Pancreas divisum. Correlation between anatomical abnormalities and bile precipitation in the gallbladder in seven patients

Pancreas divisum is a genetic defect associated with recurrent acute pancreatitis due to insufficient drainage of the accessory pancreatic duct. Seven young patients diagnosed with pancreatic divisum and thickening of the gallbladder bile as shown on magnetic resonance cholangio-pancreatography without pancreatic ductal changes underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy. During the mean follow-up of 32 months no episode of pancreatitis was reported. There is an association between PD and higher concentration of bile in the gallbladder. Cholecystectomy can be considered curative in patients with PD in the absence of indications for major surgery

Dataset of measured and commented pantograph electric arcs in DC railways

DC railways are characterized by particularly intense arcing caused by pantograph detachment, due to the large current intensity and the general implementation of onboard resonant filters, whose transient response is triggered by electric transients including electric arcs. Electric arc depends on the train speed (the relative speed between the sliding contact over the pantograph and the hot spot on the catenary system), the intensity of the collected pantograph current and the line voltage level. Electric arcs are broadband in nature and can trigger the system transient response dominated by the resonant filter, besides interfering with the operation of onboard equipment (such as for energy conversion and metering)

Anthrax Protective Antigen Retargeted with Single‐Chain Variable Fragments Delivers Enzymes to Pancreatic Cancer Cells

The nontoxic, anthrax protective antigen/lethal factor N-terminal domain (PA/LFN ) complex is an effective platform for translocating proteins into the cytosol of cells. Mutant PA (mPA) was recently fused to epidermal growth factor (EGF) to retarget delivery of LFN to cells bearing EGF receptors (EGFR), but the requirement for a known cognate ligand limits the applicability of this approach. Here, we render practical protective antigen retargeting to a variety of receptors with mPA single-chain variable fragment (scFv) fusion constructs. Our design enables the targeting of two pancreatic cancer-relevant receptors, EGFR and carcinoembryonic antigen. We demonstrate that fusion to scFvs does not disturb the basic functions of mPA. Moreover, mPA-scFv fusions enable cell-specific delivery of diphtheria toxin catalytic domain and Ras/Rap1-specific endopeptidase to pancreatic cancer cells. Importantly, mPA-scFv fusion-based treatments display potent cell-specific toxicity in vitro, opening fundamentally new routes toward engineered immunotoxins and providing a potential solution to the challenge of targeted protein delivery to the cytosol of cancer cells.NSF (Grant CHE-1351807

Potenzialità dell'approccio multi-agente nell'ambito dei sistemi informativi sanitari

Il campo dell'assistenza sanitaria è ampio e caratterizzato dall'eterogeneità dei sistemi adottati e dei dati utilizzati. Per ottenere elevati standard di qualità ed efficienza, è fortemente richiesta l'interoperabilità fra diversi sistemi informativi. In questo paper viene proposta un architettura ad agenti per affrontare tali tematiche, seguendo le linee guida dell'Unione Europea e i requisiti del Ministero della Salute. Per validare il nostro sistema e mostrarne le potenzialità, abbiamo sviluppato su tale architettura un tipico scenario di emergenza, dove il personale di pronto soccorso deve accedere, tramite periferiche mobile, al Profilo Sanitario Sintetico (PSS) di un cittadino, contenuto nel Fascicolo Sanitario Elettronico (FSE)

On line monitoring of SvO2 during combined anesthesia. Preliminary observations [Monitoraggio on line della SvO2 in corso di anestesia combinata. Osservazioni preliminari.]

[No abstract available