Full‐field hemocytometry. Forty years of progress seen through <i>Clinical and Laboratory Hematology and the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology</i>

AbstractThe extraordinary advances in clinical hematology, biology, and oncology in the last decades would not have been possible without discovering how to identify and count the cells circulating in the blood. For centuries, scientists have used slides, counting chambers (hemocytometers), and diluting and staining solutions for this task. Then, automated hemocytometry began. This science, now linked to the daily routine of laboratory hematology, has completed an overwhelming path over a few decades. Our laboratories today operate with versatile multiparameter systems, ranging from complex single‐channel instruments to bulky continuous flow machines. In terms of clinical information obtained from a simple routine blood test, the full exploitation of their potential depends on the operators' imagination and courage. A comprehensive review of the scientific publications that have accompanied the development of hemocytometry from the 1950s to today would require entire volumes. More than seven hundred contributions that authors worldwide have published in Clinical and Laboratory Haematology until 2007 and then the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology are summarized. Such journals have represented and hopefully will continue to represent the privileged place of welcome for future scientific research in hemocytometry. Improved technologies, attention to quality, new reagents and electronics, information technology, and scientist talent ensure a more profound and deeper knowledge of cell properties: current laboratory devices measure and count even minor immature or pathological cell subpopulations. Full‐field hemocytometry includes the analysis of nonhematic fluids, digital adds to the microscope, and the development of effective point‐of‐care devices

Firms, Labor, Migrations And Unions Within Tomato Value Chain in Southern Italy

Italy is the world’s third largest producer of industrial tomatoes after US and China and the largest producer in Europe. Sixty percent of production is absorbed by foreign markets such as Germany, UK, France, US, Japan and Russia. In this research work the tomatoes production in Southern Italy is analysed taking into account the restructuring of agriculture in terms of labour and production under neoliberal globalization, the role played by international migrations flows, the structure and the composition of transnational agri-food chains, the rising power of buying alliances in Europe and their price policy vis-à-vis to manufacturers and suppliers. From the countryside of Foggia passing through processing firms in the province of Naples and Salerno until reaching international supermarkets the production and distribution of industrial tomatoes links different firms, places and workers triggering new conflicts and generating new union demands

Farm work and tomato value chain: economic and power relations within southern Italy district

The research aims to study the structure and the mechanisms that regulate the working of tomato value chain, the power and economic relations between lead firms and other companies included in their supply chain and how the dynamics of production network and the social context shape labour relations and working conditions within supply firms located at the lower rings of the supply chain

A cumulant approach for the first-passage-time problem of the Feller square-root process

The paper focuses on an approximation of the first passage time probability density function of a Feller stochastic process by using cumulants and a Laguerre-Gamma polynomial approximation. The feasibility of the method relies on closed form formulae for cumulants and moments recovered from the Laplace transform of the probability density function and using the algebra of formal power series. To improve the approximation, sufficient conditions on cumulants are stated. The resulting procedure is made easier to implement by the symbolic calculus and a rational choice of the polynomial degree depending on skewness, kurtosis and hyperskewness. Some case-studies coming from neuronal and financial fields show the goodness of the approximation even for a low number of terms. Open problems are addressed at the end of the paper

Clinical Applications of Automated Reticulocyte Indices.

Automated analysis of reticulocytes provides pathologists and clinicians with several new parameters, which need to be evaluated for their role in the diagnosis and management of diseases. We review here the current knowledge on reticulocyte cell volume, hemoglobin concentration and content. Several studies have provided reference values for reticulocyte cell volume (MCVr), cell hemoglobin concentration (CHCMr) and cell hemoglobin content (CHr). Data are available on the changes of these indices in iron deficiency and megaloblastic anemias and their response to therapy. CHr has been shown to be an early indicator of functional irondeficiency in subjects treated with recombinant human erythropoietin (r-HuEPO). Reticulocyte changes have also been described in the early phases of hydroxyurea therapy for sickle cell disease and in bone marrow transplantation. The real-time information provided by reticulocyte indices on the functional state of the erythroid marrow is an important tool in the diagnosis and management of several hematological disorders and in the use of r-HuEPO

Stochastic methods and models for neuronal activity and motor proteins

The main topic of this thesis is to specialize mathematical methods and construct stochastic models for describing and predict biological dynamics such as neuronal firing and acto-myosin sliding. The apparently twofold theme on which we focused the research is part of a strictly unitary context as the methods and tools of investigation adapt naturally to both issues. Models describing the stochastic evolution in the case of neuronal activity or that of the acto-myosin dynamics are governed by stochastic differential equations whose solutions are diffusion processes and Gauss-Markov processes. Of fundamental importance in the study of these phenomena is the determination of the density of the first passage times through one or two time-depending boundaries. For this purpose the development or use of numerical solution algorithms and the comparison of the results with those obtained by simulation algorithms is essential. A particular type of Gauss-Markov process (the time-inhomogeneous Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process) and its first passage time through suitable boundaries are fundamental for modeling phenomena subject to additional (external) time-dependent forces

Ecografia endoscopica dell'esofago: identificazione e ricostruzione 3D delle pareti

In questa Tesi si propone un metodo per l’identificazione delle pareti esofagee mediante l’utilizzo di Active Models applicati ad immagini di un eco-endoscopia esofagea e una successiva ricostruzione tridimensionale delle pareti della sezione esofagea in esameopenEmbargo per motivi di segretezza e di proprietà dei risultati e informazioni sensibil