1,168 research outputs found
Link between complex internal structures and stratigraphy: Xradia - ZEISS MicroXCT-400 of genus Sphaerogypsina Galloway 1933
No full textItinerari di parole: unanimus
No full textStudio dell'itinerario semantico letterario e stilistico del composto unanimus, con precipuo riferimento alla letteratura del primo e secondo secolo d.C., fino ad Apulei
Symbiotic, opportunistic, and probiotic microbes: new advances in understanding their interaction with immune system
No full textIn this thesis we analysed the impact of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Lactobacillus reuteri on human immune system.
S. cerevisiae is a yeast harboring the human gastrointestinal tract, and the interaction with human blood dendritic cells (DCs) was never been investigated. We found that conventional DC (cDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) sense S. cerevisiae and that cDCs induce IL-6 and IL-17 production, while pDCs IFN-α and IL-10 with pro- and anti-inflammatory properties, respectively. These results could have relevant implication in health and diseases associated to microbiota dysbiosis.
A. baumannii is a nosocomial bacteria promoting pathology in immunocompromised hosts. We analysed for the first time the response of human innate immune cells to A. baumannii ATCC19606T (low virulence) and ACICU (high virulence). We found that macrophages promote killing of both bacterial strains, monocytes kill preferentially ATCC19606T, DCs and monocytes produce cytokines. Importantly, ACICU induces lower expression of two cytokines that have been associated to protection against A. baumannii: IL-10, IFN-α. Thus, we identified mechanisms potentially related to the high virulence of the multidrug-resistant strain.
L. reuteri is a probiotic with beneficial properties. We studied the effect of L. reuteri in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), characterized by social problems and gastrointestinal dysbiosis. Since we previously demonstrated a pro-social effect of L. reuteri supplementation, we analysed the effects of probiotic on immune system and microbiota. We observed an increase of fecal F.prausnitzii and E. rectale, with anti-inflammatory properties, and a decrease of plasmatic soluble CD40L, with pro-inflammatory properties, in probiotic-treated ASD children. These results indicate an anti-inflammatory role of probiotic L. reuteri in ASD children.
Overall, we uncovered new mechanisms involved in the regulation of host/microbe interaction, with potential implication in the response to pathogenic infections, prevention of excessive inflammation, and exploitation of beneficial effect of microbiota and probiotic
The microbiota-gut-brain axis: characterization of the gut microbiota in neurological disorders
No full textThe human gut microbiota plays a crucial role in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and its alteration can lead to gastrointestinal abnormalities and inflammation. Additionally, the gut microbiota modulates central nervous system (CNS) activities affecting several aspect of host physiology. Motivated by the increasing evidences of the role of the gut microbiota in the complex set of interactions connecting the gut and the CNS, known as gut-brain axis, in this Ph.D. thesis we asked whether the gastrointestinal abnormalities and inflammation commonly associated with neurological disorders such as Rett syndrome (RTT) and Autism could be related to alterations of the bacterial and fungal intestinal microbiota.
First, since only few reports have explored the fungal component of the gut microbiota in health and disease, we characterized the gut mycobiota in a cohort of healthy individuals, in order to reduce the gap of knowledge concerning factors influencing the intestinal microbial communities. Next, we compared the gut microbiota of three cohorts of healthy, RTT and autistic subjects to investigate if these neurological disorders harbour alterations of the gut microbiota. Culture-based and metataxonomics analysis of the faecal fungal populations of healthy volunteers revealed that the gut mycobiota differs in function of individuals’ life stage in a gender-related fashion. Different fungal species were isolated showing phenotypic adaptation to the intestinal environment. High frequency of azoles resistance was also found, with potential clinical significance.
It was further observed that autistic subjects are characterized by a reduced incidence of Bacteroidetes and that Collinsella, Corynebacterium, Dorea and Lactobacillus were the taxa predominating in the gut microbiota of autistic subjects. Constipation has been associated with different bacterial patterns in autistic and neurotypical subjects, with constipated autistic individuals characterized by higher levels of Escherichia/Shigella and Clostridium cluster XVIII than constipated neurotypical subjects. RTT is a neurological disorder caused by loss-of-function mutations of MeCP2 and it is commonly associated with gastrointestinal dysfunctions and constipation. We showed that RTT subjects harbour bacterial and fungal microbiota altered from those of healthy controls, with a reduced microbial richness and dominated by Bifidobacterium, different Clostridia and Candida. The alterations of the gut microbiota observed did not depend on the constipation status of RTT subjects while this microbiota produced altered SCFAs profiles potentially contributing to the constipation itself. Phenotypical and immunological characterizations of faecal fungal isolates from RTT subjects showed Candida parapsilosis as the most abundant species isolated in RTT, genetically unrelated to healthy controls’ isolates and with elevated resistance to azoles. Furthermore these isolates induced high levels of IL-10 suggesting increased tolerance and persistence within the host. Finally, the importance of multiple sequence alignment (MSA) accuracy in microbiome research was investigated comparing three implementations of the widely used NAST algorithm. By now, different implementations of NAST have been developed but no one tested the performances and the accuracy of the MSAs generated with these implementations. We showed that micca, a new bioinformatics pipeline for metataxonomics data improves the quality of NAST alignments by using a fast and memory efficient reimplementation of the NAST algorithm
Studying the Earth's radiogenic power with geoneutrinos
No full textGeoneutrinos, antineutrinos originating from Earth’s natural radioactivity,
offer insights into the definition of the Earth’s heat budget. To date,
the KamLAND (Japan) and Borexino (Italy) experiments have both successfully
measured the geoneutrino flux. The information was merged to achieve a mantle
geoneutrino signal of 8.9+5.1−5.5 TNU and Earth’s radiogenic heat of 20.8+7.3−7.9 TW, consistent with the 19.7±3.1 TW estimated from geochemical Bulk Silicate Models.
Future geoneutrino research will involve multi-site mantle analysis, new
detectors (SNO+ and JUNO), and advancements in experimental techniques,
such as detecting antineutrino directionality and potassium geoneutrinos
On the arrangement of a small scale field experiment of a spar-type support for offshore wind turbine
No full textThe aim of this work is to investigate the dynamic behavior of a spar-type support for offshore wind turbines under the action of irregular waves in ultimate design conditions. The structure chosen is the U-Maine Hywind Spar Buoy, supporting the NREL 5MW turbine. A 1:30 scale field experiment is arranged, exploiting the unique characteristics of the Natural Ocean Engineering Laboratory (NOEL) of Reggio Calabria (Italy), which uses the occurring real sea states as scale models of severe ocean storms. The design of the model has been made in order to reproduce the prototype mass and geometrical properties and to assure its structural resistance to the local extreme conditions. Numerical analysis have been carried out, using the commercial code AQWA, to obtain RAOs, platform motion and tensions on the catenary mooring lines, in order to verify the design of the model and to be compared to the experimental results
The Role of Gut Microbiota Biomodulators on Mucosal Immunity and Intestinal Inflammation
No full textAlterations of the gut microbiota may cause dysregulated mucosal immune responses leading to the onset of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in genetically susceptible hosts. Restoring immune homeostasis through the normalization of the gut microbiota is now considered a valuable therapeutic approach to treat IBD patients. The customization of microbe-targeted therapies, including antibiotics, prebiotics, live biotherapeutics and faecal microbiota transplantation, is therefore considered to support current therapies in IBD management. In this review, we will discuss recent advancements in the understanding of host-microbe interactions in IBD and the basis to promote homeostatic immune responses through microbe-targeted therapies. By considering gut microbiota dysbiosis as a key feature for the establishment of chronic inflammatory events, in the near future it will be suitable to design new cost-effective, physiologic, and patient-oriented therapeutic strategies for the treatment of IBD that can be applied in a personalized manner
CONSIDERAZIONI CRITICHE SULLA REGIONE F DELLA IONOSFERA
No full textÈ usuale considerare la ionosfera come costituita<br />da due principali stratificazioni di ioni ed elettroni, denominate<br />E ed F, quest'ultima divisa durante il giorno in Fi ed F;.; i tre<br />strati corrispondono a tre regioni ionizzate caratterizzate da un massimo<br />di densità elettronica. Fra i tre strati quello più importante, sia<br />dal punto di vista pratico per quanto riguarda la radiopropagazione,<br />sia dal punto di vista scientifico per quanto riguarda i fenomeni di correlazione<br />con altri fatti geofisici e solari, è lo strato F-&lt; che ha un comportamento<br />di difficile interpretazione fisica: le numerose ricerche<br />teoriche e sperimentali effettuate non consentono ancora di dar conto<br />di tale comportamento in maniera soddisfacente
Gut microbiota manipulation as a tool for colorectal cancer management: Recent advances in its use for therapeutic purposes
No full textColorectal cancer (CRC) is a multifaceted disease influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. A large body of literature has demonstrated the role of gut microbes in promoting inflammatory responses, creating a suitable microenvironment for the development of skewed interactions between the host and the gut microbiota and cancer initiation. Even if surgery is the primary therapeutic strategy, patients with advanced disease or cancer recurrence after surgery remain difficult to cure. Therefore, the gut microbiota has been proposed as a novel therapeutic target in light of recent promising data in which it seems to modulate the response to cancer immunotherapy. The use of microbe-targeted therapies, including antibiotics, prebiotics, live biotherapeutics, and fecal microbiota transplantation, is therefore considered to support current therapies in CRC management. In this review, we will discuss the importance of host−microbe interactions in CRC and how promoting homeostatic immune responses through microbe-targeted therapies may be useful in preventing/treating CRC development
Microbiota-targeted therapies in inflammation resolution
No full textGut microbiota has been shown to systemically shape the immunological landscape, modulate homeostasis and play a role in both health and disease. Dysbiosis of gut microbiota promotes inflammation and contributes to the pathogenesis of several major disorders in gastrointestinal tract, metabolic, neurological and respiratory diseases. Much effort is now focused on understanding host-microbes interactions and new microbiota-targeted therapies are deeply investigated as a means to restore health or prevent disease.This review details the immunoregulatory role of the gut microbiota in health and disease and discusses the most recent strategies in manipulating individual patient's microbiota for the management and prevention of inflammatory conditions
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