Heparan sulfates facilitate harmless amyloidogenic fibril formation interacting with elastin-like peptides

Heparan sulfates (HSs) modulate tissue elasticity in physiopathological conditions by interacting with various matrix constituents as tropoelastin and elastin-derived peptides. HSs bind also to protein moieties accelerating amyloid formation and influencing cytotoxic properties of insoluble fibrils. Interestingly, amyloidogenic polypeptides, despite their supposed pathogenic role, have been recently explored as promising bio-nanomaterials due to their unique and interesting properties. Therefore, we investigated the interactions of HSs, obtained from different sources and exhibiting various degree of sulfation, with synthetic amyloidogenic elastin-like peptides (ELPs), also looking at the effects of these interactions on cell viability and cell behavior using in vitro cultured fibroblasts, as a prototype of mesenchymal cells known to modulate the soft connective tissue environment. Results demonstrate, for the first time, that HSs, with differences depending on their sulfation pattern and chain length, interact with ELPs accelerating aggregation kinetics and amyloid-like fibril formation as well as self-association. Furthermore, these fibrils do not negatively affect fibroblasts' cell growth and parameters of redox balance, and influence cellular adhesion properties. Data provide information for a better understanding of the interactions altering the elastic component in aging and in pathologic conditions and may pave the way for the development of composite matrix-based biomaterials

Fifty Years of PMV Model: Reliability, Implementation and Design of Software for Its Calculation

In most countries, PMV is the reference index for the assessment of thermal comfort conditions in mechanically conditioned environments. It is also the basis to settle input values of the operative temperature for heating and cooling load calculations, sizing of equipment, and energy calculations according to EN 16798-1 and 16798-2 Standards. Over the years, great effort has been spent to study the reliability of PMV, whereas few investigations were addressed to its calculation. To study this issue, the most significant apps devoted to its calculation have been compared with a reference software compliant with EN ISO 7730 and the well-known ASHRAE Thermal Comfort Tool. It has been revealed that only few apps consider all six variables responsible for the thermal comfort. Relative air velocity is not considered by ASHRAE Thermal Comfort Tool and, finally, the correction of basic insulation values due to body movements introduced by EN ISO 7730 and EN ISO 9920 Standards has only been considered in one case. This implies that most software and apps for the calculation of PMV index should be used with special care, especially by unexperienced users. This applies to both research and application fields

New 3D cone beam CT imaging parameters to assist the dentist in treating patients with Osteogenesis Imperfecta

(1) Background: The aim of the work is to identify some imaging parameters in osteogenesis imperfecta to assist the dentist in the diagnosis, planning, and orthodontic treatment of Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) using 3D cone beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) and the Double Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) technique. (2) Methods: 14 patients (9 males and 5 females; aged mean ± SD 15 ± 1.5) with a clinical-radiological diagnosis of OI were analyzed and divided into mild and moderate to severe forms. The patients’ samples were compared with a control group of 14 patients (8 males and 6 females; aged mean ± SD 15 ± 1.7), free from osteoporotic pathologies. (3) Results: The statistical analysis allowed us to collect four datasets: in the first dataset (C1 sick population vs. C1 healthy population), the t-test showed a p-value < 0.0001; in the second dataset (C2 sick population vs. C2 healthy population), the t-test showed a p-value < 0.0001; in the third dataset (parameter X of the sick population vs. parameter X of the healthy population), the t-test showed a p-value < 0.0001; in the fourth dataset the bone mineralometry (BMD) value detected by the DEXA technique compared to the C2 value of the OI affected population only) the Welch–Satterthwaite test showed a p-value < 0.0001. (4) Conclusions: The research has produced specific imaging parameters that assist the dentist in making diagnostic decisions in OI patients. This study shows that patients with OI have a characteristic chin-bearing symphysis, thinned, and narrowed towards the center, configuring it with a constant “hourglass” appearance, not reported so far in the literature by any author

User Requirements and User Strategy in the AWARE Project

Abstract AWARE (A tool for monitoring and forecasting Available WAter REsource in mountain environment) is a Project in the VI Framework Programme of European Community. It started in July 2005 and aims at offering methods and tools to monitor and forecast the water resource from Alpine snowmelt by hydrologic models using input data derived from both in situ observations and Earth Observations (EO). In order to reach its objectives, AWARE needs strength collaboration with users. To this purpose activities to raise users' interests, to meet users' expectations and to spread Project achievements are planned. This paper describes the strategy used to collect user requirements within AWARE and illustrates some results of the user requirements analysis

On the estimation of landslide intensity, hazard and density via data-driven models

Maps that attempt to predict landslide occurrences have essentially stayed the same since 1972. In fact, most of the geo-scientific efforts have been dedicated to improve the landslide prediction ability with models that have largely increased their complexity but still have addressed the same binary classification task. In other words, even though the tools have certainly changed and improved in 50 years, the geomorphological community addressed and still mostly addresses landslide prediction via data-driven solutions by estimating whether a given slope is potentially stable or unstable. This concept corresponds to the landslide susceptibility, a paradigm that neglects how many landslides may trigger within a given slope, how large these landslides may be and what proportion of the given slope they may disrupt. The landslide intensity concept summarized how threatening a landslide or a population of landslide in a study area may be. Recently, landslide intensity has been spatially modeled as a function of how many landslides may occur per mapping unit, something, which has later been shown to closely correlate to the planimetric extent of landslides per mapping unit. In this work, we take this observation a step further, as we use the relation between landslide count and planimetric extent to generate maps that predict the aggregated size of landslides per slope, and the proportion of the slope they may affect. Our findings suggest that it may be time for the geoscientific community as a whole, to expand the research efforts beyond the use of susceptibility assessment, in favor of more informative analytical schemes. In fact, our results show that landslide susceptibility can be also reliably estimated (AUC of 0.92 and 0.91 for the goodness-of-fit and prediction skill, respectively) as part of a Log-Gaussian Cox Process model, from which the intensity expressed as count per unit (Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.91 and 0.90 for the goodness-of-fit and prediction skill, respectively) can also be derived and then converted into how large a landslide or several coalescing ones may become, once they trigger and propagate downhill. This chain of landslide intensity, hazard and density may lead to substantially improve decision-making processes related to landslide risk