97 research outputs found
The ICO Phenomenon and Its Relationships with Ethereum Smart Contract Environment
Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) are public offers of new cryptocurrencies in
exchange of existing ones, aimed to finance projects in the blockchain
development arena. In the last 8 months of 2017, the total amount gathered by
ICOs exceeded 4 billion US$, and overcame the venture capital funnelled toward
high tech initiatives in the same period. A high percentage of ICOS is managed
through Smart Contracts running on Ethereum blockchain, and in particular to
ERC-20 Token Standard Contract. In this work we examine 1388 ICOs, published on
December 31, 2017 on icobench.com Web site, gathering information relevant to
the assessment of their quality and software development management, including
data on their development teams. We also study, at the same date, the financial
data of 450 ICO tokens available on coinmarketcap.com Web site, among which 355
tokens are managed on Ethereum blochain. We define success criteria for the
ICOs, based on the funds actually gathered, and on the behavior of the price of
the related tokens, finding the factors that most likely influence the ICO
success likeliness
High-Resolution 3D Survey and Visualization of Mesopotamian Artefacts Bearing Cuneiform Inscriptions
This paper presents some considerations
and experiences about the use of geomatic techniques in
surveying and representing small archaeological
artifacts, such as cuneiform tablets and other inscribed
objects with cuneiform writing. Scanning by hand-guided
structured light scanner and image processing on the 3D
models permits a wider range of possibilities in respect to
classical surveying methods and can help to improve the
readability of the text
The number of emergency department visits for psychiatric emergencies is strongly associated with mean temperature and humidity variations. Results of a nine year survey
Several disorders, such as renal colics, stroke, atrial fibrillation and others, are epidemiologically associated with seasonality and microclimatic variations. Although evidence is still limited, an association between psychiatric emergencies and seasonality has also been previously described. In order to elucidate the possible association between weather and incidence of psychiatric emergencies in a country with temperate climate, we analyzed the influence of day by day climate changes on the number of visits for psychiatric emergencies in an urban emergency department (ED) of northern Italy. All ED visits for psychiatric emergencies were retrieved from the hospital database from 2002 to 2010. The total number of ED visits was 725,812 throughout the study period, 11,786 of which for emergency psychiatric problems. We found a strong seasonal distribution of emergency psychiatric visits, peaking in summer and at the beginning of spring. The linear regression analysis showed a strong positive association between number of daily emergency psychiatric visits and mean daily air temperature (R=0.82; P<0.001), and an inverse association with mean daily air humidity (R=-0.52; P<0.001). These findings suggest that psychiatric disorders follow a significant seasonal variation, so that it may be advisable to strengthen psychiatric emergency services during the hottest months
Topical prophylaxis of conjunctivitis induced by high-dose cytosine arabinoside
We investigated the efficacy of dexamethasone plus diclofenac eye drops as prophylaxis for conjunctivitis induced by high-dose (HD) cytarabine (Ara-C). Sixty patients were randomized to receive either dexamethasone (group A, n=29) or dexamethasone plus diclofenac (group B, n=31). Conjunctivitis was experienced by 13/29 (45%) patients in group A, and 4/31 (13%) patients in group B (p 640.009). Twelve out of 13 patients in group A who developed ocular toxicity had grade 2-3 conjunctivitis whereas only one of four patients affected in group B experienced a similar grade of conjunctivitis. The incidence and severity of HD Ara-C-induced conjunctivitis are significantly reduced by combined dexamethasone/diclofenac prophylaxis
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
An ALMA survey of submillimetre galaxies in the COSMOS field: The extent of the radio-emitting region revealed by 3 GHz imaging with the Very Large Array
We determine the radio size distribution of a large sample of 152 SMGs in
COSMOS that were detected with ALMA at 1.3 mm. For this purpose, we used the
observations taken by the VLA-COSMOS 3 GHz Large Project. One hundred and
fifteen of the 152 target SMGs were found to have a 3 GHz counterpart. The
median value of the major axis FWHM at 3 GHz is derived to be kpc.
The radio sizes show no evolutionary trend with redshift, or difference between
different galaxy morphologies. We also derived the spectral indices between 1.4
and 3 GHz, and 3 GHz brightness temperatures for the sources, and the median
values were found to be and K. Three of the
target SMGs, which are also detected with the VLBA, show clearly higher
brightness temperatures than the typical values. Although the observed radio
emission appears to be predominantly powered by star formation and supernova
activity, our results provide a strong indication of the presence of an AGN in
the VLBA and X-ray-detected SMG AzTEC/C61. The median radio-emitting size we
have derived is 1.5-3 times larger than the typical FIR dust-emitting sizes of
SMGs, but similar to that of the SMGs' molecular gas component traced through
mid- line emission of CO. The physical conditions of SMGs probably render
the diffusion of cosmic-ray electrons inefficient, and hence an unlikely
process to lead to the observed extended radio sizes. Instead, our results
point towards a scenario where SMGs are driven by galaxy interactions and
mergers. Besides triggering vigorous starbursts, galaxy collisions can also
pull out the magnetised fluids from the interacting disks, and give rise to a
taffy-like synchrotron-emitting bridge. This provides an explanation for the
spatially extended radio emission of SMGs, and can also cause a deviation from
the well-known IR-radio correlation.Comment: 32 pages (incl. 5 appendices), 17 figures, 7 tables; accepted for
publication in A&A; abstract abridged for arXi
The polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) inhibitor NMS-P937 is effective in a new model of disseminated primary CD56+ acute monoblastic leukaemia
CD56 is expressed in 15–20% of acute myeloid leukaemias (AML) and is associated with extramedullary diffusion, multidrug resistance and poor prognosis. We describe the establishment and characterisation of a novel disseminated model of AML (AML-NS8), generated by injection into mice of leukaemic blasts freshly isolated from a patient with an aggressive CD56+ monoblastic AML (M5a). The model reproduced typical manifestations of this leukaemia, including presence of extramedullary masses and central nervous system involvement, and the original phenotype, karyotype and genotype of leukaemic cells were retained in vivo. Recently Polo-Like Kinase 1 (PLK1) has emerged as a new candidate drug target in AML. We therefore tested our PLK1 inhibitor NMS-P937 in this model either in the engraftment or in the established disease settings. Both schedules showed good efficacy compared to standard therapies, with a significant increase in median survival time (MST) expecially in the established disease setting (MST = 28, 36, 62 days for vehicle, cytarabine and NMS-P937, respectively). Importantly, we could also demonstrate that NMS-P937 induced specific biomarker modulation in extramedullary tissues. This new in vivo model of CD56+ AML that recapitulates the human tumour lends support for the therapeutic use of PLK1 inhibitors in AML
Tilmun (Dilmun). A. Philologisch
L'articolo presenta una sintesi aggiornata di quello che si conosce sull'antico Paese di Dilmun (Arabia orientale e Bahrein), oltre a fornire alcuni contributi originali e innovativi circa argomenti connessi
Goods from the Queen of Tilmun
Edizione di una lettera alla regina sumerica di Lagash da parte della regina di Tilmun e implicazioni storiche del documento in oggetto
Epigraphic Materials of Karkemish from the Middle Bronze Age
This article provides editions of all the cuneiform tablets and inscriptions from Karkemish dating to the Middle Bronze Age, as a well as a new reconstruction of the dynasty that ruled over the city in that period, on the basis of new data and/or new interpretations of old materials
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