1,183 research outputs found
The hypothalamic-pituitary axis and autoantibody related disorders
No full textThis review summarized different studies reporting the presence of autoantibodies reacting against cells of the pituitary (APAs) and/or hypothalamus (AHAs). Both APAs and AHAs have been revealed through immunofluorescence using different kinds of substrates. Autoantibodies against gonadotropic cells were mainly found in patients affected by cryptorchidism and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism while those against prolactin cells were found in different kinds of patients, the majority without pituitary abnormalities. APAs to growth hormone (GH) cells have been associated with GH deficiency while those against the adrenocorticotropic cells have distinguished central Cushingâs disease patients at risk of incomplete cure after surgical adenoma removal. AHAs to vasopressin cells have identified patients at risk of developing diabetes insipidus. APAs have been also found together with AHAs in patients affected by idiopathic hypopituitarism, but both were also present in different kinds of patients without abnormalities of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. Despite some data being promising, the clinical use of pituitary and hypothalamus autoantibodies is still limited by the low diagnostic sensitivity, irreproducibility of the results, and the absence of autoantigen/s able to discriminate the autoimmune reaction involving the pituitary or the hypothalamus from the other autoimmune states
Combination of transfemoral balloon-assisted tracking and the knuckle wire technique as a solution in a challenging urgent percutaneous coronary intervention
No full textWavelet-based algorithms for noninvasive fetal ECG post-processing: A methodological review
No full textObjective
Downstream of noninvasive fetal electrocardiography (fECG) extraction, a post-processing signal enhancement step is generally required. To date, wavelet denoising (WD) was successfully adopted but typically parameterizations are largely empiric. This comprehensive review aims to systematize the knowledge by presenting and assessing WD algorithms for this application.
Methods
17 WD algorithms for fECG enhancement were identified, presented and quantitatively compared on the same public datasets. Overall performance, effectiveness in noise reduction and signal morphology preservation were separately assessed by using a novel methodology based on principal component analysis, to synthetize different performance metrics by a single unbiased index.
Results
The comparison reveals different best solutions according to the different analyzed performance, which can be used for a reasoned selection of the right algorithm for a given enhancement problem. The proposed unbiased performance index was effective in supporting the analysis.
Conclusions
WD represents a powerful tool for fECG enhancement, but the parameterizations severely affect the algorithm performance. Our findings can be used for a reasoned selection of an algorithm or for the proposal of new WD approaches
Giulia Veronica Varisco
No full textThe headword explains the biography and the contribution of the author Giulia Varisco to the children's literatur
Italy's Diplomatic Outreach (Ministers of Foreign Affairs)
No full textThe Diplomatic Outreach dataset tracks bilateral diplomatic visits between countries. Each observation tracks the direction of the visit, the level of the visit, and the political actors involved. This version tracks the visits of the Italian Ministers of Foreign Affairs 2000-2011 with high-level peers (namely HoSGs/HoSGs-equivalent, their deputies, and MFAs). This dataset was developed in collaboration with Sofia Barbieri, Robin Bezzina, Matteo Carosotti, Marco Cavallero, Eva Chaffer, Sofia Ciccarelli, Elena De Paoli, Mattia Donati, Matteo Pandiani, Giulia Robecchi, and Sofia Vicentini
The Matter of Future Heritage
No full textIn 2018, for the first time, the University of Bologna’s Board of PhD in Architecture and Design Culture assigned second-year PhD students the task of developing and managing an international conference and publishing its works. The organisers of the first edition of this initiative – Giacomo Corda, Pamela Lama, Viviana Lorenzo, Sara Maldina, Lia Marchi, Martina Massari and Giulia Custodi – have chosen to leverage the solid relationship between the Department of Architecture and the Municipality of Bologna to publish a call having to do with the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, in which the Municipality was involved. The theme chosen for the call, The Matter of Future Heritage, set itself the ambitious goal of questioning the future of a field of research – Cultural Heritage (CH) – that is constantly being redefined. A work that was made particularly complex in Europe by the development of the H2020 programme, where the topic entered, surprisingly, not as a protagonist but rather as an articulation of other subjects that in the vision of the programme seemed evidently more urgent and, one might say, dominant. The resulting tensions have been considerable and with both negative and positive implications, all the more evident if we refer to the issues that are closest to us namely the city and the landscap
Reduction of Total Brain and Cerebellum Volumes Associated With Neuronal Autoantibodies in Patients With APECED
No full textContext: In autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy (APECED), autoantibodies (AutoAbs) labeling brain neurons were reported; conversely, brain MRI alterations associated with these AutoAbs were never reported.Objectives: To describe brain alterations in APECED and to correlate them with AutoAbs
against glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD)-, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-, and 5-tryptophan
hydroxylase (5-HT)- neurons.
Design and participants: Fourteen Sardinian APECED patients and age-matched control
subjects were recruited for MRI analysis and blood sampling to detect AutoAbs to GAD-,
TH-, and 5-HT- neurons using rat brain sections. The majority of patients (n=12) were
investigated for AutoAbs a decade ago and 7/12 were positive for AutoAbs to GAD and TH
neurons.
Main outcomes: APECED patients had smaller cerebellum and gray matter volumes, with a
ventricular enlargement and a total liquor increase, compared to controls (p<0.01). In 11/14
patients, brain abnormalities were associated with AutoAbs to GAD and/or TH neurons (titer
1:100–15000), that had persisted for 10 years in 7/11 patients. AutoAbs to 5-HT neurons
were revealed in all patients with AutoAbs to TH neurons. A decrease in whole brain and
cerebellum volumes (p=0.028) was associated with AutoAbs to GAD neurons while a liquor
increase with AutoAbs to GAD- and TH/5-HT neurons (p<0.05). HLA alleles did not appear
to be involved in neuronal autoimmunity.
Conclusions: For the first time, brain alterations together with neuronal AutoAbs were
observed in 78.6% Sardinian APECED patients, suggesting a brain autoimmune reaction.
Prolonged clinical follow-up must be conducted for the possible appearance of clinical
neurological consequences.
We revealed that APECED patients had smaller cerebellum and gray matter volumes, with a
ventricular enlargement and a total liquor increase, all associated (in 11/14) with brain neuron
AutoAbs
Relationship Between The First Diagnostic Ecg And Time To The Start Of Symptoms In Acute Myocardial Infarction
No full textQ wave is typically a late finding on ECG during STEMI and consequently, when Q wave is found on the first ECG, many patients do not receive reperfusion therapy. In reality, the Q wave can also appear early in the course of the infarct and may represent a large reversible myocardial damage. The aim of our study was to evaluate the association between ischemic time and the appearance of the Q wave in STEMI acute phase and to assess whether the presence of an early Q wave can affect the management of STEMI patients. Materials and Methods: From January 1st 2009 to December 31st 2014, 248 consecutive patients with STEMI were transported from Emergency System to our CCU. Patients were divided into two groups based on the presence of Q wave in infarction leads at first ECG: group Q-wave (QWG) with 44 patients and group No Q-wave (NQWG) composed of 204 patients. For each patient following intervals were calculated: - the time between pain onset and first ECG (pain to ECG time ); - the time between the first ECG and the first intervention that restored the necrosis vessel patency (first medical contact-to-balloon time, FMC);- The time from the arrival of the patient to the hospital, and the reopening of the necrosis vessel (door-to-balloon time, DTB). Results: Pain to ECG time was greater in patients with Q-wave (119 ± 97 vs 113.02 ± 92.6 minutes, p = 0:09). The percentage of patients with early Q-wave increased progressively with increasing pain to ECG time from 2.5% in patients with Pain to ECG less than 30 minutes to 11.6% and 18.2% respectively in patients with Pain-to-ECG more than two hours and four hours (p for trend = 0.011). The DTB time, was quite comparable in both groups, 55 ± 54 vs 24.6 ± 31.2 min, p = 0.9. The FMC did not present statistically significant differences between groups (102.2 ± 35.9 minutes vs 97.8 ± 40.05 minutes, p = 0.48). Conclusions: The appearance of the Q wave is a time dependent phenomenon and is therefore affected by the delay between the onset of ischemia and the performing ECG, with a tendency to be present even in the earliest stages of the infarct itself. Despite the presence of Q waves at the first diagnostic ECG, management standard protocol of STEMI was applied in all patients, ensuring the similar reperfusion times
Research-Based Design and Validation of a Teaching/Learning Sequence on Surface Phenomena
No full textIn this paper, after a theoretical introduction about active learning and some of its pedagogical and cognitive psychology fundamentals, we discuss the design of a teaching/learning sequence on surface phenomena for high school students, inspired by the ideas proposed by inquiry and investigative based learning approaches. A good understanding of surface phenomena is relevant in Physics and other scientific and technical fields. This, and the acknowledgement that traditional teaching methods used to introduce the basic concepts related to this topic have often proved to be not very effective in captivating students’ interest and in favouring authentic understanding of the related physical content drove us in choosing this physics topic. Finally, we discuss some results of the pilot validation of the teaching/learning sequence with two groups of high school students
Ytterbium Disilicate/Monosilicate Multilayer Environmental Barrier Coatings: Influence of Atmospheric Plasma Spray Parameters on Composition and Microstructure
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Open AccessArticle
Ytterbium Disilicate/Monosilicate Multilayer Environmental Barrier Coatings: Influence of Atmospheric Plasma Spray Parameters on Composition and Microstructure
by Giulia Di Iorio,Laura Paglia *ORCID,Giulia PedrizzettiORCID,Virgilio GenovaORCID,Francesco MarraORCID,Cecilia BartuliORCID andGiovanni PulciORCID
INSTM Reference Laboratory for Materials and Surface Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Coatings 2023, 13(9), 1602; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13091602
Original submission received: 10 August 2023 / Revised: 31 August 2023 / Accepted: 11 September 2023 / Published: 13 September 2023
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Abstract
SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composites (SiCf/SiC CMCs) are regarded as the new materials for the hot-section components of aircraft gas turbine engines, since they have one-third of the density of metallic superalloys, a higher temperature capability, good mechanical strength, and excellent thermal shock resistance. However, high-temperature water-vapor-rich combustion gases can induce severe surface recession phenomena in SiC/SiC leading to component failure. For this reason, it is necessary to design protective coatings, i.e., environmental barrier coatings (EBCs), able to protect the SiC/SiC surface in combustion environments. In the present work, ytterbium monosilicate (Yb2SiO5), stable when exposed to water vapor at high temperatures, and ytterbium disilicate (Yb2Si2O7), characterized by a thermal expansion coefficient closer to that of the substrate, were selected for a multilayer EBC system. EBCs were processed using the atmospheric plasma spray (APS) technique. A set of deposition parameters were tested, varying the power of the torch, and the composition and microstructure of the deposited coatings were studied in terms of porosity, crack density, and post-deposition phase retention by performing SEM, EDS, and XRD analysis. The results allow for the definition of the influence of deposition parameters on the final properties of multilayer EBC coatings
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