Search results for " 25"
showing 10 items of 220 documents
Trends in the prevalence of asthma and allergic rhinitis in Italy between 1991 and 2010
2012
The prevalence of asthma increased worldwide until the 1990s, but since then there has been no clear temporal pattern. The present study aimed to assess time trends in the prevalence of current asthma, asthma-like symptoms and allergic rhinitis in Italian adults from 1990 to 2010. The same screening questionnaire was administered by mail or phone to random samples of the general population (age 20-44 yrs) in Italy, in the frame of three multicentre studies: the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) (1991-1993; n=6,031); the Italian Study on Asthma in Young Adults (ISAYA) (1998-2000; n=18,873); and the Gene Environment Interactions in Respiratory Diseases (GEIRD) study (2007-2…
Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and the incidence of peripheral artery disease in the elderly: The Pro.V.A study
2015
Aim: This study was conducted to examine whether low serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (250HD) are associated with a higher risk of incident peripheral artery disease (PAD) in a representative group of elderly people. Methods: We followed 1568 community-dwelling elderly participants without PAD at the baseline among a sample of 2097 initially eligible over a mean of 4.4 years as part of the Progetto Veneto Anziani (Pro.V.A.) study. The baseline serum 250HD levels were categorized as <24, 25-49, 50-74, >75 nmol/L, and incident PAD was defined as an ankle-brachial index below 0.9. Results: At the baseline, there were no differences in known risk factors for PAD (BMI), waist circumfere…
Stepwise Regulation of TH1 Responses in Autoimmunity: Il-12-Related Cytokines and Their Receptors
2005
Interleukin (IL)-12 is a key cytokine of cell-mediated immune responses. Until recently, IL-12 was believed to be unique in its ability to induce the differentiation of naive T cells toward the TH1 phenotype and in its pathogenic activity, as shown in various disease models including inflammatory bowel disease. However, recently, 2 additional cytokines closely related to IL-12, IL-23 and IL-27, were discovered. Until then, the role of IL-12 was overestimated because it was believed that the p40 subunit was unique to IL-12. The discovery that IL-12 shares p40 with IL-23 and that IL-23 but not IL-12 is essential in models of chronic inflammation and autoimmunity led to a model in which IL-12 …
Halogen bonding stabilizes a cis-azobenzene derivative in the solid state : A crystallographic study
2017
Crystals oftrans- andcis-isomers of a fluorinated azobenzene derivative have been prepared and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The presence of F atoms on the aromatic core of the azobenzene increases the lifetime of the metastablecis-isomer, allowing single crystals of thecis-azobenzene to be grown. Structural analysis on thecis-azobenzene, complemented with density functional theory calculations, highlights the active role of the halogen-bond contact (N...I synthon) in promoting the stabilization of thecis-isomer. The presence of a long aliphatic chain on the azobenzene unit induces a phase segregation that stabilizes the molecular arrangement for both thetrans- andcis-i…
Pluronic nanoparticles as anti-oxidant carriers for polymers
2016
Abstract The immobilization of anti-oxidant stabilizers for polymers, particularly naturally occurring systems, can be considered a valuable route for preventing their migration, volatilization, thermo-degradation and decomposition at typical high processing temperatures, as well as for enhance their solubility in polymers. In this work, an innovative approach for the immobilization of naturally occurring stabilizer, through the encapsulation in copolymer nanoparticles, is proposed. Pluronic nanoparticles (PNPs), based on PEO-PPO-PEO, (PEO: poly (ethylene oxide); PPO: poly(propylene oxide)), without and with quercetin, Q, have been successfully formulated and the critical micellar condition…
Polymeric micelles as a new generation of anti-oxidant carriers
2017
A promising strategy to immobilize a natural stabilizer in polymeric films is presented. Par-Ticularly, nevadensin (N, a natural basil flavonoid) molecules have been encapsulated in Pluronic F-127 micelles [F127, a triblock copolymer poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide)] and the obtained nanoparticles have been introduced in poly(ethylene glycol), PEG [otherwise known as poly(ethylene oxide), PEO]. In order to verify the effectiveness of the micelles as anti-oxidant carriers, PEG-based films have been subjected to artificial weathering. The encapsulation of anti-oxidant molecules allows the enhancement of N solubility in PEG, leading to advanced materials with enh…
Thermo-oxidative stabilization of poly(lactic acid)-based nanocomposites through the incorporation of clay with in-built antioxidant activity
2017
In this work, an innovative approach to overcome the issue of the poor thermo-oxidative stability of polymer/clay nanocomposites is proposed. Specifically, biodegradable poly(lactic acid) (PLA)-based nanocomposites, containing organo-modified clay with in-built antioxidant activity, were prepared. Through a two-step chemical protocol, a hindered phenol antioxidant was chemically linked to the ammonium quaternary salt which was then intercalated between the clay platelets [(AO)OM-Mt]. The nanocomposites were characterized and their thermo-oxidative stability during melt processing and under long-term thermal test conditions was investigated. PLA nanocomposites containing the (AO)OM-Mt showed…
Cu-substituted lanthanum ferrite perovskites: Preparation, characterization and photocatalytic activity in gas-solid regime under simulated solar lig…
2016
Lanthanum orthoferrites LaFeO3 nanopowders doped with 20 mol% of Sr and 0-10-20 mol% of Cu were prepared by citrate auto-combustion synthesis and investigated in terms of crystal structure, morphology, surface area and optical properties by using several characterization techniques. The band gap energy values were found to range from 2.35 eV for LaFeO3 to 1.86 eV for the samples with the highest content of copper, this trend reflects the decrease of the particle size. All powders showed photocurrent response, the highest photocurrent was obtained for undoped orthoferrite calcined at 600°C. Their physical-chemical properties were related to photoelectrochemical behaviour. The the position of…
Silanol-POSS as dispersing agents for carbon nanotubes in polyamide
2017
Silanol polyhedrad oligomeric silsesquiosane terminated with phenyl rings (phPOSS) has been considered as dispersing agent for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in polyamide (PA) matrix. Two different approaches have been followed for the introduction of the phPOSS molecules: a âclassicalâ approach which involves the introduction of the dispersing agent during the melt mixing, and an âinnovativeâ approach, consisting in the immobilization, either covalent and non-covalent, of phPOSS molecules onto CNTs surface. The properties of PA-based nanocomposites, containing free phPOSS molecules and phPOSS molecules immobilized onto the CNTs outer surface, have been evaluated through rheological, mecha…
Novel strategic approach for the thermo- and photo- oxidative stabilization of polyolefin/clay nanocomposites
2017
Polyolefin/clay nanocomposites were prepared by melt mixing and their oxidative stability was studied under long-term thermo- and photo-oxidative test conditions in the absence and presence of a modified organo montmorillonite clay (OM-MMt) containing a chemically-bound hindered phenol antioxidant function, (AO)OM-Mt. It was found that nanocomposites based on both polyethylene (PE) and polyethylene-grafted-maleic anhydride (PEgMA) containing the (AO)OM-Mt gave a higher oxidative stability, along with better clay dispersion, compared to analogous PE or PEgMA-based nanocomposites containing an added (free) conventional antioxidant with a similar hindered phenol function (using the commercial …