2,799 research outputs found
Pathological examination of breast cancer samples before and after neoadjuvant therapy: recommendations from the Italian Group for the Study of Breast Pathology - Italian Society of Pathology (GIPaM-SIAPeC)
Marine 5-thiohistidines as protective molecules from skin damage
Introduction Marine environment is a great source of bioactive molecules, whose biological properties and applications are often used especially to prevent skin diseases
and aging caused by UVAÂexposure. Ovothiols are methylÂ5Âthiohistidines from marine invertebrates, bacteria, and microalgae, which protect cells from environmental
stressors. Recently, we have shown that, ovothiol, isolated from sea urchin eggs, exerts antiÂinflammatory and antioxidant activities on human endothelial cells, and
exhibits antifibrotic effect in an in vivo model of liver fibrosis.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Motion Sickness Minimization Alerting System Using The Next Curvature Topology
Current intelligent car prototypes increasingly move to become autonomous where no driver is required. If an automated vehicle has rearward and forward facing seats and none of the passengers pay attention to the road, they increasingly experience the motion sickness because of the inability of passengers to anticipate the future motion trajectory. In this paper, we focus on anticipatory audio and video cues using pleasant sounds and a Human Machine Interface to display and inform the passengers about the upcoming trajectories that may lead to make the passengers sick. To be able to anticipate the next moves, we require an evaluation system of the next 1 kilometer of the road using the map. The road is investigated based on the amount of the turns and the maximum speed allowed that lead to lateral accelerations that is high enough based on Motion Sickness Dose Value to make the passengers sick. The system alerts the passengers through a Human Machine Interface to focus on the road for prevention of the Motion Sickness. We evaluate our method by using Motion Sickness Dose Value. Based on this work, we can prevent the sickness due to lateral accelerations by making the passengers to focus on the road and decrease the vestibular conflict
Development of Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors for the W-Band
We are developing a Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detector (LEKID) array
able to operate in the W-band (75-110 GHz) in order to perform ground-based
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and mm-wave astronomical observations. The
W-band is close to optimal in terms of contamination of the CMB from Galactic
synchrotron, free-free, and thermal interstellar dust. In this band, the
atmosphere has very good transparency, allowing interesting ground-based
observations with large (>30 m) telescopes, achieving high angular resolution
(<0.4 arcmin). In this work we describe the startup measurements devoted to the
optimization of a W-band camera/spectrometer prototype for large aperture
telescopes like the 64 m SRT (Sardinia Radio Telescope). In the process of
selecting the best superconducting film for the LEKID, we characterized a 40 nm
thick Aluminum 2-pixel array. We measured the minimum frequency able to break
CPs (i.e. ) obtaining
GHz, that corresponds to a critical temperature of 1.31 K. This is not suitable
to cover the entire W-band. For an 80 nm layer the minimum frequency decreases
to 93.2 GHz, which corresponds to a critical temperature of 1.28 K; this value
is still suboptimal for W-band operation. Further increase of the Al film
thickness results in bad performance of the detector. We have thus considered a
Titanium-Aluminum bi-layer (10 nm thick Ti + 25 nm thick Al, already tested in
other laboratories), for which we measured a critical temperature of 820 mK and
a cut-on frequency of 65 GHz: so this solution allows operation in the entire
W-band.Comment: 16th International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors, Grenoble
20-24 July 2015, Journal of Low Temperature Physics, Accepte
Novel Insights on Nitric Oxide Synthase and NO Signaling in Ascidian Metamorphosis
Nitric oxide (NO) is a pivotal signaling molecule involved in a wide range of physiological and pathological processes. We investigated NOS/NO localization patterns during the different stages of larval development in the ascidia Ciona robusta and evidenced a specific and temporally controlled pattern. NOS/NO expression starts in the most anterior sensory structures of the early larva and progressively moves towards the caudal portion as larval development and metamorphosis proceeds. We here highlight the pattern of NOS/NO expression in the central and peripheral nervous system of Ciona larvae which precisely follows the progression of neural signals of the central pattern generator necessary for the control of the movements of the larva towards the substrate. This highly dynamic localization profile perfectly matches with the central role played by NO from the first phase of settlement induction to the next control of swimming behavior, adhesion to substrate and progressive tissue resorption and reorganization of metamorphosis itself
Phase-ordering of conserved vectorial systems with field-dependent mobility
The dynamics of phase-separation in conserved systems with an O(N) continuous
symmetry is investigated in the presence of an order parameter dependent
mobility M(\phi)=1-a \phi^2. The model is studied analytically in the framework
of the large-N approximation and by numerical simulations of the N=2, N=3 and
N=4 cases in d=2, for both critical and off-critical quenches. We show the
existence of a new universality class for a=1 characterized by a growth law of
the typical length L(t) ~ t^{1/z} with dynamical exponent z=6 as opposed to the
usual value z=4 which is recovered for a<1.Comment: RevTeX, 8 pages, 13 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Stress response to cadmium and manganese in Paracentrotus lividus developing embryos is mediated by nitric oxide
Increasing concentrations of contaminants, often resulting from anthropogenic activities, have been reported to occur in the marine environment and affect marine organisms. Among these, the metal ions cadmium and manganese have been shown to induce developmental delay and abnormalities, mainly reflecting skeleton elongation perturbation, in the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus, an established model for toxicological studies. Here, we provide evidence that the physiological messenger nitric oxide (NO), formed by l-arginine oxidation by NO synthase (NOS), mediates the stress response induced by cadmium and manganese in sea urchins. When NO levels were lowered by inhibiting NOS, the proportion of abnormal plutei increased. Quantitative expression of a panel of 19 genes involved in stress response, skeletogenesis, detoxification and multidrug efflux processes was followed at different developmental stages and under different conditions: metals alone, metals in the presence of NOS inhibitor, NO donor and NOS inhibitor alone. These data allowed the identification of different classes of genes whose metal-induced transcriptional expression was directly or indirectly mediated by NO. These results open new perspectives on the role of NO as a sensor of different stress agents in sea urchin developing embryos. © 2014 Elsevier B.V
Natural Sulfur-Containing Compounds: An Alternative Therapeutic Strategy against Liver Fibrosis
Liver fibrosis is a pathophysiologic process involving the accumulation of extracellular matrix proteins as collagen deposition. Advanced liver fibrosis can evolve in cirrhosis, portal hypertension and often requires liver transplantation. At the cellular level, hepatic fibrosis involves the activation of hepatic stellate cells and their transdifferentiation into myofibroblasts. Numerous pro-fibrogenic mediators including the transforming growth factor-β1, the platelet-derived growth factor, endothelin-1, toll-like receptor 4, and reactive oxygen species are key players in this process. Knowledge of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying hepatic fibrosis development need to be extended to find novel therapeutic strategies. Antifibrotic therapies aim to inhibit the accumulation of fibrogenic cells and/or prevent the deposition of extracellular matrix proteins. Natural products from terrestrial and marine sources, including sulfur-containing compounds, exhibit promising activities for the treatment of fibrotic pathology. Although many therapeutic interventions are effective in experimental models of liver fibrosis, their efficacy and safety in humans are largely unknown. This review aims to provide a reference collection on experimentally tested natural anti-fibrotic compounds, with particular attention on sulfur-containing molecules. Their chemical structure, sources, mode of action, molecular targets, and pharmacological activity in the treatment of liver disease will be discussed
Insights into the light response of skeletonema marinoi: Involvement of ovothiol
Diatoms are one of the most widespread groups of microalgae on Earth. They possess extraordinary metabolic capabilities, including a great ability to adapt to different light conditions. Recently, we have discovered that the diatom Skeletonema marinoi produces the natural antioxidant ovothiol B, until then identified only in clams. In this study, we investigated the light-dependent modulation of ovothiol biosynthesis in S. marinoi. Diatoms were exposed to different light conditions, ranging from prolonged darkness to low or high light, also differing in the velocity of intensity increase (sinusoidal versus square-wave distribution). The expression of the gene encoding the key ovothiol biosynthetic enzyme, ovoA, was upregulated by high sinusoidal light mimicking natural conditions. Under this situation higher levels of reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide as well as ovothiol and glutathione increase were detected. No ovoA modulation was observed under prolonged darkness nor low sinusoidal light. Unnatural conditions such as continuous square-wave light induced a very high oxidative stress leading to a drop in cell growth, without enhancing ovoA gene expression. Only one of the inducible forms of nitric oxide synthase, nos2, was upregulated by light with consequent production of NO under sinusoidal light and darkness conditions. Our data suggest that ovothiol biosynthesis is triggered by a combined light stress caused by natural distribution and increased photon flux density, with no influence from the daily light dose. These results open new perspectives for the biotechnological production of ovothiols, which are receiving a great interest for their biological activities in human model systems
- …