Passivity-based harmonic control through series/parallel damping of an H-bridge rectifier

Nowadays the H-bridge is one of the preferred solutions to connect DC loads or distributed sources to the single-phase grid. The control aims are: sinusoidal grid current with unity power factor and optimal DC voltage regulation capability. These objectives should be satisfied, regardless the conditions of the grid, the DC load/source and the converter nonlinearities. In this paper a passivity-based approach is thoroughly investigated proposing a damping-based solution for the error dynamics. Practical experiments with a real converter validate the analysis.

Dual Targeted Immunotherapy via In Vivo Delivery of Biohybrid RNAi-Peptide Nanoparticles to Tumor-Associated Macrophages and Cancer Cells

This work was funded in part by Science Foundation Ireland under Grant No. 11/PI/08, the National Key Basic Research Program (973 Project) (Nos. 2011CB933101 and 2015CB931802), National Natural Scientific Fund (Nos. 81225010 and 81327002), 863 project of China (Nos. 2012AA022703 and 2014AA020700), Shanghai Science and Technology Fund (No. 13NM1401500). E.R.E. was supported in part by NIH R01 GM49039. J.C. acknowledges Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, Project No. 626386) and F.T. for Marie Curie grant agreement (PIEF-GA-2012-332-332462

4CPS-389 Governance of clinical trials between health needs, access to care, innovation and sustainability in the COVID-19 pandemic era

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Reduction of T Lymphoma Cells and Immunological Invigoration in a Patient Concurrently Affected by Melanoma and Sezary Syndrome Treated With Nivolumab

Despite the recent availability of several new drugs in hemato-oncology, T-cell lymphomas are still incurable and PD-1 blockade could represent a therapeutic chance for selected patients affected by these malignancies, although further studies are required to understand the biological effects of anti-PD-1 mAbs on neoplastic T-cells and to identify biomarkers for predicting and/or monitoring patients' response to therapy. Sezary Syndrome (SS) represents a rare and aggressive variant of cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) with a life expectancy of less than 5 years, characterized by the co-presence of neoplastic lymphocytes mainly in the blood, lymph nodes and skin. In this study we analyzed longitudinal blood samples and lesional skin biopsies of a patient concurrently affected by SS and melanoma who underwent 22 nivolumab administrations. In blood, we observed a progressive reduction of SS cell number and a raise in the percentage of normal CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and NK cells over total leukocytes. Eight weeks from the start of nivolumab, these immune cell subsets showed an increase of Ki67 proliferation index that positively correlated with their PD-1 expression. Conversely, SS cells displayed a strong reduction of Ki67 positivity despite their high PD-1 expression. On skin biopsies we observed a marked reduction of SS cells which were no more detectable at the end of therapy. We also found an increase in the percentage of normal CD4+ T cells with a concomitant decrease of that of CD8+ and CD4+ CD8+ T cells, two cell subsets that, however, acquired a cytotoxic phenotype. In summary, our study demonstrated that nivolumab marked reduced SS tumor burden and invigorated immune responses in our patient. Our data also suggest, for the first time, that Ki67 expression in circulating neoplastic and immune cell subsets, as well as an enrichment in T cells with a cytotoxic phenotype in lesional skin could be valuable markers to assess early on treatment SS patients' response to PD-1 blockade, a therapeutic strategy under clinical investigation in CTCL (NCT03385226, NCT04118868)

Role of Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) in Patients with Mycosis Fungoides

background: the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) at baseline has been demonstrated to correlate with higher stages of disease and to be a prognostic factor in numerous cancers. however, its function as a prognostic factor for mycosis fungoides (MF) has not been yet clarified. objective: our work aimed to assess the association of the NLR with different stages of MF and to outline whether higher values of this marker are related to a more aggressive MF.methods: we retrospectively calculated the NLRs in 302 MF patients at the moment of diagnosis. the NLR was obtained using the complete blood count values.results: the median NLR among patients with early stage disease (low-grade IA-IB-IIA) was 1.88, while the median NLR for patients with high-grade MF (IIB-IIIA-IIIB) was 2.64. statistical analysis showed positive associations of advanced MF stages with NLRs higher than 2.3. conclusions: our analysis demonstrates that the NLR represents a cheap and easily available parameter functioning as a marker for advanced MF. this might guide physicians in recognizing patients with advanced stages of disease requiring a strict follow-up or an early treatment

Adenosine A2A receptor modulation of hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapse plasticity during associative learning in behaving mice

© 2009 Nature Publishing Group All rights reservedPrevious in vitro studies have characterized the electrophysiological and molecular signaling pathways of adenosine tonic modulation on long-lasting synaptic plasticity events, particularly for hippocampal long-term potentiation(LTP). However, it remains to be elucidated whether the long-term changes produced by endogenous adenosine in the efficiency of synapses are related to those required for learning and memory formation. Our goal was to understand how endogenous activation of adenosine excitatory A2A receptors modulates the associative learning evolution in conscious behaving mice. We have studied here the effects of the application of a highly selective A2A receptor antagonist, SCH58261, upon a well-known associative learning paradigm - classical eyeblink conditioning. We used a trace paradigm, with a tone as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and an electric shock presented to the supraorbital nerve as the unconditioned stimulus(US). A single electrical pulse was presented to the Schaffer collateral–commissural pathway to evoke field EPSPs (fEPSPs) in the pyramidal CA1 area during the CS–US interval. In vehicle-injected animals, there was a progressive increase in the percentage of conditioning responses (CRs) and in the slope of fEPSPs through conditioning sessions, an effect that was completely prevented (and lost) in SCH58261 (0.5 mg/kg, i.p.)-injected animals. Moreover, experimentally evoked LTP was impaired in SCH58261- injected mice. In conclusion, the endogenous activation of adenosine A2A receptors plays a pivotal effect on the associative learning process and its relevant hippocampal circuits, including activity-dependent changes at the CA3-CA1 synapse.This study was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Research (BFU2005-01024 and BFU2005-02512), Spanish Junta de Andalucía (BIO-122 and CVI-02487), and the Fundación Conocimiento y Cultura of the Pablo de Olavide University (Seville, Spain).B. Fontinha was in receipt of a studentship from a project grant (POCI/SAU-NEU/56332/2004) supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal), and of an STSM from Cost B30 concerted action of the EU

Palladium nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes as catalysts of cross-coupling reactions

The macroscopic properties of composite nanotube-nanoparticle superstructures are determined by a complex interplay of structural parameters at the nanoscale. The catalytic performance of different carbon nanotube-palladium nanoparticle catalysts, where nanoparticles were formed either directly onto nanotubes or preformed prior to deposition on nanotubes using different types of surfactants, were tested 10 in cross-coupling reactions. The decoration of multi-walled carbon nanotubes with preformed thiolate-stabilised palladium nanoparticles yielded the optimum catalyst, exhibiting high activity and stability towards carbon-carbon bond formation and excellent recyclability, retaining high activity from cycle to cycle. The type of carbon nanotube support has pronounced effects on the density of deposited nanoparticles, with more polarisable MWNT able to uptake the highest number of nanoparticles per unit 15 surface area as compared to other carbon nanostructures (MWNT>DWNT>SWNT~GNF). Microscopic investigation of the nanoscale morphology found that nanoparticles increase in size during catalysis. The extent of growth is dependent on the type of nanocarbon support, with wider MWNT possessing lower curvature and thus retarding the growth and coalescence of nanoparticles to a greater extent than other carbon nanostructures (SWNT>>DWNT>MWNT~GNF). The type of halogen X in the C-X bond 20 activated by palladium appears to influence the evolution of nanoparticles during catalysis, with X=Br having the greatest effect as compared to X=Cl or I. Overall, preformed thiolate-stabilised palladium nanoparticles deposited on MWNT from solution was found to possess the most functional catalytic properties, with optimum activity, stability and recyclability in a range of cross-coupling reactions