What is a Smart City Project? An Urban Model or A Corporate Business Plan?

Abstract This paper aims at bringing to light some weaknesses in smart city projects and holds a rhetorical debate supported by a progressive fraction of the population. Smart city projects are important for urban policies in as much as they allow for a reinvention of territories. We must not only consider the large energy networks and/or technologies, but also take into consideration the distribution and management of tasks and networks run by citizens as they promote civic goodness and social sensibility. The "smart city" is a good programme because it can aim at developing a new form of "modernity and civilization" of the productive platform. Numerous aspects of the territorial policy can enhance the competitiveness of the territories, in particular social cohesion, the diffusion of knowledge, creativity, accessibility and freedom of movement, the usability of the environment itself and the quality of the landscape, as well as the wellbeing of citizens

Non coding RNA and brain

Small non coding RNAs are a group of very different RNA molecules, present in virtually all cells, with a wide spectrum of regulatory functions which include RNA modification and regulation of protein synthesis. They have been isolated and characterized in all organisms and tissues, from Archaeobacteria to mammals. In mammalian brain there are a number of these small molecules, which are involved in neuronal differentiation as well as, possibly, in learning and memory. In this manuscript, we analyze the present knowledge about the function of the most important groups of small non-coding RNA present in brain: small nucleolar RNAs, small cytoplasmic RNAs, and microRNAs. The last ones, in particular, appear to be critical for dictating neuronal cell identity during development and to play an important role in neurite growth, synaptic development and neuronal plasticity

The Brera Multi-scale Wavelet (BMW) ROSAT HRI source catalog. I: the algorithm

We present a new detection algorithm based on the wavelet transform for the analysis of high energy astronomical images. The wavelet transform, due to its multi-scale structure, is suited for the optimal detection of point-like as well as extended sources, regardless of any loss of resolution with the off-axis angle. Sources are detected as significant enhancements in the wavelet space, after the subtraction of the non-flat components of the background. Detection thresholds are computed through Monte Carlo simulations in order to establish the expected number of spurious sources per field. The source characterization is performed through a multi-source fitting in the wavelet space. The procedure is designed to correctly deal with very crowded fields, allowing for the simultaneous characterization of nearby sources. To obtain a fast and reliable estimate of the source parameters and related errors, we apply a novel decimation technique which, taking into account the correlation properties of the wavelet transform, extracts a subset of almost independent coefficients. We test the performance of this algorithm on synthetic fields, analyzing with particular care the characterization of sources in poor background situations, where the assumption of Gaussian statistics does not hold. For these cases, where standard wavelet algorithms generally provide underestimated errors, we infer errors through a procedure which relies on robust basic statistics. Our algorithm is well suited for the analysis of images taken with the new generation of X-ray instruments equipped with CCD technology which will produce images with very low background and/or high source density.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, ApJ in pres

Molecular recognition in helix-loop-helix and helix-loop-helix-leucine zipper domains: Design of repertoires and selection of high affinity ligands for natural proteins

Helix-loop-helix (HLH) and helix-loop-helix-leucine zipper (HLHZip) are dimerization domains that mediate selective pairing among members of a large transcription factor family involved in cell fate determination. To investigate the molecular rules underlying recognition specificity and to isolate molecules interfering with cell proliferation and differentiation control, we assembled two molecular repertoires obtained by directed randomization of the binding surface in these two domains. For this strategy we selected the Heb HLH and Max Zip regions as molecular scaffolds for the randomization process and displayed the two resulting molecular repertoires on lambda phage capsids. By affinity selection, many domains were isolated that bound to the proteins Mad, Rox, MyoD, and Id2 with different levels of affinity. Although several residues along an extended surface within each domain appeared to contribute to dimerization, some key residues critically involved in molecular recognition could be identified. Furthermore, a number of charged residues appeared to act as switch points facilitating partner exchange. By successfully selecting ligands for four of four HLH or HLHZip proteins, we have shown that the repertoires assembled are rather general and possibly contain elements that bind with sufficient affinity to any natural HLH or HLHZip molecule. Thus they represent a valuable source of ligands that could be used as reagents for molecular dissection of functional regulatory pathways

The Swift X-ray Telescope Cluster Survey III: Cluster Catalog from 2005-2012 Archival Data

We present the Swift X-ray Cluster Survey (SWXCS) catalog obtained using archival data from the X-ray telescope (XRT) on board the Swift satellite acquired from 2005 to 2012, extending the first release of the SWXCS. The catalog provides positions, soft fluxes, and, when possible, optical counterparts for a flux-limited sample of X-ray group and cluster candidates. We consider the fields with Galactic latitude |b| > 20 degree to avoid high HI column densities. We discard all of the observations targeted at groups or clusters of galaxies, as well as particular extragalactic fields not suitable to search for faint extended sources. We finally select ~3000 useful fields covering a total solid angle of ~400 degree^2. We identify extended source candidates in the soft-band (0.5-2keV) images of these fields using the software EXSdetect, which is specifically calibrated for the XRT data. Extensive simulations are used to evaluate contamination and completeness as a function of the source signal, allowing us to minimize the number of spurious detections and to robustly assess the selection function. Our catalog includes 263 candidate galaxy clusters and groups down to a flux limit of 7E-15 erg/cm^2/s in the soft band, and the logN-logS is in very good agreement with previous deep X-ray surveys. The final list of sources is cross-correlated with published optical, X-ray, and SZ catalogs of clusters. We find that 137 sources have been previously identified as clusters, while 126 are new detections. Currently, we have collected redshift information for 158 sources (60% of the entire sample). Once the optical follow-up and the X-ray spectral analysis of the sources are complete, the SWXCS will provide a large and well-defined catalog of groups and clusters of galaxies to perform statistical studies of cluster properties and tests of cosmological models.Comment: 41 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables, published on ApJS in Jan 201

Influence of Small Ruminant Lentivirus infection on the replacement rate in goat breeding

Small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLVs) represent a very heterogeneous group of viruses infecting goats and sheep. Based on a limited number of complete sequences, they were initially described as two distinct genetic groups evolving independently in sheep or goats, with the ovine strains being closely related to each other and distinct from the caprine ones. Over the past two decades, the description and phylogenetic analysis of many partial or complete sequences of caprine and ovine field isolated from various geographical regions have clearly highlighted the existence of a genetic continuum, with viruses that did not simply cluster according to the animal species they were isolated from. To date, SRLVs have been classified into five genotypes. With the exception of genotypes C, D and E, which seem to be geographically restricted to limited areas, genotypes A and B have been described worldwide with well-known associated diseases. They are characterized by the extreme slowness caused by the long incubation period. The symptoms are not immediately evident: they include arthritis, pneumonia, mastitis, and encephalitis or encephalomyelitis. The pathology affects dairy breeds and leads to economic losses because of the decreasing in milk production of infected animals. No vaccine is available to prevent the insurgence of this pathology. In order to prevent the spread of the virus it is necessary to apply different control measures. One of the most used techniques, named “test-and-slaughter”, consists in selecting infected goats and directly slaughter them. This method represents a way to eradicate a virus but it can be used only if the infection prevalence is sufficiently low, allowing the survival of the flock. Among the five genotypes, the genotype B is the agent of the Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis in goats, also known as CAEV, firstly reported in 1974. Genotype B lentivirus, known to be pathogenic, could be transmitted in a vertical way from mother to offspring through the colostrum or the milk. Moreover, genotype B can be also transmitted horizontally, through the blood or the saliva of adult infected goats. In this work we propose a basic demographic model together with several epidemiological models related to goat breeding, in order to study the fluctuations in goat populations of CAE infected breedings. We formulate our descriptions as compartmental models, with the population under study being divided into three compartments (susceptible, asymptomatic and symptomatic infected goats) and with assumptions on the nature and transfer rate from one compartment to another. The independent variable in our compartment models is time (t). The transfer rates between compartments are expressed mathematically as derivatives of the compartments sizes with respect to time. As a results our models are formulated as a system of ordinary differential equations. A first model is derived to describe the dynamics of the breeding in absence of the infectious agent. This allows us to focus on the estimation of the replacement rate of the breeding, as a function of its different standard parameters: the reproduction rate and the mortality or goat removal rate. Then, we formulate a model where the goat breeding is infected by CAEV. Here, both vertical and horizontal transmission routes are considered, together with an eradication policy where newborns are separated from their mothers in order to avoid or at least reduce the vertical pathogen transmission. The study of this system leads to the formulation of the replacement rate as a function of both the demographic and epidemiological parameters. It is the replacement rate that the breeder should adopt to maintain the goat population size constant in his farm. These systems are a first step in modeling breeding management in presence of a SRLV infection. Future work will try to model goat breedings with a coinfection caused by two different strains of lentivirus, as the B and E genotypes. This case study is particularly intriguing, as goats could be coinfected without manifesting any symptom. Thus, we expect the model to draw a scenario where the symptomatic infected population vanishes through time, and the effect of the infectious agent on the replacement rate disappears. Such a behavior would support the thesis under investigation that genotype E, thanks to its biological properties, could represent a naturally attenuated vaccine for the SRLV genotype B infection