New Encapsulation Technologies for The Development of in Situ Gelling Micro- Nano Particulate Systems for The Wound Healing

2014 - 2015The Ph.D project titled “New Encapsulation technologies for the development of in situ gelling micro-nano particulate systems for the wound healing” aimed to develop novel topical formulations by innovative technologies, based on supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) and nanospray drying. The specific goal of the project was the design and development of in situ gelling formulation in form of powders or aerogels for wound healing using biodegradable and biocompatible polymers, active in wound healing process, as carrier for the encapsulated drugs. Uniform filling of the wound bed, good transpiration properties and controlled drug release profiles have been used to evaluate the quality of the different devices... [edited by author]XIV n.s

New tools for target identification by affinity chromatography

The recovery of the selected biological material in affinity-based separations relies on reversing the biological interaction responsible for the binding. General elution methods which are independent of the bioaffinity interaction have attracted increasing attention. The first three chapters of this thesis describe the development of a novel “click” functionalised azobenzene-based linker for affinity-independent elution protocols and the preliminary affinity studies using this linker. Ligands functionalised with a bioorthogonal propargyl label were readily attached to the terminal azide of the linker using the copper(I) catalysed Huisgen cycloaddition (or "click" reaction). Following separation, the linker was cleaved under mild non-denaturing conditions using Na2S2O4. In the last three chapters a novel approach towards the synthesis of the 4-methyl proline fragment of the cytotoxic natural product bisebromoamide (a potential affinity target) is proposed. For the pyrrolidine ring construction an enamide-olefin ring-closing metathesis (RCM) approach has been attempted. The installation of the required absolute stereochemistry has been achieved using a phase-transfer catalyst for the enantioselective alkylation of Schiff bases derived from glycine esters

Exceedance of design actions in epicentral areas: insights from the ShakeMap envelopes for the 2016–2017 central Italy sequence

AbstractShakeMap is the tool to evaluate the ground motion effect of earthquakes in vast areas. It is useful to delimit the zones where the shaking is expected to have been most significant, for civil defense rapid response. From the earthquake engineering point of view, it can be used to infer the seismic actions on the built environment to calibrate vulnerability models or to define the reconstruction policies based on observed damage vs shaking. In the case of long-lasting seismic sequences, it can be useful to develop ShakeMap envelopes, that is, maps of the largest ground intensity among those from the ShakeMap of (selected) events of a seismic sequence, to delimit areas where the effects of the whole sequence have been of structural engineering relevance. This study introduces ShakeMap envelopes and discusses them for the central Italy 2016–2017 seismic sequence. The specific goals of the study are: (i) to compare the envelopes and the ShakeMap of the main events of the sequence to make the case for sequence-based maps; (ii) to quantify the exceedance of design seismic actions based on the envelopes; (iii) to make envelopes available for further studies and the reconstruction planning; (iv) to gather insights on the (repeated) exceedance of design seismic actions at some sites. Results, which include considerations of uncertainty in ShakeMap, show that the sequence caused exceedance of design hazard in thousands of square kilometers. The most relevant effects of the sequence are, as expected, due to the mainshock, yet seismic actions larger than those enforced by the code for structural design are found also around the epicenters of the smaller magnitude events. At some locations, the succession of ground-shaking that has excited structures, provides insights on structural damage accumulation that has likely taken place; something that is not accounted for explicitly in modern seismic design. The envelopes developed are available as supplemental material

PEWARISAN NILAI ETIS DAN ESTETIS DALAM TARI SILAT GELOMBANG DI MASYARAKAT SIMEULUE, ACEH

ABSTRAK Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pewarisan nilai etis dan estetis dalam tari Silat Gelombang di masyarakat Simeulue Provinsi Aceh. Penelitian ini menggunakan paradigma kualitatif, dengan metode Sejarah dan pendekatan multidisiplin dengan kajian Etnokoreologi sebagai grand teori dibantu dengan disiplin ilmu lain seperti Folklore, Nilai dan teori Pendidikan Informal untuk mengungkapkan proses pewarisan nilai dalam tari Silat Gelombang di lingkungan keluarga dan masyarakat. Teknik pengumpulan data dengan observasi, wawancara, dokumentasi dan studi pustaka. Hasil penelitian ini memberi informasi mengenai pewarisan tari Silat Gelombang yang mengandung nilai etis (sosial dan kepribadian) bersumber dari Nandong, Nanga-nanga, Hadih Majah sebagai sumber nilai yang diyakini masyarakat Simeulue, Aceh dan nilai estetis tari Silat Gelombang melalui filosofi teks tari kepada masyarakat Simeulue, Aceh khususnya di lingkungan keluarga dan masyarakat. Kata Kunci: Pewarisan, Nilai Etis, Nilai Estetis, Tari Silat Gelombang, Masyarakat Simeulue, Aceh. ABSTRACT This study aimed to find out the inheritance of ethical and esthetical value in Silat Gelombang dance among Simeulue people in Aceh Province. This study used qualitative paradigm, with History method and multidisciplinary approach with Ethnochoreology as grand theory aided by another discipline knowledge such as Folklore, Value and Informal Education Theory to reveal the process of values inheritance in Silat Gelombang dance in environment and society. Data collection technique by observation, interview, documentation, and literature study. This study result gave information about the inheritance of Silat Gelombang dance which contain ethical value (social and personality) sourced from Nandong, Nanga-nanga, Hadih Majah as source of value believed by Simeulue people, Aceh and esthetical value of Silat Gelombang dance through dance text philosophy to Simeulue people, Aceh particularly in family and society environment. Keywords: Inheritance, Ethical Value, Esthetical Value, Silat Gelombang Dance, Simeulue People, Aceh

Fling-step recovering from near-source waveforms database

We present an upgraded processing scheme (eBASCO, extended BASeline COrrection) to remove the baseline of strong-motion records by means of a piece-wise linear detrending of the velocity time history. Differently from standard processing schemes, eBASCO does not apply any filtering to remove the low-frequency content of the signal. This approach preserves both the long-period near-source ground-motion, featured by one-side pulse in the velocity trace, and the offset at the end of the displacement trace (fling-step). The software is suitable for a rapid identification of fling-containing waveforms within large strong-motion datasets. The ground displacement of about 600 three-component near-source waveforms has been recovered with the aim of (1) extensively testing the eBASCO capability to capture the long-period content of near-source records, and (2) compiling a qualified strong-motion flat-file useful to calibrate attenuation models for peak ground displacement (PGD), 5% damped displacement response spectra (DS), and permanent displacement amplitude (PD). The results provide a more accurate estimate of ground motions that can be adopted for different engineering purposes, such as performance-based seismic design of structures

Hyponatremia: how much attention do we pay to it?

The objective is to describe hyponatremia in patients hospitalized in geriatric (GU) and Internal medicine units (IM), its characteristics and diagnostic approach in order to improve its management and treatment. It is a retrospective study. We collected data through the informatic system of the hospital, performing statistical analysis with SmallStata14. We analyzed patients admitted during 2015 who showed hyponatremia at admission or developed it in any moment during hospitalization. On 824 patients admitted to the Geriatric (n=351) and Internal Medicine (n=473) wards during 2015 (mean age 77.5\ub114.6 yrs; 56% males), 140 patients (17%) had hyponatremia. Hyponatremia was already present at admission in the emergency unit in 49 patients (74% mild; 14% moderate and 12% severe); 10 patients had hypernatremia but developed hyponatremia thereafter. More than half of the patients was taking at least one drug or had a comorbidity possibly causing hyponatremia. 78 patients (56%) developed it during hospitalization (82% mild, 17% moderate and 1% severe). The mean sodium nadir during hospitalization was 131.8\ub12.4mEq/l. Further analyses to improve the diagnostic accuracy were performed in a minority of cases (plasmatic osmolarity has never been measured, urinary osmolarity and sodium in only 3 and 14 patients respectively). At hospital discharge 48 (34%) patients were still hyponatremic (in 79% mildly) and 71 patients were still assuming at least one drug possibly causing hyponatremia. The hyponatremia was often neglected in the letter of discharge. Hyponatremia is a common observation in GU and IM and it can be due to several causes thus guidelines for its treatment are often useless. The lack of appropriate investigations often lead to improper management. Since even mild hyponatremia has been associated with bad clinical outcomes, more attention should be given, in order to improve the management. Further studies are ongoing

REXELweb: a tool for selection of ground-motion records from the Engineering Strong Motion database (ESM)

This paper illustrates REXELweb, an updated online version of REXEL, which is a tool for the automatic selection and scaling of spectrum-compatible ground- motions for dynamic analysis of structures. REXELweb allows to define target spectra according to user-definition or design provisions (Eurocode 8 and Italian building code), as well as to uniform hazard spectra (UHS) based on a European hazard model. REXELweb implements all functionalities and options of REXEL through web-services that are accessible either via a MATHWORKS-MATLAB script or a user-friendly web-interface. The program selects records from the Engineering Strong Motion database (ESM), which is a daily-updated Pan-European repository of high-quality ground-motion records. These features make REXELweb a potentially useful tool for researchers and practitioners.Associazione Geotecnica ItalianaPublishedRome5T. Sismologia, geofisica e geologia per l'ingegneria sismic