Current Developments in the Therapy of Protozoan Infections

Protozoan parasites cause serious human and zoonotic infections, including life-threatening diseases such as malaria, African and American trypanosomiasis, and leishmaniasis. These diseases are no more common in the developed world, but together they still threaten about 40% of the world population (WHO estimates). Mortality and morbidity are high in developing countries, and the lack of vaccines makes chemotherapy the only suitable option. However, available antiparasitic drugs are hampered by more or less marked toxic side effects and by the emergence of drug resistance. As the main prevalence of parasitic diseases occurs in the poorest areas of the world, the interest of the pharmaceutical companies in the development of new drugs has been traditionally scarce. The establishment of public-private partnerships focused on tropical diseases is changing this situation, allowing the exploitation of the technological advances that took place during the past decade related to genomics, proteomics, and in silico drug discovery approaches. These techniques allowed the identification of new molecular targets that in some cases are shared by different parasites. In this review we outline the recent developments in the fields of protease and topoisomerase inhibitors, antimicrobial and cell-penetrating peptides, and RNA interference. We also report on the rapidly developing field of new vectors (micro and nano particles, mesoporous materials) that in some cases can cross host or parasite natural barriers and, by selectively delivering new or already in use drugs to the target site, minimize dosage and side effects

The economics of Conversational Agents

For many years software has been developed to automate the internal processes of a company. Over the years we have learned to measure the cost / benefit ratio linked to the introduction of new automation tools. We have also figured out how to define a strategy that allows introduction into the company by minimizing risks and maximizing returns. This implies the launch of initiatives aimed at preparing the organization for the changes that will be induced through the creation of new features. However, in the last period we are observing a constant growth in the demand for new automation models that can make the most of recent scientific advances made in the field of cognitive services. In recent years we have witnessed the introduction of new automation services for the processes borrowed from the experiences made in the field of robotics and adapted to more complex business models. With the advent of increasingly sophisticated cognitive services we can easily imagine how, by combining RPA tools with cognitive services, we can significantly extend the services that companies can offer. In fact, we can think of automating certain business processes by integrating cognitive services, allowing us to add a new dimension of intervention, allowing the system to interact using natural language. We can briefly define these new tools as conversational agents. There are already several concrete implementations of these technologies that are abandoning the field of research to try their hand at the industrial world. We are in fact witnessing a progressive spread of conversational platforms also in the consumer sphere. Some of the most concrete examples that have had an important commercial success are Google Home\uae, Alexa\uae, Siri\uae, Cortana\uae etc. Such a significant success that the concept of virtual assistant is cleared through. The main companies have begun the introduction of these technologies through the implementation of simple chatbots which, however, are changing the main way of interacting with customers through the progressive replacement of traditional call centers. However, many decision makers remain doubting about the claims surrounding the promised business value of the conversational platforms. Potential adopters must be informed about the true value and economic returns of the technological investments needed to introduce these new tools into organizations. In this work we want to define precisely what the conversational agents are and provide a solid economic model that allows to estimate what are the factors that influence the adoption of this technology and the economic returns of the investments

Il Metodo ESAS per la modellizzazione del rischio di desertificazione: applicazione in un'area della Sardegna nord-occidentale

GIS elaboration was applied to assess the sensivity to Desertification of an area of north western Sardinia. The ESAs model was used (Environmentally Sensitive Areas to desertification, developed by MEDALUS III EC – DG RES project. The model makes use of 15 indicators grouped into 4 classes: soil, vegetation, climate, land management. For each indicator independent layers are produced according to a pre-defined weights system and are then processed to create four synthetic indexes. Finally, the sensitivity index is produced as a geometric average. The implementation highlighted the high sensitivity of the concerned area

Dynamic Simulation of a Fe-Ga Energy Harvester Prototype Through a Preisach-Type Hysteresis Model

This paper presents the modeling of an Fe–Ga energy harvester prototype, within a large range of values of operating parameters (mechanical preload, amplitude and frequency of dynamic load, electric load resistance). The simulations, based on a hysteretic Preisach-type model, employ a voltage-driven finite element formulation using the fixed-point technique, to handle the material nonlinearities. Due to the magneto–mechanical characteristics of Fe–Ga, a preliminary tuning must be performed for each preload to individualize the fixed point constant, to ensure a good convergence of the method. This paper demonstrates how this approach leads to good results for the Fe–Ga prototype. The relative discrepancies between experimental and computational values of the output power remain lower than 5% in the entire range of operating parameters considered

A proposal for low cost condition assessment method for existing RC bridges

Aging infrastructures require huge budgets to preserve their functionality and the lack of effective maintenance leads to increasing deterioration and therefore higher repair costs. For these reasons, assessing the condition of infrastructures becomes mandatory, with particular attention to the ones still in service even when their life limit has been exceeded. In particular, this problem is really important in Countries, like Italy, in which there are several operating bridges at the end of their service life. In this framework, many companies responsible for the management of road networks have turned their interest towards Bridge Management Systems (BMS). This paper presents a fast and low-cost method for condition rating of reinforced concrete bridges. The proposal is based on visual inspection and non-destructive testing. A specific parameter is designed to take into account the mechanical degradation of materials and the damage location at the structural sub-component level. Some benchmark case studies have been discussed in order to compare the proposed method with other approaches available in literature