BioCloud Search EnGene: Surfing Biological Data on the Cloud

The massive production and spread of biomedical data around the web introduces new challenges related to identify computational approaches for providing quality search and browsing of web resources. This papers presents BioCloud Search EnGene (BSE), a cloud application that facilitates searching and integration of the many layers of biological information offered by public large-scale genomic repositories. Grounding on the concept of dataspace, BSE is built on top of a cloud platform that severely curtails issues associated with scalability and performance. Like popular online gene portals, BSE adopts a gene-centric approach: researchers can find their information of interest by means of a simple “Google-like” query interface that accepts standard gene identification as keywords. We present BSE architecture and functionality and discuss how our strategies contribute to successfully tackle big data problems in querying gene-based web resources. BSE is publically available at: http://biocloud-unica.appspot.com/

Il volto della città: quando il ritratto è visto alla rovescia

Per la rappresentazione figurativa e, in particolare, per la rappresentazione di città, ogni lingua ha creato termini specifici, posti in relazione alla cultura che devono esprimere, e quindi non sempre intercambiabili; allo stesso modo ogni epoca ha modificato o messo in discussione o aggiornato i modi di descrivere, specialmente la città, pur mantenendo sempre costanti alcuni requisiti: il diretto e autentico rapporto con il vero; l’ambizione alla somiglianza più favorevole; la realizzazione affidata all’arte e ai suoi esponenti; la rappresentazione attraverso il ritratto

A comparative analysis of biomarker selection techniques

Feature selection has become the essential step in biomarker discovery from high-dimensional genomics data. It is recognized that different feature selection techniques may result in different set of biomarkers, i.e. different groups of genes highly correlated to a given pathological condition, but few direct comparisons exist that quantify these differences in a systematic way. In this paper, we propose a general methodology for comparing the outcomes of different selection techniques in the context of biomarker discovery. The comparison is carried out along two dimensions: (i) measuring the similarity/dissimilarity of selected gene sets, (ii) evaluating the implications of these differences in terms of both predictive performance and stability of selected gene sets. As a case study, we considered three benchmarks deriving from DNA micro-array experiments and conducted a comparative analysis among eight selection methods, representative of different classes of feature selection techniques. Our results show that the proposed approach can provide useful insight about the pattern of agreement of biomarker discovery techniques

Chapter Frammenti urbani e nuove visualizzazioni: la piazzetta di San Gennaro all’Olmo a Napoli

The 43rd UID conference, held in Genova, takes up the theme of ‘Dialogues’ as practice and debate on many fundamental topics in our social life, especially in these complex and not yet resolved times. The city of Genova offers the opportunity to ponder on the value of comparison and on the possibilities for the community, naturally focused on the aspects that concern us, as professors, researchers, disseminators of knowledge, or on all the possibile meanings of the discipline of representation and its dialogue with ‘others’, which we have broadly catalogued in three macro areas: History, Semiotics, Science / Technology. Therefore, “dialogue” as a profitable exchange based on a common language, without which it is impossible to comprehend and understand one another; and the graphic sign that connotes the conference is the precise transcription of this concept: the title ‘translated’ into signs, derived from the visual alphabet designed for the visual identity of the UID since 2017. There are many topics which refer to three macro sessions: - Witnessing (signs and history) - Communicating (signs and semiotics) - Experimenting (signs and sciences) Thanks to the different points of view, an exceptional resource of our disciplinary area, we want to try to outline the prevailing theoretical-operational synergies, the collaborative lines of an instrumental nature, the recent updates of the repertoires of images that attest and nourish the relations among representation, history, semiotics, sciences

Frammenti di Napoli

[English]:This work intends to collect the results of studies and researches which contribute to strengthening the knowledge of the area and in documenting all these shades that converge on qualifying in a cultural entity as collective heritage: the single heritages, through knowledge can obtain in this way not only an adequate representation. It is thus not by chance, that this book is dedicated to the city of Naples, a city with a strong and complex identity, with classical roots, full of conflict and eager to confrontations; the artistic and cultural heritage that this city preserves, almost a catalogue of the entire Mediterranean civilization, of which it is the symbol, is made of great testimonies, but also of small fragments, of layers and mixtures, which together converge on the culture of ‘making a system’ aimed at the creation of a territory network, at the bringing closer and understanding of single cultural identities, at a best mutual perception. [Italiano]: Questo lavoro raccoglie gli esiti di studi e ricerche volti a rafforzare la conoscenza del luogo e a documentare tutte quelle sfumature che concorrono a qualificare una entità culturale come bene collettivo. I singoli oggetti dello spazio urbano, seppur diversi l’uno dall’altro, ora per dimensioni, ora per tipologia, ora per epoca, attraverso l’indagine analitica, possono ottenere non solo una rappresentazione adeguata ma anche e soprattutto una necessaria divulgazione. E non a caso questo lavoro è dedicato alla città di Napoli, una città dalla identità forte e complessa, dalle radici classiche, piena di conflitti e desiderosa di confronto; il patrimonio artistico e culturale che questa città custodisce, quasi un catalogo dell’intera civiltà mediterranea di cui è simbolo, è fatto di grandi testimonianze ma anche di piccoli frammenti, di commistioni e stratificazioni che, tutti insieme, concorrono alla cultura del ‘fare sistema’ finalizzata alla creazione di una rete di attenzione al territorio, all’avvicinamento e alla comprensione delle singole identità culturali, alla migliore percezione reciproca. Ogni oggetto o frammento può essere ricomposto nell’insieme più ampio della città e concorre a descrivere un racconto per immagini, per grafie, per segni

A randomised clinical trial (RCT) of a symbiotic mixture in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS): effects on symptoms, colonic transit and quality of life

Purpose The aim of this study is to test in a doubleblinded, randomised placebo-controlled study the effects of a commercially available multi-strain symbiotic mixture on symptoms, colonic transit and quality of life in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients who meet Rome III criteria. Background There is only one other double-blinded RCT on a single-strain symbiotic mixture in IBS. Methods This is a double-blinded, randomised placebocontrolled study of a symbiotic mixture (Probinul, 5 g bid) over 4 weeks after 2 weeks of run-in. The primary endpoints were global satisfactory relief of abdominal flatulence and bloating. Responders were patients who reported at least 50 % of the weeks of treatment with global satisfactory relief. The secondary endpoints were change in abdominal bloating, flatulence, pain and urgency by a 100-mm visual analog scale, stool frequency and bowel functions on validated adjectival scales (Bristol Scale and sense of incomplete evacuation). Pre- and post-treatment colonic transit time (Metcalf) and quality of life (SF-36) were assessed. Results Sixty-four IBS patients (symbiotic n032, 64 % females, mean age 38.7±12.6 years) were studied. This symbiotic mixture reduced flatulence over a 4-week period of treatment (repeated-measures analysis of covariance, p<0.05). Proportions of responders were not significantly different between groups. At the end of the treatment, a longer rectosigmoid transit time and a significant improvement in most SF-36 scores were observed in the symbiotic group. Conclusions This symbiotic mixture has shown a beneficial effect in decreasing the severity of flatulence in IBS patients, a lack of adverse events and a good side-effect profile; however, it failed to achieve an improvement in global satisfactory relief of abdominal flatulence and bloating. Further studies are warranted

Crystalline Neural Network: a diffusion weighted neuroimage processing approach

Las imágenes por difusión son un tipo de imágenes por resonancia magnética especialmente sensibles a la dirección de difusión de las moléculas de agua. Utilizándolas es posible determinar el movimiento de dichas moléculas en base a modelos biofísicos. Esta es una técnica muy utilizada para estudiar la microestructura del tejido nervioso y la conectividad cerebral.En este artículo presentamos un nuevo modelo de difusión, inspirado en las redes neuronales artificiales, que propone una arquitectura de red cristalina. Se presenta el modelo junto a una propuesta de método para ajustarlo. Para evaluar el desempeño se desarrollaron pruebas sobre fantomas virtuales que imitan posibles disposiciones de fibras nerviosas. El modelo propuesto convergió en el ajuste sobre los fantomas y mostró potencial para resolver disposiciones que otros modelos estándares de difusión no pueden, como cruces y curvas en las fibras.Diffusion weighted imaging is a magnetic resonance technique especially sensitive to the water molecular diffusion. By fitting biophysical models to the acquired data is possible to describe the regional direction of the water movement. This technique is widely used to study the nervous tissue microstructure and brain connectivity. We present a new diffusion model, inspired by artificial neural networks, but using a crystalline architecture. The model is presented in addition with a fitting method. To evaluate its performance, we performed several tests on virtual phantoms which mimic probable nerve fiber layouts.The model performed well on phantoms data and showed potential to resolve fiber dispositions better that other standard diffusion models, such as crosses and curves in fibers path.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

LA CITTÀ PALINSESTO/II. Tracce, sguardi e narrazioni sulla complessità dei contesti urbani storici: Rappresentazione, conoscenza, conservazione

[Italiano]:Questo volume accoglie le più recenti riflessioni attorno ai necessari fondamenti, teorici e di pensiero, nonché gli aspetti tecnici, artistici, tecnologici che portano a concepire la città e il paesaggio come palinsesto figurativo e fenomenologico. Città e paesaggio, infatti, continuamente soggetti a operazioni di cancellature e riscritture – in termini di progetto e restauro, di tutela e valorizzazione, di disegno e ridisegno – sono i testimoni visivi di come appare a noi il palinsesto oggi, grazie al connubio sempre più stretto fra tecnologie e strumenti di visione, in un’ottica proiettiva e trasformativa fortemente relazionale ./[English]:This volume contains the most recent reflections on the necessary foundations, theoretical and thought, as well as the technical, artistic, technological aspects that lead to conceiving the city and the landscape as a figurative and phenomenological palimpsest. City and landscape, in fact, continually subject to erasing and rewriting operations – in terms of project and restoration, protection and enhancement, design and redesign – are the visual witnesses of how the schedule appears to us today, thanks to the increasingly squeezed between technologies and tools of vision, in a highly relational projective and transformative perspective

LA CITTÀ PALINSESTO/II

This volume contains the most recent reflections on the necessary foundations, theoretical and thought, as well as the technical, artistic, technological aspects that lead to conceiving the city and the landscape as a figurative and phenomenological palimpsest. City and landscape, in fact, continually subject to erasing and rewriting operations – in terms of project and restoration, protection and enhancement, design and redesign – are the visual witnesses of how the schedule appears to us today, thanks to the increasingly squeezed between technologies and tools of vision, in a highly relational projective and transformative perspective.illustratorQuesto volume accoglie le più recenti riflessioni attorno ai necessari fondamenti, teorici e di pensiero, nonché gli aspetti tecnici, artistici, tecnologici che portano a concepire la città e il paesaggio come palinsesto figurativo e fenomenologico. Città e paesaggio, infatti, continuamente soggetti a operazioni di cancellature e riscritture – in termini di progetto e restauro, di tutela e valorizzazione, di disegno e ridisegno – sono i testimoni visivi di come appare a noi il palinsesto oggi, grazie al connubio sempre più stretto fra tecnologie e strumenti di visione, in un’ottica proiettiva e trasformativa fortemente relazionale