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Highlights • Hippocampal metabolic profile of females is more pro-inflammatory and pro-oxidant. • Comparable LPS-induced sickness behaviour in male and female WT and APP/PS1 mice. • Pro- and anti-inflammatory pathways both recruited 4 h after systemic LPS. • Predominant anti-inflammatory metabolic response to LPS in female hippocampi., Systemic inflammation enhances the risk and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a potent pro-inflammatory endotoxin produced by the gut, is found in excess levels in AD where it associates with neurological hallmarks of pathology. Sex differences in susceptibility to inflammation and AD progression have been reported, but how this impacts on LPS responses remains under investigated. We previously reported in an APP/PS1 model of AD that systemic LPS administration rapidly altered hippocampal metabolism in males. Here, we used untargeted metabolomics to comprehensively identify hippocampal metabolic processes occurring at onset of systemic inflammation with LPS (100 µg/kg, i.v.) in APP/PS1 mice, at an early pathological stage, and investigated the sexual dimorphism in this response. Four hours after LPS administration, pathways regulating energy metabolism, immune and oxidative stress responses were simultaneously recruited in the hippocampi of 4.5-month-old mice with a more protective response in females despite their pro-inflammatory and pro-oxidant metabolic signature in the absence of immune stimulation. LPS induced comparable behavioural sickness responses in male and female wild-type and APP/PS1 mice and comparable activation of both the serotonin and nicotinamide pathways of tryptophan metabolism in their hippocampi. Elevations in N-methyl-2-pyridone-5-carboxamide, a major toxic metabolite of nicotinamide, correlated with behavioural sickness regardless of sex, as well as with the LPS-induced hypothermia seen in males. Males also exhibited a pro-inflammatory-like downregulation of pyruvate metabolism, exacerbated in APP/PS1 males, and methionine metabolism whereas females showed a greater cytokine response and anti-inflammatory-like downregulation of hippocampal methylglyoxal and methionine metabolism. Metabolic changes were not associated with morphological markers of immune cell activation suggesting that they constitute an early event in the development of LPS-induced neuroinflammation and AD exacerbation. These data suggest that the female hippocampus is more tolerant to acute systemic inflammation.

( Sorghum bicolor ), pois e uma planta que se adapta a variadas condicoes ambientais. A utilizacao de farelos de cereais como aditivos em silagens vem contribuindo como uma alternativa eficiente para a melhoria dos processos fermentativos, atuando diretamente nas caracteristicas qualitativas da silagem. Desta maneira objetivou-se com este trabalho avaliar o efeito da inclusao de diferentes niveis de aditivos absorventes, nas caracteristicas fermentativas e na composicao quimica da silagem de sorgo forrageiro ( Sorghum bicolor ). O experimento foi conduzido seguindo um delineamento inteiramente casualizado (DIC), em arranjo fatorial (3 farelos x 4 niveis) formando 12 tratamentos com 4 repeticoes, totalizando 48 minisilos. Desta maneira os tratamentos foram as seguintes combinacoes: SA - Silagem de sorgo sem aditivo; FA5 - Silagem de sorgo + farelo de arroz (5%); FA10 - Silagem de sorgo + farelo de arroz (10%); FA20 - Silagem de sorgo + farelo de arroz (20%); FT5 - Silagem de sorgo + farelo de trigo (5%); FT10 - Silagem de sorgo + farelo de trigo (10%); FT20 - Silagem de sorgo + farelo de trigo (20%); FS5 - Silagem de sorgo + farelo de soja (5%); FS10 - Silagem de sorgo + farelo de soja (10%); FS20 - Silagem de sorgo + farelo de soja (20%). Verificou-se que a presenca de aditivos na silagem proporcionou 32,26% menos perdas por bolores, leveduras e outros microrganismos, alem de diminuir os teores de pH, FDN, e FDA do material ensilado, e proporcionando aumento da MS da silagem. Conclui-se que a inclusao de aditivos absorventes na silagem de sorgo proporcionou melhoria na qualidade do material ensilado.

Objetivou-se avaliar o efeito de nove anos na sazonalidade, qualidade, composição, produção e o preço comercializado pelo litro de leite, em uma fazenda leiteira ao Norte do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Foram tabulados dados de gordura, proteína, lactose, sólidos totais, extrato seco desengordurados, contagem de células somáticas (CCS), contagem bacteriana total (CBT), produção de leite comercializada mensalmente, produção média por animal e preço comercializado pelo litro de leite. Para a análise estatística foi utilizado a análise de variância considerando o efeito das estações do ano (verão, outono, inverno e primavera) e anos, já para a correlação de Pearson, buscou-se verificar a correlação entre o valor do litro de leite comercializado em relação a composição centesimal do leite, qualidade microbiológica e volume de leite comercializado. O inverno e a primavera caracterizaram-se como as estações com o maior volume de leite comercializado, maiores teores de lactose, menores índices de CCS e CBT. Já em relação ao preço do litro de leite comercializado, as estações com os maiores valores pago foram, outono e inverno, seguido de verão e primavera. Além disso, este estudo evidenciou que os principais componentes responsáveis pela formulação do preço comercializado pelo litro de leite, foram, CSS, CBT proteína, lactose e volume comercializado. Desta forma, as estações do ano e os diferentes anos interferiram na composição, qualidade, produção e no preço do litro de leite.

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is an RNA-based disease with no current treatment. It is caused by a transcribed CTG repeat expansion within the 3' untranslated region of the dystrophia myotonica protein kinase (DMPK) gene. Mutant repeat expansion transcripts remain in the nuclei of patients' cells, forming distinct microscopically detectable foci that contribute substantially to the pathophysiology of the condition. Here, we report small-molecule inhibitors that remove nuclear foci and have beneficial effects in the HSALR mouse model, reducing transgene expression, leading to improvements in myotonia, splicing, and centralized nuclei. Using chemoproteomics in combination with cell-based assays, we identify cyclin-dependent kinase 12 (CDK12) as a druggable target for this condition. CDK12 is a protein elevated in DM1 cell lines and patient muscle biopsies, and our results showed that its inhibition led to reduced expression of repeat expansion RNA. Some of the inhibitors identified in this study are currently the subject of clinical trials for other indications and provide valuable starting points for a drug development program in DM1.

Background: Soccer is considered the most popular sport in the world concerning both audience and athlete participation, and the incidence of ACL injury in this sport is high. The understanding of injury situations and mechanisms could be useful as substratum for preventive actions. Purpose: To conduct a video analysis evaluating the situations and mechanisms of ACL injury in a homogeneous population of professional male soccer players, through a search entirely performed on the YouTube.com Web site focusing on the most recent years. Methods: A video analysis was conducted obtaining videos of ACL injury in professional male soccer players from the Web site YouTube. Details regarding injured players, events and situations were obtained. The mechanism of injury was defined on the basis of the action, duel type, contact or non-contact injury, and on the hip, knee and foot position. Results: Thirty-four videos were analyzed, mostly from the 2014–2015 season. Injuries occurred mostly in the first 9 min of the match (26%), in the penalty area (32%) or near the side-lines (44%), and in non-rainy conditions (97%). Non-contact injuries occurred in 44% of cases, while indirect injuries occurred in 65%, mostly during pressing, dribbling or tackling. The most recurrent mechanism was with an abducted and flexed hip, with knee at first degrees of flexion and under valgus stress. Conclusions: Through a YouTube-based video analysis, it was possible to delineate recurrent temporal, spatial and mechanical characteristics of ACL injury in male professional soccer players. Level of evidence: Level IV, case series.

Author(s): Fornaroli, Riccardo; Agostini, Alessandra; Arnaud, Elena; Berselli, Alberto; Bettoni, Eugenia; Boggero, Angela; Borlandelli, Cristina; Cadrobbi, Giuseppi; Cason, Manuela; Castelli, Luciano; Cerea, Silvia; Contardi, Laura; Costa, Sara; Costaraoss, Silvia; Dallafior, Valentina; Dal Mas, Alessandro; Elvio, Francesco; Fioravanti, Marco; Fortino, Davide; Franceschini, Silvia; Fravezzi, Laura; Fuganti, Alessia; Galbiati, Matteo; Galimberti, Filippo; Genoni, Pietro; Gerbaz, Daniela; Lea, Alessia; Lucchini, Daniela; Manzieri, Anna Maria; Marchesi, Manuela; Monauni, Catia; Montanari, Paola; Morchio, Federica; Piovano, Silvia; Pizzochero, Natale; Raviola, Mara; Richieri, Filippo; Roatta, Valeria; Rocca, Daniela; Sarzilla, Attilio; Siciliano, Ornella; Testa, Paola; Tonna, Davide; Tumminelli, Marzia Enza; Turco, Franca; Vicquery, Luciana; Laini, Alex | Abstract: Rivers serve many societal functions and are one of the most intensively human influenced ecosystems worldwide, and, due to their importance, are included under the monitoring programs of the Water Framework Directive across Europe. Macroinvertebrates play an important role when monitoring running waters for the assessment of their environmental quality due to their reliability as bioindicators and utility in long-term studies. Macroinvertebrates do not constitute a systematic unit but they are formed by a set of different taxa, grouped according to taxonomic ranks, size and habitat preferences. They represent the base of the aquatic food chain, serving as a food source for amphibians, birds, reptiles, fish and humans, and contributing in the organic matter processing. Despite the large amount of data collected on Italian river macroinvertebrates and the increased interest in the study of this group, only few data are available for research scientist and managers. In this paper, we collected and homogenized knowledge on the presence, distribution and abundances of macroinvertebrates taxa inhabiting the River Po catchment (Northern Italy) in the last decade. The data set includes 130,727 records collected between 2007 and 2018 including 143 taxa of macroinvertebrates, mostly identified at family rank level. Moreover, the data set provides information on the geographic distribution of these families and their abundance by sub-catchment, altitude, meso- and micro-habitat.

© 2017 IEEE. Segmentation and analysis of histological images provides a valuable tool to gain insight into the biology and function of microglial cells in health and disease. Common image segmentation methods are not suitable for inhomogeneous histology image analysis and accurate classification of microglial activation states has remained a challenge. In this paper, we introduce an automated image analysis framework capable of efficiently segmenting microglial cells from histology images and analyzing their morphology. The framework makes use of variational methods and the fast-split Bregman algorithm for image denoising and segmentation, and of multifractal analysis for feature extraction to classify microglia by their activation states. Experiments show that the proposed framework is accurate and scalable to large datasets and provides a useful tool for the study of microglial biology.

The problem of finding a formulation of Noether's theorem in noncommutative geometry is very important in order to obtain conserved currents and charges for particles in noncommutative space–times. In this paper, we formulate Noether's theorem for translations of κ-Minkowski noncommutative space–time on the basis of the five-dimensional κ-Poincaré covariant differential calculus. We focus our analysis on the simple case of free scalar theory. We obtain five conserved Noether currents, which give rise to five energy–momentum charges. By applying our result to plane waves it follows that the energy–momentum charges satisfy a special-relativity dispersion relation with a generalized mass given by the fifth charge. In this paper, we provide also a rigorous derivation of the equation of motion from Hamilton's principle in noncommutative space–time, which is necessary for the Noether analysis.

Microglia activation has emerged as a potential key factor in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. Metabolite levels assessed by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) are used as markers of neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases, but how they relate to microglial activation in health and chronic disease is incompletely understood. Using MRS, we monitored the brain metabolic response to lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-induced microglia activation in vivo in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (APP/PS1) and healthy controls (wild-type (WT) littermates) over 4 hours. We assessed reactive gliosis by immunohistochemistry and correlated metabolic and histological measures. In WT mice, LPS induced a microglial phenotype consistent with activation, associated with a sustained increase in macromolecule and lipid levels (ML9). This effect was not seen in APP/PS1 mice, where LPS did not lead to a microglial response measured by histology, but induced a late increase in the putative inflammation marker myoinositol (mI) and metabolic changes in total creatine and taurine previously reported to be associated with amyloid load. We argue that ML9 and mI distinguish the response of WT and APP/PS1 mice to immune mediators. Lipid and macromolecule levels may represent a biomarker of activation of healthy microglia, while mI may not be a glial marker.

We examine some alternative possibilities for an action functional for κ-Minkowski noncommutative space–time. Early works on κ-Minkowski focused on κ-Poincaré covariance and the dependence of the action functional on the choice of Weyl map, renouncing to invariance under cyclic permutations of the factors composing the argument of the action functional. It has been recently suggested, focusing on a specific choice of Weyl map and setting aside the issue of κ-Poincaré covariance of the action functional, that a cyclicity-inducing measure could be introduced in implicit form. We provide an explicit formula for (and derivation of) a choice of measure which indeed ensures cyclicity of the action functional. The same choice of measure is applicable to all the most used choices of Weyl map, but we find that this "cyclicity-inducing measure" is not invariant under κ-Poincaré transformations. We also notice that the cyclicity-inducing measure can be straightforwardly derived using a map which connects the κ-Minkowski space–time coordinates and the space–time coordinates of a "canonical" noncommutative space–time, with coordinate-independent commutators.

We construct a Dirac equation that is consistent with one of the recently-proposed schemes for a "doubly-special relativity", a relativity with both an observer-independent velocity scale (still naturally identified with the speed-of-light constant) and an observer-independent length/momentum scale (possibly given by the Planck length/momentum). We find that the introduction of the second observer-independent scale only induces a mild deformation of the structure of Dirac spinors. We also show that our modified Dirac equation naturally arises in constructing a Dirac equation in the kappa-Minkowski noncommutative spacetime. Previous, more heuristic, studies had already argued for a possible role of doubly-special relativity in kappa-Minkowski, but remained vague on the nature of the consistency requirements that should be implemented in order to assure the observer-independence of the two scales. We find that a key role is played by the choice of a differential calculus in kappa-Minkowski. A much-studied choice of the differential calculus does lead to our doubly-special relativity Dirac equation, but a different scenario is encountered for another popular choice of differential calculus., 26 pages, LaTex. v2: Alessandra Agostini (contributing some results from her PhD thesis) is added to the list of authors. The results presented in v1 remain unchanged and are contained in Section 2. Sections 3,4,5 add results not present in v1, concerning the realization of the DSR-deformed Dirac equation in kappa-Minkowski noncommutative spacetime. Title changed accordingly

In this paper a framework for the conceptual modelling of organizational contexts is provided and it is embodied into an extension of the TOSCA organizational handbook. The context of a work process is relevant since the effectiveness of the cooperation among its actors is highly dependent on their awareness of it. It requires, on the one hand, that the context is made available in terms of visibility and/or transparency; on the other, that at any time a selection is made so that only what is relevant to the context is provided, leaving the rest in the background. With respect to the first requirement a model of the organizational context is needed, so that all the information regarding its dimensions can be linked together. With respect to the second requirement, a work process model provides some guidelines for designing a system offering a selective access to the context of a work process. The workspace metaphor is a good paradigm to make that information ready at hand, since it is the natural framework within which people do their work.

The main goal of our project is stimulating, by means of technology-enhanced tools, students' engagement and participation in the educational process. We exploit the affordances of large multi-touch displays in everyday classroom activities to allow new cooperative learning opportunities for students. Our preliminary work in designing for Interactive White Boards emphasizes issues largely neglected in these kinds of applications.

UTUCS is a system for supporting a group of people (an office, a team, etc.) interconnected through a communication network in handling conversations carried on through different communication media. It has been developed with the aim of providing a good coordination support system that pairs the best computer-based tool a group may have in any situation (dispersed versus non dispersed, synchronous versus non synchronous) with the ability to switch from one to another, maintaining integrated and linked the information it creates. As UTUCS is a general system devoted to integrating conversations independently of the communication media exploited, it has been designed in such a way that it can be enhanced by developing a module for any communication medium that can be effectively supported by a computer network. Up to now the Electronic Mail module, the Face to Face Couple Colloquies module, and the Face to Face Group Meetings module have been implemented.

The Context Aggregation and REasoning (CARE) middleware aims at supporting context-aware adaptation of internet services in a mobile computing environment. Context awareness requires the acquisition, representation and processing of information that goes beyond raw context data - like device features, network status and user location - to include semantically rich data such as the current activity and interests of users. Representing and reasoning with the latter class of data require the use of ontologies and ontological reasoning. It is well known that reasoning with ontologies poses significant performance issues. The CARE hybrid reasoning mechanism is based on a loose interaction between ontological reasoning and efficient reasoning in a restricted logic programming language. In this paper we illustrate the hybrid reasoning approach adopted by CARE and report the extensive experimental results on ontology-based context reasoning that support our approach. © 2009 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

This paper presents preliminary results on anonymization and obfuscation techniques to preserve users' privacy in context-aware service provisioning. The techniques are based on generalizing request parameters as well as the context data provided to the application. Local context semantic aggregation is used to improve the quality of service that can be achieved while preserving privacy. The paper also shows how the software architecture of the CARE middleware can be extended to implement the proposed techniques

Over these past few years several quantum-gravity research groups have been exploring the possibility that in some Planck-scale nonclassical descriptions of spacetime one or another form of nonclassical spacetime symmetries might arise. One of the most studied scenarios is based on the use of Hopf algebras, but previous attempts were not successful in deriving constructively the properties of the conserved charges one would like to obtain from the Hopf structure, and this in turn did not allow a crisp physical characterization of the new concept of spacetime symmetry. Working within the example of $\kappa$-Minkowski noncommutative spacetime, known to be particularly troublesome from this perspective, we observe that these past failures in the search of the charges originated from not recognizing the crucial role that the noncommutative differential calculus plays in the symmetry analysis. We show that, if the properties of the $\kappa$-Minkowski differential calculus are correctly taken into account, one can easily perform all the steps of the Noether analysis and obtain an explicit formula relating fields and energy-momentum charges. Our derivation also exposes the fact that an apparent source of physical ambiguity in the description of the Hopf-algebra rules of action, which was much emphasized in the literature, actually only amounts to a choice of conventions and in particular does not affect the formulas for the charges., Comment: minor text rewording and correction of a couple of typos; we also added a few intermediate steps in the derivation of the result of time independence of the charges

This paper reports our experience with representing and reasoning with context information within the CARE middleware. CARE was developed to support context-aware service adaptation for mobile users. Expressiveness and computational issues are discussed and the specific solution adopted in CARE is presented.

The algebra of functions on kappa-Minkowski noncommutative spacetime is studied as algebra of operators on Hilbert spaces. The representations of this algebra are constructed and classified. This new approach leads to a natural construction of integration in kappa-Minkowski spacetime in terms of the usual trace of operators., Comment: 23 pag. Latex, correction of a couple of typos, reference added, title slightly changed

A number of dimensions are relevant in order to successfully support community life and development. These dimensions include the easiness and broad spectrum of participation, the provision of value in return to the contributions, the visibility of community activity, the support of different levels of membership, the openness to the external world, and the support for evolving phases of the community life. In this paper we present a system that has been designed in order to tackle those dimensions with a particular attention to participation issues. We present first the sources of requirements that have informed the system design and which include the user observation of two companies. Then we present the system, stressing the features of integration with the daily working environment and the provision of multiple situated views, as a means to address the elicited requirements. Finally, we compare our design choices with a broader set of requirements that we have derived from literature.

I give a brief summary of the results reported in hep-th 0306013 in collaboration with G. Amelino-Camelia and F. D'Andrea. I focus on the analysis of the symmetries of $\kappa$-Minkowski noncommutative space-time, described in terms of a Weyl map. The commutative space-time notion of Lie-algebra symmetries must be replaced by the one of Hopf-algebra symmetries. However, in the Hopf algebra sense, it is possible to construct an action in $\kappa$-Minkowski which is invariant under a 10-generators Poincar\'e-like symmetry algebra., Comment: 7 pages, LaTex (To appear in the proceedings of 12-th International Colloquium "Quantum Groups and Integrable Systems", Prague, 12-14 June 2003.)

In the study of certain noncommutative versions of Minkowski spacetime there is still a large ambiguity concerning the characterization of their symmetries. Adopting as our case study the kappaMinkowski noncommutative space-time, on which a large literature is already available, we propose a line of analysis of noncommutative-spacetime symmetries that relies on the introduction of a Weyl map (connecting a given function in the noncommutative Minkowski with a corresponding function in commutative Minkowski) and of a compatible notion of integration in the noncommutative spacetime. We confirm (and we establish more robustly) previous suggestions that the commutative-spacetime notion of Lie-algebra symmetries must be replaced, in the noncommutative-spacetime context, by the one of Hopf-algebra symmetries. We prove that in kappaMinkowski it is possible to construct an action which is invariant under a Poincare-like Hopf algebra of symmetries with 10 generators, in which the noncommutativity length scale has the role of relativistic invariant. The approach here adopted does leave one residual ambiguity, which pertains to the description of the translation generators, but our results, independently of this ambiguity, are sufficient to clarify that some recent studies (gr-qc/0212128 and hep-th/0301061), which argued for an operational indistiguishability between theories with and without a length-scale relativistic invariant, implicitly assumed that the underlying spacetime would be classical., Comment: 20 pages, no figures, LaTex. This version has exactly the same technical content as version 1, but the observation reported in Section VII is discussed more pedagogically

We introduce the notion of generalized Weyl system, and use it to define *-products which generalize the commutation relations of Lie algebras. In particular we study in a comparative way various *-products which generalize the k-Minkowski commutation relations., Comment: 21 pages, minor corrections and references added

The last decade has witnessed a growing interest in what technology can do to sustain communities. Within the Campiello project innovative information technologies have been adopted to support the dynamic exchange of experiences among people living in cities with high levels of tourism, in this way reducing the progressive diminishing of identity suffered by the local communities of these cities. The system developed has been used, for an experimental period, in a neighborhood of Venice, Italy. In the paper, we reflect on the whole Campiello experience, considering all its development phases. These reflections are organized as a set of issues that require attention, respectively, in the design and deployment of community systems, illustrated with examples from Campiello. We believe that due to the relative novelty of community systems, this type of reflection is important to inform the design of future systems such that they better fulfill their objectives and become an integral part of community practices. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Workflow management systems are considered a hot technology. Nevertheless, up to now they have not had the diffusion other packages such as productivity tools, E-mail systems and groupware platforms have. We believe that this fact is due to the many limitations of current workflow technology (weak support for changes; complex exception handling mechanisms; limited openness to and integrability with other system components; ...) and that radically new workflow management systems should be designed and developed in order to offer adequate products to the market. In this paper, we outline the main innovative features of the workflow management component of the MILANO system making it highly flexible and adaptable. Particular attention is paid to its modelling framework, which is based on a class of net systems well supported by efficient algorithms, and to the services it offers to both workflow designers and actors. The most relevant aspects of the MILANO workflow management system are also illustrated through a realistic example