Housing and health: a local and tailor-made low-tech approach to minimize diseases in a rising community of Haiti

With the slogan “Intelligently designed housing can dramatically improve people’s health”, the non-profit U.S. association Arch.H.I.Ve invited applications in 2010 for the implementation of five low-cost housing prototypes for families affected by AIDS and tuberculosis in Saint-Marc (Haiti). This was the opportunity for an Italian team of three architects, one doctor and one engineer, to submit a project inspired by construction methodologies able to harmonise elements of bioclimatic architecture with the psychophysical needs of the future occupants. ‘Shutter Dwelling’ was short-listed as one of the five winning projects, and its implementation is currently underway. It was inspired by a holistic approach to housing design which looks at a building as a whole generated by the interaction of three types of factors: energetic factors (air, sun and water), which guarantee the microclimatic suitability of indoor environments; viral factors, which prevent the spread of infections to other family members; functional factors, which facilitate the interaction of patients with the other occupants and the wider community. Taking its cue from that project, this paper seeks to contribute a new conception of housing design, suitable for ‘temporary’ dwellings. The approach it proposes takes into account traditional elements such as construction time, costs and reproducibility, but also caters for healthy, habitable environments, which preserve the social interactions of the occupants and are respectful of the local culture

Transcribed-ultra conserved region expression is associated with outcome in high-risk neuroblastoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neuroblastoma is the most common, pediatric, extra-cranial, malignant solid tumor. Despite multimodal therapeutic protocols, outcome for children with a high-risk clinical phenotype remains poor, with long-term survival still less than 40%. Hereby, we evaluated the potential of non-coding RNA expression to predict outcome in high-risk, stage 4 neuroblastoma.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed expression of 481 Ultra Conserved Regions (UCRs) by reverse transcription-quantitative real-time PCR and of 723 microRNAs by microarrays in 34 high-risk, stage 4 neuroblastoma patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>First, the comparison of 8 short- versus 12 long-term survivors showed that 54 UCRs were significantly (<it>P </it>< 0.0491) over-expressed in the former group. For 48 Ultra Conserved Region (UCRs) the expression levels above the cut-off values defined by ROC curves were strongly associated with good-outcome (OS: 0.0001 <<it>P </it>< 0.0185, EFS: 0.0001 <<it>P </it>< 0.0491). Then we tested the Transcribed-UCR (T-UCR) threshold risk-prediction model on an independent cohort of 14 patients. The expression profile of 28 T-UCRs was significantly associated to prognosis and at least 15 up-regulated T-UCRs are needed to discriminate (<it>P </it>< 0.0001) short- from long-survivors at the highest sensitivity and specificity (94.12%). We also identified a signature of 13 microRNAs differently expressed between long- and short-surviving patients. The comparative analysis of the two classes of non-coding RNAs disclosed that 9 T-UCRs display their expression level that are inversely correlated with expression of 5 complementary microRNAs of the signature, indicating a negative regulation of T-UCRs by direct interaction with microRNAs. Moreover, 4 microRNAs down-regulated in tumors of long-survivors target 3 genes implicated in neuronal differentiation, that are known to be over-expressed in low-risk tumors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our pilot study suggests that a deregulation of the microRNA/T-UCR network may play an important role in the pathogenesis of neuroblastoma. After further validation on a larger independent set of samples, such findings may be applied as the first T-UCR prognostic signature for high-risk neuroblastoma patients.</p

Ultradeep Sequencing of a Human Ultraconserved Region Reveals Somatic and Constitutional Genomic Instability

Ultradeep sequencing of genomes permits the detection of very low-level genomic instability in non-neoplastic tissues of patients with the most common form of inherited colorectal cancer

(Photo-)crosslinkable gelatin derivatives for biofabrication applications

Over the recent decades gelatin has proven to be very suitable as an extracellular matrix mimic for bio-fabrication and tissue engineering applications. However, gelatin is prone to dissolution at typical cell culture conditions and is therefore often chemically modified to introduce (photo-)crosslinkable functionalities. These modifications allow to tune the material properties of gelatin, making it suitable for a wide range of biofabrication techniques both as a bioink and as a biomaterial ink (component). The present review provides a non-exhaustive overview of the different reported gelatin modification strategies to yield crosslinkable materials that can be used to form hydrogels suitable for biofabrication applications. The different crosslinking chemistries are discussed and classified according to their mechanism including chain-growth and step-growth polymerization. The step-growth polymerization mechanisms are further classified based on the specific chemistry including different (photo-)click chemistries and reversible systems. The benefits and drawbacks of each chemistry are also briefly discussed. Furthermore, focus is placed on different biofabrication strategies using either inkjet, deposition or light-based additive manufacturing techniques, and the applications of the obtained 3D constructs

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Nascita di nuove imprese e concentrazione bancaria: un'analisi regionale in Italia

Il presente lavoro intende verificare se la distribuzione territoriale delle nuove imprese dipende dalla concorrenza tra gli operatori del settore bancario, ovvero dalla concentrazione del mercato bancario locale. A tal fine, si stima un modello econometrico con dati provinciali per il periodo 2011-2019. Le stime mostrano l’esistenza di un legame non lineare tra nascita di nuove imprese e concentrazione bancaria: nelle province in cui la concentrazione bancaria è bassa, una maggiore concentrazione favorisce la nascita di nuove imprese, mentre nelle province dove la concentrazione bancaria è elevata, una maggiore concentrazione ha un impatto negativo sulla creazione di nuove imprese. Tali risultati suggeriscono che la concentrazione del mercato bancario locale ha un impatto rilevante sull’attività imprenditoriale regionale e può aumentare le disparità territoriali nei tassi di nascita delle nuove imprese

Regional entrepreneurship and the structure of the banking market

This paper investigates whether local banking market structure affects regional entrepreneurship, measured by new firm formation. Considering provincial data over the period 2011–21 in Italy, we found that bank concentration and firm formation had an inverted ‘U’-shaped relationship. Lower levels of bank concentration fostered firm formation, but above a market share of about 58% for the largest banks, which is seen in the South and some peripheral and inner areas of central and northern Italy, increased concentration reduced firm formation. However, the presence of local banks is beneficial for the birth of new firms and can reduce the negative impact of high concentration. These findings suggest that banking market structure plays an important role in shaping regional entrepreneurship.</p

Housing and health: a local and tailor-made low-tech approach to minimize diseases in a rising community of Haiti

With the slogan “Intelligently designed housing can dramatically improve people’s health”, the non-profit U.S. association Arch.H.I.Ve invited applications in 2010 for the implementation of five low-cost housing prototypes for families affected by AIDS and tuberculosis in Saint-Marc (Haiti). This was the opportunity for an Italian team of three architects, one doctor and one engineer, to submit a project inspired by construction methodologies able to harmonise elements of bioclimatic architecture with the psychophysical needs of the future occupants. ‘Shutter Dwelling’ was short-listed as one of the five winning projects, and its implementation is currently underway. It was inspired by a holistic approach to housing design which looks at a building as a whole generated by the interaction of three types of factors: energetic factors (air, sun and water), which guarantee the microclimatic suitability of indoor environments; viral factors, which prevent the spread of infections to other family members; functional factors, which facilitate the interaction of patients with the other occupants and the wider community. Taking its cue from that project, this paper seeks to contribute a new conception of housing design, suitable for ‘temporary’ dwellings. The approach it proposes takes into account traditional elements such as construction time, costs and reproducibility, but also caters for healthy, habitable environments, which preserve the social interactions of the occupants and are respectful of the local culture

Explaining voting behaviour in the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum.

At the end of 2016, a crucial constitutional reform was rejected by referendum in Italy. The vote, coming after the UK’s European membership referendum and the US presidential election, may have significant implications for both Italy and the European Union. The object of this paper is to investigate whether and to what extent socio-economic, demographic and political factors influenced voting behaviour. Our analysis shows that political and socio-economic variables were the main drivers of the referendum result. Demographic variables had a weaker effect. These findings suggest that the merit of the constitutional reform proposal had little relevance in explaining voting behaviour. The political reasons were common to the whole country. Other determinants of the referendum outcome varied in different geographical areas. In particular, demographic variables were more important in Northern and Central Italy. Socio-economic aspects were less relevant, although statistically significant, in the South