MIcrogreens: Functional food with antiproliferative cancer properties influenced by light

The anti-proliferative/pro-oxidant efficacy of green pea, soybean, radish, Red Rambo radish, and rocket microgreens, cultivated under either fluorescent lighting (predominant spectral peaks in green and orange) or combination light-emitting diode (LED, predominant spectral peak in blue) was investigated using Ewing sarcoma lines, RD-ES and A673, respectively. All aqueous microgreen extracts significantly reduced cell proliferation (cancer prevention effect) to varying extents in two-dimensional sarcoma cell cultures. The effect of the polyphenol fraction in the aqueous food matrix was unrelated to total polyphenol content, which differed between species and light treatment. Only Pisum sativum (LED-grown) extracts exercised anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects in both three-dimensional RD-ES and A673 spheroids (early tumor progression prevention), without cytotoxic effects on healthy L929 fibroblasts. A similar anti-tumor effect of Red Rambo radish (LED and fluorescent-grown) was evident only in the RD-ES spheroids. Aside from the promising anti-tumor potential of the polyphenol fraction of green pea microgreens, the latter also displayed favorable growth quality parameters, along with radish, under both light treatments over the 10 day cultivation period

Experimental analysis of the station keeping response of a double-barge float-over system with an elastically scaled physical model

In this paper, an experimental investigation of the global response to waves relative to a newly developed float-over concept by TechnipFMC Rome Operating Center for transportation, installation and decommissioning of the off-shore platform topside is presented. A flexible scaled model of the float-over system was tested in the wave basin to determine the range of the sea-state conditions for which the response of the catamaran float-over is acceptable for mating operations. The present analysis is part of a more extensive experimental campaign which has involved also the use of a scaled rigid physical model (Dessi et al., 2016) and numerical simulations for which the collected data provide also a validation database

Metastatic melanoma moves on: translational science in the era of personalized medicine

Progress in understanding and treating metastatic melanoma is the result of decades of basic and translational research as well as the development of better in vitro tools for modeling the disease. Here, we review the latest therapeutic options for metastatic melanoma and the known genetic and non-genetic mechanisms of resistance to these therapies, as well as the in vitro toolbox that has provided the greatest insights into melanoma progression. These include next-generation sequencing technologies and more complex 2D and 3D cell culture models to functionally test the data generated by genomics approaches. The combination of hypothesis generating and hypothesis testing paradigms reviewed here will be the foundation for the next phase of metastatic melanoma therapies in the coming years

Metastatic melanoma moves on: translational science in the era of personalized medicine

Progress in understanding and treating metastatic melanoma is the result of decades of basic and translational research as well as the development of better in vitro tools for modeling the disease. Here, we review the latest therapeutic options for metastatic melanoma and the known genetic and non-genetic mechanisms of resistance to these therapies, as well as the in vitro toolbox that has provided the greatest insights into melanoma progression. These include next-generation sequencing technologies and more complex 2D and 3D cell culture models to functionally test the data generated by genomics approaches. The combination of hypothesis generating and hypothesis testing paradigms reviewed here will be the foundation for the next phase of metastatic melanoma therapies in the coming years

In the eye of the storm : the Italian economy and the eurozone crisis

The eurozone crisis had a more significant and longer-lasting impact on Italy than on virtually any other member state, with the effects still visible a decade after. The extent of the shock was surprising in view of progress Italy had apparently made in the 1990s in terms of enhancing its capacity to meet the demands of European Monetary Union. The explanation for this traumatic economic experience lies in Italy’s deep, long-term, structural tensions which were placed under severe pressure during the 1990s and which were cracked open by the 2011 sovereign debt crisis. These have had long-standing economic effects as well as political ramifications in terms of a significant change in the Italy–EU relationship

A meta-analysis of the investment-uncertainty relationship

In this article we use meta-analysis to investigate the investment-uncertainty relationship. We focus on the direction and statistical significance of empirical estimates. Specifically, we estimate an ordered probit model and transform the estimated coefficients into marginal effects to reflect the changes in the probability of finding a significantly negative estimate, an insignificant estimate, or a significantly positive estimate. Exploratory data analysis shows that there is little empirical evidence for a positive relationship. The regression results suggest that the source of uncertainty, the level of data aggregation, the underlying model specification, and differences between short- and long-run effects are important sources of variation in study outcomes. These findings are, by and large, robust to the introduction of a trend variable to capture publication trends in the literature. The probability of finding a significantly negative relationship is higher in more recently published studies. JEL Classification: D21, D80, E22 1

Damping modelling in aircraft flutter analyses

The aeronautic industry is moving towards the research for more and more performing materials in order to make the aircrafts increasingly lightweight, and to get a decrease in consumption and atmospheric pollution. These materials result in viscoelastic behavior that is difficult to analyze with traditional structural damping models typically used in design stage. In particular, appropriate description of the damping may become critical for the study of flutter stability margins which may ultimately lead to the initiation of limit-cycle behavior. This paper aims to introduce a first-principle-based viscoelastic damping formulation to be applied to aeroelastic systems describing highly flexible aircraft in order to critically assess its influence into flutter and stability analyses

Structural damping models for passive aeroelastic control

Aeroelastic qualification requirements are typically met by sizing aircraft to achieve adequate stability margins and keep peak gust responses below specified thresholds. A possible alternative approach is delaying flutter and alleviating gust response by embedding dissipative materials into structural components. This approach requires accurate damping models applicable to the analysis of complex configurations. In this paper, the effect of damping models in the evaluation of flutter boundaries and gust response of an aeroelastic test-bed is studied. In particular, three damping models completely different in frequency are considered to model the presence of skin patches for passive aeroelastic control: viscous damping, hysteretic damping and Biot damping models. In order to make them comparable the three models are tuned in order to dissipate the same amount of power at the flutter frequency by means of the introduction and definition of a generalized loss factor. The damping models are compared by evaluating their effect on flutter suppression and gust load alleviation. Finally, the sensitiveness of the stability and response aeroelastic analyses to the considered damping models are outlined and the obtained results are compared to provide modeling recommendations for passive flutter suppression and gust alleviation studies. The proposed methodology is applicable to any linear material model for which the related complex stiffness can be expressed in the frequency domain meeting the Hilbert restriction

Estimation of the deflection field over a ship structure model based on pointwise measurements

This paper presents a methodology that allows using large (in time) but sparse (in space) data from sensors to get a full picture of the dynamic response of a scaled model catamaran structure. Increasing the amount of information relative to the structural behavior is critical for some applications like structural health monitoring and condition-based maintenance. Loads and elastic deflections are estimated by combining the information obtained from the measured structural data with a finite element model of the system given that some statistical properties of the external inputs are preliminary known. Craig-Bampton method is used to achieve a reduced-order model since it is particularly suited to describe the modal response along with the estimation of the concentrated loads. A natural second-order observer is then defined to provide an optimal estimation of forces and elastic deflections along the hull structure. The validation of this technique is pursued by comparing estimated and known values of the response and a sensitivity analysis of the accuracy with respect to some parameters is considered as well