Proteostatic regulation in neuronal compartments

Neurons continuously adapt to external cues and challenges, including stimulation, plasticity-inducing signals and aging. These adaptations are critical for neuronal physiology and extended survival. Proteostasis is the process by which cells adjust their protein content to achieve the specific protein repertoire necessary for cellular function. Due to their complex morphology and polarized nature, neurons possess unique proteostatic requirements. Proteostatic control in axons and dendrites must be implemented through regulation of protein synthesis and degradation in a decentralized fashion, but at the same time, it requires integration, at least in part, in the soma. Here, we discuss current understanding of neuronal proteostasis, as well as open questions and future directions requiring further exploration

Trace metal distributions in Posidonia oceanica and sediments from Taranto Gulf (Ionian Sea, Southern Italy)

Distribution of metals (Hg, Pb, Sn, Cu, Cd and Zn) was determined in sediments and in different tissues of Posidonia oceanica collected from San Pietro Island, Taranto Gulf (Ionian Sea, Southern Italy). In seagrass, results, compared with metal concentrations in sediments, showed that the highest concentrations of Hg, Pb, Sn and Cu were found in the roots, while in the green leaves were found the highest levels of Cd and Zn. Instead the lowest metal concentrations were found in the basal part of the leaf. Levels of  metals in the leaves were similar to those found by other authors in uncontaminated areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Mercury levels in roots were correlated to levels in sediments. This could demonstrate the plant memorizes sediments contamination . This study reinforces the usefulness and the relevance of Posidonia oceanica as an indicator of spatial metal contamination and an interesting tool for environmental quality evaluation

Heavy metals monitoring in mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis from the Apulian coasts (Southern Italy)

Concentrations of six heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn) and one semi-metal (As) were determined in tissues of mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis collected along the Apulian coasts (Mediterranean sea). This project, performed in 2009, was targeted toward the assessment of levels and spatial distribution of metals in the environment in order to evaluate the coastal water quality using mussels as bioindicators and health risk for mussel consumers.The concentrations (mg/kg d.w.) of these metals ranged from 6.35 to 76.17 for arsenic (As), 0.38 to 2.54 for cadmium (Cd), 0.96 to 9.46 for chromium (Cr), 5.26 to 19.22 for copper (Cu), 0.10 to 0.81 for mercury (Hg), 25.00 to 110.51 for zinc (Zn) and from 0.37 to 3.25 for lead (Pb). These levels were lower than the permissible limits set by European Commission and FAO with the exception for Cr in three sampling stations. Evaluation of the risk associated to molluscs consumption for human health suggested that there is no evident risk for a moderate Mytilus g. consumer, however heavy metals concentrations must be monitored periodically and carefully with respect to the consumers health

Post Quantum Cryptography from Mutant Prime Knots

By resorting to basic features of topological knot theory we propose a (classical) cryptographic protocol based on the `difficulty' of decomposing complex knots generated as connected sums of prime knots and their mutants. The scheme combines an asymmetric public key protocol with symmetric private ones and is intrinsecally secure against quantum eavesdropper attacks.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Ataxia with oculomotor apraxia type 2: a clinical, pathologic, and genetic study

BACKGROUND: Ataxia with oculomotor apraxia type 2 (AOA2) is characterized by onset between age 10 and 22 years, cerebellar atrophy, peripheral neuropathy, oculomotor apraxia (OMA), and elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels. Recessive mutations in SETX have been described in AOA2 patients. OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinical features of AOA2 and to identify the SETX mutations in 10 patients from four Italian families. METHODS: The patients underwent clinical examination, routine laboratory tests, nerve conduction studies, sural nerve biopsy, and brain MRI. All were screened for SETX mutations. RESULTS: All the patients had cerebellar features, including limb and truncal ataxia, and slurred speech. OMA was observed in two patients, extrapyramidal symptoms in two, and mental impairment in three. High serum AFP levels, motor and sensory axonal neuropathy, and marked cerebellar atrophy on MRI were detected in all the patients who underwent these examinations. Sural nerve biopsy revealed a severe depletion of large myelinated fibers in one patient, and both large and small myelinated fibers in another. Postmortem findings are also reported in one of the patients. Four different homozygous SETX mutations were found (a large-scale deletion, a missense change, a single-base deletion, and a splice-site mutation). CONCLUSIONS: The clinical phenotype of oculomotor apraxia type 2 is fairly homogeneous, showing only subtle intrafamilial variability. OMA is an inconstant finding. The identification of new mutations expands the array of SETX variants, and the finding of a missense change outside the helicase domain suggests the existence of at least one more functional region in the N-terminus of senataxin

(3+1)-dimensional topological quantum field theory from a tight-binding model of interacting spinless fermions

Currently, there is much interest in discovering analytically tractable (3+1)-dimensional models that describe interacting fermions with emerging topological properties. Towards that end we present a three-dimensional tight-binding model of spinless interacting fermions that reproduces, in the low-energy limit, a (3+1)-dimensional Abelian topological quantum field theory called the BF model. By employing a mechanism equivalent to Haldane's Chern insulator, we can turn the noninteracting model into a three-dimensional chiral topological insulator. We then isolate energetically one of the two Fermi points of the lattice model. In the presence of suitable fermionic interactions, the system, in the continuum limit, is equivalent to a generalized (3+1)-dimensional Thirring model. The low-energy limit of this model is faithfully described by the BF theory. Our approach directly establishes the presence of (2+1)-dimensional BF theory at the boundary of the lattice and it provides a way to detect the topological order of the model through fermionic density measurements

How personality relates to distress in parents during the COVID-19 lockdown: The mediating role of child’s emotional and behavioral difficulties and the moderating effect of living with other people

Since the initiation of the COVID-19 lockdown, Italian parents have been forced to manage their children at home. The present study aimed at investigating the psychological distress of parents during the lockdown, identifying contributing factors. An online survey was administered to 833 participants from 3 to 15 April 2020. Mediation and moderated mediation models were run to explore the association between parent neuroticism and parent distress, mediated by child hyperactivity–inattention and child emotional symptoms, and the moderating effect of living only with child(ren) on the direct and indirect effects of parent neuroticism on parent distress. For parents living only with child(ren), high levels of psychological distress depended exclusively on their levels of neuroticism. For parents living with at least one other person in addition to child(ren), distress levels were also mediated by child behavioral and emotional difficulties. Motherhood emerged as a significant factor contributing to greater distress. Furthermore, parent psychological distress decreased in line with increased child age. The results confirm that neuroticism is an important risk factor for mental health. Preventive measures should be primarily target multicomponent families with younger children and directed towards parents who are already known to present emotional instability and to parents of children who have received local mental health assistance for behavioral and/or emotional difficulties

List of requirements on formalisms and selection of appropriate tools

This deliverable reports on the activities for the set-up of the modelling environments for the evaluation activities of WP5. To this objective, it reports on the identified modelling peculiarities of the electric power infrastructure and the information infrastructures and of their interdependencies, recalls the tools that have been considered and concentrates on the tools that are, and will be, used in the project: DrawNET, DEEM and EPSys which have been developed before and during the project by the partners, and M\uf6bius and PRISM, developed respectively at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and at the University of Birmingham (and recently at the University of Oxford)

La Rete Sismica Mobile del Centro Nazionale Terremoti

Il monitoraggio sismico e vulcanico del territorio nazionale rappresenta uno dei principali compiti istituzionali dell’Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). L’INGV svolge tale importante funzione attraverso la gestione e la manutenzione di reti sismiche di diversa tipologia e a differente scala che consentono di monitorare il territorio nazionale in tempo reale. Tre sale di sorveglianza, una sismica presso la sede centrale di Roma e due vulcaniche presso la Sezione di Catania e l’Osservatorio Vesuviano di Napoli, con personale qualificato in turno H24, consentono di elaborare e comunicare tempestivamente al Dipartimento della Protezione Civile Nazionale (DPC) e alle sue strutture regionali eventuali stati di allarme e il livello dell’emergenza. Il Centro Nazionale Terremoti (CNT) è la sezione dell’INGV preposta al monitoraggio sismico del territorio italiano ed interviene in questo importante servizio attraverso la gestione e la manutenzione della Rete Sismica Nazionale (RSN) in collaborazione con le altre sedi dell’INGV dislocate sul territorio e con gli uffici tecnici locali. Competenza del CNT è anche la rete sismica euro-mediterranea (MedNet): una rete di stazioni sismiche a larga banda dislocate nei Paesi che circondano il Mediterraneo in condivisione con molti istituti geofisici. Negli ultimi anni tali reti sono cresciute sia come numero di stazioni che come tecnologia, consentendo di controllare in maniera estesa lo spettro di frequenze emesse dalla sorgente sismica e la ciclicità delle strutture sismogenetiche. In alcune aree del territorio nazionale l’alta densità di tali reti sismiche rende possibile una soglia di detezione degli eventi molto bassa e localizzazioni di elevata precisione che permettono di associare la micro-sismicità alle strutture sismo-genetiche. Tuttavia questo non è tecnicamente ed economicamente possibile in maniera omogenea su tutto il territorio nazionale. Per tale motivo si fa spesso ricorso all’uso di reti temporanee in esperimenti mirati allo studio di aree a peculiare rischio sismico e vulcanico o, in caso di forti terremoti, per aumentare la densità della rete già presente e migliorare il monitoraggio in real-time in modo tale da analizzare con maggior dettaglio l’evoluzione della sequenza. Unità specializzate nella gestione di reti sismologiche temporanee sono presenti in diverse sedi dell’INGV. Esse lavorano in completa autonomia sul territorio di competenza ma sono in grado di realizzare un buon livello di sinergia là dove esperimenti ed emergenze sismiche richiedano una stretta collaborazione. La struttura più grande, sia come numero di strumenti a disposizione (più di 200 tra digitalizzatori e sensori) che come personale impegnato, è la Rete Sismica Mobile (RSM) del CNT che è organizzata in modo da rendere possibile l’impiego della strumentazione in più esperimenti mantenendo una quota di strumenti riservata per gli interventi di emergenza. In questo rapporto tecnico presentiamo la struttura organizzativa ed operativa della RSM del CNT, la strumentazione in uso presso di essa e le diverse configurazioni possibili per le stazioni sismometriche temporanee con l’obiettivo di fornire un manuale d’uso ai ricercatori, tecnologi e tecnici che si interfacciano con la RSM, sia durante l’attività scientifica ordinaria (esperimenti di sismica passiva e attiva) che straordinaria (emergenze sismiche)