?1-Antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency is a common genetic disease presenting with lung and liver diseases. AAT deficiency results from pathogenic variants in the SERPINA1 gene encoding AAT and the common mutant Z allele of SERPINA1 encodes for Z ?1-antitrypsin (ATZ), a protein forming hepatotoxic polymers retained in the endoplasmic reticulum of hepatocytes. PiZ mice express the human ATZ and are a valuable model to investigate the human liver disease of AAT deficiency.

Mortality models play a basic role in the evaluation of longevity risk by demographers and actuaries. Their performance strongly depends on the different patterns shown by mortality data in different countries. A comprehensive quantitative comparison of the most used methods for forecasting mortality is presented, aimed at evaluating both the goodness of fit and the forecasting performance of these mortality models on Italian demographic data.

Atmospheric emissions of Carbon tetrachloride CCl4 are regulated by the Montreal Protocol due to its role as a strong ozone-depleting substance. The molecule has been the subject of recent increased interest as a consequence of the so called ``mystery of CCl4,'' the discrepancy between atmospheric observations and reported production and consumption. Surface measurements of CCl4 atmospheric concentrations have declined at a rate almost three times smaller than its lifetime-limited rate, suggesting persistent atmospheric emissions despite the ban.

In this paper we revisit the problem of finding an orthogonal similarity transformation that puts an $n\times n$ matrix $A$ in a block upper-triangular form that reveals its Jordan structure at a particular eigenvalue $\lambda_0$. The obtained form in fact reveals the dimensions of the null spaces of $(A-\lambda_0 I)^i$ at that eigenvalue via the sizes of the leading diagonal blocks, and from this the Jordan structure at $\lambda_0$ is then easily recovered. The method starts from a Hessenberg form that already reveals several properties of the Jordan structure of $A$.

Skin lesion segmentation is one of the crucial steps for an efficient non-invasive computer-aided early diagnosis of melanoma. This paper investigates how to use colour information, besides saliency, for determining the pigmented lesion region automatically.

Investigation about the mechanisms involved in the onset of type 2 diabetes in absence of familiarity is the focus of a research project which has led to the development of a computational model that recapitulates the aetiology of the disease. The model simulates the metabolic and immunological alterations related to type-2 diabetes associated to several clinical, physiological and behavioural characteristics of representative virtual patients.

Meditation practices have been claimed to have a positive effect on the regulation of mood and emotions for quite some time by practitioners, and in recent times there has been a sustained effort to provide a more precise description of the influence of meditation on the human brain. Longitudinal studies have reported morphological changes in cortical thickness and volume in selected brain regions due to meditation practice, which is interpreted as an evidence its effectiveness beyond the subjective self reporting.

The largest part of the Earth's atmosphere ozone is located in the stratosphere, forming the so-called ozone layer. This layer played a key role in the development of life on Earth and still protects the planet from the most Dangerous ultraviolet radiation. After the discovery of the high ozone depletion potential of some anthropogenic origin substances (e.g. chlorofluorocarbons), some limitations in the production of the major ozone-depleting substances (ODS) have been applied with the Montreal Protocol in 1987.

We present mesoscale numerical simulations of Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection in a two-dimensional model emulsion. The systems under study are constituted of finite-size droplets, whose concentration is systematically varied from small (Newtonian emulsions) to large values (non-Newtonian emulsions). We focus on the characterisation of the heat transfer properties close to the transition from conductive to convective states, where it is well known that a homogeneous Newtonian system exhibits a steady flow and a time-independent heat flux.