Detection of Solar Coronal Mass Ejections from Raw Images with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are massive releases of plasma from the solar corona. When the charged material is ejected towards the Earth, it can cause geomagnetic storms and severely damage electronic equipment and power grids. Early detection of CMEs is therefore crucial for damage containment. In this paper, we study detection of CMEs from sequential images of the solar corona acquired by a satellite. A low-complexity deep neural network is trained to process the raw images, ideally directly on the satellite, in order to provide early alerts

Immune response to tick-borne hemoparasites: Host adaptive immune response mechanisms as potential targets for therapies and vaccines

Tick-transmitted pathogens cause infectious diseases in both humans and animals. Different types of adaptive immune mechanisms could be induced in hosts by these microorganisms, triggered either directly by pathogen antigens or indirectly through soluble factors, such as cytokines and/or chemokines, secreted by host cells as response. Adaptive immunity effectors, such as antibody secretion and cytotoxic and/or T helper cell responses, are mainly involved in the late and long-lasting protective immune response. Proteins and/or epitopes derived from pathogens and tick vectors have been isolated and characterized for the immune response induced in different hosts. This review was focused on the interactions between tick-borne pathogenic hemoparasites and different host effector mechanisms of T-and/or B cell-mediated adaptive immunity, describing the efforts to define immunodominant proteins or epitopes for vaccine development and/or immunotherapeutic purposes. A better understanding of these mechanisms of host immunity could lead to the assessment of possible new immunotherapies for these pathogens as well as to the prediction of possible new candidate vaccine antigens

Recent Advances on the Innate Immune Response to Coxiella burnetii.

Coxiella burnetii is an obligate intracellular Gram-negative bacterium and the causative agent of a worldwide zoonosis known as Q fever. The pathogen invades monocytes and macrophages, replicating within acidic phagolysosomes and evading host defenses through different immune evasion strategies that are mainly associated with the structure of its lipopolysaccharide. The main transmission routes are aerosols and ingestion of fomites from infected animals. The innate immune system provides the first host defense against the microorganism, and it is crucial to direct the infection towards a self-limiting respiratory disease or the chronic form. This review reports the advances in understanding the mechanisms of innate immunity acting during C. burnetii infection and the strategies that pathogen put in place to infect the host cells and to modify the expression of specific host cell genes in order to subvert cellular processes. The mechanisms through which different cell types with different genetic backgrounds are differently susceptible to C. burnetii intracellular growth are discussed. The subsets of cytokines induced following C. burnetii infection as well as the pathogen influence on an inflammasome-mediated response are also described. Finally, we discuss the use of animal experimental systems for studying the innate immune response against C. burnetii and discovering novel methods for prevention and treatment of disease in humans and livestock

Nel parco di Miramare: dodici statue per Massimiliano

Il volume analizza la statuaria presente nel Castello e nel Parco di Miramare a Trieste, con riferimento alle acquisizioni di Massimiliano d'Asburgo. L'Arciduca si affid\uf2 a una ditta berlinese, la Moritz Geiss, per impreziosire spazi destinati alla rappresentanza - piazzali del castello e del castelletto, parterre, porticciolo - con statue in zinco prodotte in serie e selezionabili da un carnet edito nel 1863. La serialit\ue0 della produzione e la scelta di soggetti, imitazione di statue dell'antichit\ue0 classica, vengono ricontestualizzate poi dai giochi fotografici di Enzo Navarra, che ricolloca le statue di Miramare in luoghi impossibili attraverso il concetto di moltiplicazione

Data for: Acute upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage from a pseudoaneurysm of an unusual superior polar artery of the spleen.

Abstract: Splenic artery aneurysm and pseudoaneurysm are rare pathologies and uncommon causes of massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding. They represent the third most common intra-abdominal aneurysms. Variations in the origin of splenic artery are relatively common and asymptomatic. However, the presence of an accessory splenic artery that is symptomatic is quite atypical. In this report, we describe the case of a 73-year-old female who presented with massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding caused by a pseudoaneurysm of a superior polar artery with an unusual anatomical origin. The patient was successfully treated endovascularly with transarterial coil embolization. Early diagnosis and interventional management is crucial for patient’s survival; hence, it must be kept in mind as possible etiology of life-threatening gastrointestinal bleeding to reduce morbidity and mortality

Effetti delle modificazioni artificiali del microclima sulla qualità dell’uva della cv ‘Pinot nero’

Sono stati studiati gli effetti, sulla qualità dell’uva della cv Pinot nero, di defogliazione della zona dei grappoli, effettuata all’allegagione e all’invaiatura, e della copertura della zona dei grappoli con reti di diversi strati e mantenuta sulla fascia produttiva dall’allegagione all’invaiatura, dall’allegagione alla raccolta e dall’invaiatura alla raccolta. I risultati hanno mostrato che gli zuccheri sono diminuiti in relazione alla riduzione precoce di superficie fogliare. Una defogliazione effettuata ad allegagione completata ha determinato un aumento di antociani e flavonoidi. Tuttavia la ricerca ha messo in evidenza il ruolo significativo della temperatura sulla sintesi degli antociani più che di quello della luce ricevuta dai grappoli. L’abbattimento della radiazione solare con la copertura con rete dall’allegagione in poi ha determinato una riduzione della sintesi delle proantocianidine e dei polifenoli totali piuttosto che di antociani. I fenomeni di degradazione di tutti i polifenoli sono stati più intensi nelle tesi defogliate e quando la rete veniva rimossa all’invaiatura

Seroprevalence of borrelia burgdorferi in stray dogs from southern italy

Borrelia burgdorferi is a bacterial pathogen transmitted by Ixodes ticks and is responsible for Lyme disease in both humans and dogs. The aim of this work was to evaluate B. burgdorferi diffusion among stray dogs in Palermo (Sicily, Italy) by serological methods in order to study the risk factors associated with the infection. Serum and blood samples of 316 dogs were collected from a shelter in Palermo, and were analyzed for the presence of antibodies against B. burgdorferi by indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA), and of the ospA gene by real-time PCR, respectively. Seventeen sera (5.4%) were positive for the antibodies via IFA and one blood (0.3%) for ospA via real time PCR. On the basis of serological results, the evaluation of the potential risk factors (sex, age, breed and coat color) was carried out. The multivariate analysis indicated that male sex is a factor significantly associated with B. burgdorferi seropositivity. This study confirms that male dogs have a higher risk of developing the disease than females, and represents the first investigation on the spread of B. burgdorferi among stray dogs in Sicily