The complementary role of imaging and tumor biomarkers in gynecological cancers: an update of the literature

Gynecological tumors, including endometrial, cervical and ovarian cancer, have increased in incidence over time. The widespread introduction of screening programs and advances in diagnostic imaging methods has lead to a progressive increase in gynecological cancer detection. Accurate diagnosis and proper monitoring of disease remain the primary target for a successful treatment. In the last years, knowledge about cancer biomarkers has considerably increased providing great opportunities for improving cancer detection and treatment. In addition, in the last few years there has been an important development of imaging techniques. Nowadays, a multimodal approach including the evaluation of serum tumor biomarkers combined with imaging techniques, seems to be the best strategy for assessing tumor presence, spread, recurrence, and/or the response to treatment in female cancer patients In this review we provide an overview of the application of biomarkers combined with novel imaging methods and highlight their roles in female cancer diagnosis and follow-up

Second order differentiation formula on RCD∗(K;N) spaces

The aim of this paper is to prove a second order differentiation formula for H2;2 functions along geodesics in RCD∗(K;N) spaces with K ∈R and N < ∞. This formula is new even in the context of Alexandrov spaces, where second order differentiation is typically related to semiconvexity. We establish this result by showing that W2-geodesics can be approximated up to second order, in a sense which we shall make precise, by entropic interpolations. In turn this is achieved by proving new, even in the smooth setting, estimates concerning entropic interpolations which we believe are interesting on their own. In particular we obtain: • equiboundedness of densities along entropic interpolations, • local equi-Lipschitz continuity of Schrödinger potentials, • uniform weighted L2 control of the Hessian of such potentials. Finally, the techniques adopted in this paper can be used to show that in the RCD setting the viscous solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation can be obtained via a vanishing viscosity method, as in the smooth case. With respect to a previous version, where the space was assumed to be compact, in this paper the second order differentiation formula is proved in full generality

The Abresch-Gromoll inequality in a non-smooth setting

We prove that the Abresch-Gromoll inequality holds on infinitesimally Hilbertian CD(K,N) spaces in the same form as the one available on smooth Riemannian manifolds

Experimental evidence of replica symmetry breaking in random lasers

Spin-glass theory is one of the leading paradigms of complex physics and describes condensed matter, neural networks and biological systems, ultracold atoms, random photonics, and many other research fields. According to this theory, identical systems under identical conditions may reach different states and provide different values for observable quantities. This effect is known as Replica Symmetry Breaking and is revealed by the shape of the probability distribution function of an order parameter named the Parisi overlap. However, a direct experimental evidence in any field of research is still missing. Here we investigate pulse-to-pulse fluctuations in random lasers, we introduce and measure the analogue of the Parisi overlap in independent experimental realizations of the same disordered sample, and we find that the distribution function yields evidence of a transition to a glassy light phase compatible with a replica symmetry breaking.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Brief communication "Analysis of deformations in historic urban areas using terrestrial laser scanning"

The terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) technique has been used to accurately reconstruct the 3-D shape of the walls and bastions of the historic city of Mdina (Malta) and underlying terrain. By applying this technique it has also been possible to extract additional quantitative information regarding weathering and deformational processes affecting the structures. Thus, with the aim of identifying the main instability mechanisms, a detailed 3-D crack distribution map has been drawn and the main displacement vectors have been defined

Accident data analysis and on-field inspections. Do they lead to similar conclusions?

Network Safety Ranking and Road Assessment Programme (RAP) are two procedures used in road infrastructure safety management to rank the road sections of a network according to estimated road safety performance. The former uses indicators based on road accidents and their consequences while the latter method is based primarily on inspections of the road infrastructure. The aim of this study was to verify whether there is a relationship between the indicators used within these methods, in order to evaluate if and under which conditions RAP scores contribute to the prediction of accident numbers. The adopted approach is based on the calibration and analysis of a wide array of models in order to reproduce the observed events-injury road accidents, fatalities and injuries-with reference to different aggregations of the original data and in the two reference situations: with and without EuroRAP (European Road Assessment Programme) indicators. From the obtained results, the introduction of the EuroRAP indicators ends up making the models that explain the frequency of accidents more convincing from a statistical point of view. These indicators, which summarise the road safety performance of a road section, could prove useful in replacing the covariates (e.g. presence of intersections, geometrical and functional features of roads) that are used in the calibration of accident prediction models. However, it should be stressed that not all types of accident are addressed by the EuroRAP approach, and this may represent a limitation for those roadways where such kind of accidents are frequently observed, like rear-end collisions on motorways. Probably, by including these accident types, the explanatory power of the EuroRAP variables would increase, at least on motorways

A Survey on the Web of Things

The Web of Things (WoT) paradigm was proposed first in the late 2000s, with the idea of leveraging Web standards to interconnect all types of embedded devices. More than ten years later, the fragmentation of the IoT landscape has dramatically increased as a consequence of the exponential growth of connected devices, making interoperability one of the key issues for most IoT deployments. Contextually, many studies have demonstrated the applicability of Web technologies on IoT scenarios, while the joint efforts from the academia and the industry have led to the proposals of standard specifications for developing WoT systems. Through a systematic review of the literature, we provide a detailed illustration of the WoT paradigm for both researchers and newcomers, by reconstructing the temporal evolution of key concepts and the historical trends, providing an in-depth taxonomy of software architectures and enabling technologies of WoT deployments and, finally, discussing the maturity of WoT vertical markets. Moreover, we identify some future research directions that may open the way to further innovation on WoT systems

Effect of the (Nd,Dy)-double doping on the structural properties of ceria

The crystallographic properties of the Ce1-x(Nd0.63Dy0.37)xO2-x/2 system (0 64 x 64 0.6) were studied by means of synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction and compared to the ones of Sm-doped ceria. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of substituting Sm3+ by a mixture of a smaller and a larger ion that ensures a more pronounced Ce4+/dopant size mismatch while having the same average ionic size as Sm3+. Two main findings came to light: (a) the compositional region of the CeO2-based solid solution widens up to x ranging between 0.4 and 0.5, and (b) the cell parameter is larger than the one of Sm-doped ceria at each composition. Both effects are expected to play a significant role on the ionic conductivity of the material. The results are discussed in terms of disorder and cation-vacancy association