Universal hydrophilic coating of thermoplastic polymers currently used in microfluidics

A number of materials used to fabricate disposable microfluidic devices are hydrophobic in nature with water contact angles on their surface ranging from 80 to over 100. This characteristic makes them unsuitable for a number of microfluidic applications. Both the wettability and analyte adsorption parameters are highly dependent on the surface hydrophobicity. In this article, we propose a general method to coat the surface of five materials: polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polycarbonate (PC), and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). This fast and robust process, which is easily implementable in any laboratory including microfabrication clean room facilities, was devised by combining gas-phase and wet chemical modification processes. Two different coatings that improve the surface hydrophilicity were prepared via the "dip and rinse" approach by immersing the plasma oxidized materials into an aqueous solution of two different poly(dimethylacrylamide) copolymers incorporating a silane moiety and functionalized with either N-acryloyloxysuccinimide (NAS) (poly(DMA-NAS-MAPS) or glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) (poly(DMA-GMA-MAPS). The coating formation was confirmed by contact angle (CA) analysis comparing the variation of CAs of uncoated and coated surfaces subjected to different aging treatments. The antifouling character of the polymer was demonstrated by fluorescence and interferometric detection of proteins adsorbed on the surafce. This method is of great interest in microfluidics due to its broad applicability to a number of materials with varying chemical compositions

Chloroquine supplementation increases the cytotoxic effect of curcumin against Her2/neu overexpressing breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo in nude mice while counteracts it in immune competent mice

Autophagy is usually a pro-survival mechanism in cancer cells, especially in the course of chemotherapy, thus autophagy inhibition may enhance the chemotherapy-mediated anti-cancer effect. However, since autophagy is strongly involved in the immunogenicity of cell death by promoting ATP release, its inhibition may reduce the immune response against tumors, negatively influencing the overall outcome of chemotherapy. In this study, we evaluated the in vitro and in vivo anti-cancer effect of curcumin (CUR) against Her2/neu overexpressing breast cancer cells (TUBO) in the presence or in the absence of the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine (CQ). We found that TUBO cell death induced by CUR was increased in vitro by CQ and slightly in vivo in nude mice. Conversely, CQ counteracted the Cur cytotoxic effect in immune competent mice, as demonstrated by the lack of in vivo tumor regression and the reduction of overall mice survival as compared with CUR-treated mice. Immunohistochemistry analysis revealed the presence of a remarkable FoxP3 T cell infiltrate within the tumors in CUR/CQ treated mice and a reduction of T cytotoxic cells, as compared with single CUR treatment. These findings suggest that autophagy is important to elicit anti-tumor immune response and that autophagy inhibition by CQ reduces such response also by recruiting T regulatory (Treg) cells in the tumor microenvironment that may be pro-tumorigenic and might counteract CUR-mediated anti-cancer effects

Human herpesvirus 6 variant A, but not variant B, infects EBV-positive B lymphoid cells, activating the latent EBV genome through a BZLF-1-dependent mechanism

Human herpesvirus 6, a predominantly T lymphotropic virus, has been recently shown to infect some EBV-positive B cell lines, and to induce in them the activation of the EBV lytic cycle. Here we have confirmed and extended such observations, showing that (1) this phenomenon is restricted to the variant A of HHV-6: in fact two isolates belonging to the HHV-6 variant B (BA92 and Z29) were neither able to infect any B cell line, independently of the EBV status, nor to induce the EBV genome expression. The only exception is represented by the P3HR1 cells, in which, however, the infection by the variant B does not determine induction of EBV antigens; (2) the presence of the EBV genome contributes to the susceptibility of the B cell lines to HHV-6 infection, increasing the binding sites and the percentage of infectable cells, as detected by immunoelectron microscopy; and (3) HHV-6 infected T cells, transfected with plasmids bearing the promoter regions of the EBV early genes BZLF1 and BMRF1, show a strong transactivation of these promoters

Harbour water managment for port structures and sea bottom design, coast proximity navigation managment, water quality control.

Tide is a sea level up-down water motion basically depending on three different phenomena: the Earth-Moon-Sun gravitational relationship, the water surface fluid reaction to atmospheric meteorological dynamic action and the Newtonian vertical adjustment of the sea surface due to atmospheric pressure variations. The first tide component (astro-tide) is periodic and well known in all points of the Earth surface; the second one is directly related to the meteorological phenomenon and then it is foreseeable; the Newtonian component, on the contrary, is not readily predictable by a general hydrostatic law, because the factor “J” that represents the Newtonian transfer (from the atmospheric weight to the consequent sea level) is variable in each harbour area. A statistical study and the related numerical data interpretation of the measurements performed in the Ports of Genoa, La Spezia, Marina di Carrara, Livorno, Piombino, Civitavecchia and Ravenna (belonging to the Italian Newtonian Meteotide Network) show port values of Jph (from 1.4-1.6 cm/hPa to > 2 cm/hPa, on the contrary of the off-shore areas where Jph is about 1 cm/hPa). This phenomenon (hydrobarometric tide wave) produces even double values of harbour sea level fluctuations amplitude in comparison to astronomic tide sea level oscillations, and is characterized by a wavelength from 8-12 h to same days and a 10-25 days/year as mean temporal occurrence in the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea. This is the most relevant ordinary risk factor for our ports activity and structures design. The present note shows a quantitative method to define the values of Jph factor for ports and its use in the Harbour WaterSide Management (HWSM) based on the joined use of barometers, hydrometers and clocks, the preliminary results related to the use of the gravimeters as hydrobarometric predictor in La Spezia Port and two examples of use of Jph factor in the port management: refloating of a landing ship and optimisation of a dock performance as pleasure boats mooring

Sistema per l'acquisizione e la trasmissione dei dati della stazione mareografica MENFOR

Il presente documento descrive i componenti e le funzionalità del sistema realizzato per l’acquisizione e la trasmissione dei dati della stazione mareografica MENFOR sviluppata nell’ambito del progetto “Sviluppo di una stazione portuale per la previsione dei flussi di marea meteorologica, finalizzata a costituire un servizio per la sicurezza della navigazione e per la protezione dei natanti nel Golfo della Spezia” supportato dal programma PRAI-FESR della Regione Liguria. Il sistema qui descritto è stato realizzato con il contributo di tutti gli Enti coinvolti

Multislice computed tomography SYNTAX score for coronary artery disease evaluation prior to transcatheter aortic valve implantation

Background: Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is a useful tool for the evaluation of coronary anatomy prior to both surgical and transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Multislice Computed Tomography (MSCT) SYNTAX score (SXscore) strongly correlates with the traditional angiographic SXscore, and the latter has proven to predict cardiovascular events in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) referred to TAVI. Purpose: The aim of the study is to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of the calculation of MSCT SXscore in TAVI patients, compared to the gold standard angiographic SXscore. Materials and methods: We evaluated 65 patients eligible for TAVI who underwent both CCTA and invasive coronary angiography (ICA) prior to valve replacement. CCTA was compared to ICA in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values. CCTA performance was evaluated at 3 levels: patient level, vessellevel and segmentlevel. MSCT SXscore was calculated, when possible (i.e. only in fullyevaluable scans), and compared to the angiographic SXscore. Results: Overall CCTA diagnostic performance was good, with high sensitivity and negative predictive values (97.2% and 96.0%, respectively) and good agreement with ICA (k=0.81). As expected, specificity and positive predictive values were lower (82.8% and 87.5%, respectively). At vessellevel, the circumflex artery (CA) was more often misdiagnosed than the other arteries. We were able to calculate MSCT SXscore in 50/65 scans (76.9%). The correlation between MSCT and angiographic SXscore was excellent (Pearson's R=0.965, P<0.001). Conclusions: MSCT SXscore emerges as an interesting tool with strong agreement with angiographic SXscore, providing a noninvasive ambulatory alternative to assess CAD severity in TAVI patients

Blockchain in radiology research and clinical practice: current trends and future directions

Blockchain usage in healthcare, in radiology, in particular, is at its very early infancy. Only a few research applications have been tested, however, blockchain technology is widely known outside healthcare and widely adopted, especially in Finance, since 2009 at least. Learning by history, radiology is a potential ideal scenario to apply this technology. Blockchain could have the potential to increase radiological data value in both clinical and research settings for the patient digital record, radiological reports, privacy control, quantitative image analysis, cybersecurity, radiomics and artificial intelligence. Up-to-date experiences using blockchain in radiology are still limited, but radiologists should be aware of the emergence of this technology and follow its next developments. We present here the potentials of some applications of blockchain in radiology

Targeting COX-2/PGE(2) pathway in HIPK2 knockdown cancer cells: impact on dendritic cell maturation.

production after HIPK2 depletion and how to modulate it./VEGF production. At translational level, while conditioned media of both siRNA control and HIPK2 depleted cells inhibited DCs maturation, conditioned media of only zinc-treated HIPK2 depleted cells efficiently restored DCs maturation, seen as the expression of co-stimulatory molecules CD80 and CD86, cytokine IL-10 release, and STAT3 phosphorylation./VEGF production; and 3) zinc treatment of HIPK2 depleted cells restored DCs maturation

SCAI-r: an algorithm for obtaining synoptic and spatial atmospheric parameters.

Abstract: The highest performance of multiband optical data (Visible - VIS ? Shortwave Infrared - SWIR ? (400-2500 nm) (e.g. imaging spectroscopy approaches) can be reached mainly through atmospheric correction effects; the conversion of the image values to surface reflectance, allowing, for instance, to estimate the amount of biochemical compounds in the target. This work aims to present an algorithm dedicated to atmospheric parameters obtaining from MODIS and related sensors, encapsulated in a user-friendly interface through Software to Collect Atmospheric Information (SCAI-r), applied to the correction of atmosphere effects on Rapideye image. The results show that SCAI-r generates information needed to perform atmospheric correction and that it has a greater influence over water-related objects, when compared to parameters randomly inserted as input data in atmospheric correction algorithms

Harbour Sea-floor Clearance: “HD” High Definition Magnetic Survey Performance

Seafloor clearance methods based on acoustic, direct-inspection, and single-sensor magnetic approaches suffer from limitations in controlling the target-sensor distance, and may prove ineffective when the small size or the dangerous nature of targets requires high accuracy in localization. Moreover, random magnetic variations over time bring about spatial decorrelation phenomena, and hinder the application of double-sensor methods in noisy harbour environments. The new High Definition (HD) magnetic survey protocol tackles the measurement-distance problem in two ways: first, by varying the sensor depth dynamically, and secondly by backprojecting the measured field according to seafloor data and vertical incremental factors associated with the bandwidth characteristics of targets. The method to make up for timeinduced loss in spatial localization ability exploits the local behaviour of a coherence function, which correlates local observations to a set of spatially-stabilized reference stations. The consequent normalization of measured magnetic signals allows one to assign the monitored areas with a specific level of confidence in the detection results, ranging from 100% (certainty) to 0% (random events). The principles of HD detection have been fully applied in the seafloor clearance of the firing test site located south of Cape Teulada (Sardinia, Italy), where very weak signal sources such as cartridge cases, mines, and small objects down to 1 Kg mass values (lobster pots) have been successfully localized, even when covered by extensive colonies of Posidonia