Scaffold functionalization to support a tissue biocompatibility

The aim of this chapter is to illustrate the most applied methods for covalent and non-covalent functionalization of scaffold surface with biomimetic molecules, including bioactive proteins, peptides, and polysaccharides to improve scaffold biocompatibility. Additionally, the main techniques for surface physicochemical characterization are presented together with the commonly used approaches for in vitro testing of biocompatibility. Finally, new perspectives in scaffold surface functionalization and application of functionalized scaffolds are discussed in the conclusions

User data distributed on the social web: how to identify users on different social systems and collecting data about them

This paper presents an approach to uniquely identify users and to retrieve their data distributed in profiles stored in different systems. The objective is exploiting the public user data available in the Web and especially in social networks. The approach does not require the implementation of specific protocols and the provision of authentication data. The evaluation provides good results that encourage us in carrying on the extension of the project. The extension we are working on is aimed at aggregating, using heuristic techniques, the data stored in the retrieved profiles and at inferring new data about the user

L’immaginario del Made in Italy. Note per un progetto di ricerca

In recent years, the “Made in Italy” has become a kind of powerful across-the-board brand able to give Italian products a collective “aura” of quality and prestige. The paper does not deal with the issue from the purely “productive” standpoint, as in most recent works, instead, it tries to identify the intangible, “imaginary” aspects. Our definition of imaginary is that of a real power, the capacity to produce and influence the way we feel - our taste and, hence, our consumption choices. The imaginary, therefore, does not identify itself with the "made-in-Italy" but is a "performative" intangible capacity. In order to trace its profile, an interdisciplinary collaboration between the humanities, and in particular linguistics, philosophy, anthropology, is thus required

An Overview of Poly(lactic-co-glycolic) Acid (PLGA)-Based Biomaterials for Bone Tissue Engineering

Poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) has attracted considerable interest as a base material for biomedical applications due to its: (i) biocompatibility; (ii) tailored biodegradation rate (depending on the molecular weight and copolymer ratio); (iii) approval for clinical use in humans by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); (iv) potential to modify surface properties to provide better interaction with biological materials; and (v) suitability for export to countries and cultures where implantation of animal-derived products is unpopular. This paper critically reviews the scientific challenge of manufacturing PLGA-based materials with suitable properties and shapes for specific biomedical applications, with special emphasis on bone tissue engineering. The analysis of the state of the art in the field reveals the presence of current innovative techniques for scaffolds and material manufacturing that are currently opening the way to prepare biomimetic PLGA substrates able to modulate cell interaction for improved substitution, restoration, or enhancement of bone tissue function

Salute dentoparodontale in gravidanza e sue correlazioni con la salute sistemica: studio epidemiologico longitudinale in un campione di donne gravide milanesi

According to recent evidence, periodontal diseases may represent a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes like preterm birth (<37 weeks) and/or low birth weight (<2500 g) as well as they are supposed to be related to systemic diseases like for example cardiovascular diseases, which are often characterized by a hyperinflammatory trait and are in turn associated to adverse pregnancy outcomes. The aim of this report was to analyze oral and systemic conditions in a sample of postpartum women and investigate a possible relationship between oral and systemic pathologies and adverse pregnancy outcomes. 363 post-partum women were interviewed and underwent a dental and periodontal examination within 5 days from delivery. Data was collected about sociodemographic status, smoking habit, oral hygiene habits, probing pocket depth, bleeding on probing, clinical attachment level and dental status. Basing on pregnancy outcomes, the sample was divided in 120 cases (28 women affected by preeclampsia, 33 by IUGR, 41 by PROM, 9 who delivered low birth babies, 26 who delivered preterm and 43 who delivered preterm low weight babies) and 243 controls. In the present study a strong correlation was observed between adverse pregnancy outcome and the presence of a maternal pathology. Considering single pathologies, allergies, hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases were significantly associated to cases. A correlation was observed between adverse pregnancy outcomes and a high maternal bleeding index. No statistically significant correlation was found with periodontal markers like probing pocket depth and clinical attachment level, or with DMFT index

User data discovery and aggregation: the CS-UDD algorithm

In the social web, people use social systems for sharing content and opinions, for communicating with friends, for tagging, etc. People usually have different accounts and different profiles on all of these systems. Several tools for user data aggregation and people search have been developed and protocols and standards for data portability have been defined. This paper presents an approach and an algorithm, named Cross-System User Data Discovery (CS-UDD), to retrieve and aggregate user data distributed on social websites. It is designed to crawl websites, retrieve profiles that may belong to the searched user, correlate them, aggregate the discovered data and return them to the searcher which may, for example, be an adaptive system. The user attributes retrieved, namely attribute-value pairs, are associated with a certainty factor that expresses the confidence that they are true for the searched user. To test the algorithm, we ran it on two popular social networks, MySpace and Flickr. The evaluation has demonstrated the ability of the CS-UDD algorithm to discover unknown user attributes and has revealed high precision of the discovered attributes