Problemi di organizzazione dell’authority control in campo musicale: nomi e titoli convenzionali [Versione italiana presentata alla Conferenza internazionale] = Authority control in the field of the music: names and titles [English version presented at the International Conference]

Parallel to the worldwide dissemination of music is the dissemination of musical documents, presenting some typical characters that differentiate it from the dissemination of literary documents. Music notation is a much more complicated and expensive process than text writing, thus music manuscripts have been widely used until the mid-20th century and are now large part of materials preserved in libraries. Thus compelled by the circumstances, music librarianship recognised by the mid-20th century the need to focus the cataloguing process on all kinds of documents preserving music and information about musical events, regardless of the materials, and developed international repertories, reference tools and standards

Neural Markers of Opposite-Sex Bias in Face Processing

Some behavioral and neuroimaging studies suggest that adults prefer to view attractive faces of the opposite sex more than attractive faces of the same sex. However, unlike the other-race face effect (Caldara et al., 2004), little is known regarding the existence of an opposite-/same-sex bias in face processing. In this study, the faces of 130 attractive male and female adults were foveally presented to 40 heterosexual university students (20 men and 20 women) who were engaged in a secondary perceptual task (landscape detection). The automatic processing of face gender was investigated by recording ERPs from 128 scalp sites. Neural markers of opposite- vs. same-sex bias in face processing included larger and earlier centro–parietal N400s in response to faces of the opposite sex and a larger late positivity (LP) to same-sex faces. Analysis of intra-cortical neural generators (swLORETA) showed that facial processing-related (FG, BA37, BA20/21) and emotion-related brain areas (the right parahippocampal gyrus, BA35; uncus, BA36/38; and the cingulate gyrus, BA24) had higher activations in response to opposite- than same-sex faces. The results of this analysis, along with data obtained from ERP recordings, support the hypothesis that both genders process opposite-sex faces differently than same-sex faces. The data also suggest a hemispheric asymmetry in the processing of opposite-/same-sex faces, with the right hemisphere involved in processing same-sex faces and the left hemisphere involved in processing faces of the opposite sex. The data support previous literature suggesting a right lateralization for the representation of self-image and body awareness

Takis Zenetos: Electronic Urbanism

Una riflessione sulla odierna condizione di confinamento e di smart working, in relazione al lavoro svolto da Takis Zenetos negli anni '60 del secolo scorso, in particolare all'interno del contributo teorico "Electronic Urbanism"

Problemi di organizzazione dell’authority control in campo musicale: nomi e titoli convenzionali [Versione italiana presentata alla Conferenza internazionale] = Authority control in the field of the music: names and titles [English version presented at the International Conference]

Parallel to the worldwide dissemination of music is the dissemination of musical documents, presenting some typical characters that differentiate it from the dissemination of literary documents. Music notation is a much more complicated and expensive process than text writing, thus music manuscripts have been widely used until the mid-20th century and are now large part of materials preserved in libraries. Thus compelled by the circumstances, music librarianship recognised by the mid-20th century the need to focus the cataloguing process on all kinds of documents preserving music and information about musical events, regardless of the materials, and developed international repertories, reference tools and standards

The use of Biofeedback in Clinical Virtual Reality: The INTREPID Project

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by a constant and unspecific anxiety that interferes with daily-life activities. Its high prevalence in general population and the severe limitations it causes, point out the necessity to find new efficient strategies to treat it. Together with the cognitive-behavioral treatments, relaxation represents a useful approach for the treatment of GAD, but it has the limitation that it is hard to be learned. The INTREPID project is aimed to implement a new instrument to treat anxiety-related disorders and to test its clinical efficacy in reducing anxiety-related symptoms. The innovation of this approach is the combination of virtual reality and biofeedback, so that the first one is directly modified by the output of the second one. In this way, the patient is made aware of his or her reactions through the modification of some features of the VR environment in real time. Using mental exercises the patient learns to control these physiological parameters and using the feedback provided by the virtual environment is able to gauge his or her success. The supplemental use of portable devices, such as PDA or smart-phones, allows the patient to perform at home, individually and autonomously, the same exercises experienced in therapist's office. The goal is to anchor the learned protocol in a real life context, so enhancing the patients' ability to deal with their symptoms. The expected result is a better and faster learning of relaxation techniques, and thus an increased effectiveness of the treatment if compared with traditional clinical protocols

Bendamustine plus rituximab is an effective first-line treatment in hairy cell leukemia variant: A report of three cases

Hairy cell leukemia variant (HCLv) is a chronic lymphoproliferative disorder classified as a provisional entity in the 2016 WHO Classification of Lymphoid Tumors. HCLv is characterized by unfavorable prognosis, low complete remission rates and limited disease control following classical hairy cell leukemia-based regimens. In this study, we report 3 cases of elderly patients with treatment-naive, TP53 un-mutated HCLv, who were effectively treated with four cycles of bendamustine plus rituximab. The regimen was completed in all the patients with acceptable toxicity. All patients achieved a complete clinical response with no evidence of residual disease at bone marrow biopsy and flow-cytometry examination. After a median follow-up of 19 months, the 3 subjects are still in complete remission. In this work, bendamustine plus rituximab proved to be an effective and feasible first-line treatment strategy for elderly patients with TP53 un-mutated HCLv

Hungry for compliments? Ghrelin is not associated with neural responses to social rewards or their pleasantness

The stomach-derived hormone ghrelin motivates food search and stimulates food consumption, with highest plasma concentrations before a meal and lowest shortly after. However, ghrelin also appears to affect the value of non-food rewards such as interaction with rat conspecifics, and monetary rewards in humans. The present pre-registered study investigated how nutritional state and ghrelin concentrations are related to the subjective and neural responses to social and non-social rewards. In a cross-over feed-and-fast design, 67 healthy volunteers (20 women) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a hungry state and after a meal with repeated plasma ghrelin measurements. In task 1, participants received social rewards in the form of approving expert feedback, or non-social computer reward. In task 2, participants rated the pleasantness of compliments and neutral statements. Nutritional state and ghrelin concentrations did not affect the response to social reward in task 1. In contrast, ventromedial prefrontal cortical activation to non-social rewards was reduced when the meal strongly suppressed ghrelin. In task 2, fasting increased activation in the right ventral striatum during all statements, but ghrelin concentrations were neither associated with brain activation nor with experienced pleasantness. Complementary Bayesian analyses provided moderate evidence for a lack of correlation between ghrelin concentrations and behavioral and neural responses to social rewards, but moderate evidence for an association between ghrelin and non-social rewards. This suggests that ghrelin’s influence may be restricted to non-social rewards. Social rewards implemented via social recognition and affirmation may be too abstract and complex to be susceptible to ghrelin’s influence. In contrast, the non-social reward was associated with the expectation of a material object that was handed out after the experiment. This may indicate that ghrelin might be involved in anticipatory rather than consummatory phases of reward.publishedVersio

Bioprinting for osteosarcoma model: Methodological aspects and experimental applications

The study aims at using the bioprinting technique to create an in vitro 3D construct of osteosarcoma, as an alternative model for studies related to Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT)

Heterogeneous cell population derived from human ovarian follicular liquid: morphological studies and molecular screening

The origin of oocytes and primary follicles in ovaries of adult mammalian females is still a matter of dispute [1]. The components of new primary follicles, primitive granulosa and germ cells, differentiate sequentially and de novo from mesenchymal progenitor cells residing in the ovarian tunica albuginea (TA). It appears that mesenchymal progenitor cells contribute to the generation of epithelial cells similar to granulosa cells (GCs). The multipotency of a subset of granulosa cells was also established by in vitro differentiation into other cell types [2]. Up to now, luteinizing GCs were considered to be terminally differentiated, unavoidably becoming apoptotic a few days after ovulation. Previously, we have provided evidence for the existence of putative stem cells derived from human ovarian follicular liquid collected after routine procedures for in vitro fertilization techniques [3]. These cells grow in minimal medium condition, without any growth factor (i.e. LIF), that is considered essential according to other procedures [4]. Using immunocytochemistry and flow cytometry we showed that these cells are positive for several mesenchymal stemness markers, including CD90, CD73, CD44, CD105. However, morphological analysis revealed a heterogeneous cell population, with cells displaying a fibroblast-like, epithelial- like and neural-like shapes. These observations are also supported by the identification of cells expressing specific neural markers, such as neurofilaments and PGP9.5, in addition to vimentin and cytocheratin positive cells. All these data are suggestive of the presence of different cell populations in follicular fluids. To verify this hypothesis we select a panel of markers specific for the different cell populations previously identified and we plan a molecular screening to follow their expression in the follicular fluid derived cells at different times of minimal culture conditions in vitro. Bone marrow derived MSCs were used as a control. For each sample we performed semiquantitative RT-PCR experiments normalizing the cDNAs used as templates on the basis of the number of pseudo-mesenchymal cells morphologically identified in the sample. For this purpose OCT-4 was selected as a stem marker to follow the mesenchymal stem cell population, while FSH-R was used to identify granulosa derived cells; CNTF and beta-3-tubuline were used to discriminate between neural and neuronal cells populations; epithelial and hematopoietic cells were followed using cytokeratin (CK8 and CK10) and CD45 markers, respectively. GAPDH and β-actin specific primers were used on all samples for normalization. Here we compare the results of this molecular screening with the previously obtained immunocytochemical and morphological data to confirm the presence of these different cytotypes in the samples purified from the follicular liquid and their persistence, loss or amplification at different times of in vitro minimal culture conditions

Rumen fluid, a new diagnostic matrix in dairy cattle farms?

Production diseases of dairy cows are considered man-made problems caused by the inability of cowsto achieve a sufficient feed energy intake (Mulligan, 2008).A correct management of production diseases demands early diagnostic and prognostic parameters, inorder to improve the management system and reduce the prevalence of clinical cases (Ingvartsen,2003).A previous study of our group indicated that forestomachs walls express immune receptors andcytokines, and the rumen liquor contains leukocytes able to produce IFN-γ (Trevisi, 2014).Our working hypothesis implied that ruminal fluids could be a source of diagnostic information for theidentification of herds at risk for production diseases.We first demonstrated that the diet can influence the immune response in forestomachs. Diverseleukocyte populations at low concentrations and IFN-γ were revealed in some samples of rumen fluids,with a clear inhibition of the response observed in the animals fed the maize-supplemented diet,compared to a normal and a soy-supplemented diet.We better characterized the leukocytes subpopulations in the rumen liquor, isolating B cells, monocytesand γδT cells.Finally we performed a field survey in order to find correlation among the immune profile of the rumenliquor. Clinically healthy animals showed a farm specific immunologic pattern of the rumen liquor: lowCD45 mRNA expression, low IFN-γ, few/absent B-cells.We can conclude that the epithelial cells of ruminant forestomachs can react to different stresses(metabolic, infectious, inflammatory) and the inflammatory response can be sustained by infiltratingleukocytes.Our data points into the idea that dairy farms could be ranked according to a risk score using theinflammatory markers in rumen fluids, in addition to the traditional analysis.