Computer-aided simulation and testing of spatial linkages with joint mechanical errors

Tolerance allocation influences production costs in a big way. For this reason it is very important to have an accurate study about the effects of manufacturing errors on the functioning and performances of linkages. In this paper, the authors present a computer-aided methodology based on a 3D geometrical approach using the dual-algebra fundamentals. The purpose is to give ail useful tool which can be integrated into CAD software in order to evaluate the performances of spatial mechanisms with mechanical errors. The proposed methodology has been validated by means of experimental tests on a Cardan joint mechanism with clearances, misalignments and dimensional errors. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Business model and ESG pillars: The impacts on banking default risk

The recent banks' failures have highlighted the importance of improving banking sector supervision, emphasizing the need to adopt a holistic approach to risk assessment based on an evaluation of a bank's business model (BBM) that combines financial (e.g., bank's balance data) and non-financial information (e.g., bank's ESG performance). In this study, we explore the joint effect of BBM and their environmental (ENV), social (SOC), and governance (GOV) pillars performance on banks' riskiness profile. The study uses a sample of 639 EU banks from 2013 to 2022 and applied a random effects model. Our findings suggest wholesale and retail banks could mitigate default risk, enhancing their ENV pillar performance. Differently, investment banks are encouraged to improve their governance best practices and structure to take advantage in terms of riskiness reduction. These results remain consistent after a series of robustness tests, including the 2SLS model and the Arellano coefficient estimation. Our paper offers practical implications for banking supervisory authorities and practitioners, encouraging to adopt a diversified ESG investment strategy according to bank-specific business models

Adolescents' Ethnic Hate Speech Exposure and Ethnic Bullying Perpetration: The Moderating Role of Tolerance Towards Diversity and Gender

Information and Communication Technologies have become powerful tools for adolescents, but they have enabled a huge number of online risks, such as being exposed to Online Hate Speech (OHS). High exposure to hateful content has been linked to despicable offline actions, including hate crimes. However, there is a lack of studies considering the associations with certain specific forms, such as the perpetration of bullying. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap in the literature by analysing the associations between exposure to OHS targeting ethnic minorities and ethnic bullying perpetration, and considering the potential moderating role of tolerance towards diversity and of gender. Participants were 960 high school students (53.6% females; Mage = 15 years, SD = 0.59). Data were collected in January/February 2020, before the first lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings suggest that being exposed to ethnic OHS is significantly, but weakly, associated with traditional ethnic bullying perpetration. Moreover, this association is moderated by tolerance towards diversity and by gender. In particular, for male adolescents, at low and middle levels of tolerance, higher ethnic OHS exposure is not associated with a higher tendency to perpetrate bullying toward peers with a different ethnicity. For females, instead, tolerance is not a moderator in the relationship between ethnic OHS exposure and ethnic bullying perpetration. Results are discussed in terms of their practical implications

Integrated MVG and ERT Survey Over a Shallow Cave

An integrated geophysical MVG (Microgravity Vertical Gradient) and ERT (Electrical Resistivity Tomography) survey was performed over a shallow cave in the Armetta Mountain karst area, close to the Liguria-Piedmont wa- tershed (Tanaro valley). The aim of this study is to test the response of a known shallow karst cave. The cave was developed in the Mesozoic sedimen- tary cover (dolostones and limestones - CAU : Caprauna Armetta Unit); the shallowest portion of the cave exhibits narrow passages and, at about 30 m below the entrance, a fossil meander which links two large chambers, that represent the target of the geophysical survey....

NIGER-DELTA: ENVIRONMENT, OGONI CRISIS AND THE STATE

Among the well agreed-on benefits of a guideline computerisation, with respect to the traditional text format, there are the disambiguation, the possibility of looking at the guideline at different levels of detail and the possibility of generating patient-tailored suggestions. Nevertheless, the connection of guidelines with patient records is still a challenging problem, as well as their effective integration into the clinical workflow. In this paper, we describe the evolution of our environment for representing and running guidelines. The main new features concern the choice of a commercial product as the middle layer with the electronic patient record, the consequent possibility of gathering information from different legacy systems, and the extension of this "virtual medical record" to the storage of process data. This last feature allows managing exceptions, i.e. decisions that do not comply with guidelines

Severe pertussis infection in infants less than 6 months of age: clinical manifestations and molecular characterization

We conducted a study to determine the main traits of pertussis among unimmunized infants less than 6 months of age. From August 2012 to March 2015, 141 nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPAs) were collected from infants with respiratory symptoms attending 2 major hospitals in Rome. Clinical data were recorded and analyzed. Lab-confirmation was performed by culture and realtime PCR. B. pertussis virulence-associated genes (ptxP, ptxA and prn), together with multilocus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), were also investigated by the sequence-based analysis on the DNAs extracted from positive samples. Antibiotic susceptibility with Etest was defined on 18 viable B. pertussis isolates. Samples from 73 infants resulted positives for B. pertussis. The median age of the patients was 45 d (range 7–165); 21 infants were treated with macrolides before hospital admission. Cough was reported for a median of 10 d before admission and 18 d after hospital discharge among infected infants, 84% of whom showed paroxysmal cough. No resistance to macrolides was detected. Molecular analysis identified MT27 as the predominant MLVA profile, combined with ptxP3-ptxA1-prn2 associated virulence genes. Although our data may not be generalized to the whole country, they provide evidence of disease severity among infants not vaccinated against pertussis. Moreover, genetically related B. pertussis strains, comprising allelic variants of virulence associated genes, were identified

Integrated MVG and ERT Survey Over a Shallow Cave

An integrated geophysical MVG (Microgravity Vertical Gradient) and ERT (Electrical Resistivity Tomography) survey was performed over a shallow cave in the Armetta Mountain karst area, close to the Liguria-Piedmont wa- tershed (Tanaro valley). The aim of this study is to test the response of a known shallow karst cave. The cave was developed in the Mesozoic sedimen- tary cover (dolostones and limestones - CAU : Caprauna Armetta Unit); the shallowest portion of the cave exhibits narrow passages and, at about 30 m below the entrance, a fossil meander which links two large chambers, that represent the target of the geophysical survey....

Tyr120Asp mutation alters domain flexibility and dynamics of MeCP2 DNA binding domain leading to impaired DNA interaction : Atomistic characterization of a Rett syndrome causing mutation

Mutations in the X-linked MECP2 gene represent the main origin of Rett syndrome, causing a profound intellectual disability in females. MeCP2 is an epigenetic transcriptional regulator containing two main functional domains: a methyl-CpG binding domain (MBD) and a transcription repression domain (TRD). Over 600 pathogenic mutations were reported to affect the whole protein; almost half of missense mutations affect the MBD. Understanding the impact of these mutations on the MBD structure and interaction with DNA will foster the comprehension of their pathogenicity and possibly genotype/phenotype correlation studies. Herein, we use molecular dynamics simulations to obtain a detailed view of the dynamics of WT and mutated MBD in the presence and absence of DNA. The pathogenic mutation Y120D is used as paradigm for our studies. Further, since the Y120 residue was previously found to be a phosphorylation site, we characterize the dynamic profile of the MBD also in the presence of Y120 phosphorylation (pY120). We found that addition of a phosphate group to Y120 or mutation in aspartic acid affect domain mobility that samples an alternative conformational space with respect to the WT, leading to impaired ability to interact with DNA. Experimental assays showing a significant reduction in the binding affinity between the mutated MBD and the DNA confirmed our predictions

Cocirculation of Hajj and non-Hajj strains among serogroup W meningococci in Italy, 2000 to 2016

In Italy, B and C are the predominant serogroups among meningococci causing invasive diseases. Nevertheless, in the period from 2013 to 2016, an increase in serogroup W Neisseria meningitidis (MenW) was observed. This study intends to define the main characteristics of 63 MenW isolates responsible of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in Italy from 2000 to 2016. We performed whole genome sequencing on bacterial isolates or single gene sequencing on culturenegative samples to evaluate molecular heterogeneity. Our main finding was the cocirculation of the Hajj and the South American sublineages belonging to MenW/ clonal complex (cc)11, which gradually surpassed the MenW/cc22 in Italy. All MenW/cc11 isolates were fully susceptible to cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, penicillin G and rifampicin. We identified the fulllength NadA protein variant 2/3, present in all the MenW/cc11. We also identified the fHbp variant 1, which we found exclusively in the MenW/cc11/Hajj sublineage. Concern about the epidemic potential of MenW/cc11 has increased worldwide since the year 2000. Continued surveillance, supported by genomic characterisation, allows high-resolution tracking of pathogen dissemination and the detection of epidemicassociated strains