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The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on persons with disabilities has laid bare the link between health and economic outcomes. This article reviews the legal and policy framework impacting economic outcomes for persons with disabilities in India against the backdrop of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on poverty, economic growth, and productive employment. It offers a policy framework for realizing the human rights of persons with disabilities by advancing their inclusion in India's economic development. People with disabilities have not benefited as much from India's economic development as non-disabled persons. The UN disability rights treaty may oblige India to ensure that people with disabilities are included in its economic development. Historically, India's laws and public policies addressing people with disabilities have not always supported them as intended. For India to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of global goals for UN member states, it will need to protect the human rights of people with disabilities by creating policies to address their intersectional needs. Policy creating economic participation opportunities, recourse from unfairness and discrimination, and effective safety nets may improve outcomes for people with disabilities in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. "Complex suicide" refers to suicides in which more than one suicide method is applied. The victim can either plan different and simultaneous ways of death, to prevent any failures, or change the method because the first one fails or turns out to be too painful. Case report. A Middle-age-man was found dead inside a car, in a field, near the seaside. Clothes were intact, wet, and smeared with mud and gravel. His shirt had dried whitish biological material on the thoracic area, referable to oedema fluid, his trousers were down to his ankles exposing external genitalia. Inside the car, a kitchen-serrated blade knife and scissors were found, both smeared with dried blood material. Cadaveric inspection showed: multiple superficial stab/cut injuries; nasal cavities leaking aqueous-like fluid; triangular and linear stab lesions all over the body; hesitation marks on both latero-cervical regions and both wrists; no defensive injuries referrable to third parties; maceration over both palmar and plantar surfaces. Autopsy showed: hemorrhagic infiltration for thoracic muscles; expanded and heavily congested lungs. Conclusions. This is the first Italian case, and one of the few cases reported in major literature (third case worldwide), of unplanned complex suicide achieved through stabbing and drowning by a man with no psychiatric or substances abuse history. Therefore, analyzing any evidence to distinguish this kind of sudden/unnatural death from accidental or homicidal ones is mandatory. Such cases require a flawless approach to judicial inspection, autopsy, and toxicological exams. Moreover, a multidisciplinary perspective including psychiatric criminological investigation is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive and heterogeneous clonal disorder of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs). It is not well known how leukemia cells alter hematopoiesis promoting tumor growth and leukemic niche formation. In this study, we investigated how AML deregulates the hematopoietic process of HSPCs through the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs). First, we found that AML cells released a heterogeneous population of EVs containing microRNAs involved in AML pathogenesis. Notably, AML-EVs were able to influence the fate of HSPCs modifying their transcriptome. In fact, gene expression profile of AML-EV-treated HSPCs identified 923 down- and 630 up-regulated genes involved in hematopoiesis/differentiation, inflammatory cytokine production and cell movement. Indeed, most of the down-regulated genes are targeted by AML-EV-derived miRNAs. Furthermore, we demonstrated that AML-EVs were able to affect HSPC phenotype, modifying several biological functions, such as inhibiting cell differentiation and clonogenicity, activating inflammatory cytokine production and compromising cell movement. Indeed, a redistribution of HSPC populations was observed in AML-EV treated cells with a significant increase in the frequency of common myeloid progenitors and a reduction in granulocyte-macrophage progenitors and megakaryocyte-erythroid progenitors. This effect was accompanied by a reduction in HSPC colony formation. AML-EV treatment of HSPCs increased the levels of CCL3, IL-1B and CSF2 cytokines, involved in the inflammatory process and in cell movement, and decreased CXCR4 expression associated with a reduction of SDF-1 mediated-migration. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the existence of a powerful communication between AML cells and HSPCs, mediated by EVs, which suppresses normal hematopoiesis and potentially contributes to create a leukemic niche favorable to neoplastic development.

Daily experiences in working with various types of computer systems show that, despite the offered functionalities, users have many difficulties, which affect their overall User eXperience (UX). The UX focus is on aesthetics, emotions and social involvement, but usability has a great influence on UX. Usability evaluation is acknowledged as a fundamental activity of the entire development process in software practices. Research in Human-Computer Interaction has proposed methods and tools to support usability evaluation. However, when performing an evaluation study, novice evaluators still have difficulties to identify usability problems and to understand their causes: they would need easier to use and possibly automated tools. This article describes four visualization techniques whose aim is to support the work of evaluators when performing usability tests to evaluate websites. Specifically, they help detect “usability smells”, i.e. hints on web pages that might present usability problems, by visualizing the paths followed by the test participants when navigating in a website to perform a test task. A user study with 15 participants compared the four techniques and revealed that the proposed visualizations have the potential to be valuable tools for novice usability evaluators. These first results should push researchers towards the development of further tools that are capable to support the detection of other types of UX smells in the evaluation of computer systems and that can be translated into common industry practices.

Integrating embedded systems into next-generation vehicles is proliferating as they increase safety, efficiency, and driving comfort. These functionalities are provided by hundreds of electronic control units (ECUs) that communicate with each other using various protocols that, if not properly designed, may be vulnerable to local or remote attacks. The paper presents a vehicle-security operation center for improving automotive security (V-SOC4AS) to enhance the detection, response, and prevention of cyber-attacks in the automotive context. The goal is to monitor in real-time each subsystem of intra-vehicle communication, that is controller area network (CAN), local interconnect network (LIN), FlexRay, media oriented systems transport (MOST), and Ethernet. Therefore, to achieve this goal, security information and event management (SIEM) was used to monitor and detect malicious attacks in intra-vehicle and inter-vehicle communications: messages transmitted between vehicle ECUs; infotainment and telematics systems, which provide passengers with entertainment capabilities and information about the vehicle system; and vehicular ports, which allow vehicles to connect to diagnostic devices, upload content of various types. As a result, this allows the automation and improvement of threat detection and incident response processes. Furthermore, the V-SOC4AS allows the classification of the received message as malicious and non-malicious and acquisition of additional information about the type of attack. Thus, this reduces the detection time and provides more support for response activities. Experimental evaluation was conducted on two state-of-the-art attacks: denial of service (DoS) and fuzzing. An open-source dataset was used to simulate the vehicles. V-SOC4AS exploits security information and event management to analyze the packets sent by a vehicle using a rule-based mechanism. If the payload contains a CAN frame attack, it is notified to the SOC analysts.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is characterized by the abnormal proliferation of clonal plasma cells (PCs) in bone marrow (BM). MM-PCs progressively occupy and likely alter BM niches where reside hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) whose viability, self-renewal, proliferation, commitment, and differentiation are essential for normal hematopoiesis. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are particles released by normal and neoplastic cells, such as MM cells. They are important cell-to-cell communicators able to modify the phenotype, genotype, and the fate of the recipient cells. Investigation of mechanisms and mediators underlying HSPC-MM-PC crosstalk is warranted to better understand the MM hematopoietic impairment and for the identification of novel therapeutic strategies against this incurable malignancy. This study is aimed to evaluate whether EVs released by MM-PCs interact with HSPCs, what effects they exert, and the underlying mechanisms involved. Therefore, we investigated the viability, cell cycle, phenotype, clonogenicity, and microRNA profile of HSPCs exposed to MM cell line-released EVs (MM-EVs). Our data showed that: (i) MM cells released a heterogeneous population of EVs; (ii) MM-EVs caused a dose-dependent reduction of HSPCs viability; (iii) MM-EVs caused a redistribution of the HSPC pool characterized by a significant increase in the frequency of stem and early precursors accompanied by a reduction of late precursor cells, such as common myeloid progenitors (CMPs), megakaryocyte erythroid progenitors (MEPs), B and NK progenitors, and a slight increase of granulocyte macrophage progenitors (GMPs); (iv) MM-EVs caused an increase of stem and early precursors in S phase with a decreased number of cells in G0/G1 phase in a dose-dependent manner; (v) MM-EVs reduced the HSPC colony formation; and (vi) MM-EVs caused an increased expression level of C-X-C motif chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) and activation of miRNAs. In conclusion, MM cells through the release of EVs, by acting directly on normal HSPCs, negatively dysregulate normal hematopoiesis, and this could have important therapeutic implications.

The porcupine is a nocturnal quill-bearing rodent common throughout Italy. When threatened, it defends itself by erecting its quills, rattling its tail, and running sideways or backyard into predators. The quills are released upon contact with assailants and tend to migrate into several body tissues or cavities due to the unique inverted cuticles (crenate) directed downwards to the quill base (a sort of “harpoon effect”). Intracardiac migration of porcupine quills has been reported in a few dogs with severe clinical signs. This case report describes a single porcupine quill [Hystrix cristata, (HC)] migration through the heart in a dog and the use of multimodality imaging for the diagnosis and surgical approach. A 4-year-old 25 kg female mixed-breed dog was presented for evaluation of recurrent fever. Transthoracic echocardiographic examination showed a linear, hyperechoic foreign body traversing the interventricular septum from the heart base to the cardiac apex. Computed tomography and transesophageal echocardiography confirmed the presence of a single structure resembling a quill; a later esophageal endoscopy showed no anatomical alterations or mucosal injuries. Following median sternotomy and after accurate localization by intraoperative ultrasound, the quill was successfully removed. The dog had a good recovery without evidence of severe cardiac injury secondary to an intracardiac quill. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the identification of an intracardiac HC quill by ultrasonography and CT and its successful removal by ultrasound guide has not been previously reported.

Color for Architects Juan Serra Lluch. 2019 Princenton Architectural Press. Nueva York. 232 páginas. Idioma: inglés ISBN: 9781616897949