Androgenetic alopecia: a review

Purpose Androgenetic alopecia, commonly known as male pattern baldness, is the most common type of progressive hair loss disorder in men. The aim of this paper is to review recent advances in understanding the pathophysiology and molecular mechanism of androgenetic alopecia. Methods Using the PubMed database, we conducted a systematic review of the literature, selecting studies pub- lished from 1916 to 2016. Results The occurrence and development of androgenetic alopecia depends on the interaction of endocrine factors and genetic predisposition. Androgenetic alopecia is character- ized by progressive hair follicular miniaturization, caused by the actions of androgens on the epithelial cells of genetically susceptible hair follicles in androgen-dependent areas. Although the exact pathogenesis of androgenetic alopecia remains to be clari fi ed, research has shown that it is a polygenetic condition. Numerous studies have unequi- vocally identi fi ed two major genetic risk loci for androge- netic alopecia, on the X-chromosome AR ⁄ EDA2R locus and the chromosome 20p11 locus. Conclusions Candidate gene and genome-wide association studies have reported that single-nucleotide polymorphisms at different genomic loci are associated with androgenetic alopecia development. A number of genes determine the predisposition for androgenetic alopecia in a polygenic fashion. However, further studies are needed before the specific genetic factors of this polygenic condition can be fully explaine

Fibronectin-1 expression is increased in aggressive thyroid cancer and favors the migration and invasion of cancer cells

n this study we analyzed the expression levels of markers of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in several papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs) and the relation with tumor genotypes and clinicopathological characteristics. The role of fibronectin-1 (FN1) was investigated by analyzing the effects of FN1 silencing in two human thyroid cancer cell lines. Most of EMT markers were significantly over-expressed in a group of 36 PTCs. In particular, FN1 mRNA levels were higher in tumor vs non-tumor tissue (117.3, p < 0.001) and also in aggressive and BRAF(V600E) samples. Similar results were observed (and confirmed at the protein level) when FN1 expression was analyzed in a validation group of 50 PTCs and six lymph node (LN) metastases. Silencing of FN1 in TPC-1 and BCPAP thyroid cancer cells significantly reduced proliferation, adhesion, migration, and invasion in both cell lines. Collectively, our data indicate that FN1 overexpression is an important determinant of thyroid cancer aggressiveness

A flexible design strategy for three-element non-uniform linear arrays

This paper illustrates a flexible design strategy for a three-element non-uniform linear array (NULA) aimed at estimating the direction of arrival (DoA) of a source of interest. Thanks to the spatial diversity resulting from non-uniform sensor spacings, satisfactory DoA estimation accuracies can be achieved by employing a very limited number of receiving elements. This makes NULA configurations particularly attractive for low-cost passive location applications. To estimate the DoA of the source of interest, we resort to the maximum likelihood estimator, and the proposed design strategy is obtained by constraining the maximum pairwise error probability to control the errors occurring due to outliers. In fact, it is well known that the accuracy of the maximum likelihood estimator is often degraded by outliers, especially when the signal-to-noise power ratio does not belong to the so-called asymptotic region. The imposed constraint allows for the defining of an admissible region in which the array should be selected. This region can be further modified to incorporate practical design constraints concerning the antenna element size and the positioning accuracy. The best admissible array is then compared to the one obtained with a conventional NULA design approach, where only antenna spacings multiple of λ/2 are considered, showing improved performance, which is also confirmed by the experimental results

Medical devices nomenclature systems: a scoping review

Inventory is a fundamental process throughout the life cycle of medical devices. The maintenance program for each piece of equipment must comply with current regulations that are constantly evolving. The need to set up an evidence based management of the inventory of thousands of medical devices hosted in the Careggi University Hospital (AOUC), in Florence (Italy), has suggested to conceive a method to group medical devices in sub-classes, in order to monitor their performances and maintenance. The starting point to reach this goal is to establish a suitable nomenclature, a complex system of rules, codes, and definitions employed by healthcare systems and organizations to identify sets of medical devices. This paper describes the literature search performed on both Ovid and Scopus databases, that made it possible to identify several classifications and nomenclatures for medical devices. On the basis of this search, only a few works fulfil the requirement of classifying medical devices for management purposes (e.g., inventories, database, and supply chains). The analysis has shown that it is possible to reduce the number of classes into macro groups when applying the Italian National Classification of Medical Devices (CND). Although the CND nomenclature shows inconsistencies for complex groups it is an effective and successful choice, in terms of efficiency and optimization, also considering that it is the basis for the European Medical Device Nomenclature (EMDN)

Is the clinical pattern of pediatric celiac disease changing? A thirty-years real-life experience of an Italian center

Objectives Clinical presentation of pediatric celiac disease (CD) is heterogeneous and ever-evolving. Our aim is to highlight its changes throughout the years. Methods Data about clinical presentation of CD in children diagnosed between 1990 and 2020 at the CD Center of Maggiore Hospital, Bologna, were collected. Patients were stratified into groups based on the date [P1 (1990-2011), P2 (2012-2020)] and age [G1 (&lt; 2 years), G2 (2-5), G3 (6-11), G4 (12-18)] at diagnosis, then investigated by comparing CD clinical presentation in different periods and ages. Results 1081 children were selected. Mean age at diagnosis increases from 5.9 to 6.6 years from P1 to P2. Gastrointestinal Symptoms (GIs) are predominant, with a decline of diarrhea (47%VS30%) and an increase of constipation (4%VS19%) (p &lt; 0.001). Among Extraintestinal symptoms (EIs) a decrease of anemia (76%VS43%, p = 0,001) is observed. Failure to Thrive (FTT) is stable throughout the years (p = 0.03), while screenings show a trend of increment (19%VS23%). GIs' frequency decline from G1 to G4 (p = 0,001), with reduction of diarrhea (p &lt; 0.001), and rise of recurrent abdominal pain (p = 0,02). EIs are more frequent at older ages, FTT in younger patients. Conclusions Changes in clinical presentation of CD have occurred in the last 30 years. We observe a reduction of severe and classic gastroenterologic symptoms and a rise of atypical ones, together with a growth of serological screenings and higher age at diagnosis. Awareness about CD clinical trends is crucial for a proper approach and early diagnosis

Ultralow loading electroless deposition of IrOx on nickel foam for efficient and stable water oxidation catalysis

Abstract Photocatalysis and electrolysis are crucial processes for the development of a sustainable, clean energy system, since they enable solar fuel production, such as hydrogen by water splitting, as well as CO2 reduction. In these processes efficient and robust catalysts for water oxidation are required and the reduction of employed amount of noble metals is crucial to reduce costs and increase the sustainability of the technology. To obtain extremely low iridium loading on nickel foam electrodes we have employed electroless deposition by spontaneous galvanic displacement as a simple, low cost, highly scalable technique. After deposition the Ir oxidation has been achieved by annealing in air at 250 °C. By varying the deposition parameters, an optimal condition has been achieved, with an overpotential for water oxidation of 360 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in 1.0 M KOH solution. The Ni foam coverage with Ir oxide has also a positive impact on the electrode stability, strongly decreasing the degradation rate, compared to the case of bare Ni foam. The average amount of noble metal in the best performing electrode is only 35 μg cm−2 for a 1.6 mm thick Ni foam electrode. The proposed approach is highly promising for gas diffusion electrodes, and can be implemented in electrolytic cells, as well as in fuel cells

Effective generation of closed-form soliton solutions of the continuous classical Heisenberg ferromagnet equation

The non-topological, stationary and propagating, soliton solutions of the classical continuous Heisenberg ferromagnet equation are investigated. A general, rigorous formulation of the Inverse Scattering Transform for this equation is presented, under less restrictive conditions than the Schwartz class hypotheses and naturally incorporating the non-topological character of the solutions. Such formulation is based on a new triangular representation for the Jost solutions, which in turn allows an immediate computation of the asymptotic behaviour of the scattering data for large values of the spectral parameter, consistently improving on the existing theory. A new, general, explicit multi-soliton solution formula, amenable to computer algebra, is obtained by means of the matrix triplet method, producing all the soliton solutions (including breather-like and multipoles), and allowing their classification and descriptio

Formation of stacked ER cisternae by low affinity protein interactions

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) can transform from a network of branching tubules into stacked membrane arrays (termed organized smooth ER [OSER]) in response to elevated levels of specific resident proteins, such as cytochrome b(5). Here, we have tagged OSER-inducing proteins with green fluorescent protein (GFP) to study OSER biogenesis and dynamics in living cells. Overexpression of these proteins induced formation of karmellae, whorls, and crystalloid OSER structures. Photobleaching experiments revealed that OSER-inducing proteins were highly mobile within OSER structures and could exchange between OSER structures and surrounding reticular ER. This indicated that binding interactions between proteins on apposing stacked membranes of OSER structures were not of high affinity. Addition of GFP, which undergoes low affinity, antiparallel dimerization, to the cytoplasmic domains of non–OSER-inducing resident ER proteins was sufficient to induce OSER structures when overexpressed, but addition of a nondimerizing GFP variant was not. These results point to a molecular mechanism for OSER biogenesis that involves weak homotypic interactions between cytoplasmic domains of proteins. This mechanism may underlie the formation of other stacked membrane structures within cells