Risky,early, controversial. Puberty in medical discourses

This article comes within the compass of a research program (entitled CorAge. Bodily Experiences and AgePassages among 9e13 year-olds (ANR-09-ENFT-017) conducted between 2009 and 2013 about the emergence of a \u201cnew\u201d age in life -\u201cpreadolescence\u201d- as instanced in France (Alsace, Lorraine) and Italy (Venetia). The impressive amount of references to \u201cearly puberty\u201d and \u201cprecocious puberty\u201d, in a context of feeling of a premature end of childhood, led us to make an in-depth study of this issue: \ufb01rst, through an analysis of international and French and Italian medical journals; second, through interviews with health professionals. Following the thesis of Foucault, we assume that the discourses on puberty timing participate of classi\ufb01cations of the child body drenched with moral representations of childhood, especially on gender and age issue. Our results: the question of whether a secular trend in puberty timing even exists continues to be debated between American and European scientists. Second, the terms \u201cpuberty\u201d, \u201cprecocious puberty\u201d, \u201cearly puberty\u201d have been used to indicate a variety of puberty markers, increasing confusion. A controversy has focused on early breast development in girls, because this attribute is questioning the order of ages and gender. Moreover, psychosocial factors presented as accelerating early puberty, do not demonstrate the relation between earliness and risk behavior. The literature, as it is moved by the female precocity, creates a medical category to objectify the complex and \ufb02exible process of puberty and invent female child precocity. These differences between American and European scholars and the interviews with French and Italian health professional show a gap between the international literature and practitioners, clinicians and nurses who regularly work with children: they neither \ufb01nd pubertal advancement, nor increase of \u201ctrue precocious puberty\u201d, although they share concerns about premature feminization of girls (France) or environmental toxicity (Italy) on children

Pentraxina 3 come potenziale marcatore di danno endoteliale in gravidanze complicate da preeclampsia e ritardato accrescimento intrauterino.

Objectives: Endothelial dysfunction typical of preeeclampsia (PE) is the result of an excessive maternal inflammatory response to pregnancy. PE can occur alone or together with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). We investigated PTX3 in maternal, fetal and placental compartments in complicated pregnancies. Study design: Maternal blood samples were collected during the III trimester in 53 PE, 43 IUGR and 50 normal pregnancies. Fetal samples were collected from the umbilical vein in 26 PE, 23 IUGR and 26 normal pregnancies at elective cesarean section. PTX3 plasma levels were determined by ELISA. Pattern and site of expression of PTX3 was studied by immunohistochemistry (IHC) on placenta, decidual bed and maternal peritoneum. Results: PE and IUGR pregnancies showed significantly higher median maternal PTX3 levels vs normal pregnancies (24.8 and 9.9 vs 3.8 ng/ml; p<0.001). IUGR showed significantly lower levels than PE (p<0.001). Severe PE revealed higher levels (33.1 vs 17.1 ng/ml, p<0.001) than mild PE. Severe PE with HELLP presented significantly higher levels. IHC on placenta and decidual bed biopsies showed similar expression in pathologic compared to normal cases. Maternal peritoneum expressed a significantly higher signal in the endothelium of pathological vs normal pregnancies. PTX3 was detected in the fetal circulation with values significantly higher in IUGR thsn in normal fetuses with a trend towards higher values in correlation with IUGR severity. Conclusions: We report elevated maternal levels of PTX3 in PE and IUGR pregnancies. PTX3 levels correlated to clinical severity of disease with higher PTX3 levels in severe than in mild PE, IUGR without clinical PE were significantly different from both normal and PE pregnancies. PTX3 increase may represent the expression of endothelial systemic damage on the maternal side. Moreover, PTX3 is detected in fetal blood and is significantly incresased in IUGR fetuses likely reflecting endothelial damage

Flow cytometry for feline lymphoma : a retrospective study regarding pre-analytical factors possibly affecting the quality of samples

Objectives: Flow cytometry (FC) is becoming increasingly popular among veterinary oncologists for the diagnosis of lymphoma or leukaemia. It is accurate, fast and minimally invasive. Several studies of FC have been carried out in canine oncology and applied with great results, whereas there is limited knowledge and use of this technique in feline patients. This is mainly owing to the high prevalence of intra-abdominal lymphomas in this species and the difficulty associated with the diagnostic procedures needed to collect the sample. The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether any pre-analytical factor might affect the quality of suspected feline lymphoma samples for FC analysis. Methods: Ninety-seven consecutive samples of suspected feline lymphoma were retrospectively selected from the authors\u2019 institution\u2019s FC database. The referring veterinarians were contacted and interviewed about several different variables, including signalment, appearance of the lesion, features of the sampling procedure and the experience of veterinarians performing the sampling. Statistical analyses were performed to assess the possible influence of these variables on the cellularity of the samples and the likelihood of it being finally processed for FC. Results: Sample cellularity is a major factor in the likelihood of the sample being processed. Moreover, sample cellularity was significantly influenced by the needle size, with 21 G needles providing the highest cellularity. Notably, the sample cellularity and the likelihood of being processed did not vary between peripheral and intra-abdominal lesions. Approximately half of the cats required pharmacological restraint. Side effects were reported in one case only (transient swelling after peripheral lymph node sampling). Conclusions and relevance: FC can be safely applied to cases of suspected feline lymphomas, including intra-abdominal lesions. A 21 G needle should be preferred for sampling. This study provides the basis for the increased use of this minimally invasive, fast and cost-effective technique in feline medicine

Connecting Neurons to a Mobile Robot: An In Vitro Bidirectional Neural Interface

One of the key properties of intelligent behaviors is the capability to learn and adapt to changing environmental conditions. These features are the result of the continuous and intense interaction of the brain with the external world, mediated by the body. For this reason “embodiment” represents an innovative and very suitable experimental paradigm when studying the neural processes underlying learning new behaviors and adapting to unpredicted situations. To this purpose, we developed a novel bidirectional neural interface. We interconnected in vitro neurons, extracted from rat embryos and plated on a microelectrode array (MEA), to external devices, thus allowing real-time closed-loop interaction. The novelty of this experimental approach entails the necessity to explore different computational schemes and experimental hypotheses. In this paper, we present an open, scalable architecture, which allows fast prototyping of different modules and where coding and decoding schemes and different experimental configurations can be tested. This hybrid system can be used for studying the computational properties and information coding in biological neuronal networks with far-reaching implications for the future development of advanced neuroprostheses

1H NMR metabolic profile to discriminate pasture based alpine asiago PDO cheeses

The study was carried out in an alpine area of North-Eastern Italy to assess the reliability of proton nuclear magnetic resonance 1H NMR to fingerprint and discriminate Asiago PDO cheeses processed in the same dairy plant from upland pasture-based milk or from upland hay-based milk. Six experimental types of Asiago cheese were made from raw milk considering 2 cows’ feeding systems (pasture- vs. hay-based milk) and 3 ripening times (2 months, Pressato vs. 4 months, Allevo_4 vs. 6 months, Allevo_6). Samples (n = 55) were submitted to chemical analysis and to 1HNMRcoupled with multivariate canonical discriminant analysis. Choline, 2,3-butanediol, lysine, tyrosine, and some signals of sugar-like compounds were suggested as the main water-soluble metabolites useful to discriminate cheese according to cows’ feeding system. A wider pool of polar biomarkers explained the variation due to ripening time. The validation procedure based on a predictive set suggested that 1H NMR based metabolomics was an effective fingerprinting tool to identify pasture-based cheese samples with the shortest ripening period (Pressato). The classification to the actual feeding system of more aged cheese samples was less accurate likely due to their chemical and biochemical changes induced by a prolonged maturation process

Time variations in the deep underground muon flux measured by MACRO

More than 30 million of high-energy muons collected with the MACRO detector at the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory have been used to search for flux variations of different natures. Two kinds of studies were carried out: search for periodic variations and for the occurrence of clusters of events. Different analysis methods, including Lomb-Scargle spectral analysis and Scan Test statistics have been applied to the data.Comment: 6 pages, 4 EPS figures. Talk given at the 29th ICRC, Pune, India, 3-10 August 200

Nuclear Track Detectors for Environmental Studies and Radiation Monitoring

Several improvements were made for Nuclear Track Detectors (NTDs) used for environmental studies and for particle searches. A new method was used to determine the bulk etch rate of CR39 and Makrofol NTDs. It is based on the simultaneous measurement of the diameter and of the height of etch-pit cones caused by relativistic heavy ions (158 A GeV Pb(82+) and In(49+) ions) and their fragments. The use of alcohol in the etching solution improves the surface quality of NTDs and it raises their thresholds. The detectors were used for the determination of nuclear fragmentation cross sections of Iron and Silicon ions of 1.0 and 0.41 GeV/nucleon. These measurements are important for the determination of doses in hadron therapy and for doses received by astronauts. The detectors were also used in the search of massive particles in the cosmic radiation, for the determination of the mass spectrum of cosmic rays and for the evaluation of Po(210) alpha decay and of natural radon concentrations.Comment: 7 pages, 5 EPS figures. Presented at the 10th Topical Seminar on Innovative Particle and Radiation Detectors, 1-5 October 2006, Siena, Ital

Prognostic role of non-neoplastic lymphocytes in lymph node aspirates from dogs with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with chemo-immunotherapy

Dogs with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) benefit from the addition of active immunotherapy to traditional chemotherapy. We hypothesized that immune cells within neoplastic lymph nodes (LNs) may play a role in the tumor pathobiology and treatment response. The present study describes the composition and prognostic role of non-neoplastic lymphocytes in LNs of 59 dogs with treatment-naive DLBCL receiving chemo-immunotherapy. The percentage of small non-neoplastic cells and of CD5+, CD21+, CD4+ and CD8+ small cells was recorded via flow cytometry. CD4+/CD8+ and CD5+/large CD21+ cell ratios were calculated. The likelihood of progression significantly diminished with increasing percentage of small cells, CD5+ and CD8+ small cells, and CD5+/large CD21+ cell ratio, with decreasing CD4+/CD8+ ratio and in non-anemic dogs. Active immunotherapy is more effective in dogs with higher percentage of non-neoplastic lymphocytes at diagnosis. We lay the ground for future studies assessing the role of the immune system in the pathobiology of canine DLBCL