Suppression of cell-spreading and phagocytic activity on nano-pillared surface: in vitro experiment using hemocytes of the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri.

Nano-scale nipple array on the body surface has been described from various invertebrates including endoparasitic and mesoparasitic copepods, but the functions of the nipple array is not well understood. Using the hydrophilized nanopillar sheets made of polystyrene as a mimetic material of the nipple arrays on the parasites\u2019 body surface, we assayed the cell spreading and phagocytosis of the hemocytes of the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri. On the pillared surface, the number of spreading amebocytes and the number of phagocytizing hemocytes per unit area were always smaller than those on the flat surface (Mann-Whitney test, p < 0.05 - 0.001), probably because the effective area for the cell attachment on the pillared surface is much smaller than the area on the flat sheet. The present results supports the idea that the nipple array on the parasites' body surface reduces the innate immune reaction from the host hemocytes

MARCUSE AND THE 1968 MOVEMENT

openIl sentore ogni giorno più insistente che il periodo della mia giovinezza stia venendo a coincidere con quella che gli storici chiamano congiuntura storica, è stato senza dubbio il motivo del mio profondo interesse per l’oggetto della mia tesi. Mai come in questa fase della mia seppur breve esistenza, i notiziari mi paiono i narratori di un’umanità in divenire, spedita a grandi falcate verso destinazioni inedite e capitoli nuovi della storia. Ecco perché il mio sguardo sulle cose e sui fatti – già per sua natura tendente al zooming out – è motivato dall’esigenza di cercare spiegazioni universali per questioni e problemi che, un figlio di un mondo interconnesso come il sottoscritto, percepisce come universali. Era quindi naturale che trovassi nella dimora dell’universale, la filosofia, l’ambito di ricerca per lo svolgimento di questa tesi. In particolare nella filosofia del professor Herbert Marcuse, esponente di spicco della Scuola di Francoforte, nonché uno dei più illustri fautori della teoria critica della società. Da un’attenta lettura delle sue opere ho tratto spunti di riflessione e numerosi punti di contatto fra le enunciazioni del filosofo e la realtà storica presente

Life history and ecological genetics of the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri

The colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri is a cosmopolitan, marine filter feeder, introduced as a laboratory research organism in the 1950s. Currently, it is widely used in many laboratories to investigate a variety of biological questions. Recently, it has become a species of concern, as it is an invasive species in many coastal environments. Here, we review studies on the geographical distribution of the species, sexual and asexual reproduction in the field, tolerance to temperature, salinity and anthropogenic activity, polychromatism, enzymatic polymorphism, and the genetic basis of pigmentation. Studying the relationship between genetic polymorphism and the adaptation of B. schlosseri to environmental stress is a challenge of future research and will improve our understanding of its evolutionary success and invasive potential

Echocardiography and Hemodynamic Monitoring Tools for Clinical Assessment of Patients on Mechanical Circulatory Support

Recent developments in ventricular assist devices have been quite remarkable. Rapid advances have been made particularly in terms of smaller size and more durable material and design. As a result, ventricular assist devices are increasingly being implanted in children and they are increasingly being used as a means of destination therapy for elderly patients with heart failure who are not eligible for heart transplantation. New issues have arisen as a result of these expanded indications. This book focuses on recent advances in ventricular assist devices itself and related issues

Levosimendan in critical illness: A literature review

Levosimendan, the active enantiomer of simendan, is a calcium sensitizer developed for treatment of decompensated heart failure, exerts its effects independently of the beta adrenergic receptor and seems beneficial in cases of severe, intractable heart failure. Levosimendan is usually administered as 24-h infusion, with or without a loading dose, but dosing needs adjustment in patients with severe liver or renal dysfunction. Despite several promising reports, the role of levosimendan in critical illness has not been thoroughly evaluated. Available evidence suggests that levosimendan is a safe treatment option in critically ill patients and may reduce mortality from cardiac failure. However, data from well-designed randomized controlled trials in critically ill patients are needed to validate or refute these preliminary conclusions. This literature review is an attempt to synthesize available evidence on the role and possible benefits of levosimendan in critically ill patients with severe heart failure

Survey on Aerial Multirotor Design: a Taxonomy Based on Input Allocation

This paper reviews the impact of multirotor aerial vehicles designs on their abilities in terms of tasks and system properties. We propose a general taxonomy to characterize and describe multirotor aerial vehicles and their design, which we apply exhaustively on the vast literature available. Thanks to the systematic characterization of the designs we exhibit groups of designs having the same abilities in terms of achievable tasks and system properties. In particular, we organize the literature review based on the number of atomic actuation units and we discuss global properties arising from their choice and spatial distribution in the designs. Finally, we provide a discussion on the common traits of the designs found in the literature and the main future open problems

BOLD Features to Detect Texture-less Objects

Object detection in images withstanding significant clut-ter and occlusion is still a challenging task whenever the object surface is characterized by poor informative content. We propose to tackle this problem by a compact and dis-tinctive representation of groups of neighboring line seg-ments aggregated over limited spatial supports and invari-ant to rotation, translation and scale changes. Peculiarly, our proposal allows for leveraging on the inherent strengths of descriptor-based approaches, i.e. robustness to occlu-sion and clutter and scalability with respect to the size of the model library, also when dealing with scarcely textured objects. 1

Triple-Cut Computer-Aided Design-Computer-Aided Modeling: More Oncologic Safety Added to Precise Mandible Modeling

PURPOSE: Computer-aided design-computer-aided modeling (CAD-CAM) has become standard in mandibular reconstruction because it offers better outcomes. Occasionally, the reconstructive plans need to be changed intraoperatively and the custom-made prefabricated devices may become inadequate. We present an efficient adjunct to the standard CAD-CAM technique that resolves this problem. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Customized surgical devices with our "triple-cut" concept were used in 5 patients for mandibular reconstruction with free fibula flap (4 after mandibular resection for squamous cell carcinoma and 1 after mandibular osteoradionecrosis). In all patients the mandibular and fibular cutting guides were provided with 3 different cutting levels per side. RESULTS: Three different cutting levels on the mandible permitted an accurate resection based on the intraoperative needs. The corresponding 3 "cutting levels" on the fibula created perfectly matching segments of vascularized bone. Good contact of bony segments was obtained in all patients. CONCLUSIONS: The prefabricated triple-cut cutting guides make changing the dimensions of bony resection, while still using the prefabricated CAD-CAM reconstructive plate, possible

Dual-mode wake-up nodes for IoT monitoring applications: Measurements and algorithms

Internet of Things (IoTs)-based monitoring applications usually involve large-scale deployments of battery-enabled sensor nodes providing measurements at regular intervals. In order to guarantee the service continuity over time, the energy-efficiency of the networked system should be maximized. In this paper, we address such issue via a combination of novel hardware/software solutions including new classes of Wake-up radio IoT Nodes (WuNs) and novel data- and hardware-driven network management algorithms. Three main contributions are provided. First, we present the design and prototype implementation of WuN nodes able to support two different energy-saving modes; such modes can be configured via software, and hence dynamically tuned. Second, we show by experimental measurements that the optimal policy strictly depends on the application requirements. Third, we move from the node design to the network design, and we devise proper orchestration algorithms which select both the optimal set of WuN to wake-up and the proper energy-saving mode for each WuN, so that the application lifetime is maximized, while the redundancy of correlated measurements is minimized. The proposed solutions are extensively evaluated via OMNeT++ simulations under different IoT scenarios and requirements of the monitoring applications