“The face of the stone“: Traditional construction and tectonic innovation

Through the tectonic metaphor will investigate the relationship between the construction and expression in modern stone facade, meant as the first element of the representation and relationship between the building organism and the city. The relationship between construction, form and representation in massive stone architecture will be analyzed under a dual aspect: the tectonics of the wall and the relationship between "form" and facade element as a possibility that have to represent, through itself, the building organism, or "fall off" and become constructive metaphor. So, the evolution from the historical city to a contemporary city, spread between modernity and tradition: the buildings show more and more languages and technologies evolved and preserve a traditional and durability character. By the research appears the central theme of the urban facade, linked to the concept of stability, robustness and separation between public and private sectors. The development of the theme of the urban front comes from the urban planning experiences attributable to lesser-known architects, but the most important experience is that of Fernand Pouillon’s buildings characterized by a principle authorising of urban space. In all these architectures emerging high performance quality of the stone, in terms of durability and strength, as well as aesthetic value. The challenge of the architect is to create a constructive alternative process, based on the use of global stone, both structural and compositional. Through a mechanical system it was possible to extract and cut blocks in the quarry: in this way the stone has become an industrialized product so that the same Pouillon used the term "prefabricated stones". The predominant role to the relationship between the stone and facade together to the relationship between form and structure makes timeless architecture

Testing an Attachment-Based Parenting Intervention-VIPP-FC/A in Adoptive Families with Post-institutionalized Children: Do Maternal Sensitivity and Genetic Markers Count?

This study investigated the effectiveness of a newly integrated version of an intervention targeting adoptive mothers' positive parenting for promoting children's emotional availability, by testing the moderating role of both two maternal genetic polymorphisms (i.e., 5HTTLPR and DRD4-VNTR) and emotional availability-EA on intervention outcomes. Mothers with their children (N = 80; Mage = 42.73 years, SD = 3.79; Mage = 33.18 months, SD = 16.83 months) participated in a RCT testing the Video-Feedback Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline-VIPP-FC/A effectiveness. Mixed effects regression models showed a significant improvement in mother-child EA for the VIPP-intervention vs. the dummy intervention condition, with a moderating role of maternal EA on children's outcomes. No significant moderating effect was found for the two genetic polymorphisms inquired. Children's and mother's outcomes obtained are discussed

Testing an Attachment-Based Parenting Intervention-VIPP-FC/A in Adoptive Families with Post-institutionalized Children: Do Maternal Sensitivity and Genetic Markers Count?

This study investigated the effectiveness of a newly integrated version of an intervention targeting adoptive mothers' positive parenting for promoting children's emotional availability, by testing the moderating role of both two maternal genetic polymorphisms (i.e., 5HTTLPR and DRD4-VNTR) and emotional availability-EA on intervention outcomes. Mothers with their children (N = 80; Mage = 42.73 years, SD = 3.79; Mage = 33.18 months, SD = 16.83 months) participated in a RCT testing the Video-Feedback Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline-VIPP-FC/A effectiveness. Mixed effects regression models showed a significant improvement in mother-child EA for the VIPP-intervention vs. the dummy intervention condition, with a moderating role of maternal EA on children's outcomes. No significant moderating effect was found for the two genetic polymorphisms inquired. Children's and mother's outcomes obtained are discussed

The weather derivatives market: modelling and pricing temperature

The main objective of the thesis is to find a pricing model for weather derivatives based on temperature. A general Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process with seasonal mean and volatility is proposed to model the time-dynamics of daily average temperatures. The model is fitted to almost 54 years of daily observations recorded in Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland and Tucson. The unequivocal evidence of fat tails and negative skewness observed for the city of Tucson is modelled by introducing Lèvy processes. Since weather derivatives is an incomplete market, unique prices are derived using the market price of risk. Finally, an estimate of the market price of risk is provided by calibrating theoretical prices to the actual quoted market prices

Andrea Cozzo, Riso e sorriso, e altre saggi sulla non violenza nella Grecia antica

L’ouvrage ici recensé est un recueil de six essais, dont les deux premiers sont inédits, alors que les suivants (3-6) sont des versions enrichies de textes déjà publiés (cf. note 2). Une introduction explique le sens de cette entreprise. Le lien entre les différentes contributions est tout d’abord thématique car toutes trouvent leur cadre dans un programme de recherche sur la Grèce ancienne qui a pour objet les pratiques de gestion des conflits excluant le recours à la violence, y compris cel..

The Pig in Translational Medicine: Visual and Gastro-Intestinal Systems Applications

Scientists are becoming every day more aware that a deep knowledge of an animal used in biomedical science can lead to more reliable data. The translational value of animal models is becoming an important topic of debate due to the high frequency of fail when animal experiments are replicate on humans. The first aim of this work was to better characterize the role of nutrition on the gut microbiota in the pig model. The second aim of my work was to investigate a chemically inducible retinal degeneration pig model. The results lead to a thorough understanding of pig gut microbiota and its modulation to nutritional changes, these understandings are fundamental for the interpretation of data when experiments are conducted on animals. The potential role in reduction and refinement is clear especially considering the pig as the emerging gold standard model for gastro intestinal research. The microencapsulation of iron was found to be protective against the side effects of iron dietary supplementation maintaining the healing effect, opening a new prospective on iron fortified foods. New tools have been established for the assessment of vision in a pig model. An easy visual evaluation behavioral test has been validated, giving to researchers and clinicians the opportunity to assess vision in a sentient pig model. Moreover the pattern electroretinogram (pERG) was recorded for the first time in pigs. The pERG is a sensitive indicator of dysfunction within the macular region and it reflects the integrity of the optics, photoreceptors, bipolar cells and retinal ganglion cells. Hopefully this work will contribute to the translational value of the pig model, which in my opinion is the future gold standard model for gastro-intestinal and vision systems and will completely replace the use of dogs and non-humane primates in biomedical science

Activation of WNT and BMP signaling in adult human articular cartilage following mechanical injury

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sediment mobilisation by bottom trawls : a model approach applied to the Dutch North Sea beam trawl fishery

Acknowledgements A. Lokker (Cooperatie Westvoorn), H. Klein-Woolthuis (HFK engineering), A. van Wijk (van Wijk, BV), M. Drijver and a number of individual skippers are gratefully acknowledged for providing information on gear dimensions. We tank Niels T. Hintzen for providing an updated data set with swept area ratios by grid cell for conventional tickler chain and chain mat beam trawl. Funding This study was funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture Nature and Food Quality (LNV) (Grand/Award Number: 1300021172), the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture Nature and Food Quality (BO-code), the Belgian EMFF project “Benthisnationaal” and by the FP7-project BENTHIS (312088). The article does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission and does not anticipate the Commission’s future policy in this area.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Accelerating the development of heat tolerant tomato hybrids through a multi-traits evaluation of parental lines combining phenotypic and genotypic analysis

The constitution of heat tolerant F1 hybrids is a challenge to ensure high yield and good fruit quality in the global climate. In the present work, we evaluated 15 genotypes for yield-related traits highly affected by high temperatures (HT). This phenotypic analysis allowed to identify four parental genotypes showing promising yield performances under HT conditions. Two of these genotypes also exhibited good fruit quality traits. A molecular marker analysis was carried out for six resistance genes to pathogens mostly affecting tomatoes. This analysis evidenced the presence of a maximum of three resistant alleles in parental genotypes. Exploring single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) revealed by two high-throughput genotyping platforms allowed identifying additional 12 genes potentially involved in resistance to biotic stress, to be further investigated. Following these considerations, 13 F1 hybrids were constituted combining the parental genotypes and then evaluated for multiple traits under HT conditions. By estimating a hybrid index based on yield performances, desirable quality and resistance gene, we identified seven hybrids showing the best performances. The promising results obtained in the present work should be confirmed by evaluating the best hybrids selected for additional years and environments before proposing them as novel commercial hybrids that could maintain high performances under HT conditions

The Emerging Role of Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitors in Treating Diet-Induced Obesity: New Opportunities for Breast and Ovarian Cancers?

Simple Summary This review aims to provide an outline of the potential use of plant-based foods, nutraceuticals, and derived micronutrients-particularly those typically found in the Mediterranean diet-as anticancer agents, with a focus on their mechanism of action as cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (CDKIs) by inactivating the CDK 4/6 pathway and the regulation of the cell-cycle cascade. We discuss the preclinical and pharmacological significance of some already approved CDK blockers as a promising therapeutic approach against breast and ovarian cancers. Overweight and obesity constitute the most impactful lifestyle-dependent risk factors for cancer and have been tightly linked to a higher number of tumor-related deaths nowadays. The excessive accumulation of energy can lead to an imbalance in the level of essential cellular biomolecules that may result in inflammation and cell-cycle dysregulation. Nutritional strategies and phytochemicals are gaining interest in the management of obesity-related cancers, with several ongoing and completed clinical studies that support their effectiveness. At the same time, cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are becoming an important target in breast and ovarian cancer treatment, with various FDA-approved CDK4/6 inhibitors that have recently received more attention for their potential role in diet-induced obesity (DIO). Here we provide an overview of the most recent studies involving nutraceuticals and other dietary strategies affecting cell-cycle pathways, which might impact the management of breast and ovarian cancers, as well as the repurposing of already commercialized chemotherapeutic options to treat DIO