Head and neck region consolidation radiotherapy and prophylactic cranial irradiation with hippocampal avoidance delivered with helical tomotherapy after induction chemotherapy for non-sinonasal neuroendocrine carcinoma of the upper airways

Background: Non-sinonasal neuroendocrine carcinomas (NSNECs) of the head and neck are considered an unfrequent clinico-pathological entity. Combined modality treatment represents an established therapeutic option for undifferentiated forms where distant metastasis is a common pattern of failure.Methods: We report on a case of NSNEC treated with sequential chemo-radiation consisting of 6 cycles of cisplatin and etoposide followed by loco-regional radiation to the head and neck and simultaneous prophylactic cranial irradiation to prevent from intracranial spread, delivered with helical tomotherapy with the 'hippocampal avoidance' technique in order to reduce neuro-cognitive late effects.Results: One year after the end of the whole combined modality approach, the patient achieved complete remission, with no treatment-related sub-acute and late effects.Conclusions: The present report highlights the importance of multidisciplinary management for NSNECs of the head and neck, as the possibility to achieve substantial cure rates with mild side effects with modern radiotherapy techniques. © 2012 Franco et al; BioMed Central Ltd

Association of kidney disease measures with risk of renal function worsening in patients with type 1 diabetes

Background: Albuminuria has been classically considered a marker of kidney damage progression in diabetic patients and it is routinely assessed to monitor kidney function. However, the role of a mild GFR reduction on the development of stage 653 CKD has been less explored in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic role of kidney disease measures, namely albuminuria and reduced GFR, on the development of stage 653 CKD in a large cohort of patients affected by T1DM. Methods: A total of 4284 patients affected by T1DM followed-up at 76 diabetes centers participating to the Italian Association of Clinical Diabetologists (Associazione Medici Diabetologi, AMD) initiative constitutes the study population. Urinary albumin excretion (ACR) and estimated GFR (eGFR) were retrieved and analyzed. The incidence of stage 653 CKD (eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) or eGFR reduction > 30% from baseline was evaluated. Results: The mean estimated GFR was 98 \ub1 17 mL/min/1.73m2 and the proportion of patients with albuminuria was 15.3% (n = 654) at baseline. About 8% (n = 337) of patients developed one of the two renal endpoints during the 4-year follow-up period. Age, albuminuria (micro or macro) and baseline eGFR < 90 ml/min/m2 were independent risk factors for stage 653 CKD and renal function worsening. When compared to patients with eGFR > 90 ml/min/1.73m2 and normoalbuminuria, those with albuminuria at baseline had a 1.69 greater risk of reaching stage 3 CKD, while patients with mild eGFR reduction (i.e. eGFR between 90 and 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) show a 3.81 greater risk that rose to 8.24 for those patients with albuminuria and mild eGFR reduction at baseline. Conclusions: Albuminuria and eGFR reduction represent independent risk factors for incident stage 653 CKD in T1DM patients. The simultaneous occurrence of reduced eGFR and albuminuria have a synergistic effect on renal function worsening

Improving Environmental Resilience through smart parking sensors: PARKADVISOR

More than 30% of residents in urbanized regions worldwide are constantly looking for parking and spend considerable part of their time during the day trying to find a spot. This urban inefficiency means a proportional increment of traffic jams and air pollution and consequent reduction of air quality. The paper focuses in improving the environmental dimension of community resilience through a monitoring system for car parking which is supposed to improve the air quality within the community where the system is applied. A careful literature review of the sensors available in the market and of the already existing technologies proposed is provided showing advantages and limitations. Finally, an application for smart devices called ParkAdvisor has been developed by the joint effort between the Politecnico di Torino and the University of California Berkeley. The proposed system is able to provide a solution also for several crowed cities like in Italy where the general parking rules do not apply. © 2015, International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructur

Photo-polymerization of acrylic/methacrylic gel-polymer electrolyte membranes for dye-sensitized solar cells

We report on the synthesis and characterization of new acrylic/methacrylic-based gel-polymer electrolyte membranes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The electrolyte membranes were prepared by the UV-curing process, which is well known for being easy, fast, low cost, and reliable. An accurate characterization of electrolytes and DSSCs allowed us to identify an interesting correlation between the crosslink density of the polymer networks and the photovoltaic performance of the solar cells. Furthermore, the effect of addition of iodine salts in the reactive mixtures was investigated, and light-to-electricity conversion efficiencies higher than 3% were obtained

Improving Environmental Resilience through smart parking sensors: PARKADVISOR

More than 30% of residents in urbanized regions worldwide are constantly looking for parking and spend considerable part of their time during the day trying to find a spot. This urban inefficiency means a proportional increment of traffic jams and air pollution and consequent reduction of air quality. The paper focuses in improving the environmental dimension of community resilience through a monitoring system for car parking which is supposed to improve the air quality within the community where the system is applied. A careful literature review of the sensors available in the market and of the already existing technologies proposed is provided showing advantages and limitations. Finally, an application for smart devices called ParkAdvisor has been developed by the joint effort between the Politecnico di Torino and the University of California Berkeley. The proposed system is able to provide a solution also for several crowed cities like in Italy where the general parking rules do not apply. © 2015, International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructur

Photopolymerization of acrylic/methacrylic polymer electrolyte membranes for dye-sensitized solar cells: effect of crosslinking density and addition of iodine salts

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are one of the promising candidates for the next generation of solar cells because of their simple structure, relatively high conversion efficiencies, inexpensive fabrication procedures and availability of many materials for their assembly. The main limitation of these devices is that undesirable intrinsic properties of liquid electrolyte significantly affect the operational stability and long-term durability of the cells. Evaporation and leakage, difficulty in robust and hermetic sealing, alteration of the attached dye, water and oxygen permeability are the main criticalities encountered in the presence of organic solvents-based liquid electrolytes. Replacing liquid electrolytes with solid or quasi-solid state ones is expected to solve most of these problems, especially in view of outdoors applications. In this context, polymer-based electrolytes are the best candidates due to their non-volatility, flexibility on the structure design, chemical and electrochemical stabilities. In this work we propose five gel-polymer electrolyte membranes, prepared by a rapid, cheap and eco-friendly process of free-radical photopolymerization. These acrylic/methacrylic membranes are prepared by co-photopolymerising difunctional and monofunctional oligomers, thus modulating the architecture of the polymeric matrix, mainly the crosslinking density. The membranes are activated by soaking them into a liquid electrolyte swelling solution (I-/I3-/CH3CN). The obtained gel-polymer electrolytes are free-standing, non-tacky, and extremely flexible. The characterization of these gel-polymer electrolytes and of the corresponding DSSCs has been carried out. In particular, we introduce here a correlation between the crosslinking density of the polymer networks and the light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of the cells. Moreover, we investigate the possibility of preparing membranes photopolymerising the reactive oligomers and the iodine salts-based electrolyte directly on the photoanode