Endovascular Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair With Ovation Alto Stent Graft: Protocol for the ALTAIR (ALTo endogrAft Italian Registry) Study

Background: Since 2010, the Ovation Abdominal Stent Graft System has offered an innovative sealing option for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) by including a sealing ring filled with polymer 13 mm from the renal arteries. In August 2020, the redesigned Ovation Alto, with a sealing ring 6 mm closer to the top of the fabric, received CE Mark approval. Objective: This registry study aims to evaluate intraoperative, perioperative, and postoperative results in patients treated by the Alto stent graft (Endologix Inc.) for elective AAA repair in a multicentric consecutive experience. Methods: All consecutive eligible patients submitted to endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) by Alto Endovascular AAA implantation will be included in this analysis. Patients will be submitted to EVAR procedures based on their own preferences, anatomical features, and operators experience. An estimated number of 300 patients submitted to EVAR with Alto stent graft should be enrolled. It is estimated that the inclusion period will be 24 months. The follow-up period is set to be 5 years. Full data sets and cross-sectional images of contrast-enhanced computed tomography scan performed before EVAR, at the first postoperative month, at 24 or 36 months, and at 5-year follow-up interval will be reported in the central database for a centralized core laboratory review of morphological changes. The primary endpoint of the study is to evaluate the technical and clinical success of EVAR with the Alto stent graft in short- (90-day), mid- (1-year), and long-term (5-year) follow-up periods. The following secondary endpoints will be also addressed: operative time; intraoperative radiation exposure; contrast medium usage; AAA sac shrinkage at 12-month and 5-year follow-up; any potential role of patients' baseline characteristics, valuated on preoperative computed tomography angiographic study, and of device configuration (number of component) in the primary endpoint. Results: The study is currently in the recruitment phase and the final patient is expected to be treated by the end of 2023 and then followed up for 5 years. A total of 300 patients will be recruited. Analyses will focus on primary and secondary endpoints. Updated results will be shared at 1- and 3-5-year follow-ups. Conclusions: The results from this registry study could validate the safety and effectiveness of the new design of the Ovation Alto Stent Graft. The technical modifications to the endograft could allow for accommodation of a more comprehensive range of anatomies on-label

Radiocarbon dating reveals different past managements of adjacent forest soils in the Campine region, Belgium

The soils of adjacent first generation monospecific stands of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) in the Campine region, Belgium, apparently developed under the same forming factors, were studied for carbon dynamics to disentangle eventual different past land uses. In fact, visual observations suggested that the soil under pine experienced substantial addition of organic matter and ploughing, such to be considered a plaggen, opposite to the soil under oak, which is inexplicably much poorer in C. In order to prove this hypothesis, the soil organic carbon was quantified by horizons and, both bulk soil organic matter (SOM) and the least mobile SOM fractions - the humic acid and the unextractable fractions - were radiocarbon dated. Surprising was the marked difference between the mean SOM age from the two stands. In fact, while under oak this age is a few years or decades, under pine it amounts to more than a millennium, so confirming the hypothesis of a confined C supply occurred mainly in the Middle Age, or later using partly humified matter. The mean residence time (MRT) of SOM in the organic layers matches almost perfectly with that estimated via a mass balance approach and, as expected, was much lower in the oaks than in the pines. The humic acid fraction, generally the most stable fraction of SOM, in terms of both mobility and degradability, reflects the behaviour of the bulk SOM, showing higher radiocarbon ages under pine. The findings of this work indicate that the large human-induced additions of organic material in the area now occupied by the pine stand, probably occurred in the Middle Age and it continues to strongly affect the present soil C pools and their dynamics. Any study dealing with budgets and dynamics of C in soil should avail itself of a careful reconstruction of the land uses and management history, in order to provide reliable conclusions about the real role of the current vegetation on soil carbon. Crown Copyright (c) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Soot particle size distribution measurements in a turbulent ethylene swirl flame

There is a need to better understand particle size distributions (PSDs) from turbulent flames from a theoretical, practical and even regulatory perspective. Experiments were conducted on a sooting turbulent non-premixed swirled ethylene flame with secondary (dilution) air injection to investigate exhaust and in-burner PSDs measured with a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) and soot volume fractions (fv) using extinction measurements. The focus was to understand the effect of systematically changing the amount and location of dilution air injection on the PSDs and fv inside the burner and at the exhaust. The PSDs were also compared with planar Laser Induced Incandescence (LII) calibrated against the average fv. LII provides some supplemental information on the relative soot amounts and spatial distribution among the various flow conditions that helps interpret the results. For the flame with no air dilution, fv drops gradually along the centreline of the burner towards the exhaust and the PSD shows a shift from larger particles to smaller. However, with dilution air fv reduces sharply where the dilution jets meet the burner axis. Downstream of the dilution jets fv reduces gradually and the PSDs remain unchanged until the exhaust. At the exhaust, the flame with no air dilution shows significantly more particles with an fv one to two orders of magnitude greater compared to the Cases with dilution. This dataset provides insights into soot spatial and particle size distributions within turbulent flames of relevance to gas turbine combustion with differing dilution parameters and the effect dilution has on the particle size. Additionally, this work measures fv using both ex situ and in situ techniques, and highlights the difficulties associated with comparing results across the two. The results are useful for validating advanced models for turbulent combustion.European Union (EU), Horizon 2020 (H2020), Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking, Industrial Leadership (IL) (Project LEAFINNOX, grant number 831804

New titanocene derivatives with high antiproliferative activity against breast cancer cells

The synthesis and characterization of some new titanocene-complexes, having a ethenyl-phenoxide or a benzyl group as substituents of the cyclopentadienyl rings, are reported. The synthesized compounds have been evaluated for their cytotoxic potential against two human breast cancer cell lines, that is: MCF7 and SkBr3. Most of these compounds have shown significant cytotoxic effects, compared to cisplatin, in MTT-based cell tests

An experimental study of the breakage of liquid bridges at stability limit of minimum volume

An experimental apparatus to study the breaking process of axisymmetric liquid bridges has been developed, and the breaking sequences of a large number of liquid bridge configurations at minimum-volume stability limit have been analyzed. Experimental results show that very close to the breaking moment the neck radius of the liquid bridge varies as t1/3, where t is the time to breakage, irrespective of the value of the distance between the solid disks that support the liquid column

Search for spontaneous muon emission from lead nuclei

We describe a possible search for muonic radioactivity from lead nuclei using the base elements ("bricks" composed by lead and nuclear emulsion sheets) of the long-baseline OPERA neutrino experiment. We present the results of a Monte Carlo simulation concerning the expected event topologies and estimates of the background events. Using few bricks, we could reach a good sensitivity level.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Prospects for the measurement of muon-neutrino disappearance at the FNAL-Booster

Neutrino physics is nowadays receiving more and more attention as a possible source of information for the long-standing problem of new physics beyond the Standard Model. The recent measurement of the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ in the standard mixing oscillation scenario encourages us to pursue the still missing results on leptonic CP violation and absolute neutrino masses. However, puzzling measurements exist that deserve an exhaustive evaluation. The NESSiE Collaboration has been setup to undertake conclusive experiments to clarify the muon-neutrino disappearance measurements at small $L/E$, which will be able to put severe constraints to models with more than the three-standard neutrinos, or even to robustly measure the presence of a new kind of neutrino oscillation for the first time. To this aim the use of the current FNAL-Booster neutrino beam for a Short-Baseline experiment has been carefully evaluated. This proposal refers to the use of magnetic spectrometers at two different sites, Near and Far. Their positions have been extensively studied, together with the possible performances of two OPERA-like spectrometers. The proposal is constrained by availability of existing hardware and a time-schedule compatible with the CERN project for a new more performant neutrino beam, which will nicely extend the physics results achievable at the Booster. The possible FNAL experiment will allow to clarify the current $\nu_{\mu}$ disappearance tension with $\nu_e$ appearance and disappearance at the eV mass scale. Instead, a new CERN neutrino beam would allow a further span in the parameter space together with a refined control of systematics and, more relevant, the measurement of the antineutrino sector, by upgrading the spectrometer with detectors currently under R&D study.Comment: 76 pages, 52 figure

Associated Charm Production in Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions

In this paper a search for associated charm production both in neutral and charged current $\nu$-nucleus interactions is presented. The improvement of automatic scanning systems in the {CHORUS} experiment allows an efficient search to be performed in emulsion for short-lived particles. Hence a search for rare processes, like the associated charm production, becomes possible through the observation of the double charm-decay topology with a very low background. About 130,000 $\nu$ interactions located in the emulsion target have been analysed. Three events with two charm decays have been observed in the neutral-current sample with an estimated background of 0.18$\pm$0.05. The relative rate of the associated charm cross-section in deep inelastic $\nu$ interactions, $\sigma(c\bar{c}\nu)/\sigma_\mathrm{NC}^\mathrm{DIS}= (3.62^{+2.95}_{-2.42}({stat})\pm 0.54({syst}))\times 10^{-3}$ has been measured. One event with two charm decays has been observed in charged-current $\nu_\mu$ interactions with an estimated background of 0.18$\pm$0.06 and the upper limit on associated charm production in charged-current interactions at 90% C.L. has been found to be $\sigma (c\bar{c} \mu^-)/\sigma_\mathrm{CC} < 9.69 \times 10^{-4}$.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

A large contribution of methylsiloxanes to particulate matter from ship emissions

The chemical and stable carbon isotopic composition of the organic aerosol particles (OA) emitted by a shuttle passenger ship between mainland Naples and island Capri in Italy were investigated. Various methylsiloxanes and derivatives were found in particulate ship emissions for the first time, as identified in the mass spectra of a thermal desorption – proton transfer reaction – mass spectrometer (TD-PTR-MS) based on the natural abundance of silicon isotopes. Large contributions of methylsiloxanes to OA (up to 59.3%) were found under inefficient combustion conditions, and considerably lower methylsiloxane emissions were observed under cruise conditions (1.2% of OA). Furthermore, the stable carbon isotopic composition can provide a fingerprint for methylsiloxanes, as they have low δ13C values in the range of −44.91‰ ± 4.29‰. The occurrence of methylsiloxanes was therefore further supported by low δ13C values of particulate organic carbon (OC), ranging from −34.7‰ to −39.4‰, when carbon fractions of methylsiloxanes in OC were high. The δ13C values of OC increased up to around −26.7‰ under cruise conditions, when carbon fractions of methylsiloxanes in OC were low. Overall, the δ13C value of OC decreased linearly with increasing carbon fraction of methylsiloxanes in OC, and the slope is consistent with a mixture of methylsiloxanes and fuel combustion products. The methylsiloxanes in ship emissions may come from engine lubricants