INVESTIGATION ON VALBELLUNA AREA AND ITS OENOLOGICAL POTENTIALITY: CASE STUDY ON PROSECCO DOC

Context and purpose of the study - Valbelluna valley is an area located in the northeastern Italy. It is extended from the East-West between Feltre and Belluno, along the Piave waterway and enclosed between Cansiglio valley on the South and the Dolomites in the North. Here, the villages of Limana and Trichiana are present, which are considered for decades potentially interesting areas to aim a niche production with own particular properties.The position of this area, its sun exposition, its soil composition and the microclimate, are ideal factors to obtain vines and consequently wines with unique features especially regarding the diversity and complexity aroma. The viticulture is not new in Valbelluna valley, but nowadays the situation is deeply different. Up to the \u201860s the grape production was widely extended and it led 5,000/6,000 tons. The grape varieties produced were in particular hybrid such as Baco, Clinton and Isabella grapes. Viticulture and agriculture in Valbelluna suffered the countryside depopulation in particular after the Vajont disaster, that cancelled the majority of existent vines and in the postwar period, instead, there was an industrial increasing. The aim of this study is test and develop Glera vine in a different area it used to be, always an area presents in the Prosecco DOC area: Valbelluna. Material and methods - Some preliminary evaluations showed peculiar characteristics of Prosecco produced in this area such as marked acidity, coming from malic acid, savoury, well balanced, with a high expression and an important presence of floral aromas. Nowadays, this area is developing also the aromatic grapes production like Sauvignon, aromatic Traminer and Riesling. To have an objective evaluation about Valbelluna valley, place in which the Prosecco production is new, a study on sensorial features has carried out. It was led a comparison between Prosecco produced in Valbelluna and Prosecco coming from known DOC area in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia.The sensory analysis was carried out to evaluate the Prosecco DOC position (from Valbelluna) respect the traditional one produced in DOC Veneto Friuli area and if some particular differences would have been between them. Results - The samples analyzed were statistically significant and they were tasted from a group of expert panel. The testing sections needed to define an organoleptic profile and compare the different samples. Data were analyzed with One-way Anova and Tuckey test.The results showed differences between Prosecco DOC from Valbelluna and traditional Prosecco DOC. In particular the Prosecco DOC sensory profile (from Valbelluna) differs from the other ones because of the floral wisteria taste, the olfactory intensity and pleasantness. The interesting results and differences in the organoleptic profile would allow next studies about the terroir potentiality in viticulture. Future investigations would have been regarding also viticultural aspects and, more in general, social aspects of Valbelluna area to define real potentiality in oenological production to promote a niche product as Prosecco DOC

INTERMUSCULAR TWO-INCISION TECHNIQUE FOR S-ICD IMPLANTATION

Background The traditional technique for subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator (S-ICD) implantation, which involves three incisions and a subcutaneous pocket, is associated with possible complications, including inappropriate interventions. The aim of this prospective multicenter study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of an alternative intermuscular two-incision technique for S-ICD implantation. Methods The study population included 36 consecutive patients (75% male, mean age 44 ± 12 years [range 20–69]) who underwent S-ICD implantation using the intermuscular two-incision technique. This technique avoids the superior parasternal incision for the lead placement and consists of creating an intermuscular pocket between the anterior surface of the serratus anterior and the posterior surface of the latissimus dorsi muscles instead of a subcutaneous pocket. Results All patients were successfully implanted in the absence of any procedure-related complications with a successful 65-J standard polarity defibrillation threshold testing, except in one, who received a second successful shock after pocket revision. During a mean follow-up of 10 months (range 3–30), no complications requiring surgical revision were observed. At device interrogation, stable sensing without interferences was observed in all patients. Two patients (5.5%) experienced appropriate and successful shock on ventricular fibrillation and in four patients (11%), a total of seven nonsustained self-terminated ventricular tachycardias were correctly detected. No inappropriate interventions were observed. Conclusions Our experience suggests that the two-incision intermuscular technique is a safe and efficacious alternative to the current technique for S-ICD implantation that may help reducing complications including inappropriate interventions and offer a better cosmetic outcome, especially in thin individuals

Integrated CGH/WES Analyses Advance Understanding of Aggressive Neuroblastoma Evolution: A Case Study

Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extra-cranial malignancy in preschool children. To portray the genetic landscape of an overly aggressive NB leading to a rapid clinical progression of the disease, tumor DNA collected pre- and post-treatment has been analyzed. Array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), whole-exome sequencing (WES), and pharmacogenetics approaches, respectively, have identified relevant copy number alterations (CNAs), single nucleotide variants (SNVs), and polymorphisms (SNPs) that were then combined into an integrated analysis. Spontaneously formed 3D tumoroids obtained from the recurrent mass have also been characterized. The results prove the power of combining CNAs, SNVs, and SNPs analyses to assess clonal evolution during the disease progression by evidencing multiple clones at disease onset and dynamic genomic alterations during therapy administration. The proposed molecular and cytogenetic integrated analysis empowers the disease follow-up and the prediction of tumor recurrence

Multicenter randomized, double-blind controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of laser therapy for the treatment of severe oral mucositis induced by chemotherapy in children: LaMPO RCT

OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate the efficacy of laser photobiomodulation (PBM) compared to that of placebo on severe oral mucositis (OM) in pediatric oncology patients. The primary objective was the reduction of OM grade (World Health Organization [WHO] scale) 7 days after starting PBM. Secondary objectives were reduction of pain, analgesic consumption, and incidence of side effects. METHODS: One hundred and one children with WHO grade > 2 chemotherapy-induced OM were enrolled in eight Italian hospitals. Patients were randomized to either PBM or sham treatment for four consecutive days (days +1 to +4). On days +4, +7, and +11, OM grade, pain (following a 0-10 numeric pain rating scale, NRS) and need for analgesics were evaluated by an operator blinded to treatment. RESULTS: Fifty-one patients were allocated to the PBM group, and 50 were allocated to the sham group. In total, 93.7% of PBM patients and 72% of sham patients had OM grade < 3 WHO on day +7 (P = 0.01). A significant reduction of pain was registered on day +7 in the PBM versus sham group (NRS 1 [0-3] vs. 2.5 [1-5], P < 0.006). Reduced use of analgesics was reported in the PBM group, although it was not statistically significant. No significant adverse events attributable to treatment were recorded. CONCLUSIONS: PBM is a safe, feasible, and effective treatment for children affected by chemotherapy-induced OM, as it accelerates mucosal recovery and reduces pain

Improved clinical investigation and evaluation of high-risk medical devices: the rationale and objectives of CORE-MD (Coordinating Research and Evidence for Medical Devices)

: In the European Union (EU) the delivery of health services is a national responsibility but there are concerted actions between member states to protect public health. Approval of pharmaceutical products is the responsibility of the European Medicines Agency, whereas authorizing the placing on the market of medical devices is decentralized to independent 'conformity assessment' organizations called notified bodies. The first legal basis for an EU system of evaluating medical devices and approving their market access was the medical device directives, from the 1990s. Uncertainties about clinical evidence requirements, among other reasons, led to the EU Medical Device Regulation (2017/745) that has applied since May 2021. It provides general principles for clinical investigations but few methodological details-which challenges responsible authorities to set appropriate balances between regulation and innovation, pre- and post-market studies, and clinical trials and real-world evidence. Scientific experts should advise on methods and standards for assessing and approving new high-risk devices, and safety, efficacy, and transparency of evidence should be paramount. The European Commission recently awarded a Horizon 2020 grant to a consortium led by the European Society of Cardiology and the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, that will review methodologies of clinical investigations, advise on study designs, and develop recommendations for aggregating clinical data from registries and other real-world sources. The CORE-MD project (Coordinating Research and Evidence for Medical Devices) will run until March 2024; here we describe how it may contribute to the development of regulatory science in Europe

The European Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) project

Modern pollen samples provide an invaluable research tool for helping to interpret the quaternary fossil pollen record, allowing investigation of the relationship between pollen as the proxy and the environmental parameters such as vegetation, land-use, and climate that the pollen proxy represents. The European Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) is a new initiative within the European Pollen Database (EPD) to establish a publicly accessible repository of modern (surface sample) pollen data. This new database will complement the EPD, which at present holds only fossil sedimentary pollen data. The EMPD is freely available online to the scientific community and currently has information on almost 5,000 pollen samples from throughout the Euro-Siberian and Mediterranean regions, contributed by over 40 individuals and research groups. Here we describe how the EMPD was constructed, the various tables and their fields, problems and errors, quality controls, and continuing efforts to improve the available dat

Bodily sensations in social scenarios: Where in the body?

Bodily states are fundamental to emotions emergence and are believed to constitute the first step in the chain of events that culminate in emotional awareness. Recent works have shown that distinct topographical maps can be derived to describe how basic and more complex emotions are represented in the body. However, it is still unclear whether these bodily maps can also extend to emotions experienced specifically within social interactions and how these representations relate to basic emotions. To address this issue, we used the emBODY tool to obtain high-resolution bodily maps that describe the body activation and deactivation experienced by healthy participants when presented with social scenarios depicting establishment or loss of social bonds. We observed patterns of activation/deactivation for each single social scenario depending on the valence, but also a common activation of head, chest and deactivation of limbs for positive and negative social scenarios, respectively. Furthermore, we show that these maps are comparable to those obtained when taking the perspective of a third person, suggesting the existence of common body representation of social emotions for the self and other person evaluation. Finally, we showed that maps related to complex social scenarios are strongly correlated with bodily states experienced in basic emotions, suggesting that the patterns of body activation/ deactivation observed for social scenarios might arise from a complex interaction of the basic emotions that these experiences elicit

Evolution of the diffusion layer in a CMSX4 single crystal superalloy

Aluminising processes are well-known techniques industrially adopted to enrich of aluminium thesurface layers of Ni-based alloys thus improving their resistance to environmental interaction at high-temperature. The results of aluminising processes are typically described in terms of the presence, compositions and thickness of the sequence of layers at the surface of the treated parts. Following this approach, the microstructural features of the diffusion layers obtained under different holding times via vapour-phase type high-temperature low-activity process were experimentally investigated on single crystal CMSX4 alloy. The attention was particularly focused on the effect of the crystallographic orientation of the crystal on the coating features. The evolution of the diffusion layers under different process conditions was then taken into account

The morphology evolution of vapour phase aluminide coating on aCMSX4 single crystal superalloy

The effects of diffusion temperature and time on the mechanism of the surface layers formation during low activity vapour phase aluminizing process on a Ni-base superalloy CMSX4 single crystal was experimentally investigated. The coating morphology of as aluminized samples grown along the substrate [100] and [110] directions of the substrate crystal was analysed by means of SEM, EDS and EBSD techniques. The presence of three layers, where β-NiAl differently combines to γ’, γ and TCP phases, was always observed. The β-NiAl phase in particular displayed two different morphologies and textures depending on the interface movement mechanism generating this phase at its external/internal interface. The presence of secondary precipitated phases within the coating layer, their composition and morphology, helped to understand the coating development process. The surface layer formation mechanism was found to be slightly temperature-dependent