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Global Variations in Oncology Professionals' Confidence Levels for Managing Antibody-Drug Conjugate Toxicities: A Cross-Continental Survey
No full textBackground: Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) represent a promising therapeutic approach in oncology, but managing their toxicities remains challenging. This survey aimed to assess confidence levels in ADC toxicity management among oncology professionals globally.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using the ONCOassist mobile, a CE-marked oncology application widely used by oncologists globally as support in clinical practice. Confidence in toxicity management was measured on a five-point scale. Predictor variables included income level, professional role, specialization, and cancer type treated.
Results: The survey was offered to 5,883 users and responses were received from 1,256 oncology healthcare professionals (HCPs) across various continents and professional roles. Medical oncologists represented the largest group (46%). Most of the HCPs were from high or upper-middle income countries (75%) with most nurses (86%) from high income countries. Respondents from Europe and North America reported higher confidence ratings, while those from Asia, Africa, and Oceania tended to report lower confidence levels (p < 0.001). Respondents from lower-middle-income countries reported lower confidence compared with those from high and upper-middle-income countries (p < 0.001). Additionally, senior physicians exhibited substantially higher confidence compared to junior physicians and nurse practitioners (p < 0.001, for both). Specialty affected confidence levels, particularly in surgical oncologists who reported the lowest confidence (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: This global survey reveals significant disparities in confidence levels for managing ADC toxicities across regions, professional roles, and specializations. These findings may suggest the need for targeted educational interventions and support systems to enhance competences in managing ADC-related toxicities, ultimately improving the global standard of care for patients receiving ADCs
Search for Gravitational Waves Emitted from SN2023ixf
No full textWe present the results of a search for gravitational-wave transients associated with core-collapse supernova SN 2023ixf, which was observed in the galaxy Messier 101 via optical emission on 2023 May 19, during the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA 15th Engineering Run. We define a five-day on-source window during which an accompanying gravitational-wave signal may have occurred. No gravitational waves have been identified in data when at least two gravitational-wave observatories were operating, which covered ∼14% of this five-day window. We report the search detection efficiency for various possible gravitational-wave emission models. Considering the distance to M101 (6.7 Mpc), we derive constraints on the gravitational-wave emission mechanism of core-collapse supernovae across a broad frequency spectrum, ranging from 50 Hz to 2 kHz, where we assume the gravitational-wave emission occurred when coincident data are available in the on-source window. Considering an ellipsoid model for a rotating proto-neutron star, our search is sensitive to gravitational-wave energy 1 × 10−4 M⊙c2 and luminosity 2.6 × 10−4 M⊙c2 s−1 for a source emitting at 82 Hz. These constraints are around an order of magnitude more stringent than those obtained so far with gravitational-wave data. The constraint on the ellipticity of the proto-neutron star that is formed is as low as 1.08, at frequencies above 1200 Hz, surpassing past results
The curious case of the green-colored body: A multidisciplinary investigation of a mummy preserved in a copper-rich environment
No full textA human skeleton exhibiting extensive green coloration and partial mummification was discovered inside a copper-alloy cist beneath an ancient villa in Bologna (Italy). The preservation of bone and soft tissue, together with the green staining, prompted to infer the diagenetic processes that occurred in this unique case during the post-mortem period, analyzing the chemical and structural alterations of the tissues in a copper-rich burial environment. A multidisciplinary analytical approach was employed, by combining Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive Xray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). These techniques were applied to both stained and unstained samples of bone and skin in order to characterize their organic and inorganic components, identify potential corrosion products-specifically malachite (Cu2(CO3)(OH)2) and pseudomalachite (Cu5(PO4)2(OH)4)-and evaluate the role of the burial context-particularly the copper container-in shaping the state of preservation. (c) 2025 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies
Action plan for an international imaging framework for implementation of global low-dose CT screening for lung cancer
No full textReduction in lung cancer mortality is achievable through low dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening in high-risk individuals. Many countries are progressing from local LDCT screening studies to national screening programs. Implementation of effective large-scale screening programs is complex and requires a multi-disciplinary approach. A recent overview of the technical aspects of implementing high quality LDCT for screening resulted from the inaugural international expert meeting of the Alliance for Global Implementation of Lung and Cardiac Early Disease Detection and Treatment (AGILE). This covers the most important aspects of the CT imaging process: standardisation in CT image acquisition and interpretation, CT protocol management, technology developments and minimal requirements, integration of lung cancer biomarkers, and the role of AI in CT lung nodule detection, segmentation, and classification, and related data security issues
Da Alberti a Leonardo Spunti per una riflessione su etica e responsabilità nel Rinascimento
No full textEmulsions and Interfacial Properties
No full textEmulsions are liquid-in-liquid dispersions of sub-micro/micro-sized droplets widespread in nature, technologies, and products.1 They are of great interest in many applied fields2, 3, 4, 5, 6 spanning from pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and foods to other practical applications like oil recovery or development of new nanostructured soft materials. Ordinary emulsions are thermodynamically unstable, and the constituting liquids tend to separate under the effect of external forces or perturbations. The characteristic time of this process may differ by several orders of magnitude, depending on the chemical composition of the system and the environmental conditions. For this reason, the prediction of the lifetime of emulsions and their microstructure is essential for their utilization in diverse applications.
The control of emulsification and emulsion stability is obtained by employing appropriate surface-active components such as low-weight surfactants, biomolecules, polymers, proteins, solid nanoparticles, or more complex associations of surfactants and nanoparticles. These amphiphilic components, or emulsifiers, tend to accumulate at the interfaces between the two liquid phases (typically aqueous and oily phases), modifying their physicochemical and mechanical properties. In this way, they favor emulsification lowering interfacial tension and, at once, contrast the mechanisms at the bases of the emulsion destabilization. As explained in more detail in the following sections, besides gravity-driven creaming/sedimentation, the main mechanisms governing the emulsion evolution, related to droplet interactions, are flocculation, coalescence, and Ostwald ripening (OR).7,8
The mechanisms involved in emulsification and emulsion destabilization have been widely investigated for many years and the basic concepts are well consolidated. Moreover, several studies have been recently carried out dealing with the utilization of classical and emerging emulsifiers in various application fields,8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 some of these focusing on how the emulsion controlling mechanisms are influenced by the adsorption properties of the emulsifiers. For example, many studies7, 11, 12, 14 have underlined the importance of dynamic and structural features of the interfacial layers on stabilization against coalescence and Ostwald ripening.
Despite the huge number of studies dedicated to emulsions, several aspects are still worthy of investigation because of their relevance to today’s emulsion-based technologies and products. One of the challenging topics in this field concerns, for example, the development of efficient formulations of emulsions with a low impact on the environment and health.
In fact, the mainly used emulsifiers present potential negative effects on health and, at once, contribute in a large extent to environmental pollution when spread as domestic and industrial waste, especially for rivers and sea waters. Moreover, despite the advances in the direction of a better understanding of emulsions behavior, most of the formulations adopted by the industry still rely on semi-empirical approaches using an overabundant amount of surface-active components.
In this contest, many studies on emulsions nowadays aim to promote a more efficient and safe use of emulsifiers in emulsion formulations via a deeper understanding of their role in emulsification and stabilization. This should contribute to improving the biocompatibility and biodegradability of products, using molecules with lower toxic/pollutant effects and/or significantly lower concentrations. The use of natural surfactants, derived from plants or vegetable wastes, also goes in the direction of more sustainable solutions, even if these compounds are typically complex (macro)molecules with variable and often ill-defined structures, requiring a rational utilization of the development of new more suitable interpretative models.
On the basis of these considerations, it is clear that the way to develop a new formulation minimizing the impact on health and the environment is necessary through a deeper understanding of the relation between emulsion behavior and interfacial properties, mainly governed by the equilibrium and dynamic adsorption of emulsifiers. In the following, the basic well-consolidated concepts on emulsions are recalled together with an overview of the principal results obtained during the last years, focusing on the role of the interfacial properties in emulsification and emulsion evolution, the specificity of some emulsifiers, and the classical and emerging experimental methods recently adopted
Luci e ombre del web archiving
No full textIl contributo analizza le peculiarità e le problematiche dei processi di archiviazione del web, con particolare riferimento al ruolo di Internet Archive e delle istituzioni bibliotecarie coinvolte in questa pratica
La risata di Chirone
No full textI saggi raccolti nella sezione monografica "La risata di Chirone" analizzano - in un arco cronologico che va dal Rinascimento a quello che viene designato come “estremo contemporaneo” - alcune delle modalità con cui il comico, l'ironia, la satira si presentano nel discorso educativo, in generi di scrittura diversi e in contesti geografici e linguistici che vanno dall’Italia alla Francia, dalla Germania agli Stati Uniti