4 research outputs found
Anti-transglutaminase detection followed by endomysium antibody confirmation test on monkey esophagus is the best strategy to screen for celiac disease
No full text..
One-step immunochromatographic visual assay for anti-transglutaminase detection in organ culture system: An easy and prompt method to simplify the in vitro diagnosis of celiac disease
No full textBACKGROUND:
Anti-tissue transglutaminase (anti-tTG) and endomysium antibodies (EMA) are detectable in duodenal culture media of celiac disease (CD) patients. To improve the management of this organ culture system, we evaluated the anti-tTG occurrence by immunochromatographic assay (ICA).
METHODS:
A total of 103 CD patients and 41 disease controls underwent duodenal biopsy for the organ culture. In culture supernatants, IgA anti-tTG were tested by both enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and ICA, IgA EMA were searched by indirect immunofluorescence analysis (iIFA).
RESULTS:
Endomysium antibodies and anti-tTG measured by ELISA were positive in culture media of all CD patients, while anti-tTG detected by ICA were positive in culture media of 87/103 CD patients. Anti-tTG ICA scores significantly correlated with anti-tTG ELISA values (r=.71, P<.0001). Sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of anti-tTG detected by ICA were 84.5%, 100% and 88.9%, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS:
Using ICA, anti-tTG are detectable in duodenal culture media of most CD patients and the intensity of indicative lines depends on the anti-tTG concentration. Sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy achieved with ICA are lower than those obtained with ELISA but, given that the first is a more easy and prompt method, data suggest the possibility of utilizing it in the in vitro diagnosis of CD
Green photocatalytic mixed matrix membranes for simultaneous arsenic photo-oxidation and water recovery via membrane distillation
No full textThis work proposes an innovative integration of Membrane Distillation (MD) and photo-oxidation for a continuous recovery of water from arsenic (As) contaminated solutions coupled with the oxidation of arsenite (As(III)) into arsenate (As(V)). Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) containing titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) as photocatalyst were developed. A systematic study elucidated the effect of TiO2 NPs on membranes’ morphology prepared via non-solvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) using triethyl phosphate (TEP) as a green solvent for PVDF solubilization. Vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) tests carried out by irradiating the MMMs with ultraviolet (UV) radiation demonstrated the possibility of recovering up to 80 % of the water from As-contaminated synthetic and real multi-ions aqueous solutions from Sila Massif (Italy). The distillate was recovered at a rate of 6.9–7.2 kg·m−2·h−1 (feed inlet temperature of 60 °C), while the presence of 7 wt% of TiO2 in PVDF membranes enabled the photo-oxidation of 95 % of the As(III) to As(V) at a first order kinetic constant of 0.0106 min−1. After 5 cycles of As-remediation experiments, post-hoc mechanical testing on the membrane suggested the emergence of polymer embrittlement induced by UV radiation (total irradiation time of 7.5 h), highlighting the urgent need for developing photocatalytic membranes with long-term stability.
Overall, this study elucidates at laboratory scale the performance of a coupled and continuous Membrane Distillation (MD) and photo-oxidation system for arsenic (As) remediation, employing microporous hydrophobic green membranes doped with a photocatalyst
Resiting genre : a study of contemporary Italian travel writing in English translation
No full textThis thesis aims to highlight the presence of a large and varied production of contemporary
Italian travel writing and to analyse the reasons for its 'invisibility' in the Italian literary
system and critical tradition. Through the use of a comparative approach to genre and of
current theories developed in the area of Translation Studies, the thesis will outline the
different status attributed to travel writing in the Anglo-American and the Italian literary
systems. Such a comparative approach allows the study to escape the narrow confines of a
perspective based on the idea of national literature and to adopt a wider view, which, in
turn, highlights the presence of phenomena otherwise easily overlooked or discarded as
insignificant.
The peculiar characteristics of travel writing, a genre mostly based on the
representation of the Other for a home audience, are also analysed in order to point out their
affinity with translation practices and, ultimately, to underline the 'double translation'
implied by translated travel writing.
The case studies which make up the remaining part of the thesis are intended to
illustrate different aspects of the genre of travel writing; to provide scope for an analysis of
its boundaries and connections with other genres (ranging from ethnography to
autobiography, from journalism to fiction, from the essay to the novel); and to illustrate the
way in which generic expectations influence both the selection of texts for translation and
the strategies adopted when translating and marketing them for a new audience.
The writings of twentieth-century Italian explorers to Tibet, and their translations
into English, constitute a significant case of adaptation of foreign texts to the needs and
expectations of a British audience (and to the British interests in the geographical area
concerned).
The works of Oriana Fallaci and their different reception in Italy with respect to the
UK and the USA illustrate the way in which personal biography and generic choices can
intersect, determining both the popular image and the critical success of an author and of
her work.
Calvino's choice to sublimate the genre of travel writing in the stylized fiction of Le
citta invisibili is treated as an example of the way in which a text which is meant to provide
an escape from a low-status genre can become an icon of that same genre once it is
translated and read in a different cultural context.
Finally, the case of Claudio Magris's Danubio and of its English-language
translation provides evidence of the complex network of literary references which marks the
reception of a text in different cultures, and of the way in which generic affiliation can both
promote the recognition of a 'marginal' text and constrain its more idiosyncratic (and
original) characteristics
