Il trattamento riabilitativo nel paziente con sindrome del tunnel carpale. Nostra esperienza.

Improved orbital parameters of accreting millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658

Characterization of focal liver lesions

Dosimetry for electron Intra-Operative RadioTherapy: Comparison of output factors obtained through alanine/EPR pellets, ionization chamber and Monte Carlo-GEANT4 simulations for IORT mobile dedicate accelerator

Abstract In this work a comparison between the response of alanine and Markus ionization chamber was carried out for measurements of the output factors (OF) of electron beams produced by a linear accelerator used for Intra-Operative Radiation Therapy (IORT). Output factors (OF) for conventional high-energy electron beams are normally measured using ionization chamber according to international dosimetry protocols. However, the electron beams used in IORT have characteristics of dose per pulse, energy spectrum and angular distribution quite different from beams usually used in external radiotherapy, so the direct application of international dosimetry protocols may introduce additional uncer…

Galactosylated polymeric carriers for liver targeting of sorafenib

In this paper, we describe the preparation of liver-targeted polymeric micelles potentially able to carry sorafenib to hepatocytes for treatment of hepatocarcinoma (HCC), exploiting the presence of carbohydrate receptors, ASGPR. These micelles were prepared starting from a galactosylated polylactide-polyaminoacid conjugate. This latter was obtained by chemical reaction of α,β-poly(N-2-hydroxyethyl) (2-aminoethylcarbamate)-d,l-aspartamide (PHEA-EDA) with polylactic acid (PLA), and subsequent reaction with lactose, leading to PHEA-EDA-PLA-GAL copolymer. Liver-targeted sorafenib-loaded micelles were obtained in aqueous media at low PHEA-EDA-PLA-GAL copolymer concentration value with nanometer …

The effects of inositol in the female androgenetic alopecia: preliminary data

Complex objects classified by morphological shape analysis and elliptical Fourier descriptors

Search for gamma ray bursts with the ARGO-YBJ detector in scaler mode

We report on the search for Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) in the energy range 1-100 GeV in coincidence with the prompt emission detected by satellites using the Astrophysical Radiation with Ground-based Observatory at YangBaJing (ARGO-YBJ) air shower detector. Thanks to its mountain location (Yangbajing, Tibet, P.R. China, 4300 m a.s.l.), active surface (about 6700 m**2 of Resistive Plate Chambers), and large field of view (about 2 sr, limited only by the atmospheric absorption), the ARGO-YBJ air shower detector is particularly suitable for the detection of unpredictable and short duration events such as GRBs. The search is carried out using the "single particle technique", i.e. counting all the …

Design, realization, and testing of a SPR biosensing system for wine quality monitoring

A complete innovative and portable, for on-field operation, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) biosensing system for wine quality monitoring was designed, realized and tested; the system takes advantage of the innovative module Spreeta™, an integrated transducer designed by Texas Instruments able to recognize the Surface Resonance Phenomena and to represent it through electrical signals. The system, based on an 8 bit microprocessor board, acquires through a 12 bit A/D converter, elaborates and sends to a PC data from the Spreeta™ sensor. A proprietary high-level software calculates the refractive index related to biological solution flowing on the surface sensor and lets to detect suitable sub…

The ARGO-YBJ experiment in Tibet

The setting up of the ARGO detector at the YangBaJing Cosmic Ray Laboratory (4300 m a.s.l., Tibet, P.R. China) has been completed during the last spring (2007). It consists of a central carpet made of 130 identical sub-units of 12 RPCs each (a "cluster"), covering a surface of about 5800 m2 with 93% active area, and a guard ring of 24 further clusters of the same type surrounding the central carpet with a lower sampling density. Signals are picked up by external electrodes of small size, thus allowing the sampling of EAS with high space-time granularity. Shower events are detected at a trigger rate of about 4 kHz. Events with a few particles detected by a single cluster are counted in scale…

Relaxation phenomena in mixed isomeric alcohols by Mandelstam-Brillouin scattering

Mandelstam-Brillouin scattering data in mixed isomeric alcohols n-pentanol (nPe-OH) and 2-methyl-2-butanol (2Me-2BuOH) are presented. The hypersonic velocity and normalized absorption are measured as a function of the scattering angle, in the temperature range from - 15-degrees-C to + 45-degrees-C, and as a function of n-PeOH molar fraction going from the pure n-PeOH to the pure 2Me-2BuOH. The experimental results confirm the existence of a shear relaxation phenomenon in the GHz region, that has been previously detected in pure liquids. The temperature dependence of the relaxation time tau-s and of the shear modulus G-infinity evaluated within viscoelastic liquid models, support the existen…

A novel framework for MR image segmentation and quantification by using MedGA

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Image segmentation represents one of the most challenging issues in medical image analysis to distinguish among different adjacent tissues in a body part. In this context, appropriate image pre-processing tools can improve the result accuracy achieved by computer-assisted segmentation methods. Taking into consideration images with a bimodal intensity distribution, image binarization can be used to classify the input pictorial data into two classes, given a threshold intensity value. Unfortunately, adaptive thresholding techniques for two-class segmentation work properly only for images characterized by bimodal histograms. We aim at overcoming these limitations and…

geni psicosi e cannabis: caratteristiche di un campione siciliano rappresentativo di pazienti al primo episodio psicotico

Induction of apoptosis and inhibition of cell growth in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells by COX-2 inhibitors

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of nonselective (indomethacin) and selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors (NS-398, nimesulide, and CAY10404) on cell growth, cell cycle distribution, and apoptosis in three human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines (HepG2, HuH-6, and HA22T/VGH) with different characteristics of differentiation and biological behavior. The four COX inhibitors showed a dose-dependent growth-inhibitory effect in all the cell lines. No substantial arrests in the progression of the cells through the cell cycle were observed after treatment of HuH-6 or HA22T/VGH for 48 h with the various inhibitors. On the other hand, there were significant increases …

Spatial data fusion and analysis for soil characterization: a case study in a coastal basin of south-western Sicily (southern Italy)

Salinization is one of the most serious problems confronting sustainable agriculture in semi-arid and arid regions. Accurate mapping of soil salinization and the associated risk represent a fundamental step in planning agricultural and remediation activities. Geostatistical analysis is very useful for soil quality assessment because it makes it possible to determine the spatial relationships between selected variables and to produce synthetic maps of spatial variation. The main objective of this paper was to map the soil salinization risk in the Delia-Nivolelli alluvial basin (south-western Sicily, southern Italy), using multivariate geostatistical techniques and a set of topographical, phy…

Seabream(Sparus aurata)hierarchy among alfa and beta subordinates and dominant interplay affects stress responses and phagocytic activity by peritoneal cavity cells

seabream, subordinates, dominant

Electroweak measurements in electron-positron collisions at W-boson-pair energies at LEP

The ALEPH, DELPHI, L3, OPAL collaborations and LEP Electroweak Working Group.-- arXiv:1302.3415