On the nature of charge-transfer excitations for molecules in aqueous solution: a polarizable QM/MM study

We illustrate the effect of solvation on the nature of electronic excitations of organic molecules which possess excited states of charge-transfer character. The analysis is carried out using both a continuum model and a polarizable QM/MM method that treats the solvent atomistically and embeds each atom in the solvent with a fluctuating charge which responds to the solute quantum-mechanical electrostatic potential in a self-consistent manner. We also show how solvation dynamics can influence the nature of the excited state of molecular systems. The application of the model to aqueous solutions of doxorubicin and a substituted polythiophene derivative shows that the solvent significantly affects the nature the excited states, which results in an enhanced or reduced charge-transfer character as measured using two of the most popular indices for evaluating the distance traveled by the electrons upon excitation

Nrf2 Signaling: An Adaptive Response Pathway for Neurodegenerative Disorders

Oxidative damage contributes to pathogenesis in many neurodegenerative diseases. As the indicator and regulator of oxidative stress, the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)-antioxidant response element (ARE) pathway has been shown to have dynamic changes and examined for its neuroprotective role in many cases. Nrf2 is emerging as a regulatory protein in neuronal death, since it helps neuronal cells to meet with oxidative insults. In this chapter, we summarize the role of Nrf2 as a master regulator of oxidative stress. Furthermore, we treat some natural and chemical substances able to modulate the Nrf2 pathway and, therefore, their possible use in the neurodegenerative diseases therapeutic treatment

As Time Goes by: A rTMS Study on Age-Related Changes in Sentence Comprehension

It is well established that off-line sentence judgment tasks (oSJTs) typically rely on phonological working memory (WM), beyond specific linguistic processing. Nevertheless, empirical findings suggest that a juvenile level of performance in an oSJT could be associated with the recruitment of age-specific additional supportive neural network in healthy aging. In particular, in one of our previous study, healthy elderlies showed the additional activation of associative visual cortices when compared with young controls. We suggested that age-related hyperactivations, during an auditory sentence judgment task, might represent the neurofunctional correlate of the recruitment of compensatory strategies that are necessary to maintain a juvenile level of performance. To explicitly test this hypothesis we adopted repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Twelve healthy elderlies and 12 young participants were engaged in an off-line semantic plausibility judgment task while rTMS was delivered over: (1) the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG; i.e., a core region of the WM network); (2) the precuneus; and (3) a Control Site (vertex). Results showed a significant main effect of Stimulation Site and a significant Group-by-Stimulation Site interaction effect. In particular, the rTMS stimulation of the LIFG slowed down reaction times (RTs) both in young and healthy elderly participants, while only healthy elderlies showed an increment of RTs during the stimulation of the precuneus. Taken together our results further support the idea that the maintenance of a juvenile level of performance in graceful aging may be associated with task-specific compensatory processes that would manifest them-selves, from the neurofunctional point of view, by the recruitment of additional neural supportive regions

FRONT END ELECTRONICS PER ASIC RENA3

In questo documento verranno descritte le fasi di progettazione e test della scheda FPGA di front end, sviluppata per interfacciarci con l'ASIC RENA3

Misura del PSRR nei regolatori di tensione ad alte prestazioni

Le misure del PSRR nei regolatori lineari a bassa caduta di tensione sono state eseguite nel contesto della partecipazione dell’istituto al progetto HERMES. Esso prevede la progettazione di una costellazione di nanosatelliti, nei quali sono utilizzati fotorivelatori SDD interfacciati ad ASIC a bassissimo rumore

RELAZIONE TECNICA TEST MODALITÀ READOUT ASIC RENA-3

In questo documento descriveremo i test effettuati sull’evaluation board contenente l’ASIC RENA-3 per verificare il corretto funzionamento della modalità Readout. In particolar modo una volta assegnata una soglia ad un DAC interno, si dovrà verificare che il segnale inviato ad uno degli N ingressi del RENA, superata quest’ultima generi un impulso di trigger e a partire da questo il sistema proceda con l’elaborazione del segnale d’ingresso stesso

GENERATORE DI IMPULSI PER LA CALIBRAZIONE DI UN ASIC

In questo documento verranno descritte le fasi di progettazione e realizzazione di un generatore di segnale a dente di sega ad ampiezza variabile, tra i 15mVpp e i 200mVpp, avente un offset di 2Vpp e una frequenza fissa di 12KHz. Tale generatore è stato realizzato in relazione alla esigenza di dover calibrare l’ASIC a bordo dei nanosatelliti del progetto HERMES

RELAZIONE TECNICA TEST MODALITÀ FOLLOWER ASIC RENA-3

In questo documento illustreremo la procedura utilizzata per testare la modalità follower del ASIC RENA3 IC (Readout Electronics for Nuclear Applications Integrated Circuit) dispositivo utile per l’acquisizione di segnali a doppia polarità provenienti da fotorivelatori 3D CZT

Surgical treatment of early breast cancer in day surgery

Quadrantectomy and associated sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is currently employed in most breast surgery centres as the gold standard in the treatment of early breast cancer. This approach has a modest morbidity and can usually be performed in a day-surgery regimen, leading to best acceptance by the patients. This reports outlines the experience of our Breast Unit with quadrantectomy and SLNB in day surgery for early breast cancer. One hundred patients presenting to our institution with primary invasive breast cancer measuring less than 3 cm and clinically negative axillary nodes underwent quadrantectomy and SLNB in day surgery. For 60 women with breast cancer the sentinel node was negative, so the only definitive surgical treatment was performed in the day-surgery regimen; 40 patients with positive sentinel nodes were hospitalised a second time for axillary dissection. In these patients that needed clearance of the axilla, SLNB was performed on the only positive node in 22 cases (55%). None of the patients admitted for quadrantectomy and SLNB in day surgery required re-hospitalisation after discharge. All patients proved to be fully satisfied with early discharge from hospital when questioned on the occasion of subsequent monitoring. Short-stay surgical programs in early invasive breast cancer treatment are feasible today owing to the availability of less invasive approaches such as quadrantectomy and SLNB. There are two main pointers to a distinct advantage for this kind of approach, i.e. recovery and psychological adjustment. Recovery from surgery is faster and the patient tends to play down the seriousness of the operation and to have a better mental attitude to neoplastic disease. Moreover, when performing quadrantectomy with SLNB in day surgery fewer than 50% of breast cancer patients (40% in our experience) require another surgical treatment, concluding the surgery in a single sessio