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IntroductionRecent evidence suggests that the bone marrow (BM) plays a key role in the diffusion of P. falciparum malaria by providing a “niche” for the maturation of the parasite gametocytes, responsible for human-to-mosquito transmission. Suitable humanized in vivo models to study the mechanisms of the interplay between the parasite and the human BM components are still missing.MethodsWe report a novel experimental system based on the infusion of immature P. falciparum gametocytes into immunocompromised mice carrying chimeric ectopic ossicles whose stromal and bone compartments derive from human osteoprogenitor cells.ResultsWe demonstrate that immature gametocytes home within minutes to the ossicles and reach the extravascular regions, where they are retained in contact with different human BM stromal cell types.DiscussionOur model represents a powerful tool to study BM function and the interplay essential for parasite transmission in P. falciparum malaria and can be extended to study other infections in which the human BM plays a role.

Nella scrittura politica dantesca si evidenziano due livelli di riflessione: un progetto ideale di Impero universale, delineato in particolare nel trattato latino del Monarchia, e un'analisi obiettiva delle possibilità reali di creare un nuovo ordine mondiale, attraverso l'analisi, in particolare nella Commedia, di imperatori storicamente esistiti. Le tesi dimostrate nel trattato latino divengono, in questo modo, i criteri di valutazione per coloro che hanno rivestito, in tempi più o meno recenti, la funzione di Imperator, permettendo, infine, all'Autore di considerare il loro destino ultraterreno, tra i tre regni visitati nelPoema.

Il saggio ripercorre l'originale analisi di Augusto Del Noce sul pensiero politico gramsciano, a partire dal libro "Il suicidio della Rivoluzione", uscito per i tipi di Rusconi nel 1978. In quell'opera, il filosofo piemontese proponeva una lettura delle teorie portate avanti dal comunista sardo rivendicando l'influenza che, su di esse, aveva avuto la critica gentiliana al marxismo. Ciò porta a considerare la Rivoluzione gramsciana e la Reazione mussoliniana due modelli estremi e pratici, ma pienamente congruenti e conseguenti alla filosofia del Castelvetranese. Questo accostamento, su uno stesso crinale di storia del pensiero, del totalitarismo fascista e comunista consente, infine, di evitare alla cultura politica cattolica l'errore insito nel facile compromesso con l'antifascismo, divenuto centrale nella cultura italiana del secondo dopoguerra

Il metodo d’indagine del Monarchia dantesco rappresenta un’applicazione della logica aristotelica, recuperata alla filosofia occidentale con le traduzioni e i commenti del XII e XIII secolo, a questioni di cogente attualità politica: la felicità degli uomini, l’organizzazione della vita associata, la ricerca della pace nella città, il rapporto tra uomo e cittadino, nonché tra precetti morali e leggi pubbliche. Nel costruire una Scienza autonoma intorno a tali questioni, Dante presenta un’inedita dottrina dell’Impero universale che si proponga di contrastare, sul piano politico, le istanze dei giuristi angioini e comunali, sul piano del rapporto con il potere spirituale, l’ingerenza dei decretalisti nella vita civile. Progettato in conseguenza della fallita Romfahrt di Arrigo VII di Lussemburgo (1310-13), il trattato politico latino, invero, compie il percorso intellettuale dantesco, passato dalla ricerca su questioni filosofico-speculative a quelle morali, per occuparsi, infine, della vita civile. Il Monarchia porta a chiara lezione, nella sfera politica, quanto Dante ha già stabilito, soprattutto nel Convivio, sul profilo scientifico dell’uomo e sul rapporto tra sistema umano delle conoscenze e conseguimento della felicità mondana.

Il saggio ricostruisce la lettura di Gramsci, durante i primi anni torinesi, sugli effetti della Grande Guerra. La distanza d'analisi con altri esponenti del socialismo italiano consente al giovane sardo di indicare un modello affatto originale di interpretazione storica, distante dalla prospettiva meccanicistica-evoluzionistica in cui si è rinchiuso il socialismo (non solo) italiano, e prendendo in considerazione, oltre le dinamiche economiche, gli effetti spirituali che la vita di trincea ha determinato nel proletariato. In particolare, con l'analisi degli eventi russi, Gramsci prevede, anche nel dopoguerra italiano, lo sviluppo di un potenziale rivoluzionario ben radicato, di cui il socialismo italiano avrebbe dovuto prendere la direzione.

Thirty acromegalic subjects underwent chronic CB154 therapy (10–20 mg daily) for periods ranging from 3 months up to 2 years. In 18 out of 21 patients, who exhibited consistent HGH reduction following acute administration of the drug, there was also during chronic treatment, a suppression of the plasma HGH levels exceeding 50 % of base line values, e.g. from mean daily values between 14–197 ng/ml (mean ± sem = 57.8 ± 12.4 ng/ml pre-treatment) to 2–19 ng/ml (mean 8.3 ± 1.2 ng/ml post-treatment). In 12 of the subjects who responsed to chronic CB154 treatment, the mean daily values of HGH were below 10 ng/ml. The suppression of plasma HGH was maintained unaltered throughout the whole course of therapy. In the 9 subjects, in whom no consistent HGH decrease was evidenced with acute CB154 administration, there was accordingly a minor or no suppression of HGH values during the chronic treatment. In 13 subjects, irrespective of the degree of their GH responses, the plasma prolactin levels were constantly inhibited by CB154; instead the drug failed to modify significantly the TRH or insulin-induced GH release. These changes in the hormonal parameters were paralleled by marked clinical amelioration and improvement of some of the metabolic alterations frequently encountered in acromegaly, e.g. reduced carbohydrate tolerance, increased insulin resistance, diminished fall of plasma phosphorus after insulin, decreased urinary excretion of phosphate, hyper hydroxyprolinuria and hyper-calciuria. Collectively, these data demonstrate that CB154 thrapy is effective in reducing HGH hyper-secretion in many acromegalic patients during long-term treatment.

The spread of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in ever-widening domains (e.g., virtual assistants) increases the chances of daily interactions between humans and AI. But can non-human agents influence human beings and perhaps even surpass the power of the influence of another human being? This research investigated whether people faced with different tasks (objective vs. subjective) could be more influenced by the information provided by another human being or an AI. We expected greater AI (vs. other humans) influence in objective tasks (i.e., based on a count and only one possible correct answer). By contrast, we expected greater human (vs. AI) influence in subjective tasks (based on attributing meaning to evocative images). In Study 1, participants (N = 156) completed a series of trials of an objective task to provide numerical estimates of the number of white dots pictured on black backgrounds. Results showed that participants conformed more with the AI's responses than the human ones. In Study 2, participants (N = 102) in a series of subjective tasks observed evocative images associated with two concepts ostensibly provided, again, by an AI or a human. Then, they rated how each concept described the images appropriately. Unlike the objective task, in the subjective one, participants conformed more with the human than the AI's responses. Overall, our findings show that under some circumstances, AI can influence people above and beyond the influence of other humans, offering new insights into social influence processes in the digital era.

The structures, relative stabilities, and vibrational wavenumbers of the two most stable conformers of serine, stabilized by the O-H···N, O-H···O═C and N-H···O-H intramolecular hydrogen bonds, have been evaluated by means of state-of-the-art composite schemes based on coupled-cluster (CC) theory. The so-called "cheap" composite approach (CCSD(T)/(CBS+CV)MP2) allowed determination of accurate equilibrium structures and harmonic vibrational wavenumbers, also pointing out significant corrections beyond the CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ level. These accurate results stand as a reference for benchmarking selected hybrid and double-hybrid, dispersion-corrected DFT functionals. B2PLYP-D3 and DSDPBEP86 in conjunction with a triple-ζ basis set have been confirmed as effective methodologies for structural and spectroscopic studies of medium-sized flexible biomolecules, also showing intramolecular hydrogen bonding. These best performing double-hybrid functionals have been employed to simulate IR spectra by means of vibrational perturbation theory, also considering hybrid CC/DFT schemes. The best overall agreement with experiment, with mean absolute error of 8 cm-1, has been obtained by combining CCSD(T)/(CBS+CV)MP2 harmonic wavenumbers with B2PLYP-D3/maug-cc-pVTZ anharmonic corrections. Finally, a composite scheme entirely based on CCSD(T) calculations (CCSD(T)/CBS+CV) has been employed for energetics, further confirming that serine II is the most stable conformer, also when zero-point vibrational energy corrections are included.

In this work, a new chemodivergent domino approach for the preparation of various saturated heterocycles, based on phase-transfer catalysis (PTC), is presented. The versatile nature of doubly electrophilic substrates, showing both a Michael acceptor and a ketone, tethered by a heteroatom, enables three different domino reaction pathways. The nucleophile dictates the chemoselectivity of the reaction. Sulfa-Michael/aldol, cyanide addition/oxa-Michael and Michael/H-shift/aldol processes, along with the variation of the tethering heteroatom, results in the formation of six different classes of saturated heterocycles. DFT calculations account for the observed chemo- and diastereoselectivity of the two most productive processes. Moreover, an extensive investigation on the sulfa-Michael/aldol pathway was carried out, ultimately leading to the development of a new enantioselective domino approach to multi-substituted piperidines based on PTC. (Figure presented.).

L'articolo esamina il contributo del giurista Claude-Marie Raudot , deputato della Droite durante la Seconda Repubblica, al dibattuto sul decentramento, da lui condotto nelle pagine della rivista "Correspondant" con la competenza del giurista, ma anche con l’esperienza maturata come sindaco d’Avallon, nel cuore della Borgogna, durante gli anni della monarchia orleanista.

In this work a commercial paraffin PCM (RT35) characterized by a solid-liquid phase change temperature Ts-l = 29 ÷ 36 °C and a low thermal conductivity λ = 0.2 W/m K is experimentally tested submitting it to charging/discharging cycles. The paraffin is contained in a case with a rectangular base and heated from the top thanks to an electrical resistance. The aim of this research is to show the benefits that a 95% porous copper metal foam can bring to a PCM-based system simply loading it, thanks to the consequent strong thermal conductivity increase. The experimental results highlight the positive effects of the copper foam presence such as the heat conduction improvement throughout the system and a significant reduction in time for the complete melting of the PCM. In addition, the experimental data highlight that in the copper-foam-loaded PCM the maximum temperature reached during the heating process is lower than 20 K respect to the test with pure PCM, imposing the same heat flux on the top.