554 research outputs found
The God that failed. La tutela dei co-patterners nell’ordinamento internazionale ed europeo
Il lavoro analizza le possibili forme giuridiche di tutela dei co-patterners, nel contesto
dei “big data non personali”, nell’ordinamento internazionale ed europeo alla luce della
giurisprudenza della Corte europea dei diritti dell’uomo e di alcuni modelli normativi
previsti in Europa, come la procedura dei reclami collettivi prevista dalla Carta sociale
europea e alcuni meccanismi alternativi di soluzione delle controversie dell’Unione
europea.The paper analyzes the possible legal instruments of protection of co-patterners, in
the context of “non-personal big data” in international and European law in the light
of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and of some normative
models offered in Europe, eg the “collective complaints procedure” provided for by
the European Social Charter and some European Union alternative dispute resolution
mechanisms
Tomato ionomic approach for food fortification and safety.
Food fortification is an issue of paramount of importance for people living both in developed
and in developing countries. Among substances listed as "nutriceuticals", essential minerals have
been recognised for their involvement in several healthy issues, involving all ages. In this frame,
food plants are playing a pivotal role since their capability to compartmentalise ions and proteinmetal
complexes in edible organs. Conversely, the accumulation of high metal levels in those
organs may lead to safety problems. In the recent years, thanks to the availability of new and
improved analytical apparatus in both ionic and genomic/transcrittomics areas, it is became feasible
to couple data coming from plant physiology and genetics. Ionomics is the discipline that studies
the cross-analysis of both data sets. Our group, in the frame of GenoPom project granted by MiUR,
is interested to study the ionomics of tomatoes cultivars derived by breeding programmes in which
wild relatives have been used to transfer several useful traits, such as resistance to biotic or abiotic
stresses, fruit composition and textiture, etc. The introgression of the wild genome into the
cultivated one produces new gene combinations. They might lead to the expression of some traits,
such as increased or reduced adsorption of some metals and their exclusion or loading into edible
organs, thus strongly involving the nutritional food value. Our final goal is to put together data
coming from ions homeostasis and gene expression analyses, thus obtaining an ionomic tomato
map related to ions absorption, translocation and accumulation in various plant organs, fruits
included. To follow our hypothesis, we are studying the ionome of Solanum lycopersicum cv. M82
along with 76 Introgression Lines (ILs) produced by interspecific crosses between this cultivar and
the wild species S. pennellii. These ILs are homozygous for small portions of the wild species
genome introgressed into the domesticated M82 one. They are used as a useful tool for mapping
QTL associated with many traits of interest. It is worthy to note that, until now, little information is
available on QTL for ions accumulation in tomato. Moreover, as our knowledge, effects of new
gene combinations in introgressed lines on ions uptake related to food safety have not been
extensively studied. In this presentation we show results coming from the ionome analysis, carried
out on S . lycopersicum M82 and several ILs. Plants were grown in pots in a greenhouse and
watered with deionised water Thirty day-old plants were left to grow for 15 days in the presence of
non-toxic concentration of Cd, Pb, As, Cr and Zn given combined. Leaves of all plants were then
harvested and stored at -80°C for ionome and gene expression analyses. Preliminary results of
ionome analysis of S. lycopersicum M82 and several ILs, carried out using an ICP-MS, showed that
traits correlated to toxic metals and micronutrients accumulation in apical leaves were significantly
modified in response to specific genetic backgrounds. Those results are perhaps due to the
introgression of traits linked to uptake, translocation and accumulation of useful and/or toxic metal
into plant apical leaves and to interactions of the wild type introgressed genomic regions with the
cultivated genome. Also, data are shown on the identification and isolation of Solanum gene
sequences related to ions uptake, translocation and accumulation, useful for further real-time gene
expression evaluation in both cultivated and ILs during the treatments with the above-mentioned
metals
Proximity effect in planar superconducting tunnel junctions containing Nb/NiCu superconductor/ferromagnet bilayers
We present experimental results concerning both the fabrication and characterization of superconducting tunnel junctions containing superconductor/ferromagnet (S/F) bilayers made by niobium (S) and a weak ferromagnetic Ni0.50Cu0.50 alloy. Josephson junctions have been characterized down to T=1.4 K in terms of current-voltage I-V characteristics and Josephson critical current versus magnetic field. By means of a numerical deconvolution of the I-V data the electronic density of states on both sides of the S/F bilayer has been evaluated at low temperatures. Results have been compared with theoretical predictions from a proximity model for S/F bilayers in the dirty limit in the framework of Usadel equations for the S and F layers, respectively. The main physical parameters characterizing the proximity effect in the Nb/NiCu bilayer, such as the coherence length and the exchange field energy of the F metal, and the S/F interface parameters have been also estimated
Cardiovascular events and treatment of children with high risk medulloblastoma
Background: Children with high-risk medulloblastoma are treated with chemotherapeutic protocols which may affect heart function. We aimed to assesscardiovascular events (CVE) in children with medulloblastoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET). Methods: We retrospectively collected data from a case series of 22 children with high-risk medulloblastoma/PNET admitted to the Santobono-Pausilipon Hospital, Naples, Italy from 2008 to 2016. All patients received the Milan HART protocol for high-risk brain malignancies as first line treatment (induction phase), followed by a consolidation phase with Thiotepa and hematopoietic stem cells transplantation, except for 1 patient who received the Milan HART as second line therapy. Four patients also received second line treatment, while 4 patients also received maintenance therapy. Patients underwent cardiac examination, including ECG, echocardiography and serum biomarkers, before antineoplastic treatment initiation and then when clinically needed. Six patients developed CVE (CVE group); 16 patients had no CVE (NO-CVE group). Findings: In the CVE group, 3 patients presented acute CVE during chemotherapy (2 patients with left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, 1 patient with arterial hypertension), while 3 patients presented chronic CVE after chemotherapy completion (2 patients with LV dysfunction, 1 patient with ectopic atrial tachycardia). After a 51 months median follow-up, 9 patients died: 4 from the CVE group (in 2 cases heart failure-related deaths) and 5 from the NO-CVE group (progression of disease). Interpretation: A relevant percentage of children treated for medulloblastoma/PNET develops CVE. Heart failure potentially due to chemotherapy may represent a cause of death. Hence, in these patients, strict cardiac surveillance is essential. Funding: No funding was associated with this study
Italian version of the pittsburgh rehabilitation participation scale: Psychometric analysis of validity and reliability
Patient’s active participation in therapy is a key component of successful rehabilitation. In fact, low participation has been shown to be a prognostic factor of poor outcome; however, participation is rarely assessed in clinical settings. The Pittsburgh Rehabilitation Participation Scale (PRPS) is a validated, quick, and accurate measure of participation, relying on clinicians’ observation, and not requiring any self-report by patients. The aim of this study was to validate an Italian version of the PRPS. Following forward and back-translation of PRPS into Italian, the translated version was validated in a total of 640 therapy sessions, related to a cohort of 32 patients admitted to an Italian hospital. It was tested for concurrent validity, finding significant correlations with Barthel Index (R > 0.58, p < 0.001) and SF-36 Physical and Mental Health (R > 0.4, p < 0.02), for predictive validity, finding significant correlation with the effectiveness of rehabilitation (R = 0.358, p = 0.045), and for inter-rater and intra-rater reliability, computing an Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC = 0.926 and 0.756, respectively). These psychometric properties results were similar to those of the original version of this scale. The proposed PRPS can be helpful for Italian clinicians in the assessment of patient’s participation during rehabilitation
Neural correlates of egocentric and allocentric frames of reference combined with metric and non-metric spatial relations
Spatial relations (SRs: coordinate/metric vs categorical/non metric) and frames of reference (FoRs: egocentric/body vs allocentric/external element) represent the building blocks underlying any spatial representation. In the present 7-T fMRI study we have identified for the first time the neural correlates of the spatial representations emerging from the combination of the two dimensions. The direct comparison between the different spatial representations revealed a bilateral fronto-parietal network, mainly right sided, that was more involved in the egocentric categorical representations. A right fronto-parietal circuitry was specialized for egocentric coordinate representations. A bilateral occipital network was more involved in the allocentric categorical representations. Finally, a smaller part of this bilateral network (i.e. Calcarine Sulcus and Lingual Gyrus), along with the right Supramarginal and Inferior Frontal gyri, supported the allocentric coordinate representations. The fact that some areas were more involved in a spatial representation than in others reveals how our brain builds adaptive spatial representations in order to effectively react to specific environmental needs and task demands
Ion uptake and YSL1 gene identification in tomato
Tomato breeder are using wild tomato relatives, even non-cross compatibles ones, in order to
obtain cultivars with highly commercial values bearing new traits. However, the introgression of a
wild genome into the cultivated one produces a new gene combinations that may lead to the
expression of undeliverable traits, perhaps not so easy to recognise; even more, phenotypic
variations may escape during the selection procedure when minor genes or non-abnormal
phenotypes are involved. In the frame of the “GenoPom” project funded by MIUR, we have
focused our interest on the alteration of heavy metals uptake from the soil and their loading into
edible organs in commercial lines coming from Solanum interspecific crosses. Our final aim is to
put together data coming from ion homeostasis and gene expression analyses, thus obtaining a
ionomic map of tomato. To pursue our goal, we have started to study the cv M82 of Solanum
lycopersicon, the wild relative Solanum pennelli and their introgression lines IL. Regarding the
experiments on ion homeostasis, S. lycopersicon M82 and the introgression line IL 6-4-2 were
grown in hydroponics under controlled environmental conditions. Twenty day-old plants were left
to grow for 10 days in the presence of non-toxic concentration of Cd (10 mM), Pb (3 mM), Zn (100
mM) given separately or combined. Control and treated roots and leaves were then harvested and
stored at -80°C for ionic and gene expression analyses. Ions analysis of Solanum lycopersicon M82
and IL 6-4-2 showed that traits correlated to ionic homeostasis is significantly modified in response
to all metals and to the genotype. The analysis of ions data, obtained by ICP-MS, give a pictures of
the different responses performed both to different stress and to combined stress, probably
correlated to the up-regulation and/or down regulation of metal uptake proteins. Performed
experiments demonstrate that the introgression of the wild genome into the cultivated one produces
a new phenotype, perhaps due to the expression of traits linked to uptake, translocation and
accumulation of useful and/or toxic metal into plant tissues and organs.
Regarding the functional genomics approach for gaining insight into gene networks involved
in mineral-ion accumulation in tomato plants, in literature has been reported that at least 25 major
family genes are involved for metal homeostasis in plants. Among them, the genes ysl, hma, mtp,
znt, zrt have been already studied at least in the plant species Arabidopsis thaliana, A. halleri and
Thlaspi caerulescens. So far, no such genes have been reported to be cloned in Solanum species.
We have focused our study on the genes YSL1, ZNT1 and MTP1 responsible for uptake,
translocation and accumulation of metal such as zinc, cadmium, and iron into plant compartment.
For all of them, consensous sequences from nucleotide multialignment have been obtained. Then,
each of those were blasted in a Solanum EST collection databank and an assembled UniGene
sequence was obtained.. Finally, we have designed primers and performed PCR analysis on S.
lycopersicon and S. pennelli genomic DNA. So far, we have cloned a putative ysl1 sequence from
tomato, that has shown that a very high percentage of identity (92%) with whole ysl1 gene of
Nicotiana tabacum; the in silico translated sequence of this sequence has shown a 89% of identity
with the same tobacco protein
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