Clinical Amyloid Typing by Proteomics: Performance Evaluation and Data Sharing Between Two Centres

Amyloidosis is a relatively rare human disease caused by the deposition of abnormal protein fibres in the extracellular space of various tissues, impairing their normal function. Proteomic analysis of patients’ biopsies, developed by Dogan and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic, has become crucial for clinical diagnosis and for identifying the amyloid type. Currently, the proteomic approach is routinely used at National Amyloidosis Centre (NAC, London, UK) and Istituto di Tecnologie Biomediche-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ITB-CNR, Milan, Italy). Both centres are members of the European Proteomics Amyloid Network (EPAN), which was established with the aim of sharing and discussing best practice in the application of amyloid proteomics. One of the EPAN’s activities was to evaluate the quality and the confidence of the results achieved using different software and algorithms for protein identification. In this paper, we report the comparison of proteomics results obtained by sharing NAC proteomics data with the ITB-CNR centre. Mass spectrometric raw data were analysed using different software platforms including Mascot, Scaffold, Proteome Discoverer, Sequest and bespoke algorithms developed for an accurate and immediate amyloid protein identification. Our study showed a high concordance of the obtained results, suggesting a good accuracy of the different bioinformatics tools used in the respective centres. In conclusion, inter-centre data exchange is a worthwhile approach for testing and validating the performance of software platforms and the accuracy of results, and is particularly important where the proteomics data contribute to a clinical diagnosis.

ITALIAN TEMPORARY PREFABRICATED CONSTRUCTIONS (1933-1949). PROJECTS, PATENTS AND PROTOTYPES

The study considers solutions and systems for temporary and prefabricated constructions developed in Italy in the 1930s and 1940s. Companies such as L’Invulnerabile, Curtisa, Legnami Pasotti, Giuseppe Palini e Figli, Fratelli Ravelli proposed easy to assemble, changeable, and in many cases, dismountable buildings destined to the 1930s Italian and colonial markets. The survey aims to reconstruct different cases, highlighting both the premises that determined the vanguard of the post-war debate on building industrialization and the factors that constrained further developments of the pioneering phase analysed. The study starts with the V Triennale of Milan (1933) and develops in the colonial season in East Africa, enriched with applications in the Alpine areas, before finally considering some proposals that were presented at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche exhibition on prefabricated houses in 1945 and the development of some patents by manufacturers specialised in this building sector. The buildings were intended for houses and offices of the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni and the Azienda Mineraria Africa Orientale in the colonial areas, for bivouacs of the Club Alpino Italiano, and for prefabricated houses advanced in the Second post-World War period by Società Anonima Legnami Pasotti and by L’Invulnerabile. The study, based on the clients’ archives (Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni, Azienda Mineraria Africa Orientale, Club Alpino Italiano), technical documentation, and patents of the manufacturing companies, favours the examination of the production and assembly process.

A multi-year time series of observation-based 3D horizontal and vertical quasi-geostrophic global ocean currents

Estimates of 3D ocean circulation are needed to improve our understanding of ocean dynamics and to assess their impact on marine ecosystems and Earth climate. Here we present the OMEGA3D product, an observation-based time series of (quasi-)global 3D ocean currents covering the 1993–2018 period, developed by the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche within the European Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS). This dataset was obtained by applying a diabatic quasi-geostrophic (QG) diagnostic model to the data-driven CMEMS-ARMOR3D weekly reconstruction of temperature and salinity as well as ERA Interim fluxes. Outside the equatorial band, vertical velocities were retrieved in the upper 1500 m at 1∕4∘ nominal resolution and successively used to compute the horizontal ageostrophic components. Root mean square differences between OMEGA3D total horizontal velocities and totally independent drifter observations at two different depths (15 and 1000 m) decrease with respect to corresponding estimates obtained from zero-order geostrophic balance, meaning that estimated vertical velocities can also be deemed reliable. OMEGA3D horizontal velocities are also closer to drifter observations than velocities provided by a set of reanalyses spanning a comparable time period but based on data assimilation in ocean general circulation numerical models. The full OMEGA3D product (released on 31 March 2020) is available upon free registration at https://doi.org/10.25423/cmcc/multiobs_glo_phy_w_rep_015_007 (Buongiorno Nardelli, 2020a). The reduced subset used here for validation and review purposes is openly available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3696885 (Buongiorno Nardelli, 2020b).

Fun educational and artistic teaching tools for science outreach

The aim of scientific dissemination is to spread interest and knowledge of scientific issues by trying to reach people of all ages and social backgrounds. Simplifying, without trivializing, scientific concepts and making them attractive to the general public is therefore essential to achieve the previous objectives. For this purpose, it can be useful for scientists to work in close collaboration with artists, implementing new tools that can positively influence the emotional sphere and capture the attention of the people involved. Playful educational activity and visual language play a key role in this process, to convey interest and facilitate learning. An example of this approach are the educational laboratories structured as group games, in which great importance is given both to practical activities and to the transmission of concepts through their visualization in the form of images. Over the last 8 years, the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, INGV), the Istituto di Scienze Marine del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Institute of Marine Sciences of the National Research Council, CNR-ISMAR) and the Historical Oceanography Society (HOS) have collaborated in the organization of science dissemination events involving students from schools of different levels participating in educational experiences based on games, characterized by an essentially visual approach to the concepts presented. In this work, we would like to give a brief overview of these educational tools, retracing the choices made while ideating them, thanks mainly to the close collaboration with artists and illustrators.

Costruire una biblioteca digitale

Grazie all’accordo di collaborazione interna al Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche (CNR) tra l’Istituto per il lessico intellettuale europeo e storia dell’idee (ILIESI) e la Biblioteca centrale “G. Marconi”, siglato nel 2016, è stato possibile portare a compimento il progetto di digitalizzazione della collezione di microforme dell’ILIESI. La collezione è composta prevalentemente da lessici filosofici e testi di autori, relativi alla storia intellettuale europea del Cinquecento e Seicento. Due secoli che vedono la nascita del pensiero moderno e della nuova scienza, nel corso dei quali, dalla comune matrice latina, viene sviluppandosi la terminologia filosofica e scientifica delle lingue moderne. Il contributo analizza le scelte effettuate dallo staff tecnico per il recupero e la digitalizzazione del materiale, presentando il laboratorio di digitalizzazione della Biblioteca centrale. Infine vengono illustrate le future modalità di fruizione e valorizzazione della collezione digitalizzata.

A multi-year timeseries of observation-based 3D horizontal and vertical quasi-geostrophic global ocean currents

Estimates of 3D ocean circulation are needed to improve our understanding of ocean dynamics and to assess its impact on marine ecosystems and Earth climate. Here we present the OMEGA3D product, an observation-based timeseries of (quasi) global 3D ocean currents covering the 1993–2018 period, developed by the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche within the European Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS). This dataset was obtained by applying a diabatic quasi-geostrophic (QG) diagnostic model to CMEMS data-driven ARMOR3D weekly reconstruction of temperature and salinity and ERA-Interim fluxes. Outside the equatorial band, vertical velocities were retrieved in the upper 1500 m, at nominal ¼° resolution, and successively used to compute the horizontal ageostrophic components. Root mean square differences between OMEGA3D total horizontal velocities and totally independent drifter observations at two different depths (15 m and 1000 m) decrease with respect to corresponding estimates obtained from zero-order geostrophic balance, meaning that estimated vertical velocities can also be deemed reliable. OMEGA3D horizontal velocities are also closer to drifter observations than velocities provided by a set of re-analyses spanning a comparable time period, but based on data assimilation in ocean general circulation numerical models. The full OMEGA3D product (released on 31st of March 2020) is available upon free registration at https://doi.org/10.25423/cmcc/multiobs_glo_phy_w_rep_015_007. The reduced subset used here for validation and review purposes is openly available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3696885 (Buongiorno Nardelli, 2020).

A new home for Tropical Zoology

Dear readers and subscribers, starting from Volume 33 (2020), Tropical Zoology will have a new publisher. The journal, owned by the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), was born in 1966 as Monitore zoologico italiano Supplemento... [read]

The INSIEME seismic network: a research infrastructure for studying induced seismicity in the High Agri Valley (southern Italy)

The High Agri Valley is a tectonically active area in southern Italy characterized by high seismic hazard related to fault systems capable of generating up to M=7 earthquakes (i.e. the 1857 Mw=7 Basilicata earthquake). In addition to the natural seismicity, two different clusters of induced microseismicity were recognized to be caused by industrial operations carried out in the area: (1) the water loading and unloading operations in the Pertusillo artificial reservoir and (2) the wastewater disposal at the Costa Molina 2 injection well. The twofold nature of the recorded seismicity in the High Agri Valley makes it an ideal study area to deepen the understanding of driving processes of both natural and anthropogenic earthquakes and to improve the current methodologies for the discrimination between natural and induced seismic events by collecting high-quality seismic data. Here we present the dataset gathered by the INSIEME seismic network that was installed in the High Agri Valley within the SIR-MIUR research project INSIEME (INduced Seismicity in Italy: Estimation, Monitoring, and sEismic risk mitigation). The seismic network was planned with the aim to study the two induced seismicity clusters and to collect a full range of open-access data to be shared with the whole scientific community. The seismic network is composed of eight stations deployed in an area of 17 km×11 km around the two clusters of induced microearthquakes, and it is equipped with triaxial weak-motion broadband sensors placed at different depths down to 50 m. It allows us to detect induced microearthquakes, local and regional earthquakes, and teleseismic events from continuous data streams transmitted in real time to the CNR-IMAA Data Centre. The network has been registered at the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN) with code 3F. Data collected until the end of the INSIEME project (23 March 2019) are already released with open-access policy through the FDSN web services and are available from IRIS DMC (https://doi.org/10.7914/SN/3F_2016; Stabile and INSIEME Team, 2016). Data collected after the project will be available with the permanent network code VD (https://doi.org/10.7914/SN/VD, CNR IMAA Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 2019) as part of the High Agri Valley geophysical Observatory (HAVO), a multi-parametric network managed by the CNR-IMAA research institute.

CNR–Fincantieri Joint Projects: A Successful Example of Collaboration between Research and Industry Based on the Open Innovation Approach

This paper contributes to the open innovation literature by presenting a successful application of the open innovation approach in the maritime sector between Fincantieri (FC), one of the world’s largest shipbuilding groups, and the National Research Council of Italy (CNR, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), the largest research entity in Italy. By using external sources of scientific innovation, specifically 10 different groups of researchers from CNR research institutes and three universities, and by integrating these groups with a team of expert Fincantieri’s designers, the company obtained significant advances in terms of technological content and competitiveness. This collaboration is an evident example of successful implementation of the open innovation paradigm, where a big company (Fincantieri) uses external sources of innovation (the CNR researchers) to advance its technology by carrying out six different projects simultaneously. The paper presents the adopted open innovation model, the governance approach specifically implemented by the company and the major scientific contents and outcomes of the constellation of the six connected projects.

Towards the contemporary city. Reading method of post-unification restructuring of Trastevere in Rome

Towards the contemporary city. Reading method of post-unification restructuring of Trastevere in Rome Giancarlo Salamone Dipartimento di Architettura e Progetto. Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”. Roma. via Flaminia, 359. 00196 Roma. Dottorato di Ricerca in Architettura e Costruzione. Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”. Roma. via Antonio Gramsci, 53. 00197 Roma. E-mail: [email protected] Keywords (3-5): Restructuring, Rome, Trastevere, process, reading method, tools, analysis in urban morphology Conference topics and scale: Tools of analysis in urban morphology Trastevere, the only area of the historic center of Rome (together with the Vatican / Borgo complex) located on the right side of the Tiber river, shows a morphological structure that depends on the pre-existing substrate, both road that typological, which was modified during the post-unity period by the establishment of the Tiber fronts and, above all, by the opening of Viale Trastevere. In the way of thinking about urban morphology as a scalar product of the factors that influence each other, in particular building typology, local structure, overall structure and territory, and that contribute together to generate an organism, it is therefore possible to read this part of the historical center as the last product, but not definitive, of a "process". The reading method on the consolidated structure, later renovated in a post-unification era, is based on the analysis of the most abundant building typology and on the permanence and derivations of local typological processes that led to the formulation of the “line house” in nineteenth-century line, the predominant building type of roman expansion in nineteenth-twentieth century. The reading of the restructuring, understood as synchronic action on the historical center, has been implemented instead by the analysis of synchronic variations at “line house” through the research of all projects registered for the edification of each block. Thus we can see how the blocks resulting from the transformation, in the logic of a restructuring "contromaglia" like the one for the opening of Viale Trastevere, will be the result of the disconnection of the existing blocks in which the building type adopted has had to adapt to a lower return situations: a reading of a synchronic action on a diachronic process that gives us the modern morphological apparatus. References Muratori, S., Bollati, R., Bollati, S. and Marinucci, G. (1963) Studi per una operante storia urbana di Roma (Consiglio Nazionale delle ricerche, Roma). Maffei, G. L. and Caniggia, G. (1979) Lettura dell’edilizia di base (Marsilio, Venezia). Maffei, G. L. and Caniggia, G. (1984) Progetto nell’edilizia di base (Marsilio, Venezia). Vaccaro, P. and Ameri, M. (1984) Progetto e realtà nell’edilizia romana dal XVI al XIX secolo (Edizioni Calosci, Cortona). Corsini, M. G. (2001) Il tessuto e l’edilizia progettati in Italia dal 1870 al 1930. Permanenza e derivazioni dei processi tipologici locali (Edizioni Kappa, Roma). Archivio Storico Capitolino, archival sources on restructuring area of Trastevere and permanence and derivations of local typological processes.