A new approach for water treatment

A quantity of up to 4000 m3/h of water is used at CERN for cooling purposes: experiments, magnets and radio frequency cavities are refrigerated by closed circuits filled with deionized water; other utilities, such as air-conditioning, use chilled/hot water, also in closed circuits. All these methods all employ a cold source, the primary supply of water, coming from the cooling towers. About 500 kCHF are spent every year on water treatment in order to keep the water within these networks in operational conditions. In the line of further rationalization of resources, the next generation of contracts with the water treatment industry will aim for improved performance and better monitoring of quality related parameters in this context. The author will provide a concise report based upon an examination of the state of the installations and of the philosophy followed up until now for water treatment. Furthermore, he/she will propose a new approach from both a technical and contractual point of view, in preparation for a call for tender which is foreseen to be issued during 1999. As the water tower circuits (primary water) are quantitatively dominating, the technical discussion will concentrate mainly on problems linked with these networks

The Humble Charisma of a White-Dressed Man in a Desert Place: Pope Francis’ Communicative Style in the Covid-19 Pandemic

The context of deep uncertainty, fear, and “social distancing” characterizing the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a need for cultural anchorages and charismatic leaders who may conjointly and effectively support human beings, strengthen their identity, and empower social commitment. In this perspective, the charismatic leadership of Pope Francis, which is widely shared not only within the religious world, may play a crucial role in facing emergency with existential reasons and psychological resources. The general aim of this work is to shed light on the communicative features of the charismatic leadership of Pope Francis during the pandemic emergency; in order to better understand his effectiveness, we analyzed both the core issues and his multimodal body signals in the global TV event of the Universal Prayer with the Urbi et Orbi Blessing. The multimodal and discursive analyses of the homily enabled us to define the “humble” charisma of the Pope, which is based upon on authentic and informal presence, manifested emotional signals (and, in particular commotion) showing features of equity and familiarity. From a discursive point of view, the common and overarching affiliation is constructed through a multiple focus on the “we” pronoun, which is constructed through socio-epistemic rhetoric. The results show how this integrated methodological perspectives, which is multimodal and discursive, may offer meaningful pathways detection of effective and persuasive signals

La costruzione sociale delle malattie rare: posizionamenti identitari e negoziazione di senso

La diagnosi di malattia rara in età evolutiva costituisce un punto di svolta destabilizzante nella storia delle famiglie, sia rispetto al “prima” – la vita condotta fino a quel momento – sia rispetto a ciò che viene considerato “normale”, dai modelli culturali vigenti (Emiliani, Palaret & Mellotti, 2010). I genitori tendono a costruire rappresentazioni sociali (Moscovici, 1961; Jodelet, 2009) sulla malattia del proprio figlio, intese come forme di costruzione sociale della realtà, sistemi di significato. Il presente studio ha l’obiettivo di approfondire l’esperienza dei genitori con figli affetti da malattia rara, cogliendo il significato e i quadri interpretativi che la disabilità assume per l’identità genitoriale, nell’ambito di una prospettiva di ricerca culturale (Mazzara, 2007) e discorsiva (Mininni, 2013). Sono state realizzate interviste narrative semi-strutturate rivolte a 5 coppie di genitori di bambini affetti da malattia rara. I testi sono stati analizzati mediante una doppia procedura analitica: Analisi del contenuto, con l’ausilio del software T-Lab (Lancia, 2004) e Analisi Diatestuale, con l’ausilio del Modello SAM (Mininni, 2013). I primi risultati mostrato peculiarità tematiche e retoriche nella costruzione di posizionamenti identitari in base al genere: discorsi delle madri tendono a rappresentare la malattia come sofferenza emotiva, nei confronti della quale indossano i panni della “mamma guerriera”; i discorsi dei padri, invece, la rappresentano per lo più come ostacolo ad una vita “normale” e la posizione enunciativa oscilla tra difficoltà nel fronteggiare le problematiche e forza d’animo nel superarle

IRF4 expression is low in Philadelphia negative myeloproliferative neoplasms and is associated with a worse prognosis

Interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) is involved in the pathogenesis of various hematologic malignancies. Its expression has been related to the negative regulation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and the polarization of anti-inflammatory M2 macrophages, thereby altering immunosurveillance and inflammatory mechanisms. An abnormal inflammatory status in the bone marrow microenvironment of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) has recently been demonstrated; moreover, in chronic myeloid leukemia a downregulated expression of IRF4 has been found. In this context, we evaluated the IRF4 expression in 119 newly diagnosed consecutive Philadelphia negative MPNs (Ph- MPNs), showing a low expression among the MPNs phenotypes with a more significant decrease in primary myelofibrosis patients. Lower IRF4 levels were associated with JAK2 + and triple negatives cases carrying the worst prognosis. Furthermore, the IRF4 levels were related to leukemic transformation and a shorter leukemia-free survival; moreover, the risk of myelofibrosis transformation in polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia patients was more frequent in cases with lower IRF4 levels. Overall, our study demonstrates an IRF4 dysregulated expression in MPNs patients and its association with a worse prognosis. Further studies could validate these data, to improve our knowledge of the MPNs pathogenesis and confirm the IRF4 role as a new prognostic factor

Nanopore sequencing approach for immunoglobulin gene analysis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

The evaluation of the somatic hypermutation of the clonotypic immunoglobulin heavy variable gene has become essential in the therapeutic management in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients. European Research Initiative on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia promotes good practices and standardized approaches to this assay but often they are labor-intensive, technically complex, with limited in scalability. The use of next-generation sequencing in this analysis has been widely tested, showing comparable accuracy and distinct advantages. However, the adoption of the next generation sequencing requires a high sample number (run batching) to be economically convenient, which could lead to a longer turnaround time. Here we present data from nanopore sequencing for the somatic hypermutation evaluation compared to the standard method. Our results show that nanopore sequencing is suitable for immunoglobulin heavy variable gene mutational analysis in terms of sensitivity, accuracy, simplicity of analysis and is less time-consuming. Moreover, our work showed that the development of an appropriate data analysis pipeline could lower the nanopore sequencing error rate attitude

RUNX1 gene alterations characterized by allelic preference in adult acute myeloid leukemia

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Radio emission from the A3571 cluster complex: the final stage of a cluster merger?

In this paper we report and discuss the results of a radio survey in the A3571 cluster complex, a structure located in the Shapley Concentration core, and formed by the three clusters A3571, A3572 and A3575. The survey was carried out simultaneously at 22 cm and 13 cm with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, and led to the detection of 124 radio sources at 22 cm. The radio source counts in this region are in agreement with the background counts. Among the 36 radio sources with optical counterpart, six have measured redshift which places them at the distance of the A3571 cluster complex, and nine radio sources have optical counterparts most likely members of this cluster complex. All radio galaxies emit at low power level, i.e. logP$_{22cm}$ (W Hz$^{-1}$) $\le$ 22.6. A number of them are likely to be starburst galaxies. The radio luminosity function of early type galaxies is in agreement with that derived by Ledlow & Owen (1996) if we restrict our analysis to the A3571 cluster. On the basis of the multiwavelength properties of the A3571 cluster complex, we propose that it is a very advanced merger, and explain the radio properties derived from our study in the light of this hypothesis.Comment: 16 pages, in press on A&

Beyond land cover change: Towards a new generation of Land Use Models

Land use models play an important role in exploring future land change dynamics and are instrumental to support the integration of knowledge in land system science. However, only modest progress has been made in achieving these aims due to insufficient model evaluation and limited representation of the underlying socio-ecological processes. We discuss how land use models can better represent multi-scalar dynamics, human agency and demand-supply relations, and how we can achieve learning from model evaluation. By addressing these issues we outline pathways towards a new generation of land use models that allow not only the assessment of future land cover pattern changes, but also stimulate envisioning future land use by society to support debate on sustainability solutions and help design alternative solutions