As coastal communities around the globe contend with the impacts of climate change including coastal hazards such as sea level rise and more frequent coastal storms, educating stakeholders and the ...general public has become essential in order to adapt to and mitigate these risks. Communicating SLR and other coastal risks is not a simple task. First, SLR is a phenomenon that is abstract as it is physically distant from many people; second, the rise of the sea is a slow and temporally distant process which makes this issue psychologically distant from our everyday life. Virtual reality (VR) simulations may offer a way to overcome some of these challenges, enabling users to learn key principles related to climate change and coastal risks in an immersive, interactive, and safe learning environment. This article first presents the literature on environmental issues communication and engagement; second, it introduces VR technology evolution and expands the discussion on VR application for environmental literacy. We then provide an account of how three coastal communities have used VR experiences developed by multidisciplinary teams—including residents—to support communication and community outreach focused on SLR and discuss their implications.
This paper investigates the effects of transformational leadership on team effectiveness. In particular, we studied the effects of transformational leadership on three criteria of team effectiveness: ...viability, team process improvement, and quality of group experience. In addition, we examined the indirect effect of transformational leadership on team effectiveness via affective team commitment. Ninety teams working in different organizational contexts in Portugal were surveyed. Two different questionnaires were administrated, respectively, to team members and team leaders. Team members (N = 445) were surveyed about leadership, team commitment, and quality of the group experience, whereas team leaders (N = 90) were asked to assess team viability and team process improvement. Hypotheses were tested through structural equation modelling. Results revealed that affective team commitment partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and quality of the group experience. The mediational role of affective team commitment between transformational leadership and both team viability and team process improvement was not supported. Implications for practice and suggestions for further research are provided.
Geophysical surveys are widely used to reconstruct subsoil seismo-stratigraphic structures with a non-invasive approach. In this study the geophysical surveys were carried out with the aim to ...characterise the San Giorgio Cathedral in Ragusa (Italy) and the area on which it is built from a dynamic point of view. A 3D subsoil model was realised through the integration of two active (i.e., seismic tomography and multichannel analysis of surface waves) and one passive seismic technique (horizontal to vertical spatial ratio). The instrumentation used for the latter method consists of a tromograph (Tromino
), which is also employed for the characterisation of the building, focusing on the façade and the dome, by means of an ambient vibration test, processed through the standard spectral ratio and frequency domain decomposition methods. Integration of the 3D model, showing the distribution of areas with different physicomechanical characteristics, enables identifying anomalies that are likely attributable to the remains of the ancient Byzantine church of San Nicola. Four lower modes mainly involving the two investigated macroelements are identified. The experimental results outline the advantages of the use of the tromograph both for soil and structural characterisation, especially for massive masonry buildings located in areas with high seismic hazard.
This study evaluated the influence of an aqueous propolis-based solution (PROP) on gap formation and bond strength of posts bonded to root canal dentin using resin cements. Endodontically-treated ...bovine incisors received different irrigation protocols: 1) 2.5% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl)/17% EDTA/NaOCl; 2) saline solution (NaCl)/EDTA/0.12% chlorhexidine (CHX); 3) NaOCl/PROP/NaOCl; 4) NaCl/PROP/CHX; 5) NaCl/PROP/NaCl. Posts were then bonded with cements: RelyX ARC; Panavia F2.0; or RelyX U200 (n=10). The specimens were cross-sectioned. Gaps were assessed and performed the push-out bond strength test. Surface roughness of dentin fragments was also evaluated. Statistical analysis was performed (5%). RelyX U200 exhibited greater gap-free interfaces. Bond strength varied as a function of cements and irrigation protocols. PROP irrigation had no negative effect on the bond strength (p>0.05). Roughness increased significantly after NaOCl/EDTA/NaOCl, but remained unaltered after PROP irrigation protocols. Propolis-based irrigation protocols do not interfere in the bonding performance of posts cemented to root canal dentin.
Haploinsufficiency of GRN causes frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The GRN locus produces progranulin (PGRN), which is cleaved to lysosomal granulin polypeptides. The function of lysosomal granulins and ...why their absence causes neurodegeneration are unclear. Here we discover that PGRN-deficient human cells and murine brains, as well as human frontal lobes from GRN-mutation FTD patients have increased levels of gangliosides, glycosphingolipids that contain sialic acid. In these cells and tissues, levels of lysosomal enzymes that catabolize gangliosides were normal, but levels of bis(monoacylglycero)phosphates (BMP), lipids required for ganglioside catabolism, were reduced with PGRN deficiency. Our findings indicate that granulins are required to maintain BMP levels to support ganglioside catabolism, and that PGRN deficiency in lysosomes leads to gangliosidosis. Lysosomal ganglioside accumulation may contribute to neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration susceptibility observed in FTD due to PGRN deficiency and other neurodegenerative diseases.
A new family of
Tc(I)- tricarbonyl complexes and
I-heteroaromatic compounds bearing an acridine orange (AO) DNA targeting unit was evaluated for Auger therapy. Characterization of the DNA ...interaction, performed with the non-radioactive Re and
I congeners, confirmed that all compounds act as DNA intercalators. Both classes of compounds induce double strand breaks (DSB) in plasmid DNA but the extent of DNA damage is strongly dependent on the linker between the Auger emitter (
Tc or
I) and the AO moiety. The in vitro evaluation was complemented with molecular docking studies and Monte Carlo simulations of the energy deposited at the nanometric scale, which corroborated the experimental data. Two of the tested compounds,
I-C
and
Tc-C
, place the corresponding radionuclide at similar distances to DNA and produce comparable DSB yields in plasmid and cellular DNA. These results provide the first evidence that
Tc can induce DNA damage with similar efficiency to that of
I, when both are positioned at comparable distances to the double helix. Furthermore, the high nuclear retention of
Tc-C
in tumoral cells suggests that
Tc-labelled AO derivatives are more promising for the design of Auger-emitting radiopharmaceuticals than the
I-labelled congeners.
Adult polyglucosan body disease (APBD) represents a complex autosomal recessive inherited neurometabolic disorder due to homozygous or compound heterozygous pathogenic variants in GBE1 gene, ...resulting in deficiency of glycogen‐branching enzyme and secondary storage of glycogen in the form of polyglucosan bodies, involving the skeletal muscle, diaphragm, peripheral nerve (including autonomic fibers), brain white matter, spinal cord, nerve roots, cerebellum, brainstem and to a lesser extent heart, lung, kidney, and liver cells. The diversity of new clinical presentations regarding neuromuscular involvement is astonishing and transformed APBD in a key differential diagnosis of completely different clinical conditions, including axonal and demyelinating sensorimotor polyneuropathy, progressive spastic paraparesis, motor neuronopathy presentations, autonomic disturbances, leukodystrophies or even pure myopathic involvement with limb‐girdle pattern of weakness. This review article aims to summarize the main clinical, biochemical, genetic, and diagnostic aspects regarding APBD with special focus on neuromuscular presentations.
A reliable numerical evaluation of the nonlinear behaviour of historical masonry structures, before and after a seismic retrofitting, is a fundamental issue in the design of the structural ...retrofitting. Many strengthening techniques have been introduced aimed at improving the structural performance of existing structures that, if properly designed and applied, provide an effective contribution to the preservation of their cultural value. Among these strategies, the use of fabric-reinforced polymeric (FRP) materials on masonry surface is being widely adopted for practical engineering purposes. The application of strips or 2D grid composite layers is a low invasive and easy to apply retrofitting strategy, that is able to improve both the in-plane and the out of plane behaviour of masonry elements also in the presence of complex geometries thanks to their flexibility. For this reason, these techniques are frequently employed for reinforcing masonry curved elements, such as arches and vaults. In this paper, taking advantage of an existing general framework based on a discrete element approach previously introduced by the authors, a discrete element conceived for modelling the interaction between masonry and FRP reinforcement is applied to different curved masonry vaults typologies. This model, already used for evaluating the nonlinear behaviour of masonry arches, is here employed for the first time to evaluate the effectiveness of FRP reinforcements on double curvature elements. After a theoretical description of the proposed strategy, two applications relative to an arch and a dome, subjected to seismic loads, with different reinforced conditions, are presented. The benefit provided by the application of FRP strips is also compared with that associated to traditional retrofitting techniques. A sensitivity study is performed with respect to the structure scale factor.
Despite some progress, the overall survival of patients with glioblastoma (GBM) remains extremely poor. In this context, there is a pressing need to develop innovative therapy strategies for GBM, ...namely those based on nanomedicine approaches. Towards this goal, we have focused on nanoparticles (AuNP-SP and AuNP-SPTyr8) with a small gold core (ca. 4 nm), carrying DOTA chelators and substance P (SP) peptides. These new SP-containing AuNPs were characterized by a variety of analytical techniques, including TEM and DLS measurements and UV-vis and CD spectroscopy, which proved their high in vitro stability and poor tendency to interact with plasma proteins. Their labeling with diagnostic and therapeutic radionuclides was efficiently performed by DOTA complexation with the trivalent radiometals
Ga and
Lu or by electrophilic radioiodination with
I of the tyrosyl residue in AuNP-SPTyr8. Cellular studies of the resulting radiolabeled AuNPs in NKR1-positive GBM cells (U87, T98G and U373) have shown that the presence of the SP peptides has a crucial and positive impact on their internalization by the tumor cells. Consistently,
Lu-AuNP-SPTyr8 showed more pronounced radiobiological effects in U373 cells when compared with the non-targeted congener
Lu-AuNP-TDOTA, as assessed by cell viability and clonogenic assays and corroborated by Monte Carlo microdosimetry simulations.
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