VALUTAZIONE DEL DANNO PRIMARIO ED OSSIDATIVO AL DNA IN LINFOCITI SALIVARI PER IL MONITORAGGIO DEGLI EFFETTI BIOLOGICI PRECOCI CAUSATI DALL’INQUINAMENTO ATMOSFERICO NEI BAMBINI: STUDIO MAPEC

VALUTAZIONE DEL DANNO PRIMARIO ED OSSIDATIVO AL DNA IN LINFOCITI SALIVARI PER IL MONITORAGGIO DEGLI EFFETTI BIOLOGICI PRECOCI CAUSATI DALL’INQUINAMENTO ATMOSFERICO NEI BAMBINI: STUDIO MAPEC Samuele Vannini (1) - Sara Levorato (1) - Elisabetta Ceretti (2) - Milena Villarini (1) - Silvia Bonetta (3) - Cristina Fatigoni(1) - Annalaura Carducci (4) - Tania Salvatori (1) - Maria Rosaria Tumolo (5) - Alessio Perotti (6) - Silvia Bonizzoni (7) - Alberto Bonetti (8) - Massimo Moretti (1) - Umberto Gelatti (2) Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italia (1) - Dipartimento di Specialità Medico-Chirurgiche, Scienze Radiologiche e Sanità Pubblica, Università degli Studi di Brescia, Brescia, Italia (2) - Dipartimento di Scienze della Sanità Pubblica e Pediatriche, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italia (3) - Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Pisa, Italia (4) - Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italia (5) - Dipartimento di Bioscienze, Università del Studi di Parma, Parma, Italia (6) - Ufficio Minori, Comune di Brescia, Brescia, Italia (7) - Centro Servizi Multisettoriale e Tecnologico, Csmt Gestione S.c.a.r.l., Brescia, Italia (8) Il particolato è l’inquinante atmosferico che provoca i maggiori danni alla salute umana in Europa (Agenzia Europea dell’Ambiente; www.eea.europa.eu). Tra le prime 30 città più inquinate del continente, oltre la metà sono italiane, in particolare quelle situate nella pianura Padana, con concentrazioni di PM10, PM2,5 e NOx ben al di sopra dei valori di riferimento europei. Studi epidemiologici hanno rilevato un’associazione positiva tra esposizione ad inquinamento atmosferico, soprattutto al PM, ed incidenza e mortalità per diverse malattie cronico-degenerative, come cancro al polmone, malattie cardiovascolari e diabete. I bambini, in particolar modo, risultano esposti ad un elevato rischio per quanto riguarda gli effetti a breve e lungo termine dell’inquinamento atmosferico. Dati recenti suggeriscono che alcune alterazioni genetiche che si verificano nella prima infanzia posso incrementare il rischio di malattie cronico-degenerative in età adulta. L’obiettivo dello studio MAPEC (Monitoring Air Pollution Effects on Children for supporting Public Health policy) è quello di valutare l’associazione tra inquinamento atmosferico e biomarcatori di effetti genotossici precoci nei bambini, e di proporre un modello per la stima del rischio globale causato dagli inquinanti atmosferici. Lo studio ha previsto il reclutamento di circa 1.000 bambini, di età compresa tra 6-8 anni, in cinque città italiane (200 bambini per città) caratterizzate da diverse concentrazioni di inquinanti atmosferici: Brescia, Torino, Pisa, Perugia e Lecce. Campioni di saliva sono stati raccolti in due differenti stagioni, inverno e primavera, caratterizzate da differenze qualitative e quantitative degli inquinanti atmosferici (1.000 × 2 = 2.000 campioni). Nei linfociti salivari è stato valutato il danno primario e ossidativo al DNA mediante il test della microgel elettroforesi su singole cellule (comet assay). Alla conferenza verranno presentati i risultati preliminari relativi al campionamento invernale

Epidemiological study of pathogens collected from blood for a period of a year (2008-2009)

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How future surgery will benefit from SARS-COV-2-related measures: a SPIGC survey conveying the perspective of Italian surgeons

COVID-19 negatively affected surgical activity, but the potential benefits resulting from adopted measures remain unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the change in surgical activity and potential benefit from COVID-19 measures in perspective of Italian surgeons on behalf of SPIGC. A nationwide online survey on surgical practice before, during, and after COVID-19 pandemic was conducted in March-April 2022 (NCT:05323851). Effects of COVID-19 hospital-related measures on surgical patients' management and personal professional development across surgical specialties were explored. Data on demographics, pre-operative/peri-operative/post-operative management, and professional development were collected. Outcomes were matched with the corresponding volume. Four hundred and seventy-three respondents were included in final analysis across 14 surgical specialties. Since SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, application of telematic consultations (4.1% vs. 21.6%; p < 0.0001) and diagnostic evaluations (16.4% vs. 42.2%; p < 0.0001) increased. Elective surgical activities significantly reduced and surgeons opted more frequently for conservative management with a possible indication for elective (26.3% vs. 35.7%; p < 0.0001) or urgent (20.4% vs. 38.5%; p < 0.0001) surgery. All new COVID-related measures are perceived to be maintained in the future. Surgeons' personal education online increased from 12.6% (pre-COVID) to 86.6% (post-COVID; p < 0.0001). Online educational activities are considered a beneficial effect from COVID pandemic (56.4%). COVID-19 had a great impact on surgical specialties, with significant reduction of operation volume. However, some forced changes turned out to be benefits. Isolation measures pushed the use of telemedicine and telemetric devices for outpatient practice and favored communication for educational purposes and surgeon-patient/family communication. From the Italian surgeons' perspective, COVID-related measures will continue to influence future surgical clinical practice

Infected pancreatic necrosis: outcomes and clinical predictors of mortality. A post hoc analysis of the MANCTRA-1 international study

: The identification of high-risk patients in the early stages of infected pancreatic necrosis (IPN) is critical, because it could help the clinicians to adopt more effective management strategies. We conducted a post hoc analysis of the MANCTRA-1 international study to assess the association between clinical risk factors and mortality among adult patients with IPN. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were used to identify prognostic factors of mortality. We identified 247 consecutive patients with IPN hospitalised between January 2019 and December 2020. History of uncontrolled arterial hypertension (p = 0.032; 95% CI 1.135-15.882; aOR 4.245), qSOFA (p = 0.005; 95% CI 1.359-5.879; aOR 2.828), renal failure (p = 0.022; 95% CI 1.138-5.442; aOR 2.489), and haemodynamic failure (p = 0.018; 95% CI 1.184-5.978; aOR 2.661), were identified as independent predictors of mortality in IPN patients. Cholangitis (p = 0.003; 95% CI 1.598-9.930; aOR 3.983), abdominal compartment syndrome (p = 0.032; 95% CI 1.090-6.967; aOR 2.735), and gastrointestinal/intra-abdominal bleeding (p = 0.009; 95% CI 1.286-5.712; aOR 2.710) were independently associated with the risk of mortality. Upfront open surgical necrosectomy was strongly associated with the risk of mortality (p < 0.001; 95% CI 1.912-7.442; aOR 3.772), whereas endoscopic drainage of pancreatic necrosis (p = 0.018; 95% CI 0.138-0.834; aOR 0.339) and enteral nutrition (p = 0.003; 95% CI 0.143-0.716; aOR 0.320) were found as protective factors. Organ failure, acute cholangitis, and upfront open surgical necrosectomy were the most significant predictors of mortality. Our study confirmed that, even in a subgroup of particularly ill patients such as those with IPN, upfront open surgery should be avoided as much as possible. Study protocol registered in ClinicalTrials.Gov (I.D. Number NCT04747990)

Extraction of Polarization Parameters in the ‾pp → Ω̄Ω Reaction

A method to extract the polarization of Omega hyperons produced via the strong interaction is presented. Assuming they are spin 3/2 particles, the corresponding spin density matrix can be written in terms of seven non-zero polarization parameters, all retrievable from the angular distribution of the decay products. Moreover by considering the full decay chain Omega ->Lambda K -> p pi K the magnitude of the asymmetry parameters beta Omega and gamma Omega can be obtained. This method, applied here to the specific Omega case, can be generalized to any weakly decaying hyperon and is perfectly suited for the PANDA experiment where hyperon-antihyperon pairs will be copiously produced in proton-antiproton collisions. The aim is to take a step forward towards the understanding of the mechanism that reigns strangeness production in these processes

Constraining CP violation in the main decay of the neutral Sigma hyperon

The Σ0 and Λ hyperons are close relatives of the neutron, being related by flavour SU(3) symmetry. This allows to estimate an upper limit for the electric dipole transition moment (EDTM) of the Σ0-Λ transition, based on the experimental knowledge of the upper limit of the neutron electric dipole moment. The three-body decay could show an angular asymmetry due to the interference of parity violating and conserving amplitudes in both the first and second step of the decay chain . This angular asymmetry, which will be measured at e.g. PANDA for both particle and antiparticle decays, is determined in this work from the Σ0-Λ EDTM, where a CP violating QCD theta-vacuum-angle term has been included. It turns out to be below any experimental resolution that one can expect in the foreseeable future. Any experimental significance would therefore point to physics beyond the Standard Model

Dynamics of the η' meson at finite temperature

At the present time it is unknown how the U(1)A anomaly of Quantum Chromodynamics behaves at high temperatures. We therefore want to look for thermal changes of the effects of the anomaly. For example, by studying the properties of the η' meson at high temperatures it would be possible to deduce important information on the axial anomaly, thanks to the deep connection between them. In this thesis the width of the η' as a function of the temperature is studied in the framework of large-Nc Chiral Perturbation Theory, at next-to-leading order, and in the corresponding Resonance Chiral Theory. We calculate the width increase due to scattering with particles from the heat bath, which we assume to consist of a pion gas. We compare the results obtained in both frameworks and as expected we find a smaller, but still consistent width increase when the more realistic resonance exchange is taken into account. The results suggest that the in-medium width of the η' may increase up to ΔΓ 10 MeV at a temperature of T 120 MeV. We find therefore a width increase of considerable size, comparable to the inverse lifetime of the fireball created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In other words, our results suggest that it may be possible to study experimentally how the properties of the η' change at high temperatures

Electromagnetic and Spin Properties of Hyperons

The study of hyperons improves our understanding of nature in multiple ways. The intrinsic properties of hadrons are not fully understood at a fundamental level. Hence, the electromagnetic properties of hyperons provide complementary information to that of the nucleon and therefore allow for a broader investigation of the structure of matter. Electromagnetic form factors have been extensively studied for the nucleon, and are now addressed also in the hyperon sector. In this thesis, the electromagnetic Σ-Λ hyperon transition form factors have been determined at low energies, in a pioneering framework that makes use of dispersion relations to combine theoretical and experimental input. Subsequently this analysis has been extended to the decuplet spin-3/2 Σ∗-Λ transition. Assuming that these transition form factors are saturated by a two-pion inelasticity, their imaginary part can be written in terms of the pion vector form factor and a pion-hyperon scattering amplitude. Chiral perturbation theory at next-to-leading order has been used to calculate the latter, while the pion vector form factor and the related pion phase-shift are known from measurements. The spin properties of hyperons can be resolved through their weak decays. The angular distribution of their decay products displays both polarization parameters and decay asymmetry parameters. These originate from processes characterized by an interplay of partial waves andare useful for different purposes. The polarization is sensitive to the production mechanism; in the p¯p case, it can be used to probe the strong interaction in the non-perturbative regime while in the e+e− case it contains the relative phase between complex electromagnetic form factors. Decay asymmetry parameters, on the other hand, are used to construct observables that test CP violation. Additional sources of CP violation must be found to solve the problem of the baryon asymmetry in our universe. This work provides a systematic method to retrieve both polarization and decay asymmetry parameters directly from the angular distribution of the hyperon decay products