Intestinal-type adenocarcinoma of the sinonasal tract: an update

Intestinal-type adenocarcinoma (ITAC) is one of the most frequent sinonasal tumors, especially in European countries. The purpose of this article is to review the most recent literature, with special emphasis on biological and genetic profile and treatment guidelines

Price Shocks, Structural Constraints and Policy Reactions in Tanzania and Malawi. A General Equilibrium Analysis

The instability which was recently observed in world commodity prices has raised widespread concerns, especially for its possible consequences on weak economies such as those of the Least Developed Countries and the Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries (LIFDCs). A potential ¿double squeeze¿ may occur in these countries, which are highly dependent on world markets for both staple foods and petroleum. This paper analyses the consequences of the spike in commodity price observed in 2008, and the possible policy responses in two fairly typical Eastern African LIFDCs, Malawi and Tanzania. The objective is threefold: firstly, to highlight weaker linkages in the two economies; secondly, to provide guidance in the identification of effective measures to counteract negative impacts; and, finally, to discuss avenues to make such economies more resilient to external shocks.JRC.DDG.J.5-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Frail Biological Basis with Promising Future Perspectives

AbstractThe concept of surgical margins was born a long time ago but still lacks a univocal and sound understanding. The current biological rationale behind the recommendations on margins management relies on two pillars: (1) the observation that groups of cancer cells can leave the macroscopic tumor and disseminate throughout adjacent tissues with different degrees of aggressiveness; (2) the belief that removal of all (or most of) cancer cells can cure the patient. However, this background is undermined by some pieces of evidence. For instance, it has been proven that tissues surrounding cancer often bear precancerous traits, which means that cutting through non-cancerous tissues does not equate to cut through healthy tissues. The head and neck exquisitely poses a number of challenges in the achievement of negative margins, with special reference to anatomical complexity, high density in relevant structures, and unique histological heterogeneity of cancers. Currently, intraoperative margins evaluation relies on surgeons' sight, palpation, ability to map tumor extension on imaging, and knowledge of anatomy, with some optical imaging technologies aiding the delineation of the mucosal margins of excision. Frozen sections are currently used to intraoperatively evaluate margins, yet with debate on whether and how this practice should be performed. Future perspectives on improvement of margins control are threefold: research is oriented towards refinements of understanding of cancers local progression, implementation of technologies to intraoperatively render tumor extension, and employment of optical imaging modalities capable of detecting foci of residual tumor in the surgical bed

Thermal pre-treatment of reactive aluminium alloy waste powders

This study focussed on assessing the efficiency of thermal pre-treatment of Al alloy waste powders to facilitate their subsequent treatment and disposal. Five samples originating from aluminium surface finishing industries underwent thermogravimetric analyses and were subjected to a laboratory tub furnace. Four set temperatures (450, 475, 500, 525 degrees C) for the tubular furnace were selected based on the TG results. Using sequential images of the sample inside the tubular furnace, the ignition delay time was calculated. In addition, the efficiencies of medium-temperature thermal pre-treatment were determined using the gas volume method. The shot blasting samples (S1 and S2) exhibited shorter ignition delay times compared to the sandblasting (S3) and one of the polishing samples (S4). The influence of ZnO alloy content on the ignition delay time was investigated, revealing that the ignition delay time decreased with an increase in ZnO alloy content. The raw and pre-treated materials were analysed for morphology, composition and reactivity. The pre-treatment efficiency of the samples improved, especially with a retention time longer than the ignition delay of the samples. Recommendations for the storage and handling of pre-treated products were provided

Efficient Saturation Control for Fully Differential Integrator in Continuous-Time Sigma-Delta Modulators

This paper presents an alternative approach to saturation control in an integrator, that occurs in Sigma-Delta modulators (SDMs). This solution simplifies the design process with a 1.2- V power supply and consumes significantly less power than conventional saturation control methods. Additionally, this solution provides a good phase margin, that guarantees the stability, without requiring additional compensation techniques, and it has the added benefit of reducing the gain of the integrator as the system enters saturation, while also maintaining integrator inputs fixed at the proper common-mode voltage. This innovative approach offers a promising solution for efficient and stable saturation control in SDM integrators, preventing distortion in the output signal, with potential applications in a wide range of electronic systems, such as audio systems. The circuit has been designed in a 90-nm CMOS technology

Bowel parasitosis and neuroendocrine tumours of the appendix. A report from the Italian TREP project

Five children with a neuroendocrine tumour (NET) of the appendix associated with a parasitic bowel infection are described, and the possibility of inflammation-triggered carcinogenesis is discussed. Schistosoma haematobium is linked primarily to bladder cancer but it has been reported in association with several other histotypes, including NETs of the gastrointestinal tract. Conversely, Enterobius vermicularis has not yet been claimed to participate in the onset of pre-cancerous conditions or tumours. The rare occurrence of contemporary appendiceal NETs and parasitic infection, raises the intriguing hypothesis of an inflammation-related carcinogenesis, although a cause-effect relationship cannot be established. Larger international series of childhood appendiceal NETs, which also include countries with higher prevalence of parasitic bowel infections, are needed to further clarify this possible cause-effect relationshi

Controlling CO adsorption on Pt clusters by dopant-induced charge transfer

The study of small clusters, particles composed of only a few atoms, is not only interesting because of their intrinsic physical properties, strongly influenced by quantum confinement and subjected to significant size-to-size variations, but also because clusters are ideal model systems for the investigation of complex chemical reactions. In this article, we describe how doped platinum clusters composed of less than 20 atoms can be used to address questions about physical and chemical processes taking place in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. Combining mass spectrometric experiments with theoretical calculations, the particular role of dopant-induced electronic charge transfers in the interaction of platinum nanoparticles with carbon monoxide molecules is investigated.The work in Valladolid was supported by MINECO (grant number MAT2014-54378-R)Junta de Castilla y Leon (grant number VA050U14

Post-field ionization of Si clusters in atom probe tomography: A joint theoretical and experimental study

A major challenge for Atom Probe Tomography (APT) quantification is the inability to decouple ions which possess the same mass/charge-state ($m/n$) ratio but a different mass. For example, $^{75}{\rm{As}}^{+}$ and $^{75}{\rm{As}}{_2}^{2+}$ at ~75 Da or $^{14}{\rm{N}}^+$ and $^{28}{\rm{Si}}^{2+}$ at ~14 Da, cannot be differentiated without the additional knowledge of their kinetic energy or a significant improvement of the mass resolving power. Such mass peak overlaps lead to ambiguities in peak assignment, resulting in compositional uncertainty and an incorrect labelling of the atoms in a reconstructed volume. In the absence of a practical technology for measuring the kinetic energy of the field-evaporated ions, we propose and then explore the applicability of a post-experimental analytical approach to resolve this problem based on the fundamental process that governs the production of multiply charged molecular ions/clusters in APT, i.e., Post-Field Ionization (PFI). The ability to predict the PFI behaviour of molecular ions as a function of operating conditions could offer the first step towards resolving peak overlap and minimizing compositional uncertainty. We explore this possibility by comparing the field dependence of the charge-state-ratio for Si clusters ($\rm{Si}_2$, $\rm{Si}_3$ and $\rm{Si}_4$) with theoretical predictions using the widely accepted Kingham PFI theory. We then discuss the model parameters that may affect the quality of the fit and the possible ways in which the PFI of molecular ions in APT can be better understood. Finally, we test the transferability of the proposed approach to different material systems and outline ways forward for achieving more reliable results