Highly Reliable Multicomponent MEMS Sensor for Predictive Maintenance Management of Rolling Bearings

In the field of vibration monitoring and control, the use of low-cost multicomponent MEMS-based accelerometer sensors is nowadays increasingly widespread. Such sensors allow implementing lightweight monitoring systems with low management costs, low power consumption and a small size. However, for the monitoring systems to provide trustworthy and meaningful data, the high accuracy and reliability of sensors are essential requirements. Consequently, a metrological approach to the calibration of multi-component accelerometer sensors, including appropriate uncertainty evaluations, are necessary to guarantee traceability and reliability in the frequency domain of data provided, which nowadays is not fully available. In addition, recently developed metrological characterizations at the microscale level allow to provide detailed and accurate quantification of the enhanced technical performance and the responsiveness of these sensors. In this paper, a dynamic calibration procedure is applied to provide the sensitivity parameters of a low-cost, multicomponent MEMS sensor accelerometer prototype (MDUT), designed, developed and realized at the University of Siena, conceived for rolling bearings vibration monitoring in a broad frequency domain (from 10 Hz up to 25 kHz). The calibration and the metrological characterization of the MDUT are carried out by comparison to a reference standard transducer, at the Primary Vibration Laboratory of the National Institute of Metrological Research (INRiM)

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of diagnostic methods in adult food allergy

Food allergy has an increasing prevalence in the general population and in Italy concerns 8 % of people with allergies. The spectrum of its clinical manifestations ranges from mild symptoms up to potentially fatal anaphylactic shock. A number of patients can be diagnosed easily by the use of first- and second-level procedures (history, skin tests and allergen specific IgE). Patients with complex presentation, such as multiple sensitizations and pollen-food syndromes, frequently require a third-level approach including molecular diagnostics, which enables the design of a component-resolved sensitization profile for each patient. The use of such techniques involves specialists' and experts' skills on the issue to appropriately meet the diagnostic and therapeutic needs of patients. Particularly, educational programs for allergists on the use and interpretation of molecular diagnostics are needed

The Role of Fine Needle Aspiration of Liver and Spleen in the Staging of Low-Grade Canine Cutaneous Mast Cell Tumor

Clinical staging is a fundamental step in the clinical assessment of canine cutaneous mast cell tumor (cMCT), and it is recommended to evaluate the tumor draining lymph node (eTDLN), perform diagnostic imaging, and fine needle aspiration (FNA) of the spleen and liver to determine the presence of metastatic disease, thereby refining the prognosis. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the prevalence of splenic and hepatic involvement in newly diagnosed canine low-grade cMCT (Patnaik grade I-II, Kiupel low-grade). Medical records of dogs that underwent a clinical staging work-up and surgical excision for a low-grade cMCT between December 2019 and December 2021 were reviewed at five veterinary centers. Only dogs with a histological diagnosis of low-grade cMCT, FNA or histology of the eTDLN, FNA of the spleen and liver, and one year of follow up were included. One hundred and thirty-six dogs met the inclusion criteria. Only 1 out of 136 dogs (0.7%) had the presence of visceral metastases at diagnosis, suggesting that the prevalence of visceral metastases in low-grade cMCT is extremely low. The results of this study are consistent with previous literature and suggest that after a diagnosis of low-grade cMCT, cytology of visceral organs may not represent an essential step in the clinical staging work-up

Highly Reliable Multicomponent MEMS Sensor for Predictive Maintenance Management of Rolling Bearings

In the field of vibration monitoring and control, the use of low-cost multicomponent MEMS-based accelerometer sensors is nowadays increasingly widespread. Such sensors allow implementing lightweight monitoring systems with low management costs, low power consumption and a small size. However, for the monitoring systems to provide trustworthy and meaningful data, the high accuracy and reliability of sensors are essential requirements. Consequently, a metrological approach to the calibration of multi-component accelerometer sensors, including appropriate uncertainty evaluations, are necessary to guarantee traceability and reliability in the frequency domain of data provided, which nowadays is not fully available. In addition, recently developed metrological characterizations at the microscale level allow to provide detailed and accurate quantification of the enhanced technical performance and the responsiveness of these sensors. In this paper, a dynamic calibration procedure is applied to provide the sensitivity parameters of a low-cost, multicomponent MEMS sensor accelerometer prototype (MDUT), designed, developed and realized at the University of Siena, conceived for rolling bearings vibration monitoring in a broad frequency domain (from 10 Hz up to 25 kHz). The calibration and the metrological characterization of the MDUT are carried out by comparison to a reference standard transducer, at the Primary Vibration Laboratory of the National Institute of Metrological Research (INRiM)

Manufacturing back- and near-reshoring: A comparison among EU and North American Evidence

The paper is focused on the topic of back- and near-reshoring, that is managerial decisions to relocate (partially or totally) production or sourcing activities earlier off-shored. This is the first paper that summarises and discusses empirical evidence on back-shoring emerging from a wide range of countries, focusing on North American and European evidence. More specifically, we discuss and present data collected by our research group (Uni-CLUB MoRe Back-reshoring) from several secondary sources

Defects in lipid homeostasis reflect the function of TANGO2 in phospholipid and neutral lipid metabolism

We show that TANGO2 in mammalian cells localizes predominantly to mitochondria and partially at mitochondria sites juxtaposed to lipid droplets (LDs) and the endoplasmic reticulum. HepG2 cells and fibroblasts of patients lacking TANGO2 exhibit enlarged LDs. Quantitative lipidomics revealed a marked increase in lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and a concomitant decrease in its biosynthetic precursor phosphatidic acid (PA). These changes were exacerbated in nutrient-starved cells. Based on our data, we suggest that TANGO2 function is linked to acyl-CoA metabolism, which is necessary for the acylation of LPA to generate PA. The defect in acyl-CoA availability impacts the metabolism of many other fatty acids, generates high levels of reactive oxygen species, and promotes lipid peroxidation. We suggest that the increased size of LDs is a combination of enrichment in peroxidized lipids and a defect in their catabolism. Our findings help explain the physiological consequence of mutations in TANGO2 that induce acute metabolic crises, including rhabdomyolysis, cardiomyopathy, and cardiac arrhythmias, often leading to fatality upon starvation and stress.We thank all members of the Malhotra laboratory for valuable discussions and critical reading of the manuscript. We thank Aida Rodriguez for advice with ROS analysis; Albert Pol and Albert Herms for advice with lipid metabolic experiments; the staff of the CRG/UPF Flow Cytometry Unit for advice with flow cytometry analysis and the staff of the CRG Advanced Light Microscopy Unit for invaluable technical help. We acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science, the Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa, and the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. V Malhotra is an Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats professor at the Centre for Genomic Regulation. V Malhotra is an Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats professor at the Centre for Genomic Regulation Work in the Malhotra lab is funded by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Plan Nacional to VM: PID2019-105518GB-I00) and the European Research Council Synergy Grant (ERC-2020-SyG-Proposal No. 951146). AL is funded by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO ALTF 659-2021), JW is funded by the European Research Council (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019-894115). OF is funded by the Ramon y Cajal program (RYC-2016-20919). This work reflects only the authors’ views, and the EU Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein