A FMCW radar as electronic travel aid for visually impaired subjects

In this paper the design and test of a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar to be used as electronic travel aid for visually impaired subjects are presented. The sensor is based on the Infineon BGT24MTR11 integrated circuit, whose output frequency has been controlled by the Analog Devices AD4158 integrated circuit. A transmitting and a receiving serial array of patch antennas have been designed and realized. The designed sensor uncertainty has been experimentally investigated, finding a worst case value close to the theoretical resolution of 0.6 m calculated from the FMCW signal band

TDR-based measurements of water content in construction materials for in-the-field use and calibration

In this paper, a time domain reflectometry (TDR)-based system for measuring water content of raw construction materials is presented. The proposed system relies on the fact that the presence of water leads to an increase of the dielectric permittivity of materials; therefore, from TDR-based permittivity measurements, it is possible to infer the water content value. In practical applications, the proposed system could be used for assessing the intrinsic water content of construction materials before they are poured into the concrete mixture. Knowing the intrinsic water content of the raw materials, in fact, would allow to evaluate the optimal amount of water that should be added to the mixture in order to achieve the desired waterto-cement ratio. This, in turn, would permit to fine-tune and control the mechanical properties of the final concrete structures. For assessing the feasibility of using the proposed system for the intended purpose, water content measurements were carried out on three construction materials, namely, sand, gray cement, and white portland cement. For each of these materials, a calibration curve relating water content to the apparent dielectric permittivity was derived; additionally, through repeated measurements, also a confidence interval was associated with the calibration curves

Microwave reflectometric methodologies for water content estimation in stone-made Cultural Heritage materials

In this work, the assessment of water content of building materials, to be used for moisture content monitoring of Cultural Heritage structures is addressed. To this purpose, different methods and probes were comparatively used to infer, noninvasively, the relationship between the water content of stone materials and the reflection properties at microwave frequency of the material. In particular, three types of probes were used: an open-ended coaxial probe; a patch resonator; and an open-ended waveguide. In addition, two different measurement instruments were compared; namely, a vector network analyzer and a time-domain reflectometer. Experimental tests were carried out on two types of stone materials (gentile and leccese stone), which are typically found in Cultural Heritage structures of Southern Italy. For each of the considered measurement systems, the experimental results and the related uncertainty evaluation are reported

The Italian Version of the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Healthcare Providers: Validation and Study on a Sample of Bachelor Students

Prejudices on psychiatric disorders frequently turn into stigmatizating attitudes, also among health care providers. The Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC) was introduced in 2012 to measure stigma. No Italian versions of this tool exist so far. We wanted to investigate stigma among healthcare students in Italy, and to prepare an Italian version of the scale. A multicentric, cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of Nursing, Physiotherapy, Occupational therapy, and Dietistics students. The Italian version of the scale was obtained through back-translation.\ue2\u80\ua8561 students were enrolled, median age 21 years, IQR [20;23], 62.22% females (n = 349). 262 students declared having met subjetcs affected by psychiatric disorders during their training; 50 had one or more psychiatric disorders in their lives. The Italian version proved valid and reliable. Older students had lower stigma scores. No differences existed between stigma scores according to gender and personal experience of mental illness

Compensating for bulk density effect in permittivity-based moisture content measurements on cultural heritage materials

Dielectric permittivity-based measurement techniques are establishing themselves as attractive solutions for assessing the moisture content of historic masonry materials. The relative simplicity of the measurement principle and the inherent adaptability to diverse operating conditions are two of the most notable features of these techniques. In spite of these specific advantages, however, there are still some aspects that hinder the widespread use of permittivity-based moisture content measurement systems, and make their standardization difficult. In particular, the density of the sample under test may affect the estimation of permittivity, thus possibly leading to inaccurate moisture content measurements. As a result, the measurement system should be re-calibrated even when the same type of material is being investigated (e.g., two samples of the same type of stone, but extracted from different quarries). To circumvent this problem and to fully exploit the potential of permittivity-based moisture content measurements, in this work, a strategy for compensating for the effect of density is addressed. In order to verify the suitability of this strategy, moisture content measurements were carried out on samples of two type of stones typical of historic masonry, namely gentile stone and red-clay brick

A comparative assessment of microwave-based methods for moisture content characterization in stone materials

In this work, the dielectric permittivity of pietra gentile and pietra leccese (two kinds of stone typically found in Cultural Heritage structures of Southern Italy), for different levels of moisture content, was characterized. Measurements were carried out by comparatively using three different probes as sensor (i.e., a patch resonator; an open-ended coaxial probe; and a standard WR90 waveguide) for increasing values of water content. Measurements were performed using a vector network analyzer and a time-domain reflectometer. The obtained laboratory results can be used to derive moisture content/relative dielectric permittivity calibration curves that could be employed, in practice, for noninvasive on-the-field moisture monitoring of pietra gentile- and pietra leccese-made Cultural Heritage structures

Dipeptidyl Amino-Peptidase 3 (DPP3) as an Early Marker of Severity in a Patient Population with Cardiogenic Shock

Dipeptidyl amino-peptidase 3 (DPP3) is an aminopeptidase that is released into circulation upon cell death. DPP3 is involved in the degradation of angiotensins, enkephalines, and endomorphines. It has been shown that circulating DPP3 (cDPP3) plasma concentration increases in cardiogenic shock (CS) patients and correlates with high mortality risk. Cardiogenic shock is a life-threatening syndrome associated with organ hypoperfusion. One of the common causes of CS is acute myocardial infarction (AMI). This study aimed to investigate if cDPP3 levels are associated with CS severity and the need for ventilation in patients suffering from CS. Fifteen patients with CS were included in this study. Six patients were invasively ventilated. The values of cDPP3 were higher in ventilated patients than in non-ventilated patients at admission, 3 h, and 24 h after admission in the intensive care unit. Patients with pulmonary hypertension at admission also showed high cDPP3 values at all time points. Furthermore, high cDPP3 levels were associated with reduced stroke volume. Our results suggest that cDPP3 could predict CS progression and guide therapy escalation