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Ionic‐Liquid Free and Flexible Transistors Made of 2D Material Inks
No full textThe development of thin-film transistors (TFTs) using 2D materials is crucial for enabling scalable, low-cost, and flexible electronics. Currently, 2D TFTs with the highest performance have been achieved by using ionic-liquid gating (ILG), a technique suited for proof-of-concept studies. However, ILG suffers from slow switching speeds, temperature sensitivity, poor long-term stability, and integration challenges, making it unsuitable for practical use. Moreover, typical fabrication methods for 2D TFTs involve harsh conditions such as strong acids or high temperatures (>300 °C), limiting integration with flexible substrates. This work provides the first demonstration of an ILG-free, all-2D-material TFT fabricated onto a flexible substrate. Water-based graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) inks are printed to deposit the electrodes and dielectric layers, respectively. The MoS2 channel is produced via supramolecular interfacial self-assembly, yielding uniform, monolayer-rich films transferable to rigid and flexible substrates. The resulting TFTs operate below 3 V, exhibit negligible leakage current, and achieve field-effect mobilities up to 0.46 cm2 V−1 s−1 (rising to 2.47 cm2 V−1 s−1 with silver electrodes) measured under ambient conditions, while maintaining excellent mechanical flexibility. This work establishes a low-cost and scalable solution-processable platform for flexible electronics based on 2D materials that match requirements for practical applications
Micro-costing analysis from Italian Guidelines for the management of sporadic primary hyperparathyroidism
No full textIntroduction: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a common endocrine disorder, primarily caused by single adenomas or multiglandular disease. This study evaluates the economic impact of different PHPT treatment approaches from both the Italian National Health Service and societal perspectives. Methods: A micro-costing approach was used to estimate the costs of surgical and non-surgical treatments. Data were gathered through a survey among panel members responsible for the Italian PHPT treatment guidelines, ensuring alignment with national clinical practice. The survey examined various cost components, including diagnostic tests, pre-hospitalization assessments, surgery duration, drug use, healthcare professionals involved, disposable materials, and follow-up care requirements. Results: The total cost for PHPT diagnosis and comorbidity assessment is € 887.96. Parathyroidectomy (PTX) costs € 4,588.00. Non-surgical alternatives, including pharmacological treatment (€ 953.34 annually) and active surveillance (€ 197.42 annually), result in cumulative 30-year costs of € 28,590 and € 5,910, respectively. Since PTX is typically performed at age 55, pharmacological treatment over 30 years incurs an additional € 22,876 per patient compared to surgery. Conclusions: Despite its higher upfront cost, PTX demonstrated long-term cost efficiency due to the relatively low rates of follow-up complications and the absence of recurring annual costs associated with conservative strategies
Lipodystrophy Syndromes: One Name but Many Diseases Highlighting the Importance of Adipose Tissue in Metabolism
No full textPurpose of Review: This review aims to introduce the latest developments in etiology and classification of lipodystrophy syndromes. Recent Findings: Recent developments in genetic assessment with deeper sequencing have increased the number of specific etiologies of lipodystrophy with known single-gene associations. Despite this, more than 50% of patients diagnosed with partial and most of acquired lipodystrophy do not have a precise disease mechanism. Regardless of the cause of lipodystrophy, patients present with multiple important comorbidities. Complications impact not only metabolic endpoints but the entire body, akin to what happens in extreme obesity. Summary: As research advances, new subtypes of lipodystrophy are being identified, with recent studies shifting focus from adipocyte differentiation to the role of cellular structures, survival pathways, and immune regulation in the disease etiology. These metabolic diseases pose significant clinical challenges, underscoring the need for further research to understand the mechanisms more precisely, identify new subtypes, and develop targeted therapies
Zantedeschia aethiopica Spreng. Improvement Through Biotechnology: Tissue Culture, Breeding and Genomic Resources
No full textCalla lily is a very popular ornamental plant used for cut flower production and pot plant cultivation for gardens and landscape. The original nucleus came from South Africa, Cape Region and it had a wide and important development in America and Europe. In addition to the ornamental value several evidence of the use of different parts of the plant are reported in traditional medicine. The flowers are white with some light rose colour and differ for shape, leaves and color from the sub-group Aestivae Zanthedeschia species as Z. elliottiana or Z. jucunda. The species is susceptible to soft rot (Erwinia carotovora) an important disease, causing severe loss of material. The breeding programs both traditional or innovative are devoted to the development of new varieties with better ornamental traits as high yield, early flowering, large flowers and flower shape and to pathogen resistance. The faster propagation system is the micropropagation driven with high concentration of cytokinins (4 mg/l), the clonal lines are established in vitro or from meristem tips excision that contribute to the production of virus-free mother plants evaluated by molecular evidence, or rhizomes sterilization; rooting phase is easy as the acclimatization phase. Relatively few studies have been published concerning themolecular markers
in genus Zantedeschia: RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA), ISSR (Inter Simple Sequence Repeat), AFLP (Amplified and SSR (Simple Sequence Repeat)
methods were used for cultivar identification and genetic variation assessment. More recently, sequencing, assembling, annotation of the chloroplast (cp) genomes of four species of Zantedeschia, including Z. aethiopica, with the Illumina sequencing technology, allowed to develop cpSSR markers with potential genetic diversity assessment
and variety identification. In this paper a complete review of the more fruitful biotechnological approaches for the valorisation of the species are reported together with some original results coming from the work of the authors
A Scalable Telemedicine System for Real-Time Chronic Disease Patient Monitoring
No full textThe rapid evolution of mobile health technologies has significantly transformed healthcare delivery. With smart-phones, smartwatches and various specialized sensors becoming commonplace, there is now a unique opportunity to continuously gather diverse biomedical data in a seamless and unobtrusive manner, for instance, to monitor patients affected by chronic disease. Adopting telemedicine on a large-scale, however, still requires novel approaches to ensure scalability. In this paper, we present a novel telemedicine platform for monitoring patients' affected by chronic disease that aims at efficiently managing how data is uploaded based on patients' information and the current system/network status. The proposed system employs heterogeneous non-intrusive commercial devices to collect health data. Each device is programmed to adjust the data collection rate based on the status of the patient and to change the data transmission rate depending on metrics measuring the current system/network status. This ensures that data from critical patients are collected in a fine-grained manner and received by the system with priority over the others, thus allowing the clinician to monitor patients' conditions in real-time. A proof-of-concept of the proposed platform is implemented and tested. Results demonstrate that the platform is capable of adjusting the transmission rate to ensure the priority of data from patients in critical condition, even without network support
Il perduto Sofocle di PSI XV 1476, col. ii: una proposta di identificazione
No full textThis paper offers a new reconstruction of PSI XV 1476, fr. 1, col. ii, aiming to
demonstrate that the lost quotation of Sophocles in lines 2–4 could come from the lost play Aleadae, and could match with fr. 88 Radt, lines 6–7
Protective ileostomy creation after anterior resection of the rectum (PICARR): a decision-making exploring international survey
No full textIn our previous survey of experts, surgeon’s decision-making process (DMP) about protective ileostomy (PI) creation after anterior resection was investigated. Based on our previous data, a multiple choice questionnaire has been developed. The aim is to perform a quantitative analysis of the results obtained from an international survey and to describe the clinical practice worldwide. Ten questions were related to participants’ demographics and, 20 questions (of which 17 Likert scale questions) investigated the DMP regarding PI creation. To evaluate the tendency of the answers in the Likert-type questions, the mean of the answers obtained was compared with the mean point of the Likert scale. The survey was completed by 1019 physicians. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and distance of the anastomosis from the anal verge ≤ 10 cm were each considered alone sufficient to justify creation of a PI, with statistically significant differences in comparison to the mean point of the scales in (p = < 0.0001 in both cases). Total Mesorectal Excision alone was not considered a factor sufficient to create a PI (p = 0.416). Most of the participants agree to define their approach to create a PI “tailored” to patients’ risk factors (p = < 0.0001) and “influenced by my experience” in case of patients with low/moderate risk of anastomotic leakage (p = < 0.0001). This study provides useful insights on the worldwide clinical practice regarding creation of PI following anterior resection. Given the lack of standardization and evidence-based guidelines, this analysis may be helpful to assist surgeons’ practice
Validation of a coupled STH and low-fidelity CFD approach using experimental data from NACIE-UP test facility
No full textThe IAEA CRP "Benchmark of Transition from Forced to Natural Circulation Experiment with Heavy Liquid Metal Loop" aims to support the development of numerical models suitable for the investigation of thermal-hydraulic analysis of liquid metal cooled reactors. In particular, this work presents a multiscale approach developed to assess cases where the addressed facility experiences a simulated Loss Of Flow Accident. A domain decomposition approach was used together with an explicit scheme, adopting a novel application philosophy for CFD modelling. Indeed, the CFD model was built to simplify as much as possible the wrapped wires design, since a detailed description of such components increases the cell count exponentially. The "simplified" model allows for a shorter running time of the simulation with an equivalent number of CPUs used, making this approach appealing for preliminary estimations of the main thermal-hydraulics phenomena involved. The results show that suitable predictions were usually achieved both for the initial and final steady-state conditions; improvements can be obtained in the transient phase working on the considered boundary conditions
The involvement of the cholinergic system in Parkinson disease
No full textIn Parkinson disease (PD), cholinergic dysfunction develops in the early stages of the neurodegenerative process and progresses over time. Basal forebrain cholinergic system dysfunction is historically linked to cognitive decline in the dementia spectrum, and its pathophysiologic role in PD-related cognitive impairment has now been well established. However, cholinergic system dysfunction is also linked to several other manifestations of PD, such as gait difficulties, REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), neuropsychiatric manifestations such as depression and visual hallucinations, and olfactory dysfunction. Furthermore, disruption of the striatal intrinsic cholinergic system, which modulates dopamine release, has been linked to cardinal motor manifestations and dyskinesia.
Manifestations of cognitive decline, gait problems, falls, and RBD tend to cluster in a subset of people with PD, so that a “cholinergic phenotype” has been proposed.
In this chapter, the involvement of the cholinergic system and its clinical correlates in PD will be discussed
Micro-Doppler Frequency Extraction and Scatterer Classification for a Smooth-Surfaced Cone-Shaped Precession Target Under Narrowband Radar
No full textThe micro-Doppler (μD) characteristics of ballistic targets are crucial for estimating motion and structural parameters, as well as for target recognition. However, existing time-frequency (TF) analysis methods are predominantly nonparametric and suffer from limited resolution, making it challenging to accurately extract μD TF curves. This limitation hampers further applications in this domain. Therefore, under narrowband radar observation conditions, this article proposes a method for μD TF characteristics extraction and scatterer type identification, specifically for smooth-surfaced cone-shaped precession targets. The method first utilizes sliding-window Root-MUSIC to extract the instantaneous μD frequencies of the target. Then, the inverse Radon transform (IRT) and You Only Look Once version 5 algorithm are applied to locate and identify the peaks of cone vertex and cone base after IRT. Based on the peaks, the μD TF trend curves can be reconstructed using the Radon transform (RT). The extracted instantaneous μD frequencies are then associated according to the trend curves, enabling the reconstruction of the μD frequencies for the cone vertex and cone base. Experiments validate the effectiveness and noise robustness of the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the estimation accuracy of the proposed method is independent of the sampling interval and significantly outperforms traditional nonparametric methods