Posterior arch defect of the atlas associated to absence of costal element of foramen transversarium from 16th century Sardinia (Italy)

Study Design. A paleopathological case of posterior arch defect of the atlas associated to the absence of costal element of the foramen transversarium. Objective. In living patients as well as in postmortem analysis it should be difficult to distinguish between a congenital and an acquired anomaly. Any anomaly in the anatomy of atlas should be taken into consideration by clinicians, surgeons, radiologists, and anatomists in order to avoid misinterpretations and clinical complications. Summary of Background Data. Posterior arch defect has a current occurrence of approximately 4%. Posterior arch schisis is attributed to the defective or absent development of the cartilaginous preformation of the arch rather than a disturbance of the ossification. The absence of costal element of the foramen transversarium has an incidence of ranging from 2% to 10% and is attributed to a developmental defect or to variations in the course of the vertebral artery. Methods. The skeleton of a man aged 20–30 years, brought to light in the plague cemetery of 16th century Alghero (Sardinia), showed anomalies of the atlas, consisting in failure of the midline fusion of the 2 hemiarches with a small gap and an open anterior foramen trasversarium on the left side. A macroscopic, radiological, and stereomicroscopic study was carried out. Results. The study allowed to rule out a traumatic origin of the defects and to diagnose an association of 2 congenital anomalies. Conclusion. Osteoarchaeological cases provides with a valuable opportunity to examine and describe variations in the anatomy of the atlas

Dynamic Behaviour of the Patented Kobold Tidal Current Turbine: Numerical and Experimental Aspects

This paper provides a summary of the work done at DPA on numerical and experimental investigations of a novel patented vertical axis and variable pitching blades hydro turbine designed to harness energy from marine tidal currents. Ponte di Archimede S.p.A. Company, located in Messina, Italy, owns the patented KOBOLD turbine that is moored in the Messina Strait, between the mainland and Sicily. The turbine has a rotor with a diameter of 6 meters, three vertical blades of 5 meters span with a 0.4 m chord ad hoc designed curved airfoil, producing high lift with no cavitation. The rated power is 160 kW with 3.5 m/s current speed, which means 25% global system efficiency. The VAWT and VAWT_DYN computer codes, based on Double Multiple Steamtube, have been developed to predict the steady and dynamic performances of a cycloturbine with fixed or self-acting variable pitch straight-blades. A theoretical analysis and a numerical prediction of the turbine performances as well as experimental test results on both a model and the real scale turbine will be presented and discussed.

Atlas occipitalisation associated with other anomalies in a 16th century skeleton from Sardinia (Italy)

Archaeological excavations carried out in the plague cemetery of 16th century Alghero (Sardinia) brought to light the skeleton of a male aged 35–45 years, showing anomalies of the atlas. A macroscopic and radiological study has been carried out. The first cervical vertebra is fused with the skull base, resulting in an occipitalisation of the atlas. Absence of the costal element of the left foramen transversarium, resulting in an open anterior foramen transversarium, and posterior arch defect are also observed. The atlanto-occipital junction is a complex structure, susceptible to develop different patterns of congenital defects. These anatomical variations of atlas should be considered in modern clinical practice in order to formulate a correct diagnosis and to conceive an appropriate treatment. Osteoarchaeological cases are important as, beside to ascertain the presence of congenital defects in past populations, allow an in-depth study in dry bones, which can help modern medicine in interpreting anatomical variations. We present an association of congenital anomalies of the atlanto-occipital junction, a condition rarely documented in ancient and modern human skeletal remains

Assessment of chest high-field magnetic resonance imaging in children and young adults with noncystic fibrosis chronic lung disease: comparison to high-resolution computed tomography and correlation with pulmonary function.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been proposed as a radiation-free alternative to high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) for the assessment and follow-up of chest disorders. Thus far, no study has compared the efficacy of high-field MRI and HRCT in children and adults with noncystic fibrosis (CF) chronic lung disease. The aims of our study were: (1) to assess whether chest high-field MRI is as effective as chest HRCT in identifying pulmonary abnormalities; and (2) to investigate the relationships between the severity and extent of lung disease, and functional data in patients with non-CF chronic lung disease. Forty-one subjects (median age, 13.8 years; range, 5.9-29.3 years; 30 children/11 adults) with primary ciliary dyskinesia (n = 14), primary immunodeficiency (n = 14), or recurrent pneumonia (n = 13) underwent pulmonary function tests, chest HRCT (120 kV, dose-modulated mAs) and high-field 3.0-T MRI (HASTE; transversal orientation; repetition time/echo time/flip angle/acquisition time, infinite/92 milliseconds/150 degrees/approximately 90 seconds). HRCT and MRI images were scored in consensus by 2 raters using a modified version of the Helbich scoring system. The maximal score was 25. HRCT and high-field MRI total scores were 11 (range: 1-20) and 11 (range: 1-17), respectively. There was good agreement between the 2 techniques for all scores (r > 0.8). HRCT and MRI total scores, and extent of bronchiectasis scores were significantly related to pulmonary function tests (r = -0.4, P < 0.05). The MRI mucous plugging score was significantly related to pulmonary function tests (r = -0.4, P < 0.05). Chest high-field 3.0-T MRI appears to be as effective as HRCT in assessing the extent and severity of lung abnormalities in non-CF chronic lung diseases, and might be a reliable radiation-free option to HRCT

A Roadmap to Gamify Programming Education

Learning programming relies on practicing it which is often hampered by the barrier of difficulty. The combined use of automated assessment, which provides fast feedback to the students experimenting with their code, and gamification, which provides additional motivation for the students to intensify their learning effort, can help pass the barrier of difficulty in learning programming. In such environment, students keep receiving the relevant feedback no matter how many times they try (thanks to automated assessment), and their engagement is retained (thanks to gamification). While there is a number of open software and programming exercise collections supporting automated assessment, up to this date, there are no available open collections of gamified programming exercises, no open interactive programming learning environment that would support such exercises, and even no open standard for the representation of such exercises so that they could be developed in different educational institutions and shared among them. This gap is addressed by Framework for Gamified Programming Education (FGPE), an international project whose primary objective is to provide necessary prerequisites for the application of gamification to programming education, including a dedicated gamification scheme, a gamified exercise format and exercises conforming to it, software for editing the exercises and an interactive learning environment capable of presenting them to students. This paper presents the FGPE project, its architecture and main components, as well as the results achieved so far. 2012 ACM Subject Classification Social and professional topics ! Computer science education

Effects of pidotimod and bifidobacteria mixture on clinical symptoms and urinary metabolomic profile of children with recurrent respiratory infections: a randomized placebo-controlled trial

Many preschool children develop recurrent respiratory tract infections (RRI). Strategies to prevent RRI include the use of immunomodulators as pidotimod or probiotics, but there is limited evidence of their efficacy on clinical features or on urine metabolic profile

Low cadmium concentration in whole blood from residents of Northern Sardinia (Italy) with special reference to smoking habits

Introduction. The present study was initiated to investigate the cadmium concentrations in whole blood of Northern Sardinian, non-occupationally exposed adult subjects. Sardinia is a large Italian island which differs genetically and environmentally from other mainland Italian areas. Methods. Two hundred and forty-three adults (157 females and 86 males) were selected in the study area from subjects who were undergoing blood collection for laboratory analysis during the period January 2005-May 2005. Whole blood was analysed by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometer equipped with a Zeeman-effect background corrector (Perkin Elmer ZL5100) and an auto sampler. The adopted analytical procedure uses the Stabilized Platform Temperature Furnace (STPF) technique. Results. The mean value of Blood Cadmium Concentration (BCdC), expressed as Geometric Mean, was 0.32 mg/l (CI 95%: 0.31-0.34 mg/l) significantly ranging from 0.27 mg/l (CI 95%: 0.26-0.29 mg/l) in non-smokers to 0.34 mg/l (CI 95%: 0.30-0.39 mg/l) in ex-smokers up to 0.47 mg/l (CI 95%: 0.42-0.53 mg/l) in smokers (p inf. 0.0001). Discussion. The results show that BCdC levels in Northern Sar- dinian non-occupationally exposed adults are lower than levels found in many other regions, including those within Italy. Nev- ertheless, similar values have been detected in other European countries and cities. Conclusions. In relation to other reports in which data were analysed by strata for smoking habit and age, we found similar BCdC values among non smokers. However, Sardinian smokers seem to show lower levels of blood cadmium

A Case of Brachymetatarsia From Medieval Sardinia (Italy)

Archaeological excavations carried out in the Medieval village of Geridu (Sardinia) uncovered several burials dating to the late 13th or the first half of 14th century. Among these individuals, the skeleton of an adult female showing a bilateral abnormal shortness of the fourth metatarsal bone was identified. Bilaterality and absence of other skeletal anomalies allow to rule out an acquired aetiology of the disease and to support a diagnosis of congenital brachymetatarsia. Such a rare deformity has a clinical incidence of 0.02% to 0.05%, with strong predominance of the female gender. To our knowledge, no other cases of brachymetatarsia have been reported in paleopathology so far