Publications by authors named "Barraco D"

Iron therapy in nephropathic patients can allow optimizing treatment with EPO identifying the minimum effective dose capable of improving the patient's quality of life. The most recent studies on iron metabolism and on the interference of iron deficiency syndrome on the performance of some organs, in particular the myocardium, suggest the need to intervene very early, especially in patients with cardiomyopathy and systolic deficit. Setting up an iron therapy in nephropathic patients requires a correct diagnosis.

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Li-S batteries are promising alternatives due to their proven increased gravimetric capacity compared to Li-ion batteries. However, their development is hindered by many technical issues, one of the most challenging being the dissolution and shuttle of polysulfide species, which causes irreversible loss of cathode material leading to rapid capacity fading. Among the possible strategies to mitigate this effect, the choice of suitable solvents is easy to implement and has large room for improvement.

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Article Synopsis
  • Lenalidomide (LEN) can help 60-70% of patients with del(5q) myelodysplastic neoplasm achieve independence from red blood cell transfusions (RBC-TI), but there's a concern about its toxicity and cost.
  • The HARMONY Alliance study followed 118 low-intermediate risk MDS patients who discontinued LEN, finding that 50 lost RBC-TI after a median of 49 months.
  • Factors like having a low transfusion burden before treatment, completing at least 12 LEN cycles, being younger, and having higher hemoglobin levels at withdrawal were linked to longer RBC-TI duration after discontinuing LEN.
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  • Managing chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) during pregnancy is rare; a study of 87 cases from a registry showed favorable outcomes for most women diagnosed in the chronic phase between 2001-2022.
  • Normal childbirth rates were high at 76%, with only 12% of infants being low birth weight, and a low rate of complications was noted regardless of treatment (imatinib or interferon-α).
  • About 95% of patients achieved complete hematologic response by labor time, with no disease progression during pregnancy, indicating that specific treatments can be safe for both the mother and baby in later trimesters.
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Capacity retention is a critical property to enhance in electrochemical storage systems applied to renewable energy. In lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, the capacity fade resulting from the shuttle effect of polysulfides is a major obstacle to their practical application. Sepiolite, an eco-friendly earth-abundant clay with suitable surface chemistry for anchoring and retaining various molecules and structures, was studied as a cathode additive to mitigate the shuttle effect using experimental and theoretical approaches.

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In this work, we develop a new tool to provide a diagnostic map for alkali-ion intercalation materials under galvanostatic conditions. These representations, stated in the form of capacity level diagrams, are built from hundreds of numerical simulations representing different experimental conditions, summarized in two dimensionless parameters: a kinetic parameter denominated Ξ and a finite diffusion parameter l. To lay the theoretical and methodological foundations, a general model is used here.

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Understanding and optimizing single particle rate behaviour is normally challenging in composite commercial lithium-ion electrode materials. In this regard, recent experimental research has addressed the electrochemical Li-ion intercalation in individual nanosized particles. Here, we present a thorough theoretical analysis of the Li intercalation voltammetric behaviour in single nano/micro-scale LiMn O (LMO) particles, incorporating realistic interactions between inserted ions.

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Motivated by the abundant experimental work in the area of Li-ion batteries, in the present work we characterize via computer simulations the structure of Si-Li amorphous alloys in a wide range of compositions. Using a reactive force field we propose a novel accelerated exploration of local minima to obtain amorphous structures close to equilibrium. The features of this system analyzed for different alloy compositions are the partial radial distribution functions g(r), the first and second nearest neighbour coordination numbers and the short-order structure.

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Complex materials composed of two and three elements with high Li-ion storage capacity are investigated and tested as lithium-ion battery (LiB) negative electrodes. Namely, anodes containing tin, silicon, and graphite show very good performance because of the large gravimetric and volumetric capacity of silicon and structural support provided by tin and graphite. The performance of the composites during the first cycles was studied using ex situ magic angle spinning (MAS) Li Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), density functional theory (DFT) calculations, and electrochemical techniques.

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We present real-world data on all ruxolitinib-treated myelofibrosis patients in a 10-million-resident region, with a follow-up of 2 years. We found no evidence of an increased risk of developing lymphomas.

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Myelofibrosis (MF) is a heterogeneous disorder characterized by splenomegaly, constitutional symptoms, ineffective hematopoiesis, and an increased risk of leukemic transformation. The ongoing research in understanding the pathophysiology of the disease has allowed for the development of targeted drugs optimizing patient management. Furthermore, disease prognostication has significantly improved.

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Different kinds of nanoparticles have been widely studied for biomedical purposes, including applications like dose enhancement in radiotherapy treatments and contrast agent in radiological studies. Recent work suggests that gold nanoparticles can be used as contrast agents in K-edge imaging and X-ray Fluorescence Computed Tomography, mainly due to their high K-edge energy value and good biocompatibility. However, the gold X-ray fluorescence (XRF) signal obtained in these procedures is relatively week when compared with Compton or bremsstrahlung radiation emitted in the surrounding tissues, mainly because it is not possible to achieve large gold nanoparticles concentrations within biological tissues added to the XRF is attenuated by other tissues when leaving the patient body.

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Patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) are known to have higher incidence of nonhematological second primary malignancies (SPM) compared to general population. In the MYSEC study on 781 secondary myelofibrosis (SMF) patients, the incidence of SPM after SMF diagnosis resulted 0.98/100 patient-years.

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Purpose Of Review: The purpose of this review is to help doctors in the management of patients with post-polycythemia (PPV) and post-essential thrombocythemia (PET) myelofibrosis (MF) facing diagnostic criteria, prognostication, and treatment possibilities.

Recent Findings: Diagnostic criteria of primary myelofibrosis (PMF) have been recently updated from the WHO classification. A clear-cut distinction between pre-fibrotic and overt PMF has been done.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study involving 100 Mayo Clinic patients with high/intermediate-risk myelofibrosis (MF) treated with momelotinib (MMB) between 2009 and 2010 showed that most had JAK2 mutations, while treatment saw a high discontinuation rate of 91% after about 1.4 years due to side effects.
  • Clinical improvements were noted in 57% of patients, with better outcomes associated with certain genetic mutations; specifically, ASXL1-unmutated patients had a higher response rate.
  • Factors such as the presence of SRSF2 mutations and a very high-risk karyotype were linked to worse survival and higher chances of leukemic transformation, with median survival after stopping
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In a recent International Working Group on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Research and Treatment (IWG-MRT) study, prior arterial events and hypertension were predictors of subsequent arterial thrombosis whereas prior venous events and age ≥65 years predicted venous thrombosis in polycythemia vera (PV). In the current study, we sought to validate the above findings and identify additional predictors of arterial versus venous thrombosis. At a median follow up of 109 months, thrombosis after diagnosis occurred in 128 (22%) patients; 82 (14%) arterial and 57 (10%) venous events.

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