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Sugars are a versatile tool for targeting malignant cells and have been extensively used for drug delivery and imaging techniques. Their prototype, fluorodeoxyglucose ([18F]FDG), is currently used for positron emission tomography. Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a cancer treatment that relies on irradiation with thermal neutrons of cancer cells previously loaded with [10B]-containing compounds. The recent introduction of accelerators as a neutron source for clinical use prompts the planning of delivery compounds enriched with boron able to be traced in real time. This work describes the first synthesis of a new class of sugar derivatives conjugated to a trifluoroborate moiety as potential theranostic agents. Stability and cytotoxicity studies are reported for all compounds, together with [18F] radiolabeling optimization and in vivo preliminary positron emission tomography (PET) experiments on a selected compound.

The essay presents the American debate on the «new class» as a political category that has been the pivot of the rise of neoconservatism, the public writing of the neocons’ discourse – in particular the one of Daniel P. Moynihan and Irving Kristol – and their strategy aimed at attacking the scientific and political foundations of the liberal order of the American capitalism that between the Sixties and Seventies no longer found in the «middle class» the public word that had tamed the social and political conflicts of the Thirties and fueled the consensus of the second post-war period. In the neoconservative discourse, also in dialogue with neoliberalism, the «new class» identified an «ideological enemy» that had to be disciplined in favor of capitalism, educated in respect of the authority – of society and its moral foundation, of the market and its hierarchies – that the social movements were contesting.

Until recently, traditional orthopedic implant materials termed “bioactive” have been engineered to actively promote integration with living bone. We propose to look beyond this traditional form of bioactivity (specifically for orthopedics, in which bioactivity refers to osseointegration), and introduce the use of nanoscale surface features, fabricated using various nanotechnology tools, to provide extended functionality to implants and thus create a new class of “smarter” bioactive implant materials.