Search

Invasive carcinoma of the vulva is the fourth most prevalent gynecological cancer with about 500 new cases registered in Italy each year. The vulva is a very particular part of human body: it is responsive to hormones, it is diffused with many anastomotic vessels, coming from external pudenda and lower hemorroidaric artery. Also the lymphatic drain is very particular, reaching the upper inguinale nodes, lower inguinale nodes, iliac and obturatory nodes. A superficial anastomotic net is present in the “Mons pubis” 1,2. The most common vulva cancer is squamous cell carcinoma, representing 93% of all new cases in Italy. Squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva is not responsive to chemotherapy and only partly responsive to radiotherapy 3,4. The most successful way to treat this kind of cancer is radical surgery, including radical vulvectomy and inguinal/pelvic lymphoadenectomy. In more than 90% of cases this cancer affects women more than 60 years old, who are often diabetic, hypertensive and overweight.

b Centro di servizi Interdipartimentali di Microscopia, Universitadegli Studi della Basilicata, 85100 Potenza, Italy Composite thallium-copper ~Cu-Tl! oxide films supported on glassy carbon were prepared by electrodeposition from citrate alkaline solutions. The resulting Cu-Tl deposits were characterized by cyclic voltammetry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy ~XPS!, and scanning electron microscopy. Upon deposition the electrochemical activity of copper was evaluated in NaOH solutions as a function of thallium and citrate concentrations along with sweep potential limits. The electrochemical activity of copper appears to be enhanced by the codeposition of thallium oxide species. The high activity of copper, in the presence of thallium oxides, may be considered as mainly due to a marked augment of the active surface area of the electrode material. The XPS depth profiling reveals an almost homogeneous distribution of the Cu/Tl atomic ratio within the deposited films, with a slight enrichment of copper oxide species on the surface electrode relative to bulk; an average chemical composition of Cu45Tl55 was established.

A new and simple electrochemical procedure of anodic codeposition of nickel and copper oxide-hydroxide species on the gold electrode substrate from alkaline solutions is described. The electrodeposited alloy film, with an average composition Ni:Cu of 0.67 (i.e., Ni 40 Cu 60 ) was investigated by electrochemical, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy technique. The resulting deposited alloys appear uniform, smooth, adherent to the gold substrate, and homogeneous, independently of the electrochemical procedure adopted for the preparation (i.e., potentiostatic or potentiodynamic conditions). The presence of copper oxyhydroxide species in deposited film imparts an extensive stabilization of the β/β crystallographic forms of the nickel oxyhydroxide under prolonged repetitive potential cycling in alkaline medium. The electrocatalytic activity of the resulting composite Ni-Cu film was investigated toward the oxidation of carbohydrates using glucose as a model compound.

Gold microparticles dispersed on glassy carbon structures were characterized by SEM. Some aspects of the electrooxidation mechanism of carbohydrates in alkaline medium were investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The chemically modified electrode described was tested in flow injection and anion-exchange LC with pulsed amperometric detection. The electrode response was stable: over 8 h a 1.5–3% signal loss was observed for all of the investigated carbohydrates. Typical relative standard deviations ranged between 0.9 and 3.5%. The detector response was linearly dependent on the concentrations of polyhydroxyl compounds and monosaccharides over three orders of magnitude. Linear plots of 1/Ip and 1/c indicated a Langmuir-type adsorption of analyte on the catalytic sites. All investigated carbohydrates were detected at the picomole level. The determination of glucose in human biological fluids was achieved by LC in an alkaline medium.

The study of transient nonrepetitive physical phenomena implies the storing of as many experimental data as possible. In these cases, analogue recording gives a poor signal-to-noise ratio, so that digital techniques must be used. For stopped-flow kinetics the authors propose a system based on a microcomputer, A/D converter and a DMA acquisition technique having the following characteristics: (a) it can collect an experimental datum every 2 mu s; (b) the acquisition is totally programmable; (c) the experimental data are collected in the microcomputer RAM and then stored on a floppy disc in order to be analysed by suitable programs to obtain the experimental parameters of interest. In the configuration proposed the system can be used to study signals varying as fast as 104 V s-1. With the computer used one can collect up to 12000 bytes. The apparatus has been tested with a standard reaction and experimental results are reported.

A "cross over" study was carried out in a group of 22 subjects with prostatic hypertrophy in different stages, first treated with chloroformic extract of Pygeum Africanum (4 capsules/die for 30 days) and afterwards, when the symptoms reappeared, with mepartricin (3 gastroresistant tablets of 50,000 U. each/die for 30 days). Both substances proved to be active against the urinary symptomatology; however the polyene induced a significant decrease in the prostate size (evaluated by cystography), justifying the 77% of "excellent" results against the 13% obtained with the reference drug.

Confidence bands are constructed for the logistic response function when there is an interval restriction on each of the predictor variables. The construction involves application of a general fitting procedure using Scheffé's S-method, described by Casella and Strawderman (1980, Journal of the American Statistical Association 75, 862-868). Specific details are given for the case of one predictor variable, along with details for a fixed-width alternative to the S-method bands. In the one-predictor case, Monte Carlo results suggest that both bands are conservative for small sample sizes, such as N = 25. By N = 200 the S-method's coverage probabilities are seen to attain their nominal levels while the fixed-width bands remain conservative. The procedures are exemplified with data from a genetic toxicology experiment.

Olive has Just been recognized as one of the most important allergenic pollens in some regions of North America (11, 17, 19, 20) and throughout the Mediterranean basin (1, 3, 7, 16, 18), where large areas are covered with Olive cultivations, mainly in Southern Italy, Southern Spain, Greece, Turkey and Northern Africa. In the district of Bari (Apulia, Southern Italy) (12) the Olive groves occupy the 54.25% of the whole territory, in the countrysides as well as near the principal cities. Therefore, in this area large quantities of Olea Europaea pollen are released in the atmosphere during the flowering season, in May and June. From the aerobiological point of view, the Olive pollen season in Bari appears short enough but very severe. It starts on 10th-15th May, reaches the peak a fortnight later with concentrations usually around many hundreds of grains/cm and decreases more slowly on the last week of June.

When 3H-etorphine was administered to rats in a pharmacologically effective dose (0.75 mug/kg intracisternally), the labeled drug was concentrated in synaptic membrane fractions isolated from the brains of rats killed 10 min after etorphine injection. Pretreatment of the animals with the narcotic antagonists naloxone, diprenorphine or l-cyclorphan, blocked the pharmacological responses to etorphine and reduced 3H-etorphine binding in the membrane fractions. The differences between 3H-etorphine bound in synaptic membranes of rats treated with d-cyclorphan (inactive isomer) and l-cyclorphan (active antagonist) were in the same range as the reductions in etorphine binding in antagonist-treated rats, indicating that stereospecific and pharmacologically-specific binding sites in synaptic membranes in vivo were of the same magnitude: about 0.04 pmol/g brain.

Radioimmunologically determined digoxin and beta methyl digoxin values were the same in cardiopaths with and without clinical and instrumental changes referable to chronic cirrhosis or hepatitis. Lower values, however, were noted when gastroenteric disturbances were present. This was especially true of beta methyl digoxin in subjects with hyperkinetic-hyperchlorhydric syndromes due to depressed gastric pH, with a consequent inhibition of beta methyl digoxin absorption, presumably caused by lability of the molecule as a result of methylation of the terminal digitoxose group.

The effects of chronic addiction to, and withdrawal from, opiates on sleep have been described in experimental animals, in human adults and infants born to addicted mothers. These sleep alterations are seen through the first weeks of life. Thirteen maternally addicted babies were studied. Sleep samples were recorded and scored within a few days following birth and repeated 4 or 5 weeks later after recovery from the abstinence syndrome. A significant decrease in quiet sleep and increase of active sleep were found. The same alterations, although less marked, were observed in a follow up recording performed during the second month of life. Sleep alterations in addicted newborns could be related to central nervous system (CNS) distress caused by withdrawal. The authors however propose a perturbation of endogenous opiates subsequent to fetal addiction as a cause of sleep alterations.

The efficacy and the tolerance of a polyene macrolide, mepartricin (SPA-S-160), able to interfere with intestinal absorption of cholesterol, were evaluated on 50 patients with primary hyperlipemia. Administration of 3 tablets/die for 30 days caused a significant decrease (P less than 0.01) in the lipid values, which, further controlled 30 days following treatment, proved to have remained lower than those observed at the beginning of the study.

Nitrate has been shown to serve as an electron acceptor during chemoorganotrophic growth by different rhizobia, particularly R. japonicum and strains of the cow-pea group, while according to literature data fast growing rhizobia do not reduce nitrate by dissimilatory means, at least in rich media. Here we describe conditions suitable to detect nitrous oxide formation by fast-growing rhizobia both in planta and ex planta.