Effect of coordinating solvents on the structure of Cu(II)-4,4'-bipyridine coordination polymers

Solvent can play a crucial role in the synthesis of coordination polymers (CPs). Here, this study reports how the coordinating solvent approach (CSA) can be used as an effective tool to control the nature of the final CP. This study exploited the system Cu(II)-4,4 '-bipyridine coupled to different coordinating solvents, such as DMA, DMF and DMSO. This allowed the isolation and structurally characterization of four new CPs: three 2D layered networks and one 1D chain. Moreover, it was evidenced that even adventitious water can play the role of the coordinating solvent in the final CP

TIMING OF GLYCEROL ADDITION ON SPERM QUALITY IN CRYOPRESERVATION OF CANINE SEMEN

El objetivo del presente trabajo fue evaluar el efecto del momento de adición del glicerol durante el proceso de enfriamiento sobre la calidad espermática del semen canino. Se utilizaron 15 eyaculados de 4 perros adultos. Cada muestra de semen fue dividida en alícuotas para someterlas a tres métodos de adición de glicerol (T1: al inicio; T2: al inicio y final; T3: al final de la curva de enfriamiento). El semen se envasó en pajillas de 0.5 ml y se congeló en nitrógeno líquido. Se evaluó la motilidad progresiva y la integridad funcional de membrana posdescongelamiento. No se encontró diferencia estadística entre los tres métodos de adición del glicerol, pudiéndose simplificar el proceso de criopreservación al añadir todo el glicerol al inicio de la curva de enfriamiento.The objective of the study was to evaluate the timing of adding glycerol during thecooling process on sperm quality of canine semen. Fifteen ejaculates from 4 mature dogswere used. Each sample was divided in aliquots and three methods of adding glycerolwere used (T1: at the beginning; T2; at the beginning and at the end; T3: at the end of thecooling process). Semen samples were packed in 0.5 ml straws and frozen in liquid nitrogen.The post-thawing progressive motility and the functional integrity of membrane wereevaluated. None statistical difference was observed due to the three treatments, indicatingthat the process of cryopreservation can be simplified by adding all the glycerol at thebeginning of the cooling curve

Ferrous to Ferric Transition in Fe-Phthalocyanine Driven by NO2 Exposure

Due to its unique magnetic properties offered by the open-shell electronic structure of the central metal ion, and for being an effective catalyst in a wide variety of reactions, iron phthalocyanine has drawn significant interest from the scientific community. Nevertheless, upon surface deposition, the magnetic properties of the molecular layer can be significantly affected by the coupling occurring at the interface, and the more reactive the surface, the stronger is the impact on the spin state. Here, we show that on Cu(100), indeed, the strong hybridization between the Fe d-states of FePc and the sp-band of the copper substrate modifies the charge distribution in the molecule, significantly influencing the magnetic properties of the iron ion. The FeII ion is stabilized in the low singlet spin state (S=0), leading to the complete quenching of the molecule magnetic moment. By exploiting the FePc/Cu(100) interface, we demonstrate that NO2 dissociation can be used to gradually change the magnetic properties of the iron ion, by trimming the gas dosage. For lower doses, the FePc film is decoupled from the copper substrate, restoring the gas phase triplet spin state (S=1). A higher dose induces the transition from ferrous to ferric phthalocyanine, in its intermediate spin state, with enhanced magnetic moment due to the interaction with the atomic ligands. Remarkably, in this way, three different spin configurations have been observed within the same metalorganic/metal interface by exposing it to different doses of NO2 at room temperature

Current trends on subtotal petrosectomy with cochlear implantation in recalcitrant chronic middle ear disorders Attualità in tema di petrosectomia subtotale con impianto cocleare nelle patologie croniche dellorecchio medio recalcitranti

Obiettivo. Stabilire la sicurezza ed efficacia dell’intervento di petrosectomia subtotale con posizionamento di impianto cocleare nei pazienti affetti da patologia cronica dell’orecchio medio refrattaria a precedenti trattamenti chirurgici. Metodi. È stato svolto uno studio retrospettivo multicentrico riguardante quei pazienti af- fetti da patologie croniche dell’orecchio medio recalcitranti, sottoposti a petrosectomia subtotale con posizionamento di impianto cocleare. Le informazioni sono state raccolte dai database di 11 centri di riferimento di III livello in Italia. A complemento, è stata svolta una revisione della più recente letteratura. Risultati. Nello studio sono stati inclusi 55 pazienti con un follow-up medio di 44 mesi. Il colesteatoma ha rappresentato la più comune pato- logia ricorrente dell’orecchio medio e il 50,9% dei pazienti aveva una cavità aperta. L’80% dei pazienti è stato sottoposto ad una chirurgia a singolo stadio. Sette pazienti hanno mostrato complicanze post-operatorie, di cui un caso di espianto. Conclusioni. L’intervento di petrosectomia subtotale con posizionamento di impianto cocleare rappresenta una tecnica chirurgica di riferimento per la gestione dei pazienti affetti da otite media cronica recalcitrante. L’intervento chirurgico a singolo stadio è la strategia più frequentemente raccomandata. Il follow-up ottimale è ancora ad oggi oggetto di dibattito. Sono richiesti ulteriori studi per stabilire il ruolo di questo intervento nei pazienti pediatrici.Objective. To establish the safety and effectiveness of subtotal petrosectomy with cochlear implantation in patients affected by chronic middle ear disorders to refractory to previous surgical treatments. Methods. A multicentre, retrospective study was conducted on patients affected by recalcitrant chronic middle ear disorders who underwent cochlear implantation in combination with subtotal petrosectomy. Patients’ details were collected from databases of 11 Italian tertiary referral centres. Additionally, a review of the most updated literature was carried out. Results. 55 patients were included with a mean follow-up time of 44 months. Cholesteatoma was the most common middle ear recurrent pathology and 50.9% of patients had an open cavity. 80% of patients underwent a single stage surgery. One case of explantation for device failure was reported among the 7 patients with post-operative complications. Conclusions. Subtotal petrosectomy with cochlear implantation is a benchmark for management of patients with recalcitrant chronic middle ear disorders. A single stage procedure is the most recommended strategy. Optimal follow-up is still debated. Further studies are required to investigate the role of this surgery in paediatric patients

Index estimates for free boundary minimal hypersurfaces

We show that the Morse index of a properly embedded free boundary minimal hypersurface in a strictly mean convex domain of the Euclidean space grows linearly with the dimension of its first relative homology group (which is at least as big as the number of its boundary components, minus one). In ambient dimension three, this implies a lower bound for the index of a free boundary minimal surface which is linear both with respect to the genus and the number of boundary components. Thereby, the compactness theorem by Fraser and Li implies a strong compactness theorem for the space of free boundary minimal surfaces with uniformly bounded Morse index inside a convex domain. Our estimates also imply that the examples constructed, in the unit ball, by Fraser–Schoen and Folha–Pacard–Zolotareva have arbitrarily large index. Extensions of our results to more general settings (including various classes of positively curved Riemannian manifolds and other convexity assumptions) are discussed

An improved geometric inequality via vanishing moments, with applications to singular Liouville equations

We consider a class of singular Liouville equations on compact surfaces motivated by the study of Electroweak and Self-Dual Chern-Simons theories, the Gaussian curvature prescription with conical singularities and Onsager's description of turbulence. We analyse the problem of existence variationally, and show how the angular distribution of the conformal volume near the singularities may lead to improvements in the Moser-Trudinger inequality, and in turn to lower bounds on the Euler-Lagrange functional. We then discuss existence and non-existence results.Comment: some references adde

Current trends on subtotal petrosectomy with cochlear implantation in recalcitrant chronic middle ear disorders

Objective. To establish the safety and effectiveness of subtotal petrosectomy with cochlear implantation in patients affected by chronic middle ear disorders to refractory to previous surgical treatments. Methods. A multicentre, retrospective study was conducted on patients affected by recalcitrant chronic middle ear disorders who underwent cochlear implantation in combi-nation with subtotal petrosectomy. Patients’ details were collected from databases of 11 Italian tertiary referral centres. Additionally, a review of the most updated literature was carried out. Results. 55 patients were included with a mean follow-up time of 44 months. Cholestea-toma was the most common middle ear recurrent pathology and 50.9% of patients had an open cavity. 80% of patients underwent a single stage surgery. One case of explantation for device failure was reported among the 7 patients with post-operative complications. Conclusions. Subtotal petrosectomy with cochlear implantation is a benchmark for management of patients with recalcitrant chronic middle ear disorders. A single stage procedure is the most recommended strategy. Optimal follow-up is still debated. Further studies are required to investigate the role of this surgery in paediatric patients

Lesion detection in demoscopy images with novel density-based and active contour approaches

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Dermoscopy is one of the major imaging modalities used in the diagnosis of melanoma and other pigmented skin lesions. Automated assessment tools for dermoscopy images have become an important field of research mainly because of inter- and intra-observer variations in human interpretation. One of the most important steps in dermoscopy image analysis is the detection of lesion borders, since many other features, such as asymmetry, border irregularity, and abrupt border cutoff, rely on the boundary of the lesion. </p> <p>Results</p> <p>To automate the process of delineating the lesions, we employed Active Contour Model (ACM) and boundary-driven density-based clustering (BD-DBSCAN) algorithms on 50 dermoscopy images, which also have ground truths to be used for quantitative comparison. We have observed that ACM and BD-DBSCAN have the same border error of 6.6% on all images. To address noisy images, BD-DBSCAN can perform better delineation than ACM. However, when used with optimum parameters, ACM outperforms BD-DBSCAN, since ACM has a higher recall ratio.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We successfully proposed two new frameworks to delineate suspicious lesions with i) an ACM integrated approach with sharpening and ii) a fast boundary-driven density-based clustering technique. ACM shrinks a curve toward the boundary of the lesion. To guide the evolution, the model employs the exact solution <abbrgrp><abbr bid="B27">27</abbr></abbrgrp> of a specific form of the Geometric Heat Partial Differential Equation <abbrgrp><abbr bid="B28">28</abbr></abbrgrp>. To make ACM advance through noisy images, an improvement of the model’s boundary condition is under consideration. BD-DBSCAN improves regular density-based algorithm to select query points intelligently.</p