RePIM in LOD: semantic technologies to manage, preserve, and disseminate knowledge about Italian secular music and lyric poetry from the 16th-17th centuries

Il progetto RePIM in LOD si è posto l’obiettivo di pubblicare il "Repertorio della Poesia Italiana in Musica, 1500-1700" (RePIM) come dataset Linked Open Data (LOD). Per l'ampiezza e il dettaglio dei suoi contenuti, il RePIM è un archivio di riferimento per la ricerca sulla musica profana italiana dei secoli XVI-XVII. Negli ultimi anni, gli studiosi hanno potuto accedervi attraverso un'applicazione web realizzata nei primi anni Duemila. A causa dell'obsolescenza della sua piattaforma informatica, l'archivio RePIM era destinato a essere messo offline. Per preservare questa preziosa fonte, il progetto ha migrato i suoi contenuti in una base di conoscenza adottando tecnologie semantiche e progettando un'applicazione aggiornata per l'utente finale. L'articolo illustra le problematiche poste dalla gestione delle informazioni sulla tradizione madrigalistica e della conservazione digitale delle informazioni bibliografiche e filologiche nel campo della musica profana italiana e della poesia lirica dei secoli XVI-XVII.The RePIM in LOD project aimed to publish the "Repertorio della Poesia Italiana in Musica, 1500-1700" (RePIM) as Linked Open Data (LOD) dataset. For the extent and detail of its contents, RePIM is a reference archive for research on Italian secular music from the 16th-17th centuries. In recent years, scholars have been able to access it through a public web-based application. Due to the obsolescence of its information technology platform, the RePIM repository was set to be taken offline. To preserve this precious source, the project migrated its contents into a knowledge base adopting semantic technologies and designing an up-to-date enduser application. The article illustrates the challenges of managing information about madrigal tradition and the digital knowledge preservation of bibliographic and philological information in the field of Italian secular music and lyric poetry of the 16th-17th centuries

Corago in LOD. The debut of an Opera repository into the Linked Data arena

The paper examines the adoption of the Semantic Web (SW) technologies and Linked Data (LD) principles to manage a knowledge base about opera. The Corago repository collects historical data and documentation about opera works, performances and librettos from the 16th to the 20th century. We experimented the use of semantic technologies to manage the repository’s knowledge catalogued following the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) relational model. Cultural Heritage Knowledge Bases (CHKB) as Corago could leverage SW and LD to overcome proprietary models and to introduce new information to better satisfy user’s requirements. Two well-established reference ontologies as CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC CRM) and FRBR Object Oriented (FRBRoo) are adopted to transpose contents form the legacy conceptual model to RDF. Through the process, we observed that formal semantics allow, not only to adequately represent the opera domain, but also enable to define the way information is being presented to users. This led to the definition of “reception pathways” which become themselves part of the knowledge about opera within the KB. This novel semantic approach is introduced with the Corago Semantic Model (Corago SM), a domain ontology dedicated to functional representation of opera’s historical data. Advancements have been tested with an experimental system and assessed through a questionnaire submitted to a panel of users

The relationship between volatile content and the eruptive style of basaltic magma: the Etna case

Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic analyses of melt inclusions from four explosive eruptions of Etna (Italy) were conducted to determine pre-eruptive dissolved volatile concentrations. The studied eruptions include the 3930 BP subplinian, the 122 B.C. plinian, and the 4 January 1990 and the 23 December 1995 fountain fire eruptions. Preliminary results indicate that H2O varies between 3.13 and 1.02 wt% and CO2 between 1404 and 200 ppm. The most basic products (3930 BP tephra) contain the highest concentrations of CO2 (1404 ppm), whereas fire fountain hawaiitic tephra present the lowest values (< 200 ppm) indicating a continuous degassing process during the differentiation and rising of the magma. Generally, similar behavior has been found for water, characterized by a decreasing content during the differentiation that is mainly found in the 3930 BP eruption, 1990 and 1995 fire fountain products. Considering the relevance of volatile content and behaviour in determining the eruptive style, we made some inferences on the eruptive mechanisms based on the initial high volatile content and the degassing dynamics inside the plumbing system. These two factors suggest the cause of the high explosive activity in this basaltic volcano

Connecting Galaxy Evolution, Star Formation and the X-ray Background

As a result of deep hard X-ray observations by Chandra and XMM-Newton a significant fraction of the cosmic X-ray background (CXRB) has been resolved into individual sources. These objects are almost all active galactic nuclei (AGN) and optical followup observations find that they are mostly obscured Type 2 AGN, have Seyfert-like X-ray luminosities (i.e., L_X ~ 10^{43-44} ergs s^{-1}), and peak in redshift at z~0.7. Since this redshift is similar to the peak in the cosmic star-formation rate, this paper proposes that the obscuring material required for AGN unification is regulated by star-formation within the host galaxy. We test this idea by computing CXRB synthesis models with a ratio of Type 2/Type 1 AGN that is a function of both z and 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity, L_X. The evolutionary models are constrained by parameterizing the observed Type 1 AGN fractions from the recent work by Barger et al. The parameterization which simultaneously best accounts for Barger's data, the CXRB spectrum and the X-ray number counts has a local, low-L_X Type 2/Type 1 ratio of 4, and predicts a Type 2 AGN fraction which evolves as (1+z)^{0.3}. Models with no redshift evolution yielded much poorer fits to the Barger Type 1 AGN fractions. This particular evolution predicts a Type 2/Type 1 ratio of 1-2 for log L_X > 44, and thus the deep X-ray surveys are missing about half the obscured AGN with these luminosities. These objects are likely to be Compton thick. Overall, these calculations show that the current data strongly supports a change to the AGN unification scenario where the obscuration is connected with star formation in the host galaxy rather than a molecular torus alone. The evolution of the obscuration implies a close relationship between star formation and AGN fueling, most likely due to minor mergers or interactions.Comment: 36 pages, 8 figures, ApJ in press. Minor changes to match published versio

The relationship between volatile content and the eruptive style of basaltic magma: the Etna case

Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic analyses of melt inclusions from four explosive eruptions of Etna (Italy) were conducted to determine pre-eruptive dissolved volatile concentrations. The studied eruptions include the 3930 BP subplinian, the 122 B.C. plinian, and the 4 January 1990 and the 23 December 1995 fountain fire eruptions. Preliminary results indicate that H2O varies between 3.13 and 1.02 wt% and CO2 between 1404 and 200 ppm. The most basic products (3930 BP tephra) contain the highest concentrations of CO2 (1404 ppm), whereas fire fountain hawaiitic tephra present the lowest values (< 200 ppm) indicating a continuous degassing process during the differentiation and rising of the magma. Generally, similar behavior has been found for water, characterized by a decreasing content during the differentiation that is mainly found in the 3930 BP eruption, 1990 and 1995 fire fountain products. Considering the relevance of volatile content and behaviour in determining the eruptive style, we made some inferences on the eruptive mechanisms based on the initial high volatile content and the degassing dynamics inside the plumbing system. These two factors suggest the cause of the high explosive activity in this basaltic volcano

Cyclophilin A : a key player for human disease

Cyclophilin A (CyPA) is a ubiquitously distributed protein belonging to the immunophilin family. CyPA has peptidyl prolyl cis-trans isomerase (PPIase) activity, which regulates protein folding and trafficking. Although CyPA was initially believed to function primarily as an intracellular protein, recent studies have revealed that it can be secreted by cells in response to inflammatory stimuli. Current research in animal models and humans has provided compelling evidences supporting the critical function of CyPA in several human diseases. This review discusses recently available data about CyPA in cardiovascular diseases, viral infections, neurodegeneration, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, sepsis, asthma, periodontitis and aging. It is believed that further elucidations of the role of CyPA will provide a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying these diseases and will help develop novel pharmacological therapies

Precise Therapy for Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm in Marfan Syndrome: A Puzzle Nearing Its Solution.

Abstract Marfan Syndrome (MFS) is a rare connective tissue disorder, resulting from mutations in the fibrillin-1 gene, characterized by pathologic phenotypes in multiple organs, the most detrimental of which affects the thoracic aorta. Indeed, thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA), leading to acute dissection and rupture, are today the major cause of morbidity and mortality in adult MFS patients. Therefore, there is a compelling need for novel therapeutic strategies to delay TAA progression and counteract aortic dissection occurrence. Unfortunately, the wide phenotypic variability of MFS patients, together with the lack of a complete genotype-phenotype correlation, have represented until now a barrier hampering the conduction of translational studies aimed to predict disease prognosis and drug discovery. In this review, we will illustrate available therapeutic strategies to improve the health of MFS patients. Starting from gold standard surgical overtures and the description of the main pharmacological approaches, we will comprehensively review the state-of-the-art of in vivo MFS models and discuss recent clinical pharmacogenetic results. Finally, we will focus on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) as a technology that, if integrated with preclinical research and pharmacogenetics, could contribute in determining the best therapeutic approach for each MFS patient on the base of individual differences. Finally, we will suggest the integration of preclinical studies, pharmacogenetics and iPSC technology as the most likely strategy to help solve the composite puzzle of precise medicine in this condition