Prevalenza e distribuzione geografica della litiasi biliare

Descrizione dei dati disponibili inerenti la prevalenza e l'incidenza della colelitiasi

Scientific Information Security in Information Science and Academic Publishing

BACKGROUND The current status of scholarly publishing has been the subject of numerous publications in recent years. As in the wider world, the academic world is becoming more prone to questionable practices of which young researchers, in particular, may fall victim. In our opinion, these challenges to academia and academic publishing are mostly related to the gap existing between the disciplines of information security and information science. We consider that a new discipline aimed at investigating cybercrimes and attacks on information science domains is needed, which we term “scientific information security.” At present, however, despite this urgent need, the scientific information security discipline remains only an encouraging perspective, thus there are still many opportunities for cybercriminals to attack researchers..............

Platelet entropy is increased in familial hypercholesterolemia and in type 2 diabetic patients

A plethora of abnormalities in platelet function have been described in diabetic patientsas well in familial hypercholesterolemia. This paper investigates the use of computerized fractal analysis for objective characterization of the entropy of the platelet surface of circulating platelets collected from healthy individuals, from type 2 diabetic patients and from familial hypercholesterolemic subjects, in order to search a structural biomarker to distinguish between them

Digital Control of single-phase Power Factor Preregulator based on current and voltage sensing at switch terminals

This paper proposes a fully digital control of boost power factor preregulators (PFPs) with input voltage estimation that is suitable for smart-power integration. The proposed solution features a minimum pin count by avoiding input voltage sensing for the generation of the internal current reference and by sensing the output voltage through the direct sampling of the voltage across the power switch during its off interval at the line voltage peak. The control algorithm requires the estimation of the rectified input voltage, that is simply done by exploiting the integral part of the current loop proportional–integral regulator, and a phase-looked-loop (PLL) synchronization with the estimated line frequency for sampling the output voltage and rejecting the low-frequency output voltage ripple. The provisions needed to ensure correct output voltage sensing, even during transient and light-load conditions, are also discussed. Experimental results on a single-phase boost PFP show the properties of the proposed approach

Geometric complexity identifies platelet activation in familial hypercholesterolemic patients

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), a genetic disease, is associated with a severe incidence of athero-thrombotic events, related, also, to platelet hyperreactivity. A plethora of methods have been proposed to identify those activated circulating platelets, none of these has proved really effective. We need efficient methods to identify the circulating platelet status in order to follow the patients after therapeutic procedures. We propose the use of computerized fractal analysis for an objective characterization of the complexity of circulating platelet shapes observed by means of transmission electron microscopy in order to characterize the in vivo hyperactivated platelets of familial hypercholesterolemic patients, distinguishing them from the in vivo resting platelets of healthy individuals. Platelet boundaries were extracted by means of automatically image analysis. Geometric complexity (fractal dimension, D) by box counting was automatically calculated. The platelet boundary observed by electron microscopy is fractal, the shape of the circulating platelets is more complex in FH (n = 6) than healthy subjects (n = 5, P < 0.01), with 100% correct classification in selected individuals. In vitro activated platelets from healthy subjects show an analogous increase of D. The observed high D in the platelet boundary in FH originates from the in vivo platelet activation. Computerized fractal analysis of platelet shape observed by transmission electron microscopy can provide accurate, quantitative data to study platelet activation in familial hypercholesterolemia and after administration of drugs or other therapeutic procedures. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Digital Control of single-phase Power Factor Preregulator suitable for Smart-Power Integration

This paper proposes a fully digital control of boost power factor preregulators (PFPs) with input voltage estimation that is suitable for smart-power integration. The proposed solution features a minimum pin count by avoiding direct sensing of the input voltage for the construction of the internal current reference signal and by sensing the output voltage through a direct sampling of the voltage across the power switch during its off interval at the line voltage peak. The control algorithm requires the estimation of the rectified input voltage, that is simply done by exploiting the integral part of the current loop PI regulator, and a PLL (phase-looked-loop) synchronization with the estimated line frequency for sampling the output voltage and rejecting the low-frequency output voltage ripple. The provisions needed to ensure correct output voltage sensing, even during transient and light-load conditions, are also discussed. Experimental results on a single-phase boost PFP show the properties of the proposed approach

Fattori di rischio cardiovascolare in menopausa. Dati di prevalenza di uno studio su popolazione: il Progetto DiSCo (Dati inediti)

Nell’ambito di un vasto studio comunitario rivolto alla prevenzione e al controllo delle malattie non trasmissibili, sono stati determinati la prevalenza della menopausa ed il livello dei principali fattori di rischio cardiovascolare

Dexamethasone therapy in preterm infants developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia: Effect on pulmonary surfactant disaturated-phosphatidylcholine kinetics

The role of corticosteroid in severe bronchopulmonary dyplasia (BPD) is still debated. Scanty data are available on the corticosteroids effect on surfactant metabolism. Our objective was to compare surfactant kinetics in preterm infants with developing BPD, before and after dexamethasone (DEXA) treatment. Twenty-eight studies were performed in 14 preterm infants (birth weight 786 \ub1 192 g, gestational age 26 \ub1 1 wk) on high ventilatory setting, before (age 22 \ub1 11 d) and after (age 33 \ub1 11 d) DEXA. C-labeled dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) was administered endotrachelly to trace pulmonary surfactant. Surfactant disaturated-phosphatidylcholine (DSPC) kinetics and pools were calculated from DSPC C-enrichment curves of serial tracheal aspirates and bi-compartmental analysis. Total protein and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in tracheal aspirates were also measured and expressed per ml of Epithelial Lining Fluid (ELF). After DEXA, DSPC alveolar pool increased significantly from 8.2 \ub1 7.6 to 10.6 \ub1 11.3 mg/kg (p = 0.039), total proteins and MPO were reduced from 8.8 \ub1 8.6 to 3.1 \ub1 2.1 mg/ml ELF (p = 0.046) and from 1822 \ub1 1224 to 1261 \ub1 987 mU/mlELF (p = 0.028) respectively. In conclusion, DEXA treatment in mechanically ventilated preterm infants with severe respiratory failure and at high risk of developing BPD, significantly reduced inflammatory markers and increased alveolar surfactant DSPC poo