Recent finding and new technologies in nephrolithiasis: a review of the recent literature

This review summarizes recent literature on advances regarding renal and ureteral calculi, with particular focus in areas of recent advances in the overall field of urolithiasis. Clinical management in everyday practice requires a complete understanding of the issues regarding metabolic evaluation and subgrouping of stone-forming patients, diagnostic procedures, effective treatment regime in acute stone colic, medical expulsive therapy, and active stone removal. In this review we focus on new perspectives in managing nephrolitihiasis and discuss recentadvances, including medical expulsive therapy, new technologies, and refinements of classical therapy such as shock wave lithotripsy, give a fundamental modification of nephrolithiasis management. Overall, this field appears to be the most promising, capable of new developments in ureterorenoscopy and percutaneous approaches. Further improvements are expected from robotic-assisted procedures, such as flexible robotics in ureterorenoscopy

Un insediamento di età eneolitica nella Sardegna centro-occidentale: il villaggio di cultura Monte Claro nel sito di Cuccurada, Mogoro (OR)

Nel sito archeologico di Cuccurada, in comune di Mogoro, è stato posto in luce, a partire dagli anni ’90 del secolo scorso, un vasto insediamento pluristratificato che ha restituito varie fasi di occupazione preistorica e protostorica dal Neolitico Recente (cultura di Ozieri), passando dall’Eneolitico (cultura di Monte Claro) sino alle Età del Bronzo e del Ferro, con momenti di rioccupazione più tarda di epoca romana e medievale. In questo lavoro si espone in dettaglio la fase insediativa di età eneolitica, a cui sono riferibili resti monumentali e manufatti pertinenti alla cultura di Monte Claro. Si presentano inediti dati stratigrafici, materiali ceramici e spunti di analisi sulla cultura Monte Claro in questa zona della Sardegna centro-occidentale.In the archaeological site of Cuccurada, in municipality of Mogoro, the research has revealed, since the 90s of the last century, a large pluristratified settlement. Various phases of prehistoric and protohistoric occupation have been recognized, from recent Neolithic (Ozieri culture), with evidences ofCopper Age (Monte Claro culture), up to the Bronze Age and Iron Age; the site was later reoccupied in Roman and medieval age. In this work we expose in detail the settlement phase of the Copper Age, to which monumental remains and artifacts pertinent to the Monte Claro culture are referable. We present unpublished stratigraphical data, ceramic materials and new elements ofanalysis about the cultural phase ofMonte Claro in this zone ofcentral-western Sardinia

Experimental evaluation of isentropic efficiency in turbocharger twin-entry turbines

Turbocharging plays a fundamental role not only in improving the performance of automotive engines, but also in reducing the fuel consumption and exhaust emissions of spark-ignited biofuel, diesel, liquid, and gaseous engines. Dedicated experimental investigations on turbochargers are therefore needed to evaluate a better understanding of its performance. The availability of experimental information on the steady flow performance of the turbocharger is an essential requirement to optimize the matching calculation. It is interesting to know the isentropic efficiency of the turbine in order to improve the coupling with the engine, in particular it is difficult to identify the definition of the turbine efficiency through a direct evaluation. In a radial turbine, the isentropic efficiency, evaluated directly starting from the measurement of the thermodynamic quantities at the inlet and outlet sections, can be affected by significant errors. This inaccuracy is mainly related to the incorrect evaluation of the turbine outlet temperature, due to the non-uniform distribution of the flow field in the measurement section. For this purpose, a flow conditioner was installed downstream the turbine. Tests were performed at different values of the rotational speed, and in quasi-adiabatic conditions. The flow field downstream the de-coupler was analysed through a hand-made three-hole probe with an exposed junction thermocouple inserted in the pipe with different protrusions. Thanks to this experimental campaign, it was possible to measure pressure, velocity, mass flow and temperature profiles necessary to examine the homogeneity of the flow field. As the turbocharger is fitted with a twin entry turbine, the thermodynamic quantities have been properly taken into account referring to each sector

Herbal Medicines Registration Process for Zimbabwe Overview of the Process

Unregistered traditional medicines pose a huge public health threat as the safety and efficacy of these products is unknown. The issue this study addresses is the inadequate regulatory measures for herbal medicines in Zimbabwe. This project was done to describe the current registration process of traditional medicines in Zimbabwe, and to identify the gaps and opportunities they present to improve the regulatory landscape. Regulations and laws governing the registration of herbal medicines in the country and published research on legislation of herbal medicines were reviewed. Two parallel regulatory bodies both registering and controlling the sale of herbal medicines were identified. The Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) and the Traditional Medical Practitioners Association (TMPA) both derive their authority to regulate from the ministry of health and were established through the act of parliament which gives these authorities power to regulate the quality and sale of traditional medicines without giving a prescriptive way of doing it. The registration process, and product evaluations for the two authorities are different. While the MCAZ has a clearly defined registration process, the TMPA does not. However, MCAZ has not been very successful in registering local products with the majority of the registered herbal products being imports and only 2% of total registered products being local herbs. As a recommendation, there is need for collaboration between the regulatory bodies for consistence in quality of herbal products on the market and to improve registration of local herbal products. Developing monographs for local herbs commonly used in the country will also assist local manufacturer to fulfill the quality requirements and successful compilation of dossiers for product registration

A device to characterize optical fibres

ATLAS is a general purpose experiment approved for the LHC collider at CERN. An important component of the detector is the central hadronic calorimeter; for its construction more than 600,000 Wave Length Shifting (WLS) fibres (corresponding to a total length of 1,120 Km) have been used. We have built and put into operation a dedicated instrument for the measurement of light yield and attenuation length over groups of 20 fibres at a time. The overall accuracy achieved in the measurement of light yield (attenuation length) is 1.5% (3%). We also report the results obtained using this method in the quality control of a large sample of fibres.Comment: 17 pages 20 figeres submitted to NIM journa

Fasi finali e riutilizzo di età storica nel Nuraghe Cuccurada di Mogoro (OR)

Nel sito archeologico in località Cuccurada, in territorio comunale di Mogoro, le ricerche hanno evidenziato un insediamento pluristratificato, con fasi di occupazione del Neolitico recente (cultura di Ozieri), dell’Eneolitico (cultura di Monte Claro) e delle Età del Bronzo e del Ferro, con un riutilizzo dell’area in epoca romana e medievale. Il complesso è già abbastanza noto in letteratura, ma ancora parzialmente inedito per quanto riguarda i materiali e i dati di scavo. Nel presente contributo si vuole presentare nel dettaglio le diverse fasi di occupazione del sito, soprattutto in relazione ai momenti finali della frequentazione protostorica (Bronzo Finale/I Ferro) ed alla rioccupazione del complesso in età romana e medievale.In the archaeological site of Cuccurada, in the territory of Mogoro, the researches have evidenced a pluristratified settlement, with phases of occupation of the recent Neolithic (culture of Ozieri), of the Eneolithic age (culture of Monte Claro) and of the Bronze and Iron Ages, with a re-use of the area in roman and medieval period. The complex is already enough famous in literature, but still partially unknown regarding the materials and the excavation data. In the present work we want to present in detail the different occupation phases of the site, especially in relationship to the final moments of the proto-historic frequentation (Final Bronze/I Iron Age) and to the last re-use of the complex in Roman and medieval age

Computational analysis of dynamic light exposure of unicellular algal cells in a flat-panel photobioreactor to support light-induced CO2 bioprocess development

Cyanobacterial cell factories trace a vibrant pathway to climate change neutrality and sustainable development owing to their ability to turn carbon dioxide-rich waste into a broad portfolio of renewable compounds, which are deemed valuable in green chemistry cross-sectorial applications. Cell factory design requires to define the optimal operational and cultivation conditions. The paramount parameter in biomass cultivation in photobioreactors is the light intensity since it impacts cellular physiology and productivity. Our modeling framework provides a basis for the predictive control of light-limited, light-saturated, and light-inhibited growth of the Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 model organism in a flat-panel photobioreactor. The model here presented couples computational fluid dynamics, light transmission, kinetic modeling, and the reconstruction of single cell trajectories in differently irradiated areas of the photobioreactor to relate key physiological parameters to the multi-faceted processes occurring in the cultivation environment. Furthermore, our analysis highlights the need for properly constraining the model with decisive qualitative and quantitative data related to light calibration and light measurements both at the inlet and outlet of the photobioreactor in order to boost the accuracy and extrapolation capabilities of the model

Popularity prediction of instagram posts

Predicting the popularity of posts on social networks has taken on significant importance in recent years, and several social media management tools now offer solutions to improve and optimize the quality of published content and to enhance the attractiveness of companies and organizations. Scientific research has recently moved in this direction, with the aim of exploiting advanced techniques such as machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, etc., to support such tools. In light of the above, in this work we aim to address the challenge of predicting the popularity of a future post on Instagram, by defining the problem as a classification task and by proposing an original approach based on Gradient Boosting and feature engineering, which led us to promising experimental results. The proposed approach exploits big data technologies for scalability and efficiency, and it is general enough to be applied to other social media as well

Open Surgery for Sportsman’s Hernia a Retrospective Study

Sportsman’s hernia is a painful syndrome in the inguinal area occurring in patients who play sports at an amatorial or professional level. Pain arises during sport, and sometimes persists after activity, representing an obstacle to sport resumption. A laparoscopic/endoscopic approach is proposed by many authors for treatment of the inguinal wall defect. Aim of this study is to assess the open technique in terms of safety and effectiveness, in order to obtain the benefit of an open treatment in an outpatient management. From October 2017 to July 2019, 34 patients underwent surgery for groin pain syndrome. All cases exhibited a bulging of the inguinal posterior wall. 14 patients were treated with Lichtenstein technique with transversalis fascia plication and placement of a polypropylene mesh fixed with fibrin glue. In 20 cases, a polypropylene mesh was placed in the preperitoneal space. The procedure was performed in day surgery facilities. Early or late postoperative complications did not occur in both groups. All patients returned to sport, in 32 cases with complete pain relief, whereas 2 patients experienced mild residual pain. The average value of return to sport was 34.11 ± 8.44 days. The average value of return to play was 53.82 ± 11.69 days. With regard to postoperative pain, no substantial differences between the two techniques were detected, and good results in terms of the resumption of sport were ensured in both groups. Surgical treatment for sportsman’s hernia should be considered only after the failure of conservative treatment. The open technique is safe and allows a rapid postoperative recovery