NBN: IT The Italian trusted persistent identifier infrastructure

This paper describes how the Italian national bibliography number (NBN) service has become a trusted infrastructure when it has been combined with digital stacks, the national digital preservation infrastructure. A suitable descriptive model, the bricks of trust, to assess the trustworthiness of the PI systems, has been provided. The Italian NBN has been positively assessed according to this model

CFM: a convolutional neural network for first-motion polarity classification of seismic records in volcanic and tectonic areas

First-motion polarity determination is essential for deriving volcanic and tectonic earthquakes’ focal mechanisms, which provide crucial information about fault structures and stress fields. Manual procedures for polarity determination are time-consuming and prone to human error, leading to inaccurate results. Automated algorithms can overcome these limitations, but accurately identifying first-motion polarity is challenging. In this study, we present the Convolutional First Motion (CFM) neural network, a label-noise robust strategy based on a Convolutional Neural Network, to automatically identify first-motion polarities of seismic records. CFM is trained on a large dataset of more than 140,000 waveforms and achieves a high accuracy of 97.4% and 96.3% on two independent test sets. We also demonstrate CFM’s ability to correct mislabeled waveforms in 92% of cases, even when they belong to the training set. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of deep learning approaches for first-motion polarity determination and suggest the potential for combining CFM with other deep learning techniques in volcano seismology

Joint Involvement in SLE: the Controversy of RHUPUS

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Quality of life in patients following percutaneous PMMA acetabuloplasty for acetabular metastasis due to carcinoma.

Pain is the main symptom of acetabular osteolysis from metastatic carcinoma, and it is frequently associated with pathologic fractures. Radiotherapy alone usually is not effective for pain control, and it does not allow weight bearing. Surgical procedures requiring an aggressive approach and consequently high morbidity are rarely indicated in patients with multiple metastases. Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) has been widely used in oncologic and spinal surgery as a bone filler. We evaluated the functional results of percutaneous injection of PMMA in 20 patients (24 acetabula) with acetabular osteolysis from metastatic carcinoma. Patients were assessed before and after percutaneous acetabuloplasty, evaluating pain, mobility of the hip joint, general condition, use of analgesics, using the SF-36, QLQ-C30, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Performance Scale and Harris Hip Score. There was a marked clinical improvement in all patients during the first six post-operative months, with gradual worsening thereafter from deterioration of their general condition over the 12-month follow-up period. Percutaneous acetabuloplasty is reliable and effective in the short term, with a statistically significant reduction of pain and improvement in quality of daily life

MV1035 Overcomes Temozolomide Resistance in Patient-Derived Glioblastoma Stem Cell Lines

Glioblastoma (GBM, grade IV glioma) represents the most aggressive brain tumor and patients with GBM have a poor prognosis. Until now surgical resection followed by radiotherapy and temozolomide (TMZ) treatment represents the standard strategy for GBM. We showed that the imidazobenzoxazin-5-thione MV1035 is able to significantly reduce GBM U87-MG cells migration and invasiveness through inhibition of the RNA demethylase ALKBH5. In this work, we focus on the DNA repair protein ALKBH2, a further MV1035 target resulting from SPILLO-PBSS proteome-wide scale in silico analysis. Our data demonstrate that MV1035 inhibits the activity of ALKBH2, known to be involved in GBM TMZ resistance. MV1035 was used on both U87-MG and two patient-derived (PD) glioma stem cells (GSCs): in combination with TMZ, it has a significant synergistic effect in reducing cell viability and sphere formation. Moreover, MV1035 induces a reduction in MGMT expression in PD-GSCs cell lines most likely through a mechanism that acts on MGMT promoter methylation. Taken together our data show that MV1035 could act as an inhibitor potentially helpful to overcome TMZ resistance and able to reduce GBM migration and invasiveness

Body weight, gender and response to TNF- blockers in axial spondyloarthritis

Objective. The objective of this study was to determine whether BMI and gender could lead to a different response rate to anti-TNF agents in patients affected by axial SpA.Methods. One hundred and seventy patients with active axial SpA (defined as a BASDAI ≥4) treated with an anti-TNF agent [adalimumab (ADA), etanercept (ETA), infliximab (IFX)] were retrospectively evaluated. Patients were divided according to the baseline BMI as normal weight (BMI < 25), overweight (BMI 25-30) and obese (BMI ≥ 30). After 12 months of treatment a 50% improvement of the initial BASDAI (BASDAI50) was the primary end point and BASDAI ≤1 was the secondary end point.Results. After 12 months of anti-TNF treatment, 67.8% of men and 46.2% of women reached the BASDAI50 (P = 0.01). According to BMI categories, the rate of BASDAI50 achievement decreased from 72.8% in normal weight subjects to 54.5% in overweight and 30.4% in obese subjects (P < 0.001). In the logistic regression analysis, the best independent predictors of failure to obtain a BASDAI50 response at the 12th month of therapy in axial SpA patients were female gender [odds ratio (OR) 3.23 (95% CI 1.52, 7.14)] and a BMI ≥30 [OR 3.57 (95% CI 1.15, 11.11)]. Analysing outcomes based on IFX therapy (the larger subgroup), the BASDAI50 response rate fell from 79.0% in normal weight subjects to 56.7% in overweight and 16.7% in obese subjects (P < 0.001). No significant differences were observed with ADA and ETA.Conclusion. Data suggest that being female, overweight and mostly obese is associated with a lower rate of success in obtaining response status in axial SpA patients treated with anti-TNF drugs. Body weight could represent a modifiable factor to reach the best outcome in axial SpA patients treated with TNF blockers

SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF PLANT AGRI-BIODIVERSITY IN POLLINO NATIONAL PARK

Spatial analysis of the in situ conserved plant landraces in Pollino National Park was carried out from 2009 to 2011. The sampling design, based on a standard landscape grid, captured the whole range of plant genetic resources monitored at a pluri-taxon level. Both old fruit trees, wines (I phase; see www.biodiversitapollino.it) and annual herbaceous plants (II phase) were monitored. Overall 119 georeferenced sampling units, each with a visible radius of 200-250 m represented the rural landscape of 21 municipalities in Basilicata and 3 in Calabria. Overall 41 different woody species comprising 519 traditional biotypes and 54 herbaceous species with 137 traditional cultivars were scored. Cultivar/species ratio is 10: 1 for woody plants and 3: 1 for herbaceous species. Diversity at the sub-specific level, averaged across the whole landscape was: Margalef = 80.51; Menhinick = 9.51; Shannon = 5.55; Simpson = 0.99; Briliouin = 5.36. Landscape units with highest genetic diversity (species and landrace richness) were highlighted within a heterogeneous mosaic of cultivar richness distribution according to ecology and rural settlments. Linear regression (R2= 0.78;r= 0.43) between herbaceous cultivars richness vs old fruit trees richness confirmed that agribiodiversity is spatially conserved in landscape production units based on multi species rather than mono species (e.g. specialized) agro-ecosystems. In addition, the Colombian introductions (bean, potato, maize, pumpkin, tomato, and chili) increased species richness (R2 = 0.80; r= 0.56) – without any displacement effect – within the landscape units already performing as a realized niche for the pre-colombian species (apple, pear, wheat, legumes, etc.) The core area of Mercure catchment basin – a realized niche for both pre and post Colombian species – connected with few units, each a-priori sized 4 x 4 Km, depicts the Pollino National Park agri-biodiversity genetic reserve

The prognostic value of CD3+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes for stage II colon cancer according to use of adjuvant chemotherapy: A large single-institution cohort study: TILs for ADJ-untreated stage II colon cancer

Background: High tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) density was previously shown to be associated with favorable prognosis for patients with colon cancer (CC). However, the impact of TILs on overall survival (OS) of stage II CC patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy (ADJ) or not (no-ADJ) is unknown. We assessed the prognostic value of CD3+ TILs in stage II CC patients according to whether they had ADJ or not. Methods: Patients treated with curative surgery for stage II CC (2002–2013) were selected from the Santa Maria alle Scotte Hospital registry. TILs at the invasive front, center of tumor, and stroma were determined by immunohistochemistry and manually quantified as the rate of TILs/total tissue areas. High TILs (H-TILs) was defined as &gt;20%. Patients were categorized as high or low TILs (L-TILs) and ADJ or no-ADJ. Results: Of the 678 patients included, 137 (20%) received ADJ and 541 (80%) did not. The distribution of the 4 groups were: 16% (L-TIL/ADJ), 64% (L-TIL/no-ADJ), 5% (H-TIL/ADJ), 15% (H-TIL/no-ADJ). Compared to H-TILs/no-ADJ, ADJ patients showed a significantly increased OS (P&lt;.01) regardless of the TILs rate whereas L-TILs/no-ADJ had significantly decreased OS and higher risk of death (HR=1.41; 95% CI, 1.06–1.88; P&lt;.0001). On multivariable analysis, the unfavorable prognostic value of L-TILs (vs. H-TILs) for no-ADJ patients was confirmed (HR=1.36; 95% CI 1.02, 1.82; P=.0373). Conclusion: Low CD3+ TILs rate was associated with shorter OS in those with stage II colon cancer who did not receive adjuvant therapy. Low CD3+ TILs could be considered an additional risk factor for still ADJ-untreated stage II CC patients, which could facilitate clinical decision making