L’architettura e l’immagine dei luoghi. Esplorazioni dello spazio attraverso la fotografia

Il lavoro riguarda il progetto grafico del volume che costituisce l’attività conclusiva e di sintesi della ricerca condotta nel 2007 dall'Università degli Studi di Palermo, con il Corso di laurea in Ingegneria Edile/Architettura di Palermo ed il Corso di laurea in Architettura - sede di Agrigento, in collaborazione con l'Azienda Regionale Foreste Demaniali, e con l'attiva partecipazione dell'Amministrazione comunale di Santo Stefano Quisquina. Il libro raccoglie i contributi sulla cultura dell’immagine e della fotografia (elaborati in seno al seminario Architettura e Fotografia), e i risultati della ricerca fotografica sull'architettura ed i luoghi nella Riserva Naturale Orientata 'Monte Cammarata' ed a Santo Stefano Quisquina (svolta nel laboratorio Natura e Architettura)

Prediction of response to vemurafenib in BRAF V600E mutant cancers based on a network approach

Lung adenocarcinoma is the tumor with the highest number of switch genes (298) compared to its normal tissue, followed by thyroid (227) and colorectal (183) cancers. Switch genes codifying for kinases were 14,7 and 3 respectively.We looked for three homology sequences identified across vemurafenib targets and we found that thyroid cancer and lung adenocarcinoma have a similar number of putative targetable switch genes kinase (5-6); on the contrary, colorectal cancer has just one,with minor homology sequence

Association of the Genomic Profile of Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma with Tumor Characteristics and Clinical Outcomes in an International Multicenter Study

Purpose: The prognostic importance of RET and RAS mutations and their relationship to clinicopathologic parameters and outcomes in medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) need to be clarified. Experimental Design: A multicenter retrospective cohort study was performed utilizing data from 290 patients with MTC. The molecular profile was determined and associations were examined with clinicopathologic data and outcomes. Results: RET germ line mutations were detected in 40 patients (16.3%). Somatic RET and RAS mutations occurred in 135 (46.9%) and 57 (19.8%) patients, respectively. RETM918T was the most common somatic RET mutation (n = 75). RET somatic mutations were associated with male sex, larger tumor size, advanced American Joint Committee Cancer (AJCC) stage, vascular invasion, and high International Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Grading System (IMTCGS) grade. When compared with other RET somatic mutations, RETM918T was associated with younger age, AJCC (eighth edition) IV, vascular invasion, extrathyroidal extension, and positive margins. RET somatic or germ line mutations were significantly associated with reduced distant metastasis-free survival on univariate analysis, but there were no significant independent associations on multivariable analysis, after adjusting for tumor grade and stage. There were no significant differences in outcomes between RET somatic and RET germ line mutations, or between RETM918T and other RET mutations. Other recurrent molecular alterations included TP53 (4.2%), ARID2 (2.9%), SETD2 (2.9%), KMT2A (2.9%), and KMT2C (2.9%). Among them, TP53 mutations were associated with decreased overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS), independently of tumor grade and AJCC stage. Conclusions: RET somatic mutations were associated with high-grade, aggressive primary tumor characteristics, and decreased distant metastatic-free survival but this relationship was not significant after accounting for tumor grade and disease stage. RETM918T was associated with aggressive primary tumors but was not independently associated with clinical outcomes. TP53 mutation may represent an adverse molecular event associated with decreased OS and DSS in MTC, but its prognostic value needs to be confirmed in future studies

Exchange of functional domains between a bacterial conjugative relaxase and the integrase of the human adeno-associated virus

Endonucleases of the HUH family are specialized in processing single-stranded DNA in a variety of evolutionarily highly conserved biological processes related to mobile genetic elements. They share a structurally defined catalytic domain for site-specific nicking and strand-transfer reactions, which is often linked to the activities of additional functional domains, contributing to their overall versatility. To assess if these HUH domains could be interchanged, we created a chimeric protein from two distantly related HUH endonucleases, containing the N-terminal HUH domain of the bacterial conjugative relaxase TrwC and the C-terminal DNA helicase domain of the human adeno-associated virus (AAV) replicase and site-specific integrase. The purified chimeric protein retained oligomerization properties and DNA helicase activities similar to Rep68, while its DNA binding specificity and cleaving-joining activity at oriT was similar to TrwC. Interestingly, the chimeric protein could catalyse site-specific integration in bacteria with an efficiency comparable to that of TrwC, while the HUH domain of TrwC alone was unable to catalyze this reaction, implying that the Rep68 C-terminal helicase domain is complementing the TrwC HUH domain to achieve site-specific integration into TrwC targets in bacteria. Our results illustrate how HUH domains could have acquired through evolution other domains in order to attain new roles, contributing to the functional flexibility observed in this protein superfamily.This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (MRC) grant MR/N022890/1 to EH and grant 1001764 to RML; National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant RO1-GM09285 to CRE; Spanish Ministry of Economy and competitiveness (MINECO) grant BIO2013-46414-P to ML and AFM is supported by a Doc.Mobility fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Studies in organic mass spectrometry. Part 25. Benzyl ion formation in chemical ionisation (methane or isobutane) of some ortho-alkylhetero-substituted diphenylcarbinols

The behaviour of some ortho-alkylhetero-substituted diphenylcarbinols, including deuterium labelled derivatives, under chemical ionisation (methane or isobutane) conditions has been investigated. It has been determined that ortho-alkylhetero diphenylmethyl cations formed by water elimination from the protonated molecule undergo consecutive rearrangements which afford benzyl (or tropylium) ions previously observed for ortho- substituted diphenylcarbenium ions generated by electron ionisation. This reaction also occurs under low-energy collision conditions. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd