A Model Checker for Operator Precedence Languages

The problem of extending model checking from finite state machines to procedural programs has fostered much research toward the definition of temporal logics for reasoning on context-free structures. The most notable of such results are temporal logics on Nested Words, such as CaRet and NWTL. Recently, Precedence Oriented Temporal Logic (POTL) has been introduced to specify and prove properties of programs coded trough an Operator Precedence Language (OPL). POTL is complete w.r.t. the FO restriction of the MSO logic previously defined as a logic fully equivalent to OPL. POTL increases NWTL's expressive power in a perfectly parallel way as OPLs are more powerful that nested words.In this article, we produce a model checker, named POMC, for OPL programs to prove properties expressed in POTL. To the best of our knowledge, POMC is the first implemented and openly available model checker for proving tree-structured properties of recursive procedural programs. We also report on the experimental evaluation we performed on POMC on a nontrivial benchmark

Combining dental and skeletal evidence in age classification: Pilot study in a sample of Italian sub-adults

Background: Dental and skeletal maturation have proved to be reliable evidence for estimating age of children and prior studies and internationally accredited guidelines recommend to evaluate both evidence in the same subject to reduce error in age prediction. Nevertheless the ethical and legal justification of procedures that imply a double exposition of children stands as a relevant issue. This study aims to evaluate the accuracy of age estimation provided by a combination of skeletal and dental methods applied in the same sample of children. / Materials and methods: The sample consisted of 274 orthopantomographies and left hand-wrist X-rays of Italian children, (aged between 6 and 17 years) taken on the same day. Greulich and Pyle’s (GP), Tanner-Whitehouse’s version 3 (TW3) and Willems’ (W) and the Demirjian’s (D) methods were respectively applied for estimating skeletal and dental age. A combination of skeletal and dental age estimates through Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is proposed to obtain a classifier respect to an age threshold. / Results: The combination of D and TW3 obtained an improvement of accuracy in classifying female subjects respect to the 12 years threshold respect to the original methods (from about 77% using either original methods to 83.3% combining TW3 + D) as well as a consistent reduction of false positives rate (from 17% to 21% for original methods to 5.6% with TW3 + D). For males the LDA classifier (based on TW3 and W) enable a small improvement in accuracy, whilst the decreasing of false positives was as noticeable as for females (from 17.6 to 14.1% for original methods to 6.2% combining TW3 + W). / Conclusions: Although the study is influenced by the limited size and the uneven age distribution of the sample, the present findings support the conclusion that age assessment procedures based on both dental and skeletal age estimation can improve the accuracy and reduce the occurrence of false positives

Gastrointestinal neuroendocrine neoplasms (GI-NENs): hot topics in morphological, functional, and prognostic imaging

Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) are heterogeneous tumours with a common phenotype descended from the diffuse endocrine system. NENs are found nearly anywhere in the body but the most frequent location is the gastrointestinal tract. Gastrointestinal neuroendocrine neoplasms (GI-NENs) are rather uncommon, representing around 2% of all gastrointestinal tumours and 20–30% of all primary neoplasms of the small bowel. GI-NENs have various clinical manifestations due to the different substances they can produce; some of these tumours appear to be associated with familial syndromes, such as multiple endocrine neoplasm and neurofibromatosis type 1. The current WHO classification (2019) divides NENs into three major categories: well-differentiated NENs, poorly differentiated NENs, and mixed neuroendocrine-non-neuroendocrine neoplasms. The diagnosis, localization, and staging of GI-NENs include morphology and functional imaging, above all contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT), and in the field of nuclear medicine imaging, a key role is played by (68)Ga-labelled-somatostatin analogues ((68)Ga-DOTA-peptides) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/TC). In this review of recent literature, we described the objectives of morphological/functional imaging and potential future possibilities of prognostic imaging in the assessment of GI-NENs

Ultrasound-guided percutaneous irrigation of calcific tendinopathy: Technical developments

Rotator cuff calcific tendinopathy (RCCT) is a common and painful shoulder disease character-ised by deposition of calcium into the rotator cuff’s tendond. Different therapeutic options have been proposed, but the ultrasound-guided percutaneous irrigation (US-PICT) is been proved as an effective and safe first-line treatment. It can be performed with a single-of a double-needle tecnique, using warm saline solution to improve the dissolution of the calcific deposit. The procedure is ended with an intrabursal injection of local anaesthetics and slow-release steroids to improve the pain relief and to prevent complications. US-PICT leads to significative improvement in the shoulder funtion and pain relief in the short and long term, with a low complications rate. (www.actabiomedica.it)

Alternative Splicing Changes Promoted by NOVA2 Upregulation in Endothelial Cells and Relevance for Gastric Cancer

Angiogenesis is crucial for cancer progression. While several anti-angiogenic drugs are in use for cancer treatment, their clinical benefits are unsatisfactory. Thus, a deeper understanding of the mechanisms sustaining cancer vessel growth is fundamental to identify novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Alternative splicing (AS) is an essential modifier of human proteome diversity. Nevertheless, AS contribution to tumor vasculature development is poorly known. The Neuro-Oncological Ventral Antigen 2 (NOVA2) is a critical AS regulator of angiogenesis and vascular development. NOVA2 is upregulated in tumor endothelial cells (ECs) of different cancers, thus representing a potential driver of tumor blood vessel aberrancies. Here, we identified novel AS transcripts generated upon NOVA2 upregulation in ECs, suggesting a pervasive role of NOVA2 in vascular biology. In addition, we report that NOVA2 is also upregulated in ECs of gastric cancer (GC), and its expression correlates with poor overall survival of GC patients. Finally, we found that the AS of the Rap Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor 6 (RapGEF6), a newly identified NOVA2 target, is altered in GC patients and associated with NOVA2 expression, tumor angiogenesis, and poor patient outcome. Our findings provide a better understanding of GC biology and suggest that AS might be exploited to identify novel biomarkers and therapeutics for anti-angiogenic GC treatments

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells are increased in cerebrospinal fluid of untreated patients during multiple sclerosis relapse

The plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) express a high level of Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR-9), which recognizes viral DNA. Activated via TLR-9, pDCs also secrete large amounts of type I interferon which are involved either in stimulation or down regulation of immune response in multiple sclerosis (MS). In the present study, we determinate pDCs levels by flow cytometry in Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) and Peripheral Blood from MS patients in relapsing and in remitting phases of the disease, comparing with other non-inflammatory diseases (OND). We provide evidence that MS patients in relapse without any treatment have a significantly (p < 0.01) higher percentage of pDCs in CSF than do patients in remission or those with OND. No change in the percentage of pDCs was observed in the peripheral blood of any of these patients. The increase of pDCs in central nervous system during relapse may be explained either by a virus infection or a down regulatory process

Brazilian guidelines for the diagnosis of narcolepsy

Este artigo relata as conclusões da reunião de consenso com médicos especialistas sobre diagnóstico de narcolepsia baseada na revisão dos artigos sobre narcolepsia listados no Medline entre 1980 e 2010. A narcolepsia é uma doença crônica de início entre a primeira e segunda décadas de vida do indivíduo. Os sintomas essenciais são cataplexia e sonolência excessiva. A cataplexia é definida como episódios súbitos, recorrentes e reversíveis de fraqueza da musculatura esquelética desencadeados por situações de conteúdo emocional. Os sintomas acessórios são alucinações hipnagógicas, paralisia do sono e sono fragmentado. Critérios de diagnóstico clínico de acordo com a Classificação Internacional dos Transtornos do Sono são de sonolência excessiva e cataplexia. Recomenda-se a realização de polissonografia seguida do teste de latência múltipla do sono em um laboratório de sono para confirmação e diagnóstico de comorbidades. Quando não houver cataplexia, deve haver duas ou mais sonecas com sono REM no teste de latência múltipla do sono. Tipagem HLA-DQB1*0602 positiva com níveis de hipocretina-1 abaixo de 110pg/mL devem estar presentes para o diagnóstico de narcolepsia sem cataplexia e sem sonecas com sono REM.This manuscript contains the conclusion of the consensus meeting on the diagnosis of narcolepsy based on the review of Medline publications between 1980-2010. Narcolepsy is a chronic disorder with age at onset between the first and second decade of life. Essential narcolepsy symptoms are cataplexy and excessive sleepiness. Cataplexy is defined as sudden, recurrent and reversible attacks of muscle weakness triggered by emotions. Accessory narcolepsy symptoms are hypnagogic hallucinations, sleep paralysis and nocturnal fragmented sleep. The clinical diagnosis according to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders is the presence of excessive sleepiness and cataplexy. A full in-lab polysomnography followed by a multiple sleep latency test is recommended for the confirmation of the diagnosis and co-morbidities. The presence of two sleep-onset REM period naps in the multiple sleep latency test is diagnostic for cataplexy-free narcolepsy. A positive HLA-DQB1*0602 with lower than 110pg/mL level of hypocretin-1 in the cerebrospinal fluid is required for the final diagnosis of cataplexy- and sleep-onset REM period -free narcolepsy