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Terahertz time-domain (THz-TD) imaging plays an increasingly significant role in the study of solid-state materials by enabling the simultaneous extraction of spectroscopic composition and surface topography in the far-infrared region (3–300 cm−1). However, when applied to works of art in reflection configuration, significant challenges arise, including weak signal intensity, multiple signal losses, and surface distortion. This study proposes a practical solution to overcome these limitations and conducts an integrated imaging and spectroscopic analysis on painted fresco surfaces, allowing for the retrieval of surface thicknesses, material distribution, and pigment spectroscopic signals. The study addresses the issue of surface geometrical distortion, which hampers the accurate determination of the THz phase signal. By tackling this challenge, this work successfully determines the absorption coefficient for each point on the surface and retrieves spectroscopic signatures. Additionally, the temporal deconvolution technique is employed to separate different layers of the sample and differentiate between outer and inner surface topography. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the advantages and limitations of THz-TD imaging in determining surface thicknesses, material distribution, and pigment spectroscopic signals. The results obtained highlight the potential of THz-TD imaging in investigating painted works of art, offering new possibilities for routine analysis in the field of cultural heritage preservation.

Facial Expression recognition is a computer vision problem that took relevant benefit from the research in deep learning. Recent deep neural networks achieved superior results, demonstrating the feasibility of recognizing the expression of a user from a single picture or a video recording the face dynamics. Research studies reveal that the most discriminating portions of the face surfaces that contribute to the recognition of facial expressions are located on the mouth and the eyes. The restrictions for COVID pandemic reasons have also revealed that state-of-the-art solutions for the analysis of the face can severely fail due to the occlusions of using the facial masks. This study explores to what extend expression recognition can deal with occluded faces in presence of masks. To a fairer comparison, the analysis is performed in different occluded scenarios to effectively assess if the facial masks can really imply a decrease in the recognition accuracy. The experiments performed on two public datasets show that some famous top deep classifiers expose a significant reduction in accuracy in presence of masks up to half of the accuracy achieved in non-occluded conditions. Moreover, a relevant decrease in performance is also reported also in the case of occluded eyes but the overall drop in performance is not as severe as in presence of the facial masks, thus confirming that, like happens for face biometric recognition, occluded faces by facial mask still represent a challenging limitation for computer vision solutions.

Supplementary Fig. S1. Basally expressed p53 may have important tumor suppressor targets. Supplementary Fig. S2. Binding targets of basal p53 in MCF10A cells. Supplementary Fig. S3. Exploring the binding targets of basal p53. Supplementary Fig. S4. Wild-type p53 maintains expression of tumor suppressor target genes. Supplementary Fig. S5. Long range chromatin interactions of enhancers with transcriptional start sites of basal p53 targets. Supplementary Fig. S6. Enhancer for PTEN is present in multiple cell types. Supplementary Fig. S7. The binding and regulation of the PTEN locus by basal p53. Supplementary Fig. S8. PTEN-eP53RE is a highly conserved p53 response element in a p53-dependent enhancer. Supplementary Fig. S9. Deletion of endogenous PTEN-eP53RE by CRISPR/Cas9. Supplementary Fig. S10. Depletion of p53 causes a PTEN-eP53RE-dependent decrease in PTEN expression, deletion of PTEN-eP53RE alters some tumor cell phenotypes. Supplementary Table S1. Information on tumor suppressor genes identified as basal p53 targets. Supplementary Table S2. Predicted p53 response elements within basal p53 binding sites using JASPAR. Supplementary Table S3. Chromatin properties of basal p53 binding sites near tumor suppressor genes. Legends for Supplementary Spreadsheets S1-S5. Additional Materials and Methods. References for Supplementary Material.

Basal p53 ChIP-seq peaks in U2OS cells (after raw data analysis described in Materials in Methods section) ordered by significance of the peak call. Spreadsheet includes (columns left to right) peak locus (Chromosome, start, end), MACS2 significance, closest relevant gene (genes discussed in paper in red type), and original HOMER gene call (if relevant gene differs from called gene).

Urological disorders are very common and affect any age. The most common medical conditions include cystitis, urolithiasis, renal colic, and prostatitis. Broser® is a food supplement containing bromelain, escin,and selenium. Its efficacy has been positively tested in patients with otorhinolaryngological disorders.Therefore, the present clinical experience investigated the efficacy and safety of this product in patients with medical urological disorders and treated with standard therapy. The add-on Broser® course lasted 2 weeks. The oral nutraceutical was taken following the specific indications, such as two tablets/daily. Patients were visited at baseline (T0) and after the treatment (T1). Patients in Group A had to take Broser® one tablet b.i.d. per 20 days. Evaluation parameters were the following signs and symptoms: pain, functional powerlessness, fever, oedema, malaise, dysuria, and infection severity. Globally, 1,204 patients participated in this clinical experience. The median age was 52 years. The food supplement significantly reduced the symptom severity and the incidence of symptoms. In conclusion, the present clinical experience demonstrated that the add-on therapy with Broser® significantly reduced the severity and incidence of urological complaints. Therefore, this food supplement could be fruitfully used in clinical practice.

The smart city in urban planning and architecture is a set of urban planning strategies aimed at optimizing and innovating public services so as to relate the material infrastructures of cities “with the human, intellectual and social capital of those who live there” thanks to the widespread use of new communication technologies, mobility, environment and energy efficiency, in order to improve the quality of life and meet the needs of citizens, businesses and institutions. Nowadays we hear more and more about the Internet of Things (IoT). Smart devices connected to the internet are increasing in cities. Cities become smart, but at the same time it is not considered the quality of data that these devices send over the internet. The authors, starting from the experience gained previously, in this work focus on energy efficiency, and in particular how energy measurements are performed and sent. The authors propose a low cost smart electric meter for the measurement of electrical parameters. The meter is capable of adapting to the variability of the grid maintaining a high level of measurement accuracy. On the proposed smart meter two algorithms are developed and compared both in simulation and with real signals.