Operational modal analysis for the characterization of ancient water towers in Pompeii

In the framework of an investigation campaign carried out in June 2015 by the authors on four ancient water towers (10\u201320 BC) in the archaeological site of Pompeii, modal analysis and output-only identification techniques were employed to extract the dynamic properties in order to assess structural vulnerabilities and support numerical model updating. The four investigated towers (selected among the fourteen present within the archaeological site) are free-standing structures at least 6 m tall, belonging to the Castellum Aquae, i.e. the ancient aqueducts system of the city. During the Roman Age, until the destruction of Pompeii due to the volcanic eruption in 79 AD, water towers provided fresh water to houses, palaces and villas. This particular type of structures are classified as no. 1, 2, 3 and 4 by archaeological literature: no. 1 and 4 are made of soft stone masonry (tuff, limestone), while no. 2 and 3 are composed by brickwork masonry. The paper reports the outcomes of ambient vibration tests performed on four towers in terms of extracted modal parameters using various operational modal analysis techniques. Obtained data are then used to study numerically the soil-structure interaction problem and implement model updating procedures

Calibration of the dynamic behaviour of incomplete structures in archeological sites: The case of Villa Diomede portico in Pompeii

This paper reports the research activities carried out on Villa Diomede in Pompeii, built during the "Pre-Roman period" (i.e. the 3rd century BC) and discovered between 1771 and 1774 during the archaeological excavations. It is one of the greatest private buildings of Pompeii and it is located on the western corner of the modern archeological site. Three levels compose the building: the ground floor, the lower quadriportico with a square plan and a series of colonnades on the four sides around the inner garden and the cryptoportico. Villa Diomede was damaged by the strong earthquake occurred in AD 63 that caused the collapse of the western pillars of the quadriportico and later damaged after the big eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. In June 2015 a series of nondestructive tests (NDT) were carried out by the authors in order to obtain information on the state of conservation of the building and to assess its structural behavior. Direct and tomographic sonic pulse velocity tests, ground penetrating radar, endoscopies and operational modal analysis were performed on the remaining structural elements on the two levels of the Villa. The present paper reports the main outcomes and findings of ambient vibration tests implemented to extract the modal parameters in terms of eigenfrequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios. Operational modal analysis and output-only identification techniques were applied to single stone pillars of the quadriportico structure and then to the entire square colonnade of Villa Diomede. Results are then used to study the soil-structure interaction at a local level and extend the gained information for the numerical calibration of the whole structure. Thanks to this methodology a detailed model updating procedure of the quadriportico was performed to develop reliable numerical models for the implementation of advance structural and seismic analysis of this "incomplete" archaeological structure

Post-stroke deficit prediction from lesion and indirect structural and functional disconnection

Behavioural deficits in stroke reflect both structural damage at the site of injury, and widespread network dysfunction caused by structural, functional, and metabolic disconnection. Two recent methods allow for the estimation of structural and functional disconnection from clinical structural imaging. This is achieved by embedding a patient's lesion into an atlas of functional and structural connections in healthy subjects, and deriving the ensemble of structural and functional connections that pass through the lesion, thus indirectly estimating its impact on the whole brain connectome. This indirect assessment of network dysfunction is more readily available than direct measures of functional and structural connectivity obtained with functional and diffusion MRI, respectively, and it is in theory applicable to a wide variety of disorders. To validate the clinical relevance of these methods, we quantified the prediction of behavioural deficits in a prospective cohort of 132 first-time stroke patients studied at 2 weeks post-injury (mean age 52.8 years, range 22-77; 63 females; 64 right hemispheres). Specifically, we used multivariate ridge regression to relate deficits in multiple functional domains (left and right visual, left and right motor, language, spatial attention, spatial and verbal memory) with the pattern of lesion and indirect structural or functional disconnection. In a subgroup of patients, we also measured direct alterations of functional connectivity with resting-state functional MRI. Both lesion and indirect structural disconnection maps were predictive of behavioural impairment in all domains (0.16 < R2 < 0.58) except for verbal memory (0.05 < R2 < 0.06). Prediction from indirect functional disconnection was scarce or negligible (0.01 < R2 < 0.18) except for the right visual field deficits (R2 = 0.38), even though multivariate maps were anatomically plausible in all domains. Prediction from direct measures of functional MRI functional connectivity in a subset of patients was clearly superior to indirect functional disconnection. In conclusion, the indirect estimation of structural connectivity damage successfully predicted behavioural deficits post-stroke to a level comparable to lesion information. However, indirect estimation of functional disconnection did not predict behavioural deficits, nor was a substitute for direct functional connectivity measurements, especially for cognitive disorders

Isolation of streptomycetes causing common scab from 3-years old potato samples from South America

In this paper, we aimed at assessing the best conditions for the isolation of actinobacteria from old potato samples. A set of media and pretreatments were tested. The optimal were chosen for the isolation of actinobacteria from potatoes from Peru, Chile and Argentina. Isolates were tested on the presence of thaxtomin phytotoxin by amplification of the respective gene. Phylogenetic position of strains was compared with their geographical origin, pathogenic potential and existence of common scab (CS) symptoms on potato sample. We demonstrated that RNAlater can be successfully used for the long-term preservation of potato peel for subsequent isolation of actinobacteria on R2A medium. Many streptomycetes were thaxtomin-positive, though they are distantly-related to described pathogens causing CS. Genus Nocardia was first reported to be thaxtomin-positive. Potentially pathogenic strains were isolated not only from infected potato but also from those lacking CS symptoms. Some strains from scabby potatoes were thaxtomin-negative.EEA BalcarceFil: Rapoport, Daria. Charles University in Prague. Faculty opf Science, República Checa. Crop Research Institute, Laboratory of Epidemiology and Ecology of Microorganisms, República Checa.Fil: Patrmanova, T. Crop Research Institute, Laboratory of Epidemiology and Ecology of Microorganisms, República Checa.Fil: Kopecky, J. Crop Research Institute, Laboratory of Epidemiology and Ecology of Microorganisms, República Checa.Fil: Mareckova, M. Crop Research Institute, Laboratory of Epidemiology and Ecology of Microorganisms, República Checa. Czech University of Life Sciences, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food, and Natural Resources, Department of Microbiology, República Checa.Fil: Clemente, Gladys. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce; Argentina.Fil: Salvalaggio, Andrea Eugenia. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce; Argentina

Virtual Feedback for Arm Motor Function Rehabilitation after Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial

A single-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare whether the con-tinuous visualization of a virtual teacher, during virtual reality rehabilitation, is more effective than the same treatment provided without a virtual teacher visualization, for the recovery of arm motor function after stroke. Teacher and no-teacher groups received the same amount of virtual reality therapy (i.e., 1 h/d, 5 dd/w, 4 ww) and an additional hour of conventional therapy. In the teacher group, specific feedback (“virtual-teacher”) showing the correct kinematic to be emulated by the patient was always displayed online during exercises. In the no-teacher group patients performed the same exer-cises, without the virtual-teacher assistance. The primary outcome measure was Fugl-Meyer Upper Extremity after treatment. 124 patients were enrolled and randomized, 62 per group. No differences were observed between the groups, but the same number of patients (χ2 = 0.29, p = 0.59) responded to experimental and control interventions in each group. The results confirm that the manipulation of a single instant feedback does not provide clinical advantages over multimodal feedback for arm rehabilitation after stroke, but combining 40 h conventional therapy and virtual reality provides large effect of intervention (i.e., Cohen’s d 1.14 and 0.92 for the two groups, respectively)

Mismatch-repair protein expression in high-grade gliomas: A large retrospective multicenter study

Background: DNA mismatch repair (MMR) is a system for repairing errors in DNA replication. Cancer cells with MMR deficiency can have immunohistochemical loss of MMR protein expression leading to a hypermutable phenotype that may correlate with anti-PD1 efficacy. Scant data exist about immunohistochemical loss of MMR protein expression in high-grade gliomas (HGG). Materials and Methods: We performed a large multicenter retrospective study to investigate the frequency and the prognostic role of immunohistochemical loss of MMR protein expression in HGG patients; we nevertheless evaluated the association between this status and clinical or molecular characteristics. Immunohistochemical loss of MMR protein expression was recorded as partial or complete loss of at least 1 MMR protein. Results: We analyzed the expression of MMR proteins in tumor tissue of 355 consecutive patients. Partial and complete immunohistochemical loss of MMR proteins was found in 43/355 samples (12.1%) and among these, 15 cases (4.2%) showed a complete loss of at the least one MMR protein. Alteration of MSH2 expression was found in 55.8%, MSH6 in 46.5%, PMS2 in 34.9%, and MLH1 in 30.2%. Alteration of MMR protein expression was statistically more frequent in anaplastic gliomas, in recurrent disease, in patients treated with temozolomide, and in IDH-mut gliomas. Immunohistochemical loss of MMR proteins was not associated with survival, adjusting for clinically relevant confounders. Conclusions: MMR protein expression status did not affect survival in HGG patients. We identified clinical and molecular characteristics correlating with immunohistochemical loss of MMR proteins expression. A large study should be performed to analyze its predictive role of immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacy in these subgroups of patients

Seismic Assessment of Masonry Towers: The Case of Castellum Aquae System in Pompeii

The archaeological site of Pompeii is an extraordinary evidence of Roman architectural heritage which comprehends a large number of masonry constructions, buried after the Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD. They were discovered in the XVIII century when renewed cultural interest induced numerous archaeological excavations. In this scenario, the remains of the Roman aqueduct system, i.e. Castellum Aquae system [1], includes a series of approximately 6 m height masonry water towers (WTs). Among the fourteen surveyed, four free-standing towers (i.e. no. 1, 2, 3 and 4) have been investigated in 2015 by means of nondestructive techniques (sonic pulse velocity tests, ground penetrating radar (GPR), ambient vibration tests), aimed at gathering information on the constructive systems and the current conservation state, as well as data on the overall dynamic behaviour. According to the on-site inspections outcomes, 3D finite element models of the towers were constructed and calibrated on the results of operational modal analysis (OMA) [2]. The model updating procedure was able to describe and simulate the soil-structure interaction, introducing a Winkler elastic soil model, and to define the elastic parameters of masonry. This paper describes the seismic vulnerability assessment of the four WTs, considering both equilibrium capacity and material strength, performing analytical kinematic analyses and numerical finite element modelling. Aiming at improving the previous studies [3], equivalent modal parameters (i.e. natural frequencies and mode shapes) are used to calibrate analytical models and furtherly refine FE model updating. The numerical models were generated using DIANA software [4], implementing a nonlinear constitutive law for masonry material, i.e. total strain crack model. Afterwards, sensitivity analyses are performed to calibrate both the elastic properties of materials and the Winkler springs’ stiffness. Eventually, analytical kinematic approach and FE pushover analyses (with uniform and modal force distribution) are executed to assess the seismic vulnerability of the WTs, according to Italian code [5]. Results of the analyses are presented and discussed. The study was the occasion to compare the results of kinematic and numerical procedures applied to archaeological structures. The results report the FE approach as more conservative than kinematic model. Thus, the importance to adopt a combined global (numerical) and local (limit analysis) approach in the assessment of archaeological structures is stressed

The BlueBio project’s database: web-mapping cooperation to create value for the Blue Bioeconomy

Funding innovation requires knowledge on previous/on-going research and identification of gaps and synergies among actors, networks and projects, but targeted databases remain scattered, incomplete and scarcely searchable. Here we present the BlueBio database: a first comprehensive and robust compilation of internationally and nationally funded research projects active in the years 2003–2019 in Fisheries, Aquaculture, Seafood Processing and Marine Biotechnology. Based on the previous research projects’ database realized in the framework of the COFASP ERA-NET, it was implemented within the ERA-NET Cofund BlueBio project through a 4-years data collection including 4 surveys and a wide data retrieval. After being integrated, data were harmonised, shared as open and disseminated through a WebGIS that was key for data entry, update and validation. The database consists of 3,254 “georeferenced” projects, described by 22 parameters that are clustered into textual and spatial, some directly collected while others deduced. The database is a living archive to inform actors of the Blue Bioeconomy sector in a period of rapid transformations and research needs and is freely available at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21507837.v3

Prediction of rehabilitation induced motor recovery after stroke using a multi-dimensional and multi-modal approach

Background: Stroke is a debilitating disease affecting millions of people worldwide. Despite the survival rate has significantly increased over the years, many stroke survivors are left with severe impairments impacting their quality of life. Rehabilitation programs have proved to be successful in improving the recovery process. However, a reliable model of sensorimotor recovery and a clear identification of predictive markers of rehabilitation-induced recovery are still needed. This article introduces the cross-modality protocols designed to investigate the rehabilitation treatment’s effect in a group of stroke survivors. Methods/design: A total of 75 stroke patients, admitted at the IRCCS San Camillo rehabilitation Hospital in Venice (Italy), will be included in this study. Here, we describe the rehabilitation programs, clinical, neuropsychological, and physiological/imaging [including electroencephalography (EEG), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques] protocols set up for this study. Blood collection for the characterization of predictive biological biomarkers will also be taken. Measures derived from data acquired will be used as candidate predictors of motor recovery. Discussion/summary: The integration of cutting-edge physiological and imaging techniques, with clinical and cognitive assessment, dose of rehabilitation and biological variables will provide a unique opportunity to define a predictive model of recovery in stroke patients. Taken together, the data acquired in this project will help to define a model of rehabilitation induced sensorimotor recovery, with the final aim of developing personalized treatments promoting the greatest chance of recovery of the compromised functions