University of Florence

About: University of Florence is a education organization based out in Florence, Toscana, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Carbonic anhydrase. The organization has 27292 authors who have published 79599 publications receiving 2341684 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli studi di Firenze & Universita degli studi di Firenze.

Angular momentum conservation in heavy ion collisions at very high energy

Abstract: The effects of angular momentum conservation in peripheral heavy ion collisions at very high energy are investigated. It is shown that the initial angular momentum of the quark-gluon plasma should enhance the azimuthal anisotropy of particle spectra (elliptic flow) with respect to the usual picture where only the initial geometrical eccentricity of the nuclear overlap region is responsible for the anisotropy. In hydrodynamical terms, the initial angular momentum entails a nontrivial dependence of the initial longitudinal flow velocity on the transverse coordinates. This gives rise to a nonvanishing vorticity in the equations of motion, which enhances the expansion rate of the supposedly created fluid compensating for the possible quenching effect of viscosity. A distinctive signature of the vorticity in the plasma is the generation of an average polarization of the emitted hadrons, for which we provide analytical expressions. These phenomena might be better observed at LHC, where the initial angular momentum density will be larger and where we envisage an increase of the elliptic flow coefficient ${v}_{2}$ with respect to RHIC energies.

Minimum clinically important improvement and patient acceptable symptom state in pain and function in rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, chronic back pain, hand osteoarthritis, and hip and knee osteoarthritis: Results from a prospective multinational study

Abstract: Objective To estimate the minimum clinically important improvement (MCII) and patient acceptable symptom state (PASS) values for 4 generic outcomes in 5 rheumatic diseases and 7 countries. Methods We conducted a multinational (Australia, France, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, Spain, and The Netherlands) 4-week cohort study involving 1,532 patients who were prescribed nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs for ankylosing spondylitis, chronic back pain, hand osteoarthritis, hip and/or knee osteoarthritis, or rheumatoid arthritis. The MCII and PASS values were estimated with the 75th percentile approach for 4 generic outcomes: pain, patient global assessment, functional disability, and physician global assessment, all normalized to a 0-100 score. Results For the whole sample, the estimated MCII values for absolute change at 4 weeks were -17 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] -18, -15) for pain; -15 (95% CI -16, -14) for patient global assessment; -12 (95% CI -13, -11) for functional disability assessment; and -14 (95% CI -15, -14) for physician global assessment. For the whole sample, the estimated PASS values were 42 (95% CI 40, 44) for pain; 43 (95% CI 41, 45) for patient global assessment; 43 (95% CI 41, 44) for functional disability assessment; and 39 (95% CI 37, 40) for physician global assessment. Estimates were consistent across diseases and countries (for subgroups ≥20 patients). Conclusion This work allows for promoting the use of values of MCII (15 of 100 for absolute improvement, 20% for relative improvement) and PASS (40 of 100) in reporting the results of trials of any of the 5 involved rheumatic diseases with pain, patient global assessment, physical function, or physician global assessment used as outcome criteria.

Identification of a novel subset of human circulating memory CD4+ T cells that produce both IL-17A and IL-4

Abstract: Background IL-17A has been suggested to play a pathogenic role in bronchial asthma and other allergic disorders. Objective Study of the relationship between human IL-17A–producing CD4 + T H cells (T H 17) and IL-4–producing CD4 + T H (T H 2) cells. Methods T-cell clones generated from the CCR6 + CD161 + fraction of human circulating CD4 + T cells, which contains virtually all T H 17 cells, as well as circulating CD4 + T cells from both healthy subjects and patients with asthma, were assessed by flow cytometry for their cytokine production profile. Results A small proportion of CCR6 + CD161 + CD4 + T-cell clones showed the ability to produce both IL-17A and IL-4 (T H 17/T H 2). T H 17/T H 2 clones also produced IL-5, IL-8, IL-9, IL-13, IL-21, and IL-22 and displayed the ability to induce the in vitro secretion of IgE. A very few T H 17/T H 2 cells were found among circulating CD4 + T cells from normal subjects, but their proportions were significantly increased in the circulation of patients with chronic asthma. T H 17/T H 2 cells could not be derived from naive umbilical cord blood CD4 + T cells under any experimental condition. However, when circulating memory CCR6 + CD161 + CD4 + T cells were cloned under appropriate polarizing conditions, T H 17/T H 2 clones originated in the presence of IL-4, suggesting that an IL-4–rich microenvironment may induce the shifting of memory T H 17 cells into T H 17/T H 2 cells. Conclusion Because of its peculiar functional properties and the increased numbers in the circulation of patients with bronchial asthma, this previously unknown population of T H 17/T H 2 cells may play some role in the pathogenesis of this disease.

Vascular biology and the skeleton.

Abstract: BLOOD VESSELS ARE organized in a hierarchical fashion to deliver oxygen, soluble factors, and various types of cells to all tissues in our body in a carefully regulated manner. The vascular network forms by both vasculogenesis (de novo vessel formation from angioblastic stem cells) and angiogenesis (sprouting from existing vessels). Both processes are essential during skeletal embryogenesis or repair, but otherwise represent pathological events linked to adverse consequences. The endothelium is one of the most important components of the vasculature, not only because it functions as an essential barrier that limits the movement of cells and molecules between the circulation and tissues, but also because it is a dynamic organ actively capable of directly communicating in a rich language with adjacent tissue and circulating blood cells. This appears evident when considering the remarkable heterogeneity of endothelial cells and their vessel size-specific, tissue-specific, and age-specific differences. What is the underlying cause of endothelial diversity? Certainly during development and ongoing tissue maintenance in the adult, circulatory and tissue components must continually communicate with endothelial cells. However, the signaling between cells and endothelium within a tissue is, in fact, bidirectional, and endothelial cells just as readily communicate with surrounding cells through a host of humoral and growth factors, cytokines and chemokines, reactive metabolites, and polarized surface-associated molecules. Vasculature plays a major role also in the fabrication and homeostatic “health” of living bone, without which bone tissue dies and cannot be repaired or rejuvenated. The development of various “in vitro” models of bone endothelial cells has helped us to gain a better understanding of why the vasculature is so important in bone, what unique features characterize the bone endothelium, and how it functionally interacts with bone cells of different nature. In particular, bone endothelium has been found to actively recruit circulating cells, direct hematopoietic cell homing to the bone marrow, and collaborate with various metastatic cells to selectively target them into bone, largely through the preferential display on bone endothelium of particular attractant signals that orchestrate such movement. In addition, modifications in the blood supply correlate with numerous skeletal pathologies, including osteoporosis or osteopetrosis, inflammatory bone loss, and tumorassociated osteolysis. This overview is intended to highlight the potential roles of various paracrine interactions between bone endothelium and differentiated bone cells during organogenesis or in the mature skeleton, with brief consideration given to bone vascularization in pathological conditions. Potential implications of this growing body of information for medicine are noted.

Inventory of the non‐native flora of Italy

Abstract: In this paper we present a comprehensive inventory of the non‐native vascular flora of Italy, which was produced within the project “A survey of the Italian non‐native flora”, funded by the Italian Ministry for the Environment. Previously published floristic accounts were the main source of information. Historical records were critically revised and integrated with recent literature, data from herbaria and some unpublished information, so as to obtain a complete, up‐to‐date catalogue of the non‐native vascular plant species that occur spontaneously in Italy. The inventory lists 1023 non‐native species and subspecies, which account for 13.4% of all the Italian flora. The Italian non‐native flora was divided, according to its residence time, into 103 archaeophytes and 920 neophytes. According to its current invasion status, it was classified into 437 casual (42.7% of all non‐native) and 524 established taxa, the latter being divided into 361 naturalized non‐invasive (35.3%) and 163 invasive taxa (1...