Report on European Monetary Union

european union, financial markets, fiscal policy competition

A wearable mechatronic device for extracorporeal blood ultrafiltration

The interest in the design of portable and wearable medical devices is related to both the relevant clinical and social benefits for patients and the potential economic savings for national health services. Biomedical technologies are improving at a very fast rate and represent an extraordinary means to develop innovative portable and wearable devices which can help people live in a prosperous way, in particular reducing sorrow in case of disease. This leads to a widespread effort to develop devices which can execute at home therapies that are usually performed in hospitals. This thesis presents a new wearable and portable device for extracorporeal blood ultrafiltration, named WUF (Wearable UltraFiltration device), able to remove excess fluids from fluid overload patients with chronic kidney disease and/or congestive heart failure. The design requirements that a modern wearable device for extracorporeal ultrafiltration must meet have been identified thanks to a thorough literature review on previous similar proposals followed by an extensive risk analysis. The design of the WUF prototype has faced several difficulties, ranging from the identification or conceivement of safe and reliable components to the design of a compact and neat layout. For most components it was possible to identify commercial (off-the-shelf) products meeting the requirements, nonetheless for some others, specific investigations, studies and developments were needed and led to the design of customized solutions or the formulation of original approaches. The design of an effective, efficient, safe and reliable control architecture, based on two microcontrollers and one microcomputer, the implementation of the control logic and of a graphical user interface have been carried out too being essential features of such a mechatronic device. A backpack/trolley design has been chosen as the layout for the device, since such a solution guarantees the best tradeoff between miniaturization and ergonomics. The design introduces an original positioning of the vast majority of components in three independent planar panels: one for disposable components, one for non-disposable devices and one for electronic boards and controllers. This arrangement of components can drastically simplify and speed up the in-hospital operations needed before and after a therapy with the WUF

How Does Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Affect Septic Acute Kidney Injury?

Sepsis is the leading cause of acute kidney injury (AKI) in the intensive care unit. As the most common treatment of septic AKI, it is believed that continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) can not only maintain the water balance and excrete the metabolic products but also regulate the inflammation and promote kidney recovery. CRRT can remove the inflammatory cytokines to regulate the metabolic adaption in kidney and restore the kidney recovery to protect the kidney in septic AKI. Second, CRRT can provide extra energy supply in septic AKI to improve the kidney energy balance in septic AKI. Third, the anticoagulant used in CRRT also regulates the inflammation in septic AKI. CRRT is not only a treatment to deal with the water balance and metabolic products, but also a method to regulate the inflammation in septic AKI. Video Journal Club 'Cappuccino with Claudio Ronco' at https://www.karger.com/Journal/ArticleNews/223997?sponsor=52

CAR-T therapy: the role of the hematopoietic stem cell processing laboratory

Purpose of this paper is to review all the phases that in-volved, for the first time, the SC of Hematology and the SC of Transfu-sion Medicine, specifically, the CSE Processing laboratory, in imple-menting an innovative operative protocol of gene immunotherapydue to the inclusion of the first patient, affected by diffuse large B-celllymphoma (DLBCL), stage IV, into the CAR-T therapeutic program.The program took place within the SS Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Ar-rigo Hospital of Alessandria

oXirisNet Registry: A Prospective, National Registry on the oXiris Membrane.

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The effects of vent location, event scale and time forecasts on pyroclastic density current hazard maps at Campi Flegrei caldera (Italy)

This study presents a new method for producing long-term hazard maps for pyroclastic density currents (PDC) originating at Campi Flegrei caldera. Such method is based on a doubly stochastic approach and is able to combine the uncertainty assessments on the spatial location of the volcanic vent, the size of the flow and the expected time of such an event. The results are obtained by using a Monte Carlo approach and adopting a simplified invasion model based on the box model integral approximation. Temporal assessments are modeled through a Cox-type process including self-excitement effects, based on the eruptive record of the last 15 kyr.Mean and percentilemaps of PDC invasion probability are produced, exploring their sensitivity to some sources of uncertainty and to the effects of the dependence between PDC scales and the caldera sector where they originated. Conditional maps representative of PDC originating inside limited zones of the caldera, or of PDC with a limited range of scales are also produced. Finally, the effect of assuming different time windows for the hazard estimates is explored, also including the potential occurrence of a sequence of multiple events. Assuming that the last eruption of Monte Nuovo (A.D. 1538) marked the beginning of a new epoch of activity similar to the previous ones, results of the statistical analysis indicate a mean probability of PDC invasion above 5% in the next 50 years on almost the entire caldera (with a probability peak of 25% in the central part of the caldera). In contrast, probability values reduce by a factor of about 3 if the entire eruptive record is considered over the last 15 kyr, i.e., including both eruptive epochs and quiescent periods

“Estou nas Nuvens”: trabalho colaborativo em investigação qualitativa através do software webQDA

A investigação cientifica sempre se fez e se faz de modo colaborativo. Hoje temos disponível a internet que facilita este processo através de ferramentas de comunicação, a partilha de dados, gestão de tarefas, entre outras. No entanto, a investigação qualitativa tem dado passos tímidos no trabalho verdadeiramente colaborativo. Este artigo apresenta o modelo 4C, bem como as funcionalidades de colaboração disponíveis na versão atual (2.0) do software de apoio à análise qualitativa webQDA. O estudo foi realizado tendo como base um questionário destinado a compreender a opinião de uma amostra aleatória de participantes de três edições do Congresso Ibero-Americano em Investigação Qualitativa (anos 2013, 2014 e 2015). Os resultados apontam para a pouca importância que atribuída as ferramentas de colaboração e cooperação, comunicação e coordenação. Por exemplo, dos 362 participantes apenas 22 efetuaram sugestões associadas a estas dimensõesScientific research has always been done and is done in a collaborative manner. Today we have available the internet that facilitates this process through communication tools, data sharing, management tasks, among others. However, qualitative research has taken timid steps towards a truly collaborative work. This paper presents the 4C collaborative work model as well as the collaboration features available in the current version (2.0) of the qualitative analysis software webQDA. The paper is based on a questionnaire sought to understand the views of a random sample of users in Brazil, Spain and Portugal about these features. The results achieved demonstrate that the communications capabilities, cooperation and coordination are not yet fully explored by researchers. We hope that the development of version 3.0 of webQDA, can be benefited by the identification of the features most exploited by researchers and point to desired new features to be made available

Citron Kinase Deficiency Leads to Chromosomal Instability and TP53-Sensitive Microcephaly

Mutations in citron (CIT), leading to loss or inactivation of the citron kinase protein (CITK), cause primary microcephaly in humans and rodents, associated with cytokinesis failure and apoptosis in neural progenitors. We show that CITK loss induces DNA damage accumulation and chromosomal instability in both mammals and Drosophila. CITK-deficient cells display "spontaneous" DNA damage, increased sensitivity to ionizing radiation, and defective recovery from radiation-induced DNA lesions. In CITK-deficient cells, DNA double-strand breaks increase independently of cytokinesis failure. Recruitment of RAD51 to DNA damage foci is compromised by CITK loss, and CITK physically interacts with RAD51, suggesting an involvement of CITK in homologous recombination. Consistent with this scenario, in doubly CitK and Trp53 mutant mice, neural progenitor cell death is dramatically reduced; moreover, clinical and neuroanatomical phenotypes are remarkably improved. Our results underscore a crucial role of CIT in the maintenance of genomic integrity during brain development