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Biophysical modelling of proximity effects in chromosome aberration production
Get PDFAlthough two chromosome breaks induced in proximity are known to have a higher probability of being (mis-)rejoined, several aspects of these “proximity effects” are still unclear. Herein, proximity effects in human lymphocytes and fibroblasts were investigated by the BIANCA biophysical model, describing the dependence of the rejoining probability on the break initial distance, r, either by an exponential function of the form exp(−r/r0), or by a Gaussian function of the form exp(−r2/2σ2). The characteristic distance (r0 or σ) was an adjustable parameter; the only other parameter was the yield of DNA “Cluster Lesions” (CLs), where a CL is defined as a critical damage producing two independent chromosome fragments. The comparison of the simulation outcomes with published experimental and theoretical works showed that an exponential function may describe proximity effects in both the considered cell types, and possibly other cells. Since this exponential behavior has been found to be consistent with confined diffusion of break ends, this also suggests that, at the relatively short times required for chromosome aberration production, (confined) diffusion is preferable to other mechanisms. Furthermore, the results suggested that the ratio of dicentrics to centric rings (“F-ratio”) may be a better high-LET fingerprint in lymphocytes, whereas the ratio of acentric to centric rings (“G-ratio”) may be a better one in fibroblasts
MEDIRAD project “implications of medical low-dose radiation exposure”: Enhancing the protection of patients and health professionals from exposure to low-dose medical radiation
Get PDFThe EC-funded project MEDIRAD addresses numerous low-dose exposure situations for patients and workers in the medical context, to further develop risk models and draw operational recommendations for improving radiation protection. The four-year project (2017–2021) relies on a 33-partner consortium from 14 European countries and is coordinated by the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR, AT). Prof. Elisabeth Cardis (ISGlobal, ES) and Prof. Guy Frija (Universit´e Paris Descartes, FR) are the scientific coordinator and the clinical coordinator, respectively. The MEDIRAD Project consists of six interdependent and complimentary Work Packages (WPs). WP1: project management and dissemination; WP2: dose evaluation and optimisation in medical imaging; WP3: impact of low-dose radiation exposure from I-131 radioiodine in thyroid cancer treatment; WP4: breast radiotherapy and secondary cardiovascular risks; WP5: possible health impact of paediatric scanning; WP6: bringing together medical and nuclear scientific communities for radiation protection purposes. The Italian National Institute of Health (ISS), thanks to its consolidated experience in the field of quality assurance in radiological sciences, will contribute to the latter issue coordinating a Working Group to develop recommendations on patient radiological protection, directed to the medical communities, considering the scientific outcomes of the MEDIRAD WPs and the stakeholders’comments
On the use of highly pixellated CMOS imagers to measure therapeutic beam profile
Get PDFThe characterization of high-intensity charged-particle and photon beams at medical accelerators is often a time-consuming task. In this work, we discuss the possibility to use highly segmented CMOS imagers as a way to measure the fluxes with high spatial precision and in a short time. Quite recently CMOS imagers, designed to collect visible light, have been used to detect ionizing radiation, either charged particles (electron, proton) or photons. These devices, due to the very low single pixel noise, have a very high detection efficiency, once the interaction between radiation and silicon has taken place, and act primarily as counting detectors. We will show how it is possible to extract a precise beam shape using as a test case a therapeutic electron beam delivered by an Elekta e-LINAC at the S. Maria Hospital in Terni (Italy), and as sensors commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) CMOS imagers
Innovative methodologies for the analysis of radon time series
Get PDFThe present contribution is a part of a wide and detailed study on the long-term radon time series specific activity using novel methods of analysis with different aims: to extract the general trend; to evidence and distinguish endogenous and climatic dependences; to identify anomalies in order to show the correlation with geophysical phenomena; to forecast the original signal. Various examples of application of these methods are exhibited on radon time series collected in some Italian sites, in order to make a retrospective analysis to better study the existing correlation between anomalies and earthquakes. The results obtained from this study highlight the manifold capabilities of the proposed methods in the radon signal analysis, exploitable also for any kind of research framework that needs data analysis of time series
Anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) early life stages in the Central Mediterranean Sea: connectivity issues emerging among adjacent sub-areas across the Strait of Sicily
Get PDFThe Strategic Systemic Toolkit for Policy Modelling and Lawmaking
Get PDFThis paper is focused on the question what is a Constitution? We know it is the most important law of a traditionally meant by political common sense national legal system of course. Nevertheless, from the top or from the bottom (Grundnorm), National states meant constitutions vertically (Pitasi). It seems at first glance to be vertical in the best tradition, is the top, not the bottom. Nevertheless it might be a problem nowadays because some changes happened in terms of law globalization and horizontalization of constitutions on the planet and, here, we are going to analyze some of them
The Tactic Systemic Toolkit for Policy Modelling and Lawmaking
Get PDFThis essay is focused on the systemic vision and the importance of systemic shifts for the study of sociology of law. Through the introduction of fundamental concepts such as Luhmann’s theory, the paradigmatic shift of systemic theories, and the idea of law as a social system. Additionally, this essay will discuss constructing and designing systems, the new relational standards between citizenship and development, and showing the new shape of a social system, Hipercitizenship (Pitasi). These concepts and discussions will be illustrated with examples, providing a new perspective
Classifying railway station catchment areas. An application of node-place model to the Campania region
Get PDFIn the last decades the local and regional authorities worldwide have expressed an increasing
interest in the application of development strategies that combine transport and land use
actions to reduces the impacts of the negative environmental and socio-economic consequences
generated by the mobility needs in the urban area. Like many other regional authorities in the
world, the Campania Region faces the problem to improve the existing transport network and
optimize the land-use. The regional railway network consists over 3.017 km of lines and 339
stations, operated by three transport companies. The main action of the regional authority in next
years is not just renewal of transport infrastructures, also to improve the land-use component
in the catchment areas of the urban and peripheral nodes of transport. In order to support the
policymakers and technicians, this contribute proposes a quantitative analysis of railway nodes
in Campania Region in terms of transport and land-use characteristics, by drawing on the recent
advances of node-place smart modelling literature. To increase the strength of our analysis,
we used only open data referring to the catchment area (CA) size and analysed through an
open source GIS software. Based on this systematic station inventory, we conducted a cluster
analysis for all CA. In conclusion, this contribute proposes a GIS quantitative methodology of
spatial analysis to support the strategic governance of regional/metropolitan railway network
and the related application to the Campania Region
Apud Baulos. L’utilizzo della viewshed analysis per la risoluzione di un quesito di topografia flegrea
Get PDFThe location of the ancient district of Bauli has always had a central role within the archaeological research in the so-called Campi Flegrei, in the Gulf of Naples. Ancient literary sources mentioned this place in relation to the well-known phenomenon of ‘villa society’ that characterized the Gulf of Naples, especially the Baiae-Misenum peninsula. Cicero, Pliny the Elder and Varro mentioned Bauli as the place of the orator Q. Hortensius Hortalus’ maritime villa, which was particularly famous for its many fishponds. Other literary sources have contributed to reinforce the thesis, strongly defended by Amedeo Maiuri, that ancient Bauli was located at the place of modern Bacoli, where many remains of fishponds and other ancient buildings are considered to have been part of Hortensius’ villa in Bauli. Few eminent scholars - such as Karl J. Beloch - contrasted this theory, proposing a different interpretation of the ancient texts that has led to locate Bauli near the Lucrino Lake, E of Baiae. The goal of this paper is to present new data from GIS spatial analysis that can contribute to evaluate both theories and to answer the question about the location of Bauli. The viewshed analysis tested Cicero’s passage stating that from Hortensius’ villa in Bauli it would have been possible to see his villa in Pompeii if the distance was shorter. The viewshed rasters calculated for three observation points corresponding to Maiuri’s and Beloch’s location of Bauli provide new important data for the solution of this topographical question. By relating spatial analysis to the information reported by the ancient sources, together with the archaeological traces, it is possible to confirm the hypothesis that Bauli was located between Baiae and Misenum, in the modern town of Bacoli
The Archaeological Urban Information System of Verona: an approach to interoperability through standard-based conceptual modelling
Get PDFSince 2011 the Archaeological Geographical Information System of Verona, SITAVR, has been implemented based on the existing and well-consolidated Archaeological Information Systemof Rome, SITAR, developed since 2008. The main objective of the two projects is collecting information about the archaeological findings regarding the two Italian urban centres with the aim to support a complete archaeological analysis and allow for easy data reuse. The purpose of this research is twofold: (i) archaeological studies, aimed to collect data and contents, and (ii) information systems applied to cultural heritage, aimed to organize, use and preserve the data on the basis of the innovations related to methodologies, technologies and standards. In this regard, the first step in SITAVR project was to create a domain model of archaeological data, by applying standard methodology for producing an abstract conceptual schema. Next steps were the definition of web services and a common format for data exchange; further in this direction was the creation of a mapping between this model and other international standards. The definition of the conceptual schema and the metadata, the common format for data exchange and the mapping on international standards have supported and encouraged the cooperation between SITAVR and SITAR projects. Moreover also some practical tests of interoperability between the two systems have been performed, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach. In particular, an experiment regarding the integrated execution of some queries on the two systems (funerary contexts and the road network of the two towns) was successfully implemented. In conclusion, our work further demonstrates that interoperability requires an initial large investment of resources, but allows to achieve results in terms of data analysis that by means of non-integrated systems cannot be easily accomplished