Late Breaking Abstract - An exercise training program improves endothelial function in COPD patients

COPD is associated with increased cardiovascular (CV) mortality. An early manifestation in the pathogenesis of CV diseases is the endothelial dysfunction; the gold standard for its measurement is the flow-mediated dilatation (FMD). It is known that an active lifestyle has a favorable effect on FMD also in COPD (retrospective studies), however no prospective study has evaluated the effect of an exercise training program (ET) on FMD. Aim: to evaluate the impact of a supervised endurance ET on FMD in COPD. Methods: 11 COPD patients (4F/7M) were recruited. Patients who agreed to participate at ET were assigned to the training group (Ex, n=6) and the others to the control group (C, n=5). The Ex exercised on a treadmill 50 min, twice a week for 8 weeks. At the beginning (T0) patients performed spirometry, 6MWD, measurement of physical activity (SenseWear Armband) and FMD. At the end of the program (T1) FMD and spirometry were repeated. Furthermore, Ex performed an incremental cycling test at T0 and T1 to assess VO2max. Results: No differences in age (Ex:66±10, C:69±8yr), BMI (Ex:30±3, C:28±4kg/m2), pulmonary function [FEV1(%) Ex:54±14, C:60±16] and 6MWD (Ex:356±90, C:406±49m) were found between the groups at T0; C were a little more active than Ex (1.3±0.2 vs 1.1±0.1 METs respectively;p=0.03). No difference was found in FMD at T0 after adjustment for physical activity (Ex:4.2±0.54, C:4.05±0.62%). FMD improved significantly in the Ex (+2.74±1.33%, p=0.004) but not in the C (-0.09±0.21, p>0.05); t test between groups p=0.0001. Conclusion: These preliminary data show that after 8 weeks of ET a significant improvement in FMD was found in trained COPD and can be considered another positive effect of pulmonary rehabilitatio

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)

INVESTIGATION ON NEURAL RESPONSES RELATED TO THE LOCALIZATION OF NATURAL SOUNDS

Spatial hearing allows the localization of sounds in complex acoustic environments. There is considerable evidence that this neural system rapidly adapts to changes in sensory inputs and behavioral goals. However, the mechanisms underlying this context-dependent coding are not well understood. In fact, previous studies on sound localization have mainly focused on the perception of simple artificial sounds, such as white-noise or pure tone bursts. In addition, previous research has generally investigated the localization of sounds in the frontal hemicircle while ignoring rear sources. However, their localization is evolutionary relevant and may show different neural coding, given the inherent lack of visual information. Here we present a pilot electroencephalography (EEG) study to identify robust indices of sound localization from participants listening to a short natural sound from eight source positions on the horizontal plane. We discuss a procedure to perform a within-subject classification of the perceived sound direction. Preliminary results suggest a pool of discriminative subject-specific temporal and topographical features correlated with the characteristics of the acoustic event. Our preliminary analysis has identified temporal and topographical features that are sensitive to spatial localization, leading to significant decoding of sounds direction for individual subjects. This pilot study adds to the literature a methodological approach that will lead to the objective classification of natural sounds location from EEG responses

Infarto agudo do miocárdio na cardiomiopatia chagásica crônica: relato de dois casos com coronárias sem lesões obstrutivas

This report describes two patients with chronic Chagas' Heart Disease who developed clinical and laboratorial signs of myocardial infarction. Both patients presented sudden oppressive chest pain, without precipitating factor. In the first case, the highest MB-CK value was 65 IU, 22 hours after the beginning of the pain. On the second case, it was 77 IU at 18 hours after the beginning of the pain. In both cases ECG changes suggesting non-transmural infarction were present. The 99mTc PYP myocardial scintigram of the first case was positive. Coronary angiograms performed on the 18th and 9th day, respectively, after the acute infarction did not display obstructive lesions. Possible mechanisms causing myocardial infarction with normal coronary arteries in Chagas' Disease may include: embolic event's, particularly when there is associated congestive heart failure; coronary thrombosis and coronary spasms.São relatados dois pacientes com doença de Chagas, forma cardíaca crônica, que desenvolveram Infarto Agudo do Miocárdio (IAM). Ambos, apresentaram dor precordial súbita em opressão, sem fatores precipitantes. No primeiro o pico de CKMB foi 65 U após 22 horas do início da dor e no segundo foi de 77U após 18 horas. O ECG em ambos evidenciou apenas alterações sugerindo IAM não transmural. A cintilografia miocárdica com 99mTc-PYP foi positiva no primeiro caso. ¹ coronariografia realizada respectivamente no 16.º e 9.° dia não evidenciou lesões obstrutivas. São discutidos os possíveis mecanismos de IAM com coronárias sem lesões obstrutivas na doença de Chagas tais como: eventos embolíticos, trombóticos e espásticos

Modeling the electronic transport in FinFET-like lateral Ge-on-Si pin waveguide photodetectors for ultra-wide bandwidth applications

We determined the velocities of photogenerated electrons and holes in FinFET-like lateral Ge-on-Si waveguide photodetectors with Monte Carlo transport simulation. The calculated carrier velocities were used in a 3D multiphysics model focused on the investigation of the electro-optic frequency response. The good match between the bandwidths predicted by the model and the corresponding experimental values available from the literature, larger than 200 GHz, indicates the importance of moving beyond conventional drift-diffusion models for a realistic description of next-generation high-speed integrated photodetectors

Urografia-TC multidetettore: ruolo diagnostico nella valutazione del paziente con ematuria non traumatica

L’ematuria può originare da qualsiasi tratto dell’apparato urinario e può essere anche unico segno di patologia neoplastica (cancro del rene o della vescica). La letteratura raccomanda pertanto di sottoporre ad attenta valutazione clinico-strumentale tutti i casi di ematuria, macroscopica e microscopica. Lo scopo del presente contributo è quello di definire il ruolo diagnostico dell’urografia-TC multidetettore (uTC-MD) nella valutazione di questo sintomo e analizzarne l’impatto nel management del paziente attraverso lo studio di 181 pazienti consecutivi valutati per macro- e microematuria nel periodo compreso tra gennaio 2003 e marzo 2006

Simplex algorithm for band structure calculation of noncubic symmetry semiconductors: Application to III-nitride binaries and alloys

A set of software tools for the determination of the band structure of zinc-blende, wurtzite, 4H, and 6H semiconductors is presented. A state of the art implementation of the nonlocal empirical pseudopotential method has been coupled with a robust simplex algorithm for the optimization of the adjustable parameters of the model potentials. This computational core has been integrated with an array of Matlab functions, providing interactive functionalities for defining the initial guess of the atomic pseudopotentials, checking the convergence of the optimization process, plotting the resulting band structure, and computing detailed information about any local minimum. The results obtained for wurtzite-phase III-nitrides (ALN, GaN, InN) are presented as a relevant case study