30 research outputs found
Total Content and Chemical Speciation of Arsenic in the Polychaete Sabella spallanzanii.
No full textMechanical modeling of bend sensors exploited to measure human joint movements
No full textFlexibility, lightness, wearability and cheapness are the most important features for a successful adoption of bend sensors, being they fundamental elements to realize systems able to convert static positions and movements into electrical signals. Even though these sensors have been employed for many different applications, the focal aspect of their mechanical modeling is still not adequately considered. For such a reason the aim of this paper is to fill a lack concerning the method of bend sensors mechanical characterization and modeling. The results have been exploited to realize an instrumented glove able to measure finger joints movements
Total mesorectal excision for surgical treatment of rectal cancer
No full textAbstract: Background and Objectives: The aim of our study was to retrospectively evaluate the results of 2 groups of patients admitted and treated for rectal cancer.
Methods: One hundred and fifty-one patients were available for evaluation. Eighty (group A) were radically operated with the standard technique; 71 (group B) underwent total mesorectal excision (TME). Groups were similar according to demographics, staging, and pathological data. Mean follow-up was 73.5 months.
Results: No operative mortality was observed. Complications were 15% in group A and 32% in group B. Local recurrence rates were 41.2% in group A and 12.6% in group B. Distant metastases occurred in 21.2% and 7.6%, respectively, in groups A and B. Cancer-related mortality was 62.5% in the non-TME group and 19.5% in the TME group. Overall 5-year survival rates were 32.4% in group A and 70.5% in group B. Disease-free survival rates were 25% in group A and 62.3% in group B.
Conclusions: TME appears to lower the incidence of cancer-related mortality, with a higher incidence of postoperative complications. Further studies need to be done to assess the real benefits of TME in the surgical treatment of rectal cancer
A successful cooperation between academia and industry in higher rail education. the postgraduate course in “Railway Infrastructure and Systems Engineering” at Sapienza
No full textThe aim of this paper is to describe the postgraduate course in “Railway Infrastructure and Systems Engineering” at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, funded
by rail companies operating in Italy. It represents a successful example of cooperation between academia and industry in the field of railway transport. The success of the program
is attested by its placement (the 90% of the graduates find an employment within six months in the companies which support the course; this percentage reached the 98% in the last three editions) and by the fact that every year it receives many more applications (almost 400 last year) than the maximum number of students that can attend the course (30). The main factors that make this course successful are its multidisciplinary training and the very close collaboration between the University and partner companies. In fact, the program of each
module is designed both by academics and by managers of the companies in order to ensure an up-to-date teaching, which provides both the academic and the industrial point of view of any rail subject; this enables students to obtain a complete vision of the railway system, so to be able to work in any of the partner companies
Male breast cancer: a case report and review of the literature.
No full textBreast cancer in men is an uncommon disease. Because of its rarity little is known about its aetiology, clinical behaviour and treatment. Retrospective studies show that when age- and stage-matched breast cancer in men and women are compared, there is no difference in survival between the two groups. Nevertheless, because of the absence of screening protocols and the limited amount of mammary tissue in men, allowing rapid local infiltration, a late diagnosis is often made, with a poor survival rate. Most of our current knowledge about the biology, natural history, surgical therapeutic strategies, adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy protocols of male breast carcinoma has been extrapolated from its female counterpart. The Authors report the case of a male patient with breast cancer and pagetoid diffusion in the nipple region, and, on the basis of a review of the literature, summarise what is currently known about this rare neoplasm in terms of prognostic factors, therapy and survival
Wireless data glove system developed for HMI
No full textA simple PC screen can be considered as an interface of a virtual environment where an user can move objects and interact with them. The interaction tools can be simply a virtual mouse or a keyboard. But it is evident how these tools cannot provide an immersive experience since the bi-dimensionality of the screen. So in the latter years the virtual reality is becoming more and more accomplished by new hardware interfaces capable to increase the realism degree. Among all, the sensorized glove is becoming one of the more interesting and promising of these interfaces. Here we propose the electronic interface and signal conditioning circuitry we adopt as the most suitable for our developed data glove system
microRNA Detection via Nanostructured Biochips for Early Cancer Diagnostics
No full textMicroRNA (miRNA) are constituted of approximately 22 nucleotides and play an important role in the regulation of many physiological functions and diseases. In the last 10 years, an increasing interest has been recorded in studying the expression profile of miRNAs in cancer. Real time-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), microarrays, and small RNA sequencing represent the gold standard techniques used in the last 30 years as detection methods. The advent of nanotechnology has allowed the fabrication of nanostructured biosensors which are widely exploited in the diagnostic field. Nanostructured biosensors offer many advantages: (i) their small size allows the construction of portable, wearable, and low-cost products; (ii) the large surface–volume ratio enables the loading of a great number of biorecognition elements (e.g., probes, receptors); and (iii) direct contact of the recognition element with the analyte increases the sensitivity and specificity inducing low limits of detection (LOD). In this review, the role of nanostructured biosensors in miRNA detection is explored, focusing on electrochemical and optical sensing. In particular, four types of nanomaterials (metallic nanoparticles, graphene oxide, quantum dots, and nanostructured polymers) are reported for both detection strategies with the aim to show their distinct properties and applications
A novel application method for wearable bend sensors
No full textBend sensors fundamental characteristic is to furnish an electrical resistance value related to the angle they are bent. This feature can be successfully exploited to realize wearable systems capable to measure human static and dynamic postures. In particular some efforts have been made to determine finger joint movements of human hands and it has been demonstrated the feasibility of using the so called data glove system as a goniometric device. The repeatability of such system is quite good for general purposes but it is still not sufficient for specific applications (for instance in virtual surgery). So here we introduce a novel application method of bend sensors and demonstrate how it can be useful to improve the system repeatabilit
«La traccia dello scrittore sta solo nella singolarità della sua assenza»: montaggio e disappropriazione in La Compañía di Verónica Gerber Bicecci
No full textL’obiettivo del contributo è proporre una riflessione su possibili configurazioni non canoniche della funzione autoriale attraverso l‘analisi del testo La Compañía (2019) dell’artista visuale messicana Verónica Gerber Bicecci. L’opera si costruisce attraverso la collazione di materiali preesistenti, assemblati con lo scopo di ricostruire gli eventi relativi a una miniera situata in un piccolo paese messicano. La proposta che si intende avanzare parte dalla volontà di svincolare la funzione autoriale dall’azione di scrittura, postulandone una configurazione che trova nel prisma benjaminiano del montaggio e nella categoria di «disappropriazione» formulata da Cristina Rivera Garza delle chiavi ermeneutiche capaci di illuminare l’agency intrinseca al processo di selezione e collazione, e al contempo uno strumento epistemologico di cui Gerber si serve per articolare un discorso proprio, legittimandola quale autrice del testo
