"Come s’uno schermo". Partecipazione a distanza, efficienza, garanzie, upgrade tecnologici

La nuova disciplina della partecipazione a distanza, introdotta dalla l. n. 103 del 2017, segna una svolta profonda nelle sintassi delle garanzie partecipative: la previsione, per default, di una modalità di aula giudiziaria “estesa” per lo svolgimento di ogni atto che comporti, a qualsiasi titolo, la partecipazione di soggetti in status custodiae per delitti particolarmente gravi muta in profondità le soglie qualitative dei modelli interrelazionali delle procedure giudiziarie e delle correlative garanzie. Il contributo si sofferma sulle risorse tecnologiche oggi adoperate nelle videoconferenze giudiziarie, avendo cura di raffrontarle con le ben più avanzate tecnologie già oggi disponibili in contesti extraprocessuali: l’incremento degli investimenti tecnologici circa gli apparati di supporto all’esame e alla partecipazione giudiziaria a distanza appare sentiero obbligato allo scopo di ridurre il gap, ancora cospicuo, tra le presenze fisiche e le modalità di telepresenza, così prevenendo rischi di ingiustificabili compressioni di primarie garanzie di contesto

Cercando un cielo. Legal Clinic, formazione del giurista e tutela della vulnerabilità

Il metodo clinico dell’insegnamento del diritto è un approccio ormai ampiamente diffuso a livello globale grazie alle esperienze delle cliniche legali: il contributo analizza i fondamenti teorici e valoriali di tale approccio che, a partire da una specifica declinazione del metodo casistico, è in grado di produrre una profonda modifica dei centri di gravità dell’educazione giuridica tradizionale

"Come s\u2019uno schermo". Partecipazione a distanza, efficienza, garanzie, upgrade tecnologici

La nuova disciplina della partecipazione a distanza, introdotta dalla l. n. 103 del 2017, segna una svolta profonda nelle sintassi delle garanzie partecipative: la previsione, per default, di una modalit\ue0 di aula giudiziaria \u201cestesa\u201d per lo svolgimento di ogni atto che comporti, a qualsiasi titolo, la partecipazione di soggetti in status custodiae per delitti particolarmente gravi muta in profondit\ue0 le soglie qualitative dei modelli interrelazionali delle procedure giudiziarie e delle correlative garanzie. Il contributo si sofferma sulle risorse tecnologiche oggi adoperate nelle videoconferenze giudiziarie, avendo cura di raffrontarle con le ben pi\uf9 avanzate tecnologie gi\ue0 oggi disponibili in contesti extraprocessuali: l\u2019incremento degli investimenti tecnologici circa gli apparati di supporto all\u2019esame e alla partecipazione giudiziaria a distanza appare sentiero obbligato allo scopo di ridurre il gap, ancora cospicuo, tra le presenze fisiche e le modalit\ue0 di telepresenza, cos\uec prevenendo rischi di ingiustificabili compressioni di primarie garanzie di contesto

Intravenous cocaine, morphine and amphetamine preferentially increase extracellular dopamine in the 'shell' as compared to the 'core' of the rat nucleus accumbens.

The nucleus accumbens is considered a critical target of the action of drugs of abuse. In this nucleus a "shell" and a "core" have been distinguished on the basis of anatomical and histochemical criteria. The present study investigated the effect in freely moving rats of intravenous cocaine, amphetamine, and morphine on extracellular dopamine concentrations in the nucleus accumbens shell and core by means of microdialysis with vertically implanted concentric probes. Doses selected were in the range of those known to sustain drug self-administration in rats. Morphine, at 0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg, and cocaine, at 0.5 mg/kg, increased extracellular dopamine selectivity in the shell. Higher doses of cocaine (1.0 mg/kg) and the lowest dose of amphetamine tested (0.125 mg/kg) increased extracellular dopamine both in the shell and in the core, but the effect was significantly more pronounced in the shell compared with the core. Only the highest dose of amphetamine (0.250 mg/kg) increased extracellular dopamine in the shell and in the core to a similar extent. The present results provide in vivo neurochemical evidence for a functional compartmentation within the nucleus accumbens and for a preferential effect of psychostimulants and morphine in the shell of the nucleus accumbens at doses known to sustain intravenous drug self-administration

Obesità e rischio cardiovascolare.

L’obesità rappresenta attualmente la più diffusa patologia da malnutrizione delle Società occidentali industrializzate e si associa spesso a svariate complicanze invalidanti sia mediche che chirurgiche. Essa è, inoltre, una condizione ad elevata prevalenza ed in continuo e costante incremento, al punto da essere etichettata come una “Epidemia globale”. Nella presente review sono stati analizzati i risultati degli studi più recenti che hanno individuato nella patologia del tessuto adiposo uno dei meccanismi più importanti nello sviluppo dell’aterosclerosi e delle manifestazioni cliniche ad essa connesse. Particolare riguardo è stato dato, oltre che alle evidenze epidemiologiche riguardanti i rapporti tra obesità e morbilità e mortalità cardiovascolare, anche alle relazioni tra grado e tipo di obesità, diabete, dislipidemia, ipertensione, e alle ripercussioni di queste condizioni sulla geometria e sulla funzione ventricolare sinistra per una corretta valutazione del rischio cardiovascolare del soggetto obeso. Un ultimo paragrafo ha riguardato l’analisi del ruolo sempre più rilevante della correzione dell’eccesso ponderale, tramite adeguati interventi dietetico-comportamentali e/o farmacologici, nelle strategie preventive delle malattie e/o degli eventi cardiovascolari

Transcript profiling of chitosan-treated Arabidopsis seedlings

In nature, plants can recognize potential pathogens, thus activating intricate networks of defense signals and reactions. Inducible defense is often mediated by the detection of microbe or pathogen associated molecular pattern elicitors, such as flagellin and chitin. Chitosan, the deacetylated form of chitin, plays a role in inducing protection against pathogens in many plant species. We evaluated the ability of chitosan to confer resistance to Botrytis cinerea in Arabidopsis leaves. We subsequently treated Arabidopsis seedlings with chitosan and carried out a transcript profiling analysis using both ATH1 GeneChip microarrays and quantitative RT-PCR. The results showed that defense response genes, including camalexin biosynthesis genes, were up-regulated by chitosan, both in wild-type and in the chitin-insensitive cerk1 mutant, indicating that chitosan is perceived through a CERK1-independent pathway

Whole-exome analysis in osteosarcoma to identify a personalized therapy

Osteosarcoma is the most common pediatric primary non-hematopoietic bone tumor. Survival of these young patients is related to the response to chemotherapy and development of metastases. Despite many advances in cancer research, chemotherapy regimens for osteosarcoma are still based on non-selective cytotoxic drugs. It is essential to investigate new specific molecular therapies for osteosarcoma to increase the survival rate of these patients. We performed exomic sequence analyses of 8 diagnostic biopsies of patients with conventional high grade osteosarcoma to advance our understanding of their genetic underpinnings and to correlate the genetic alteration with the clinical and pathological features of each patient to identify a personalized therapy. We identified 18,275 somatic variations in 8,247 genes and we found three mutated genes in 7/8 (87%) samples (KIF1B, NEB and KMT2C). KMT2C showed the highest number of variations; it is an important component of a histone H3 lysine 4 methyltransferase complex and it is one of the histone modifiers previously implicated in carcinogenesis, never studied in osteosarcoma. Moreover, we found a group of 15 genes that showed variations only in patients that did not respond to therapy and developed metastasis and some of these genes are involved in carcinogenesis and tumor progression in other tumors. These data could offer the opportunity to get a key molecular target to identify possible new strategies for early diagnosis and new therapeutic approaches for osteosarcoma and to provide a tailored treatment for each patient based on their genetic profile

Hemostatic function in young subjects with central obesity: relationship with left ventricular function

This study was designed to evaluate coagulation and fibrinolysis activity and their relationship with left ventricular function in young obese subjects with central fat distribution. We assessed coagulation and fibrinolysis activity by evaluation of factor VII activity, fibrinogen and plasminogen, plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI), and tissue plasminogen activator antigen basally (tPA1) and after venous occlusion (tPA2). These measures were evaluated in young (< 40 years) obese subjects with central fat distribution (n = 19) and in comparable lean subjects (n = 20). Blood glucose, triglycerides, total and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, apolipoprotein (apo) A1 and apo B, fasting immunoreactive insulin, and lipoprotein(a) levels were also measured by current methods. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and peak filling rate (PFR) determined by radionuclide angiocardiography and left ventricular mass (LVM) and LVM indexed for body height (LVM/H) determined by echocardiographic study were calculated. Central obesity was evaluated by the waist to hip ratio (WHR) according to the criteria of the Italian Consensus Conference of Obesity. Factor VII (P < .001), fibrinogen (P < .001), plasminogen (P < .001), PAI activity (P < .001), tPA1 (P < .02), fasting blood glucose (P < .01), apo B (P < .02), and immunoreactive insulin (P < .01) were significantly higher in obese than in lean subjects. In contrast, HDL cholesterol (P < .01), tPA2 (P < .01), LVEF (P < .001), and PFR (P < .02) were significantly lower in obese than in lean subjects. In all subjects, WHR correlated directly with fibrinogen and inversely with tPA2; LVEF correlated inversely with tPA1, PAI, and fibrinogen; and PFR correlated inversely with factor VII activity

Ranolazine Attenuates Trastuzumab-Induced Heart Dysfunction by Modulating ROS Production

The ErbB2 blocker trastuzumab improves survival in oncologic patients, but can cause cardiotoxicity. The late Na+ current inhibitor ranolazine has been shown to counter experimental HF, including doxorubicin cardiotoxicity (a condition characterized by derangements in redox balance), by lowering the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Since ErbB2 can modulate ROS signaling, we tested whether trastuzumab cardiotoxicity could be blunted by ranolazine via redox-mediated mechanisms. Trastuzumab decreased fractional shortening and ejection fraction in mice, but ranolazine prevented heart dysfunction when co-administered with trastuzumab. Trastuzumab cardiotoxicity was accompanied by elevations in natriuretic peptides and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) mRNAs, which were not elevated with co-treatment with ranolazine. Trastuzumab also increased cleavage of caspase-3, indicating activation of the proapoptotic machinery. Again, ranolazine prevented this activation. Interestingly, Neonatal Rat Ventricular Myocytes (NRVMs), labeled with MitoTracker Red and treated with trastuzumab, showed only a small increase in ROS compared to baseline conditions. We then stressed trastuzumab-treated cells with the beta-agonist isoproterenol to increase workload, and we observed a significant increase of probe fluorescence, compared with cells treated with isoproterenol alone, reflecting induction of oxidative stress. These effects were blunted by ranolazine, supporting a role for INa inhibition in the regulation of redox balance also in trastuzumab cardiotoxicity