99 research outputs found
Bacterial Biofilm in Chronic Wounds and Possible Therapeutic Approaches
No full textWound repair and skin regeneration is a very complex orchestrated process that is generally composed of four phases: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. Each phase involves the activation of different cells and the production of various cytokines, chemokines, and other inflammatory mediators affecting the immune response. The microbial skin composition plays an important role in wound healing. Indeed, skin commensals are essential in the maintenance of the epidermal barrier function, regulation of the host immune response, and protection from invading pathogenic microorganisms. Chronic wounds are common and are considered a major public health problem due to their difficult-to-treat features and their frequent association with challenging chronic infections. These infections can be very tough to manage due to the ability of some bacteria to produce multicellular structures encapsulated into a matrix called biofilms. The bacterial species contained in the biofilm are often different, as is their capability to influence the healing of chronic wounds. Biofilms are, in fact, often tolerant and resistant to antibiotics and antiseptics, leading to the failure of treatment. For these reasons, biofilms impede appropriate treatment and, consequently, prolong the wound healing period. Hence, there is an urgent necessity to deepen the knowledge of the pathophysiology of delayed wound healing and to develop more effective therapeutic approaches able to restore tissue damage. This work covers the wound-healing process and the pathogenesis of chronic wounds infected by biofilm-forming pathogens. An overview of the strategies to counteract biofilm formation or to destroy existing biofilms is also provided
Music and emotion in religious performances in a migratory context: can rite coincide with right?
No full textThe act of musical performance reveals the musicians' emotions and aesthetic experience in the most intense moment of the music-making process. In polyphonic music practices, this occurs by coordinating individual ways of making music in a group. In the course of this process, social relations also take place. The book presents the research of ethnomusicologists from this perspective in the interdisciplinary discourse of the subject. Fulvia Caruso contribution discusses issues about migrants in resettlement situations enacting the music culture they have grown up with, especially in terms of its link with memory, affections, religious rites, and as a place to express the rights to perform their beliefs in their new environment in the town of Cremona, Italy. To articulate her reflections the author presents two of the several religious situations she is documenting and analysing: the pentecostal Church of Bethel and the catholic Chorale de Saint Michel Archange. Both composed mostly by Ivorians, their religous emotional and esthetic experiences diverge because of the space they are enabled to create. This is demonstrated throug the analysis of two celebrations of the two rites, in particular observing theobject of repetition
Efficacy of low-dose rituximab for mixed cryoglobulinemia
No full textRituximab at 375 mg/m(2) x 4 is effective for refractory HCV-related mixed cryoglobulinemia. We conducted a pilot study to assess the efficacy of a lower dosage, 250 mg/m(2) x 2. Six consecutive patients with mixed cryoglobutinemia were treated. All patients had severe or life-threatening disease manifestations, including necrotizing skin ulcers, renal disease, hyperviscosity or intestinal vasculitis. Four of five evaluable patients (excluding one early death) had > 80% decrease of cryocrit and remission of vasculitis at the end of a 22- to 55-week (median 40) follow-up. The non-responder failed to respond to additional rituximab treatment, suggesting intrinsic resistance rather than insufficient dosage as the cause of treatment failure. No sustained increase of HCV viremia after rituximab was observed. Rituximab at 250 mg/m(2) X 2 may be as effective as at 375 mg/m(2) x 4 for treating mixed cryoglobulinemia. Larger studies are required to assess the efficacy of low-dose rituximab. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
How do we go about singing a new song about migration? Some reflections from action research in the padana plain
No full textThe article describe the first results of the project "Music and migration" the author is working on since 2014. The project is investigating self-representation and expression through the music of economic migrant communities and refugees and asylum seekers in Cremona and its neighbouring provinces (Mantua, Modena and Piacenza). Through the documentation of the music performed and listened to in different contexts and the study of how music intervenes in the public and private spaces of immigration in contemporary Cremona and its surroundings, we are trying to understand migrants’ attitudes toward the host culture and their own culture, and the possibility of empowering these persons by giving a public space to their cultural musical expressions. The article offers the first reflection about the results of all the lines of research conducted: transcultural education; music and rite; asylum seekers
Experiencing and crossing borders through music
No full textThe chapter aims to give an overview of the workshops orgnized by the author and held by her students between 2015 and 2017 in two different Extraordinary reception centres. Through musical practice and participatory listening, and also music composition, the asylum seekers find a way to come across their horrible conditions
Un disegno agli Uffizi di Bernardo Buontalenti per il casino Mediceo di San Marco
No full textThis paper investigates the Uffizi folio 698 Orn., which contains a drawing of vases on the recto and a project for two windows on the verso. The material features of the support, the techniques of representation and the state of conservation are described. The subjects of the drawings, their attribution to Bernardo Buontalenti and dating are also discussed. The analysis focuses in particular on the verso, proposing for the first time its identification with a project by the architect for the first and ground floor windows of the central courtyard of the Casino Mediceo in Florence. Furthermore, the dating of the drawing is hypothesised in relation to its graphic style and the construction process of the building. The aim is to divulge this precious document, which testifies the work carried out by Buontalenti at San Marco both as an artistic advisor for the Grand Ducal art laboratories and as an architect. He is in fact the author of the final definition of the windows, real 'manifestos' of his architectural conception
Digital humanity: musica e riti sospesi al tempo del coronavirus
No full textThe article is a first account of what has happened during the lockdown due to the pandemic of COVID-19. The author collected informations on how communities of practice have compensated the prohibition to realize religious rites in Italy. In particular it describes what has been realised in Castelsardo (SS) to fill the empty soundscape thanks to old recordings. It also gives a short account of what was organized on Facebook by the Brotherhood of Vallepietra to help believers in Holy Trinity Shrine of Vallepietra to feel to be part of a (virtual) community despite the lockdown
How Human Papillomavirus Replication and Immune Evasion Strategies Take Advantage of the Host DNA Damage Repair Machinery
No full textThe DNA damage response (DDR) is a complex signalling network activated when DNA is altered by intrinsic or extrinsic agents. DDR plays important roles in genome stability and cell cycle regulation, as well as in tumour transformation. Viruses have evolved successful life cycle strategies in order to ensure a chronic persistence in the host, virtually avoiding systemic sequelae and death. This process promotes the periodic shedding of large amounts of infectious particles to maintain a virus reservoir in individual hosts, while allowing virus spreading within the community. To achieve such a successful lifestyle, the human papilloma virus (HPV) needs to escape the host defence systems. The key to understanding how this is achieved is in the virus replication process that provides by itself an evasion mechanism by inhibiting and delaying the host immune response against the viral infection. Numerous studies have demonstrated that HPV exploits both the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and ataxia-telangiectasia and rad3-related (ATR) DDR pathways to replicate its genome and maintain a persistent infection by downregulating the innate and cell-mediated immunity. This review outlines how HPV interacts with the ATM- and ATR-dependent DDR machinery during the viral life cycle to create an environment favourable to viral replication, and how the interaction with the signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) protein family and the deregulation of the Janus kinase (JAK)–STAT pathways may impact the expression of interferon-inducible genes and the innate immune responses
On exclusive h→Vl+l− decays
No full textWe study a set of exclusive decay modes of the Standard Model Higgs boson into a vector meson and a dilepton pair: h→Vl+l−, with V=Υ,J/ψ,φ, and l=μ,τ, determining the decay rates, the dilepton mass spectra and the V longitudinal helicity fraction distributions. In the same framework, we analyze the exclusive modes into neutrino pairs View the MathML source. We also discuss the implications of the recent CMS and ATLAS results for the lepton flavor-changing process h→τ+μ− on the h→Vτ+μ− decay mode
Staphylococcus aureus colonizing the skin microbiota of adults with severe atopic dermatitis exhibits genomic diversity and convergence in biofilm traits
No full textAtopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder exacerbated by Staphylococcus aureus colonization. The specific factors that drive S. aureus overgrowth and persistence in AD remain poorly understood. This study analyzed skin barrier functions and microbiome diversity in lesional (LE) and non-lesional (NL) forearm sites of individuals with severe AD compared to healthy control subjects (HS). Notable differences were found in transepidermal water loss, stratum corneum hydration, and microbiome composition. Cutibacterium was more prevalent in HS, while S. aureus and S. lugdunensis were predominantly found in AD LE skin. The results highlighted that microbial balance depends on inter-species competition. Specifically, network analysis at the genus level demonstrated that overall bacterial correlations were higher in HS, indicating a more stable microbial community. Notably, network analysis at the species level revealed that S. aureus engaged in competitive interactions in NL and LE but not in HS. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) showed considerable genetic diversity among S. aureus strains from AD. Despite this variability, the isolates exhibited convergence in key phenotypic traits such as adhesion and biofilm formation, which are crucial for microbial persistence. These common phenotypes suggest an adaptive evolution, driven by competition in the AD skin microenvironment, of S. aureus and underscoring the interplay between genetic diversity and phenotypic convergence in microbial adaptation
- …
