Probing the Hydrodynamic Limit of (Super)gravity

We study the long-wavelength effective description of two general classes of charged dilatonic (asymptotically flat) black p-branes including D/NS/M-branes in ten and eleven dimensional supergravity. In particular, we consider gravitational brane solutions in a hydrodynamic derivative expansion (to first order) for arbitrary dilaton coupling and for general brane and co-dimension and determine their effective electro-fluid-dynamic descriptions by exacting the characterizing transport coefficients. We also investigate the stability properties of the corresponding hydrodynamic systems by analyzing their response to small long-wavelength perturbations. For branes carrying unsmeared charge, we find that in a certain regime of parameter space there exists a branch of stable charged configurations. This is in accordance with the expectation that D/NS/M-branes have stable configurations, except for the D5, D6, and NS5. In contrast, we find that Maxwell charged brane configurations are Gregory-Laflamme unstable independently of the charge and, in particular, verify that smeared configurations of D0-branes are unstable. Finally, we provide a modification to the mapping presented in arxiv:1211.2815 and utilize it to provide a non-trivial cross-check on a certain subset of our transport coefficients with the results of arXiv:1110.2320.Comment: 36 pages, 2 figures. v2: Added reference and corrected typ

I GIARDINI TERAPEUTICI: LINEE GUIDA PROGETTUALI E CASI DI STUDIO

La psicologia ambientale, la biomimetica, la biofilia sono solo alcune delle scienze che studiano gli effetti positivi della natura sulla psiche e sulle attività dell’uomo. E’ l’uomo stesso che oggi vuol rifarsi alla natura per migliorare le sue condizioni di vita e di sostentamento. In questa ottica prendono vita i giardini terapeutici, aree verdi progettate all’interno dei luoghi di cura e create appositamente, seguendo criteri stabiliti, per migliorare le condizioni di salute dell’uomo e le sue capacità di recupero e ristoro dalla malattia. La tesi, suddivisa in tre parti, analizza e descrive la storia e l’efficacia dei giardini terapeutici, meglio noti come healing garden, riportando alcune indicazioni progettuali e facendo ricorso a casi di studio presenti sul territorio italiano. Nella prima parte vengono fornite alcune definizioni sui giardini terapeutici e riportati alcuni cenni storici sulla presenza dei giardini nei luoghi di cura; segue una breve analisi delle evidenze scientifiche relative all’efficacia terapeutica dei giardini e al rapporto tra soggetto malato e aree verdi. La chiusura della prima parte, con la trattazione delle tipologie di spazi a verde che possono essere rinvenute negli istituti di cura, introduce la seconda parte dove si approfondiscono le linee guida per la progettazione di questi spazi. I dati, reperiti su testi italiani e stranieri, sono stati analizzati e successivamente valutati in rapporto ad alcuni esempi di giardini terapeutici italiani. L’ultima parte della tesi riporta le proposte di riqualificazione di un parco verde all’interno del quale è inserita la casa accoglienza dell’associazione “La casa- onlus”, organizzazione non lucrativa, della Provincia di Livorno, che si propone di offrire gratuitamente accoglienza e assistenza socio-sanitaria, morale e spirituale a persone affette da malattie tumorali in fase avanzata e/o malattie degenerative. I soggetti fragili accolti dalla struttura presentano caratteristiche di limitata autonomia personale, povertà materiale e/o psicologico morale e sono impossibilitate a curarsi presso un proprio domicilio. Dopo aver studiato e inquadrato le caratteristiche del sito, vengono presentate alcune proposte di riqualificazione seguendo le linee guida illustrate nella seconda parte della tesi, ponendo particolare attenzione alla scelta delle essenze arboree ed erbacee. La tesi si conclude con una serie di immagini elaborate al computer che offrono un’immediata visione dei miglioramenti che potrebbero essere apportati in alcune zone verdi della casa accoglienza dell’associazione livornese, favorendone la trasformazione in aree verdi terapeutiche

Application of Computational Methods for the Design of New Potential Therapeutic Agents

Computer-aided drug discovery (CADD) represents a very useful tool to search for potential drug candidates and plays a strategic role in the discovery of new potential therapeutic agents for both pharmaceutical companies and academic research groups. Nevertheless, the modelling of biological systems still represents a challenge for computational chemists, and, at present, a single computational method able to face such challenge is not available. Computational tools are therefore evolving in the direction of combining molecular-mechanic (MM), molecular dynamics (MD), and quantum-mechanical (QM) approaches in order to achieve an overall better simulation of the actual molecular behaviour. In addition, many sampling methods have been developed and applied for the characterisation and comparison of the collective motions of protein structures related to the dynamics of proteins, protein folding and ligand-protein docking simulations. This prompted us, as computational medicinal chemists, to develop various CADD approaches, depending on the specific case under study, integrating theoretical and experimental data. In particular, the research activity carried out during the three years of my PhD led to: i) the development of three-dimensional (3-D) pharmacophore models for the analysis of 3-D structure-activity relationships (SARs) of bioactive compounds, ii) the identification of new molecular targets, iii) the simulation of large-scale protein conformational changes, iv) the simulation of protein/protein and ligand/protein interactions, and v) the design of new bioactive compounds. Computational studies were always performed in the frame of multi-disciplinary projects guided by a unique research strategy, which involved several international and national research groups, and were carried out by integrating and validating our computational studies with the experimental data coming from the other researchers involved in the various projects. The results obtained enabled to: i) identify a new class of anticancer agents against paclitaxel resistant cancer cells, ii) provide important information on the mechanism of action of cationic porphyrins, a novel class of proteasome conformational regulators with great potentiality as “lead” pharmacophores, and iii) optimise the cellular pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of a new series of antimalarial agents. In addition, I spent a training period abroad of eight-months at the Institute of Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Barcelona, under the supervision of prof. Modesto Orozco, during which I have had the opportunity to extend my computational background by learning and, then, performing metadynamic and MD simulations, investigating the open/close conformational transition of 20S human proteasome by molecular dynamics simulations

Application of Computational Methods for the Design of New Potential Therapeutic Agents

Computer-aided drug discovery (CADD) represents a very useful tool to search for potential drug candidates and plays a strategic role in the discovery of new potential therapeutic agents for both pharmaceutical companies and academic research groups. Nevertheless, the modelling of biological systems still represents a challenge for computational chemists, and, at present, a single computational method able to face such challenge is not available. Computational tools are therefore evolving in the direction of combining molecular-mechanic (MM), molecular dynamics (MD), and quantum-mechanical (QM) approaches in order to achieve an overall better simulation of the actual molecular behaviour. In addition, many sampling methods have been developed and applied for the characterisation and comparison of the collective motions of protein structures related to the dynamics of proteins, protein folding and ligand-protein docking simulations. This prompted us, as computational medicinal chemists, to develop various CADD approaches, depending on the specific case under study, integrating theoretical and experimental data. In particular, the research activity carried out during the three years of my PhD led to: i) the development of three-dimensional (3-D) pharmacophore models for the analysis of 3-D structure-activity relationships (SARs) of bioactive compounds, ii) the identification of new molecular targets, iii) the simulation of large-scale protein conformational changes, iv) the simulation of protein/protein and ligand/protein interactions, and v) the design of new bioactive compounds. Computational studies were always performed in the frame of multi-disciplinary projects guided by a unique research strategy, which involved several international and national research groups, and were carried out by integrating and validating our computational studies with the experimental data coming from the other researchers involved in the various projects. The results obtained enabled to: i) identify a new class of anticancer agents against paclitaxel resistant cancer cells, ii) provide important information on the mechanism of action of cationic porphyrins, a novel class of proteasome conformational regulators with great potentiality as “lead” pharmacophores, and iii) optimise the cellular pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of a new series of antimalarial agents. In addition, I spent a training period abroad of eight-months at the Institute of Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Barcelona, under the supervision of prof. Modesto Orozco, during which I have had the opportunity to extend my computational background by learning and, then, performing metadynamic and MD simulations, investigating the open/close conformational transition of 20S human proteasome by molecular dynamics simulations

IFALD in children: What's new? A narrative review

: Intestinal failure-associated liver disease (IFALD) is a progressive liver disease complicating intestinal failure (IF). It is a preventable and reversible condition, but at the same time, a potential cause of liver cirrhosis and an indication to combined or non-combined liver and small bowel transplantation. The diagnostic criteria are not yet standardized, so that its prevalence varies widely in the literature. Pathophysiology seems to be multifactorial, related to different aspects of intestinal failure and not only to the long-term parenteral nutrition treatment. The survival rates of children with IF have increased, so that the main problems today are preventing complications and ensuring a good quality of life. IFALD is one of the most important factors that limit long-term survival of patients with IF. For this reason, more and more interest is developing around it and the number of published articles is increasing rapidly. The purpose of this narrative review was to focus on the main aspects of the etiology, pathophysiology, management, prevention, and treatment of IFALD, based on what has been published mainly in the last 10 years. Controversies and current research gaps will be highlighted with the aim to pave the way for new project and high-quality clinical trials

Ornamento, antinomie e paradossi

2007/2008indagine sul concetto di ornamento in architettura, con particolare riferimento al pensiero di Ernesto N. Rogers, volta a definire un nuovo approccio all'ornamento nell'architettura contemporanea.XX Ciclo197