NICU Infants & SNHL: Experience of a western Sicily tertiary care centre

Introduction: The variability of symptoms and signs caused by central nervous system (CNS) lesions make multiple sclerosis difficult to recognize,Introduction: This study adds the evaluation of the independent etiologic factors that may play a role in the development of SNHL in a NICU population. We compared neonatal intensive care unit NICU infants with sensorineural hearing loss SNHL to age and gender matched normal hearing NICU controls. Materials and methods: 284 consecutive NICU infants positive to the presence of risk indicators associated with permanent congenital, delayed-onset, or progressive hearing loss underwent to global audiological assessment. The following risk factors were researched, making a distinction between prenatal and perinatal risk factors: in the first group, family history of permanent childhood hearing impairment, consanguinity, pregnant maternal infection and drugs exposition during pregnancy; in the second group, premature birth, respiratory distress, hyperbilirubinemia requiring exchange tranfusion, very low birth weight, cranio-facial abnormality, perinatal infections, ototoxic drugs administration, acidosis, hyponatremia, head trauma. Results: The analysis of the auditory deficit for infants according to numbers of risk factors showed mean values of: 78 + 28.08 dB nHL for infants positive to two risk factors; 75.71 + 30.30 dB nHL in cases positive to three risk factors; 96.66 + 34.46 dB nHL for four risk factors and 85 + 35 dB nHL in case of >5 risk factors. Conclusion: NICU infants have greater chances of developing SNHL, because of the presence of multiple risk factors; in fact, as the number of coexisting risk factors increases, the prevalence rate of SNHL also increases (r=0.81)

A Tactile Sensor Device Exploiting the Tunable Sensitivity of Copper-PDMS Piezoresistive Composite

Abstract A low cost and highly mechanically flexible 8x8 pressure matrix sensor with dedicated electronics has been fabricated with an innovative metal-elastomer composite material. Under the action of a compressive stress the material exhibits a giant piezoresistive effect varying its electrical resistance of several orders of magnitude. This phenomenon can be tuned by changing the material composition parameters, directly modifying the sensitivity of the sensor. The micro casting fabrication technique, used for the preparation of self standing sheet of functional material, gives the possibility of easily fabricating complex-shaped structure suitable for integration on robot surface for tactile sensing. The sensor has been tested with a customized electronic circuit after an exhaustive characterization of the functional properties of the material

How do synchronous lung metastases influence the surgical management of children with hepatoblastoma? An update and systematic review of the literature

Approximately 20% of children with hepatoblastoma (HB) have metastatic disease at diagnosis, most frequently in the lungs. In children with HB, lung metastatic disease is associated with poorer prognosis. Its treatment has been approached with a variety of methods that integrate chemotherapy and surgical resection. The timing and feasibility of complete extirpation of lung metastases, by chemotherapy and/or metastasectomy, is crucial for the surgical treatment of the primary liver tumor, which can vary from major hepatic resections to liver transplantation (LT). In children with unresectable HB, which can be surgically treated only by LT, the persistence of unresectable metastases after neoadjuvant chemotherapy excludes the possibility of recurring to LT with consequent negative impact on patients' outcomes. Due to limited evidence and experience, there is no consensus amongst oncologists and surgeons across institutions regarding the surgical treatment for HB with synchronous metastatic lung disease. This narrative review aimed to update the current management of pulmonary metastasis in children with HB and to define its role in the decision-making strategy for the surgical approach to primary liver tumours

Molecular Pathways Underlying Adaptive Repair of the Injured Kidney: Novel Donation After Cardiac Death and Acute Kidney Injury Platforms

International audienceObjective: To test the hypothesis that gene expression profiling in peripheral blood from patients who have undergone kidney transplantation (KT) will provide mechanistic insights regarding graft repair and regeneration.Background: Renal grafts obtained from living donors (LD) typically function immediately, whereas organs from donation after cardiac death (DCD) or acute kidney injury (AKI) donors may experience delayed function with eventual recovery. Thus, recipients of LD, DCD, and AKI kidneys were studied to provide a more complete understanding of the molecular basis for renal recovery.Methods: Peripheral blood was collected from LD and DCD/AKI recipients before transplant and throughout the first 30 days thereafter. Total RNA was isolated and assayed on whole genome microarrays.Results: Comparison of longitudinal gene expression between LD and AKI/DCD revealed 2 clusters, representing 141 differentially expressed transcripts. A subset of 11 transcripts was found to be differentially expressed in AKI/DCD versus LD. In all recipients, the most robust gene expression changes were observed in the first day after transplantation. After day 1, gene expression profiles differed depending upon the source of the graft. In patients receiving LD grafts, the expression of most genes did not remain markedly elevated beyond the first day post-KT. In the AKI/DCD groups, elevations in gene expression were maintained for at least 5 days post-KT. In all recipients, the pattern of coordinate gene overexpression subsided by 28 to 30 days.Conclusions: Gene expression in peripheral blood of AKI/DCD recipients offers a novel platform to understand the potential mechanisms and timing of kidney repair and regeneration after transplantation

monitoring the dye impregnation time of nanostructured photoanodes for dye sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are getting increasing attention as low-cost, easy-to-prepare and colored photovoltaic devices. In the current work, in view of optimizing the fabrication procedures and understanding the mechanisms of dye attachment to the semiconductor photoanode, absorbance measurements have been performed at different dye impregnation times ranging from few minutes to 24 hours using UV-Vis spectroscopy. In addition to the traditional absorbance experiments, based on diffuse and specular reflectance on dye impregnated thin films and on the desorption of dye molecules from the photoanodes by means of a basic solution, an alternative in-situ solution depletion measurement, which enables fast and continuous evaluation of dye uptake, is presented. Photoanodes have been prepared with two different nanostructured semiconducting films: mesoporous TiO2, using a commercially available paste from Solaronix, and sponge-like ZnO obtained in our laboratory from sputtering and thermal annealing. Two different dyes have been analyzed: Ruthenizer 535-bisTBA (N719), which is widely used because it gives optimal photovoltaic performances, and a new metal-free organic dye based on a hemisquaraine molecule (CT1). Dye sensitized cells were fabricated using a customized microfluidic architecture. The results of absorbance measurements are presented and discussed in relation to the obtained solar energy conversion efficiencies and the incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiencies (IPCE)

Pediatric trauma and emergency surgery: an international cross-sectional survey among WSES members

Background: In contrast to adults, the situation for pediatric trauma care from an international point of view and the global management of severely injured children remain rather unclear. The current study investigates structural management of pediatric trauma in centers of different trauma levels as well as experiences with pediatric trauma management around the world. Methods: A web-survey had been distributed to the global mailing list of the World Society of Emergency Surgery from 10/2021-03/2022, investigating characteristics of respondents and affiliated hospitals, case-load of pediatric trauma patients, capacities and infrastructure for critical care in children, trauma team composition, clinical work-up and individual experiences with pediatric trauma management in response to patients´ age. The collaboration group was subdivided regarding sizes of affiliated hospitals to allow comparisons concerning hospital volumes. Comparable results were conducted to statistical analysis. Results: A total of 133 participants from 34 countries, i.e. 5 continents responded to the survey. They were most commonly affiliated with larger hospitals (> 500 beds in 72.9%) and with level I or II trauma centers (82.0%), respectively. 74.4% of hospitals offer unrestricted pediatric medical care, but only 63.2% and 42.9% of the participants had sufficient experiences with trauma care in children ≤ 10 and ≤ 5 years of age (p = 0.0014). This situation is aggravated in participants from smaller hospitals (p < 0.01). With regard to hospital size (≤ 500 versus > 500 in-hospital beds), larger hospitals were more likely affiliated with advanced trauma centers, more elaborated pediatric intensive care infrastructure (p < 0.0001), treated children at all ages more frequently (p = 0.0938) and have higher case-loads of severely injured children < 12 years of age (p = 0.0009). Therefore, the majority of larger hospitals reserve either pediatric surgery departments or board-certified pediatric surgeons (p < 0.0001) and in-hospital trauma management is conducted more multi-disciplinarily. However, the majority of respondents does not feel prepared for treatment of severe pediatric trauma and call for special educational and practical training courses (overall: 80.2% and 64.3%, respectively). Conclusions: Multi-professional management of pediatric trauma and individual experiences with severely injured children depend on volumes, level of trauma centers and infrastructure of the hospital. However, respondents from hospitals at all levels of trauma care complain about an alarming lack of knowledge on pediatric trauma management

Growth of a hybrid garnet crystal multilayer structure by combinatorial pulsed laser deposition

A garnet crystal multilayer structure has been grown by using the combinatorial pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The structure consists of seven layers: three of them were deposited using individual Nd:Gd (YSGG) crystal targets, while the others were deposited by mixing two precursor materials in different ratios to achieve hybrid/mixed compositions. In order to investigate its crystallinity, morphology and composition, the structure has been analysed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). XRD analysis indicates the presence of crystalline phases in the structure and individual layers can be clearly distinguished from SEM micrographs. The elemental concentration, detected from the edge of the sample via EDX measurements, reveals a good agreement with the intended concentrations chosen for each layer. The Nd:GGG layer, characterised by a refractive index higher than that of YSGG, is located at the centre of the structure, making this structured index gradation suitable for optical wave guiding applications. The fabrication of planar waveguides with custom refractive index profiles is difficult to achieve by other techniques and this trial structure indicates the potential of PLD for use in such an application

AlNx and a-SiOx coatings with corrosion resistance properties for dental implants

Aluminium nitride thin films were deposited on titanium fixtures, while silicon oxide thin films were deposited on titanium fixtures and chromium-cobalt substrates, using the RF magnetron sputtering technique. Each coating showed different corrosion behaviours when electrochemical characterisations were made in a simulated biological environment, i.e. Hank's solution. Although aluminium nitride was more effective in reducing the localised corrosion on titanium implants, silicon oxide showed the best behaviour against general corrosion and results were consistent for the two kinds of substrates. Moreover the application of a SiO2/AlN bilayer onto the Ti fixtures improved the performances of each separate coating. When the coated surfaces were compared to uncoated substrates, there was no statistically significant difference in cell viability in the response of two different human osteoblastic cell lines — Saos-2 and MG-63. Field emission scanning electron microscopy assessed the surface morphology of coated and uncoated samples, whilst Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was applied to investigate the bonding structure of barrier layers on silicon samples. On the basis of the data obtained, we are of the opinion that the tested materials show some promising characteristics for the fabrication of novel dental implants with reduced ion release propertie