How do etiological factors can explain the different clinical features of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer and their histopathological findings?

Abstract The aim was to retrospectively analyse the clinical–histopathological characteristics of patients with newly diagnosis of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) referred to two Italian centres, one in Northern and the other in Southern Italy, between 2000 and 2013. 1081 patients were included and subdivided into two groups: group A (474 patients from Novara) and group B (607 patients from Naples). The group A came from the industrial area of Novara, while the Group B came from the areas around Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei. The two groups were comparable for iodine levels, body mass index, diagnostic timing and clinical procedures. For all patients, demographic and clinical data were collected. No difference was found in gender, whereas the age at diagnosis was later in the group A (group A 53.1 ± 15.16 years, group B 41.9 ± 14.25 years, p < 0.001). In both groups, the most frequent histotype was papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) with prevalence of follicular variant in group A (p < 0.0001) and classical variant in group B (p < 0.0001). Aggressive histological features were mainly seen in group A (bilaterality p < 0.0001, multifocality p < 0.0001 and thyroid capsular invasion p < 0.0001). Microcarcinomas were more frequent in group A (p < 0.0001) but mostly characterized by bilaterality (p < 0.001) and multifocality (p < 0.04). In both groups, tumour-associated thyroiditis showed a significant increase over the years (group A p < 0.05, group B p < 0.04). Environmental factors could justify the differences found in our study. These preliminary data should stimulate the need for an Italian Cancer Registry of DTC in order to allow an epidemiological characterization, allowing the identification of specific etiological factors and an improvement in the management of the diseas

Tax revenues in the European Union: Recent trends and challenges ahead

The governments of the European Union are facing important challenges that may impact both their need and their capacity to collect taxes. First, ageing will increase some social spending while reducing the potential of some tax bases such as labour. Second, globalisation has the potential to increase the mobility of capital and of high-skilled workers, making it more difficult to rely on them as a source of revenues. Finally, the desire to shift tax away from labour and to make work pay while retaining the social models will force Member States to find alternative robust tax bases. This paper reviews the most recent trends in taxation in the European Union and discusses several tax policy issues in the light of those coming challenges

A chloroform transducer based sPS-de-coated crystal microbalance

A prototype quartz crystal microbalance-based transducer is proposed for in-situ measurements of very-low chloroform activity. The sensing element consists of a syndiotactic polystyrene thin film sprayed on the piezoelectric quartz electrode of the microbalance. Chloroform adsorption and desorption in the film give rise to a mass variation implying a related variation in the resonance frequency of the crystal. Static and dynamic metrological characterizations of the sensor prototype were carried out at varying chloroform activity and temperature levels. Satisfactory sensitivity, repeatability, and dynamic hysteresis were highlighted

A chloroform transducer based sPS-d-coated crystal microbalance.

A prototype of quartz crystal microbalance-based transducer is proposed for in-situ measurements of very-low chloroform activity. The sensing element consists of a syndiotactic polystyrene thin film sprayed on the piezoelec. quartz electrode of the microbalance. Chloroform adsorption and desorption in the film give rise to a mass variation implying a related variation in the resonance frequency of the crystal. Static and dynamic metrol. characterizations of the sensor prototype were carried out at varying chloroform activity and temp. Satisfactory sensitivity, repeatability, and dynamic hysteresis were highlighted

Guidelines of the Italian College of Phlebology: Revision 2013

The article reports the year 2013 's review of phlebological guidelines by the Italian College of Phlebolog

Performance improvement of a measurement station for superconducting cable test

A fully digital system, improving measurements flexibility, integrator drift, and current control of superconducting transformers for cable test, is proposed. The system is based on a high-performance integration of Rogowski coil signal and a flexible direct control of the current into the secondary windings. This allows state-of-the-art performance to be overcome by means of out-of-the-shelf components: on a full-scale of 32 kA, current measurement resolution of 1 A, stability below 0.25 Amin-1, and controller ripple less than 50 ppm. The system effectiveness has been demonstrated experimentally on the superconducting transformer of the Facility for the Research of Superconducting Cables at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)