Highly Photostable Carbon Dots from Citric Acid for Bioimaging.

Bioimaging supported by nanoparticles requires low cost, highly emissive and photostable systems with low cytotoxicity. Carbon dots (C-dots) offer a possible solution, even if controlling their properties is not always straightforward, not to mention their potentially simple synthesis and the fact that they do not exhibit long-term photostability in general. In the present work, we synthesized two C-dots starting from citric acid and tris (hydroxymethyl)-aminomethane (tris) or arginine methyl ester dihydrochloride.

Safety and Efficacy of the New Combination Iron Chelation Regimens in Patients with Transfusion-Dependent Thalassemia and Severe Iron Overload.

The aim of this study is the evaluation of the safety and the efficacy of long-term combination therapy deferasirox plus desferrioxamine and deferasirox plus deferiprone in a large group of transfusion-dependent thalassemia patients with high values of serum ferritin and/or magnetic resonance, indicative of severe liver and cardiac iron accumulation. Sixteen adults with transfusion-dependent thalassemia were treated simultaneously with deferasirox plus desferrioxamine, while another 42 patients (seven children) were treated with deferasirox plus deferiprone. The hepatic and cardiac iron overload was assessed prior to treatment and then annually with magnetic resonance imaging, and the serum ferritin was measured monthly.

Sleep Disorders in Adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome: Review of the Literature and Clinical Recommendations Based on the Experience of the French Reference Centre.

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare, genetic, multisymptomatic, neurodevelopmental disease commonly associated with sleep alterations, including sleep-disordered breathing and central disorders of hypersomnolence. Excessive daytime sleepiness represents the main manifestation that should be addressed by eliciting the detrimental effects on quality of life and neurocognitive function from the patients' caregivers. Patients with PWS have impaired ventilatory control and altered pulmonary mechanics caused by hypotonia, respiratory muscle weakness, scoliosis and obesity.

Good Clinical Practice of the Italian Society of Thalassemia and Haemoglobinopathies (SITE) for the Management of Endocrine Complications in Patients with Haemoglobinopathies.

Background: The treatment of endocrinopathies in haemoglobinopathies is a continually expanding research area; therefore, recommendations supporting the appropriateness of treatments are a pressing need for the medical community.

Methods: The Management Committee of SITE selected and gathered a multidisciplinary and multi-professional team, including experts in haemoglobinopathies and experts in endocrinopathies, who have been flanked by experts with methodological and organizational expertise, in order to formulate recommendations based on the available scientific evidence integrated by personal clinical experience. The project followed the systematic approach for the production of clinical practice guidelines according to the methodology suggested by the National Center for Clinical Excellence, Quality and Safety of Care (CNEC).

Transfusional Approach in Multi-Ethnic Sickle Cell Patients: Real-World Practice Data From a Multicenter Survey in Italy.

Unlabelled: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a worldwide distributed hereditary red cell disorder characterized by recurrent acute vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs and anemia). Gold standard treatments are hydroxycarbamide (HC) and/or different red blood cell (RBC) transfusion regimens to limit disease progression. Here, we report a retrospective study on 1,579 SCD patients (median age 23 years; 802 males/777 females), referring to 34 comprehensive Italian centers for hemoglobinopathies.

Technological insights on the Early-Middle Bronze Age pottery of Monte Meana cave (Sardinia, Italy).

An important Bronze Age settlement was discovered during an archaeological excavation in the Monte Meana karst cave in south-western Sardinia (Italy) between 2007 and 2012. In this region, the caves were used since the Neolithic for different purposes, such as burials or other rituals. The dig highlighted a rare example of domestic use of a cave and showed a case study of household space of the Early -Middle Bronze Age, at the beginning of the Nuragic civilization.

Human Vitreous Collagen Fragments Dimension As a Function of Vitrectomy Cut Rate.

Purpose: To study the dimensions and distribution of human vitreous collagen type II fragments collected after vitrectomy performed at varying cut rates and to evaluate if increasing the cut rate produces smaller collagen fragments, thus reducing retinal traction and/or viscosity.

Methods: Fluid was collected during core vitrectomies performed for macular surgery at cut rates from 1000 to 16,000 cuts per minute (CPM) and immediately refrigerated. Protein fractions were separated by molecular weight (MW; >100 kDa, 50-100 kDa, 50-30 kDa, 30-10 kDa, and <10 kDa) through centrifugal filters.

Topotactic fluorination of intermetallics as an efficient route towards quantum materials.

Intermetallics represent an important family of compounds, in which insertion of light elements (H, B, C, N) has been widely explored for decades to synthesize novel phases and promote functional materials such as permanent magnets or magnetocalorics. Fluorine insertion, however, has remained elusive so far since the strong reactivity of this atypical element, the most electronegative one, tends to produce the chemical decomposition of these systems. Here, we introduce a topochemical method to intercalate fluorine atoms into intermetallics, using perfluorocarbon reactant with covalent C-F bonds.

Sea urchin harvest inside marine protected areas: an opportunity to investigate the effects of exploitation where trophic upgrading is achieved.

Background: Marine protected areas (MPAs) usually have both positive effects of protection for the fisheries' target species and indirect negative effects for sea urchins. Moreover, often in MPAs sea urchin human harvest is restricted, but allowed. This study is aimed at estimating the effect of human harvest of the sea urchin within MPAs, where fish exploitation is restricted and its density is already controlled by a higher natural predation risk.

A Multi-Technique Investigation of the Complex Formation Equilibria between Bis-Deferiprone Derivatives and Oxidovanadium (IV).

The increasing biomedical interest in high-stability oxidovanadium(IV) complexes with hydroxypyridinone ligands leads us to investigate the complex formation equilibria of VO ion with a tetradentate ligand, named KC21, which contains two 3-hydroxy-1,2-dimethylpyridin-4(1)-one (deferiprone) moieties, and with the simple bidentate ligand that constitutes the basic unit of KC21, for comparison, named L5. These equilibrium studies were conducted with joined potentiometric-spectrophotometric titrations, and the results were substantiated with EPR measurements at variable pH values. This multi-technique study gave evidence of the formation of an extremely stable 1:1 complex between KC21 and oxidovanadium(IV) at a physiological pH, which could find promising pharmacological applications.

Virtual Clinical Trials in 2D and 3D X-ray Breast Imaging and Dosimetry: Comparison of CPU-Based and GPU-Based Monte Carlo Codes.

Computational reproductions of medical imaging tests, a form of virtual clinical trials (VCTs), are increasingly being used, particularly in breast imaging research. The accuracy of the computational platform that is used for the imaging and dosimetry simulation processes is a fundamental requirement. Moreover, for practical usage, the imaging simulation computation time should be compatible with the clinical workflow.

A repeating fast radio burst source in a globular cluster.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are flashes of unknown physical origin. The majority of FRBs have been seen only once, although some are known to generate multiple flashes. Many models invoke magnetically powered neutron stars (magnetars) as the source of the emission.

Health-related quality of life profile of patients with immune thrombocytopenia in the real life is impaired by splenectomy.

The impact of splenectomy on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) remains scarcely explored. Therefore, we evaluated HRQoL with the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) in an internal cohort of 69 chronic ITP patients, overall and by type of treatment. Of these patients, 26 patients were splenectomized, while other patients were treated medically with thrombopoietin-receptor agonists (TPO-RAs) or immunosuppressive treatment.

Natural Polysaccharides as Preventive and Therapeutic Horizon for Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Neurodegenerative diseases are a serious and widespread global public health burden amongst aging populations. The total estimated worldwide global cost of dementia was US$818 billion in 2015 and has been projected to rise to 2 trillion US$ by 2030. While advances have been made to understand different neurodegenerative disease mechanisms, effective therapeutic strategies do not generally exist.

Unitarity and Page Curve for Evaporation of 2D AdS Black Holes.

We explore the Hawking evaporation of two-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS2), dilatonic black hole coupled with conformal matter, and derive the Page curve for the entanglement entropy of radiation. We first work in a semiclassical approximation with backreaction. We show that the end-point of the evaporation process is AdS2 with a vanishing dilaton, i.

Typification of 14 names in the group (Caryophyllaceae).

The nomenclature of 14 taxa from Central and Southern Europe within the group is discussed. Jord., Jord.

Structural Features of the [C4mim][Cl] Ionic Liquid and Its Mixtures with Water: Insight from a H NMR Experimental and QM/MD Study.

The H NMR chemical shift of water exhibits non-monotonic dependence on the composition of an aqueous mixture of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [C4mim][Cl], ionic liquid (IL). A clear minimum is observed for the H NMR chemical shift at a molar fraction of the IL of 0.34.

The Effect of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Melanoma Diagnosis in Italy.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to lockdowns for much of the world. In Italy, all health procedures not directly related to COVID-19 were reduced or suspended, thus limiting patient access to hospitals. Any delay in cancer treatment presents the additional risk of tumors progressing from being curable to incurable.

Design and development of topical liposomal formulations in a regulatory perspective.

The skin is the absorption site for drug substances intended to treat loco-regional diseases, although its barrier properties limit the permeation of drug molecules. The growing knowledge of the skin structure and its physiology have supported the design of innovative nanosystems (e.g.

COVID-19 Severity in Multiple Sclerosis: Putting Data Into Context.

Background And Objectives: It is unclear how multiple sclerosis (MS) affects the severity of COVID-19. The aim of this study is to compare COVID-19-related outcomes collected in an Italian cohort of patients with MS with the outcomes expected in the age- and sex-matched Italian population.

Methods: Hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and death after COVID-19 diagnosis of 1,362 patients with MS were compared with the age- and sex-matched Italian population in a retrospective observational case-cohort study with population-based control.

The effect of air pollution on COVID-19 severity in a sample of patients with multiple sclerosis.

Background And Purpose: Some studies have shown that air pollution, often assessed by thin particulate matter with diameter below 2.5 µg/m (PM2.5), may contribute to severe COVID-19 courses, as well as play a role in the onset and evolution of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Thermodynamic Study of Oxidovanadium(IV) with Kojic Acid Derivatives: A Multi-Technique Approach.

The good chelating properties of hydroxypyrone (HPO) derivatives towards oxidovanadium(IV) cation, VO, constitute the precondition for the development of new insulin-mimetic and anticancer compounds. In the present work, we examined the VO complex formation equilibria of two kojic acid (KA) derivatives, L4 and L9, structurally constituted by two kojic acid units linked in position 6 through methylene diamine and diethyl-ethylenediamine, respectively. These chemical systems have been characterized in solution by the combined use of various complementary techniques, as UV-vis spectrophotometry, potentiometry, NMR and EPR spectroscopy, ESI-MS spectrometry, and DFT calculations.

Retrospective Comparative Analysis of KRAS G12C . Other KRAS Mutations in mCRC Patients Treated With First-Line Chemotherapy Doublet + Bevacizumab.

Background: KRAS mutations in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) define a subset of tumors that have primary resistance to anti-EGFR-based therapy. Data concerning whether different KRAS mutations may also have a prognostic value are lacking. Furthermore, novel KRAS G12C inhibitors are currently in development.