Selective internal radiation therapy segmentectomy:A new minimally invasive curative option for primary liver malignancies?

Transarterial radioembolization or selective internal radiation therapy(SIRT)has emerged as a minimally invasive approach for the treatment of tumors.This percutaneous technique involves the local,intra-arterial delivery of radioactive microspheres directly into the tumor.Historically employed as a palliative measure for liver malignancies,SIRT has gained traction over the past decade as a potential curative option,mirroring the increasing role of radiation segmentectomy.The latest update of the BCLC hepatocellular carcinoma guidelines recognizes SIRT as an effective treatment modality comparable to other local ablative methods,particularly well-suited for patients where surgical resection or ablation is not feasible.Radiation segmentectomy is a more selective approach,aiming to deliver high-dose radiation to one to three specific hepatic segments,while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue.Future research efforts in radiation segmentectomy should prioritize optimizing radiation dosimetry and refining the technique for super-selective administration of radiospheres within the designated hepatic segments.

Adherence to Pharmacotherapy in Post-Menopausal Women with Hypertension or Metabolic Syndrome: Real World Experience

Background: Adherence to medications is dependent upon a variety of factors, including individual characteristics of the patient, interactions with health care providers, and medication complexity. Even though several studies were conducted to test intervention strategies, results are uncertain. Aim: The aim of the study is to assess if a tailored combined intervention strategy improves medication adherence in a large population of post-menopausal women affected by hypertension or metabolic syndrome. Methods: We enrolled 6833 patients aged 50 to 69 years, 85.7% with hypertension, and 14.3% with metabolic syndrome. A network between patients, general practitioners, and cardiologists was established. Interventions included education, adequate information to patients, a simplified scheme of treatment, and periodic adherence assessment. These were either delivered as healthcare provider supports or using modern technology. Medication adherence was estimated by the proportion of days covered for all classes of drugs after the index date. Results: Non-adherent hypertensive women were 297 (5%), and those with metabolic syndrome were 73 (7.4%) (p Conclusions: The rate of non-adherence in both settings of postmenopausal women was 7.7%, much lower than that described in the literature. This rate was increased in patients with metabolic syndrome;probably it is related to the complexity of the therapeutic scheme or to a poor consciousness of the disease. Therefore, implementing a tailored combined intervention can improve significantly patients’ adherence to medical therapy.

Radiomics in colorectal cancer patients

The main therapeutic options for colorectal cancer are surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy in non-metastatic disease.However,the evaluation of the overall adjuvant chemotherapy benefit in patients with a high risk of recurrence is challenging.Radiological images can represent a source of data that can be analyzed by using automated computer-based techniques,working on numerical information coded within Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine files:This image numerical analysis has been named“radiomics”.Radiomics allows the extraction of quantitative features from radiological images,mainly invisible to the naked eye,that can be further analyzed by artificial intelligence algorithms.Radiomics is expanding in oncology to either understand tumor biology or for the development of imaging biomarkers for diagnosis,staging,and prognosis,prediction of treatment response and diseases monitoring and surveillance.Several efforts have been made to develop radiomics signatures for colorectal cancer patient using computed tomography(CT)images with different aims:The preoperative prediction of lymph node metastasis,detecting BRAF and RAS gene mutations.Moreover,the use of delta-radiomics allows the analysis of variations of the radiomics parameters extracted from CT scans performed at different timepoints.Most published studies concerning radiomics and magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)mainly focused on the response of advanced tumors that under-went neoadjuvant therapy.Nodes status is the main determinant of adjuvant chemotherapy.Therefore,several radiomics model based on MRI,especially on T2-weighted images and ADC maps,for the preoperative prediction of nodes metastasis in rectal cancer has been developed.Current studies mostly focused on the applications of radiomics in positron emission tomogra-phy/CT for the prediction of survival after curative surgical resection and assessment of response following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.Since colorectal liver metastases develop in about 25%of patients with colorectal carcinoma,the main diagnostic tasks of radiomics should be the detection of synchronous and metachronous lesions.Radiomics could be an additional tool in clinical setting,especially in identifying patients with high-risk disease.Nevertheless,radiomics has numerous shortcomings that make daily use extremely difficult.Further studies are needed to assess performance of radiomics in stratifying patients with high-risk disease.

Microbiota revolution:How gut microbes regulate our lives

The human intestine is a natural environment ecosystem of a complex of diversified and dynamic microorganisms,determined through a process of competition and natural selection during life.Those intestinal microorganisms called microbiota and are involved in a variety of mechanisms of the organism,they interact with the host and therefore are in contact with the organs of the various systems.However,they play a crucial role in maintaining host homeostasis,also influencing its behaviour.Thus,microorganisms perform a series of biological functions important for human well-being.The host provides the microorganisms with the environment and nutrients,simultaneously drawing many benefits such as their contribution to metabolic,trophic,immunological,and other functions.For these reasons it has been reported that its quantitative and qualitative composition can play a protective or harmful role on the host health.Therefore,a dysbiosis can lead to an association of unfavourable factors which lead to a dysregulation of the physiological processes of homeostasis.Thus,it has previously noted that the gut microbiota can participate in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases,chronic intestinal inflammation,diabetes mellitus,obesity and atherosclerosis,neurological disorders(e.g.,neurological diseases,autism,etc.)colorectal cancer,and more.

Characterization of volatile organic compounds in grafted tomato plants upon potyvirus necrotic infection

A headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(HS-SPME/GC-MS)method was used to study the volatile organic compounds(VOCs)associated with the differential immune response of tomato plants infected with the recombinant strain of potato virus Y(PVY^(C)-to),necrogenic to tomato.Analysis was carried out in UC82(UC),a virus susceptible tomato variety,comparing the same UC plants grafted or not onto a virus tolerant tomato ecotype,Manduria(Ma);the three types of samples used for the GC-MS analysis were mock-inoculated UC/Ma plants,UC/Ma+PVY^(C)-to and UC+PVY^(C)-to plants;the VOCs obtained were 111.Results from symptomatic PVY^(C)-to-infected UC plants showed a VOCs composition enriched in alcohols,fatty acid derivates,benzenoids,and salicylic acid derivatives,while in mock-inoculated UC/Ma plants VOCs were mainly characterized by methyl ester compounds.The VOC profile was in line with RNAseq data analyses,denoting that PVY^(C)-to viral RNA accumulation and disease symptoms induce the specific transcriptional activation of genes involved in VOCs biosynthesis.Furthermore,principal component analysis highlighted that VOCs of PVY^(C)-to-infected and mock-inoculated grafted plants were much closer each other than that of symptomatic PVY^(C)-to-infected non-grafted UC plants.These results suggest that VOCs profiles of tomato plants are related to the viral RNA accumulation,disease intensity and graft-derived tolerance to PVY^(C)-to infection.

Dental-derived stem cells and biowaste biomaterials:What’s next in bone regenerative medicine applications

The human teeth and oral cavity harbor various populations of mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs),so called dental-derived stem cells(D-dSCs)with self-renewing and multilineage differentiation capabilities.D-dSCs properties involves a strong paracrine component resulting from the high levels of bioactive molecules they secrete in response to the local microenvironment.Altogether,this viewpoint develops a general picture of current innovative strategies to employ D-dSCs combined with biomaterials and bioactive factors for regenerative medicine purposes,and offers information regarding the available scientific data and possible applications.

Genomic patterns of homozygosity and inbreeding depression in MurcianoGranadina goats

Background:Inbreeding depression can adversely affect traits related to fitness,reproduction and productive performance.Although current research suggests that inbreeding levels are generally low in most goat breeds,the impact of inbreeding depression on phenotypes of economic interest has only been investigated in a few studies based on genealogical data.Results:We genotyped 1040 goats with the Goat SNP50 BeadChip.This information was used to estimate different molecular inbreeding coefficients and characterise runs of homozygosity and homozygosity patterns.We detected38 genomic regions with increased homozygosity as well as 8 ROH hotspots mapping to chromosomes 1,2,4,6,14,16 and 17.Eight hundred seventeen goats with available records for dairy traits were analysed to evaluate the potential consequences of inbreeding depression on milk phenotypes.Four regions on chromosomes 8 and 25were significantly associated with inbreeding depression for the natural logarithm of the somatic cell count.Notably,these regions contain several genes related with immunity,such as SYK,IL27,CCL19 and CCL21.Moreover,one region on chromosome 2 was significantly associated with inbreeding depression for milk yield.Conclusions:Although genomic inbreeding levels are low in Murciano-Granadina goats,significant evidence of inbreeding depression for the logarithm of the somatic cell count,a phenotype closely associated with udder health and milk yield,have been detected in this population.Minimising inbreeding would be expected to augment economic gain by increasing milk yield and reducing the incidence of mastitis,which is one of the main causes of dairy goat culling.

Antifungal activity of total and fractionated phenolic extracts from two wild edible herbs

The chemical characterization of phenolic extracts of salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor Scop. s.l.) and broomrape (Orobanche crenata Forsk.) was performed. Active fractions were separated and characterized and, in the case of O. crenata, two phenolic compounds, verbascoside and is overbascoside, were quantitatively extracted, purified and characterized. These compounds proved to be effective in reducing the growth of some important fungi responsible for the decay of fresh fruit and vegetables in postharvest. Verbascoside showed significant activity against Penicillium italicum, fairly inhibited Monilinia laxa, P. expansum, and Aspergillus carbonarius, and showed little activity against Botrytis cinerea, M. fructicola and P. digitatum. Isoverbascoside completely inhibited B. cinerea, P. digitatum, P. italicum, and P. expansum;it fairly inhibited M. laxa and A. carbonarius;while it showed to be less effective against M. fructicola. The obtained results support the possible use of some wild edible plants as a source of phenolic substances for the postharvest biological control of fresh fruit and vegetable rots.

Why stem/progenitor cells lose their regenerative potential

Nowadays,it is clear that adult stem cells,also called as tissue stem cells,play a central role to repair and maintain the tissue in which they reside by their selfrenewal ability and capacity of differentiating into distinct and specialized cells.As stem cells age,their renewal ability declines and their capacity to maintain organ homeostasis and regeneration is impaired.From a molecular perspective,these changes in stem cells properties can be due to several types of cell intrinsic injury and DNA aberrant alteration(i.e epigenomic profile)as well as changes in the tissue microenviroment,both into the niche and by systemic circulating factors.Strikingly,it has been suggested that aging-induced deterioration of stem cell functions may play a key role in the pathophysiology of the various agingassociated disorders.Therefore,understanding how resident stem cell age and affects near and distant tissues is fundamental.Here,we examine the current knowledge about aging mechanisms in several kinds of adult stem cells under physiological and pathological conditions and the principal aging-related changes in number,function and phenotype that determine the loss of tissue renewal properties.Furthermore,we examine the possible cell rejuvenation strategies.Stem cell rejuvenation may reverse the aging phenotype and the discovery of effective methods for inducing and differentiating pluripotent stem cells for cell replacement therapies could open up new possibilities for treating age-related diseases.

A Smart Procedure for the Femtosecond Laser-Based Fabrication of a Polymeric Lab-on-a-Chip for Capturing Tumor Cell

Rapid prototyping methods for the design and fabrication of polymeric labs-on-a-chip are on the rise,as they allow high degrees of precision and flexibility.For example,a microfluidic platform may require an optimization phase in which it could be necessary to continuously modify the architecture and geometry;however,this is only possible if easy,controllable fabrication methods and low-cost materials are available.In this paper,we describe the realization process of a microfluidic tool,from the computer-aided design(CAD)to the proof-of-concept application as a capture device for circulating tumor cells(CTCs).The entire platform was realized in polymethyl methacrylate(PMMA),combining femtosecond(fs)laser and micromilling fabrication technologies.The multilayer device was assembled through a facile and low-cost solvent-assisted method.A serpentine microchannel was then directly biofunctionalized by immobilizing capture probes able to distinguish cancer from non-cancer cells without labeling.The low material costs,customizable methods,and biological application of the realized platform make it a suitable model for industrial exploitation and applications at the point of care.

Special features of SARS-CoV-2 in daily practice

The severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2(commonly known as SARS-CoV-2)is a novel coronavirus(designated as 2019-nCoV),which was isolated for the first time after the Chinese health authorities reported a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan,China in December 2019.Optimal management of the Coronavirus Disease-2019 disease is evolving quickly and treatment guidelines,based on scientific evidence and experts’opinions with clinical experience,are constantly being updated.On January 30,2020,the World Health Organization declared the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak as a"Public Health Emergency of International Concern".The total lack of immune protection brought about a severe spread of the contagion all over the world.For this reason,diagnostic tools,patient management and therapeutic approaches have been tested along the way,in the desperate race to break free from the widespread infection and its fatal respiratory complications.Current medical knowledge and research on severe and critical patients’management and experimental treatments are still evolving,but several protocols on minimizing risk of infection among the general population,patients and healthcare workers have been approved and diffused by International Health Authorities.

Anterior vertebral body tethering for idiopathic scoliosis in growing children:A systematic review

BACKGROUND The management of idiopathic scoliosis(IS)in skeletally immature patients should aim at three-dimensional deformity correction,without compromising spinal and chest growth.In 2019,the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first instrumentation system for anterior vertebral body tethering(AVBT),under a Humanitarian Device Exception,for skeletally immature patients with curves having a Cobb angle between 35°and 65°.AIM To summarize current evidence about the efficacy and safety of AVBT in the management of IS in skeletally immature patients.METHODS From January 2014 to January 2021,Ovid Medline,Embase,Cochrane Library,Scopus,Web of Science,Google Scholar and PubMed were searched to identify relevant studies.The methodological quality of the studies was evaluated and relevant data were extracted.RESULTS Seven clinical trials recruiting 163 patients were included in the present review.Five studies out of seven were classified as high quality,whereas the remaining two studies were classified as moderate quality.A total of 151 of 163 AVBT procedures were performed in the thoracic spine,and the remaining 12 tethering in the lumbar spine.Only 117 of 163(71.8%)patients had a nonprogressive curve at skeletal maturity.Twenty-three of 163(14.11%)patients required unplanned revision surgery within the follow-up period.Conversion to posterior spinal fusion(PSF)was performed in 18 of 163(11%)patients.CONCLUSION AVBT is a promising growth-friendly technique for treatment of IS in growing patients.However,it has moderate success and perioperative complications,revision and conversion to PSF.

The Influence Function of the Correlation Indexes in a Two-by-Two Table

In this paper we examine 5 indexes (the two Yule’s indexes, the chi square, the odds ratio and an elementary index) of a two-by-two table, which estimate the correlation coefficient ρ in a bivariate Bernoulli distribution. We will find the compact expression of the influence functions, which allow the quantification of the effect of an infinitesimal contamination of the probability of any pair of attributes of the bivariate random variable distributed according to the above-mentioned model. We prove that the only unbiased index is the chi square. In order to determine the indexes, which are less sensitive to contamination, we obtain the expressions of three synthetic measures of the influence function, which are the maximum contamination (gross sensitivity error), the mean square deviation and the variance. These results, even if don’t allow a definitive assessment of the overall optimum properties of the five indexes, as not all of them are unbiased, nevertheless they allow to appreciating the synthetic entity of the effect of the contaminations in the estimation of the parameter ρ of the bivariate Bernoulli distribution.

Simulated Sample Behaviour of a Dissimilarity Index When Sampling from Populations Differing by a Location Parameter Only

In this paper the authors study empirically the power of the test based on the index of dissimilarity to compare two samples drawn from two populations differing only in the location parameter. We call such a test as test of homogeneity. In practice the power of such a bidirectional test will be studied referring to the absolute value of the shiftδand to the same probability models considered by Fried and Dehling.

Psychosexual Assessment of Transgender Individuals during the Sex Reassignment Process: Sexual Desire, Activity, and Satisfaction

A group of 39 Transgender subjects, 17 Female to Male (FtM) and 22 Male to Female (MtF), have been evaluated about their sexual desire, activity, and satisfaction during the period before and after Sex Reassignment by Surgery (SRS). Visual Analogue Scale from 0 to 10 has been used to assess sexual desire and satisfaction, number of sexual partners and number of sexual intercourses/ month have been evaluated to assess sexual activity. Moreover, after the surgery, the Sexual Desire Inventory-2 (SDI-2) was administered to patients and related to testosterone (total or free) levels. In FtM, after hysterectomy and bilateral ovariectomy, mean value of sexual desire (VAS 0 - 10) was 7.5 before beginning testosterone therapy, this value increased after six months of therapy and after one year. Just before SRS the value decreased, but increased to 8.42 after SRS. In the same patients the values (VAS 0 - 10) on sexual satisfaction were respectively 6.5, 6.9, 7.1, 6.5 and 7. Mean number of partners was 4, with 7.07 mean frequency of sexual intercourse/month, before starting therapy (after hysterectomy). During hormonal therapy (testosterone), No. of partners was 2.46 and 8.96 intercourses/month, while after SRS the partners were 1.25 and intercouses/month 7.91. MtF patients reported a sexual desire (VAS 0 - 10) before therapy of 7, this remained almost constant after 6 months, decreases after 12 months and just before surgery, and finally increased to 7.76 after SRS. For sexual satisfaction mean values of VAS were respectively: 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6, and 6.8. Regarding sexual activity, MtF report 3.81 mean No. of partners and 9.27 intercouses/month before the beginning of hormonal therapy, 1.36 partners and 4.36 intercourses after therapy, and 1.3 partners and 4.54 intercourses after SRS.

The Mean Deviation from the Median of the Dagum Distribution

The Dagum model is particularly suitable for the analysis of the distributions of economic quantities, such as income, assets and consumption. The purpose of this note is to derive the expression of the mean deviation from the median of the Dagum distribution to study the behavior of the scale and shape parameters in terms of absolute variability and in terms of relative variability.

Decomposition of the Sum of Cubes, the Sum Raised to the Power of Four and Codeviance

The purpose of this paper is to achieve decomposition formulas of sums regarding deviation cubes, the sum of deviation raised to the power of four and codeviance, because they allow to evaluate the contribution of different components of the above three absolute measures regarding asymmetry, disnormality and concordance. We have obtained more significant formulas that are valid only for two groups, in addition to the formulas valid for r groups, and we have prepared an example to emphasize how useful those formulas were.

Plasma Enhanced-Chemical Vapour Deposition of Scuff-Resistant Hydrogenated Amorphous Carbon Coatings on C100 Steel

Hydrogenated amorphous carbon coatings, deposited by low pressure plasma to minimize the wear of C100 steel components, were optimized and characterized. In order to ensure good adhesion of the films to the steel surface, a thin Ti interlayer was deposited, by magnetron sputtering, before the plasma deposition. The chemical characterization of the deposits was performed by means of RAMAN, XPS, RBS and ERDA analysis, while nanoindentation, nanoscratch and nanowear tests allowed to estimating the tribomechanical properties of the deposits, with the aim of evaluating their scuff-resistance. It was found that the optimized plasma deposited hydrogenated amorphous carbon coatings were well adherent to C100 steel and increased more than 70% its surface hardness.

A Clifford algebraic analysis gives mathematical explanation of quantization of quantum theory and delineates a model of quantum reality in which information, primitive cognition entities and a principle of existence are intrinsically represented <i>ab initio</i>

The thesis of this paper is that Information, Cognition and a Principle of Existence are intrinsically structured in the quantum model of reality. We reach such evidence by using the Clifford algebra. We analyze quantization in some traditional cases of quantum mechanics and, in particular in quantum harmonic oscillator, orbital angular momentum and hydrogen atom. The results are confirmed analyzing human cognition behavior that evidences a very consistent agreement with the basic quantum mechanical foundations.

The Mean Difference for Lognormal Distribution

The calculation of the mean difference for the lognormal distribution involves several hard integrals featuring the error function. In this paper, considering two particular cases of an integral of the exponential function for the complement to one of the error functions, and using various symmetries, we have achieved the result of an extremely simple and useful formula of the mean difference for the lognormal distribution.