Dalla conoscenza della forma urbana alla gestione e selezione delle informazioni per le rappresentazioni della città

A partire dal modello, inteso come prodotto del rilievo, modello che organizza la conoscenza, si richiamano alcune tappe delle ricerche del gruppo di Disegno del Dipartimento di Ingegneria dei Sistemi Edilizi e Territoriali del Politecnico di Torino, con la finalità di documentare le motivazioni che hanno fatto progredire la ricerca fino agli argomenti odierni. Dopo la stagione della forma urbana, si passa a quella della conoscenza-rilievo finalizzato alla regola per la progettazione, sia a scala urbana che a scala architettonica, ed infine alla stagione del rilievo della funzione. Studiando la funzione mercato su suolo pubblico si affrontano i temi legati alle trasformazioni nel tempo breve e l'integrazione degli archivi attivi di conoscenze complesse con le necessità della rappresentazione, sia statica che dinamic

Isolation and mapping of a C3'H gene (CYP98A49) from globe artichoke, and its expression upon UV-C stress

Globe artichoke represents a natural source of phenolic compounds with dicaffeoylquinic acids along with their biosynthetic precursor chlorogenic acid (5-caffeoylquinic acid) as the predominant molecules. We report the isolation and characterization of a full-length cDNA and promoter of a globe artichoke p-coumaroyl ester 3¿-hydroxylase (CYP98A49), which is involved in both chlorogenic acid and lignin biosynthesis. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that this gene belongs to the CYP98 family. CYP98A49 was also heterologously expressed in yeast, in order to perform an enzymatic assay with p-coumaroylshikimate and p-coumaroylquinate as substrates. Real Time quantitative PCR analysis revealed that CYP98A49 expression is induced upon exposure to UV-C radiation. A single nucleotide polymorphism in the CYP98A49 gene sequence of two globe artichoke varieties used for genetic mapping allowed the localization of this gene to linkage group 10 within the previously developed map

Pain in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a population-based controlled study

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FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF A TOMATO GLUTHATHIONE S TRANSFERASE GENE AND ITS IMPLICATION IN THE PLANT RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSES

Mitigating the negative effects of abiotic stresses on crop productivity is pivotal in order to meet the global demand for food and other agricultural commodities. Abiotic stresses caused by deficiencies or excesses in environmental factors such as water, salt, light, and temperature can substantially reduce plant growth and productivity and even survival. Abiotic stresses were estimated to cause an overall yield loss of ~70% in key agricultural crops and global warming is even expected to further worsen food security. Abiotic stresses induce in plant cells increasing levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are critical for stress signaling and mainly affect chloroplast protein synthesis and photosystem II repair. A plethora of antioxidants and antioxidant enzymes protect plant cells from oxidative stresses caused by an excess of ROS accumulation, thus engineering the cell redox cycle for enhancing the ROS-scavenging capacity might contribute to empower plant stress tolerance. Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) is a multigene superfamily with diverse cellular mechanisms and metabolic functions and has been considered as one of the key members of plant stress modulation pathways. Our goal is to investigates the role of a tomato glutathione S-transferase (GST - Solyc07g056420) gene in controlling plant stress response. Tobacco lines overexpressing the Solyc07g056420 coding sequence (OE) accumulated significantly higher levels of hydrogen peroxide in leaves and decreased leaf levels of flavonoids, chlorophyll A and antioxidant capacity compared with control plants. OE 40 days old plants underwent differential watering treatments, i.e. full reintegration of water lost by evapo transpiration (FWR) and restitution of 50% of lost water (HWR). Under HWR conditions, OE plants showed a reduced occurrence of leaf injuries and responded to drought with a significantly higher increase in leaf chlorophyll A, chlorophyll B, hydrogen peroxide and antioxidant capacity compared to control plants. These results suggested that the hyper-accumulation of H2O2 induced in leaves by the overexpression of the Solyc07g056420 coding sequence and compensated by the adjusting the antioxidant capacity might lead to an enhancement of plant responsiveness to drought. Ongoing experiments will further investigate the functional role of the tomato Solyc07g056420 within the stress signaling network and its possible involvement in the modulation of plant response to other environmental stresses

Metabolic spatial connectivity in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis as revealed by independent component analysis

Objectives. Positron emission tomography (PET) and volume of interest (VOI) analysis have recently shown in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) an accuracy of 93% in differentiating patients from controls. The aim of this study was to disclose by spatial independent component analysis (ICA) the brain networks involved in ALS pathological processes and evaluate their discriminative value in separating patients from controls. Experimental design. Two hundred fifty-nine ALS patients and 40 age- and sex-matched control subjects underwent brain 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose PET (FDG-PET). Spatial ICA of the preprocessed FDG-PET images was performed. Intensity values were converted to z-scores and binary masks were used as data-driven VOIs. The accuracy of this classifier was tested versus a validated system processing intensity signals in 27 brain meta-VOIs. A support vector machine was independently applied to both datasets and the \u27leave-one-out\u27 technique verified the general validity of results. Principal observations: The 8 components selected as pathophysiologically meaningful discriminated patients from controls with 99.0% accuracy, the discriminating value of bilateral cerebellum/midbrain alone representing 96.3%. Among the meta-VOIs, right temporal lobe alone reached an accuracy of 93.7%. Conclusions: Spatial ICA identified in a very large cohort of ALS patients distinct spatial networks showing a high discriminatory value, improving substantially on the previously obtained accuracy. The cerebellar/midbrain component accounted for the highest accuracy in separating ALS patients from controls. Spatial ICA and multivariate analysis perform better than univariate semi-quantification methods in identifying the neurodegenerative features of ALS and pave the way for inclusion of PET in clinical trials and early diagnosis

Risk factors and incidence of long-COVID syndrome in hospitalized patients: does remdesivir have a protective effect?

BACKGROUND: The definition of 'long-COVID syndrome' (LCS) is still debated and describes the persistence of symptoms after viral clearance in hospitalized or non-hospitalized patients affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). AIM: In this study, we examined the prevalence and the risk factors of LCS in a cohort of patients with previous COVID-19 and followed for at least 6 months of follow-up. DESIGN: We conducted a prospective study including all hospitalized patients affected by COVID-19 at our center of Infectious Diseases (Vercelli, Italy) admitted between 10 March 2020 and 15 January 2021 for at least 6 months after discharge. Two follow-up visits were performed: after 1 and 6 months after hospital discharge. Clinical, laboratory and radiological data were recorded at each visit. RESULTS: A total of 449 patients were included in the analysis. The LCS was diagnosed in 322 subjects at Visit 1 (71.7%) and in 206 at Visit 2 (45.9); according to the post-COVID-19 functional status scale we observed 147 patients with values 2-3 and 175 with values >3 at Visit 1; at Visit 2, 133 subjects had the score between 2-3 and 73 > 3. In multivariate analysis, intensive care unit (ICU) admission (OR = 2.551; 95% CI = 1.998-6.819; P = 0.019), time of hospitalization (OR = 2.255; 95% CI = 1.018-6.992; P = 0.016) and treatment with remdesivir (OR = 0.641; 95% CI = 0.413-0.782; P < 0.001) were independent predictors of LCS. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with remdesivir leads to a 35.9% reduction in LCS rate in follow-up. Severity of illness, need of ICU admission and length of hospital stay were factor associated with the persistence of PCS at 6 months of follow-up

Functional pattern of Brain FDG-PET in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Objective: We investigated a large sample of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at rest in order to assess the value of 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG) PET as a biomarker to discriminate patients from controls. Methods: A total of 195 patients with ALS and 40 controls underwent brain 18F-FDG-PET, most within 5 months of diagnosis. Spinal and bulbar subgroups of ALS were also investigated. Twenty-five bilateral cortical and subcortical volumes of interest and cerebellum were taken into account, and 18F-FDG uptakes were individually normalized by whole-brain values. Group analyses investigated the ALS-related metabolic changes. Discriminant analysis investigating sensitivity and specificity was performed using the 51 volumes of interest as well as age and sex. Metabolic connectivity was explored by voxel-wise interregional correlation analysis. Results: Hypometabolismwas found in frontal, motor, and occipital cortex and hypermetabolismin midbrain, temporal pole, and hippocampus in patients with ALS compared to controls. A similar metabolic pattern was also found in the 2 subgroups. Discriminant analysis showed a sensitivity of 95% and a specificity of 83% in separating patients from controls. Connectivity analysis found a highly significant positive correlation between midbrain and white matter in corticospinal tracts in patients with ALS. Conclusions: 18F-FDG distribution changes in ALS showed a clear pattern of hypometabolism in frontal and occipital cortex and hypermetabolism in midbrain. The latter might be interpreted as the neurobiological correlate of diffuse subcortical gliosis. Discriminant analysis resulted in high sensitivity and specificity in differentiating patients with ALS from controls. Once validated by diseased-control studies, the present methodology might represent a potentially useful biomarker for ALS diagnosis. Classificaton of evidence: This study provides Class III evidence that 18F-FDG-PET accurately distinguishes patients with ALS from normal controls (sensitivity 95.4%, specificity 82.5%)