117,463 research outputs found
Enforcing reference capability in FastFlow with rust
No full textIn this work, we investigate the performance impact of using the Rust programming language instead of the C++ one to implement two basic parallel patterns as provided by the FASTFLOW parallel library. The rationale of using Rust is that it is a modern system-level language capable to statically guarantee that if a data reference is sent over a communication channel, the ownership of the reference is transferred from the producer to the consumer. Such reference-passing semantics is at the base of the FASTFLOW programming model. However, the FASTFLOW library does not enforce nor checks its correct usage leaving this burden to the programmer. The results obtained comparing the FASTFLOW/C++, and the Rust implementations of the same implementation schema of the Task-Farm and Pipeline patterns show that Rust is a valid alternative to C++ for the FASTFLOW library with indubitable benefits in terms of programmability
ICOS-L as a Potential Therapeutic Target for Cancer Immunotherapy
No full textBACKGROUND:
The co-stimulatory B7 family members are cell-surface protein ligands, binding to receptors on lymphocytes to regulate immune responses. One of them is the inducible co-stimulatory molecule ligand (ICOS-L). This protein is expressed on professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs), including B cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells (DCs), but it can also be expressed by endothelial cells, lung epithelium and in tumour microenvironment cells. ICOS-L is important for memory and effector T cells during the specific humoral immune responses, but its role in cancer is not yet understood.
OBJECTIVE:
To discuss the role of ICOS/ICOS-L in cancer, given importance of identifying selective targets for cancer treatment, and knowing the mechanism of immune evasion by tumour.
MAIN FINDINGS:
ICOS/ICOS-L signal has opposite effects on the T-cell response. ICOS-L is activated in several types of cancers to maintain immunosuppressive CD4+ T cell subsets, such as regulatory T cells (Tregs). ICOS-L over-expression is associated with tumour progression and poor overall survival. In colon cancer, activation of this co-stimulatory signal is associated with improved survival suggesting a dualistic effect of the ICOS/ICOs-L signal pathway. Interestingly, following anti-cancer vaccine or anti- CTLA-4 treatment, ICOS+ T cells increased significantly in both the CD4+ and CD8+ population and the ratio Teff/Treg increased in tumour microenvironment. This suggests a potential role of ICOS/ICOS-L in improving effectiveness of cancer therapy.
CONCLUSION:
ICOS/ICOS-L signal pathway has the potential to improve cancer treatment. However, studies in other models are needed to understand whether inhibition of ICOS expression or the blockage of its co-stimulation could be a potential therapeutic target or adjuvant treatment for immunotherapy
Olivicoltura tradizionale fra intensivizzazione e paesaggio: Un modello di programmazione matematica multiobiettivo a numeri interi
No full textFocusing on olive oil sector in central Italy, this paper proposes a decision support system for olive growers in order to: i) identify the optimal crop management in the hypothesis of maximizing gross farm income and maximizing a landscape integrity index; ii) simulate the effects of different policy and market scenarios. Results from multi-objective integer optimization models showed that the solution obtained by maximizing the gross income foresees the intensive crop management and the complete allocation of the farm area to newly planted olive groves. The traditional crop management is chosen when the landscape integrity index is maximized. However, only a 30% increase of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil price from ancient and traditionally managed olive groves could ensure their complete maintenance
Social capital and rural innovation process. The evaluation of the measure 124 “Cooperation for Development of New Products, Processes and Technologies in the Agriculture, Food and Forestry Sector” in the Umbria Region (Italy)
No full textThe most recent theories on innovation point out the role of social networks, demonstrating how knowledge is intertwined with network communities and social capital represents an essential factor to comprehend innovation. The social network dimension of the innovation process is also acknowledged in the actual definition of an agricultural innovation system (AIS). This study attempts to assess the role played by social capital in agricultural innovation projects co-financed by the Measure 124 of the Rural Development Program (2007-2013) of the Umbria Region (Italy), based on the analysis of 5 evaluation criteria (relevance, innovation, effectiveness, sustainability, and social capital) in relation to 8 selected projects. The obtained results confirm the validity of the proposed methodology both for the purpose of internal monitoring of the project and for the assessment of the measure on the basis of tangible and intangible factors, such as social capital
High-throughput stream processing with actors
No full textThe steady growth of data volume produced as continuous streams makes paramount the development of software capable of providing timely results to the users. The Actor Model (AM) offers a high-level of abstraction suited for developing scalable message-passing applications. It allows the application developer to focus on the application logic moving the burden of implementing fast and reliable inter-Actors message-exchange to the implementation framework. In this paper, we focus on evaluating the model in high data rate streaming applications targeting scale-up servers. Our approach leverages Parallel Patterns (PP) abstractions to model streaming computations and introduces optimizations that otherwise could be challenging to implement without violating the Actor Model's semantics. The experimental analysis demonstrates that the new implementation skeletons we propose for our PPs can bring significant performance boosts (more than 2X) in high data rate streaming applications implemented in CAF
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Design patterns percolating to parallel programming framework implementation
No full textStructured parallel programming is recognised as a viable and effective means of tackling parallel programming problems. Recently, a set of simple and powerful parallel building blocks ( RISC- pb2l RISC - pb 2 l ) has been proposed to support modelling and implementation of parallel frameworks. In this work we demonstrate how that same parallel building block set may be used to model both general purpose parallel programming abstractions, not usually listed in classical skeleton sets, and more specialized domain specific parallel patterns. We show how an implementation of RISC- pb2l RISC - pb 2 l can be realised via the FastFlow framework and present experimental evidence of the feasibility and efficiency of the approach
Square Dancing with the Stars to Enhance Dynamic Hirschman Linkages?
No full textIn this Presidential Address, the author takes the reader on a reconnaissance of his life and time as a regional scientist. He points out scenery he found scintillating along the way, hoping that some may pick up the banner and chew on a few of the ideas for a while. He suggests a revisit to Albert O. Hirschman’s notion of key sectors and more empirical analysis related to Marcus Berliant’s and Masahisa Fujita’s notion of knowledge creation and transfer.Presidential Address, San Antonio, Texas, March 29, 2014 (53rd Meetings of the Southern Regional Science Association
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