Nasal cellularity in 183 unselected schoolchildren aged 9 to 11 years

Although rhinitis is extremely frequent in children, methods for assessing the severity of nasal inflammation produce results with wide variability and hence weak clinical significance. We designed this epidemiologic investigation to define the clinical usefulness of assessing nasal cellularity in children

Sulfoglycolipids analogues as new molecules for tumor treatment

The sulfoglycolipids sulfoquinovosylacylglycerols(SQAG) are abundant sulfur-containing glycerolipids that are associated with photosynthetic organisms especially with a large number of marine algae. Their main structural feature is the anionic head group constituent sulfoquinovose, a derivative of glucose in which the 6-hydroxyl is replaced by a sulfonate group, \uf061-linked to the sn-3 position of a diacylglycerol1. Recently reported biological activities of SQAGs, including inhibitory effects on HIV-reverse transcriptase, and mammalian DNA polymerase, proliferation of some cancer cell lines, angiogenesis (especially when coupled with tumor radiotherapy), and apoptosis induction, make these compounds very attractive for their potential in cancer therapy. Also, extractive SQAG mixtures are known to inhibit in vitro TPA induced tumor promotion stage. To obtain new active compounds for cancer therapy by structural modification of natural SQAGs, SQAG analogues have been synthesized in which the sulfoquinovose moiety is linked to the 2 position of glycerol carrying acyl chains of different length. Similar compounds in fact, with a 6\u2019-hydroxyl instead of a 6\u2019-sulfonate (namely some glycoglycerolipid analogues), are known to be active as anti-tumor-promoters in TPA promoted carcinogenesis in vitro and in vivo experiments. A synthetic strategy has been used to selectively insert the proper chemical functionalities (i.e. sulfonate and acyl chains) at the desired positions of the previously prepared glucosylglycerol skeleton to obtain the target compounds. Biological evaluation of anti-tumor activities will be performed including the study of their chemopreventing potential

The lecture video recording in university: A case study

The latest European statistics show that Italy has the second lowest percentage of university graduates because of different reasons such as the outdated teaching methodologies or the high costs of university tuitions. Hence, Italian universities have launched several projects to improve or innovate the pedagogical strategies, to raise the student recruitment and to increase access to education. In this work, we describe a pilot study about the use of the video recording of the traditional lessons in order to create specific university MOOCs. In particular, the degree course in Computer Science of University of Naples Federico II is involved in this project. The use of the lecture video recording reduces the MOOC costs and facilitates the contents management. In fact, the production of these MOOCs does not require professional operators so it is possible to involve students of university part-time job or Civil Service volunteers. The results show a good satisfaction by students and prove as these MOOCs can support the university teaching

Chemoenzymatic synthesis of sulfoquinovosylmonoacylglycerols (SQMG) as anti-tumor-promoters

During our search for new glycoglycerolipids active in cancer chemoprevention, in recent years we have synthesized a number of esters of 2-O-beta-D-glycosylglycerols in which the length, shape, number and position of the acyl chain, and the type of sugar (alpha\uf020and beta glucose or galactose) were varied. These compounds were found to be very active in inhibiting the tumor-promoting activity of the phorbol ester TPA both in in vitro and in in vivo tests, being such activities mainly influenced by the changes of the acyl chains length. Sulfoquinovosylacylglycerols are acylated sulfoglycolipids in which sulfoquinovose (6-deoxy-6-sulfo-glucose) is alpha-linked to the sn-3 position of glycerol. These compounds exhibit noteworthy biological activities, that make them very attractive for their use in cancer therapy. Here we report the synthesis of 6\u2019-sulfo-derivatives (SQMG) based on the skeleton of 2-O-beta-D-glucosylglycerol to which previously synthesized biologically active glucoglycerolipid analogues are related. A chemoenzymatic strategy has been used to selectively insert the proper chemical functionalities (i.e. acyl chain) at the desired position of glucosylglycerol to obtain the target compounds. Their potential as anti-tumor-promoters will be also discussed

Editorial: Congenital and perinatal infections: How to prevent sequelaes in neonates and children

The current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has overwhelmingly absorbed attention and health resources for 2 years, allowing us to reflect that infections are a permanent health and social problem, causing morbidity and mortality. They require organization, important prevention measures, and containment. This is particularly true in the neonatal age, where infections remain a complex problem with serious consequences

Polarization observables in high-energy deuteron photodisintegration within the Quark-Gluon Strings Model

Deuteron two-body photodisintegration is analysed within the framework of the Quark-Gluon Strings Model. The model describes fairly well the recent experimental data from TJNAF in the few GeV region. Angular distributions at different $\gamma$-energies are presented and the effect of a forward-backward asymmetry is discussed. New results from the QGSM for polarization observables from 1.5 -- 6 GeV are presented and compared with the available data.Comment: 3 pages, LaTeX, 4 postscript figures; contribution to QNP2002, Juelich, June 10-14, 200