Correlation of Early Outcomes and Intradiscal Interleukin-6 Expression in Lumbar Fusion Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if there is correlation between intradiscal levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and early outcome measures in patients undergoing lumbar fusion for painful disc degeneration. METHODS: Intervertebral disc tissue was separated into annulus fibrosus/nucleus pulposus and cultured separately in vitro in serum-free medium (Opti-MEM). Conditioned media was collected after 48 hours. The concentration of IL-6 was quantified using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Pearson correlation coefficients quantified relationships between IL-6 levels and pre- and postoperative visual analogue scale (VAS) back pain and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), as well as change in VAS/ODI. RESULTS: Sixteen discs were harvested from 9 patients undergoing anterior lumbar interbody fusion (mean age, 47.4 years; range, 21-70 years). Mean preoperative and 6-month postoperative VAS were 8.1 and 3.7, respectively. Mean preoperative and postoperative ODI were 56.2 and 25.6, respectively. There were significant positive correlations between IL-6 expression and postoperative VAS (ρ = 0.38, p = 0.048) and ODI (ρ = 0.44, p = 0.02). No significant correlations were found between intradiscal IL-6 expression and preoperative VAS (ρ = -0.12, p = 0.54). Trends were seen associating IL-6 expression and change in VAS/ODI (ρ = -0.35 p = 0.067; ρ = -0.34, p = 0.08, respectively). A trend associated IL-6 and preoperative ODI (ρ = 0.36, p = 0.063). CONCLUSION: The direct association between IL-6 expression and VAS/ODI suggests patients with elevated intradiscal cytokine expression may have worse early outcomes than those with lower expression of IL-6 after surgery for symptomatic disc degeneration

Tracking Multiple Acoustic Sources using Particle Filtering

Publication in the conference proceedings of EUSIPCO, Florence, Italy, 200

Experimental evaluation of a localization algorithm for multiple acoustic sources in reverberating environments

Publication in the conference proceedings of EUSIPCO, Florence, Italy, 200

MRI analysis for Hippocampus segmentation on a distributed infrastructure

Medical image computing raises new challenges due to the scale and the complexity of the required analyses. Medical image databases are currently available to supply clinical diagnosis. For instance, it is possible to provide diagnostic information based on an imaging biomarker comparing a single case to the reference group (controls or patients with disease). At the same time many sophisticated and computationally intensive algorithms have been implemented to extract useful information from medical images. Many applications would take great advantage by using scientific workflow technology due to its design, rapid implementation and reuse. However this technology requires a distributed computing infrastructure (such as Grid or Cloud) to be executed efficiently. One of the most used workflow manager for medical image processing is the LONI pipeline (LP), a graphical workbench developed by the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (http://pipeline.loni.usc.edu). In this article we present a general approach to submit and monitor workflows on distributed infrastructures using LONI Pipeline, including European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) and Torque-based batch farm. In this paper we implemented a complete segmentation pipeline in brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It requires time-consuming and data-intensive processing and for which reducing the computing time is crucial to meet clinical practice constraints. The developed approach is based on web services and can be used for any medical imaging application

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the “spinal cord injury-falls concern scale” in the Italian population

Study design: Psychometrics study. Objective: The objective of this study was to develop an Italian version of the Spinal Cord Injury-Falls Concern Scale (SCI-FCS) and examine its reliability and validity. Setting: Multicenter study in spinal units in Northern and Southern Italy. The scale also was administered to non-hospitalized outpatient clinic patients. Methods: The original scale was translated from English to Italian using the “Translation and Cultural Adaptation of Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures” guidelines. The reliability and validity of the culturally adapted scale were assessed following the “Consensus-Based Standards for the Selection of Health Status Measurement Instruments” checklist. The SCI-FCS-I internal consistency, inter-rater, and intra-rater reliability were examined using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and the intraclass correlation coefficient, respectively. Concurrent validity was evaluated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient with the Italian version of the short form of the Wheelchair Use Confidence Scale for Manual Wheelchair Users (WheelCon-M-I-short form). Results: The Italian version of the SCI-FCS-I was administered to 124 participants from 1 June to 30 September 2017. The mean ± SD of the SCI-FCS-I score was 16.73 ± 5.88. All SCI-FCS items were either identical or similar in meaning to the original version’s items. Cronbach’s α was 0.827 (p < 0.01), the inter-rater reliability was 0.972 (p < 0.01), and the intra-rater reliability was 0.973 (p < 0.01). Pearson’s correlation coefficient of the SCI-FCS-I scores with the WheelCon-M-I-short form was 0.56 (p < 0.01). Conclusions: The SCI-FCS-I was found to be reliable and a valid outcome measure for assessing manual wheelchair concerns about falling in the Italian population

Evaluation of Anti-Candida Activity of Vitis vinifera L. Seed Extracts Obtained from Wine and Table Cultivars

For the first time, grape seed extracts (GSEs), obtained from wine and table cultivars of Vitis vinifera L., cultured in experimental fields of Lazio and Puglia regions of Italy and grown in different agronomic conditions, have been tested on 43 Candida species strains.We demonstrated a significant correlation between the content of the flavan-3-ols in GSEs extracts, with a polymerization degree 654, and anti-Candida activity.Moreover, we demonstrated thatGSEs, obtained from plants cultured with reduced irrigation, showed a content of polymeric flavan-3-ols >250mg/gwith geometric mean MICvalues between 5.7 and 20.2 mg/L against Candida albicans reference strains. GSE, showing 573mg/g of polymeric flavan-3-ols, has been tested in an experimental murine model of vaginal candidiasis by using noninvasive in vivo imaging technique. The results pointed out a significant inhibition of Candida albicans load 5 days after challenge.These findings indicate that GSEs with high content of polymeric flavan-3-ols can be used in mucosal infection as vaginal candidiasis

Sexual signalling in Propithecus verreauxi: male ‘‘chest badge’’ and female mate choice

Communication, an essential prerequisite for sociality, involves the transmission of signals. A signal can be defined as any action or trait produced by one animal, the sender, that produces a change in the behaviour of another animal, the receiver. Secondary sexual signals are often used for mate choice because they may inform on a potential partner’s quality. Verreaux’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) is characterized by the presence of two different morphs of males (bimorphism), which can show either a stained or clean chest. The chest becomes stained by secretions of the sternal gland during throat marking (rubbing throat and chest on a vertical substrate while smearing the scent deposition). The role of the chest staining in guiding female mate choice was previously hypothesized but never demonstrated probably due to the difficulty of observing sifaka copulations in the wild. Here we report that stained-chested males had a higher throat marking activity than clean-chested males during the mating season, but not during the birth season. We found that females copulated more frequently with stained-chested males than the clean-chested males. Finally, in agreement with the biological market theory, we found that clean-chested males, with a lower scent-releasing potential, offered more grooming to females. This ‘‘grooming for sex’’ tactic was not completely unsuccessful; in fact, half of the clean-chested males copulated with females, even though at low frequency. In conclusion, the chest stain, possibly correlated with different cues targeted by females, could be one of the parameters which help females in selecting mates

Isothermal folding of G-quadruplexes

Thermodynamic studies of G-quadruplex stability are an essential complement to structures obtained by NMR or x-ray crystallography. An understanding of the energetics of quadruplex folding provides a necessary foundation for the physical interpretation of quadruplex formation and reactivity. While thermal denaturation methods are most commonly used to evaluate quadruplex stability, it is also possible to study folding using isothermal titration methods. G-quadruplex folding is tightly coupled to specific cation binding. We describe here protocols for monitoring the cation-driven quadruplex folding transition using circular dichroism or absorbance, and for determination of the distribution of free and bound cation using a fluorescence indicator. Together these approaches provide insight into quadruplex folding at constant temperature, and characterize the linkage between cation binding and folding