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Senza limite, soglia, bordo, margine, niente è definibile e percepibile e, soprattutto, nessuno scambio si innesca e si rende possibile. Il bordo è ciò che limita e delimita, ma anche ciò che consente il passaggio da una cosa a un’altra. Qualsiasi ideazione, dal cucchiaio alla città”, dal più piccolo manufatto di design al più grande progetto di architettura o piano di urbanistica, lavora necessariamente sui bordi, sul limite, sul rapporto fra pieni e vuoti, potendo concepire contenitori di spazio o generandoconnessioni a tutte le scale. È lavorando sul limite che si ritrova lo spazio.

Non è facile parlare e far capire cos’è l’attenzione, che viene spesso confusa con la concentrazione, con l’osservazione, o addirittura assorbita in altre concettualizzazioni o forme di esperienza.

It is not easy to talk about and make people understand what the meaning of attention is, which is often confused with concentration, with observation, or it can even be absorbed into other conceptualizations or forms of experience...

The construction industry is responsible for 30% of energy consumption, 40% of CO2 emissions, and 50% of raw material extraction. Introducing actions to improve the sustainability of induced impacts is urgently necessary, and it is essential to bring about this change by using innovative materials with a natural matrix and construction processes that optimise the raw materials and allow their recyclability. The article introduces the first outcomes of an interdisciplinary research project focused on applying geopolymers for building components. The research highlights the strategic role of sustainability combined with digitisation in order to improve ecological-environmental performance. Article info Received: 17/03/2023; Revised: 27/04/2023; Accepted: 09/05/2023

The diffusion of Social Media and other systems of social interaction determines, from a labour law point of view, the need for the Jurist to examine the traditional labour legislation institutes, rediscovering limits and interactions that were previously undervalued. Here we find the right to criticise (including trade unions) carried out in the context of technological spaces ("closed" or "open") with respect to which it is necessary, first and foremost, to understand whether - and how relevant - they can assume the nature and the characteristics of the "virtual" space in which the expression occurs. The decay of language in modern systems of interaction poses, then, a reflection (not only social but also legal) about the possible expansion, due to a widespread decay of customs, of the perimeter of the limit of formal self-constraint. Finally, the "virtual" spaces determine the need, within the scope of the labour law guidelines, to identify the limits of intrusion that may exist for the employer, in terms of a general "adapting" rethinking of the traditional toolbox of labour law.

Oct-4 (Octamer-binding transcription factor 4) is a member of the POU (Pit-Oct-Unc) family. During development, Oct-4 is expressed in embryonic stem cells and in germ cell precursors. In this study, we investigated the expression of Oct-4 in the ovaries of human fetuses during gestation. The ovaries of 14 human fetuses and newborns, ranging in gestational age from 12 up to 38 weeks of gestation, were formalin-fixed, routinely processed and paraffin-embedded. Paraffin sections were immunostained with an anti-Oct-4 commercial antibody. Oct-4 expression was demonstrated in all the ovaries analyzed. Immunoreactivity for Oct-4 was detected in multiple stem/progenitor cells, including oogonia. Moreover, Oct-4 was expressed in oocytes, in primordial follicles. In ovarian stem/progenitor cells, Oct-4 was expressed in the nucleus, whereas in oocytes reactivity for Oct-4 was restricted to the cytoplasm. In the initial stages of gestation, the majority of Oct-4-positive precursor cells were detected in the external cortex. These preliminary data indicate Oct-4 as a major player in germ cell differentiation in the human ovary and as a useful marker for ovarian stem/progenitor cells. Given the ability of Oct-4 for the detection of ovarian stem/progenitor cells, further studies are needed in order to verify its ability to detect stem cells in adult ovaries.

Introduction: From the perspective of healthcare organizations and public health care systems, the value of a clinical trial can be assessed from a clinical and economical perspective. However, to date, there is no standardized model for systematically capturing the economic value of clinical trials at organizational and system levels. The aim of this study was to develop and test a methodology for estimating the avoided costs deriving from the management of patients as part of a clinical trial. Methods: Our methodology is based on the assumption that the economic value of a clinical trial derives from 1) the funding received by the experimental site from a trial’s sponsor, and from 2) the cost avoided by the experimental site with the treatment of patients within a study and not according to standard care by the experimental site. Results: By applying the methodology to onco-hematological clinical trials conducted in two academic hospitals from 2011 to 2016, we demonstrate that savings between 2 million and 4 million euros were achieved over a five-year period. Thus, for every 1,000 euros invested by the pharmaceutical company into the clinical studies conducted at these hospitals, the hospitals saved on average 2,200 euros due to costs not incurred as a result of the trials. Conclusions: The study has proposed and tested a methodology for estimating the economic value of clinical trials by taking into account avoided costs deriving from the treatment of patients enrolled in sponsored trials. The study has proposed a management tool for healthcare institutions to govern clinical trials.

The human uterus is a highly dynamic organ with peculiar plasticity and marked reproductive ability, due to the presence of a vast number of multiple stem/progenitor cell types, including endometrial, stromal and vascular progenitor cells. Conflicting results have been published regarding which uterine population might represent the real stem/progenitor cell fraction in terms of in vivo stem cell activity. Human endometrial side population (ESP) cells were shown to differentiate into multiple endometrial lineages in the stem cell niche provided by whole endometrial cells, suggesting that ESP cells might represent the most important stem/progenitor cells responsible of the cyclical regeneration of the endometrium throughout a woman’s reproductive life. This study was aimed at analyzing the localization, composition, and occurrence of stem cell niches in the human fetal uterus at different stages of development. To this end, the whole uterus was obtained at autopsy by 12 human fetuses and newborns, ranging in gestational age from 12 up to 39 weeks of gestation. Tissue paraffin sections were immunostained with antibodies against insulin gene enhancer protein (ISL-1), a transcription factor previously utilized as a marker of stem/progenitor cells in the pancreas, heart and nervous system. Reactivity for ISL-1 was detected in both epithelial and stromal uterine precursors, at all gestational ages, allowing the detection of uterine progenitor cells. The loss of reactivity for ISL-1 in some stromal cell precursors was interpreted as a sign of differentiation. These preliminary data indicate ISL-1 as a useful marker for the detection of stem/progenitor cells in the human fetal endometrium. Further studies are needed to verify the utility of ISL-1 as a marker of stem/progenitor cells in the adult endometrium.

Clinical picture of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) may significantly vary in pediatric age, ranging from euthyroidism to subclinical hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism; only rarely HT presentation may be characterized by a severe hypothyroidism also in pediatric age. Here we describe a 3-year-old Caucasian girl who was admitted to our Clinic due to pericardial effusion, muscle weakness and weight gain. At clinical examination, she presented with bradycardia, pale and round face, pseudohypertrophy of calf muscles and no pitting edema of the limbs. Routine blood investigations showed high serum aspartate and alanine aminotransferase levels, low serum ceruloplasmin without clinical signs of Wilson’s disease, dyslipidemia. Thyroid function tests revealed a picture of severe hypothyroidism associated with HT. After the replacement treatment with L-T4, thyroid-stimulating hormone serum levels gradually decreased, with concomitant resolution of pericardial effusion and normalization of ceruloplasmin levels.

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