How Can Chemometrics Support the Development of Point of Need Devices?

The necessity to establish novel solutions for decentralized monitoring is attracting attention in all fields of analytical chemistry, i.e., clinical, pharmaceutical, environmental, agri-food. The research around the terms "point-of-need", "point-of-care", "lab-on-chip", "biosensor", "microfluidics", etc. is/has been always aimed at the possibility to produce easy-to-use and fast-response devices to be used by nonspecialists. However, the routes to produce the optimal device might be time-consuming and costly. In this Feature, we would like to highlight the role of chemometric-based approaches that are useful in the conceptualization, production, and data analysis in developing reliable portable devices and also decrease the amount of experiments (thus, costs) at the same time. Readers will be provided a concise overview regarding the most employed chemometric tools used for target identification, design of experiments, data analysis, and digitalization of results applied to the development of diverse portable analytical platforms. This Feature provides a tutorial perspective regarding all the major methods and applications that have been currently developed. In particular, the presence of a concise and informative table assists analytical chemists in utilizing the right chemometrics-based tool depending on the architectures and transduction

Deformations of symplectic foliations

We develop the deformation theory of symplectic foliations, i.e. regular foliations equipped with a leafwise symplectic form. The main result of this paper is that each symplectic foliation has an attached $L_\infty$-algebra controlling its deformation problem. Indeed, viewing symplectic foliations as regular Poisson structures, we establish a one-to-one correspondence between the small deformations of a given symplectic foliation and the Maurer-Cartan elements of the associated $L_\infty$-algebra. Using this, we show that infinitesimal deformations of symplectic foliations can be obstructed. Further, we relate symplectic foliations with foliations on one side and with (arbitrary) Poisson structures on the other, showing that obstructed infinitesimal deformations of the former may give rise to unobstructed infinitesimal deformations of the latter

Effects of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and cyclic AMP interaction on human neutrophil apoptosis.

The current study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and cyclic AMP (cAMP) signaling interaction on human neutrophil apoptosis, either occurring spontaneously or induced by Fas antigen activation. Results show that GM-CSF, dibutyryl cAMP (a cAMP analog) and forskolin (an adenylate cyclase activator) are all able to suppress spontaneous neutrophil cell death. Of note however, when GM-CSF is used in combination with cAMP-elevating agents, an additive effect on neutrophil survival is observed with dibutyryl cAMP only, whereas supplementation of cell cultures with GM-CSF and forskolin results in a progressive reduction of antiapoptotic effects exerted by the single compounds. Moreover, although dibutyryl cAMP and forskolin do not affect Fas-triggered apoptotic events, they are still able to modulate the GM-CSF capacity to prolong neutrophil survival following anti-Fas IgM cell challenge, with effects similar to those respectively exerted on spontaneous neutrophil apoptosis. The data indicate that GM-CSF may negatively modulate the cAMP-mediated antiapoptotic pathway in human neutrophils, likely via the inhibition of adenylate cyclase activity. This would prevent an abnormal neutrophil survival as a result of cAMP signaling stimulation, which provides a novel insight into the role of GM-CSF as a physiological regulator of myeloid cell turnover

Features and prognostic impact of distant metastases in 45 dogs with de novo stage IV cutaneous mast cell tumours: A prospective study

BACKGROUND: Distant metastases in dogs with cutaneous mast cell tumors (cMCT) are rare and incurable. The aims of this prospective study were to clarify the clinico-pathological features of stage IV cMCTs and to identify possible prognostic factors for progression-free interval (PFI) and survival time (ST). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Dogs were eligible for recruitment if they had a previously untreated, histologically confirmed cMCT and if they underwent complete staging demonstrating stage IV disease. Dogs were uniformly followed-up, whereas treatment was not standardized and included no therapy, surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, tyrosine-kinase inhibitors or a combination of these. RESULTS: 45 dogs with stage IV cMCT were enrolled. All dogs had distant metastatic disease, and 41 (91.1%) dogs had also metastasis in the regional lymph node. Histopathological grade and mutational status greatly varied among dogs. Median ST was 110 days. Notably, PFI and ST were independent of well-known prognostic factors, including anatomic site, histological grade, and mutational status. Conversely, tumor diameter >3\u2009cm, more than 2 metastatic sites, bone marrow infiltration, and lack of tumor control at the primary site were confirmed to be negative prognostic factors by multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Currently, there is no satisfactory treatment for stage IV cMCT. Asymptomatic dogs with tumor diameter <3\u2009cm and a low tumor burden, without bone marrow infiltration may be candidates for multimodal treatment. Stage IV dogs without lymph node metastasis may enjoy a surprisingly prolonged survival. The achievement of local tumor control seems to predict a better outcome in dogs with stage IV cMCT

Mass Spectrometry Imaging Disclosed Spatial Distribution of Defense-Related Metabolites in Triticum spp

Fusarium Head Blight is the most common fungal disease that strongly affects Triticum spp., reducing crop yield and leading to the accumulation of toxic metabolites. Several studies have investigated the plant metabolic response to counteract mycotoxins accumulation. However, information on the precise location where the defense mechanism is taking place is scarce. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the specific tissue distribution of defense metabolites in two Triticum species and use this information to postulate on the metabolites’ functional role, unlocking the “location-to-function” paradigm. To address this challenge, transversal cross-sections were obtained from the middle of the grains. They were analyzed using an atmospheric-pressure (AP) SMALDI MSI source (AP-SMALDI5 AF, TransMIT GmbH, Giessen, Germany) coupled to a Q Exactive HF (Thermo Fisher Scientific GmbH, Bremen, Germany) orbital trapping mass spectrometer. Our result revealed the capability of (AP)-SMALDI MSI instrumentation to finely investigate the spatial distribution of wheat defense metabolites, such as hydroxycinnamic acid amides, oxylipins, linoleic and α-linoleic acids, galactolipids, and glycerolipids

Role of Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase and Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Pathways in Granulocyte Macrophage-Colony-Stimulating Factor Failure to Delay Fas-Induced Neutrophil Apoptosis in Elderly Humans

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The TIMES Land-WEF model: An integrated analysis of the agricultural system of the Basilicata Region (Southern Italy)

The unsustainable use of natural resources, in particular soil degradation and pollution, is one of the main factors contributing to the climate and biodiversity crisis. The European Union has outlined a new European Green Deal, whose objectives include increasing the overall quality of the agri-food chain in relation to environmental sustainability, focusing on reducing the use of pesticides and increasing the share of organic in overall production. A Nexus thinking perspective is applied to analyse this topic over a 50-year time horizon (2010–2060) for the agricultural system of the Basilicata Region (Southern Italy), represented by the TIMES Land-WEF, an optimizing, bottom-up energy-technology model, built to investigate the interactions and interrelations between water, energy food and land. The novelty of this modelling approach is the choice of land use as the guiding parameter of the optimization process. The main objectives of the Farm to Fork Strategy are modelled as system constraints and the scenario analysis allows to characterise their effects on the evolution of the agricultural system over the examined time. The results show that the pesticide reduction constraint leads to an increase in land use by organic crops from 24.6 % to 32.4 % in 2060. In particular, this is due to the increased contribution of cereal, forage, olive growing crops, permanent meadows and pastures, which lead to a 46 % reduction in irrigation water consumption. On the other hand, the reduction in inorganic fertilizers is not accompanied by a significant increase in organic crops, but resulted in the reduction of cereal crops

Synthesis and functionalization of casein nanoparticles with aptamers for triple-negative breast cancer targeting

This work shows the synthesis of a drug delivery system made of casein nanoparticles able to host hydrophobic molecules and be functionalized with aptamers targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor. In vitro cell viability and uptake analyses, performed on triple-negative breast cancer cells, confirmed the safety profile and the target selectivity

ChiMiCapisce

This year, for the first time, the Young Chemists Group of the Italian Chemical Society (SCI) organized a national communication contest dedicated to chemists under 35. The contest, called ChiMiCapisce—a play on "Chimica", Italian for chemistry, and "Chi Mi Capisce?", which literally means "Who can understand me?"—was planned as the launch event of the recently established “Dissemination of Chemical Culture” Division of the Italian Chemical Society