Go East! I mercati adriatici come bacino di collaborazione e opportunit\ue0 di internazionalizzazione per le PMI del Nord Est

e Piccole e Medie Imprese (PMI) che approcciano i mercati internazionali risultano condizionate da almeno due fattori inibitori: la cosiddetta \u201cliability of foreigness\u201d \u2013 con cui si intende la scarsa conoscenza degli usi, costumi, delle leggi e delle istituzioni che caratterizzano un determinato mercato \u2013 e la \u201cliability of smallness\u201d. Quest\u2019ultima \u2013 anche intesa come \u201cvincolo dimensionale\u201d e pertanto riferita alla limitata disponibilit\ue0 di risorse e competenze a supporto dei processi di internazionalizzazione \u2013 rappresenta a detta di molti uno dei principali fattori che limitano il processo di espansione internazionale della piccola impresa

Novel 2-amino-isoflavones exhibit aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonist or antagonist activity in a species/cell-specific context

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) mediates the induction of a variety of xenobiotic metabolism genes. Activation of the AhR occurs through binding to a group of structurally diverse compounds, most notably dioxins, which are exogenous ligands. Isoflavones are part of a family which include some well characterised endogenous AhR ligands. This paper analysed a novel family of these compounds, based on the structure of 2-amino-isoflavone. Initially two luciferase-based cell models, mouse H1L6.1c2 and human HG2L6.1c3, were used to identify whether the compounds had AhR agonistic and/or antagonistic properties. This analysis showed that some of the compounds were weak agonists in mouse and antagonists in human. Further analysis of two of the compounds, Chr-13 and Chr-19, was conducted using quantitative real-time PCR in rat H4IIE and human MCF-7 cells. The results indicated that Chr-13 was an agonist in rat but an antagonist in human cells. Chr-19 was shown to be an agonist in rat but more interestingly, a partial agonist in human. Luciferase induction results not only revealed that subtle differences in the structure of the compound could produce species-specific differences in response but also dictated the ability of the compound to be an AhR agonist or antagonist. Substituted 2-amino-isoflavones represent a novel group of AhR ligands that must differentially interact with the AhR ligand binding domain to produce their species-specific agonist or antagonist activity and future ligand binding analysis and docking studies with these compounds may provide insights into the differential mechanisms of action of structurally similar compounds

Seminario di Linguistica e Didattica delle Lingue. Scritti in onore degli ottant’anni di Giovanni Freddi

Include, di Balboni: “La glottodidattica veneziana: una ‘scuola’?”, pp. 19-54

Occurrence of different Canine distemper virus lineages in Italian dogs

This study describes the sequence analysis of the H gene of 7 Canine distemper virus (CDV) strains identified in dogs in Italy between years 2002-2012. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the CDV strains belonged to 2 clusters: 6 viruses were identified as Arctic-like lineage and 1 as Europe 1 lineage. These data show a considerable prevalence of Arctic-like-CDVs in the analysed dogs. The dogs and the 3 viruses more recently identified showed 4 distinctive amino acid mutations compared to all other Arctic CDV

Hydrogen sulfide inhibits inflammatory pain and enhances the analgesic properties of delta opioid receptors

Chronic inflammatory pain is present in many pathologies and diminishes the patient’s quality of life. Moreover, most current treatments have a low efficacy and significant side effects. Recent studies demonstrate the analgesic properties of slow-releasing hydrogen sulfide (H2S) donors in animals with osteoarthritis or neuropathic pain, but their effects in inflammatory pain and related pathways are not completely understood. Several treatments potentiate the analgesic actions of δ-opioid receptor (DOR) agonists, but the role of H2S in modulating their effects and expression during inflammatory pain remains untested. In C57BL/6J male mice with inflammatory pain provoked by subplantar injection of complete Freund’s adjuvant, we evaluated: (1) the antiallodynic and antihyperalgesic effects of different doses of two slow-releasing H2S donors, i.e., diallyl disulfide (DADS) and phenyl isothiocyanate (P-ITC) and their mechanism of action; (2) the pain-relieving effects of DOR agonists co-administered with H2S donors; (3) the effects of DADS and P-ITC on the oxidative stress and molecular changes caused by peripheral inflammation. Results demonstrate that both H2S donors inhibited allodynia and hyperalgesia in a dose-dependent manner, potentiated the analgesic effects and expression of DOR, activated the antioxidant system, and reduced the nociceptive and apoptotic pathways. The data further demonstrate the possible participation of potassium channels and the Nrf2 transcription factor signaling pathway in the pain-relieving activities of DADS and P-ITC. This study suggests that the systemic administration of DADS and P-ITC and local application of DOR agonists in combination with slow-releasing H2S donors are two new strategies for the treatment of inflammatory pain

The antagonism of the prokineticin system counteracts bortezomib induced side effects: Focus on mood alterations

The development of neuropathy and of mood alterations is frequent after chemotherapy. These complications, independent from the antitumoral mechanism, are interconnected due to an overlapping in their processing pathways and a common neuroinflammatory condition. This study aims to verify whether in mice the treatment with the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (BTZ), at a protocol capable of inducing painful neuropathy, is associated with anxiety, depression and supraspinal neuroinflammation. We also verify if the therapeutic treatment with the antagonist of the prokineticin (PK) system PC1, which is known to contrast pain and neuroinflammation, can prevent mood alterations. Mice were treated with BTZ (0.4 mg/kg three times/week for 4 weeks); mechanical allodynia and locomotor activity were evaluated over time while anxiety (dark light and marble burying test), depression (sucrose preference and swimming test) and supraspinal neuroinflammation were checked at the end of the protocol. BTZ treated neuropathic mice develop anxiety and depression. The presence of mood alterations is related to the presence of neuroinflammation and PK system activation in prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and hypothalamus with high levels of PK2 and PKR2 receptor, IL‐6 and TNF‐α, TLR4 and an upregulation of glial markers. PC1 treatment, counteracting pain, prevented the development of supraspinal inflammation and depression‐like behavior in BTZ mice

Differential inflammation-mediated function of prokineticin 2 in the synovial fibroblasts of patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared with osteoarthritis

Prokineticin 2 (PK2) is a secreted protein involved in several pathological and physiological processes, including the regulation of inflammation, sickness behaviors, and circadian rhythms. Recently, it was reported that PK2 is associated with the pathogenesis of collagen-induced arthritis in mice. However, the role of PK2 in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or osteoarthritis (OA) remains unknown. In this study, we collected synovial tissue, plasma, synovial fluid, and synovial fibroblasts (SF) from RA and OA patients to analyze the function of PK2 using immunohistochemistry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, and tissue superfusion studies. PK2 and its receptors prokineticin receptor (PKR) 1 and 2 were expressed in RA and OA synovial tissues. PKR1 expression was downregulated in RA synovial tissue compared with OA synovial tissue. The PK2 concentration was higher in RA synovial fluid than in OA synovial fluid but similar between RA and OA plasma. PK2 suppressed the production of IL-6 from TNFα-prestimulated OA-SF, and this effect was attenuated in TNFα-prestimulated RA-SF. This phenomenon was accompanied by the upregulation of PKR1 in OA-SF. This study provides a new model to explain some aspects underlying the chronicity of inflammation in RA

Making GDPR Usable: A Model to Support Usability Evaluations of Privacy

We introduce a new model for evaluating privacy that builds on the criteria proposed by the EuroPriSe certification scheme by adding usability criteria. Our model is visually represented through a cube, called Usable Privacy Cube (or UP Cube), where each of its three axes of variability captures, respectively: rights of the data subjects, privacy principles, and usable privacy criteria. We slightly reorganize the criteria of EuroPriSe to fit with the UP Cube model, i.e., we show how EuroPriSe can be viewed as a combination of only rights and principles, forming the two axes at the basis of our UP Cube. In this way we also want to bring out two perspectives on privacy: that of the data subjects and, respectively, that of the controllers/processors. We define usable privacy criteria based on usability goals that we have extracted from the whole text of the General Data Protection Regulation. The criteria are designed to produce measurements of the level of usability with which the goals are reached. Precisely, we measure effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction, considering both the objective and the perceived usability outcomes, producing measures of accuracy and completeness, of resource utilization (e.g., time, effort, financial), and measures resulting from satisfaction scales. In the long run, the UP Cube is meant to be the model behind a new certification methodology capable of evaluating the usability of privacy, to the benefit of common users. For industries, considering also the usability of privacy would allow for greater business differentiation, beyond GDPR compliance.Comment: 41 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, and appendixe