Could polyphenols really be a good radioprotective strategy?

Currently, radiotherapy is one of the most effective strategies to treat cancer. However, deleterious toxicity against normal cells indicate for the need to selectively protect them. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species reinforce ionizing radiation cytotoxicity, and compounds able to scavenge these species or enhance antioxidant enzymes (e.g., superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase) should be properly investigated. Antioxidant plant-derived compounds, such as phenols and polyphenols, could represent a valuable alternative to synthetic compounds to be used as radio-protective agents. In fact, their dose-dependent antioxidant/pro-oxidant efficacy could provide a high degree of protection to normal tissues, with little or no protection to tumor cells. The present review provides an update of the current scientific knowledge of polyphenols in pure forms or in plant extracts with good evidence concerning their possible radiomodulating action. Indeed, with few exceptions, to date, the fragmentary data available mostly derive from in vitro studies, which do not find comfort in preclinical and/or clinical studies. On the contrary, when preclinical studies are reported, especially regarding the bioactivity of a plant extract, its chemical composition is not taken into account, avoiding any standardization and compromising data reproducibility

Evaluasi Sistem Pendidikan Multikultural dalam Pengembangan Diri Peserta Didik di SMP Negeri 1 Kota Gorontalo

Multicultural education offers alternatives through strategic applications and educational concepts based on the use of diversity in people's lives, especially students, such as ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, and racial diversity. This study aims to describe the evaluation steps of the multicultural education system in the self-development of students in junior high schools Negeri 1 Gorontalo City. The method used is a qualitative approach, with observation and interview techniques. The results showed that the steps in evaluating the multicultural education system in student self development used the Countenance Stake evaluation model approach: 1) The initial steps focus on the symptoms or phenomena that were evaluated according to the K'13 Revised 2017; 2) Collect information based on the characteristics of basic competencies in KI-1 and KI-2; 3) Entering the description data in the matrix framework in this case using the assessment format; 4) Process data analysis on a matrix framework using assessment standards; and 5) Make a report about the results of the analysisPendidikan multikultural menawarkan satu alternatif melalui penerapan strategis dan konsep pendidikan yang berbasis pada pemanfaatan keragaman dalam kehidupan masyarakat, khususnya yang ada pada peserta didik, seperti keragaman etnis, budaya, bahasa, agama dan ras. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan langkah-langkah evaluasi sistem  Pendidikan Multikultural dalam pengembangan diri peserta didik di SMP Negeri 1 Kota Gorontalo. Metode yang digunakan adalah pendekatan kualitatif, dengan teknik observasi dan wawancara. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa langkah-langkah evaluasi sistem pendidikan multikultural dalam pengembangan diri peserta didik dengan menggunakan pendekatan model evaluasi Countenance Stake : 1) Langkah awal memusatkan pada gejala atau fenomena yang dievaluasi sesuai K’13 Revisi 2017; 2) Mengumpulkan informasi yang didasarkan pada karakterisitik kompetensi dasar pada KI-1 dan KI-2; 3)  Memasukkan data deskripsi pada framework matrik dalam hal ini menggunakan format penilaian; 4) Processing analisis data pada framework matrik menggunakan standar penilaian; dan 5) Membuat laporan hasil analisis

Classical and quantum Big Brake cosmology for scalar field and tachyonic models

We study a relation between the cosmological singularities in classical and quantum theory, comparing the classical and quantum dynamics in some models possessing the Big Brake singularity - the model based on a scalar field and two models based on a tachyon-pseudo-tachyon field . It is shown that the effect of quantum avoidance is absent for the soft singularities of the Big Brake type while it is present for the Big Bang and Big Crunch singularities. Thus, there is some kind of a classical - quantum correspondence, because soft singularities are traversable in classical cosmology, while the strong Big Bang and Big Crunch singularities are not traversable.Comment: final version, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Food allergies: Current and future treatments

Food allergies are an increasingly public health problem, affecting up to 10% of children and causing a significant burden on affected patients, resulting in dietary restrictions, fear of accidental ingestion and related risk of severe reactions, as well as a reduced quality of life. Currently, there is no specific cure for a food allergy, so the only available management is limited to strict dietary avoidance, education on prompt recognition of symptoms, and emergency treatment of adverse reactions. Several allergen specific-and nonspecific-therapies, aiming to acquire a persistent food tolerance, are under investigation as potential treatments; however, to date, only immunotherapy has been identified as the most promising therapeutic approach for food allergy treatment. The aim of this review is to provide an updated overview on changes in the treatment landscape for food allergies

Immunomodulation in pediatric asthma

Childhood asthma is actually defined as a heterogeneous disease, including different clinical variants and partially sharing similar immune mechanisms. Asthma management is mainly focused on maintaining the control of the disease and reducing the risk of adverse outcomes. Most children achieve good control with standard therapies, such as low doses of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and/or one or more controller. These medications are targeted to suppress bronchial inflammation and to restore airway responsiveness. However, they are not disease-modifying and do not specifically target inflammatory pathways of asthma; in addition, they are not significantly effective in patients with severe uncontrolled asthma. The aim of this review is to update knowledge on current and novel therapeutic options targeted to immunomodulate inflammatory pathways underlying pediatric asthma, with particular reference on biologic therapies

Selenium and the role of defects for photovoltaic applications

We present first principles calculations of the electronic properties of trigonal selenium with emphasis on photovoltaic applications. The band gap and optical absorption spectrum of pristine selenium is calculated from many-body perturbation theory yielding excellent agreement with experiments. We then investigate the role of intrinsic as well as extrinsic defects and estimate the equilibrium concentrations resulting from realistic synthesis conditions. The intrinsic defects are dominated by vacancies, which act as acceptor levels and implies $p$-doping in agreement with previous predictions and measurements, and we show that these do not give rise to significant non-radiative recombination. The charge balance remains dominated by vacancies when extrinsic defects are included, but these may give rise to sizable non-radiative recombination rates, which could severely limit the performance of selenium based solar cells. Our results thus imply that the pollution by external elements is a decisive factor for the photovoltaic efficiency, which will be of crucial importance when considering synthesis conditions for any type of device engineering.Comment: 15 page

Biologic drugs in chronic spontaneous urticaria

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is a condition defined by the presence of recurrent urticaria, angioedema, or both, which persist for more than six weeks in duration and occurs in the absence of an identifiable trigger. Both children and adults can develop CSU, although it is more common in adults and in women than in men, with a peak occurrence in the third to fifth decades of life. It imposes a significant burden on patients, families and healthcare systems. The goal of therapy in patients with CSU is to achieve a level of symptom control and improvement in quality of life that is acceptable to the patient, while minimizing therapy-related side effects. The recent introduction of biologic drugs has changed the management of the disease. This work aims to provide a narrative review of the current state of biological therapy and the promising drugs under development for CSU

Towards Growing Robots: A Piecewise Morphology-Controller Co-adaptation Strategy for Legged Locomotion

Control of robots has largely been based on the assumption of a fixed morphology. Accordingly, robot designs have been stationary in time, except for the case of modular robots. Any drastic change in morphology, hence, requires a remodelling of the controller. This work takes inspiration from developmental robotics to present a piecewise morphology-controller growth/adaptation strategy that facilitates fast and reliable control adaptation to growing robots. We demonstrate our methodology on a simple 3 degree of freedom walking robot with adjustable foot lengths and with varying inertial conditions. Our results show not only the effectiveness and reliability of the piecewise morphology controller co-adaptation (PMCCA) strategy, but also highlight the need for morphological adaptation as a robot design strategy

Dynamic Response Characteristics in Variable Stiffness Soft Inflatable Links

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019. In soft robotics, there is the fundamental need to develop devices that are flexible and can change stiffness in order to work safely in the vicinity of humans. Moreover, these structures must be rigid enough to withstand the force application and accuracy in motion. To solve these issues, previous research proposed to add a compliance element between motor and load – Series Elastic Actuators (SEAs). This approach benefits from improved force control and shock tolerance due to the elasticity introduced at joint level. However, series compliance at the joint level comes at the cost of inferior position controllability and additional mechanical complexity. In this research, we move the elastic compliance to the link, and evaluate the characteristics of variable stiffness soft inflatable links. The detailed investigation of the dynamic behaviour of inflatable link takes into consideration different internal pressures and applied loads. Our results demonstrate that the use of soft inflatable links leads to good weight lifting capability whilst preserving compliance which is beneficial for safety critical applications