87 research outputs found
UN APPROCCIO MULTI-SENSORE PER IL RILEVAMENTO 3D DEL COMPLESSO DI VILLA FLORIO (PERSEREANO, UDINE)
No full textL’articolo illustra le potenzialità del rilevamento integrato multi-sensore di edifici storici, sperimentato per il vasto complesso edilizio e il parco della settecentesca Villa Florio di Persereano, nel comune di Pavia di Udine. Il processo ha integrato cinque metodologie diverse e complementari: misure topografiche con ricevitore GNSS Leica GS07 e con stazione totale Leica TCRA1103 (anche all’interno), scansioni laser terrestri con Leica BLK360 (interne/esterne), fotogrammetria SfM da drone DJI Mini3 (per le coperture) e rilevamento SLAM con Stonex X120GO (negli spazi più angusti e nel parco). Concettualmente ogni tecnica ha un proprio sistema di riferimento e l’integrazione non è immediata: grazie all’impostazione del lavoro nel datum cartografico RDN2008/UTM33N, le nuvole di punti da immagini UAV, da TLS e da SLAM sono invece già congruenti fra loro. Il ruolo chiave è dato dalle misure GNSS sui vertici della rete topografica e da quelle NRTK dell’antenna montata nel sistema SLAM. Grazie alle coordinate ENH dei punti topografici di appoggio, utilizzati sia per orientare le immagini che per georeferenziare le nuvole TLS, sono state agevolmente calcolate le roto-traslazioni delle corrispondenti nuvole di punti. Alcuni punti sono stati invece utilizzati come “punti di controllo” per verificare la precisione del bundle adjustment delle immagini UAV. Molte zone sono caratterizzate da “multi-nuvole” di punti, in alcune parti anche di tre origini diverse. Si sono distinte varie casistiche, identificando, per ognuna di esse, quale fosse la nuvola più precisa e dettagliata, operando sulle altre con roto-traslazioni locali, stimate via ICP, per migliorarne l’allineamento. La fusione delle nuvole è risultata più che soddisfacente, dimostrando l’efficacia di questo approccio multi-sensore per ottenere un rilevamento 3D completo e omogeneo, con errori centimetrici, utilizzabile per analisi strutturali, per operazioni di conservazione e per futuri interventi di restauro
Left Ventricular Lead Placement for Biventricular Pacing in a Left Lateral Vein in a Patient with Congenital Atresia of the Coronary Sinus Ostium
No full text: Coronary sinus ostial atresia (CSOA) is a rare kind of congenital heart anomaly. This creates a new drainage pathway for the cardiac venous flow, with the most common being a persistent left superior vena cava (PLSVC). During the implantation of a cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator, we discovered a case of CSOA in a patient who underwent aortic valve and ascending aorta replacement. CSOA led to the research and subsequent identification of a PLSVC, which drained in the CS. The left ventricular pacing lead was appropriately placed in a left lateral vein. This case report highlights the technical aspects and procedural difficulties that characterize this specific anatomical variant
Occurrence and genetic diversity of Arcobacter butzleri in an artisanal dairy plant in Italy
No full textThe present study aimed to investigate the presence, distribution and persistence of Arcobacter spp. in an artisanal dairy plant, and to test the isolates to determine different genotypes in the processing plant and in foods. Samples were collected in an artisanal cheese factory on four occasions between October and December 2012: food samples (raw milk, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and conditioning liquid), water samples and environmental samples were analyzed by cultural method; isolates were identified by multiplex-PCR and genotyped by PFGE analysis. Arcobacter butzleri was isolated from 29 out of 59 samples (46.6%), 22 from environmental and 7 from food samples respectively; cluster analysis divided the strains into 47 PFGE patterns: 14 PFGE clusters and 33 unique types. Our findings indicate that the plant harbored numerous A. butzleri pulsotypes and that the manual cleaning and sanitation in the studied dairy plant does not effectively remove Arcobacter. The recurrent isolation of A. butzleri suggests that the environmental conditions in the dairy plant constitute a good ecological niche for the colonization of this microorganism. In some cases, the presence of indistinguishable strains isolated from the same facilities on different sampling days showed that these strains were persistent in the processing environment
The acute effects of an ultramarathon on biventricular function and ventricular arrhythmias in master athletes
No full textEndurance sports practice has significantly increased over the last decades, with a growing proportion of participants older than 40 years. Although the benefits of moderate regular exercise are well known, concerns exist regarding the potential negative effects induced by extreme endurance sport. The aim of this study was to analyse the acute effects of an ultramarathon race on the electrocardiogram (ECG), biventricular function, and ventricular arrhythmias in a population of master athletes
Left Ventricular Mass with Delayed Enhancement as a Predictor of Major Events in Patients with Myocarditis with Preserved Ejection Fraction
No full textBackground: Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) has a key role in subjects presenting with acute myocarditis, independent from left ventricular ejection fraction; it is widely used as a non-invasive imaging test for both diagnostic and prognostic purposes. However, poor data is available about the CMR-derived prognostic parameters of acute myocarditis with preserved ejection fraction (AMpEF). The aim of this study was to investigate the role of CMR in predicting outcomes in patients followed up for AMpEF, using a composite endpoint of all-cause mortality and hospitalization for heart failure (HF). Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 61 patients with diagnosed AMpEF. All patients underwent biohumoral, echocardiographic and CMR evaluation in the acute phase. Myocarditis was confirmed by Lake–Louis criteria assessed on CMR images. Mean follow-up was 4.8 ± 0.6 years during which a composite endpoint of all-cause mortality and hospitalization for HF was investigated. Results: The population was fairly homogeneous regarding baseline clinical features. In particular, no significant differences in age and main cardiovascular risk factors were found between patients with and without events at follow-up. Seven patients met the endpoint. They had significantly higher levels of circulating neutrophils in the acute phase (76 ± 7% vs. 61 ± 11%, p = 0.014) and a higher amount of left ventricular mass with delayed enhancement (DE-LVM, 18 (14–29.5) vs. 12 (8–16) g, p = 0.028). At Cox univariate analysis, DE-LVM was the only significant predictor of endpoint, regardless of the site of inflammation. Conclusions: DE-LVM can predict the composite endpoint of all-cause mortality and hospitalization for HF in a population of patients with AMpEF, representing a new added tool for prognostic stratification
Clinical management of young competitive athletes with premature ventricular beats: A prospective cohort study
No full textPremature ventricular beats (PVBs) are not an unusual finding and their interpretation is sometimes challenging. Unfortunately, few data on the characteristics of PVBs that correlate with the risk of an underlying heart disease are available in athletes
Mutual influence of ROS, pH and CLIC1 membrane protein in the regulation of G1/S phase progression in human glioblastoma stem cells
No full textGlioblastoma (GB) is the most lethal, aggressive, and diffuse brain tumor. The main challenge for successful treatment is targeting the cancer stem cell (CSC) subpopulation responsible for tumor origin, progression, and recurrence. Chloride Intracellular Channel 1 (CLIC1), highly expressed in CSCs, is constitutively present in the plasma membrane where it is associated with chloride ion permeability. In vitro, CLIC1 inhibition leads to a significant arrest of GB CSCs in G1 phase of the cell cycle. Furthermore, CLIC1 knockdown impairs tumor growth in vivo Here, we demonstrate that CLIC1 membrane localization and function is specific for GB CSCs. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) do not show CLIC1-associated chloride permeability, and inhibition of CLIC1 protein function has no influence on MSC cell-cycle progression. Investigation of the basic functions of GB CSCs reveals a constitutive state of oxidative stress and cytoplasmic alkalinization compared with MSCs. Both intracellular oxidation and cytoplasmic pH changes have been reported to affect CLIC1 membrane functional expression. We now report that in CSCs these three elements are temporally linked during CSC G1-S transition. Impeding CLIC1-mediated chloride current prevents both intracellular ROS accumulation and pH changes. CLIC1 membrane functional impairment results in GB CSCs resetting from an allostatic tumorigenic condition to a homeostatic steady state. In contrast, inhibiting NADPH oxidase and NHE1 proton pump results in cell death of both GB CSCs and MSCs. Our results show that CLIC1 membrane protein is crucial and specific for GB CSC proliferation, and is a promising pharmacologic target for successful brain tumor therapies
Occurrence of e{open}-proteobacterial species in rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) reared in intensive and rural farms
No full textIn order to investigate the occurrence of Campylobacter, Helicobacter and Arcobacter species in caecal contents of rabbits reared in intensive and rural farms, a total of 87 samples from animals belonging to 29 farms were analysed by both cultural and PCR analyses. PCR analysis directly from faecal samples detected 100% positive samples for Campylobacter genus, 3.4% for Helicobacter genus and none for Arcobacter genus. 83 out of 87 animals (95.4%) and all the 29 farms were positive for Campylobacter cuniculorum as also determined by cultural examination. Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter jejuni were isolated only from three animals reared in two rural farms. No Helicobacter and Arcobacter species were isolated. To evaluate a possible genetic variability, one strain of C. cuniculorum from each farm was analysed by Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) and Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP). Genotyping revealed that C. cuniculorum population is heterogeneous among the different sources and no dominant clone has spread in the investigated farms. This survey highlighted a high presence of C. cuniculorum with a high rate of intestinal colonization, low presence of C. jejuni-coli, Helicobacter spp. and any Arcobacter spp. in farmed rabbit
Uniqueness of Coalitional Equilibria
No full textWe provide an existence and a uniqueness result for coalitional equilibria of a game in strategic form. Both results are illustrated for a public good game and a homogeneous Cournot-oligopoly game.Existence and uniqueness of coalitional equilibrium, Game in strategic form
Cost-Reducing Alliances and Local Spillovers
No full textFirms raise cost-reducing alliances before competing with each other, but cannot fully internalize the shared knowledge. When spillovers are local and transit through the network of alliances, stable architectures with a moderate level of asymmetry are identified.Oligopoly, Cost-Reducing alliances, Local spillovers, Network stability
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