Sapienza University of Rome

About: Sapienza University of Rome is a education organization based out in Rome, Lazio, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 62002 authors who have published 155468 publications receiving 4397244 citations. The organization is also known as: La Sapienza & Università La Sapienza di Roma.

Automatic Composition of E-services That Export Their Behavior

Abstract: The main focus of this paper is on automatic e-Service composition. We start by developing a framework in which the exported behavior of an e-Service is described in terms of its possible executions (execution trees). Then we specialize the framework to the case in which such exported behavior (i.e., the execution tree of the e-Service) is represented by a finite state machine. In this specific setting, we analyze the complexity of synthesizing a composition, and develop sound and complete algorithms to check the existence of a composition and to return one such a composition if one exists. To the best of our knowledge, our work is the first attempt to provide an algorithm for the automatic synthesis of e-Service composition, that is both proved to be correct, and has an associated computational complexity characterization.

Influence of a lossy ground on lightning-induced voltages on overhead lines

Abstract: A comprehensive study on the effect of a lossy ground on the induced voltages on overhead power lines by a nearby lightning strike is presented The ground conductivity plays a role in both the evaluation of the lightning radiated fields and of the line parameters To be calculated by means of a rigorous theory, both fields and line constants need important computation time, which, for the problem of interest, is still prohibitive The aim of this paper is to discuss and analyze the various simplified approaches and techniques that have been proposed for the calculation of the fields and the line constants when the ground cannot be assumed as a perfectly conducting plane Regarding the radiated electromagnetic field, it is shown that the horizontal electric field, the component which is most affected by the ground finite conductivity, can be calculated in an accurate way using the Cooray-Rubinstein simplified formula The presence of an imperfectly conducting ground is included in the coupling equations by means of two additional terms: the longitudinal ground impedance and the transverse ground admittance, which are both frequency-dependent The latter can generally be neglected for typical overhead lines, due to its small contribution to the overall transverse admittance of the line Regarding the ground impedance, a comparison between several simplified expressions used in the literature is presented and the validity limits of these expressions are established It is also shown that for typical overhead lines the wire impedance can be neglected as regard to the ground impedance

The antimicrobial peptide LL37 is a T-cell autoantigen in psoriasis

Abstract: Psoriasis is a common T-cell-mediated skin disease with 2-3% prevalence worldwide. Psoriasis is considered to be an autoimmune disease, but the precise nature of the autoantigens triggering T-cell activation remains poorly understood. Here we find that two-thirds of patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis harbour CD4(+) and/or CD8(+) T cells specific for LL37, an antimicrobial peptide (AMP) overexpressed in psoriatic skin and reported to trigger activation of innate immune cells. LL37-specific T cells produce IFN-γ, and CD4(+) T cells also produce Th17 cytokines. LL37-specific T cells can infiltrate lesional skin and may be tracked in patients blood by tetramers staining. Presence of circulating LL37-specific T cells correlates significantly with disease activity, suggesting a contribution to disease pathogenesis. Thus, we uncover a role of LL37 as a T-cell autoantigen in psoriasis and provide evidence for a role of AMPs in both innate and adaptive immune cell activation.