Building the Web of Things with WS-BPEL and Visual Tags. Web of Things using Service-oriented Architecture standards

The Web of things is an emerging scenario in which everyday objects are connected to the Internet and can answer to HTTP queries with structured data. This paper presents a system that allows users to build networks of everyday objects using visual tags as proximity technology. The system backend is based on Service-oriented Architecture languages and tools for the runtime composition of “things” establishing connections we call hyperpipes.357-36

Designing peer-to-peer systems for business-to-business environments

Conference held in Firenze, Italy, 30 November -2 December 2005This paper describes the design of a peer-to-peer system integrated in a larger framework for the automatic content production, formatting, distribution and delivery over multiple platforms called AXMEDIS (E.U. IST-2-511299). One of the goals of the project is the reduction of costs and, among the others, the adoption of a collaborative environment based on a virtual database as an abstraction of a multitude of objects shared in a large network of content producers/distributors/aggregators. The peculiar properties of this system are the automation of P2P related operations, the professional query user interface based on Dublin Core and available rights of target objects, and the preemptive exclusion of uncertified participants.219-22

Itv as a community-to-community collaborative system

Web-forums and Instant Messengers provide a unique opportunity for the users to create and support spontaneous communities. However, such systems tend to focus on the one-to-one and one-to-many approaches. Community-to- Community interaction, described as two groups of people which communicate by means of a network, is still missing. This work describes early implementation of an interactive television (iTV) chat system, which dynamically creates chat rooms where users can discuss, share their TV experience and access web resources.337-33

Archiviazione, gestione e fruizione. Un sistema informativo per la riscoperta del patrimonio carcerario

The recognition of the documentary collections relating to the abandoned historical prisons, which have only recently been made available for consultation, has provided considerable stimulus, revealing useful information not only for reconstructing the history of prison architecture in terms of design choices, techniques and materials, but also bringing to light environmental contexts significantly different from those of today. The paper illustrates the results of the research carried out on two case studies: the San Sebastiano prison in Sassari and the New Penitentiary, never built, designed for the city of Cagliari. They proved to be of considerable interest in terms of highlighting the close links between materials and techniques, between design and site, and between landscape, site and architecture. The relationships identified were reassembled at the local level and integrated into the political and legislative framework of the emerging Kingdom of Italy in the second half of the nineteenth century. They describe territorial areas where the process of urbanization, driven in the public sector by the need for modernization and in the private sector by pressing speculative interests, directed important transformations of the landscapeIl recente processo di dismissione delle carceri storiche ha determinato l’apertura dei fondi d’archivio, finora secretati, con la messa a disposizione di un eccezionale e ricco complesso documentale composto da carte, disegni, progetti, relazioni e resoconti. Il patrimonio archivistico in questione costituisce una fonte inestimabile di informazioni che travalicano i limiti stessi della ricerca incentrata sulle architetture detentive in disuso, rivelando, oltre ad aspetti inediti sulle singole fabbriche, anche vicende storiche, politiche e culturali di interesse nazionale. La numerosità dei documenti finora acquisiti e la possibilità di studiarli con sguardi differenti ha fatto emergere la necessità di sistematizzare le informazioni acquisite con la ricognizione nei diversi archivi e con le operazioni di trascrizione e di sintesi dei singoli documenti, in parte ancora in corso. Per garantire l’ampia fruibilità di tale apparato conoscitivo, rendendolo disponibile alla comunità scientifica, oltre che agli enti preposti alla gestione di tali luoghi, è stata avviata la sperimentazione di una base di dati interrogabile, brevemente descritta nel presente contributo. In sintesi, il sistema informativo territoriale creato è dedicato specificatamente all’archiviazione, alla gestione e alla pubblicazione e alla consultazione diretta dei dati archivistici, relazionati direttamente con le architetture detentive in disuso presenti nel territorio sardo, quali le carceri di Buoncammino a Cagliari, di San Sebastiano a Sassari, della ex-Reggia Giudicale a Oristano e della Rotonda di Tempio Pausania.

Testicular degeneration and infertility following arbovirus infection

Arboviruses can cause a variety of clinical signs including febrile illness, arthritis, encephalitis and hemorrhagic fever. The recent Zika epidemic highlighted the possibility that arboviruses may also negatively affect the male reproductive tract. In this study, we focused on bluetongue virus (BTV), the causative agent of bluetongue and one of the major arboviruses of ruminants. We show that rams that recovered from bluetongue displayed signs of testicular degeneration and azoospermia up to 100 days after the initial infection. Importantly, testicular degeneration was induced in rams experimentally infected with either a high (BTV-1IT2006) or low (BTV-1IT2013) virulence strain of BTV. Rams infected with the low virulent BTV strain displayed testicular lesions in the absence of other major clinical signs. Testicular lesions in BTV-infected rams were due to viral replication in the endothelial cells of the peritubular areas of the testes, resulting in stimulation of a type-I IFN response, reduction of testosterone biosynthesis by Leydig cells, and destruction of Sertoli cells and the blood-testis barrier in more severe cases. Hence, BTV induces testicular degeneration and disruption of spermatogenesis by replicating solely in the endothelial cells of the peritubular areas unlike other gonadotropic viruses. This study shows that a naturally occurring arboviral disease can cause testicular degeneration and affect male fertility at least temporarily

Quality of life in carotid atherosclerosis: The role of co-morbid mood disorders

Introduction/Objective: To study in severe carotid atherosclerosis (CA): The frequency of mood disorders (MD); the impairment of quality of life (QoL); the role of co-morbid MD in such impairment. Methods: Case-control study. Cases: consecutive in-patients with CA (stenosis ≥ 50%). Controls: subjects with no diagnosis of CA randomized from a database of a community survey. Psychiatric diagnosis according to DSM-IV made by clinicians and semi-structured interview, QoL measured by the Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). Results: This is the first study on comorbidity on CA disease and MD in which psychiatric diagnoses are conducted by clinicians according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (17.4% vs 2.72%, P <0.0001) but not Bipolar Disorders (BD) (4.3% vs 0.5%, P = 0.99) was higher in cases (N=46) than in controls (N= 184). SF-12 scores in cases were lower than in controls (30.56±8.12 vs 36.81±6:40; p <0.001) with QoL comparable to serious chronic diseases of the central nervous system. The burden of a concomitant MDD or BD amplifies QoL impairment. Conclusion: Comorbid MD aggravates the impairment of QoL in CA. Unlike autoimmune diseases or degenerative diseases of the Central Nervous System, CA shows a strong risk of MDD than BD

Particle conformation regulates antibody access to a conserved GII.4 norovirus blockade epitope

GII.4 noroviruses (NoVs) are the primary cause of epidemic viral acute gastroenteritis. One primary obstacle to successful NoV vaccination is the extensive degree of antigenic diversity among strains. The major capsid protein of GII.4 strains is evolving rapidly, resulting in the emergence of new strains with altered blockade epitopes. In addition to characterizing these evolving blockade epitopes, we have identified monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that recognize a blockade epitope conserved across time-ordered GII.4 strains. Uniquely, the blockade potencies of MAbs that recognize the conserved GII.4 blockade epitope were temperature sensitive, suggesting that particle conformation may regulate functional access to conserved blockade non-surface- exposed epitopes. To map conformation-regulating motifs, we used bioinformatics tools to predict conserved motifs within the protruding domain of the capsid and designed mutant VLPs to test the impacts of substitutions in these motifs on antibody cross-GII.4 blockade. Charge substitutions at residues 310, 316, 484, and 493 impacted the blockade potential of cross-GII.4 blockade MAbs with minimal impact on the blockade of MAbs targeting other, separately evolving blockade epitopes. Specifically, residue 310 modulated antibody blockade temperature sensitivity in the tested strains. These data suggest access to the conserved GII.4 blockade antibody epitope is regulated by particle conformation, temperature, and amino acid residues positioned outside the antibody binding site. The regulating motif is under limited selective pressure by the host immune response and may provide a robust target for broadly reactive NoV therapeutics and protective vaccines

LINEE GUIDA NAZIONALI PER LE AUTOPSIE A SCOPO FORENSE IN MEDICINA VETERINARIA

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LINEE GUIDA NAZIONALI PER LE AUTOPSIE A SCOPO FORENSE IN MEDICINA VETERINARIA

Vedi Prefazione nel testo