1,721,015 research outputs found
BEYOND NOSOGRAPHY OF DEPRESSION IN ELDERLY
No full textThe patterns of depressive symptoms that occur in the elderly are appreciably different from those manifested in younger-age groups. Older depressed patents tend to report more somatic and cognitive symptoms than affective ones. An exclusively categorical approach to depression among the elderly does not provide adequate means for an exhaustive classification of mood disorders in old age. Taking into account clinical features, high comorbidity and the overlap with the physiological somatic changes due to aging, a dimensional approach seems to better account for depressive symptoms in the elderl
Neural stem cell transplantation in central nervous system disorders: From cell replacement to neuroprotection
No full textPurpose of reviewTransplantation of neural stem/precursor cells (NPCs) has been proposed as a promising therapeutic strategy in almost all neurological disorders characterized by the failure of central nervous system (CNS) endogenous repair mechanisms in restoring the tissue damage and rescuing the lost function. Nevertheless, recent evidence consistently challenges the limited view that transplantation of these cells is solely aimed at protecting the CNS from inflammatory and neurodegenerative damage through cell replacement.Recent findingsRecent preclinical data confirmed that transplanted NPCs may also exert a 'bystander' neuroprotective effect and identified a series of molecules - for example, immunomodulatory substances, neurotrophic growth factors, stem cell regulators as well as guidance molecules - whose in-situ secretion by NPCs is temporally and spatially orchestrated by environmental needs. A better understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms sustaining this 'therapeutic plasticity' is of pivotal importance for defining crucial aspects of the bench-to-beside translation of neural stem cell therapy, that is route and timing of administration as well as the best cellular source. Further insight into those latter issues is eagerly expected from the ongoing phase I/II clinical trials, while, on the other hand, new cellular sources are being developed, mainly by exploiting the new possibilities offered by cellular reprogramming.SummaryNowadays, the research on NPC transplantation in neurological disorders is advancing on two different fronts: on one hand, recent preclinical data are uncovering the molecular basis of NPC therapeutic plasticity, offering a more solid rational framework for the design of clinical studies. On the other hand, pilot trials are highlighting the safety and feasibility issues of neural stem cell transplantation that need to be addressed before efficacy could be properly evaluated
NGN2-based neuronal programming of hiPSCs in an automated microfluidic platform
No full textThe generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) via somatic cell reprogramming allowed to have an unlimited in vitro source of patient-specific cells.This achievement has introduced a new revolutionary way to create human in vitro models and to study human diseases starting from patient's own cells, especially important for inaccessible tissues like the brain.Recently, lab-on-a-chip technology has opened new reliable alternatives to conventional in vitro models able to replicate key aspects of human physiology, thanks to the intrinsic high surface-area-to-volume ratio, which allows fine control of the cellular microenvironment.The development of automated microfluidic platforms allowed the implementation of this technology to perform high-throughput, standardized and parallelized assays, suitable for drug screenings and developing new therapeutic approaches in a cost-effective way. However, the major challenges in the broad application of automated lab-on-a-chip in biological research are the lack of production robustness and ease of use of the devices.Here, we present an automated microfluidic platform able to host the rapid conversion of human iPSCs (hiPSCs) into neurons via viral-mediated overexpression of Neurogenin 2 (NGN2) in a user-friendly manner. The design of the platform, built with multilayer soft-lithography techniques, shows easiness in the fabrication and assembly thanks to the simple geometry and experimental reproducibility at the same time.All operations are managed automatically, from the cell seeding, medium change, doxycycline-mediated neuronal induction, selection of the genetically engineered cells, and analysis of the output of differentiation, including immunofluorescence assay. Our results show a high-throughput, efficient and homogenous conversion of hiPSCs into neurons in 10 days, characterized by the expression of the mature neuronal marker MAP2 and calcium signaling.The neurons-on-chip model here described represents a fully automated loop system able to address the challenges in the field of neurological diseases modelling in vitro and improve current preclinical models
High-efficiency generation of human neurons for modeling neurodegenerative diseases by microfluidic technology.
No full textConventional and electric vehicles: A complete economic and environmental comparison
No full textAutomotive sector is one of the main sectors in terms of fuel consumption and environmental damage (pollutant air emissions). A great number of studies has been conducted in recent years on the convenience of a migration from fossil fuel vehicles to electric vehicles, with different approaches and assumptions and, generally, different conclusions. It is difficult, therefore, to make full use of these conclusions, especially for non-expert policy community. This paper proposes a simple but complete methodology to evaluate unitary operating cost of electric and conventional drive vehicles (ICE - internal combustion engine vehicle) in order to provide a repeatable comparison referring to main scenarios representative of realistic contexts. In detail, the comparison is based on a optimization mathematical procedure, which includes economic and environmental indicators, to evaluate operating cost of the vehicles
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
- …
