La storia di Carlo: corpo e potere in "Petrolio" di P.P.Pasolini

Con il presente lavoro si intende indagare l'opera postuma di P.P.Pasolini, "Petrolio", attraverso la ricostruzione della "storia di Carlo" , protagonista del romanzo. Tramite un lungo commento del testo abbiamo cercato di leggere la scissione in due del personaggio e le quattro metamorfosi di genere in relazione alle riflessioni dell'autore sul tema del "nuovo potere": il consumismo, l'omologazione e la mutazione antropologica

VR for Cultural Heritage. A VR-WEB-BIM for the future maintenance of Milan’s Cathedral.

The work presented here is the final step of a multidisciplinary research project conducted on the Milan Cathedral for eight years (2008–2015). Three main topics, consequentially related, will be here addressed: (i) the survey of the structure, meant to update the old drawings; (ii) the construction of an accurate and detailed 3D model to be used to produce measurements at a 1:20–1:50 representation scale; (iii) the development of a Building Information System (BIM) to collect all the data relating to the restoration projects, as well as all information relating to past, current and future maintenance activities of the cathedral. The result of this research project is a complex and accurate digital 3D model of the main spire of the cathedral and of other parts of the building. This model can be visualized, navigated and used by the Veneranda Fabbrica technicians as an info-data catalogue, thanks to a common web browser connected with the remote BIM System Server and the modelling software where ad hoc I/O plugins are implemented. The last step of this long project was to take advantage of the nascent potential of immersive visualization techniques and to transpose the BIM system in a VR environment, thus obtaining two main results. The first was a high-appeal visualization system that allows a virtual visit of the Main Spire of the cathedral, the building’s highest part that has been closed to visitors since the beginning of the XX century. The second was the possibility to use this technology to virtually explore the cathedral from a technical point of view: by using an immersive visualization technology, operators can improve their understanding of the structure and obtain real-time information about the state of conservation, including current and past maintenance activities, in a sort of “augmented reality system in a virtual environment”

Learning mutational graphs of individual tumour evolution from single-cell and multi-region sequencing data

Background. A large number of algorithms is being developed to reconstruct evolutionary models of individual tumours from genome sequencing data. Most methods can analyze multiple samples collected either through bulk multi-region sequencing experiments or the sequencing of individual cancer cells. However, rarely the same method can support both data types. Results. We introduce TRaIT, a computational framework to infer mutational graphs that model the accumulation of multiple types of somatic alterations driving tumour evolution. Compared to other tools, TRaIT supports multi-region and single-cell sequencing data within the same statistical framework, and delivers expressive models that capture many complex evolutionary phenomena. TRaIT improves accuracy, robustness to data-specific errors and computational complexity compared to competing methods. Conclusions. We show that the application of TRaIT to single-cell and multi-region cancer datasets can produce accurate and reliable models of single-tumour evolution, quantify the extent of intra-tumour heterogeneity and generate new testable experimental hypotheses

Protection from cigarette smoke-induced vascular injury by recombinant human relaxin-2 (serelaxin)

Smoking is regarded as a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This study investigates whether serelaxin (RLX, recombinant human relaxin‐2) endowed with promising therapeutic properties in CVD, can be credited of a protective effect against cigarette smoke (CS)‐induced vascular damage and dysfunction. Guinea pigs exposed daily to CS for 8 weeks were treated with vehicle or RLX, delivered by osmotic pumps at daily doses of 1 or 10 μg. Controls were non‐smoking animals. Other studies were performed on primary guinea pig aortic endothelial (GPAE) cells, challenged with CS extracts (CSE) in the absence and presence of 100 ng/ml (17 nmol/l) RLX. In aortic specimens from CS‐exposed guinea pigs, both the contractile and the relaxant responses to phenylephrine and acetylcholine, respectively, were significantly reduced in amplitude and delayed, in keeping with the observed adverse remodelling of the aortic wall, endothelial injury and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) down‐regulation. RLX at both doses maintained the aortic contractile and relaxant responses to a control‐like pattern and counteracted aortic wall remodelling and endothelial derangement. The experiments with GPAE cells showed that CSE significantly decreased cell viability and eNOS expression and promoted apoptosis by sparkling oxygen free radical‐related cytotoxicity, while RLX counterbalanced the adverse effects of CSE. These findings demonstrate that RLX is capable of counteracting CS‐mediated vascular damage and dysfunction by reducing oxidative stress, thus adding a tile to the growing mosaic of the beneficial effects of RLX in CVD

Lurasidone in adolescents and adults with schizophrenia: from clinical trials to real-world clinical practice

Introduction: Lurasidone is an atypical antipsychotic agent approved in the European Union for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults and adolescents (13-17 years). Clinical trials have shown a generally favorable balance between efficacy and tolerability. Areas covered: This paper provides a review and commentary regarding the use of lurasidone in adults and adolescents with schizophrenia. The available information about efficacy, tolerability, dosing, and switching is analyzed, highlighting the strategies that may be most useful in real-world clinical practice. Virtual case studies, designed based on the authors' clinical experience with real-world patients, are provided. Expert opinion: Lurasidone is efficacious in adolescents and adults in a wide range of symptoms of schizophrenia. Choosing the right dose for each patient and combining lurasidone with other medications is key to treatment success. Lurasidone has proven effective both in adolescents and adults in treating the acute phase of schizophrenia and reducing the risk of relapse. It has shown a relatively favorable tolerability profile, with minimal effects on metabolic parameters and prolactin levels

Why lithium should be used in patients with bipolar disorder? A scoping review and an expert opinion paper

Introduction: Lithium treatment is considered the gold standard for the long-term management of bipolar disorder and recurrent unipolar depression. It is also extremely effective in other psychiatric conditions characterized by impulsivity and aggression, and for the prevention of suicidal behaviours. Areas covered: This paper provides a scoping review and an expert commentary regarding the use of lithium in adult patients. Available information about efficacy, tolerability, dosing, and switching is analyzed, and the strategies that may be most useful in real-world clinical settings are highlighted. Expert opinion: Lithium is effective on different domains of bipolar disorder, including the long-term prevention of recurrences of affective episodes, management of acute mania as well as in the prophylaxis of all affective episodes. Lithium has been defined a 'forgotten drug,' since its use in routine clinical practice has been declined over the last 20 or 30 years. Reasons for this trend include lack of adequate training on the management of lithium side effects. Considering its efficacy, use of lithium in ordinary clinical practice should be promoted. Several strategies, such as using slow-release formulations, can be easily implemented in order to minimize lithium side effects and improve its tolerability profile

Comfort Driven Redesign: The Case of Library Chairs

AbstractUniversity students spend most of their time in a sitting position. Prolonged sitting on ill-fitted furniture and the resulting lousy posture is making students having different musculoskeletal disorders and is strictly related to students learning outcomes. This study aims to improve postural comfort of chairs placed inside the Science & Technology Library at the University of Salerno. A previous study about these library chairs showed that the lumbar area was the most suffering part while perceived (dis)comfort was dependent on time. Based on this, an ergonomic redesign and, consequently, manufacturing of the chair has been done. A perceived-comfort comparison between the library chair and the redesigned one has been performed. A statistical sample of 28 healthy students performed a 20-min experiment two times, alternatively on the library chair and the redesigned one. The 20-min experiment was divided into two 10-min tasks ("Reading & Writing" and "Laptop use") to simulate a study day. The participants' postures were acquired non-invasively using cameras and processed by Kinovea; questionnaires were used to rate the perceived subjective (dis)comfort. A procedure for improving an existing product through a comfort-driven redesign is proposed. Results showed the redesigned library chair lead on increasing postural comfort (particularly in the lumbar area) thanks to the new design and modifications

HLA-E gene polymorphism associates with ankylosing spondylitis in Sardinia

Abstract INTRODUCTION: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a severe, chronic inflammatory disease strongly associated with HLA-B27. The presence of additional HLA risk factors has been suggested by several studies. The aim of the current study is to assess the occurrence of an additional HLA susceptibility locus in the region between HLA-E and HLA-C in the Sardinian population. METHODS: 200 random controls, 120 patients with AS and 175 HLA-B27 positive controls were genotyped for six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spanning the HLA region between HLA-E and HLA-C loci previously shown to harbour an additional susceptibility locus for AS. Allele, genotype and haplotype frequencies were compared. RESULTS: The data confirm our previous finding of a significant increase in patients with AS of allele A at SNP rs1264457 encoding for an Arg at the functional HLA-E polymorphism (Arg128/Gly128). This was due to a remarkable increase in the frequency of genotype A/A in patients vs HLA-B27-matched controls (51% vs 29%; P for trend: 5 x 10-5). Genotype distribution of three other SNPs mapping in genes (GNL1, PRR3 and ABCF-1) close to HLA-E and showing high LD with it, was also significantly skewed. Accordingly, haplotype distribution was also remarkably different. The frequency of the haplotype AAGA, is 42% in random controls, increases to 53% in the HLA-B27-positive controls, and reaches 68% in patients with AS (P values: 2 x 10-11 vs random and 3 x 10-4 vs HLA-B27 controls). CONCLUSIONS: There is a strong association between the presence of a haplotype in genes mapping between HLA-E and HLA-C and AS due to an increase of homozygous markers in patients. The strongest association however, is with the HLA-E functional polymorphism rs1264457. Since HLA-E is the ligand for the NKG2A receptor, these data point to the natural killer (NK) activity as possible player in the pathogenesis of AS