Depressive disorders are heterogeneous diseases, and the complexity of symptoms has led to the formulation of several aethiopathological hypotheses. This heterogeneity may account for the following ...open issues about antidepressant therapy: (i) antidepressants show a time lag between pharmacological effects, within hours from acute drug administration, and therapeutic effects, within two-four weeks of subchronic treatment; (ii) this latency interval is critical for the patient because of the possible further mood worsening that may result in suicide attempts for the seemingly ineffective therapy and for the apparent adverse effects; (iii) and only 60–70 % of treated patients successfully respond to therapy. In this review, the complexity of the biological theories that try to explain the molecular mechanisms of these diseases is considered, encompassing (i) the classic “monoaminergic hypothesis” alongside the updated hypothesis according to which long-term therapeutical action of antidepressants is mediated by intracellular signal transduction pathways and (ii) the hypothalamic–pituitary-adrenal axis involvement. Although these models have guided research efforts in the field for decades, they have not generated a compelling and conclusive model either for depression pathophysiology or for antidepressant drugs’ action. So, other emerging theories are discussed: (iii) the alterations of neuroplasticity and neurotrophins in selective vulnerable cerebral areas; (iv) the involvement of inflammatory processes; (v) and the alterations in mitochondrial function and neuronal bioenergetics. The focus is put on the molecular and theoretical links between all these hypotheses, which are not mutually exclusive but otherwise tightly correlated, giving an integrated and comprehensive overview of the neurobiology of depressive disorders.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Stroke is the third cause of death worldwide and the main cause of chronic, severe adult disability. We focus on acute ischaemic stroke, which accounts for approximately 80% of all strokes. The ...current therapy aims at restoring cerebral blood flow within a narrow time window in order to prevent damaging the "penumbra" which surrounds the infarct core. Intravenous thrombolysis remains the fundamental treatment worldwide, though not ideal for various restrictions and complications, limiting to 10% or less the percentage of patients treated within the appropriate time window. Neuroprotection is an alternative or adjunct approach to thrombolysis, targeting cerebral parenchyma in the acute ischaemic phase. Furthermore, neurorepair attempts to restore neuronal function in the after-stroke phase in those patients (treated or untreated) with significant impairment. In the past decades, the efficacy and safety of numerous candidate neuroprotective agents were shown in various animal stroke models. However, in clinical trials, promising pre-clinical studies have not been translated into positive outcomes. Our review will analyse the possible reasons for this failure and the new approaches and recommendations to overcome it, as well as novel strategies targeting additional events in ischaemia cascade. The combination of thrombolysis with pharmacological and non-pharmacological neuroprotective approaches has also been tested. Finally, the neurorepair strategy will be described with special emphasis on the role of cell-based therapies and ischaemic conditioning. Hopefully, the future therapy of ischaemic stroke will encompass a combination of neuroprotection (to stabilise penumbra), thrombolysis, antithrombotics (for secondary prevention) and neurorepair based on cell therapy plus rehabilitation.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Research into fault diagnosis in machines with a wide range of variable loads and speeds, such as wind turbines, is of great industrial interest. Analysis of the power signals emitted by wind ...turbines for the diagnosis of mechanical faults in their mechanical transmission chain is insufficient. A successful diagnosis requires the inclusion of accelerometers to evaluate vibrations. This work presents a multi-sensory system for fault diagnosis in wind turbines, combined with a data-mining solution for the classification of the operational state of the turbine. The selected sensors are accelerometers, in which vibration signals are processed using angular resampling techniques and electrical, torque and speed measurements. Support vector machines (SVMs) are selected for the classification task, including two traditional and two promising new kernels. This multi-sensory system has been validated on a test-bed that simulates the real conditions of wind turbines with two fault typologies: misalignment and imbalance. Comparison of SVM performance with the results of artificial neural networks (ANNs) shows that linear kernel SVM outperforms other kernels and ANNs in terms of accuracy, training and tuning times. The suitability and superior performance of linear SVM is also experimentally analyzed, to conclude that this data acquisition technique generates linearly separable datasets.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The current pandemic caused by COVID-19 is the biggest challenge for national health systems for a century. While most medical resources are allocated to treat COVID-19 patients, several non-COVID-19 ...medical emergencies still need to be treated, including vertebral fractures and spinal cord compression. The aim of this paper is to report the early experience and an organizational protocol for emergency spinal surgery currently being used in a large metropolitan area by an integrated team of orthopaedic surgeons and neurosurgeons.
An organizational model is presented based on case centralization in hub hospitals and early management of surgical cases to reduce hospital stay. Data from all the patients admitted for emergency spinal surgery from the beginning of the outbreak were prospectively collected and compared to data from patients admitted for the same reason in the same time span in the previous year, and treated by the same integrated team.
A total of 19 patients (11 males and eight females, with a mean age of 49.9 years (14 to 83)) were admitted either for vertebral fracture or spinal cord compression in a 19-day period, compared to the ten admitted in the previous year. No COVID-19 patients were treated. The mean time between admission and surgery was 1.7 days, significantly lower than 6.8 days the previous year (p < 0.001).
The structural organization and the management protocol we describe allowed us to reduce the time to surgery and ultimately hospital stay, thereby maximizing the already stretched medical resources available. We hope that our early experience can be of value to the medical communities that will soon be in the same emergency situation. Cite this article:
2020;102-B(6):671-676.
One of the most intriguing aspects of quantum mechanics is the impossibility of measuring at the same time observables corresponding to noncommuting operators, because of quantum uncertainty. This ...impossibility can be partially relaxed when considering joint or sequential weak value evaluation. Indeed, weak value measurements have been a real breakthrough in the quantum measurement framework that is of the utmost interest from both a fundamental and an applicative point of view. In this Letter, we show how we realized for the first time a sequential weak value evaluation of two incompatible observables using a genuine single-photon experiment. These (sometimes anomalous) sequential weak values revealed the single-operator weak values, as well as the local correlation between them.
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CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
Data from the literature suggest that the rebound of a drop from a surface can be achieved when the wettability is low, i.e., when contact angles, measured at the triple line (solid–liquid–air), are ...high. However, no clear criterion exists to predict when a drop will rebound from a surface and which is the key wetting parameter to govern drop rebound (e.g., the “equilibrium” contact angle, θeq, the advancing and the receding contact angles, θA and θR, respectively, the contact angle hysteresis, Δθ, or any combination of these parameters). To clarify the conditions for drop rebound, we conducted experimental tests on different dry solid surfaces with variable wettability, from hydrophobic to superhydrophobic surfaces, with advancing contact angles 108° < θA < 169° and receding contact angles 89° < θR < 161°. It was found that the receding contact angle is the key wetting parameter that influences drop rebound, along with surface hydrophobicity: for the investigated impact conditions (drop diameter 2.4 < D 0 < 2.6 mm, impact speed 0.8 < V < 4.1 m/s, Weber number 25 < We < 585), rebound was observed only on surfaces with receding contact angles higher than 100°. Also, the drop rebound time decreased by increasing the receding contact angle. It was also shown that in general care must be taken when using statically defined wetting parameters (such as advancing and receding contact angles) to predict the dynamic behavior of a liquid on a solid surface because the dynamics of the phenomenon may affect surface wetting close to the impact point (e.g., as a result of the transition from the Cassie–Baxter to Wenzel state in the case of the so-called superhydrophobic surfaces) and thus affect the drop rebound.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Veno-occlusive disease (VOD), also called sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS), is a potentially life-threatening complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) conditioning or ...high-dose nontransplant chemotherapy. VOD/SOS with multi-organ dysfunction (MOD) is associated with a mortality rate of > 80%. Defibrotide (25 mg/kg/day) is approved to treat hepatic VOD/SOS with renal or pulmonary dysfunction post HSCT in the United States and to treat severe hepatic VOD/SOS in patients > 1 month of age in the European Union. A random effects model was used for pooling data from 17 systematically chosen defibrotide studies. For patients in these reports (n = 2598), and those in the subset of 10 reports of patients treated with ~ 25 mg/kg/day (n = 1691), estimated Day + 100 survival rates were 54% and 56%, respectively. Among those patients treated with ~ 25 mg/kg/day, estimated Day + 100 survival was 44% among patients with MOD and 71% in patients without MOD; survival was 41% and 70%, respectively, for the population of patients receiving any dose of defibrotide. Safety results were not pooled owing to differences in reporting methodology but were generally consistent with the known tolerability profile of defibrotide. This analysis provides the largest assessment of survival in patients treated with defibrotide for VOD/SOS with or without MOD.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Weak value measurements have recently given rise to a great amount of interest in both the possibility of measurement amplification and the chance for further quantum mechanics foundations ...investigation. In particular, a question emerged about weak values being proof of the incompatibility between quantum mechanics and noncontextual hidden variables theories (NCHVTs). A test to provide a conclusive answer to this question was given by Pusey Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 200401 (2014), where a theorem was derived showing the NCHVT incompatibility with the observation of anomalous weak values under specific conditions. In this Letter we realize this proposal, clearly pointing out the connection between weak values and the contextual nature of quantum mechanics.
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CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
This paper presents an experimental study on water drop oblique impacts onto hydrophobic and superhydrophobic tilted surfaces, with the objective of understanding drop impact dynamics and the ...conditions for drop rebound on low wetting surfaces. Drop impact experiments were performed with millimetric water drops with Weber numbers in the range 25 <
We
< 585, using different surfaces with advancing contact angles 111° <
θ
A
< 160° and receding contact angles 104° <
θ
R
< 155°. The analysis of oblique impacts onto tilted surfaces led to the definition of six different impact regimes: deposition, rivulet, sliding, rolling, partial rebound, and rebound. For superhydrophobic surfaces, surface tilting generally enhanced drop rebound and shedding from the surface, either by reducing drop rebound time up to 40 % or by allowing drop rebound even when impalement occurred in the vicinity of the impact region. On hydrophobic surfaces, rebound was never observed for tilt angles higher than 45°.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders with overactivity, inattention, and impulsivity as core characteristics. Recent studies suggest ...that 20 % of children with ADHD also develop eating disorders (EDs), including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. However, little is still known about the association between ADHD and EDs through childhood and adolescence. Therefore, in the present work, we aimed at summarizing the studies investigating ADHD and EDs in childhood and adolescence over the last 10 years.
A bibliographic search on PubMed was performed and only studies that considered participants with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD, patients with an additional diagnosis of EDs and patients under 18 years old were included. A total of 7 studies were retrieved and included in the review.
The majority of the reviewed studies (N = 5) found an association between ADHD and EDs, while the remaining, which focused on EDs symptomatology, reported either lower ED symptoms in ADHD sample or no association between ADHD and EDs.
the majority of studies were cross-sectional and therefore did not allow to explore the longitudinal casual relation between ADHD and EDs in the developmental age range considered.
This review suggests that children and adolescents with ADHD should be monitored for EDs. However, more work is still needed to better understand the clinical implications of the comorbidity between ADHD and EDs and its prospective impact on the life of children and adolescents with ADHD.
•This is an updated review investigating ADHD and EDs in childhood and adolescence over the last 10 years.;•Most of the studies found a link between ADHD and EDs in children and adolescents;•The most frequently comorbid ED in ADHD was the binge eating disorder followed by bulimia nervosa.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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