DOSCIENTOS AÑOS DE SOLEDAD: ESTUDIO SOBRE LA IDENTIDAD CONSTRUCTIVA DE CEPITÁ

El artículo surge de las experiencias adquiridas en el seminario temático “Materiales y técnicas constructivas históricas para el diálogo intercultural con los países del hemisferio sur” y maduradas posteriormente  durante un período de movilidad en el departamento de Santander (Colombia). Tomando como referencia a Cepitá, un pequeño poblado compuesto originalmente solo por casas construidas en tapia pisada en el corazón del segundo cañón más grande del mundo, el objetivo del trabajo fue identificar y clasificar las técnicas y tecnologías de construcción de esta área y someter algunos manufacturados de tierra a una investigación sobre vulnerabilidad sísmica. El advenimiento de modernos materiales de construcción ha tenido graves repercusiones en el patrimonio arquitectónico en tierra, haciéndolo obsoleto en la conciencia colectiva y favoreciendo el abandono de las relativas técnicas constructivas. Ser testigo de las prácticas constructivas de esta zona, extremadamente aislada, priva en la actualidad de conexiones de tráfico y, por lo tanto, intacta en el tiempo, significa describir la sabiduría de los maestros constructores que han sabido perfeccionar la técnica a lo largo de los siglos utilizando los materiales disponibles en el sitio, la cual puede también constituir un soporte técnico para contrarrestar el fenómeno antes mencionado. Además, al obtener un índice de vulnerabilidad sísmica de algunas construcciones a través de una metodología rápida basada en la evaluación de 14 parámetros, se intenta brindar un análisis útil para la protección y prevención en una zona de alto riesgo.L’articolo nasce dalle esperienze apprese nel seminario tematico “Materiali e tecniche costruttive storiche per il dialogo interculturale coi paesi del sud del mondo” e maturate in secondo luogo durante un periodo di mobilità nel dipartimento di Santander (Colombia). Prendendo come riferimento Cepitá, un piccolo centro abitato originariamente composto da sole case costruite in tapia pisada (terra battuta) nel cuore del secondo canyon più grande al mondo, l’intento del lavoro è stato quello di identificare e classificare le tecniche e le tecnologie costruttive di quest’area e di sottoporre alcuni manufatti in terra a un’indagine sulla vulnerabilità sismica. L’avvento dei moderni materiali da costruzione ha avuto gravi ripercussioni sul patrimonio architettonico in terra, rendendolo obsoleto nella coscienza collettiva e favorendo l’abbandono delle tecniche ad esso legate. Testimoniare le pratiche costruttive di quest’area, estremamente isolata e rimasta priva di connessioni carrabili fino ai giorni nostri, e quindi rimasta intatta nel tempo, significa descrivere la sapienza dei maestri costruttori che hanno saputo affinare la tecnica nel corso dei secoli in base ai soli materiali disponibili in loco, la quale può quindi rappresentare un supporto tecnico per contrastare il suddetto fenomeno. Inoltre, ottenendo un indice di vulnerabilità sismica di alcuni manufatti con una metodologia speditiva basata sulla valutazione di 14 parametri, si cerca di fornire un’analisi utile per la tutela e per la prevenzione in una zona altamente a rischio

MicroRNAs as a Potential New Preventive Approach in the Transition from Asymptomatic to Symptomatic Multiple Myeloma Disease

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological malignancy characterised by proliferation of clonal plasma cells (PCs) within the bonemarrow (BM). Myelomagenesis is a multi-step process which goes from an asymptomatic phase, defined as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), to a smouldering myeloma (SMM) stage, to a final active MM disease, characterised by hypercalcemia, renal failure, bone lesions anemia, and higher risk of infections. Overall, microRNAs (miRNAs) have shown to significantly impact onMMtumorigenesis, as a result of miRNA-dependent modulation of genes involved in pathways known to be crucial for MM pathogenesis and disease progression. We aim to revise the literature related to the role of miRNAs as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, thus highlighting their key role as novel players within the field of MM and related premalignant conditions

The Collaborative for the Research on Black Women and Girls

<p>Seven patients per group. **P<0.01 Mann-Whitney U test. Representative granule cell layer hippocampal sections from patients without granule cell pathology (B) or with type-2 GCP (C) exhibiting DAB-labeled ANTXR1-like immunoreactivity (LI). Omitting the primary antibody to estimate nonspecific signal yielded completely negative labeling (data not shown). Note a widespread increase in ANTXR1-LI in granule cells from patients with type-2 GCP (C).</p

Proetex: protective e-textiles to enhance the safety of emergency/disaster operators: current state of the projects' achievements

Proetex is a European Integrated Project dedicated to the realization of a micro- and nano-technology-based wearable equipment for emergency operators. During the first 3 years of work, two different and progressively improved versions of a complete “smart” uniform for fire-fighters and emergency rescuers have been realized. These garments aim at monitoring both physiological parameters, position and posture of the operators and the presence of external potential sources of danger and to send these data to a remote coordinating unit. In the following, the main issues of the design and realization will be described and discussed

HPV16 E7-Dependent Transformation Activates NHE1 through a PKA-RhoA-Iinduced Inhibition of p38alpha

Background: Neoplastic transformation originates from a large number of different genetic alterations. Despite this genetic variability, a common phenotype to transformed cells is cellular alkalinization. We have previously shown in human keratinocytes and a cell line in which transformation can be turned on and followed by the inducible expression of the E7 oncogene of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16), that intracellular alkalinization is an early and essential physiological event driven by the up-regulation of the Na/H-+(+) exchanger isoform 1 (NHE1) and is necessary for the development of other transformed phenotypes and the in vivo tumor formation in nude mice.Methodology: Here, we utilize these model systems to elucidate the dynamic sequence of alterations of the upstream signal transduction systems leading to the transformation-dependent activation of NHE1.Principal Findings: We observe that a down-regulation of p38 MAPK activity is a fundamental step in the ability of the oncogene to transform the cell. Further, using pharmacological agents and transient transfections with dominant interfering, constitutively active, phosphorylation negative mutants and siRNA strategy to modify specific upstream signal transduction components that link HPV16 E7 oncogenic signals to up-regulation of the NHE1, we demonstrate that the stimulation of NHE1 activity is driven by an early rise in cellular cAMP resulting in the down-stream inhibition of p38 MAPK via the PKA-dependent phosphorylation of the small G-protein, RhoA, and its subsequent inhibition.Conclusions: All together these data significantly improve our knowledge concerning the basic cellular alterations involved in oncogene-driven neoplastic transformation

Do countries belonging to the same region suggest the same growth enhancing variables? Evidence from selected South Asian countries

We investigate the growth enhancing variables in a group of countries belonging to the same geographical area namely, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh over the period 1960-2010. We find that this homogeneity does not necessarily imply that countries have the same growth enhancing variables due mainly to differences in institutions and policies. Our result suggests that time-series econometrics are preferable to identify the growth drivers for a country accurately

Exploring Cosmic Origins with CORE: Cosmological Parameters

We forecast the main cosmological parameter constraints achievable with theCORE space mission which is dedicated to mapping the polarisation of the CosmicMicrowave Background (CMB). CORE was recently submitted in response to ESA'sfifth call for medium-sized mission proposals (M5). Here we report the resultsfrom our pre-submission study of the impact of various instrumental options, inparticular the telescope size and sensitivity level, and review the great,transformative potential of the mission as proposed. Specifically, we assessthe impact on a broad range of fundamental parameters of our Universe as afunction of the expected CMB characteristics, with other papers in the seriesfocusing on controlling astrophysical and instrumental residual systematics. Inthis paper, we assume that only a few central CORE frequency channels areusable for our purpose, all others being devoted to the cleaning ofastrophysical contaminants. On the theoretical side, we assume LCDM as ourgeneral framework and quantify the improvement provided by CORE over thecurrent constraints from the Planck 2015 release. We also study the jointsensitivity of CORE and of future Baryon Acoustic Oscillation and Large ScaleStructure experiments like DESI and Euclid. Specific constraints on the physicsof inflation are presented in another paper of the series. In addition to thesix parameters of the base LCDM, which describe the matter content of aspatially flat universe with adiabatic and scalar primordial fluctuations frominflation, we derive the precision achievable on parameters like thosedescribing curvature, neutrino physics, extra light relics, primordial heliumabundance, dark matter annihilation, recombination physics, variation offundamental constants, dark energy, modified gravity, reionization and cosmicbirefringence. (ABRIDGED

Exploring cosmic origins with CORE: Cosmological parameters

We forecast the main cosmological parameter constraints achievable with the CORE space mission which is dedicated to mapping the polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). CORE was recently submitted in response to ESA’s fifth call for mediumsized mission proposals (M5). Here we report the results from our pre-submission study of the impact of various instrumental options, in particular the telescope size and sensitivity level, and review the great, transformative potential of the mission as proposed. Specifically, we assess the impact on a broad range of fundamental parameters of our Universe as a function of the expected CMB characteristics, with other papers in the series focusing on controlling astrophysical and instrumental residual systematics. In this paper, we assume that only a few central CORE frequency channels are usable for our purpose, all others being devoted to the cleaning of astrophysical contaminants. On the theoretical side, we assume ΛCDM as our general framework and quantify the improvement provided by CORE over the current constraints from the Planck 2015 release. We also study the joint sensitivity of CORE and of future Baryon Acoustic Oscillation and Large Scale Structure experiments like DESI and Euclid. Specific constraints on the physics of inflation are presented in another paper of the series. In addition to the six parameters of the base ΛCDM, which describe the matter content of a spatially flat universe with adiabatic and scalar primordial fluctuations from inflation, we derive the precision achievable on parameters like those describing curvature, neutrino physics, extra light relics, primordial helium abundance, dark matter annihilation, recombination physics, variation of fundamental constants, dark energy, modified gravity, reionization and cosmic birefringence. In addition to assessing the improvement on the precision of individual parameters, we also forecast the post-CORE overall reduction of the allowed parameter space with figures of merit for various models increasing by as much as ∼ 107 as compared to Planck 2015, and 105 with respect to Planck 2015 + future BAO measurements

An Agent that Learns to Support Users of a Web Site

The terms agent, intelligent agent and 3D agent are becoming more and more frequently used in literature. A key issue in the Web community is that a web site must be equipped with a virtual agent able to support user. In this paper we propose the SAMIR system, a tool for animating 3D intelligent agents, mainly founded on a genetic algorithms based learning system, namely an XCS, and on a FFD based technique for the facial deformation of the character. SAMIR is based on an object-oriented architecture, and it adopts the MPEG-4' Facial Animation Parameters as a description format for facial expressions and animations

An agent that learns to support users of a Web site

The terms agent, intelligent agent and 3D agent are becoming more and more frequently used in literature. A key issue in the web community is that a web site must be equipped with a virtual agent able to support users in a natural way. Following this trend, we decided to implement scenographic agents mimic intelligent reasoning ( SAMIR), a prototype of a tool for animating 3D intelligent agents, mainly founded on a genetic algorithms-based learning system, namely an XCS, and on an FFD-based technique for the facial deformation of the character. SAMIR is based on an object-oriented architecture, and it adopts the MPEG-4 facial animation parameters (FAPs) as a description format for facial expressions and animations. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved