Academic literature on the topic 'Innovative, non invasive, interdisciplinary, urodynamics'

Exosomes derived from tumor cells contain various molecular components, such as proteins, RNA, DNA, lipids, and carbohydrates. These components play a crucial role in all stages of tumorigenesis and development. Moreover, they reflect the physiological and pathological status of parental tumor cells. Recently, tumor-derived exosomes have become popular biomarkers for non-invasive liquid biopsy and the diagnosis of numerous cancers. The interdisciplinary significance of exosomes research has also attracted growing enthusiasm. However, the intrinsic nature of tumor-derived exosomes requires advanced methods to detect and evaluate the complex biofluid. This review analyzes the relationship between exosomes and tumors. It also summarizes the exosomal biological origin, composition, and application of molecular markers in clinical cancer diagnosis. Remarkably, this paper constitutes a comprehensive summary of the innovative research on numerous detection strategies for tumor-derived exosomes with the intent of providing a theoretical basis and reference for early diagnosis and clinical treatment of cancer.

This contribution focuses on the conservation of an Egyptian wooden sculpture (Inventory Number Cat. 745) belonging to the Museo Egizio of Torino in northwest Italy. A preliminary and interdisciplinary study of constituent painting materials and their layering is here provided. It was conducted by means of a multi-technique approach starting from non-invasive multispectral analysis on the whole object, and subsequently, on selected micro-samples. In particular, visible fluorescence induced by ultraviolet radiation (UVF), infrared reflectography (IRR) and visible--induced infrared luminescence were used on the whole object. The micro-samples were analysed by means of an optical microscope with visible and UV light sources, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer, pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (Py-GC/MS) and micro-particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE). The characterization of the painting materials allowed the detection of Egyptian blue and Egyptian green, and also confirmed the pertinence of the top brown layer to the original materials, which is a key point to design a suitable surface treatment. In fact, due to the water sensitiveness of the original materials, only few options were available to perform cleaning operations on this artwork. To setup the cleaning procedure, we performed several preliminary tests on mockups using dry cleaning materials, commonly used to treat reactive surfaces, and innovative highly water retentive hydrogels, which can potentially limit the mechanical action on the original surface while proving excellent cleaning results. Overall, this study has proved fundamental to increase our knowledge on ancient Egyptian artistic techniques and contribute to hypothesize the possible provenance of the artefact. It also demonstrated that polyvinyl alcohol-based retentive gels allow for the safe and efficient cleaning of extremely water sensitive painted surfaces, as those typical of ancient Egyptian artefacts.

Ultrasound medical imaging technology is one of the main methods of medical non-invasive diagnosis, and it is the focus of research in the medical field at home and abroad. Medical images have a large amount of data and contain a wealth of image feature information and rules, which need to be studied and understood. Therefore, the research of data mining technique for reading medical images has become a very important field in the interdisciplinary research of medical and computer science. The high resolution of medical images, the mass of data, and the complexity of image feature expressions make the research of data mining technology in medical images of great academic value and broad application prospects. At present, research on data mining for medical images has just started, and there are still many problems in the direct application of existing data mining methods. Researching and exploring the theoretical and practical problems of medical image data mining, such as data mining methods and algorithms suitable for medical image, which has significant and crucial value, and it is of great importance to help physicians in clinical diagnosis of medical images. This article introduces the background, definition and basic process of data mining technology, the characteristics of medical imaging data and the key techniques of medical image data mining. In view of the data mining research of human abdominal medical images is a completely new field, human abdominal imaging is the most complicated part of medical images. Solving the problem of abdominal imaging is of great value to the entire medical image. For regional medical image big data mining, we can use ultrasound images of the human abdomen. The clustering feature extraction algorithm and its implementation based on the approximate density structure of medical images proposed in this article, and innovative research results such as classification rule mining methods, are used to mine medical image data research, automatic diagnosis of clinical medical images, and early diagnosis of clinical medicine are of great significance.

The expected benefits and potential risks of non-native tree species (NNT) to European geographic regions have polarized the opinions of experts and citizens. Benefits include climate change (CC) mitigation and adaptation, contributions to bioeconomy, urban and peri-urban green infrastructure and mitigation of natural hazards. However, NNT may become invasive and thus may pose risks to native biodiversity, ecosystem functioning or socio-economy. In critical and vulnerable ecosystems such as the Alpine Space (AS), such risks and benefits must be carefully considered before management decisions are made. Experiences in the management of NNT in urban areas, peri-urban, rural territories and forests are often region- or city-specific and rarely shared. Given the challenges in NNT management with respect to both benefits and risks, an European transnational approach is needed to qualify the role of NNT in future AS ecosystems. The objective is to provide a transnational strategy for a responsible use and sustainable management of NNT in the AS with the help of an integrated Decision Support System. The project fits within the context of national and regional site-derived policy aiming at protecting and enhancing biodiversity to ensure ecological connectivity and cultural resources while maintaining a high level of resilience and ecosystem services across the AS. Implementation activities of the ALPTREES project include developing a comprehensive database on NNT, projecting the current and potential distribution of NNT in the AS under CC scenarios determining their invasive potential and analyzing the different ecosystem services provided by NNT to assess the tradeoffs between risks and benefits. developing a comprehensive database on NNT, projecting the current and potential distribution of NNT in the AS under CC scenarios determining their invasive potential and analyzing the different ecosystem services provided by NNT to assess the tradeoffs between risks and benefits. ALPTREES will formulate management recommendations for NNT under different climate and economic scenarios based on experience from sample plots combined with model projections, citizen science, and multiple stakeholder meetings. With the help of policy briefs, a handbook of lessons learned, transnational pilot actions for best management practices, and an inter-active online Decision Support System a close stakeholder interaction and -benefit will be ensured Another innovative output of the project is the Open ALPTREES Knowledge Hub, that will support the transnational and interdisciplinary knowledge transfer.

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Primary central nervous system lymphomas (PCNSL) are very aggressive malignancies with poor survival rate even with treatments (survival median is 44 months). This disease affects immune cells (lymphocytes) and forms diffuse and non-surgically removable tumor in the central nervous system. High-dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the common treatments with severe side effects. New therapeutic approaches are required for increasing treatment efficiency. We focused on primary intraocular lymphomas (PIOL) and primary cerebral lymphomas (PCL), which are subtypes of PCNSL. PIOL and PCL cells have a high propensity to migrate and form metastases in the brain and in the controlateral eye in the case of PIOL, and in the eye in the PCL case. However, metastatic dissemation mechanisms remain unclear. The objective of the present work was to study the effects of innovative treatments of B-cell lymphoma on primary tumor, on metastases, and on circulating tumor cells in PIOL and PCL immunocompetent syngeneic murine models of lymphomas using non-invasive in vivo imaging methods. We studied the effects of Ublituximab, a glycoengineered anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody (mAb), and CpG-ODN, a TLR-9 agonist, in mouse models. We showed that Ublituximab exhibits significant anti-tumor effect in PIOL and PCL, while CpG showed significant anti-tumor effect in PCL. We monitored the tumor burden and metastases using innovating non-invasive optical imaging or cell detection methods: bioluminescence imaging (BLI) and in vivo flow cytometer (IVFC). BLI was used to locate metastasis and to quantify tumor burden. We indeed developed a bioluminescence-based tumor burden quantification method that reduces user-dependence, allows comparisons between experiments, reveals statistical relevance, and which is easy to use. An IVFC device was set up to investigate the role of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in PIOL and PCL. This fluorescence-based technique allows detection of CTCs by analyzing the cells flowing in blood vessels. However we had to overcome the problem of autofluorescence and tissue absorption. Two approaches were studied in parallel: a elaborating new cell line expressing far red fluorescent proteins, modulating the excitation light of an IVFC device to give the cell a unique signature therefore enhancing sensitivity, increasing signal to noise ratio. The modulated excitation IVFC allowed us to calculate the velocity of cells, and infer their position in blood vessel phantoms. The analysis of treatment effects on tumor burden, metastases and CTCs in PIOL and PCL could help understanding lymphoma metastatic dissemination and contribute to treatment follow-up, thus allowing design of new therapeutic approaches with increased efficacy

Nowadays, clinical investigations to understand the functionality of the lower urinary tract (LUT) are based on invasive techniques (e.g. use of catheters) for measuring intra-bladder pressure and flowmetry through urethra. These techniques can lead to significant discomfort and possible complications to patients; moreover, they represent for the health agencies an economic burden in terms of costs associated with supplies, and above all they require a great deal of personnel’s time; finally, current techniques are inadequate for urodynamic analysis in pediatric subjects. This interdisciplinary project intends to verify the possibility to develop an Innovative Instrumentation for non-invasive Urodynamics, that is in which no part of the machine comes in contact with the human body, and moreover it is characterized by the same diagnostic reliability of the techniques in use today. This Innovative Instrumentation can bring many benefits: for the patient, who is relieved of the discomfort related to the traditional methodology, and who takes less time to perform it (15 minutes instead of 60); for the structure that uses this Innovative Instrumentation, which can reduce operating costs both in terms of materials and in terms of personnel. The basic concept arises from considering the LUT similar to a hydraulic system consisting of a pressure feed tank (bladder) and an outlet elastic duct (urethra) whose physical behavior is governed by the laws of fluid mechanics. Starting from the knowledge of the physical quantities of the urinary jet measurable outside of the urethra it is possible to model the LUT internal urodynamic characteristics. A physical model of the LUT has been specifically designed and assembled in the Hydraulic Laboratory of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICEA) of the University of Florence: basically, it consists of a pressure feed tank connected to a latex elastic collapsible output tube, that has a similar behavior to the urethra. The model has been tested with experiments to evaluate jet external characteristics under many different conditions (i.e. presence or absence of obstructions, type of obstructions, presence of absence of catheter, different types of instrumentations, etc.). Furthermore, a numerical model of the flow in elastic tube has been developed to simulate the Laboratory experiments and to represent the complex phenomena that occur in the LUT in physiological and pathological conditions. Once the numerical model has been calibrated, the detrusor pressure can be estimated from the values of flow rate and exit velocity obtained by non-invasive measurements, that is measurements taken with no contact with the human body. In parallel, a prototype of the Innovative Instrumentation has been developed. It has been built in the Hydraulic Laboratory of the DICEA and it has been taken to the Urology Clinic at the Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine (DMSC) of Careggi Hospital, Florence, to perform a clinical testing campaign on healthy male volunteers to test and calibrate the diagnostic reliability of the new equipment. Finally, it is proposed a “Coupled Urodynamic Diagram” that can be used to estimate the detrusorial pressure and that allows to trace the functional status of the patient using only non-invasive data.

<p>This paper presents some results of a multidisciplinary research about the assessment of damages to ordinary buildings at the urban scale in landslide areas. The methodology represents part of a multi-level approach for landslide vulnerability assessment that has been recently developed. It is based on rapid visual inspections of the buildings, the application of ‘simple models’ to interpret the structural response, the geological and geotechnical knowledge of the site. The end-product is the landslide damage geotechnical chart, including: i) the damage grade of the buildings, ii) the geomorphological and geotechnical map of the area, iii) the direction of the settlements causing damages. The application of the methodology to an historical site in southern Italy is also outlined. Finally, the contribution of innovative non-invasive spaceborne remote sensing techniques to monitor landslide-affected urban areas is highlighted.</p>

<p>This paper presents some results of a multidisciplinary research about the assessment of damages to ordinary buildings at the urban scale in landslide areas. The methodology represents part of a multi-level approach for landslide vulnerability assessment that has been recently developed. It is based on rapid visual inspections of the buildings, the application of ‘simple models’ to interpret the structural response, the geological and geotechnical knowledge of the site. The end-product is the landslide damage geotechnical chart, including: i) the damage grade of the buildings, ii) the geomorphological and geotechnical map of the area, iii) the direction of the settlements causing damages. The application of the methodology to an historical site in southern Italy is also outlined. Finally, the contribution of innovative non-invasive spaceborne remote sensing techniques to monitor landslide-affected urban areas is highlighted.</p>

The I SEA project aimed at the development of a non-obtrusive, valid and replicable method to evaluate audience attitudes about science communication projects through an immersive virtual reality environment that can improve exhibitions while educating and empowering citizens. To achieve the objectives of this highly complex, highly interdisciplinary, and innovative project, a permanent articulation of the scientific approach with the technical and design development took place, aiming the construction of the non- invasive evaluation method. Because it is an intricate project, it required constant iterations and interactions among the team members. So, we’ve learned somehow to consider limitations as engines for developing the project, instead of seeing them as obstacles.