Flowmeter and Ground Penetrating Radar: comparison between hydrogeological and geophysical methods

We discuss a comparison between saturated hydraulic conductivity calculated with Electromagnetic Borehole Flowmeter (EBF) and water content obtained by Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Zero Offset Profile (ZOP

Soil slips and debris flows on terraced slopes

International audienceTerraces cover large areas along the flanks of many alpine and prealpine valleys. Soil slips and soil slips-debris flows are recurrent phenomena along terraced slopes. These landslides cause damages to people, settlements and cultivations. This study investigates the processes related to the triggering of soil slip-debris flows in these settings, analysing those occurred in Valtellina (Central Alps, Italy) on November 2000 after heavy prolonged rainfalls. 260 landslides have been recognised, mostly along the northern valley flank. About 200 soil slips and slumps occurred in terraced areas and a third of them evolved into debris flows. Field work allowed to recognise the settings at soil slip-debris flow source areas. Landslides affected up to 2.5 m of glacial, fluvioglacial and anthropically reworked deposits overlying metamorphic basement. Laboratory and in situ tests allowed to characterise the geotechnical and hydraulic properties of the terrains involved in the initial failure. Several stratigraphic and hydrogeologic factors have been individuated as significant in determining instabilities on terraced slopes. They are the vertical changes of physical soil properties, the presence of buried hollows where groundwater convergence occurs, the rising up of perched groundwater tables, the overflow and lateral infiltration from superficial drainage network, the runoff concentration by means of pathways and the insufficient drainage of retaining walls

Local scale multiple quantitative risk assessment and uncertainty evaluation in a densely urbanised area (Brescia, Italy)

Abstract. The study of the interactions between natural and anthropogenic risks is necessary for quantitative risk assessment in areas affected by active natural processes, high population density and strong economic activities. We present a multiple quantitative risk assessment on a 420 km2 high risk area (Brescia and surroundings, Lombardy, Northern Italy), for flood, seismic and industrial accident scenarios. Expected economic annual losses are quantified for each scenario and annual exceedance probability-loss curves are calculated. Uncertainty on the input variables is propagated by means of three different methodologies: Monte-Carlo-Simulation, First Order Second Moment, and point estimate. Expected losses calculated by means of the three approaches show similar values for the whole study area, about 64 000 000 € for earthquakes, about 10 000 000 € for floods, and about 3000 € for industrial accidents. Locally, expected losses assume quite different values if calculated with the three different approaches, with differences up to 19%. The uncertainties on the expected losses and their propagation, performed with the three methods, are compared and discussed in the paper. In some cases, uncertainty reaches significant values (up to almost 50% of the expected loss). This underlines the necessity of including uncertainty in quantitative risk assessment, especially when it is used as a support for territorial planning and decision making. The method is developed thinking at a possible application at a regional-national scale, on the basis of data available in Italy over the national territory

AUTOLOGOUS INTRAMUSCULAR TRANSPLANTATION OF ENGINEERED SATELLITE CELLS INDUCES EXOSOME-MEDIATED SYSTEMIC EXPRESSION OF FUKUTIN-RELATED PROTEIN AND RESCUES DISEASE PHENOTYPE IN A MURINE MODEL OF LIMB-GIRDLE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY TYPE 2I

\u3b1-Dystroglycanopathies are a group of heterogeneous dystrophic phenotypes associated to reduced levels of \u3b1-DG glycosylation. Since the glycosylated domains of \u3b1-DG exert a key role in extracellular matrix proteins (ECM) binding to the myofiber cytoskeleton, the hypoglycosylation leads to the disruption of this linkage and, consequently, to sarcolemma fragility and myofiber necrosis. To date, any successful therapeutical approach has been developed in the field of \u3b1-dystroglycanopathies. Many genes have been found to be implicated in the \u3b1-DG glycosylation process; all these genes encode for glycosyltransferase enzymes. Of note, mutations occurring in one of these genes, the fukutin related protein (FKRP) give rise to different subtypes of clinical phenotypes, ranging from the mild limb girdle muscular dystrophy 2I (LGMD2I), to the severe congenital muscular dystrophy 1C (MDC1C), to Walker-Warburg Syndrome (WWS) and Muscle-Eye-Brain disease (MEB). FKRP glycosyltransferase exerts its glycosyltransferasic function by conveying a ribitol phosphate group from a CDP \u2013ribitol to \u3b1-DG. Recent findings have reported cells ability to release FKRP in vitro. In line with this evidence, it has also been reported that some glycosyltransferases, generally referred to as \u2018\u2019extracellular glycosyltransferases\u2019\u2019, freely circulate in the bloodstream or, alternatively, packed with a subpopulation of microvesicles (MVs) physiologically secreted by cells, named exosomes. Thus, we hypothesize that freely or exosome-carried FKRP might circulate as an extracellular glycosyltransferase, reaching distal compartments and acting as a \u201cglycan remodeller\u201d. Interestingly, we firstly established a successful transduction of blood-derived CD133+ multipotent stem cells isolated from an MDC1C patient and FKRP L276IKI murine satellite cells, exploiting a lentiviral vector expressing the wild-type isoform of human FKRP gene. Furthermore, we reported FKRP expression in infected LV-FKRP cells- derived exosomes. Subsequently, we performed an autologous intramuscular transplantation of LV-FKRP infected SCs in the L276IKI mouse model and we evaluated the recovery of the exogenous protein expression and function. Similarly, we investigated the presence of FKRP positive exosomes in the plasma of transplanted FKRP L276IKI mice. The exosome-mediated systemic distribution of FKRP glycosyltransferase favoured its rescue at distal sites, determining an overall recovery of \u3b1-DG glycosylation and improved muscle strength, as suggested by functional measurement performances. An in vitro model based on an optically accessible microfluidic bioreactor allowed us to mimic the exosome diffusion between cells in vivo, providing further details of functional kinetic and mechanisms underlying exosome uptake. Overall, observed data suggest the possibility to develop a trivalent therapeutical approach, based on the combination of: cell therapy, gene therapy, leading to a physiological exosome-mediated therapy. The autologous transplantation of engineered stem cells would simultaneously provide the recovery of the wild-type isoform of the mutated protein and tissue regeneration, thus overcoming the limits related to single gene therapy. Moreover, intramuscularly transplanted engineered cells- derived exosomes would allow toobtain a systemic amelioration of the dystrophic phenotype. This exosome-based approach is extremely pioneering and promising, particularly in the field of metabolic myopathies and all muscular dystrophies presenting an enzymatic defect, rather than a structural protein disruption. Indeed, vesicles carrying the exogenous therapeutic enzyme rapidly diffuse through the bloodstream reaching target cells and promoting a fast response mediated by the stabilization of the enzymatic activity

Report sulle donne nell’università italiana

L’evidenza di una maggior presenza femminile nel mondo del lavoro negli ultimi decenni spesso impedisce di raggiungere la consapevolezza di quanto grave sia nel nostro paese la situazione sul fronte delle donne. Il dato emerso dall’indagine sul “gender gap” del “Word Economic Forum” (1) che pone l’Italia al 74 posto della classifica complessiva su 135 nazioni sarebbe già significativo per attestare la gravità della situazione, tuttavia un’analisi più approfondita evidenzia come la situazione sia più preoccupantee perché la posizione relativa “partecipazione economica ed opportunità” vede l’Italia al 90° posto con un valore assoluto di 0,5976, ben lontano dal valore di 1 che rappresenta la parità. Un’indagine dell’ISTAT rileeva come nella Pubblica Amministrazione, settore che ha svolto un ruolo fondamentale nella crescita dell’occupazione femminile, la femminilizzazione presenti caratteristiche diverse relativamente ai comparti e alle qualifiche, tanto che , a fronte di una presenza complessiva superiore al 50%, un indice di segregazione utilizzato in letteratura (indice di Charles) mostra comunque segregazione nei diversi comparti analizzati. In questo contesto, per quanto riguarda l’Università, i dati complessivi presentano percentuali di occupazione molto inferiori alla media del pubblico impiego, tuttavia tale numero deve essere focalizzato con maggior attenzione, dal momento che l’occupazione è formata da due componenti differenti per ruolo, modalità di accesso e inquadramento giuridico-contrattuale: il personale docente e il personale tecnico amministrativo. In questo lavoro analizzeremo i principali dati relativi alla presenza e ai percorsi di carriera delle docenti nell’Università, riscontrando che, anche negli ultimi anni, l’accesso e la carriera delle donne sono ancora più difficoltosi che per i loro colleghi uomini e risentono di stereotipi, segregazioni e discriminazioni di genere

Detection of selection signatures for ear carriage in Maltese goat breed

Selection and breeding practices in goats have led to the fixation of several traits. This is probably due to the standardization of several peculiar morphological characteristics that have always been one of the major exclusion criteria of individuals from selection. Among these, ear carriage is one of the most ancient and considered a signature of domestication in several species, such as the dog, pig, sheep and goat (Boyko et al., 2010). The availability of improved genomic analyses tools for goats may provide useful information on genes involved in this trait. By studying, for example, the homozygosity decay of haplotypes (contiguous length of alleles) such information can be detected. In the current study, we focused on the Maltese goat, a breed showing floppy ears, in comparison with other Italian breeds using a goat medium density SNP chip (Nicoloso et al., 2015). A total 48,767 SNP markers for 369 animals belonging to 16 breeds or populations were analyzed. Genotypes were imputed within population excluding markers without known position on the current genome assembly (ARS1, Bickhart et al., 2017). Population analysis using MDS, ADMIXTURE and fastSTRUCTURE confirmed the good differentiation among the populations. Integrated Haplotype Score (iHS, Sabeti et al., 2007) was performed for each population, comparing the regions detected on the Maltese breed with the others considered to detect genes that may be involved into shaping ear morphology. These results may provide new insights into ear carriage phenotype by detecting genes that play a pivotal role in shaping the goat phenotypic diversity

Protecting backaction-evading measurements from parametric instability

Noiseless measurement of a single quadrature in systems of parametrically coupled oscillators is theoretically possible by pumping at the sum and difference frequencies of the two oscillators, realizing a backaction-evading (BAE) scheme. Although this would hold true in the simplest scenario for a system with pure three-wave mixing, implementations of this scheme are hindered by unwanted higher-order parametric processes that destabilize the system and add noise. We show analytically that detuning the two pumps from the sum and difference frequencies can stabilize the system and fully recover the BAE performance, enabling operation at otherwise inaccessible cooperativities. We also show that the acceleration demonstrated in a weak signal detection experiment [PRX QUANTUM 4, 020302 (2023)] was only achievable because of this detuning technique.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure