Efeitos da fisioterapia respiratória em lactentes prematuros

Objetivo: Identificar as técnicas de desobstrução de vias aéreas (VA) utilizadas pela fisioterapia respiratória (FR) e analisar seu efeito na frequência respiratória (f) e ausculta de VA, em um ambulatório de recémnascido de alto risco. Métodos: Participaram 11 crianças nascidas a partir de 2010, idade gestacional (IG) 33 + 1,9 semanas e peso ao nascer 1881,3 + 401,8 gramas, entre setembro e novembro de 2011, com prescrição médica de FR, necessitando de desobstrução de VA. Para análise estatística utilizou-se o programa Graph Pad Instat 3.0, sendo f submetida ao teste t de student, com significância p<0,05. Resultados:  Na avaliação pré fisioterapia, verificou-se f média de 54 rpm, na ausculta pulmonar (AP) identificou-se roncos e/ou sibilos em 63,7% e nas VA extratorácicas 100% de obstrução nasal. A técnica desobstrução rinofaríngea retrógrada (DRR) foi utilizada em 100%, sendo que, 27,2% também recebeu aumento do fluxo expiratório (AFE) e 18,1% vibrocompressão. Após fisioterapia a f média diminuiu para 44 rpm, e houve melhora na ausculta, pois 63,7% não apresentava nenhum ruído anormal. Conclusão: As técnicas fisioterapêuticas para desobstrução de VA utilizadas foram DRR, AFE e vibrocompressão. Fica evidente o benefício das técnicas fisioterapêuticas aplicadas, constatados pela diminuição significativa estatisticamente da f, e melhora da ausculta de VA

Characterization and preliminary risk assessment of road dust collected in Venice airport (Italy)

Road dust is a non-exhaust source that can significantly contribute to atmospheric particulate by resuspension. Beside the issue of the overcoming of guidelines limits for the air quality, the characterization of this matrix is of crucially high interest for the inherent toxicity of resuspended particles, that can act as carriers of heavy metals and toxic-carcinogenic components. In this paper, road dust collected in the Venice international airport is characterized with a multi-technique approach in order to identify the main pollutant sources and to highlight the differences between airside/landside places. The most polluted sites are identified and a preliminary risk assessment is performed taking into account ingestion, dermal intake and inhalation of fugitive particulate pathways. Specifically, the main sources are related to construction activities, anti-icing safety procedures, and brake, tire and road wear; streets are the most polluted landside places; PAHs, Na, Al, Cu, Zn, Ag, Cd are more concentrated in airside area; as regards the risk assessment As, BaP, Cr, Sb, BaA, and BbF are the most critical pollutants. Considering the high number of people passing or working in this airport and the ongoing works related to its enlargement which promotes the emission and the resuspension of fugitive dusts, this research addresses a fundamental step for the protection of potential receptors

The Italian Draft Law on the \u2018Provisions Concerning the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage\u2019

Intangible cultural heritage in Italy is still in need of a unified approach, capable of providing reliable criteria for identifying its assets and for indicating timescales and means by which they should be safeguarded. In the continued absence of up-to-date, ad hoc state legislation (since the content of those laws which do implement international Conventions is too generic in nature to be sufficiently effective), the Regions have proceeded to act in a somewhat scattered manner, giving rise to an extremely fragmented and very disorderly regulatory framework. The draft law N. 4486, "Provisions Concerning the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage", presented on 12th May 2017 at the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic - as the result of the work of an interdisciplinary and inter-university research team coordinated by Marco Giampieretti, who has drafted the final text with the collaboration of Simona Pinton - seeks to fill the serious void that exists in Italian legal system by aligning it to the principles of international and European law, by redirecting the relevant State and Regional legislation, and by satisfying the fundamental requirements of the national community

PNAs targeting BCL11A at the miR-210 binding sites down-regulate BCL11A and up-regulate gamma-globin mRNA

In β-thalassemia reactivation of γ-globin genes and production of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) is clinically relevant for compensating for the loss of β-globin chain. Interestingly, γ-globin gene expression is under a strong negative control performed by the transcription repressors BCL11A, KLF-1, MYB, Oct-1 and LYAR. Among these, BCL11A plays a pivotal role and it was recently shown by genome-wide association studies as the major repressor of HbF expression. MicroRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) are a category of conserved, short RNAs that target specific mRNA-sequences, leading to a post-transcriptional negative control. We found that a coding sequence of BCL11A mRNA contains a miR-210 binding site, located at the level of a coding BCL11A mRNA sequence. Forced expression of miR-210 leads to decrease of BCL11A mRNA and increase of γ-globin mRNA content in erythroid cells, including erythroid precursors isolated from γ-thalassemia patients. Our results suggest that the coding mRNA sequence of BCL11A can be targeted by miR-210. Accordingly, as a novel strategy to increase γ-globin gene expression, in this study we employed Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNAs) to inhibit BCL11A. We have targeted the miR-210 BCL11A binding region with PNAs mimicking miR-210 sequence and PNAs mimicking the sequence perfectly pairing the BCL11A-miR-210 binding site. The results obtained demonstrate that treatment of erythroid cells with these PNAs leads to a decrease of BCL11A and an increase of γ-globin gene expression. This field of research is of top interest, since several approaches are focused on pharmacologic inhibition of the expression of γ-globin gene repressors, leading to increased γ-globin gene expression