UVB radiation induced effects on cells studied by FTIR spectroscopy

We have made a preliminary analysis of the results about the eVects on tumoral cell line (lymphoid T cell line Jurkat) induced by UVB radiation (dose of 310 mJ/cm^2) with and without a vegetable mixture. In the present study, we have used two techniques: Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and flow cytometry. FTIR spectroscopy has the potential to provide the identiWcation of the vibrational modes of some of the major compounds (lipid, proteins and nucleic acids) without being invasive in the biomaterials. The second technique has allowed us to perform measurements of cytotoxicity and to assess the percentage of apoptosis. We already studied the induction of apoptotic process in the same cell line by UVB radiation; in particular, we looked for correspondences and correlations between FTIR spetroscopy and flow cytometry data finding three highly probable spectroscopic markers of apoptosis (Pozzi et al. in Radiat Res 168:698-705, 2007). In the present work, the results have shown significant changes in the absorbance and spectral pattern in the wavenumber protein and nucleic acids regions after the treatments

Environmental Asbestotic Pleural Plaques in Northeast Corsica: Correlations with Airborne and Pleural Mineralogic Analysis

We report a prevalence study of environmental pleural plaques in subjects over 50 years old from the northeastern Corsican village of Murato, built on asbestos surface deposits. The percentage of plaques was 41%, versus 7.5% in the control village of Vezzani. Although surface deposits contain both chrysotile and tremolite, airborne pollution and asbestos lung burden of exposed inhabitants consist essentially of tremolite as assessed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). However, TEM analysis of the parietal pleura of three animals bred in exposed areas showed a predominance of short fibers of chrysotile. The respective roles of tremolite and chrysotile in inducing pleural plaques in Corsica should thus be considered.—Environ Health Perspect 102(Suppl 5):251–252 (1994

A 50 l CYGNO prototype overground characterization

The nature of dark matter is still unknown and an experimental program to look for dark matter particles in our Galaxy should extend its sensitivity to light particles in the GeV mass range and exploit the directional information of the DM particle motion (Vahsen et al. in CYGNUS: feasibility of a nuclear recoil observatory with directional sensitivity to dark matter and neutrinos, arXiv:2008.12587, 2020). The CYGNO project is studying a gaseous time projection chamber operated at atmospheric pressure with a Gas Electron Multiplier (Sauli in Nucl Instrum Meth A 386:531, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9002(96)01172-2, 1997) amplification and with an optical readout as a promising technology for light dark matter and directional searches. In this paper we describe the operation of a 50 l prototype named LIME (Long Imaging ModulE) in an overground location at Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) of INFN. This prototype employs the technology under study for the 1 cubic meter CYGNO demonstrator to be installed at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) (Amaro et al. in Instruments 2022, 6(1), https://www.mdpi.com/2410-390X/6/1/6, 2022). We report the characterization of LIME with photon sources in the energy range from few keV to several tens of keV to understand the performance of the energy reconstruction of the emitted electron. We achieved a low energy threshold of few keV and an energy resolution over the whole energy range of 10–20%, while operating the detector for several weeks continuously with very high operational efficiency. The energy spectrum of the reconstructed electrons is then reported and will be the basis to identify radio-contaminants of the LIME materials to be removed for future CYGNO detectors

On Field Gesture-Based Robot-to-Robot Communication with NAO Soccer Players

Gesture-based communication is commonly used by soccer players during matches to exchange information with teammates. Among the possible forms of gesture-based interaction, hand signals are the most used. In this paper, we present a deep learning method for recognizing robot-to-robot hand signals exchanged during a soccer game. A neural network for estimating human body, face, hands, and foot position has been adapted for the application in the robot soccer scenario. Quantitative experiments carried out on NAO V6 robots demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Source code and data used in this work are made publicly available for the community

Combined pharmacological and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for probable medication overuse headache: a pilot study

We studied the effects of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) and pharmacological therapy in 26 consecutive patients with probable medication overuse headache (pMOH). Patients underwent a standard in-patient detoxification protocol, lasting a mean of 7 days. Eleven patients overused non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), five a combination of NSAIDs and triptans, four triptans, four a combination of NSAIDs, and three triptans and ergot derivates. Preventive therapy was initiated during detoxification. The STPP protocol comprised the Brief Psychodynamic Investigation (BPI) and psychoanalysis-inspired psychotherapy. All patients (groups A and B) underwent the BPI and pharmacological therapy. Half of the patients (group B) also not randomly underwent psychoanalysis-inspired psychotherapy. We found a significant interaction between time and group for headache frequency and medication intake. At 12-month follow-up, a statistically greater decrease in headache frequency and medication intake was observed in group B than in group A (P = 0.0108 and P = 0.0097, respectively). The relapse rate was much lower in group B patients at both 6 and 12 months [15.3%, odds ratio (OR) 0.11, P = 0.016, and 23%, OR 0.18, P = 0.047, respectively] than in group A. The risk of developing chronic migraine (CM) during follow-up was higher in group A than in group B at 6 (OR 2.0, P = 0.047) and 12 months (OR 2.75, P = 0.005). Our study suggests that STPP in conjunction with drug withdrawal and prophylactic pharmacotherapy relieves headache symptoms in pMOH, reducing both long-term relapses and the burden of CM

Use of EPR and FTIR to detect biological effects of ultrasound and microbubbles on a fibroblast cell line

Structural and functional effects of exposing murine fibroblasts (NIH 3T3) to therapeutic ultrasound at 1 MHz frequency are described. These bioeffects can be attributed to the formation of free radical species by sonolysis of water. When cavitation occurs, dissociation of water vapor into H atoms and OH radicals is observed; these H atoms and OH radicals combine to form H-2, H2O2, and HO2. The radicals can chemically modify biomolecules, for example enzymes, DNA, and lipids. Generation of free radicals during exposure to ultrasound with or without encapsulated microbubbles (contrast agents) was studied by use of electron paramagnetic resonance with DMPO spin trapping. Recently the potential for possible use of these microbubbles in gene therapy has been investigated, because of the ability of the stabilized microbubbles to release their content when exposed to ultrasound. Structural changes were studied by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and induction of possible genotoxic damage by exposure of the cells to therapeutic ultrasound at 1 MHz frequency with our experimental device was verified by use of the cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay