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A previous study of ours highlighted how prolonged exposure to cannabinoids induced negative effects of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on testicular morphology and spermatogenesis. This picture may depend on the modulation of cannabinoid receptors that are present on Sertoli and Leydig cells but also by molecules with endocrine or paracrine action such as ghrelin that influence the balance of molecular signaling and nurturing of the microenvironment. Lepidium meyenii Walp (Maca), is a crop harvested exclusively between 3500 and 4500 m above sea level in the Andes highlands of and recognized to have antioxidant power and ability to improve both male and female reproductive functions, in humans and animals. Several are the ecotypes depending on crop’s color, the most used are the yellow, red and black ecotypes. The aims of the present study were to assess if the morpho-structural aspects of mouse testes, already highlighted in previous studies, were confirmed in this experimental model, and to evaluate the presence of ghrelin and its receptor in mouse testicular tissue following the treatment with THC and/or Maca (Yellow ecotype) by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting analyses. To these aims, twenty-four C57BL/6 male mice of 6 weeks of age were included in the study and divided in four groups of five animals each one, as follow: C, control group, with no treatment; THC group received 10 mg/kg per day of Δ 9 THC in 0.1 ml of sesame oil subcutaneously for 30 days; Maca group received 50 mg/kg per day of Maca via oral administration for 30 days; THC/Maca group received THC and Maca with the same modalities of the THC and Maca groups respectively, for 30 days.In all testes examined, Western blotting analysis highlighted the presence of ghrelin, in particular we observed a band whose molecular weight was similar to that of the corresponding prepro-ghrelin (approximately 20 kDa), and its receptor (40 kDa). Immunohistochemistry study on mouse testis showed the presence of ghrelin localized in Leydig cells in all study groups. The THC/Maca group is the one which, compared to the other groups of treated mice, also showed immunopositivity in Sertoli cells. From the data that emerged, it is probable that ghrelin plays a role in the modulation of androgen hormone production at the Leydig cell level, and that ghrelin localized in Sertoli cells of the THC/Maca group may favorably influence spermatogenesis.

GPS-based applications make travelling easier, supplying information about routes, such as real-time traffic, Estimated Time of Arrival, faster or cheaper path. These applications exploit digital maps supplied by specific companies, often updated also thanks to user-submitted data. The aim of this work is to show an event driven system for territory mapping and monitoring, using multi-hop wireless networks, relying on C2X communication and on VANETs in general. The idea is to keep road maps up to date automatically and autonomously, exploiting a collaborative communication of events in social networking style, without the need for a centralized communication system. Moreover, it is possible to enhance standard map data introducing two more layers: an events layer, automatically built by the events detected by SoCar clients, characterized by a short life span, and a prevision area layer, derived from events layer statistics, where data point are clustered in proper spatial neighborhood. Both these layers contribute to choose the most convenient route, the events layer for the short term and the prevision area layer for the long term.

Grid systems can take advantage from monitoring services to improve the reliability from the user point of view and to accelerate diagnostic and troubleshooting. However, the distributed nature of the computing infrastructure introduces several problems regarding the implementation, deployment, updating and management of the monitoring subsystem and these problems can affect the effectiveness of the monitoring activity itself. In this paper, we illustrate a new distributed monitoring model for multiregional grid infrastructure. Stressing the IaaS paradigm and the storage auto-replica, we propose a very flexible architecture over a cloud domain extended on a geographical scale that allows to manage, reconfigure and modify each monitoring component for each site on the grid. The proposed architecture is based on a complete network management system relying on the introduction of network services that are able to create on-demand layer-2 interconnection among sites. As a case study, we present the computing infrastructure deployed in the south of Italy for scientific applications, which is based on the gLite/EMI middleware and we propose a possible scenario for supporting the grid infrastructure in Southern Italy.

The development of a computing model for the next generation of Super Flavour Factories, like SuperB and SuperKEKB, presents significant challenges. With a nominal luminosity above 10^36 cm^-2 s^-1, we estimate that, after few years of operation, the size of the data sample will be of the order of 500 PB and the amount of CPU required to process it will be close to 5000 KHep-Spec06. The new many and multi core technologies need to be effectively exploited in order to manage very large data set and this has a potential large impact on the computing model for SuperB. In addition, the computing resources available to SuperB, as is already the case for LHC experiments, will be distributed and accessed through a Grid or a cloud infrastructure and a suite of efficient and reliable tools needs to be provided to the users. A dedicated research program to explore these issues is in progress and it is presented here.