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BackgroundPoor affect recognition is an early sign of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Here, we applied the abbreviated version of the Comprehensive Affect Testing System (CATS-A) battery to Italian FTD cases and healthy controls (HC) to provide cut-offs of emotional dysfunction in the whole group and in different FTD clinical syndromes.MethodsOne hundred thirty-nine FTD patients (60 behavioural variant [bvFTD],13 semantic behavioural variant of FTD [sbvFTD], 28 progressive supranuclear palsy [PSP], 21 semantic [svPPA] and 17 nonfluent [nfvPPA] variants of primary progressive aphasia) and 116 HC were administered the CATS-A, yielding an Affective Recognition Quotient (ARQ), which was used as outcome measure. Age- and education-adjusted, regression-based norms were derived in HC. In patients, the ARQ was assessed for its internal reliability, factorial validity and construct validity by testing its association with another social cognition paradigm, the Story-Based Empath Task (SET). The diagnostic accuracy of the ARQ in discriminating patients from HC, genetic cases from HC and patient groups among each other was tested via ROC analyses.ResultsIn the whole FTD cohort, CATS-A proved to be underpinned by a mono-component factor (51.1%) and was internally consistent (McDonalds ω = 0.76). Moreover, the ARQ converged with the SET (r(122) = 0.50; p

Hydrophilic interaction chromatography-mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS) offers a flexible and efficient alternative to ionpairing reversed-phase liquid chromatography (IP-RPLC) for oligonucleotide analysis, with column selectivity and mobile phase pH being key factors in optimizing retention and detection., I ON-PAIRING LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY (IP-RPLC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) represents the most common analytical approach for oligonucleotide analysis (1-3). Alternative separation methods are desired as alkylammonium ion-pair reagents force [...]

Translational research requires data at multiple scales of biological organization. Advancements in sequencing and multi-omics technologies have increased the availability of these data, but researchers face significant integration challenges. Knowledge graphs (KGs) are used to model complex phenomena, and methods exist to construct them automatically. However, tackling complex biomedical integration problems requires flexibility in the way knowledge is modeled. Moreover, existing KG construction methods provide robust tooling at the cost of fixed or limited choices among knowledge representation models. PheKnowLator (Phenotype Knowledge Translator) is a semantic ecosystem for automating the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) construction of ontologically grounded KGs with fully customizable knowledge representation. The ecosystem includes KG construction resources (e.g., data preparation APIs), analysis tools (e.g., SPARQL endpoint resources and abstraction algorithms), and benchmarks (e.g., prebuilt KGs). We evaluated the ecosystem by systematically comparing it to existing open-source KG construction methods and by analyzing its computational performance when used to construct 12 different large-scale KGs. With flexible knowledge representation, PheKnowLator enables fully customizable KGs without compromising performance or usability.

Introduction: Quality and safety of a cell product, essential to guarantee the health of patients, depends on many factors including an appropriate environmental monitoring of the manufacturing rooms. Nonetheless, the maintenance of a controlled environment is requested to minimize the risk of contamination. Thus, a timely detection of changes in microbiological trends is important to adopt promptly effective measures against resistant strains that, in turn, may invalidate not only the sanitization procedures but also the safety of the cell product. Methods: We analyzed microbes found in our cell processing clean room over the last 5 years. We used 10.147 plates for air sampler, passive air monitoring and for checking instruments and operators of the production unit. Results: From these plates, 747 colonies were subjected to identification by the MALDI-TOF Vitek® MS system and the large majority of them was gram positive (97.8%) as witnessed by the finding that the most represented genera harvested from the classified areas were Staphylococcus (65%), Micrococcus (13%), Kocuria (8%) and Bacillus (5%). We never detected fungi. Most microbes found in the operators (both from class A and B) were collected from forearms and resulted of the Staphylococcus genus. Conclusions: The observed microbial contamination is to be attributed to the personnel and no substantial microbial pitfalls in our Cell Factory has been detected.

This study examined the prevalence and types of criminal justice content being offered in Council on Social Work Education programs. Data were collected through questions sent via e-mail to program administrators and content analysis of school websites for three hundred and eight MSW programs. Criminal justice content was measured in three main areas: (a) dual- or joint-degree options, (b) concentrations or specializations, and (c) courses. The results show that most MSW programs do not cover criminal justice content. Less than one-fourth of programs had a dual-degree or joint-degree program (n=54, 17.5%), a specialization or concentration (n=17, 5.5%), or a course specific to criminal justice (n=74, 24%). Social work education must do more to include criminal justice content in its MSW programs.

BackgroundChronic kidney disease (CKD) has now reached pandemic proportions but risk prediction towards end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) remains challenging. Kidney fibrosis is a key determinant in the transition from CKD to ESKD. In this prospective study, we investigated the prognostic significance of urinary Marinobufagenin (uMBG), a cardiotonic steroid with acknowledged pro-fibrotic activity, for stratifying the risk of CKD progression in individuals with non-advanced renal disease.MethodsAfter baseline uMBG measurements, 108 CKD patients (eGFR 40.54 ± 17 mL/min/1.73 m2) were prospectively followed up to 24 months. The study (renal) endpoint was a composite of serum creatinine doubling, eGFR decline >25% from baseline values, or ESKD requiring chronic renal replacement therapy.ResultsDuring follow-up (mean 21 months), 32.4% of patients had progressive CKD. These individuals displayed almost halved baseline uMBG excretion as compared to others (p < 0.0001). At ROC analysis uMBG showed a remarkable diagnostic capacity on CKD progression (AUC 0.898) and patients with uMBG ≤310 pmol/L (Best ROC-derived cut-off) had a significantly faster progression to the endpoint (Log-rank 57.9; p < 0.0001). Restricted cubic splines fitting logistic and Cox-regression analyses revealed that the risk association between uMBG and CKD progression was best described by a curvilinear, inverse J-shaped trend, the highest risk associated with very low uMBG levels. This trend remained unaffected by adjustment for age, baseline eGFR, and 24 h-proteinuria.ConclusionIn individuals with non-advanced CKD, very low urinary excretion of MBG reflects a more sustained risk of CKD progression over time. Validation studies are needed to generalize these findings in larger heterogeneous cohorts.

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) represents one of the fastest-growing sectors of horticulture. Production in controlled environments ranges from highly controlled indoor environments with 100% artificial lighting (vertical farms or plant factories) to high-tech greenhouses with or without supplemental lighting, to simpler greenhouses and high tunnels. Although food production occurs in the soil inside high tunnels, most CEA operations use various hydroponic systems to meet crop irrigation and fertility needs. The expansion of CEA offers promise as a tool for increasing food production in and near urban systems as these systems do not rely on arable agricultural land. In addition, CEA offers resilience to climate instability by growing inside protective structures. Products harvested from CEA systems tend to be of high quality, both internal and external, and are sought after by consumers. Currently, CEA producers rely on cultivars bred for production in open-field agriculture. Because of high energy and other production costs in CEA, only a limited number of food crops have proven themselves to be profitable to produce. One factor contributing to this situation may be a lack of optimized cultivars. Indoor growing operations offer opportunities for breeding cultivars that are ideal for these systems. To facilitate breeding these specialized cultivars, a wide range of tools are available for plant breeders to help speed this process and increase its efficiency. This review aims to cover breeding opportunities and needs for a wide range of horticultural crops either already being produced in CEA systems or with potential for CEA production. It also reviews many of the tools available to breeders including genomics-informed breeding, marker-assisted selection, precision breeding, high-throughput phenotyping, and potential sources of germplasm suitable for CEA breeding. The availability of published genomes and trait-linked molecular markers should enable rapid progress in the breeding of CEA-specific food crops that will help drive the growth of this industry.

Very few among the youngest readers of this Journal would think about the introduction of the international normalized ratio (INR) as a breakthrough event in the history of thrombosis...

SISET stands for the Italian Scientific Society for the Study of Thrombosis and Hemostasis. Founded in 1970, it currently enrolls more than 1,000 professionals across the country. Contributions by SISET scientists range from clinical to experimental investigations and are regularly published in leading international medical journals.

Objective: The combination and tentative correlation of a selected set of polysomnographic tests with the quantitative measurement of oxysterols of pathophysiological relevance in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with Alzheimer’s degenerative dementia (AD), non-Alzheimer’s degenerative dementia (NAD) and nondegenerative disorders (C) were afforded in a pilot study. Methods: Sleep efficiency, percentage of sleep time spent in nonrapid eye movement (NREM) stage 3 (N3), apnea/hypopnea index and sleep time spent with oxygen saturation

The north-eastern border of CA represents the accretionary system developed during its continuous collision with Apulian block. The tardive oblique tectonic component is highlighted by pervasive NW-SE crustal transpressive left-lateral strike slip faults developed from the Upper Miocene to Quaternary tectonic stages. The seismotectonic and landslides Main Map represents the update of the main faults, the style of their arrangement and kinematics, the seismotectonic features and landslide area distribution with risk implications. Seismotectonics allows us to recognise a vertical crustal zonation with the distribution of earthquakes and their focal mechanism solution. The prevalent modality of ruptures depicts a mainly transcurrent and compressive solution in mid-lower crust portions respectively. This data, together with the historical seismicity analysis of the area, lead to consider the NW-SE strike-slip faults improved on the Main Map, as recent and tectonically active. The areal distribution of landslide and susceptibility of the area is due to the interaction between seismotectonic peculiarity, lithological typologies and fault zone architectures. Landslides and flood phenomena of this sector involve many municipalities, major and minor infrastructures and economic and social activities. The landslides and the faults have been identified, mapped and classified, originally at detail scale and, then, represented at 1:50,000 scale in the Main Map, included as supplementary material. The geo-structural and geomorphological data were analysed in a geographic information system allowing data management and implementation. The work presents an updated knowledge framework of risk conditions of the study zone, available to plan and reduce the fundamental elements that determine the landslide and seismic risks in this region.

Background Social media platforms have become integral to modern society, facilitating diverse content interactions for individuals. The widespread use of social media has sparked intriguing inquiries into its impact on self-perception and individual well-being. This study investigated the phenomenon of social media appearance preoccupation and its complex relationship with psychosocial factors such as self-esteem, well-being, appearance-related anxiety, depression, and anxiety, considering both the rich-get-richer hypothesis and the poor-get-richer hypothesis. Participants and procedure A sample of 401 Italian participants, aged 18 to 54, completed the demographic questionnaire, the Social Media Appearance Preoccupation Scale (SMAPS), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES), the Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI), the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Y2 (STAI-Y2). Results The results suggest a complex relationship between psychosocial factors and social media appearance preoccupation (SMAP). While higher levels of self-esteem and well-being were associated with lower levels of SMAP, indicating a protective effect against appearance preoccupation on social media, there was a positive correlation between appearance-related anxiety, leisure hours of media use, and SMAP. Conclusions These findings underscore the multifaceted nature of SMAP and its associations with various psychosocial factors. Overall, these results provide partial support for the theory of the poor-get-richer hypothesis, suggesting that individuals experiencing heightened levels of appearance-related anxiety may turn to social media as a coping mechanism, potentially exacerbating their psychological distress.

Introduction and aim: Hepatitis C virus infection and chronic kidney disease are major public health issues all over the world. It has been suggested a role of HCV as a risk factor for the development and progression of chronic kidney disease (defined by reduced glomerular filtration rate and/or detectable proteinuria) in the general population but conflicting findings have been given. Material and methods: A systematic review of the published medical literature was conducted to assess whether positive HCV serologic status is associated with greater rate of proteinuria in the adult general population. We used a random-effect model to generate a summary estimate of the relative risk of proteinuria with HCV across the published studies. Results: We identified 23 studies (n = 198,967 unique patients) and performed separate meta-analyses according to the study design. Overall effect estimate was significant in cross-sectional (OR, 1.47, 95%CI, 1.3; 1.66) (P

The loop is a powerful form, both in symbolic an in functional terms, which is reflected into a myriad of different applications, from religious and mystic symbologies such as the ouroboros to corporate branding and design such as Apple’s Infinite loop. To respond to loSquaderno's invitation to write about the concept of loop, I chose to look at it from the perspective of participatory planning, which is currently the field where I have the opportunity to apply concretely most of the competences I aquired through my eclectic career. Tesserae is the organisation that I co-founded with Laura Colini in 2011 with the goal of combining the academic background and the capacity gained as experts for European policy programmes along with the experience as artists and activists investigating and questioning transforming cities. Within its general scope, a core ambition of the organisation has become the systematisation and integration of a large collection of tools and methods deriving from diverse approaches and needs into a comprehensive toolkit for participatory practice. This led to the elaboration of the wide purpose conceptual framework for analysing and designing transformative processes that we heve called “framework for change” (F4C). This model visualises the fields, variables and activities required to produce a desired change through a process of cocreation. The elements of the process can be seen as an array of discrete components, analysed independently, which are often assigned as specific responsibilties to different stakeholders in the process; nevertheless, what makes the quality and capacity of the process to achieve positive impacts is the relation among the parts, their correct consequentiality, complementarity and integration. In this article I want to argue that the loop shape is the essential pattern to arrange the elements of the process in an effective and functional relation, and provides, both for organisation and communication purposes, a key source of inspiration to enhance positive change throughout complex multistakeholder projects. In the following, using the loop as a guiding shape for my reasoning, I will firstly briefly introduce a theory of change and illustrate the terms of the process design that it calls for; secondly I will present the Frame4Change scheme created by Tesserae as a tool for visualising transformative process; third, I will develop some reflections on the establishment of recursive cycles (loops) as ideal arrangement of the different actions needed to achieve the desired change.

After an introduction on the recent scientific and professional reflections on personal and author archives, the contribution briefly traces the biographical and professional path of Goliarda Sapienza (1924-1996) and outlines the history and articulation of the recent ordering of the writer's archival fonds. On the occasion of the centenary of Sapienza's birth, through the events and structure of the archive assembled after her sudden death by her husband and heir Angelo Pellegrino and ordered many years later, an overview of the fund is outlined that broadens previous knowledge by providing further research perspectives.

The present article aims at providing some clarification on the Horkheimer-Neurath 1937 debate, so as to make three main claims: (a) around 1937 (even though perhaps neither in the early 1930s, at the time of his review of Mannheim’s Ideology and Utopia, nor after the Second World War, at the time of Adorno’s disenchanted statement, “the whole is the false”), Horkheimer belonged to the Hegelian-Marxist tradition stemming from Lukács’s History and Class Conscioussness (1923); (b) notwithstanding Neurath’s semantic and epistemological holism, his fallibilism, his rejection of Wertfreiheit in the social sciences, his commitment to socialism, there is still a gulf between his position and Horkheimer’s, for Neurath did not accept the main methodological claim made by the latter, namely, the Lukács-inspired view that what “constitutes the decisive difference between Marxism and bourgeois thought” is the Hegelian “point of view of totality”; (c) highlighting the main differences between Neurath’s and Lukács’s versions of Marxism – one concerning the very idea of dialectic, and the other concerning the epistemic privilege of the proletariat – can throw some light on and help understand better the distinctive features of Lukács’s Hegelianization of Marxism.

Background: Given the lack of an ideal endodontic irrigant on the market, this study evaluates the antimicrobial potential of a formulated solution of 2′-fucosyllactose and lacto-N-neotetraose against E. faecalis within infected root canals, and explores any associated impacts related to the duration of irrigation. Methods: 32 single-rooted teeth extracted for periodontal reasons were infected with Enterococcus faecalis, and subsequently subjected to endodontic treatment with two different irrigation systems: sodium hypochlorite or a solution of 2′-fucosyllactose and lacto-N-neotetraose. These samples were then incubated in sterile culture media at 37 °C to observe microbial activity through turbidity. The culture broth of each individual sample was assessed as positive or negative by observing the turbidity or lack of turbidity in the culture at the time of evaluation. Results: the analysis of the results obtained from the comparison of groups irrigated with sodium hypochlorite or a solution of 2′-fucosyllactose and lacto-N-neotetraose demonstrates that the case solution has no bactericidal effect against E. faecalis inoculated in the endodontic system. Conclusions: the HMOs used in this study do not have a bactericidal effect on E. faecalis inoculated in an endodontic system.

The surge in data across diverse fields presents an essential need for advanced techniques to merge and interpret this information. With a special emphasis on compiling geospatial data, this integration is crucial for unlocking new insights from geographic data, enhancing our ability to map and analyze trends that span across different locations and environments with more authenticity and reliability. Existing techniques have made progress in addressing data fusion; however, challenges persist in fusing and harmonizing data from different sources, scales, and modalities. This research presents a comprehensive investigation into the challenges and solutions in vector map alignment, focusing on developing methods that enhance the precision and usability of geospatial data. We explored and developed three distinct methodologies for polygonal vector map alignment: ProximityAlign, which excels in precision within urban layouts but faces computational challenges; the Optical Flow Deep Learning-Based Alignment, noted for its efficiency and adaptability; and the Epipolar Geometry-Based Alignment, effective in data-rich contexts but sensitive to data quality. In practice, the proposed approaches serve as tools to benefit from as much as possible from existing datasets while respecting a spatial reference source. It also serves as a paramount step for the data fusion task to reduce its complexity.