University of Milano-Bicocca

About: University of Milano-Bicocca is a education organization based out in Milan, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Blood pressure. The organization has 8972 authors who have published 22322 publications receiving 620484 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca & Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca.

Automatic Identification and Classification of Misogynistic Language on Twitter

Abstract: Hate speech may take different forms in online social media. Most of the investigations in the literature are focused on detecting abusive language in discussions about ethnicity, religion, gender identity and sexual orientation. In this paper, we address the problem of automatic detection and categorization of misogynous language in online social media. The main contribution of this paper is two-fold: (1) a corpus of misogynous tweets, labelled from different perspective and (2) an exploratory investigations on NLP features and ML models for detecting and classifying misogynistic language.

Developmental dental aberrations after the dioxin accident in Seveso.

Abstract: Children’s developing teeth may be sensitive to environmental dioxins, and in animal studies developing teeth are one of the most sensitive targets of toxicity of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). Twenty-five years after the dioxin accident in Seveso, Italy, 48 subjects from the contaminated areas (zones A and B) and in patches lightly contaminated (zone R) were recruited for the examination of dental and oral aberrations. Subjects were randomly invited from those exposed in their childhood and for whom frozen serum samples were available. The subjects were frequency matched with 65 subjects from the surrounding non-ABR zone for age, sex, and education. Concentrations of TCDD in previously analyzed plasma samples (zone ABR subjects only) ranged from 23 to 26,000 ng/kg in serum lipid. Ninety-three percent (25 of 27) of the subjects who had developmental enamel defects had been < 5 years of age at the time of the accident. The prevalence of defects in this age group was 42% (15 of 36) in zone ABR subjects and 26% (10 of 39) in zone non-ABR subjects, correlating with serum TCDD levels (p = 0.016). Hypodontia was seen in 12.5% (6 of 48) and 4.6% (3 of 65) of the zone ABR and non-ABR subjects, respectively, also correlating with serum TCDD level (p = 0.05). In conclusion, developmental dental aberrations were associated with childhood exposure to TCDD. In contrast, dental caries and periodontal disease, both infectious in nature, and oral pigmentation and salivary flow rate were not related to the exposure. The results support our hypothesis that dioxins can interfere with human organogenesis.

Physical controls on sand composition and relative durability of detrital minerals during ultra-long distance littoral and aeolian transport (Namibia and southern Angola)

Abstract: © 2014 International Association of Sedimentologists. Sediment in coastal Namibia to southern Angola is supplied dominantly from the Orange River with minor additional fluvial input and negligible modifications by chemical processes, which makes this a great test case for investigating physical controls on sand texture and composition. This study monitored textural, mineralogical and geochemical variability in beach and aeolian-dune sands along a ca 1750 km stretch of the Atlantic coast of southern Africa by using an integrated set of techniques, including image analysis, laser granulometry, optical microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and bulk-sediment geochemistry. These results contrast with previous reports that feldspars and volcanic detritus break down during transport, that sand grains are rounded rapidly in shallow-marine environments, and that quartzose sands may be produced by physical processes. Mechanical wear is unable to modify the relative abundance of detrital components, including pyroxene and mafic volcanic rock fragments traditionally believed to be destroyed rapidly. The sole exceptions are poorly lithified or cleaved sedimentary/metasedimentary rock fragments, readily lost at the transition to the marine environment, and slow-settling flaky micas, winnowed and deposited offshore. Coastal sediments tend to be depleted in relatively mobile amphibole, preferentially entrained offshore or re-deposited in sheltered beaches, while less mobile garnet is retained onshore. No detrital mineral displays a significant increase in grain roundness after 300 to 350 km of longshore transport in high-energy littoral environments from the Orange mouth to south of the Namib Erg, but all minerals get rapidly rounded after passing into the dunefield. Pyroxene and opaques get rounded faster than harder quartz and garnet, but sand mineralogy remains unchanged. Excepting strong transient selective-entrainment effects, physical processes are unable to modify sand composition significantly. Selective mechanical breakdown can be largely neglected in quantitative provenance analysis of sand and sandstone even in the case of ultra-long-distance transport in high-energy environments dominated by strong persistent winds and waves.

Evidence for a critical role of the sympathetic nervous system in hypertension

Abstract: Autonomic cardiovascular control is impaired in hypertension, leading to a reduction in the parasympathetic tone and to an increase in the sympathetic influences to the heart and peripheral vessels. The sympathetic dysfunction depends on a variety of reflex and nonreflex mechanisms and participates at development and progression of the essential hypertensive state. This has been shown to be the case for borderline hypertension, for moderate and severe high blood pressure, and for resistant hypertension as well. In addition, the adrenergic overdrive participates at the pathophysiology of the complex cardiometabolic alterations, known as "end-organ damage," detectable in the clinical course of hypertensive disease. In the present article, we will review the main features of the adrenergic abnormalities characterizing essential hypertension, the mechanisms potentially involved in this neural abnormality, and its consequences as well. We will also discuss the most recent information achieved in the field and the areas worthy of future investigations.