Inter-Municipal Methodology for Climate Transition Strategies : The First Case in Italy

To build resilient and climate-neutral cities, it is required to modify current territorial planning processes to make them more sustainable and virtuous. However, the implementation of new strategies and innovative governance models faces multiple obstacles, economic restrictions, and technical gaps. In particular, local governments often find it difficult to build structured transition processes. This article investigates how it is possible to respond effectively to the need of urban contexts to adapt to climate impacts, analyzing the case of the Climate Transition Strategy (CTS) “La Brianza Cambia Clima”, the first in Italy of this kind. Through the technical framework and the methodology described, the CTS can activate inter-municipal transformative actions through the mainstreaming of planning tools, the construction of a medium-long-term vision, and the identification of concrete and widespread actions to be implemented in the territory. This coordinated and shared strategic approach allows one to give stability, coherence, and continuity to adaptation processes involving different stakeholders and sectors of the Public Administration. Finally, it favors the implementation of multidisciplinary policies for territorial resilience on a large scale

Prokineticin System Is a Pharmacological Target to Counteract Pain and Its Comorbid Mood Alterations in an Osteoarthritis Murine Model

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent joint disease associated with chronic pain. OA pain is often accompanied by mood disorders. We addressed the role of the Prokineticin (PK) system in pain and mood alterations in a mice OA model induced with monosodium iodoacetate (MIA). The effect of a PK antagonist (PC1) was compared to that of diclofenac. C57BL/6J male mice injected with MIA in the knee joint were characterized by allodynia, motor deficits, and fatigue. Twenty-eight days after MIA, in the knee joint, we measured high mRNA of PK2 and its receptor PKR1, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and MMP13. At the same time, in the sciatic nerve and spinal cord, we found increased levels of PK2, PKR1, IL-1β, and IL-6. These changes were in the presence of high GFAP and CD11b mRNA in the sciatic nerve and GFAP in the spinal cord. OA mice were also characterized by anxiety, depression, and neuroinflammation in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. In both stations, we found increased pro-inflammatory cytokines. In addition, PK upregulation and reactive astrogliosis in the hippocampus and microglia reactivity in the prefrontal cortex were detected. PC1 reduced joint inflammation and neuroinflammation in PNS and CNS and counteracted OA pain and emotional disturbances

Ruolo del citrato nel metabolismo osseo

Citrate is an organic compound involved in tricarboxylic acid cycle, regulation of acid-base balance, lipid metabolism and bone formation. The 90% of body citrate is deposited in bone tissue and is released with calcium ions during bone resorption; therefore, bone resorption contributes to maintain normal plasma levels of citrate together with kidney excretion. The parallel release of citrate and calcium from bones decreases the possibility of calcium-phosphate precipitation in soft tissues, as citrate can bind calcium ions in organic fluids. Citrate may also take part to the bone formation as it sustains the correct mineralization of bone organic matrix: its molecule binds calcium ions at the surface of hydroxyapatite nanocrystals and maintains the correct spatial disposition of nanocrystals, thus, stabilizing the structure of bone lamellae and sustaining biomechanical characteristics of bone tissue. Multiple studies observed that citrate administration significantly increased areal and volumetric bone mineral density at different locations of 1-2% per year and improved bone resorption markers as well. Therefore, it has been hypothesised a therapeutic role of citrate in osteoporosis; however, this role has to be better clarified to understand its real anti-fracture effect

Temporomandibular joint inflammation activates glial and immune cells in both the trigeminal ganglia and in the spinal trigeminal nucleus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Glial cells have been shown to directly participate to the genesis and maintenance of chronic pain in both the sensory ganglia and the central nervous system (CNS). Indeed, glial cell activation has been reported in both the dorsal root ganglia and the spinal cord following injury or inflammation of the sciatic nerve, but no data are currently available in animal models of trigeminal sensitization. Therefore, in the present study, we evaluated glial cell activation in the trigeminal-spinal system following injection of the Complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA) into the temporomandibular joint, which generates inflammatory pain and trigeminal hypersensitivity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>CFA-injected animals showed ipsilateral mechanical allodynia and temporomandibular joint edema, accompanied in the trigeminal ganglion by a strong increase in the number of GFAP-positive satellite glial cells encircling neurons and by the activation of resident macrophages. Seventy-two hours after CFA injection, activated microglial cells were observed in the ipsilateral trigeminal subnucleus caudalis and in the cervical dorsal horn, with a significant up-regulation of Iba1 immunoreactivity, but no signs of reactive astrogliosis were detected in the same areas. Since the purinergic system has been implicated in the activation of microglial cells during neuropathic pain, we have also evaluated the expression of the microglial-specific P2Y₁₂receptor subtype. No upregulation of this receptor was detected following induction of TMJ inflammation, suggesting that any possible role of P2Y₁₂in this paradigm of inflammatory pain does not involve changes in receptor expression.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data indicate that specific glial cell populations become activated in both the trigeminal ganglia and the CNS following induction of temporomandibular joint inflammation, and suggest that they might represent innovative targets for controlling pain during trigeminal nerve sensitization.</p

Unsupervised neural networks as a support tool for pathology diagnosis in MALDI-MSI experiments:A case study on thyroid biopsies

Artificial intelligence is getting a foothold in medicine for disease screening and diagnosis. While typical machine learning methods require large labeled datasets for training and validation, their application is limited in clinical fields since ground truth information can hardly be obtained on a sizeable cohort of patients. Unsupervised neural networks - such as Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) - represent an alternative approach to identifying hidden patterns in biomedical data. Here we investigate the feasibility of SOMs for the identification of malignant and non-malignant regions in liquid biopsies of thyroid nodules, on a patient-specific basis. MALDI-ToF (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization -Time of Flight) mass spectrometry-imaging (MSI) was used to measure the spectral profile of bioptic samples. SOMs were then applied for the analysis of MALDI-MSI data of individual patients' samples, also testing various pre-processing and agglomerative clustering methods to investigate their impact on SOMs' discrimination efficacy. The final clustering was compared against the sample's probability to be malignant, hyperplastic or related to Hashimoto thyroiditis as quantified by multinomial regression with LASSO. Our results show that SOMs are effective in separating the areas of a sample containing benign cells from those containing malignant cells. Moreover, they allow to overlap the different areas of cytological glass slides with the corresponding proteomic profile image, and inspect the specific weight of every cellular component in bioptic samples. We envision that this approach could represent an effective means to assist pathologists in diagnostic tasks, avoiding the need to manually annotate cytological images and the effort in creating labeled datasets

The Role of Micronutrients in Human Papillomavirus Infection, Cervical Dysplasia, and Neoplasm

There is evidence that diet and nutrition are modifiable risk factors for several cancers. In recent years, attention paid to micronutrients in gynecology has increased, especially regarding Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. We performed a review of the literature up until December 2022, aiming to clarify the effects of micronutrients, minerals, and vitamins on the history of HPV infection and the development of cervical cancer. We included studies having as their primary objective the evaluation of dietary supplements, in particular calcium; zinc; iron; selenium; carotenoids; and vitamins A, B12, C, D, E, and K. Different oligo-elements and micronutrients demonstrated a potential protective role against cervical cancer by intervening in different stages of the natural history of HPV infection, development of cervical dysplasia, and invasive disease. Healthcare providers should be aware of and incorporate the literature evidence in counseling, although the low quality of evidence provided by available studies recommends further well-designed investigations to give clear indications for clinical practice

TCT-713 Impact And Evolution Of Right Ventricular Dysfunction After MitraClip In High Risk Patients With Functional Mitral Regurgitation

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Clinical, anamnestic, and sociodemographic predictors of positive SARS-CoV-2 testing in children: A cross sectional study in a tertiary hospital in Italy

ObjectivesWe aimed to identify clinical, anamnestic, and sociodemographic characteristics associated with a positive swab for SARS-CoV2, and to provide a predictive score to identify at risk population in children aged 2-14 years attending school and tested for clinical symptoms of COVID-19.DesignCross sectional study.SettingOutpatient clinic of the IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, a maternal and child health tertiary care hospital and research centre in Italy.Data collection and analysisData were collected through a predefined form, filled out by parents, and gathered information on sociodemographic characteristics, and specific symptoms, which were analysed to determine their association with a positive SARS-CoV-2 swab. The regression coefficients of the variables included in the multivariate analysis were further used in the calculation of a predictive score of the positive or negative test.ResultsBetween September 20th and December 23rd 2020, from 1484 children included in the study, 127 (8.6%) tested positive. In the multivariate analysis, the variables retained by the model were the presence of contact with a cohabiting, non-cohabiting or unspecified symptomatic case (respectively OR 37.2, 95% CI 20.1-68.7; 5.1, 95% CI 2.7-9.6; 15.6, 95% CI 7.3-33.2); female sex (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.0-2.3); age (6-10 years old: OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.7-6.1 p&lt;0.001; &gt;10 years old: OR 4.8, 95% CI 2.7-8.8 p&lt;0.001); fever (OR 3.9, 95% CI 2.3-6.4); chills (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.1-3.3); headache (OR 1.45, 95% CI 0.9-2.4); ageusia (OR 1.3, 95% CI 0.54.0); sore throat (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.3-0.8); earache (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.1-1.3); rhinorrhoea (OR 0.8, 95% CI 0.5-1.3); and diarrhoea (OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.2-1.1). The predictive score based on these variables generated 93% sensitivity and 99% negative predictive value.ConclusionsThe timely identification of SARS-CoV2 cases among children is useful to reduce the dissemination of the disease and its related burden. The predictive score may be adopted in a public health perspective to rapidly identify at risk children

Transferability of Human and Environmental Microbiome on Clothes as a Tool for Forensic Investigations

Considering the growing importance of microbiome analyses in forensics for identifying individuals, this study explores the transfer of the skin microbiome onto clothing, its persistence on fabrics over time, and its transferability from the environment and between different garments. Furthermore, this project compares three specific QIAGEN microbiome extraction kits to test their extraction efficiency on fabric samples. Additionally, this study aims to check if these extracts contain human DNA, providing a chance to obtain more information from the same evidence for personal identification. The results obtained show: (1) variations in the skin microbiome between the volunteers, potentially due to their different sex; (2) differences in microbial composition between worn and unworn clothing; (3) the influence of the environment on the microbial signature of unworn clothing; (4) the potential use of certain phyla as biomarkers to differentiate between worn and unworn garments, even over extended periods; (5) a tendency towards extraction biases in the QIAampMP® DNA microbiome kit among the three tested ones; and (6) none of the extraction kits allow for the typing of human genetic profiles suitable for comparison. In conclusion, our study offers supplementary insights into the potential utility of time-transferred microbiome analysis on garments for forensic applications