Craniofacial superimposition studies on a set of cosimo i de’ medici’s (1519-1574) and eleonora di toledo’s (1522-1562) portraits

A set of portraits of the Florentine grand duke Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519-1574) and of his wife Eleonora di Toledo (1522–1562) painted by two major representatives of Florentine Mannerism (Italian Late Renaissance), Pontormo and Bronzino was compared with the skulls of the two subjects utilizing the forensic technique of craniofacial superimposition. The results show that, in the case of Cosimo I, both a painting (Pontormo, workshop of, Cosimo I de’ Medici, 1537) and a drawing (Pontormo, Cosimo I de’ Medici in Profile, 1537) show lack of fit with the skull in four points (the glabellar outline, the depth of the nasal bridge, the bony lateral wall of the orbit, and the outline of the frontal process of the zygomatic bone). The drawing, therefore, seems to contradict the well established idea that Renaissance painters prepared lifelike sketches of their sitters which were then modified when transferred to the painting. In the case of Eleonora di Toledo, on the other hand, craniofacial superimposition analysis reveals that Bronzino, possibly as the result of a desperate search for the “best angle” of the sitter, adopted an unusual perspective to portray the duchess (Bronzino, Eleonora di Toledo, c. 1539) possibly looking down the sitter, by standing, while the sitter was seated in front of him. The face of the sitter was subsequently, in another painting (Bronzino, Eleonora di Toledo and Her Son Giovanni, c. 1544-45) “transplanted” onto the rest of the body given the impression that the duchess “looks” at the viewer from above. © 2016 Romanian Society of Legal Medicine

Long-term durability assessment of PVC-P waterproofing geomembranes through laboratory tests

Waterproofing heavily influences the operation and maintenance costs of underground structures. Currently, the most commonly used technology for tunnel waterproofing is plasticized polyvinyl chloride (PVC-P) geomembranes. However, not much is known about the long-term durability of these geomembranes, especially in relation to the long expected lifespan of new tunnels (i.e. 100–150 years). Therefore, in this paper, the durability of two commercially available PVC-P geomembranes is studied with the help of a specifically designed accelerated ageing device in addition to mechanical and absorption tests. The degradation resulting from plasticizer loss is extrapolated to the long term, and a threshold value for the end-of-life of the PVC-P geomembrane is estimated from the mechanical tests

Comparison of the Results of Analytical and Numerical Models of Pre-Reinforcement in Shallow Tunnels

AbstractThe steel pipe umbrella is a widely used technology when tunnelling in weak soils in order to create pre-support ahead of the tunnel face. The design of steel pipes is frequently done through simplified analytical approaches which are easy to apply but require proper assessment of the loads acting on the pipe. To provide information on this key design aspect, the results of the comparison between a three-dimensional numerical model developed with the code FLAC 3D and an analytical model based on the approach of a beam on yielding supports is presented and discussed. The comparison refers to a shallow tunnel with an overburden of three times its diameter for two different types of weak rock masses. The obtained results provide suggestions about the load that has to be applied in the analytical model for the design phase

Organic Carbon Burial following the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) in the central - western Tethys

We present trace metal geochemistry and stable isotope records for the middle Eocene Alano di Piave section, NE Italy, deposited during magnetochron C18n in the marginal Tethys Ocean. We identify a $\sim$ 500 kyr long carbon isotope perturbation event we infer to be the middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) confirming the northern hemisphere expression and global occurrence of MECO. Interpreted peak climatic conditions are followed by the rapid deposition of two organic rich intervals ($\le$3\% TOC) and contemporaneous positive $\delta^{13}$C excursions. These two intervals are associated with increases in the concentration of sulphur and redox-sensitive trace metals, and low concentrations of Mn, as well as coupled with the occurrence of pyrite. Together these changes imply low, possibly dysoxic, bottom water O$_{2}$ conditions promoting increased organic carbon burial. We hypothesize that this rapid burial of organic carbon lowered global {\it p}CO$_{2}$ following the peak warming and returned the climate system to the general Eocene cooling trend

RISK OF BONE METASTATIZATION IN BREAST CANCER:ROLE OF MATRIX METALLOPROTEINASES AND ADAMS TISSUE EXPRESSION

INTRODUCTION Breast cancer is the most common female neoplasm in developed countries: it represents the first cause of death for cancer in women between 40-55 years old. Bone metastasis are common in patients affected by advanced breast cancer. In patients affected by metastatic breast cancer (MBC), the bone represents the most common site of metastatization. Some elements can explain the high frequency of bone metastasis: the blood flow is abundant in the bone marrow, the cancer cells produce adhesion molecules than link stromal cells and bone matrix, the bone tissue is a source of growth factors. Bone metastasis from breast cancer are usually ostheolytic. The matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are able to degrade all ECM components; ADAMs functions include cellular adhesion, migration and signaling. Their principal substrates are transmembrane proteins as adhesion proteins and precursors of growth factors and cytokines. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY This mono institutional study evaluates the expression of a panel of biological and molecular markers (MMP, ADAMs and TIMPS) in two cohorts of patients with breast cancers affected or not affected by bone metastasis. The main end point is to verify if there is some marker significantly correlated with the risk of bone metastatization. PATIENTS AND METHODS 297 records of breast cancer patients operated between 1985 and 2001 at San Paolo Hospital in Milan were analyzed. All avaible slides were revised, stained with hematossilin and eosin, Tissue Microarray (TMA) was created with Tissue Arrayer Minicore instrument. RESULTS Mean age of the population is 61 years (standard deviation 11.7; range 27-89 years). The control group has 207 patients (69,7% of the total). The group with bone metastasis consists of 90 patients (31,3% of the total). Of those, 45 (50%) have only bone localization of disease while 50% have both visceral and bone metastasis. In the control group, 173 patients out of 206 (83,6%) had ductal invasive carcinoma, 25 patients (12,1%) had lobular invasive carcinoma while 9 patients (4,3%) had other hystotype. Tumoral grading, MMP1, ADAM 17 and ADAM 12 were the parameters selected by the univariate analysis. ADAM12 expression was the only parameter significantly different between the two groups (78,26% vs 91,11% with p 0.036, OR=2.59, 95%IC 1.06-6.29). DICUSSION Our study shows that ADAM 12 is the only hyper expressed protein in tumoral tissue that is significant related with bone matastatization. ADAM12 induces estrogen-resistance in hormone sensitive tumors, play a role as mediator of the resistance to the hormonal treatment. 73,3% had a ER-positive and ADAM12-positive disease. It can be hypothesized that some ormonosensitive patients, treated with hormones would develop bone metastatization due to hyperexpression of ADAM12. Targeting ADAM12, together with hormonal treatment, could be a new approach to overcome anti estrogenic resistance

Processor-in-the-loop architecture design and experimental validation for an autonomous racing vehicle

Self-driving vehicles have experienced an increase in research interest in the last decades. Nevertheless, fully autonomous vehicles are still far from being a common means of transport. This paper presents the design and experimental validation of a processor-in-the-loop (PIL) architecture for an autonomous sports car. The considered vehicle is an all-wheel drive full-electric single-seater prototype. The retained PIL architecture includes all the modules required for autonomous driving at system level: environment perception, trajectory planning, and control. Specifically, the perception pipeline exploits obstacle detection algorithms based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the trajectory planning is based on a modified Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm based on Dubins curves, while the vehicle is controlled via a Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy. The considered PIL layout is implemented firstly using a low-cost card-sized computer for fast code verification purposes. Furthermore, the proposed PIL architecture is compared in terms of performance to an alternative PIL using high-performance real-time target computing machine. Both PIL architectures exploit User Datagram Protocol (UDP) protocol to properly communicate with a personal computer. The latter PIL architecture is validated in real-time using experimental data. Moreover, they are also validated with respect to the general autonomous pipeline that runs in parallel on the personal computer during numerical simulation

Serum cardiac troponin I concentration in dogs with precapillary and postcapillary pulmonary hypertension.

Background: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a disease condition leading to right\u2010sided cardiac hypertrophy and, eventually, right\u2010sided heart failure. Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is a circulating biomarker of cardiac damage. Hypothesis: Myocardial damage can occur in dogs with precapillary and postcapillary PH. Animals: One hundred and thirty\u2010three dogs were examined: 26 healthy controls, 42 dogs with mitral valve disease (MVD) without PH, 48 dogs with pulmonary hypertension associated with mitral valve disease (PH\u2010MVD), and 17 dogs with precapillary PH. Methods: Prospective, observational study. Serum cTnI concentration was measured with a commercially available immunoassay and results were compared between groups. Results: Median cTnI was 0.10\u2003ng/mL (range 0.10\u20130.17\u2003ng/mL) in healthy dogs. Compared with the healthy population, median serum cTnI concentration was increased in dogs with precapillary PH (0.25\u2003ng/mL; range 0.10\u20131.9\u2003ng/mL; P < .001) and in dogs with PH\u2010MVD (0.21\u2003ng/mL; range 0.10\u20132.10\u2003ng/mL; P < .001). Median serum cTnI concentration of dogs with MVD (0.12\u2003ng/mL; range 0.10\u20131.00\u2003ng/mL) was not significantly different compared with control group and dogs with PH\u2010MVD. In dogs with MVD and PH\u2010MVD, only the subgroup with decompensated PH\u2010MVD had significantly higher cTnI concentration compared with dogs with compensated MVD and PH\u2010MVD. Serum cTnI concentration showed significant modest positive correlations with the calculated pulmonary artery systolic pressure in dogs with PH and some echocardiographic indices in dogs with MVD and PH\u2010MVD. Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Serum cTnI is high in dogs with either precapillary and postcapillary PH. Myocardial damage in dogs with postcapillary PH is likely the consequence of increased severity of MVD