An Asian darkling beetle, Ceropria induta (Wiedemann), established in Florida (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Specimen records for an adventive darkling beetle, Ceropria induta (Wiedemann) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae; Diaperinae) show that this Asian insect has become established in southern Florida, USA. Illustrations and a diagnosis of the beetle are provided, with notes on habitats and possible polyporaceous hosts, and the genus is incorporated into a key to the related North American taxa

Il "fantasma" di Pirandello nella casa ispirata di Alberto Savinio

Nel 2017, in occasione dei 150 anni dalla nascita di Pirandello, la riapertura della sua casa romana è inaugurata con un evento dal titolo La Casa Ispirata: i ricordi dello scrittore rivivono in forma di ombre e di fantasmi, attraverso le voci di alcuni attori e le immagini proiettate sui muri della casa. Nelle novelle e nel teatro di Luigi Pirandello le case ispirate non mancano, che siano abitate da fantasmi (La Casa del Granella), ombre e personaggi (Colloquii coi personaggi) o da mobili che sembrano vivere di vita propria (Un Ritratto), eppure nessuna opera con questo titolo figura nella sua produzione

KCa3.1 inhibition switches the phenotype of glioma-infiltrating microglia/macrophages

Among the strategies adopted by glioma to successfully invade the brain parenchyma is turning the infiltrating microglia/macrophages (M/MΦ) into allies, by shifting them toward an anti-inflammatory, pro-tumor phenotype. Both glioma and infiltrating M/MΦ cells express the Ca(2+)-activated K(+) channel (KCa3.1), and the inhibition of KCa3.1 activity on glioma cells reduces tumor infiltration in the healthy brain parenchyma. We wondered whether KCa3.1 inhibition could prevent the acquisition of a pro-tumor phenotype by M/MΦ cells, thus contributing to reduce glioma development. With this aim, we studied microglia cultured in glioma-conditioned medium or treated with IL-4, as well as M/MΦ cells acutely isolated from glioma-bearing mice and from human glioma biopsies. Under these different conditions, M/MΦ were always polarized toward an anti-inflammatory state, and preventing KCa3.1 activation by 1-[(2-Chlorophenyl)diphenylmethyl]-1H-pyrazole (TRAM-34), we observed a switch toward a pro-inflammatory, antitumor phenotype. We identified FAK and PI3K/AKT as the molecular mechanisms involved in this phenotype switch, activated in sequence after KCa3.1. Anti-inflammatory M/MΦ have higher expression levels of KCa3.1 mRNA (kcnn4) that are reduced by KCa3.1 inhibition. In line with these findings, TRAM-34 treatment, in vivo, significantly reduced the size of tumors in glioma-bearing mice. Our data indicate that KCa3.1 channels are involved in the inhibitory effects exerted by the glioma microenvironment on infiltrating M/MΦ, suggesting a possible role as therapeutic targets in glioma

RenalGuard system in high-risk patients for contrast-induced acute kidney injury.

BACKGROUND: High urine flow rate (UFR) has been suggested as a target for effective prevention of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI). The RenalGuard therapy (saline infusion plus furosemide controlled by the RenalGuard system) facilitates the achievement of this target. METHODS: Four hundred consecutive patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate ≤30 mL/min per 1.73 m(2) and/or a high predicted risk (according to the Mehran score ≥11 and/or the Gurm score >7%) treated by the RenalGuard therapy were analyzed. The primary end points were (1) the relationship between CI-AKI and UFR during preprocedural, intraprocedural, and postprocedural phases of the RenalGuard therapy and (2) the rate of acute pulmonary edema and impairment in electrolytes balance. RESULTS: Urine flow rate was significantly lower in the patients with CI-AKI in the preprocedural phase (208 ± 117 vs 283 ± 160 mL/h, P 0.32 mg/kg (HR 5.03, 95% CI 2.33-10.87, P < .001) were independent predictors of CI-AKI. Pulmonary edema occurred in 4 patients (1%). Potassium replacement was required in 16 patients (4%). No patients developed severe hypomagnesemia, hyponatremia, or hypernatremia. CONCLUSIONS: RenalGuard therapy is safe and effective in reaching high UFR. Mean intraprocedural UFR ≥450 mL/h should be the target for optimal CI-AKI prevention

The assessment of DIF on Rasch measures with an application to job satisfaction

The present study addresses the issue in assessment of the impact of differential item functioning on the measures obtained applying the Rasch model when the questionnaire is formed by polytomous items. An item is said to display differential item functioning when it behaves differently among different groups of respondents (for example males and females). A simulation study is used in order to deal with the issue. A differential item functioning analysis is performed making use of a real database concerning the Survey on Italian Social Cooperatives carried out in 2007

CASE METHOD IN THE CREATIVE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF HEADS OF VOCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

The article deals with the essence of the case method, its purposes and objectives, the place and importance of the method in the creative potential development of the managers of vocational institutions, the characteristics of the case method, its principles, its structure, its influence on the formation of the quality characteristics of the specialist; the technology of preparing the case and the specifics of its application in the training of the heads of vocational institutions in the system of postgraduate pedagogical education have been introduced.Key words: case method, analysis, situation, innovation, creativity; creative activity

The Relationship Between Global Law and the Individual: Symbiosis, Oscillation, and Strategic Subjectification

This Article analyzes the relationship between the individual and global law adopting as a point of entry the concept of jurisgenesis, understood as the process of creating legal meaning. The Article explores this relationship through three patterns: symbiosis, oscillation, and strategic subjectification. After an overview of the notion of global law, the Article first examines symbiosis, showing that the notion of “individual,” as it emerged in legal modernity, constitutes a necessary infrastructure of global law. In parallel, global law opens possibilities to the individual that would otherwise be out of reach under conditions of globalization. Second, the Article examines oscillation, describing how global law triggers a dynamic of expansion and restriction of the individual’s legal relevance. This dynamic, in turn, propels a further abstraction of the notion of individual and makes the interplay between social individualization, legal personification, and specific legal entitlements more visible. Third, the Article examines how global law helps imagine strategies of legal subjectification, some of which may be used to counter problematic features of sociolegal globalization. It then highlights three relevant strategies: elaboration of new legal concepts and regimes, selective consolidation of certain collective actors’ legal position, and attribution of legal relevance to claims based on so-called “counter-rights.

On the interpretation of the uncertainty parameter in CUB models

The rationale for the CUB models is based on the fact that the response of a person to an item is a weighted combination of two factors: a subjective agreement towards the item and some intrinsic fuzziness in the final response. These two components are parametrized as a Shifted Binomial and a discrete Uniform random variable respectively. The final model is a mixture of these two random variables with weights pi and (1-pi ). The last quantity is currently interprets as a measure of the uncertainty that accompanies the choice of a response category made by the subjects who form the population under study. This paper wants to be a warning for this interpretation, when the data of interest derive from a questionnaire designed to measure an overall latent trait. Through a simulation study one will show that in this context there are situations in which a high value of (1-pi ) is connected to the distribution of the overall latent trait among the subjects in the population and to the facet of the overall latent trait that the item wants to represent and not to an high level of fuzziness in the final response

Differential Item Functioning classification for polytomously scored items

Differential item functioning (DIF) refers to a difference in the way a test item functions for comparable groups of test takers. When there are DIF items in the test, it is necessary to make decisions concerning items revision or removal which cannot be based only on the outcome of DIF test statistic; a interpretable measure of the amount of DIF can help in decisions regarding DIF items. Due to the increasing use of polytomous item formats, this paper reviews the systems of DIF classification for polytomously scored items.   Keywords: DIF effect size, polytomous items; Liu-Agresti estimate; Signed Area; Standardized Mean Difference; polytomous SIBTEST; ordinal logistic model