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Glucose selective textile OECT based on molecularly imprinted nanoparticles functionalized channel for in vivo plants monitoring
Get PDFOrganic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have been used as flexible biosensors, in organic bioelectronics, with high sensitivity and high transconductance but limited selectivity. OECTs can measure metabolic biomarkers, also continuously with real-time monitoring applications, in different biofluids of interest, with applications in sports, healthcare, biology and agriculture. In this study we developed an OECTs biosensor based on the functionalization of the active channel of the OECT with a biomimetic recognition element, namely molecularly imprinted nanoparticles (nanoMIPs), to selectively bind the target analyte D-glucose. Two configurations based on textile absorbent materials (nanoMIP fiber wire) or on polymer microfibers (nanoMIP microwire) were prepared and tested for D-glucose sensing and for D-fructose interference. The results show that the nanoMIPs improved the sensitivity and selectivity towards D-glucose. The nanoMIP fiber D-glucose wire sensor was used to monitor tomato plants in the field together with the conventional OECT based biosensor bioristor, providing new insights into the dynamics of the drought defense response
Pole-zero placement through the robust receptance method for multi-input active vibration control with time delay
Get PDFVibration control is fundamental to improve the performances of lightweight flexible systems. However, the introduction of sensors and actuators in the control loop introduces time-delays which must be carefully considered during the tuning stage to obtain effective controllers. This paper proposes a novel approach for the design of state and state-derivative feedback active vibration controllers in multi-input systems with time delay. The method exploits the versatility provided by the system receptances: two procedures are presented to compute the control gain matrices that simultaneously assign the antiresonance frequencies (zero assignment) and a subset of the desired closed-loop poles (partial pole placement). The notion of eigenloci of the loop gain, an extension of the Nyquist plot for multi-input systems, is used to impose closed-loop stability and guaranteed robustness margins to the closed-loop system. A Genetic Algorithm is exploited to search a solution of the control non-convex optimization problem. The effectiveness of the proposed method is assessed through numerical simulations on some benchmark systems taken from the literature. The obtained results highlight that besides assigning the prescribed zeros and poles, the proposed method enables to obtain stable closed-loop systems with guaranteed phase and gain margins
Inspiratory muscle glycemic threshold in COPD: functional and clinical associations in incremental testing
No full text: It is known that COPD is multifactorial and reduces the function of several body systems; however, its impact on inspiratory muscle metabolism and its possible clinical implications and for inspiratory muscle training are still unclear. Furthermore, the use of the glycemic threshold (GT) of inspiratory muscles as a viable and clinically useful metabolic measure in COPD is not yet addressed in the literature. This study aimed to verify whether there is an association between the GT of inspiratory muscles with Borg, functional capacity (FC) and cardiovascular autonomic balance in COPD. Included patients with COPD under outpatient follow-up and evaluated them using incremental inspiratory muscle testing (IIMT), six-minute walk test (6MWT), and heart rate variability (HRV). The GT of inspiratory muscles was strongly associated with Borg in the IIMT. The strength endurance and aerobic capacity of inspiratory muscles demonstrated by the exhaustion point (EP) and delta GT/EP showed a strong inverse correlation with the cardiovascular autonomic balance demonstrated by the LF/HF ratio. Delta GT/EP also showed an inverse correlation with dyspnea by the mMRC scale and with the final Borg in the 6MWT. The study concluded that the GT and EP of the inspiratory muscles are strongly associated with Borg in individuals with COPD. Furthermore, the aerobic capacity of the inspiratory muscles was strongly associated with dyspnea on exertion and cardiovascular autonomic balance
Achromobacter spp. in Cystic Fibrosis: Investigating Pathogenicity, Host Response, and Molecular Identification
Get PDFAchromobacter spp. are non-lactose fermenting, catalase and oxidase-positive Gram-negative bacilli commonly found in various environments. They play a significant role in human infections, particularly in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, where they can cause chronic respiratory infections. Notably, these bacteria exhibit considerable antibiotic resistance due to both innate and adaptive mechanisms.
The Achromobacter genus includes 22 species, with A. xylosoxidans being the most prevalent in CF clinical samples, linked to increased pulmonary exacerbations and hospitalizations. Other relevant species include A. dolens and A. insuavis. Current identification methods, such as VITEK 2 and MALDI-TOF MS, often struggle to accurately differentiate between species.
This research includes several studies examining the virulence, antimicrobial resistance, host immune response, and species identification of Achromobacter spp.
The first study compared phenotypic characteristics of CF clinical isolates, revealing critical differences in virulence and antibiotic resistance, which may correlate with bacterial persistence in the lungs.
A second study investigated the host inflammatory response in CFTR-knockout and wild-type mice exposed to selected isolates, finding that virulent strains induced higher lung inflammation and mortality, particularly in knockout mice. This highlights the importance of understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of Achromobacter spp.
Further research utilized an in vivo zebrafish model to explore host interactions, revealing varying levels of host mortality and bacterial persistence. Our findings demonstrated that highly virulent strains led to significant host mortality, whereas less virulent strains caused limited infections. Importantly, macrophages played a crucial role in controlling bacterial growth; their depletion resulted in increased bacterial burden and mortality, even with less virulent strains.
Finally, the development of a quantitative PCR (qPCR) protocol for species-level identification addressed challenges in accurately diagnosing Achromobacter infections. This research enhances our understanding of Achromobacter spp. in CF and other infections, informing clinical management and future therapeutic strategies
Pricing insurance contracts with an existing portfolio as background risk
No full textWe develop and investigate a premium principle that explicitly takes into account the impact of a new risk on some insurer's existing portfolio. Specifically, we propose the notion of an indifference premium for a new risk conditioned on an existing portfolio acting as background risk. The resulting premium rule, which in our case depends on the joint distribution of the new risk and the existing portfolio, is analyzed in detail with respect to its mathematical properties. In order to underline the differences between our approach and the literature on law-invariant premium rules, special attention is given to the indifference premium behaviour with respect to some well-known dependence concepts. Axiomatic and continuity properties of the proposed indifference premium rule are also investigated. To demonstrate the practical relevance of our approach, we consider a portfolio of exchangeable risks and investigate the role of the portfolio's dimension on the price of a risk to be added. This illustrates the (limits of) diversification benefits under the flexible exchangeability assumption on the joint distribution of a sequence of risks
Unveiling the interplay between sensory attenuation and fatigue: insights from healthy population and neurological disorders
Get PDFFatigue is a pervasive yet poorly understood phenomenon that affects both healthy individuals and patients with neurological disorders. This thesis investigates the role of predictive sensory mechanisms—particularly sensory attenuation (SA)—in the emergence and perception of fatigue. Across two parts, the work combines behavioural and clinical studies to examine how internal predictions shape body perception, effort, and movement.
In Part 1, sensory attenuation was assessed in clinical populations with Parkinson’s disease and Functional Movement Disorder, as well as in healthy individuals varying in trait and state fatigue. The results demonstrate that pathological and trait fatigue are associated with impaired SA, suggesting an alteration in the brain’s ability to predict the sensory consequences of self-generated actions. These findings support and extend the Sensory Attenuation Model of Fatigue (SAF), highlighting the relevance of prediction errors in fatigue-related experiences.
Part 2 broadens this framework by exploring how mental fatigue and multisensory integration influence body perception and predictive processes. Using a novel weight estimation task and vestibular modulation, the studies show that internal models governing body representation and sensory prediction are sensitive to both cognitive load and interoceptive signals.
Together, these findings provide robust experimental support for the SAF model, showing that fatigue, both pathological and physiological, is linked to a breakdown in sensory attenuation mechanisms. This thesis offers new insights into the neurocognitive basis of fatigue and lays the groundwork for objective measures and interventions targeting sensory prediction mechanisms
The Problem of the Scholarly and Late Evidence: Anatolian Glosses in Greek.
No full textThis chapter deals with a specific type of lexical evidence—that deriving from the so-called glosses— which must be taken into consideration. In previous scholarly studies, in fact, it was often mixed with direct epigraphic evidence, even though an important epistemological difference clearly exists. In our perspective, the late evidence represents the written memory of Anatolian languages in a Greek text, considering that a target language can retain the memory of a model language for a given period for a number of different reasons that must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, and which include scholarly tradition
Infecting human brain organoids with FFI or sCJD preserves prion traits regardless of host genotype
Get PDFPrion diseases, such as sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (sCJD), are neurodegenerative disorders caused by misfolding of the prion protein (PrP). The D178N mutation in the PrP gene causes Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI). Here we show that both sCJD and FFI prions can infect human cerebral organoids with or without the D178N mutation, and that the resulting infection is dictated by the inoculating prion and not the host organoid genotype
Uncorking the experience: identifying interruptions and unmet needs in wine tastings through the Gestalt cycle of contact
Get PDFWe apply the psychological model of the Gestalt Cycle of Contact to map interruptions and unmet needs in winery tasting experiences. Based on qualitative analysis (ATLAS.ti) of 15 participants and 22 open questions per phase, we identify logistical issues (wayfinding/lighting), food–wine pairing, and setting factors (layout, group size, interpretive aids) that limit immersion and satisfaction. We derive actionable guidelines (personalization, clarity, and intimacy) to design more engaging wine-tourism experiences. Limitations include a small sample and single case
Typologically-driven parallels between nominal modifiers and arguments in the clause. A formal account
Get PDFGreenberg’s (1966) Universal 20 is a widely discussed typological statement that is concerned with the crosslinguistic syntactic variation of demonstratives, cardinal numerals and adjectives modifying the noun. The exact formulation of this universal hinges on the collection of data from the widest range of natural languages possible. The theoretical explanation of the observed patterns is guided instead by the presence of two extremes. First, there are many unattested permutations. Second, a fistful of highly frequent orders manage to cover a large part of the observed crosslinguistic variation. Moreover, the theoretical debate on Greenberg’s U20 turns out to be related to the variability among languages with respect to the order of the verb and its arguments in mono-transitive clauses. In fact, the existence and the nature of correlations between the nominal and the clausal domains are relevant to both syntacticians and typologists who argue that natural languages are ruled by some universal principles. In particular, the generative tradition addresses the relation between the nominal and the clausal domains as a debate on the NP- vs. DP-hypothesis (Blümel & Holler 2021). The present work will however follow Corver (2013) in arguing that such a debate can be better termed as an argument on the Lexical vs. Functional Head Hypothesis for the nominal domain (LHH vs. FHH).
The present dissertation tackles Greenberg’s U20 and the potential parallels with the clausal domain by crossreferencing data that are publicly available. The generalizations that can be subsequently observed suggest that many theoretical assumptions previously made in the literature must be recast. Although the nominal and the clausal domains appear to affect the word order of one another, they do not show the parallel syntactic behaviors predicted by either the DP-/FH hypothesis or the Consistent Head Serialization stated by Primus (2001: 855). In this respect, the analysis of U20 proposed by Roberts (2017b) has a twofold merit. On the one hand, it provides some insights that set the stage for the data collection presented
in this work, while on the other hand it suggests that the correlations between the nominal and the clausal domains can be captured by means of some macroparameters à la M. C. Baker (2008a).
However, neither Roberts (2017b) nor any other syntactic analysis presently available manages to account for all the facts. To provide a better analysis of Greenberg’s U20, the present dissertation follows Chiang & Scheffler (2008) in adopting a computationally empowered version of Tree Adjoining Grammars (TAGs). The 2-delayed 2-Multi-Component TAG subsequently proposed manages to overcome the limits that Longenbaugh (2014) and
Georgi (2019) point out with respect to the alternate TAG approach formulated by Frank (2002) et seq. By virtue of the adopted formalism, the present work not only provides an adequate account of Greenberg’s U20 that supports the FHH, but it also solves theoretical issues related to TAGs, like the missing link problem (Kallmeyer & Kuhlmann 2012, Chen-Main &
Joshi 2014). By providing many insights on syntactic matters related to both the nominal and the clausal domains, 2-delayed 2-Multi-Component TAGs finally allow to set a rich research agenda for the future