Biodegradable mulching spray for weed control in the cultivation of containerized ornamental shrubs

Abstract Background Weed control represents a major issue in plant cultivation in containers. Manual weed control is very expensive and the use of chemical herbicide or plastic mulch films has a large environmental impact. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of an experimental biodegradable chitosan-based mulching spray in controlling weed growth in containers. This research also studied the effect of this mulch on the growth of Viburnum lucidum Mill. plants to test for possible phytotoxic effects. Results The study compared a total of six treatments derived from three types of weed control (no weed control; herbicide, oxadiazon; mulching spray) applied in containers either filled only with the sterile substrate or filled with the sterile substrate and then artificially inoculated with seeds of the weed species [Sonchus asper (L.) Hill subsp. asper and Epilobium montanum L.]. The mulch controlled the weeds effectively for more than 2 months after its application even under severe weed infestation. The mulching spray controlled the emergence of S. asper more efficiently than E. montanum plants, probably because the latter has a stronger capacity to penetrate the mulch film during emergence. Conclusions Three months after its application, the mulch started to degrade and this allowed some weeds to emerge in the containers, but, in general, the mulch performed better than the herbicide. The chitosan-based mulch did not have any negative effective on the growth of V. lucidum plants

Macroporous alginate foams crosslinked with strontium for bone tissue engineering

Nowadays, the need of novel strategies to repair and regenerate bone defects in the field of biomedical applications has increased. Novel approaches include the design of natural bioactive scaffolds mimicking bone tissue. These bioactive scaffolds have to possess biophysical properties suitable to address biological response towards newly bone tissue formation. In particular, scaffold porosity and pore size play a pivotal role in cell migration, adhesion and proliferation, thus increasing cell-material surface interaction and osteogenic signals transmission. Here we propose the development of macroporous alginate foams (MAFs) with porous and well interconnected structure, useful to enhance growth and osteogenic differentiation of human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hMSCs). Moreover, in this study we report a new method for MAFs fabrication based on the combination of internal gelation technique with gas foaming. Strontium was employed in combination with calcium as cross-linking agent for the alginate chains and as enhancer of the osteogenic differentiation. The influence of strontium ions on the gelation kinetics, physical properties and degradation in physiological medium of MAFs was investigated. Our results suggest that the combination of internal gelation technique with gas foaming followed by freeze-drying is an easy and straightforward procedure to prepare alginate foams with high porosity and interconnectivity, able to support cell infiltration. Finally, biological assays showed how scaffolds with high strontium content are able to support cell growth and differentiation in long times by promoting osteogenic marker expression

CAR-Ts redirected against the Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen CD176 mediate specific elimination of malignant cells from leukemia and solid tumors

This research was in part funded by: "From CARs to TRUCKs: Induction of a concerted anti-tumor immune response by engineered T cells" (Deutsche Krebshilfe/German Cancer Aid-Priority Program in Translational Oncology #111975), "The Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen CD176: New target of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified immune cells in adoptive cancer immunotherapy" (Deutsche Kinderkrebsstiftung, Projekt DKS 2020.17), and Glycotope GmbH. AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Chimeric antigen receptor-engineered T cells (CAR-Ts) are investigated in various clinical trials for the treatment of cancer entities beyond hematologic malignancies. A major hurdle is the identification of a target antigen with high expression on the tumor but no expression on healthy cells, since "on-target/off-tumor" cytotoxicity is usually intolerable. Approximately 90% of carcinomas and leukemias are positive for the Thomsen-Friedenreich carbohydrate antigen CD176, which is associated with tumor progression, metastasis and therapy resistance. In contrast, CD176 is not accessible for ligand binding on healthy cells due to prolongation by carbohydrate chains or sialylation. Thus, no "on-target/off-tumor" cytotoxicity and low probability of antigen escape is expected for corresponding CD176-CAR-Ts. Methods: Using the anti-CD176 monoclonal antibody (mAb) Nemod-TF2, the presence of CD176 was evaluated on multiple healthy or cancerous tissues and cells. To target CD176, we generated two different 2 generation CD176-CAR constructs differing in spacer length. Their specificity for CD176 was tested in reporter cells as well as primary CD8 T cells upon co-cultivation with CD176 tumor cell lines as models for CD176 blood and solid cancer entities, as well as after unmasking CD176 on healthy cells by vibrio cholerae neuraminidase (VCN) treatment. Following that, both CD176-CARs were thoroughly examined for their ability to initiate target-specific T-cell signaling and activation, cytokine release, as well as cytotoxicity. Results: Specific expression of CD176 was detected on primary tumor tissues as well as on cell lines from corresponding blood and solid cancer entities. CD176-CARs mediated T-cell signaling (NF-κB activation) and T-cell activation (CD69, CD137 expression) upon recognition of CD176 cancer cell lines and unmasked CD176, whereby a short spacer enabled superior target recognition. Importantly, they also released effector molecules (e.g. interferon-γ, granzyme B and perforin), mediated cytotoxicity against CD176 cancer cells, and maintained functionality upon repetitive antigen stimulation. Here, CD176L-CAR-Ts exhibited slightly higher proliferation and mediator-release capacities. Since both CD176-CAR-Ts did not react towards CD176 control cells, their response proved to be target-specific. Discussion: Genetically engineered CD176-CAR-Ts specifically recognize CD176 which is widely expressed on cancer cells. Since CD176 is masked on most healthy cells, this antigen and the corresponding CAR-Ts represent a promising approach for the treatment of various blood and solid cancers while avoiding "on-target/off-tumor" cytotoxicity

From struggle to exchange: a group of students proposes a dialogue on practical traineeship

This paper comes from the work of a group of eighteen students attending the master’s degree course "Clinical Psychology of the person, of organizations and of the community" at the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology of the University of Rome “Sapienza". We have set up a laboratory on the role of practical traineeship with the chair of the Professor R.M. Paniccia, with the aim of treating this complex and controversial topic that connects reality and several social actors: agencies, Order of Psychologists, University and students. Our goal has been thinking over training in psychology and the figure of clinical psychologist, focusing a specific time we consider relevant in our training: practical traineeship, seen as a critical event on the way that leads from the student role to the professional one. We understand the complexity of practical traineeship if we connect it with the specificity of training in clinical psychology, where training and profession path goes through the implication in one’s experience, which allows to integrate psychological theory and practice by re-thinking the emotions experienced in relation to different contexts using clinical psychology categories. We have decided to deal with this topic from different points of view: in the first part we introduce the reader to the current context that characterizes the practical traineeship in psychology. We present the political/normative context, then we define the methodology that we used and, at last, we discuss the characteristics of the process in which our group has been involved. This premise allows the reader to then switch to a second part referred to the exploration of the relational dynamics established in the relationship between trainee and organization by analyzing our practical traineeship experiences. In the last part, we offer some points of discussion on the trainee’s clinical psychology function and on critical situations in meeting with agencies

The representation of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown in Italy: A psychosocial research by SPS, Studio di Psicosociologia of Rome

A fine febbraio 2020, in SPS4ci siamo chiesti quali fossero i vissuti evocati dalla pandemia Covid-19 in esordio, e quali fatti “derivassero” da tali vissuti. A tal fine abbiamo interpellato 419 persone, tra l’1 marzo e il 5 maggio 2020. Il corpus raccolto è stato analizzato con l’Analisi Emozionale del Testo (AET). Si ipotizzava che la pandemia avesse destrutturato le modalità abituali di rapporto, e pensavamo stessero emergendo dimensioni relazionali inedite. I nostri dati dicono che l’individualismo abituale, di avida competitività, è in crisi. In risposta alla destrutturazione dello schema relazionale amico/nemico, alla base della socialità, è emerso un nuovo individualismo. La rappresentazione del pericolo insito nel contagio pandemico ci ha reso, tutti, potenzialmente nemici gli uni degli altri. Tutti siamo vissuti come potenzialmente nemici di tutti, a meno di non essere dichiaratamente malati. I malati, di contro, non sono vissuti come nemici: sono un’alterità scissa, relegata in un altrove lontano da chi è “sano”. Le cure, nel lockdown, erano confinate nell’ospedale, caratterizzate dall’isolamento, dall’emergenza, dalla morte esperita nel peggiore dei modi. L’altrove è stato reificato in un ospedale diventato sintomatico del fallimento del sistema sanitario. Si è costituito un “noi” qui insieme, sani e maniacalmente felici, e un “loro”contagiati, dannati, isolati e “altrove”. Internet, consentendo vicinanza senza contatto, è diventata un nuovo contesto di socialità. Ha permesso di ridiventare umani, ovvero amici, a meno che non si dimostri il contrario. Ma la nuova amicalità è fondata sulla scissione dall’altro dannato: la coppia malato/curante, e tutti gli esclusi, per diverse motivazioni, dalla protezione del lockdown. Dalla nuova socialità è escluso anche il vissuto dello stare chiusi in casa con gli abituali conviventi, dove emerge la violenza delle relazioni familiari obbligate. Si evidenziano altri esclusi dal noi maniacalmente amicale: gli anziani che non usano internet e che più di tutti rischiano di morire. C’è poi una cultura che, entro il fallimento delle relazioni sociali abituali, sottolinea l’impotenza delle istituzioni (politiche, sanitarie, mediatiche etc.) nella contingenza pandemica. Infine, c’è una cultura pre-lockdown, fatta della paura che porterà a scegliere l’isolamento. Manca, nei dati, il mondo produttivo, che non ha ritrovato, per gli interpellati dalla ricerca –nel periodo di tempo da noi considerato –un codice emozionale condiviso che potesse raccogliersi in un cluster. La ricerca aveva anche un obiettivo di intervento: quello di creare un contesto in cui l’evento pandemia potesse essere interpretato, entro un setting di partecipazione. Oltre a effettuare una pubblicazione rapida dei dati, intendiamo promuovere gruppi di discussione su internet con i partecipanti. La creazione di un contesto di condivisione è anche un motivo dell’alto numero di Autori.At the end of February 2020, in SPS2we asked ourselves what were the experiences evoked by the Covid-19 pandemic in its debut, and what facts “derived”from these experiences. To this end, we interviewed 419 people, between 1 March and 5 May 2020. The collected corpus was analyzed through the Emotional Text Analysis (AET). It was assumed that the pandemic had deconstructed the usual ways of relating, and we thought that new relational dimensions were emerging. Our data show that habitual individualism, of greedy competitiveness, is in crisis. A new individualism has emerged in response to the deconstruction of the friend/foerelational schema, at the basis of sociality. The representation of the danger inherent in the pandemic contagion has made us all potentially enemies of each other. We have all lived as potentially enemies of all, unless we are admittedly sick. The sick, on the other hand, are not experienced as enemies: they are a split otherness, relegated to an elsewhere far from those who are “healthy”. Duringthe lockdown, treatments were confined to the hospital, characterized by isolation, emergency, death experienced in the worst way. The othernesswas reified in a hospital that became symptomatic of the failure of the health system. A “we”has formed here together, healthy and maniacally happy, and a “them”infected, damned, isolated and “elsewhere”. The Internet, by allowing contactless proximity, has become a new context of sociality. It has allowed us to become human again, or friends, unless proven otherwise. But the new friendship is based on the split from the damned other: the sick/caring couple, and all those excluded, for various reasons, from the protection of the lockdown. The experience of being closed at home with the usual cohabitants is also excluded from the new sociality, where the violence of forced family relationships emerges. There are others excluded from a maniacally friendlyus: the elderly who do not use the internet and who most of all risk dying. There is also a culture that, within the failure of habitual social relations, underlines the powerlessness of institutions (political, health, media, etc.) in the pandemic contingency. Finally, there is a pre-lockdown culture, made up of fear that will lead to chooseisolation. In the data, the productive world is missing, which for those interviewed by the research did not find -in the period of time we considered -a shared emotional code that could be gathered in a cluster. The research also had an intervention objective: to create a context in which the pandemicevent could be interpreted, within a setting of participation. In addition to publishing the data quickly, we intend to promote discussion groups onthe internet with participants. The creation of a sharing context is also areason for the high number of Author

Efficacy and safety of tenecteplase in combination with enoxaparin, abciximab, or unfractionated heparin: The ASSENT-3 randomised trial in acute myocardial infarction

Background: Current fibrinolytic therapies fail to achieve optimum reperfusion in many patients. Low-molecular-weight heparins and platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors have shown the potential to improve pharmacological reperfusion therapy. We did a randomised, open-label trial to compare the efficacy and safety of tenecteplase plus enoxaparin or abciximab, with that of tenecteplase plus weight-adjusted unfractionated heparin in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Methods: 6095 patients with acute myocardial infarction of less than 6 h were randomly assigned one of three regimens: full-dose tenecteplase and enoxaparin for a maximum of 7 days (enoxaparin group; n=2040), half-dose tenecteplase with weight-adjusted low-dose unfractionated heparin and a 12-h infusion of abciximab (abciximab group; n=2017), or full-dose tenecteplase with weight-adjusted unfractionated heparin for 48 h (unfractionated heparin group; n=2038). The primary endpoints were the composites of 30-day mortality, in-hospital reinfarction, or in-hospital refractory ischaemia (efficacy endpoint), and the above endpoint plus in-hospital intracranial haemorrhage or in-hospital major bleeding complications (efficacy plus safety endpoint). Analysis was by intention to treat. Findings: There were significantly fewer efficacy endpoints in the enoxaparin and abciximab groups than in the unfractionated heparin group: 233/2037 (11.4%) versus 315/2038 (15.4%; relative risk 0.74 [95% CI 0.63-0.87], p=0.0002) for enoxaparin, and 223/2017 (11.1%) versus 315/2038 (15.4%; 0.72 [0.61-0.84], p<0.0001) for abciximab. The same was true for the efficacy plus safety endpoint: 280/2037 (13.7%) versus 347/2036 (17.0%; 0.81 [0.70-0.93], p=0.0037) for enoxaparin, and 287/2016 (14.2%) versus 347/2036 (17.0%; 0.84 [0.72-0.96], p=0.01416) for abciximab. Interpretation: The tenecteplase plus enoxaparin or abciximab regimens studied here reduce the frequency of ischaemic complications of an acute myocardial infarction. In light of its ease of administration, tenecteplase plus enoxaparin seems to be an attractive alternative reperfusion regimen that warrants further study