Determination of travertine provenance from ancient buildings using self-organizing maps and fuzzy logic

This work is focused on determining provenance of travertine stones employed in the construction of some important monuments in Umbria (Italy) using two systems that use concepts and algorithms inherent to Artificial Intelligence: Kohonen self-organizing maps and fuzzy logic. The two systems have been applied to travertine samples belonging to quarries known to be sites of excavation from ancient times and monuments. Tests on quarry samples show a good discriminative power of both methods to recognize the exact provenance of most samples. The application of the systems to monument samples show that most of employed travertine stones were quarried from outcrops occurring in areas close to the towns where monuments have been erected. Results are in good agreement with historical data

Phenoloxidase activity and haemolymph cytology in honeybees challenged with a virus suspension (deformed wings virus DWV) or phosphate buffered suspension (PBS)

The innate immune system of honeybees mainly consists in antimicrobial peptides, cellular immunity and melanisation. In order to investigate the immune response of honeybees to immune stressors, three stress degrees were tested. Newly emerged bees naturally DWV-infected were collected from a Varroa mite free apiary and divided into three experimental groups: naturally DWV infected bees. PBS injected bees. and artificially DWV super infected bees. Phenoloxidase activity and haemolymph cellular subtype count were investigated. Phenoloxidase activity was highest (P<0.05) in DWV-superinfected bees. and the haemocyte population differed within the three observed groups. Although. immune responses following DWV infection have still not been completely clarified. this investigation sheds light on the relation between cell immunity and the phenoloxidase activity of DWV naturally infected honeybees exposed to additional stress such as injury and viral superinfection

Detection of Hepatitis E Virus Antibodies in Domestic and Wild Animal Species in Central Italy

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is known for its zoonotic potential. Although several mammalian species have been indicated as possible viral reservoir, the host range of the infection is partially defined. In this work serum samples collected from wild brown hares, red deer, wild rabbits, cattle living in semi-wild state and wild boar-hunting dogs were tested by a multi-species ELISA assay. Only sera from red deer (5.6%), wild rabbit (38.5%) and wild-boar hunting dogs (14.3%) scored positive. The investigation indicated the circulation and the high endemicity of HEV in various animal species in Central Italy, and the importance that these species can play in the epidemiology of infection

Learning Binary Data Representation for Optical Processing Units

Optical Processing Units (OPUs) are computing devices that perform random projections of input data by exploiting the physical phenomenon of scattering a light source through a diffusive medium. Random projections calculated by OPUs have been used successfully for approximating kernel ridge regression for large datasets with low power consumption and at high speed. However, OPUs require the input data to be binary. In this paper, we propose to use shallow and deep neural networks (NN) as binary encoders to perform input data binarization. The difficulty in developing a binarization strategy which is learned in an end-to-end fashion along with kernel ridge regression parameters, is due to the non-differentiability of the operation performed by the OPU. We overcome this difficulty by considering OPUs as a black-box and by employing the REINFORCE gradient estimator, which allows us to calculate the gradient of the loss function with respect to the weights of the binarization encoder and to optimize these together with the parameters of kernel ridge regression with gradient- based optimization. Through our experimental campaign on a variety of tasks and datasets, we show that our method outperforms alternative unsupervised and supervised binarization techniques

Effect of dietary supplementation of a mix of chestnut and quebracho tannins on intestinal morphology, bacterial load, Eimeria spp oocyst excretion and immune response after vaccination in rabbits

Among plant products, tannins exhibited a strong antioxidant activity and their employment was studied as food or feed addictive with positive effects. Nevertheless, their health-enhancing properties remain to be completely clarified, particularly in rabbits. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of a mix of chestnut and quebracho tannins as supplementation in rabbit diet on intestinal morphology, as well as bacterial loads and Eimeria spp coccidial oocyst excretion and humoral immune response after vaccination. Rabbits were fed four different diets: basal diet (negative control, group CN), basal diet with anticoccidial supplementation (positive control, group CP) and basal diet with tannins mix 0.3% (group T0.3) or 0.6% (group T0.6). Samples of intestine, liver, spleen thymus, mesenteric lymph nodes, kidney and heart were submitted to histopathologic investigations. Morphometric analyses were performed on portion of duodenum, jejunum and ileum. Intestinal contents were analyzed by flotation test for Eimeria spp. oocysts excretion and by microbiological assays for Clostridium perfringens and Escherichia coli. Rabbits belonging to the four experimental groups were vaccinated by means of a live attenuated myxomatosis virus and sera were collected individually at three time points to determine antibody response.The obtained results demonstratedthe absence of toxic effects of the tannin mix on examined organs, particularly on liver and kidney and any negative influence on the growth performance. A relevant anti-inflammatory effect on the intestinal tract, a reduction of Eimeria spp. oocysts excretion and a positive immunomodulatory and antibacterial effects were also observed. Diets supplemented with the tannins mix affected also the morphology of examined intestinal tracts, particularly duodenum and ileum

Past, Present, and Future Strategies for Enhanced Assessment of Embryo's Genome and Reproductive Competence in Women of Advanced Reproductive Age

Recent advancements in genomic analysis allow testing of an increasing number of genetic features in human preimplantation embryos. Typical single gene mutation and whole chromosomes testing can now be integrated with assessment of mitochondrial DNA and polygenic conditions. Diagnostic expansion into epigenetic and transcriptomic assessment in the near future are potential technological targets which may improve the prognostic outlook of patients of advanced reproductive age and overall in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment outcomes. In this review, we discuss the technological progress of recent years and their future applications in preimplantation genetic testing in IVF

Integrated Analysis of Myocardial Blush and ST-Segment Elevation Recovery After Successful Primary Angioplasty

Background — ST-segment elevation (ΣSTe) recovery and the angiographic myocardial blush (MB) grade are useful markers of microvascular reperfusion after recanalization of the infarct-related artery. We investigated the ability of a combined analysis of MB grade and ΣSTe changes to identify different patterns of myocardial reperfusion shortly after primary percutaneous coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and to predict 7-day and 6-month left ventricular (LV) functional recovery. Methods and Results — MB grade and ΣSTe recovery were evaluated shortly after successful primary PTCA (restoration of TIMI grade 3 flow) in 114 consecutive patients with ΣSTe acute myocardial infarction. LV function was assessed by 2D echocardiograms before PTCA and at 7 days and 6 months thereafter. By combining MB and ΣSTe changes, 3 main groups of patients were identified. Group 1 patients (n=60) had both significant MB (grade 2 to 3) and ΣSTe recovery (>50% versus basal ΣSTe) and a high rate of 7-day (65%) and 6-month (95%) LV functional recovery. In group 2 patients (n=21), who showed MB but persistent ΣSTe, the prevalence of early LV functional recovery was low (24%) but increased up to 86% in the late phase. Group 3 patients (n=28), who had neither significant MB nor ΣSTe resolution, had poor early (18%) and late (32%) LV functional recovery. Conclusions — After successful primary PTCA, integrated analysis of MB and ΣSTe recovery allows a real-time grading of microvascular reperfusion of the infarct area and predicts the time-course and magnitude of LV functional recovery

Analysis of Nucleotide Variations in Genes of Iron Management in Patients of Parkinson's Disease and Other Movement Disorders

The capacity to act as an electron donor and acceptor makes iron an essential cofactor of many vital processes. Its balance in the body has to be tightly regulated since its excess can be harmful by favouring oxidative damage, while its deficiency can impair fundamental activities like erythropoiesis. In the brain, an accumulation of iron or an increase in its availability has been associated with the development and/or progression of different degenerative processes, including Parkinson's disease, while iron paucity seems to be associated with cognitive deficits, motor dysfunction, and restless legs syndrome. In the search of DNA sequence variations affecting the individual predisposition to develop movement disorders, we scanned by DHPLC the exons and intronic boundary regions of ceruloplasmin, iron regulatory protein 2, hemopexin, hepcidin and hemojuvelin genes in cohorts of subjects affected by Parkinson's disease and idiopathic neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA). Both novel and known sequence variations were identified in most of the genes, but none of them seemed to be significantly associated to the movement diseases of interest