Role of Endoscopy in Tracheo-esophageal Prosthesis Phonation. Technical and Psychological Aspects. Our Institutional Experience

In our study, we have analyzed the use of flexible video endoscopy in patients undergoing total laryngectomy and candidates for the placement of a voice prosthesis, with the creation of a tracheo-esophageal fistula in which the prosthesis is positioned, which acts as a valve one-way, which allows the passage of air from the trachea to the oesophagus and prevents the passage of liquids in the opposite direction, allowing the pulmonary air to vibrate a segment of the cervical oesophagus. The use of flexible video endoscopy for the positioning of the prosthesis can be both primary and secondary to the intervention of total laryngectomy. Endoscopy has also been used in the ontological follow-up for the assessment of the hypo pharyngeal-oesophageal-gastric district in the search for relapses or secondary tumors, which may develop in this district in more than 10% of patients with pathological neoplasia. Higher aero-digestiv

Interfacial Morphology Addresses Performance of Perovskite Solar Cells Based on Composite Hole Transporting Materials of Functionalized Reduced Graphene Oxide and P3HT

The development of novel hole transporting materials (HTMs) for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) that can enhance device's reproducibility is a largely pursued goal, even to the detriment of a very high efficiency, since it paves the way to an effective industrialization of this technology. In this work, we study the covalent functionalization of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) flakes with different organic functional groups with the aim of increasing the stability and homogeneity of their dispersion within a poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) HTM. The selected functional groups are indeed those recalling the two characteristic moieties present in P3HT, i.e., the thienyl and alkyl residues. After preparation and characterization of a number of functionalized RGO@P3HT blends, we test the two containing the highest percentage of dispersed RGO as HTMs in PSCs and compare their performance with that of pristine P3HT and of the standard Spiro-OMeTAD HTM. Results reveal the big influence of the morphology adopted by the single RGO flakes contained in the composite HTM in driving the final device performance and allow to distinguish one of these blends as a promising material for the fabrication of highly reproducible PSCs

Discursos para o feminino em páginas da revista Querida (1958-1968): aproximações

A imprensa feminina desempenha importante papel na educação de mulheres letradas. Nas décadas de 50 e 60 do século XX as revistas femininas ocupavam um lugar de destaque na vida de suas leitoras, dialogando com elas sobre problemas cotidianos. Eram conselheiras e confidentes; companheiras de lazer. A partir disso é possível afirmar que tais periódicos podem colaborar para a manutenção de determinados padrões, veiculando papéis ditos tradicionais de mulher, de comportamento, de sexualidade e de relações de gênero. As fontes da pesquisa são compostas por 31 volumes da Revista Querida com exemplares que representam os anos compreendidos entre 1958 e 1968. O objetivo da pesquisa com tais revistas seria procurar compreender que modos de comportamento os discursos presentes na coluna Certo e Errado de Querida (1958-1968) teriam contribuído para sugerir e que representações de uma época estes discursos, veiculados nas páginas das revistas selecionadas, ecoaram.The women's press has an important role in the education of literate women. In the 50's and 60’s of the twentieth century women's magazines occupied a prominent place in the lives of its readers, talking to them about everyday problems. They were counselors and confidants, entertainment partners. From this it can be said that such journals may contribute to the maintenance of certain standards, passing so-called traditional roles of women, behavior, sexuality and gender relations.The research sources are composed of 31 volumes of the Querida magazine with copies representing the years between 1958 and 1968. The objective of this research with such magazines is to seek to understand patterns of behavior that the speeches in the column Right and Wrong in Querida (1958-1968) would have contributed to suggest and what representations of a time these speeches, that appeared on pages of the selected magazines, echoed

Genetic diversity of Fusarium graminearum sensu lato isolates from wheat associated with Fusarium Head Blight in diverse geographic locations of Argentina

Fusarium Head Blight is an important wheat disease in the Argentine Pampas region, being Fusarium graminearum the predominant pathogen. DNA polymorphism of the isolates was analyzed by IGS-RFLP and ISSR. IGS-RFLP and ISSR profiling were carried out using six endonucleases and eight primers, respectively. IGS-RFLP yielded 41 bands, 30 of which were polymorphic while ISSR produced 87 bands with 47 polymorphic bands. Both markers showed genetic variability among the analyzed isolates; however, IGS-RFLP was more efficient than ISSR, showing a higher polymorphic average (59.91%) than the latter (44.11%). The averages of polymorphic information content (PIC) were 0.211 and 0.129, respectively. Twenty haplotypes were identified by IGS-RFLP and 15 haplotypes by ISSR. Genotype clustering within dendrograms was different for both types of markers. The genetic groups obtained by IGS-RFLP showed a partial association to geographic origin. This is the first report on genetic variability of F. graminearum isolates from wheat in Argentina using IGS-RFLP and ISSR markers. © 2015 Asociación Argentina de Microbiología.Fil: Consolo, Verónica, Fabiana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones En Biodiversidad y Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Ortega, Leonel Maximilano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo En Fermentaciones Industriales (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas; ArgentinaFil: Salerno, Graciela Lidia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones En Biodiversidad y Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Astoreca, Andrea Luciana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Fermentaciones Industriales (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas; ArgentinaFil: Alconada Magliano, Teresa Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico la Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo En Fermentaciones Industriales (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas; Argentin

THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common pediatric disability causing long-term functional limitations. CP remarkably influences the life of those affected and their families. For this reason it is important and necessary to direct attention not only type of the CP, but also the impact the disorder has on the child, parents, siblings and the entire family as a whole. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of CP on the child’s quality of life, considering parents’ perceptions about their child's illness, in order to underline the impact the illness has not only on the child but also his/her family. Methods: The study included both parents of the 36 subjects enrolled (19 males and 17 females), with established CP diagnosis. The effect of CP on the families was assessed using the Impact of Childhood Illness Scale. This questionnaire assesses the quality of life in children with epilepsy and other chronic pathologies and in their families. All questions refer to effect to the illness family. The scale comprises 30 questions divided into four sections: impact of illness and its treatment ; impact on development and child s adjustment; impact on parents and impact on the family. Descriptive analyses were used for data analysis and it is also calculated the rank correlation coefficient Spearman’s rho. Results and conclusion: The mothers’ group presents little higher average scores than the group of fathers in two four subscales or in the basement “Impact on the child” and “Family impact on the organization”. This could be due to the fact that mothers are concerned most of the child's caregiver, living most of all the difficulties that entails; mothers show greater concerns than fathers. In subscale “Impact on parents” the average score of the answers of the group of mothers coincide with that of the fathers; the experience and the experience of his son's illness is analogous for both parents. No significant differences were found from the correlational analysis between the individual items of the subscales and the different forms of CP. In families of children with CP, strategies for optimizing caregiver physical and psychological health include supports for behavioral management and daily functional activities as well as stress management and self-efficacy techniques

Effect of different functionalized carbon nanostructures as fillers on the physical properties of biocompatible poly( l -lactic acid) composites

Composites of carbon nanostructures (CNSs) and biocompatible polymers are promising materials for a series of advanced technological applications, ranging from biomedicine and bioelectronics to smart packaging and soft robotics. In this work, we present three types of organic-functionalized CNSs, namely p-methoxyphenyl functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes, carbon nanohorns and reduced graphene oxide, used as nanofillers for the preparation of homogeneous and well-dispersed composites of poly(L-lactic acid), a biocompatible and biodegradable FDA-approved polymer. A thorough characterization of the composites is given in terms of calorimetric response, electrical and mechanical properties. Significant differences are observed among the different types of CNS nanofillers, underlying the key role played by the nanoscale shape and distribution of the components in driving the macroscopic behavior of the composite material. Surface properties are probed through advanced atomic force microscopy techniques, on both flat substrates (films) and confined systems (nanofibers). All these composites proved to be biocompatible and to support as scaffolds the proliferation of human neuronal precursor cell line SH-SY5Y, opening the route to a future comparative analysis on their ability to boost neuronal differentiation

Work Function Tuning in Hydrothermally Synthesized Vanadium-Doped MoO3 and Co3O4 Mesostructures for Energy Conversion Devices

The wide interest in developing green energy technologies stimulates the scientific community to seek, for devices, new substitute material platforms with a low environmental impact, ease of production and processing and long-term stability. The synthesis of metal oxide (MO) semiconductors fulfils these requirements and efforts are addressed towards optimizing their functional properties through the improvement of charge mobility or energy level alignment. Two MOs have rising perspectives for application in light harvesting devices, mainly for the role of charge selective layers but also as light absorbers, namely MoO3 (an electron blocking layer) and Co3O4 (a small band gap semiconductor). The need to achieve better charge transport has prompted us to explore strategies for the doping of MoO3 and Co3O4 with vanadium (V) ions that, when combined with oxygen in V2O5, produce a high work function MO. We report on subcritical hydrothermal synthesis of V-doped mesostructures of MoO3 and of Co3O4, in which a tight control of the doping is exerted by tuning the relative amounts of reactants. We accomplished a full analytical characterization of these V-doped MOs that unambiguously demonstrates the incorporation of the vanadium ions in the host material, as well as the effects on the optical properties and work function. We foresee a promising future use of these materials as charge selective materials in energy devices based on multilayer structures

Work Function Tuning in Hydrothermally Synthesized Vanadium-Doped MoO3 and Co3O4 Mesostructures for Energy Conversion Devices

The wide interest in developing green energy technologies stimulates the scientific community to seek, for devices, new substitute material platforms with a low environmental impact, ease of production and processing and long-term stability. The synthesis of metal oxide (MO) semiconductors fulfils these requirements and efforts are addressed towards optimizing their functional properties through the improvement of charge mobility or energy level alignment. Two MOs have rising perspectives for application in light harvesting devices, mainly for the role of charge selective layers but also as light absorbers, namely MoO3 (an electron blocking layer) and Co3O4 (a small band gap semiconductor). The need to achieve better charge transport has prompted us to explore strategies for the doping of MoO3 and Co3O4 with vanadium (V) ions that, when combined with oxygen in V2O5, produce a high work function MO. We report on subcritical hydrothermal synthesis of V-doped mesostructures of MoO3 and of Co3O4, in which a tight control of the doping is exerted by tuning the relative amounts of reactants. We accomplished a full analytical characterization of these V-doped MOs that unambiguously demonstrates the incorporation of the vanadium ions in the host material, as well as the effects on the optical properties and work function. We foresee a promising future use of these materials as charge selective materials in energy devices based on multilayer structures