Sustainable techniques to improve the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort, reducing the energy consumption of public building in hot climates

Nowadays an increasing number of people spend a lot of their time in indoor spaces and the global market for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) is increasing very quickly to improve the indoor air quality and the thermal comfort. The International Energy Agency assesses that almost the 20% of global energy consumption is addressed to mechanical air conditioning. The use of local resources and the rediscovery opportunities given by passive cooing and ventilation systems may suggest interesting ways to provide benefits for humans and to reduce environmental footprint. The paper focuses on the application of wind-catcher system in a modern public school in the city of Yazd (Iran), in a hot and arid climate zone. Opportunities and benefits are discussed to evaluate the efficiency of the redesign of the traditional wind-catcher and its integration in new modern buildings

Shoreline extraction based on an active connection matrix (ACM) image enhancement strategy

Coastal environments are facing constant changes over time due to their dynamic nature and geological, geomorphological, hydrodynamic, biological, climatic and anthropogenic factors. For these reasons, the monitoring of these areas is crucial for the safeguarding of the cultural heritage and the populations living there. The focus of this paper is shoreline extraction by means of an experimental algorithm, called J-Net Dynamic (Semeion Research Center of Sciences of Communication, Rome, Italy). It was tested on two types of image: a very high resolution (VHR) multispectral image (WorldView-2) and a high resolution (HR) radar synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image (Sentinel-1). The extracted shorelines were compared with those manually digitized for both images independently. The results obtained with the J-Net Dynamic algorithm were also compared with common algorithms, widely used in the literature, including theWorldView water index and the Canny edge detector. The results show that the experimental algorithm is more effective than the others, as it improves shoreline extraction accuracy both in the optical and SAR images

Phenotypic, functional, and metabolic heterogeneity of immune cells infiltrating non–small cell lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the leading cancer in the world, accounting for 1.2 million of new cases annually, being responsible for 17.8% of all cancer deaths. In particular, non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is involved in approximately 85% of all lung cancers with a high lethality probably due to the asymptomatic evolution, leading patients to be diagnosed when the tumor has already spread to other organs. Despite the introduction of new therapies, which have improved the long-term survival of these patients, this disease is still not well cured and under controlled. Over the past two decades, single-cell technologies allowed to deeply profile both the phenotypic and metabolic aspects of the immune cells infiltrating the TME, thus fostering the identification of predictive biomarkers of prognosis and supporting the development of new therapeutic strategies. In this review, we discuss phenotypic and functional characteristics of the main subsets of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells (TIMs) that contribute to promote or suppress NSCLC development and progression. We also address two emerging aspects of TIL and TIM biology, i.e., their metabolism, which affects their effector functions, proliferation, and differentiation, and their capacity to interact with cancer stem cells

Il mercato del vino nella Grande Distribuzione Organizzata in Italia

This report analyzes the composition and trends of wine sales in the Italian large-scale retail trade in the period 2009-2017. The analysis focuses on wine sales by type of product, i.e. sales format, color, still/sparkling wine, geographical indication, sales in promotion. Specific insights regard wines in 0.75 liter glass bottles, Private Label wine and the first twenty designations of origin in terms of value sold in the large-scale distribution. Lastly, forecasting models based on quarterly time series have been developed to provide a picture of the future performance of the sector. The study allows defining appropriate strategies to be implemented to respond to new consumption trends

Il mercato del vino nella Grande Distribuzione Organizzata in Italia. Tendenze 2009-2017 e Previsioni.

This report analyzes the composition and trends of wine sales in the Italian large-scale retail trade in the period 2009-2017. The analysis focuses on wine sales by type of product, i.e. sales format, color, still/sparkling wine, geographical indication, sales in promotion. Specific insights regard wines in 0.75 liter glass bottles, Private Label wine and the first twenty designations of origin in terms of value sold in the large-scale distribution. Lastly, forecasting models based on quarterly time series have been developed to provide a picture of the future performance of the sector. The study allows defining appropriate strategies to be implemented to respond to new consumption trends

Suppression of Invasion and Metastasis of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Lines by Pharmacological or Genetic Inhibition of Slug Activity

AbstractMost triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) exhibit gene expression patterns associated with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a feature that correlates with a propensity for metastatic spread. Overexpression of the EMT regulator Slug is detected in basal and mesenchymal-type TNBCs and is associated with reduced E-cadherin expression and aggressive disease. The effects of Slug depend, in part, on the interaction of its N-terminal SNAG repressor domain with the chromatin-modifying protein lysine demethylase 1 (LSD1); thus, we investigated whether tranylcypromine [also known as trans-2-phenylcyclopropylamine hydrochloride (PCPA) or Parnate], an inhibitor of LSD1 that blocks its interaction with Slug, suppresses the migration, invasion, and metastatic spread of TNBC cell lines. We show here that PCPA treatment induces the expression of E-cadherin and other epithelial markers and markedly suppresses migration and invasion of TNBC cell lines MDA-MB-231 and BT-549. These effects were phenocopied by Slug or LSD1 silencing. In two models of orthotopic breast cancer, PCPA treatment reduced local tumor growth and the number of lung metastases. In mice injected directly in the blood circulation with MDA-MB-231 cells, PCPA treatment or Slug silencing markedly inhibited bone metastases but had no effect on lung infiltration. Thus, blocking Slug activity may suppress the metastatic spread of TNBC and, perhaps, specifically inhibit homing/colonization to the bone

Measuring long-term exposure to wildfire PM2.5 in California: Time-varying inequities in environmental burden.

Wildfires have become more frequent and intense due to climate change and outdoor wildfire fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations differ from relatively smoothly varying total PM2.5. Thus, we introduced a conceptual model for computing long-term wildfire PM2.5 and assessed disproportionate exposures among marginalized communities. We used monitoring data and statistical techniques to characterize annual wildfire PM2.5 exposure based on intermittent and extreme daily wildfire PM2.5 concentrations in California census tracts (2006 to 2020). Metrics included: 1) weeks with wildfire PM2.5 < 5 μg/m3; 2) days with non-zero wildfire PM2.5; 3) mean wildfire PM2.5 during peak exposure week; 4) smoke waves (≥2 consecutive days with <15 μg/m3 wildfire PM2.5); and 5) mean annual wildfire PM2.5 concentration. We classified tracts by their racial/ethnic composition and CalEnviroScreen (CES) score, an environmental and social vulnerability composite measure. We examined associations of CES and racial/ethnic composition with the wildfire PM2.5 metrics using mixed-effects models. Averaged 2006 to 2020, we detected little difference in exposure by CES score or racial/ethnic composition, except for non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native populations, where a 1-SD increase was associated with higher exposure for 4/5 metrics. CES or racial/ethnic × year interaction term models revealed exposure disparities in some years. Compared to their California-wide representation, the exposed populations of non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native (1.68×, 95% CI: 1.01 to 2.81), white (1.13×, 95% CI: 0.99 to 1.32), and multiracial (1.06×, 95% CI: 0.97 to 1.23) people were over-represented from 2006 to 2020. In conclusion, during our study period in California, we detected disproportionate long-term wildfire PM2.5 exposure for several racial/ethnic groups

Validation of a measurement procedure for the assessment of the safety of buildings in urgent technical rescue operations

This work would like to provide a preliminary contribution to the draft of standard procedures for the adoption of Total Stations by rescuers in emergency situations, so as to offer a reliable and effective support to their assessment activities. In particular, some considerations will be made regarding the effect of the number and positioning of monitoring points on the tilt determination of a building façade, in order to set up simplified procedures, which are quick and easy to implement in emergency situations, at the same time guaranteeing the reliability of the results. Two types of building will be taken into account as test cases, which have different characteristics in terms of height, distance and angle with respect to the Total Station. Some considerations will be made about the aspects to be explored in future work, for the calibration of the method as a whole and the definition of all the steps of a procedure for the evaluation of the safety of a building

Increased respiratory morbidity associated with exposure to a mature volcanic plume from a large Icelandic fissure eruption.

The 2014-15 Holuhraun eruption in Iceland was the largest fissure eruption in over 200 years, emitting prodigious amounts of gas and particulate matter into the troposphere. Reykjavík, the capital area of Iceland (250 km from eruption site) was exposed to air pollution events from advection of (i) a relatively young and chemically primitive volcanic plume with a high sulphur dioxide gas (SO2) to sulphate PM (SO42-) ratio, and (ii) an older and chemically mature volcanic plume with a low SO2/SO42- ratio. Whereas the advection and air pollution caused by the primitive plume were successfully forecast and forewarned in public advisories, the mature plume was not. Here, we show that exposure to the mature plume is associated with an increase in register-measured health care utilisation for respiratory disease by 23% (95% CI 19.7-27.4%) and for asthma medication dispensing by 19.3% (95% CI 9.6-29.1%). Absence of public advisories is associated with increases in visits to primary care medical doctors and to the hospital emergency department. We recommend that operational response to volcanic air pollution considers both primitive and mature types of plumes

The p53 Codon 72 Pro/Pro Genotype Identifies Poor-Prognosis Neuroblastoma Patients: Correlation with Reduced Apoptosis and Enhanced Senescence by the p53-72P Isoform.

The p53 gene is rarely mutated in neuroblastoma, but codon 72 polymorphism that modulates its proapoptotic activity might influence cancer risk and clinical outcome. We investigated whether this polymorphism affects neuroblastoma risk and disease outcome and assessed the biologic effects of the p53-72R and p53-72P isoforms in p53-null cells. Comparison of 288 healthy subjects and 286 neuroblastoma patients revealed that the p53-72 polymorphism had no significant impact on the risk of developing neuroblastoma; however, patients with the Pro/Pro genotype had a shorter survival than those with the Arg/Arg or the Arg/Pro genotypes even in the stage 3 and 4 subgroup without MYCN amplification. By Cox regression analysis, the p53 Pro/Pro genotype seems to be an independent marker of poor prognosis (hazard ratio = 2.74; 95% confidence interval = 1.14\u20136.55, P = .014) together with clinical stage, MYCN status, and age at diagnosis. In vitro, p53-72P was less effective than p53-72R in inducing apoptosis and inhibiting survival of p53-null LAN-1 cells treated with etoposide, topotecan, or ionizing radiation but not taxol. By contrast, p53-72P was more effective in promoting p21-dependent accelerated senescence, alone or in the presence of etoposide. Thus, the p53-72 Pro/Pro genotype might be a marker of poor outcome independent of MYCN amplification, possibly improving risk stratification. Moreover, the lower apoptosis and the enhanced accelerated senescence by the p53-72P isoform in response to DNA damage suggest that patients with neuroblastoma with the p53-72 Pro/Pro genotype may benefit from therapeutic protocols that do not rely only on cytotoxic drugs that function, in part, through p53 activation