Search

Nel mese di settembre 2020 veniva presentato nel duomo di Tarquinia il volume avente ad oggetto gli affreschi del Pastura nella cappella Vitelleschi ora nel coro della chiesa, oggetto di un impegnativo restauro allora da poco ultimato. L'intervento era stato l'occasione per ammirare da vicino il ciclo pittorico e comprendere la tecnica e lo stile di questo artista, cosí importante per la storia dell'arte del Lazio e dell'Umbria meridionale, che lavorò a fianco di artisti celeberrimi come Perugino e Pinturicchio. Le pitture erano pervenute ai nostri giorni danneggiate dal calore prodottosi da un incendio a metà Seicento, che ne aveva sciolto le applicazioni di cera dorate. Gli spunti di interesse del cantiere erano stati tali da aver raccolto la preziosa collaborazione dell'infrastruttura IPERION_CH (Integrated Project for the European Research Infrastructure on Culture Heritage) ed il coinvolgimento del CNR, del MOLAB, del Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale dell'Università di Pisa, del Dipartimento di Chimica dell'Università di Bologna. [...] In questo volume vengono resi noti i dati degli studi e delle indagini diagnostiche relativi a quel restauro, Per una serie di positive circostanze l'attività di tutela della Soprintendenza è riuscita in questi ultimi anni a dedicarsi a più opere del Pastura nella provincia di Viterbo. Sono stati compiuti restauri finanziati dalle Diocesi proprietarie dei beni (Civitavecchia, Civita Castellana e Viterbo) ed altri realizzati con il contributo di privati [...] Parallelamente la Soprintendenza di Roma ha avviato il cantiere di restauro della cappella Ponziani in Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, e grazie alla proficua collaborazione tra i funzionari delle due Soprintendenze, attraverso lo scambio di dati ed opinioni, anche di intervento, i risultati di quel restauro sono confluiti in questo volume.'

The invention of paper has undoubtedly been an important step for human civilization allowing large amount of scientific, musical, artistic, historical knowledge to be handed down over the centuries. However, paper as many other materials suffers from degradation over time. Investigations made in 2008 by J. Wouters on European libraries showed that on average 30% of paper objects are in poor condition of conservation while another 30% will reach these conditions at the end of this century. The degradation of paper is a complex phenomenon with different causes among which the more common ones include biological, physical and chemical processes. In addition, inadequate storage and careless handling can be a typical risk factor in accelerating further degradation processes. Consequently, the protection and preservation of paper-based artworks poses a serious problem for numerous libraries, archives, and museums. This is the reason why in recent years many studies have been focused on the monitoring of paper weathering by applying advanced analytical techniques and on the development of appropriate and long-term resistance treatments to protect these valuable documents.

Albumin is widely used in pharmaceutical applications to alter the pharmacokinetic profile, improve efficacy, or decrease the toxicity of active compounds. Various drug delivery systems using albumin have been reported, including microparticles. Macroaggregated albumin (MAA) is one of the more common forms of albumin microparticles, which is predominately used for lung perfusion imaging when labeled with radionuclide technetium-99m (99mTc). These microparticles are formed by heat-denaturing albumin in a bulk solution, making it very challenging to control the size and dispersity of the preparations (coefficient of variation, CV, ∼50%). In this work, we developed an integrated microfluidics platform to create more tunable and precise MAA particles, the so-called microfluidic-MAA (M2A2). The microfluidic chips, prepared using off-stoichiometry thiol-ene chemistry, consist of a flow-focusing region followed by an extended and water-heated curing channel (85 °C). M2A2 particles with diameters between 70 and 300 μm with CVs between 10 and 20% were reliably prepared by adjusting the flow rates of the dispersed and continuous phases. To demonstrate the pharmaceutical utility of M2A2, particles were labeled with indium-111 (111In) and their distribution was assessed in healthy mice using nuclear imaging. 111In-M2A2 behaved similarly to 99mTc-MAA, with lung uptake predominately observed early on followed by clearance over time by the reticuloendothelial and renal systems. Our microfluidic chip represents an elegant and controllable method to prepare albumin microparticles for biomedical applications.

A method was developed and validated to determine the intradermal (ID) fluid delivery potential of several ID devices, including hollow microneedles. The novel method used water soluble technetium-99 m pertechnetate (99mTcO4−) diluted in normal saline to measure the volume of fluid delivered to and remaining in the skin. The fluid that back-flowed to the skin surface and the fluid left on the device surface were also quantified, thus capturing all fluid volumes deposited during intradermal injections. The technique described in this manuscript was used to assess the injection performance of conventional hypodermic needles and hollow microneedles ex vivo using porcine skin and in vivo with a rat model. Since only a small fraction, 1.1%, of the water-soluble tracer remained bound to the skin when applied topically, the technique can be used to differentiate between injected fluid and backflow. Counting of gamma radiation from 99mTcO4− provided sub-nanoliter resolution for volume measurements, making the proposed method powerful, sensitive, and suitable for the assessments of ID injection devices, particularly for vaccine delivery.

Human growth and development, starting from conception, are characterized by a progressive increase in body and organ dimensions, as well as specific functional maturity, under the influence of genetic as well as environmental and epigenetic determinants. Beyond a possible normal familial trait, increased fetal growth resulting in a large for gestational age newborn, isolated macrosomia or that associated with congenital malformation, can be attributable to both maternal metabolic and genetic pathology. Overgrowth syndromes are a heterogeneous group of diseases characterized by excessive tissue development often concomitant to neurodevelopmental involvement. Recently, an increased risk of fetal overgrowth with Assisted Reproductive Technology has been reported. Thus, in pediatric practice, it is fundamental to monitor any patient who presents with increased growth parameters, variable malformations, neurodevelopmental delay, and distinctive features from birth, aiming to ensure as adequate a medical management as possible, and for some of the disorders, strict tumor monitoring is also necessary.

The validation of metal-phenolic nanoparticles (MPNs) in preclinical imaging studies represents a growing field of interest due to their versatility in forming predesigned structures with unique properties. Before MPNs can be used in medicine, their pharmacokinetics must be optimized so that accumulation in nontargeted organs is prevented and toxicity is minimized. Here, we report the fabrication of MPNs made of a coordination polymer core that combines In(III), Cu(II), and a mixture of the imidazole 1,4-bis(imidazole-1-ylmethyl)-benzene and the catechol 3,4-dihydroxycinnamic acid ligands. Furthermore, a phenolic-based coating was used as an anchoring platform to attach poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). The resulting MPNs, with effective hydrodynamic diameters of around 120 nm, could be further derivatized with surface-embedded molecules, such as folic acid, to facilitate in vivo targeting and multifunctionality. The prepared MPNs were evaluated for in vitro plasma stability, cytotoxicity, and cell internalization and found to be biocompatible under physiological conditions. First, biomedical evaluations were then performed by intrinsically incorporating trace amounts of the radioactive metals 111In or 64Cu during the MPN synthesis directly into their polymeric matrix. The resulting particles, which had identical physicochemical properties to their nonradioactive counterparts, were used to perform in vivo single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) in tumor-bearing mice. The ability to incorporate multiple metals and radiometals into MPNs illustrates the diverse range of functional nanoparticles that can be prepared with this approach and broadens the scope of these nanoconstructs as multimodal preclinical imaging agents., This work was supported by grant RTI2018-098027-B-C21 from the Spanish Government funds and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The ICN2 is funded by the CERCA programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. The ICN2 is supported by the Severo Ochoa Centres of Excellence programme, funded by the Spanish Research Agency (AEI, grant no. SEV-2017-0706). Financial support from the University of Copenhagen, the Phospholipid Research Center (Heidelberg, Germany), and the Lundbeck Foundation (Copenhagen, Denmark) is kindly acknowledged. TRIUMF receives funding via a contribution agreement with the National Research Council of Canada. T.V.F.E. received financial support from a Killam Doctoral Fellowship and a Four-Year Doctoral Fellowship (4YF) from the University of British Columbia (UBC). K.S. acknowledges the generous support of BWXT Isotope Technology Group for the supply of the radioisotope 111In. The authors also thank the technicians and veterinarians at UBC Centre for Comparative Medicine (CCM, Vancouver, Canada), especially Dr. Laura Mowbray, Jana Hodasova, and Ava McHugh for their expert assistance in the imaging lab, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (project no. 25413) for its support of the imaging facility (http://invivoimaging.ca/). S.S.-G. acknowledges the support from MINECO BES-2015-071492 grant. S.S.-G. and C.R.-R. acknowledge Dr. Pedro L. Esquinas for fruitful discussions about the quantitative measurements of 111In and 64Cu. Special thanks to Dr. Javier Saiz-Poseu from 3D Science Visuals (Instagram: 3dscivisuals) for contributing with graphic design and scientific illustrations. The authors acknowledge the support from the Cost ENBA CA15216.

L'opera presenta i risultati della ricerca svolta su alcune opere di Giuseppe Capogrossi, pittore romano tra i primi a rivoluzionare il linguaggio artistico italiano del secondo dopoguerra, conservate alla Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Roma. La ricerca è nata dalla collaborazione tra l'Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo e la Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Roma, sotto l'egida della Fondazione Archivio Capogrossi. Le tre tele scelte - Superficie 207 del 1957, Superficie 538 del 1961 e Superficie 553 del 1965 - appartenenti al periodo "segnico", sono state oggetto di una mirata e approfondita campagna di indagini scientifiche effettuata in collaborazione con numerose istituzioni all'avanguardia nel campo della ricerca e del restauro sui beni culturali e in parte finanziata dall'infrastruttura E-RIHS (European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science) con il supporto economico del Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca.

Local as well as systemic therapy is often used to treat bacterial lung infections. Delivery of antibiotics to the vascular side of infected lung tissue using lung-targeting microspheres (MS) is a good alternative to conventional administration routes, allowing for localized high levels of antibiotics. This delivery route can also complement inhaled antibiotic therapy, especially in the case of compromised lung function. We prepared and characterized monodisperse poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) MS loaded with levofloxacin using a flow-focusing glass microfluidic chip. In vitro characterization showed that the encapsulated LVX displayed a biphasic controlled release during 5 days and preserved its antibacterial activity. The MS degradation was investigated in vitro by cross-sectioning the MS using a focused ion beam scanning electron microscope and in vivo by histological examination of lung tissue from mice intravenously administered with the MS. The MS showed changes in the surface morphology and internal matrix, whereas the degradation in vivo was 3 times faster than that in vitro. No effect on the viability of endothelial and lung epithelial cells or hemolytic activity was observed. To evaluate the pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of the MS, complete quantitative imaging of the 111indium-labeled PLGA MS was performed in vivo with single-photon emission computed tomography imaging over 10 days. The PLGA MS distributed homogeneously in the lung capillaries. Overall, intravenous administration of 12 μm PLGA MS is suitable for passive lung targeting and pulmonary therapy.

In the framework of the ADAMO Project (Analysis Technologies, DiAgnostics and Monitoring for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage), a measurement campaign was carried out by different diagnostic techniques for assessing the content and distribution of moisture in the lower part of the apse of the church of San Nicola in Carcere in Rome.

Nell'ambito del Progetto ADAMO (Tecnologie di Analisi, DiAgnostica e MOnitoraggio per la conservazione e il restauro di beni culturali), si è svolta una campagna di misure con diverse tecniche diagnostiche per la valutazione del contenuto e della distribuzione dell'umidità nella parte bassa dell'abside della chiesa di San Nicola in Carcere a Roma. L'approccio multidisciplinare è stato condotto con la termografia ad infrarossi, Risonanza Magnetica portatile, Indagini in situ mediante immagini acustiche, Indagini con prove soniche e ultrasoniche sulla muratura , termografia sonica e diagnostica remota mediante fluorescenza indotta da laser su porzioni dei muri absidali .

In this study a multi-analytical approach has been performed to characterise the constitutive materials of an ancient painted barkcloth or Tapa. Originating from Wallis Island, Polynesia, this cloth likely served utilitarian or ceremonial purposes and is part of the Felice Junck collection at the Pigorini, Muciv museum of Rome. During a recent conservation project, some micro-samples were taken from the support, brown and black painted areas and were investigated using the complementarity of SEM-EDX, FT-IR, Raman/SERS and solid-state C NMR and H HR-MAS spectroscopy. The combination of these techniques allowed the chemical characterization of the constitutive materials, from distinguishing the lignin and cellulose content of the support to the use of organic materials including condensed tannins (catechin, anthocyanidins, alkaloids), phlobaphene and vegetal anthraquinone based Morinda genus dyes for the decorations. A primary focus was placed on an understanding of its state of conservation where data of alteration products collected, namely metal carboxylates and oxalates can serve to formulate apt restoration efforts for this specific artefact.