Il palazzo della Sapienza di Pisa: analisi storico architettonica e valutazione della vulnerabilità sismica

Il palazzo della Sapienza di Pisa, situato nel centro storico della città, è oggi la sede principale della facoltà di Giurisprudenza dell’Università di Pisa e la sede della biblioteca Universitaria, una delle biblioteche più grandi, in termini di volumi ospitati, di tutta la provincia. Il complesso architettonico nasce a partire dall’anno 1472 per il volere di Lorenzo il Magnifico in seguito alla riapertura dello Studio Genarale pisano, istituito nel 1343 dalla bolla papale, In supreme dignitatis, emessa da Clemente VI. Lorenzo il Magnifico volle che la riapertura dello studio fosse accompagnata dalla costruzione di un nuovo edificio, sede di tutte le facoltà e dimora per insegnanti e studenti. Cominciò così la costruzione della Sapienza, che ad oggi rimane uno dei rari esempi di palazzo rinascimentale edificato a Pisa e tuttora conservato. La Sapienza pisana, inoltre, costituisce uno dei primi esempi in Italia di edificio destinato all’attività universitaria, intesa come unione di studio e collegio. La Sapienza venne edificata sulla medievale piazza del Grano cittadina e il primo impianto, che prevedeva un edificio di forma trapezoidale a due piani con un ampio cortile interno su cui si affacciavano due ordini di logge, venne terminato da Cosimo dei Medici intorno al 1520. Nell’Ottocento furono fatti alcuni ampliamenti e modificati profondamente gli ambienti del primo piano in seguito alla chiusura del collegio, ma fu solo nel Novecento che avvennero le trasformazioni maggiori: venne licenziato un importante progetto di ampliamento e risistemazione che prevedeva l’espansione planimetrica del palazzo, la sopraelevazione di un piano, la ricostruzione dei prospetti esterni e la risistemazione degli ambienti interni, nonché la realizzazione della nuova Aula Magna. Ad oggi il palazzo appartiene all’Università di Pisa, ed è sotto la tutela della Soprintendenza per i beni architettonici e paesaggistici della città di Pisa: essendo un edificio tutelato, il palazzo ricade in quella serie di edifici per cui l’OPCM 3274/03 prima, e il DPCM 21/10/03 in seguito, prevedono l’obbligo di effettuare una verifica di vulnerabilità sismica. L’entrata in vigore nel 2010 delle Linee Guida per la valutazione del rischio sismico del patrimonio tutelato, fornisce l’input per un ampio piano di prevenzione antisismica promosso dall’Università di Pisa ed interessante il suo patrimonio edilizio tutelato: questa tesi prende spunto da questo, ed è mirata alla determinazione della vulnerabilità sismica del palazzo della Sapienza. Il lavoro si articola nelle seguenti fasi: - analisi storico architettonica mirata alla conoscenza del processo evolutivo della struttura - indagini conoscitive volte alla conoscenza della geometria e dalla composizione della struttura - valutazione della vulnerabilità sismica della struttura secondo quanto previsto dalle Linee Guida, utilizzando due diverse metodologie di calcolo: LV1 Linee Guida e metodologia SAVE. Inoltre si procede alla verifica di resistenza dei maschi murari secondo due diverse ipotesi di comportamento della struttura. - conclusioni ed ipotesi di miglioramento della situazione attuale

HPLC-DAD-MS Fingerprint of Andrographis Paniculata (Burn. f.) Nees (Acanthaceae)

An HPLC-UV fingerprint analysis was developed for the quality evaluation of Andrographis paniculata aerial parts. HPLC-DAD-MS experiments allowed the identification of eleven diterpenes and five flavonoids. Plant material of Indian and Chinese origin was evaluated employing the developed method. The chemical fingerprints of the plant material of different origins do not show significant differences

Detection and exploitation of white lupin (Lupinus albus L.) genetic variation for seed γ-conglutin content

The seed γ-conglutin protein fraction of white lupin has particular pharmacological interest, but its industrial production is hindered by low content in the seed. This study provides an unprecedented assessment of genotypic and environmental variation for seed content and production of γ-conglutin, exploring also the ability of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to predict seed γ-conglutin content. Significant (P < 0.01) genetic variation for seed γ-conglutin content emerged among ten genotypes (cultivars or breeding lines) across three environments (range: 1.59-2.02 %) and five genotypes in other two environments (range: 1.47-1.80 %). Genotype variation was found also for seed protein content and γ-conglutin proportion on total protein, the latter trait having higher impact than the former on genotype variation for seed γ-conglutin content. The production of γ-conglutin per unit area was affected also by genotype yielding ability beside genotype seed γ-conglutin content. No genotype × environment interaction was detected for any γ-conglutin trait. NIRS-based prediction based on cross-validations was only moderately accurate for seed γ-conglutin content (R2 = 0.66), while being accurate for seed protein content (R2 = 0.95). In conclusion, breeding for higher seed γ-conglutin content is feasible using data from very few test sites and, to some extent, NIRS-based predictions

Clinical and virological findings in patients with Usutu virus infection, northern Italy, 2018

Background Usutu virus (USUV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus, which shares its transmission cycle with the phylogenetically related West Nile virus (WNV). USUV circulates in several European countries and its activity has increased over the last 5 years. Aim To describe human cases of USUV infection identified by surveillance for WNV and USUV infection in the Veneto Region of northern Italy in 2018. Methods From 1 June to 30 November 2018, all cases of suspected autochthonous arbovirus infection and blood donors who had a reactive WNV nucleic acid test were investigated for both WNV and USUV infection by in-house molecular methods. Anti-WNV and anti-USUV IgM and IgG antibodies were detected by ELISA and in-house immunofluorescence assay, respectively; positive serum samples were further tested by WNV and USUV neutralisation assays run in parallel. Results Eight cases of USUV infection (one with neuroinvasive disease, six with fever and one viraemic blood donor who developed arthralgia and myalgia) and 427 cases of WNV infection were identified. A remarkable finding of this study was the persistence of USUV RNA in the blood and urine of three patients during follow-up. USUV genome sequences from two patients shared over 99% nt identity with USUV sequences detected in mosquito pools from the same area and clustered within lineage Europe 2. Conclusions Clinical presentation and laboratory findings in patients with USUV infection were similar to those found in patients with WNV infection. Cross-reactivity of serology and molecular tests challenged the differential diagnosis

Integrated Genomic, Functional, and Prognostic Characterization of Atypical Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Atypical chronic myeloid leukemia (aCML) is a BCR-ABL1-negative clonal disorder, which belongs to the myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative group. This disease is characterized by recurrent somatic mutations in SETBP1, ASXL1 and ETNK1 genes, as well as high genetic heterogeneity, thus posing a great therapeutic challenge. To provide a comprehensive genomic characterization of aCML we applied a high-throughput sequencing strategy to 43 aCML samples, including both whole-exome and RNA-sequencing data. Our dataset identifies ASXL1, SETBP1, and ETNK1 as the most frequently mutated genes with a total of 43.2%, 29.7 and 16.2%, respectively. We characterized the clonal architecture of 7 aCML patients by means of colony assays and targeted resequencing. The results indicate that ETNK1 variants occur early in the clonal evolution history of aCML, while SETBP1 mutations often represent a late event. The presence of actionable mutations conferred both ex vivo and in vivo sensitivity to specific inhibitors with evidence of strong in vitro synergism in case of multiple targeting. In one patient, a clinical response was obtained. Stratification based on RNA-sequencing identified two different populations in terms of overall survival, and differential gene expression analysis identified 38 significantly overexpressed genes in the worse outcome group. Three genes correctly classified patients for overall survival

RNA-Based Assay for Next-Generation Sequencing of Clinically Relevant Gene Fusions in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Gene fusions represent novel predictive biomarkers for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, we validated a narrow NGS gene panel able to cover therapeutically-relevant gene fusions and splicing events in advanced-stage NSCLC patients. To this aim, we first assessed minimal complementary DNA (cDNA) input and the limit of detection (LoD) in different cell lines. Then, to evaluate the feasibility of applying our panel to routine clinical samples, we retrospectively selected archived lung adenocarcinoma histological and cytological (cell blocks) samples. Overall, our SiRe RNA fusion panel was able to detect all fusions and a splicing event harbored in a RNA pool diluted up to 2 ng/µL. It also successfully analyzed 46 (95.8%) out of 48 samples. Among these, 43 (93.5%) out of 46 samples reproduced the same results as those obtained with conventional techniques. Intriguingly, the three discordant results were confirmed by a CE-IVD automated real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis (Easy PGX platform, Diatech Pharmacogenetics, Jesi, Italy). Based on these findings, we conclude that our new SiRe RNA fusion panel is a valid and robust tool for the detection of clinically relevant gene fusions and splicing events in advanced NSCLC

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit admission criteria for haemato-oncological patients: a basis for clinical guidelines implementation

Recent advances in supportive care and progress in the development and use of chemotherapy have considerably improved the prognosis of many children with malignancy, thus the need for intensive care admission and management is increasing, reaching about 40% of patients throughout the disease course. Cancer remains a major death cause in children, though outcomes have considerably improved over the past decades. Prediction of outcome for children with cancer in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) obviously requires clinical guidelines, and these are not well defined, as well as admission criteria. Major determinants of negative outcomes remain severe sepsis/septic shock association and respiratory failure, deserving specific approach in children with cancer, particularly those receiving a bone marrow transplantation. A nationwide consensus should be achieved among pediatric intensivists and oncologists regarding the threshold clinical conditions requiring Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission as well as specific critical care protocols. As demonstrated for the critically ill non-oncologic child, it appears unreasonable that pediatric patients with malignancy can be admitted to an adult Intensive Care Unit ICU. On a national basis a pool of refecence institutions should be identified and early referral to an oncologic PICU is warranted

Operationalizing mild cognitive impairment criteria in small vessel disease: The VMCI-Tuscany Study

Introduction Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) prodromic of vascular dementia is expected to have a multidomain profile. Methods In a sample of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) patients, we assessed MCI subtypes distributions according to different operationalization of Winblad criteria and compared the neuroimaging features of single versus multidomain MCI. We applied three MCI diagnostic scenarios in which the cutoffs for objective impairment and the number of considered neuropsychological tests varied. Results Passing from a liberal to more conservative diagnostic scenarios, of 153 patients, 5% were no longer classified as MCI, amnestic multidomain frequency decreased, and nonamnestic single domain increased. Considering neuroimaging features, severe medial temporal lobe atrophy was more frequent in multidomain compared with single domain. Discussion Operationalizing MCI criteria changes the relative frequency of MCI subtypes. Nonamnestic single domain MCI may be a previously nonrecognized type of MCI associated with SVD

Energia al futuro

Carlo Tamburi, country manager Italia, Gruppo Enel A colloquio con Luca Pagni, giornalista la Repubblic

Italia: un hub per l’europa meridionale?

Intervengono Giampaolo Russo, amministratore delegato TAP Italia Antonio Sileo, collaboratore Staffetta Quotidiana, ricercatore IEFE Istituto di Economia, Università Bocconi Matteo Verda, ricercatore associatoISPI e Università degli Studi di Pavia Modera Luca Pagni, giornalista la Repubblic