Italian association of clinical endocrinologists (AME) position statement: drug therapy of osteoporosis

Treatment of osteoporosis is aimed to prevent fragility fractures and to stabilize or increase bone mineral density. Several drugs with different efficacy and safety profiles are available. The long-term therapeutic strategy should be planned, and the initial treatment should be selected according to the individual site-specific fracture risk and the need to give the maximal protection when the fracture risk is highest (i.e. in the late life). The present consensus focused on the strategies for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis taking into consideration all the drugs available for this purpose. A short revision of the literature about treatment of secondary osteoporosis due both to androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer and to aromatase inhibitors for breast cancer was also performed. Also premenopausal females and males with osteoporosis are frequently seen in endocrine settings. Finally particular attention was paid to the tailoring of treatment as well as to its duration

The Italian FIRB project on EUV lithography

The Italian National Project “FIRB-EUVL” is introduced and discussed. This project includes the realization of a micro-exposure-tool and the up-grading of the National knowledge on EUV-lithography in all its aspects, from plasma sources (both high power sources and auxiliary sources for tests), debris mitigation, multilayer mirrors, and masks. The micro-exposure-tool, which is under development, will be operated at a wavelength slightly different from the international standard of 13.5 nm in order to allow the use of an innovative debris mitigation system. A novel application of EUVL to photonics is also reported