Qualita igienico-sanitaria e composizione del latte d'asina di razza sarda destinato al consumo umano diretto.

Considerato il crescente interesse verso il latte d’asina che per la sua particolare composizione simile al latte umano è stato recentemente rivalutato quale alimento adatto soggetti a rischio e in special modo per bambini affetti da allergie alimentari, si è ritenuto interessante studiare il latte della razza sarda al fine di valutare le sue caratteristiche qualitative ed evidenziarne eventuali differenze rispetto al latte delle altre razze asinine. Lo studio è stato effettuato su 40 campioni di latte individuale ottenuto da n. 10 asine di razza Sarda e da n. 2 asine di razza Sarda var. albina appartenenti alla colonia dislocata nei pressi di Campu Perdu nella costa orientale dell’isola dell’Asinara ( Porto Torres – Sassari). I campioni di latte sono stati analizzati presso i laboratori accreditati secondo la norma UNI EN ISO/IEC 17025 dell’Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna. I risultati del nostro studio hanno dimostrato la sostanziale similitudine delle caratteristiche chimico-fisiche ed igienico-sanitarie del latte d’asina di razza Sarda rispetto al latte delle altre razze più diffuse e studiate in Italia (Martina Franca, Amiata e Ragusana). Come riportato da altri autori, si sottolinea la necessità di una normativa specifica e completa in materia di produzione e commercializzazione del latte d’asina ad uso alimentare che definisca limiti critici per i parametri di tipo igienico sanitario utilizzabili quale strumento per una maggiore tutela della sicurezza e del valore nutrizionale del prodotto considerata la peculiare destinazione per categorie di consumatori a rischio quali bambini e anziani

Cidadania política e voto do analfabeto no Brasil

ResumoEste trabalho examina, a partir de uma perspectiva histórica, o direito político de cidadania dos analfabetos no Brasil. De 1889 a 1985, havia uma lei estabelecendo a obrigatoriedade de ser alfabetizado para poder ter o direito de voto. Tal conexão entre voto e educação tornou-se uma fonte de exclusão social e de injustiça. No âmbito das lutas pela democracia no país, os analfabetos conquistaram o direito político de voto. Dessa maneira, eles começaram a participar das decisões políticas concernentes às suas próprias vidas, mesmo que continuem sem ter o direito de serem eleitos. Palavras-chave: Educação e voto; Cidadania política; Voto do analfabeto; Estado e sociedade civil AbstractThis work examines, from a historical perspective, the illiterate’s political right of citizenship in Brazil. From 1889 to 1985, there was a law establishing the obligation to be literate so to have the right to vote. This connection between vote and education became a source of social exclusion and injustice. In the scope of the social struggles for democracy, the illiterates conquered the political right to vote. In this manner, they started to participate at the political decisions referring to their own lives, even if they continue not having the right to be elected. Keywords: Education and vote; Political citizenship; Vote of the illiterate; State and civil society  

Intravitreal Dexamethasone in Patients with Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration Resistant to Anti-VEGF: A Prospective Pilot Study

Purpose. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of a single intravitreal dexamethasone implant (DXI) combined with intravitreal antivascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy, in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (wet-AMD) resistant to conventional treatment. Methods. In this randomized, controlled pilot study, 16 eyes of 15 patients, unresponsive to anti-VEGF therapy, were enrolled and randomly assigned to two groups: DXI + anti-VEGF (treatment group: 11 eyes) and monthly anti-VEGF alone (control group: 5 eyes). Patients were treated at baseline and followed for 6 months. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), optical coherence tomography (OCT) parameters, and fluorescein angiography (FA) were evaluated. Results. Eight eyes (72.7%) in the treatment group and 2 eyes in the control group (40%) showed complete retinal fluid resorption (p=0.049). BCVA showed no significant change from baseline in both the treatment group and the control group (p=0.40 and p=0.29, respectively). Both median central foveal thickness (CFT) and median macular volume showed a greater reduction from baseline in the treatment group. Conclusion. In patients showing an incomplete response to anti-VEGF therapy, DXI combined with intravitreal anti-VEGF seems to improve retinal fluid resorption without functional advantage. This trial is registered with ACTRN12618001102268

Bio-inspired relevant interaction modelling in cognitive crowd management

Cognitive algorithms, integrated in intelligent systems, represent an important innovation in designing interactive smart environments. More in details, Cognitive Systems have important applications in anomaly detection and management in advanced video surveillance. These algorithms mainly address the problem of modelling interactions and behaviours among the main entities in a scene. A bio-inspired structure is here proposed, which is able to encode and synthesize signals, not only for the description of single entities behaviours, but also for modelling cause–effect relationships between user actions and changes in environment configurations. Such models are stored within a memory (Autobiographical Memory) during a learning phase. Here the system operates an effective knowledge transfer from a human operator towards an automatic systems called Cognitive Surveillance Node (CSN), which is part of a complex cognitive JDL-based and bio-inspired architecture. After such a knowledge-transfer phase, learned representations can be used, at different levels, either to support human decisions, by detecting anomalous interaction models and thus compensating for human shortcomings, or, in an automatic decision scenario, to identify anomalous patterns and choose the best strategy to preserve stability of the entire system. Results are presented in a video surveillance scenario , where the CSN can observe two interacting entities consisting in a simulated crowd and a human operator. These can interact within a visual 3D simulator, where crowd behaviour is modelled by means of Social Forces. The way anomalies are detected and consequently handled is demonstrated, on synthetic and also on real video sequences, in both the user-support and automatic modes

Clinical phenotypes in adult patients with bronchiectasis

Bronchiectasis is a heterogeneous disease. This study aimed at identifying discrete groups of patients with different clinical and biological characteristics and long-term outcomes. This was a secondary analysis of five European databases of prospectively enrolled adult outpatients with bronchiectasis. Principal component and cluster analyses were performed using demographics, comorbidities, and clinical, radiological, functional and microbiological variables collected during the stable state. Exacerbations, hospitalisations and mortality during a 3-year follow-up were recorded. Clusters were externally validated in an independent cohort of patients with bronchiectasis, also investigating inflammatory markers in sputum. Among 1145 patients (median age 66 years; 40% male), four clusters were identified driven by the presence of chronic infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa or other pathogens and daily sputum: "Pseudomonas" (16%), "Other chronic infection" (24%), "Daily sputum" (33%) and "Dry bronchiectasis" (27%). Patients in the four clusters showed significant differences in terms of quality of life, exacerbations, hospitalisations and mortality during follow-up. In the validation cohort, free neutrophil elastase activity, myeloperoxidase activity and interleukin-1\u3b2 levels in sputum were significantly different among the clusters. Identification of four clinical phenotypes in bronchiectasis could favour focused treatments in future interventional studies designed to alter the natural history of the disease

A Journey from Thermally Tunable Synthesis to Spectroscopy of Phenylmethanimine in Gas Phase and Solution

Phenylmethanimine is an aromatic imine with a twofold relevance in chemistry: organic synthesis and astrochemistry. To tackle both aspects, a multidisciplinary strategy has been exploited and a new, easily accessible synthetic approach to generate stable imine-intermediates in the gas phase and in solution has been introduced. The combination of this formation pathway, based on the thermal decomposition of hydrobenzamide, with a state-of-the-art computational characterization of phenylmethanimine laid the foundation for its first laboratory observation by means of rotational electric resonance spectroscopy. Both E and Z isomers have been accurately characterized, thus providing a reliable basis to guide future astronomical observations. A further characterization has been carried out by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, showing the feasibility of this synthetic approach in solution. The temperature dependence as well as possible mechanisms of the thermolysis process have been examined

Prospect for Charge Current Neutrino Interactions Measurements at the CERN-PS

Tensions in several phenomenological models grew with experimental results on neutrino/antineutrino oscillations at Short-Baseline (SBL) and with the recent, carefully recomputed, antineutrino fluxes from nuclear reactors. At a refurbished SBL CERN-PS facility an experiment aimed to address the open issues has been proposed [1], based on the technology of imaging in ultra-pure cryogenic Liquid Argon (LAr). Motivated by this scenario a detailed study of the physics case was performed. We tackled specific physics models and we optimized the neutrino beam through a full simulation. Experimental aspects not fully covered by the LAr detection, i.e. the measurements of the lepton charge on event-by-event basis and their energy over a wide range, were also investigated. Indeed the muon leptons from Charged Current (CC) (anti-)neutrino interactions play an important role in disentangling different phenomenological scenarios provided their charge state is determined. Also, the study of muon appearance/disappearance can benefit of the large statistics of CC muon events from the primary neutrino beam. Results of our study are reported in detail in this proposal. We aim to design, construct and install two Spectrometers at "NEAR" and "FAR" sites of the SBL CERN-PS, compatible with the already proposed LAr detectors. Profiting of the large mass of the two Spectrometers their stand-alone performances have also been exploited.Comment: 70 pages, 38 figures. Proposal submitted to SPS-C, CER

A Journey from Thermally Tunable Synthesis to Spectroscopy of Phenylmethanimine in Gas Phase and Solution

Phenylmethanimine is an aromatic imine with a twofold relevance in chemistry: organic synthesis and astrochemistry. To tackle both aspects, a multidisciplinary strategy has been exploited and a new, easily accessible synthetic approach to generate stable imine-intermediates in the gas phase and in solution has been introduced. The combination of this formation pathway, based on the thermal decomposition of hydrobenzamide, with a state-of-the-art computational characterization of phenylmethanimine laid the foundation for its first laboratory observation by means of rotational electric resonance spectroscopy. Both E and Z isomers have been accurately characterized, thus providing a reliable basis to guide future astronomical observations. A further characterization has been carried out by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, showing the feasibility of this synthetic approach in solution. The temperature dependence as well as possible mechanisms of the thermolysis process have been examined. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Gmb

Ischemic wound revascularization by the stromal vascular fraction relies on host-donor hybrid vessels

Nonhealing wounds place a significant burden on both quality of life of affected patients and health systems. Skin substitutes are applied to promote the closure of nonhealing wounds, although their efficacy is limited by inadequate vascularization. The stromal vascular fraction (SVF) from the adipose tissue is a promising therapy to overcome this limitation. Despite a few successful clinical trials, its incorporation in the clinical routine has been hampered by their inconsistent results. All these studies concluded by warranting pre-clinical work aimed at both characterizing the cell types composing the SVF and shedding light on their mechanism of action. Here, we established a model of nonhealing wound, in which we applied the SVF in combination with a clinical-grade skin substitute. We purified the SVF cells from transgenic animals to trace their fate after transplantation and observed that it gave rise to a mature vascular network composed of arteries, capillaries, veins, as well as lymphatics, structurally and functionally connected with the host circulation. Then we moved to a human-in-mouse model and confirmed that SVF-derived endothelial cells formed hybrid human-mouse vessels, that were stabilized by perivascular cells. Mechanistically, SVF-derived endothelial cells engrafted and expanded, directly contributing to the formation of new vessels, while a population of fibro-adipogenic progenitors stimulated the expansion of the host vasculature in a paracrine manner. These data have important clinical implications, as they provide a steppingstone toward the reproducible and effective adoption of the SVF as a standard care for nonhealing wounds