Leadership, innovazione e cambiamento organizzativo. Promuovere comunità di apprendimento professionale

Il concetto di Professional Learning Community (PLC) riconosce l’importanza di un processo di apprendimento continuo per tutti i suoi membri, promuovendo una cultura della ricerca, della sperimentazione e dell’innovazione come condizione necessaria in un ambiente complesso e dinamico per rispondere ai bisogni degli studenti. Le sfide educative del ventunesimo secolo sono spesso adattive e, dal punto di vista organizzativo, non possono essere affrontate seguendo una gerarchia verticale di decisioni-azioni e normali procedure operative. Weick e Sutcliffe hanno definito le organizzazioni capaci di affrontare le crisi con successo (High Reliability Organizations – HRO) come pienamente consapevoli e capaci di anticipare e contenere l’inatteso, sviluppando alte competenze e capacità decisionali, conoscenza trasformativa e responsabilità condivise. Applicata al contesto scolastico, la creazione di HRO si traduce nell’attenzione verso tutti quegli elementi che caratterizzano la scuola come definizione di una visione condivisa, investimento sulla formazione del personale, promozione di pratiche collaborative, ricerca, sperimentazione e innovazione, creazione di sistemi efficaci di knowledge management, apertura e interazioni con il territorio, sostegno a pratiche di leadership condivisa

Microscale thermophoresis and docking studies suggest lapachol and auraptene are ligands of IDO1.

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) is a key target for the development of small molecule immunotherapies in oncology. In this framework, the screening of chemotherapeutic agents to identify compounds binding to IDO1 represents a valuable strategy for the development of multitarget drug candidates that combine synergic immunoregulatory properties to cytotoxic activity. In this study, we report that two natural compounds endowed with anticancer activity, namely lapachol and auraptene, act as IDO1 ligands with dissociation constant (Kd) in the micromolar range of potency. Docking studies provide plausible binding modes of these compounds to the catalytic cleft of IDO1. Our results support the notion that lapachol and auraptene may be considered interesting lead compounds in the immuno-oncology setting

A Full Computerized Workflow for Planning Surgically Assisted Rapid Palatal Expansion and Orthognathic Surgery in a Skeletal Class III Patient

: In the present case report, we present and discuss the digital workflow involved in the orthodontic/orthognathic combined treatment of a skeletal malocclusion correction in a 17-year-old male patient affected by a skeletal class III, facial asymmetry, sagittal and transversal deficiency of the medium third of the skull, dental crowding, and bilateral cross-bite. The first stage of the treatment involved surgically assisted rapid palatal expansion and occlusal decompensation, using fixed self-ligating appliance. An orthodontic software package (i.e., Dolphin 3D Surgery module) was used to perform virtual treatment objective evaluation by integrating data from cone beam computer tomography acquisition, intraoral scan, and extraoral photographs. The software allowed a comprehensive evaluation of skeletal, dento-alveolar, and soft-tissue disharmonies, qualitative and quantitative simulation of surgical procedure according to skeletal and aesthetic objectives, and, consequently, the treatment of the malocclusion. Using a specific function of the software, the surgical splint was designed according to the pre-programmed skeletal movements, and subsequently, the physical splint was generated with a three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. Once a proper occlusal decompensation was reached, a Le Fort I osteotomy of the maxilla and a bilateral sagittal surgical osteotomy of the mandible were executed to restore proper skeletal relations. The whole treatment time was 8 months. The orthodontic/orthognathic combined treatment allowed to correct the skeletal and the dental imbalance, as well as the improvement of facial aesthetics. Accordingly, the treatment objectives planned in the virtual environment were achieved. Virtual planning offers new possibilities for visualizing the relationship between dental arches and surrounding bone and soft structures in a single virtual 3D model, allowing the specialists to simulate different surgical and orthodontic procedures to achieve the best possible result for the patient and providing an accurate and predictable outcome in the treatment of challenging malocclusions

Neuropsychological functions and audiological findings in elderly cochlear implant users: the role of attention in postoperative performance

Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate in a group of elderly CI users working memory and attention, conventionally considered as predictors of better CI performance and to try to disentangle the effects of these cognitive domains on speech perception, finding potential markers of cognitive decline related to audiometric findings. Methods Thirty postlingually deafened CI users aged >60 underwent an audiological evaluation followed by a cognitive assessment of attention and verbal working memory. A correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the associations between cognitive variables while a simple regression investigated the relationships between cognitive and audiological variables. Comparative analysis was performed to compare variables on the basis of subjects’ attention performance. Results: Attention was found to play a significant role in sound field and speech perception. Univariate analysis found a significant difference between poor and high attention performers, while regression analysis showed that attention significantly predicted recognition of words presented at Signal/Noise +10. Further, the high attention performers showed significantly higher scores than low attentional performers for all working memory tasks. Conclusion: Overall findings confirmed that a better cognitive performance may positively contribute to better speech perception outcomes, especially in complex listening situations. WM may play a crucial role in storage and processing of auditory-verbal stimuli and a robust attention may lead to better performance for speech perception in noise. Implementation of cognitive training in auditory rehabilitation of CI users should be investigated in order to improve cognitive and audiological performance in elderly CI users

A rapid and reliable detection procedure of Atlantic trout introgression at the diagnostic lactate dehydrogenase chain-1 gene

The Italian-native Mediterranean brown trout (Salmo ghigii) is a seriously threatened freshwater fish, especially by anthropogenic hybridisation with the domestic strains of Atlantic origin that have been repeatedly released into the wild for angling. A PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay of the diagnostic lactate dehydrogenase chain-1 (LDH-C1) gene sequences has been routinely applied to distinguish exotic from native brown trout lineages and detect Atlantic introgression signals in the Mediterranean wild populations. Here, we used dermal swab DNA obtained from 28 wild trout to improve laboratory procedures to genetically characterise trout samples at the LDH-C1gene through (1) a capillary electrophoresis analysis of the RFLP fragments and (2) the optimisation of a diagnostic single nucleotide polymorphism analysable through mini-sequencing approaches. The developed methods were fully consistent with those obtained through the traditional approach, but their analytical process is almost entirely automated and digitalised, thus improving result readability and accuracy in the detection of alien introgressed traces in wild Mediterranean brown trout populations

Gene Expression Profiling of Trematomus bernacchii in Response to Thermal and Stabling Stress

The Antarctic continent is one of the most pristine environments on planet Earth, yet one of the most fragile and susceptible to the effects of the ongoing climate change. The overwhelming majority of the components of Antarctic marine trophic chain are stenotherm organisms, highly adapted to the extreme, but extremely stable, freezing temperatures of the Antarctic ocean, which have not changed significantly during the past fifteen million years. Notothenioid fishes are the most abundant representatives of ichthyofauna at these latitudes, being ubiquitously found in coastal areas across the entire continent. While different Antarctic fish species have been previously subjected to studies aimed at defining their range of thermal tolerance, or at studying the response to acute thermal stress, just a handful of authors have investigated the effects of the exposure to a moderate increase of temperature, falling within the expected forecasts for the next few decades in some areas of the Antarctica. Here, the emerald rockcod Trematomus bernacchii was used as a model species to investigate the effects of a 20-day long exposure to a +1.5 °C increase in the brain, gills and skeletal muscle, using a RNA-sequencing approach. In parallel, the experimental design also allowed for assessing the impact of stabling (including acclimation, the handling of fishes and their confinement in tanks during the experimental phase) on gene expression profiling. The results of this study clearly identified the brain as the most susceptible tissue to heat stress, with evidence of a time-dependent response dominated by an alteration of immune response, protein synthesis and folding, and energy metabolism-related genes. While the gills displayed smaller but still significant alterations, the skeletal muscle was completely unaffected by the experimental conditions. The stabling conditions also had an important impact on gene expression profiles in the brain, suggesting the presence of significant alterations of the fish nervous system, possibly due to the confinement to tanks with limited water volume and of the restricted possibility of movement. Besides providing novel insights in the molecular mechanisms underlying thermal stress in notothenioids, these findings suggest that more attention should be dedicated to an improved design of the experiments carried out on Antarctic organism, due to their extreme susceptibility to the slightest environmental alterations

Involvement of substance P (SP) and its related NK1 receptor in primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) pathogenesis

Primary Sjogren's Syndrome (pSS) is a systemic autoimmune disease that primarily attacks the lacrimal and salivary glands, resulting in impaired secretory function characterized by xerostomia and xerophthalmia. Patients with pSS have been shown to have impaired salivary gland innervation and altered circulating levels of neuropeptides thought to be a cause of decreased salivation, including substance P (SP). Using Western blot analysis and immunofluorescence studies, we examined the expression levels of SP and its preferred G protein-coupled TK Receptor 1 (NK1R) and apoptosis markers in biopsies of the minor salivary gland (MSG) from pSS patients compared with patients with idiopathic sicca syndrome. We confirmed a quantitative decrease in the amount of SP in the MSG of pSS patients and demonstrated a significant increase in NK1R levels compared with sicca subjects, indicating the involvement of SP fibers and NK1R in the impaired salivary secretion observed in pSS patients. Moreover, the increase in apoptosis (PARP-1 cleavage) in pSS patients was shown to be related to JNK phosphorylation. Since there is no satisfactory therapy for the treatment of secretory hypofunction in pSS patients, the SP pathway may be a new potential diagnostic tool or therapeutic target

Biodiversity patterns of cyanobacterial oligotypes in lakes and rivers: results of a large-scale metabarcoding survey in the Alpine region

In this work, we characterised the cyanobacterial communities in the plankton and littoral biofilm of 38 lakes and in the biofilm of 21 rivers in the Alps and surrounding subalpine regions by 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding. We found little overlap in the distribution of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) between the three habitats and between water bodies. The differences were caused by environmental filtering acting on the selection of the most abundant ASVs and a high contribution of rare oligotypes. The differentiation of community and genotype composition from specific water bodies was explained to a significant extent by environmental variables and morphometry. The taxonomic consistency of ASVs classified under the same genus name was assessed by phylogenetic analyses performed on three representative dominant genera, namely Cyanobium, Tychonema and Planktothrix. The analyses revealed eco-evolutionary adaptations in lakes and rivers, including some evidence for a polyphyletic nature. Monitoring individual genotypes in relation to environmental conditions will be useful to define the ecological amplitude of these taxa. However, the persistence or ephemeral nature of some of the rarest and most unusual ASVs has remained unknow