In the past few years, researchers have focused on the development of three-dimensional (3D) advanced scaffolds and multifunctional hydrogel-based materials.
As reported in literature, 3D ...polymer-based composite scaffolds for tissue engineering have been manufactured through conventional and advanced manufacturing techniques, and different injectable materials and hydrogel-based systems have been proposed and studied.
The aim of the current research was to define an approach in the development of multifunctional tools spanning from 3D hierarchical scaffolds for soft tissue engineering to advanced hydrogel-based devices for in situ cell or drug release. The mechanical/rheological behaviour as well as the structural/functional features of the designed devices were discussed and analyzed.
The high valley of the Agri River is a wide intermontane basin located in the Lucanian Apennine, southern Italy. This basin was formed during Quaternary times in the hinterland of the Neogene ...fold-and-thrust belt. Tectonics has strongly controlled shape, morphology and sedimentary evolution of the basin up to the present. The Agri Valley, in fact, has been hit by recurrent and large earthquakes such as the 1857 Basilicata earthquake. Pleistocene extensional tectonics is commonly envisaged as responsible for the basin evolution. On the grounds of new structural studies, indeed, the valley appears to be a more complex structure than a simple extensional graben, as traditionally assumed in the literature, or than a pull-apart basin, as suggested by some workers.
The basin floor is filled by middle Pleistocene faulted alluvial deposits. A new survey has shown evidence of deformation also in younger sediments. At Viggiano, located along the eastern flank of the basin, recent slope deposits still attached to their source area display fault-controlled sedimentation. In this area, different climate-sedimentary cycles represented by coarse breccia talus alternated with palaeosoils are involved in the recent deformation. At Pergola, located a few kilometres northwest of the Agri high valley, the most recent fan deposits found at the foot of a major slope, including evenly bedded breccia and intercalated palaeosoils, are strongly faulted and tilted.
In order to establish precise chronological constraints, palaeosoils have been sampled in several sites and at different stratigraphic levels. Radiocarbon dating supports the field evidence of very recent deformation associated to relevant displacements, yielding ages between 40 and 20 ka.
Spasticity is a common pathology after brain lesions consisting in an incorrect synergic contraction of agonist-antagonist muscles. Nowadays, there are more treatments, yet recently a new therapy was ...introduced: the injections of botulinum toxin in the spastic muscles. This work is a pilot study aiming to analyse quantitatively these co-activations before and after the treatment. Data were acquired performing gait analysis in the laboratory of Salerno's hospital. Spatial temporal parameters, kinematic information and electromyography signals were obtained. Two patients were analysed and a Matlab application was implemented to calculate a co-activation index and the time of co-activation of some muscular couples. The comparison between the results before and after the treatment describes a positive prognosis with improvements in spatial temporal parameters and kinematic for both patients. Both the co-activation index and the times of co-activations decreased after the treatment. This pilot study shows that patients treated with BTX have a positive prognosis with a quantitative improving.
In the last decades a variety of innovative craniofacial approaches has been adopted to entire skull base. The endonasal endoscopic route has emerged as a suitable methodology for several skull base ...lesions. An effective watertight closure is essential to isolate the intracranial cavity in order to restore the natural intra and extradural compartment division, necessary to prevent postoperative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage and complications such as meningitis, brain herniation, and tension pneumocephalus. The reconstruction can be performed using different materials, both autologous (autologous grafts) and non-autologous, individually or combined in a multilayer fashion. The harvesting a nasoseptal flap is one of the most effective techniques: it reinforces the skull base closure granting isolation of the surgical field. The current study was focused on the development of new advanced devices and techniques, aiding in reducing postoperative CSF leak, which is one of the most feared complication of this surgical procedure. Additive manufacturing allows to design devices with tailored structural and functional features, in order to satisfy all the requirements. On the other hand, the development of injectable semi-IPNs and composites clearly benefits from specific mechanical/rheological and injectability studies. Accordingly, starting from some basic concepts, innovative principles and strategies were also proposed towards the design of additively manufactured and injectable devices.
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