Investigating Social Exclusion in Late Prehistoric Italy: Preliminary Results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project (PHASE 1)

This report presents the preliminary results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project, a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort which aims to investigate social exclusion, marginality and the adoption of anomalous funerary rites in late prehistoric Italy. In particular, this contribution explores the incidence and meaning of practices of ritual marginalisation and funerary deviancy in the region of Veneto between the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age period

Supply chain finance for ameliorating and deteriorating products: a systematic literature review

Ameliorating and deteriorating products, or, more generally, items that change value over time, present a high sensitiveness to the surrounding environment (e.g., temperature, humidity, and light intensity). For this reason, they should be properly stored along the supply chain to guarantee the desired quality to the consumers. Specifically, ameliorating items face an increase in value if there are stored for longer periods, which can lead to higher selling price. At the same time, the costumers’ demand is sensitive to the price (i.e., the higher the selling price the lower the final demand), sensitiveness that is related to the quality of the products (i.e., lower sensitiveness for high-quality products). On the contrary, deteriorating items lose quality and value over time which result in revenue losses due to lost sales or reduced selling price. Since these products need to be properly stored (i.e., usually in temperature- and humidity-controlled warehouses) the holding costs, which comprise also the energy costs, may be particularly relevant impacting on the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of the supply chain. Furthermore, due to the recent economic crisis, companies (especially, small and medium enterprises) face payment difficulties of customers and high volatility of resources prices. This increases the risk of insolvency and on the other hand the financing needs. In this context, supply chain finance emerged as a mean for efficiency by coordinating the financial flow and providing a set of financial schemes aiming at optimizing accounts payable and receivable along the supply chain. The aim of the present study is thus to investigate through a systematic literature review the two main themes presented (i.e., inventory management models for products that change value over time, and financial techniques and strategies to support companies in inventory management) to understand if any financial technique has been studied for supporting the management of this class of products and to verify the existing literature gap

Emerging roles of purinergic signaling in anti-cancer therapy resistance

Cancer is a complex disease with a rapid growing incidence and often characterized by a poor prognosis. Although impressive advances have been made in cancer treatments, resistance to therapy remains a critical obstacle for the improvement of patients outcome. Current treatment approaches as chemo-, radio-, and immuno-therapy deeply affect the tumor microenvironment (TME), inducing an extensive selective pressure on cancer cells through the activation of the immune system, the induction of cell death and the release of inflammatory and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPS), including nucleosides (adenosine) and nucleotides (ATP and ADP). To survive in this hostile environment, resistant cells engage a variety of mitigation pathways related to metabolism, DNA repair, stemness, inflammation and resistance to apoptosis. In this context, purinergic signaling exerts a pivotal role being involved in mitochondrial function, stemness, inflammation and cancer development. The activity of ATP and adenosine released in the TME depend upon the repertoire of purinergic P2 and adenosine receptors engaged, as well as, by the expression of ectonucleotidases (CD39 and CD73) on tumor, immune and stromal cells. Besides its well established role in the pathogenesis of several tumors and in host–tumor interaction, purinergic signaling has been recently shown to be profoundly involved in the development of therapy resistance. In this review we summarize the current advances on the role of purinergic signaling in response and resistance to anti-cancer therapies, also describing the translational applications of combining conventional anticancer interventions with therapies targeting purinergic signaling

Pediatric Response to Second-Line Antiretroviral Therapy in South Africa

Background: With improved access to pediatric antiretroviral therapy (ART) in resource-limited settings, more children could experience first-line ART treatment failure. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort analysis using electronic medical records from HIV-infected children who initiated ART at McCord Hospital's Sinikithemba Clinic in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, from August 2003 to December 2010. We analyzed all records from children who began second-line ART due to first-line treatment failure. We used logistic regression to compare viral outcomes in Protease Inhibitor (PI)-based versus Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor (NNRTI)-based second-line ART, controlling for time on first-line ART, sex, and whether HIV genotyping guided the regimen change. Results: Of the 880 children who initiated ART during this time period, 80 (9.1%) switched to second-line ART due to therapeutic failure of first-line ART after a median of 95 weeks (IQR 65–147 weeks). Eight (10%) of the failures received NNRTI-based second-line ART, all of whom failed a PI-based first-line regimen. Seventy (87.5%) received PI-based second-line ART, all of whom failed a NNRTI-based first-line regimen. Two children (2.5%) received non-standard dual therapy as second-line ART. Six months after switching ART regimens, the viral suppression rate was significantly higher in the PI group (82%) than in the NNRTI group (29%; p = 0.003). Forty-one children (51%) were tested for genotypic resistance prior to switching to second-line ART. There was no significant difference in six month viral suppression (p = 0.38) between children with and without genotype testing. Conclusion: NNRTI-based second-line ART carries a high risk of virologic failure compared to PI-based second-line ART

Grundversorgung: Der Weg aus der Krise führt auch über die MPA

Die meisten Hausärzte und Hausärztinnen in der Schweiz sind dauerhaft überlastet. Um zusätzliche Kapazitäten zu schaffen, sind ihre Leistungen auf mehr Schultern zu verteilen und die Betreuung im (Praxis-)Team zu verstärken. Besonders dafür geeignet ist die Begleitung von chronisch kranken Patienten durch die Medizinische Praxisassistentin. Das Problem: Der Arzt kann diese Leistungen nicht abrechnen. Dies ist so rasch wie möglich zu ändern, damit die MPA endlich den Wert erhält, den sie längst verdient

Effects of dislocation density on injection and temperature sensitivity of InGaN LED emission spectra: a combined experimental and simulation approach

The aim of this paper is to describe a combined simulation and characterization activity carried out on blue LEDs grown on templates with different threading dislocation densities (TDDs)

Kinetics and metabolism of Bifidobacterium adolescentis MB 239 growing on glucose, galactose, lactose, and galactooligosaccharides

The kinetics and the metabolism of Bifidobacterium adolescentis MB 239 growing on galactooligosaccharides (GOS), lactose, galactose, and glucose were investigated. An unstructured unsegregated model for growth in batch cultures was developed, and kinetic parameters were calculated with a recursive algorithm. The growth rate and cellular yield were highest on galactose, followed by lactose and GOS, and were lowest on glucose. Lactate, acetate, and ethanol yields allowed the calculation of carbon fluxes toward fermentation products. Distributions between two- and three-carbon products were similar on all the carbohydrates (55 and 45%, respectively), but ethanol yields were different on glucose, GOS, lactose, and galactose, in decreasing order of production. Based on the stoichiometry of the fructose-6-phosphate shunt and on the carbon distribution among the products, the ATP yield was calculated. The highest yield was obtained on galactose, while the yields were 5, 8, and 25% lower on lactose, GOS, and glucose, respectively. Therefore, a correspondence among ethanol production, low ATP yields, and low biomass production was established, demonstrating that carbohydrate preferences may result from different distributions of carbon fluxes through the fermentative pathway. During the fermentation of a GOS mixture, substrate selectivity based on the degree of polymerization was exhibited, since lactose and the trisaccharide were the first to be consumed, while a delay was observed until longer oligosaccharides were utilized. Throughout the growth on both lactose and GOS, galactose accumulated in the cultural broth, suggesting that beta(1-4) galactosides can be hydrolyzed before they are taken up

Impact of sidewall etching on the dynamic performance of GaN-on-Si E-mode transistors

Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of the etching of the sidewalls of p-GaN on the dynamic performance of normally-off GaN HEMTs with p-type gate. We analyze two wafers having identical epitaxy but with different recipes for the sidewall etching, referred to as "Etch A" (non-optimized) and "Etch B" (optimized). We demonstrate the following relevant results: (i) the devices with non-optimized etching (Etch A), when submitted to positive gate bias, show a negative threshold voltage shift and a decrease in Ron, which are ascribed to hole injection under the gate and/or in the access regions; (ii) transient characterization indicates the existence of two trap states, with activation energies of 0.84 eV (CN defects) and 0.30 eV. The latter (with time-constants in the ms range) is indicative of the hole de-trapping process, possibly related to trap states in the AlGaN barrier or at the passivation/AlGaN interface; (iii) by optimizing the p-GaN sidewall etching (for the same epitaxy) it is possible to completely eliminate the threshold voltage shift. This indicates that hole injection mostly takes place along the sidewalls