Ars medica o sharecare?

Gli studi terminologici favoriscono l'incontro fra approcci linguistico-culturali e concettuali, consentono di inquadrare e dare soluzione ai problemi legati alla traduzione plurilingue di concetti veicolari da termini specialistici nel mondo delle professioni. la mia ricerca si basa in particolare sul fenomeno della diffusione dei saperi schientifici attraverso i nuovi sistemi mediatici e la tendenza a portare una semplicazione e una standardizzazione dei sapere specific

Evaluating Communication Tools and Increasing Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Vermont Head Start Classrooms

Introduction: We designed a program for four Head Start classrooms that aimed to: 1) Provide classrooms a tool that would facilitate communication with families about nutrition, 2) Educate families about the MyMeal tool, and 3) Increase fruit and vegetable consumption by providing families with fresh fruits and vegetables Fruit and vegetables are important components of a healthy diet, and sufficient consumption helps reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. Eating behaviors during childhood are highly parentally influenced and function as the foundation for future eating patterns. Studies have shown that the extent to which fruits and vegetables are present and accessible in the home correlates with the amount of fruit and vegetables eaten by children.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1210/thumbnail.jp

Thyroid function tests, incongruent internally and with thyroid status, both in a pregnant woman and in her newborn daughter

Introduction: Thyroid function tests (TFT) are extensively used in daily clinical practice. Here, we described a case of incongruent TFT both in a pregnant woman and in her newborn. Case presentation: A 32-year-old woman, diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis during her first pregnancy, was monitored during her second gestation. At week 5 + 2 days, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) values (Dimension VISTA 1500, Siemens Healthineers) were within normal limits. At week 19 + 5 days, TSH remained normal while FT4 increased approximately by three-fold. FT4 inconsistency was with both TSH and the clinical status since she continued to be clinically euthyroid. On the same serum sample, thyroid autoantibodies were negative. At week 25 + 4 days, the patient complained of palpitations and dyspnea, with tachycardia. Even though TSH was normal, high levels of both FT4 and free triiodothyronine (FT3) were interpreted as evidence of thyroid overactivity and methimazole was started. TFT of the pregnant woman continued to be monitored throughout gestation. Postpartum FT4 and FT3 gradually returned to normal. TFT, performed on the daughter’s serum, 3 days after birth, showed the same inconsistency as her mother but without clinical signs of congenital hyperthyroidism. Based on the clinical and laboratory setting, the presence of circulating autoantibodies against T3 and T4 (THAb) was suspected and demonstrated by radioimmunoprecipitation. Conclusion: Analytical interferences should be supposed when TFT do not fit with the clinical picture and despite their infrequency, THAb must also be considered. To our knowledge, this is the first case describing the passage of THAb to the newborn

Carbon nanotubes and metal nanoparticles as electrode platform for sensors and biosensors

Este trabajo se centra principalmente en la mejora de las propiedades de los sensores y/o biosensores utilizando nanotubos de carbono y nanopartículas metálicas como plataformas de electrodo. Después de haber considerado varios ejemplos de la literatura, para alcanzar este objetivo se ha decidido integrar las nanopartículas metálicas en la superficie de los nanotubos de carbono para conseguir las ventajas de las propiedades de los dos materiales; por esta razón se han ensayado diversos procedimientos de síntesis de la literatura, y éstos han sido adaptados y optimizados. Esta primera etapa del trabajo tuvo como objetivo encontrar un protocolo sintético fácil y rápido para generar un material nano-híbrido y ha terminado con un protocolo de síntesis eficaz que calificaríamos "one-pot" ya que permite tener el material final deseado sin etapas de purificación intermedias. Por supuesto, el protocolo tiene que modificarse ligeramente dependiendo de las nanopartículas metálicas deseadas. Los materiales nano-híbridos obtenidos se han caracterizado, especialmente a través de microscopía electrónica de transmisión (TEM), pero también a veces con microscopía electrónica de barrido (SEM), después de cada síntesis para verificar si el protocolo estaba funcionando. El siguiente paso ha sido la prueba del material nano-híbrido, aplicándolo a la superficie de un electrodo de epoxy-grafito (mayormente utilizado en nuestro laboratorio) o un electrodo serigrafiado (SPE) para la detección de una biomolécula, tirosina. La prueba mostró resultados notables (Artículo 1), con una clara mejora de la capacidad de detección y la sensibilidad del material nano-híbrido contra el electrodo serigrafiado sin modificación o la modificación con sólo los nanotubos de carbono (sin nanopartículas metálicas). Después de este éxito se prepararon otros materiales nano-híbridos con diferentes nanopartículas metálicas; el objetivo era experimentar en un sistema multi electrodos utilizado en nuestro laboratorio, la lengua electrónica, que se utiliza para la resolución de mezclas de analitos. Un sistema de lengua electrónica no es sólo un conjunto de sensores (que se explicará mejor en la introducción de este trabajo), sino que también necesita una etapa de procesamiento de datos ya que los analitos que participan en el proceso suministran señales similares, por lo que se necesita una interpretación quimiométrica avanzada (en nuestro caso con redes neuronales artificiales). Con el objeto de recoger nuevas variantes, en este caso la utilización de biosensores enzimáticos, parte de este trabajo se ha llevado a cabo en la Universidad de Lund (Suecia), en colaboración con el grupo del Prof. Lo Gorton; de esta manera se ha podido aplicar la parte de procesamiento informático sin tener que preocuparse también de la optimización de los electrodos, ya que en ese grupo ya se habían optimizado los biosensores que podrían ser utilizados para nuestro propósito. Esta colaboración dio lugar a un resultado interesante (Artículo 3 - manuscrito) en los que hemos sido capaces de construir una proof-of-concept de una innovadora lengua bio-electrónica usando variaciones de una enzima específica (celobiosa deshidrogenasa - CDH) como elemento de detección que nunca se había construido antes. El último paso de este trabajo ha sido la integración de los materiales nano-híbridos sintetizados en los sensores para la lengua electrónica utilizada en nuestro laboratorio. Los objetivos de la lengua electrónica han sido los azúcares presentes en bagazo de caña utilizado para la producción de biocombustibles. Los resultados recogidos y la buena predicción del sistema de lengua electrónica han sido excelentes y han sido publicados recientemente (artículo 2), y enseñan una proof-ofconcept de un sistema de trabajo para la resolución de mezclas de azúcares.This work is mainly focused on the improvement of the properties of sensors and/or biosensors using carbon nanotubes and metal nanoparticles as electrode platform. After having gone through a good amount of literature examples, to reach this goal it has been decided to embed the metal nanoparticles on the carbon nanotubes surface to be able to take advantage of both material properties; for this reason, various synthetic procedures from the literature has been tested, modifying and optimizing them. This first step of the work was aimed to find a facile and quick synthetic protocol to generate a nano-hybrid material and it ended with an effective one-pot synthetic protocol that allows having the final desired material without intermediate purification steps. Of course the protocol has to be slightly modified depending on the desired metal nanoparticles. The obtained nano-hybrid materials have been characterised, especially through transmission electron microscopy (TEM) but also some time with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), after every synthesis to verify if the protocol was working. The next step has been a test of the nano-hybrid material, applying it to the surface of an epoxy graphite electrode (largely used in our lab) or a screen-printed electrode (SPE) for the detection of a biomolecule, Tyrosine. This test showed remarkable results (Article 1) with a clear improvement of the detection ability and sensitivity of the nano-hybrid material against the bare screen-printed electrode or the modification with only carbon nanotubes (without metal nanoparticles). After this success few different nano-hybrid materials have been prepared with different metal nanoparticles with the objective to try them in an electrode array system commonly used in our lab, the electronic tongue system, used for the resolution of mixtures of analytes. An electronic tongue system is not just an array of sensors (this would be better explained in the Introduction of this work), but it also needs a step of data processing since the analytes involved in the process supply very similar results; for this, an advanced chemometric treatment is needed, (in our case using Artificial Neural Networks). With the aim of gathering new variants, in this case the use of enzymatic biosensors, part of this work has been carried out at the Lund University (Sweden) in collaboration with the group of Prof. Lo Gorton; in this way, the computer processing part could be applied without having to worry also of the electrode optimization, since in that group they already had optimized biosensors that could be used for our purpose. This collaboration resulted in an interesting outcome (Article 3 - manuscript) where we have been able to build as a proof-ofconcept a novel bio-electronic tongue with variation of a specific enzyme (cellobiose dehydrogenase - CDH), a sensing element never used before in this manner. The last step of this work has been the integration of the synthesised nano-hybrid materials in the sensors for the electronic tongue used in our lab. The targets of the electronic tongue have been the sugars present in sugarcane bagasse used for the production of bio-fuels. The results collected and the goodness of prediction of the electronic tongue system have been satisfactory and they have been recently published (Article 2), showing a proof-of-concept of a working system for sugar mixtures resolution

Phase I/II trial of gemcitabine plus cisplatin and etoposide in patients with small-cell lung cancer

Objective: The objectives of this phase 1/11 study were to define the maximum tolerated dose (MTD), safety, and activity of cisplatin, etoposide, and gemcitabine (PEG) in the treatment of previously untreated patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). Patients and Methods: Chemonaive patients received fixed doses of gemcitabine (1000 mg/m(2) on days I and 8) and cisplatin (70 mg/m(2) on day 2) and escalating doses of etoposide (starting dose of 50 mg/m(2) on days 3,4, and 5) every 3 weeks. No prophylactic granulocyte colony-stimulating factors were used. Results: From September 1998 to April 2000, 56 patients with limited- or extensive-stage SCLC were enrolled and received a total of 235 cycles. Two different etoposide doses were tested in eight patients. At the second level (75 mg/m(2)), two out of two patients experienced dose-limiting toxicities (neutropenia and thrombocytopenia) and no further dose-escalation was attempted, thus an etoposide dose of 50 mg/m 2 was defined as the MTD. In the subsequent phase 11 evaluation, 48 additional patients were enrolled, for a total of 54 patients treated at the MTD. Grade 3/4 neutropenia and thrombocytopenia occurred in 66.7 and 53.7%,, of patients, respectively. Non-hematologic toxicity was mild, with grade 3 diarrhea and fatigue as the main side effects. Two patients died of neutropenic sepsis (one at 75 mg/m(2) and the other at So I n g/In 2 etoposide). Ten complete and 29 partial responses were reported, for an overall response rate of 72.2% (95% confidence interval, 56.6-85.0%). The median duration of response and median survival were 8.0 and 10 months, respectively, with a 1-year survival probability of 37.5%. Conclusions: he combination of PEG is feasible and well tolerated as front-line chemotherapy in SCLC. A randomized comparison of this triplet is underway. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Resolution of galactose, glucose, xylose and mannose in sugarcane bagasse employing a voltammetric electronic tongue formed by metals oxy-hydroxide/MWCNT modified electrodes

Second generation ethanol is produced from the carbohydrates released from the cell wall of bagasse and straw of sugarcane. The objective of this work is the characterization and application of a voltammetric electronic tongue using an array of glassy carbon electrodes modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes containing metal (Paladium, Gold, Copper, Nickel and Cobalt) oxy-hydroxide nanoparticles (GCE/MWCNT/MetalsOOH) towards a simpler analysis of carbohydrates (glucose, xylose, galactose and mannose). The final architecture of the back-propagation Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model had 36 input neurons and a hidden layer with 5 neurons. The ANN based prediction model has provided satisfactory concentrations for all carbohydrates; the obtained response had a maximum NRMSE of 12.4% with a maximum deviation of slopes in the obtained vs. expected comparison graph of 15%. For all species, the comparison correlation coefficient was of r ≥ 0.99 for the training subset and of r ≥ 0.96 for the test subset