B-CoC: A Blockchain-Based Chain of Custody for Evidences Management in Digital Forensics

One of the main issues in digital forensics is the management of evidences. From the time of evidence collection until the time of their exploitation in a legal court, evidences may be accessed by multiple parties involved in the investigation that take temporary their ownership. This process, called Chain of Custody (CoC), must ensure that evidences are not altered during the investigation, despite multiple entities owned them, in order to be admissible in a legal court. Currently digital evidences CoC is managed entirely manually with entities involved in the chain required to fill in documents accompanying the evidence. In this paper, we propose a Blockchain-based Chain of Custody (B-CoC) to dematerialize the CoC process guaranteeing auditable integrity of the collected evidences and traceability of owners. We developed a prototype of B-CoC based on Ethereum and we evaluated its performance

Lab-on-Chip for testing myelotoxic effect of drugs and chemicals

In the last 20 years, one of the main goals in the drug discovery field has been the development of reliable in vitro models. In particular, in 2006 the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods has approved the colony-forming unit granulocytes–macrophages test, which is the first and currently unique test applied to evaluate the myelotoxicity of xenobiotics in vitro. The present work aimed at miniaturizing this in vitro assay by developing and validating a Lab-on-Chip platform consisting of a high number of bioreactor chambers with screening capabilities in a high-throughput regime

Management clinico e terapia sostitutiva dell’insufficienza ovarica primaria

L’insufficienza ovarica prematura è caratterizzata da un esaurimento dell’attività ovarica prima dei 40 anni, con conseguente ipoestrogenismo, amenorrea e infertilità e interessa l’1% delle donne. L’importanza clinica di questa condizione è notevolmente aumentata nel corso degli ultimi decenni per diversi motivi. Una diagnosi tempestiva, una terapia sostitutiva e un management adeguato sono quindi fondamentali. La terapia estrogenica sostitutiva, condotta con regime terapeutico ottimale, ha molteplici obiettivi, tra cui il trattamento dei sintomi da ipoestrogenismo e la riduzione delle complicanze a lungo termine.Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is characterised by a depletion of ovarian activity before the age of 40, resulting in hypoestrogenism, amenorrhoea and infertility and affects 1% of women. The clinical relevance of this condition has increased considerably over the past decades. A prompt diagnosis and appropriate management are critical. Optimal oestrogen replacement therapy, conducted with an appropriate treatment regimen, aims to alleviate the symptoms of hypoestrogenism and reduce long-term complications, hence it is crucial in reducing mortality and morbidity and improving quality of life

Linear time series modelling for groundwater level forecasting: the case study of the fractured aquifer system of Monsummano terme (central Italy)

Groundwater level, forecasting, Tuscany, Auto Regressive models (AR)

Long Non-Coding RNAs: Role in Testicular Cancers

In the last few years lncRNAs have gained increasing attention among the scientific community, thanks to the discovery of their implication in many physio-pathological processes. In particular, their contribution to tumor initiation, progression, and response to treatment has attracted the interest of experts in the oncologic field for their potential clinical application. Testicular cancer is one of the tumors in which lncRNAs role is emerging. Said malignancies already have very effective treatments, which although lead to the development of quite serious treatment-related conditions, such as secondary tumors, infertility, and cardiovascular diseases. It is therefore important to study the impact of lncRNAs in the tumorigenesis of testicular cancer in order to learn how to exploit them in a clinical setting and to substitute more toxic treatments. Eventually, the use of lncRNAs as biomarkers, drug targets, or therapeutics for testicular cancer may represent a valid alternative to that of conventional tools, leading to a better management of this malignancy and its related conditions, and possibly even to the treatment of poor prognosis cases

Use of testosterone replacement therapy to treat long-COVID-related hypogonadism

Summary: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can impair pituitary-gonadal axis and a higher prevalence of hypogonadism in post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients compared with the general population has been highlighted. Here we report the first case of a patient affected with a long-COVID syndrome leading to hypogonadism and treated with testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and its effects on clinical and quality of life (QoL) outcomes. We encountered a 62-year-old man who had been diagnosed with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism about 2 months after recovery from COVID-19 underwent a complete physical examination, general and hormonal blood tests, and self-reported questionnaires administration before and after starting TRT. Following the TRT, both serum testosterone level and hypogonadism-related symptoms were improved, but poor effects occurred on general and neuropsychiatric symptoms and QoL. Therefore, hypogonadism does not appear to be the cause of neurocognitive symptoms, but rather a part of the long-COVID syndrome; as a consequence, starting TRT can improve the hypogonadism-related symptoms without clear benefits on general clinical condition and QoL, which are probably related to the long-COVID itself. Longer follow-up might clarify whether post-COVID hypogonadism is a transient condition that can revert as the patient recovers from long-COVID syndrome. Learning points: Hypogonadism is more prevalent in post-COVID-19 patients compared with the general population. In these patients, hypogonadism may be part of long-COVID syndrome, and it is still unclear whether it is a transient condition or a permanent impairment of gonadal function. Testosterone replacement therapy has positive effects on hypogonadism-related clinic without clear benefits on general symptomatology and quality of life, which are more likely related to the long-COVID itself

Using the hydrochemical database TANGCHIM to manage groundwater quality data: the case study of a leachate plume from a dumping area

Pollution, landfill, Alpine fluvial valley, TANGCHIM database

A compliance assessment system for Incident Management process

The Incident Management (IM) process is one of the core activities for increasing the overall security level of organizations and better responding to cyber attacks. Different security frameworks (such as ITIL and ISO 27035) provide guidelines for designing and properly implementing an effective IM process. Currently, assessing the compliance of the actual process implemented by an organization with such frameworks is a complex task. The assessment is mainly manually performed and requires much effort in the analysis and evaluation. In this paper, we first propose a taxonomy of compliance deviations to classify and prioritize the impacts of non-compliant causes. We combine trace alignment techniques with a new proposed cost model for the analysis of process deviations rather than process traces to prioritize interventions. We put these contributions into use in a system that automatically assesses the IM process compliance with a reference process model (e.g., the one described in the chosen security framework). It supports the auditor with increased awareness of process issues to make more focused decisions and improve the process’s effectiveness. We propose a benchmark validation for the model, and we show the system’s capability through a usage scenario based on a publicly available dataset of a real IM log. The source code of all components, including the code used for benchmarking, is publicly available as open source on GitHub