Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca- Università del Piemonte Orientale
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Clinical patterns and outcomes of patients affected by primary malignant melanoma of the oral mucosa: A European multicenter retrospective chart review
Get PDFIntroduction: The purpose of this European multicenter study was to describe and assess the characteristics, diagnosis, management, and recurrence of oral malignant melanoma at different European oral and maxillofacial surgery centers. Materials and methods: This study was based on a systematic computer-assisted database that allowed the recording of data for all primary oral mucosal melanomas treated in the involved surgical units across Europe between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2022. The following data were recorded for each patient: gender, age, site, TNM staging, metastases, symptoms, imaging features, histopathological features, treatment, complications, recurrence, follow up, and survival. Results: A total of 29 patients (15 females, 14 males) with a primary oral mucosal malignant melanoma fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The mean age was 64.4 years. The most frequent primary site was the vestibular and crestal maxillary gum. Nineteen patients had been diagnosed with a T3 oral melanoma, nine patients with a T4a oral melanoma, and one patient with a T4b neoplasm. Three patients had distant metastases at diagnosis. Clinically, the most frequently observed clinical features were hyperpigmentation, nodular appearance, ulceration, and hemorrhage. Among the 27 surgical cases, radical/clear margins were obtained in 24 cases, non-radical/invaded margins were obtained in two cases, while in one case a non-specific result of margin positivity was found. The overall 2-year survival was 62%. The 2-year disease-free survival was 52%. Conclusions: Oral mucosal melanoma is an aggressive and often asymptomatic malignancy. The overall long-term survival for patients with oral mucosal melanoma is poor, with a high rate of distant metastasis, independently from the performed treatment. Prevention and early diagnosis could be crucial to improving the disease-free survival of patients with oral mucosal melanomas
Metric compatibility and Levi-Civita connections on quantum groups
No full textArbitrary connections on a generic Hopf algebra H are studied and shown to extend to connections on tensor fields. On this ground a general definition of metric compatible connection is proposed. This leads to a sufficient criterion for the existence and uniqueness of the Levi-Civita connection, that of invertibility of an H-valued matrix. Provided invertibility for one metric, existence and uniqueness of the Levi-Civita connection for all metrics conformal to the initial one is proven. This class consists of metrics which are neither central (bimodule maps) nor equivariant, in general. For central and bicoinvariant metrics the invertibility condition is further simplified to a metric independent one. Examples include metrics on SLq(2)
Entrepreneurial Firms and Bank Financing: Do Business Angels Play a Role?
Get PDFThis paper investigates the contribution provided by business angels' (BAs) post-investment intervention to the interaction between young entrepreneurial firms and bank lending decisions within the entrepreneurial finance ecosystem. The analysis relies on a data set comprising 114 Italian BA-backed firms over the 2010–2018 period, alongside 498 matched firms. We find evidence that BAs' support makes it easier for entrepreneurial firms to raise follow-on bank financing. Additionally, we document the positive effects of both BAs' entrepreneurial experience and soft monitoring. These effects can be attributed to BAs' value-added contributions and their role in mitigating information asymmetries perceived by debt providers
Multimuons in cosmic-ray events as seen in ALICE at the LHC
Get PDFALICE is a large experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Located 52 meters underground, its detectors are suitable to measure muons produced by cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere. In this paper, the studies of the cosmic muons registered by ALICE during Run 2 (2015–2018) are described. The analysis is limited to multimuon events defined as events with more than four detected muons (Nμ > 4) and in the zenith angle range 0◦ 100) obtained with QGSJET-II-04 and SIBYLL 2.3d is compatible with the data, while EPOS-LHC produces a significantly lower rate (55% of the measured rate). For both QGSJET-II-04 and SIBYLL 2.3d, the rate is close to the data when the composition is assumed to be dominated by heavy elements, an outcome compatible with the average energy Eprim ∼ 1017 eV of these events. This result places significant constraints on more exotic production mechanisms
L'Archivio Giuridico del Piemonte Orientale: una prospettiva accidentale
No full textintroduzione al primo volume della collana Archivio Giuridico del Piemonte Oriental
Diagnosis and management of central giant cell granulomas of the jaws: a European and multicenter study
Get PDFIntroduction: Central giant cell granulomas (CGCGs) are benign but locally aggressive rare neoplasms that affect the bony skeleton, particularly the maxillofacial region. The purpose of this European multicenter study was to describe and assess the characteristics, diagnosis, management, and recurrence of CGCGs at different European oral and maxillofacial surgery centers. Methods: The data from all the treated CGCGs from the involved oral and maxillofacial surgical units across Europe between January 1st, 2014 and December 31st, 2023 were recorded. Results: A total of 76 patients, including 37 males and 39 females diagnosed with CGCG met the inclusion criteria and were included. The mean age of the study population at diagnosis was 41.8 years. Fifty-three lesions were found in the mandible, with the most frequently involved subsite being the mandibular parasymphysis. Overall, 75.0 % of included CGCGs were unilocular. The most frequent treatment option was surgery alone. A total of 12 recurrences (15.8 %) were observed with a mean follow up of 41 months. Discussion: Further genetic and molecular studies regarding the pathways underlying CGCGs are needed, in order to predict their natural history and to direct non-surgical therapies. In the meantime, surgeons should balance the risks of higher recurrence rates associated with lower surgical morbidity, performing an individualized treatment plan, taking into consideration the clinical and radiological features together with the patients' age and comorbidities. A radiographic follow-up of patients with treated CGCGs could advised for the first 5 years
Comprehensive relaxometric analysis of Fe(iii) coordination polymer nanoparticles for T1-MRI: unravelling the impact of coating on contrast enhancement
No full textCoordination polymer-based systems, particularly Fe(III)-based polymers, are attracting increasing interest due to their well-controlled morphology, biocompatibility, and versatile surface functionalization. With five unpaired electrons, Fe(III) offers a promising and safer alternative to Gd(III) for MRI applications. While some studies have investigated low molecular weight Fe(III) chelates for MRI, the exploration of Fe(III)-based nanosystems as T1 MRI probes remains limited. This study focuses on the synthesis of Fe(III)/gallic acid nanoparticles functionalized with a low molecular weight polyethylene glycol (PEG) shell, designed to enhance the second-sphere water interaction and improve r1 relaxivity at clinical magnetic fields. The 1H NMR relaxometric properties of these nanoparticles were systematically analyzed as a function of proton Larmor frequencies and temperature, and their performance was compared with a similar system stabilized by polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). We aimed to determine the frequency dependence of relaxivity in Fe(iii)-based coordination polymers, and to assess the impact of coating modifications on their MRI contrast efficacy. This knowledge is crucial for the rational design of improved Fe(III)-based nanoprobes, allowing for optimized performance in future MRI applications
Massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) combined with bayesian fine mapping approaches prioritize variants associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) from genome wide association studies (GWAS) with a potential functional role and interaction with environmental factors
Get PDFMultiple Sclerosis is a complex autoimmune disorder. Large-scale Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) have detected 200 MS risk loci. Linkage Disequilibrium (LD) represents a limitation of GWAS in pinpointing likely causative variants among the large number of associated SNPs, thus further evaluations are required such as Fine-Mapping and MPRA. Functionally informed fine mapping was performed using Paintor and CaviarBF on 36 known MS regions showing a significant replication in an Italian cohort with genotypes imputated against the HCR panel (5903 individuals, 4259 MS, and 1644 HC), and overlapping with at least one drug target gene (Drug-Gene Interaction database v4.2 (DGIdb). We also used the Open Targets Genetics tool for variant-to-gene mapping. For five regions, we functionally analyzed all the SNPs in LD (r2> 0.77) with the lead SNP using the Massively Parallel Reporter Assay (MPRA). We applied the mpralm tool to obtain a (LogFC) which gives the difference in the expression of variants. MotifbreakR and MEME suite allowed the selection of TF that bind in the presence of a specific allele. Following the described pipeline, MPRA was able to distinguish, 8 variants (replicated in two separate experiments) as potential variants influencing their target gene expression.We identified variants altering the expression of 4 different genes out of the 5 tested through preferential binding of TF. MEF2B binding on Rs1883832 and AHR binding to RS6974022 the CD40 gene with Iscalimab as a drug, TCF4, and E2F4 binding on 3 variants with VEGF-B as a target gene, VEGF154 and CONBERCEPT as drugs. TGIF2 and PROX1 binding with 2 variants with IFNGR2 gene as a target, and INTERFERON GAMMA-1B as a drug. TBX3 binding on 1 variant targeting the TEC gene with Capivarsetib as a drug. Using the MPRA to test the influence of MS-associated environmental factors we were able to identify 2 variants that change their effect on gene expression in the presence of the EBNA2 1.2 variant