34 research outputs found

    FROM EPIGENETICS TO ANTI-DOPING APPLICATION: A NEW TOOL OF DETECTION

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    Eukaryotic genomes transcribe up to 90% of the genomic DNA but only 1\u20132% of these transcripts encode for proteins, whereas the vast majority are transcribed as non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). They are divided into short ncRNA, particularly microRNA (miRNA) and small interference RNA (siRNA), and long ncRNAs. Noteworthy, they are unexpectedly stable since they are protected from degradation through different mechanisms: package in exosomes/microvesicles structures, in apoptotic bodies, in HDL lipoprotein, or by RNA binding proteins. For several years already, biomarkers have been used to detect biological disease; in the last years, a requirement appeared to find some of them to unearth the signs of doping. The potential of ncRNAs as a biological candidate is strongly debated and it seems to have become the right tool in the anti-doping hands. In the recent years, the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology was used by the World Anti-Doping Agency to draft the athlete biological passport (ABP), measuring the circulating miRNAs and applying these new biomarkers in anti-doping. NGS technology does not require any prior knowledge of ncRNAs, but the limit to employ this biomarker to detect performance-enhancing drug use must consider the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that might affect measurements. Key words: pbiomarkers, doping, HDL, ncRNA, exosom

    MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND WELL-BEING

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    Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease that affects central nervous system (CNS) \u2013 coexists in brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. It can process in three different courses: remitting, progressive and progressive-relapsing. Although there is still no cure for MS, effective strategies are available to modify the disease course, reduce number of relapses, rate of progressions and development of new lesions. Nowadays, moderate physical performance is strongly recommended: besides having positive effects on the body, it can have a positive effect on the psychophysical wellbeing. Essentially there are 3 types of training protocols: aerobic (endurance training), strength training (resistance training) and combined training. The majority of the studies suggests that regular physical activity can improve fatigue, depression and quality of life in people with MS, however most of the researchers worked without any guidelines for physical activity adapted to the MS, which are still under review by the scientific communit

    Emerging Trends in Techniques and Technology as Applied to Filter Design

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    In the last decade, the filter community has innovated both design techniques and the technology used for practical implementation. In design, the philosophy has become "if you can't avoid it, use it", a very practical engineering approach. Modes previously deemed spurious are intentionally used to create in-line networks incorporating real or imaginary transmission zeros and also reduce the number of components and thus further miniaturize; spurious responses are re-routed to increase the passband width or stopband width, frequency variation in couplings is used to create complex transfer functions, with all of these developments using what was previously avoided. Clever implementations of baluns into passive and active networks is resulting in a new generation of noise-immune filters for 5G and beyond. Finally, the use of a diakoptic approach to synthesis has appeared an evolving approach in which small blocks ("singlets", "doublets", etc.) are cascaded to implement larger networks, (reducing the need for very complex synthesis), with this new approach promising a large impact on the implementation of practical structures. Filter technology has migrated towards "observe it and then adapt it", pragmatically repurposing tools not specifically originally intended for the applications. Combinations of surface wave and bulk wave resonators with L-C networks are improving the loss characteristics of filters in the region below 2 GHz. Lightweight alloys and other materials designed for spacecraft are being used in filters intended for space, to provide temperature stability without the use of heavy alloys such as Invar. Fully-enclosed waveguide is being replaced in some cases by planar and quasiplanar structures propagating quasi-waveguide modes. This is generically referred to as SIW (Substrate Integrated Waveguide). Active filters trade noise figure for insertion loss but perhaps will offer advantage in terms of size and chip-level implementation. Finally, the era of reconfiguration might be approaching, as the basic networks are evolving, perhaps lacking only the appearance of lower-loss, higher-IP solid-state tuning elements

    A Design Methodology for Fully Canonic NRN Filters in Coaxial Technology

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    This paper presents a detailed approach to the design and dimensioning of coaxial filters with fully canonic elliptic response. In order get a compact configuration the extracted-pole in-line configuration with non-resonating nodes (NRN) is adopted. First the synthesis of a low-pass prototype is carried out and the generalized coupling coefficients together with the resonant frequencies are computed as outlined in the literature. A suitable de-normalized equivalent circuit is then derived with reference to the specific filter configuration here considered. Finally, the dimensioning of the structure is carried out suitably exploiting full wave simulations for imposing the parameters of the equivalent circuit obtained from the synthesis to the physical structure. The proposed methodology has been validated by the design and fabrication of two high selectivity filters to connect in cascade for realizing a band pass filter easily tunable both in center frequency and bandwidt

    The Extracted-Zero: A Practical Solution for Transmission Zeros in Wideband Filters

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    This letter presents a practical solution to realize finite frequency transmission zeros with independent location for wideband evanescent-mode filters. The method consists of using offline resonators located at the input and/or output of the filter. In contrast with the extracted-pole technique commonly employed for narrowband filters to generate a pole-zero pair, each offline resonator is used here in such a way so that the sole transmission zero is actively used in the filtering function. The latter characteristic is what makes this technique practical for wideband filters as it prevents the presence of unfeasibly strong coupling coefficients, as well as avoiding impractical nonresonating node elements. The offline resonator, which we named extracted-zero, can be coupled to the first or last resonator of a wideband bandpass filter, and it is conveniently realized using the same technology as any other resonator of the filter. The extracted-zero can be seen as a first-order notch filter which is directly embedded into the bandpass filter (instead of being cascaded afterward). The feasibility of this solution is validated by the experimental results of a challenging 225-450-MHz bandpass filter (66.6% fractional bandwidth) which employs 17 inline resonators plus 2 extracted-zeros so as to obtain 50 dB rejection below 195 MHz

    Design of In-Line Filters With Strongly Coupled Resonator Triplet

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    This paper presents a complete design procedure for in-line evanescent mode filters using an innovative pseudoelliptic structure, namely, the strongly coupled resonator triplet (SCRT). The SCRT can be seen as the combination of a strongly coupled resonator pair (SCRP) and a third resonator next to the pair. Compared to the SCRP, which at the passband frequencies generates a pole and a transmission zero, the new SCRT is capable of generating an additional passband pole, thus leading to the design of more compact in-line filters. Similar to the SCRP, the basic structure for filter design purposes is obtained by embedding the SCRT between two outer resonators. The coupling mechanisms and functional properties of this basic structure are explained. A suitable circuit model for the SCRT is introduced, thus allowing the synthesis of a low-pass prototype as well as the evaluation of the coupling coefficients and resonating frequencies to assign to the physical filtering structure. The proposed design procedure is validated by means of several examples, one of which including the detailed dimensions and experimental results of a manufactured prototype

    Design of in-line filters with transmission zeros using strongly coupled resonators pairs

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    This paper presents an original synthesis-based approach for the complete design procedure of pseudoelliptic in-line filters using strongly-coupled resonators pairs (SCRPs). The proposed synthesis method is based on the derivation of the coupling matrix of a new basic building block that we called SymBox. This new topology is composed of four resonators and five couplings, and allows for the generation of one finite-frequency transmission zero. Among its various properties, the most interesting feature of the SymBox including an SCRP is that all the couplings are positive regardless of the transmission zero position (above or below the passband), thus significantly reducing the complexity of the physical structure of the filter. The proposed design procedure is completed with the application of an efficient full-wave methodology, allowing one to accurately obtain the physical dimensions of the filter starting from the electrical parameters calculated in the previous synthesis phase. The complete design of a filter composed by a cascade of resonators and SymBoxes is presented and illustrated with a practical example. It is shown how the filter realized by Bastioli and Snyder in 2013 (whose design was carried out by means of a lengthy full-wave optimization procedure) can be easily designed with the proposed synthesis technique

    The Strongly-Coupled Resonator Triplet

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    This paper introduces an innovative structure, namely the strongly-coupled resonator triplet (SCRT), which is suitable for the realization of compact pseudoelliptic evanescent mode filters with inline configuration. The SCRT can be seen as the combination of a strongly-coupled resonator pair (SCRP) and a third resonator next to the pair. Compared to the SCRP, which at the passband frequencies generates a pole and a transmission zero, the new SCRT is capable of generating an additional passband pole, thus leading to the design of more compact inline filters. Similarly to the SCRP, the basic structure for filter design purposes is obtained by embedding the SCRT between two outer resonators. The coupling mechanisms and functional properties of this basic structure are explained and validated by the experimental results of a manufactured prototype
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