Consumers’ demand for portable audio/video/ICT products has driven the development of advanced power technologies in recent years. Fuel cells are a clean technology with low emissions levels, ...suitable for operation with renewable fuels and capable, in a next future, of replacing conventional power systems meeting the targets of the Kyoto Protocol for a society based on sustainable energy systems. Within such a perspective, the objective of the European project MOREPOWER (compact direct methanol fuel cells for portable applications) is the development of a low-cost, low temperature, portable direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC; nominal power 250
W) with compact construction and modular design for the potential market area of weather stations, medical devices, signal units, gas sensors and security cameras. This investigation is focused on a conceptual study of the DMFC system carried out in the Matlab/Simulink
® platform: the proposed scheme arrangements lead to a simple equipment architecture and a efficient process.
The pathogenesis and clinical features of gastro-oesophageal reflux related cough are complex and the diagnostic tests available are of limited reliability. Treatment needs to be tailored to the ...specific needs of individual patients and other possible causes of chronic cough should be investigated. Treatment should only be considered to have failed when cough persists after administration of proton pump inhibitors at an adequate dosage for a sufficient length of time.
The RESTORE study, a multi-national randomized, placebo-controlled study, showed that erdosteine - a muco-active antioxidant that modulates bacterial adhesiveness - reduced the rate and duration of ...exacerbations in moderate and severe COPD with a history of exacerbations. How much benefit patients with less severe disease experience when taking this drug remains unclear.
This post hoc analysis of the 254 RESTORE participants with spirometrically-defined moderate COPD (post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second FEV
50‒79% predicted) examined exacerbation rate and duration, time to first exacerbation, and exacerbation-free time. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and comparisons between treatment groups used Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, Mann-Whitney
-tests, or log rank tests.
Patients with moderate COPD received erdosteine 300 mg twice daily (n=126) or placebo (n=128) added to usual COPD therapy for 12 months. During this time, there were 53 exacerbations in the erdosteine group and 74 in the placebo group, with 42.1% and 57.8% of patients, respectively, experiencing an exacerbation. There was a 47% reduction in the mean exacerbation rate with erdosteine compared to placebo (0.27 vs 0.51 exacerbations per-patient per-year, respectively,
=0.003), and a 58.3% reduction in the mild exacerbation rate (0.23 vs 0.53 mild exacerbations per-patient per-year,
=0.001). Mean duration of exacerbations was 26% shorter in erdosteine-treated patients (9.1 vs 12.3 days for placebo,
=0.022), with significant reductions in the duration of mild and moderate-to-severe exacerbations. Mean time to first exacerbation was prolonged by 7.7% (182 days for erdosteine vs 169 days for placebo,
<0.001) and the mean exacerbation-free time was increased by 51 days (279 days for erdosteine vs 228 days for placebo;
<0.001).
These results indicate that adding erdosteine to usual COPD maintenance therapy reduces the number of mild, and duration of all, exacerbations in patients with moderate COPD and a history of exacerbations.
Diabet. Med. 29, 385–392 (2012)
Aims To describe trends in diagnosed diabetes prevalence, incidence and mortality from 2000 to 2007 in the most heavily populated Italian region.
Methods We examined ...the prevalence and incidence rates of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and yearly mortality rates among individuals with diabetes from 2000 to 2007 using an administrative health database of prescription, disease‐specific exemption and hospitalization records of more than 9 million inhabitants of Lombardy. Age‐ and sex‐specific rates were calculated and temporal trends for subjects aged ≥ 30 years were analysed.
Results The crude point diabetes prevalence rose from 3.0% in 2000 to 4.2% in 2007, a 40% increase. The incidence remained stable during the study period with a rate of 4/1000 per year. Overall mortality declined from 43.2/1000 in 2001 to 40.3/1000 in 2007 (6.7% decrease) at a rate slightly higher than that of the general population (4.8% decrease). Our projection in subjects aged ≥ 30 years indicates that the prevalence will rise continuously over the next years, reaching 11.1% in 2030.
Conclusions The prevalence of diabetes increased substantially between 2000 and 2007, mainly because there are more patients with a new diagnosis each year than those who die. The increase observed by 2007 almost reached the World Health Organization prediction for 2030. Our analyses suggest that the increase will continue over the next few decades. These data are important for defining the burden of diabetes in the near future, to help in planning health services and ensure proper allocation of resources.
Timely treatment is essential in acute ischemic stroke as the chances of recovery diminish over time, so efforts are necessary to streamline in-hospital pathways and reduce delays. Here, we analyse ...the interventions to reduce door-to-needle time in stroke patients suitable for intravenous thrombolysis at the Emergency Department of San Carlo Borromeo Hospital, Milan, Italy. All stroke patients consecutively treated with intravenous thrombolysis at our centre from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2015 were included in this analysis. The main interventions adopted were (1) continuous education of personnel, (2) reconsideration of blood tests and identify the ones really affecting treatment decision, (3) approval of a new high-urgency Stroke Code activated as soon as the triage nurse comes to know of a potential thrombolysis candidate. Median door-to-needle time progressively decreased from 103 min (iqr 78–120) in 2013, to 92 min (iqr 72–112) in 2014, and to 37 min (iqr 27–58) with the new Stroke Code (
p <
0.001) in 2015. Simultaneously, median onset-to-treatment time decreased from 177 min (iqr 142–188) in 2013, to 155 min (iqr 141–198) in 2014, and to 114 min (iqr 86–160) with the new Stroke Code (
p <
0.001 and
p
0.005, respectively). We did not observe any significant difference in bleeding risks or deaths, whereas the likelihood of favourable outcome (mRS 0–2) increased. Streamlining in-hospital pathways with progressive interventions significantly decreases door-to-needle time and onset-to-treatment time and may contribute to improve stroke outcomes.
Abstract In this contribution we describe the implementation of a novel solution for image guided particle therapy, designed to ensure the maximal accuracy in patient setup. The presented system is ...installed in the central treatment room at Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (CNAO, Italy), featuring two fixed beam lines (horizontal and vertical) for proton and carbon ion therapy. Treatment geometry verification is based on robotic in-room imaging acquisitions, allowing for 2D/3D registration from double planar kV-images or 3D/3D alignment from cone beam image reconstruction. The calculated six degrees-of-freedom correction vector is transferred to the robotic patient positioning system, thus yielding automated setup error compensation. Sub-millimetre scale residual errors were measured in absolute positioning of rigid phantoms, in agreement with optical- and laser-based assessment. Sub-millimetre and sub-degree positioning accuracy was achieved when simulating setup errors with anthropomorphic head, thorax and pelvis phantoms. The in-house design and development allowed a high level of system customization, capable of replicating the clinical performance of commercially available products, as reported with preliminary clinical results in 10 patients.
Objective: To evaluate over a 7-year follow-up period the relationships between changes in body composition, fat distribution and pulmonary function in a sample of elderly men and women. Design: ...Longitudinal clinical study. Subjects: A total of 47 women and 30 men aged 71.62.3 and 71.72.2 years, respectively, at baseline with body mass index (BMI) values of 24.963.28 and 27.043.35 kg m-2 were followed for 7 years. Measurements: Body weight, waist circumference, sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD), fat-free mass (FFM) and fat mass as measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) by spirometry were evaluated at baseline and after a 7-year mean follow-up. Results: In women as in men there were no significant changes in weight, SAD and BMI. A significant decrease in height and FFM was observed in both women and men. Height-adjusted FEV1 and FVC decreased significantly in women and men over the 7-year follow-up. Changes in SAD were the most powerful predictors of 7-year follow-up of FEV1 and FVC after taking into account, respectively, baseline FEV1 and FVC. Linear regression analysis, performed by using 7-year follow-up lung function variables as dependent variables and changes in body composition variables as independent variables, showed that 1 cm SAD increase predicted a decrease in FEV1 and FVC of 31 and 46 ml, respectively, and 1 kg FFM decrease predicted a decrease in FVC of 38 ml. After subdividing our study population into four categories of change in FFM and SAD, patients with decreased FFM and increased SAD showed the highest probability of having a worsening in FEV1 and FVC. Conclusion: Increase in abdominal fat and FFM decline are significant predictors of lung function decline in the elderly. Old subjects developing both abdominal fat gain and FFM loss show the highest probability of developing worsening in lung function.
Silicon nanocrystals (Si‐nc) are reviewed here for their interesting optical applications. On the one hand, they do exhibit quantum confinement effects. This allows turning silicon into a ...light‐emitting material where luminescence can be excited by electrical injection. On the other hand, small sizes, large surfaces, and dielectric mismatch between the core and the surrounding matrix increase dramatically the nonlinear optical coefficients. This allows using Si‐nc as a nonlinear material in different waveguide configurations. In this paper, we discuss specifically two different applications of Si‐nc: (i) as a nonlinear material in various devices, e.g., in bistable optical cavities, in waveguide optical mode monitors that are based on two‐photon excited luminescence detection, and in wavelength shifters by using four‐wave mixing (FWM); (ii) as an entropy source for quantum random number generation, the key device for cryptography.
(a) Top view optical image of a Si‐nc‐based whispering‐gallery mode (WGM) microdisk resonator, vertically coupled with a bus waveguide. (b) Detail of the coupling zone. (c) Normalized waveguide transmission spectrum over a wide spectral range. The inset shows a blow up of a resonance with the radial and azimuthal mode orders and the Q factor value indicated.
Silicon nanocrystals widen the scope of silicon photonics by providing an active material where light emission and optical nonlinearities are enhanced. In this Feature Article, the authors describe several applications of silicon nanocrystals in integrated optical devices towards their use for frequency conversion, optical mode imaging, light emission and quantum random number generation.
•Non-dedicated line OPT requires challenging and time-demanding set-up preparation.•A simulator for patient-specific setup virtualization and optimization is proposed.•New approach validation is ...based on geometric data of 30 patients treated in CNAO.•Treatment requirements, both clinical and geometric are met.•Clinical impact in terms of time-demand and patient safety.
An Eye Tracking System (ETS) is used at CNAO for providing a stable and reproducible ocular proton therapy (OPT) set-up, featuring a fixation light (FL) and monitoring stereo-cameras embedded in a rigid case. The aim of this work is to propose an ETS set-up simulation algorithm, that automatically provides the FL positioning in space, according to patient-specific gaze direction and avoiding interferences with patient, beam and collimator.
Two configurations are provided: one in the CT room for acquiring images required for treatment planning with the patient lying on a couch, and one related to the treatment room with the patient sitting in front of the beam. Algorithm validation was performed reproducing ETS simulation (CT) and treatment (room) set-up for 30 patients previously treated at CNAO. The positioning accuracy of the device was quantified through a set of 14 control points applied to the ETS case and localizable both in the CT volume and in room X-ray images.
Differences between the position of ETS reference points estimated by the algorithm and those measured by imaging systems are reported. The corresponding gaze direction deviation is on average 0.2° polar and 0.3° azimuth for positioning in CT room and 0.1° polar and 0.4° azimuth in the treatment room.
The simulation algorithm was embedded in a clinically usable software application, which we assessed as capable of ensuring ETS positioning with an average accuracy of 2 mm in CT room and 1.5 mm in treatment room, corresponding to gaze direction deviations consistently lower than 1°.
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