L’etica e le forme, l’anima e il corpo: i linguaggi del Caravaggio

L'articolo affronta la lettura dell'opera di Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio(Milano 1571 - Porto Ercole 1610), per analizzarne il linguaggio artistico oltre la Natura come unico riferimento, al fine di sottolineare che i noti caratteri d'"immediatezza" e di "verità" della sua pittura scaturirono da una sintesi tra il riscontro diretto sul naturale, il dettato esistenziale e l'elaborazione concettuale

Direct digital manufacturing of shoe heels through Fused Deposition Modeling

Additive manufacturing process chains for direct part production in the footwear sector are being investigated almost exclusively for athlete shoe soles and orthotics. This paper focuses on the direct digital manufacturing of high heels for woman shoes, which could provide solutions for personalized production and complex design for high added-value shoes. The study aims at testing the introduction of additively manufactured components into conventional shoe production lines. Sample heels of two common designs have been fabricated by the Fused Deposition Modeling technique, assembled with conventional mounting machines, and tested for wearability according to standard procedures. The experimentation has shown that fully process compatible and functional heels can be produced for a basic design under some restrictions, and has allowed to identify critical issues to be dealt with for future applications on more critical heel shapes. These results will help to develop methods for a robust heel design exploiting the flexibility and creative freedom allowed by additive processes

Gut Microbiome in Retina Health. The Crucial Role of the Gut-Retina Axis

The term microbiome means not only a complex ecosystem of microbial species that colonize our body but also their genome and the surrounding environment in which they live. Recent studies support the existence of a gut-retina axis involved in the pathogenesis of several chronic progressive ocular diseases, including age-related macular disorders. This review aims to underline the importance of the gut microbiome in relation to ocular health. After briefly introducing the characteristics of the gut microbiome in terms of composition and functions, the role of gut microbiome dysbiosis, in the development or progression of retinal diseases, is highlighted, focusing on the relationship between gut microbiome composition and retinal health based on the recently investigated gut-retina axis

Approximate TF-IDF based on topic extraction from massive message stream using the GPU

The Web is a constantly expanding global information space that includes disparate types of data and resources. Recent trends demonstrate the urgent need to manage the large amounts of data stream, especially in specific domains of application such as critical infrastructure systems, sensor networks, log file analysis, search engines and more recently, social networks. All of these applications involve large-scale data-intensive tasks, often subject to time constraints and space complexity. Algorithms, data management and data retrieval techniques must be able to process data stream, i.e., process data as it becomes available and provide an accurate response, based solely on the data stream that has already been provided. Data retrieval techniques often require traditional data storage and processing approach, i.e., all data must be available in the storage space in order to be processed. For instance, a widely used relevance measure is Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency (TF–IDF), which can evaluate how important a word is in a collection of documents and requires to a priori know the whole dataset. To address this problem, we propose an approximate version of the TF–IDF measure suitable to work on continuous data stream (such as the exchange of messages, tweets and sensor-based log files). The algorithm for the calculation of this measure makes two assumptions: a fast response is required, and memory is both limited and infinitely smaller than the size of the data stream. In addition, to face the great computational power required to process massive data stream, we present also a parallel implementation of the approximate TF–IDF calculation using Graphical Processing Units (GPUs). This implementation of the algorithm was tested on generated and real data stream and was able to capture the most frequent terms. Our results demonstrate that the approximate version of the TF–IDF measure performs at a level that is comparable to the solution of the precise TF–IDF measure

Design and Optimization of Residual Neural Network Accelerators for Low-Power FPGAs Using High-Level Synthesis

Residual neural networks are widely used in computer vision tasks. They enable the construction of deeper and more accurate models by mitigating the vanishing gradient problem. Their main innovation is the residual block which allows the output of one layer to bypass one or more intermediate layers and be added to the output of a later layer. Their complex structure and the buffering required by the residual block make them difficult to implement on resource-constrained platforms. We present a novel design flow for implementing deep learning models for field programmable gate arrays optimized for ResNets, using a strategy to reduce their buffering overhead to obtain a resource-efficient implementation of the residual layer. Our high-level synthesis (HLS)-based flow encompasses a thorough set of design principles and optimization strategies, exploiting in novel ways standard techniques such as temporal reuse and loop merging to efficiently map ResNet models, and potentially other skip connection-based NN architectures, into FPGA. The models are quantized to 8-bit integers for both weights and activations, 16-bit for biases, and 32-bit for accumulations. The experimental results are obtained on the CIFAR-10 dataset using ResNet8 and ResNet20 implemented with Xilinx FPGAs using HLS on the Ultra96-V2 and Kria KV260 boards. Compared to the state-of-the-art on the Kria KV260 board, our ResNet20 implementation achieves 2.88X speedup with 0.5% higher accuracy of 91.3%, while ResNet8 accuracy improves by 2.8% to 88.7%. The throughputs of ResNet8 and ResNet20 are 12971 FPS and 3254 FPS on the Ultra96 board, and 30153 FPS and 7601 FPS on the Kria KV26, respectively. They Pareto-dominate state-of-the-art solutions concerning accuracy, throughput, and energy

L'OPERA DI FRANCESCO LAURANA. NUOVI STUDI SULLA SCULTURA DEGLI ANNI SETTANTA DEL XV SECOLO.

Questa tesi affronta la lettura storico-critica dell’opera di Francesco Laurana, protagonista della scultura rinascimentale del XV secolo, con il proposito di superare una tendenza degli studi che ad oggi, ha determinato il generale abbandono delle ricerche, dovuto soprattutto alla dispersione di gran parte delle fonti documentarie relative agli anni precedenti il 1453. Attraverso l’analisi del rapporto tra il processo d’identificazione delle sue opere e l’evoluzione del relativo stato di conoscenze, si affronta il tema della fortuna critica dell’artista, contestualizzata in un panorama storico che non ha escluso riferimenti al contesto storico-artistico europeo, approfondendo l’esame della storiografia artistica di ambito francese e croato. I più rilevanti e inediti raffronti iconografici posti all’attenzione della critica riguardano il rapporto tra i rilievi di Francesco Laurana nella cappella Mastrantonio (chiesa di S. Francesco d’Assisi, Palermo, 1468-69) e quelli dell’Arca di San Gerolamo di Mino da Fiesole (già Basilica di santa Maria Maggiore, Roma, 1461-66), nonché tra il retablo del Portement de Croix (chiesa di Saint Didier, Avignone, 1478-82) e l’Andata al Calvario di Pietro Befulco (particolare della predella del Polittico della Compagnia della Croce, Museo Nazionale di San Martino, Napoli, 1473 circa). Tali raffronti si fondano sullo studio di fonti diverse (documentarie, letterarie, «impersonali») relative al periodo preso in esame, coniugato con l’indagine diretta sulle opere d’arte oggetto dello studio. Degna di nota è la rilettura critica di un documento napoletano del 1473 (Archivio di Stato di Napoli, Processi antichi, pandetta corrente, fascio 1631, fascicolo 10643, carte 18-20, 2 febbraio 1473), che ha posto le condizioni per riconsiderare l’opera di Francesco Laurana durante gli anni settanta del XV secolo, poiché le notizie che da questo si apprendono sono legate a più di una questione che interessa il percorso artistico dello scultore. Da ciò la possibilità di confermare o rivedere il luogo d’esecuzione e la datazione di alcune delle sue opere (tra cui i celebri busti che ritraggono Francesco del Balzo duca di Andria e le principesse Eleonora d’Aragona e Beatrice d’Aragona) e di definire la sua attività in relazione a quella del coevo pittore salernitano Pietro Befulco, nel contesto delle forme di ritualità civile e religiosa napoletana del secondo Quattrocento, con la conseguenza di fornire un’inedita collocazione del suddetto Portement de Croix, legata a tale contesto religioso, supportata dal confronto tra la Sainte Anne Trinitarie (chiesa di Saint Blaise, Les Pennes Mirabeau, 1476) e la Sant’Anna Metterza (collezione privata napoletana, 1474 circa). Il lavoro aspira a fornire un’immagine non stigmatizzata dell’opera dello scultore quattrocentesco, esortando il lettore a considerarlo una personalità artistica perfettamente inserita nel contesto di un Rinascimento che riscopre e rielabora l’immensa ricchezza tramandata dalla civiltà classica, nella complessa ricezione del duplice aspetto dell’idealizzazione e della drammatizzazione dei soggetti rappresentati.This thesis is about a review on a historical-critical basis of the works of Francesco Laurana, one of the Renaissance main figures in sculpture of the fifteenth century, with the intention to overcome a tendency of the studies that, up to date, led to the general abandonment of the research, largely due to the dispersion of large parts of documentary sources related to the years prior to the 1453. Through the analysis of the relationship between the process of identification and the related evolution of knowledge of his work, we face the fortunate critique of the artist, contextualized in a historical panorama that did not exclude references to the historical and artistic European context, deepening the examination of the art history of French and Croatian area. The most relevant and unpublished iconographic comparisons brought to the attention of critics, concern the relationship between the reliefs of Francesco Laurana in Mastrantonio Chapel (Church of St. Francis of Assisi, Palermo, 1468-69) and the Arca di San Gerolamo of Mino da Fiesole (originally in Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, Roma, 1461-66), and between the altarpiece of Portement de Croix (Church of Saint Didier, Avignon, 1478-82) and the Andata al Calvario of Pietro Befulco (particular of the Altarpiece of the Compagnia della Croce’s altar-step (Museo Nazionale di San Martino, Napoli, about 1473). These comparisons are based on the study from different sources (documentary, literary and "impersonal") according to the period under review, along with a direct investigation on the works of art covered by the study. Noteworthy is a critical reading of a Neapolitan 1473 document (Archivio di Stato di Napoli, Processi antichi, pandetta corrente, fascio 1631, fascicolo 10643, carte 18-20, 2 febbraio 1473), which established the conditions for reviewing Francesco Laurana’s art during the seventies of the XV century, as the news that we learn from it, are linked to more than a matter that affects the artistic career of the sculptor. Hence the opportunity to confirm or revise the place of performance and the dating of some of his chef d’oeuvre (including the famous busts depicting Francesco del Balzo, Duke of Andria and princesses Eleanor of Aragon and Beatrice of Naples) and to define its activities in relation to the contemporary work of salernitan painter Pietro Befulco, in the context of forms of civil and religious rituals of the Neapolitan second part of the XV sec, with the result of providing an unprecedented position of the Portement de Croix, tied to its religious context , supported by the comparison between Sainte Anne Trinitarian (church of Saint Blaise, Les Pennes Mirabeau, 1476) and Sant'Anna Metterza (private collection in Naples, about 1474). The work aims to provide an non-stigmatized image the work of the fifteenth sculptor, exhorting the reader to consider him an artistic personality perfectly placed in the context of a Renaissance which discovers and elaborates the immense wealth handed down from classical civilization, within the complex reception of the dual aspect of idealization and dramatization of the represented subjects

Gut Microbiome in Retina Health: The Crucial Role of the Gut-Retina Axis

The term microbiome means not only a complex ecosystem of microbial species that colonize our body but also their genome and the surrounding environment in which they live. Recent studies support the existence of a gut-retina axis involved in the pathogenesis of several chronic progressive ocular diseases, including age-related macular disorders. This review aims to underline the importance of the gut microbiome in relation to ocular health. After briefly introducing the characteristics of the gut microbiome in terms of composition and functions, the role of gut microbiome dysbiosis, in the development or progression of retinal diseases, is highlighted, focusing on the relationship between gut microbiome composition and retinal health based on the recently investigated gut-retina axis

Akt1-Inhibitor of DNA binding2 is essential for growth cone formation and axon growth and promotes central nervous system axon regeneration.

Mechanistic studies of axon growth during development are beneficial to the search for neuron-intrinsic regulators of axon regeneration. Here, we discovered that, in the developing neuron from rat, Akt signaling regulates axon growth and growth cone formation through phosphorylation of serine 14 (S14) on Inhibitor of DNA binding 2 (Id2). This enhances Id2 protein stability by means of escape from proteasomal degradation, and steers its localization to the growth cone, where Id2 interacts with radixin that is critical for growth cone formation. Knockdown of Id2, or abrogation of Id2 phosphorylation at S14, greatly impairs axon growth and the architecture of growth cone. Intriguingly, reinstatement of Akt/Id2 signaling after injury in mouse hippocampal slices redeemed growth promoting ability, leading to obvious axon regeneration. Our results suggest that Akt/Id2 signaling is a key module for growth cone formation and axon growth, and its augmentation plays a potential role in CNS axonal regeneration

Diagnosis of major heart defects by routine first-trimester ultrasound examination: association with high nuchal translucency, tricuspid regurgitation and abnormal flow in the ductus venosus

Objective: To examine the association between fetal major heart defects and high nuchal translucency thickness (NT), tricuspid regurgitation and abnormal flow in the ductus venosus in a large population of singleton pregnancies undergoing a routine ultrasound examination at 11-13 weeks’ gestation. Methods: This was a retrospective study of prospectively collected data from singleton pregnancies attending for a routine ultrasound scan at 11-13 weeks’ gestation which included examination of fetal anatomy, measurement of NT, and assessment of blood flow across the tricuspid valve and in the ductus venosus according to a standardized protocol. The incidence of fetal NT ≥95th and NT ≥99th percentile, tricuspid regurgitation and reversed a-wave in the ductus venosus in fetuses with and without major heart defects was determined and the performance of each marker and their combination in the detection of major heart defects was calculated. Results: The study population of 93,209 pregnancies with no apparent chromosomal abnormality included 211 (0.23%) with major heart defects and 92,998 morphologically normal neonates. In 113 (53.6%) of the major heart defects the diagnosis was made at the 11-13 weeks scan, in 82 (38.9%) at the 18-24 weeks scan, in 10 (4.7%) at the third-trimester scan and in 6 (2.8%) postnatally. At the 11-13 weeks scan we diagnosed all cases of tricuspid or pulmonary atresia and polyvalvular dysplasia, >90% of cases of hypoplastic left heart syndrome or atrioventricular septal defect, about 60% of complex heart defects and left atrial isomerism (interrupted inferior vena cava with normal intracardiac anatomy), 30-40% of tetralogy of Fallot and arch abnormalities, 25% of tricuspid valve abnormalities, about 15% of transposition of great arteries, but none of aortic or pulmonary stenosis and common arterial trunk. Fetal NT ≥95th percentile, NT ≥99th percentile, tricuspid regurgitation, or abnormal ductus venosus flow was observed in 77 (36.5%), 45 (21.3%), 61 (28.9%), and 58 (27.5%) of the fetuses with major heart defects, respectively, and in 5,678 (6.1%), 857 (0.9%), 1,136 (1.2%), and 1,644 (1.8%) of those without heart defects. Any one of NT ≥95th, tricuspid regurgitation or abnormal flow in the ductus venosus was found in 117 (55.5%, 95% CI 48.5–62.3%) of the fetuses with heart defects and in 8,166 (8.8%, 95% CI 8.6-9.0%) of those without heart defects. Any one of NT ≥99th percentile and the other two markers was found in 99 of the fetuses with heart defects (46.9%, 95% CI 40.0-53.9%) and in 3,517 of those without heart defects (3.8%, 95% CI 3.7-3.9%). Conclusion: At 11-13 weeks’ gestation measurement of fetal NT and assessment of flow across the tricuspid valve and in the ductus venosus can lead to the early diagnosis of major heart defects