86,614 research outputs found
Portrait of the Countess Anastasia Spini (1842): acromegaly in art.
No full textTo the Editor,
Acromegaly is a systemic disease produced by excessive secretion
of growth hormone and consecutively increased levels
of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) [1].
Clear features of acromegaly are evident in the portrait of
the Countess Anastasia Spini by Giovanni Carnovali, also
known as “Il Piccio”.
Carnovali was born in 1804 in Varese, Northern Italy.
Initially trained in neoclassicism, he soon moved to realism.
Among his patrons were the Countess Spini, for whom he
painted many portraits and landscapes.
In this lesser-known painting, Countess Anastasia is
portrayed late in life: she was born in 1770 and would have
died in 1855, never having married. The painting of the
Countess (dated to about 1842) clearly depicts facial features
suggestive of acromegaly, such as prominent nose, enlarged
jaws and brows, upper eyelid ptosis, and furrowed forehead
due to coarse and thickened skin, with evident outgrowths of
tegumental tissue (skin tags) [2] (Fig. 1). Moreover, the
Countess’s fingers are short and stubby and her shoes appear
to be several sizes too small, enlarged hands and feet also
being symptomatic of acromegaly [3]. The golden snuff box
that the Countess is holding is indicative of her habit of
smoking.
Little is known about the life of the Countess, except that
she was interdicted on account of insanity and prodigality.
The Countess’s appearance, as portrayed in this painting,
was for long associated with a depressive disorder; however, it
is likely that the psychiatric disorder is, in fact, related to
acromegaly syndrome [4]. It is not known whether the
Countess herself linked her physical appearance to a morbid
condition
Optimal leap angle of legged and legless insects in a landscape of uniformly distributed random obstacles
No full textWe investigate theoretically the ballistic motion of small legged insects and legless larvae after a jump. Notwithstanding their completely different morphologies and jumping strategies, some legged and legless animals have convergently evolved to jump with a take-off angle of 60°, which differs significantly from the leap angle of 45° that allows reaching maximum range. We show that in the presence of uniformly distributed random obstacles the probability of a successful jump is directly proportional to the area under the trajectory. In the presence of negligible air drag, the probability is maximized by a take-off angle of 60°. The numerical calculation of the trajectories shows that they are significantly affected by air drag, but the maximum probability of a successful jump still occurs for a take-off angle of 59-60° in a wide range of the dimensionless Reynolds and Froude numbers that control the process. We discuss the implications of our results for the exploration of unknown environments such as planets and disaster scenarios by using jumping robots
Thin membranes based on FBG sensors for real-time sub-bandage pressure monitoring
No full textThis work focuses on the manufacturing and testing of a new device for medical bandage monitoring. Excessive pressure exerted from the compression bandage can block the blood flow of the patient, causing different medical complications to the skin, nerves, and circulatory system. On the contrary, if the pressure applied is low, the therapy is not effective. The utility, therefore, arises from a device capable of quantitatively indicating the correct adjustment of the bandage. The technological demonstrators developed consist of a polyurethane elastomeric shell with a thin composite supporting core. Fiber Bragg grating sensors (FBGSs) embedded within this core permit the detection of the subbandage pressure applied during compression therapy. The two prototypes were applied under arm bandages to evaluate their capability to transmit the applied pressure to the embedded FBGS. We demonstrated the ability to monitor the bandaging action by measuring the level of pressure exerted with the rounds of bandages. Moreover, the thin membranes permit the monitoring of the heartbeat of the patient, giving feedback about blood irrotation. The device developed is, therefore, promising to improve the results of compression therapy
Il Fondo Guicciardini nella Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. Catalogo, a cura di L. Invernizzi : vol. I : Secolo XIX, tomo I : A-F, intr. G. Spini (« Inventari e cataloghi toscani » 14), Giunta Regionale della Toscana — La Nuova Italia, Firenze, 1984
No full textModa Aldo. Il Fondo Guicciardini nella Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. Catalogo, a cura di L. Invernizzi : vol. I : Secolo XIX, tomo I : A-F, intr. G. Spini (« Inventari e cataloghi toscani » 14), Giunta Regionale della Toscana — La Nuova Italia, Firenze, 1984. In: Revue d'histoire et de philosophie religieuses, 67e année n°3, Juillet-septembre 1987. pp. 318-319
Genomics for the environment: the hidden power of bacteria
No full textPlants harbor a plethora of microorganisms with which they mutually interact, so to be considered as ‘super-organisms’. Plants are able to shape their associated microbiome and to recruit microbes useful for nutrition, growth and defense from pathogens and adverse environmental conditions. The genomics of plant associated microorganisms is then an emerging field with highly important outcomes for agriculture and, in general, for green biotechnologies. In the last years, an increasing number of genomes from plant-associated microorganisms have been sequenced, discovering an extraordinary number of genes potentially useful for biotechnology applications. This presentation will review some of
the relevant application of plant associated bacterial genomics and will focus on the exploration of the genome of the plant symbiont Sinorhizobium meliloti for genes relevant for the adaptation to heavy metal polluted soil. Heavy-metal tolerance in bacteria is indeed a widespread phenotype; in particular nickel tolerance has been characterized as depending on the nre system, which employs a Ni/H+ antiporter (NreB) to pump nickel out from the cell. An orthologous
of nreB gene was found in Sinorhizobium meliloti by genome scanning. The evolutionary origin of this gene and its functions have been extensively studied and a perspective for its potential biotechnology applications will be reviewed
Il Fondo Guicciardini nella Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. Catalogo, a cura di L. Invernizzi : vol. I : Secolo XIX, tomo I : A-F, intr. G. Spini (« Inventari e cataloghi toscani » 14), Giunta Regionale della Toscana — La Nuova Italia, Firenze, 1984
No full textModa Aldo. Il Fondo Guicciardini nella Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. Catalogo, a cura di L. Invernizzi : vol. I : Secolo XIX, tomo I : A-F, intr. G. Spini (« Inventari e cataloghi toscani » 14), Giunta Regionale della Toscana — La Nuova Italia, Firenze, 1984. In: Revue d'histoire et de philosophie religieuses, 67e année n°3, Juillet-septembre 1987. pp. 318-319
LAR-ABC, a representation of architectural geometry. From concept of spaces, to design of building fabric, to construction simulation
No full textThis paper discusses the application of LAR (Linear Algebraic Representation) scheme to the architectural design process. LAR is a novel representation scheme for geometric design of curves, surfaces and solids, using simple, general and well founded concepts from algebraic topology (Dicarlo et al., Comput Aided Des 46:269–274, 2014). LAR supports all topological incidence structures, including enumerative (images), decompositive (meshes) and boundary (CAD) representations. It is dimension-independent, and not restricted to regular complexes. Furthermore, LAR enjoys a neat mathematical format, being based on chains, the domains of discrete integration, and cochains, the discrete prototype of differential forms, so naturally integrating the geometric shape with the supported physical properties. The LAR representation find his roots in the design language PLaSM (Paoluzzi et al., ACM Trans. Graph 14(3):266–306, 1995; Paoluzzi, Geometric programming for computer aided design. Wiley, Chichester 2003), and is being embedded in Python and Javascript, providing the designer with powerful and simple tools for a geometric calculus of shapes. In this paper we introduce the motivation of this approach, discussing how it compares to other mixed-dimensionality representations of geometry and is supported by open-source software projects. We also discuss simple examples of use
Enrichment procedures for the isolation of xenobiotic-degrading bacterial and fungal strain: a focus on microbial ecology
No full textLIFE-BIOREST (www.lifebiorest.com) is a EU-project aimed at the remediation of a soil polluted by PHAs, BTEX and alkanes through the application of selected consortia of fungi and bacteria.
In the first phase of the project, we have isolated from the polluted soil about 220 fungal and 140 bacterial strains with degrading abilities. Most of the fungal strains belonged to Ascomycetes (mainly Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Fusarium and Scedosporium genera) even though about 20 Basidiomycetes were also isolated. Regarding bacteria, the most abundant genus was Pseudomonas followed by Achromobacter, Stenotrophomonas and Ochrobactrum.
The isolates were obtained by means of a liquid enrichment approach on target contami- nants (naphthalene, pyrene, phenanthrene, benzene, alkanes and oil extracted from the soil): the enrichment lasted 3 weeks, and sub-culturing was carried out once a week. Since the pollution in the test soil involved several meters of depth, enrichments were carried out sep- arately using as inoculum homogenized soil samples from the 0-1, the 1-2 and 2-3 m depth. A total of 18 enrichment consortia were produced (6 target contaminants X 3 soil depths) for bacteria and other 18 for fungi, and sampled at day 0, 7, 14 and 21, giving a total of 144 samples. For each of these samples, DNA was extracted, amplified respectively for bacterial (16S) and fungal (ITS) biomarkers, and the resulting amplicons sequenced in Illumina. Results will be presented with the aim of assessing the ecological evolution of the microbial communities (bacteria and fungi) during the selective enrichment procedure in presence of different pollutants
Variations on the Author
No full text“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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