2,202 research outputs found
Mineral chemistry and Nd isotopic composition of two anorthositic rocks from the Kunene complex (South Western Angola).
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Quasi-Digital Biosensor-Interface for a Portable Pen to Monitor Anaesthetics Delivery
No full textMonitoring of patient response to the anaesthetic drugs is an attractive improvement for achieving a correct balance of sedation level, increasing the chance of success in the right
procedure of anaesthesia. Nowadays, there are no commercial tools able to offer real-time monitoring of anaesthetics, indeed, there is still a lack in sensing technologies able to maintain high performances in long term monitoring within a portable miniaturised hardware system. To overcome these limitations, we are here presenting the innovative concept of a portable pen-device able to sense anaesthetic compounds over time. This study is based on an electrochemical sensor to be fully integrated into a complete pen-shaped point-of-care for the monitoringof anaesthesia delivery. The design of the system is based on a bio-inspired event-based approach that is guaranteeing low complexity, low power consumption and is therefore suitable to be scaled to fit the barrel of a pen. An exhaustive comparison between the proposed system and a lab instrument proves that the presented approach obtains comparable performances in terms of sensitivity and resolution with the ones obtained by expensive commercial instrumentation, meanwhile, the results show a 95 % power consumption reduction and a 92 % area decrease w.r.t. previously presented implementation
Analysis of vegetation dynamics and precipitation in Africa for drought monitoring purposes
No full textThe purpose of this study was to complete the existing ITHACA drought EWS, developed for the African continent and based on the monitoring of vegetation phenological parameters, introducing proper procedures able to monitor rainfall conditions in near real-time and detect anomalies using the SPI. The studied relationships between rainfall and vegetation dynamics allowed to determine the areas where the spatial and the temporal variability in vegetation conditions are closely related to the climate, that is, the areas where the monitoring of vegetation could be correctly integrated by the rainfall anomaly one, and, finally, the best rainfall cumulating interval to be used for SPI calculation purpose
Raspberry-Pi based system for propofol monitoring
No full textInduction of anesthesia with propofol is a largely adopted technique in hospital environments. The correct dosage of this compound is essential to avoid under- or over-anesthesia that may result in serious side-effects. Therefore, in clinical settings, long-term monitoring of propofol is of great importance. To this aim, in this work, we present the design and the validation of a custom-made, low-cost and portable Point-of-Care (PoC) system based on electrochemical detection for propofol monitoring. Fouling phenomenon due to phenolic oxidation of propofol has been overcome by adopting a Pencil Graphite Electrode (PGE) 3H as sensor. The validation of the system focused on testing the measurement speed through scan-rate analysis, which is important due to the fast clearance of propofol; and interference study with Paracetamol(APAP), since it is an analgesic compound frequently administered with propofol in medical practices.LSI1LSI
"The love that made hell, paradise." Ouida re-writing the Paolo and Francesca theme in Held in Bondage
No full textThe bestselling Victorian author Ouida reveals in her novels, and, in particular, Held in Bondage, an extraordinary knowledge od Dante, by using characters and themes from the Commedia. The Paolo and Francesca theme actually constitutes part of the plot of the novel and is to be found in many of her other works, short stories and non-fiction writing
HERStory Makers 2023: Francesca Fotheringham
No full textFrancesca Fotheringham is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh studying educational psychology with a focus on neurodiversity. She took part in HERStory Makers 2023.What is HERStory Makers?HERStory Makers is a social media competition for female-identifying early career researchers to share their research, their career journeys, and to inspire the next generation. Winners are selected by public vote. HERStory Makers is also part of EXPLORATHON, Scotland's contribution to European Researchers' Night.In 2022-23, EXPLORATHON Francescasupported by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council [grant number EP/X020762/1].Author contributions to contentFrancesca conceived, planned, and recorded the video content. Kirsty Ross edited the video content to insert HERStory Maker credits, added subtitles, and reduce video length to below Twitter/X limit of 2 mins and 20 secs.</p
New Approach for Making Standard the Development of Biosensing Devices by a Modular Multi-Purpose Design
No full textThe fast widening of biosensing applications, such as healthcare, drug delivery, food, and military industries, is increasing the need for generality and compatibility among different sensors. To address this challenge, we present here an innovative approach for the fast development of new electronic biosensing systems, linking a custom-designed front-end with a multi-purpose system. We envision an open tool to help designers to focus on the target molecule and related detection method instead of designing each time a dedicated electronic device. The architecture of the proposed system is based on a modular approach, where only the front-end and the software need to be custom re-designed according to the application. Considering current research and applying a rigorous definition of the technical requirements, the core of the system is designed to fit the highest number of biosensing methods. The flexibility of this approach is successfully demonstrated with three different types of biosensors, i.e., amperometric, ion-sensitive, and memristive
Ruolo di calpaina nella regolazione della stabilità di USP1 e nel mantenimento dell'integrità genomica
No full text2010/2011The calpains are a family of intracellular cysteine proteases, among which the best studied isoforms, micro- (CAPN1) and milli-calpain (CAPN2), are heterodimers consisting of a catalytic subunit and a common regulatory subunit, CAPNS1, required for function. Calpain is involved in many processes important for cancer biology, such as autophagy, indeed in calpain-depleted cells autophagy is impaired, with a subsequent increase in apoptosis sensitivity. Calpain is also important in all the stages of the stress response.
A proteomic approach was employed for the identification of novel CAPNS1 interacting proteins. Proteins immunoprecipitating with endogenous CAPNS1 in HT1080 cell lysates were analyzed by Mass Spectrometry. We identified novel partners among which the deubiquitinating enzyme USP1, a key regulator of the DNA damage response and genome integrity maintenance via its specific action on FANCD2, involved in DNA repair and protection from chromosome instability, and PCNA, involved in the regulation of translesion DNA synthesis (TLS), that bypasses DNA lesions with low stringency basepairing requirements.
We performed co-IP assays in lysates of 293T cells and confirmed that the interaction was specific. Furhermore, we observed that calpain is able to bind a USP1 C-terminal deleted mutant, suggesting that USP1 first 523 aminoacids were sufficient for the binding.
To understand what is the effect exerted by calpain upon USP1, we depleted calpain activity in a series of cell lines, and followed the fate of endogenous USP1. We transfected CAPNS1 specific siRNAs, or treated cells with a specific inhibitor of calpain, and we observed a strong decrease in USP1 protein levels. This effect should be at a post-transcriptional level, since any significant change in USP1 mRNA levels is detected. We also obtained the same result by transfecting a siRNA specific for CAPN1, the gene encoding for the catalytic subunit micro-calpain.
Moreover, we studied the role of calpain in the PCNA-mediated switch between high fidelity replication and TLS upon UV irradiation. In mouse embryonic fibroblasts knockout for CAPNS1, USP1 downregulation is coupled to an increase in PCNA monoubiquitination. Moreover, CAPNS1-depleted U2OS cells showed an increase in the percentage of nuclei containing PCNA-induced foci upon UV irradiation.
Since we demonstrated that calpain can modulate an important regulator of DNA damage response such as USP1, we investigated if calpain could have a role in genome integrity maintenance. CAPNS1 depleted cells showed a reduced rescue in DNA repair compared to control cells, suggesting that increased levels in PCNA monoubiquitination could lead to an increased amount of errore-prone TLS.
Calpain plays an important role in autophagy, so we asked if USP1 degradation in absence of calpain activity could involve autophagic pathways. We first blocked macroautophagy by silencing ATG5, and we observed that USP1 was downregulated, suggesting that the depletion of ATG5 could lead to an increased activity of other degradation pathways. To impaire chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), we silenced a protein important for autophagosome formation, LAMP-2A. Also in this case we observed a decrease in USP1 protein levels, thus suggesting that USP1 is alternatively degraded by different pathways. However, we observed that USP1 is stabilized upon inhibition of lysosomal enzymes, suggesting that USP1 may be degraded in the lysosome.
To better understand the mechanism by which calpain affect USP1 stability we search for an effect of calpain upon USP1 co-factor and activator UAF1/WDR48. CAPNS1-depleted cells showed WDR48 downregulation, but WDR48 overexpression only partially rescue USP1 protein levels in this cells. Furthermore, we provided evidences that calpain regulation of p35/p25 activator of Cdk5 can affect Cdh1 phosphorylation and thus APC/Cdh1 activity, leading to a regulation of USP1 stabilization.
In conclusion, we identified USP1 as a novel interactor of calpain, and we found that calpain is important for USP1 stability, since in its absence USP1 is downregulated. The importance of this novel regulation is strengthened by the recent findings that unveiled a role of USP1 in maintenance of a mesenchymal stem cell program in osteosarcoma, and thus placing calpain in a crucial regulatory position for cancer development.XXIV Ciclo198
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