A rare case of leiomyoma of the bladder

Bladder leiomyoma is a benign tumour of the bladder and constitute <0.5% of all bladder tumors. We report a clinical case of a 51‑year‑old female who presented with with symptomatic bladder leiomyoma. An ultrasound examination showed well-defined bladder leiomyoma in the right posterior bladder wall, which was excised through a transurethral resection. The pathologic diagnosis was bladder leiomyoma

Cholinergic innervation of human mesenteric lymphatic vessels

Background: The cholinergic neurotransmission within the human mesenteric lymphatic vessels has been poorly studied. Therefore, our aim is to analyse the cholinergic nerve fibres of lymphatic vessels using the traditional enzymatic techniques of staining, plus the biochemical modifications of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity.Materials and methods: Specimens obtained from human mesenteric lymphatic vessels were subjected to the following experimental procedures: 1) drawing, cutting and staining of tissues; 2) staining of total nerve fibres; 3) enzymatic staining of cholinergic nerve fibres; 4) homogenisation of tissues; 5) biochemical amount of proteins; 6) biochemical amount of AChE activity; 6) quantitative analysis of images; 7) statistical analysis of data.Results: The mesenteric lymphatic vessels show many AChE positive nerve fibres around their wall with an almost plexiform distribution. The incubation time was performed at 1 h (partial activity) and 6 h (total activity). Moreover, biochemical dosage of the same enzymatic activity confirms the results obtained with morphological methods.Conclusions: The homogenates of the studied tissues contain strong AChE activity. In our study, the lymphatic vessels appeared to contain few cholinergic nerve fibres. Therefore, it is expected that perivascular nerve stimulation stimulates cholinergic nerves innervating the mesenteric arteries to release the neurotransmitter AChE, which activates muscarinic or nicotinic receptors to modulate adrenergic neurotransmission. These results strongly suggest, that perivascular cholinergic nerves have little or no effect on the adrenergic nerve function in mesenteric arteries. The cholinergic nerves innervating mesenteric arteries do not mediate direct vascular responses.

Open and / or laparoscopic surgical treatment of liver hydatic cysts

Hydatid disease is a severe parasitic disease with a widely ranging distribution. In the human being the liver is the most frequent organ affected. 1 The treatment should be individualized to the morphology, size, number and location of the cysts, that is why a variety of surgical operations have been advocated from complete resection like total pericystectomy or partial hepatectomy to laparoscopy to a minimally invasive procedures like percutaneous aspiration of cysts to conservative drug therapy. 3-4 This study compares laparoscopic versus open management of the hydatid cyst of liver the surgical approach to liver echinococcosis is still a controversial issue and shows our results of surgical treatment of liver hydatid cysts during a 3-years period

Quantum Bundle Description of the Quantum Projective Spaces

We realise Heckenberger and Kolb's canonical calculus on quantum projective (n-1)-space as the restriction of a distinguished quotient of the standard bicovariant calculus for Cq[SUn]. We introduce a calculus on the quantum (2n-1)-sphere in the same way. With respect to these choices of calculi, we present quantum projective (N-1)-space as the base space of two different quantum principal bundles, one with total space Cq[SUn], and the other with total space Cq[S^(2n-1)]. We go on to give Cq[CP^n] the structure of a quantum framed manifold. More specifically, we describe the module of one-forms of Heckenberger and Kolb's calculus as an associated vector bundle to the principal bundle with total space Cq[SUn]. Finally, we construct strong connections for both bundles.Comment: 33 pages; minor changes, to appear in Comm. Math. Phy

Myoblast adhesion, proliferation and differentiation on Human Elastin-Like Polypeptide (HELP) hydrogels

Purpose: The biochemical, mechanical and topographic properties of extracellular matrix are crucially involved in determining skeletal muscle cells morphogenesis, proliferation and differentiation. Human elastin-like polypeptides (HELPs) are recombinant biomimetic proteins designed to mimicking some properties of the native matrix protein; when employed as myoblasts adhesion substrates they stimulate in vitro myogenesis. Given the consequences that biophysical properties of extracellular matrix exert on skeletal muscle cells, the aim of this work was to investigate the effects of HELP hydrogels on myoblasts viability and functions. Methods: We recently synthesized a novel polypeptide, HELPc, by fusing the elastin-like backbone to a 41aa stretch present in the α2 chain of type IV collagen, containing two RGD motifs. To obtain hydrogels, the enzymatic cross-linking of the HELPc was accomplished by transglutaminase. Here, we employed both non cross-linked HELPc glass coatings and cross-linked HELPc hydrogels at different monomer density as adhesion substrates for C2C12 cells, used as myoblasts model. Results: By comparing cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation, we revealed several striking differences. Depending on support rigidity, adhesion to HELPc substrates dictates cell morphology, spreading, focal adhesions formation and cytoskeletal organization. Hydrogels greatly stimulated cell proliferation, particularly in low serum-medium, and partially inhibited myogenic differentiation. Conclusions: In the whole, the results underline the potentiality of these genetically engineered polypeptides as a tool for dissecting crucial steps in myogenesis

Polynomial-Time Amoeba Neighborhood Membership and Faster Localized Solving

We derive efficient algorithms for coarse approximation of algebraic hypersurfaces, useful for estimating the distance between an input polynomial zero set and a given query point. Our methods work best on sparse polynomials of high degree (in any number of variables) but are nevertheless completely general. The underlying ideas, which we take the time to describe in an elementary way, come from tropical geometry. We thus reduce a hard algebraic problem to high-precision linear optimization, proving new upper and lower complexity estimates along the way.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to a conference proceeding

Differential and holomorphic differential operators on noncommutative algebras

Abstract This paper deals with sheaves of differential operators on noncommutative algebras, in a manner related to the classical theory of D-modules. The sheaves are defined by quotienting the tensor algebra of vector fields (suitably deformed by a covariant derivative). As an example we can obtain enveloping algebra like relations for Hopf algebras with differential structures which are not bicovariant. Symbols of differential operators are defined, but not studied. These sheaves are shown to be in the center of a category of bimodules with flat bimodule covariant derivatives. Also holomorphic differential operators are considered

La rintracciabilità di razza della carne ovina mediante marcatori molecolari STR: risultati preliminari

La ricerca propone la messa a punto di un sistema di rintracciabilità della carne ovina mediante metodiche di genetica molecolare. Sono stati tipizzati mediante 19 marcatori STR un totale di 800 campioni di cui: (a) 90 appartenenti a un gruppo costituito sia da soggetti di importazione di razza indefinita che da prodotti di incrocio locali reperibili presso macelli e punti vendita; (b) i restanti campioni appartenenti a sette razze ovine autoctone dell’Italia Centro-Meridionale. È stato adottato un test di assegnazione di tipo probabilistico per valutare la possibilità di attribuire i singoli campioni alla propria razza d’origine. Tutti i campioni di razza Sarda sono risultati correttamente assegnati, così come oltre il 98% dei campioni delle altre razze. I risultati preliminari sembrano molto promettenti, anche se ulteriori analisi si rendono necessarie per meglio comprendere la potenza statistica di un simile test di assegnazione razziale prima di inserirlo nella catena di produzione della carne ovina