Art et Sciences Humaines au Lycée R.M. Adelaide, Aosta, Italie

Il progetto “ART et Sciences Humaines” ha attuato un approfondimento delle conoscenze, delle abilità e delle competenze delle discipline coinvolte partendo da moduli teorici che si sono declinati nella possibilità di fare esperienze pratiche sul campo sempre accompagnate da un'attenta osservazione partecipante da parte dell'alunno. Tale progettualità mira a attivare un cambiamento culturale, un'apertura mentale, un approccio più approfondito ad una tematica legata al mondo dell'arte tramite i seguenti passaggi attuativi: formazione, visita al Museo di Arte Moderna presso il Castello Gamba, studio e elaborazione di materiali didattici, esperienza pratica di attività di riflessione sull'arte con i bambini della scuola primaria, in lingua veicolare francese, accompagnata da una produzione artistica da parte dei bambini guidata dalle ragazze di IV A del Liceo delle Scienze Umane di AostaDas Projekt "Kunst und Geisteswissenschaften" hat Strategien entwickelt, um das Erlernen der Kunst und gleichzeitig der Zielsprache interessant und motivierend zu gestalten. Die Umsetzung des Projekts geht einher mit einer Vertiefung der Kompetenzen, des Wissens und der Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten in den betroffenen Disziplinen. Dies geschieht über Theorie-Module und praktische Erfahrungen. Die Schüler wurden bei ihrer Arbeit aufmerksamen und teilnehmend beobachtet. Dieses Projekt zielt darauf ab, den kulturellen Horizont zu erweitern, ein aufgeschlossenes Verhalten zu fördern und ein gründlicheres Herangehen an ein die Welt der Kunst betreffendes Thema zu ermöglichen. Dieses Ziel soll in vier Etappen umgesetzt werden: Ausbildung, Besuch des Museums für Moderne Kunst im Schloss Gamba, Herstellung und Entwicklung von Unterrichtsmaterialien, praktische Erfahrung in der Reflexion über künstlerische Aktivitäten bei Grundschulkindern, in der Unterrichtssprache Französisch, begleitet von künstlerischen Produktionen der Kinder, die von den Schülerinnen des humanistischen Gymnasiums von Aoste angeleitet werden.The "Art et Sciences Humaines" project conceived strategies to make studying art and the target language interesting and stimulating. It implied improving one’s knowledge, competence and expertise in the subjects concerned, based on theoretical modules leading to practical experience. The students were constantly called upon to observe closely and participate actively. The project aims to permit cultural change, an open mind, an in-depth approach of a subject connected to the world of art thanks to training, visiting the Museum of Modern Art in the Château Gamba, analyzing and developing educational material, and having the practical experience of thinking out artistic activities for primary school children in French. All this was accompanied by the pupils’ own artistic production, under the guidance of the girls in section IV-A at the Lycée des Sciences Humaines in Aosta

Diagnosis of bloodstream infections by mass spectrometry : present and future

Rapid identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of the causative agent(s) of bloodstream infections may impact on the clinical outcome of patients, which is directly related to the prompt administration of an effective antimicrobial therapy. Empirical antimicrobial therapy is chosen on the basis of clinical and epidemiological data and it is administered immediately after blood sampling but, in a significant number of cases, it has to be streamlined on the basis of the microbiological report. Rapid identification has a clinically relevant impact on the timely selection of an appropriate antimicrobial therapy, especially in low-prevalence areas for antimicrobial resistance. Recently, the identification process of isolated bacteria has been revolutionized by the introduction of mass spectrometry (MS), particularly MALDI-TOF, in clinical microbiology laboratories. Furthermore, MALDI-TOF is one of the most promising techniques for the identification of bacterial and fungal infectious agents directly from positive blood cultures and a potentially useful tool for the detection of antimicrobial resistance, specifically that conferred by -lactamases. Although blood culture remains, at present, the gold standard to diagnose bloodstream infections, newly developed MALDI-TOF methods are useful adjunctive tests to fasten the diagnostic process and further increase the diagnostic yield

A new rapid method for direct antimicrobial susceptibility testing of bacteria from positive blood cultures

Background: Rapid identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of the causative agent(s) of bloodstream infections can lead to prompt appropriate antimicrobial therapy. To shorten species identification, in this study bacteria were recovered from monomicrobial blood cultures by serum separator tubes and spotted onto the target plate for direct MALDI-TOF MS identification. Proper antibiotics were selected for direct AST based on species identification. In order to obtain rapid AST results, bacteria were recovered from positive blood cultures by two different protocols: by serum separator tubes (further referred to as PR1), or after a short-term subculture in liquid medium (further referred to as PR2). The results were compared with those obtained by the method currently used in our laboratory consisting in identification by MALDI-TOF and AST by Vitek 2 or Sensititre on isolated colonies. Results: The direct MALDI-TOF method concordantly identified with the current method 97.5 % of the Gram-negative bacteria and 96.1 % of the Gram-positive cocci contained in monomicrobial blood cultures. The direct AST by PR1 and PR2 for all isolate/antimicrobial agent combinations was concordant/correct with the current method for 87.8 and 90.5 % of Gram-negative bacteria and for 93.1 and 93.8 % of Gram-positive cocci, respectively. In particular, 100 % categorical agreement was found with levofloxacin for Enterobacteriaceae by both PR1 and PR2, and 99.0 and 100 % categorical agreement was observed with linezolid for Gram-positive cocci by PR1 and PR2, respectively. There was no significant difference in accuracy between PR1 and PR2 for Gram-negative bacteria and Gram-positive cocci. Conclusions: This newly described method seems promising for providing accurate AST results. Most importantly, these results would be available in a few hours from blood culture positivity, which would help clinicians to promptly confirm or streamline an effective antibiotic therapy in patients with bloodstream infections

Transthyretin binding heterogeneity and antiamyloidogenic activity of natural polyphenols and their metabolites

Transthyretin (TTR) is an amyloidogenic protein, the amyloidogenic potential of which is enhanced by a number of specific point mutations. The ability to inhibit TTR fibrillogenesis is known for several classes of compounds, including natural polyphenols, which protect the native state of TTR by specifically interacting with its thyroxine binding sites. Comparative analyses of the interaction and of the ability to protect the TTR native state for polyphenols, both stilbenoids and flavonoids, and some of their main metabolites have been carried out. A main finding of this investigation was the highly preferential binding of resveratrol and thyroxine, both characterized by negative binding cooperativity, to distinct sites in TTR, consistent with the data of x-ray analysis of TTR in complex with both ligands. Although revealing the ability of the two thyroxine binding sites of TTR to discriminate between different ligands, this feature has allowed us to evaluate the interactions of polyphenols with both resveratrol and thyroxine preferential binding sites, by using resveratrol and radiolabeled T4 as probes. Among flavonoids, genistein and apigenin were able to effectively displace resveratrol from its preferential binding site, whereas genistein also showed the ability to interact, albeit weakly, with the preferential thyroxine binding site. Several glucuronidated polyphenol metabolites did not exhibit significant competition for resveratrol and thyroxine preferential binding sites and lacked the ability to stabilize TTR. However, resveratrol-3-O-sulfate was able to significantly protect the protein native state. A rationale for the in vitro properties found for polyphenol metabolites was provided by x-ray analysis of their complexes with TTR

Sanitary problems related to the presence of Ostreopsis spp. in the Mediterranean Sea: a multidisciplinary scientific approach

The increased presence of potentially toxic microalgae in the Mediterranean area is a matter of great concern. Since the end of the last century, microalgae of the genus Ostreopsis have been detected more and more frequently in the Italian coastal waters. The presence of Ostreopsis spp. has been accompanied by the presence of previously undetected marine biotoxins (palytoxins) into the ecosystem with the increased possibility of human exposure. In response to the urgent need for toxicity characterization of palytoxin and its congeners, an integrated study encompassing both in vitro and in vivo methods was performed

Biochar addition in the anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste for biogas production

The continuous decline of fossil fuel availability and the ever increasing concern about environmental pollution, expressed by scientists, governments and public at large, are stimulating the research on renewable energy production. In this perspective, anaerobic digestion (AD) of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) is recently meeting with increasing interest. It is a process viable both from an economic and technological standpoints, capable to combine the environmental friendly re-cycle of large amount of OFMSW combined to the production of methane, an excellent fossil-based fuels substitute (Chatterjee and Mazumder, 2016). Please click on the file below for full content of the abstract

The Current State of Validation of Administrative Healthcare Databases in Italy: A Systematic Review

Background: Administrative healthcare databases are widely present in Italy. Our aim was to describe the current state of healthcare databases validity in terms of discharge diagnoses (according to the International Classification of Diseases, ICD-9 code) and their output in terms of research.Methods: A systematic search of electronic databases including Medline and Embase (1995-2013) and of local sources was performed. Inclusion criteria were: healthcare databases in any Italian territory routinely and passively collecting data; medical investigations or procedures at patient level data; the use of a validation process. The quality of studies was evaluated using the STARD criteria. Citations of the included studies were explored using Scopus and Google Scholar.Results: The search strategy allowed the identification of 16 studies of which 3 were in Italian. Thirteen studies used regional administrative databases from Lombardia, Piemonte, Lazio, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto. The ICD-9 codes of the following diseases were successfully validated: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (3 studies in four different regional administrative databases), stroke (3 studies), gastrointestinal bleeding (1 study), thrombocytopenia (1 study), epilepsy (1 study), infection (1 study), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (1 study), Guillain-Barre syndrome (1 study), and cancer diseases (4 studies). The quality of reporting was variable among the studies. Only 6 administrative databases produced further research related to the validated ICD-9 codes.Conclusion: Administrative healthcare databases in Italy need an extensive process of validation for multiple diagnostic codes to perform high quality epidemiological and health services research

Avances en procesadores de lenguajes y proof-carrying code

En este trabajo se presentan las líneas del grupo de investigación “Procesadores de Lenguajes” perteneciente al Departamento de Computación de la UNRC. Los aspectos fundamentales son la creación de modelos y herramientas de última generación para la generación de procesadores de lenguajes incluyendo la generación de Código Móvil Seguro. Se reseñan los trabajos del último año que han permitido: construir un generador de analizadores léxicos traductores, construir un generador de evaluadores concurrentes sin comunicación de gramáticas de atributos, realizar un análisis comparativo de los generadores de procesadores de lenguajes más usados y de Japlage y definir un lenguaje assembler tipado para la ejecución segura de código móvil no confiable. Además, se presentan los trabajos iniciados por el grupo destacando la obtención de un prototipo de un compilador certificante y entorno de ejecución para Proof-Carrying Code (PCC) –una técnica para garantizar código móvil seguro-.Eje: Teoría de la ComputaciónRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Avances en procesadores de lenguajes y proof-carrying code

En este trabajo se presentan las líneas del grupo de investigación “Procesadores de Lenguajes” perteneciente al Departamento de Computación de la UNRC. Los aspectos fundamentales son la creación de modelos y herramientas de última generación para la generación de procesadores de lenguajes incluyendo la generación de Código Móvil Seguro. Se reseñan los trabajos del último año que han permitido: construir un generador de analizadores léxicos traductores, construir un generador de evaluadores concurrentes sin comunicación de gramáticas de atributos, realizar un análisis comparativo de los generadores de procesadores de lenguajes más usados y de Japlage y definir un lenguaje assembler tipado para la ejecución segura de código móvil no confiable. Además, se presentan los trabajos iniciados por el grupo destacando la obtención de un prototipo de un compilador certificante y entorno de ejecución para Proof-Carrying Code (PCC) –una técnica para garantizar código móvil seguro-.Eje: Teoría de la ComputaciónRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI