Diffraction-free light droplets for axially-resolved volume imaging

An ideal direct imaging system entails a method to illuminate on command a single diffraction-limited region in a generally thick and turbid volume. The best approximation to this is the use of large-aperture lenses that focus light into a spot. This strategy fails for regions that are embedded deep into the sample, where diffraction and scattering prevail. Airy beams and Bessel beams are solutions of the Helmholtz Equation that are both non-diffracting and self-healing, features that make them naturally able to outdo the effects of distance into the volume but intrinsically do not allow resolution along the propagation axis. Here, we demonstrate diffraction-free self-healing three-dimensional monochromatic light spots able to penetrate deep into the volume of a sample, resist against deflection in turbid environments, and offer axial resolution comparable to that of Gaussian beams. The fields, formed from coherent mixtures of Bessel beams, manifest a more than ten-fold increase in their undistorted penetration, even in turbid milk solutions, compared to diffraction-limited beams. In a fluorescence imaging scheme, we find a ten-fold increase in image contrast compared to diffraction-limited illuminations, and a constant axial resolution even after four Rayleigh lengths. Results pave the way to new opportunities in three-dimensional microscopy

New insight into the genomic structure of dog T cell receptor beta (TRB) locus inferred from expression analysis

Here is an updated report on the genomic organization of T cell receptor beta (TRB) locus in the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) as inferred from comparative genomics and expression analysis. The most interesting results we found were a second TRBD–J–C cluster, which is absent from the reference genome sequence, and the annotation of two additional TRBV genes. In dogs, TRB locus consists of a library of 37 TRBV genes positioned at the 50 end of two in tandem aligned D–J–C gene clusters, each composed of a single TRBD, 6 TRBJ and one TRBC genes, followed by a single TRBV gene with an inverted transcriptional orientation. The TRB genes are distributed in less than 300 kb, making the canine locus, one of the smaller mammalian TRB locus studied so far. The small size may be ascribed to reduced gene duplication occurrences and a lower density of total interspersed repeats compared to humans and mice. Despite the low TRBV gene content, a large and diversified beta chain repertoire is displayed in the dog peripheral blood. A full usage of TRBV and TRBJ genes, including pseudogenes, and a high level of allelic polymorphism contribute to generate diversity. Finally, this study suggests that the overall TRB locus organization is evolutionarily conserved supporting the dog as a highly suited model system for immune development and diseases

MRI analysis for Hippocampus segmentation on a distributed infrastructure

Medical image computing raises new challenges due to the scale and the complexity of the required analyses. Medical image databases are currently available to supply clinical diagnosis. For instance, it is possible to provide diagnostic information based on an imaging biomarker comparing a single case to the reference group (controls or patients with disease). At the same time many sophisticated and computationally intensive algorithms have been implemented to extract useful information from medical images. Many applications would take great advantage by using scientific workflow technology due to its design, rapid implementation and reuse. However this technology requires a distributed computing infrastructure (such as Grid or Cloud) to be executed efficiently. One of the most used workflow manager for medical image processing is the LONI pipeline (LP), a graphical workbench developed by the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (http://pipeline.loni.usc.edu). In this article we present a general approach to submit and monitor workflows on distributed infrastructures using LONI Pipeline, including European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) and Torque-based batch farm. In this paper we implemented a complete segmentation pipeline in brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It requires time-consuming and data-intensive processing and for which reducing the computing time is crucial to meet clinical practice constraints. The developed approach is based on web services and can be used for any medical imaging application

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the “spinal cord injury-falls concern scale” in the Italian population

Study design: Psychometrics study. Objective: The objective of this study was to develop an Italian version of the Spinal Cord Injury-Falls Concern Scale (SCI-FCS) and examine its reliability and validity. Setting: Multicenter study in spinal units in Northern and Southern Italy. The scale also was administered to non-hospitalized outpatient clinic patients. Methods: The original scale was translated from English to Italian using the “Translation and Cultural Adaptation of Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures” guidelines. The reliability and validity of the culturally adapted scale were assessed following the “Consensus-Based Standards for the Selection of Health Status Measurement Instruments” checklist. The SCI-FCS-I internal consistency, inter-rater, and intra-rater reliability were examined using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and the intraclass correlation coefficient, respectively. Concurrent validity was evaluated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient with the Italian version of the short form of the Wheelchair Use Confidence Scale for Manual Wheelchair Users (WheelCon-M-I-short form). Results: The Italian version of the SCI-FCS-I was administered to 124 participants from 1 June to 30 September 2017. The mean ± SD of the SCI-FCS-I score was 16.73 ± 5.88. All SCI-FCS items were either identical or similar in meaning to the original version’s items. Cronbach’s α was 0.827 (p < 0.01), the inter-rater reliability was 0.972 (p < 0.01), and the intra-rater reliability was 0.973 (p < 0.01). Pearson’s correlation coefficient of the SCI-FCS-I scores with the WheelCon-M-I-short form was 0.56 (p < 0.01). Conclusions: The SCI-FCS-I was found to be reliable and a valid outcome measure for assessing manual wheelchair concerns about falling in the Italian population

Collaborative robotics: Enhance maintenance procedures on primary flight control servo-actuators

Electro-Hydraulic Servo-Actuators (EHSAs) are mainly used to command primary flight control surfaces in military and commercial aircraft. Since these devices are crucial for vehicle stability and maneuverability, a correct assessment of their health status is mandatory. Within this framework, a joint research project (HyDiag), held by Politecnico di Torino and Lufthansa Technik AG (LHT), aims to provide a more efficient and reliable procedure to determine the operating conditions of the EHSA. A smart and automatic sequence, able to extract several health features of the Unit Under Test (UUT), has been developed and integrated. The present paper discusses the implementation of a collaborative robot, equipped with a vision system and customized tools, for both health features extraction, and maintenance tasks on unserviceable servo-actuators. The main challenges related to the automation of such complex tasks in a real working environment are highlighted, togetherwith the advantages brought by the proposed approach. The paper also presents the first results of an ongoing experimental campaign. Specifically, it reports the enhancements of the maintenance procedures using collaborative robotics and possible future developments

The engagement of citizen in the management of urban forests: the LIFE URBANGREEN experience in Krakow

How do we make the ecosystem services of urban green areas and their benefits against climate change visible in real-time and even more effective? The cities of Krakow (Poland) and Rimini (Italy), in conjunction with their technological and scientific partners, addressed these topics in the EU-project LIFE URBANGREEN (LIFE17 CCA/IT/000079). This project developed innovative tools to assist the green area managers in their daily work and tested the effectiveness of these tools in the parks and streets of Rimini and Kraków.To ensure a broad understanding of the LIFE URBANGREEN project, along with the promotion of the importance and values of urban greenery, communication activities played a crucial role in engaging citizens to these topics. The most relevant communication activities the project carried out were: -creating awareness on urban forests among the target audience; -calculating and understanding the value of ecosystem services provided by trees and green areas for the two analysed cities;-communicating the environmental benefits and the overall importance of trees to the citizen.An important communication channel developed within the project is the web portal “Trees of Krakow and their benefits” (https://krakow.lifeurbangreen.eu). Here citizens can consult the main green areas of the city and retrieve information including the benefits of these areas in terms of Carbon assimilation, sequestration and storage, air amelioration and ambient air cooling. The data displayed on the portal are calculated in real-time, based on the spatial database of trees of Krakow trees, daily updated during maintenance activities.The data on ecosystem services are based on new algorithms developed during the LIFE URBANGREEEN Project, which consider the tree species, their age and size, the current weather condition and transpiration coefficients developed by the scientific component of the project with measurements on hundreds of trees over a period of three years.Citizens showed great interest in the project activities. The Public Portals of Krakow and Rimini are registering high consultation numbers, also one year after the end of the LIFE URBANGREEN project. Since the environmental benefits served by urban trees are calculated dynamically and updated every night, the values represented reflect the actual situation of the two cities

Smart water management in urban forests: the approach of life urbangreen

Urban trees are exposed to increasing levels of stress due to extended droughts. This affects not only the health of the trees, but also the quantity of benefits which trees serve to the city environment. A tool to monitor the tree vigor, based on their characteristics, but also on meteorological data and on scientific parameters to estimate the transpiration rate, can be very effective to detect trees under stress and help maintainers with instructions on irrigation needs

Laniakea : an open solution to provide Galaxy &quot;on-demand&quot; instances over heterogeneous cloud infrastructures

Background: While the popular workflow manager Galaxy is currently made available through several publicly accessible servers, there are scenarios where users can be better served by full administrative control over a private Galaxy instance, including, but not limited to, concerns about data privacy, customisation needs, prioritisation of particular job types, tools development, and training activities. In such cases, a cloud-based Galaxy virtual instance represents an alternative that equips the user with complete control over the Galaxy instance itself without the burden of the hardware and software infrastructure involved in running and maintaining a Galaxy server. Results: We present Laniakea, a complete software solution to set up a \u201cGalaxy on-demand\u201d platform as a service. Building on the INDIGO-DataCloud software stack, Laniakea can be deployed over common cloud architectures usually supported both by public and private e-infrastructures. The user interacts with a Laniakea-based service through a simple front-end that allows a general setup of a Galaxy instance, and then Laniakea takes care of the automatic deployment of the virtual hardware and the software components. At the end of the process, the user gains access with full administrative privileges to a private, production-grade, fully customisable, Galaxy virtual instance and to the underlying virtual machine (VM). Laniakea features deployment of single-server or cluster-backed Galaxy instances, sharing of reference data across multiple instances, data volume encryption, and support for VM image-based, Docker-based, and Ansible recipe-based Galaxy deployments. A Laniakea-based Galaxy on-demand service, named Laniakea@ReCaS, is currently hosted at the ELIXIR-IT ReCaS cloud facility. Conclusions: Laniakea offers to scientific e-infrastructures a complete and easy-to-use software solution to provide a Galaxy on-demand service to their users. Laniakea-based cloud services will help in making Galaxy more accessible to a broader user base by removing most of the burdens involved in deploying and running a Galaxy service. In turn, this will facilitate the adoption of Galaxy in scenarios where classic public instances do not represent an optimal solution. Finally, the implementation of Laniakea can be easily adapted and expanded to support different services and platforms beyond Galaxy