A F.E. UPPER BOUND LIMIT ANALYSIS MODEL FOR MASONRY CURVED AND 3D STRUCTURES, WITH AND WITHOUT FRPREINFORCEMENT

The aim of this thesis is to propose a new efficient numerical tool, based on the kinematic theorem of limit analysis, for the study of masonry shell and 3D structures with or without FRP reinforcement. The approach consists of two steps. In step I unreinforced masonry strength domains are obtained with a FE limit analysis procedure applied to a representative element of volume constituted by a central brick interacting with its six neighbours by means of rigid plastic interfaces (mortar joint). In step II, the unreinforced strength domains are implemented in a novel upper bound FE limit analysis code for the analysis at collapse of entire masonry curved and 3D structures

Comparing re‐hospitalisation rates in a real‐world naturalistic 24‐month follow‐up of psychotic patients with different treatment strategies: Oral versus LAI antipsychotics

AIM & BACKGROUND Non-adherence to antipsychotic treatment is a major issue in the management of severe psychiatric disorders, because it is usually related to future relapses and re-hospitalisations. Long-Acting-Injection (LAI) antipsychotics can be useful to increase treatment adherence in these patients. The aim of the present study was to compare the re-hospitalisation rates of psychotic patients discharged from a psychiatric ward and then, divided into three groups upon the treatment received: LAI antipsychotic, oral antipsychotic at home or oral antipsychotic administered daily by psychiatric nurse staff as patients lived in a long-term care facility. METHODS Data on all inpatients consecutively admitted to the Psychiatric Unit of the Nuovo Ospedale Apuano (Massa, Italy), between January 2017 and December 2018, were obtained by the registration record system. Information about eventual re-hospitalisations of these patients, occurred within a 24-month timeframe since discharge, were collected from the same database. RESULTS In a Kaplan-Meyer analysis, patients treated with LAI antipsychotics showed significantly lower re-hospitalisation rates in the first 24 months after discharge than those treated with oral ones. CONCLUSIONS This study highlights the impact of LAI antipsychotics in preventing re-hospitalisation in severe psychotic patients at high risk in a naturalistic setting. The benefits appear relevant also with respect to a controlled long-term oral antipsychotic treatment, however, further studies are needed to develop more tailored intervention strategies in such complex psychiatric population

p53/NF-kB Balance in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: From OMICs, Genomics and Pharmacogenomics Insights to Tailored Therapeutic Perspectives (COVIDomics)

SARS-CoV-2 infection affects different organs and tissues, including the upper and lower airways, the lung, the gut, the olfactory system and the eye, which may represent one of the gates to the central nervous system. Key transcriptional factors, such as p53 and NF-kB and their reciprocal balance, are altered upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as other key molecules such as the virus host cell entry mediator ACE2, member of the RAS-pathway. These changes are thought to play a central role in the impaired immune response, as well as in the massive cytokine release, the so-called cytokine storm that represents a hallmark of the most severe form of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Host genetics susceptibility is an additional key side to consider in a complex disease as COVID-19 characterized by such a wide range of clinical phenotypes. In this review, we underline some molecular mechanisms by which SARS-CoV-2 modulates p53 and NF-kB expression and activity in order to maximize viral replication into the host cells. We also face the RAS-pathway unbalance triggered by virus-ACE2 interaction to discuss potential pharmacological and pharmacogenomics approaches aimed at restoring p53/NF-kB and ACE1/ACE2 balance to counteract the most severe forms of SARS-CoV-2 infection

Development of a non-chemical RNAi-based strategy for Amaranthus hybridus L. weed management

Weeds are one of the major issues in cropping systems, responsible for significant yield losses. Herbicide applications are the most effective strategy to control weeds, but stricter legislation has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of herbicides available on the market. Furthermore, the recent European legislation on the sustainable use of pesticides will require farmers to drastically reduce chemical use over the next ten years while promoting integrated weed management strategies that improve environmental sustainability and lower the risks to animal and human health. In addition, the over-reliance on chemical control has resulted in the evolution of resistant biotypes. As a result, new technologies to effectively manage weeds and weed resistance should be developed. In this regard, the development of a non-chemical weed control strategy based on RNA interference (RNAi) technology could: i) represent a potential non-chemical weed control strategy, ii) provide an emerging GMO-free strategy for managing invasive and resistant weeds, and iii) provide a valid opportunity to go inside the molecular mechanisms of weed biology. In this study, the acetolactate synthase (ALS) gene of Amaranthus hybridus L. has been used as the target to assess the effectiveness and applicability of in-vitro synthesized double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) direct application for endogenous gene silencing and weed control. A. hybridus is a monoecious and self-pollinated weed that has evolved multiple resistance to herbicides with different sites of action, including ALS inhibitors, which are the most used herbicides in soybean. ALS represents an ideal target for the development and future application of dsRNA-mediated gene silencing because it is an intronless, nucleotide-stable, and single-copy gene. We have produced dsRNAs of various lengths (ranging from 218 to 460bp) targeting three distinct ALS regions: the 5’- and 3’-ends, and a central region. dsRNAs molecules were transcribed in-vitro by T7 RNA polymerase and externally applied to the abaxial leaf surface of A. hybridus plants at 4-6 true leaves developmental stage by: i) mechanical inoculation, or ii) high-pressure spraying. Despite the expression of ALS gene transcripts was found to be lightly downregulated when synthetic 2 ALS-dsRNAs were applied, no phenotypic effects were observed. Our current research focuses on the determination of the effectiveness of ALS-dsRNAs silencing using agroinfiltration techniques, and on dsRNAs delivery techniques through the use of nanomaterials to maximize the effectiveness of gene silencing by exogenous dsRNAs application. This second approach was preliminary studied by RNA electrophoretic mobility of functionalized nanomaterial and by means of confocal microscopy on A. hybridus leaves. In parallel, we are examining the expression patterns of genes thought to be involved in the RNAi pathway in A. hybridus to verify if their expression is triggered by dsRNA applications

Evaluation of the galactogogue effect of silymarin on mothers of preterm newborns (<32 weeks)

Hypogalactia has a relative high frequency in women having delivered preterm infants, who often have difficulties in maintaining a sufficient production of milk for their infants’ needs over prolonged periods of time. Recent studies have shown a potential galactogogue effect of silymarin on milk production in animal models (cows and rats) and in humans (mothers of term newborns); nonetheless, none of the studies conducted on humans consisted of double-blind randomized clinical trials and no data are available concerning mothers who delivered preterm infants. The aim of our study was to assess the efficacy of silymarin (BIO-C®) as galactogogue and its tolerability in mothers who delivered preterm infants. We enrolled 50 mothers at 10±1 days post-partum who had delivered infants at ® and placebo arms. No adverse events were observed in the 2 arms among mothers and infants, and silymarin and its metabolites were not detectable in the analyzed human milk samples. Further investigation on specific patient groups affected by hypogalactia, defined according to stricter criteria, should be planned to assess the efficacy of the product in increasing milk production

Nutritional adequacy of a novel human milk fortifier from donkey milk in feeding preterm infants: Study protocol of a randomized controlled clinical trial

Abstract Background Fortification of human milk is a standard practice for feeding very low birth weight infants. However, preterm infants often still experience suboptimal growth and feeding intolerance. New fortification strategies and different commercially available fortifiers have been developed. Commercially available fortifiers are constituted by a blend of ingredients from different sources, including plant oils and bovine milk proteins, thus presenting remarkable differences in the quality of macronutrients with respect to human milk. Based on the consideration that donkey milk has been suggested as a valid alternative for children allergic to cow’s milk proteins, due to its biochemical similarity to human milk, we hypothesized that donkey milk could be a suitable ingredient for developing an innovative human milk fortifier. The aim of the study is to evaluate feeding tolerance, growth and clinical short and long-term outcomes in a population of preterm infants fed with a novel multi-component fortifier and a protein concentrate derived from donkey milk, in comparison to an analogous population fed with traditional fortifier and protein supplement containing bovine milk proteins. Methods The study has been designed as a randomized, controlled, single-blind clinical trial. Infants born <1500 g and <32 weeks of gestational age were randomized to receive for 21 days either a combination of control bovine milk-based multicomponent fortifier and protein supplement, or a combination of a novel multicomponent fortifier and protein supplement derived from donkey milk. The fortification protocol followed is the same for the two groups, and the two diets were designed to be isoproteic and isocaloric. Weight, length and head circumference are measured; feeding tolerance is assessed by a standardized protocol. The occurrence of sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis and adverse effects are monitored. Discussion This is the first clinical study investigating the use of a human milk fortifier derived from donkey milk for the nutrition of preterm infants. If donkey milk derived products will be shown to improve the feeding tolerance or either of the clinical, metabolic, neurological or auxological outcomes of preterm infants, it would be an absolute innovation in the field of feeding practices for preterm infants. Trial registration ISRCTN - ISRCTN70022881

Advanced Data Chain Technologies for the Next Generation of Earth Observation Satellites Supporting On-Board Processing for Rapid Civil Alerts

The growing number of planned Earth Observation (EO) satellites, together with the increase in payload resolution and swath, brings to the fore the generation of unprecedented volumes of data that needs to be downloaded, processed and distributed with low latency. This creates a severe bottleneck problem, which overloads ground infrastructure, communications to ground, and hampers the provision of EO products to the End User with the required performances. The EO-ALERT project (http://eo-alert-h2020.eu/), an H2020 European Union research activity, proposes the definition of next-generation EO missions by developing an on-board high speed EO data processing chain, based on a novel flight segment architecture that moves optimised key EO data processing elements from the ground segment to on-board the satellite. EO-ALERT achieves, globally, latencies below five minutes for EO products delivery, reaching latencies below 1 minute in some scenarios. The proposed architecture solves the above challenges through a combination of innovations in the on-board elements of the data chain and the communications link. Namely, the architecture introduces innovative technological solutions, including on-board reconfigurable data handling, on-board image generation and processing for generation of alerts (EO products) using Artificial Intelligence (AI), high-speed on-board avionics, on-board data compression and encryption using AI and reconfigurable high data rate communication links to ground including a separate chain for alerts with minimum latency and global coverage. Those key technologies have been studied, developed, implemented in software/hardware (SW/HW) and verified against previously established technologies requirements to meet the identified user needs. The paper presents the development of the innovative solutions defined during the project for each of the above mentioned technological areas and the results of the testing campaign of the individual SW/HW implementations within the context of two operational scenarios: ship detection and extreme weather observation (nowcasting), both requiring a high responsiveness to events to reduce the response time to few hours, or even to minutes, after an emergency situation arises. The technologies have been experimentally evaluated during the project using relevant EO historical sensor data. The results demonstrate the maturity of the technologies, having now reached TRL 4-5. Generally, the results show that, when implemented using COTS components and available communication links, the proposed architecture can generate alerts with a latency lower than five minutes, which demonstrates the viability of the EO-ALERT concept. The paper also discusses the implementation on an Avionic Test Bench (ATB) for the validation of the integrated technologies chain

Risultati preliminari delle indagini scientifiche sul corpo del Beato Antonio da Fano (m. 1435)

The Blessed Antonio da Fano was a Franciscan friar dead in 1435, after being Confessor to the King Alphonso V of Aragon and Ambassador to the Holy See. His body, re-cently discovered in the church of Santa Maria Nuova in Fano, underwent external inspection, radiologic examina-tion, and subsequent laboratory investigations. The well-preserved, partially skeletonized mummy showed signs of obesity, atherosclerosis, and dental caries, leading us to hypothesize that Antonio had access to a diet rich in sugar and fats. The anthropometric study estimated a height of 168 cm. The study of occupational activities revealed moderate and symmetrical stress of the lower limbs with much less overload of the upper district. Rare osteoarthrit-ic processes affected thoracic and lumbar spine. The cra-nial cavity contained amorphous material, bony remnants of rodents, and textile fragments belonging to the subject’s primary burial. The facial reconstruction was carried out by computed tomography scanning.Il Beato Antonio da Fano era un frate francescano decedu-to nel 1435, dopo essere stato confessore del re d’Aragona Alfonso V e ambasciatore presso la Santa Sede. Il suo cor-po, recentemente rinvenuto nella chiesa di Santa Maria Nuova in Fano, è stato sottoposto ad ispezione esterna, esami radiologici e successive indagini di laboratorio. La mummia, ben conservata e parzialmente scheletrizzata, mostrava evidenza di obesità, aterosclerosi e carie dentale, lasciando ipotizzare una dieta ricca di zuccheri e grassi. L’antropometria indicava un’altezza di 168 cm. Lo studio ergo-nomico mostrava un impegno moderato e simmetrico degli arti inferiori con un carico assai minore del distretto superiore. I rari processi artrosici riguardavano la colonna toracica e lombare. La cavità cranica conteneva materiale amorfo, resti ossei di roditori e frammenti di tessili relativi alla prima sepoltura. La ricostruzione facciale è stata effet-tuata mediante tomografia computerizzata