City, Nature, Culture. New way of Living Sociability (the Case of Reggio Calabria)

Abstract The paper tackles the problems of our modern political society related to city, nature and culture. The policies concerning such specific sectors, if designed in a coordinated and coherent way, are capable of creating an important development model. The case of Reggio Calabria, metropolitan city, is exemplary of this model. The specific characteristics of Reggio Calabria bring out the urgent need to rethink urbanization, together with nature and culture and thus change the very idea of cit

Translation, Identity, Society: The European Case of Cultural Multiplicity

The article discusses the philosophy of the translation of Domenico Jervolino applying it to the case of the European Union. The models of multi-culturalism and interculture are implemented within the EU

Synthetic spectra of H Balmer and HeI absorption lines. I: Stellar library

We present a grid of synthetic profiles of stellar H Balmer and HeI lines at optical wavelengths with a sampling of 0.3 A. The grid spans a range of effective temperature 4000 K < Teff < 50000 K, and gravity 0.0 < log g < 5.0 at solar metallicity. For Teff > 25000 K, NLTE stellar atmosphere models are computed using the code TLUSTY (Hubeny 1988). For cooler stars, Kurucz (1993) LTE models are used to compute thesynthetic spectra. The grid includes the profiles of the high-order hydrogen Balmer series and HeI lines for effective temperatures and gravities that have not been previously synthesized. The behavior of H8 to H13 and HeI 3819 with effective temperature and gravity is very similar to that of the lower terms of the series (e.g. Hb) and the other HeI lines at longer wavelengths; therefore, they are suited for the determination of the atmospheric parameters of stars. These lines are potentially important to make predictions for these stellar absorption features in galaxies with active star formation. Evolutionary synthesis models of these lines for starburst and post-starburst galaxies are presented in a companion paper. The full set of the synthetic stellar spectra is available for retrieval at our website http://www.iaa.es/ae/e2.html and http://www.stsci.edu/science/starburst/ or on request from the authors at [email protected]: To be published in ApJS. 28 pages and 12 figure

Synthetic spectra of H Balmer and HeI absorption lines. II: Evolutionary synthesis models for starburst and post-starburst galaxies

We present evolutionary stellar population synthesis models to predict the spectrum of a single-metallicity stellar population, with a spectral sampling of 0.3 A in five spectral regions between 3700 and 5000 A. The models, which are optimized for galaxies with active star formation, synthesize the profiles of the hydrogen Balmer series (Hb, Hg, Hd, H8, H9, H10, H11, H12 and H13) and the neutral helium absorption lines (HeI 4922, HeI 4471, HeI 4388, HeI 4144, HeI 4121, HeI 4026, HeI 4009 and HeI 3819) for a burst with an age ranging from 1 to 1000 Myr, and different assumptions about the stellar initial mass function. Continuous star formation models lasting for 1 Gyr are also presented. The input stellar library includes NLTE absorption profiles for stars hotter than 25000 K and LTE profiles for lower temperatures. The temperature and gravity coverage is 4000 K <Teff< 50000 K and 0.0< log g$< 5.0, respectively. The models can be used to date starburst and post-starburst galaxies until 1 Gyr. They have been tested on data for clusters in the LMC, the super-star cluster B in the starburst galaxy NGC 1569, the nucleus of the dwarf elliptical NGC 205 and a luminous "E+A" galaxy. The full data set is available for retrieval at http://www.iaa.es/ae/e2.html and at http://www.stsci.edu/science/starburst/, or on request from the authors at [email protected]: To be published in ApJS. 48 pages and 20 figure

Spectrophotometric investigations of Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies: Markarian 35

We present results from a detailed spectrophotometric analysis of the blue compact dwarf galaxy Mrk 35 (Haro 3), based on deep optical (B,V,R,I) and near-IR (J,H,K) imaging, Halpha narrow-band observations and long-slit spectroscopy. The optical emission of the galaxy is dominated by a central young starburst, with a bar-like shape, while an underlying component of stars, with elliptical isophotes and red colors, extends more than 4 kpc from the galaxy center. High resolution Halpha and color maps allow us to identify the star-forming regions, to spatially discriminate them from the older stars, and to recognize several dust patches. We derive colors and Halpha parameters for all the identified star-forming knots. Observables derived for each knot are corrected for the contribution of the underlying older stellar population, the contribution by emission lines, and from interstellar extinction, and compared with evolutionary synthesis models. We find that the contributions of these three factors are by no means negligible and that they significantly vary across the galaxy. Therefore, careful quantification and subtraction of emission lines, galaxy host contribution, and interstellar reddening at every galaxy position, are essential to derive the properties of the young stars in BCDs. We find that we can reproduce the colors of all the knots with an instantaneous burst of star formation and the Salpeter initial mass function with an upper mass limit of 100 M_solar. In all cases the knots are just a few Myr old. The underlying population of stars has colors consistent with being several Gyr old.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ, tentatively scheduled for the ApJ November 1, 2007 v669n1 issu

Spectrophotometric Observations of Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies: Mrk 370

We present results from a detailed spectrophotometric analysis of the blue compact dwarf galaxy (BCD) Mrk 370, based on deep UBVRI broad-band and Halpha narrow-band observations, and long-slit and two-dimensional spectroscopy of its brightest knots. The spectroscopic data are used to derive the internal extinction, and to compute metallicities, electronic density and temperature in the knots. By subtracting the contribution of the underlying older stellar population, modeled by an exponential function, removing the contribution from emission lines, and correcting for extinction, we can measure the true colors of the young star-forming knots. We show that the colors obtained this way differ significantly from those derived without the above corrections, and lead to different estimates of the ages and star-forming history of the knots. Using predictions of evolutionary synthesis models, we estimate the ages of both the starburst regions and the underlying stellar component. We found that we can reproduce the colors of all the knots with an instantaneous burst of star formation and the Salpeter initial mass function with an upper mass limit of 100 solar masses. The resulting ages range between 3 and 6 Myrs. The colors of the low surface brightness component are consistent with ages larger than 5 Gyr. The kinematic results suggest ordered motion around the major axis of the galaxy.Comment: 26 pages with 14 figures; accepted for publication in Ap

Ratio-based staging systems are better than the 7th and 8th editions of the TNM in stratifying the prognosis of gastric cancer patients: A multicenter retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: The current and the previous editions of the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) system for gastric cancer (GC; TNM8 and TNM7) have a high risk of stage-migration bias when the node count after gastrectomy is suboptimal. Hence, they are possibly not the optimal staging systems for GC patients. This study aims to compare the TNM with two systems less affected by the stage-migration bias, namely, the lymph nodes ratio (LNR) and the log odds of positive lymph nodes (LODDS), to assess which one is the best in stratifying the prognosis of GC patients. METHODS: The sample study included 1221 GC patients. Two 7-cluster staging systems based on the combination of pT categories and LNR and LODDS categories (TLNR and TLODDS) were compared with the two last editions of TNM, using the Akaike information criteria, the Bayesian information criteria, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve graphs. Further validation on an independent sample of 251 patients was carried out. RESULTS: The univariable and multivariable analyses and the ROC curves detected an advantage of the TLNR and TLODDS systems over the TNM. The TLNR and TLODDS showed the best accuracy both in the subgroup of patients with ≥16 nodes examined. The results were confirmed in the validation analysis. CONCLUSIONS: TLNR and TLODDS staging systems should be considered a valid implementation of the TNM for the prognostic stratification of GC patients. If these results are confirmed in further studies, the future implementation of the TNM should consider the introduction of the LNR or the LODDS along with the number of metastatic nodes

Enteric Neurospheres Are Not Specific to Neural Crest Cultures: Implications for Neural Stem Cell Therapies

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited

The Road to Curative Surgery in Gastric Cancer Treatment: A Different Path in the Elderly?

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of a different path to achieve curative surgery in patients older than age 70 years and affected by resectable gastric cancer. STUDY DESIGN: This is a multicentric retrospective study based on an analysis of 1,465 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent surgery with curative intent. Patients were divided into 2 age groups (younger than 70 years vs older than 70 years) and were evaluated with respect to postoperative morbidity and mortality and survival. RESULTS: Postoperative morbidity and mortality in elderly and nonelderly groups were 24.8% vs 20.6% and 2.6% vs 3.7%, respectively (p = NS). In the elderly group, multivisceral resection was independently associated with surgical complications (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.988; 95% CI, 1.124-3.516; p = 0.018), total gastrectomy with medical complications (HR = 2.007; 95% CI, 1.165-3.459; p = 0.012), and higher postoperative mortality (HR = 4.319; 95% CI, 1.571-11.873; p = 0.005); D1 lymph node dissection was predictive of a lower postoperative mortality rate (HR = 0.219; 95% CI, 0.080-0.603; p = 0.003). Five-year overall survival rates differed significantly in young and elderly patients (58.9% vs 38.9%; p &lt; 0.001), and 5-year cancer-specific survival did not show any significant difference. CONCLUSIONS: Age should not be considered as a factor in the selection of treatment for gastric cancer patients. Curative surgery can be performed as safely in elderly patients as in younger patients, with comparable postoperative results and long-term survival rates, although the life expectancy of elderly patients is shorter

Novel CARMIL2 loss-of-function variants are associated with pediatric inflammatory bowel disease

CARMIL2 is required for CD28-mediated co-stimulation of NF-kappa B signaling in T cells and its deficiency has been associated with primary immunodeficiency and, recently, very early onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Here we describe the identification of novel biallelic CARMIL2 variants in three patients presenting with pediatric-onset IBD and in one with autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome (APS). None manifested overt clinical signs of immunodeficiency before their diagnosis. The first patient presented with very early onset IBD. His brother was found homozygous for the same CARMIL2 null variant and diagnosed with APS. Two other IBD patients were found homozygous for a nonsense and a missense CARMIL2 variant, respectively, and they both experienced a complicated postoperative course marked by severe infections. Immunostaining of bowel biopsies showed reduced CARMIL2 expression in all the three patients with IBD. Western blot and immunofluorescence of transfected cells revealed an altered expression pattern of the missense variant. Our work expands the genotypic and phenotypic spectrum of CARMIL2 deficiency, which can present with either IBD or APS, aside from classic immunodeficiency manifestations. CARMIL2 should be included in the diagnostic work-up of patients with suspected monogenic IBD