1,721,467 research outputs found
Nanoparticle-enabled blood tests for early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
No full textPancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is often detected too late to allow adequate treatments with the result that patients are condemned to sufferings and early death. Most efforts have been therefore aimed at identifying sensitive PDAC biomarkers. Although biomarkers have numerous advantages, sample size, intra-individual variability, existence of several biases and confounding variables and cost of investigation make their clinical application challenging. In recent years, nanotechnology is providing new options for early cancer detection. Among recent discoveries, the concept is emerging that the protein corona, i.e. the layer of plasma proteins that surrounds nanomaterials in bodily fluids, is personalized. In particular, the protein corona of cancer patients is significantly different from that of healthy individuals. Herein, we review this concept with a particular focus on clinical relevance. We also discuss the recently developed nanoparticle-enabled blood (NEB) tests that demonstrated to be promising in discriminating PDAC patients from healthy volunteers by global change of the nanoparticle-protein corona. We conclude with a critical discussion of research perspectives aimed at further improving the prediction ability of the test
Fish otoliths from the Messinian of Strada degli Archi (Tuscany, Italy). Taxonomy and palaeecology
No full textAn Invited Commentary on: The incidence of right-sided colon cancer in patients aged over 40 years with acute appendicitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textAn Invited Commentary on "Comparison of the safety and efficacy of single-stage endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography plus laparoscopic cholecystectomy versus two-stage ERCP followed by laparoscopic cholecystectomy six-to-eight weeks later: A randomized controlled trial" (Int J Surg. 2020;76:37-44)
No full textAn invited commentary on: Does vascular occlusion in liver resections predispose to recurrence of malignancy in the liver remnant due to ischemia/reperfusion injury? A comparative retrospective cohort study Theodoraki (IJS-D-20-00188_R1)
No full textVulnerability of the aquifer system: considerations on a methodological approach.
No full textThe worldwide development of past civilisations as well as the recent socio-economical evolution of Nations is based and strongly controlled by the availability of water. The Mediterranean Basin that during the last decades has been characterised by a semi-arid climate is not an exception. In this area, the occurrence of wide aquifers both in limestone rocks and alluvial deposits favour the accumulation of important amounts of water resources. However, this opulence in underground waters is often compromised by an abuse of pumping and by local but diffused polluting phenomena having several causes (urban, farming, facto-ries, etc.). In Italy, only the 40% of the total amount of the potentially exploitable water re-sources, both superficial and underground, is effectively exploited. In fact, the remaining 60% is in practice not used because of qualitative and economical problems. Due to the general setting and the specific characteristics, the aquifers are frequently vulnerable to superficial polluting sources. In particular, the vulnerability of the underground resources is a function of a) the hydrolithological, hydrostructure and hydrogeological conditions of the system; b) the pedological characteristics of the soils; c) the recharge conditions; d) the groundwater inflow-outflow processes and e) the physical and hydrochemical processes that influence the natural quality of waters (Civita and De Maio, 1977). In the last decades, several methods to evaluate the intrinsic vulnerability of the aquifer system have been development based on a) the zona-tion of homogeneous areas with a similar degree of vulnerability (e.g. Albinet and Margat, 1970) and b) the parametric systems separated in a matrix system, a point count system, a point count system model and an environmental evaluation system (Foster, 1987; Aller et al., 1987; Dee et al., 1973; Civita and De Maio, 1997).
The present research is devoted to the evaluation of the intrinsic vulnerability to pollution for two case studies characterised by a different density and overall quality of basic information. The first area is represented by the carbonate aquifer of the High Basento Valley (Basilicata, Southern Italy), while the second case study is the alluvial system surrounding the town of Ferrara, characterised by an unconfined aquifer (Eastern Po Plain, Northern Italy). For both areas, we define the conceptual hydrogeological model before applying the more suitable methodological approach allowing us to recognise the sectors characterised by the higher degree of pollution risk
Vulnerability of the aquifer system: considerations on a methodological approach.
No full textThe protection of groundwater, now exposed to contamination and over-exploitation in the
industrialised world, is one of the major issues in modern groundwater resource planning. In particular, in the
semi-arid areas of the Mediterranean basin, for a better management and protection of the water resources, it is
very important the assessment and the mapping of groundwater vulnerability to contamination. In this paper,
we present the result and the problem relative to realization of vulnerability maps in different geologicalhydrogeological
and human-pressure conditions. Firstly, in order to define the conceptual hydrogeological
model of the area, geological, stratigraphic, geomorfological, hydrological and hydrogeological data are
collected and elaborated. Secondly, by using the most suitable method for the local hydrogeological condition,
among those available from the literature, the created database is implemented in a GIS to estimate the intrinsic
vulnerability of the aquifer systems
Some remarks on water resources degradation and ground fissures formation in Thessaly, Greece
No full text(i.e. low precipitations) affecting the Aegean Region and the huge increase of the cotton cultivation in large sectors of Thessaly, central Greece, forced people to search for new water resources to provide the needs. Accordingly, during the seventies and eighties, the synergy of the natural phenomenon with the inappropriate agricultural choice, was coupled with the drilling of an almost uncontrolled number of boreholes across the entire area. These water-wells that mainly exploit the alluvial multi-aquifer system of the Larissa Plain caused a significant downdrop of the piezometric level that critically exceeded the capacity to regenerate the underground natural hydraulic conditions. As a consequence, a quantitative and sometimes qualitative degradation of the water resources occurred. During the nineties, numerous ground fissures have been documented within the Larissa Plain. These superficial features have locally roduced important damages by creating open fractures in houses,
stores and infrastructures, dislocations and hollows across roads and even caused a road accident. The occurrence of the phenomenon more than once, the associated damages and the awareness of the general seismogenic character of Thessaly deeply frightened the inhabitants of the region and their Authorities. A common opinion is that the production of fissures is straightforwardly and directly elated to the general lowering of the piezometric level (Soulios, 1997). In the present research, we revised all available data in order to better understand the phenomenon and the cause-effect relationships
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