Summary
Chronic lymphoedema is a disease caused by a congenital or acquired damage to the lymphatic system and characterized by complex chains of pathophysiologic events such as lymphatic fluid ...stasis, chronic inflammation, lymphatic vessels impairment, adipose tissue deposition and fibrosis. These events seem to maintain and reinforce themselves through a positive feedback loop: regardless of the initial cause of lymphatic stasis, the dysfunctional adipose tissue and its secretion products can worsen lymphatic vessels' function, aggravating lymph leakage and stagnation, which can promote further adipose tissue deposition and fibrosis, similar to what may happen in obesity. In addition to the current knowledge about the tight and ancestral interrelation between immunity system and metabolism, there is evidence for similarities between obesity‐related and lymphatic damage‐induced lymphoedema. Together, these observations indicate strong reciprocal relationship between lymphatics and adipose tissue and suggest a possible key role of the adipocyte in the pathophysiology of chronic lymphoedema's vicious circle.
Summary
In this paper, we present a design approach based on a reassessment of design priorities to obtain robust circuits with respect to process variability. We show that if we address variability ...as one of the main issues in circuit design, and make it inform our very first design choices, we are able to significantly reduce dispersion of circuit characteristics without degrading of the other performance figures. We apply this variability‐aware approach to the design of a nanopower reference voltage generator in 0.18‐μm CMOS technology. The result is a BJT‐based topology, which provides a reference voltage of about 241 mV from a 1 V supply voltage. Measurements on 20 samples from a single batch show that the reference voltage exhibits a relative standard deviation of 0.18%, while consuming only 68.3 nW. This is comparable with the performance of references that are either trimmed or consume much more power. This reduced process sensitivity comes at the cost of a significant increase of die area (0.28 mm2).
The paper presents a nanopower process‐stable voltage reference, based on a current summing approach. The circuit exhibits an unprecedented stability of the reference voltage (241 mV) with respect to process variations (σ/μ = 0.18%) associated with an extreme low power consumption (68 nW). After an in‐depth discussion of the strategies used to minimize the effect of process variations to the output voltage, extensive corroborating experimental data are presented, which includes measurements obtained from 3 batches of 20 samples.
V terciarnih apnencih zgornjega dela doline Glinščice je jamski sistem Savi - Fessura del Vento, v ozemlju, kjer je intenzivna tektonika povzročila vrsto narivov, pomešanih s prelomi. V dolini ...Glinščice in v tamkajšnjih jamah je nekaj ključnih dejstev v dokaz, da je najmlajša tektonika vplivala tako na površinsko (neenakomernost pobočij, skoki in spremembe smeri teka Glinščice) kot na podzemeljsko morfologijo (premaknjene korozijske oblike, podori in druge morfološke oblike). The system Savi - Fessura del Vento caves occurs in the Rosandra Valley Tertiary limestones in an area where intense tectonic influences have caused a series of overthrusts mixed with faults. In Rosandra Valley’s area and in its caves there are some clues reporting recent tectonics which have conditioned both, epigean (slope irregularities, falls and variations of directions along the course of Rosandra creek) and hypogean morphologies (displaced solution forms, breakdowns and other morphologies).
In this paper we present the design of a 0.18 μm CMOS current reference based on a variability-aware approach, in such a way to obtain a very low process sensitivity of the reference current. Its ...relative standard deviation is 1.4 % based on measurements performed over 23 samples from a single batch. The requirement of low process sensitivity is met together with the very low power consumption of 290 nW, at the cost of a large area occupation of 0.245 mm
2
. Key to obtain this result are the use of the “classical” bipolar bandgap topology, which can be optimized for low-power/low-spread operation so as to outperform MOS-based bandgap circuits, and the use of devices that are intrinsically more stable towards process, such as diffusion resistors.
In a mature karstic system, the realisation of galleries using the methodology of railway tunnel boring machine (TBM) involves particular problems due to the high risk of interference with ...groundwater (often subject to remarkable level variations) and with cavities and/or thick fill deposits. In order to define groundwater features it is necessary to investigate both hydrodynamic and karstification. To define and quantify the karst phenomenon in the epikarst of the Trieste Karst (Italy), an applied geomorphological approach has been experimented with surface and cavity surveys. The surface surveys have contributed to determining the potential karst versus the different outcropping lithologies and to define the structural setting of the rocky mass also through the realisation of geostructural stations and the survey of the main lines thanks to photo-interpretation. Moreover, all the dolines and the cavities present in the area interested by the gallery have been studied by analysing the probable extension of caves and/or of the secondary fill deposits and by evaluating the different genetic models. In an area 900m large and 27km long, which has been studied because of the underground karst, there are 41 dolines having diameters superior to 100m and 93 dolines whose diameters range between 100 and 50m; the dolines whose diameters are inferior to 50m are 282. The entrances of known and registered cavities in the cadastre records are 520. The hypogeal surveys have shown 5 typologies in which it has been possible to group all the cavities present in a hypothetical intersection with the excavation. The comparison between surface and hypogeal structural data and the direction of development of cavities has allowed for the definition of highly karstified discontinuity families, thus having a higher risk. The comparison of the collected data has enabled to identify the lithologies and areas having major risk and thus to quantify the probability of intersection with the different cavity typologies for each area. To make an example, out of 27000m of studied gallery 3930 are the metres expected to be at very high "karst risk". Out of these, as a whole 310 are risky because of the probable presence of gallery cavities, 2170 because of the probable presence of pits and sinkholes diffusely present under the dolines, and along 1450m karst is particularly intense. Moreover, 2200 should be the metres in which the rocky mass will be particularly divided because of tectonic causes. From a hydrogeological point of view a monitoring of water level has started to quantify water excursion, due to closeness of the railway tunnel to the mean water level. First results related to galleries intersection are here presented.
A comparison among lowering rates collected in the limestones of the northeastern Adriatic Region (Italy and Croatia) gives a picture of the erosion patterns in the inland and coastal Classical Karst ...and Istrian Karst. Erosion rates were measured using either a micro-erosion meter or a traversing micro-erosion meter. Beginning from a large dataset spread over a maximum of 26 years, significant differences in limestone lowering rates have been recognized in the surveyed area: the mean lowering rate for the inland Classical Karst area is 0.018 mm/yr whereas in the inland Istrian Karst it is 0.009 mm/yr. In the coastal sectors, the mean erosion rate varies between 0.14 mm/yr in the Gulf of Trieste and 0.04 mm/yr in the sites located along the Istrian shoreline. These differences are probably due to the climatic setting of the Classical Karst area (Mediterranean Continental to Sub-alpine climate) and Istrian Peninsula (Mediterranean climate). Moreover, along the coasts of the Gulf of Trieste there are many submarine springs which are absent along the Istrian coast. It is hypothesized that these underwater springs stress the effect of rainfall along the coast, which is both direct (rain on the measurement site) and mainly indirect (freshwater outflow from submarine springs). Higher lowering rates were surveyed during autumn; rainfall, therefore also freshwater outflow from submarine springs, is particularly high at the end of the summer and in autumn.
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