Analisi di stabilità di un pendio detritico montano tramite impiego di georadar installato su drone

Il presente lavoro descrive le attività svolte in merito alla verifica della stabilità di un pendio detritico naturale posto in zona montana di difficile accesso nella catena delle Alpi Occidentali. I dati necessari alle analisi sono stati raccolti ed elaborati attraverso tecniche geomatiche quali, in particolare, rilievi fotogrammetrici con drone con lo scopo di acquisire delle foto prospettiche dalle quali produrre una nuvola di punti georeferenziata e successivamente un ortofotomosaico. Il rilievo è stato eseguito con un drone tipo DJI Mavic 2 Pro. Contestualmente ai rilievi fotogrammetrici sono stati eseguiti rilievi topografici di Ground Control Points necessari nella fase di orientamento esterno dei fotogrammi. I fotogrammi sono stati elaborati utilizzando il software Agisoft Metashape. La nuvola 3D densa prodotta è stata successivamente interpolata in modo da generare un modello digitale denso della superficie (DDSM) in formato raster. Sulla base del DDSM sono state ortocorrette le immagini fotografiche ottenendo degli ortofotomosaici. Allo scopo di determinare lo spessore della coltre detritica naturale al di sopra del bedrock, sono stati eseguiti 2 rilievi geofisici utilizzando lo strumento COBRA Plug‐In GPR Model SE-150, installato su drone DJI M600Pro. L’indagine si è svolta sorvolandolo direttamente l’area di interesse a circa 1.5 metri dalla superficie e raggiungendo aree altrimenti non investigabili per motivi di sicurezza. I dati del rilievo georadar sono stati elaborati con l’ausilio dell’applicativo PRISM® 2.6. La nuvola di punti 3D ottenuta dal rilievo fotogrammetrico ha permesso la ricostruzione delle corrette geometrie del corpo detritico naturale. Tramite il software open source CloudCompare Omnia, sono stati selezionati profili rappresentativi dell’area di interesse in seguito importati all’interno del software RocScience Slide2. La ricostruzione della profondità del contatto tra la copertura detritica e il bedrock è stata eseguita estrapolando le informazioni ricavate dalle tracce georadar più prossime al profilo di interesse. Le verifiche sono state effettuate valutando diversi scenari quali: condizioni statiche, dinamiche con presenza di sisma, condizioni statiche con presenza di neve e dinamiche con presenza contemporanea di neve e sisma. L’impiego del georadar installato su un drone si è dimostrato un ottimo metodo di indagine in situazioni in cui l’area di studio risulta essere inaccessibile alle classiche analisi geofisiche per motivi morfologici e di sicurezza. La combinazione quindi di dati ottenuti tramite rilievi topo-cartografici e areofotogrammetrici con rilievo geofisico da drone ha permesso lo studio della stabilità di un versante naturale in area critica

Researchers, trainers and first responders: a synergy for an improved prevention of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear risks in south-east Asian countries.

Italian scientists active in national research and academic institutions have been collaborating since 2013, under the aegis of the EU Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence, with governmental stakeholders and technical partners, in nine countries of South-East Asia, in order to enhance the local capabilities in preventing, monitoring and responding to CBRN incidents due to intentional, accidental or natural causes. The initiatives implied training courses, didactical sessions, live simulations, table-top exercises and interactive train-the-trainer sessions, in the presence of European and local experts, with trans-disciplinary competences covering areas such as chemistry, biology, toxicology, medicine, engineering, law and international right

The still under-investigated role of cognitive deficits in PML diagnosis

Background: Despite cognitive deficits frequently represent the first clinical manifestations of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML) in Natalizumab-treated MS patients, the importance of cognitive deficits in PML diagnosis is still under-investigated. The aim of the current study is to investigate the cognitive deficits at PML diagnosis in a group of Italian patients with PML. Methods: Thirty-four PML patients were included in the study. The demographic and clinical data, the lesion load and localization, and the longitudinal clinical course was compared between patients with (n = 13) and without (n = 15) cognitive deficit upon PML suspicion (the remaining six patients were asymptomatic). Clinical presentation of cognitive symptoms was described in detail. Result: After symptoms detection, the time to diagnosis resulted to be shorter for patients presenting with cognitive than for patients with non cognitive onset (p = 0.03). Within patients with cognitive onset, six patients were presenting with language and/or reading difficulties (46.15%); five patients with memory difficulties (38.4%); three patients with apraxia (23.1%); two patients with disorientation (15.3%); two patients with neglect (15.3%); one patients with object agnosia (7.7%), one patient with perseveration (7.7%) and one patient with dementia (7.7%). Frontal lesions were less frequent (p = 0.03), whereas temporal lesions were slightly more frequent (p = 0.06) in patients with cognitive deficits. The longitudinal PML course seemed to be more severe in cognitive than in non cognitive patients (F = 2.73, p = 0.03), but differences disappeared (F = 1.24, p = 0.29) when balancing for the incidence of immune reconstitution syndrome and for other treatments for PML (steroids, plasma exchange (PLEX) and other therapies (Mefloquine, Mirtazapine, Maraviroc). Conclusion: Cognitive deficits at PML onset manifest with symptoms which are absolutely rare in MS. Their appearance in MS patients should strongly suggest PML. Clinicians should be sensitive to the importance of formal neuropsychological evaluation, with particular focus on executive function, which are not easily detected without a formal assessment

Genomic analysis reveals the molecular basis for capsule loss in the group B Streptococcus population

The human and bovine bacterial pathogen Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococcus, GBS) expresses a thick polysaccharide capsule that constitutes a major virulence factor and vaccine target. GBS can be classified into ten distinct serotypes differing in the chemical composition of their capsular polysaccharide. However, non-typeable strains that do not react with anti-capsular sera are frequently isolated from colonized and infected humans and cattle. To gain a comprehensive insight into the molecular basis for the loss of capsule expression in GBS, a collection of well-characterized non-typeable strains was investigated by genome sequencing. Genome based phylogenetic analysis extended to a wide population of sequenced strains confirmed the recently observed high clonality among GBS lineages mainly containing human strains, and revealed a much higher degree of diversity in the bovine population. Remarkably, non-typeable strains were equally distributed in all lineages. A number of distinct mutations in the cps operon were identified that were apparently responsible for inactivation of capsule synthesis. The most frequent genetic alterations were point mutations leading to stop codons in the cps genes, and the main target was found to be cpsE encoding the portal glycosyl trasferase of capsule biosynthesis. Complementation of strains carrying missense mutations in cpsE with a wild-type gene restored capsule expression allowing the identification of amino acid residues essential for enzyme activity

CNF1 Improves Astrocytic Ability to Support Neuronal Growth and Differentiation In vitro

Modulation of cerebral Rho GTPases activity in mice brain by intracerebral administration of Cytotoxic Necrotizing Factor 1 (CNF1) leads to enhanced neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity and improves learning and memory. To gain more insight into the interactions between CNF1 and neuronal cells, we used primary neuronal and astrocytic cultures from rat embryonic brain to study CNF1 effects on neuronal differentiation, focusing on dendritic tree growth and synapse formation, which are strictly modulated by Rho GTPases. CNF1 profoundly remodeled the cytoskeleton of hippocampal and cortical neurons, which showed philopodia-like, actin-positive projections, thickened and poorly branched dendrites, and a decrease in synapse number. CNF1 removal, however, restored dendritic tree development and synapse formation, suggesting that the toxin can reversibly block neuronal differentiation. On differentiated neurons, CNF1 had a similar effacing effect on synapses. Therefore, a direct interaction with CNF1 is apparently deleterious for neurons. Since astrocytes play a pivotal role in neuronal differentiation and synaptic regulation, we wondered if the beneficial in vivo effect could be mediated by astrocytes. Primary astrocytes from embryonic cortex were treated with CNF1 for 48 hours and used as a substrate for growing hippocampal neurons. Such neurons showed an increased development of neurites, in respect to age-matched controls, with a wider dendritic tree and a richer content in synapses. In CNF1-exposed astrocytes, the production of interleukin 1β, known to reduce dendrite development and complexity in neuronal cultures, was decreased. These results demonstrate that astrocytes, under the influence of CNF1, increase their supporting activity on neuronal growth and differentiation, possibly related to the diminished levels of interleukin 1β. These observations suggest that the enhanced synaptic plasticity and improved learning and memory described in CNF1-injected mice are probably mediated by astrocytes

Displayed correlation between gene expression profiles and submicroscopic alterations in response to cetuximab, gefitinib and EGF in human colon cancer cell lines

Background: EGFR is frequently overexpressed in colon cancer. We characterized HT-29 and Caco-2, human colon cancer cell lines, untreated and treated with cetuximab or gefitinib alone and in combination with EGF. Methods: Cell growth was determined using a variation on the MTT assay. Cell-cycle analysis was conducted by flow cytometry. Immunohistochemistry was performed to evaluate EGFR expression and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) evidenced the ultrastructural morphology. Gene expression profiling was performed using hybridization of the microarray Ocimum Pan Human 40 K array A. Results: Caco-2 and HT-29 were respectively 66.25 and 59.24 % in G0/G1. They maintained this level of cell cycle distribution after treatment, suggesting a predominantly differentiated state. Treatment of Caco-2 with EGF or the two EGFR inhibitors produced a significant reduction in their viability. SEM clearly showed morphological cellular transformations in the direction of cellular death in both cell lines treated with EGFR inhibitors. HT-29 and Caco-2 displayed an important reduction of the microvilli (which also lose their erect position in Caco-2), possibly invalidating microvilli absorption function. HT-29 treated with cetuximab lost their boundary contacts and showed filipodi; when treated with gefitinib, they showed some vesicles: generally membrane reshaping is evident. Both cell lines showed a similar behavior in terms of on/off switched genes upon treatment with cetuximab. The gefitinib global gene expression pattern was different for the 2 cell lines; gefitinib treatment induced more changes, but directly correlated with EGF treatment. In cetuximab or gefitinib plus EGF treatments there was possible summation of the morphological effects: cells seemed more weakly affected by the transformation towards apoptosis. The genes appeared to be less stimulated than for single drug cases. Conclusion: This is the first study to have systematically investigated the effect of cetuximab or gefitinib, alone and in combination with EGF, on human colon cancer cell lines. The EGFR inhibitors have a weaker effect in the presence of EGF that binds EGFR. Cetuximab treatment showed an expression pattern that inversely correlates with EGF treatment. We found interesting cytomorphological features closely relating to gene expression profile. Both drugs have an effect on differentiation towards cellular death

Design and Use of Nanostructured Single-Site Heterogeneous Catalysts for the Selective Transformation of Fine Chemicals

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Preparazione dell'anestesia endovenosa bilanciata mediante medicazione preanestetica attuata in due tempi per via intramuscolare ed endovenosa

Gli autori,dopo aver ricordato l'importanza della medicazione preanestetica per la sedazione dei pazienti e per l'esecuzione di una corretta anestesia generale, espongono i risultati ottenuti con un tipo di M.P. analgesica e sedativa somministrata in parte i.m. ed in parte per via e.v. utilizzando la meperidina i.m. e tre diverse benzodiazepine e.v