Influence of Austempering Temperature on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of High-Silicon Carbide-Free Bainitic Steel

The microstructural evolution of a novel high-silicon carbide-free bainitic steel at different austempering temperatures is investigated. The microstructure is evaluated by means of optical and electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, microhardness, and nanohardness. Results show a variation in the amount of stabilized retained austenite changing the temperature of the isothermal treatment. In particular, it is observed an increase in the retained austenite volume fraction increasing the temperature up to 350 °C, while further increase leads to a reduction. Moreover, increasing the isothermal holding temperature from 250 °C, through 300, 350, and 370 °C, a progressive bainite coarsening and an increase in the amount of stabilized carbon-enriched retained austenite are observed. Tensile tests reveal an excellent combination of mechanical properties: mechanical strength in the range 1276–1988 MPa and total elongation 0.18–0.44.     

Evaluation of advanced glycation end products and carbonyl compounds in patients with different conditions of oxidative stress

Advanced glycation end products (AGE) and dicarbonyl compounds accumulate in serum and tissues of patients with diabetes and chronic renal failure. Pentosidine, free pentosidine, glyoxal and methylglyoxal have been evaluated in plasma of diabetic patients with poor metabolic control at baseline and after the improvement of glycemic levels, and in plasma and peritoneal dialysate of patients with renal failure before and after 12 h of peritoneal dialysis. In diabetic patients, acceptable metabolic control was unable to normalize levels of pentosidine (after 2 and 10 months), glyoxal and methylglyoxal (after 2 months). In patients with end-stage renal disease, mean values of pentosidine, free pentosidine, glyoxal and methylglyoxal decreased in plasma after dialysis. No pentosidine or free pentosidine were present in the peritoneal dialysate at time 0, but were found after 12 h of peritoneal dialysis; glyoxal and methylglyoxal decreased after 12 h of dialysis. So, glyoxal and methylglyoxal, already present in the dialysis fluid, can react with the peritoneal matrix protein, giving a reason for the gradual loss of peritoneal membrane function often observed in patients undergoing long-term peritoneal dialysis.     

Polyurethanes and polyesters from lignin

Lignin, obtained through steam explosion from straw, was completely characterized via elemental analysis, gel permeation chromatography, ultraviolet and infrared spectroscopy, and ¹³C and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry. Polyurethanes were obtained by treating steam‐exploded lignin from straw with 4,4′‐methylenebis(phenylisocyanate), 4,4′‐methylenebis(phenylisocyanate) –ethandiol, and poly(1,4‐butandiol)tolylene‐2,4‐diisocyanate terminated. The obtained materials were characterized by using gel permeation chromatography, infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis showed a T_g at ?6°C, assigned to the glass transition of the poly(1,4‐butandiol) chains. The presence of ethylene glycol reduced the yields of the polyurethanes. The use of the prepolymer gave the best results in polyurethane formation. Steam‐exploded lignin was used as the starting material in the synthesis of polyesters. Lignin was treated with dodecanoyl dichloride. The products were characterized by using gel permeation chromatography, infrared spectroscopy, ¹³C and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 1451–1456, 2005     

Evaluation of the Molecular Landscape in PD-L1 Positive Metastatic NSCLC: Data from Campania,Italy

Background: Immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have increased and improved the treatment options for patients with non-oncogene-addicted advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the role of ICIs in oncogene-addicted advanced stage NSCLC patients is still debated. In this study, in an attempt to fill in the informational gap on the effect of ICIs on other driver mutations, we set out to provide a molecular landscape of clinically relevant oncogenic drivers in programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) positive NSCLC patients. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data on 167 advanced stage NSCLC PD-L1 positive patients (≥1%) who were referred to our clinic for molecular evaluation of five driver oncogenes, namely, EGFR, KRAS, BRAF, ALK and ROS1. Results: Interestingly, n = 93 (55.7%) patients showed at least one genomic alteration within the tested genes. Furthermore, analyzing a subset of patients with PD-L1 tumor proportion score (TPS) ≥ 50% and concomitant gene alterations (n = 8), we found that n = 3 (37.5%) of these patients feature clinical benefit with ICIs administration, despite the presence of a concomitant KRAS gene alteration. Conclusions: In this study, we provide a molecular landscape of clinically relevant biomarkers in NSCLC PD-L1 positive patients, along with data evidencing the clinical benefit of ICIs in patient NSCLC PD-L1 positive alterations.     

The Effect of Vitamin D3 and Silver Nanoparticles on HaCaT Cell Viability

Vitamin D3, known to regulate bone homeostasis, has recently been shown to have many pleiotropic effects in different tissues and organs due to the presence of its receptor in a wide range of cells. Our previous study demonstrated that vitamin D3 was able to increase the wound healing respect to the control sample, 24 h after cutting, without however leading to a complete repair. The aim of the study was to combine vitamin D3 with silver nanoparticles to possibly enable a faster reparative effect. The results showed that this association was capable of inducing a complete wound healing only after 18 h. Moreover, a treatment of vitamin D3 + silver nanoparticles yielded a small percentage of keratinocytes vimentin-positive, suggesting the possibility that the treatment was responsible for epithelial to mesenchymal transition of the cells, facilitating wound healing repair. Since vitamin D3 acts via sphingolipid metabolism, we studied the expression of gene encoding for the metabolic enzymes and protein level. We found an increase in neutral sphingomyelinase without involvement of neutral ceramidase or sphingosine kinase2. In support, an increase in ceramide level was identified by Ultrafast Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry, suggesting a possible involvement of ceramides in wound healing process.     

Thermal behaviour of nanocomposites based on linear-low-density poly(ethylene) and carbon nanotubes prepared by high energy ball milling

The thermal behaviour of nanocomposites of linear-low-density-poly(ethylene) (LLDPE) and carbon nanotubes (CNT), prepared by the method of High Energy Ball Milling (HEBM) has been in-depth investigated. The CNT affect the nucleation of LLDPE, in that they act as nucleating agents for LLDPE. Moreover, as it is shown by self-nucleation experiments, in the presence of CNT a direct transition from domain I to domain III, with lack of domain II takes place. Isothermal experiments show that the crystallization rate of the nanocomposites is much higher than that of neat LLDPE. It is worthy noting that such effect is very high even for low contents of CNT in the sample (i.e. 1% by weight), then additions of CNT do not have any further effect. Lastly, the dynamic-mechanical properties of LLDPE are slightly modified in the nanocomposites.     

Therapeutic Acellular Scaffolds for Limiting Left Ventricular Remodelling-Current Status and Future Directions

Myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the leading causes of heart-related deaths worldwide. Following MI, the hypoxic microenvironment triggers apoptosis, disrupts the extracellular matrix and forms a non-functional scar that leads towards adverse left ventricular (LV) remodelling. If left untreated this eventually leads to heart failure. Besides extensive advancement in medical therapy, complete functional recovery is never accomplished, as the heart possesses limited regenerative ability. In recent decades, the focus has shifted towards tissue engineering and regenerative strategies that provide an attractive option to improve cardiac regeneration, limit adverse LV remodelling and restore function in an infarcted heart. Acellular scaffolds possess attractive features that have made them a promising therapeutic candidate. Their application in infarcted areas has been shown to improve LV remodelling and enhance functional recovery in post-MI hearts. This review will summarise the updates on acellular scaffolds developed and tested in pre-clinical and clinical scenarios in the past five years with a focus on their ability to overcome damage caused by MI. It will also describe how acellular scaffolds alone or in combination with biomolecules have been employed for MI treatment. A better understanding of acellular scaffolds potentialities may guide the development of customised and optimised therapeutic strategies for MI treatment.     

Processing idiomatic expressions: Effects of semantic compositionality.

Three experiments tested the main claims of the idiom decomposition hypothesis: People have clear intuitions on the semantic compositionality of idiomatic expressions, which determines the syntactic behavior of these expressions and how they are recognized. Experiment 1 showed that intuitions are clear only for a very restricted number of expressions, but for the majority of idioms, they are not consistent across speakers. Experiment 2 failed to support the claim that semantic compositionality influences the syntactic flexibility of idioms. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that idioms are more quickly recognized than their literal counterparts, regardless of compositionality and syntactic flexibility. All of the findings were at odds with the tenets of the idiom decomposition hypothesis. The theoretical implications of the results with respect to idiom processing and the notion of compositionality are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inhibitive determination of metal ions by an amperometric glucose oxidase biosensor: Study of the effect of hydrogen peroxide decomposition

An amperometric glucose biosensor based on glucose oxidase immobilized in electrosynthesized poly-o-phenylenediamine was successfully applied to the determination of a wide group of heavy metals of environmental interest. The inhibition effects of Hg²⁺, Ag⁺, Cu²⁺, Cd²⁺, Pb²⁺, Cr³⁺, Fe³⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Zn²⁺, Mn²⁺ and also CrO₄²⁻ on glucose oxidase were studied. Collected data showed a reversible inhibition mechanism. Results about the quantitative analysis of metal ions in terms of detection limit, linear range, sensitivity and R.S.D. are discussed for each tested metal ion. The biosensor was able to discriminate two different oxidation states of chromium being able to reject Cr³⁺ and to detect the toxic species CrO₄²⁻. Also biosensor storage stability and response reproducibility were investigated.

Moreover, this study represents the first attempt of evaluating the effect of the hydrogen peroxide decomposition by metal ions on the response of an enzymatic biosensor based on the amperometric detection of the hydrogen peroxide. Experiments were performed with the aim to quantitatively evaluate, for any single metal ion, if this process is competitive with the inhibition of enzymatic reaction in the adopted experimental conditions.