Uomo (dignità dell')

The article describes the concept of human liberty in the philosophy of Aristotle, St. Thomas, Pico della Mirandola and Kant. In the second part it analyzes the same concept in the current technological society and in the religious culture, in particular the Jewish and Catholic

Polisaccaridi fotocromici con gruppi spiropirano: sintesi e caratterizzazione spettroscopica

Il presente lavoro di tesi si inserisce nell’ambito di ricerche volte a modificare, attraverso reazioni di funzionalizzazione, le proprietà di macromolecole di origine naturale che rappresentano materie prime ampiamente disponibili, rinnovabili, economiche e biodegradabili, ma che spesso mostrano proprietà poco versatili. Lo spiropirano è stato scelto come funzionalità attiva in quanto può fornire polimeri in grado di dare risposte fotocromiche a seguito di stimoli ambientali come l’esposizione a luce UV o visibile, solventi con diversa polarità, variazioni di pH e forza ionica. L’amilosio, componente lineare dell’amido, e l’amilopectina, componente ramificata, entrambi costituiti da unità ripententi di glucopiranosio, sono stati scelti come materie prime in quanto in grado di fornire affinità per i substrati naturali. Inizialmente questi due biopolimeri sono stati funzionalizzati regioselettivamente in posizione C6 con gruppi azidici e successivamente ‘‘cliccati’’ con 1',3'-diidro-3',3'-dimetil-1'-propargil-6-nitrospiro[2H-1-benzopiran-2,2'-(2H)-indolo], appartenente alla classe degli spiropirani, tramite la reazione di cicloaddizione azide-alchino di Huisgen. La reazione è stata condotta a 40°C in DMSO utilizzando come catalizzatore il sistema CuCl/PMDETA. Due diversi derivati per ciascun tipo di polimero sono stati preparati modulando le quantità di SPCC nell’alimentazione, con rapporto tra moli di spiropirano e moli di glucopiranosio di: 0.40 e 1.00. A questa prima fase di sintesi ne è seguita un'altra di caratterizzazione chimica: i prodotti ottenuti sono stati caratterizzati attraverso analisi TGA, IR, NMR ed EPR. Dopodiché si è passati allo studio del comportamento ottico in soluzione di questi sistemi attraverso misure di spettroscopia UV/Vis

A WEBGIS FRAMEWORK FOR DISSEMINATING PROCESSED REMOTELY SENSED ON LAND COVER TRANSFORMATIONS

Mediterranean regions have experienced significant soil degradation over the past decades. In this context, careful land observation using satellite data is crucial for understanding the long-term usage patterns of natural resources and facilitating their sustainable management to monitor and evaluate the potential degradation. Given the environmental and political interest on this problem, there is urgent need for a centralized repository and mechanism to share geospatial data, information and maps of land change. Geospatial data collecting is one of the most important task for many users because there are significant barriers in accessing and using data. This limit could be overcome by implementing a WebGIS through a combination of existing free and open source software for geographic information systems (FOSS4G). In this paper we preliminary discuss methods for collecting raster data in a geodatabase by processing open multi-temporal and multi-scale satellite data aimed at retrieving indicators for land degradation phenomenon (i.e. land cover/land use analysis, vegetation indices, trend analysis, etc.). Then we describe a methodology for designing a WebGIS framework in order to disseminate information through maps for territory monitoring. Basic WebGIS functions were extended with the help of POSTGIS database and OpenLayers libraries. Geoserver was customized to set up and enhance the website functions developing various advanced queries using PostgreSQL and innovative tools to carry out efficiently multi-layer overlay analysis. The end-product is a simple system that provides the opportunity not only to consult interactively but also download processed remote sensing data

Performance evaluation of object based greenhouse detection from Sentinel-2 MSI and Landsat 8 OLI data: A case study from Almería (Spain)

tThis paper shows the first comparison between data from Sentinel-2 (S2) Multi Spectral Instrument (MSI)and Landsat 8 (L8) Operational Land Imager (OLI) headed up to greenhouse detection. Two closely relatedin time scenes, one for each sensor, were classified by using Object Based Image Analysis and RandomForest (RF). The RF input consisted of several object-based features computed from spectral bands andincluding mean values, spectral indices and textural features. S2 and L8 data comparisons were alsoextended using a common segmentation dataset extracted form VHR World-View 2 (WV2) imagery totest differences only due to their specific spectral contribution. The best band combinations to performsegmentation were found through a modified version of the Euclidian Distance 2 index. Four differentRF classifications schemes were considered achieving 89.1%, 91.3%, 90.9% and 93.4% as the best overallaccuracies respectively, evaluated over the whole study area

AssesSeg—A Command Line Tool to Quantify Image Segmentation Quality: A Test Carried Out in Southern Spain from Satellite Imagery

This letter presents the capabilities of a command line tool created to assess the quality of segmented digital images. The executable source code, called AssesSeg, was written in Python 2.7 using open source libraries. AssesSeg (University of Almeria, Almeria, Spain; Politecnico di Bari, Bari, Italy) implements a modified version of the supervised discrepancy measure named Euclidean Distance 2 (ED2) and was tested on different satellite images (Sentinel-2, Landsat 8, and WorldView-2). The segmentation was applied to plastic covered greenhouse detection in the south of Spain (Almería). AssesSeg outputs were utilized to find the best band combinations for the performed segmentations of the images and showed a clear positive correlation between segmentation accuracy and the quantity of available reference data. This demonstrates the importance of a high number of reference data in supervised segmentation accuracy assessment problems

Delayed surgery in neurologically intact patients affected by thoraco-lumbar junction burst fractures: to reduce pain and improve quality of life

This is a retrospective study on 18 patients affected by thoraco-lumbar junction burst fractures (TLJBF) A3 or A4 at computed tomography (CT) scan who referred to our hospital. To assess the surgical results in terms of pain and quality of life in a series of neurologically intact patients affected by TLJBF who underwent surgery after 3-4 months from the injury. In literature there is controversy if pain could be an indication for surgery in TLJBF and series of patients conservatively managed with success have been reported

Irrigation with treated municipal wastewater on artichoke crop: assessment of soil and yield heavy metal content and human risk

Industrial and municipal wastewaters are often used for irrigating agricultural fields in arid and semi-arid countries, representing the most attractive option to alleviate pressure on fresh-water resources. However, the wastewater may contain various potentially toxic elements and organic matters with highly harmful effects on human and animal health. During two growing seasons of globe artichoke, the effects of irrigation with secondary (SWW) and tertiary (TWW) municipal wastewater on heavy metal soil and plant content were evaluated together with the consequent human risk from artichoke head consumption. The heavy metal contents (i.e., Al, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Zn, and Mn) of the irrigation water, soil, plant and yield were analyzed. Total and extractable heavy metals were quantified to determine the bioaccumulation factors, and the health risks to adults and children were determined according to hazard indices. The heavy metal contents of the artichoke heads harvested after SWW and TWW irrigation were lower than the international threshold values and low bioaccumulation factors suggested that these heavy metals did not accumulate in the edible part of the artichoke crop. The hazard indices based on the consumption of the artichoke heads remained <1.0 for both adults and children, thus indicating that the health risks involving the different heavy metals are not significant

Liver eosinophilic infiltrate is a significant finding in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Eosinophilic infiltrate of liver tissue is described in primary cholestatic diseases, hepatic allograft rejection and drug-induced liver injury, but its significance and its implications in chronic hepatitis C are unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of eosinophilic liver infiltrate in patients with chronic hepatitis C. We retrospectively evaluated 147 patients with chronic hepatitis C. The presence of eosinophilic infiltrate was investigated in liver biopsies, and a numeric count of eosinophilic leucocytes in every portal tract was assessed. An eosinophilic infiltrate of liver tissue (≥3 cells evaluated in the portal/periportal spaces) was observed in 46 patients (31%), and patients who consumed drugs had an odds ratio (OR) of 4.02 (95% CI: 1.62-9.96) to have an eosinophilic infiltrate in liver biopsy. By logistic regression analysis, the presence of steatosis was independently associated with eosinophilic infiltrate (OR 5.86; 95% CI: 2.46-13.96) and homeostasis model assessment-score (OR 1.18; 95% CI: 1.00-1.39). Logistic regression analysis also showed that fibrosis staging ≥ 2 by Scheuer score was associated with grading &gt;1 by Scheuer score (OR 6.82; 95% CI 2.46-18.80) and eosinophilic infiltrate (OR 4.00; 95% CI 1.23-12.91). In conclusion, we observed that the eosinophilic infiltrate of liver tissue was significantly more frequent in patients who assumed drugs, and found a significant association between eosinophilic infiltrate, liver steatosis and liver fibrosis. These preliminary data could lead to a constant assumption of drugs as a co-factor of eosinophils-mediated liver injury in chronic hepatitis

A New Threshold Relative Radiometric Correction Algorithm (TRRCA) of Multiband Satellite Data

It is well known that remote sensed scenes could be affected by many factors and, for optimum change detection, these unwanted effects must be removed. In this study a new algorithm is proposed for PIF (Pseudo Invariant Features) extraction and relative radiometric normalization. The new algorithm can be labeled as a supervised one and combines three methods for the detection of PIFs: Moment distance index (MDI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) masks morphological erosion and dilate operators. In order to prove its effectiveness, the algorithm was tested by using Landsat 8 scenes of the “Mar de Plstico” landscape of the Andalusian Almer´ıa. Many tests were performed in order to provide a set of valid input parameters for the chosen environments. Lastly, the results were statistically assessed with parametric and non-parametric tests showing very good and stable results in the four different study area