Visualizing Co-Phylogenetic Reconciliations

We introduce a hybrid metaphor for the visualization of the reconciliations of co-phylogenetic trees, that are mappings among the nodes of two trees. The typical application is the visualization of the co-evolution of hosts and parasites in biology. Our strategy combines a space-filling and a node-link approach. Differently from traditional methods, it guarantees an unambiguous and `downward' representation whenever the reconciliation is time-consistent (i.e., meaningful). We address the problem of the minimization of the number of crossings in the representation, by giving a characterization of planar instances and by establishing the complexity of the problem. Finally, we propose heuristics for computing representations with few crossings.Comment: This paper appears in the Proceedings of the 25th International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2017

Fast Ultrahigh-Density Writing of Low Conductivity Patterns on Semiconducting Polymers

The exceptional interest in improving the limitations of data storage, molecular electronics, and optoelectronics has promoted the development of an ever increasing number of techniques used to pattern polymers at micro and nanoscale. Most of them rely on Atomic Force Microscopy to thermally or electrostatically induce mass transport, thereby creating topographic features. Here we show that the mechanical interaction of the tip of the Atomic Force Microscope with the surface of a class of conjugate polymers produces a local increase of molecular disorder, inducing a localized lowering of the semiconductor conductivity, not associated to detectable modifications in the surface topography. This phenomenon allows for the swift production of low conductivity patterns on the polymer surface at an unprecedented speed exceeding 20 $\mu m s^{-1}$; paths have a resolution in the order of the tip size (20 nm) and are detected by a Conducting-Atomic Force Microscopy tip in the conductivity maps.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, published in Nature Communications as Article (8 pages

“Bridging the Gap” Everything that Could Have Been Avoided If We Had Applied Gender Medicine, Pharmacogenetics and Personalized Medicine in the Gender-Omics and Sex-Omics Era

Gender medicine is the first step of personalized medicine and patient-centred care, an essential development to achieve the standard goal of a holistic approach to patients and diseases. By addressing the interrelation and integration of biological markers (i.e., sex) with indicators of psychological/cultural behaviour (i.e., gender), gender medicine represents the crucial assumption for achieving the personalized health-care required in the third millennium. However, ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are often misused as synonyms, leading to frequent misunderstandings in those who are not deeply involved in the field. Overall, we have to face the evidence that biological, genetic, epigenetic, psycho-social, cultural, and environmental factors mutually interact in defining sex/gender differences, and at the same time in establishing potential unwanted sex/gender disparities. Prioritizing the role of sex/gender in physiological and pathological processes is crucial in terms of efficient prevention, clinical signs’ identification, prognosis definition, and therapy optimization. In this regard, the omics-approach has become a powerful tool to identify sex/genderspecific disease markers, with potential benefits also in terms of socio-psychological wellbeing for each individual, and cost-effectiveness for National Healthcare systems. “Being a male or being a female” is indeed important from a health point of view and it is no longer possible to avoid “sex and gender lens” when approaching patients. Accordingly, personalized healthcare must be based on evidence from targeted research studies aimed at understanding how sex and gender influence health across the entire life span. The rapid development of genetic tools in the molecular medicine approaches and their impact in healthcare is an example of highly specialized applications that have moved from specialists to primary care providers (e.g., pharmacogenetic and pharmacogenomic applications in routine medical practice). Gender medicine needs to follow the same path and become an established medical approach. To face the genetic, molecular and pharmacological bases of the existing sex/gender gap by means of omics approaches will pave the way to the discovery and identification of novel drug-targets/therapeutic protocols, personalized laboratory tests and diagnostic procedures (sex/gender-omics). In this scenario, the aim of the present review is not to simply resume the state-of-the-art in the field, rather an opportunity to gain insights into gender medicine, spanning from molecular up to social and psychological stances. The description and critical discussion of some key selected multidisciplinary topics considered as paradigmatic of sex/gender differences and sex/gender inequalities will allow to draft and design strategies useful to fill the existing gap and move forward

Students with dyslexia between school and university: Post-diploma choices and the reasons that determine them. An Italian study.

Although the number of students with dyslexia enrolled in Italian universities is constantly growing, their presence remains relatively limited. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the choices made by students with dyslexia in relation to university studies, and the underlying reasons for their choices. This study also compares these choices for students with and without dyslexia. In all, 440 high school students and their families agreed to take part in this project. Socio‐demographic data was collected for the 47 students with dyslexia and 47 class‐matched students without dyslexia, along with information on their current schools and their future educational plans. A specially developed questionnaire was used for the students, in combination with structured interviews with their families. The results show significant differences between these groups regarding both choices for university studies and the underlying motivations for these choices. Furthermore, certain psychological and emotional factors are implicated here in the decisions of the students with dyslexia regarding both university studies and their underlying reasons. Future research is needed to further investigate these factors in the educational choices of students with dyslexia

A technology platform for automatic high-level tennis game analysis

Sports video research is a popular topic that has been applied to many prominent sports for a large spectrum of applications. In this paper we introduce a technology platform which has been developed for the tennis context, able to extract action sequences and provide support to coaches for players performance analysis during training and official matches. The system consists of an hardware architecture, devised to acquire data in the tennis context and for the specific domain requirements, and a number of processing modules which are able to track both the ball and the players, to extract semantic information from their interactions and automatically annotate video sequences. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the proposed combination of hardware and software modules is able to extract 3D ball trajectories robust enough to evaluate ball changes of direction recognizing serves, strokes and bounces. Starting from these information, a finite state machine based decision process can be employed to evaluate the score of each action of the game. The entire platform has been tested in real experiments during both training sessions and matches, and results show that automatic annotation of key events along with 3D positions and scores can be used to support coaches in the extraction of valuable information about players intentions and behaviours

Cell Toxicity Study of Antiseptic Solutions Containing Povidone-Iodine and Hydrogen Peroxide

The increasing incidence of periprosthetic joint infections (PJIs) has led to a growing interest in developing strategies to prevent and treat this severe complication. The surgical site's application of antiseptic solutions to eliminate contaminating bacteria and eradicate the bacterial biofilm has been increasing over time. Even though it has been proven that combining antimicrobials could enhance their activities and help overcome acquired microbial resistance related to the topical use of antibiotics, the toxicity of integrated solutions is not well described. This study aimed to evaluate the cytotoxicity of solutions containing povidone-iodine (PI) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), alone or in combination, after 1.3 and 5 min of exposure. Chondrocytes, tenocytes, and fibroblast-like synoviocytes were used for cytotoxicity analysis. Trypan blue stain (0.4% in PBS) was applied to evaluate the dead cells. All solutions tested showed a progressive increase in toxicity as exposure time increased except for PI at 0.3%, which exhibited the lowest toxicity. The combined solutions reported a reduced cellular killing at 3 and 5 min than H2O2 at equal concentrations, similar results to PI solutions