108 research outputs found
A kinetic model for molecular diffusion through pores
No full textThe number of pathogens developing multiple drug resistance is ever increasing. The impact on healthcare systems is huge and the need for novel antibiotics as well a new way to develop them is urgent, especially against Gram- negative bacteria. The first defense of these bacteria is the outer membrane, where unspecific protein channels (porins) modulate nutrients passive diffusion. Also polar antibiotics enter through this path and down-regulation and/or mutation of porins are very common in drug resistant strains. Our inability to come up with novel effective antibiotics mostly relies upon the insufficient comprehension of the key molecular features enabling better penetra- tion through porins.
Molecular dynamics simulations offer an extraordinary tool in the study of the dynamics of biological systems; however, one of the major drawbacks of this method is that its use is currently restricted to study time scales of the order of microsecond. Enhanced sampling methods like Metadynamics have been recently used to inves- tigate the diffusion of antibiotics through bacterial porins. The main limitation is that dynamical properties can- not be estimated because of the different potential that the systems under study are experiencing. Recently, the scope of Metadynamics has been extended. By applying an a posteriori analysis one can obtain rates of transitions and rate-limiting steps of the process under study, directly comparable with kinetic data extracted from electro- physiology experiments. In this work, we apply this method to the study of the permeability of Escherichia coli's OmpF with respect to Meropenem, finding good agreement with the residence time obtained analyzing experi- mental current nois
STOPP/START Anti-aggregation and Anticoagulation Alerts in Atrial Fibrillation
No full textBACKGROUND
Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is common in the elderly. A key component of AF management is Oral
Anticoagulant Therapy (OAT), consisting of Vitamin K Antagonists (VKAs) or Direct Oral
Anticoagulants (DOACs). The aim of the present study is to check, using STOPP (Screening Tool of
Older Persons’ Prescriptions)/START (Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment) Criteria, if such
drugs are potentially inappropriately prescribed/omitted in an elderly population with AF, and to
determine their impact on mortality.
METHODS
This study included patients (n=427) with nonvalvular AF consecutively evaluated between 2013 and
2019 at the Geriatric Outpatient Service, University Hospital of Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy, and
followed-up for 36 months. The OAT-group included 330 patients; the other 97 patients constituted
the non-OAT-group. The sample was assessed for STOPP/START criteria.
RESULTS
We found no difference (p>0.1) in comorbidity burden, frailty, and cardio-cerebro-vascular disease
prevalence in the two groups, who also did not present difference in 36-month mortality (p=0.97).
OAT was overall appropriately taken, and 62.4% of OAT-group presented the START criterion to
take antiplatelets but also the STOPP criterion not to take them, because of the simultaneous
anticoagulant intake. In the non-OAT-group, 69.1% presented the START criterion to take
anticoagulants, and 21.6% the START criterion to take antiplatelets.
CONCLUSIONS
Patients with AF are often prone to under- or over-prescription, particularly of antithrombotic drugs.
The STOPP/START criteria are a valid tool to assess and correct wrong therapeutic choices. In frail
and comorbid subjects, survival is not correlated with the assumption of OAT
Samuele R. Bacchiocchi and Family
No full textSeventh-day Adventist author and theologian, Samuele R. Bacchiocchi and his wife and their children at a graduation ceremony at Pontifical University
Sensing Single Molecule Penetration into Nanopores: Pushing the Time Resolution to the Diffusion Limit
No full textTo quantify small molecule penetration into and eventually permeation through nanopores, we applied an improved excess-noise analysis of the ion current fluctuation caused by entering molecules. The kinetic parameters of substrate entry and exit are derived from a two-state Markov model, analyzing the substrate concentration dependence of the average ion current and its variance. Including filter corrections allows one to detect the transition rates beyond the cutoff frequency, fc, of the instrumental ion-current filter. As an application of the method, we performed an analysis of the single-channel ion current of Meropenem, an antibiotic of the carbapenem family, interacting with OmpF, the major general outer membrane channel of Escherichia coli bacteria. At 40 °C we detected the residence time of Meropenem inside OmpF of about 500 ns - more than 2 orders of magnitude smaller than fc-1 and close to the diffusion limit of few hundred nanoseconds. We also have established theoretical limit conditions under which the substrate-induced channel blockages can be detected and suggest that submicrosecond-scale gating kinetic parameters are accessible with existing experimental equipment
sd920/FIJI-macros-for-IHC-and-SHG-analysis: Batch Split Channels (3 channels)
No full textThis macro allows to split channels for Z-stack .tiff files and save them in a new folder in batch mode.
Author: Samuele Di Carmine, [email protected]
Version 1.0
July 13, 2021
//License: BSD3
Copyright 2021 Samuele Di Carmine, Imperial College Londo
Nutritional Status and Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Elderly
No full text(1) Background: The association between polypharmacy and malnutrition has been investigated in several studies; however, few of these specifically deepened the relationship between potentially inappropriate medication and malnutrition. With a descriptive approach, the primary aim of our study was to evaluate the impact of the nutritional status, assessed with the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), on potentially inappropriate medications (PIM), estimated 10-year survival, and the risk of adverse drug reactions in elderly patients; the secondary aim was to evaluate how the Screening Tool of Older People’s Prescriptions (STOPP), Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment (START), and BEERS 2019 criteria identify PIM compared to nutritional status. (2) Methods: In this study, 3091 subjects were enrolled, of whom 2748 (71.7%) were women; the median age was 80 years, with an interquartile range between 75 and 85 years of age. The subjects were assessed at the outpatient service for frail older people of the University Hospital of Cagliari. The study population was evaluated for their: MNA, Charlson Comorbidity Index, 10-year survival estimation, BEERS 2019, STOPP and START criteria, and ADR Risk scores. (3) Results: We divided the study population into three groups: MNA1 (MNA score ≥ 24), MNA2 (23.5–17), and MNA3 (<17): the severity of comorbidities, STOPP and START alerts, and BEERS 2019 criteria were significantly worse in both MNA2 and MNA3 compared to MNA1—with the exception of BEERS “non-anti-infective medications that should be avoided or have their dosage reduced with varying levels of kidney function in older adults”. Moreover, the estimated 10-year survival was significantly higher in MNA1 than in MNA2 and MNA3, and also in MNA2 compared to MNA3. Finally, the ADR risk scores were significantly lower in MNA1 than in MNA2 and MNA3. (4) Conclusions: Our study demonstrated the association between nutritional status and PIM checked with the BEERS 2019 criteria, and, for the first time, with the STOPP and START criteria
Samuele R. Bacchiocchi
No full textSamuele R. Bacchiocchi was a Seventh-day Adventist author and theologian best known for his work on the Sabbath in Christianity, particularly in the historical work "From Sabbath to Sunday," based on his doctoral thesis from the Pontifical Gregorian University. Bacchiocchi defended the validity of the Feasts of the Lord, situated in Leviticus 23. He wrote two books on the subject. He was also known within the Seventh-day Adventist church for his opposition to rock and contemporary Christian music, jewelry, the celebration of Christmas and Easter, certain dress standards, and alcohol. This photograph was taken during a graduation ceremony from Pontifical University
The Impact of the COVID-19 Emergency on Local Vehicular Traffic and Its Consequences for the Environment: The Case of the City of Reggio Emilia (Italy)
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Open AccessArticle
The Impact of the COVID-19 Emergency on Local Vehicular Traffic and Its Consequences for the Environment: The Case of the City of Reggio Emilia (Italy)
by Samuele Marinello 1,*OrcID,Francesco Lolli 1,2 andRita Gamberini 1,2OrcID
1
En&Tech Interdepartmental Center, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42124 Reggio Emilia, Italy
2
Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2021, 13(1), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010118
Received: 3 December 2020 / Revised: 21 December 2020 / Accepted: 22 December 2020 / Published: 24 December 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 8th World Sustainability Forum—Selected Papers)
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Abstract
The COVID-19 health emergency has imposed the need to limit and/or stop non-essential economic and commercial activities and movement of people. The objective of this work is to report an assessment of the change in vehicle flows and in air quality of a specific study area in the north of Italy, comparing the periods February–May 2020 and February–May 2019. Circulating vehicles have been measured at nine characteristic points of the local road network of the city of Reggio Emilia (Italy), while atmospheric pollutant concentrations have been analysed using data extracted from the regional air quality monitoring network. The results highlight a rapid decline in the number of vehicles circulating in 2020 (with values of up to −82%). This has contributed to a reduction in air concentrations of pollutants, in particular for NO2 and CO (over 30% and over 22%, respectively). On the other hand, O3 has increased (by about +13%), but this is expected. Finally, the particulate matter grew (about 30%), with a behaviour similar to the whole regional territory. The empirical findings of this study provide some indications and useful information to assist in understanding the effects of traffic blocking in urban areas on air quality
L'Alcesti di Samuele di Alberto Savinio: studio dell'opera e confronto con l'Alcesti di Euripide
No full textLa tesi si propone di confrontare l’Alcesti di Euripide, tragedia greca messa in scena nel 438 a.C. e l’Alcesti di Samuele di Alberto Savinio, rappresentata per la prima volta al Piccolo Teatro di Milano nel 1950. Il primo capitolo fornisce informazioni biografiche sull’autore. Il secondo capitolo raccoglie e descrive gli interventi sulla figura di Alcesti pubblicati da Savinio sui giornali ed esamina le fonti dell’opera teatrale. Il terzo capitolo è dedicato all’illustrazione delle due opere. Nel quarto capitolo si procede all’analisi e al confronto. Nell’ultimo capitolo si presentano alcune considerazioni sul metateatro, sulla trama, sui personaggi e sui temi principali dell’Alcesti di Samuele.
The aim of this work is to compare the Greek tragedy Alcesti by Euripides, performed on stage in 438 B.C., with the Alcesti di Samuele by Alberto Savinio, first performed at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan in 1950. The first chapter provides biographical information about the Author. The second chapter collects and describes the works about the character of Alcesti published by Savinio on newspapers and examines the sources of the play. The third chapter is about the description of the two works. The fourth chapter contains their analysis and comparison. In the last chapter some considerations about metatheatre and about the plot, the characters and the main themes of the Alcesti di Samuele are carried out
Samuele R. Bacchiocchi
No full textSamuele R. Bacchiocchi was a Seventh-day Adventist author and theologian, best known for his work on the Sabbath in Christianity, particularly in the historical work "From Sabbath to Sunday," based on his doctoral thesis from the Pontifical Gregorian University. Bacchiocchi defended the validity of the Feasts of the Lord, situated in Leviticus 23, he wrote two books on the subject. He was also known within the Seventh-day Adventist church for his opposition to rock and contemporary Christian music, jewelry, the celebration of Christmas and Easter, certain dress standards, and alcohol. Bacchiocchi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in theology from Newbold College in England, which was followed by a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity at Andrews University in Michigan, United States in 1964. Bacchiocchi moved with his wife Anna to Kuyera, Shashamane district, Ethiopia, where he lectured in Bible and history. Bacchiocchi taught in the religion department of Andrews University from 1974 until his retirement in 2000. He taught theology and church history. He regularly presented seminars worldwide, and wrote many self-published books and articles on biblical topics. He was married to Anna Gandin Bacchiocchi. They had three children
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