Laser spectroscopy for breath analysis : towards clinical implementation

Detection and analysis of volatile compounds in exhaled breath represents an attractive tool for monitoring the metabolic status of a patient and disease diagnosis, since it is non-invasive and fast. Numerous studies have already demonstrated the benefit of breath analysis in clinical settings/applications and encouraged multidisciplinary research to reveal new insights regarding the origins, pathways, and pathophysiological roles of breath components. Many breath analysis methods are currently available to help explore these directions, ranging from mass spectrometry to laser-based spectroscopy and sensor arrays. This review presents an update of the current status of optical methods, using near and mid-infrared sources, for clinical breath gas analysis over the last decade and describes recent technological developments and their applications. The review includes: tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy, cavity ring-down spectroscopy, integrated cavity output spectroscopy, cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy, photoacoustic spectroscopy, quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy, and optical frequency comb spectroscopy. A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) is presented that describes the laser-based techniques within the clinical framework of breath research and their appealing features for clinical use.Peer reviewe

Mathematical Modelling as a Proof of Concept for MPNs as a Human Inflammation Model for Cancer Development

<p><b>Left:</b> Typical development in stem cells (top panel A) and mature cells (bottom panel B). Healthy hematopoietic cells (full blue curves) dominate in the early phase where the number of malignant cells (stipulated red curves) are few. The total number of cells is also shown (dotted green curves). When a stem cell mutates without repairing mechanisms, a slowly increasing exponential growth starts. At a certain stage, the malignant cells become dominant, and the healthy hematopoietic cells begin to show a visible decline. Finally, the composition between the cell types results in a takeover by the malignant cells, leading to an exponential decline in hematopoietic cells and ultimately their extinction. The development is driven by an approximately exponential increase in the MPN stem cells, and the development is closely followed by the mature MPN cells. <b>Right:</b> B)The corresponding allele burden (7%, 33% and 67% corresponding to ET, PV, and PMF, respectively) defined as the ratio of MPN mature cells to the total number of mature cells.</p

Expansion cone for the 3-inch PMTs of the KM3NeT optical modules

[EN] Detection of high-energy neutrinos from distant astrophysical sources will open a new window on the Universe. The detection principle exploits the measurement of Cherenkov light emitted by charged particles resulting from neutrino interactions in the matter containing the telescope. A novel multi-PMT digital optical module (DOM) was developed to contain 31 3-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). In order to maximize the detector sensitivity, each PMT will be surrounded by an expansion cone which collects photons that would otherwise miss the photocathode. Results for various angles of incidence with respect to the PMT surface indicate an increase in collection efficiency by 30% on average for angles up to 45 degrees with respect to the perpendicular. Ray-tracing calculations could reproduce the measurements, allowing to estimate an increase in the overall photocathode sensitivity, integrated over all angles of incidence, by 27% (for a single PMT). Prototype DOMs, being built by the KM3NeT consortium, will be equipped with these expansion cones.This work is supported through the EU, FP6 Contract no. 011937, FP7 grant agreement no. 212252, and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.Adrián Martínez, S.; Ageron, M.; Aguilar, JA.; Aharonian, F.; Aiello, S.; Albert, A.; Alexandri, M.... (2013). Expansion cone for the 3-inch PMTs of the KM3NeT optical modules. Journal of Instrumentation. 8(3):1-19. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/8/03/T03006S1198

Detection potential of the KM3NeT detector for high-energy neutrinos from the Fermi bubbles

A recent analysis of the Fermi Large Area Telescope data provided evidence for a high-intensity emission of high-energy gamma rays with a E 2 spectrum from two large areas, spanning 50 above and below the Galactic centre (the ‘‘Fermi bubbles’’). A hadronic mechanism was proposed for this gamma-ray emission making the Fermi bubbles promising source candidates of high-energy neutrino emission. In this work Monte Carlo simulations regarding the detectability of high-energy neutrinos from the Fermi bubbles with the future multi-km3 neutrino telescope KM3NeT in the Mediterranean Sea are presented. Under the hypothesis that the gamma-ray emission is completely due to hadronic processes, the results indicate that neutrinos from the bubbles could be discovered in about one year of operation, for a neutrino spectrum with a cutoff at 100 TeV and a detector with about 6 km3 of instrumented volume. The effect of a possible lower cutoff is also considered.Published7–141.8. Osservazioni di geofisica ambientaleJCR Journalrestricte

Tecnica e strategie di comunicazionescientifica con ipertesti - venti anni di esperienze

La tecnologia per la creazione di ipertesti per la comunicazione fornisce compilatori ipertestuali, strumenti evoluti di montaggio e produzioni sia per supporti rigidi che per la rete. Una strategia efficace di comunicazione deve s\uec valorizzare le possibilit\ue0 offerte dalla tecnologia, ma mantenere prioritaria una divulgazione mirata e garantire, in equilibrio con le potenzialit\ue0 spettacolari, rigore, necessaria profondit\ue0, alta qualit\ue0. La relazione presenta le esperienze di 20 anni di produzioni, sottolineando come si siano affrontati i problemi di adattamento fra linguaggio e tecnica

Apple network in LNF. Management and project question

SIGLEITItal

The N370S (Asn(370)→Ser) mutation affects the capacity of glucosylceramidase to interact with anionic phospholipid-containing membranes and saposin C

The properties of the endolysosomal enzyme GCase (glucosylceramidase), carrying the most prevalent mutation observed in Gaucher patients, namely substitution of an asparagine residue with a serine at amino acid position 370 [N370S (Asn(370)→Ser) GCase], were investigated in the present study. We previously demonstrated that Sap (saposin) C, the physiological GCase activator, promotes the association of GCase with anionic phospholipid-containing membranes, reconstituting in this way the enzyme activity. In the present study, we show that, in the presence of Sap C and membranes containing high levels of anionic phospholipids, both normal and N370S GCases are able to associate with the lipid surface and to express their activity. Conversely, when the amount of anionic phospholipids in the membrane is reduced (∼20% of total lipids), Sap C is still able to promote binding and activation of the normal enzyme, but not of N370S GCase. The altered interaction of the mutated enzyme with anionic phospholipid-containing membranes and Sap C was further demonstrated in Gaucher fibroblasts by confocal microscopy, which revealed poor co-localization of N370S GCase with Sap C and lysobisphosphatidic acid, the most abundant anionic phospholipid in endolysosomes. Moreover, we found that N370S Gaucher fibroblasts accumulate endolysosomal free cholesterol, a lipid that might further interfere with the interaction of the enzyme with Sap C and lysobisphosphatidic acid-containing membranes. In summary, our results show that the N370S mutation primarily affects the interaction of GCase with its physiological activators, namely Sap C and anionic phospholipid-containing membranes. We thus propose that the poor contact between N370S GCase and its activators may be responsible for the low activity of the mutant enzyme in vivo