Analysis of strong ground motions to evaluate regional attenuation relationships

Italian attenuation relationships at regional scale have been refined using a data set of 322 horizontal components of strong ground motions recorded mainly during the 1997-1998 Umbria-Marche, Central Italy, earthquake sequence. The data set includes records generated by events with local magnitude (M L ) ranging between 4.5 and 5.9, recorded at rock or soil sites and epicentral distance smaller than 100 km. Through a multiple step regression analysis, we calculated empirical equations for the peak ground acceleration and velocity, the Arias Intensity and for the horizontal components of the 5% damped velocity pseudo response spectra, corresponding to 14 frequencies ranging from 0.25 to 25 Hz. We compared our results with well known predictive equations, widely used on the national territory for Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis. The results obtained in this study show smaller values for all the analyzed ground motion indicators compared to other predictive equations

Non-Asteraceae plants in the diet of the Hooded Siskin (<i> Carduelis magellanica</i> )

Según los antecedentes Carduelis magellanica habita áreas semiabiertas o cultivadas, con árboles esparcidos, y se alimenta básicamente de semillas de Asteráceas. En el presente trabajo se comunica que hay varias plantas (la mayoría exóticas) de otras familias botánicas que son utilizadas por este carduelino en la provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Una de el as (Fraxinus pennsylvanica, Oleáceas) está muy difundida como árbol de calle y su prolongada oferta de frutos (de marzo a diciembre) explicaría la presencia frecuente del Cabecitanegra Común en la ciudad de Buenos Aires.Literature reports indicate that Carduelis magellanica inhabits semiopen or cultivated areas with scattered trees, feeding mostiy on Asteraceae seeds. In this paper we provide a list of 10 non-Asteraceae plants consumed by this cardueline finch in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The extended fruit availability (from March to December) of one of them (Fraxinus pennsylvanica, Oleaceae), a widespread exotic street tree, probably explains why the Hooded Siskin is fairly common in Buenos Aires city

Sodium Ascorbate induces apoptosis in neuroblastoma cell lines by interfering with iron uptake

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neuroblastoma (NB) is an extra-cranial solid tumour of childhood. In spite of the good clinical response to first-line therapy, complete eradication of NB cells is rarely achieved. Thus, new therapeutic strategies are needed to eradicate surviving NB cells and prevent relapse. Sodium ascorbate has been recently reported to induce apoptosis of B16 melanoma cells through down-regulation of the transferrin receptor, CD71. Since NB and melanoma share the same embryologic neuroectodermal origin, we used different human NB cell lines to assess whether the same findings occurred.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We could observe dose- and time-dependent induction of apoptosis in all NB cell lines. Sodium ascorbate decreased the expression of CD71 and caused cell death within 24 h. An increase in the global and specific caspase activity took place, as well as an early loss of the mitochondrial transmembrane potential. Moreover, intracellular iron was significantly decreased after exposure to sodium ascorbate. Apoptotic markers were reverted when the cells were pretreated with the iron donor ferric ammonium citrate (FAC), further confirming that iron depletion is responsible for the ascorbate-induced cell death in NB cells.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Sodium ascorbate is highly toxic to neuroblastoma cell lines and the specific mechanism of vitamin C-induced apoptosis is due to a perturbation of intracellular iron levels ensuing TfR-downregulation.</p

A CAUSAL HIERARCHICAL MARKOV FRAMEWORK FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF MULTIRESOLUTION AND MULTISENSOR REMOTE SENSING IMAGES

Abstract. In this paper, a multiscale Markov framework is proposed in order to address the problem of the classification of multiresolution and multisensor remotely sensed data. The proposed framework makes use of a quadtree to model the interactions across different spatial resolutions and a Markov model with respect to a generic total order relation to deal with contextual information at each scale in order to favor applicability to very high resolution imagery. The methodological properties of the proposed hierarchical framework are investigated. Firstly, we prove the causality of the overall proposed model, a particularly advantageous property in terms of computational cost of the inference. Secondly, we prove the expression of the marginal posterior mode criterion for inference on the proposed framework. Within this framework, a specific algorithm is formulated by defining, within each layer of the quadtree, a Markov chain model with respect to a pixel scan that combines both a zig-zag trajectory and a Hilbert space-filling curve. Data collected by distinct sensors at the same spatial resolution are fused through gradient boosted regression trees. The developed algorithm was experimentally validated with two very high resolution datasets including multispectral, panchromatic and radar satellite images. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm as compared to previous techniques based on alternate approaches to multiresolution fusion

Significant modifications of the salivary proteome potentially associated with complications of Down syndrome revealed by top-down proteomics

People with Down syndrome, a frequent genetic disorder in humans, have increased risk of health problems associated with this condition. One clinical feature of Down syndrome is the increased prevalence and severity of periodontal disease in comparison with the general population. Because saliva plays an important role in maintaining oral health, in the present study the salivary proteome of Down syndrome subjects was investigated to explore modifications with respect to healthy subjects. Whole saliva of 36 Down syndrome subjects, divided in the age groups 10-17 yr and 18-50 yr, was analyzed by a top-down proteomic approach, based on the high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-MS analysis of the intact proteins and peptides, and the qualitative and quantitative profiles were compared with sex- and age-matched control groups. The results showed the following interesting features: 1) as opposed to controls, in Down syndrome subjects the concentration of the major salivary proteins of gland origin did not increase with age; as a consequence concentration of acidic proline rich proteins and S cystatins were found significantly reduced in older Down syndrome subjects with respect to matched controls; 2) levels of the antimicrobial α-defensins 1 and 2 and histatins 3 and 5 were significantly increased in whole saliva of older Down syndrome subjects with respect to controls; 3) S100A7, S100A8, and S100A12 levels were significantly increased in whole saliva of Down syndrome subjects in comparison with controls. The increased level of S100A7 and S100A12 may be of particular interest as a biomarker of early onset Alzheimer's disease, which is frequently associated with Down syndrome

Oral Signs and HLA-DQB1 1702 Haplotypes in the Celiac Paediatric Patient: A Preliminary Study.

Celiac disease (CD) diagnosis can be extremely challenging in the case of atypical patterns. In this context, oral signs seem to play a decisive role in arousing suspicion of these forms of the disease. At the same time, the different expressions of the HLA-DQB1 1702 allele apparently seem to facilitate the interpretation of signs and highlighted symptoms. The aim of this work was to verify whether it is possible to identify a correlation between the development of oral signs and different DQ2 haplotypes in celiac pediatric patients. 44 celiac patients with a medium age of 9.9 were studied. Oral examinations were performed in order to identify recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) and dental enamel defects (DED). The diagnosis of DED resulted as being related to allele expression (P value = 0.042) while it was impossible to find a similar correlation with RAS. When both oral signs were considered, there was an increase in correlation with HLA-DQB1 1702 expression (P value = 0.018). The obtained results identified both the fundamental role that dentists can play in early diagnosis of CD, as well as the possible role of HLA haplotype analysis in arousing suspicion of atypical forms of the disease

Gli effetti dell’introduzione della nuova mappa di pericolosità sulla valutazione del rischio sismico in Italia.

L’introduzione di una versione aggiornata della mappa di pericolosità sismica, definita per diversi periodi di ritorno e per svariati valori di ordinate spettrali, porta inevitabilmente a dei cambiamenti sul livello di rischio sismico del costruito italiano. Poiché la relazione tra domanda e capacità non è lineare per tutto il range di periodi di vibrazione strutturale, è necessario valutare il cambiamento del livello di rischio sismico calcolando esplicitamente la vulnerabilità sismica di strutture esistenti con diversi periodi di vibrazione, per diversi stati limite e considerando sia la nuova che la precedente definizione di pericolosità. Nel presente lavoro è stato eseguito un primo studio degli effetti che l’introduzione di mappe aggiornate della pericolosità sismica potrebbe avere sulla valutazione dei livelli di rischio sismico nel territorio italiano. Le caratteristiche generali del costruito sono state ricavate dai dati del 14° Censimento Generale della Popolazione e delle Abitazioni (ISTAT 2001), mentre una procedura probabilistica di valutazione sismica per edifici esistenti a scala urbana è stata impiegata per stimare la capacità. Sono stati considerati tutti i tre stati limite prescritti dall’Ordinanza (danno lieve, danno severo, collasso) in corrispondenza dei rispettivi valori di domanda, così come il cambiamento delle forme spettrali in funzione della localizzazione e del periodo di ritorno. I risultati dimostrano che la nuova mappa di pericolosità sismica porta a dei livelli di rischio sismico più realistici e meno allarmanti, rendendo leggermente meno gravoso, anche se non privo di problematiche, il panorama attuale di rischio in Italia

Seismic hazard data for the new, Italian building code based on European standard

Prior to 2003 the Italian building code, established in 1974, was mostly based on working stress design. The zonation that guided its application was made up in 1981 using a semi-quantitative, mainly seismological approach; it was enforced in 1984 and left about 2/3 of the territory without seismic provisions. In 1998 a new zonation was proposed but never adopted. The 2002 Mw5.7 earthquake in Molise (Southern Italy) caused the collapse of a school and the death of 26 children. The school was built in an area where seismic provisions were not applied, although the zonation proposed in 1998 assigned it to the second zone. The earthquake triggered a process that led in a few months to a new set of seismic provision