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The direct anterior approach (DAA) for total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a less invasive and muscle-sparing approach that seems to improve early function and patient satisfaction. Several studies, however, have reported high complication and revision rates due to the technical difficulties related to the femoral preparation.To evaluate the usefulness and safety of a new stem equipped with a morphometric design and a size-specific medial curvature in DAA for THA.This retrospective study was based on 130 patients that underwent mini-invasive DAA procedures for THA using the Accolade II stem. A total of 144 procedures were included in the assessment, which was based on postoperative complications, survival rates, functional parameters, and patient related outcomes.Overall complications were recorded in 6 procedures (4.2%). There were no complications related to the stem implantation and no intraoperative fractures. Only one patient was revised for deep infection. On radiographs, biomechanical hip reconstruction was satisfactory and no stem showed any subsidence greater than 2 mm. Full osseointegration based on Engh scores was seen in all of the implanted stems. Median Harris hip score at final follow-up was 99 points (range 44-100 points), which resulted excellent in 91.3% of patients. The median values of the osteaorthritis outcome score ranged from 87.5 to 95.The mid-term positive outcomes and low complication rate in our consecutive series of patients support the safety and suitability of this new stem design in DAA for THA.

Francesco Menzella,1 Marco Bonavia,2 Matteo Bonini,3 Maria D’Amato,4 Salvatore Lombardo,5 Nicola Murgia,6 Vincenzo Patella,7,8 Massimo Triggiani,9 Girolamo Pelaia10 1Pneumology Unit, Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova, Azienda USL di Reggio Emilia-IRCCS, Reggio Emilia, Italy; 2Pneumologia Riabilitativa - Ospedale Ge-Arenzano, ASL3-, Genoa, Italy; 3Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Sciences, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy; 4Respiratory Department- Monaldi Hospital AO Dei Colli, Naples, Italy; 5Pneumology Unit, Ospedale Giovanni Paolo II, Lamezia Terme, Italy; 6Section of Occupational Medicine, Respiratory Diseases and Toxicology, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy; 7Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine ASL Salerno, Santa Maria Della Speranza Hospital, Salerno, Italy; 8Postgraduate Program in Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy; 9Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy; 10Department of Health Sciences, Respiratory Unit, University “Magna Graecia” of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, ItalyCorrespondence: Francesco MenzellaPneumology Unit, Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova, Azienda USL di Reggio Emilia-IRCCS, Reggio Emilia, ItalyTel +390522296073Email Francesco.Menzella@ausl.re.itPurpose: Severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA) is characterized by high eosinophilia, severe symptoms, important comorbidities, frequent exacerbations, and poor asthma control. Benralizumab, targeting the interleukin-5 receptor alpha, proved effective in inducing rapid eosinophil depletion and amelioration of symptoms and lung function; it also allowed to reduce exacerbations and the use of oral corticosteroids (OCS). The present case series, spanning different subtypes of SEA, aimed at expanding the real-world experience with benralizumab in Italy.Patients and Methods: We collected data from SEA patients treated with benralizumab, at baseline and during treatment. We focused on the effects of benralizumab in the following conditions and endpoints: i) overlap between high-IgE and high-eosinophilic asthma; ii) presence of nasal polyposis as comorbidity; iii) corticosteroid-sparing effect; iv) patient perception.Results: Ten SEA patients (females: N=7; age range: 19– 70 years) referred to 8 Italian Centers and treated with benralizumab were included, presenting with several comorbidities such as non-allergic disease (8/10), atopy (3/10), high IgE (5/10) and nasal polyposis (6/10). Overall, benralizumab yielded optimal disease control in all patients, particularly in terms of rapid clinical and functional improvement, decreased systemic steroid need (OCS therapy was completely discontinued in 7 cases) and amelioration of patient quality of life, except for 1 case, in whom other conditions not related to benralizumab therapy interfered with the patient perception.Conclusion: Our findings further support the efficacy and safety of benralizumab observed in randomized clinical trials, providing even better results for lung function improvement.Keywords: benralizumab, IL-5 receptor, oral corticosteroids, overlap IgE/eosinophilic asthma, polyposis, real world, severe eosinophilic asthma

Direct solar hydrogen generation via a combination of photovoltaics PV and water electrolysis can potentially ensure a sustainable energy supply while minimizing greenhouse emissions. The PECSYS project aims at demonstrating a solar driven electrochemical hydrogen generation system with an area gt;10 amp; 8201;m2 with high efficiency and at reasonable cost. Thermally integrated PV electrolyzers ECs using thin film silicon, undoped, and silver doped Cu In,Ga Se2 and silicon heterojunction PV combined with alkaline electrolysis to form one unit are developed on a prototype level with solar collection areas in the range from 64 to 2600 amp; 8201;cm2 with the solar to hydrogen StH efficiency ranging from amp; 8776;4 to 13 . Electrical direct coupling of PV modules to a proton exchange membrane EC to test the effects of bifaciality 730 amp; 8201;cm2 solar collection area and to study the long term operation under outdoor conditions 10 amp; 8201;m2 collection area is also investigated. In both cases, StH efficiencies exceeding 10 can be maintained over the test periods used. All the StH efficiencies reported are based on measured gas outflow using mass flow meters

Lipidomics is strategic in the discovery of biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs). The skin surface lipidome bears the potential to provide biomarker candidates in the detection of pathological processes occurring in distal organs. We investigated the sebum composition to search diagnostic and, possibly, prognostic, biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). The observational study included 64 subjects: 20 characterized as “probable AD with documented decline”, 20 as “clinically established PD”, and 24 healthy subjects (HS) of comparable age. The analysis of sebum by GCMS and TLC retrieved the amounts (µg) of 41 free fatty acids (FFAs), 7 fatty alcohols (FOHs), vitamin E, cholesterol, squalene, and total triglycerides (TGs) and wax esters (WEs). Distributions of sebum lipids in NDDs and healthy conditions were investigated with multivariate ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis (ASCA). The deranged sebum composition associated with the PD group showed incretion of most composing lipids compared to HS, whereas only two lipid species (vitamin E and FOH14:0) were discriminant of AD samples and presented lower levels than HS sebum. Thus, sebum lipid biosynthetic pathways are differently affected in PD and AD. The characteristic sebum bio-signatures detected support the value of sebum lipidomics in the biomarkers search in NDDs.

Ammonia (NH3) is a fundamental feedstock for the global population not only for its wide use as fertilizer and chemical, but also for its potential as energy storage medium. Its synthesis at the industrial scale is based on the well-known Haber Bosch process, operating at high temperature (400-500°C) and high pressure (150-300atm), thus making it highly pollutant. Considering the global climate emergency, it is mandatory to develop a green ammonia synthesis that relies on milder conditions and may adopt renewable energy sources. The electrochemical synthesis, of NH3 from N2 and H2O at ambient conditions and using renewable energy driven electricity could be a promising approach. An efficient electrochemical ammonia synthesis however, is currently still lacking. The main reasons are the absence of adequate catalysts capable of dissociating the N2 triple bond and the competition with the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at the cathode, since the required potential is close to that of nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), required for the ammonia formation. There are some reaction models in the literature but it is commonly accepted that the dissociative adsorption of N2 is the rate limiting step and extensive research has been done on nitrogen interaction with metal surfaces. Ru, Co, Bi, Au, Fe, Mo, etc based materials have been extensively tested for the green ammonia synthesis, but results are still conflicting also because a complete evaluation of environmental contaminations is still lacking. In this work we adopted as NRR catalyst Fe based nanoparticles on carbon cloth substrate via a simple and fast electroless deposition technique. We prepared a FeCl3 solutions with different concentrations in the range 1-10mM and deposited a drop on (3x1.5) cm2 samples of carbon cloth, on a hot plate, at 80°C. After evaporation of the water, the as deposited substrates were dipped in NaBH4 solution while stirring. The catalyst morphology has been studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), as a function of the concentration. Very small particles, with a size ranging from 10 to 70nm, were obtained with the most diluted solution. The cluster size increases with increasing FeCl3 concentration in the solution, giving rise to strong coalescence effects and to the formation of a thicker and continuous layer in the case of the most concentrated solution. Scanning Transmission electron Microscopy (STEM) and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) have been adopted to determine the composition. EELS spectra showed that the iron L-edge is that typical of Fe3O4 materials. The electrochemical ability to reduce nitrogen, with the formation of ammonia, was evaluated in a standard two compartment cell, with a phosphate buffered solution (PBS 0.1M) adopting a Zirfon membrane as a gas separator. Ar or N2 gas (both with a purity of 99.9999%) flowed in the cathode chamber after going through an acidic trap and a water trap, to be further purified. A rigorous protocol has been adopted to evaluate the ammonia production, including a two steps measurement of the environmental ammonia at the open circuit potential. The ammonia was measured by spectrophotometric analysis using the indophenol blue method. The electrochemical production of ammonia was obtained by chronoamperometry under constant voltage. For the iron-based catalysts, a very efficient activation procedure has been developed, based on cyclic voltammetry under N2 flow. The activation process allows an improvement up to 10 times in the ammonia generation rate. Moreover, a strong correlation has been found between the particle size of the catalyst and its activity for NRR, with the best results achieved with the sample covered with nanoparticles, exhibiting also the highest electrochemical active area. Iron based nanoparticles showed excellent activity for NRR, with a faradaic efficiency of 15% at -0.35 V vs RHE and a maximum ammonia production rate of 85µg mg-1 cat h-1. Acknowledgements:This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No101006941.

The thermodynamics of interactions between cations of the second group of the periodic table and differently negatively charged cellulose nanocrystals was investigated using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). The interaction of cations with the negatively charged CNCs was found to be endothermic and driven by an increase in entropy upon adsorption of the ions, due to an increase in degrees of freedom gained by the surface bound water upon ion adsorption. The effect was pH-dependent, showing an increase in enthalpy for cellulose suspensions at near-neutral pH (6.5) when compared to acidic pH (2). Sulfated cellulose nanoparticles were found to readily interact with divalent ions at both pH levels. The adsorption on carboxylate nanocrystals was found to be pH dependent, showing that the carboxylic group needs to be in the deprotonated form to interact with divalent ions. For the combined system (sulfate and carboxylate present at the same time), at neutral pH, the adsorption enthalpy was higher than the value obtained from cellulose nanocrystals containing a single functional group, while the association constant was higher due to an increased favorable entropic contribution. The higher entropic contribution indicates a more restricted surface-bound water layer when multiple functionalities are present. The stoichiometric number n was nearly constant for all systems, showing that the adsorption depends almost completely on the ion valency and on the amount of ionic groups on the CNC surface, independent of the type of functional group on the CNC surface as long as it is deprotonated. In addition, we showed that the reduction in Gibbs free energy drives the ionotropic gelation of nanocellulose suspensions, and we show that ITC is able to detect gel formation at the same time as determining the critical association concentration. ispartof: BIOMACROMOLECULES vol:20 issue:8 pages:3181-3190 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Understanding the thermodynamic interactions of cellulose nanomaterials with their environment is important to understand the forces behind their self-organization and co-organisation with other compounds, and to be able to use self-assembly to form new functional multicomponent materials. This review analyzes published studies that determined the thermodynamic parameters of the surface interactions of and adsorption of various compounds (proteins, polymers, and small molecules/ions) onto cellulose nanomaterials. We compiled the data reported and performed a meta-analysis for better comparison and to find trends in the published data. We first introduce the methods employed and describe the adsorption isotherm models typically used to describe the adsorption thermodynamics on nanocellulose surfaces. We then discuss and analyze the published results for the interaction of the various compounds with nanocellulose surfaces. The systems that have been reported on most were adsorption of natural binding proteins and various pollutants from water, such as heavy metal ions, dyes, and drugs. Interactions between cellulose surfaces and the cellulose binding module were generally both enthalpy- and entropy-driven, where the negative binding enthalpy indicates the formation of specific interactions between peptides and the carbohydrate backbone. On the other hand, interactions with charged molecules were mostly endothermic and purely entropy-driven, indicating that the adsorption on nanocellulose surfaces can be described as an interaction between opposite charges, where the entropy increase that arises from the release of surface-structured water molecules and counterions from the electronic double layer supplies the major contribution to the free energy of adsorption. We performed a meta-analysis on all published data, and found a linear relationship between ∆H and ∆S with the slope equal to the reference temperature, irrespective of whether the interacting compound is a specific cellulose binding protein, a non-specific binding protein, a polymer, or a small molecule/ion. This indicates that the process of adsorption is the same for all compounds and takes place with a constant change in Gibbs free energy of interaction, ∆G, where a change in interaction enthalpy is offset by change in entropy change upon binding and vice versa.

The preparation of microcapsules composed by natural materials have received great attention, as they represent promising systems for the fabrication of micro-containers for controlled loading and release of active compounds, and for other applications. Using polysaccharides as the main materials is receiving increasing interest, as they constitute the main components of the plant cell wall, which represent an ideal platform to mimic for creating biocompatible systems with specific responsive properties. Several researchers have recently described methods for the preparation of microcapsules with various sizes and properties using cell wall polysaccharide nanomaterials. Researchers have focused mostly in using cellulose nanomaterials as structural components in a bio-mimetic approach, as cellulose constitutes the main structural component of the plant cell wall. In this review, we describe the microcapsules systems presented in the literature, focusing on the works where polysaccharide nanomaterials were used as the main structural components. We present the methods and the principles behind the preparation of these systems, and the interactions involved in stabilizing the structures. We show the specific and stimuli-responsive properties of the reported microcapsules, and we describe how these characteristics can be exploited for specific applications. ispartof: MOLECULES vol:25 issue:19 ispartof: location:Switzerland status: published

We examined the similarities and differences of the binding behavior of lysozyme (lys) with pectin varying in local charge density (blockwise distribution and statistical distribution of methoxyl groups, BP and SP) and similar degree of methoxylation (DM). The interaction at ionic strength I = 0.01 and pH 5.1 was found to be mainly electrostatic, associated with an exothermic enthalpy change. BP which is more inclined to self-association binds lys forming strongly associated complex particles with average sizes much larger (10–20 μm) than that of SP. The latter formed with lys small (0.6–3 μm) complex particles or liquid droplets depending on DM. The critical Iset and pHset values for BP/lys systems, above which complexes do not form, are not sensitive to DM (approximately 0.1 and 11.5 respectively), whereas for SP/lys systems the critical Iset and pHset values decrease significantly with increasing DM. The effect of I on complexation (CP) of lys with BP and SP has a nonmonotonic character. The distribution of BP and SP within the complex particles is irregular and is different for pectin with low and high DM values. The binding constant and stoichiometry ratio (lys/pectin) of the systems with SP are slightly higher than those of BP at the same DM, and these values decrease sharply (50 times) with increasing DM. The large positive changes in entropy in SP/lys systems suggest that the interactions in these systems tend to be more hydrophobic in character at high DM. On the other hand, with BP, a negative enthalpy change, especially for pectin with low charge, suggests the formation of a large quantity of hydrogen bonds or van der Waals interactions during CP. ispartof: FOOD HYDROCOLLOIDS vol:99 status: published