PR.I.M.E3: Sottosistema Controllo Microclimatico e Monitoraggio

Il rapporto descrive l'attività svolta nell'ambito del progetto PR.I.M.E3 (PRocedure Innovative Energeticamente Efficienti e Ecocompatibili), co-finanziato dal MATTM, per quanto riguarda il sottosistema Controllo Microclimatico e Monitoraggio. In particolare si descrive un sistema domotico integrato (Building automation o Home automation), in cui l’indipendenza dei vari impianti dell’edificio è sostituita dalla condivisione di informazioni, le quali vengono convogliate in un’unica piattaforma multifunzione in grado di controllare, coordinare e comandare i singoli componenti impiantistici

PR.I.M.E3: Sottosistema Coibentazione Edifici

Il rapporto scientifico descrive la ricerca svolta per il progetto PR.I.M.E3 (PRocedure Innovative per Moduli Edilizi Energeticamente Efficienti e Ecocompatibili), co-finanziata dal MATTM, per quanto riguarda il sottosistema Coibentazione. In particolare si è verificata la potenzialità, in termini di risparmio energetico e riduzione dell’impatto ambientale, di elementi isolanti termici dell’involucro innovativi, composti da materiali di scarto del processo produttivo tessile e del pneumatico, destinati a diventare rifiuti

The Collagen Chaperone HSP47 Is a New Interactor of APP that Affects the Levels of Extracellular Beta-Amyloid Peptides

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive decline of cognitive function that represents one of the most dramatic medical challenges for the aging population. Aβ peptides, generated by processing of the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP), are thought to play a central role in the pathogenesis of AD. However, the network of physical and functional interactions that may affect their production and deposition is still poorly understood. The use of a bioinformatic approach based on human/mouse conserved coexpression allowed us to identify a group of genes that display an expression profile strongly correlated with APP. Among the most prominent candidates, we investigated whether the collagen chaperone HSP47 could be functionally correlated with APP. We found that HSP47 accumulates in amyloid deposits of two different mouse models and of some AD patients, is capable to physically interact with APP and can be relocalized by APP overexpression. Notably, we found that it is possible to reduce the levels of secreted Aβ peptides by reducing the expression of HSP47 or by interfering with its activity via chemical inhibitors. Our data unveil HSP47 as a new functional interactor of APP and imply it as a potential target for preventing the formation and/or growth amyloid plaques

A neural network to visually understand and autonomously navigate unknown environments

A complex sensor based control system is presented. The sensor used is a pair of TV cameras providing a stereogram for a stereo vision system based on a cellular neural network (CNN). The 3D information retrieved are used by a simple path planning algorithm and actuated on two different robots. Results of experiments are reported. The usability of the CNN paradigm in robotics applications is demonstrate

An update of the epidemiology of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Italy based on neuropathologic and molecular typing of a large cohort of patients

Despite its proven heterogeneity, sporadic CJD (sCJD) to date has been only analyzed epidemiologically as a single entity. Taking advantage of the current high autopsy rate for clinically suspected CJD cases, we evaluated the frequency of sCJD subtypes in Italy in a large cohort of consecutive cases. Inclusion criteria were onset of symptoms within the period 2000 \u2013 2005 and neuropathologic disease confirmation. Patients carrying pathogenic mutations in the coding region of PRNP and/or having a positive family history were excluded. PRNP genotyping was performed in 402 (87.9%) cases and showed 283 (70.4%) MM, 62 (15.4%) MVand 57 (14.2%) VV subjects. Most cases belonged to MM/MV1 (51%), mixed MM/MV1+2C (22%), VV2 (15%) and MV2 (8%) subtypes, while the remaining 4% comprised rare variants or atypical cases. Our study provides the first estimate of the incidence of the sCJD variants in a large cohort of consecutive patients and the basis for the study of spatial and temporal sCJD clustering in Italy