Enabling novel Lab-on-chip applications through optimization of integrated micropillar pumps

Prediction and reduction of pressure drop and resistance flow in micropillar arrays is important for the design of microfluidic circuits used in different lab-on-a-chip and biomedical applications. In this work, a diamond microchannel integrated micropillar pump (dMIMP) with a resistance flow 35.5% lower than circular based micropillar pump (cMIMP) has been developed via the optimization of the fluid-dynamic behavior of different post shapes in a low aspect ratio (H/D ranged from 0.06 to 0.2) integrated pillar micro-channel. Flow through the fabricated samples has been numerically solved and experimentally measured, with an agreement higher than 90%. The analysis of the results indicates that although porosity can be a determinant parameter to predict the resistance flow of MIMP, other geometrical parameters like, side distance between posts or post shape, play a major role in this scenarioPeer Reviewe

Material principles and economic relations underlying Neolithic axe circulation in Western Europe

Neolithic societies produced and circulated axeheads made out of different rock types over substantial distances. These tools were indispensable to their economic reproduction, but they also demanded considerable manufacturing efforts. The material properties of the raw materials chosen to produce axeheads had a direct effect on the grinding and polishing processes, as well as on the use life of these tools. However, surprisingly little is known about the criteria followed by these societies when it came to choosing adequate raw materials, or why certain rocks were exploited in greater volumes and circulated over larger distances than others. In order to determine the material parameters ruling axe production, circulation, and use, a range of different rock types was submitted to mechanical tests. For the first time, comparative values relating to the resistance to friction and to breakage are presented for some of the most important rock types used for the manufacture of axeheads by the Neolithic communities of Western Europe. These mechanical parameters allow us to approach hypothetical production and use values, which are then correlated with the distances travelled and the volumes of rock in circulation. This combination of petrographic, mechanical, and paleo-economic information leads to new understandings of the principles ruling Neolithic supply and distribution networks and the economic rationale behind them. It reveals how deeply the economic and symbolic meanings of these outstanding Neolithic artefacts were rooted in their production and use values.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Clinically-useful serum biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of sarcoidosis

Introduction: Sarcoidosis is a complex systemic disease with a silent, long-term evolution, and a heterogeneous clinical presentation. The diagnostic approach is complex with no single diagnostic test that may confirm the disease. Areas covered: A large list of serum biomarkers has been tested during the last 40 years. In this review, we analyse the potential usefulness in the diagnosis and prognosis of sarcoidosis of serum biomarkers classified according to their corresponding cellular source. Expert commentary: Diagnosis of sarcoidosis must always be approached as a multistep process based on a case-by-case integration of clinical, radiological, histological and serological data, none of which being pathognomonic. We found sIL-2R, CRP, SAA and chitotriosidase to be the best markers to confirm sarcoidosis (highest sensitivity), while ACE, gammaglobulins and lysozyme may be more useful for discarding sarcoidosis (highest specificity), taking into account that with the use of a higher cut-off we can increase specificity and with a lower cut-off we can increase sensitivity. Other biomarkers (TNF-a and CCL18) could help to identify patients with an enhanced risk of developing pulmonary fibrosis or progressive disease. The future scenario of the serological diagnostic approach of sarcoidosis will be the use of multi-assays including biomarkers from different cellular sources.Fil: Ramos Casals, Manuel. Sociedad Española de Medicina; España. Instituto Clínic de Medicina y Dermatología; EspañaFil: Retamozo, Maria Soledad. Instituto Clínic de Medicina y Dermatología; España. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina. Instituto Modelo de Cardiología Privado; ArgentinaFil: Siso Almirall, Antoni. Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas August Pi i Sunyer; EspañaFil: Pérez Alvarez, Roberto. Sociedad Española de Medicina; EspañaFil: Pallarés, Lucio. Sociedad Española de Medicina; España. Sarco GEAS SEMI Study Group; EspañaFil: Brito Zenón, Pilar. Sociedad Española de Medicina; España. Sarco GEAS SEMI Study Group; Españ

Clinical characterization and outcomes of 85 patients with neurosarcoidosis

To analyze the frequency and clinical phenotype of neurosarcoidosis (NS) in one of the largest nationwide cohorts of patients with sarcoidosis reported from southern Europe. NS was evaluated according to the Diagnostic Criteria for Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nervous System Sarcoidosis recently proposed by Stern et al. Pathologic confrmation of granulomatous disease was used to subclassify NS into defnite (confrmation in neurological tissue), probable (confrmation in extraneurological tissue) and possible (no histopathological confrmation of the disease). Of the 1532 patients included in the cohort, 85 (5.5%) fulflled the Stern criteria for NS (49 women, mean age at diagnosis of NS of 47.6 years, 91% White). These patients developed 103 neurological conditions involving the brain (38%), cranial nerves (36%), the meninges (3%), the spinal cord (10%) and the peripheral nerves (14%); no patient had concomitant central and peripheral nerve involvements. In 59 (69%) patients, neurological involvement preceded or was present at the time of diagnosis of the disease. According to the classifcation proposed by Stern et al., 11 (13%) were classifed as a defnite NS, 61 (72%) as a probable NS and the remaining 13 (15%) as a possible NS. In comparison with the systemic phenotype of patients without NS, patients with CNS involvement presented a lower frequency of thoracic involvement (82% vs 93%, q= 0.018), a higher frequency of ocular (27% vs 10%, q< 0.001) and salivary gland (15% vs 4%, q= 0.002) WASOG involvements. In contrast, patients with PNS involvement showed a higher frequency of liver involvement (36% vs 12%, p= 0.02) in comparison with patients without NS. Neurosarcoidosis was identifed in 5.5% of patients. CNS involvement prevails signifcantly over PNS involvement, and both conditions do not overlap in any patient. The systemic phenotype associated to each involvement was clearly diferentiated, and can be helpful not only in the early identifcation of neurological involvement, but also in the systemic evaluation of patients diagnosed with neurosarcoidosis

Lens based switched beam antenna for a 5G smart repeater

A 16 switched beam lens based antenna with a coverage area of ±30° in the horizontal plane and from 0 to -20° in the vertical plane has been built and tested. The intended use of the antenna is as part of a smart repeater servicing the coverage area of a 5G wireless communication system operating in the n258 band of the 5G Frequency Range 2, from 24.25 to 27.5 GHz. The antenna has been built using state-of-the-art materials and components in order to assess the performance of this antenna concept. The overall antenna losses including the feeding network are of the order of 8 dB and the realized gain in the 80% of the coverage area is above 11 dB.This work was funded in part by AEI: PID2019-107885GB-C31/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES Italia S.r.lPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Sarcoidosis

La sarcoidosis es una enfermedad sistémica de etiología desconocida que se caracteriza por el desarrollo de granulomas epiteloides no caseificantes. Los pulmones son los órganos más afectados (>90 % de los casos), seguidos de los ganglios linfáticos, la piel y los ojos. Esta revisión resume las principales manifestaciones clínicas y las opciones actuales de farmacoterapia. Los glucocorticoides son la primera línea de tratamiento para la sarcoidosis. Para los pacientes con las formas más severas de sarcoidosis (que necesitarán glucocorticoides durante largos períodos de tiempo) y para aquellos que son intolerantes o resistentes al tratamiento, se utilizan medicamentos inmunosupresores como agentes ahorradores de glucocorticoides. El manejo de la sarcoidosis extratorácica debe adaptarse al órgano u órgano específico involucrado;sin embargo, hay datos limitados de ensayos controlados para guiar el tratamiento de estos pacientes. La aparición de terapias biológicas ha aumentado el arsenal terapéutico disponible para tratar la sarcoidosis, siendo los agentes anti-TNF monoclonales los más prometedores, pero su uso todavía está limitado por la falta de licencias y costos.Sarcoidosis is a systemic disease of unknown etiology characterized by the development of non-caseating epitheloid granulomas. The lungs are the most commonly involved organ (>90% of cases), followed by the lymph nodes, the skin, and the eyes. Areas covered: This review summarizes current pharmacotherapy options and future directions for the development of new therapies. Glucocorticoids are the first-line therapy for sarcoidosis. For patients with the most severe forms of sarcoidosis (who will need glucocorticoids for long periods) and for those intolerant or refractory, immunosuppressive drugs are used as sparing agents. The management of extrathoracic sarcoidosis must be tailored to the specific organ or organs involved;however, there is limited data from controlled trials to guide the treatment of these patients. The emergence of biological therapies has increased the therapeutic armamentarium available to treat sarcoidosis, with monoclonal anti-TNF agents being the most promising, but their use is still limited by a lack of licensing and costsFil: Retamozo, Maria Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina. Instituto Universitario de Ciencias Biomédicas de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Brito Zeron, Pilar. Hospital Cima-sanitas; EspañaFil: Pérez Álvarez, Roberto. Sociedad Española de Medicina Interna; EspañaFil: Achad, Mario Oscar. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Pallarés, Lucio. Sociedad Española de Medicina Interna; EspañaFil: Cuestas, Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud; ArgentinaFil: Ramos Casals, Manuel. Sociedad Española de Medicina Interna; Españ

Ni-, Pt- and (Ni/Pt)-doped TiO₂ nanophotocatalysts : a smart approach for sustainable degradation of Rhodamine B dye

Ni (1 wt%)-, Pt (1 wt%)- and [Ni (0.5 wt%)/Pt (0.5 wt%)]-doped TiO₂ nanoporous catalysts have been successfully obtained through a facile two-step hydrothermal route. TiO₂ crystallizes mostly in the anatase phase and acts as a mesoporous matrix. Meanwhile, Ni, Pt and Ni/Pt dopants form small nanoparticles (NPs) (3-95 nm in diameter) which are hosted by the TiO₂ framework. The resulting composites exhibit a rather large surface area, in the range of 186-200 m2/g. The band gap energy reduces from 3.03 eV for the undoped TiO₂ to 2.15 eV for the Pt-loaded TiO₂. As a consequence, absorption expands toward the visible light range. The photodegradation of Rhodamine B dye in aqueous medium has been investigated under UV-vis light irradiation. The presence of Ni, Pt and Ni/Pt NPs significantly enhances the photocatalytic activity of the material. Furthermore, the Ni-doped TiO₂ shows ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature, which makes its recovery and subsequent fast reutilization possible. Interestingly, this sample also exhibits the best stability upon recycling. Considering all the current challenges in sustainable water remediation, these new photocatalysts could find applications in real environmental contexts in the near future

Addressing the clinical unmet needs in primary Sjögren's Syndrome through the sharing, harmonization and federated analysis of 21 European cohorts

For many decades, the clinical unmet needs of primary Sjögren's Syndrome (pSS) have been left unresolved due to the rareness of the disease and the complexity of the underlying pathogenic mechanisms, including the pSS-associated lymphomagenesis process. Here, we present the HarmonicSS cloud-computing exemplar which offers beyond the state-of-the-art data analytics services to address the pSS clinical unmet needs, including the development of lymphoma classification models and the identification of biomarkers for lymphomagenesis. The users of the platform have been able to successfully interlink, curate, and harmonize 21 regional, national, and international European cohorts of 7,551 pSS patients with respect to the ethical and legal issues for data sharing. Federated AI algorithms were trained across the harmonized databases, with reduced execution time complexity, yielding robust lymphoma classification models with 85% accuracy, 81.25% sensitivity, 85.4% specificity along with 5 biomarkers for lymphoma development. To our knowledge, this is the first GDPR compliant platform that provides federated AI services to address the pSS clinical unmet needs. © 2022 The Author(s

Childhood-onset of primary Sjogren's syndrome:phenotypic characterization at diagnosis of 158 children

Objectives. To characterize the phenotypic presentation at diagnosis of childhood-onset primary SS.Methods. The Big Data Sjogren Project Consortium is an international, multicentre registry using worldwide data-sharing cooperative merging of pre-existing clinical SS databases from the five continents. For this study, we selected those patients in whom the disease was diagnosed below the age of 19years according to the fulfilment of the 2002/2016 classification criteria.Results. Among the 12083 patients included in the Sjogren Big Data Registry, 158 (1.3%) patients had a childhood-onset diagnosis (136 girls, mean age of 14.2years): 126 (80%) reported dry mouth, 111 (70%) dry eyes, 52 (33%) parotid enlargement, 118/122 (97%) positive minor salivary gland biopsy and 60/64 (94%) abnormal salivary US study, 140/155 (90%) positive ANA, 138/156 (89%) anti-Ro/La antibodies and 86/142 (68%) positive RF. The systemic EULAR Sjogren's syndrome disease activity index (ESSDAI) domains containing the highest frequencies of active patients included the glandular (47%), articular (26%) and lymphadenopathy (25%) domains. Patients with childhood-onset primary SS showed the highest mean ESSDAI score and the highest frequencies of systemic disease in 5 (constitutional, lymphadenopathy, glandular, cutaneous and haematological) of the 12 ESSDAI domains, and the lowest frequencies in 4 (articular, pulmonary, peripheral nerve and CNS) in comparison with patients with adult-onset disease.Conclusions. Childhood-onset primary SS involves around 1% of patients with primary SS, with a clinical phenotype dominated by sicca features, parotid enlargement and systemic disease. Age at diagnosis plays a key role in modulating the phenotypic expression of the disease.</p

Epidemiological profile and north-south gradient driving baseline systemic involvement of primary Sjogren's syndrome

Objective: To characterize the systemic phenotype of primary Sjögren’s syndrome at diagnosis by analysing the EULAR-SS disease activity index (ESSDAI) scores. Methods: The Sjögren Big Data Consortium is an international, multicentre registry based on worldwide data-sharing cooperative merging of pre-existing databases from leading centres in clinical research in Sjögren’s syndrome from the five continents. Results: The cohort included 10 007 patients (9352 female, mean 53 years) with recorded ESSDAI scores available. At diagnosis, the mean total ESSDAI score was 6.1; 81.8% of patients had systemic activity (ESSDAI score ≥1). Males had a higher mean ESSDAI (8.1 vs 6.0, P &lt; 0.001) compared with females, as did patients diagnosed at &lt;35 years (6.7 vs 5.6 in patients diagnosed at &gt;65 years, P &lt; 0.001). The highest global ESSDAI score was reported in Black/African Americans, followed by White, Asian and Hispanic patients (6.7, 6.5, 5.4 and 4.8, respectively; P &lt; 0.001). The frequency of involvement of each systemic organ also differed between ethnic groups, with Black/African American patients showing the highest frequencies in the lymphadenopathy, articular, peripheral nervous system, CNS and biological domains, White patients in the glandular, cutaneous and muscular domains, Asian patients in the pulmonary, renal and haematological domains and Hispanic patients in the constitutional domain. Systemic activity measured by the ESSDAI, clinical ESSDAI (clinESSDAI) and disease activity states was higher in patients from southern countries (P &lt; 0.001). Conclusion: The systemic phenotype of primary Sjögren’s syndrome is strongly influenced by personal determinants such as age, gender, ethnicity and place of residence, which are key geoepidemiological players in driving the expression of systemic disease at diagnosis.