Figurative Painting and the Photograph

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Induzione di microparticelle procoagulanti da parte di una adipochina, la leptina, su cellule mononucleate umane

Le microparticelle, chiamate anche ectosomi e microvescicole, sono frammenti di membrana liberati virtualmente da tutte le cellule eucariote a seguito di attivazione o durante apoptosi. Considerate originariamente artefatti legati alla manipolazione in vitro delle cellule o, al più, frammenti cellulari liberati durante la necrosi e privi di significato fisiologico, le microparticelle sono state recentemente coinvolte in vari processi tra cui l'infiammazione e la coagulazione del sangue. E' stato dimostrato che microparticelle di derivazione piastrinica legano il fattore VIII della coagulazione e pertanto possono rappresentare una superficie ideale per l'assemblaggio del complesso enzimatico denominato tenasi per l'attivazione del fattore X. Questa osservazione conferma che le microparticelle sono, almeno potenzialmente, capaci di svolgere attività biologicamente rilevanti come l’infiammazione e la coagulazione. La leptina, prodotta dal gene Ob (Lep), è un ormone proteico di 16 kDa, e rappresenta uno dei principali ormoni prodotti dal tessuto adiposo. Studi recenti hanno dimostrato che la leptina è coinvolta in vari processi tra cui la proliferazione e la migrazione di cellule endoteliali, l’aumento dell’aggregazione piastrinica, l’angiogenesi e l’induzione di fattore tissutale in cellule mononucleate umane isolate da sangue periferico. Lo scopo del mio lavoro è stato quello di valutare l’ipotesi che uno dei meccanismi attraverso i quali la leptina induce aumento del rischio cardiovascolare, fosse legato all’induzione di MP pro-coagulanti da parte di cellule mononucleate umane e valutare successivamente alcuni meccanismi intracellulari che portano al rilascio di microparticelle da parte di cellule mononucleate umane dopo stimolazione con leptina. La generazione delle microparticelle è stata valutata attraverso l’utilizzo di una metodica: il test della protrombinasi, che misura la concentrazione di fosfatidilserina basandosi sulla quantita’ di trombina generata a partire dalla protrombina in una reazione fosfatidilserina dipendente. I risultati ottenuti mostrano che la leptina e’ in grado di indurre la liberazione di microparticelle procoagulanti da parte di cellule mononucleate umane in modo dose-dipendente. Per meglio capire i possibili meccanismi intracellulari che portano al rilascio di microparticelle da parte di cellule mononucleate umane dopo stimolazione con leptina, sono stati usati sia inibitori delle mitogen-activated protein kinase, per i quali e’ gia’ stato dimostrato in letteratura il loro coinvolgimento in altre condizioni sperimentali, che inibitori della via del calcio, in quanto e’ noto che l’aumento di calcio intracellulare porta alla liberazione delle microparticelle. I dati ottenuti con tre diversi inibitori di tre diverse chinasi (ERK, JNK e p38) appartenenti alla famiglia delle mitogen-activated protein kinase mostrano che la liberazione delle microparticelle, da parte di cellule mononucleate umane ottenute dopo stimolazione con la leptina, avviene attraverso un meccanismo mitogen-activated protein kinase indipendente. I dati ottenuti con gli inibitori della via del calcio mostrano invece un’inibizione della liberazione delle microparticelle, da parte di cellule mononucleate umane, ottenute dopo stimolazione con la leptina. Questi dati mostrano che la leptina e’ in grado di far rilasciare microparticelle da parte di cellule mononucleate umane e che tale rilascio e’ dovuto principalmente ad una mobilizzazione del calcio intracellulare. E’ plausibile, quindi, pensare che bloccando alcuni step di rilascio delle microparticelle si possa in qualche modo diminuire il rischio cardiovascolare nell’ obesità

A Morphological array image processor controller chip set

The design, simulation and layout of a controller chip set for a morphological array image processor shall be discussed. These VLSI chips in conjunction with the Morphological Array Processor (MAP) and Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) chip sets perform the morphological image processing operations of erosion and dilation on 512x512 pixel, 8-bit gray scale images using a 7x7 windowing matrix in real time (60 frames per second). The controller chip set design allows for pipelining of successive MAP\u27s as well as operation on 1024x1024 pixel, 8-bit gray scale images. To facilitate the design, additional scaleable CMOS standard library cells and corresponding parameterized schematic library components were designed and integrated with the RIT CMOS standard cell library designed by Computer Engineering graduate student Larry Rubin as part of his Masters thesis1. In particular, additional D flip-flops with both Q and Q bar outputs, and-orinverts, or-and-inverts, CMUXes, and MOSIS 64 and 84 pin pad rings were created. The cells were designed to be fabricated using the Metal Oxide Semiconductor Implementation System (MOSIS) scaleable CMOS 2.0 pm Nwell (SCN) process. A complete set of Cadence design rule verification tools were also integrated with the existing CAE tool set to perform design rule checking (DRC), electrical rule checking (ERC), layout versus schematic checking (LVS), and layout parameter extraction (LPE) for the MOSIS SCN 2.0 pm N-well dense rule set. To verify the CMOS standard cell designs, test chips were designed and sent to MOSIS for fabrication. The layout and design rule verification of the final two test chips, test chips five and six, was performed by the author. Test chip four contains a variety of MUXes and D flip-flops, test chip five contains a variety of transfer gates and inverters. The controller chip set consists of a 64 pin control chip (Controller) and an 84 pin memory controller chip (Mem_Control). The controller chips provide the ability to selectively process 512x512 or 1024x1024 image sizes by modifying the pullup or pulldown of a size bit. A selectable delay was implemented, through the pullup or pulldown setup of three delay bits, in the Controller to allow the Controller to be used with the single chip VLSI MAP design, the seven chip VLSI MAP design, and the Actel gate array MAP. The controller chip set allows successive MAPs to be pipelined by connecting the next Controllers pipeline start pin to the previous stages pipeline start next pin

Identification of misbehavior detection solutions and risk scenarios in advanced connected and automated driving scenarios

The inclusion of 5G cellular communication system into vehicles, combined with other connected-vehicle technology, such as sensors and cameras, makes connected and advanced vehicles a promising application in the Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems. One of the most challenging task is to provide resilience against misbehavior i.e., against vehicles that intentionally disseminate false information to deceive receivers and induce them to manoeuvre incorrectly or even dangerously. This calls for misbehaviour detection mechanisms, whose purpose is to analyze information semantics to detect and filter attacks. As a result, data correctness and integrity are ensured. Misbehaviour and its detection are rather new concepts in the literature; there is a lack of methods that leverage the available information to prove its trustworthiness. This is mainly because misbehaviour techniques come with several flavours and have different unpredictable purposes, therefore providing precise guidelines is rather ambitious. Moreover, dataset to test detection schemes are rare to find and inconvenient to customize and adapt according to needs. This work presents a misbehaviour detection scheme that exploits information shared between vehicles and received signal properties to investigate the behaviour of transmitters. Differently from most available solutions, this is based on the data of the on-board own resources of the vehicle. Computational effort and resources required are minor concerns, and concurrently time efficiency is gained. Also, the project addresses three different types of attack to show that detecting misbehaviour methods are more vulnerable to some profile of attacker than others. Moreover, a rich dataset was set up to test the scheme. The dataset was created according to the latest standardised evaluation methodologies and provides a valuable starting point for any further development and research

The History of Human Bondage and An Instructional Strategy Resource Guide for Teaching History through the Humanities

This thesis focuses on the history of human bondage through historiography and original research and provides an instructional strategy resource guide for teaching history through the humanities. This resource will provide teachers with the tools to create and implement student-centered learning activities into their learning environments, thus producing informed and active global citizens

Denying the Crime and Pleading Entrapment: Putting the Federal Law in Order

The federal law of procedure in entrapment cases is in profound disarray. Despite four attempts over the past fifty years to clarify the law of pleadings in entrapment cases, the Supreme Court has yet to do so successfully. This Note focuses on these attempts, and analyzes the issue of whether to permit a defendant to plead entrapment while simultaneously denying the crime charged. Part I reviews the historical development of the entrapment defense, the disagreement among the federal circuits with regard to alternative inconsistent defenses, and the arguments commentators have made for and against allowing alternative inconsistent defenses in entrapment cases. Part II illustrates the importance and outcome-determinative nature of this procedural issue through an analysis of the John Z. DeLorean trial. Part III then reviews the theoretical justifications for entrapment-the so-called subjective and objective approaches to entrapment. Finally, Part IV demonstrates that allowing a defendant to plead alternative inconsistent defenses logically follows from both of these theoretical justifications for entrapment

P-06 Nine Days, 20 Volunteers, Over 1,000 People Reached: How We Translated Psychological Research into Practice

During 9 days in Puerto Rico, over 1,000 people were reached. Melissa, a community psychologist, will describe the ecological approach used to develop and guide the intervention. Alisha and Mary will discuss how they used their counseling work to inform their roles, presentations and interactions with people on the island