La guida interattiva INandOUT. Un modo nuovo di esplorare musei ed aree archeologiche

The Interactive Guide INandOUT, created as part of the project “Signs of pre-Roman cultures in land and landscape” and sponsored by the European Program “Culture 2000”, aims at experimenting new forms of comprehension by creating a direct link between site-visiting, excavations finds and archival research using the newest available technologies (notebooks, Tablet PCs, etc.). The Interactive Guide INandOUT answers the visitor’s need to contemplate the single work he is observing inside the site or museum and to observe it together with the entire site, at the same time. In short, it can place the visitor outside the site while still taking him through each single step of the excavations. Two goals have been achieved: first of all an informative net was created, covering vast open spaces (such as those found in archeological sites) and smaller indoor spaces (such as those found in museums), and using wireless technology (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, UMTS). Second, this net was filled with multi-medial contents, such as animations, movies, images, sounds and voices, in order to enhance the correspondence between inside and outside, between the single object and its original environment. The visitor’s position is identified by means of tags RFid (Radio Frequency Identification). These simple and quite “invisible” radio transmitters, spread all over the site, interact with the client-driver (the Tablet PC) given to the visitor. By receiving different specific codes the Guide recognizes where the visitor stands and sends him the most specific and contextual information. Last, but not least, the RFid system considerably reduces both operation and maintenance costs. The Tags used to activate the multi-medial information on the visitor’s Tablet PC are small, easily attached (even only using glue) and easily removed if necessary, long lasting, ideal for open and external spaces, and, most important, they need no power supply

Histamine in cancer: the dual faces of the coin.

Commentary to:The role of histamine in human mammary carcinogenesis: H3 and H4 receptors as potential therapeutic targets for breast cancer treatment.Vanina Medina, Maximo Croci, Ernesto Crescenti, Nora Mohamad, Francisca Sanchez-Jimenez, Noelia Massari, Mariel Nunez, Graciela Cricco, Gabriela Martin, Rosa Bergoc, Elena River

Club drugs

Club drugs is aimed not only at sector specialists but also at a broader public. It addresses the highly topical issue of the drugs and substances of abuse commonly used in social venues and clubs for recreational or socialising purposes. Garbed in a discursive and communicative language, albeit thoroughly supported by scientific evidence, the results of the research on the most widespread "recreational" drugs - ecstasy, GHB, Rohypnol, crack, cannabis and cocaine - are presented. The book takes its place within the debate on a social phenomenon in continual growth, replacing the Manicheism of prohibitionist and anti-prohibitionist positions with the most up-to-date results of scientific research

Histamine regulates actin cytoskeleton in human toll-like receptor 4-activated monocyte-derived dendritic cells tuning CD4+ T lymphocyte response

Histamine, a major mediator in allergic diseases, differentially regulates the polarizing ability of dendritic cells after Toll-like receptor (TLR) stimulation, by not completely explained mechanisms. In this study we investigated the effects of histamine on innate immune reaction during the response of human monocyte-derived DCs (mDCs) to different TLR stimuli: LPS, specific for TLR4, and Pam3Cys, specific for heterodimer molecule TLR1/TLR2. We investigated actin remodeling induced by histamine together with mDCs phenotype, cytokine production, and the stimulatory and polarizing ability of Th0. By confocal microscopy and RT-PCR expression of Rac1/CdC42 Rho GTPases, responsible for actin remodeling, we show that histamine selectively modifies actin cytoskeleton organization induced by TLR4, but not TLR2 and this correlates with increased IL4 production and decreased IFNγ by primed T cells. We also demonstrate that histamine-induced cytoskeleton organization is at least in part mediated by down-regulation of small Rho GTPase CdC42 and the protein target PAK1, but not by down-regulation of Rac1. The presence and relative expression of histamine receptors HR1–4 and TLRs were determined as well. Independently of actin remodeling, histamine down-regulates IL12p70 and CXCL10 production in mDCs after TLR2 and TLR4 stimulation. We also observed a trend of IL10 up-regulation that, despite previous reports, did not reach statistical significance