Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche Research Articles

Mapping the global research landscape on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and insulin resistance: A visualization and bibliometric study.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a liver condition that is prevalent worldwide and associated with significant health risks and economic burdens. As it has been linked to insulin resistance (IR), this study aimed to perform a bibliometric analysis and visually represent the scientific literature on IR and NAFLD. To map the research landscape to underscore critical areas of focus, influential studies, and future directions of NAFLD and IR. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of the literature on IR and NAFLD indexed in the SciVerse Scopus database from 1999 to 2022. The search strategy used terms from the literature and medical subject headings, focusing on terms related to IR and NAFLD. VOSviewer software was used to visualize research trends, collaborations, and key thematic areas. The analysis examined publication type, annual research output, contributing countries and institutions, funding agencies, journal impact factors, citation patterns, and highly cited references. This analysis identified 23124 documents on NAFLD, revealing a significant increase in the number of publications between 1999 and 2022. The search retrieved 715 papers on IR and NAFLD, including 573 (80.14%) articles and 88 (12.31%) reviews. The most productive countries were China (n = 134; 18.74%), the United States (n = 122; 17.06%), Italy (n = 97; 13.57%), and Japan (n = 41; 5.73%). The leading institutions included the Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy (n = 29; 4.06%), and the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy (n = 19; 2.66%). The top funding agencies were the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in the United States (n = 48; 6.71%), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (n = 37; 5.17%). The most active journals in this field were Hepatology (27 publications), the Journal of Hepatology (17 publications), and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (13 publications). The main research hotspots were "therapeutic approaches for IR and NAFLD" and "inflammatory and high-fat diet impacts on NAFLD". This is the first bibliometric analysis to examine the relationship between IR and NAFLD. In response to the escalating global health challenge of NAFLD, this research highlights an urgent need for a better understanding of this condition and for the development of intervention strategies. Policymakers need to prioritize and address the increasing prevalence of NAFLD.

Dissolved fluxes of nutrients and carbon at the sediment-water interface in the Adriatic Sea: review of early data and methods from the Italian National Research Council (CNR)

We report the measurement of the Fluxes of Dissolved Compounds at the Sediment-Water Interface (DFSWIs), obtained by analyzing data collected in the Italian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Northern and Central Adriatic Sea from 1982. We also describe the methods, honed by Italy’s Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), employed to measure and calculate DFSWIs, including benthic chambers and landers, sediment-water interface micro-profiling, on-board incubation, and pore water modeling. Data analysis demonstrated that in situ measurements are the most reliable approaches, but that on-board collected data also supply interesting results. The DFSWI data allowed to divide the Adriatic seafloor into areas with similar DFSWI types and intensities and to define the role of sediments as sources or sinks of chemicals such as nutrients, Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC), and metals. DFSWIs mainly depend on dissolved and solid river inputs, Marine Organic Matter (mOM) production, and sediment reworking. They show a seasonal temperature-related trend, which in summer induces increased chemical reaction kinetics and microbial activity. DFSWIs decline from the Po River mouths southward, along the Holocene mud wedge. North of the Po River Delta, the DFSWIs are weaker and confined to the areas in front of the major river mouths, due to poor Organic Matter (OM) inputs and strong reworking of bottom sediments. The area south of the Po Delta cusp is characterized by strong DFSWIs, due to the high deposition of solid inputs from the Po River, strong primary production, and protection from the Western Adriatic Current and Bora storms; in summer, higher temperatures, and calm hydrodynamic conditions generate near-bottom hypoxic to anoxic environments in this area. In Northern and Central Adriatic offshore areas, negative DIC and phosphate fluxes are due to poorly reactive OM reaching this area and to the mainly carbonate composition and oxic environment of local bottom sediments. DFSWI data analysis highlighted the important contribution of sediments to marine carbon and nutrient cycles. This is particularly important for carbon, which plays a major role in seawater acidification and global climate change. The study also provides average DFSWI data for each diagenetic area, which allow calculating the carbon and nutrient budgets in the Adriatic Sea.

Photobioelectrocatalysis of Intact Photosynthetic Bacteria Exposed to Dinitrophenol

AbstractInvited for this issue's Front Cover is the international collaborative team with researchers from Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro” (Italy), São Paulo State University (UNESP, Brasil), and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy). The cover picture shows purple bacterial cells that hit, or miss, their “target electrode” with photo‐induced electrons depending on the concentration of dinitrophenol at which they are exposed. Under low dinitrophenol concentration, the electrons can reach the target, while under high dinitrophenol concentrations the electrons are diverted away from the electrode. Read the full text of the Research Article at 10.1002/celc.202300013.

Not Just Another Methanation Catalyst: Depleted Uranium Meets Nickel for a High‐Performing Process Under Autothermal Regime

Invited for this month's cover are collaborating teams from academia-the French ICPEES and IS2M of Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and the Italian ICCOM of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)-and industry with the participation of the ORANO group. The cover picture shows a CO2 -to-CH4 process promoted by nickel nanoparticles supported on depleted uranium oxide under exceptionally low temperature values or autothermal conditions. The Research Article itself is available at 10.1002/cssc.202201859.

Linear plasma device GyM for plasma-material interaction studies

GyM is a linear plasma device operating at Istituto per la Scienza e Tecnologia dei Plasmi, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Milan, with the original aim of studying basic plasma physics, such as turbulent processes. Since 2014, GyM experimental program has been mainly focused on the issue of plasma-material interaction (PMI) for magnetic confinement nuclear fusion applications. GyM consists of a stainless steel vacuum chamber (radius and length of 0.125 m and 2.11 m), a pumping system, a gas injection system, 10 magnetic field coils and two magnetron sources at 2.45 GHz, capable of delivering a total microwave power up to 4.5 kW. Highly reproducible steady-state plasmas of different gas species, at a maximum working pressure of ∼10−1 Pa, can be obtained by electron cyclotron resonance heating in the resonance layer at 87.5 mT. Plasmas of GyM have electron and ion temperature ≤15 eV and ∼0.1 eV, respectively. The electron density is in the range of 1015–1017 m−3 and the ion flux is ≤5 × 1020 ions⋅m−2s−1. Main plasma diagnostics of GyM comprise Langmuir probes, an optical emission spectrometer, a mass spectrometer and a fast camera system equipped with an image intensifier unit. For the purpose of investigating the topic of PMI, GyM is provided with two sample exposure systems. Both are biasable at a negative bias voltage down to −400 V, to tune the energy of the impinging ions. One of them is also equipped with a heating lamp and can reach and sustain a temperature of 990 K for several hours, thus allowing to study the role of sample temperature during the plasma-material interaction. This contribution presents the layout of GyM, the diagnostics, the sample exposure systems and the typical plasma parameters. A brief overview of the main PMI activities carried out so far and a description of future machine upgrades are also given.

Exploiting HBIM for Historical Mud Architecture: The Huaca Arco Iris in Chan Chan (Peru)

The construction technique of raw earth, which has always been in use in most of the world, has left large monuments or architectural complexes to cultural heritage that need special attention due to the notable vulnerability of the material. A convenient way to deal this threat, besides physical intervention, is by using an information system, such as HBIM (Heritage Building Information Modeling), as a tool for damage assessment and conservation planning. This paper reports on its application in an archaeological setting, in particular, on the Huaca Arco Iris, a religious building of the old city of Chan Chan (Peru), the largest monumental complex in mud on the American continent. The study is part of the bilateral international project between the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica (CONCYTEC) in the use of HBIM for the prediction of possible natural or anthropogenic damages to buildings in raw mud. Exploiting the data coming from the direct and indirect analyses, a dedicated ontology is built to guide the management of these data within the information system. The creation of an HBIM system for the archaeological domain, based on the trinomial data–information–knowledge, is presented and validated. Following this approach, a customizable HBIM has been created with the 3D model of the spatial entities of the Huaca. As a result, the semantic relationship of an external wall, taken as the benchmark test of our experiment, with the contained bas-relief and the conservation cover is tested.

Assessing Worldwide Research Activity on ICT in Climate Change Using Scopus Database: A Bibliometric Analysis

Internet and Communication Technology (ICT) tools have been already introduced in every aspect of environmental science. Regarding climate change, research trends and developments on ICT help realize how ICT evolved and its potential future role in climate change. This study aimed to assess ICT solutions in climate change research trends using the Scopus database, bibliometric indicators, and network visualization. After a preliminary application of various combinations, the phrase “ICT and climate change” was used with language selection “English” from 01/01/1999 to 01/12/2021. A collection of 453 articles published in scientific journals and conference proceedings was revealed, which allowed the visualization mapping of the research agenda in the field of ICT and climate change. The most relevant topics are related to Computer Science, Engineering, Environmental and Social sciences. It has been found that a significant amount of documents were published after 2008. The Royal Institute of Technology-KTH was the most productive institution, followed by the Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche and the Universitetet I Oslo. In addition, the dominant countries in the respective research area were the United Kingdom, Italy, United States, India and Sweden. According to citations, most of the published research activity emerged in various journals, like Environment and Planning, Cities and Energies. It was possible to spot past trends and ongoing development, intending to introduce ICT tools in climate change impacts and examine the issues expected to be pertinent in the future.

Bibliometric analysis of landslide research based on the WOS database

This work, based on the Web of Science (WOS) database, collected 20,888 research articles published from 1982 to November 2021 on the topic of landslide(s). We performed a bibliometric analysis for the year, author, institution, country/region, foundation program, journal, and keywords. The abstracts in these articles are also analyzed in terms of the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model in machine learning. Results show that the overall annual publication number is steadily increasing from 8 in 1982 to 2432 in 2020. Pradhan, Biswajeet, and Xu, Qiang are the authors with the most published papers, and Guzzetti, Fausto, and Dai, Fuchu are the authors with the highest average citations per article. The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Italian Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche are the institutions contributing the most articles. China and the United States contribute the highest article number, and Malaysia and Norway have the highest average citations per article. The journals Landslides and Engineering Geology host the most abundant landslide-related articles, while Geology and Environmental Geology have the most average citations per article. The number of articles funded by the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation far exceeds that of other funds. The keywords with high overall frequency are “model”, “GIS”, “susceptibility”, “earthquake”, “remote sensing”, “slope stability”, “deformation”, etc. The LDA model divides the articles into 19 topics, among which machine learning has the fastest growth rate. The top three topics in terms of frequency are ''risk assessment'', ''shallow landslides'' and ''evolution process and numerical simulation''. The keyword analysis is further clustered into four research areas, namely “Quaternary geology and geomorphology”, “landslide engineering geology”, “landslide database and risk assessment”, and “landslide monitoring and warning".

In conversation with Christine Watson.

Christine J. Watson is Professor of Cell and Cancer Biology at the University of Cambridge. Christine obtained her Bachelor's (honors) degree in Biochemistry at the University of Glasgow in 1975 and, after a soujourn in Glauco Tocchini-Valentini's lab at the Institute of Cell Biology, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Rome, she undertook a PhD in Molecular Genetics at Imperial College London. During her PhD, she looked at differences in gene expression between differentiated and undifferentiated embryonal carcinoma stem cells, inspiring an early interest in gene expression and cell fate determination. Between 1986 and 1992, Christine undertook three postdoctoral research positions that took her from London back to Scotland, where she was first introduced to mammary gland biology through her work with John Clark at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. During her time in the Clark lab, Christine identified a factor - later shown to be STAT5 - that binds to the promoter of the milk protein gene β-lactoglobulin. This prompted further work identifying the key role played by the STAT family of transcription factors in mammary gland development. Shortly afterwards, Christine became a group leader at the Roslin Institute and later relocated to the University of Edinburgh to collaborate with Andrew Wyllie. This led to her recruitment to the University of Cambridge in 1998, where she has remained to date. Over the last two decades, the Watson lab has focused on elucidating the mechanisms underlying lineage commitment of mammary stem and progenitor cells and the regulation of cell death in involuting mammary gland. In this interview, Christine discusses her research highlights and provides a glimpse into her personal interests, as she moves towards retirement.

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 potent antagonist antibody targeting connexin hemichannels alleviates Clouston syndrome symptoms in mutant mice.

BackgroundNumerous currently incurable human diseases have been causally linked to mutations in connexin (Cx) genes. In several instances, pathological mutations generate abnormally active Cx hemichannels, referred to also as “leaky” hemichannels. The goal of this study was to assay the in vivo efficacy of a potent antagonist antibody targeting Cx hemichannels.MethodsWe employed the antibody to treat Cx30A88V/A88V adult mutant mice, the only available animal model of Clouston syndrome, a rare orphan disease caused by Cx30 p.A88V leaky hemichannels. To gain mechanistic insight into antibody action, we also performed patch clamp recordings, Ca2+ imaging and ATP release assay in vitro.FindingsTwo weeks of antibody treatment sufficed to repress cell hyperproliferation in skin and reduce hypertrophic sebaceous glands (SGs) to wild type (wt) levels. These effects were obtained whether mutant mice were treated topically, by application of an antibody cream formulation, or systemically, by intraperitoneal antibody injection. Experiments with mouse primary keratinocytes and HaCaT cells revealed the antibody blocked Ca2+ influx and diminished ATP release through leaky Cx30 p.A88V hemichannels.InterpretationOur results show anti-Cx antibody treatment was effective in vivo and sufficient to counteract the effects of pathological connexin expression in Cx30A88V/A88V mice. In vitro experiments suggest antibodies gained control over leaky hemichannels and contributed to restoring epidermal homeostasis. Therefore, regulating cell physiology by antibodies targeting the extracellular domain of Cxs may enforce an entirely new therapeutic strategy. These findings support the further development of antibodies as drugs to address unmet medical needs for Cx-related diseases.FundFondazione Telethon, GGP19148; University of Padova, SID/BIRD187130; Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, DSB.AD008.370.003\\TERABIO-IBCN; National Science Foundation of China, 31770776; Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality, 16DZ1910200.

CdZnTe-Based X-Ray Spectrometer for Absolute Density Determination

Density is a very important property of materials because of its influence on their mechanical properties. For this reason, the possibility of measuring material density is of strategic importance for several industrial applications such as wood boards sawing, wood panels production, or ceramic tiles manufacturing. In order to answer to this need, X-ray densitometry techniques and computed tomography (CT) scanners are used nowadays. However, these traditional X-ray inspection techniques usually measure only relative density, or, in other terms, they need a calibration procedure before operation. To overcome this issue, Due2lab s.r.l. in collaboration with the Istituto dei Materiali per l’Elettronica ed il Magnetismo (IMEM)–Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) Institute developed a CdZnTe (CZT)-based X-ray spectrometer capable of determining the absolute density value of a sample material in terms of g/cm3 (and additionally extracting information about its elemental composition). The system has been specifically designed for in-line real-time nondestructive inspection of industrial production; thus, it is potentially capable to return density information within a very short acquisition time. In this article, we will describe the CZT spectrometer and the hyperspectral X-ray analysis set-up in detail and we will show how to perform absolute density measurement on three different materials: 1) a plastic polyethylene sample, 2) ceramic tiles, and 3) pine and fir wood samples.

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)

Abstract. 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.

Preface of the special issue "From the Sun to the Earth’s Interior"

The International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA; one of the eight Associations of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, IUGG) is concerned with the understanding and knowledge that result from studies of the magnetic and electrical properties of the Earth's core, mantle and crust, of the middle and upper atmosphere, of the ionosphere and the magnetosphere, of the Sun, the solar wind, the planets and interplanetary bodies and their possible interconnections. Research activities in these fields are developed in Italy at several universities and major national research organizations, such as Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR); these activities are usually conducted in the frame of international projects and collaborations. The IAGA Italian Committee (U. Villante, National Delegate, University of L'Aquila; L. Vigliotti, Vice-Delegate, CNR/ISMAR, Bologna; F. Berrilli, University of Tor Vergata; R. Bruno, INAF-IAPS; L. Cafarella, INGV; G. Consolini, INAF-IAPS; A. De Santis, INGV; M. Pezzopane, INGV; A. Siniscalchi, University of Bari), in cooperation with INGV, CNR and Area di Ricerca in Astrogeofisica, organized the National Conference From the Sun to the Earth’s Interior (21-22 February, 2018) with the specific intent to stimulate the participation of young researchers, their mutual knowledge, the possibility to meet and discuss with more experienced researchers. To this end, the Committee has also provided a prize for the best scientific contributions presented by young researchers. The Conference was attended by about eighty researchers who discussed themes and presented results in the sectors in which IAGA operates, with both oral and poster contributions. Some of the papers presented during the Conference are collected in this special issue. They deal with a variety of subjects. Some studies have analysed magnetic field measurements with different time resolutions, from milliseconds to hours, to locate the position of polar cusp (Marzocchetti et al., 2019), to reconstruct the plasmaspheric cold plasma density distribution (Del Corpo et al., 2019), to analyze the effects on the ground generated by the geomagnetically induced currents during the occurrence of geomagnetic storms (Tozzi et al., 2019), to study the scaling properties of the geomagnetic field’s spatial fluctuations at both high latitudes (in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere) and low and mid latitudes (De Michelis et al., 2019), but also to investigate, along with electric field measurements, the anomalous electromagnetic signals generated in response to the propagation of a mechanical perturbation within the subsoil (Balasco et al., 2019). Magnetic measurements are also used by Ghezzi et al. (2019) to perform an analysis of the errors that affect magnetic anomaly data as regards the archaeological geophysics. Other studies are instead based on ionospheric measurements to investigate how the F2-layer critical frequency varied over Rome during the last three solar minima (Ippolito, 2019), to study both the dynamical properties of the electron density and the scaling properties of the electron density fluctuations at high latitudes in response to changes in the geomagnetic activity (Giannattasio et al., 2019), and to carry out an interhemispheric comparison between high-latitude ionospheric observations in response to peculiar solar wind conditions (D’Angelo et al., 2019). Floating potential time series measured by the DEMETER satellite are instead used by Materassi et al. (2019) to characterise plasma irregularities in the equatorward boundary of the auroral oval, relying on the recently proposed ALIF method. Last but not least, a statistical approach for the computation of kinematic propagation of interplanetary coronal mass ejections has been developed and presented in order to forecast in real-time their propagation and arrival at Earth (Del Moro et al., 2019). The hospitality of the INGV, the support of the Area di Ricerca in Astrogeofisica, and the endorsement of the CNR are gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also due to the Editorial board of Annals of Geophysics for the publication of this volume dedicated to the Conference. The Editors G. Consolini, INAF-IAPS, Roma, Italy P. De Michelis, INGV, Roma, Italy M. Pezzopane, INGV, Roma, Italy U. Villante, University of L'Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

Light on Molecular Devices

AbstractAlberto Credi is a Professor of Chemistry at the Università di Bologna (Italy) and an Associate Research Director at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. He is a current member of the ChemPhotoChem Editorial Board.

A machine learning-based approach for predicting the outbreak of cardiovascular diseases in patients on dialysis

Background and Objective: Patients with End- Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) have a unique cardiovascular risk. This study aims at predicting, with a certain precision, death and cardiovascular diseases in dialysis patients.Methods: To achieve our aim, machine learning techniques have been used. Two datasets have been taken into consideration: the first is an Italian dataset obtained from the Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche of Reggio Calabria; the second is an American dataset provided by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) repository. From each one we obtained 5 datasets, according to the outcome of interest. We tested different types of algorithm (both linear and non-linear), but the final choice was to use Support Vector Machine. In particular, we obtained the best performances using the non-linear SVC with RBF kernel algorithm, optimizing it with GridSearch. The last is an algorithm useful to search the best combination of hyper-parameters (in our case, to find the best couple (C, γ)), in order to improve the accuracy of the algorithm.Results: The use of non-linear SVC with RBF kernel algorithm, optimized with GridSearch, allowed to obtain an accuracy of 95.25% in the Italian dataset and of 92.15% in the American dataset, in a timeframe of 2.5 years,in the prediction of Ischaemic Heart Disease. A worse performance was obtained for the other outcomes.Conclusions: The machine learning-based approach applied in our study is able to predict, with a high accuracy, the outbreak of cardiovascular diseases in patients on dialysis.

First person – Annalisa Pinsino and Andi Alijagic

ABSTRACTFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Biology Open, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Annalisa Pinsino and Andi Alijagic are co-first authors on ‘Sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus immune cells in culture: formulation of the appropriate harvesting and culture media and maintenance conditions’, published in BIO. Annalisa is a Third-class Researcher in her lab at Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Biomedicina e Immunologia Molecolare ‘A. Monroy’, Palermo, Italy, investigating probing safety of nanoparticles by outlining sea urchin innate signalling pathways in vitro. Andi is a PhD Student in the lab of Dr Annalisa Pinsino.

Towards large scale automated cage monitoring - Diurnal rhythm and impact of interventions on in-cage activity of C57BL/6J mice recorded 24/7 with a non-disrupting capacitive-based technique.

Background and aimsAutomated recording of laboratory animal’s home cage behavior is receiving increasing attention since such non-intruding surveillance will aid in the unbiased understanding of animal cage behavior potentially improving animal experimental reproducibility.Material and methodsHere we investigate activity of group held female C57BL/6J mice (mus musculus) housed in standard Individually Ventilated Cages across three test-sites: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR, Rome, Italy), The Jackson Laboratory (JAX, Bar Harbor, USA) and Karolinska Insititutet (KI, Stockholm, Sweden). Additionally, comparison of female and male C57BL/6J mice was done at KI. Activity was recorded using a capacitive-based sensor placed non-intrusively on the cage rack under the home cage collecting activity data every 250 msec, 24/7. The data collection was analyzed using non-parametric analysis of variance for longitudinal data comparing sites, weekdays and sex.ResultsThe system detected an increase in activity preceding and peaking around lights-on followed by a decrease to a rest pattern. At lights off, activity increased substantially displaying a distinct temporal variation across this period. We also documented impact on mouse activity that standard animal handling procedures have, e.g. cage-changes, and show that such procedures are stressors impacting in-cage activity.These key observations replicated across the three test-sites, however, it is also clear that, apparently minor local environmental differences generate significant behavioral variances between the sites and within sites across weeks. Comparison of gender revealed differences in activity in the response to cage-change lasting for days in male but not female mice; and apparently also impacting the response to other events such as lights-on in males. Females but not males showed a larger tendency for week-to-week variance in activity possibly reflecting estrous cycling.ConclusionsThese data demonstrate that home cage monitoring is scalable and run in real time, providing complementary information for animal welfare measures, experimental design and phenotype characterization.