Gas fluidized bed polymerization.

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Myotonic dystrophy type 1 and high ventricular vulnerability at the electrophysiological evaluation: ICD yes or not?

A significant number of sudden death (SD) is observed in myotonic dystrophy (DM1) despite pacemaker implantation and some consider the ICD to be the preferential device in patients with conduction disease. According to the latest guidelines, prophylactic ICD implantation in patients with neuromuscular disorder should follow the same recommendations of non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, being reasonable when pacing is needed. We here report a case of DM1 patient who underwent ICD implantation even in the absence of conduction disturbances on ECG and ventricular dysfunction/fibrosis at cardiac magnetic resonance. The occurrence of syncope, non-sustained ventricular tachycardias at 24-Holter ECG monitoring and a family history of SD resulted associated with ventricular fibrillation inducibility at electrophysiological study, favouring ICD implantation. On our advice, DM1 patient with this association of SD risk factors should be targeted for ICD implantation

Exploring drivers of overnight stays and same-day visits in the tourism sector

: We employ mobile network data referred to the area of Lombardy in Italy to investigate alternative touristic behaviours, such as same-day visits and overnight stays in Italy. We show that larger availability of tourism accommodations, cultural and natural endowments are relevant factors explaining overnight stays. Conversely, temporary entertainment and transportation facilities increase municipalities attractiveness for same-day visits. The results also highlight a trade-off in the capability of municipalities of being attractive in connection to both the tourism behaviours. For instance, higher tourists arrivals are observed in areas receiving limited visitors, coming from municipalities with low same-day visits outflows. We highlight mobile data offer an adequate level of spatial and temporal granularity and can be thus employed to support policy makers in the design of effective tourist management strategies

Autonomous Non-Equilibrium Self-Assembly and Molecular Movements Powered by Electrical Energy

The ability to exploit energy autonomously is one of the hallmarks of life. Mastering such processes in artificial nanosystems can open technological opportunities. In the last decades, light- and chemically driven autonomous systems have been developed in relation to conformational motion and self-assembly, mostly in relation to molecular motors. In contrast, despite electrical energy being an attractive energy source to power nanosystems, its autonomous harnessing has received little attention. Herein we consider an operation mode that allows the autonomous exploitation of electrical energy by a self-assembling system. Threading and dethreading motions of a pseudorotaxane take place autonomously in solution, powered by the current flowing between the electrodes of a scanning electrochemical microscope. The underlying autonomous energy ratchet mechanism drives the self-assembly steps away from equilibrium with a higher energy efficiency compared to other autonomous systems. The strategy is general and might be extended to other redox-driven systems

Geochronology of late Variscan magmatism of Sardinia: a review

Sardinia represents a southern transect of the Variscan Belt and is classically divided from SW to NE into a fold and thrust belt Foreland, Nappe zone and Axial zone. This latter high-grade domain is separated from the Nappe zone by the so-called Posada-Asinara Line. The whole metamorphic basement is intruded by many calc-alkaline coalescent plutons forming the Corsica-Sardinia Batholith. The timing of magmatism, in Sardinia, is broadly referable to a large interval in the range of 320-280 Ma. Recent geological maps coupled to several chronological systematics, point out to recognize two main post-collisional magmatic peaks clustered at about 305 Ma (Older Magmatic Peak, OMP) and at 285 Ma (Young Magmatic Peak, YMP), respectively. Plutons intruding different parts of the Sardinian basement show different geological styles. Among the OMP, main differences regard: (a) the granodiorite/granite volume ratio in the main plutons; (b) the abundance of peraluminous rock-types; (c) the occurrence of mafic intrusions; (d) the abundance of late-magmatic dyke swarms. The Axial zone is dominated by monzogranites and subordinate granodiorites and leucogranites (320-307 Ma); tonalites and granodiorites (305-300 Ma), along with peraluminous granites, characterize the inner Nappe zone (i.e., Goceano, Baronie, Barbagia). Remarkably, the oldest intrusions (i.e., Barrabisa and Santa Maria: 320 Ma) are foliated and may represent a prebatholith magmatic phase. Plutons occurring in the external Nappe zone and the Foreland are generally dominated by granodiorites (e.g., Arbus, Ogliastra, Sàrrabus: 305-300 Ma) associated to small gabbronoritic bodies. The YMP is marked in the Axial zone by large leucogranite intrusions (Monte Lerno); gabbroic intrusions are present at 285-280 Ma. The YMP is dominant in the external Nappe zone and in the Foreland. This peak include monzogranites and leucogranites with minor granodiorites; specific characters are: (a) common occurrence of F-bearing, ferroan, ilmeniteseries granitoids; (b) slightly peraluminous character; (c) very shallow emplacement levels, with common greisen alteration; (d) presence of Sn-W-Mo and F ores; (e) association to swarms of tholeiitic mafic dikes. The timing and distribution of Sardinian intrusive magmatism are tentatively framed during the post-collisional evolution of the chain, in response to progressive lithospheric delamination along a N-S direction. In this model, the passive upwelling of hot astenosphere triggered dehydration melting at lower to intermediate crustal levels, associated with minor melting of the lithospheric mantle. Several major issues emerge from this schematic picture, including (a) the precise timing of the magmatic peaks, (b) the significance of the gap between them, (c) the difference in volumes and spatial distribution of the main rock-suites, (d) the geological and petrological frame at the district- to single pluton-, up to regional scale, and (e) the age of mafic dyke swarms

Evaluating the impact of transport mechanisms on web performance for effective web access

Peer reviewedPostprin

How to prioritize bridge maintenance using a functional priority index

The progressive aging of civil infrastructures makes it essential to develop managerial tools and instrument for planning maintenance activities. As public entities, typically in charge of the management of infrastructures, have limited resources, it is crucial to define clear prioritization criteria. Addressing this need, this work introduces the usage of a functional priority index for ranking infrastructures on the basis of the impact of their closure. The impact is expressed in terms of induced travel delay for people due to path detour. To estimate this delay an analytical strategy is introduced and applied to assess the priority index on a sample of 290 bridges in Lombardy. Relevant information are gathered integrating two data sources providing information on the transportation network and on the travel demand, i.e. road network data and Origin Destination matrices. The results of this application show that the method enables the identification of the most critical infrastructures and the detection, for each bridge closure, of the most impacted areas of the region and the most impacted hours of the day

Data-Driven Methodology for Knowledge Graph Generation Within the Tourism Domain

The tourism and hospitality sectors have become increasingly important in the last few years and the companies operating in this field are constantly challenged with providing new innovative services. At the same time, (big-) data has become the 'new oil' of this century and Knowledge Graphs are emerging as the most natural way to collect, refine, and structure this heterogeneous information. In this paper, we present a methodology for semi-automatic generating a Tourism Knowledge Graph (TKG), which can be used for supporting a variety of intelligent services in this space, and a new ontology for modelling this domain, the Tourism Analytics Ontology (TAO). Our approach processes and integrates data from Booking.com, Airbnb, DBpedia, and GeoNames. Due to its modular structure, it can be easily extended to include new data sources or to apply new enrichment and refinement functions. We report a comprehensive evaluation of the functional, logical, and structural dimensions of TKG and TAO

Generation of donor-specific T regulatory type 1 cells from patients on dialysis for cell therapy after kidney transplantation

Background. Tregulatory type 1 (Tr1) cell-mediated induction of tolerance in preclinicalmodels of transplantation is remarkably effective. The clinical application of such a therapy in patients on dialysis undergoing kidney transplantation should take into account the possible alterations of the immune systemobserved in these patients. Herein, we aimed at testing the ability to generate donor-specific Tr1 cell-enriched lymphocytes from patients on dialysis on the waiting list for kidney transplantation. Methods. The Tr1 cell-enriched lymphocytes were generated by coculturing interleukin-10-producing dendritic cells obtained from healthy donors with peripheral bloodmononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients on dialysis, following the same protocol used in a previous cell therapy clinical trial to prevent graft-versus-host disease. Alternatively, purified CD4+ Tcells were used instead of total PBMCs. The ability to generate clinical-grade Tr1 cell-enriched products was defined by testing the reduced response to restimulation withmature dendritic cells generated fromthe original donor (i.e., anergy assay). Results. The Tr1 cell-enrichedmedicinal products generated from PBMCs of patients on dialysis showed a low anergic phenotype, incompatible with their eventual clinical application. This was irrespective of HLA matching with the donor or the intrinsically reduced ability to proliferate in response to alloantigens. On the contrary, the use of purified CD4+ T cells isolated from patients on dialysis led to the generation of a highly anergic donor-specific medicinal product containing an average of 10% Tr1 cells. Conclusions. The Tr1 cell-enriched medicinal products can be efficiently generated from patients on dialysis by carefully tailoring the protocol on the patients' immunological characteristics