SOME WORDS ABOUT FRACTURES OF RADIAL HEAD

A visible posterior fat pad on the lateral view of the elbow is a sign of occult intraarticular pathology. Early elbow ROM is needed to prevent stiffness. If you fixed the fracture, but not well enough to move the elbow, you did not fix it. The "safe zone" for placing hardware on the radial head lies in the interval between the radial styloid and Lister's tubercle. Examine the wrist when examining all elbow injuries; a radial head fracture may be accompanied by a tear of the interosseous membrane and disruption of the distal radioulnar joint. The posterior interosseous nerve (controlling finger and wrist extension) can be damaged by a radial head injury or by the surgery performed to treat the fracture. Therefore, document functional status preoperatively. The severity of these injuries runs the gamut from minimally displaced fractures needing minimal treatment to those with major displacement or comminution, requiring surgical fixation, excision, or replacement

Blockchain e Internet of Things: realizzazione di un’applicazione decentralizzata per l’affitto di case vacanza

Negli ultimi anni, con l’evoluzione del World Wide Web, Internet ha subito una crescita esponenziale e ogni giorno la rete diventa sempre più pervasiva nelle nostre vite grazie agli smartphone e agli innumerevoli dispositivi smart che sono entrati nelle nostre case dando vita all’Internet of Things. Per realizzare servizi sempre più veloci, evoluti e interattivi Internet nel corso del tempo, e in particolar modo nell’ultimo periodo con l’avvento del cloud, è diventato contemporaneamente sempre più centralizzato, divenendo così più fragile e concentrando nelle mani di pochissime aziende il funzionamento delle applicazioni e dei servizi che utilizziamo ogni giorno, oltre ai nostri dati. Questa tesi si pone come obiettivo l’analisi, la progettazione e la realizzazione di un’applicazione web totalmente decentralizzata basata su blockchain adibita all’affitto di casa vacanza a breve termine, in maniera similare a quanto già realizzato da piattaforme online quali Booking e Airbnb, divenute molto popolari e utilizzate negli ultimi anni. La tesi si concentra inoltre sull’ambito Internet of Things, analizzando come queste due tecnologie possono interagire tra loro per offrire servizi tangibili nel mondo reale. A tale scopo si vuole simulare, attraverso l’utilizzo di un RaspBerry Pi, la realizzazione di una serratura smart key-less, che gestisca gli accessi interrogando il sistema precedente per verificare se l’utilizzatore dispone dei permessi necessari ad accedere. La tesi mira infine a individuare, oltre ai vantaggi, anche quali sono i limiti attuali delle tecnologie che sono state utilizzate per la realizzazione di questo progetto

An ocean apart: Comparing transatlantic responses to the financial crisis

Has the EU-US relationship become a sideshow or is it still central to the global economy? Conflicting signals have been sent out since the outbreak of the global crisis. The creation of the G20 and its designation as â??the premier forum for international cooperationâ?? suggest that attention and priorities have moved away from the traditional G7 focus on the transatlantic economy. But most of the key policy debates of the last two years have retained a characteristically transatlantic flavour. This applies to the controversy about the pace of consolidation which resulted in an open US-German rift at the Toronto summit in June 2010; to the discussion on the new bank capital ratios which again was essentially a euro- American affair; and to the broader conversation on the priorities of financial regulatory reform, for which the big action agendas have been the US Dodd-Frank Act and the European endorsement of a blueprint for coordinated supervision and a single European macroprudential body. True, other issues â?? the global rebalancing, or the creation of global financial safety nets â?? have had a distinctive G20 scope. But at least a fair share of the international debate has been transatlantic. There are reasons for this state of affairs. To start with, what is known as the global crisis has been first and foremost a transatlantic crisis. As discussed in several contributions in this volume, the wake of the crisis financial integration through portfolio diversification essentially remained an EU-US phenomenon. Accordingly the subsequent financial turmoil primarily affected the European and American financial systems, and other economies indirectly only, through trade or capital outflows. It is therefore natural to see the same two regions take the lead in setting the agenda for financial reform. Second, the problems they are facing in the aftermath of the shock â?? the travails of deleveraging, unemployment, the need for unconventional policy responses, the lowering of the growth potential, the rise of public debt, political pressures for protection â?? are largely common. Third, while they are not the main contributors to world growth, the EU and the US still constitute the bulk of the global economy, and what happens to them matters considerably for all. The US and the EU however are not responding to the same shock in the same way and this is what makes the comparison interesting. It is telling that the sovereign debt crises developed in Europe in the first half of 2010 and triggered a move towards consolidation while the US fiscal situation is by most standards worse than the aggregate European situation. It is telling also that the priorities of financial reform have not been the same. Clearly neither the policy space nor the policy traditions are identical and this portends significant divergence across the Atlantic. How far this divergence will go and whether policymakers on the two continents will disagree or agree to disagree is one of the key questions for the future of the global economy in the years to come. All this justifies a revival of the transatlantic economic conversation. The joint Banca dâ??Italia-Bruegel-Peterson Institute conference, held in Rome on 10-11 September 2009 with the support of the European Commission, aimed to contribute to the conversation through research and policy discussions. We hope that the papers collected in this volume will help foster a fact-based, analytically sound discussion.

Oleocanthal and oleacein contribute to the in vitro therapeutic potential of extra virgin oil-derived extracts in non-melanoma skin cancer

Although the anticancer properties of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) extracts have been recognized, the role of single compounds in non-melanoma skin cancer is still unknown. The in vitro chemopreventive and anticancer action of EVOO extracts and oil-derived compounds in non-melanoma skin cancer models were evaluated on cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma cells and on immortalized human keratinocytes stimulated with epidermal growth factor. Preparation of EVOO extracts and isolation of single compounds was carried out by chromatographic methods. Antitumor activity was assessed by cell-based assays (cell viability, migration, clonogenicity, and spheroid formation) and apoptosis documented by internucleosomal DNA fragmentation. Finally, inhibition of key oncogenic signaling nodes involved in the progression from actinic keratosis to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma was studied by western blot. EVOO extracts reduced non-melanoma skin cancer cell viability and migration, prevented colony and spheroid formation, and inhibited proliferation of atypical keratinocytes stimulated with epidermal growth factor. Such a pharmacological activity was promoted by oleocanthal and oleacein through the inhibition of Erk and Akt phosphorylation and the suppression of B-Raf expression, whereas tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol did not have effect. The current study provides in vitro evidence for new potential clinical applications of EVOO extracts and/or single oil-derived compounds in the prevention and treatment of non-melanoma skin cancers

Tyrosol-Enriched Tomatoes by Diffusion across the Fruit Peel from a Chitosan Coating: A Proposal of Functional Food

Chitosan is receiving increasing attention from the food industry for being a biodegradable, non-toxic, antimicrobial biopolymer able to extend the shelf life of, and preserve the quality of, fresh food. However, few studies have investigated the ability of chitosan-based coatings to allow the diffusion of bioactive compounds into the food matrix to improve its nutraceutical quality. This research is aimed at testing whether a hydrophilic molecule (tyrosol) could diffuse from the chitosan-tyrosol coating and cross the tomato peel. To this end, in vitro permeation tests using excised tomato peel and an in vivo application of chitosan-tyrosol coating on tomato fruit, followed by tyrosol quantification in intact fruit, peel and flesh during a seven-day storage at room temperature, were performed. Both approaches demonstrated the ability of tyrosol to permeate across the fruit peel. Along with a decreased tyrosol content in the peel, its concentration within the flesh was increased, indicating an active transfer of tyrosol into this tissue. This finding, together with the maintenance of constant tyrosol levels during the seven-day storage period, is very promising for the use of chitosan formulations to produce functional tomato fruit

Effect of oral co-administration of frozen-dried grapefruit juice on pharmacokinetics of tramadol in dogs

Summary Tramadol is a centrally acting analgesic drug extensively metabolized in animal species. Its clinical response is mainly due to the M1 metabolite, poorly produced in dogs. Grapefruit-juice can inhibit the metabolism of different drugs in animals and humans. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of tramadol and its major metabolites after co-administration of tramadol and frozen-dried grapefruit-juice. A balanced cross-over study was used involving six male Beagle dogs. They were administered with tramadol alone (5 mg/kg) or with tramadol (5 mg/kg) plus frozen-dried grapefruit-juice (10 g). The plasma concentration vs time curves showed significant differences during the first 4 h following drug administration. Tmax was at 1.33 and 1.70 h following tramadol and tramadol plus frozen-dried grapefruit-juice treatment, respectively. Significant differences were also shown in Cmax (490 vs 270 ng/ml) and AUC (11,610 vs 5,890 h·h·ng/ml). Significant differences between the treatments were shown in all the M1 parameters reported. M2 and M5 did not show significant differences after both administrations. In conclusion, the frozen-dried grapefruit-juice was shown to affect the plasma concentrations of M1, despite them being well below those reported in humans

Cytotoxic Activity of Oleocanthal Isolated from Virgin Olive Oil on Human Melanoma Cells

Oleocanthal is one of the phenolic compounds of extra virgin olive oil with important anti-inflammatory properties. Although its potential anticancer activity has been reported, only limited evidence has been provided in cutaneous malignant melanoma. The present study is aimed at investigating the selective in vitro antiproliferative activity of oleocanthal against human malignant melanoma cells. Since oleocanthal is not commercially available, it was obtained as a pure standard by direct extraction and purification from extra virgin olive oil. Cell viability experiments carried out by WST-1 assay demonstrated that oleocanthal had a remarkable and selective activity for human melanoma cells versus normal dermal fibroblasts with IC50s in the low micromolar range of concentrations. Such an effect was paralleled by a significant inhibition of ERK1/2 and AKT phosphorylation and downregulation of Bcl-2 expression. These findings may suggest that extra virgin olive oil phenolic extract enriched in oleocanthal deserves further investigation in skin cancer

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Painful os intermetatarseum in athletes: a literature review of this condition is presented

Painful os intermetatarseum is a very rare condition. Gruber et al. first described os intermetatarseum in 1877. This condition is usually asymptomatic. One should consider painful os intermetatarseum as being a possible cause of dorsal foot pain in athletes. Surgical excision of the os intermetatarseum should be considered for those patients failing conservative treatment. Here, a literature review of this condition is presented