Hardware-Software Co-Design of BIKE with HLS-Generated Accelerators

In order to mitigate the security threat of quantum computers, NIST is undertaking a process to standardize post-quantum cryptosystems, aiming to assess their security and speed up their adoption in production scenarios. Several hardware and software implementations have been proposed for each candidate, while only a few target heterogeneous platforms featuring CPUs and FPGAs. This work presents a HW/SW co-design of BIKE for embedded platforms featuring both CPUs and small FPGAs and employs high-level synthesis (HLS) to timely deliver the hardware accelerators. In contrast to state-of-the-art solutions targeting performance-optimized HLS accelerators, the proposed solution targets the small FPGAs implemented in the heterogeneous platforms for embedded systems. Compared to the software- only execution of BIKE, the experimental results collected on the systems-on-chip of the entire Xilinx Zynq-7000 family highlight a performance speedup ranging from 1.37x, on Z-7010, to 2.78x, on Z-7020

Progress in Alzheimer's disease research in the last year

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, with a prevalence of 5 % after 65 years of age, increasing to about 30 % in people aged 85 years or older. It is characterized by progressive cognitive impairment, including impaired judgment, decision-making and orientation, and in some cases accompanied by psycho behavioral disturbances or language impairment. Herein, we summarize and discuss the main articles describing novel findings in AD published over the last year, including clinical, therapeutic, and research issues. \ua9 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Geographical Variation in Medication Prescriptions: A Multiregional Drug-Utilization Study

Background: Studies have emphasized the importance of geographical factors and general practitioner (GP) characteristics in influencing drug prescriptions. Objectives: To: (i) ascertain the prevalence rate (PR) of use of drugs in six therapeutic categories used for chronic conditions; (ii) assess how geographical characteristics and GP characteristics may influence drug prescribing. Methods: This study is part of the EDU.RE.DRUG Project, a national collaborative project founded by Italian Medicine Agency (AIFA). Cross-sectional analyses were undertaken employing the pharmacy-claim databases of four local health units (LHUs) located in two Italian regions: Lombardy and Campania. Six drug categories were evaluated: proton-pump inhibitors; antibiotics; respiratory-system drugs; statins; agents acting on the renin 12angiotensin system; psychoanaleptic drugs. The PR was estimated according to drug categories at the LHU level. A linear multivariate regression analysis was undertaken to evaluate the association between the PR and geographical area, age and sex of GPs, number of patients, and percentage of patients aged >65 per GP. Results: LHUs in Campania showed a PR that was significantly higher than that in Lombardy. Antibiotics showed the highest PR in all the LHUs assessed, ranging from 32.5% in Lecco (Lombardy) to 59.7% in Naples-2 (Campania). Multivariate linear regression analysis confirmed the association of the PR with geographical area for all drug categories. Being located in Campania increased the possibility of receiving a drug prescription from the categories considered, with estimates more marked for antibiotics, proton-pump-inhibitors, and respiratory-system drugs. Conclusions: This study provides information about the PR of medications used for treating common and costly conditions in Italy and highlighted a significant geographical variation. These insights could help to develop area-specific strategies to optimize prescribing behavior

Adducts of functionalized Graphene layers with Ag nanoparticles for Antimicrobial applications

Health and environmental impacts of multi-drug resistance (MDR) pathogens are becoming more and more relevant nowadays, thus increasing the need of developing new, safe and effective antimicrobials. This research was focused on the synthesis, the characterization and the evaluation of the antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity of hybrid nanomaterials made up through a simple and sustainable functionalization of three carbon substrates, namely Graphite, Carbon black and Carbon nanotubes, with a pyrrole moiety (SP) and silver nanoparticles (Ag-NP) [1, 2]. The adducts were analyzed by means of thermogravimetric analyses (TGA), transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray diffraction analyses (WAXD), which confirmed the successful functionalization of raw materials. UV-vis spectroscopy and dynamic/electrophoretic light scattering (DLS/ELS) provided information regarding carbon suspensions stability, particles sizes and surface charge. Results from microbiological tests revealed an outstanding enhancement of the antimicrobial activity promoted by the functionalization with Ag nanoparticles, maintaining unaltered the cytotoxic levels exerted by not-functionalized materials. In the light of these results, a possible bactericidal mechanism based on the synergy between mechanical and oxidative stresses at the bacterial membrane level is proposed

Corneal involvement in rheumatoid arthritis: an vivo confocal study

PURPOSE. To analyze the in vivo morphology of corneal cells and nerves in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with or without secondary Sj\uf6gren\u2019s syndrome (SSII), and to investigate the correlations between corneal alterations and RA activity. METHODS. Fifty patients with RA and 30 age- and gender-matched control subjects were studied. SSII was diagnosed according to the American-European Consensus Group criteria, and RA activity was evaluated by the Lansbury index (LI). Confocal microscopy was used to investigate corneal thickness, the number of epithelial and stromal cells, and keratocyte hyperreflectivity. In addition, the sub-basal plexus was assessed for the number, tortuosity, and reflectivity of the nerve fibers and the presence of beadlike formations. RESULTS. Sixteen percent of patients with RA also had SSII. Between the SSII and non-SSII groups, no significant differences were found in the LI or in the clinical and confocal variables. Significant differences were present between patients with RA and control subjects for all the variables studied except nerve reflectivity. In patients with RA with and without SSII, LI correlated significantly with the number of beadlike formations and the number of hyperreflective, activated keratocytes. CONCLUSIONS. Confocal microscopy of patients with RA showed several changes in corneal cells and nerves. The number of beadlike formations and the number of activated keratocytes could be interpreted as confocal signs of ocular surface disease activity. These correlations with the index of systemic disease activity, LI, may provide insight regarding the pathogenic mechanisms of dry eye in patients with RA

Monitoring Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: How Molecular Tools May Drive Therapeutic Approaches

More than 15 years ago, imatinib entered into the clinical practice as a “magic bullet”; from that point on, the prognosis of patients affected by chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) became comparable to that of aged-matched healthy subjects. The aims of treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are for complete hematological response after 3 months of treatment, complete cytogenetic response after 6 months, and a reduction of the molecular disease of at least 3 logs after 12 months. Patients who do not reach their goal can switch to another TKI. Thus, the molecular monitoring of response is the main consideration of management of CML patients. Moreover, cases in deep and persistent molecular response can tempt the physician to interrupt treatment, and this “dream” is possible due to the quantitative PCR. After great international effort, today the BCR-ABL1 expression obtained in each laboratory is standardized and expressed as “international scale.” This aim has been reached after the establishment of the EUTOS program (in Europe) and the LabNet network (in Italy), the platforms where biologists meet clinicians. In the field of quantitative PCR, the digital PCR is now a new and promising, sensitive and accurate tool. Some authors reported that digital PCR is able to better classify patients in precise “molecular classes,” which could lead to a better identification of those cases that will benefit from the interruption of therapy. In addition, digital PCR can be used to identify a point mutation in the ABL1 domain, mutations that are often responsible for the TKI resistance. In the field of resistance, a prominent role is played by the NGS that enables identification of any mutation in ABL1 domain, even at sub-clonal levels. This manuscript reviews how the molecular tools can lead the management of CML patients, focusing on the more recent technical advances

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Therapeutic Continuity among Outpatients with Chronic Cardiovascular Therapies

The COVID-19 pandemic poses major challenges to healthcare systems. We aimed to investigate the impact of the pandemic on prescription and adherence patterns of chronic cardiovascular therapies (lipid-lowering [LL], oral antidiabetic drugs [AD], and antihypertensives [AH]) using administrative pharmaceutical databases. For each treatment, two cohorts of prevalent cases in 2019 and 2020 were compared. We evaluated the percentage change in dispensed packages and treatment adherence as a proportion of days covered (PDC). For all therapies, an increase was observed during March–April 2020 (LL: +4.52%; AD: +2.72%; AH: +1.09%), with a sharp decrease in May–June 2020 (LL: −8.40%; AD: −12.09%; AH: −10.54%) compared to 2019. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on chronic cardiovascular treatments appears negligible on adherence: 533,414 patients showed high adherence to LL (PDC ≥ 80%) in January–February 2020, and 2.29% became poorly adherent (PDC < 20%) in the following four-month period (vs. 1.98% in 2019). A similar increase was also observed for AH (1.25% with poor adherence in 2020 vs. 0.93% in 2019). For AD, the increase was restrained (1.55% with poor adherence in 2020 vs. 1.37% in 2019). The rush to supply drugs at the beginning of lockdown preserved the continuity of chronic cardiovascular therapies

Use of proton pump inhibitors and risk of ischemic events in the general population

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: A potential increased risk of cardiovascular events has been suggested for proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), the most commonly prescribed drugs for the management of upper gastrointestinal disorders. We aimed to estimate the risk of hospitalization for cardio/cerebrovascular (CV) events in a cohort of incident PPI users. METHODS: A nested case-control study was carried out using regional healthcare utilization databases. For each case (hospitalization for non-haemorrhagic CV event), up-to-five controls randomly selected from the cohort were matched by gender, age at cohort entry, and index date. Exposure was estimated as recency of therapy (current, recent and past users) and number of days covered. Adjusted conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the association between exposure and outcome. RESULTS: Among new PPI users, we identified 17,832 cases and 89,160 controls (males 64.9%; mean age 58.9 years). Cases showed a significantly higher prevalence of use of drugs for diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia than controls. Risk of CV events was significantly higher for current (OR 1.61; 95%CI 1.55-1.68) and recent users (OR 1.15; 95%CI 1.06-1.26) compared to past users. Analogous results were found stratifying for cardiovascular (ORcurrent 1.71; 95%CI 1.63-1.81) and cerebrovascular events (ORcurrent 1.43; 95%CI 1.34-1.54). The increased risk was confirmed in subgroups by antithrombotic, statin use, or exposure duration. The same analysis for H2-antagonists use showed no significant results. CONCLUSIONS: In primary care setting, PPI use was independently associated with increased risk of first-time cardiovascular event, consistent with the evidence that PPIs adversely impact vascular function, underlying the need to promote appropriate prescribing of these drugs