Improving pre-operative planning of robot assisted nephron sparing surgery using three-dimensional anatomical model

Introduction Despite the introduction of robot-assisted surgery in daily clinical practice, complex renal masses are still challenging even for expert surgeon. In this scenario 3D anatomical models and augmented reality represent valuable tools for the surgeon. Materials and methods We present a challenging case where PN was mandatory to preserve the overall renal function. The patient was 69 years old, with indwelling catheter for BPH and Parkinson disease. After a single episode of hematuria with negative cystoscopy, a cT1N0M0 renal cancer was diagnosed (38 mm maximum diameter). Pre-operative three-dimensional (3D) model was obtained. After multidisciplinary discussion robot-assisted partial nephrectomy was proposed. The surgery was planned according to the anatomical model. Results Before the procedure a 7Ch single loop ureteral stent was placed. The surgery was carried out in 220 minutes. Selective ischaemia was perfomed for 24 minutes. Estimated blood loss was 400cc. No post-operative complications were observed. Ureteral stent was removed 4 days after the surgery. Definitive histological examination described a pG2-3 T1a Nx R0 clear cell renal carcinoma. Conclusion In selected cases 3D model result to be a useful tool for the pre-operative planning of the surgery

Situación sanitaria del cultivo de la soja en el Noroeste Argentino en la campaña 2013/2014

El personal de la Sección Fitopatología de la Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres (EEAOC) realiza anualmente una prospección de las enfermedades que afectan al cultivo de la soja en la provincia de Tucumán y sus zonas de influencia. Durantela campaña 2013/2014, se realizaron recorridosquincenales y semanales durante los estadios vegetativos y reproductivos del cultivo, respectivamente. Las localidades evaluadas en la provincia de Tucumán fueron: La Cruz, Villa Benjamín Aráoz y Puesto del Medio,pertenecientes al departamento Burruyacú, y la localidad de San Agustín ubicada en el departamento Cruz Alta. En la provincia de Salta se evaluó la localidad Gral. Mosconi, del dpto. San Martín. Se determinó la incidencia (porcentaje de plantas enfermas con respecto al total de las plantas) y severidad (porcentaje de superficie foliar afectada) de las principales enfermedades.Entre las enfermedades foliares que afectaron al cultivo de la soja en esta campaña 2013/2014 y en las diferentes localidades evaluadas, se destacaron: la mancha marrón,causada por Septoria glycines; la roya de la soja, causada por Phakopsora pachyrhizi; la pústula bacteriana,originada por Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. glycines;tizón de la hoja por Cercospora kikuchii y mancha anillada,causada por Corynespora cassiicola.En los meses de febrero a marzo, se observaron casos de muerte de plantas en rodales, causada por hongos del suelo (Rhizoctonia solani y Fusarium spp.). También se observó la presencia de podredumbre carbonosa de la soja (Macrophomina phaseolina) con valores de incidenciabajos, generalmente de un 3% a un 5%, y de hasta un 10% en Villa Benjamín Aráoz. También se detectaron plantas enfermas por Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, con niveles de incidencia muy bajos (del 1% al 3%) en las distintas localidades evaluadas de la provincia de Tucumán.Fil: de Lisi, Vicente. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; ArgentinaFil: Reznikov, Sebastian. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Instituto de Tecnología Agroindustrial del Noroeste Argentino; Argentina; ArgentinaFil: Claps, María Paula. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Instituto de Tecnología Agroindustrial del Noroeste Argentino; Argentina; ArgentinaFil: Bernal, María de Lourdes. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Instituto de Tecnología Agroindustrial del Noroeste Argentino; Argentina; ArgentinaFil: Díaz, Federico. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; ArgentinaFil: Villafañe, Pedro. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; ArgentinaFil: Aguaysol, Natalia C.. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; ArgentinaFil: Martínez Monteros, M. José. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; ArgentinaFil: González, Victoria. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; ArgentinaFil: Ploper, Leonardo Daniel. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Instituto de Tecnología Agroindustrial del Noroeste Argentino; Argentina; Argentin

Results of the first user program on the Homogenous Thermal Neutron Source HOTNES (ENEA / INFN)

The HOmogeneous Thermal NEutron Source (HOTNES) is a new type of thermal neutron irradiation assembly developed by the ENEA-INFN collaboration. The facility is fully characterized in terms of neutron field and dosimetric quantities, by either computational and experimental methods. This paper reports the results of the first "HOTNES users program", carried out in 2016, and covering a variety of thermal neutron active detectors such as scintillators, solid-state, single crystal diamond and gaseous detectors

Understanding Flood Regime Changes in Europe: a state-of-the-art assessment

There is growing concern that flooding is becoming more frequent and severe in Europe. A better understanding of flood regime changes and their drivers is therefore needed. The paper reviews the current knowledge on flood regime changes in European rivers that has traditionally been obtained through two alternative research approaches. The first approach is the data-based detection of changes in observed flood events. Current methods are reviewed together with their challenges and opportunities. For example, observation biases, the merging of different data sources and accounting for nonlinear drivers and responses. The second approach consists of modelled scenarios of future floods. Challenges and opportunities associated with flood change scenarios are discussed such as fully accounting for uncertainties in the modelling cascade and feedbacks. To make progress in flood change research, we suggest that a synthesis of these two approaches is needed. This can be achieved by focusing on long duration records and flood-rich and flood-poor periods rather than on short duration flood trends only, by formally attributing causes of observed flood changes, by validating scenarios against observed flood regime dynamics, and by developing low-dimensional models of flood changes and feedbacks. The paper finishes with a call for a joint European flood change research network

Ground, Proximal, and Satellite Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture

Soil moisture (SM) is a key hydrologic state variable that is of significant importance for numerous Earth and environmental science applications that directly impact the global environment and human society. Potential applications include, but are not limited to, forecasting of weather and climate variability; prediction and monitoring of drought conditions; management and allocation of water resources; agricultural plant production and alleviation of famine; prevention of natural disasters such as wild fires, landslides, floods, and dust storms; or monitoring of ecosystem response to climate change. Because of the importance and wide‐ranging applicability of highly variable spatial and temporal SM information that links the water, energy, and carbon cycles, significant efforts and resources have been devoted in recent years to advance SM measurement and monitoring capabilities from the point to the global scales. This review encompasses recent advances and the state‐of‐the‐art of ground, proximal, and novel SM remote sensing techniques at various spatial and temporal scales and identifies critical future research needs and directions to further advance and optimize technology, analysis and retrieval methods, and the application of SM information to improve the understanding of critical zone moisture dynamics. Despite the impressive progress over the last decade, there are still many opportunities and needs to, for example, improve SM retrieval from remotely sensed optical, thermal, and microwave data and opportunities for novel applications of SM information for water resources management, sustainable environmental development, and food security

Observation of soliton pulse compression in photonic crystal waveguides

We demonstrate soliton-effect pulse compression in mm-long photonic crystal waveguides resulting from strong anomalous dispersion and self-phase modulation. Compression from 3ps to 580fs, at low pulse energies(~10pJ), is measured via autocorrelation

The Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Community of Península Valdés in Patagonia, Argentina

This is the first study based on a planned and intensive sampling effort that describes the community composition and structure of the ground-dwelling arthropod assemblage of Península Valdés (Patagonia). It was carried out using pitfall traps, opened for two weeks during the summers of 2005, 2006 and 2007. A total of 28, 111 individuals were caught. Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) dominated this community, followed by beetles (Coleoptera) and spiders (Araneae). The most abundant species were Pheidole bergi Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and Blapstinus punctulatus Solier (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). Two new species were very recently described as new based on specimens collected during this study: Valdesiana curiosa Carpintero, Dellapé & Cheli (Hemiptera, Miridae) and Anomaloptera patagonica Dellapé & Cheli (Hemiptera, Oxycarenidae). The order Coleoptera was the most diverse taxa. The distribution of abundance data was best described by the logarithmic series model both at the family and species levels, suggesting that ecological relationships in this community could be controlled by a few factors. The community was dominated by predators from a trophic perspective. This suggests that predation acts as an important factor driving the distribution and abundances of surface-dwelling arthropods in this habitat and as such serves as a key element in understanding desert, above-ground community structure. These findings may also be useful for management and conservation purposes in arid Patagonia

Enabling agile web development through in-browser code generation and evaluation

Rapid evolution and flexibility are the key of modern web application development. Rapid Prototyping approaches try to facilitate evolution by reducing the time between the elicitation of a new requirement and the evaluation of a prototype by both developers and customers. Software generation, with disciplines such as Software Product Lines Engineering or Model Driven Engineering, favours the required flexibility for the development process. Nevertheless, each small change in the design of an application requires a full redeployment of complex environments in order to allow customers to test and evaluate the new configuration. In this work we present an approach that improves the development process reducing the complexity of deploying evaluation prototypes and enabling an agile development cycle. The approach can be applied using software generation and it is based on in-browser generation and evaluation. We also describe two real world tools that have integrated the proposed approach in their development cycle

Loss of Ambra1 promotes melanoma growth and invasion

Melanoma is the deadliest skin cancer. Despite improvements in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying melanoma biology and in defining new curative strategies, the therapeutic needs for this disease have not yet been fulfilled. Herein, we provide evidence that the Activating Molecule in Beclin-1-Regulated Autophagy (Ambra1) contributes to melanoma development. Indeed, we show that Ambra1 deficiency confers accelerated tumor growth and decreased overall survival in Braf/Pten-mutated mouse models of melanoma. Also, we demonstrate that Ambra1 deletion promotes melanoma aggressiveness and metastasis by increasing cell motility/invasion and activating an EMT-like process. Moreover, we show that Ambra1 deficiency in melanoma impacts extracellular matrix remodeling and induces hyperactivation of the focal adhesion kinase 1 (FAK1) signaling, whose inhibition is able to reduce cell invasion and melanoma growth. Overall, our findings identify a function for AMBRA1 as tumor suppressor in melanoma, proposing FAK1 inhibition as a therapeutic strategy for AMBRA1 low-expressing melanoma. The absence of scaffold protein Ambra1 leads to hyperproliferation and growth in mouse models. Here the authors show that Ambra1 deficiency accelerates melanoma growth and increases metastasis in mouse models of melanoma through FAK1 hyperactivation