782 research outputs found
Variáveis morfológicas na produção de mudas de Allophylus edulis (St Hil.) Radl. (vacum) em diferentes substratos.
Resumo
Características físicas de substratos para produção de mudas de Allophylus edulis (ST Hil.) Radl. e Schinus terebinthifolius.
Resumo
Produção de mudas de Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi (aroeira-vermelha) em diferentes substratos.
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Sistemas integrados de produção agrícola: implicações nos atributos físicos do solo e na perda de solo e água via escoamento superficial.
Unexpected Architectures. Restorations in Romagna Between the Two World Wars
The research here presented is a critical appraisal of some restoration works carried out between the two World Wars in a particular geographic context, which is the Romagna district, in the Northeast of Italy. Starting from two case studies (the Casa del Fascio in Forl\uec and the Malatesta Library in Cesena) and thanks to the analysis of bibliographical sources, archival documents, and drawings, this research aims at understanding how broader and major theories about architectural restoration are articulated in peripheral background. What emerges are unexpected results: Late and deeply contextualized operations, strongly linked with the national panorama but at the same time chasing for the revival of their own history
The effect of timing and composition of gestational weight gain in obese pregnant women on infant birth weight: A prospective cohort study.
Introduction: CK2 is a protein kinase implicated in several essential cellular
processes, over-expressed in cancer and described to regulate insulin
signaling cascade. Recently CK2 has been described to negatively regulate
thermogenesis (Shinoda K et al, 2015, Cell Metabolism) and to inhibit
insulin release (Rossi M et al, 2015, PNAS). Nevertheless, the role of CK2
in adipose tissue (AT) and its involvement in human obesity development
and therapy has been poorly investigated.
Methods: Our multi-disciplinary team performed biochemical analysis of
signaling pathways by WB and in vitro kinase activity assays, and glucose
handling studies using glucose uptake assay and IF in adipocyte cultures
and glucose and insulin tolerance test in mice. Moreover we quantify CK2
expression/activity in human AT specimens of 27 obese patients, clinically
characterized, in 12 obese patients underwent relevant weight loss and 11
normal-weight controls.
Results: We proved that CK2 amount and activity were not influenced
by insulin stimulation and that CK2 activity was efficiently inhibited by
specific inhibitors, structurally unrelated. We worked with CX-4945, a
CK2 inhibitor currently used in cancer clinical trials, using the minimal
concentration (2.5 \u192
dM) and pre-treatment time (1hr) able to efficiently
inhibit CK2 activity, avoiding any cytotoxic effect. Pharmacological
inhibition of CK2 did not significantly affect in vitro adipogenic differentiation
or expression profiling of mature adipocytes. Conversely, we
showed that in human and murine adipocytes CK2-inhibition decreases
the insulin-induced glucose uptake by counteracting Akt-signaling and
GLUT4-translocation to the plasma membrane. We compared CK2 expression
and activity in different mouse tissues highlighted that white
skeletal muscle fibres and liver contained the highest quantity of this kinase.
CK2 was expressed more in brown AT than in white AT depots. We
show that CK2 promotes insulin-signaling in mouse AT, liver and skeletal
muscle and that in vivo acute treatment with CX-4945 impairs glucose-
tolerance in mice. Studies in tissues of ob/ob and db/db mice highlights
an up-regulation of CK2 expression and activity only in WAT. CK2
hyper-activation is strongly evident also in SAT and VAT of obese patients
and weight loss obtained by bariatric surgery or hypocaloric diet reverts
CK2 up-regulation to normal level.
Conclusion: We show that CK2 is involved in insulin sensitivity, glucose
handling and remodeling of WAT. Moreover we identify CK2 hyper-activation
as a hallmark of human obesity, suggesting a new potential therapeutic
target for metabolic diseases
Rationale and design of MILES-3 and MILES-4 studies: two randomized phase III trials comparing single-agent chemotherapy versus cisplatin-based doublets in elderly patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer
BACKGROUND:
Platinum-based chemotherapy is the cornerstone of treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, but the efficacy of adding cisplatin to single-agent chemotherapy remains to be demonstrated in prospective phase III trials dedicated to elderly patients. Furthermore, the superiority of cisplatin/pemetrexed over cisplatin/gemcitabine in non-squamous NSCLC has not been confirmed prospectively. We present the rationale and design of two open-label, multicenter, randomized phase III trials for elderly patients with advanced NSCLC∶ Multicenter Italian Lung cancer in the Elderly Study (MILES)-3 and MILES-4. The aim is to evaluate the efficacy of adding cisplatin to single-agent chemotherapy (both trials) and the efficacy of pemetrexed versus gemcitabine in non-squamous tumors (MILES-4).
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
Both trials are dedicated to first-line therapy of patients older than 70 years with advanced NSCLC, ECOG performance status 0-1. In the MILES-3 trial, patients are randomized in a 1∶1 ratio to gemcitabine or cisplatin/gemcitabine. In the MILES-4 study patients with non-squamous histology are randomized, in a factorial design with 1∶1∶1∶1 ratio, to four arms: gemcitabine (A), cisplatin/gemcitabine (B), pemetrexed (C), cisplatin/pemetrexed (D). Two comparisons are planned∶ A+C vs B+D to test the role of cisplatin; A+B vs C+D to test the role of pemetrexed. Primary endpoint of both trials is overall survival. Secondary and exploratory endpoints include progression-free survival, response rate, toxicity, and quality of life.
CONCLUSIONS:
MILES-3 and MILES-4 results will add important evidence about the role of cisplatin-based doublets and pemetrexed in the first-line therapy of elderly patients with advanced NSCLC
Dental calculus and isotopes provide direct evidence of fish and plant consumption in Mesolithic Mediterranean
In this contribution we dismantle the perceived role of marine resources and plant foods in the subsistence economy of Holocene foragers of the Central Mediterranean using a combination of dental calculus and stable isotope analyses. The discovery of fish scales and flesh fragments, starch granules and other plant and animal micro-debris in the dental calculus of a Mesolithic forager dated to the end of the 8th millenium BC and buried in the Vlakno Cave on Dugi Otok Island in the Croatian Archipelago demonstrates that marine resources were regularly consumed by the individual together with a variety of plant foods. Since previous stable isotope data in the Eastern Adriatic and the Mediterranean region emphasises that terrestrial-based resources contributed mainly to Mesolithic diets in the Mediterranean Basin, our results provide an alternative view of the dietary habits of Mesolithic foragers in the Mediterranean region based on a combination of novel methodologies and data
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