University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
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Bond and cracking behavior of tailored limestone calcined clay cement-based composites including bicomponent polypropylene fibers with enhanced mechanical interlocking
No full textThis study examines the potential of combining tailored binder formulations with engineered polypropylene (PP) fibers to develop a range of Fiber-Reinforced Cementitious (FRC) systems with enhanced ductility and strain-hardening properties, while encompassing sustainability and economic viability. The experimental investigation compares the surface microstructure of novel bicomponent PP fibers, produced using a pilot fiber spinning device, with that of standard PP fibers. Micro-scale single-fiber pull-out tests are conducted to ascertain the extent to which this surface modification contributes to enhanced energy absorption. The effectiveness of these novel fibers at the composite scale is assessed when embedded into two limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) binder systems, in terms of the fresh and hardened properties of the resulting FRLC3, with low cement content (35 % of the total binder). The effect of incorporating super absorbent polymer (SAP) on tailoring the internal porosity of the matrix, thereby promoting the potential for stress transfer via multiple crack pathways, is assessed. A Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis, calibrated with the materials and bond laws retrieved experimentally, is conducted to simulate the tensile and cracking behavior of the optimal material combination investigated in this study, demonstrating a high degree of correlation with the tensile tests
Complete hepatic caudate lobe resection: is robotic approach safe? Report from experienced centers
No full textMinimally invasive liver surgery has become widely accepted as a safe and effective approach, especially with experienced surgeons. Robotic hepatectomy may offer significant benefits in challenging procedures like caudate lobe resection. The caudate lobe's intricate anatomy and deep-seated location make its resection particularly challenging, with limited reports on minimally invasive techniques. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and safety of robotic isolated complete caudectomy and to provide a detailed description of the different technical approaches available. This retrospective multicenter study was conducted across eight experienced hepatobiliary robotic surgery centers between June 2020 and March 2024. All patients who underwent elective RICC during this period were included. Data were prospectively collected and retrospectively analyzed, focusing on demographics, intraoperative variables, postoperative outcomes, and histopathological results. The primary outcome was the feasibility and safety of the robotic approach. The study included 42 patients. The median (IQR) operative time was 180 (125-245) min, with a median estimated blood loss of 30 (0-100) ml. There were no conversions to open surgery and only one severe complication (Clavien-Dindo >= 3) occurred. No postoperative mortality was observed, and all resections for malignant lesions achieved R0 margins. The median time to flatus was 1 (1-1) day, time to solid diet was 1 (1-2) days, and the median length of stay was 3 (2-4) days. RICC is a feasible and safe procedure, demonstrating significant benefits in operative efficiency and patient recovery. However, further research with larger, prospective multicenter studies is necessary to confirm these findings and assess long-term outcomes
Perioperative Complications and In-Hospital Mortality in Paraplegic Radical Cystectomy Patients
Get PDFThe aim of this study was to test for the association between paraplegia and perioperative complications as well as in-hospital mortality after radical cystectomy (RC) for non-metastatic bladder cancer. Methods: Perioperative complications and in-hospital mortality were tabulated in RC patients with or without paraplegia in the National Inpatient Sample (2000–2019). Results: Of 25,527 RC patients, 185 (0.7%) were paraplegic. Paraplegic RC patients were younger (≤70 years of age; 75 vs. 53%), more frequently female (28 vs. 19%), and more frequently harbored Charlson Comorbidity Index ≥3 (56 vs. 18%). Of paraplegic vs. non-paraplegic RC patients, 141 versus 15,112 (76 vs. 60%) experienced overall complications, 38 versus 2794 (21 vs. 11%) pulmonary complications, 36 versus 3525 (19 vs. 14%) genitourinary complications, 33 versus 3087 (18 vs. 12%) intraoperative complications, 21 versus 1035 (11 vs. 4%) infections, and 17 versus 1343 (9 vs. 5%) wound complications, while 62 versus 6267 (34 vs. 25%) received blood transfusions, 47 versus 3044 (25 vs. 12%) received critical care therapy (CCT), and intrahospital mortality was recorded in 13 versus 456 (7.0 vs. 1.8%) patients. In multivariable logistic regression models, paraplegic status independently predicted higher overall CCT use (odds ratio [OR] 2.1, p < 0.001) as well as fourfold higher in-hospital mortality (p < 0.001), higher infection rate (OR 2.5, p < 0.001), higher blood transfusion rate (OR 1.45, p = 0.009), and higher intraoperative (OR 1.56, p = 0.02), wound (OR 1.89, p = 0.01), and pulmonary (OR 1.72, p = 0.004) complication rates. Conclusion: Paraplegic patients contemplating RC should be counseled about fourfold higher risk of in-hospital mortality and higher rates of other untoward effects. © The Author(s) 202
Merging and Splitting Diffusion Paths for Semantically Coherent Panoramas
No full textDiffusion models have become the State-of-the-Art for text-to-image generation, and increasing research effort has been dedicated to adapting the inference process of pretrained diffusion models to achieve zero-shot capabilities. An example is the generation of panorama images, which has been tackled in recent works by combining independent diffusion paths over overlapping latent features, which is referred to as joint diffusion, obtaining perceptually aligned panoramas. However, these methods often yield semantically incoherent outputs and trade-off diversity for uniformity. To overcome this limitation, we propose the Merge-Attend-Diffuse operator, which can be plugged into different types of pretrained diffusion models used in a joint diffusion setting to improve the perceptual and semantical coherence of the generated panorama images. Specifically, we merge the diffusion paths, reprogramming self- and cross-attention to operate on the aggregated latent space. Extensive quantitative and qualitative experimental analysis, together with a user study, demonstrate that our method maintains compatibility with the input prompt and visual quality of the generated images while increasing their semantic coherence. We release the code at https://github.com/aimagelab/MAD
AIGeN-Llama: An Adversarial Approach for Instruction Generation in VLN using Llama2 Model
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Sviluppo di biomateriali ibridi per applicazioni teranostiche
No full textLa sintesi di silice mesoporosa a pori larghi (LPMS) offre un approccio promettente per ospitare e stabilizzare molecole bioattive con applicazioni farmaceutiche, essenziale per mantenere la loro attività biologica. A differenza della silice mesoporosa classica (MS), che presenta limitazioni dovute alle ridotte dimensioni dei pori (2–5 nm) che possono causare ostruzione dei pori e insufficiente capacità di caricamento, le strutture LPMS presentano pori significativamente più grandi (20–60 nm e 200–600 nm). Questi pori più grandi consentono un caricamento più efficiente, la stabilizzazione e il rilascio controllato di molecole bioattive.
Le LPMS sono sintetizzate utilizzando una soluzione acquosa acida di tetraetil ortosilicato con agenti formanti pori (Pluronic F127® e mesitilene), attraverso reazioni idrotermiche e assistite da microonde. Ottimizzazioni nel tempo di reazione e nell'uso di tensioattivi sono state effettuate per migliorare le proprietà del materiale. Studi di caricamento con Nisina, un peptide antibatterico policiclico con dimensioni di 4–6 nm, hanno dimostrato un'efficienza di caricamento significativamente più elevata (LE%) per le LPMS rispetto alle MS, come confermato da analisi UV-Vis, analisi elementare e termogravimetria. Gli studi sul rilascio in fluido corporeo simulato (SBF) hanno evidenziato un profilo di rilascio controllato per le LPMS su scale temporali estese, con la microscopia elettronica a scansione (SEM) che ha confermato la conservazione dell'integrità strutturale e della resistenza meccanica dopo i test di rilascio.
Inoltre, le LPMS sono state ulteriormente funzionalizzate incorporando ioni come Ca2+ e Ga3+, noti per le loro proprietà bioattive, antibatteriche e anticancro. Queste LPMS modificate hanno dimostrato proprietà di caricamento e rilascio superiori, in particolare in termini di rilascio di Ca2+ e Ga3+ in SBF, come mostrato dalla spettroscopia a emissione ottica con plasma accoppiato induttivamente (ICP-OES). Il comportamento bioattivo di queste strutture è stato confermato tramite spettroscopia infrarossa a trasformata di Fourier (FT-IR), SEM-EDS e diffrazione a raggi X su polveri (XRPD). Questi risultati indicano che le LPMS non solo offrono migliori caratteristiche di caricamento e rilascio per le molecole bioattive rispetto alla MS classica, ma presentano anche proprietà bioattive, rendendole candidate promettenti per applicazioni nella rigenerazione ossea e in altri campi biomedici.The synthesis of large pore mesoporous silica (LPMS) offers a promising approach for accommodating and stabilizing bioactive molecules with pharmaceutical applications, which is crucial for maintaining their biological activity. Unlike classical mesoporous silica (MS), which suffers from limitations due to smaller pore sizes (2–5 nm) that can lead to pore blocking and insufficient loading capacity, LPMS structures feature significantly larger pores (20–60 nm and 200–600 nm). These larger pores enable more efficient loading, stabilization, and controlled release of bioactive molecules.
LPMSs are synthesized using an acidic water solution of tetraethyl orthosilicate with pore-forming agents (Pluronic F127® and mesitylene), through hydrothermal and microwave-assisted reactions. Optimizations in reaction time and surfactant use have been performed to enhance the material properties. Loading studies using Nisin, a polycyclic antibacterial peptide with dimensions of 4–6 nm, demonstrated a significantly higher loading efficiency (LE%) for LPMSs compared to MS, as confirmed by UV-Vis, elemental analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis. Release studies in simulated body fluid (SBF) highlighted a controlled release profile for LPMSs over extended time scales, with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirming the preservation of structural integrity and mechanical strength after the release tests.
Moreover, LPMSs were further functionalized by incorporating ions such as Ca2+ and Ga3+, known for their bioactive, antibacterial, and anticancer properties. These modified LPMSs demonstrated superior loading and release properties, particularly in terms of Ca2+ and Ga3+ release in SBF, as shown by inductively coupled plasma—optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The bioactive behavior of these structures was confirmed through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), SEM-EDS, and X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD). These results indicate that LPMSs not only provide better loading and release characteristics for bioactive molecules compared to classical MS but also exhibit bioactive properties, making them promising candidates for applications in bone tissue regeneration and other biomedical fields
Unveiling cellular changes in leukaemia cell lines after cannabidiol treatment through lipidomics
Get PDFThe present study was aimed at revealing the metabolic changes that occurred in the cellular lipid pattern of acute and chronic myeloid leukaemia cells following treatment with cannabidiol (CBD). CBD is a non-psychoactive compound present in Cannabis sativa L., which has shown an antiproliferative action in these type of cancer cells. CBD treatment reduced cell viability and initiated apoptotic and necrotic processes in both cancer cell lines in a time and dose-dependent manner, showing acute myeloid leukaemia (HL-60) cells greater sensitivity than chronic myeloid leukaemia ones (K-562), without differences in the activation of caspases 3/7. Then, control and treated cells of HL-60 and K-562 cell lines were studied through an untargeted lipidomic approach. The treatment was carried out with CBD at a concentration of 10 mu M for HL-60 cells and 23 mu M CBD for K-562 cells for 48 h. After the extraction of the lipid content from cell lysates, the samples were analysed by UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS both in the positive and the negative ionization modes. The comprehensive characterization of cellular lipids unveiled several classes significantly affected by CBD treatment. Most of the differences correspond to phospholipids, including cardiolipins (CL), phosphatidylcholines (PC) and phosphosphingolipids (SM), and also triacylglycerols (TG), being many TG species increased after CBD treatment in the acute and chronic models, whereas phospholipids were found to be decreased. The results highlight some important lipid alterations related to CBD treatment, plausibly connected with different metabolic mechanisms involved in the process of cell death by apoptosis in cancer cell lines