Coeliac Disease and Mast Cells

Over the last decades, there has been an impressive progress in our understanding of coeliac disease pathogenesis and it has become clear that the disorder is the final result of complex interactions of environmental, genetic, and immunological factors. Coeliac disease is now considered a prototype of T-cell-mediated disease characterized by loss of tolerance to dietary gluten and the targeted killing of enterocytes by T-cell receptor \u3b1\u3b2 intraepithelial lymphocytes. Accumulating evidence, however, indicates that the induction of a gluten-specific T helper-1 response must be preceded by the activation of the innate immune system. Mast cells are key players of the innate immune response and contribute to the pathogenesis of a multitude of diseases. Here, we review the results of studies aimed at investigating the role of mast cells in the pathogenesis of coeliac disease, showing that these cells increase in number during the progression of the disease and contribute to define a pro-inflammatory microenvironment

Anterior Capsulolabral Reconstruction with Semitendinosus Autograft after Latarjet Failure. A Case Report

Introduction: The treatment of chronic shoulder instability, associated with poor tissue quality, remains challenging in the setting of anterior capsular deficiency. There are a few viable alternatives in the end-stage shoulder instability when multiple surgical attempts to correct the pathology have failed. The purpose of the present paper is to demonstrate the efficacy of anterior capsular reconstruction with semitendinosus autograft for the management of capsulolabral deficiency without associated bone loss. Case report: A 39-year-old female admitted in our institution with a history of recurrent atraumatic anterior dislocation of the left shoulder after three unsuccessful surgical attempts: Arthroscopic and open capsulorrhaphy and a Latarjet coracoid transfer. CT scan images showed adequate placement (flush) of the coracoid transfer without any sign of reabsorption. Reconstruction of anterior capsulolabral structure was performed using a Semitendinosus autograft. The middle and inferior glenohumeral ligaments, the more crucial ligaments for anterior-inferior shoulder stability, were effectively recreated. The patient did not suffer any recurrent dislocation or subjective symptoms of instability at the time of the final follow-up, 2 years after surgery, and the ASES score increased from 36 preoperatively to 86. Conclusion: This technique, described for the first time as a salvage procedure after Latarjet failure, could represent a safe and viable treatment option in the context of multiple ineffective surgeries

Mechanism and clinical evidence of immunotherapy in allergic rhinitis

Allergic rhinitis is a common upper airway disease caused by hypersensitivity to various aeroallergens. It causes increased inflammation throughout the body and may be complicated by other otolaryngological pathologies such as chronic hyperplastic eosinophilic sinusitis, nasal polyposis, and serous otitis media. Allergic rhinitis is an IgE-mediated disease and immunotherapy can be a possible approach for patients to limit the use of antihistamines and corticosteroids. There is evidence that allergen immunotherapy can prevent the development of new sensitizations and reduce the risk of later development of asthma in patients with allergic rhinitis. However, some patients do not benefit from this approach and the efficacy of immunotherapy in reducing the severity and relapse of symptoms is still a matter of debate. This review highlights new aspects of allergic rhinitis with a particular focus on the impact of sexual dimorphism on the disease manifestation and efficacy to the allergen specific immunotherapy

Metabolic spatial connectivity in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis as revealed by independent component analysis

Objectives. Positron emission tomography (PET) and volume of interest (VOI) analysis have recently shown in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) an accuracy of 93% in differentiating patients from controls. The aim of this study was to disclose by spatial independent component analysis (ICA) the brain networks involved in ALS pathological processes and evaluate their discriminative value in separating patients from controls. Experimental design. Two hundred fifty-nine ALS patients and 40 age- and sex-matched control subjects underwent brain 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose PET (FDG-PET). Spatial ICA of the preprocessed FDG-PET images was performed. Intensity values were converted to z-scores and binary masks were used as data-driven VOIs. The accuracy of this classifier was tested versus a validated system processing intensity signals in 27 brain meta-VOIs. A support vector machine was independently applied to both datasets and the \u27leave-one-out\u27 technique verified the general validity of results. Principal observations: The 8 components selected as pathophysiologically meaningful discriminated patients from controls with 99.0% accuracy, the discriminating value of bilateral cerebellum/midbrain alone representing 96.3%. Among the meta-VOIs, right temporal lobe alone reached an accuracy of 93.7%. Conclusions: Spatial ICA identified in a very large cohort of ALS patients distinct spatial networks showing a high discriminatory value, improving substantially on the previously obtained accuracy. The cerebellar/midbrain component accounted for the highest accuracy in separating ALS patients from controls. Spatial ICA and multivariate analysis perform better than univariate semi-quantification methods in identifying the neurodegenerative features of ALS and pave the way for inclusion of PET in clinical trials and early diagnosis

Silicon photomultipliers: On ground characterizations and modelling for use in front-end electronics aimed to space-borne experiments

Abstract Silicon Photomultipliers (Si-PM) consist of an array of semiconductor photodiodes joint on the common substrate and operating in limited geiger mode. A new generation of Si-PM is currently under test in INFN Rome Tor Vergata facilities: they consist of a 5625 element, 3 * 3 mm 2 array with an improved light response. These elements have been characterized. Furthermore, a functional model of the Si-PM has been developed to be used in a VLSI development of front-end electronics

A European Database of Building Energy Profiles to Support the Design of Ground Source Heat Pumps

[EN] The design of ground source heat pumps is a fundamental step to ensure the high energy efficiency of heat pump systems throughout their operating years. To enhance the diffusion of ground source heat pump systems, two different tools are developed in the H2020 research project named, Cheap GSHPs: A design tool and a decision support system. In both cases, the energy demand of the buildings may not be calculated by the user. The main input data, to evaluate the size of the borehole heat exchangers, is the building energy demand. This paper presents a methodology to correlate energy demand, building typologies, and climatic conditions for different types of residential buildings. Rather than envelope properties, three insulation levels have been considered in different climatic conditions to set up a database of energy profiles. Analyzing European climatic test reference years, 23 locations have been considered. For each location, the overall energy and the mean hourly monthly energy profiles for heating and cooling have been calculated. Pre-calculated profiles are needed to size generation systems and, in particular, ground source heat pumps. For this reason, correlations based on the degree days for heating and cooling demand have been found in order to generalize the results for different buildings. These correlations depend on the Koppen-Geiger climate scale.This work received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 657982.Carnieletto, L.; Badenes Badenes, B.; Belliardi, M.; Bernardi, A.; Graci, S.; Emmi, G.; Urchueguía Schölzel, JF.... (2019). A European Database of Building Energy Profiles to Support the Design of Ground Source Heat Pumps. Energies. 12(13):1-23. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12132496S1231213De Carli, M., Tonon, M., Zarrella, A., & Zecchin, R. (2010). A computational capacity resistance model (CaRM) for vertical ground-coupled heat exchangers. Renewable Energy, 35(7), 1537-1550. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2009.11.034Grossi, I., Dongellini, M., Piazzi, A., & Morini, G. L. (2018). Dynamic modelling and energy performance analysis of an innovative dual-source heat pump system. Applied Thermal Engineering, 142, 745-759. doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.07.022Engineering Reference Manual. In EnergyPlus V8.5https://energyplus.net/Sandberg, N. H., Bergsdal, H., & Brattebø, H. (2011). Historical energy analysis of the Norwegian dwelling stock. Building Research & Information, 39(1), 1-15. doi:10.1080/09613218.2010.528186Application of Energy Performance Indicators for Residential Building Stocks Experiences of the EPISCOPE Projecthttp://episcope.eu/fileadmin/episcope/public/docs/reports/EPISCOPE_Indicators_ConceptAndExperiences.pdfGustafsson, M., Dipasquale, C., Poppi, S., Bellini, A., Fedrizzi, R., Bales, C., … Holmberg, S. (2017). Economic and environmental analysis of energy renovation packages for European office buildings. Energy and Buildings, 148, 155-165. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.04.079De Carli, M., Bernardi, A., Cultrera, M., Dalla Santa, G., Di Bella, A., Emmi, G., … Zarrella, A. (2018). A Database for Climatic Conditions around Europe for Promoting GSHP Solutions. Geosciences, 8(2), 71. doi:10.3390/geosciences8020071Cartalis, C., Synodinou, A., Proedrou, M., Tsangrassoulis, A., & Santamouris, M. (2001). Modifications in energy demand in urban areas as a result of climate changes: an assessment for the southeast Mediterranean region. Energy Conversion and Management, 42(14), 1647-1656. doi:10.1016/s0196-8904(00)00156-4Kottek, M., Grieser, J., Beck, C., Rudolf, B., & Rubel, F. (2006). World Map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification updated. Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 15(3), 259-263. doi:10.1127/0941-2948/2006/0130Herrera, M., Natarajan, S., Coley, D. A., Kershaw, T., Ramallo-González, A. P., Eames, M., … Wood, M. (2017). A review of current and future weather data for building simulation. Building Services Engineering Research and Technology, 38(5), 602-627. doi:10.1177/0143624417705937Peel, M. C., Finlayson, B. L., & McMahon, T. A. (2007). Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 11(5), 1633-1644. doi:10.5194/hess-11-1633-2007D’Amico, A., Ciulla, G., Panno, D., & Ferrari, S. (2019). Building energy demand assessment through heating degree days: The importance of a climatic dataset. Applied Energy, 242, 1285-1306. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.03.167Al-Hadhrami, L. M. (2013). Comprehensive review of cooling and heating degree days characteristics over Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 27, 305-314. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2013.04.034Degree Days.net-Custom Degree Day Datahttp://www.degreedays.netAnnunziata, E., Frey, M., & Rizzi, F. (2013). Towards nearly zero-energy buildings: The state-of-art of national regulations in Europe. Energy, 57, 125-133. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2012.11.049Principle for Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings, Ecofys Germany GmbHhttp://bpie.eu/documents/BPIE/publications/LR_nZEB%20study.pdfAhern, C., Griffiths, P., & O’Flaherty, M. (2013). State of the Irish housing stock—Modelling the heat losses of Ireland’s existing detached rural housing stock & estimating the benefit of thermal retrofit measures on this stock. Energy Policy, 55, 139-151. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2012.11.039Kaklauskas, A., Zavadskas, E. K., Raslanas, S., Ginevicius, R., Komka, A., & Malinauskas, P. (2006). Selection of low-e windows in retrofit of public buildings by applying multiple criteria method COPRAS: A Lithuanian case. Energy and Buildings, 38(5), 454-462. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2005.08.005Zavadskas, E., Raslanas, S., & Kaklauskas, A. (2008). The selection of effective retrofit scenarios for panel houses in urban neighborhoods based on expected energy savings and increase in market value: The Vilnius case. Energy and Buildings, 40(4), 573-587. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2007.04.015Aerts, D., Minnen, J., Glorieux, I., Wouters, I., & Descamps, F. (2014). A method for the identification and modelling of realistic domestic occupancy sequences for building energy demand simulations and peer comparison. Building and Environment, 75, 67-78. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2014.01.021Yang, Z., & Becerik-Gerber, B. (2014). The coupled effects of personalized occupancy profile based HVAC schedules and room reassignment on building energy use. Energy and Buildings, 78, 113-122. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.04.002Richardson, I., Thomson, M., & Infield, D. (2008). A high-resolution domestic building occupancy model for energy demand simulations. Energy and Buildings, 40(8), 1560-1566. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2008.02.006Villi, G., Peretti, C., Graci, S., & De Carli, M. (2013). Building leakage analysis and infiltration modelling for an Italian multi-family building. Journal of Building Performance Simulation, 6(2), 98-118. doi:10.1080/19401493.2012.69998

The role of spectrophotometry in the diagnosis of melanoma

Background. Spectrophotometry (SPT) could represent a promising technique for the diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma (CM) at earlier stages of the disease. Starting from our experience, we further assessed the role of SPT in CM early detection. Methods. During a health campaign for malignant melanoma at National Cancer Institute of Naples, we identified a subset of 54 lesions to be addressed to surgical excision and histological examination. Before surgery, all patients were investigated by clinical and epiluminescence microscopy (ELM) screenings; selected lesions underwent spectrophotometer analysis. For SPT, we used a video spectrophotometer imaging system (Spectroshade® MHT S.p.A., Verona, Italy). Results. Among the 54 patients harbouring cutaneous pigmented lesions, we performed comparison between results from the SPT screening and the histological diagnoses as well as evaluation of both sensitivity and specificity in detecting CM using either SPT or conventional approaches. For all pigmented lesions, agreement between histology and SPT classification was 57.4%. The sensitivity and specificity of SPT in detecting melanoma were 66.6% and 76.2%, respectively. Conclusions. Although SPT is still considered as a valuable diagnostic tool for CM, its low accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity represent the main hamper for the introduction of such a methodology in clinical practice. Dermoscopy remains the best diagnostic tool for the preoperative diagnosis of pigmented skin lesions