Inter-society consensus for the use of inhaled corticosteroids in infants, children and adolescents with airway diseases

Background: In 2019, a multidisciplinary panel of experts from eight Italian scientific paediatric societies developed a consensus document for the use of inhaled corticosteroids in the management and prevention of the most common paediatric airways disorders. The aim is to provide healthcare providers with a multidisciplinary document including indications useful in the clinical practice. The consensus document was intended to be addressed to paediatricians who work in the Paediatric Divisions, the Primary Care Services and the Emergency Departments, as well as to Residents or PhD students, paediatric nurses and specialists or consultants in paediatric pulmonology, allergy, infectious diseases, and ear, nose, and throat medicine. Methods: Clinical questions identifying Population, Intervention(s), Comparison and Outcome(s) were addressed by methodologists and a general agreement on the topics and the strength of the recommendations (according to the GRADE system) was obtained following the Delphi method. The literature selection included secondary sources such as evidence-based guidelines and systematic reviews and was integrated with primary studies subsequently published. Results: The expert panel provided a number of recommendations on the use of inhaled corticosteroids in preschool wheezing, bronchial asthma, allergic and non-allergic rhinitis, acute and chronic rhinosinusitis, adenoid hypertrophy, laryngitis and laryngospasm. Conclusions: We provided a multidisciplinary update on the current recommendations for the management and prevention of the most common paediatric airways disorders requiring inhaled corticosteroids, in order to share useful indications, identify gaps in knowledge and drive future research

Analysis of titania powders flow properties at ambient and high temperature

The effect of temperature on bulk flow properties of two different types of titanium dioxide powders has been measured at room temperature and 500 °C using the High Temperature Annular Shear Cell. A significant increase of the macroscopic bulk flow properties is observed with increasing temperature, in particular with regards to the unconfined yield strength. Two different theoretical modelling approaches are proposed with the aim to relate the observed experimental properties to the microscopic interparticles interactions. The final outcomes indicate that both models match the experimental data when appropriate values for the models’ parameters are employed. To this end, a sensitivity analysis for the main parameters of the models is implemented

Experimental and theoretical analysis of TiO2 powders flow properties at ambient and high temperatures

Changes of bulk flow properties of two different types of titanium dioxide powders are measured at room temperature and 500 °C using the High Temperature Annular Shear Cell. A significant increase of the macroscopic bulk flow properties is observed with increasing temperature, in particular with regards to the unconfined yield strength. Two different modelling approaches are proposed with the aim to relate the measured properties to the microscopic interactions between particles. The results indicate that both the model provides a good match with the experimental data when proper values for the models’ parameters are taken into account. To this end, the sensitivity analysis for the main parameters of the models is performed

Use of titania powders in the laser sintering process: Link between process conditions and product mechanical properties

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) of Titania powders is studied to understand how the initial material properties and the process conditions affect the degree of sintering/melting and the mechanical properties of the semi-3D artefact produced.Five samples with differing particle size were used to explore the feasibility of processing them by SLS. Laser power and scan speed were studied as process variables to assess and quantify the effect of their changes on the properties of product. The measured tensile strength was used in the equation for the strength of the powder’s agglomerates developed by Rumpf, which allowed estimating the size of the sintered necks. The sintering temperature of each powder sample was determined experimentally and used to predict the size of the sintered neck for the different powder grain size using different literature models; these values were then compared with the values obtained from the experiments