Blood and sputum biomarkers in COPD and asthma: a review

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma are lung inflammatory diseases that represent major public health problems. The primary, and often unique, method to evaluate lung function is spirometry, which reflects disease severity rather than disease activity. Moreover, its measurements strictly depend on patient's compliance, physician's expertise and data interpretation. The limitations of clinical history and pulmonary function tests have encouraged focusing on new possible tracers of diseases. The increase of the inflammatory response in the lungs represents an early pathological event, so biological markers related to inflammation may play key roles in earlier diagnosis, evaluation of functional impairment and prognosis. Biomarkers are measurable indicators associated with the presence and/or severity of a biological or pathogenic process, which may predict functional impairment, prognosis and response to therapy. The traditional approach based on invasive techniques (bronchoalveolar lavage and biopsies) may be replaced, at least in part, by using less invasive methods to collect specimens (sputum and blood), in which biomarkers could be measured. Proteomics, by the association between different protein profiles and pathogenic processes, is gaining an important role in pulmonary medicine allowing a more precise discrimination between patients with different outcomes and response to therapy. The aim of this review was to evaluate the use of biomarkers of airway inflammation in the context of both research and clinical practice

Multicultural Counselor Training: Assessment of Single-Course Objectives and Pedagogical Strategies

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which multicultural counseling courses throughout the United States include course objectives and pedagogical strategies recommended in the literature (Arredondo et al., 1996) and in professional counseling standards and guidelines. Findings from 277 participants indicate that most, not all, courses include the recommended objectives and strategies. The most common (85.9%) objective was self- awareness of own values and biases, whereas only approximately 50 percent included an objective related to critiquing counseling theories. The most common pedagogical strategies were classroom discussions/debates (95.3%), whereas fewer than half integrated cross-discipline readings and student research. The authors suggest dialogue and empirical investigations necessary to further the practice of multicultural counselor training

Alexithymia and obesity: controversial findings from a multimethod assessment

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is to assess alexithymia levels in obese patients using a multimethod measurement (TAS-20 and TSIA) to evaluate both possible differences between the two instruments and their relationship with body weight. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 54 obese patients, seeking surgical treatment, were enrolled. They completed a socio-demographic questionnaire, 20-items Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia. RESULTS: Data analysis showed a significant positive association between TAS-20 and TSIA total scores (r=.28, p<.05), but only the TSIA score was positively related to body weight (r=.39; p<.001). Multivariable linear regression models showed the predictive effects of TSIA total score (beta=.41; p<.001) and difficulty in identifying feelings (DIF) (beta=.56; p<.001) respectively on weight. CONCLUSIONS: The findings showed a different association between body weight and alexithymia according to the instrument employed to evaluate alexithymia, supporting the importance of a multimethod assessment in some clinical conditions

the combination of a smoking cessation programme with rehabilitation increases stop smoking rate

Objective and study design: A parallel group study to investigate the effectiveness of a smoking cessation programme performed during routine rehabilitation practice for outpatients. Patients and methods: The study participants comprised an intervention group of 102 consecutive smokers who underwent a smoking cessation programme in a rehabilitation centre and a control group of 101 consecutive smokers who were referred to a smoking cessation centre in a pulmonary hospital. All participants underwent physical examination, pulmonary function tests and received identical behavioural and/or pharmacological treatment. In addition, the intervention group underwent rehabilitation practice 3 times a week for 3 months. Results: The continuous abstinence rate at 12 months, which was validated by an expired air carbon monoxide concentration of 10 parts per million or less and a household interview, was 68% in the intervention group and 32% in the control group. Multivariable analysis showed that rehabilitation was significantly associated with smoking cessation after ad justing for years of smoking, number of cigarettes smoked, gender and treatment (odds ratio = 4.34, p < 0.001). Conclusion: This study suggests that smoking cessation programmes during routine rehabilitation may be highly effective in helping smoking withdrawal and should be a strongly recommended component of rehabilitation practice

Research on Experiential Marketing from the Qingdao International Beer Festival

近年来，“体验”一词成为营销界出现频率越来越高的词汇。在学术界，早在上世纪70年代就有学者提出，但较为集中和富有成果的研究基本都在2000以后才出现，并且长期以来都以约瑟夫·派恩、詹姆斯·吉尔摩和伯德·施密特博士的研究为奠基之作；在业界，体验营销作为一种新型的营销方式，在国外的很多企业，尤其是很多跨国企业中已经得到了很成熟的应用，并且取得了很好的效果，而在国内，由于多种原因，只在小部分企业当中得以应用，普及程度并不高。不管未来如何，现如今体验式营销作为一种为消费者带来个性化消费体验的营销手段，已经逐渐开始流行并被商家所接受和采用，研究体验营销及其应用，对国内产品品牌建设方面有很高的借鉴价值。 ...In recent years, the word “experiencing” appears more and more frequently in the marketing area. As a matter of fact,the concept of experiential marketing had been mentioned during the 1970s. As a new way of marketing, experiential marketing has already been widely used in foreign enterprises, especially in the transnational enterprises. Howerer, in china, as a result of several things, experienti...学位：文学硕士院系专业：新闻传播学院广告学系_传播学学号：1052006115025

Creating and Managing Dynamic Cloud Federations

Cloud computing has evolved from a promising approach to the service provisioning to the reference model for all new data centres to build. Additionally, an increasing number of companies are choosing to migrate their business in the cloud "ecosystem" adopting the solutions developed by the biggest public Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). Smaller CSPs build their infrastructure on technologies available and to better support user activities and provide enough resources to their users, the federation could be a possible solution. In this work, we present different federation models, showing their strengths and weakness together with our considerations. Beside the highlighted existing federation we show the design of a new implementations under development at INFN aiming at maximising the scalability and flexibility of small and/or hybrid clouds by the introduction of a federation manager. This new component will support a seamless resources renting on the base of acceptance of federation agreements among operators. Additionally, we will discuss how the implementation of this model inside research institutes could help in the field of High Energy Physics with explicit reference at LHC experiments, digital humanities, life sciences and others

A first attempt to evaluate the toxicity to Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin exposed to rare earth elements

The increasing use and demand of rare earth elements in many emerging technologies is leading to a potentially higher input to the marine environment. This study compared for the first time the effect of lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), neodymium (Nd), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), dysprosium (Dy), and erbium (Er) to the microalga Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin. The algal growth inhibition was investigated after 72 h of exposure. The median effect concentrations (EC50) ranged from 0.98 mg/L to 13.21 mg/L and elements were ranked as follows: Gd > Ce > Er > La > Eu > Nd > Dy > Sm. The comparison of predicted no effect concentrations (PNEC) for hazard and risk assessment with measured environmental concentrations showed that ecological risks deriving from REEs could be present, but limited to specific environments like estuarine waters. The results support evidence of actions to manage the REE impact in seawater environments, looking to improve the monitoring tailored to the different and dynamic nature of ecosystems

Targeting the Interaction between the SH3 Domain of Grb2 and Gab2

Gab2 is a scaffolding protein, overexpressed in many types of cancers, that plays a key role in the formation of signaling complexes involved in cellular proliferation, migration, and differentiation. The interaction between Gab2 and the C-terminal SH3 domain of the protein Grb2 is crucial for the activation of the proliferation-signaling pathway Ras/Erk, thus representing a potential pharmacological target. In this study, we identified, by virtual screening, seven potential inhibitor molecules that were experimentally tested through kinetic and equilibrium binding experiments. One compound showed a remarkable effect in lowering the affinity of the C-SH3 domain for Gab2. This inhibitory effect was subsequently validated in cellula by using lung cancer cell lines A549 and H1299. Our results are discussed under the light of previous works on the C-SH3:Gab2 interaction

Studying ggdef domain in the act: Minimize conformational frustration to prevent artefacts

GGDEF-containing proteins respond to different environmental cues to finely modulate cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP) levels in time and space, making the allosteric control a distinctive trait of the corresponding proteins. The diguanylate cyclase mechanism is emblematic of this control: two GGDEF domains, each binding one GTP molecule, must dimerize to enter catalysis and yield c-di-GMP. The need for dimerization makes the GGDEF domain an ideal conformational switch in multidomain proteins. A re-evaluation of the kinetic profile of previously characterized GGDEF domains indicated that they are also able to convert GTP to GMP: this unexpected reactivity occurs when conformational issues hamper the cyclase activity. These results create new questions regarding the characterization and engineering of these proteins for in solution or structural studies