PlGF, immune system and hypertension

The huge diffusion of hypertension and its associated complications has a significant impact on public health [1]. However, despite the high prevalence of essential hypertension and many efforts of research, the basic pathophysiological causes remain puzzling

The multifaceted roles of PI3Kγ in hypertension, vascular biology, and inflammation

PI3Kγ is a multifaceted protein, crucially involved in cardiovascular and immune systems. Several studies described the biological and physiological functions of this enzyme in the regulation of cardiovascular system, while others stressed its role in the modulation of immunity. Although PI3Kγ has been historically investigated for its role in leukocytes, the last decade of research also dedicated efforts to explore its functions in the cardiovascular system. In this review, we report an overview recapitulating how PI3Kγ signaling participates in the regulation of vascular functions involved in blood pressure regulation. Moreover, we also summarize the main functions of PI3Kγ in immune responses that could be potentially important in the interaction with the cardiovascular system. Considering that vascular and immune mechanisms are increasingly emerging as intertwining players in hypertension, PI3Kγ could be an intriguing pathway acting on both sides. The availability of specific inhibitors introduces a perspective of further translational research and clinical approaches that could be exploited in hypertension

The spleen: a hub connecting nervous and immune systems in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases

Metabolic disorders have been identified as major health problems affecting a large portion of the world population. In addition, obesity and insulin resistance are principal risk factors for the development of cardiovascular diseases. Altered immune responses are common features of both hypertension and obesity and, moreover, the involvement of the nervous system in the modulation of immune system is gaining even more attention in both pathophysiological contexts. For these reasons, during the last decades, researches focused their efforts on the comprehension of the molecular mechanisms connecting immune system to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. On the other hand, it has been reported that in these pathological conditions, central neural pathways modulate the activity of the peripheral nervous system, which is strongly involved in onset and progression of the disease. It is interesting to notice that neural reflex can also participate in the modulation of immune functions. In this scenario, the spleen becomes the crucial hub allowing the interaction of different systems differently involved in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Here, we summarize the major findings that dissect the role of the immune system in disorders related to metabolic and cardiovascular dysfunctions, and how this could also be influenced by neural reflexes

Using Ontologies for Semantic Data Integration

While big data analytics is considered as one of the most important paths to competitive advantage of today’s enterprises, data scientists spend a comparatively large amount of time in the data preparation and data integration phase of a big data project. This shows that data integration is still a major challenge in IT applications. Over the past two decades, the idea of using semantics for data integration has become increasingly crucial, and has received much attention in the AI, database, web, and data mining communities. Here, we focus on a specific paradigm for semantic data integration, called Ontology-Based Data Access (OBDA). The goal of this paper is to provide an overview of OBDA, pointing out both the techniques that are at the basis of the paradigm, and the main challenges that remain to be addressed

Il sito di Guado San Nicola

Il sito paleolitico di Guado San Nicola prende il nome dall’omonima località posta nelle immediate vicinanze della frazione di Sant’Eusanio, a qualche chilometro a nord-ovest del centro abitato di Monteroduni, in provincia di Isernia. Il giacimento, oggetto di scavi sistematici dal 2008, si trova a 250 m s.l.m., sulla sinistra idrografica del fiume Volturno

Lithic productions during the first half of the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 19-12) in the Italian peninsula: an overview

Archaeological record of the Italian peninsula during the first half of the Middle Pleistocene is characterised by a limited number of sites. In the last decade, new systematic research allowed to refine chronostratigraphies and to improve the contextual and technological information. Here, we report an overview of the Italian archaeological sites between MIS 19 and MIS 12 with the main aim to evaluate the current state of our knowledge on the technological behaviours from the earliest Middle Pleis- tocene sites where Homo heidelbergensis appears to the emergence of hominins with Neanderthal-like morphology

METODOLOGIE INFORMATICHE APPLICATE AGLI SCAVI ARCHEOLOGICI

Informatic methods applied to archaeological excavations In the last decades the use of information technology in archaeology has opened the way to new and increasingly useful and sophisticated systems of documentation; however it is necessary the definition of an adequate theoretical basis and the discussion of the documentation methods adopted, which are specific to each archaeological context. The archiving of archaeological data constitutes an essential basis for the formulation of reconstructive hypotheses and interpretative scenarios and, at the same time, it allows the control and the verification by the scientific community, as well as the possibility of review and the formulation of new hypothesis. The aim of this thesis is to present a new methodological model applied to the palaeolithic site of Isernia La Pineta (Isernia, Italy), characterized by an extraordinary concentration of archaeological pieces and a complex depositional and post-depositional phenomena. This new model, based on the registration of archaeological data for the formalization and processing information and digital contents, has allowed the revision and the rielaboration of the traditional technical documentation. The application of this new methodological model, created ad hoc, has allowed us to fully achieve the preset objectives: the speed of data acquisition has increased along with the degree of precision and accuracy of the same and, simultaneously, it was recorded a reduction of errors in the process of documentation. Beyond the application to the specific context of Isernia La Pineta, the most interesting element of this new methodological model is the possibility of replication in other archaeological contexts. Effectively, it is a model which combines simplicity and versatility of use and it does not require large investments and even special computer knowledge and skills for its use. It also allows the visualization and updating in real time of excavation data and, guaranteeing a link between excavation area and laboratory, a control of the data, resulting in a reduction of the errors

Ontology Mediated Information Extraction with MASTRO SYSTEM-T

In several data-centric application domains, the need arises to extract valuable information from unstructured text documents. The recent paradigm of Ontology Mediated Information Extraction (OMIE) faces this problem by taking into account the knowledge expressed by a domain ontology, and reasoning over it to improve the quality of extracted data. MASTRO SYSTEM-T is a novel tool for OMIE, developed by Sapienza University and IBM Almaden Research. In this work, we demonstrate its usage for information extraction over real-world financial text documents from the U.S. EDGAR system