Growth factor receptor expression during in vitro differentiation of partially purified populations containing murine stem cells

The Word Accentuation Test assesses the accentuation of 30 infrequent Spanish words written without the accentuation mark and is an easy-to-use tool for estimating premorbid intelligence of Spanish-speaking people. Its intraobserver (0.97) and interobserver (0.93) reliabilities and its correlation with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (.837) and Raven's Progressive Matrices (.655) are high, offering a good prediction of general intelligence. It is resistant to mental deterioration; 20 demented and 40 controls matched by sex, age, and education obtained similar scores. The discrepancies between current and predicted scores in Raven's scale can diagnose mild-moderate dementia with 0.79 accuracy (sensitivity, 0.78; specificity, 0.82).     

Precision Oncology via NMR-Based Metabolomics: A Review on Breast Cancer

Precision oncology is an emerging approach in cancer care. It aims at selecting the optimal therapy for the right patient by considering each patient’s unique disease and individual health status. In the last years, it has become evident that breast cancer is an extremely heterogeneous disease, and therefore, patients need to be appropriately stratified to maximize survival and quality of life. Gene-expression tools have already positively assisted clinical decision making by estimating the risk of recurrence and the potential benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. However, these approaches need refinement to further reduce the proportion of patients potentially exposed to unnecessary chemotherapy. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolomics has demonstrated to be an optimal approach for cancer research and has provided significant results in BC, in particular for prognostic and stratification purposes. In this review, we give an update on the status of NMR-based metabolomic studies for the biochemical characterization and stratification of breast cancer patients using different biospecimens (breast tissue, blood serum/plasma, and urine).     

Protein kinase C modulates estrogen receptors in differentiated osteoblastic cells in vitro

Ventriculo-peritoneal shunts (VPS) are the most frequent operative procedures used to treat hydrocephalic children. Abdominal complications of VPS are now a rare event; however, their frequency varies from 5% to 47% according to reports. Anything that causes an obstruction or impediment of the VP derivation system will lead to intracranial hypertension, which requires immediate surgery. From 1985 to 1995 at the Division of Pediatric Surgery of the Federico II University of Naples, ten laparoscopies were performed in ten children with VPS complications. Cerebrospinal fluid pseudocysts were found in four infants. There was one case of abdominal wall perforation by the tip of the catheter at the umbilical level, two bowel obstructions, and one catheter was lost in the abdominal cavity. Finally, two children had malfunctioning of the peritoneal limb of the catheter. The laparoscopic technique was curative in all ten cases, thus avoiding a conventional laparotomy and the consequent risk of adhesions, which could cause further complications.     

Evaporative heat and mass transfer from the free surface of a liquid wicked into a bed of spheres

Evaporation of ethanol from square packed arrays of 3.95 mm diameter copper spheres in a transparent, enclosed chamber is investigated. The enclosure ensures that relatively saturated vapor conditions exist near the free surface. The desired heat flux is imposed on the copper substrate upon which the copper spheres are mounted, and the liquid level in the bed is maintained by wicking from a continuous supply of liquid provided by a syringe pump. Transparent windows in the enclosure allow for visualization of the evaporating liquid meniscus shape, which is recorded for different liquid feeding rates and heat fluxes. Experimentally measured meniscus profiles are compared to analytical results based on surface-energy minimization. A meniscus microregion is defined from the contact line to the length where the liquid thickness reaches 10 μm. An approximate kinetic theory-based analysis estimates that up to ～55% of the total meniscus mass transfer occurs in this microregion.     

Characterization of GSM Non-Line-of-Sight Propagation Channels Generated in a Reverberating Chamber by Using Bit Error Rates

In this paper, it is shown how a large mode-stirred reverberating chamber can be used to physically generate a set of non-line-of-sight propagation channels, which are naturally and objectively classified by means of the bit error rate (BER) norm. The experiments are accomplished at the mode-stirred reverberating chamber of the Universita di Napoli Parthenope (formerly Istituto Universitario Navale), and the electromagnetic input signal is a global system for mobile communications, one at 1.8 GHz. It is shown that it is possible to change the BER by means of the stirring process and/or the chamber loading. The proposed technique calls for fast measurements, and therefore, it is amenable to industrial use. The methodology is general and suitable to any digital electromagnetic signal, provided no distortion of modulation occurs.     

Diatomite silica nanoparticles for drug delivery

Diatomite is a natural fossil material of sedimentary origin, constituted by fragments of diatom siliceous skeletons. In this preliminary work, the properties of diatomite nanoparticles as potential system for the delivery of drugs in cancer cells were exploited. A purification procedure, based on thermal treatments in strong acid solutions, was used to remove inorganic and organic impurities from diatomite and to make them a safe material for medical applications. The micrometric diatomite powder was reduced in nanoparticles by mechanical crushing, sonication, and filtering. Morphological analysis performed by dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy reveals a particles size included between 100 and 300 nm. Diatomite nanoparticles were functionalized by 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and labeled by tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate. Different concentrations of chemically modified nanoparticles were incubated with cancer cells and confocal microscopy was performed. Imaging analysis showed an efficient cellular uptake and homogeneous distribution of nanoparticles in cytoplasm and nucleus, thus suggesting their potentiality as nanocarriers for drug delivery.

PACS

87.85.J81.05.Rm; 61.46. + w