203 research outputs found
Study of strategies for increasing biocompatibility and effectiveness of polyethylenimine carriers for gene therapy
No full textEnhancing dialogue to bridge the gaps in Bioethics : abstract book : EACME Annual Conference 2022 : Varese, 15-17 September 2022
No full text
Albori di Entomologia merceologica e urbana nell'opera del microscopista Filippo Bonanni (1638-1725)
No full textFILIPPO BONANNI (1638-1725)
The Roman Jesuit Filippo Bonanni (1638-1725) is a prominent figure in the European cultural
landscape of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was a scholar, a man of many interests,
both humanistic and scientific, an eclectic writer; in the history of biological sciences Bonanni
occupies a non-marginal position for his contributions in the malacological and entomological
fields, but he is best known for being, in the wake of his master the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, a
staunch defender of the theory of spontaneous generation. This certainly damaged his reputation
as a scholar in comparison with more or less contemporary scientists who instead contributed to
refuting this theory with accurate experimental research (among the Italians, in this regard, Redi,
Malpighi, Marsili, Cestoni and Vallisnieri stand out). Bonanni’s observations on insects and other
arthropods, which he carried out above all with the aim of finding arguments in favor of the
generatio aequivoca, are found in his work Observationes circa viventia, quae in rebus non
viventibus reperiuntur. Cum micrographia curiosa sive rerum minutissimarum observationibus,
quae ope microscopii recognitae ad vivum exprimuntur, published in Rome in 1691. Written
observations thus supporting spontaneous generation, but accompanied by numerous valuable
illustrations made with the aid of the microscope which Bonanni, valiant microscopist as well as
a skilled draftsman and engraver, perfected himself, in order to investigate the microcosm of
arthropods beyond the potential of the human eye - apart from the dialectical intent mentioned
above. This is the primary objective of the Micrographia curiosa, the appendix to his work, which
enriches what is presented in the main part of the volume with further findings and tables. A
valuable work, above all related to commodity, urban and stored product entomology, given that
the author finds in the arthropods of the urban and domestic environment the raw material most
at hand as a source for observations and experiences. With surprising precision for the time, in
the Observationes mosquito, sand fly, flea, lice, booklice, coleopteran larvae, moths, other
dipterans and their details, mites, etc. are illustrated. Bonanni is the first descriptor and illustrator
ever of certain insects. Among others, worthy of note is a dermestid larva, very probably of the
genus Anthrenus, with much enlarged detail of the typical hastisetae or spear bristles, and some
figures of pretarsi of Diptera Brachycera. As a microscopist he can be compared to the
Englishman Robert Hooke (1635-1709), almost coeval, who published a Micrographia in London
(1667), from which Bonanni seems to have drawn useful insights
3D digitalization and micro-analysis for cultural heritage research: the case study of the bishop's head of Casa Romei Museum in Ferrara.
No full textIl laser nel trattamento delle patologie della mucosa orale: protocollo operativo per lichen planus orale, ipercheratosi e neoformazioni
No full textPores, Parts, and Powers in Sixteenth-Century Commentaries on Meteorologica IV
No full textThe Italian polymath and polemicist Scipione Chiaramonti, in his 1654 commentary on Meteorologica IV, offered potential solutions to the objection that Aristotle’s employment of pores and particles contradicted his dismissals of similar explanations in De generatione et corruptione. He contended that it might be possible to argue that Aristotle’s views changed over time and Meteorologica IV reflects the historical development of his thought; or, that some of the solutions presented in Aristotle’s works should be understood as only probable. Indeed, a decade earlier Joachim Jungius endorsed the first of Chiaramonti’s proposed solutions, maintaining that Meteorologica IV adopted a syndiacritical natural philosophy in opposition to his earlier polemics against Democritus and Empedocles. Chiaramonti’s and Jungius’s views testify to the difficulty of early modern natural philosophers in reconciling the pores of Meteorologica IV with the rest of Aristotle’s natural philosophy, a difficulty that corresponds to the contentions, brought forth by Hammer-Jensen at the beginning of the twentieth century, that the book is not genuine. The argument for historical development as key to its interpretation, however, arose after over a century of commentaries on this work, including those of Pietro Pomponazzi, Francesco Vimercato, and Francisco Vallés, that noted similarities between the argument of pores and particles with the corpuscular and atomist theories of Democritus, Epicureans, and Plato. Accordingly, these sixteenth-century commentators used Meteorologica IV to theorize about the structure and functioning of biological material. For example, these commentators on Meteorologica IV discussed how blood, a seemingly homeomerous substance, contains fibers that play a role in physiological functioning and the determination of temperament. Furthermore, they understood that elemental or vaporous particles enter into pores of living bodies and alter their composition and the qualities of their parts. Thus, without admitting the existence of indivisible atoms or void, they contended that small particles, endowed with the active powers, were agents of qualitative change
Effect and differentiation activity of IGF-I, IGF-II, insulin and preptin on human primary bone cells.
No full textIn vitro permeability of a model protein across ocular tissues and effect of iontophoresis on the transscleral delivery
No full textThe aim of this work was to study the penetration of cytochrome c, a positively charged model protein (MW 12.4 kDa, charge at pH 8.2: +9), across different ocular tissues, and to evaluate the potential of iontophoresis to enhance and control the transscleral transport. The passive transport of cytochrome c across the sclera and across the bilayer choroid-Bruch's membrane was evaluated using Franz diffusion cells and porcine tissues. The affinity of cytochrome c for melanin was measured by means of in vitro binding experiments. The iontophoretic (anodal) permeation was studied as a function of donor concentration (from 5 to 70 mg/ml) and current intensity (from 0.9 to 3.5 mA; density from 1.5 to 5.8 mA/cm(2)), and the contribution of electroosmosis on cytochrome c transport was evaluated by using a high molecular weight fluorescent dextran (FD-150, 149 kDa) as neutral marker. Finally, the possibility of tuning cytochrome c permeation rate was investigated on a 70 mg/ml cytochrome c solution, by alternating passive permeation and iontophoresis at different intensities. Cytochrome c permeated the sclera with a passive permeability coefficient of about 2.5 × 10(-6)cm/s, comparable to molecules of similar molecular radius. The choroid-Bruch's layer was an important barrier to penetration, since its presence reduced 5-7 times the amount permeated after 5h, also because of the presence of melanin that binds cytochrome. Iontophoresis (2.9 mA/cm(2)) enhanced cytochrome c penetration across the sclera at all the concentrations tested, increasing about ten times the amount permeated after 2h. The effect was proportional to current density: the enhancement factor (measured on a 10mg/ml solution), resulted 6.0 ± 4.3 (i=0.9 mA; density=1.5 mA/cm(2)), 10.6 ± 4.1 (i=1.75 mA; density=2.9 mA/cm(2)), 33.2 ± 8.3 (i=1.75 mA; density=5.8 mA/cm(2)). Iontophoretic (density=2.9 mA/cm(2)) experiments performed with FD-150, an electroosmotic flow (EO) marker, demonstrated that cytochrome c, at concentration higher that 1mg/ml, dramatically reduced the EO flow and that, despite the high MW, the main mechanism for cytochrome c iontophoretic permeation is electrorepulsion. Finally, by alternating in the same experiment passive permeation and iontophoresis at different current intensities, a precise modulation of cytochrome c release was obtained, thus indicating the possibility of tuning the release as a function of specific therapeutic needs
Prof. Principi and I. Lacewing News, 20:1-3
No full textOn the occasion of the hundredth birthday of Prof. Maria Matilde Principi, the author recalls the help that Prof. Principi gave him in the study of Neuroptera at the University of Bologna
- …
