Development and Metrological Characterization of a Multi-sensor Device for Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) monitoring

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), which affects people's health, comfort, well-being and productivity, combines thermal, visual, acoustic and air quality conditions. This work deals with design, development and metrological characterization of a low-cost multi-sensor device that is able to detect the quality conditions of indoor environments for IEQ purposes. The device, hereafter referred as PROMET&O (PROactive Monitoring for indoor EnvironmenTal quality & cOmfort) embeds a set of low-cost sensors that measure air temperature and relative humidity, illuminance, sound pressure level, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, particulate matter, formaldehyde, and nitrogen dioxide. The basic architecture of the device is described and the design criteria that are related to the measurement requirements are highlighted. Particular attention has been paid towards the traceability assurance of the measurements provided by PROMET&O by means of specifically conceived calibration procedures, which have been tailored to the requirements of each measurement quantity. The calibration is based on the comparison to reference standards following commonly employed or ad-hoc developed technical procedures. The defined calibration procedures can be applied both for the single sensors and for the set of sensors integrated in the multi-sensor case. For the latter, the effects of the percentage of permeable case surface and the sensors allocation are also investigated. A preliminary uncertainty evaluation of the proposed multi-sensor device is reported for the carbon dioxide and the illuminance sensors taking the defined calibration procedures into account

Impact of selected comorbidities on the presentation and management of aortic stenosis

Background: Contemporary data regarding the impact of comorbidities on the clinical presentation and management of patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) are scarce. Methods Prospective registry of severe patients with AS across 23 centres in nine European countries. Results Of the 2171 patients, chronic kidney disease (CKD 27.3%), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) = 2 of these). The decision to perform aortic valve replacement (AVR) was taken in a comparable proportion (67%, 72% and 69%, in patients with 0, 1 and >= 2 comorbidities;p=0.186). However, the decision for TAVI was more common with more comorbidities (35.4%, 54.0% and 57.0% for no, 1 and >= 2;p= 2 comorbidities than in those without (8.7%, 10.0% and 15.7%;p= 2 comorbidities (30.8 days) than in those without (35.7 days;p=0.012). Patients with reduced LVEF tended to be offered an AVR more frequently and with a shorter delay while patients with CKD were less frequently treated. Conclusions: Comorbidities in severe patients with AS affect the presentation and management of patients with severe AS. TAVI was offered more often than SAVR and performed within a shorter time period

Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles 2018 (MISEV2018):a position statement of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles and update of the MISEV2014 guidelines

The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the number of scientific publications describing physiological and pathological functions of extracellular vesicles (EVs), a collective term covering various subtypes of cell-released, membranous structures, called exosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, ectosomes, oncosomes, apoptotic bodies, and many other names. However, specific issues arise when working with these entities, whose size and amount often make them difficult to obtain as relatively pure preparations, and to characterize properly. The International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) proposed Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles (“MISEV”) guidelines for the field in 2014. We now update these “MISEV2014” guidelines based on evolution of the collective knowledge in the last four years. An important point to consider is that ascribing a specific function to EVs in general, or to subtypes of EVs, requires reporting of specific information beyond mere description of function in a crude, potentially contaminated, and heterogeneous preparation. For example, claims that exosomes are endowed with exquisite and specific activities remain difficult to support experimentally, given our still limited knowledge of their specific molecular machineries of biogenesis and release, as compared with other biophysically similar EVs. The MISEV2018 guidelines include tables and outlines of suggested protocols and steps to follow to document specific EV-associated functional activities. Finally, a checklist is provided with summaries of key points