Perirenal fat thickness is associated with metabolic risk factors in patients with chronic kidney disease

Luis D´Marco,Juan Salazar,Marie Cortez,María Salazar,Marjorie Wettel,Marcos Lima-Martínez,Edward Rojas,Willy Roque,Valmore Bermúdez 대한신장학회 2019 Kidney Research and Clinical Practice Vol.38 No.3

Background: Adipose tissue accumulation in specific body compartments has been associated with diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia. Perirenal fat (PRF) may lead to have direct lipotoxic effects on renal function and intrarenal hydrostatic pressure. This study was undertaken to explore the association of PRF with cardiovascular risk factors and different stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: We studied 103 patients with CKD of different stages (1 to 5). PRF was measured by B-mode renal ultrasonography in the distal third between the cortex and the hepatic border and/or spleen. Results: The PRF thickness was greater in CKD patients with impaired fasting glucose than in those with normal glucose levels (1.10 ± 0.40 cm vs. 0.85 ± 0.39 cm, P < 0.01). Patients in CKD stages 4 and 5 (glomerular filtration rate [GFR] < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2) had the highest PRF thickness. Serum triglyceride levels correlated positively with the PRF thickness; the PRF thickness was greater in patients with triglyceride levels ≥ 150 mg/dL (1.09 ± 0.40 cm vs. 0.86 ± 0.36 cm, P < 0.01). In patients with a GFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2, uric acid levels correlated positively with the PRF thickness (P < 0.05). Conclusion: In CKD patients, the PRF thickness correlated significantly with metabolic risk factors that could affect kidney function.

Chondroblastoma’s Lung Metastases Treated with Denosumab in Pediatric Patient

Marco Focaccia,Marco Gambarotti,Rossella Hakim,Anna Paioli,Marilena Cesari,Benedetta Spazzoli,Paolo Spinnato,Davide Donati,Michele Rocca,Alessandra Longhi 대한암학회 2021 Cancer Research and Treatment Vol.53 No.1

Chondroblastoma is a rare benign chondrogenic tumor that occurs in skeletally immature patients between ages 10 and 20 years old. In literature are reported few cases of lung metastases, mainly occurred after surgery or local recurrences. There is no evidence on the pathogenesis of lung metastasis, as well as pulmonary disease course. Few treatments for metastases with aggressive behavior were based on chemotherapy regimen employed in other sarcoma with no results or not satisfying ones. Denosumab is approved for treatment of giant cell tumors and it is under investigation for other giant cell-rich bone tumors. Here, we report a case of a 16-year-old male chondroblastoma of the left humerus with bilateral lung metastases at presentation and progressing during follow-up, treated with denosumab for almost 2 years. We confirm that denosumab treatment can be effective in controlling chondroblastoma metastasis and it has been a safe procedure in an adolescent patient.

Effect of cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy on relapse pattern in primary epithelial ovarian cancer: a propensity score based case-control study

Marco Ceresoli,Apollonia Verrengia,Giulia Montori,Luisa Busci,Federico Coccolini,Luca Ansaloni,Luigi Frigerio,Marco Ceresoli 대한부인종양학회 2018 Journal of Gynecologic Oncology Vol.29 No.3

Objective: Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) has been proposed as a treatment in ovarian cancer. A recently published RCT demonstrated that HIPEC prolongs disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in ovarian cancer. The aim of the study was to investigate oncologic results of cytoreductive surgery+HIPEC compared with cytoreductive surgery alone in advanced primary ovarian cancer with a particular attention to the pattern of recurrence. Methods: This is a retrospective case control study with a propensity score (PS) matching of the patients. All the patients treated for primary advanced ovarian cancer who underwent interval surgery with or without HIPEC were collected; a PS was calculated in order to match cases to controls. Results: Among 77 eligible patients 56 patients were included in the study. Preoperative patients' characteristics were homogeneous. No difference in morbidity and mortality after surgery were recorded. DFS was not different among the 2 groups (13.2 vs. 13.9 months, p=0.454) but OS was better in patients treated with HIPEC with no median reached vs. 35.5 months (p=0.048). Patients treated with cytoreductive surgery alone were more likely to have a peritoneal recurrence (43% vs. 14%). Conclusion: HIPEC seems to affect the relapse pattern with lesser peritoneal recurrence. This difference in relapse pattern seems to affect the OS with better results in patients treated with HIPEC. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Msgr. Marco Sprizzi

Marco Sprizzi 신학과사상학회 2018 가톨릭 신학과 사상 Vol.- No.81

ZNF804A Gene Variants Have a Cross-diagnostic Influence on Psychosis and Treatment Improvement in Mood Disorders

Marco Calabrò,Laura Mandelli,Concetta Crisafulli,Marco Di Nicola,Roberto Colombo,Luigi Janiri,Soo-Jung Lee,Tae-Youn Jun,Sheng Min Wang,Prakash S Masand,Ashwin A Patkar,Changsu Han,Chi-Un Pae,Alessandr 대한정신약물학회 2020 CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE Vol.18 No.2

Objective: Genetic variations in the gene encoding zinc finger protein 804A gene (ZNF804A) have been associated with major depression and bipolar disorder. In this work we focused on the potential influence of ZNF804A variations on the risk of developing specific sub-phenotypes as well as the individual response to available treatments. Methods: We used two samples of different ethnic origin: a Korean sample, composed by 242 patients diagnosed with major depression and 132 patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder and 326 healthy controls; an Italian sample composed 151 major depression subjects, 189 bipolar disorder subjects and 38 outpatients diagnosed for a primary anxiety disorder. Results: Our analyses reported an association of rs1344706 with psychotic phenotype in the cross-diagnostic pooled sample (geno p = 4.15 × 10−4, allelic p = 1.06 × 10−4). In the cross-diagnosis Italian sample but not in the Korean one, rs7597593 was involved with depressive symptoms improvement after treatment (geno p = 0.025, allelic p = 0.007). Conclusion: The present study evidenced the role of ZNF804A alterations in symptoms improvement after treatment. Both manic and depressive symptoms seem to be modulated by ZNF804A, though the latter was observed in the bipolar pooled sample only. The role of this factor is likely related to synaptic development and maintenance; however, further analyses will be needed to better understand the molecular mechanics involved with ZNF804A.

MOBILE COMMERCE – THE MODERATING ROLES OF PERCEIVED RISK AND APPLICATION CONTEXT

Marco Hubert,Markus Blut,Christian Brock,Christof Backhaus,Tim Eberhardt 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2016 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2016 No.7

Worldwide, more than 1/3 of all e-commerce transactions in business-to-consumer industries are nowadays executed via mobile devices (Criteo, 2015). Despite its increasing importance, it can be noted that mobile commerce does not seem to “take-off” equally across diverse goods and services contexts. We observe, for instance, that mobile commerce is quite common in service industries for purchasing tickets (e.g., for flights, public transportation, and sport events), while it is less common for services such as financial products. Balasubramanian et al. (2002) addressed this issue and proposed that contexts of m-commerce differ from each other with regard to several characteristics. For example, they propose that location sensitivity (among other characteristics) differs for various m-commerce applications, and that this characteristic may impact acceptance of m-commerce across industries. It may be that acceptance of m-commerce is higher in some industries since use of location sensitive data is appreciated by customers, while it is not valued in other purchasing contexts. Against this background, we propose that examining (1) risk perception related to mobile commerce and (2) different types of mobile commerce applications are essential for gaining a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of differing relevance of m-commerce across industries. In particular, our study acknowledges the differential roles of the financial, performance, and security facets of risk. In addition, we assume that the role of value and risk dimensions differs subject to three mobile commerce application characteristics which are location sensitivity, time criticality, and extent of control. Based on a dataset of 800 respondents, results of our models demonstrate that especially security risk can act as a critical inhibitor of acceptance. The extent to which performance risk and financial risk impact perceived usefulness was found to be moderated by the three contextual characteristics. From a managerial perspective, results show which factors should deliberately be considered in the development of m-commerce applications, and in which different application contexts they matter.

Membrane process enhancement of 2-phase and 3-phase olive mill wastewater treatment plants by photocatalysis with magnetic-core titanium dioxide nanoparticles

Marco Stoller,Javier Miguel Ochando Pulido,Luca Di Palma,Antonio Martinez Ferez 한국공업화학회 2015 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.30 No.-

In this work, the benefit of using photocatalysis as a pretreatment step for a subsequent olive millwastewater (OMW) treatment process by membranes will be discussed. Membrane processes appear to be suitable to purify aqueous wastewater streams polluted by organicmatter such as OMW, but suffer severe fouling. In order to avoid fouling, the use of operating conditionsbelow the boundary flux is suggested. The problem is that in many cases, boundary flux values areextremely low, making the process economically not feasible. In order to overcome this limitation,pretreatment steps are necessary to increase boundary flux values accordingly. Photocatalysis appears tobe capable to achieve these requirements: on one hand, the process is capable to reduce the organic loadof the feedstock and on the other hand, particle size distributions of the suspended organic matter arechanged. Both principles are known in literature to lead to boundary flux value changes. In this paper the authors report the obtained results of the experimental work concerningphotocatalysis and membrane performances.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ACCEPTANCE OF SMART HOME APPLICATIONS

Marco Hubert,Markus Blut,Christian Brock,Ruby Wenjiao Zhang 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2018 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2018 No.07

Marketing and information systems research has a long history of studying the customer’s acceptance and adoption process of new technologies (Venkatesh et al., 2003). These studies are often motivated by the potential of new technologies such as smart home systems to improve our everyday life. To benefit from these technologies, individuals have to accept them in the first place. To better understand the acceptance process, scholars regularly employ various theories in their studies such as technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989), innovation diffusion theory (Rogers 2003), and perceived risk theory (Featherman and Pavlou, 2003). Although each of these theories provides valuable insights, only recently scholars started combining them in larger framework and examining their interrelationships. These studies argue that each theory has the potential to make a unique contribution to understanding of technology acceptance, but the combination of theories leads to novel insights. The purpose of this study is the development of a comprehensive adoption model combining constructs from various theories and testing these theories against each other to provide new insights. The study develops this model in a smart home applications context which is a complex technological system. The study is based on an online survey consisting of 409 participants; the data is analyzed using structural equation modelling.

EXPERIMENTS IN EMOTION, CO-CREATION AND TRUST

Marco Luccini,Roger Marshall,Drew Franklin 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2018 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2018 No.07

This research is concerned with the mediation of the relationship between co-creation and trust by emotions. Data is generated from responses to questions posed after panellists read a structured scenario. Emotions are found to partially mediate the relationship between co-creation and trust. The mediation effect is stronger in B2C situations than B2B, in services rather than products and for women more than men. In a services context there is full mediation of the relationship between co-creation and trust by emotions for women and for a business-to-consumer context. The strategic imperative that co-creation is vital in the services industry is underscored, particularly in a consumer situation or when dealing with women.

A Simulation-based Study on Passive Energy Retrofit Scenarios for Residential Buildings in China’s Jiangsu Province

Marco Cimillo,Xi Chen,David Chow 한국생태환경건축학회 2020 한국생태환경건축학회 학술발표대회 논문집 Vol.20 No.2

The paper illustrates the preliminary results of a research aimed at understanding the current energy performance and the potential for energy retrofit ofthe residential sector in Jiangsu province. Two typologies of residential building built in the 1980s and 1990, with relatively poor energy performance, were selected as part of a wider building stock modelling project, to study their current energy needs, the projected variations caused climate change, and the potential for basic retrofit measures. The latter include essentially interventions of the different parts of the building envelope.The dynamic simulation of different scenarios indicates a high potential for the energy upgrade of the buildings with a reduction of the energy needs for heating cooling and cooling of up to 70%. Further research is ongoing still for the validation of the results and the inclusion in the study of a more comprehensive set of residential typologies from different periods.