Immunonutrition before esophagectomy: Impact on immune surveillance mechanisms

Preoperative oral immunonutrition was demonstrated to improve immune response and to decrease the infection rate in patients with cancer. This study aimed to assess how immunonutrition could influence the immune cell response in the mucosal microenvironment of esophageal adenocarcinoma. Therefore, A prospective cohort of consecutive patients undergoing esophagectomy for esophageal adenocarcinoma was enrolled. A subgroup of them was given preoperative oral immunonutrition with Oral Impact and was compared to those who received no preoperative supplementation. Mucosal samples from healthy esophagus were obtained at esophagectomy. Histology, immunohistochemistry, gene expression analysis, and cytofluorimetry were performed. Markers of activation of antigen-presenting cells (CD80, CD86, and HLA-I), innate immunity (TLR4 and MyD88), and cytotoxic lymphocyte infiltration and activation (CD8, CD38, CD69, and CD107) were measured. In all, 50 patients received preoperative Oral Impact and 129 patients received no nutritional support. CD80, CD86, MyD88, and CD69 messenger RNA expression was significantly increased in patients receiving immunonutrition compared to controls. In the subgroup of patients with stages I-II cancer, the rate of epithelial cells expressing CD80 and HLA-ABC was significantly higher in those receiving immunonutrition compared to controls as well as CD8+ CD28+ cell rate. Immunonutrition administration before surgery was significantly associated to increased degranulating CD8 and natural killer cells (CD107+) infiltrating the healthy esophageal mucosa. All the comparisons were adjusted for cancer stage and preoperative therapy. In conclusion, in healthy esophageal mucosa of patients undergoing esophagectomy, a 5-day course of immunonutrition enhances expression of antigen-presenting cells activity and increased CD8+ T cell activation and degranulating activity. Further studies are warranted to understand the clinical implication in terms of cancer recurrence

Mikrobiologie und Bioaktivität des biodynamischen Präparats 500

Umfangreiche mikrobiologische Untersuchungen des Hornmistpräparates zeigen eine charakteristische bakterielle Komposition und spezielle Enzymaktivitäten. Letztere haben eine Wirkung vergleichbar dem pflanzeneigenen Hormon Auxin. P500 scheint die Effizienz der Bodenbakterien zu erhöhen

Exposure to virgin and marine incubated microparticles of biodegradable and conventional polymers modulates the hepatopancreas transcriptome of Mytilus galloprovincialis

Biodegradable polymers have been proposed as an alternative to conventional plastics to mitigate the impact of marine litter, but the research investigating their toxicity is still in its infancy. This study evaluates the potential ecotoxicological effects of both virgin and marine-incubated microparticles (MPs), at environmentally relevant concentration (0.1 mg/l), made of different biodegradable polymers (Polycaprolactone, Mater-Bi, cellulose) and conventional polymers (Polyethylene) on Mytilus galloprovincialis by using transcriptomics. This approach is increasingly being used to assess the effects of pollutants on organisms, obtaining data on numerous biological pathways simultaneously. Whole hepatopancreas de novo transcriptome sequencing was performed, individuating 972 genes differentially expressed across experimental groups compared to the control. Through the comparative transcriptomic profiling emerges that the preponderant effect is attributable to the marine incubation of MPs, especially for incubated polycaprolactone (731 DEGs). Mater-Bi and cellulose alter the smallest number of genes and biological processes in the mussel hepatopancreas. All microparticles, regardless of their polymeric composition, dysregulated innate immunity, and fatty acid metabolism biological processes. These findings highlight the necessity of considering the interactions of MPs with the environmental factors in the marine ecosystem when performing ecotoxicological evaluations. The results obtained contribute to fill current knowledge gaps regarding the potential environmental impacts of biodegradable polymers

Wireless random-access networks with bipartite interference graphs

We consider random-access networks where nodes represent servers with a queue and can be either active or inactive. A node deactivates at unit rate, while it activates at a rate that depends on its queue length, provided none of its neighbors is active. We consider arbitrary bipartite graphs in the limit as the initial queue lengths become large and identify the transition time between the two states where one half of the network is active and the other half is inactive. The transition path is decomposed into a succession of transitions on complete bipartite subgraphs. We formulate a randomized greedy algorithm that takes the graph as input and gives as output the set of transition paths the network is most likely to follow. Along each path we determine the mean transition time and its law on the scale of its mean. Depending on the activation rates, we identify three regimes of behavior.</p

Training Load, Official Match Locomotor Demand, and Their Association in Top-Class Soccer Players During a Full Competitive Season

: Riboli, A, Nardi, F, Osti, M, Cefis, M, Tesoro, G, and Mazzoni, S. Training load, official match locomotor demand, and their association in top-class soccer players during a full competitive season. J Strength Cond Res 39(2): 249-259, 2025-To examine training load and official match locomotor demands of top-class soccer players during a full competitive season and to evaluate their association. Twenty-five top-class soccer players competing in UEFA international competitions were included. The season was divided into 2 different categories: 2 matches (M2) or 3 matches (M3) in 8 days. Starters and nonstarters were classified. Total distance (TD), high-speed running (HSR, 15-20 km·h-1), very high-speed running (VHSR, 20.1-24 km·h-1), sprint (SPR, >24.1 km·h-1), and accelerations/decelerations (Acc + Dec, >3 m·s2) were recorded. Trivial to moderate differences (p 0.05) in M2 and M3 with ∼5 to ∼29% match-to-match variability depending on metrics. Total load (i.e., training plus match loads) was higher (p < 0.05, ES: 0.75/1.61) in starters than nonstarters, because of a higher match load and no difference in the training load. Very high-speed running and SPR accumulated during training sessions were largely to very largely (r = 0.60 to 0.72) associated with TD, HSR, VHSR, and Acc + Dec covered during official match; VHSR and TD during training were largely to very largely (r = 0.57 and 0.71) associated with SPR and Acc + Dec during official match. In conclusion, (a) congested periods seemed to not affect official match locomotor performance; (b) practitioners may consider high week-by-week workload variability for individualizing training prescriptions, especially for nonstarters; and (c) the VHSR and SPR accumulated during training were associated with the official match locomotor demands, and it may be considered for maximizing performance

A Passive Variable Impedance Control Strategy with Viscoelastic Parameters Estimation of Soft Tissues for Safe Ultrasonography

In the context of telehealth, robotic approaches have proven a valuable solution to in-person visits in remote areas, with decreased costs for patients and infection risks. In particular, in ultrasonography, robots have the potential to reproduce the skills required to acquire high-quality images while reducing the sonographer's physical efforts. In this paper, we address the control of the interaction of the probe with the patient's body, a critical aspect of ensuring safe and effective ultrasonography. We introduce a novel approach based on variable impedance control, allowing real-time optimisation of a compliant controller parameters during ultrasound procedures. This optimisation is formulated as a quadratic programming problem and incorporates physical constraints derived from viscoelastic parameter estimations. Safety and passivity constraints, including an energy tank, are also integrated to minimise potential risks during human-robot interaction. The proposed method's efficacy is demonstrated through experiments on a patient dummy torso, highlighting its potential for achieving safe behaviour and accurate force control during ultrasound procedures, even in cases of contact loss.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, submitted to ICRA 202

Influence of the anesthetic modality on the development of neurological injury after lower third molar extraction: A systematic review of the literature

The aim of this study is to evaluate if the risk of neurological injury to the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) and the lingual nerve (LN), following the extraction of lower third molars are influenced by the anesthetic modality (local anesthesia (LA) vs. general anesthesia (GA)). A systematic search was performed through the PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, an Web of Science databases; furthermore, a manual search was performed by analyzing the references of full-text articles. From a total of 309 studies (collected after the removal of duplicates), 6 studies were selected. Of these, 4 reported a correlation between GA and nerve damage, while the other 2 did not show an obvious as- sociation. The level of bias in the studies was also calculated. Only 2 studies showed a medium risk of bias, while 4 studies showed a high risk of bias; no study showed a low risk of bias. Four of the 6 studies high- lighted a higher incidence of IAN and LN injury, following the extractions performed under GA. Although no scientific evidence is yet available, due to the scarcity and the limited quality of the studies in the literature, considering the risk–benefit ratio, LA should be the first choice in lower third molar surgery

Solving rehabilitation scheduling problems via a two-phase ASP approach

A core part of the rehabilitation scheduling process consists of planning rehabilitation physiotherapy sessions for patients, by assigning proper operators to them in a certain time slot of a given day, taking into account several legal, medical and ethical requirements and optimizations, e.g., patient’s preferences and operator’s work balancing. Being able to efficiently solve such problem is of upmost importance, in particular after the COVID-19 pandemic that significantly increased rehabilitation’s needs. In this paper, we present a two-phase solution to rehabilitation scheduling based on Answer Set Programming, which proved to be an effective tool for solving practical scheduling problems. We first present a general encoding, and then add domain specific optimizations. Results of experiments performed on both synthetic and real benchmarks, the latter provided by ICS Maugeri, show the effectiveness of our solution as well as the impact of our domain specific optimization

Different Erionite Species Bind Iron into the Structure: A Potential Explanation for Fibrous Erionite Toxicity

In this investigation, the crystal chemical characterization of one sample of woolly erionite-K (Lander County, NV, USA) was examined after suspension in a FeCl2 solution, in anaerobic conditions. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the chemical composition of erionite on its efficiency to bind iron. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) results showed that the sample bound Fe(II) through an ion-exchange mechanism mainly involving Ca. In addition, chemical and structural data indicated that Fe(II) is fixed at the Ca3 site, six-fold coordinated to water molecules. According to Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) sample surface area the amount of Fe(II) bound by the fibers was comparable with that retrieved for fibrous erionite-Na sample from Rome (OR, USA) for which the ion-exchange process mainly affected Na. This finding provides clear evidence of a strong tendency of Fe(II) to bind to the erionite structure. Furthermore, considering that the woolly erionite-K from Langer County differs markedly from erionite-Na from Rome in the extra-framework cation content, our observations indicate that the Fe binding efficiency is not significantly modulated by the chemical composition. Notably, Fe ion-exchanged and/or accumulated on the fiber surface can generate hydroxyl radicals via the Fenton reaction, thus influencing the potential carcinogenicity of the different erionite species