First-ever stroke incidence and 30-day case fatality in the Sicilian Aeolian archipelago, Italy
Background and Purpose— Not many data on stroke epidemiology come from studies on islands. This is the first report on a Mediterranean archipelago population. Methods— Using recommended criteria, from July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2002, information was collected on first-ever stroke and 30-day case fatality in Aeolian island residents (13 431). Results— The overall crude incidence rate was 154 of 100 000 (95% CI, 118 to 197; 128 in men and 180 in women) or 180, 154, and 87, if adjusted to the Italian, European, and world populations, respectively. The 30-day case fatality rate was 24.2% (95% CI, 14.22 to 36.75). Conclusions— Besides genetic or dietary factors, our results may reflect local, li…
FTIR analysis of the high pressure response of native insulin assemblies
It is widely recognized that a central role in conferring stability to the structure of proteins against misfolding and aggregation is played by the formation of oligomers. The case of insulin is prototypical in this respect: in our body it is stored up in stable inactive hexameric assemblies whereas only in its monomeric form it recovers the role of regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism. In the present paper, exploiting the optimal coupling between FTIR spectroscopy and diamond anvil cell technique, we probe the stability of different insulin oligomeric forms under high pressure, namely over the ranges 0-15 kbar for water solution and 0-80 kbar for dry powder. Results obtained show di…
Dyes of a Shadow Theatre: Investigating Tholu Bommalu Indian Puppets through a Highly Sensitive Multi-Spectroscopic Approach
Tholu Bommalu are typical leather puppets of the traditional Indian shadow theatre. Two of these objects are part of a collection in the International Puppets Museum “Antonio Pasqualino” (Palermo, Sicily, Italy), which can count on one hundred-seventy-three of artifacts. These Indian puppets were investigated to obtain information related to the use of dyes for their manufacturing through a multi-technical approach exploiting the combination of highly sensitive spectroscopic techniques. Wet cotton stubbons were used to entrap small particles of dyes on the fibers from the art objects for the consequent analyses. Visible Light Micro-Reflectance spectroscopy was employed for the preliminary i…
A new multi analytical approach for the identification of synthetic and natural dyes mixtures. The case of orcein-mauveine mixture in a historical dress of a Sicilian noblewoman of nineteenth century
In this paper, the application of a multi-analytical approach for the characterisation of synthetic and natural dyes in a historical textile is presented. The work is focused on a historical dress of a Sicilian noblewoman, dating from about 1865–1870. Firstly, SERS on fibre was performed, in order to individuate the classes of dyes employed. The SERS spectra suggested the presence of two main dyes: mauveine and orcein. In order to confirm these preliminary results, two different extraction protocols were applied. The extracts obtained were analysed by ESI-MS, MALDI-ToF and UHPCL-MS analyses, confirming the SERS results. In particular, the application of the ammonia mild extraction technique…
Long-term survival and outcome after first stroke in the Sicilian Aeolian Island Archipelago population.
Background: Only a restricted number of population studies based on long-term prognosis after a stroke have been published. We analyzed long-term survival and outcome in insular first-ever stroke population from the Aeolian Archipelago. Subjects and methods: From 1 July, 1999 to 30 June 2002, 62 patients with first-ever stroke were recruited to evaluate short-term incidence and outcome. Information for every patient was collected by phone interviews after 3 months, 1 year, and 4 years. Results: 30 days case fatality rate was 24.2% (95% C.I. 14.22 to 36.75). Fifty-one percent (95% C.I. 35.8 to 66.3) of patients died before last survey and 39.1% died during the first year of follow-up. Annual…
Infrared Microspectroscopy study of insulin crystals at high pressure
During the last years the coupling of high pressure techniques and infrared spectroscopy has proven to be a very powerful tool in the study of conformational changes of proteins. Protein unfolding and monomerization are events that are expected to take place at high pressure due to the peculiarity of pressure to shift the system towards the state that occupies the minimum volume. We observed the growth of apparently cubic crystals at a pressure of about 4 kbar, subjecting to high pressure a solution of misfolded insulin. Even if high pressure is commonly used to tune the growth rate of crystals, protein crystallization at high pressure is not a well known process and no evidences of the par…
Deepening Inside the Pictorial Layers of Etruscan Sarcophagus of Hasti Afunei: An Innovative Micro-Sampling Technique for Raman/SERS Analyses
The Hasti Afunei sarcophagus is a large Etruscan urn, made up of two chalky alabaster monoliths. Dated from the last quarter of the third century BC, it was found in 1826 in the small town of Chiusi (Tuscany- Il Colle place) by a landowner, Pietro Bonci Casuccini, who made it part of his private collection. The noble owner&rsquo
Sequential dissociation of insulin amyloids probed by high pressure Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
High Pressure (HP) Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) has been here employed to investigate the thermodynamic stability of bovine pancreatic insulin (BPI) amyloids. Once the aggregation reaction has started, the backbone arrangement of the proteins forming the amyloid is known to reach a stationary phase in few hours; after this time the infrared absorption of fibrils becomes stable. It is here shown how the further stabilization of the structure during the stationary phase can be probed via FTIR spectroscopy, through the observation of the high pressure behaviour of fibrils formed at different maturation stages. We report on the high pressure fragmentation of insulin amyloids, …