257 research outputs found
Molecular and enological characterization of autochthonous <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> strains isolated from grape-musts and wines Cannonau
Fermentation by autochthonous yeasts may produce wines with enological properties that are unique of a specific area or variety of grape must. In order to identify yeast starter strains for the production of the Sardinian wine Cannonau DOC, 66 Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, isolated from musts and wines Cannonau of six vitivinicole areas in Sardinia, were subjected to enological characterization and molecular identification. The RFLP-PCR fingerprinting of the ITS region of rRNA (ITS1-5,8S- ITS2) as well as ethanol, foam, and H2S production were analysed
Conference scene : Golden Helix Pharmacogenomics Days : educational activities on pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine
The Golden Helix Pharmacogenomics Days are high-profile international educational scientific meetings discussing pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine. Here, we provide an overview of the scientific lectures and the topics discussed during the 4th Golden Helix Pharmacogenomics Day, held in Cagliari, Italy, on 7 October 2011, and the 5th Golden Helix Pharmacogenomics Day, that was held in Msida, Malta, on 3 December 2011. The scientific programs of both events included scientific and company lectures on pharmacogenomics, bioinformatics and personalized medicine by local and international speakers from Europe and the USA.peer-reviewe
Vitiligo and autoimmune thyroid disorders
Vitiligo represents the most common cause of acquired skin, hair and oral depigmentation, affecting 0.5-1% of the population worldwide. It is clinically characterized by the appearance of disfiguring circumscribed skin macules following melanocyte destruction by autoreactive cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Patients affected by vitiligo usually show a poorer quality of life and are more likely to suffer from depressive symptoms, particularly evident in dark-skinned individuals. Although vitiligo is a non-fatal disease, exposure of affected skin to UV light increases the chance of skin irritation and predisposes to skin cancer. In addition, vitiligo has been associated to other rare systemic disorders due to presence of melanocytes in other body districts, such as in the eyes, auditory, nervous and cardiac tissues, where melanocytes are thought to have roles different from that played in the skin.
Several pathogenetic models have been proposed to explain vitiligo onset and progression, but clinical and experimental findings point mainly to the autoimmune hypothesis as the most qualified one. In this context, it is of relevance the strong association of vitiligo with other autoimmune diseases, in particular with autoimmune thyroid disorders, such as Hashimoto thyroiditis and Graves’ disease. In this review, after a brief overview of vitiligo and its pathogenesis, we will describe the clinical association between vitiligo and autoimmune thyroid disorders and discuss the possible underlying molecular mechanism(s)
Sparse Vicious Attacks on Graph Neural Networks
Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have proven to be successful in several
predictive modeling tasks for graph-structured data.
Amongst those tasks, link prediction is one of the fundamental problems for
many real-world applications, such as recommender systems.
However, GNNs are not immune to adversarial attacks, i.e., carefully crafted
malicious examples that are designed to fool the predictive model.
In this work, we focus on a specific, white-box attack to GNN-based link
prediction models, where a malicious node aims to appear in the list of
recommended nodes for a given target victim.
To achieve this goal, the attacker node may also count on the cooperation of
other existing peers that it directly controls, namely on the ability to inject
a number of ``vicious'' nodes in the network.
Specifically, all these malicious nodes can add new edges or remove existing
ones, thereby perturbing the original graph.
Thus, we propose SAVAGE, a novel framework and a method to mount this type of
link prediction attacks.
SAVAGE formulates the adversary's goal as an optimization task, striking the
balance between the effectiveness of the attack and the sparsity of malicious
resources required.
Extensive experiments conducted on real-world and synthetic datasets
demonstrate that adversarial attacks implemented through SAVAGE indeed achieve
high attack success rate yet using a small amount of vicious nodes.
Finally, despite those attacks require full knowledge of the target model, we
show that they are successfully transferable to other black-box methods for
link prediction
An Overview on the Current Status and Future Perspectives of Smart Cars
In recent years, the smart car sector has been increasing enormously in the Internet of Things (IoT) market. Furthermore, the number of smart cars seems set to increase over the next few years. This goal will be achieved because the application of recent IoT technologies to the automotive sector opens up innovative opportunities for the mobility of the future, in which connected cars will be more and more prominent in smart cities. This paper aims to provide an overview of the current status and future perspectives of smart cars, taking into account technological, transport, and social features. An analysis concerning the approaches to making smart a generic car, the possible evolutions that could occur in the coming decades, the characteristics of 5G, ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems), and the power sources is carried out in this paper.
Document type: Articl
PCR-based methods to discriminate Bacillus thuringiensis strains
Bacillus thuringiensis is a Gram positive bacterium that is used for the production of biopesticides. The toxic action of different strains and serovars ofB. thuringiensis can be extremely selective towards specific pests, or, in contrast, it can affect a wide variety of non-target organisms such as insects, vertebrates or humans. A reliable characterization of the cultivated strains is of primary importance for the biopesticide industry, in order to assess the contamination of the final product with strains with different pesticide actions or that might be dangerous for human health. The aim of this study was to develop useful methods for the typing of differentB. thuringiensis strains using two PCR-based methods, RAPD and Rep-PCR with BOXA1R and ERIC2 primers. The molecular fingerprints obtained using ERIC2-PCR showed a reliable ability to discriminateBacillus thuringiensis strains
The effects of surgical preparation techniques and implant macro-geometry on primary stability : an in vitro study
The attainment of a good primary stability is a necessary condition to ensure the success of osseointegration in implantology. In type IV cancellous bone, however, it is possible that a reduced primary stability can lead to an increased rate of failure. The aim of this study was therefore to determine, with the help of the resonance frequency (Osstell mentor), which technique of implant site preparation (piezo surgery, conventional, under-preparation, bone compaction, osteodistraction) and macro-geometry is able to improve implant stability in type IV cancellous bone. 10 pig ribs were prepared with a surgical pre-drilled guide, calibrated for a correct implant positioning. On each rib, 5 implant sites (one for each technique) were prepared. Successively, 50 conical implants (Tekka Global D) were inserted and measured with the resonance frequency to evaluate the primary stability. Data collected were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test whether the Implant Stability Quotient (ISQ) values of the five techniques were significantly different. The results showed that no significant differences among the ISQ values of the five techniques used were found. Also, no significant differences in the macro-geometry of the two types of compared implants were observed. However, the macro-geometry of Tekka implants, characterized by a double condensing thread, seems to provide greater ISQ values than those of single thread implants when using the same technique. In light of these preliminary data, it is conceivable that in cases of reduced stability, such as those occurring with a type IV bone, all means ameliorating the primary stability and accelerating the osseointegration can be utilized
Vespa crabro immunotherapy versus Vespula-venom immunotherapy in Vespa crabro allergy: a comparison study in field re-stings
Background: In ascertained allergic sensitization to Vespa crabro (VC) venom, the European guidelines still consider venom immunotherapy (VIT) with Vespula (VE) venom sufficient to achieve an adequate protection against VC. However, antigen 5 immunoblotting studies showed that a genuine sensitization to VC venom may exist. In such cases, a specific VC venom would be preferable for VIT treatment. Since in the last few years, VC venom extracts became available for diagnosis and desensitization, we assessed the efficacy and safety of VIT with a VC-VIT, compared to VE extract. Methods: Patients stung by VC, and carefully diagnosed for specific sensitization and indication to VIT underwent a 5-year course of immunotherapy with either VE or VC extracts. The severity of reactions at the first sting (pre-VIT) and after field re-stings (during VIT) were compared. Results: Eighty-three patients, treated with VE extract and 130 patients treated with VC extract completed the 5-year course of VIT. Only a fraction of those patients (43,8%) were field-re-stung by VC: 64 patients on VC VIT and 69 on VE VIT. In the VC VIT group, reactions at re-sting were: 50 negative, 12 large local reactions, 4 systemic reactions (Muller grade I). In this group the VC VIT efficacy was 93,8%. In the VE VIT treated group the reactions at VC re-sting were: 51 negative, 10 large local reactions and 9 systemic reactions (5 Muller I, 3 Mueller III, 1 Muller IV). In this group the overall efficacy of VIT was 87,0%. The difference in efficacy between the two groups was not statistically significant, as previously reported in literature. Nonetheless, field sting systemic reactions Muller III and IV were recorded only in those patients receiving VE VIT. Conclusion: This observation suggests that in patients with ascertained VC-induced allergic reactions a specific VC VIT, where available, would be more adequate, at least concerning the safety profile
Seborrheic keratoses mimicking melanoma unveiled by in vivo reflectance confocal microscopy
Background: Seborrheic keratoses (SebK) with atypical dermoscopy presentation are increasingly reported. These lesions do not exhibit typical dermoscopy features of SebK and sometimes mimic melanoma, thus complicating the differential diagnosis. Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is a non-invasive tool, which allows an in vivo imaging of the skin.
Objective: To evaluate the agreement between RCM classification and histological diagnoses, and the reliability of well-known RCM criteria for SebK in the identification of SebK with atypical dermoscopy presentation.
Methodology: We retrospectively analysed at RCM excised lesions presenting in dermoscopy 651 score at revisited 7-point checklist. The study population consisted of cases showing no melanocytic RCM findings. Lesions were investigated for distinct non-melanocytic RCM features, blinded from histopathology diagnoses. Histopathology matching was then performed before statistical analysis.
Results: The study consisted of 117 cases, classified at RCM as SebK (71 cases), dermatofibroma (DF; 18 cases), basal cell carcinoma (BCC; 13 cases), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC; 2 cases), and \u201cnon specific\u201d (13 cases). Overall K strength of agreement at histopathology matching proved 0.76. Of the 71 cases classified at RCM with SebK, agreement was achieved in 97%.
Conclusions: RCM classification proved high agreement with histopathology for SebK with atypical dermoscopy presentations, allowing an early differential diagnosis. RCM features in this group of lesions were similar to those described for typical cases of SebK, and may assist clinician therapy decision making, whilst avoiding unnecessary excisions
Approcci innovativi per la classificazione delle aree rurali: dagli indirizzi europei all’applicazione locale
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