MM2-thalamic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease-Neuropathological, biochemical and transmission studies identify a distinctive prion strain

In Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), molecular typing based on the size of the protease resistant core of the disease-associated prion protein (PrP(Sc) ) and the M/V polymorphism at codon 129 of the PRNP gene correlates with the clinico-pathologic subtypes. Approximately 95% of the sporadic 129MM CJD patients are characterized by cerebral deposition of type 1 PrP(Sc) and correspond to the classic clinical CJD phenotype. The rare 129MM CJD patients with type 2 PrP(Sc) are further subdivided in a cortical and a thalamic form also indicated as sporadic fatal insomnia. We observed two young patients with MM2-thalamic CJD. Main neuropathological features were diffuse, synaptic PrP immunoreactivity in the cerebral cortex and severe neuronal loss and gliosis in the thalamus and olivary nucleus. Western blot analysis showed the presence of type 2A PrP(Sc) . Challenge of transgenic mice expressing 129MM human PrP showed that MM2-thalamic sporadic CJD (sCJD) was able to transmit the disease, at variance with MM2-cortical sCJD. The affected mice showed deposition of type 2A PrP(Sc) , a scenario that is unprecedented in this mouse line. These data indicate that MM2-thalamic sCJD is caused by a prion strain distinct from the other sCJD subtypes including the MM2-cortical form

Shoulder Pain and Disability Index: Italian cross-cultural validation in patients with non-specific shoulder pain

none6noBackground: Health-related patient reported outcome measures are considered essential to determine the impact of disease on the life of individuals. Aim of this study is to culturally adapt the Italian version of the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI). The secondary aim is to evaluate psychometric proprieties in patients with non-specific shoulder pain. Methods: The current study is an analysis of a sample of 59 adult patients with non-specific shoulder pain. The SPADI was translated and cross-culturally adapted, and then psychometric properties were tested. Participants completed the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index-Italian (SPADI-I), 36-item short form health survey, the Oxford Shoulder Score, the Disability of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand scale and a pain intensity visual analogue scale. Results: SPADI-I included two domains. Internal consistency analysis showed good values for total (α = 0.84) and subscales (α = 0.94 and α = 0.76). For construct validity, there was good correlation between the visual analogue scale, the Oxford Shoulder Score, the DASH and the SPADI-I total score and subscales. Standard error of measurement and minimally detectable change were calculated. Conclusions: The SPADI-I was culturally adapted into Italian. SPADI-I is centred on pain and disability of the shoulder only and can be considered as a useful tool in daily clinical practice for assessing musculoskeletal non-specific shoulder pain because of its good internal consistency and validity. Further studies should focus on other psychometric proprieties such as test re-test reliability, responsiveness and clinical interpretability to improve the available clinimetrics of the tool.mixedBrindisino F.; Indaco T.; Giovannico G.; Ristori D.; Maistrello L.; Turolla A.Brindisino F.; Indaco T.; Giovannico G.; Ristori D.; Maistrello L.; Turolla A

STT-MRAM-based PUF architecture exploiting magnetic tunnel junction fabrication-induced variability

Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) are emerging cryptographic primitives used to implement lowcost device authentication and secure secret key generation. Weak PUFs (i.e., devices able to generate a single signature or to deal with a limited number of challenges) are widely discussed in literature. One of the most investigated solutions today is based on SRAMs. However, the rapid development of low-power, high-density, high-performance SoCs has pushed the embedded memories to their limits and opened the field to the development of emerging memory technologies. The Spin-Transfer-Torque Magnetic Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM) has emerged as a promising choice for embedded memories due to its reduced read/write latency and high CMOS integration capability. In this article, we propose an innovative PUF design based on STT-MRAM memory. We exploit the high variability affecting the electrical resistance of the Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ) device in anti-parallel magnetization. We will demonstrate that the proposed solution is robust, unclonable, and unpredictable

SSDExplorer: A virtual platform for fine-grained design space exploration of Solid State Drives

Solid State Drives (SSDs) are gaining particular momentum in various frameworks such as multimedia, large data centers and cloud environments. Unfortunately, efficient CAD tools for SSD design space exploration able to assess the optimization of the device microarchitecture w.r.t. the target performance are still missing. This paper tries to close this gap by proposing SSDExplorer, a tool for fine-grained and fast design space exploration of SSD devices. SSDExplorer provides unprecedented insights into the architecture behavior and subcomponent interaction efficiency, while avoiding the need for the actual implementation of an FTL or of key hardware components. This is achieved by the introduction of suitable abstractions of the different components. This is confirmed by the thorough validation of SSDExplorer against a commercial SSD device