989 research outputs found
Hidden Florence revealed? Critical insights from the operation of an augmented reality app in a World Heritage City
This is the final version. Available on open access from Routledge via the DOI in this recordData availability statement:
The data on which this paper is based are available in aggregate form in an unpublished report compiled by Cristina Mosconi entitled Hidden Florence Analytics Report, 2017â18 which is deposited at https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/125232Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, overtourism was a major topic in global tourism management discourse. The continued growth of international tourism placed pressure on many high-profile urban destinations containing some of the world's most important intrinsic cultural heritage. This paper critically examines the operation of Hidden Florence, a heritage tourism augmented reality (AR) application (app) for the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Florence in Italy. Since 2016, the city management plan has actively promoted digital and smart solutions to address the issues induced by mass heritage tourism. Through user engagement data from 2013 to 2018, this paper investigates the nature and extent of app use, both in and away from the city. The paper makes two main contributions. First, from a managerial perspective, the empirical analysis points to several major practical and methodological challenges if AR apps, and the data they generate, are to be employed effectively as part of the management of established heritage destinations. Second, the use of AR apps in, and smart approaches to, tourism management have been recently theorised and advocated. Evidence from Hidden Florence demonstrates that translating conceptual possibilities into longer-term management practices and beneficial change is more challenging than existing discourse concedes.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)University of Exeter Innovation, Impact and Business Directorate Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF
Deuteron Electroweak Disintegration
We study the deuteron electrodisintegration with inclusion of the neutral
currents focusing on the helicity asymmetry of the exclusive cross section in
coplanar geometry. We stress that a measurement of this asymmetry in the quasi
elastic region is of interest for an experimental determination of the weak
form factors of the nucleon, allowing one to obtain the parity violating
electron neutron asymmetry. Numerically, we consider the reaction at low
momentum transfer and discuss the sensitivity of the helicity asymmetry to the
strangeness radius and magnetic moment. The problems coming from the finite
angular acceptance of the spectrometers are also considered.Comment: 30 pages, Latex, 7 eps figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.C e-mail:
[email protected] , [email protected]
Communication and shared decision-making after stillbirth: Results of the ShaDeS study
Background: Shared decision-making (SDM) is included in guidelines for bereavement care after a stillbirth, as it can improve womenâs long-term health and wellbeing. SDM within the stillbirth context is still not common, and Italy does not yet have standardised guidelines.
Aim: The ShaDeS (Shared Decision-Making in Stillbirth) study aims to investigate how Italian women with a stillbirth perceive their own centrality in decision-making processes around bereavement care and how this might impact satisfaction of care.
Methods: The ShaDeS study is a cross-sectional study based on a web survey consisted of four sections: socio- demographic information and medical history, communication of bad news and bereavement care, decisions about childbirth (SDM-Q-9, SHARED, and DCS), and decisions and communication about autopsy (CPS). Findings: 187 women answered the survey. For the 41.1% of women that did not have an emergency childbirth, the SDM-Q-9 median score was 66.6 (0â100 range), and the SHARED median score was 3.5 (1â5 range). 29.4% of participants reached the proposed cutoff of 37.5 in the DCS (0â100 range) suggesting a difficulty in reaching decisions. Satisfaction scores were lower for those with such difficulties (p < 0.0001). Of the 64.5% of women that discussed autopsy, 28.3% were involved in an SDM approach, despite this being associated with higher levels of satisfaction of care (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: An SDM approach is only moderately widespread amongst our participants, despite it being signif- icantly related to higher levels of satisfaction. Further studies should investigate the tools that both patients and healthcare professionals need for an SDM approach
Potential roads for reaching the summit: an overview on target therapies for high-grade gliomas
Background: The tailored targeting of specific oncogenes represents a new frontier in the treatment of high-grade glioma in the pursuit of innovative and personalized approaches. The present study consists in a wide-ranging overview of the target therapies and related translational challenges in neuro-oncology. Methods: A review of the literature on PubMed/MEDLINE on recent advances concerning the target therapies for treatment of central nervous system malignancies was carried out. In the Medical Subject Headings, the terms âTarget Therapyâ, âTarget drugâ and âTailored Therapyâ were combined with the terms âHigh-grade gliomasâ, âMalignant brain tumorâ and âGlioblastomaâ. Articles published in the last five years were further sorted, based on the best match and relevance. The ClinicalTrials.gov website was used as a source of the main trials, where the search terms were âCentral Nervous System Tumorâ, âMalignant Brain Tumorâ, âBrain Cancerâ, âBrain Neoplasmsâ and âHigh-grade gliomasâ. Results: A total of 137 relevant articles and 79 trials were selected. Target therapies entailed inhibitors of tyrosine kinases, PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, farnesyl transferase enzymes, p53 and pRB proteins, isocitrate dehydrogenases, histone deacetylases, integrins and proteasome complexes. The clinical trials mostly involved combined approaches. They were phase I, II, I/II and III in 33%, 42%, 16%, and 9% of the cases, respectively. Conclusion: Tyrosine kinase and angiogenesis inhibitors, in combination with standard of care, have shown most evidence of the effectiveness in glioblas-toma. Resistance remains an issue. A deeper understanding of the molecular pathways involved in gliomagen-esis is the key aspect on which the translational research is focusing, in order to optimize the target therapies of newly diagnosed and recurrent brain gliomas. (www.actabiomedica.it)
Adoptive immunotherapies in neuro-oncology: classification, recent advances, and translational challenges
BACKGROUND: Adoptive immunotherapies are among the pillars of ongoing biological breakthroughs in neuro-oncology, as their potential applications are tremendously wide. The present literature review comprehensively classified adoptive immunotherapies in neuro-oncology, provides an update, and overviews the main translational challenges of this approach. METHODS: The PubMed/MEDLINE platform, Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) database, and ClinicalTrials.gov website were the sources. The MeSH terms "Immunotherapy, Adoptive," "Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy," "Tissue Engineering," and "Cell Engineering" were combined with "Central Nervous System," and "Brain." "Brain tumors" and "adoptive immunotherapy" were used for a further unrestricted search. Only articles published in the last 5 years were selected and further sorted based on the best match and relevance. The search terms "Central Nervous System Tumor," "Malignant Brain Tumor," "Brain Cancer," "Brain Neoplasms," and "Brain Tumor" were used on the ClinicalTrials.gov website. RESULTS: A total of 79 relevant articles and 16 trials were selected. T therapies include chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy and T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic therapy. Natural killer (NK) cell-based therapies are another approach; combinations are also possible. Trials in phase 1 and 2 comprised 69% and 31% of the studies, respectively, 8 of which were concluded. CAR T cell therapy targeting epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII) was demonstrated to reduce the recurrence rate of glioblastoma after standard-of-care treatment. CONCLUSION: Adoptive immunotherapies can be classified as T, NK, and NKT cell-based. CAR T cell therapy redirected against EGFRvIII has been shown to be the most promising treatment for glioblastoma. Overcoming immune tolerance and immune escape are the main translational challenges in the near future of neuro-oncology
Innovative therapies for malignant brain tumors: the road to a tailored cure
Background: Immune tolerance, immune escape, neoangiogenesis, phenotypic changes, and glioma stem cells are all responsible for the resistance of malignant brain tumors to current therapies and persistent recurrence. The present study provides a panoramic view of innovative therapies for malignant brain tumors, especially glioblastoma, aimed at achieving a tailored approach. Methods: PubMed/Medline and ClinicalTri-als.gov were the main sources of an extensive literature review in which âRegenerative Medicine,â âCell-Based Therapy,â âChemotherapy,â âVaccine,â âCell Engineering,â âImmunotherapy, Active,â âImmunotherapy, Adoptive,â âStem Cells,â âGene Therapy,â âTarget Therapy,â âBrain Cancer,â âGlioblastoma,â and âMalignant Brain Tumorâ were the search terms. Only articles in English published in the last 5 years were included. A further selection was made according to the quality of the studies and level of evidence. Results: Cell-based and targeted therapies represent the newest frontiers of brain cancer treatment. Active and adoptive im-munotherapies, stem cell therapies, and gene therapies represent a tremendous evolution in recent years due to many preclinical and clinical studies. Clinical trials have validated the effectiveness of antibody-based immunotherapies, including an in-depth study of bevacizumab, in combination with standard of care. Pre-clinical data highlights the role of vaccines, stem cells, and gene therapies to prevent recurrence. Conclusion: Monoclonal antibodies strengthen the first-line therapy for high grade gliomas. Vaccines, engineered cells, stem cells, and gene and targeted therapies are good candidates for second-line treatment of both newly diagnosed and recurrent gliomas. Further data are necessary to validate this tailored approach at the bedside. (www.actabiomedica.it)
The impact of stem cells in neuro-oncology: applications, evidence, limitations and challenges
Background: Stem cells (SCs) represent a recent and attractive therapeutic option for neuro-oncology, as well as for treating degenerative, ischemic and traumatic pathologies of the central nervous system. This is mainly because of their homing capacity, which makes them capable of reaching the inaccessible SC niches of the tumor, therefore, acting as living drugs. The target of the study is a comprehensive overview of the SC-based therapies in neuro-oncology, also highlighting the current translational challenges of this type of approach. Methods: An online search of the literature was carried out on the PubMed/MEDLINE and ClinicalTrials.gov websites, restricting it to the most pertinent keywords regarding the systematization of the SCs and their therapeutic use for malignant brain tumors. A large part of the search was dedicated to clinical trials. Only preclinical and clinical data belonging to the last 5 years were shortlisted. A further sorting was implemented based on the best match and relevance. Results: The results consisted in 96 relevant articles and 31 trials. Systematization involves a distinction between human embryonic, fetal and adult, but also totipo-tent, pluripotent or multipotent SCs. Mesenchymal and neuronal SCs were the most studied for neuro-oncological illnesses. 30% and 50% of the trials were phase I and II, respectively. Conclusion: Mesenchymal and neuronal SCs are ideal candidates for SCs-based therapy of malignant brain tumors. The spectrum of their possible applications is vast and is mainly based on the homing capacity toward the tumor microenvironment. Availability, delivery route, oncogenicity and ethical issues are the main translational challenges concerning the use of SCs in neuro-oncology. (www.actabiomedica.it)
Targeting the medulloblastoma: A molecular-based approach
Background: The lack of success of standard therapies for medulloblastoma has highlighted the need to plan a new therapeutic approach. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the novel treatment strategies based on the molecular characterization and risk categories of the medulloblastoma, also focusing on up-to-date relevant clinical trials and the challenges in translating tailored approaches into clinical practice. Methods: An online search of the literature was carried out on the PubMed/MEDLINE and ClinicalTrials.gov websites about molecular classification of medulloblastomas, ongoing clinical trials and new treatment strategies. Only articles in the English language and published in the last five years were selected. The research was refined based on the best match and relevance. Results: A total 58 articles and 51 clinical trials were analyzed. Trials were of phase I, II, and I/II in 55%, 33% and 12% of the cases, respectively. Target and adoptive immunotherapies were the treatment strategies for newly diagnosed and recurrent me-dulloblastoma in 71% and 29% of the cases, respectively. Conclusion: Efforts are focused on the fine-tuning of target therapies and immunotherapies, including agents directed to specific pathways, engineered T-cells and oncoviruses. The blood-brain barrier, chemoresistance, the tumor microenvironment and cancer stem cells are the main translational challenges to be overcome in order to optimize medulloblastoma treatment, reduce the long-term morbidity and increase the overall survival. (www.actabiomedica.it)
Solvent-Free Synthetic Route for Cerium(IV) MetalâOrganic Frameworks with UiO-66 Architecture and Their Photocatalytic Applications
A near solvent-free synthetic route for Ce-UiO-66 metalâorganic frameworks (MOFs) is presented. The MOFs are obtained by energetically grinding the reagents, cerium ammonium nitrate (CAN) and the carboxylic linkers, in a mortar for a few minutes with the addition of a small amount of acetic acid (AcOH) as a modulator (8.75 equiv, 0.5 mL). The slurry is then transferred into a 2 mL vial and heated at 120 °C for 1 day. The MOFs have been characterized for their composition, crystallinity, and porosity and employed as heterogeneous catalysts for the photo-oxidation reaction of substituted benzylic alcohols to benzaldaldehydes under near-ultraviolet light irradiation. The catalytic performances, such as selectivity, conversion, and kinetics, exceed those of similar systems studied by chemical oxidation using similar Ce-MOFs as a catalyst. Moreover, the MOFs were found to be reusable up to three cycles without loss of activity. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to fully describe the electronic structure of the best performing MOFs and to provide useful information on the catalytic activity experimentally observed
Consistent Treatment of Relativistic Effects in Electrodisintegration of the Deuteron
The influence of relativistic contributions to deuteron electrodisintegration
is systematically studied in various kinematic regions of energy and momentum
transfer. As theoretical framework the equation-of-motion and the unitarily
equivalent S-matrix approaches are used. In a (p/M)-expansion, all leading
order relativistic -exchange contributions consistent with the Bonn OBEPQ
model are included. In addition, static heavy meson exchange currents including
boost terms, -currents, and -isobar contributions
are considered. Sizeable effects from the various relativistic two-body
contributions, mainly from -exchange, have been found in inclusive form
factors and exclusive structure functions for a variety of kinematic regions.Comment: 41 pages revtex including 15 postscript figure
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