234 research outputs found

    Le parole dello sviluppo locale

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    The paper is aimed to discuss some of the words of the "local development" approach used by Enrico Ciciotti during his scientific work. Three are the issues raised by the author: the role played by the territorial space in promoting local development, the role played by the organization of the governance of the territory and the role played by the process of strategic evaluation in the analysis and reporting on local development policies

    La reazione alla crisi economica determinata dal Covid: alcune considerazioni sugli interventi della Banca Centrale e sul Next Generation EU

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    Il processo europeo di reazione alla crisi economica del Covid-19 è il risultato di una pluralità di interventi dispiegati dal marzo 2020 che possono essere idealmente distinti in interventi per la gestione della emergenza e gli interventi di medio-lungo periodo mirati a calibrare l’impostazione impressa dalla nuova Commissione nel dicembre 2019 con l’approvazione dei suoi orientamenti politici, incluso il Green Deal Europeo. Il quadro che abbiamo oggi davanti è il frutto di un anno di profonde trasformazioni che stanno attraverso i singoli paesi colpiti dal Covid e, inevitabilmente, l’Unione Europea e le sue istituzioni, in particolare, la Banca Centrale Europea, la Commissione europea ed il Consiglio Europeo. Un anno di cambiamenti ancora non conclusi, che vale la pena brevemente ripercorrere per comprendere in quale contesto sia emerso il programma Next Generation EU, a cui si affidano, forse impropriamente, i destini del nostro paese e dell’Europa intera

    Neuropsychological features of pathological gambling

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    Pathological gambling is a nosographic category, object of many disputes; that is whether it belongs to impulse-control disorders or to obsessive-compulsive spectrum. Recently the role played by frontal functioning in this disease has been often stressed. Twenty-seven subjects suffering from pathological gambling have been examined by a wide-spectrum neuropsychological battery of executive functioning tests; that is WSCT, Gambling task, PM38, Towers of London, Trail Making Test, Verbal Judgments Test, Verbal Fluency Test (Phonetic and Semantic) and Stroop Colour Test. Results show abnormal performances in impulse inhibition skill and verbal abstraction, whereas selective attention and planning appear intact

    The role of diet in managing inflamatory bowel disease affected dogs: a retrospective cohort study on 76 cases

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    The term inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) refers to a group of idiopathic, chronic intestinal diseases characterized by a diffuse infiltration of inflammatory cells into the lamina propria of the intestine. The pathogenesis of IBD is unknown. The most common signs described are diarrhoea, vomit, and progressive weight loss. In order to make a definitive diagnosis, though, the presence of inflammatory cells infiltration must be evident on histopathologic analysis. The therapeutic approach has 2 main goals: decrease the inflammatory response and remove possible antigenic sources, such as food components or intestinal microflora. Therefore, the most common therapy is the association of Prednisone with a single protein diet, especially when the inflammatory cells infiltration is severe. Another way to reduce the antigenic stimulation is to control the intestinal microflora, so antibiotics and pre/ probiotics may be used. This retrospective study tested and compared the therapeutic value of Prednisone and specific diets, used as a single therapy or combined together. The results show a significative clinical improvement in dogs fed with hydrolized protein diets rather than novel protein diets. Finally, fish is the more reliable source of protein to use during therapy, because of its low ability to trigger an antigenic reaction

    A solution state NMR study of the structure and ligand binding properties of the human C-type lectin DC-SIGNR

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    The protein DC-SIGNR (Dendritic-cell specific ICAM3 grabbing non-integrin related) is a C-type (calcium-dependent) lectin, which binds highly-branched mannose oligosaccharides. DC-SIGNR interacts with a range of deadly diseases via surface glycans on pathogenic glycoproteins, and the ability of DC-SIGNR to increase the rate of infection of viruses including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) makes the study of DC-SIGNR/oligosaccharide interactions very attractive. The research described in this thesis sought to gain insight into the calcium and ligand binding properties of the DC-SIGNR carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD) in solution by utilising solution state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). A protocol for the production of uniformly 15N /13C labelled DC-SIGNR CRD was developed, allowing the acquisition of heteronuclear NMR experiments and the first assignment of the calcium-bound (holo) DC-SIGNR CRD to be reported. The assignment has allowed investigation of calcium and glycan binding, as well as the pH dependence of the DC-SIGNR CRD. The data presented in this thesis reveal that the DC-SIGNR CRD is highly dynamic in the calcium-free state, with the addition of calcium resulting in global conformational and dynamic changes throughout the CRD. While calcium binding hinders the protein dynamics (particularly in the calcium binding regions), a large degree of mobility remains. The evidence that ligands are released at low pH suggests that DC-SIGNR may act as an endocytic receptor. In addition to calcium binding, interactions of the DC-SIGNR CRD with a range of ligands were investigated. In particular, interactions with the oligosaccharide Man9GlcNAc (present on the HIV viral envelope) are described, representing the first direct study of the CRD interacting with a diseaseassociated ligand. The glycans employed in this study all bind to the primary calcium binding site, supporting previous crystal data. However, each glycan displays distinct patterns of chemical shift perturbations implying that they each have different, extended binding modes. Particularly striking is the difference between the disease-associated Man9GlcNAc ligand and the ligand present in a previously published crystal structure, (GlcNAc)2Man3. An investigation of the dynamics of the CRD in the holo form and bound to the ligand Man5 shows that the CRD is highly dynamic and that glycan binding further hinders, but does not abolish, the molecular motions. The dynamics data also suggests that a ligand-induced conformational change may occur and indicates potential new binding sites which are not present in any published crystal structures. The dynamic nature of the DC-SIGNR CRD may explain the wide range of ligand specificities and affinities of the C-type lectin scaffold and suggests that the study of the ligand binding properties and dynamics of proteins such as DC-SIGNR in solution is essential to further understanding of this class of proteins

    The concordance between endoscopic and histological diagnosis in 114 dogs affected by gastric disease

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    Endoscopy is a common, minimally invasive diagnostic technique that can be used to observe internal organs, e. g. the stomach, and to obtain mucosal bioptic samples for histo pathological examination. The aim of this study was to analyse the concordance between endoscopic and histological evaluation of gastric diseases in dogs. One hundred twenty-nine medical records of dogs undergoing gastroscopy have been received and stored by the Veterinary Hospital of Perugia University (Perugia, Italy) between 2009-2012. The concordance between endoscopic and histological reports of acute and chronic gastritis or gastric tumours was assessed by Cohen's k coefficient. Considering histological diagnosis as the "gold standard", sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of the endoscopic report have been calculated. Frequencies of gastritis types differed between macroscopic and microscopic analyses. The evaluation of histological and endoscopic agreement was fair (0.35). Endoscopy showed sensitivity of 45%, 88%, and 100% for acute gastritis, chronic gastritis, and gastric tumours, respectively; and specificity of 84%, 71%, and 100%. The positive predictive value and NPV resulted to be 25% and 93% for acute gastritis, 93% and 60 % for chronic gastritis, 100% and 100% for gastric tumours. The results of this study show that gastric endoscopy cannot be performed as a screening exam, and that to optimise diagnosis both endoscopic and histological exam should be conducted
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