Spazi pubblici sicuri e inclusivi

L\u2019intervento illustra le principali ricerche svolte presso gli Atenei di Trieste, Udine e Venezia nel campo della fruizione in sicurezza di spazi di uso pubblico, che si connotano per un approccio multi scalare e transdisciplinare, che superano la visione delle soluzioni \u201ca norma\u201d basate sul concetto di utente standard. Tale approccio non trascura la dimensione del desiderio dell\u2019uomo di fruire di tutte le potenzialit\ue0 che un contesto \u201cabilitante\u201d sarebbe in grado di offrire, ovvero di usare spazi, beni e servizi in sicurezza e con il massimo grado di autonomia possibile, traendo giovamento nel farlo.Tali percorsi di ricerca, svolti a livello nazionale e internazionale, si focalizzano sul ruolo svolto dal progetto per elevare il grado di accessibilit\ue0 di spazi e beni di uso pubblico, con ci\uf2 contribuendo ai processi di inclusione sociale e di responsabilizzazione delle comunit\ue0 per la trasformazione sostenibile dell\u2019habitat

Exercise training in aging and diseases.

Sedentary lifestyle along with high blood pressure, abnormal values for blood lipids, smoking, and obesity are recognized risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and for many other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, osteoporosis, breast and colon cancer. Several studies conducted on large cohort of individuals have documented the protective effects of physical activity for both vascular and nonvascular syndromes. Exercise training is an integral part of cardiac rehabilitation, a complex therapeutic approach, effective both in young and elderly patients. Despite the number of evidences underling the benefits associated with physical fitness, the cardiac rehabilitation is still an underused medical resource. The molecular mechanism behind physical activity protective effect is presently unresolved, and further studies are also needed to establish the best protocol in terms of specificity, volume and duration of the training

Dalla logogenia all’extensive reading: riflessioni e proposte per l’alunno sordo e per tutta la classe

Nowadays some deaf students still have poor linguistic competence: the use of cochlear implants and digital hearing devices on one side and the use of sign language on the other side have improved but not solved all the problems of full language acquisition. Logogenia involves immersion in the written language paying specific attention to the morphosyntactic features in order to improvecomprehension. The aim of the present study is to assess the benefits of combining logogenia with extensive reading, the latter being an approach to reading used for foreign language acquisition, and to suggest the use of it for both the deaf student and the whole class. The study illustrate a didactic application used with a deaf student and an extensive reading proposal for the class in an inclusive approach.Dalla logogenia all’extensive reading:riflessioni e proposte per l’alunno sordo e per tutta la class

Contribution to the vascular flora of Ventotene and Santo Stefano islands (Pontine Islands, Lazio, Italy) with two taxa new to Lazio

In this paper, based on field, herbarium and bibliographic research, new distributional data for 16 species and subspecies (13 natives and 3 aliens) are reported for Ventotene and Santo Stefano islands. Particularly, 6 are new or confirmed to Ventotene and 8 to Santo Stefano. One species is excluded from the flora of Ventotene and one is to be considered locally extinct. One native and one alien are new to Lazio administrative region

Correlates of calcaneal quantitative ultrasound parameters in patients with diabetes: the study on the assessment of determinants of muscle and bone strength abnormalities in diabetes

OBJECTIVE: Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) provides an estimate of bone mineral density (BMD) and also evaluates bone quality, which has been related to increased fracture risk in people with diabetes. This study aimed at assessing the correlates of calcaneal QUS parameters in diabetic subjects encompassing various degrees of micro and macrovascular complications and a wide-range of peripheral nerve function. METHODS: Four hundred consecutive diabetic patients were examined by QUS to obtain values of broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA), the speed of sound (SOS), quantitative ultrasound index (QUI), and BMD. RESULTS: Among surrogate measures of complications, sensory and motor nerve amplitude and heart rate response to cough test and standing correlated with QUS parameters at univariate analysis, together with age, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, lipid profile, and renal function. Multivariate analysis revealed that BUA, SOS, QUI, and BMD were independently associated with age, male gender, hemoglobin A1c, BMI (or fat, but not fat-free mass), and somatic and autonomic nerve function parameters. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that peripheral nerve dysfunction is associated with worse QUS parameters, possibly contributing to increased fracture risk in diabetes. The positive relation of QUS measures with adiposity needs further investigation. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01600924)

The role of dietary sodium intake on the modulation of T helper 17 cells and regulatory T cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus

We aimed at investigating whether the frequency and function of T helper 17 (Th17) and regulatory T cells (Treg) are affected by a restriction of dietary sodium intake in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We enrolled RA and SLE patients not receiving drugs known to increase urinary sodium excretion. Patients underwent a dietary regimen starting with a restricted daily sodium intake followed by a normal-sodium daily intake. The timepoints were identified at baseline (T0), after 3 weeks of low-sodium dietary regimen (T3), after 2 weeks of normal-sodium dietary regimen (T5). On these visits, we measured the 24-hour urinary sodium excretion, the frequency and function of Th17 and Treg cells in the peripheral blood, the serum levels of cytokines. Analysis of urinary sodium excretion confirmed adherence to the dietary regimen. In RA patients, a trend toward a reduction in the frequencies of Th17 cells over the low-sodium dietary regimen followed by an increase at T5 was observed, while Treg cells exhibited the opposite trend. SLE patients showed a progressive reduction in the percentage of Th17 cells that reached a significance at T5 compared to T0 (p = 0.01) and an increase in the percentage of Treg cells following the low-sodium dietary regimen at both T1 and T3 compared to T0 (p = 0.04 and p = 0.02, respectively). No significant apoptosis or proliferation modulation was found. In RA patients, we found a reduction at T5 compared to T0 in serum levels of both TGFβ (p = 0.0016) and IL-9 (p = 0.0007); serum IL-9 levels were also reduced in SLE patients at T5 with respect to T0 (p = 0.03). This is the first study investigating the effects of dietary sodium intake on adaptive immunity. Based on the results, we hypothesize that a restricted sodium dietary intake may dampen the inflammatory response in RA and SLE patients

Autophagy processes are dependent on EGF receptor signaling

Autophagy is a not well-understood conserved mechanism activated during nutritional deprivation in order to maintain cellular homeostasis. In the present study, we investigated the correlations between autophagy, apoptosis and the MAPK pathways in melanoma cell lines. We demonstrated that during starvation the EGF receptor mediated signaling activates many proteins involved in the MAPK pathway. Our data also suggest a previously unidentified link between the EGFR and Beclin-1 in melanoma cell line. We demonstrated that, following starvation, EGFR binds and tyrosine-phosphorylates Beclin-1, suggesting that it may play a key inhibitory role in the early stage of starvation, possibly through the Beclin-1 sequestration. Furthermore, EGFR releases Beclin-1 and allows initiating steps of the autophagic process. Interestingly enough, when the EGFR pathway was blocked by anti-EGF antibodies, immunoprecipitated Beclin-1 did not bind the phospho-EGFR. In addition, an extended binding of p-Bcl2 either with Beclin-1 or with Bax was observed with a decreased activation of the stress-induced JNK kinase, thus avoiding the transduction pathways that activate autophagy and apoptosis, respectively. For this reason, we advance the hypothesis that the activation of the EGFR is a necessary event that allows the ignition and progression of the autophagic process, at least in melanoma cells

An Interpretable Machine Learning Model to Predict Cortical Atrophy in Multiple Sclerosis

To date, the relationship between central hallmarks of multiple sclerosis (MS), such as white matter (WM)/cortical demyelinated lesions and cortical gray matter atrophy, remains unclear. We investigated the interplay between cortical atrophy and individual lesion-type patterns that have recently emerged as new radiological markers of MS disease progression. We employed a machine learning model to predict mean cortical thinning in whole-brain and single hemispheres in 150 cortical regions using demographic and lesion-related characteristics, evaluated via an ultrahigh field (7 Tesla) MRI. We found that (i) volume and rimless (i.e., without a "rim" of iron-laden immune cells) WM lesions, patient age, and volume of intracortical lesions have the most predictive power; (ii) WM lesions are more important for prediction when their load is small, while cortical lesion load becomes more important as it increases; (iii) WM lesions play a greater role in the progression of atrophy during the latest stages of the disease. Our results highlight the intricacy of MS pathology across the whole brain. In turn, this calls for multivariate statistical analyses and mechanistic modeling techniques to understand the etiopathogenesis of lesions