819 research outputs found
In the shadow of the church: the building of mosques in early medieval Syria
No full textIn his book In the Shadow of the Church: The Building of Mosques in Early Medieval Syria Mattia Guidetti examines the establishment of Muslim religious architecture within the Christian context in which it first appeared in the Syrian region, contributing to the debate on the transformation of late antique society to a Muslim one. He scrutinizes the slow process of conversion to Islam of the most important town centers by looking at religious places of both communities between the seventh and the eleventh century. The author assesses the relevancy of churches by analyzing the location of mosques and by researching phenomena of transfer of marble material from churches to mosques
Sentinel node detection in pre-operative axillary staging
No full textSentinel lymph node (SLN) localisation and biopsy represent one of the most important developments in surgery and have already produced important changes in the management of patients affected by early infiltrating breast carcinoma. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) was first applied in melanoma patients by Morton and colleagues (Morton et al. 1992); they intra-operatively injected the patent with vital blue dye close to the primary lesion, and the blue-stained SLN was later found by dissection, following tracer diffusion. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Pharmacokinetic drug evaluation of ribociclib for the treatment of metastatic, hormone-positive breast cancer
No full textIntroduction: Cyclin D-cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6-inhibitor of CDK4/6-retinoblastoma (Rb) pathway hyperactivation is associated with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer (BC). Ribociclib is an orally bioavailable, highly selective small molecule inhibitor of CDK4/6 that induces G1 arrest at sub-micromolar concentrations in a variety of pRb-positive cancer cells in vitro. Ribociclib is a new standard of care for metastatic HR+/HER2 negative metastatic breast cancer. Area covered: In this article, we review the preclinical and clinical development of ribociclib as well as discussing the role for novel applications of these agents outside the arena of HR-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer. Expert opinion: Results of pivotal phase II and III trials investigating ribociclib in patients with advanced-stage (HR)-positive breast cancer have demonstrated a substantial improvement in progression-free survival, with a safe toxicity profile. Mechanisms of acquired resistance to CDK4/6 inhibitors are beginning to emerge and might enable rational post-CDK4/6 inhibitor therapeutic strategies to be identified. Extending the use of CDK4/6 inhibitors beyond ER-positive breast cancer is challenging, and will likely require biomarkers that are predictive of a response. The use of combination therapies to optimize CDK4/6 targeting is under development
Inverse Reinforcement Learning algorithm for intra-vascular and intra-cardiac catheter’s navigation in Minimally Invasive Surgery
No full textStructural Intervention Cardiology (SIC) is a miniinvasive intervention with a catheter based approach for cardiac surgery. Although SIC procedures are becoming increasingly popular, procedures are not ergonomic and technically demanding and, at the same time, high precision and accuracy in reaching target locations inside the human body are necessary for the success these procedures. Thus, there is therefore a need to develop a robust path planner framework to improve the accuracy in target reaching while minimizing interaction with anatomical structures. In this work a pre-operative path-planning method able to guide the catheter from the peripheral access to the desired target position with the needed orientation is proposed. The method exploits an Inverse Reinforcement Learning algorithm based on a combination of Behavioral Cloning (BC) and Generative Adversarial Imitation Learning (GAIL). The method was in-silico tested performing 50 intra-vascular and 70 intra-cardiac paths where the ratio between attempts in which the catheter reaches the target and total number of attempts, computation time, the difference between desired pose and the reached one were considered as validation metrics. Results show that the proposed method computes optimal path enabling the catheter to reach the target with an average error in position below 2 mm in the intra-vascular phase and below 1 mm in position and 6° in orientation in the intra-cardiac phas
RESVERATROL-INDUCED AUTOPHAGY CONTRIBUTES TO THE INHIBITION OF EPSTEIN BARR VIRUS REPLICATION IN BURKITT’S LYMPHOMA CELLS
No full textRESVERATROL-INDUCED AUTOPHAGY CONTRIBUTES TO THE INHIBITION OF EPSTEIN BARR VIRUS REPLICATION IN BURKITT’S LYMPHOMA CELLS
De Leo Alessandra (a), Colavita Francesca (a), Arena Giuseppe (b), Mattia Elena (a)
(a) Dip. di Scienze di Sanità Pubblica e Malattie Infettive “Sanarelli”, Univ. di Roma “Sapienza”
(b) Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza Hospital, CSS-Mendel Institute, Roma
Presenting author: De Leo Alessandra, [email protected]
We have previously examined the antiviral activity of resveratrol on the replication of Epstein Barr Virus (EBV), the etiologic agent of infectious mononucleosis and associated with several types of malignancies of epithelial and lymphoid origin.
In a cellular context that allows in vitro EBV activation and lytic cycle progression through mechanisms closely resembling those that in vivo initiate and enable productive infection, we found that RV inhibited EBV lytic genes expression and the production of viral particles in a dose-dependent manner
CDH1 germline mutations and hereditary lobular breast cancer
No full textHereditary diffuse gastric cancer is an autosomal dominant inherited disease associated of CDH1 germline mutations (that encodes for the E-cadherin protein), and lobular breast cancer is the second most frequent type of neoplasia. Recently, novel E-cadherin constitutional alterations have been identified in pedigree clustering only for lobular breast carcinoma without evidence of diffuse gastric tumors and in absence of BRCA1/2 mutations. This first evidence opens novel questions about the inherited correlation between diffuse gastric and lobular breast cancers. In this brief review we revise the literature data about the CDH1 mutation frequency affecting exclusively lobular breast cancer, providing clinical recommendation for asymptomatic mutation carriers
Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice
No full textThe Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice ( JCPA ) has pioneered comparative policy studies since 1998 and is the only explicitly comparative journal of policy analytic studies. It aims to stimulate the intellectual development of comparative policy studies and the growth of an international community of scholars who research the challenges and benefits of global inter- and intra-policy making
Does Independence Affect Regulatory Performance? The case of national competition authorities in the European Union
No full textDespite having always been assumed to be true, a relationship between the independence of regulatory agencies and their performance has never been formally tested. This paper aims at verifying whether formal regulatory independence affects the performance of national competition authorities in the EU member states. The author presents and discusses a statistical analysis which shows that greater formal independence leads competition authorities to investigate more cases and to issue more decisions
Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Early Breast Cancer: The Experience of the European Institute of Oncology in Special Clinical Scenarios
No full textBACKGROUND: While axillary nodal status is still one of the most important prognostic factors in breast cancer, sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has evolved as a main procedure to strongly reduce postsurgical morbidity improving early and long-term quality of life.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Between 1996 and 2010, we performed 18,884 SLNBs for breast cancer, successfully confirming the validity of this technique and its positive impact on patients' quality of life, even though decision-making processes for adjuvant treatment strongly depend on biological features.
RESULTS: This paper summarizes published data mainly collected in our institute considering special clinical scenarios such as ductal intraepithelial neoplasia, intramammary sentinel nodes, multicentric breast cancer, prior breast surgery, previous breast aesthetic surgery, second axillary SLNB, pregnant patients, primary chemotherapy, and male patients.
CONCLUSIONS: In general, we believe that SLNB represents the standard procedure for axillary staging in virtually all clinical situations, even in those which were previously considered a contraindication for this procedure. At the moment, the only contraindication to SLNB is the presence of documented axillary metastase
Caterina Colombini (1304 ca.-1387) o della cugina sedotta. Una ‘ricostruzione’ della figura di Caterina attraverso i testi letterari, in Le vestigia dei gesuati. L’eredità culturale del Colombini e dei suoi seguaci, a cura di I. Gagliardi, Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2020, pp. 57-71 ISBN 978-88-5518-227-0
No full textIn this essay the author demonstrates that it is possible to reconstruct the figure of Caterina Colombini (1340?-1387) – Giovanni Colombini's cousin – through a group of texts: the hagiography of Caterina, the letters sent to her by Giovanni Colombini and, finally, Giovanni's biography written by Feo Belcari. The author divides his text into four parts: the first part analyzes the content of Caterina's hagiography; the second examines the linguistic form of the hagiographic text; in the third, the author analyzes the latent meaning of the window, a symbolic place where Giovanni and Caterina converse on divine topics; in the last part, to conclude, the teachings that Giovanni gives to Catherine and her spiritual daughters – the Gesuate – are analyzed
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