Real and perceived physical functioning in Italian elderly population: associations with BADL and IADL

This study aimed to identify the key physical abilities (aerobic endurance, gait speed, balance, strength) and psychological variables associated with the level of basic (BADL) and instrumental (IADL) activities of daily living in an autonomous community-dwelling elderly population in Italy. 135 elderly people (63% women; mean age = 73.3, SD = 5.5) were included in the study. Stepwise regression was performed to verify the association between these variables and the level of BADL and IADL in the elderly participants. Results showed that balance (β = −0.21, p < 0.01) and perception of physical functioning (β = 0.32, p < 0.0001) were the key individual variables related to BADL scores, and IADL score was associated with perception of physical functioning (β = 0.30, p < 0.0001) and upper limb strength (β = 0.21, p < 0.05). The results demonstrate a relationship between physical functioning and ADL, both real physical functioning and perceived physical functioning

Combination of nanomicellar technology and in situ gelling polymer as ocular drug delivery system (Odds) for cyclosporine-a

A combination of in situ gelling systems and a loaded drug self-assembling nanomicellar carrier was chosen in this study as a new potential Ocular Drug Delivery System (ODDS) for Cy-closporine-A (CyA), a poorly water-soluble drug. Two non-ionic surfactants (d-α-tocopherol polyethylene glycol succinate, VitE-TPGS and polyoxyl 40 hydrogenated castor oil, RH-40) were used to produce the nanomicelles. The physical–chemical characterization of the nanomicelles in terms of CyA entrapment (EE%) and loading efficiency (LE%), cloud point (CP), regeneration time (RT), size and polydispersity index (PI) allowed us to select the best combination of surfactant mixture, which showed appropriate stability, high CyA-EE (99.07%), very small and homogeneous dimen-sions and favored the solubilization of an amount of CyA (0.144% w/w) comparable to that con-tained in marketed emulsion Ikervis®. The selected nanomicellar formulation incorporated into optimized ion-sensitive polymeric dispersions of gellan gum (GG-LA: 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20% w/w) able to trigger the sol–gel transition after instillation was characterized from technological (osmo-lality, pH, gelling capacity, rheological behavior, wettability, TEM and storage stability at 4 and 20 °C) and biopharmaceutical points of view. This new combined approach allowed us to obtain clear aqueous dispersions that were easy to instill and able to form a viscous gel when in contact with the tear fluid, improving CyA ocular bioavailability. Furthermore, this new ODDS prevented CyA transcorneal permeation, exhibited low cytotoxicity and prolonged the CyA resident time in the precorneal area compared to Ikervis®

Hydrogels as Corneal Stroma Substitutes for In Vitro Evaluation of Drug Ocular Permeation

Hydrogels are complex hydrophilic structures, consisting of crosslinked homopolymers or copolymers insoluble in water. Due to their controllable bio-physicochemical properties mimicking the morphology of the native extracellular matrix, they are a key part of a lot of research fields, including medicine, pharmaceutics, and tissue engineering. This paper was focused on the preparation and characterization of hydrogels from different blends of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and gelatin (GEL) at various ratios, and from gelatin and chitosan alone to understand their feasibility of utilizing as corneal stroma substitutes in permeability tests for drug candidate molecules in early stages of their development. The characterization was carried out by differential scanning calorimetry, electron microscopy (SEM), water content, mass loss, water permeability, wettability, and tensile stress-strain tests. After the physicochemical characterization, PVA/MCC blend and chitosan proved to be the most promising constructs, showing negligible mass loss after immersion in aqueous medium for two weeks and low hydrodynamic permeability. They were then employed in drug molecules permeation studies and these data were compared to that obtained through excised tissues. The results obtained showed that PVA/MCC hydrogels have similar mechanical and permeability properties to corneal stroma

Pharmacokinetic study of gemcitabine, given as prolonged infusion at fixed dose rate, in combination with cisplatin in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

International audienc

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

Schroedinger cat-like states by conditional measurements on a beam-splitter

A scheme for generating Schr\"{o}dinger cat-like states of a single-mode optical field by means of conditional measurement is proposed. Feeding into a beam splitter a squeezed vacuum and counting the photons in one of the output channels, the conditional states in the other output channel exhibit a number of properties that are very similar to those of superpositions of two coherent states with opposite phases. We present analytical and numerical results for the photon-number and quadrature-component distributions of the conditional states and their Wigner and Husimi functions. Further, we discuss the effect of realistic photocounting on the states.Comment: 6 figures(divided in subfigures) using a4.st

Wavepacket reconstruction via local dynamics in a parabolic lattice

We study the dynamics of a wavepacket in a potential formed by the sum of a periodic lattice and of a parabolic potential. The dynamics of the wavepacket is essentially a superposition of ``local Bloch oscillations'', whose frequency is proportional to the local slope of the parabolic potential. We show that the amplitude and the phase of the Fourier transform of a signal characterizing this dynamics contains information about the amplitude and the phase of the wavepacket at a given lattice site. Hence, {\em complete} reconstruction of the the wavepacket in the real space can be performed from the study of the dynamics of the system.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTex

Determination of entangled quantum states of a trapped atom

We propose a method for measuring entangled vibronic quantum states of a trapped atom. It is based on the nonlinear dynamics of the system that appears by resonantly driving a weak electronic transition. The proposed technique allows the direct sampling of a Wigner-function matrix, displaying all knowable information on the quantum correlations of the motional and electronic degrees of freedom of the atom. It opens novel possibilities for testing fundamental predictions of the quantum theory concerning interaction phenomena.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. A 56 (Aug