212 research outputs found
The Role of Hyaluronic Acid in Sport-Related Tendinopathies: A Narrative Review
Tendinopathy is a complex clinical condition with a rising incidence and prevalence, particularly during sports practice. For the return to play in affected patients, adequate functional and structural recovery of the tendon is the ultimate goal, avoiding the high risk of recurrence. In this perspective, local therapies alongside exercise are showing promising results. Despite evidence suggesting hyaluronic acid (HA) injections as effective in the treatment of tendinopathy, current recommendations about the management of this condition do not include this intervention. HA seems to be an effective therapeutic option for the management of sport-related tendinopathies, but further studies with a larger sample size are needed to confirm available findings. In this narrative review, we analyzed available literature about the rationale of the use of HA in the management of tendon injury and, particularly, in sport-related tendinopathies
Terapias moleculares direcionadas em câncer de tireoide
Thyroid cancer incidence has significantly increased in the last three decades and many patients seek medical attention for its treatment every year. Among follicular cell-derived tumors, the majority are differentiated thyroid carcinomas (DTC), whose prognosis is very good with only 15% of the cases presenting disease persistence or recurrence after initial treatment. Medullary thyroid carcinoma has a worse prognosis, especially in patients with diffused cancers at the time of initial surgery. Traditional treatment options for persistent or recurrent disease include additional surgery, radioiodine treatment and TSH-suppression in DTC patients; external beam radiotherapy, and cytotoxic chemotherapy, often have low efficacy and many patients with advanced disease ultimately die. In the last two decades many of the molecular events involved in cancer formation have been uncovered. This knowledge has prompted the development of novel therapeutic strategies mainly based on the inhibition of key molecular mediators of the tumorigenic process. In particular the class of small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors was enriched by many compounds that have reached clinical trials and in some cases have had approval for clinical use in specific cancers. Many of these compounds entered clinical trials also for locally advanced or metastatic thyroid carcinomas showing very promising results
Caratterizzazione tessiturale e composizionale delle sabbie di spiaggia: un approccio sedimentologico-biologico
An inhibitory gate for state transition in cortex
Large scale transitions between active (up) and silent (down) states during quiet wakefulness or NREM sleep regulate fundamental cortical functions and are known to involve both excitatory and inhibitory cells. However, if and how inhibition regulates these activity transitions is unclear. Using fluorescence-targeted electrophysiological recording and cell-specific optogenetic manipulation in both anesthetized and non-anesthetized mice, we found that two major classes of interneurons, the parvalbumin and the somatostatin positive cells, tightly control both up-to-down and down-to-up state transitions. Inhibitory regulation of state transition was observed under both natural and optogenetically-evoked conditions. Moreover, perturbative optogenetic experiments revealed that the inhibitory control of state transition was interneuron-type specific. Finally, local manipulation of small ensembles of interneurons affected cortical populations millimetres away from the modulated region. Together, these results demonstrate that inhibition potently gates transitions between cortical activity states, and reveal the cellular mechanisms by which local inhibitory microcircuits regulate state transitions at the mesoscale
Jet breaks at the end of the slow decline phase of Swift GRB lightcurves
The Swift mission has discovered an intriguing feature of Gamma-Ray Burst
(GRBs) afterglows, a phase of shallow decline of the flux in the X-ray and
optical lightcurves. This behaviour is typically attributed to energy injection
into the burst ejecta. At some point this phase ends, resulting in a break in
the lightcurve, which is commonly interpreted as the cessation of the energy
injection. In a few cases, however, while breaks in the X-ray lightcurve are
observed, optical emission continues its slow flux decline. This behaviour
suggests a more complex scenario. In this paper, we present a model that
invokes a double component outflow, in which narrowly collimated ejecta are
responsible for the X-ray emission while a broad outflow is responsible for the
optical emission. The narrow component can produce a jet break in the X-ray
lightcurve at relatively early times, while the optical emission does not break
due to its lower degree of collimation. In our model both components are
subject to energy injection for the whole duration of the follow-up
observations. We apply this model to GRBs with chromatic breaks, and we show
how it might change the interpretation of the GRBs canonical lightcurve. We
also study our model from a theoretical point of view, investigating the
possible configurations of frequencies and the values of GRB physical
parameters allowed in our model.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures. To be published by MNRA
Testing a new view of Gamma Ray Burst Afterglows
The optical and X-ray light-curves of long Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) often show
a complex evolution and in most cases do not track each other. This behaviour
can not be easily explained by the simplest standard afterglow models. A
possible interpretation is to consider the observed optical and X-ray
light-curves as the sum of two separate components. This scenario requires the
presence of a spectral break between these bands. One of the aims of this work
is to test whether such a break is present within the observed Swift XRT energy
range. We analyse the X-ray afterglow spectra of a sample of 33 long GRBs with
known redshift, good optical photometry and published estimate of the host
galaxy dust absorption A_V(host). We find that indeed in 7 bright events a
broken power-law provides a fit to the data that is better than a single
power-law model. For 8 events, instead, the X-ray spectrum is better fitted by
a single power-law. We discuss the role of these breaks in connection to the
relation between the host hydrogen column density N_H(host) and A_V(host) and
check the consistency of the X-ray spectral breaks with the optical bands
photometry. We analyse the optical to X-ray spectral energy distributions at
different times and find again consistency with two components interpretation.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The contribution of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica 1 e Vulcanologia (INGV) to 2 “Adria LithosPHere investigAtion (ALPHA)” active seismic experiment
During the winter 2012, from 20 January to 4 February, the German oceanographic FS METEOR cruise (M86/3) took place in the central-southern Adriatic Sea in the frame of “Adria LithosPHere InvestigAtion” (ALPHA [Kopp et al., 2013]). The primary goal of the project was high-resolution tomographic imaging of the crust and lithospheric mantle underneath the southern Adriatic Sea, the Apulia eastern margin and the external zone of the Dinaric thrust-belt by collecting offshore-onshore seismic data along three multi-fold wide-aperture profiles. The definition of reliable velocity models of the Adriatic lithosphere was considered crucial for a better understanding of the structure, fragmentation, geodynamic evolution, and seismotectonics of the Adria-Apulia microplates. The ALPHA Project was coordinated by Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany (GEOMAR), former Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (German: Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften, IFM-GEOMAR) and conducted in close cooperation with different European institutions of Germany, Albania, Croatia, Italy and Montenegro. The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica Vulcanologia (INGV) participated by deploying land stations along two transects in the Apulia and Gargano Promontory to extend westwards the seismic profiles. The primary goal was to record shallow-to-deep seismic phases travelling along the transition between the Adriatic basin and the Apulia foreland. In this paper we present the field work related to the two Italian onshore transects, the recorded data, and the processing flow developed to highlight crustal and mantle refractions and wide-angle reflections
United classification of cosmic gamma-ray bursts and their counterparts
United classification of gamma-ray bursts and their counterparts is
established on the basis of measured characteristics: photon energy E and
emission duration T. The founded interrelation between the mentioned
characteristics of events consists in that, as the energy increases, the
duration decreases (and vice versa). The given interrelation reflects the
nature of the phenomenon and forms the E-T diagram, which represents a natural
classification of all observed events in the energy range from 10E9 to 10E-6 eV
and in the corresponding interval of durations from about 10E-2 up to 10E8 s.
The proposed classification results in the consequences, which are principal
for the theory and practical study of the phenomenon.Comment: Keywords Gamma rays: burst
I.S.Mu.L.T. Achilles Tendon Ruptures Guidelines
This work provides easily accessible guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of Achilles tendon ruptures. These guidelines could be considered as recommendations for good clinical practice developed through a process of systematic review of the literature and expert opinion, to improve the quality of care for the individual patient and rationalize the use of resources. This work is divided into two sessions: 1) questions about hot topics; 2) answers to the questions following Evidence Based Medicine principles. Despite the frequency of the pathology andthe high level of satisfaction achieved in treatment of Achilles tendon ruptures, a global consensus is lacking. In fact, there is not a uniform treatment and rehabilitation protocol used for Achilles tendon ruptures
Episodic Transient Gamma-Ray Emission from the Microquasar Cygnus X-1
Cygnus X-1 is the archetypal black hole (BH) binary system in our Galaxy. We
report the main results of an extensive search for transient gamma-ray emission
from Cygnus X-1 carried out in the energy range 100 MeV - 3 GeV by the AGILE
satellite, during the period 2007 July - 2009 October. The total exposure time
is about 300 days, during which the source was in the "hard" X-ray spectral
state. We divided the observing intervals in 2 or 4 week periods, and searched
for transient and persistent emission. We report an episode of significant
transient gamma-ray emission detected on 2009, October 16 in a position
compatible with Cygnus X-1 optical position. This episode, occurred during a
hard spectral state of Cygnus X-1, shows that a 1-2 day time variable emission
above 100 MeV can be produced during hard spectral states, having important
theoretical implications for current Comptonization models for Cygnus X-1 and
other microquasars. Except for this one short timescale episode, no significant
gamma-ray emission was detected by AGILE. By integrating all available data we
obtain a 2 upper limit for the total integrated flux of
in the energy range
100 MeV - 3 GeV. We then clearly establish the existence of a spectral cutoff
in the energy range 1-100 MeV that applies to the typical hard state outside
the flaring period and that confirms the historically known spectral cutoff
above 1 MeV.Comment: Accepted for publication by ApJ on the 9th of Feb 2010, 5 pages, 3
figure
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