Predicting microRNA modulation in human prostate cancer using a simple String IDentifier (SID1.0).

To make faster and efficient the identification of mRNA targets common to more than one miRNA, and to identify new miRNAs modulated in specific pathways, a computer program identified as SID1.0 (simple String IDentifier) was developed and successfully applied in the identification of deregulated miRNAs in prostate cancer cells. This computationally inexpensive Fortran program is based on the strategy of exhaustive search and specifically designed to screen shared data (target genes, miRNAs and pathways) available from PicTar and DIANA-MicroT 3.0 databases. As far as we know this is the first software designed to filter data retrieved from available miRNA databases. SID1.0 takes advantage of the standard Fortran intrinsic functions for manipulating text strings and requires ASCII input files. In order to demonstrate SID1.0 applicability, some miRNAs expected from the literature to associate with cancerogenesis (miR-125b, miR-148a and miR-141), were randomly identified as main entries for SID1.0 to explore matching sequences of mRNA targets and also to explore KEGG pathways for the presence of ID codes of targeted genes. Besides genes and pathways already described in the literature, SID1.0 has proven to useful for predicting other genes involved in prostate carcinoma. These latter were used to identify new deregulated miRNAs: miR-141, miR-148a, miR-19a and miR-19b. Prediction data were preliminary confirmed by expression analysis of the identified miRNAs in androgen-dependent (LNCaP) and independent (PC3) prostate carcinoma cell lines and in normal prostatic epithelial cells (PrEC)

Diversity and ethics in trauma and acute care surgery teams: results from an international survey

Background Investigating the context of trauma and acute care surgery, the article aims at understanding the factors that can enhance some ethical aspects, namely the importance of patient consent, the perceptiveness of the ethical role of the trauma leader, and the perceived importance of ethics as an educational subject. Methods The article employs an international questionnaire promoted by the World Society of Emergency Surgery. Results Through the analysis of 402 fully filled questionnaires by surgeons from 72 different countries, the three main ethical topics are investigated through the lens of gender, membership of an academic or non-academic institution, an official trauma team, and a diverse group. In general terms, results highlight greater attention paid by surgeons belonging to academic institutions, official trauma teams, and diverse groups. Conclusions Our results underline that some organizational factors (e.g., the fact that the team belongs to a university context or is more diverse) might lead to the development of a higher sensibility on ethical matters. Embracing cultural diversity forces trauma teams to deal with different mindsets. Organizations should, therefore, consider those elements in defining their organizational procedures. Level of evidence Trauma and acute care teams work under tremendous pressure and complex circumstances, with their members needing to make ethical decisions quickly. The international survey allowed to shed light on how team assembly decisions might represent an opportunity to coordinate team member actions and increase performance

Spatio-temporal access control: challenges and applications

International audienceno abstrac

Neonates at Risk of Early-Onset Sepsis: Which Is the Best Approach?

No abstrac

Management of mission critical public safety applications: the 5G ESSENCE Project

To address the limitations of legacy Public Safety (PS) solutions, as narrow bandwidth, high deployment cost and poor flexibility, the 5G cellular systems have been proposed. The architecture proposed by the 5G ESSENCE project is based on a cloud-enabled small cell infrastructure with a fully distributed orchestration architecture leveraging multi-access technologies in 5G. Furthermore, SDN and NFV are exploited, with MEC, to create flexible slices for dedicated mission critical public safety applications also at the edge of the network. This is shown by describing as the mission critical push-to-talk services have been implemented in a real testbed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Management of mission critical public safety applications: the 5G ESSENCE Project

To address the limitations of legacy Public Safety (PS) solutions, as narrow bandwidth, high deployment cost and poor flexibility, the 5G cellular systems have been proposed. The architecture proposed by the 5G ESSENCE project is based on a cloud-enabled small cell infrastructure with a fully distributed orchestration architecture leveraging multi-access technologies in 5G. Furthermore, SDN and NFV are exploited, with MEC, to create flexible slices for dedicated mission critical public safety applications also at the edge of the network. This is shown by describing as the mission critical push-to-talk services have been implemented in a real testbed.Peer Reviewe

A Real Case of Implementation of the Future 5G City

The fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication systems is considered the key technology to enable a wide range of application scenarios and the effective spreading of the smart city concept. Vertical business use cases, specifically designed for the future 5G city, will have a strong economical and social impact. For this reason, ongoing 5G field trials have to test newly deployed technologies as well as the capability of 5G to create a new digital economy. This paper describes the 5G field trial environment that was launched in Italy at the end of 2017. The aim is to evaluate the capability of the 5G network of supporting innovative services with reference to suitably designed key performance indicators and to evaluate the opportunities offered by these services. Indeed, vertical business use cases, specifically designed for the future 5G city, with a strong economic and social impact, are under implementation and will be evaluated. In particular, the paper provides a detailed description of the deployment of an actual complete integrated 5G network. It shows how 5G is effective enabling technology for a wide range of vertical business and use cases. Indeed, its flexibility allows to satisfy completely different performance requirements of real services. Some preliminary results, obtained during the first phase, are presented for a smart mobility scenario

Ferulic acid metabolites attenuate LPS-induced inflammatory response in enterocyte-like cells

Ferulic acid (FA) is a polyphenol pertaining to the class of hydroxycinnamic acids present in numerous foods of a plant origin. Its dietary consumption leads to the formation of several phase I and II metabolites in vivo, which represent the largest amount of ferulates in the circulation and in the intestine in comparison with FA itself. In this work, we evaluated their efficacy against the proinflammatory effects induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in intestinal Caco-2 cell monolayers, as well as the mechanisms underlying their protective action. LPS-induced overexpression of proinflammatory enzymes such as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and the consequent hyperproduction of nitric oxide (NO) and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) were limited by physiological relevant concentrations (1 µM) of FA, its derivatives isoferulic acid (IFA) and dihydroferulic acid (DHFA), and their glucuronidated and sulfated metabolites, which acted upstream by limiting the activation of MAPK p38 and ERK and of Akt kinase, thus decreasing the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-ĸB) translocation into the nucleus. Furthermore, the compounds were found to promote the expression of Nrf2, which may have contributed to the downregulation of NF-ĸB activity. The overall data show that phase I/II metabolites retain the efficacy of their dietary free form in contrasting inflammatory response

Neutrophils, eosinophils, and mast cells in the intestinal wall of dogs naturally infected with Leishmania infantum

Abstract Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a disease caused by the protozoa Leishmania infantum and can cause an inflammatory reaction in the gastrointestinal tract, however the role of granulocytic cells (neutrophils, eosinophils, and mast cells) in the intestine of dogs infected is not fully understood. We performed a quantitative analysis these cells in the intestinal wall of dogs with canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL). Twenty dogs were assigned to one of three groups: group 1 (G1, n=8), dogs with CVL and L. infantum amastigotes in the intestine; group 2 (G2, n=9), dogs with CVL but without intestinal amastigotes; and group 3 (G3, n=3), uninfected dogs (control group). Granulocytic cells were counted in the crypt-villus unit (mucosa), submucosa, and muscle layer of the intestinal mucosa. Cell counts were higher in the intestinal wall of dogs from G2 followed by G1 and G3 (p≤0.05). In G1, there was a low inverse correlation between parasite burden of the small intestine and granulocyte counts (r= -0.1, p≤0.01). However, in G2 dogs, mast cell and eosinophil numbers showed positive correlation (r=0.85, p≤0.01). The granulocytic cell hyperplasia observed in the intestine of L. infantum-infected dogs suggests that these cells may be involved in the cell-mediated immune response for parasite elimination