134 research outputs found
Newborn firms and regional diversification patterns: The role of cultural diversity
We blend the economics of diversity and evolutionary
economic geography theories and study the relationship
between the cultural diversity of foreign-born entrepreneurs and regional sectoral diversification, proxied by
the sectoral variety of newborn firms. We focus on
Italian evidence and use a unique data set that stems
from a combination of different sources of information,
including the Union of the Chambers of Commerce, the
OECD, and the National Institute of Statistics. The
results confirm that cultural diversity of entrepreneurs
is associated with greater sectoral variety of newborn
firms, with an imbalance in favor of variety in unrelated
activities vis-Ă -vis related ones
Cervical carcinogenesis, bacterial vaginosis, HPV-mRNA test and relapse of CIN2+ after loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP)
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study
was to evaluate the relationship between bacterial
vaginosis (BV) and relapse of cervical intraepithelial
neoplasia grade 2 or more (CIN2+) after Loop
electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP).
PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred four
patients who underwent LEEP for CIN2+ were followed
up every six months for three years. Fifty-three
were negative for BV and fifty-one were positive.
Each clinical control included Pap test, colposcopy,
Amsel criteria test, HPV-DNA, and HPV-mRNA test.
RESULTS: Patients’ age, presence of BV, positivity
to HPV-DNA and HPV-mRNA tests were analyzed.
The average age of patients was 42.5 ± 8.92 years
(median: 42.5; range from 27 to 58 years). The minimum
follow-up was 6 months and maximum 36
months (average: 22.8 ± 4.53; median: 24). The 10%
of the patients with HPV-mRNA test negative had relapsed,
compared to 45% of patients with HPV-mRNA
test positive. Among the 53 patients without BV
the 20% had relapsed compared with 23% of 51 patients
with diagnosis of BV.
CONCLUSIONS: There is no evidence for higher
percentage of relapse in patients with BV, submitted
to excisional procedure for CIN2+ associated
to HPV-m-RNA test positivity. There is only a correlation
among BV and relapse of CIN2+ lesions after
LEEP
Use of deferoxamine (DFO) in transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia during pregnancy: A retrospective study.
Objective: To report cases of use of chelation therapy during pregnancy which resulted in favorable outcomes for the babies. Materials and methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we described the evolution and outcome of 9 pregnancies in Italian thalassemic women who received deferoxamine (DFO) inadvertently during early pregnancy. Results: The use of deferoxamine during first trimester did not lead to adverse effects on the fetus or cause major complications for the gestation, although an increase in iron burden was observed after suspending chelation therapy. Conclusion: In our experience, iron-chelation therapy might be administrated in pregnancy where the benefits to the mother outweigh the potential risks to the baby. Keywords: Deferoxamine, Iron chelation therapy, Magnetic resonance T2*, Pregnancy, Thalassemi
CP violation and Leptogenesis in models with Minimal Lepton Flavour Violation
We investigate the viability of leptogenesis in models with three heavy
right-handed neutrinos, where the charged-lepton and the neutrino Yukawa
couplings are the only irreducible sources of lepton-flavour symmetry breaking
(Minimal Lepton Flavour Violation hypothesis). We show that in this framework a
specific type of resonant leptogenesis can be successfully accomplished. For
natural values of the free parameters, this mechanism requires a high
right-handed neutrino mass scale (M_\nu \gsim 10^{12} GeV). By means of a
general effective field theory approach, we analyse the impact of the CP
violating phases responsible for leptogenesis on the low-energy FCNC
observables and derive bounds on the scale of flavour violating new physics
interactions. As a result of the high value of the scale of total lepton-number
violation, in this class of models the decay is expected to be
close to the present exclusion limit (under the additional assumption of new
particles carrying lepton flavour at the TeV scale).Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures; v2: new appendix, added note on hep-ph/0609067,
and other minor modification
Echocardiographic features and outcome of restrictive foramen ovale in fetuses with and without cardiac malformations. literature review
Foramen ovale is a small communication between the left and the right atrium and its restriction is a rare congenital heart anomaly. There is no consensus on diagnosis and management of fetal restrictive foramen ovale (RFO). In our paper we included 11 studies about fetuses affected by isolated RFO, RFO with D-Transposition of the Great Arteries (dTGA) and RFO with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). While fetuses affected from HLHS and dTGA with RFO have a poor prognosis, premature RFO in an otherwise structurally normal heart, if found in later gestation, have an overall good outcome
Timed rise from floor as a predictor of disease progression in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: An observational study
The role of timed items, and more specifically, of the time to rise from the floor, has been reported as an early prognostic factor for disease progression and loss of ambulation. The aim of our study was to investigate the possible effect of the time to rise from the floor test on the changes observed on the 6MWT over 12 months in a cohort of ambulant Duchenne boys.A total of 487 12-month data points were collected from 215 ambulant Duchenne boys. The age ranged between 5.0 and 20.0 years (mean 8.48 ±2.48 DS).The results of the time to rise from the floor at baseline ranged from 1.2 to 29.4 seconds in the boys who could perform the test. 49 patients were unable to perform the test at baseline and 87 at 12 month The 6MWT values ranged from 82 to 567 meters at baseline. 3 patients lost the ability to perform the 6mwt at 12 months. The correlation between time to rise from the floor and 6MWT at baseline was high (r = 0.6, p<0.01).Both time to rise from the floor and baseline 6MWT were relevant for predicting 6MWT changes in the group above the age of 7 years, with no interaction between the two measures, as the impact of time to rise from the floor on 6MWT change was similar in the patients below and above 350 m. Our results suggest that, time to rise from the floor can be considered an additional important prognostic factor of 12 month changes on the 6MWT and, more generally, of disease progression
Post-Transplant Cyclophosphamide and Tacrolimus–Mycophenolate Mofetil Combination Prevents Graft-versus-Host Disease in Allogeneic Peripheral Blood Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation from HLA-Matched Donors
Abstract Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) remains the only curative therapy for many hematologic malignancies but it is limited by high nonrelapse mortality (NRM), primarily from unpredictable control of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Recently, post-transplant cyclophosphamide demonstrated improved GVHD control in allogeneic bone marrow HCT. Here we explore cyclophosphamide in allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (alloPBSCT). Patients with high-risk hematologic malignancies received alloPBSCT from HLA-matched unrelated/related donors. GVHD prophylaxis included combination post-HCT cyclophosphamide 50 mg/kg (days +3 and +4) and tacrolimus/mofetil mycophenolate (T/MMF) (day +5 forward). The primary objective was the cumulative incidence of acute and chronic GVHD. Between March 2011 and May 2015, 35 consecutive patients received the proposed regimen. MMF was stopped in all patients at day +28; the median discontinuation of tacrolimus was day +113. Acute and chronic GVHD cumulative incidences were 17% and 7%, respectively, with no grade IV GVHD events, only 2 patients requiring chronic GVHD immunosuppression control, and no deaths from GVHD. Two-year NRM, overall survival, event-free survival, and chronic GVHD event-free survival rates were 3%, 77%, 54%, and 49%, respectively. The graft-versus-tumor effect was maintained as 5 of 15 patients (33%) who received HCT with evidence of disease experienced further disease response. A post-transplant cyclophosphamide + T/MMF combination strategy effectively prevented acute and chronic GVHD after alloPBSCT from HLA-matched donors and achieved an unprecedented low NRM without losing efficacy in disease control or impaired development of the graft-versus-tumor effect. This trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02300571
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