Silver-doped Calcium Phosphate bone cements with antibacterial properties

Calcium phosphate bone cements (CPCs) with antibacterial properties are demanded for clinical applications. In this study, we demonstrated the use of a relatively simple processing route based on preparation of silver-doped CPCs (CPCs-Ag) through the preparation of solid dispersed active powder phase. Real-time monitoring of structural transformations and kinetics of several CPCs-Ag formulations (Ag = 0 wt %, 0.6 wt % and 1.0 wt %) was performed by the Energy Dispersive X-ray Diffraction technique. The partial conversion of β-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) phase into the dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD) took place in all the investigated cement systems. In the pristine cement powders, Ag in its metallic form was found, whereas for CPC-Ag 0.6 wt % and CPC-Ag 1.0 wt % cements, CaAg(PO₃)₃ was detected and Ag (met.) was no longer present. The CPC-Ag 0 wt % cement exhibited a compressive strength of 6.5 ± 1.0 MPa, whereas for the doped cements (CPC-Ag 0.6 wt % and CPC-Ag 1.0 wt %) the reduced values of the compressive strength 4.0 ± 1.0 and 1.5 ± 1.0 MPa, respectively, were detected. Silver-ion release from CPC-Ag 0.6 wt % and CPC-Ag 1.0 wt % cements, measured by the Atomic Emission Spectroscopy, corresponds to the average values of 25 µg/L and 43 µg/L, respectively, rising a plateau after 15 days. The results of the antibacterial test proved the inhibitory effect towards pathogenic Escherichia coli for both CPC-Ag 0.6 wt % and CPC-Ag 1.0 wt % cements, better performances being observed for the cement with a higher Ag-content

Saints and lovers: myths of the avant-garde in Michel Georges-Michel's Les Montparnos

This article examines Michel Georges-Michel’s 1924 novel Les Montparnos as a study of the myths circulating around the Montparnasse avant-garde of the 1920s, and their function in relation to art. Key amongst these myths is the idea of art as a religion, according to which avant-garde artists are conceived as secular saints and martyrs. While this notion of artist as saint is strongly present in early-twentieth-century biographies of Van Gogh, Georges-Michel explicitly relates his fictionalized version of Modigliani’s life not to such recent models but rather to the Renaissance masters, and especially to Raphael, a link which is explained in terms of the post-war ‘retour à l’ordre’ in French artistic culture. The novel’s references to Raphael as archetypal painter-lover are also related to its construction of a myth of the artist as virile and sexually prolific, and to its identification of creative and sexual impulses

An Overview of Recent Approaches to Enable Diversity in Large Language Models through Aligning with Human Perspectives

The varied backgrounds and experiences of human annotators inject different opinions and potential biases into the data, inevitably leading to disagreements. Yet, traditional aggregation methods fail to capture individual judgments since they rely on the notion of a single ground truth. Our aim is to review prior contributions to pinpoint the shortcomings that might cause stereotypical content generation. As a preliminary study, our purpose is to investigate state-of-the-art approaches, primarily focusing on the following two research directions. First, we investigate how adding subjectivity aspects to LLMs might guarantee diversity. We then look into the alignment between humans and LLMs and discuss how to measure it. Considering existing gaps, our review explores possible methods to mitigate the perpetuation of biases targeting specific communities. However, we recognize the potential risk of disseminating sensitive information due to the utilization of socio-demographic data in the training process. These considerations underscore the inclusion of diverse perspectives while taking into account the critical importance of implementing robust safeguards to protect individuals’ privacy and prevent the inadvertent propagation of sensitive information

RAMAN spectroscopy imaging improves the diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma

Recent investigations strongly suggest that Raman spectroscopy (RS) can be used as a clinical tool in cancer diagnosis to improve diagnostic accuracy. In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of Raman imaging microscopy to discriminate between healthy and neoplastic thyroid tissue, by analyzing main variants of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma (PTC), the most common type of thyroid cancer. We performed Raman imaging of large tissue areas (from 100 × 100 μm2 up to 1 × 1 mm2), collecting 38 maps containing about 9000 Raman spectra. Multivariate statistical methods, including Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), were applied to translate Raman spectra differences between healthy and PTC tissues into diagnostically useful information for a reliable tissue classification. Our study is the first demonstration of specific biochemical features of the PTC profile, characterized by significant presence of carotenoids with respect to the healthy tissue. Moreover, this is the first evidence of Raman spectra differentiation between classical and follicular variant of PTC, discriminated by LDA with high efficiency. The combined histological and Raman microscopy analyses allow clear-cut integration of morphological and biochemical observations, with dramatic improvement of efficiency and reliability in the differential diagnosis of neoplastic thyroid nodules, paving the way to integrative findings for tumorigenesis and novel therapeutic strategies

Proof-of-concept Raman spectroscopy study aimed to differentiate thyroid follicular patterned lesions.

Inter-observer variability and cancer over-diagnosis are emerging clinical problems, especially for follicular patterned thyroid lesions. This challenge strongly calls for a new clinical tool to reliably identify neoplastic lesions and to improve the efficiency of differentiation between benign and malignant neoplasms, especially considering the increased diagnosis of small carcinomas and the growing number of thyroid nodules. In this study, we employed a Raman spectroscopy (RS) microscope to investigate frozen thyroid tissues from fourteen patients with thyroid nodules. To generate tissue classification models, a supervised statistical analysis of the Raman spectra was performed. The results obtained demonstrate an accuracy of 78% for RS based diagnosis to discriminate between normal parenchyma and follicular patterned thyroid nodules, and 89% accuracy - for very challenging follicular lesions (carcinoma versus adenoma). RS translation into intraoperative diagnosis of frozen sections and in preoperative analysis of biopsies can be very helpful to reduce unnecessary surgery in patients with indeterminate cytological reports

Desorption of hot molecules from photon irradiated interstellar ices

We present experimental measurements of photodesorption from ices of astrophysical relevance. Layers of benzene and water ice were irradiated with a laser tuned to an electronic transition in the benzene molecule. The translational energy of desorbed molecules was measured by time-of-flight (ToF) mass spectrometry. Three distinct photodesorption processes were identified - a direct adsorbate-mediated desorption producing benzene molecules with a translational temperature of around 1200 K, an indirect adsorbate-mediated desorption resulting in water molecules with a translational temperature of around 450 K, and a substrate-mediated desorption of both benzene and water producing molecules with translational temperatures of around 530 K and 450 K respectively. The translational temperature of each population of desorbed molecules is well above the temperature of the ice matrix. The implications for gas-phase chemistry in the interstellar medium are discussed.Comment: 23 pages, including 4 figures; submitted to Ap