Phytochemical investigations on Artemisia alba Turra growing in the North-East of Italy

Artemisia alba Turra (Asteraceae) is an Euro-Mediterranean plant used in Veneto (North-East of Italy) as traditional medicine for the treatment of various diseases. A. alba is a taxonomically problematic species, characterized by common polymorphism leading to a quite high variability in secondary metabolites content. Nonetheless, the phytochemical knowledge on its phytoconstituents, especially non-volatile components, is limited. In the present paper, the phytochemical composition of a tincture obtained from the aerial parts of A. alba growing in Veneto is presented. Extensive chromatographic separations led to the isolation of three new sesquiterpene derivatives, whose structures were elucidated by 1D and 2D NMR experiments and mass spectrometry. Furthermore, flavonoid composition and volatile constituents of the tincture of A. alba were preliminary studied by HPLC-MSn and GC-MS, respectivel

Cases

Thymolipoma is a rare benign anterior mediastinal tumour of thymic origin containing both thymic and mature adipose tissues. In most cases it has a silent course and can grow to large sizes before presenting with respiratory symptoms. We report a case of a giant thymolipoma in a 4-year-old girl treated at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, South Africa

Uso de contraceptivos e fatores associados entre adolescentes de 15 a 18 anos de idade em Unidade de Saúde da Família

O início da atividade sexual em mulheres jovens pode causar uma série de consequências devido ao uso inapropriado ou à falta de acesso aos métodos anticoncepcionais. Considerando aquelas que fazem uso de contraceptivos, em muitos casos o uso é incorreto ou inconsistente. O objetivo deste estudo é avaliar o conhecimento das mulheres de 15 a 18 anos sobre diferentes métodos contraceptivos, por meio de questionário. 25 mulheres foram entrevistadas e 55,52% relataram ter sido sexualmente ativas, das quais 44% relataram que usam regularmente algum tipo de método contraceptivo. O preservativo masculino é o método mais conhecido (84%) em todas as idades. A fonte de informação mais citada em relação a cada idade foi a família (15 e 16 anos), a escola (17 anos) e profissionais de saúde (18 anos). 36% das entrevistadas admitiram nunca ter ido a uma consulta com um ginecologista ou o médico de família. Concluímos que, mesmo tendo acesso a diversos meios de informação, as jovens não adotam uma vida sexual segura, deixando de usar ou usando de forma inadequada os diversos métodos anticoncepcionais disponíveis.mber of consequences due to inappropriate use or the lack of access to contraceptive methods. Among those who make use of contraceptives, in many cases the use is incorrect or inconsistent. The aim of this study is to evaluate the knowledge of women from 15 to 18 years old of different contraceptive methods using a questionnaire. Twenty five women were interviewed and 55.52% of them reported being sexually active. Among the sexual active women, 44% confirmed that they regularly use some kind of contraceptive method. The male condom is the most known method (84%) at all ages. The most cited source of information in relation to each age were the family among the girls between 15 and 16 years old, the school (17 years old) and health professional by 18 years old girls. 36% of respondents admitted they had never been to a consultation with a gynecologist or the family doctor. We conclude that even having access to different means of information, young women do not adopt a safe sex life, not using or using in the wrong way the various contraceptive methods available

Minced Umbilical Cord Fragments as a Source of Cells for Orthopaedic Tissue Engineering: An In Vitro Study

A promising approach for musculoskeletal repair and regeneration is mesenchymal-stem-cell- (MSC-)based tissue engineering. The aim of the study was to apply a simple protocol based on mincing the umbilical cord (UC), without removing any blood vessels or using any enzymatic digestion, to rapidly obtain an adequate number of multipotent UC-MSCs. We obtained, at passage 1 (P1), a mean value of 4, 2 × 106 cells (SD 0,4) from each UC. At immunophenotypic characterization, cells were positive for CD73, CD90, CD105, CD44, CD29, and HLA-I and negative for CD34 and HLA-class II, with a subpopulation negative for both HLA-I and HLA-II. Newborn origin and multilineage potential toward bone, fat, cartilage, and muscle was demonstrated. Telomere length was similar to that of bone-marrow (BM) MSCs from young donors. The results suggest that simply collecting UC-MSCs at P1 from minced umbilical cord fragments allows to achieve a valuable population of cells suitable for orthopaedic tissue engineering

Parity Violation in Neutron Resonances in 107,109Ag

Parity nonconservation (PNC) was studied in p-wave resonances in Ag by measuring the helicity dependence of the neutron total cross section. Transmission measurements on natural Ag were performed in the energy range 32 to 422 eV with the time-of-flight method at the Manuel Lujan Neutron Scattering Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory. A total of 15 p-wave neutron resonances were studied in 107Ag and ninep-wave resonances in 109Ag. Statistically significant asymmetries were observed for eight resonances in 107Ag and for four resonances in109Ag. An analysis treating the PNC matrix elements as random variables yields a weak spreading width of Γw=(2.67-1.21+2.65)×10-7 eV for107Ag and Γw=(1.30-0.74+2.49)×10-7 eV for 109Ag

Parity Violation in Neutron Resonances in 115In

Parity nonconservation (PNC) was studied in p-wave resonances in indium by measuring the helicity dependence of the neutron total cross section in the neutron energy range 6.0–316 eV with the time-of-flight method at LANSCE. A total of 36 p-wave neutron resonances were studied in 115In, and statistically significant asymmetries were observed for nine cases. An analysis treating the PNC matrix elements as random variables yields a weak matrix element of M=(0.67-0.12+0.16) meV and a weak spreading width of Γw=(1.30-0.43+0.76)×10-7 eV