Exploring operational Issues in refugees' care and integration process: the case of "SPRAR" project organisations

Several crises in many countries of the world are causing large migratory fluxes towards the most developed countries. The importance of migrants’ reception, acceptance and integration is increasing. The last phase of migration process concerns migrants’ integration, i.e. the process that start with migrants being accepted in the hosting country and end with migrants being completely integrated, i.e. autonomous both from an economic and a social point of view. Since this integration process is being slow and difficult, this research has two main objectives. The first one is to explore all the operations conducted by the organisations involved in the migrants’ integration process; the second one is to investigate about all the organisational factors that may have an impact on the integration process, with the purpose of improving it. Improving the integration process means being able to deliver services that are adequate to satisfy the migrants’ needs and expectations. With this exploratory purpose, two case studies have been conducted, in which two organisations involved in delivering services for migrants’ integration were analysed. At the end of the case studies analysis, a final framework was developed. It was found that the most important factors affecting the migrants’ integration are related to organisational capabilities, practices related to services co-design and co-creation, cooperative networks with other organisations and contextual factors like the social context in which they operate. The theoretical background about cooperative networks and operational improvement programs was crucial in order to identify these organisational factors that affect migrants’ integration

Intelligent agents for diffused cyber-physical museums

The Cleopatra project allows for implementing cyber-physical systems, where the social interaction among human users and intelligent agents leverages a collaborative fruition of cultural contents and distributed services. The social interaction among human users and intelligent agents is distributed among physical and virtual loca- tions. Conversational and Proactive Agents communicate and interact with users in a credible human-like manner, as well as can simply deliver cultural information on demand, carrying out interactive storytelling. In particular, Proactive Agents imple- ment gateways between multi-user conversations, which are built upon the XMPP protocol, as well as the diadic interaction with conversational agents, which uses the Natural Language Processing technology to provide cyber intelligence to the system. A ’Diffused Museum’ case study is implemented to demonstrate the proposed model that integrates digital collection and live tours of archaeological sites

Technical issues on roaming : transparency, technical aspects and data overview related to the proposed regulation on roaming

The object of the present briefing is to analyse some of the fundamental aspects of the legal proposal by the European Commission on the subject of roaming, COM (2006) 382 on 12 July 2006, which proposed to modify the regulation of mobile communications, resulting in important reductions of roaming tariffs within the Community. The briefing examines the efficiency and concrete applicability of the measures introduced by the Regulation Proposal, which created the “Mechanism of the Domestic European Market” and the envisaged requirements of transparency and information on roaming costs charged by mobile network operators (MNOs). The briefing consists of four sections, analysing the following issues: Transparency, Technical Infrastructure, Overview of Existing Data, and Feasibility of Technical Implementation

The structural role of the zinc ion can be dispensable in prokaryotic zinc-finger domains

The recent characterization of the prokaryotic Cys2His2 zinc-finger domain, identified in Ros protein from Agrobacterium tumefaciens, has demonstrated that, although possessing a similar zinc coordination sphere, this domain is structurally very different from its eukaryotic counterpart. A search in the databases has identified *300 homologues with a high sequence identity to the Ros protein, including the amino acids that form the extensive hydrophobic core in Ros. Surprisingly, the Cys2His2 zinc coordination sphere is generally poorly conserved in the Ros homologues, raising the question of whether the zinc ion is always preserved in these proteins. Here, we present a functional and structural study of a point mutant of Ros protein, Ros56–142C82D, in which the second coordinating cysteine is replaced by an aspartate, 5 previously-uncharacterized representative Ros homologues from Mesorhizobium loti, and 2 mutants of the homologues. Our results indicate that the prokaryotic zinc-finger domain, which in Ros protein tetrahedrally coordinates Zn(II) through the typical Cys2His2 coordination, in Ros homologues can either exploit a CysAspHis2 coordination sphere, previously never described in DNA binding zinc finger domains to our knowledge, or lose the metal, while still preserving the DNA-binding activity. We demonstrate that this class of prokaryotic zinc-finger domains is structurally very adaptable, and surprisingly single mutations can transform a zinc-binding domain into a nonzinc-binding domain and vice versa, without affecting the DNA-binding ability. In light of our findings an evolutionary link between the prokaryotic and eukaryotic zinc-finger domains, based on bacteria-to-eukaryota horizontal gene transfer, is discussed.The recent characterization of the prokaryotic Cys(2)His(2) zinc-finger domain, identified in Ros protein from Agrobacterium tumefaciens, has demonstrated that, although possessing a similar zinc coordination sphere, this domain is structurally very different from its eukaryotic counterpart. A search in the databases has identified approximate to 300 homologues with a high sequence identity to the Ros protein, including the amino acids that form the extensive hydrophobic core in Ros. Surprisingly, the Cys(2)His(2) zinc coordination sphere is generally poorly conserved in the Ros homologues, raising the question of whether the zinc ion is always preserved in these proteins. Here, we present a functional and structural study of a point mutant of Ros protein, Ros(56-142)C82D, in which the second coordinating cysteine is replaced by an aspartate, 5 previously-uncharacterized representative Ros homologues from Mesorhizobium loti, and 2 mutants of the homologues. Our results indicate that the prokaryotic zinc-finger domain, which in Ros protein tetrahedrally coordinates Zn(II) through the typical Cys(2)His(2) coordination, in Ros homologues can either exploit a CysAspHis(2) coordination sphere, previously never described in DNA binding zinc finger domains to our knowledge, or lose the metal, while still preserving the DNA-binding activity. We demonstrate that this class of prokaryotic zinc-finger domains is structurally very adaptable, and surprisingly single mutations can transform a zinc-binding domain into a nonzinc-binding domain and vice versa, without affecting the DNA-binding ability. In light of our findings an evolutionary link between the prokaryotic and eukaryotic zinc-finger domains, based on bacteria-to-eukaryota horizontal gene transfer, is discussed

The structural role of the zinc ion can be dispensable in prokaryotic zinc-finger domains

The recent characterization of the prokaryotic Cys2His2 zinc-finger domain, identified in Ros protein from Agrobacterium tumefaciens, has demonstrated that, although possessing a similar zinc coordination sphere, this domain is structurally very different from its eukaryotic counterpart. A search in the databases has identified ≈300 homologues with a high sequence identity to the Ros protein, including the amino acids that form the extensive hydrophobic core in Ros. Surprisingly, the Cys2His2 zinc coordination sphere is generally poorly conserved in the Ros homologues, raising the question of whether the zinc ion is always preserved in these proteins. Here, we present a functional and structural study of a point mutant of Ros protein, Ros56–142C82D, in which the second coordinating cysteine is replaced by an aspartate, 5 previously-uncharacterized representative Ros homologues from Mesorhizobium loti, and 2 mutants of the homologues. Our results indicate that the prokaryotic zinc-finger domain, which in Ros protein tetrahedrally coordinates Zn(II) through the typical Cys2His2 coordination, in Ros homologues can either exploit a CysAspHis2 coordination sphere, previously never described in DNA binding zinc finger domains to our knowledge, or lose the metal, while still preserving the DNA-binding activity. We demonstrate that this class of prokaryotic zinc-finger domains is structurally very adaptable, and surprisingly single mutations can transform a zinc-binding domain into a nonzinc-binding domain and vice versa, without affecting the DNA-binding ability. In light of our findings an evolutionary link between the prokaryotic and eukaryotic zinc-finger domains, based on bacteria-to-eukaryota horizontal gene transfer, is discussed

Dual Functionalized Liposomes for Selective Delivery of Poorly Soluble Drugs to Inflamed Brain Regions

Dual functionalized liposomes were developed to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and to release their cargo in a pathological matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-rich microenvironment. Liposomes were surface-functionalized with a modified peptide deriving from the receptor-binding domain of apolipoprotein E (mApoE), known to promote cargo delivery to the brain across the BBB in vitro and in vivo; and with an MMP-sensitive moiety for an MMP-triggered drug release. Different MMP-sensitive peptides were functionalized at both ends with hydrophobic stearate tails to yield MMP-sensitive lipopeptides (MSLPs), which were assembled into mApoE liposomes. The resulting bi-functional liposomes (i) displayed a −5 cm/min; (iii) when exposed to functional MMP2 or 9, efficiently released an encapsulated fluorescein dye; (iv) showed high biocompatibility when tested in neuronal cultures; and (v) when loaded with glibenclamide, a drug candidate with poor aqueous solubility, reduced the release of proinflammatory cytokines from activated microglial cells