702 research outputs found
Some Remarks on the Recent SRM Related Case-Law of the CJEU with Special Regard to the Meroni Doctrine
No full textThe study elaborates on the development of the Meroni doctrine, derived from the Meroni judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Coal and Steel Community under a different Founding Treaty framework and its applicability to the Banking Union under the current Treaty framework. To fulfil this aim, the author first elaborates on the Advocate General’s opinion and the Judgment of the Court of Justice in the Meroni case and then briefly introduces the evolution and the literature on the issue. After a short introduction of the Banking Union’s institutional order, the author introduces two cases in which issues related to the Meroni doctrine were raised before the General Court, as well as the appellate procedures before the Court of Justice in one of these cases
The unexpected influencer: Pope Francis and European perceptions of the recent refugee crisis
No full textThis article analyses the impact of non-informative communication on Europeans' perceptions of European Union (EU) action on the issue of migration. We exploit the fact that Pope Francis's visit to Lesbos Island in 16 April 2016, overlaps with the days of the interviews for a Special Eurobarometer survey, such that some respondents were unintentionally exposed to the Pope's speech while others were not. Comparing Catholics and non-Catholics before and after the Pope's visit in a difference-in-differences setting, we show that the papal message persuaded exposed Catholic individuals that EU action on the issue of migration is insufficient. The effect is temporary and varies according to the demographic characteristics of the respondents and by the country's share of asylum applicants in 2015. Moreover, media exposure of the Pope's visit, measured by the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone, was greater in Catholic countries, and this might explain the effect found
Artifact-Driven Business Process Monitoring - A Novel Approach to Transparently Monitor Business Processes, Supported by Methods, Tools, and Real-World Applications
No full textThis book proposes a novel technique, named artifact-driven process monitoring, by which multi-party processes, involving non-automated activities, can be continuously and autonomously monitored. This technique exploits the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm to make the physical objects, participating in a process, smart. Being equipped with sensors, a computing device, and a communication interface, such smart objects can then become self-aware of their own conditions and of the process they participate in, and exchange this information with the other smart objects and the involved organizations. To allow organizations to reuse preexisting process models, a method to instruct smart objects given Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) collaboration diagrams is also presented. The work constitutes a revised version of the PhD dissertation written by the author at the PhD School of Information Engineering of Politecnico di Milano, Italy. In 2019, the PhD dissertation won the “CAiSE PhD award”, granted to outstanding PhD theses in the field of Information Systems Engineering
DOWN-REGULATION OF HEPATIC MBOAT7 BY HYPERINSULINEMIA FAVORS STEATOSIS DEVELOPMENT
No full textBackground and aims: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver diseases in Western Countries. NAFLD could evolve into nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which is associated with activation of fibrogenesis, possibly leading to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The genetic background plays a pivotal role in predisposing to development and progression of liver disease. Recently, our group have shown that the rs641738 C>T variant, in the Membrane bound o-acyltransferase domain-containing 7 locus (MBOAT7), increases the risk of NAFLD, NASH and fibrosis, by decreasing the hepatic expression of MBOAT7, a protein involved in phosphatidylinositol acyl-chain remodeling. Aim of this study was to evaluate the regulation of hepatic MBOAT7 and the impact on hepatic fat accumulation.
Methods: We examined hepatic and adipose MBOAT7 expression in 119 obese patients and in experimental models. We silenced hepatic Mboat7 by i.v. administration of antisense oligonucleotides modified by morpholinos (MPO) for 4 consecutive days in C57Bl/6 male mice (n=6).
Results: In obese patients, hepatic mRNA levels of MBOAT7 progressively decreased from normal liver to simple steatosis and NASH (p<0.05). At multivariate analysis, type 2 diabetes (p<0.05), necroinflammation (p<0.01) and MBOAT7 genotype (p<0.01) were independently associated with MBOAT7 down-regulation. This suggests that down-regulation of hepatic MBOAT7 is involved in NAFLD pathogenesis independently of MBOAT7 genotype. In line with this hypothesis, we found that mRNA and protein levels of Mboat7 were reduced in experimental models of NAFLD: in the methionine-choline deficient diet (MCD), but more so in genetically obese Lepob/ob mice and in insulin resistant mice with Insulin receptor haplo-insufficiency (InsR+/-), characterized by hyperinsulinemia (p<0.05). Furthermore, in wild-type male mice Mboat7 was physiologically down-regulated by refeeding concomitantly with the rise of insulin levels and activation of hepatic insulin signaling through Phosphatidyl Inositol 3-Kinase (PI3K) and the Serine/Threonine Kinase AKT. In keeping with these results, activation of insulin-receptor dependent signaling down-regulated Mboat7 protein expression in primary mouse hepatocytes in a PI3Kinase-depedent manner. Consistently, in InsR+/- hepatocytes insulin-mediated suppression of Mboat7 was lost (p<0.01). Moreover, the effect of insulin on Mboat7 expression was also abrogated in wild-type hepatocytes treated with antisense oligonucleotide stabilized by morpholination directed against FoxO1 (MPO) (p<0.05). These data suggest that FoxO1 is required to mediate the Mboat7 regulation by insulin. Consistently with this notion, the hampered Mboat7 expression observed in InsR+/- hepatocytes was rescued by FoxO1-silencing by antisense-MPO (p<0.05 vs scramble). Finally, in vivo administration of antisense-MPO against Mboat7 for 4 consecutive days, induced a 45% silencing of hepatic Mboat7 in wild-type male mice, which is comparable to that associated with the genetic risk variant, resulting in 80% increase in hepatic TG content (p<0.05 vs scramble) and in microvesicular steatosis development. In contrast, it did not affect circulating glucose, insulin and lipid levels. Steatosis development was not explained by altered de novo lipogenesis or β-oxidation or VLDL export, but was associated with increased expression of fatty acids transporters (such as Fatp1, Fabp1). Conversely, Mboat7 silencing was not associated with alterations in the hepatic expression of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines (such as Tnf-α and Cxcl10). These data are consistent with human genetic data suggesting that MBOAT7 down-regulation plays a causal role in NAFLD development.
Conclusion: In summary, we found that hyperinsulinemia, a typical feature of metabolic syndrome and post-prandial conditions, reduces hepatic MBOAT7 expression via increased insulin signaling activation through the Insulin receptor - PI3K – FoxO1 pathway. Reduced MBOAT7 then favors hepatic fat accumulation. These data suggest that MBOAT7 down-regulation may be implicated in the pathogenesis of progressive NAFLD
Should we increase instruction time in low achieving schools? Evidence from Southern Italy
No full textAbstractThis paper investigates the short term effects of a large scale intervention, funded by the European Social Fund, which provides additional instruction time to selected classes of lower secondary schools in Southern Italy. Selection is addressed using institutional rules that regulate class formation: first year students are divided into groups distinguished by letters, they remain in the same group across grades at the school, and the composition of teachers assigned to groups is stable over time. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we consider consecutive cohorts of first year students enrolled in the same group. We compare participating groups to non-participating groups within the same school, as well as to groups in non-participating schools. We find that the intervention raised scores in mathematics for students from the least advantaged backgrounds. We also find that targeting the best students with extra activities in language comes at the cost of lowering performance in mathematics. We go beyond average effects, finding that the positive effect for mathematics is driven by larger effects for the best students
Fostering collaboration between start-ups and students for mutually beneficial inspiring learning
No full textThis two-voiced paper is the result of a student-teacher interaction in which the teacher simply paves the floor for a student’s narrative and commentary, from their perspective, of an innovative projectbased studio experience. By partnering with an incubation and start-up program for social innovators in Milan, university faculty considered how to design a studio to stimulate both students and innovators in their different educational and personal trajectories by organising "pairs of teams" with the same design goal(s), conscientious of social innovation, environmental sustainability within a circular economy, and striving for radical solutions. The team for which this student-author is sharing their experience in this paper has been paired with the start-up team “NoLo Ricicla - ilVespaio”, whose innovation idea was based on the question “How could a system of plastic packaging recovery, production and distribution of recycled artefacts be organised on a neighbourhood scale in the neighbourhood of NoLo?
Wetting Modification by Photocatalysis: A Hands-on Activity To Demonstrate Photoactivated Reactions at Semiconductor Surfaces
No full textWe present a hands-on activity designed for advanced physical chemistry courses for Master’s students on the application of photocatalysis to the modification of the surface properties of a semiconductor (titanium dioxide). The wetting properties of TiO2 films, deposited from commercial powders, are studied before and after UV irradiation. Irradiation-induced superhydrophilicity is exploited to provide antifogging properties. The TiO2 films are then functionalized with a perfluorinated alkylsilane to impart superhydrophobicity and subsequently lithographed by irradiation through a photomask: the photocatalytic degradation of the organic chains in the irradiated areas leads to a wetting contrast that can be revealed using dye solutions. This experience can be easily adapted to be suited for undergraduates or high-school students as well as to demonstrations for science festivals
An online tool for fetal fraction prediction based on direct size distribution analysis of maternal cell-free DNA
No full textThe discovery of circulating fetal DNA in the plasma of pregnant women has greatly promoted advances in noninvasive prenatal testing. Screening performance is enhanced with higher fetal fraction and analysis of samples whose fetal DNA fraction is lower than 4% are unreliable. Although current approaches to fetal fraction measurement are accurate, most of them are expensive and time consuming. Here we present a simple and cost-effective solution that provides a quick and reasonably accurate fetal fraction by directly evaluating the size distribution of circulating DNA fragments in the extracted maternal cell-free DNA. The presented approach could be useful in the presequencing stage of noninvasive prenatal testing to evaluate whether the sample is suitable for the test or a repeat blood draw is recommended
A hindcast study of the Piedmont 1994 flood: the CIMA Research Foundation hydro-meteorological forecasting chain
No full textBetween the 4 th and the 6 th of November 1994, Piedmont and the western part of Liguria (two regions in north-western Italy) were hit by heavy rainfalls that caused the flooding of the Po, the Tanaro rivers and several of their tributaries, causing 70 victims and the displacement of over 2000 people. At the time of the event, no early warning system was in place and the concept of hydro-meteorological forecasting chain was in its infancy, since it was still limited to a reduced number of research applications, strongly constrained by coarse-resolution modelling capabilities both on the meteorological and the hydrological sides. In this study, the skills of the high-resolution CIMA Research Foundation operational hydro-meteorological forecasting chain are tested in the Piedmont 1994 event. The chain includes a cloud-resolving numerical weather prediction (NWP) model, a stochastic rainfall downscaling model, and a continuous distributed hydrological model. This hydro-meteorological chain is tested in a set of operational configurations, meaning that forecast products are used to initialise and force the atmospheric model at the boundaries. The set consists of four experiments with different options of the microphysical scheme, which is known to be a critical parameterisation in this kind of phenomena. Results show that all the configurations produce an adequate and timely forecast (about 2 days ahead) with realistic rainfall fields and, consequently, very good peak flow discharge curves. The added value of the high resolution of the NWP model emerges, in particular, when looking at the location of the convective part of the event, which hit the Liguria region
- …
