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QSAR models for the screening, prediction and refinement of PBT Properties of Contaminants of Emerging Concern.
No full textThe prompt identification of the adverse effects of Contaminant of Emerging Concern (CEC) is fundamental to ensure high protection level for human health and the environment. Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) compounds are chemicals of high concern and should be readily identified. The aim of this thesis is to propose an approach based on Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR) models for the evaluation of the intrinsic environmental hazard of CECs. First, a screening of the potential PBT behavior of pharmaceuticals is performed by consensus approach. Results demonstrate a high agreement (i.e.86%) between the different QSAR models. Then, QSARs are developed to estimate acute toxicity of pharmaceuticals in aquatic species. All models have good fitting (R2>0.75) and predictivity (Q2EXT>0.68). An Aquatic Toxicity Index is proposed and modelled. Moreover, interspecies correlation models are also developed. Finally, QSARs for the prediction of whole-body human biotransformation Half-Lives are developed for organic chemicals. Predictions for the biotransformation potential are integrated in a mechanistic mass-balance multimedia environmental fate food-web model to estimate the Biomagnification Factor (BMF) in human in a tiered approach. The introduction of biotransformation strongly affects the calculation of BMF and the elimination processes related to biotransformation are predominant in the overall bioaccumulation
A cure for the soul: mesmerism, psychical research, and psychoanalysis in the life and work of Emilio Servadio (1904-1995)
No full textEmilio Servadio was an international scholar and psychoanalyst native of Sestri Ponente. He distinguished himself in several fields of studies and literary production, he wrote over one thousand contributions for the Enciclopedia italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti (1931) wrote poems and composed music, and also founded with his master, friend and colleague Edoardo Weiss, the Società Psicoanalitica Italiana. Servadio was renowned for the constitution of S.P.I., as well as he pioneered the field of psychoanalytic studies and sexology. In this context we may situate the beginning of Servadio's career and interest in the cure of sexual deviances.
A comparison between Eastern and Western culture and a multidisciplinary perspective towards different branch of humanities have a predominant role in Servadio's work, thought and therapeutic approach to sexual deviances. The life and work of the Genoese psychoanalyst was also deeply influenced by Metapsychic milieus. Evidence that Servadio's conception of therapeutics was strictly connected with these cultural fields and is conceived at the 'intersection' of different forms of knowledge is to be found in the beginning of his career. Servadio wrote several articles on the topic of the “interaction of body and soul”, which were published in the journals of psychoanalytical and metapsychic associations. Servadio was member of different metapsychic groups, which attended to find out which channels (of social, cultural, psychological and parapsychological nature) and means allow to make an interaction between the mind and the individual/collective psychic sphere possible, such as it happens in the “oneiric features” of dreams
Monitoring air pollution effects on sleep-disordered breathing in children for supporting Public Health Policy
No full textThe so called “Sleep Disordered Breathing” (SDB) are breathing disorders which appear while the baby is sleeping. They rappresent a variety of pathologics mainly characterized by an airways change with snooring and/or a breathing effort caused by an increased resistance of the high airways and pharingeal collapse. Ethipatogenetic has been mainly understood and there are some risk factors like adenotonsillar hypertrophy, obesity and cranium-facial anomalies. There are also some other factors which can determine pathology like e.g. enviromental and genetic factors.
In literature there are some studies that show how environmental pollution (outdoor and indoor) represents the main cause of SDB in a child.
The aim of this ecological study is to analize the geografical distribution of SDB in the italian province of Varese, by using the data collected in the Pediatrics.
In order to put in evidence the possible associations between SDB and the enriromental pollution, we have compared these results with NO2 distribution spatial scheme.
NO2 can be considered the most important marker of enviromental pollution because it is the main component of gas emission and it’s correlated with other combustion products.
Data were collected from 2010–2014 and focused on children who resided in Varese, were over 1 year of age, with SDB.
The total number of children analyzed was 754: 476 males (63,13%) and 278 females (36,87%). Snooring occurs in 284 cases ((37,67%), mild OSAS in 259 (34,35%), moderate OSAS in 150 (19,89%) and severe OSAS in 61 (8,09%).
For each patient, we gathered information about the child’s municipality of residence, sex, and the value of the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). AHI is based on polysomnographic recordings conducted overnight by means of Embla’s Embletta Gold sleep system, a recording system that can discriminate the SDB severity level. All of the children were diagnosed with respect to SDB based on their AHI index.
AHI mean is 3,48, value that doesn’t differ from the AHI in F and M (3,58 vs 3,42)
With the available data was made a map representing the geography of the SDB.
The results reported have to be considered preliminary and exploratory note abouve.
The positive association we observed between SDB in children and the fact that they were living in an area characterized by a high density of traffic-related pollutants should be more carefully examined, as airway inflammation is a potential mechanism connected with the effect of air pollution and SDB exacerbations—such effect can be due to the oxidative stress related to the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels that produces high levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons.
Further research is necessary to clarify the role of air pollutants on SDB and on respiratory diseases in children. This additional work would allow the wider acquisition of knowledge about potentially modifiable contributors to the risk of developing SDB during childhood, which could then be the basis for improving children’s pulmonary health
Il corpo e l’immaginario politico nella società contemporanea
No full textThought, word, hermeneutics and imaginary - understood as a social product suspended between the spiritual/virtual and real/material dimensions - which we categorize as "performative saying", construct, influence and modify in the individual, social and therefore political sense, the life of bodies. There are different concepts of corporeity, because each society has its own performative saying, and what unites the performative saying of each society is precisely what binds it to the body, and the power of the performative saying lies in its imaginative dimension that produces real effect, effects that act on the body intended as the foundation of politics.
Considering that all social, economic, legal etc. practices are deeply influenced by the imaginary and performative saying that a society has about human body, the political meaning that this concept has in itself becomes clear: the scientific performative saying, the religious performative saying or the tribal one, ecc., determine the structures and the political organization of a society, in a continuous relationship of co-construction with the imaginary. Influencing and influenced by the complex network of relationships built through performative saying, the body is now more than ever a political saying itself, expression of the imaginary and therefore it is the field of experimentation and continuous changes
La “buona morte”: analisi del profilo storico e ruolo delle cure palliative nell’accompagnamento di fine vita
No full textThis research focuses on the link between the concept of “good death” and the notion of euthanasia, words connected to each other from an etymological point of view but which differ in meaning and historical evolution. The analysis of the sources relating to “good death” has shown three main research macro-groups: one relating to the concept of “good death” in the ancient world from the classical antiquity to the late imperial age; one relative to the link between “good death” and palliative care and, lastly, the role that consolation plays in the accompaniment of the terminally ill. These reference passages have been chosen on the basis of three useful tools in the setting of Greek-Latin Philology and of ancient Christian Literature: the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae and the Bibleworks. The analysis of these passages has revealed that the notion of euthanasia in classical Greek and Latin conveyed a concept very different from the modern one. Two fundamental concepts were observed: that of “good death” and that of suicide. In Antiquity the three concepts of euthanasia, “good death” and suicide do not appear any different to today, on the contrary, the notions of euthanasia and “good death” permeate each other and euthanasia, as well as suicide often appear in the sources analyzed as “good death”. The point of view held by the professionals operating in the sector, which has been investigated in the second chapter in the form of an interview, reveals the importance of palliative care in accompanying the suffering person in the final stage of life. The third and final chapter, investigates the role of consolation both in Christian literature (The Bible; Greek and Latin Church Fathers) as well as in the concrete reality of care giving today through the analysis of the results of a survey carried out on caregivers of ten Italian hospices
La riforma della disciplina del voto nelle Primavere Arabe: tra cedimento e consolidamento del sistema
No full textThe aim of this dissertation is to provide an in-depth analysis of the electoral legislation reforms occurred in Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia during the 2011 uprisings. The main reason behind this choice is to estimates the right to vote regulation impact on the respective constitutional transitions. The author considers the electoral legislation lato sensu to be crucial in understanding the fall or persistence of both ante and post 2011 regimes.
This work can be dived in a theoretical and empirical part, consisting of three chapters each. The first gives an overview of democratization theory from both a constitutional and political scientific perspective. The second provides an analysis of the vote-democracy binomial, only then to deal with electoral system stricto sensu technicalities. The third addresses the issue of the Islamic movements’ nature and more generally the relationship between Islamic traditional institutions, such as the ijma and the Khilafah, and democratic principles. The fourth analyses the Moroccan “prevented” transition, where King Muhammad VI political acumen had been a key factor for preserving the status quo. The fifth covers the Egyptian miscarried transition, culminated with the re-establishment of an authoritarian regime. The sixth offers an overview of the only successful democratization of the Arab spring: Tunisia. The dissertation concludes giving some final considerations
Effect of blueberry supplementation in overweight and obese pregnant women
No full textChildhood obesity is a serious problem growing worldwide that needs to be early considered and treated. Maternal overweight and obesity lead to foetal complications and to an increased risk of child obesity. Blueberry bio-active compounds have antioxidant properties and improve insulin sensitivity in obese individuals. We proposed a daily integration of a freeze-dried blueberry extract in the last trimester of a population of overweight and obese pregnant women. Mother cytokine milieu, birth weight and at age one, were compared with a matched control group.
Results: birth weight was significantly lower in those whose mothers assumed the blueberry extract (male: 3636 gr ± 56,7 in control group and 3302 gr ± 60,9 in the blueberry, P=.001; female: 3446 gr ± 53 in control group and 3094 gr ± 65,5 in the blueberry, P <.0001) and this result remained comparable at age one (male control group: 9597 gr ± 134,4; blueberry: 8656 gr ± 271,9; P=.0021; female control group: 8812 ± 167,5; blueberry: 8083 ± 266,3; P=.0211); pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and leptin) were significantly reduced in the blueberry group (control 29,89 pg/mL ± 0,283 vs blueberry 8,124 ng/mL ± 0,1085 and 17,28 ± 0,4742 vs 6,977 ± 0,1187, respectively); anti-inflammatory cytokines (TGF-β and IL-4) were significantly increased in the blueberry group (control 4,196 pg/ml ± 0,9752 vs blueberry 14,87 pg/ml ± 0,8844 and 14,87 pg/ml ± 0,8844 vs 55,22 ± 1,47, respectively), CRP levels were significantly lower in the blueberry group (control 5,917 mg/L ± 0,698 vs blueberry 3,741 mg/L ± 0,6279).
Conclusion: a daily dietary supplementation with bioactive from whole blueberries in overweight and/or obese pregnant women is an effective intervention to reduce the risk of foetal macrosomia and early childhood obesity
DNA hypomethylation and hypermethylation in colorectal cancer initiation.
No full textThis project was focused on identification of new valuable molecular risk factors for the onset of colorectal cancer (CRC), studying both KRAS/NRAS/BRAF/PIK3CA mutations and DNA global hypomethylation in the early events of colorectal carcinogenesis. We analyzed a cohort of 52 colorectal adenomas and 11 carcinomas derived from MAP subjects, 80 sporadic adenomas and 15 carcinomas and a control set of 36 FAP/AFAP adenomas. Moreover, we characterized the L1-MET transcript induced by L1 hypomethylation. We observed that the early steps of oxidative DNA damage in MAP carcinogenesis are characterized by a specific pattern of somatic mutations. We also found that MAP adenomas and carcinomas show a decreased DNA global methylation and specific L1-MET hypomethylation. Finally, we hypothesized that DNA hypomethylation and expression of L1-MET chimeric transcript may play an early role in colorectal carcinogenesis characterizing a subset of more aggressive precursor lesions and cancers. In the second part of the thesis, we studied the promoter of MutL homolog 1 (MLH1) in order to elucidate the relationship between methylation and risk/protective allele at rs1800734 during CRC progression. We confirmed the association of rs1800734 with microsatellite instability (MSI) in our own data. In 33 normal colon biopsies, small allele-specific differences exist only in methylation, but not gene expression. In contrast, allele-specific differences in both MLH1 methylation and expression are present in 35 MSI cancers. We showed that MLH1 transcriptional repression is dependent on DNA methylation and can be reversed by a methylation inhibitor. The rs1800734 allele influences the rate of methylation loss and amount of re-expression
Assessment of portable and miniaturized sensors for the monitoring of human exposure to air pollutants
No full textIn the last years, several in-field campaigns have been conducted using portable and miniaturized monitors to evaluate the personal exposure to different pollutants. In general, this kind of monitors are characterized by worse metrological performance if compared to the traditional standard methods. Despite this disadvantage, portable and miniaturized monitors could be easily used across different applications, because their advantageous features, such as the capability to provide real-time measurement, the high spatial and temporal resolution of acquired data, the ability to adapt to different experimental designs and, especially, the ability to follow the subject in any activity. Finally, portable and miniaturized instruments can provide data acquired in the respiratory zone of the subject, following therefore the practices for a correct exposure assessment. Obviously, the best compromise between the analytical gold standard (in terms of precision, accuracy and instrumental sensitivity) and the gold standard in regard to the exposure assessment should be chosen.
Therefore, in brief, principal aims of this thesis are (i) to evaluate the on-field performances of portable and miniaturized monitors for gaseous pollutants and airborne PM and (ii) to use these monitors in exposure assessment studies and (iii) to understand if data acquired via portable and miniaturized monitors could be useful in other fields of application, such as epidemiological studies or toxicological studies, in which the evaluation of the inhaled dose of pollutants could play a key role
Migration and innovation: An analysis based on patent data. Migration et innovation : Une analyse basée sur des données de brevet.
No full textThis thesis investigates the migration of inventors by studying their contribution to the innovation at both destination and in their home country, after controlling for individual characteristics such as gender, education, experience, company mobility and others. In addition, we decompose the flows of migrants by entry channel in the destination country, such as the education channel, the multinational channel or when the inventors change of company and investigate the selection of migrants and the productivity gap between natives and migrants. Also, in the analysis, we decompose the cohort of entry in the destination country to compare the productivity differences among migrants themselves. Finally, we study whether return migrants are more productive than their non-migrants’ colleagues in origin countries, as a function of their experiences abroad. Cette thèse a pour but d’analyser la migration des inventeurs en étudiant leur contribution à l’innovation de leur pays de destination ainsi que leur pays d’origine, en contrôlant par leurs caractéristiques individuelles telles que leur genre, éducation, expérience, mobilité interentreprise et d’autres. De plus, nous décomposons les flux de migrants par canaux d’entrer dans le pays de destination, tel que le canal de l’éducation, multinational ou si l’inventeur change d’entreprise, et analysons la sélection des migrants et le gap de productivité entre les natifs et les migrants. Aussi, dans cette analyse, nous décomposons les cohortes d’entrées dans le pays de destination en comparant la productivité entre les migrants eux-mêmes. Finalement, nous étudions si les migrants de retour sont plus productifs que leurs collègues non migrants dans leur pays d’origine en fonction de leur expérience acquise à l’étranger