Share.TEC, the European project coordinated by ITD-CNR (Genova), is currently nearing conclusion. The project has yielded significant results for the adoption of innovative technologies in Teacher Education (TE ) processes. These outcomes impact both on Initial Teacher Education and on more informal processes of self-guided in-service training. Technology-driven innovation in TE is conducive to the development of transnational, multilingual and multicultural approaches capable of overcoming ...

The cell response to endogenous DNA damage is still largely unexplored. The paper published on Nucleic Acids Research by Alessandra Montecucco laboratory demonstrates that splicing factor SRSF1 is hyper-phosphorylated in response to increased levels of replication-dependent DNA damage in DNA ligase I defective cells. This is accompanied by a change in alternative splicing events controlled by SRSF1 such as the production of Ron oncogene and caspase 9 alternative mRNAs. Both SRSF1 phosphorylation ...

Di Barukh Spinoza, il filosofo nato ad Amsterdam nel 1632 da una famiglia di ebrei fuggiti dal Portogallo in seguito agli editti di persecuzione, ci restavano soltanto le opere pubblicate a stampa, per la gran parte dopo la sua morte. Non esistevano infatti manoscritti spinoziani a eccezione di qualche lettera e di due copie della traduzione nederlandese del Breve trattato su Dio, l'uomo e la sua felicità, un testo rimasto incompiuto e che non fu inserito nell'edizione delle opere postume, ...

The study, published on the jorunal "Plant Cell", has been conducted by the DNA Enzymology team at the IGM-CNR, led by Dr. Giovanni Maga, together with the laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology of the University of Pavia, coordinated by Prof. Rino Cella. Oxidative stress, arising from either intracellular metabolism or exogenous sources (UV, radiations, pollution, smoking), can alter the chemical nature of DNA, inducing mutations. The group of Dr. Maga has previously published in the journal ...

This work represents the most extensive data collection so far made regarding the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, a rare genetic disorder linked to the X chromosome that causes severe deficits on platelets as well as on of the immune system cells. The project has involved 12 of the most important American and European transplant centers, allowing the collection of data on transplantation and the subsequent follow-up of 194 patients ...

Cellular DNA is constantly exposed to endogenous and exogenous damaging agents, such as free oxygen radicals, UV light and carcinogenic pollutants. The resulting chemical modifications of DNA bases, alter the genetic information contained in the cellular genome, causing mutations. Cells have evolved specialized enzymes, the so called translesion DNA polymerases, capable of retrieving the correct information from damaged DNA. Failure or misregulation of these mechanisms can lead to cancer. The ...

A study conducted by IGM-CNR researchers and published in the European Journal of Human Genetics, has established the importance of a human single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human genome in the smoking behavior in the Italian population. In 2008, some studies had identified a biallelic variant present in the gene cluster CHRNA5-A3-B4 as associated to the smoker's addiction to large amounts of nicotine consumption (> 10 cigarettes per day). The same nucleotide variant has been ...

A large research project identifies 68 regions of the genome that regulate the formation and structure of the blood cells, affecting in many diseases. Millions of genetic variants were analyzed in 70,000 individuals. The study, carried out in collaboration between 100 research institutions, of which nine Italian, was published in Nature. The joint efforts of researchers from four different continents, pertaining to one hundred research institutions, nine of which Italian, identify genetic ...

Vehicular networks are large-scale communication systems envisioned to exploit wireless technologies to interconnect moving cars. The principle is to let vehicles 'talk' to each other or to some roadside infrastructure through wireless links, so as to build autonomous networks in urban areas or along highways. Vehicular networks are foreseen to provide drivers with real-time information on potential dangers, traffic conditions, and travel times. By exploiting such data, drivers (or fast-reacting ...

Grazie all'impiego di una tecnologia e di un protocollo innovativi l'Istituto di genetica e biofisica "Adriano Buzzati Traverso" (Igb) del Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche (Cnr) ha ottenuto un profilo completo dei geni alterati nei pazienti con Sindrome di Down, scoprendo che è l'interazione dei geni presenti sul cromosoma 21 con altri geni a determinarne le alterazioni patologiche. Lo studio, pubblicato sulla rivista PLos ONE, è stato coordinato da Alfredo Ciccodicola e condotto da ...

Anche il Dipartimento di progettazione molecolare del Cnr contribuisce, con progetti condotti dall'Istituto di cristallografia di Roma, allo studio delle possibili alterazioni dello stato di salute degli equipaggi coinvolti nella missione spaziale simulata e nel volo verso la Stazione spaziale internazionale, previsto ad aprile 2011 Si arricchisce di un altro importante tassello il contributo che il Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche svolge a supporto della missione 'Mars 500', l'esperimento ...

I pedoni in gruppo e le folle si comportano come pecore, quando non sanno dove andare, e si possono controllare: una scoperta, a cui ha contribuito l'Iac-Cnr, che con un'opportuna guida 'nascosta' potrebbe consentire di gestire in modo ottimale situazioni quali i flussi dei pellegrini al prossimo Giubileo. L'esperimento è apparso su arXiv In situazioni di confusione, i gruppi umani si comportano esattamente come le greggi: tendono a seguire le persone davanti a loro, in particolare se sembrano ...

Looking at images usually linked to a sound activates the superior temporal auditory cortex in a tenth of a second. The study carried out by the University of Milan-Bicocca and Ibfm-CNR reveals, besides other neurophysiological mechanisms, why seeing the labial fosters language comprehension and why the off-sync distorts it so heavily. The auditory cortex is activated by vision too. Looking at pictures linked to a sound, for instance a saxophonist with his bulging cheeks blowing into his ...

DOCUMENTARY IN COMPETITION IN ROME DOCSCIENT 2011

The EMMA (European Mouse Mutant Archive) and Mouse Clinic network infrastructures coordinate the production, phenotyping, cryo-preservation and distribution of mutant strains that model human diseases, with implementation of dedicated bioinformatics resources (www.emmanet.org). EMMA was created by CNR nel 1996, with its central facility at the Monterotondo Campus, in collaboration with the most important European Institutions for biomedical research (CNRS,MRC,Karolinska Inst.,Gulbenkian ...

To investigate the existence in human beings of the "mirror neurons" originally found in monkeys by means of single cell recordings, Alice Mado Proverbio and Federica Riva at the University of Milan-Bicocca, together with Alberto Zani at the Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology (IBFM) of CNR at Milan, recorded brain electrical potentials in a group of volunteers. Now in print in Neuropsychologia, the findings of the present study point out the neuronal processes going on in our ...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe condition characterised by muscle loss and causd by the absence of the cytoskeletal protein dystrophin. The utrophin protein can in part replace distrophyn and alleviate the symptoms associated with dystrophin loss in DMD patients. In this work the IBPM team led by Claudio Passananti sought to obtain therapeutic levels of utrophin expression in dystrophic muscles. They developed artificial transcriptiopn factors based on a particular module, called ...

A study by Italian researchers of CNR-IBPM and Sapienza University of Rome published in the Nature Structural and Molecular Biology was able to depict the structural features of a misfolded intermediate. This study reports the first structure of a misfolded state and represents the first step towards our understanding of the misfolding cascade, the cause of several human pathologies. Incorrectly folded states transiently populated during the protein folding process are potentially prone to ...

Urban pollution is a many-sided issue of main complexity, either since a major fraction of population live in large or medium- sized cities, where exposure to the urban cocktail may induce serious health effects, or due to the fact that urban areas represent an important pollution source themselves. Concerning the airborne particulate matter, a hugely composite mix of many different inorganic and organic chemical species under solid or liquid phase in the atmosphere, the urban environment ...

An extensive investigation focused on the occurrence of legal and illicit psychotropic substances in the atmosphere was started in 2006, after cocaine was identified in Rome. Several investigations have been carried out in Italy and abroad in urban, suburban and rural areas, and an important data base has been set up. According to it, the illicit substances seem to be widespread in the environment and show time and space modulations independent of those of usual air pollutants. On the basis of ...

In the framework of the Agreement between the Italian Ministry for the environment, land and sea - Department for Environmental Research and Development and the Institute of Atmospheric Pollution (IIA) - National Research Council, the IIA assists the Ministry to coordinate the Italian participation to the EU activities and programs and to the international negotiations (UNEP and UNECE). At regional level, the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) represents since ...

Hand-handled user devices, such as smartphones and tablets, as well as in-vehicle sensors are becoming extremely popular and represent a fertile ground for the development of crowdsensing (or, equivalently, community urban sensing) applications. Indeed, user devices are typically equipped with cameras, gyroscope, air-quality sensor, and accelerometer. The data obtained through such devices, as well as the ones gathered by in-vehicle sensors, can be combined with cellular BS positioning or GPS so ...

L'attività svolta è stata incentrata principalmente sullo studio dei processi chimici legati all'inquinamento ambientale, ed ha permesso di maturare l'esperienza necessaria a valutare, sul campo, l'affidabilità delle principali tecniche di campionamento e di analisi e lo studio di processi tecnologici e sistemi di abbattimento che consentano la riduzione degli inquinanti. a) Sviluppo di metodiche per l'identificazione ed il dosaggio di microinquinanti organici Lo sviluppo di tecniche on-line ...

La cardiopatia ischemica è la principale causa di morte nei paesi industrializzati. Nonostante i recenti progressi nel trattamento dello scompenso cardiaco, le terapie farmacologiche risultano ancora inadeguate. Due studi indipendenti, condotti da Antonio Baldini e Gabriella Minchiotti, rispettivamente direttore e ricercatrice dell'Istituto di genetica e biofisica 'Adriano Buzzati Traverso' (Igb-Cnr) di Napoli, aggiungono nuove conoscenze ai meccanismi della biologia delle cellule staminali ...

Lo studio di malattie genetiche rare può portare a chiarire meccanismi molecolari alla base di numerose patologie, tra cui l'insorgenza di tumori e di infertilità. Lo conferma una ricerca sull'anemia del Fanconi, condotta dai ricercatori dell'Istituto di genetica e biofisica del Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche di Napoli (Igb-Cnr) e pubblicata sulla prestigiosa rivista Molecular Cell, chiarendo la funzione di un gene (il gene FANCD2), che risulta mutato in questa patologia. Lo studio ha ...

Dedicata a uno dei maggiori filosofi italiani, l'applicazione web "Le Opere di Vico negli «Scrittori d'Italia»" (http://151.100.146.63/DirVico/BookReader/html/application.html) nasce nell'ambito della ricerca individuale a tema libero "Vico digitale", finanziata nel 2008-2010 dal Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, sotto la responsabilità scientifica dell'Istituto CNR "Lessico Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle idee". Obiettivo finale del progetto è di riunire in un prodotto informatico ...

L'obiettivo principale di questa attività è la definizione e sviluppo di giochi di supporto all'apprendimento, basati sulle tecnologie mobili (smartphone, palmari e tablet PC). Infatti, con la crescente diffusione degli shartphone e delle piattaforme ludiche si moltiplicano le iniziative di ricerca che cercano di definire modelli d'apprendimento basati sui di essi, in grado di sfruttarne le potenzialità a fini pedagogici. Oggi il cellulare, oggetto utilizzato dalla maggior parte dei ragazzi ...

The project developed along the lines of a long-lasting collaboration between ITD-CNR and the "Don Milani-Colombo" lower secondary school of Genoa, whose teaching staff has been experimenting the use of educational technology since the eighties. The TIC@School project aimed at designing and managing activities and initiatives related to the introduction and use of ICT both in classroom teaching and teacher training. The major objective was the development and implementation of an innovative ...

L'Italia, come molti altri paesi si trova ad affrontare la sfida di fornire un'istruzione adeguata agli studenti stranieri e l'acquisizione della lingua italiana, non solo a fini comunicativi ma soprattutto come lingua per lo studio, diventa il primo passo per raggiungere questo obiettivo. Secondo gli ultimi dati diffusi dal Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, in Italia la presenza di studenti stranieri tra i banchi di scuola è cresciuta ad un ad un ritmo abbastanza costante negli ultimi ...

Objective of the lab is to work on the Virtual Factory. The digital representation of the factory and manufacturing phases become virtual by using simulation tools and specific applications that makes the representation and the processes dynamic and up-to-date. To project the factory and manufacturing processes simulation and 3-D/virtual Reality models, methods and tools are used. The group who works under this denomination applies new technology to the manufacturing sector. Components of the ...