45 research outputs found
From Canvas to Music: Mathematics as a Tool for the Composition of Jackson Time
No full textThe creation of ``Jackson time'' is a project which involves a composer, Davide Amodio, and
a mathematician, Chiara de Fabritiis.
Our common aim was to to ``translate'' a painting by Jackson Pollock, Summertime n. 9,
into a piece of music, making use of different mathematical tools to detect the quantities needed for the
composition. We were inspired by the idea that the painting itself contained some kind of inner--music,
due to the fact that Pollock's moves during the dripping on the canvas had a sort of rhythm, indeed they were often
described by witnesses as a dance.
This paper describes the mathematical background, in particular it illustrates both the analysis
of the painting which was carried out by the two of us and the choice of the mathematical techniques applied to
compute the parameters needed for the composition, which is due to the author. The reader will find a more detailed
report on the composition itself in Davide Amodio's contribution
Transcendental operators acting on slice regular functions
No full textThe aim of this paper is to carry out an analysis of five trascendental operators acting on the space of slice regular functions, namely ∗-exponential, ∗-sine and ∗-cosine and their hyperbolic analogues. The first three of them were introduced by Colombo, Sabadini and Struppa and some features of ∗-exponential were investigated in a previous paper by Altavilla and the author. We show how exp∗(f), sin∗(f), cos∗(f), sinh∗(f) and cosh∗(f) can be written in terms of the real and the vector part of the function f and we examine the relation between cos∗ and cosh∗ when the domain ω is product and when it is slice. In particular we prove that when ω is slice, then cos∗(f) = cosh∗(f ∗ I) holds if and only if f is CI preserving, while in the case ω is product there is a much larger family of slice regular functions for which the above relation holds
Efficacy of a combined treatment with ASTA-Z 7654 and VP16-213 in vitro in eradicating clonogenic tumor cells from human bone marrow.
No full textThe efficacy of autologous bone marrow transplantation in leukemia and lymphoma may depend upon the selective elimination of malignant cells from human bone marrow in vivo and in vitro. A cyclophosphamide derivative (ASTA-Z 7654) and etoposide (VP16-213) have been tested on lymphoma and leukemia cell lines in a model that may represent a bone marrow situation in complete remission. The influence of different concentrations of normal mononuclear cells and tumor cells in this model and the activity of the two chemotherapeutic agents in the presence of bone marrow cells or peripheral blood cells were evaluated. A major inhibitory effect was observed using the two agents in combination; low doses of ASTA-Z and VP16 consecutively added to the mixture of malignant cells and normal mononuclear cells resulted in a greater elimination of tumor line cells than with ASTA-Z alone at the current 100 micrograms/ml dose. In contrast, no major toxicity on normal human bone marrow precursors was observed; the effect of treatment on hemopoietic recovery with the two agents either alone or in combination was evaluated on CFU-GM growth after long-term bone marrow cultures. Despite a profound growth inhibition at day 0, a recovery was observed in all cases after 7 or 14 days. The use of multiple chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of bone marrow in vitro could decrease the possibility of malignant cells surviving while sparing normal bone marrow precursors
Possibility of progenitor cell mobilization during the hematological recovery following peripheral blood stem cell autograft.
No full textTwenty-four patients with hematological malignancies were studied during recovery following autografting in order to establish the proportion of patients that show CD34+ cell mobilization and the kinetics of mobilized CD34-positive cells. The patients showed a peak in peripheral blood (PB) CD34+ cells after a median of 14 days (range 12-20) following reinfusion. According to the number of circulating CD34+ cells, two groups could be clearly distinguished: 17 patients (group A) with 10 CD34+ cells/microl (median 51, range 13-123). Compared to group A, patients of group B showed a faster hematological reconstitution of both polymorphonuclear leukocytes >500/microl (12 vs. 15 days) and platelets >50,000/microl (12 vs. 17 days). The expression of the beta1 integrin CD49d was similar in the two groups of patients, while a lower expression of the beta2 integrin CD11a and a greater expression of the L-selectin CD62L were observed in the PB CD34+ cells of group B patients. Both in the PB and in the BM, the number of CFU-GEMM, CFU- GM, CFU-E and BFU-E of group B was significantly greater than that of group A. However, when the clonogenic potential of a single CD34+ cell was evaluated, no major differences in the number of colonies produced per CD34+ cell were found between the two groups
In vitro pharmacological purging of human bone marrow is enhanced by the use of lonidamine.
No full textLonidamine (LND), previously reported as a useful antitumor substance in combination with physical or chemical agents, has been studied for its capacity in increasing pharmacological elimination in vitro of residual tumor cells from human bone marrow. Different drugs were tested in association with LND against mixtures of human bone marrow and a tumor cell line, clonogenic human leukemic blast progenitors, and normal human bone marrow precursors. The results demonstrated that LND increased the efficacy of anthracycline derivatives (Adriamycin, Mitoxantrone) both on the tumor cell line and on the leukemic blast progenitors, while VP-16 or ASTA-Z 7654 was not affected by the same substance. The toxicity on normal stem cells reflected that of each drug and was not modified by the addition of LND. While a consistent dose-dependent CFU-GM reduction was observed immediately after treatment with the different drugs, a complete recovery was reached after 7 and 14 days of long-term marrow cultures. Because of the low toxicity and the efficacy demonstrated in association with certain agents in increasing tumor cell elimination in vitro, LND could play an important role in in vitro purging prior to autologous bone marrow transplantation
Autologous bone marrow transplantation for patients with acute myelogenous leukemia in complete remission.
No full textTriple immunofluorescence evaluation of CD15, CD34 and Class-II expression by flow-cytometry in normal and leukemic bone marrows
No full textIn vitro and in vivo inhibitory effects of interferon alpha 2b on CML granulo-erythroid precursors.
No full textIntermediate-dose cyclophosphamide and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor is a valid alternative to high-dose cyclophosphamide for mobilizing peripheral blood CD34+ cells in patients with multiple myeloma.
No full textPeripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) are widely used in the setting of dose-intensive chemotherapies in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Although the granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), following chemotherapy or not, is considered the standard growth factor for mobilizing PBSC, the optimal chemotherapeutic regimen still remains to be defined. Cyclophosphamide (CTX) is an effective drug in the treatment of MM which is capable of mobilizing PBSC if followed by growth factors, even though administration of high-dose CTX (7 g/m(2)) results in severe toxicity requiring hospitalization and increasing costs. We have retrospectively analyzed the results obtained in 38 newly diagnosed MM patients treated with 1.2 g/m(2) CTX on days 1 and 3 combined with 40 mg dexamethasone daily for 4 days. The results were compared with those obtained in 25 newly diagnosed MM patients treated with 7 g/m(2) CTX. A higher number of CD34+ cells/kg was collected during the first leukapheresis and a statistically significant lower consumption of G-CSF was observed following two doses of 1.2 g/m(2) CTX compared to the 7 g/m(2) CTX dose. The possibility of treating patients with day-hospital regimens, with a satisfactory yield of hematopoietic cells harvested, may have relevant economic implications for treatment strategies in MM patients
Inibizione della crescita granulo-eritropoietica dopo incubazione in vitro e dopo somministrazione in vivo di alpha-IFN su cellule di Leucemia mieloide cronica.
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