Electronic characterization of supramolecular materials at the nanoscale by Conductive Atomic Force and Kelvin Probe Force microscopies

The performances of organic (opto)electronic devices strongly depend on the order at the supramolecular level. Unraveling the relationship between structural and electronic properties in nanoscale architectures is therefore key for both fundamental studies and technological applications. C-AFM and KPFM provide an immediate correlation between the morphology of a material and its electrical/electronic properties such as local conductivity and surface potential. Thus, they are unrivaled techniques offering crucial information toward the optimization of the real devices, ultimately providing an important contribution to a hot field at the cross-road between nanoscience and organic (opto)electronics. Herein we focus on the application of C-AFM and KPFM on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), organic (semi)conducting materials for thin film transistors (TFTs) and organic blends for photovoltaics (OSCs)

Innovation and Research in Cardiac Surgery: Bioethical Aspects

Significant advancements have been made in Cardiac surgery during the last decades, thanks to technological evolution. The enormous progress achieved has led to a relevant improvement in terms of surgical results, and at the same time, new ethical dilemmas have been addressed. Until the 90’s ethics in cardiac surgery mainly concerned significant moral problems caused by the introduction of extremely innovative techniques. However, today’s ethical issue focuses essentially on the doctor-patient relationship, other aspects of doctor’s practice concern relevant ethical perspectives. Ethics affects today the activity of the surgeon and the doctor in general. It is possible to distinguish clinical ethics, an ethics of health policies, and scientific research ethics. In the following chapter, we try to analyze the main ethical aspects concerning the application of cardiac surgical procedures

Minimally Invasive Ventricular Assist Device Surgery

Heart failure is a growing disease that affects millions of people around the world. Heart transplantation is currently the therapy of choice for these patients. However, the lack of donors has forced the physician to evolve another kind of therapy such as ventricular assist device (VAD) as a bridge to transplant to compensate the lack of organs. Ventricular assist devices are today a successful therapy for the treatment of heart failure; the evolution of these devices and their progressive miniaturization have allowed an evolution of their implantation technique. To date, therefore, in addition to the traditional implant through sternotomy, there are more mini-invasive implant techniques. The purpose of the treaty is to describe these techniques, the implantation sites, and the benefits they can bring to patients

Synchronic macrophage response and <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> malaria

Human Chitotriosidase (CHIT), produced by activated macrophage, is a member of the chitinase family, a group of enzymes with the capability to hydrolyze chitin. Recently plasma CHIT activity was found elevated in children with acute P. falciparum malaria compared with healthy African children, as a consequence of macrophage activation due to the presence of parasites. In this study we recruited at the local Centre Medical Saint Camille (CMSC) of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, 62 African children (30 males and 32 females, aged 2–140 months; median 16.5 months), affected by acute P. falciparum malaria, born and living in Burkina Faso. Control subjects included 140 healthy African children (79 males and 61 females) with age ranging from 10 to 100 months (median 22 months) at evaluation time. They did not show signs of acute infectious disease and their blood smears for P. falciparum were negative. This study was approved by the local Ethical Committees of CMSC. Parents of the participating children in the study were orally informed of the scope of this research. For plasma CHIT assay, 3 ml of EDTA-blood was centrifuged and plasma samples were stored at –40°C determination by fluorimetric method at the Centre for Metabolic Diseases— University of Catania, Italy

A novel model reference adaptive control approach investigation for power electronic converter applications

This paper demonstrates the viability and effectiveness of a novel adaptive control approach applied to power electronic converters. A methodology based on the formulation of a Lyapunov-based approach is showcased to represent the operation of a new adaptive controller for the regulation of two power converter topologies (Buck and Boost). The models of the Buck and Boost converter topologies include the parasitic parameters that represent the non-ideal components. The basic idea of the control approach is to demonstrate adaptive stabilization for the proposed non-linear system. The most important design specification to stabilize the system is to track the reference trajectory in such a way that the error on the output variable converges asymptotically to zero. This adaptation mechanism is explicitly designed so that the asymptotic stability of the equilibrium condition is guaranteed according to the Lyapunov theorem and sensitivity theory. The details of the design algorithm are explained in the paper. The proposed control approach has been compared to other Lyapunov-based control techniques proposed in literature for the same non-ideal converters. The results show that the proposed controller provides better level of robustness and performance than the other wellestablished Lyapunov based controllers. To verify the effectiveness of the controller in real time, a test bench has been set up with prototypes of both converters and the controller has been implemented using the Arduino microcontroller and the control system driven through the Matlab/Simulink platform

Application of Advanced Model Reference Adaptive Control for Bidirectional AC-DC Converters

Bidirectional AC-DC converters are used in many applications such as renewable energy systems, communication systems, and grid connection of electric vehicles. In this paper, a non-linear controller based on the Lyapunov-based model reference adaptive control approach is proposed for single-phase bidirectional AC-DC converters that incorporate active power factor correction circuits. The proposed controller dynamically adjusts the output power according to the grid conditions and user preferences while maintaining a nearly unitary power factor and a constant output DC voltage set as the reference value. The proposed controller also ensures the stability and robustness of the system under various operating conditions and disturbances. The performance of the proposed controller is compared with another Lyapunov-based control proposed in the literature to show that the proposed controller performs at least on par with the other controller in all aspects

Flow Optimization, Management, and Prevention of LV Distention during VA-ECMO

Cardiogenic shock (CS) still carries an unacceptably high mortality (30–60%), despite several therapeutic approaches; the SHOCK II trial questioned the benefit of intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP), while IMPRESS and CULPRIT-SHOCK trials confirmed heterogeneity in disease spectrum and patient selection for acute myocardial infarction-related CS requiring acute mechanical circulatory support (AMCS). The heterogeneity of devices employed as AMCS, including temporary micro-axial flow pumps (Impella), percutaneous bypass (TandemHeart), and extracorporeal life support (VA-ECMO), contributed to the actual dramatic scenario, where CS is defined clinically rather than hemodynamically. To date, the role of VA-ECMO is emerging as rapid strategy to mitigate mortality rates of severe refractory states, despite the lack of data regarding the best practices of management and flows control. VA-ECMO’s flow represents the “dose” of treatment and higher flows are less tolerated percutaneously requiring, to prevent deleterious pulmonary edema and ventricular distention, additional approaches such as pulmonary, left atrial, or left ventricular unloading. Any efforts have to be directed to (1) determine adequate management of patients on VA-ECMO, (2) define the safer duration of VA-ECMO support, and (3) establish algorithms and techniques to predict and obtain stable weaning from ECMO or ensure fast transition to durable VAD and/or heart transplant

Fluid transfer and vein thickness distribution in high and low temperature hydrothermal systems at shallow crustal level in southern Tuscany (Italy)

Geometric analysis of vein systems hosted in upper crustal rocks and developed in high and low temperature hydrothermal systems is presented. The high temperature hydrothermal system consists of tourmaline-rich veins hosted within the contact aureole of the upper Miocene Porto Azzurro pluton in the eastern Elba Island. The low temperature hydrothermal system consists of calcite-rich veins hosted within the Oligocene sandstones of the Tuscan Nappe, exposed along the coast in southern Tuscany. Vein thickness distribution is here used as proxy for inferring some hydraulic properties (transmissivity) of the fluid circulation at the time of veins’ formation. We derive estimations of average thickness of veins by using the observed distributions. In the case of power law thickness distributions, the lower the scaling exponent of the distribution the higher the overall transmissivity. Indeed, power law distributions characterized by high scaling exponents have transmissivity three order of magnitude lower than negative exponential thickness distribution. Simple observations of vein thickness may thus provides some clues on the transmissivity in hydrothermal systems