3-d visualization and animation of architectonic elements for prehistoric megalithic temples of the island of Gozo: the temple of Ggantija

Laser scanning can now be defined without doubt as the newest frontier in the field of survey technique, and recent technological developments of instruments and processing software have encouraged the introduction of this technique in the world of applications connected to archaeological site and other related disciplines. The temple of Ggantija on the island of Gozo was considered to be representative of the entire series of temple complexes due to their particular architectural characteristics, their stage of evolution and form of deterioration, both material and structural. The survey was conducted by the use of the local geodetic network in the different phases: • Topographic survey • 3D laser scanner survey • Photographic Survey: both traditional and digital pictures will be taken in order to fully documentation internal and external surfaces of the site. The treatment and analysis of data collections was divided into the following sub-stages: elaboration and compensation of close polygonal, thickening polygonal and direct measurements; elaboration and compensation of altimetric network; linking of the above data with the existing Maltese national networks; elaboration of laser scanner positions and absolute orientations; elaboration of points coordinates for georeferencing and linking the point clouds coming from laser; final data verification end quality control; analysis of laser measured point clouds, for filtering and subsequent elaboration; scanning orientations and subdivision into “islands” (internal rooms and external sides); analysis of laser measured point clouds over the grid determined by the topographic survey.; modelling of the Archaeological site, elimination of noises and metric "pollution" by statistics and verification; accentuation and reduction of triangles on areas interested by complex geometries; triangles transformation into complex surfaces (mesh); model checking by topographic points; mapping of digital photocolors covering all the surfaces of the site. The digital model will be cut by vertical and horizontal section plans at heights requested by customer 2D graphic editing of the plans, sections and elevations. Finishing of vertical sections (sections and views) using the mapped model created by rendering calculated, generating contours lines from the 3D model; of a light model (low density model) of the laser scanner data using the filtering tools of the software package; of an virtual animation of the high density model; of a mapped VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language) model for a web interactive and hypertestual navigation, using the low density model. This part of the study was aimed at defining the architectural characteristics and mode of construction of this monument

Facial Mobility after Maxilla-Mandibular Advancement in Patients with Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome: A Three-Dimensional Study

Introduction. The functional results of surgery in terms of facial mobility are key elements in the treatment of patients. Little is actually known about changes in facial mobility following surgical treatment with maxillomandibular advancement (MMA). Objectives. The three-dimensional (3D) methods study of basic facial movements in typical OSAS patients treated with MMA was the topic of the present research. Materials and Methods. Ten patients affected by severe obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) were engaged for the study. Their facial surface data was acquired using a 3D laser scanner one week before (T1) and 12 months after (T2) orthognathic surgery. The facial movements were frowning, grimace, smiling, and lip purse. They were described in terms of surface and landmark displacements (mm). The mean landmark displacement was calculated for right and left sides of the face, at T1 and at T2. Results. One year after surgery, facial movements were similar to presurgical registrations. No modifications of symmetry were present. Conclusions. Despite the skeletal maxilla-mandible expansion, orthognathic surgical treatment (MMA) of OSAS patients does not seem to modify facial mobility. Only an enhancement of amplitude in smiling and knitting brows was observed. These results could have reliable medical and surgical applications

3D Virtual Modeling for Morphological Characterization of Pituitary Tumors: Preliminary Results on Its Predictive Role in Tumor Resection Rate

Among potential factors affecting the surgical resection in pituitary tumors, the role of tumor three-dimensional (3D) features is still unexplored. The aim of this study is to introduce the use of 3D virtual modeling for geometrical and morphological characterization of pituitary tumors and to evaluate its role as a predictor of total tumor removal. A total of 75 patients operated for a pituitary tumor have been retrospectively reviewed. Starting from patient imaging, a 3D tumor model was reconstructed, and 3D characterization based on tumor volume (Vol), area, sphericity (Spher), and convexity (Conv) was provided. The extent of tumor removal was then evaluated at post-operative imaging. Mean values were obtained for Vol (9117 +/- 8423 mm(3)), area (2352 +/- 1571 mm(2)), Spher (0.86 +/- 0.08), and Conv (0.88 +/- 0.08). Total tumor removal was achieved in 57 (75%) cases. The standard prognostic Knosp grade, Vol, and Conv were found to be independent factors, significantly predicting the extent of tumor removal. Total tumor resection correlated with lower Knosp grades (p = 0.032) and smaller Vol (p = 0.015). Conversely, tumors with a more irregular shape (low Conv) have an increased chance of incomplete tumor removal (p = 0.022). 3D geometrical and morphological features represent significant independent prognostic factors for pituitary tumor resection, and they should be considered in pre-operative planning to allow a more accurate decision-making process

Characterization of Pupillary Light Response Features for the Classification of Patients with Optic Neuritis

Pupillometry is a promising technique for the potential diagnosis of several neurological pathologies. However, its potential is not fully explored yet, especially for prediction purposes and results interpretation. In this work, we analyzed 100 pupillometric curves obtained by 12 subjects, applying both advanced signal processing techniques and physics methods to extract typically collected features and newly proposed ones. We used machine learning techniques for the classification of Optic Neuritis (ON) vs. Healthy subjects, controlling for overfitting and ranking the features by random permutation, following their importance in prediction. All the extracted features, except one, turned out to have significant importance for prediction, with an average accuracy of 76%, showing the complexity of the processes involved in the pupillary light response. Furthermore, we provided a possible neurological interpretation of this new set of pupillometry features in relation to ON vs. Healthy classification

Emilia-Romagna Study on Pregnancy and Exposure to Antiepileptic drugs (ESPEA): a population-based study on prescription patterns, pregnancy outcomes and fetal health

Objectives To assess the prevalence of antiepileptic drug (AED) exposure in pregnant women and the comparative risk of terminations of pregnancy (TOPs), spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, major birth defects (MBDs), neonatal distress and small for gestational age (SGA) infants following intrauterine AED exposure in the Emilia Romagna region, Italy (4 459 246 inhabitants on 31 December 2011). Methods We identified all deliveries and hospitalised abortions in Emilia Romagna in the period 2009-2011 from the certificate of delivery assistance registry (Certificato di Assistenza al Parto -CedAP) and the hospital discharge card registry, exposure to AEDs from the reimbursed drug prescription registries, MBDs from the regional registry of congenital malformations, and Apgar scores and cases of SGA from the CedAP. Records from different registries were linked. Results We identified 145 243 pregnancies: 111 284 deliveries, 16 408 spontaneous abortions and 17 551 TOPs. Six hundred and eleven pregnancies (0.42%; 95% Cl 0.39 to 0.46) were exposed to AEDs. In the AED-exposed group 21% of pregnancies ended in TOPs vs 12% in the non-exposed women (OR: 2.24; 95% CI 1.41 to 3.56). Rates of spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, neonatal distress and SGA were comparable. Three hundred and fifty-three babies (0.31%; 95% CI 0.28 to 0.35) were exposed to AEDs during the first trimester. MBD rates were 2.3% in the exposed vs 2.0% in the non-exposed pregnancies (OR: 1.12, 95% CI 0.55 to 2.55). Conclusion The Emilia Romagna prevalence of AED exposure in pregnancy was 0.42%, comparable with previous European studies. Rates of spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, neonatal distress, SGA and MBDs following AED exposure were not significantly increased. The rate of TOPs was significantly higher in the AED-exposed women

Maturation signatures of conventional dendritic cell subtypes in COVID‐19 suggest direct viral sensing

Growing evidence suggests that conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) undergo aberrant maturation in COVID-19, which negatively affects T-cell activation. The presence of effector T cells in patients with mild disease and dysfunctional T cells in severely ill patients suggests that adequate T-cell responses limit disease severity. Understanding how cDCs cope with SARS-CoV-2 can help elucidate how protective immune responses are generated. Here, we report that cDC2 subtypes exhibit similar infection-induced gene signatures, with the upregulation of interferon-stimulated genes and interleukin (IL)-6 signaling pathways. Furthermore, comparison of cDCs between patients with severe and mild disease showed severely ill patients to exhibit profound downregulation of genes encoding molecules involved in antigen presentation, such as MHCII, TAP, and costimulatory proteins, whereas we observed the opposite for proinflammatory molecules, such as complement and coagulation factors. Thus, as disease severity increases, cDC2s exhibit enhanced inflammatory properties and lose antigen presentation capacity. Moreover, DC3s showed upregulation of anti-apoptotic genes and accumulated during infection. Direct exposure of cDC2s to the virus in vitro recapitulated the activation profile observed in vivo. Our findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 interacts directly with cDC2s and implements an efficient immune escape mechanism that correlates with disease severity by downregulating crucial molecules required for T-cell activation

Effectiveness of Radiomic ZOT Features in the Automated Discrimination of Oncocytoma from Clear Cell Renal Cancer

Background: Benign renal tumors, such as renal oncocytoma (RO), can be erroneously diagnosed as malignant renal cell carcinomas (RCC), because of their similar imaging features. Computer-aided systems leveraging radiomic features can be used to better discriminate benign renal tumors from the malignant ones. The purpose of this work was to build a machine learning model to distinguish RO from clear cell RCC (ccRCC). Method: We collected CT images of 77 patients, with 30 cases of RO (39%) and 47 cases of ccRCC (61%). Radiomic features were extracted both from the tumor volumes identified by the clinicians and from the tumor’s zone of transition (ZOT). We used a genetic algorithm to perform feature selection, identifying the most descriptive set of features for the tumor classification. We built a decision tree classifier to distinguish between ROs and ccRCCs. We proposed two versions of the pipeline: in the first one, the feature selection was performed before the splitting of the data, while in the second one, the feature selection was performed after, i.e., on the training data only. We evaluated the efficiency of the two pipelines in cancer classification. Results: The ZOT features were found to be the most predictive by the genetic algorithm. The pipeline with the feature selection performed on the whole dataset obtained an average ROC AUC score of 0.87 ± 0.09. The second pipeline, in which the feature selection was performed on the training data only, obtained an average ROC AUC score of 0.62 ± 0.17. Conclusions: The obtained results confirm the efficiency of ZOT radiomic features in capturing the renal tumor characteristics. We showed that there is a significant difference in the performances of the two proposed pipelines, highlighting how some already published radiomic analyses could be too optimistic about the real generalization capabilities of the models

Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells Support Acute Myeloid Leukemia Bioenergetics and Enhance Antioxidant Defense and Escape from Chemotherapy.

Like normal hematopoietic stem cells, leukemic stem cells depend on their bone marrow (BM) microenvironment for survival, but the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. We have studied the contribution of nestin+ BM mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) to MLL-AF9-driven acute myeloid leukemia (AML) development and chemoresistance in vivo. Unlike bulk stroma, nestin+ BMSC numbers are not reduced in AML, but their function changes to support AML cells, at the expense of non-mutated hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Nestin+ cell depletion delays leukemogenesis in primary AML mice and selectively decreases AML, but not normal, cells in chimeric mice. Nestin+ BMSCs support survival and chemotherapy relapse of AML through increased oxidative phosphorylation, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle activity, and glutathione (GSH)-mediated antioxidant defense. Therefore, AML cells co-opt energy sources and antioxidant defense mechanisms from BMSCs to survive chemotherapy.D.F. was supported by Associazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRCFellowship 20930 for Abroad) and scholarships from Società Italiana di Ematologia (SIE) and Associazione "Amici di Beat Leukemia Dr. Alessandro Cevenini ONLUS" and AIL Bologna ODV. A.S.-A. was supported by a European Hematology Association Research Fellowship and C.L.F-C. by a fellowship from Boehringer Foundation. This work was supported by core support grants from the Wellcome Trust (203151/Z/16/Z) and the MRC to the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCNU) and Pro CNIC Foundation to CNIC, which is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2015-0505). This work was supported by MCNU (Plan Nacional grant SAF-2011-30308 to S.M.-F.; Ramón y Cajal Program grants RYC-2011-09726 to A.S.-A. and RYC-2009-04703 to S.M.-F.); Marie Curie Career Integration Program grants (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-RG-294262/294096) to A.S.-A. and S.M.-F.; Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (BIO2015-67580-P and PGC2018- 097019-B-I00), Carlos III Institute of Health-Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria grant PRB3(IPT17/0019 - ISCIII-SGEFI / ERDF, ProteoRed), Fundació MaratóTV3 (grant 122/C/2015) and “la Caixa” Banking Foundation (project code HR17-00247) to J.V.; the Medical Research Council grant MRC_MC_UU_12022/6 to C.F; an ERC award (COMAL: 647685) and a CRUK Programme Award to B.J.H; the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF, 31003A_173224/1 & 31003A_173224/1) and the Gertrude von Meissner Foundation (Basel, Switzerland) to J.S.; ISCIII Spanish Cell Therapy Network TerCel, ConSEPOC-Comunidad de Madrid grant (S2010/BMD-2542), National Health Service Blood and Transplant (United Kingdom), European Union’s Horizon 2020 research (ERC- 2014-CoG-648765) and a Programme Foundation Award (C61367/A26670) from Cancer Research UK to S.M.-F., who was also supported in part by an International Early Career Scientist grant of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

La comisión de tutorías RUNCOB: un trabajo colectivo

La Comisión de Tutorías de la RUNCOB (Red de Universidades del Conurbano Bonaerense) tuvo su origen en la preocupación de los Secretarios Académicos de las universidades del conurbano por abordar problemáticas comunes a todas ellas, focalizadas especialmente en el Acceso y Permanencia de sus estudiantes. Esta Red, que fue creada en el año 2007, está conformada por diferentes comisiones, entre ellas: la Comisión de Enseñanza, la de Orientación Vocacional, la de Información Académica, la de Ingreso y la de Tutorías. En el inicio de las reuniones participaron las universidades nacionales de Gral. Sarmiento, Lanús, La Matanza, Quilmes y San Martín, con la coordinación de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero. Se fueron sumando las de Avellaneda, Jauretche, Moreno, José C Paz y Lomas de Zamora, que conforman un universo con características similares tanto en lo referido a sus historias y realidades institucionales, como así también respecto del perfil de sus estudiantes. Principalmente estudiantes de nuevo ingreso. La apertura de estas nuevas universidades públicas ha significado un desafío al papel de estas instituciones de educación superior en nuevos contextos socioculturales. La cercanía geográfica y las cuestiones compartidas favorecen el trabajo conjunto y, fundamentalmente, la planificación y puesta en marcha de políticas y acciones comunes que tienen por objetivo lograr mayores niveles de inclusión y de equidad educativa en lo referente al ingreso, permanencia y egreso de los estudiantes.Secretaría de Asuntos Académico