Development and international multicentre pilot testing of a postal dosimetry audit methodology for high dose rate brachytherapy.

Background And Purpose: Dosimetry audits are essential for reducing errors in brachytherapy. A postal dosimetry audit methodology was developed and tested in an international multicentre pilot, to assess the accuracy of the Reference Air Kerma Rate of Ir and Co brachytherapy sources.

Materials And Methods: A compact phantom made of polymethyl methacrylate was developed to accommodate two catheters, a radiophotoluminescence dosimeter (RPLD) for dose measurements and a Gafchromic (RTQA2) film strip for source position verification.

Monte Carlo simulated correction factors for high dose rate brachytherapy postal dosimetry audit methodology.

Background And Purpose: Full-scatter conditions in water are impractical for postal dosimetry audits in brachytherapy. This work presents a method to obtain correction factors that account for deviations from full-scatter water-equivalent conditions for a small plastic phantom.

Material And Methods: A 16 × 8 × 3 cm phantom (PMMA) with a radiophotoluminescent dosimeter (RPLD) at the centre and two catheters on either side was simulated using Monte Carlo (MC) to calculate correction factors accounting for the lack of scatter, non-water equivalence of the RPLD and phantom, source model and backscatter for HDR Co and Ir sources.

A New Validated Method for Rapid Determination of OLEU Concentration in Dietary Supplements: Comparison with Total Phenol Content and Antioxidant Activity.

The market for olive leaf dietary supplements is expanding rapidly and is valued at $437.15 million today. However, information on the control of these products is sketchy and the origin and variety of olives are rarely stated.

V-pipe 3.0: a sustainable pipeline for within-sample viral genetic diversity estimation.

The large amount and diversity of viral genomic datasets generated by next-generation sequencing technologies poses a set of challenges for computational data analysis workflows, including rigorous quality control, scaling to large sample sizes, and tailored steps for specific applications. Here, we present V-pipe 3.0, a computational pipeline designed for analyzing next-generation sequencing data of short viral genomes.

The role of pulse wave analysis indexes for critically ill patients: a narrative review.

Arterial pulse wave analysis (PWA) is now established as a powerful tool to investigate the cardiovascular system, and several clinical studies have shown how PWA can provide valuable prognostic information over and beyond traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Typically these techniques are applied to chronic conditions, such as hypertension or aging, to monitor the slow structural changes of the vascular system which lead to important alterations of the arterial PW. However, their application to acute critical illness is not currently widespread, probably because of the high hemodynamic instability and acute dynamic alterations affecting the cardiovascular system of these patients.

Influence of Oleacein, an Olive Oil and Olive Mill Wastewater Phenolic Compound, on Longevity and Stress Resistance.

Oleacein, a bioactive compound of olive oil and olive mill wastewater, has one of the strongest antioxidant activities among olive phenolics. However, few reports explore the in vivo antioxidant activity of oleacein, with no clear identification of the biological pathway involved. Earlier studies have demonstrated a link between stress resistance, such as oxidative stress, and longevity.

Tyrosol attenuates NASH features by reprogramming the hepatic immune milieu.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a leading cause of chronic liver disease, and no drugs have been approved for its therapy. Among plant-derived molecules, phenolic compounds of extra virgin olive oil like tyrosol (Tyr) had demonstrated multiple beneficial actions for liver health, including the modulation of inflammation in fibrosis. This study aims at assessing the protective effect and mechanism of Tyr in invitro and in vivo models of NASH, with a focus on the hepatic immune microenvironment and extrahepatic manifestations.

Wave Separation Analysis to Assess Cardiovascular Alterations Induced by Sepsis.

Objective: Sepsis induces a severe decompensation of arterial and cardiac functional properties, leading to important modifications of arterial blood pressure (ABP) waveform, not resolved by recommended therapy, as shown by previous works. The aim of this study is to quantify the changes in ABP waveform morphology and wave reflections during a long-term swine experiment of polymicrobial sepsis and resuscitation, to deepen the understanding of the cardiovascular response to standard resuscitation therapy.

Methods: We analyzed 14 pigs: polymicrobial sepsis was induced in 9 pigs followed by standard resuscitation and 5 pigs were treated as sham controls.

Pediatric long-term noninvasive respiratory support in children with central nervous system disorders.

Rationale: The use of long-term noninvasive respiratory support is increasing in children along with an extension of indications, in particular in children with central nervous system (CNS) disorders.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of children with CNS disorders treated with long-term noninvasive respiratory support in France.

Methods: Data were collected from 27 French pediatric university centers through an anonymous questionnaire filled for every child treated with noninvasive ventilatory support ≥3 months on 1st June 2019.

Development and cross-validation of simple HPLC-fluorescence and UPLC-MS-UV methods for rapid determination of oleuropein in olive leaves.

Introduction: Olive leaves, abundant by-products of the olive oil industry, are a rich source of oleuropein, an important polyphenol in olive leaves. So far, no published methods have been validated using matrix standards for oleuropein quantification in olive leaves.

Objectives: The study aimed to develop an HPLC method for oleuropein determination in olive leaves using spiked matrix standards prepared from a blank olive leaf matrix, to validate the method with respect to aqueous standards, and cross-validate the HPLC method with UPLC-MS and UPLC-UV techniques.

IAEA/WHO postal dosimetry audit methodology for electron beams using radio photoluminescent dosimeters.

Background: Independent dosimetry audits are an important intervention in radiotherapy for quality assurance. Electron beams, used for superficial radiotherapy treatments, must also be tested in dosimetry audits as part of a good quality assurance program to help prevent clinical errors.

Purpose: To establish a new service for IAEA/WHO postal dosimetry audits in electron beams using RPL dosimeters.

Pulse wave analysis as a tool for the evaluation of resuscitation therapy in septic shock.

. Pulse wave analysis (PWA) can provide insights into cardiovascular biomechanical properties. The use of PWA in critically ill patients, such as septic shock patients, is still limited, but it can provide complementary information on the cardiovascular effects of treatment when compared to standard indices outlined in international guidelines.

Dynamic thresholding and tissue dissociation optimization for CITE-seq identifies differential surface protein abundance in metastatic melanoma.

Multi-omics profiling by CITE-seq bridges the RNA-protein gap in single-cell analysis but has been largely applied to liquid biopsies. Applying CITE-seq to clinically relevant solid biopsies to characterize healthy tissue and the tumor microenvironment is an essential next step in single-cell translational studies. In this study, gating of cell populations based on their transcriptome signatures for use in cell type-specific ridge plots allowed identification of positive antibody signals and setting of manual thresholds.

gExcite: a start-to-end framework for single-cell gene expression, hashing, and antibody analysis.

Summary: Recently, CITE-seq emerged as a multimodal single-cell technology capturing gene expression and surface protein information from the same single cells, which allows unprecedented insights into disease mechanisms and heterogeneity, as well as immune cell profiling. Multiple single-cell profiling methods exist, but they are typically focused on either gene expression or antibody analysis, not their combination. Moreover, existing software suites are not easily scalable to a multitude of samples.

Impact of BNT162b2 Booster Dose on SARS-CoV-2 Anti-Trimeric Spike Antibody Dynamics in a Large Cohort of Italian Health Care Workers.

Accurate studies on the dynamics of Pfizer-Biontech BNT162b2-induced antibodies are crucial to better tailor booster dose administration depending on age, comorbidities, and previous natural infection with SARS-CoV-2. To date, little is known about the durability and kinetics of antibody titers months after receiving a booster dose. In this work, we studied the dynamic of anti-Trimeric Spike (anti-TrimericS) IgG titer in the healthcare worker population of a large academic hospital in Northern Italy, in those who had received two vaccine doses plus a booster dose.

Does Scarpa's Fascia Preservation in Abdominoplasty Reduce Seroma? A Systematic Review.

Abdominoplasty is a widely utilized cosmetic surgery procedure. Despite its popularity, seroma formation remains a prevalent complication. Seroma can lead to extended recovery time, increased medical appointments, and the potential for infection or the need for additional surgical revision.

CircANKRD12 Is Induced in Endothelial Cell Response to Oxidative Stress.

Redox imbalance of the endothelial cells (ECs) plays a causative role in a variety of cardiovascular diseases. In order to better understand the molecular mechanisms of the endothelial response to oxidative stress, the involvement of circular RNAs (circRNAs) was investigated. CircRNAs are RNA species generated by a "back-splicing" event, which is the covalent linking of the 3'- and 5'-ends of exons.

The phenolic compounds tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol counteract liver fibrogenesis via the transcriptional modulation of NADPH oxidases and oxidative stress-related miRNAs.

Liver fibrosis is the result of a chronic pathological condition caused by the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), which induces the excessive deposition of extracellular matrix. Fibrogenesis is sustained by an exaggerated production of reactive oxidative species (ROS) by NADPH oxidases (NOXs), which are overactivated in hepatic inflammation. In this study, we investigated the antifibrotic properties of two phenolic compounds of natural origin, tyrosol (Tyr) and hydroxytyrosol (HTyr), known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

The p.Asn521Thr Variant Is Associated with Earlier Disease Onset in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration.

Genetic frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is characterized by heterogeneous phenotypic expression, with a disease onset highly variable even in patients carrying the same mutation. Herein we investigated if variants in lysosomal genes modulate the age of onset both in FTLD due to null mutations and expansion. In a total of 127 subjects ( = 74 mutations and = 53 expansion carriers), we performed targeted sequencing of the top 98 genes belonging to the lysosomal pathway, selected based on their high expression in multiple brain regions.

A Nutraceutical Formulation Containing Brown Algae Reduces Hepatic Lipid Accumulation by Modulating Lipid Metabolism and Inflammation in Experimental Models of NAFLD and NASH.

Recently, some preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated the ability of brown seaweeds in reducing the risk factors for metabolic syndrome. Here, we analyzed the beneficial effect of a nutraceutical formulation containing a phytocomplex extracted from seaweeds and chromium picolinate in animal models of liver steatosis of differing severities (rats with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its complication, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)). This treatment led to a significant drop in hepatic fat deposition in both models (p < 0.