187 research outputs found
Diluire Mondello Descrizioni per un progetto
No full textIl volume pubblica i materiali originali del concorso internazionale di idee per la riqualificazione urbana di Mondello, una localita balneare della costa settentrionale di Palermo. Concorso vinto dall'autore stesso. Il libro utilizza questa occasione di riflessione a partire da una occasione concreta di trasformazione, per affrontare criticamente le questioni scientifico disciplinari legate al tema del Landscape Urbanism e alle evoluzioni contemporanee della nozione di Progetto Urbano. Il volume ripercorre i contributi critici e teorici della disciplina degli ultimi vent'anni e propone un'avanzamento critico delle teorie sul paesaggio urbano e sulle geografie della città contemporanea. Il libro affianca ai testi e ai disegni lo sguardo di Olivo Barbieri, fotografo italiano tra i più raffinati e sensibili, stabilendo un dialogo tra architettura e fotografia che si orientano vicendevolmente. Allo sguardo dell'autore si affianca quello di Alberto Ferlenga, autore della prefazione, che inquadra le questioni disciplinari contenute del libro all'interno dell'odierno dibattito scientifico sull'architettura, sul paesaggio e sulle città contemporanee.This book contains the documents of the winning project of the International Ideas Competition for the urban renewal of the Mondello area, an important seaside resort on the northern coast of Palermo. Yet, as is often the case for ideas competitions, the projects drawn up on these occasions are not only an answer to the requests of the announcement, but turn into chances for reviewing the area, describing its transformations and, sometimes, even “rewriting” those requests which the announcement itself, for various reasons does not underline. Competitions, in other words, become a chance for exploring both issues and resources, and also for pointing out solutions. They can be considered as a workshop on the city hosting them, by bringing back to architecture an explorative potential and a knowledge content which often crosses architecture itself.
The winning project started – since its first drafting - on this very hypothesis and will to investigate larger urban issues, by testing the possibilities offered by an ideas competition. The proposed scenarios move along between the description of the conditions and the possible identities of Mondello, and the verification of some working assumptions and urban programmes, achieved through the instruments and languages specific to the architectural project.
Texts and projects are accompanied by Olivio Barbieri’s views, an Italian photographer among the most refined and sensitive to locations, landscapes and their transformations. Photographs, in the same way as architecture, “operate” insofar as they bring something to light. The relationship between photographers and architects becomes actually fertile when they eventually see what reality contains but does not describe yet. Therefore, they can act in an intermediate step of the experience of transformations, thus revealing the unexpected potential of places.
Designs, texts, and pictures revise the iconography of Mondello by offering to its inhabitants and passersby an unusual gaze on a reality which only an artist as Barbieri could reveal. At the same time, they use its possible future modifications as a chance to interpret the themes of contemporary urban design.
The voice of Alberto Ferlenga, author of the preface, joins the author’s, and sets the issues brought up by the book inside the current scientific debate on architecture, landscape, and contemporary cities – through the peculiar point of view of a member of the competition jury.
An afterword by the author himself – broaching some questions regarding Landscape Urbanism, conceived as an updated paradigm on contemporary urban design – completes the book and outlines working themes and directions relevant to research and projects outside and inside Italian Architecture faculties
sj-jpg-3-cll-10.1177_09636897231163232 – Supplemental material for Derivation of Sendai-Virus-Reprogrammed Human iPSCs-Neuronal Precursors: In Vitro and In Vivo Post-grafting Safety Characterization
No full textSupplemental material, sj-jpg-3-cll-10.1177_09636897231163232 for Derivation of Sendai-Virus-Reprogrammed Human iPSCs-Neuronal Precursors: In Vitro and In Vivo Post-grafting Safety Characterization by Michiko Shigyo, Yoshiomi Kobayashi, Oleksandr Platoshyn, Silvia Marsala, Tomohisa Kato Jr, Naoki Takamura, Kenji Yoshida, Akiyoshi Kishino, Mariana Bravo-Hernandez, Stefan Juhas, Jana Juhasova, Hana Studenovska, Vladimir Proks, Joseph D. Ciacci and Martin Marsala in Cell Transplantation</p
sj-jpg-4-cll-10.1177_09636897231163232 – Supplemental material for Derivation of Sendai-Virus-Reprogrammed Human iPSCs-Neuronal Precursors: In Vitro and In Vivo Post-grafting Safety Characterization
No full textSupplemental material, sj-jpg-4-cll-10.1177_09636897231163232 for Derivation of Sendai-Virus-Reprogrammed Human iPSCs-Neuronal Precursors: In Vitro and In Vivo Post-grafting Safety Characterization by Michiko Shigyo, Yoshiomi Kobayashi, Oleksandr Platoshyn, Silvia Marsala, Tomohisa Kato Jr, Naoki Takamura, Kenji Yoshida, Akiyoshi Kishino, Mariana Bravo-Hernandez, Stefan Juhas, Jana Juhasova, Hana Studenovska, Vladimir Proks, Joseph D. Ciacci and Martin Marsala in Cell Transplantation</p
sj-jpg-1-cll-10.1177_09636897231163232 – Supplemental material for Derivation of Sendai-Virus-Reprogrammed Human iPSCs-Neuronal Precursors: In Vitro and In Vivo Post-grafting Safety Characterization
No full textSupplemental material, sj-jpg-1-cll-10.1177_09636897231163232 for Derivation of Sendai-Virus-Reprogrammed Human iPSCs-Neuronal Precursors: In Vitro and In Vivo Post-grafting Safety Characterization by Michiko Shigyo, Yoshiomi Kobayashi, Oleksandr Platoshyn, Silvia Marsala, Tomohisa Kato Jr, Naoki Takamura, Kenji Yoshida, Akiyoshi Kishino, Mariana Bravo-Hernandez, Stefan Juhas, Jana Juhasova, Hana Studenovska, Vladimir Proks, Joseph D. Ciacci and Martin Marsala in Cell Transplantation</p
sj-jpg-2-cll-10.1177_09636897231163232 – Supplemental material for Derivation of Sendai-Virus-Reprogrammed Human iPSCs-Neuronal Precursors: In Vitro and In Vivo Post-grafting Safety Characterization
No full textSupplemental material, sj-jpg-2-cll-10.1177_09636897231163232 for Derivation of Sendai-Virus-Reprogrammed Human iPSCs-Neuronal Precursors: In Vitro and In Vivo Post-grafting Safety Characterization by Michiko Shigyo, Yoshiomi Kobayashi, Oleksandr Platoshyn, Silvia Marsala, Tomohisa Kato Jr, Naoki Takamura, Kenji Yoshida, Akiyoshi Kishino, Mariana Bravo-Hernandez, Stefan Juhas, Jana Juhasova, Hana Studenovska, Vladimir Proks, Joseph D. Ciacci and Martin Marsala in Cell Transplantation</p
Clinical applications of MARSALA for preimplantation genetic diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy
No full textConventional PCR methods combined with linkage analysis based on short tandem repeats (STRs) or Karyomapping with single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays, have been applied to preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), an autosome recessive disorder. However, it has limitations in SMA diagnosis by Karyomapping, and these methods are unable to distinguish wildtype embryos with carriers effectively. Mutated allele revealed by sequencing with aneuploidy and linkage analyses (MARSALA) is a new method allowing embryo selection by a one-step next-generation sequencing (NGS) procedure, which has been applied in PGD for both autosome dominant and X-linked diseases in our group previously. In this study, we carried out PGD based on MARSALA for two carrier families with SMA affected children. As a result, one of the couples has given birth to a healthy baby free of mutations in SMA-causing gene. It is the first time that MARSALA was applied to PGD for SMA, and we can distinguish the embryos with heterozygous deletion (carriers) from the wild-type (normal) ones accurately through this NGS-based method. In addition, direct mutation detection allows us to identify the affected embryos (homozygous deletion), which can be regarded as probands for linkage analysis, in case that the affected family member is absent. In the future, the NGS-based MARSALA method is expected to be used in PGD for all monogenetic disorders with known pathogenic gene mutation. Copyright (C) 2016, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Genetics Society of China. Published by Elsevier Limited and Science Press. All rights reserved.National Natural Science Foundation of China [31522034, 31571544, 31230047]; National High Technology Research and Development Program [2015AA020407]; Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission [D151100002415004]; Research Fund of National Health and Family Planning Commission of China [201402004]SCI(E)PubMed中国科技核心期刊(ISTIC)[email protected]; [email protected]
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Spontaneous Neurogenic Electromyographic Activities in ALS G93A Rats, Potential Over-Excitatory Drive Leading to Alpha Motor Neuron Degeneration
No full textAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a progressive degeneration of alpha-motor neurons, which results in motor-ambulatory and respiratory dysfunction. One of the proposed mechanisms generally believed to play a critical role in initiating alpha-motor neuron degeneration, is the hyperexcitable drive mediated by glutamatergic receptors in excitatory synapses due to elevated synaptic glutamates. However, no direct elctrophysiologically-defined data are available, which would provide an objective evidence on how overactivation of these receptors could lead to motor neuron degeneration in ALS. Our current study demonstrates that in fully awake SOD1G93A rats, there are profound and spontaneous α-motoneuron-mediated electromyographic activities measured at the level of gastrocnemius muscle, which is absent in age-matched wild type rats. This activity is effectively suppressed by isoflurane, NGX424 (AMPA receptor antagonist) and baclofen (GABAB receptor agonist). These treatments have no suppressive effect of muscle denervation-induced muscle fibrillation. Immunofluorescence and western blot analyses of lumbar spinal cord in SODG93A rats showed sustained presence of AMPA receptors and a significant increase in spinal VGluT1/2expression during end-stage at the lumbar intermediate zone. These data suggest an active participation of AMPA receptors and VGluT1/2 in mediating glutamate release and binding in observed overactivation of interneurons and alpha motor neurons. Additionally, unilateral sciatic neurectomy reduced VGluT1 expression and thus, the decrease of the more downstream muscle fibrillation. Accordingly, therapeutics reducing excessive glutamate receptor-mediated overexcitation, such as inhibition of excitatory interneuron-mediated glutamate release, or potentiation of spinal neuronal inhibition, may be effective in modulating alpha motor neuron degeneration in ALS
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Electrophysiological and neurological characterization of a thoracic 9 model of spinal cord injury-induced muscle spasticity and the therapeutic anti-spastic effect following spinal GAD65 gene delivery in the rat
No full textSpinal cord injury is a problem that carries with it many implications including changes in motor circuit action that then lead to development of muscle spasticity, hyperreflexia, and loss of inhibitory response stemming from injury. These changes contribute to muscle spasms elicited by casual stimulation of afferent fibers that then lead to changes in muscle action and to a decrease in the quality of life. Here, we developed a thoracic 9 spinal cord transection injury model in Sprague-Dawley rats to study the changes in motor circuitry in these paraplegic rats. For the first part of my thesis work, we used electrophysiology in this SCI model to study the development of gastrocnemius muscle spasticity, and also the presence of electrical stimulation- and tactile-evoked hyperreflexia at chronic phase following injury. The second part of my thesis focused on the use of clinical pharmacology (Baclofen, GABAb agonist and Tizanidine, α2 adrenergic agonist) and non-used avenues (NGX424, ampa/kainate antagonist) to look at the amelioration of spasticity and spinal hyper-reflexia. The third part of my thesis was aimed at using experimental gene therapy and to test the effect of spinal GAD65 gene upregulation (as achieved by spinal IT or SP AAV9-GAD65 delivery) on chronic spasticity.Our results are sequentially organized as follows: 1) Characterization of time-dependent appearance of muscle spasticity and spinal hyper-reflexia after spinal Th9 transection in rat as defined by i) ankle-rotation evoked increase in muscle resistance, ii) tactile stimulus-evoked EMG response, and iii) electrical stimulus (H-reflex) defined muscle hyper-reflexia. 2) Characterization of anti-spastic potency of clinically validated anti-spastic agents in rat Th 9 spinal transection-induced chronic spasticity model. 3) Effect of spinal GAD65 gene upregulation in combination with systemic tiagabine (GABA uptake inhibitor) treatment on chronic muscle spasticity. In conclusion, my work has demonstrated that our T9 TSCT model can recapitulate several pathologic neurological phenotypes (muscle spasticity, spinal hyper-reflexia) seen in human patients suffering from chronic spinal cord injury. Chronic muscle spasticity measured in the rat model is effectively suppressed by clinically validated anti-spastic agents, which suggests that this model represents an appropriate avenue for development of new anti-spastic therapies
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Neural progenitor cell/neural stem cell graft functional integration and maturation in spinal cord injury
No full textNeural progenitor cell/neural stem cell (NPC/NSC) grafts integrate into sites of spinal cord injury (SCI) and show anatomical and electrophysiological evidence of forming neuronal relays across lesions. To determine how signals may be propagated through grafts, we performed ex vivo and in vivo calcium imaging of NPC grafts and host spinal cord neurons in mice. Following optogenetic stimulation of corticospinal tract axon terminals ex vivo, we detected consistent calcium responses throughout grafts. Grafts exhibited spontaneous activity in both independently-firing neurons and emergent neuronal networks, which were also activated by corticospinal stimulation. These patterns of activation resembled those present in intact spinal cord. In turn, optogenetic stimulation of graft axons extending out of lesion sites triggered excitatory post-synaptic responses in caudal host spinal cord neurons. Finally, distinct sensory stimuli elicited responses in the dorsal aspect of grafts in vivo. Thus, NPC/NSC grafts form local networks that are activated by host inputs and can activate host neurons on the distal side of spinal cord lesions.In order to properly assess the potential benefit of neural stem cell grafts in humans, we sought to understand the rate at which human grafts mature in the injury site. We grafted human NSCs into sites of SCI in immunodeficient rats and assessed anatomical and functional outcomes over a 1.5-year period. Although mature neuron markers appeared 3 months after grafting; neurogenesis, neuronal pruning, and neuronal soma enlargement progressed over the next year. Graft size remained stable as axons emerged in large numbers early on, with half of these projections persisting after 1.5 years. Astrocytes expressed mature markers after 6 months, while oligodendrocytes did not display mature markers until 1 year after grafting. A slow migration of astrocytes from graft sites into host tissue was observed. Importantly, functional improvement did not occur until over 1 year after grafting. Thus, human NSCs mature at their intrinsic rate even when grafted into a rodent environment, and they support functional recovery only at this delayed timepoint, a key finding in human clinical trial planning
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