AMYLOIDOSIS AND INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE: FACT OR MITH?

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which includes both Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), is a chronic idiopathic inflammatory disorder affecting the gastrointestinal tract. Extraintestinal manifestations (EIM) are common in patients with IBD, and occur in 6-47% of patients with CD or UC. EIM can involve organs other than the gastrointestinal tract such as skin, eyes, joints, biliary tract and kidneis. Renal and urinary involvement particularly occurs in 4-23% of patients with IBD. Among the renal complications of IBD, seconfary amyloidosis (AA-type, AAA) is a rare but serious complication. renal amyloidosis has been proven to be the most common lethal manifestation of IBD-associated amyloidosis, since renal involvement rapidly leads to end-stage renal failure. A few studies suggest that AAA is more prevalent in CD than in UC, mainly occurring in male patients with an extensive long-lasting and penetrating ddisease pattern. The therapeutic approaches of IBD-associated AAA are based both on control of the chronic inflammatory process that causes the production and storage of serum amyloid A (SAA), which is a precursor of the amyloid, as well as on destabilizing amyloid fibrils so that they can no longer maintain their pleated sheet configuration; however, in patients with end-stage renal disease, the only therapeutic options still available are hemodyalisis and renal transplantation. Whether effective treatment exists for AAA remain controversial

POUCHITIS: A TRIDIMENSIONAL VIEW

The preferred surgical treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC) and familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is represented by proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA). However, patients with UYC who have undergone IPAA are prone to develop several complications, which include surgery related/mecchanical complications; inflammatory or infectious disoreders; dysplasia or neoplasia; and systemic or metabolic disorders. Pouchitis, which is defined as the acute and/or chronic inflammation of the ileal reservoir, represent the most common long-term adverese sequela after IPAA. Gut microbiota play a pivotal role in the initiation and disease progression of pouchitis. Pouchitis can be classified according to the activity of the disease, the duration of the symptoms, the pattern of the disease or response to antibiotic therapy. Patients with IPAA for UC tend to experience a variety of symptoms that may eventually lead to pouch excision thereby necessitating the construction of a permanent ileostomy. To date, the ethiology, the diagnosis and the medical management of pouchitis represent a clinical challenge. In fact pouchitis range from a disease with an acute antibiotic-responsive presentation to a chronic antibiotic-refractory form, with subsequent different disease mechanism and clinical course. A tridimensional and multidisciplinar approach, including endoscopy, histology, and laboratory testing is widely helpful to identify the diferent phenotypes of the disease and to manage correctly its treatment

Egnazia nel Medioevo

La guida al nuovo allestimento del MArE - Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Egnazia ‘Giuseppe Andreassi’ è pensata con diversi livelli di approfondimento, come introduzione esplicativa per gli studiosi e al contempo come supporto utile alla visita per i non addetti ai lavori. In questo volume, il capitolo di G. Mastrocinque su Egnazia nel Medioevo racconta, sulla base dei risultati delle indagini più recenti, la fase conclusiva della vicenda dell'insediamento che interessa in particolare l'acropoli e il territorio, sottoposto negli ultimi anni a ricognizione sistematica coordinata dall'autore

La ricerca continua…per un museo dinamico

La guida al nuovo allestimento del MArE - Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Egnazia ‘Giuseppe Andreassi’ è pensata con diversi livelli di approfondimento, come introduzione esplicativa per gli studiosi e al contempo come supporto utile alla visita per i non addetti ai lavori. Nel capitolo conclusivo del volume, l'intervento di G. Mastrocinque vuole avviare la condivisione anche delle ultime acquisizioni, maturate con le indagini svolte dopo il riallestimento del Museo e recepite nel Museo attraverso approfondimenti mirati, esposizione di nuove scoperte e ampliamento dei supporti multimediali, in una esposizione che si alimenta continuamente delle novità della ricerca, grazie all'interazione efficace tra Università e Direzione del Museo

Progetto al calcolatore di linee di comunicazione ottica intersatellite con laser a diodo

A causa della elevata capacità di canale e delle moderate richieste di peso, volume e potenza a bordo di satelliti o sonde spaziali la tecnologia dei laser a diodo è oggi considerata risolutiva per numerose applicazioni di natura spaziale, dalle comunicazioni alla telemetria. Mettendo in evidenza i più recenti sviluppi discuteremo i principali criteri di progetto – che abbiamo formalizzato in programma Fortran – di tali linee di segnalazione ottica. Illustreremo e caratterizzeremo in sintesi con scenari di applicazione problemi e soluzioni tecniche relativi a rivelazione, strumentazione ottica, modulazione della sorgente laser, puntamento, acquisizione, inseguimento, elettronica, indurimento per l’applicazione spazio, codifica di messaggio

Optical responsivities of passive satellites for laser tracking

The Fournet equation for optical cross-sections of trihedral prisms in relativistic velocity aberration conditions is used to calculate the responsivities of spherical-array passive satellites for laser tracking at unusual – till now –wave-lenghts in this domain, likely to be used in the future as a consequence of the development of tunable vibronic lasers. A parametric correction to be applied in this equation when Fresnel-prism-satellites are investigated is introduced to renormalise the diffraction areas with respect to the case of metal-coated prisms and compute the optical efficiency of total internal reflection systems. The theoretical results are found in good agreement with a few available experimental and theoretical data. Optical link-budgets are established and discussed for some cases of interest

Egnazia in età romana - Spazio IX

La guida al nuovo allestimento del MArE - Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Egnazia ‘Giuseppe Andreassi’ è pensata con diversi livelli di approfondimento, come introduzione esplicativa per gli studiosi e al contempo come supporto utile alla visita per i non addetti ai lavori. In questo volume, il capitolo di G. Mastrocinque, dedicato alla città romana, si concentra sul rapporto tra i materiali in esposizione e gli spazi monumentali e residenziali della città da cui provengono, con l'obiettivo di far dialogare museo e Parco archeologico per una fruizione integrata, potenziata attraverso i risultati delle ricerche più recenti, condotte dallo stesso autore

Symmetrization procedures for detailed balancing of classical energy transfer probabilities Part I. Energy loss and radiative transitions in Coulomb collisions

In a few previous papers, we introduced a so-called fluctuation model accounting for inelastic effects in molecular energy transfers induced by collisions. This model resulted in «symrnetrisation rules» to be applied to the classical expressions for energy transfer probabilities, in order to insure detailed balancing. In this paper, we show that the symmetrisation procedures can also be applied successfully to the classical equations for energy loss and radiative transitions induced by Coulomb collisions of charged particles in stopping media. The resulting expressions display correct threshold behaviours and are worthwhile to be compared with the exact QM results. The comparison demonstrates interesting conceptual improvement of the classical equations and confirms that the symmetrisation procedures - as well as the underlying fluctuation model - are of a somewhat general applicability to inelastic processes in physics