Immunophenotype of Atypical Polypoid Adenomyoma of the Uterus: Diagnostic Value and Insight on Pathogenesis

Atypical polypoid adenomyoma (APA) is a rare uterine lesion constituted by atypical endometrioid glands, squamous morules, and myofibromatous stroma. We aimed to assess the immunophenotype of the 3 components of APA, with regard to its pathogenesis and its differential diagnosis. A systematic review was performed by searching electronic databases from their inception to January 2019 for immunohistochemical studies of APA. Thirteen studies with 145 APA cases were included. APA glands appeared analogous to atypical endometrial hyperplasia (endometrioid cytokeratins pattern, Ki67≤50%, common PTEN loss, and occasional mismatch repair deficiency); the prominent expression of hormone receptors and nuclear β-catenin suggest that APA may be a precursor of "copy number-low," CTNNB1-mutant endometrial cancers. Morules appeared as a peculiar type of hyperdifferentiation (low KI67, nuclear β-catenin+, CD10+, CDX2+, SATB2+, p63-, and p40-), analogous to morular metaplasia in other lesions and distinguishable immunohistochemically from both conventional squamous metaplasia and solid cancer growth. Stroma immunphenotype (low Ki67, α-smooth-muscle-actin+, h-caldesmon-, CD10-, or weak and patchy) suggested a derivation from a metaplasia of normal endometrial stroma. It was similar to that of nonatypical adenomyoma, and different from adenosarcoma (Ki67 increase and CD10+ in periglandular stroma) and myoinvasive endometrioid carcinoma (h-caldesmon+ in myometrium and periglandular fringe-like CD10 pattern)

Asymmetric Elastoplastic Behavior and Failure of GEM Foils

The nonlinear isotropic power hardening and the cohesive zone material (CZM) [1] criteria are applied in ANSYS [2] finite element simulations to analyze very large deformations of the GEM foils up to the failure in uniaxial tensile tests. Some data available in literature concerning both the PI/Cu and the grain boundary interfaces are utilized. The computed progressive plasticization of the perforated thin multilayer agree very well with the experimental results published by some researchers [3–6]. However the present work provides a different explanation of that behavior (already suggested in an earlier note of the author [7]) and it should be considered as a critical review concerning the conclusions of the aforementioned works

Feasibility of Stresses Release Monitoring of GEM Foils

A brief note concerning the evaluation of the strains to be measured on a typical GEM foil in order to monitor the possible release of stresses during long time operation in a severe environment

Asymmetric Elastoplastic Behavior and Failure of GEM Foils

The nonlinear isotropic power hardening and the cohesive zone material (CZM) [1] criteria are applied in ANSYS [2] finite element simulations to analyze very large deformations of the GEM foils up to the failure in uniaxial tensile tests. Some data available in literature concerning both the PI/Cu and the grain boundary interfaces are utilized. The computed progressive plasticization of the perforated thin multilayer agree very well with the experimental results published by some researchers [3–6]. However the present work provides a different explanation of that behavior (already suggested in an earlier note of the author [7]) and it should be considered as a critical review concerning the conclusions of the aforementioned works

A Digital Storytelling Laboratory to Foster Second Language Acquisition in Higher Education: Students’ Perspectives and Reflections

Today’s technology-suffused society is inevitably changing and transforming the learning process as the role of technology in our lives is progressively increasing, thus making 21st Century teachers and educators face the challenge of both learning and understanding how to best integrate technology into the classroom and equipping students with the skills necessary to live and work in our digitized world. These skills, described by the Framework for 21st Century Learning are especially critical thinking, learning motivation, information literacy, media literacy, and language competence, considered as key competences for lifelong learning. In particular, as “The Council Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages" has recently stated, nowadays the lack of language competences represents a barrier in increasing productivity and collaboration across borders. As a consequence, to attain contemporary educational objectives, second language pedagogy needs to be integrated by the use of today’s digital tools that should not be considered as replacement of the traditional teaching method but as powerful, active support in fostering Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Specifically, Digital Storytelling (DST) is progressively emerging as an innovative instructional tool to enhance SLA together with students’ motivation, collaboration, reflection, and academic achievement. In fact, by combining traditional storytelling with digital multimedia, DST perfectly embodies the constructionist idea of learning by making, thus making students active participants in their learning process instead of passive agents as in face-to-face learning. Although various researches describe the use of DST in primary and secondary language education, to the best of our knowledge, very few studies have been conducted on the use of Digital Storytelling in Higher Education, especially in Italy where DST is a major innovation. As a consequence, a Digital Storytelling Laboratory has been enacted at “L’Orientale” University of Naples starting March 2019. It was addressed to 24 Bachelor’s students in the second year of their course in English Language and Linguistics. Firstly the students have been introduced in the field − almost completely new to them − and then involved in a Digital Storytelling Process that required the assimilation and completion of goal-oriented tasks, finally resulting in the production of a series of Digital Stories. This paper aims at exploring the impact of DST on academic development, learning motivation and collaboration of University students learning English as a second language. To that end, quantitative data were collected describing students’ perspectives and reflections about the effectiveness of DST in learning

Maintenance and manipulation of object sequences in working memory: a lifespan study

Many studied reported that working memory components receive remarkable changes during lifespan. In order to better investigate this, we evaluated working memory components on human subjects belonging to five groups (10 subjects each) at different ages 6, 8 and 10 years old, young adult (age) and old adult (age). Our pattern of results shows a major transition in object sequence manipulation performance between ages 8 and 10 years. If related to young adults results, both 10-year-old children and old adults differed in accuracy and RT in both maintenance and manipulation conditions. In particular, young adults and old adults differ in RTs in the manipulation condition. Our results also suggest that a change in response strategy from 6 to 8 years of age, to prioritize accuracy may be present. Our findings appear consistent with recent neuroscientific findings, and lead to novel predictions

Tuning the potential drop at graphene/protic ionic liquid interface by molecular structure engineering

Ionic liquids (ILs) have been extensively employed in many applications involving interfaces with carbon-based electrodes, such as energy storage devices (batteries or supercapacitors) or electrocatalytic devices, where the way each ion of the IL interacts with the electrode has a strong impact on the overall performance of the device. For instance, the amount of potential difference between the electrode and the bulk of the IL is highly sensitive to the IL composition and it is directly related to the device capacitance. The selection of the most suited pair of ions often proceeds by time-consuming and costly trial-and-error approaches. It is necessary to understand the atomistic features of the interface to determine the effect of each ion on the potential drop. By classical molecular dynamics simulations, we show that it is possible to quickly infer the interface potential arising at the carbon electrode by carefully inspecting the molecular structure of the IL. The ion orientation at the interface is, in fact, determined by the distribution of charges within the molecules. Depending on where charges are located, ions can either lie flat or perpendicular to the interface to minimize the surface energy. The interface potential is found to be mainly determined by ion-ion interactions dictating the interface energy minimization process, whereas ion-electrode interactions are found to enforce higher ordering and charge layers stacking but not to induce selective adsorption of an ion over the other

Effects of progestogens in women with preterm premature rupture of membranes

Different strategies have been adopted for prevention of spontaneous preterm birth, including use of progestogens. So far, five randomized trials have been published evaluating the efficacy of progestogens in women with PPROM, including a total of 425 participants. All the five trials enrolled pregnant women with singleton pregnancies randomized between 20 and 34 weeks of gestation. In four trials women were randomized to either weekly intramuscular 250 mg 17α-hydroxyprogesterone-caproate or placebo, while Mirzaei et al. was a three arms trials in which women received weekly intramuscular 250 mg 17α-hydroxyprogesterone-caproate, or rectal progesterone 400 mg daily, or no treatment. In all the trials, latency antibiotics were used, and tocolysis was used permitted for first 48 hours at discretion of attending physician. Recently a meta-analysis including the five trials has been published. They found that when compared to placebo weekly intramuscular 250 mg 17α-hydroxyprogesterone-caproate did not alter the latency period to delivery in singleton gestations with PPROM. Additionally, there was no difference in gestational age at delivery between groups or in mode of delivery. No significant differences were reported in maternal or neonatal outcomes, with latency not significantly altered in sensitivity analyses. So far, no trials have been published evaluating natural vaginal progesterone in women with PPROM

Molecular dynamics study of the pore formation in single layer graphene oxide by a thermal reduction process

The shape/dimension of the oxidized clusters and the process temperature were found to be the main factors affecting pore formation in GO membranes produced with a thermal reduction process

Prediction of the structural and electronic properties of MoxTi1−xS2 monolayers via first principle simulations

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides have gained great attention because of their peculiar physical properties that make them interesting for a wide range of applications. Lately, alloying between different transition metal dichalcogenides has been proposed as an approach to control two-dimensional phase stability and to obtain compounds with tailored characteristics. In this theoretical study, we predict the phase diagram and the electronic properties of MoxTi1−xS2 at varying stoichiometry and show how the material is metallic, when titanium is the predominant species, while it behaves as a p-doped semiconductor, when approaching pure MoS2 composition. Correspondingly, the thermodynamically most stable phase switches from the tetragonal to the hexagonal one. Further, we present an example which shows how the proposed alloys can be used to obtain new vertical two-dimensional heterostructures achieving effective electron/hole separation