Selective Deamidation and Enzymatic Methylation of Seminal Ribonuclease

Isoenzymatic forms alfa2, alfa-beta, and beta2 of bovine seminal ribonuclease are generated by the transformation of beta-type into alfa-type subunit through deamidation of a single amide group. The residue involved in this selective deamidation has been identified as Asn67 . Deamidation occurs by formation of a cyclic imide intermediate involving the Gly at position 68. Opening of the cyclic imide may occur on either side of the nitrogen, generating both the normal alfa-aspartyl and an isoaspartyl residue at position 67. The alfa-carboxyl of the isoaspartyl residue is effectively methylated by bovine brain protein carboxylmethyltransferase

Alternative Applications of Trans-Oral Robotic Surgery (TORS): A Systematic Review

The role of robotic surgery in the field of oncology has been widely described, in particular for the tumours of the oropharynx and larynx, but its efficacy for benign pathology is inconsistent

Aqueous phase reforming of lignin-rich hydrothermal liquefaction by-products: a study on catalyst deactivation

The water fraction derived from the hydrothermal liquefaction of a lignin-rich feedstock was subjected to aqueous phase reforming to produce hydrogen. Deactivation of the catalyst was observed, and it was ascribed to fouling phenomena caused by phenolic oligomers. Simple aromatics like guaiacol and phenol, as well as in-organics, were proved not to be the cause of the deactivation thanks to the use of a multi-component synthetic mixture. The influence of using activated carbon as a pretreatment was studied, leading to a strong improvement of the performance when it was carried out at high temperature. The extent of deactivation was assessed using aqueous phase reforming of glycolic acid as a model reaction test. The results were found to be correlated with the surface area of the catalyst. A thermal regeneration in inert conditions was evaluated as a mode of catalyst regeneration. While the textural properties were partially recovered, the performance of the catalyst only slightly improved. A spectroscopic analysis of the solids in the aqueous solution was carried out, highlighting the structural similarities between their nature and the lignin residue. The results obtained in this study helped to enlarge the knowledge on the aqueous phase reforming of real complex mixtures, looking at indicators of paramount importance for a possible industrial application such as the stability of the catalyst

Curriculum formativo del laureato specialista e mondo del lavoro: Indagine su infermieri e ostetriche dell'Universití Cattolica

La societí  oggi richiede ed esige professionisti della salute di sempre più ampia ed elevata taratura tali da riuscire a modulare le proprie competenze in base ai bisogni e alle necessití  del contesto.L'indagine di tipo trasversale (cross sectional) ha come obiettivo primario rilevare informazioni sullo stato occupazionale dei laureati specialisti, e come obiettivo secondario descrivere se e in che modo il percorso di studi ha influito, secondo le autovalutazioni degli intervistati, sulla qualití  e sui risultati del loro lavoro. Lo strumento adottato per la raccolta dei dati è un questionario costruito ad hoc.L'indagine è stata condotta da maggio ad agosto 2011 su tutti coloro che hanno conseguito la Laurea specialistica in Scienze infermieristiche e ostetriche presso l'UCSC (dall'a.a. 2004-05 al 2009-10). I risultati evidenziano che in 44 casi sui 111 considerati (40%) è avvenuto un cambiamento di posizione lavorativa dopo il conseguimento della Laurea specialistica e di questi il 68% (30/44) dichiara che il cambiamento è sicuramente legato al conseguimento del titolo accademico. Tutti gli intervistati dichiarano che il percorso di studi ha sicuramente contribuito a modificare alcuni comportamenti professionali: utilizzo di studi di ricerca (93%); risoluzione di problematiche lavorative (68%); maggiore facilití  a comunicare le ragioni che stanno alla base delle proprie scelte organizzative/assistenziali (70%); attenzione all'autoformazione (63%).Tuttavia, da un punto di vista di spendibilití  del titolo accademico, questi professionisti vengono quasi esclusivamente chiamati a esplicare ruoli dirigenziali, nonostante la forte connotazione disciplinare del percorso formativo attualmente posto in essere e che permetterebbe una crescita professionale anche nella Pratica Infermieristica Avanzata (APN).Parole chiave: laurea specialistica, realizzazione, successo lavorativo, valutazione competenze. Educational curriculum and occupational status of nurses and midwives after second level degree (MNsc) at Catholic University of RomeABSTRACTOur society requires health professionals of increasingly competence, able to modulate their skills according to the needs and the requirements of the context.   This survey (cross - sectional) has as primary aim to collect information on employment status of individuals who have a Master degree in Nursing and Midwifery, and as secondary objective to describe if and how the post graduation education has affected the quality and the outcomes of nursing work. A questionnaire devised for the purpose has been used.The survey was conducted from May to August 2011 on all individuals who have a Master in Nursing and Midwifery at the UCSC (from 2004-2005 to 2009-2010).Results show that in 44 cases out of 111 (= 40%) there was a change of employment status after obtaining the Master's Degree and of these 68% (30 out of 44) state that the change is definitely linked to the Post graduation education.All respondents state that the University curriculum has certainly helped to modify some professional behaviors: research utilization (93%), skills in problem solving at work (68%); greater ease to communicate the reasons underlying their organizational choices or decision making (70%); self-training abilities (63%). Within the Italian context, however it seems that those individuals are involved in a managerial progression of their career rather than in the core nursing activities despite the fact that educational programs have important subjects for Advanced Nursing Practice and Nursing Science.Key words: nursing education, master degree, working success, skill developmen

Tumor induced osteomalacia: a systematic review and individual patient's data analysis

Context: Tumor induced osteomalacia (TIO) is a rare paraneoplastic syndrome, usually caused by small, benign and slow-growing phosphaturic mesenchymal tumors. Clinically, TIO is characterized by renal phosphate leak, causing hypophosphatemia and osteomalacia. This review was performed to assess the clinical characteristics of TIO patients described worldwide so far. Evidence acquisition: On 06/26/2021, a systematic search was performed in Medline, Google Scholar, Google book, and Cochrane Library using the terms: "tumor induced osteomalacia", "oncogenic osteomalacia", "hypophosphatemia". There were no language restrictions. This review was performed according to PRISMA criteria. Evidence results: Overall, 1725 TIO cases were collected. TIO was more frequent in adult men, who showed a higher incidence of fractures compared to TIO women. The TIO causing neoplasms were identified in 1493 patients. The somatostatin receptor-based imaging modalities have the highest sensitivity for the identification of TIO-causing neoplasms. TIO causing neoplasms were equally located in bone and soft tissues; these latter showed a higher prevalence of fractures and deformities. The surgery is the preferred TIO definitive treatment (successful in >90% of patients). Promising non-surgical therapies are treatments with burosumab in TIO patients with elevated Fibroblast Growth Factor-23 levels, and with radiolabeled somatostatin analogs in patients with TIO-causing neoplasm identified by somatostatin receptor-based imaging techniques. Conclusion: TIO occurs preferentially in adult men. The TIO clinical expressiveness is more severe in men as well as in patients with TIO-causing neoplasms located to soft tissues. Treatments with burosumab and with radiolabeled somatostatin analogs are the most promising non-surgical therapies

A Cloud-Edge Orchestration Platform for the Innovative Industrial Scenarios of the IoTwins Project

The concept of digital twins has growing more and more interest not only in the academic field but also among industrial environments thanks to the fact that the Internet of Things has enabled its cost-effective implementation. Digital twins (or digital models) refer to a virtual representation of a physical product or process that integrate data from various sources such as data APIs, historical data, embedded sensors and open data, giving to the manufacturers an unprecedented view into how their products are performing. The EU-funded IoTwins project plans to build testbeds for digital twins in order to run real-time computation as close to the data origin as possible (e.g., IoT Gateway or Edge nodes), and whilst batch-wise tasks such as Big Data analytics and Machine Learning model training are advised to run on the Cloud, where computing resources are abundant. In this paper, the basic concepts of the IoTwins project, its reference architecture, functionalities and components have been presented and discussed

Prevention of Recurrent Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo: The Role of Combined Supplementation with Vitamin D and Antioxidants

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) usually has a favorable course, although it is possible to observe BPPV with a high recurrence rate. Previous studies suggested that vitamin D deficiency might affect BPPV recurrences, and oxidative stress might play a complementary role in BPPV pathogenesis. This multicentric trial aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of oral nutritional supplementation with a compound of alpha-lipoic acid, Carnosine, and Zinc (LICA (R) (Difass International, Coriano (RN), Italy)), vitamins of group B and vitamin D in preventing BPPV recurrences. A total of 128 patients with high recurrence-BPPV were randomized in three arms: Arm 1 consisted of subjects with "insufficient" or "deficient" vitamin D blood levels, treated with daily oral supplementation of LICA (R), vitamins of group B and vitamin D3 (800 UI), Arm 2 included BPPV subjects with "sufficient" vitamin D who did not receive any nutritional support, and Arm 3 included subjects with a "sufficient" serum concentration of vitamin D who received supplementation with a compound of LICA (R) and Curcumin. After six months of follow-up, a significant reduction of BPPV relapses compared to the baseline was found only in Arm 1 (-2.32, 95% CI: 3.41-1.62, p-value < 0.0001). Study results suggested that oral nutritional supplementation with vitamin D3 plus antioxidants can prevent relapses in patients suffering from high recurrence-BPPV