ICOS T cell costimulatory molecule. We have previously shown that B7h triggering via a soluble form of ICOS (ICOS-Fc) inhibits the adhesion of polymorphonuclear and tumor cell lines to HUVECs; thus, we suggested that ICOS-Fc may act as an anti-inflammatory and antitumor agent. Because cancer cell migration and angiogenesis are crucial for metastasis dissemination, the aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of ICOS-Fc on the migration of cancer cells and ECs. ICOS-Fc specifically inhibited the migration of HUVECs, human dermal lymphatic ECs, and the HT29, HCT116, PC-3, HepG2, JR8, and M14 tumor cell lines expressing high levels of B7h, whereas it was ineffective in the RPMI7932, PCF-2, LM, and BHT-101 cell lines expressing low levels of B7h. Furthermore, ICOS-Fc downmodulated hepatocyte growth factor facilitated the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in HepG2 cells. Moreover, ICOS-Fc downmodulated the phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase and the expression of \u3b2-Pix in both HUVECs and tumor cell lines. Finally, treatment with ICOS-Fc inhibited the development of lung metastases upon injection of NOD-SCID-IL2R\u3b3null mice with CF-PAC1 cells, as well as C57BL/6 mice with B16-F10 cells. Therefore, the B7h-ICOS interaction may modulate the spread of cancer metastases, which suggests the novel use of ICOS-Fc as an immunomodulatory drug. However, in the B16-F10-metastasized lungs, ICOS-Fc also increased IL-17A/RORc and decreased IL-10/Foxp3 expression, which indicates that it also exerts positive effects on the antitumor immune response

Unbalanced Occlusion Modifies the Pattern of Brain Activity During Execution of a Finger to Thumb Motor Task

In order to assess possible influences of occlusion on motor performance, we studied by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) the changes in the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal induced at brain level by a finger to thumb motor task in a population of subjects characterized by an asymmetric activation of jaw muscles during clenching (malocclusion). In these subjects, appropriate occlusal correction by an oral orthotic (bite) reduced the masticatory asymmetry. The finger to thumb task was performed while the subject’s dental arches were touching, in two conditions: (a) with the teeth in direct contact (Bite OFF) and (b) with the bite interposed between the arches (Bite ON). Both conditions required only a very slight activation of masticatory muscles. Maps of the BOLD signal recorded during the movement were contrasted with the resting condition (activation maps). Between conditions comparison of the activation maps (Bite OFF/Bite ON) showed that, in Bite OFF, the BOLD signal was significantly higher in the trigeminal sensorimotor region, the premotor cortex, the cerebellum, the inferior temporal and occipital cortex, the calcarine cortex, the precuneus on both sides, as well as in the right posterior cingulate cortex. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that malocclusion makes movement performance more difficult, leading to a stronger activation of (a) sensorimotor areas not dealing with the control of the involved body part, (b) regions planning the motor sequence, and (c) the cerebellum, which is essential in motor coordination. Moreover, the findings of a higher activation of temporo-occipital cortex and precuneus/cingulus, respectively, suggest that, during malocclusion, the movement occurs with an increased visual imagery activity, and requires a stronger attentive effort

High Temperature Mechanical Spectroscopy Study of 3 mol% Yttria Stabilized Tetragonal Zirconia Reinforced with Carbon Nanotubes

Composites containing 3 mol% yttria stabilized tetragonal zirconia (3Y-TZP) reinforced with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with various amounts of CNTs (3Y-TZP / X wt% CNT, X= 0, 0.5, 1.5, 3 and 5) were processed by spark plasma sintering. Microscopic analysis proves that CNTs were well dispersed and embedded in grain boundaries of the sintered body. High temperature mechanical properties have been investigated using mechanical spectroscopy and low stress (6 MPa) creep. The isothermal spectrum (measured at 1600 K) consists of a mechanical loss peak at a frequency of about 0.1 Hz, which is superimposed on an exponential increase at low frequency. The absence of a well-marked peak in monolithic 3Y-TZP is justified considering that restoring force decreases at low frequencies or high temperatures due to the elasticity of neighboring grains. Therefore, strain is no more restricted and the mechanical loss increases exponentially, which is correlated to macroscopic creep. However, with CNT additions the mechanical loss decreases and a better resolved peak was observed. In parallel, the results have shown that the creep rate drastically decreases with CNT additions. These results can be interpreted by the pinning effect of CNTs which can hinder grain boundary sliding at high temperatures, resulting in a creep resistance improvement

SDR Implementation of a DVB-T2 Transmitter: the Core Building Blocks

In this paper we describe the implementation of a DVB-T2 transmitter on a commercially-available hardware platform. The implementation leverages on the Software-Defined Radio (SDR) characteristics of the platform to attain on-the fly reconfigurability. The paper focuses on the two most computationally intensive blocks of the transmitter: the LDPC encoder and the IFFT processor

Heterogeneous Cores Interconnection Techniques: the Lyrtech SFF SDR Board Example

Most Software Defined Radio platforms use, for baseband processing, an architecture made of heterogeneous cores: a DSP, a microprocessor and an FPGA. In this paper we take as reference the DaVinci DM6446 System On Chip (SoC) from Texas Instruments, focusing on the communication between the DaVinci SoC and a Xilinx Virtex-4 SX35 FPGA. A specific platform, integrating both these chips with an RF front-end and specifically aimed at the Software defined Radio, is selected: the Lyrtech SFF SDR board. In the selected framework we compare four options for the connection of the FPGA and the DaVinci chips, namely the VLYNQ\u2122 and EMIF interfaces, the SPI bus and the Video Processing Subsystem (VPSS). Our aim is to assess the capability of the different interfaces to sustain a high throughput without compromising the computational power of the DSP and the microprocessor. Our analysis and our experiments show that the SPI interface is the easiest way to connect the DaVinci DM6446 with the Virtex-4 FPGA, but is limited to a throughput of 8.3 Mbit/s while an innovative solution, proposed here for the first time and based on the VPSS, originally conceived to transfer video streams, is more complex to implement but can reach a throughput of 1.2Gbit/s

Key Pathways and Genes of <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> and <i>Arabidopsis halleri</i> Roots under Cadmium Stress Responses: Differences and Similarities

Cadmium (Cd) is among the world’s major health concerns, as it renders soils unsuitable and unsafe for food and feed production. Phytoremediation has the potential to remediate Cd-polluted soils, but efforts are still needed to develop a deep understanding of the processes underlying it. In this study, we performed a comprehensive analysis of the root response to Cd stress in A. thaliana, which can phytostabilize Cd, and in A. halleri, which is a Cd hyperaccumulator. Suitable RNA-seq data were analyzed by WGCNA to identify modules of co-expressed genes specifically associated with Cd presence. The results evidenced that the genes of the hyperaccumulator A. halleri mostly associated with the Cd presence are finely regulated (up- and downregulated) and related to a general response to chemical and other stimuli. Additionally, in the case of A. thaliana, which can phytostabilize metals, the genes upregulated during Cd stress are related to a general response to chemical and other stimuli, while downregulated genes are associated with functions which, affecting root growth and development, determine a deep modification of the organ both at the cellular and physiological levels. Furthermore, key genes of the Cd-associated modules were identified and confirmed by differentially expressed gene (DEG) detection and external knowledge. Together, key functions and genes shed light on differences and similarities among the strategies that the plants use to cope with Cd and may be considered as possible targets for future research