Millimeter-Waves Structures on Benzocyclobutene Dielectric Substrate

The need of low-loss substrate materials with stable dielectric performances is a strong requirement when working at millimeter frequencies, where standard dielectrics exhibit prohibitive losses. In this paper, the authors focus their attention on a polymer material, the benzocyclobutene (BCB), having a low dielectric constant and a low loss tangent, with a stable behavior up to THz frequencies. A specific in-house manufacture technology is described to realize millimeter-wave structures on a BCB dielectric substrate. Experimental validations on BCB-based circuits and antennas prototypes are discussed

The ATLAS Simulation: an LHC Challenge

The simulation program for the ATLAS experiment at CERN is currently in a full operational mode and integrated into the ATLAS common analysis framework, Athena. The OO approach, based on GEANT4, and in use during the DC2 data challenge has been interfaced within Athena and to GEANT4 using the LCG dictionaries and Python scripting. The robustness of the application was proved during the DC2 data challenge. The Python interface has added the flexibility, modularity and interactivity that the simulation tool requires in order to be able to provide a common implementation of different full ATLAS simulation setups, test beams and cosmic ray applications. Generation, simulation and digitization steps were exercised for performance and robustness tests. The comparison with real data has been possible in the context of the ATLAS Combined Test Beam (2004) and ongoing cosmic ray studies

Efalizumab

Introduction: Conventional systemic therapies for psoriasis are associated with serious toxicities that can limit long-term use. In recent years, biological therapies have offered the possibility of long-term therapy with improved safety and efficacy for the treatment of psoriasis. Biological therapies can be classified into three categories: the T-cell modulating agents (alefacept and efalizumab), the inhibitors of TNF-alpha (adalimumab, etanercept, infliximab) and the inhibitors of IL-12 and -23 (ustekinumab). Efalizumab is a humanized recombinant monoclonal IgG1 antibody. It targets multiple stages in the immunopathogenesis of psoriasis: initial T-cell activation, migration of T-cells into dermal and epidermal tissues, and T-cell reactivation. On 19 February 2009, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended the suspension of the marketing authorisation for efalizumab.Areas covered: Numerous clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy, safety and health-related quality of life benefits of efalizumab in patients with moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis. Efalizumab was approved by the FDA in November 2003 and by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency in September 2004 for the treatment of adult patients with moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis. Recently, three cases of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy were described in patients on long-term (> 3 years) efalizumab therapy, leading to its withdrawal from the market.Expert opinion: Although initially favorable, the safety profile of efalizumab revealed the appearance of severe adverse events in long-term treated patients. Therefore, post-marketing surveillance is essential for correct evaluation of drug potential

Radar array diagnosis from undersampled data using a compressed sensing/sparse recovery technique

A Compressed Sensing/Sparse Recovery approach is adopted in this paper for the accurate diagnosis of fault array elements from undersampled data. Experimental validations on a slotted waveguide test array are discussed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed procedure in the failures retrieval from a small set of measurements with respect to the number of radiating elements. Due to the sparsity feature of the proposed formulation, the method is particularly appealing for the diagnostics of large arrays, typically adopted for radar applications

DISTRIBUTED-DELAY MODELS OF THE GLUCOSE-INSULIN HOMEOSTASIS AND ASYMPTOTIC STATE OBSERVATION

Abstract In this paper the problem of the real-time reconstruction of plasma insulin concentration by using only blood glucose measurements is investigated. This is an interesting problem because the knowledge of the time course of the glucose and insulin concentrations in an individual provides precious informations concerning its health state, and may assume the role of a clinical instrument. For the purpose of the reconstruction of the insulinemia a dynamical model of the glucose-insuline homeostasis is required. The present work considers distributed delay models. Such models have been preferred in recent papers with respect to the standard Minimal Models, available in literature from 70's, because they allow to couple the glucose and insulin dynamics in a unique extended system, whose solutions have been proven to be positive, bounded, and globally asymptotically stable around the basal values of the equilibrium point. Data are acquired according to the Intra Venous Glucose Tolerance Test (IVGTT). Simulation results are reported in order to validate the developed theory

A transcriptomic approach reveals selective ribosomal remodelling in the tumour versus the stromal compartment of metastatic colorectal cancer

Because of its high incidence and poor prognosis, colorectal cancer (CRC) represents an important health issue in several countries. As with other carcinomas, the so-called tumour microenvironment (TME) has been shown to play key roles in CRC progression and related therapeutical outcomes, even though a deeper understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms is needed to devise new treatment strategies. For some years now, omics technologies and consolidated bioinformatics pipelines have allowed scientists to access large amounts of biologically relevant information, even when starting from small tissue samples; thus, in order to shed new light upon the role of the TME in CRC, we compared the gene expression profiles of 6 independent tumour tissues (all progressed towards metastatic disease) to the expression profile of the surrounding stromata. To do this, paraffin-embedded whole tissues were first microdissected to obtain samples enriched with tumour and stromal cells, respectively. Afterwards, RNA was extracted and analysed using a microarray-based approach. A thorough bioinformatics analysis was then carried out to identify transcripts differentially expressed between the two groups and possibly enriched functional terms. Overall, 193 genes were found to be significantly downregulated in tumours compared to the paired stromata. The functional analysis of the downregulated gene list revealed three principal macro areas of interest: the extracellular matrix, cell migration, and angiogenesis. Conversely, among the upregulated genes, the main alterations detected by the functional annotation were related to the ribosomal proteins (rProteins) of both the large (60S) and small (40S) subunits of the cytosolic ribosomes. Subsequent gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) confirmed the massive overexpression of most cytosolic—but not mitochondrial—ribosome rProteins

Effects of Lippia citriodora leaf extract on lipid and oxidative blood profile of volunteers with hypercholesterolemia: A preliminary study

Lippia citriodora is a plant traditionally used for its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antispasmodic effects, as well as for additional biological activities proven in cell culture, animal studies and a small number of human clinical trials. The plant has also shown a marked improvement in blood lipid profile in some animal species. In the present preliminary study, we investigated the effect of a leaf extract on lipid and oxidative blood profile of hypercholesterolemic volunteers. Twelve adults received Lippia citriodora extract caps, containing 23% phenylpropanoids, (100 mg, once a day) for 16 weeks. Selected blood lipids and plasma oxidative markers were measured at baseline and after 4, 8 and 16 weeks of treatment. Compared with baseline, total cholesterol levels significantly decreased and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased, while low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides showed only a downward trend. Oxidative status was improved due to a decrease in the concentration of total oxidant status, reactive oxygen metabolites and malondialdehyde, and a significant increase in ferric reducing ability of plasma, vitamin A and vitamin E. These preliminary results suggest that dietary supplementation with Lippia citriodora extract can improve the lipid profile, enhance blood antioxidant power, and could be a valuable natural compound for the management of human hypercholesterolemia