University of Siena

About: University of Siena is a education organization based out in Siena, Italy. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 12179 authors who have published 33334 publications receiving 1008287 citations. The organization is also known as: Università degli studi di Siena & Universita degli studi di Siena.

Palmitate induces a pro-inflammatory response in human pancreatic islets that mimics CCL2 expression by beta cells in type 2 diabetes

Abstract: Aims/hypothesis Beta cell failure is a crucial component in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. One of the proposed mechanisms of beta cell failure is local inflammation, but the presence of pancreatic islet inflammation in type 2 diabetes and the mechanisms involved remain under debate.

Comparison of the antiinflammatory efficacy of chondroitin sulfate and diclofenac sodium in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Abstract: Objective To assess the clinical efficacy of chondroitin sulfate (CS) in comparison with the non-steroidal antiinflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac sodium (DS) in a medium/longterm clinical study in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) Methods This was a randomized, multicenter, double blind, double dummy study 146 patients with knee OA were recruited into 2 groups During the first month, patients in the NSAID group were treated with 3 x 50 mg DS tablets/day and 3 x 400 mg placebo (for CS) sachets ; from Month 2 to Month 3, patients were given placebo sachets alone In the CS group, patients were treated with 3 x 50 mg placebo (for diclofenac) tablets/day and 3 x 400 mg CS sachets/day during the first month ; from Month 2 to Month 3, these patients received only CS sachets Both groups were treated with 3 x 400 mg placebo sachets from Month 4 to Month 6 Clinical efficacy was evaluated by assessing the Lequesne Index, spontaneous pain (using the Huskisson visual analog scale), pain on load (using a 4 point ordinal scale), and paracetamol consumption Results Patients treated with the NSAID showed prompt and plain reduction of clinical symptoms, which, however, reappeared after the end of treatment ; in the CS group, the therapeutic response appeared later in time but lasted for up to 3 months after the end of treatment Conclusion CS seems to have slow but gradually increasing clinical activity in OA ; these benefits last for a long period after the end of treatment

Manifestations of early brain recovery associated with abstinence from alcoholism.

Abstract: Chronic alcohol abuse results in morphological, metabolic, and functional brain damage which may, to some extent, be reversible with early effects upon abstinence. Although morphometric, spectroscopic, and neuropsychological indicators of cerebral regeneration have been described previously, the overall amount and spatial preference of early brain recovery attained by abstinence and its associations with other indicators of regeneration are not well established. We investigated global and local brain volume changes in a longitudinal two-timepoint study with T1-weighted MRI at admission and after short-term (6-7 weeks) sobriety follow-up in 15 uncomplicated, recently detoxified alcoholics. Volumetric brain gain was related to metabolic and neuropsychological recovery. On admission and after short-term abstinence, structural image evaluation using normalization of atrophy (SIENA), its voxelwise statistical extension to multiple subjects, proton MR spectroscopy (1H-MRS), and neuropsychological tests were applied. Upon short-term sobriety, 1H-MRS levels of cerebellar choline and frontomesial N-acetylaspartate (NAA) were significantly augmented. Automatically detected global brain volume gain amounted to nearly two per cent on average and was spatially significant around the superior vermis, perimesencephalic, periventricular and frontal brain edges. It correlated positively with the percentages of cerebellar and frontomesial choline increase, as detected by 1H-MRS. Moreover, frontomesial NAA gains were associated with improved performance on the d2-test of attention. In 10 age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects, no significant brain volume or metabolite changes were observed. Although cerebral osmotic regulations may occur initially upon sobriety, significant increases of cerebellar choline and frontomesial NAA levels detected at stable brain water integrals and creatine concentrations, serum electrolytes and red blood cell indices in our patient sample suggest that early brain recovery through abstinence does not simply reflect rehydration. Instead, even the adult human brain and particularly its white matter seems to possess genuine capabilities for regrowth. Our findings emphasize metabolic as well as regionally distinct morphological capacities for partial brain recovery from toxic insults of chronic alcoholism and substantiate early measurable benefits of therapeutic sobriety. Further understanding of the precise mechanisms of this recovery may become a valuable model of brain regeneration with relevance for other disorders.

I - Computational Photochemistry

Abstract: This chapter discusses photochemical reaction path concept and its use in mechanistic investigations. The field of computational photochemistry is a relatively young field, especially when applied to the study of ultrafast reactions, but it is now established as a branch of computational chemistry and as a powerful, sometimes unique, way to simulate the molecular mechanism underlying fundamental chemical and biological events such as vision, primitive photosynthesis, phototropism, photochromism, bleaching, fluorescence, phosphorescence. These days, computational strategies are available for locating conical intersection and singlet/triplet crossing points and for constructing inter-state “photochemical” reaction pathways. These tools comprise methodologies for the optimisation of low-lying crossings between pair of potential energy surfaces and the computation of relaxation paths from a photoexcited reactant (For example, from theFranck-Condon (FC) structure) to a deactivation channel.

Nectary structure and ultrastructure

Abstract: It is easy to define nectaries from a functional point of view: they are plantsecreting structures that produce nectar, but it is difficult to provide a general definition. From the anatomical point of view nectaries vary widely in ontogeny, morphology, and structure (Fahn, 1979a, 1988; Durkee, 1983; Smets et al., 2000), both between species and within species, depending on flower sexual expression or flower morph in heterostylous and heteroantheric species (Nepi at al., 1996; Küchmeister et al., 1997; Fahn & Shimony, 2001; Pacini et al., 2003). Intraspecific morphological differences exist between flowers of the same plant and between plants of the same species with different ploidy (Davis et al., 1996), and morphological characters may be