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Polyhydrides are a novel class of superconducting materials with extremely high critical parameters, which is very promising for sensor applications. On the other hand, a complete experimental study of the best so far known superconductor, lanthanum superhydride LaH10, encounters a serious complication because of the large upper critical magnetic field Hc2(0), exceeding 120–160 T. It is found that partial replacement of La atoms by magnetic Nd atoms results in significant suppression of superconductivity in LaH10: each at% of Nd causes a decrease in Tc by 10–11 K, helping to control the critical parameters of this compound. Strong pulsed magnetic fields up to 68 T are used to study the Hall effect, magnetoresistance, and the magnetic phase diagram of ternary metal polyhydrides for the first time. Surprisingly, (La,Nd)H10 demonstrates completely linear Hc2(T) ∝ |T – Tc|, which calls into question the applicability of the Werthamer–Helfand–Hohenberg model for polyhydrides. The suppression of superconductivity in LaH10 by magnetic Nd atoms and the robustness of Tc with respect to nonmagnetic impurities (e.g., Y, Al, C) under Anderson’s theorem gives new experimental evidence of the isotropic (s-wave) character of conventional electron–phonon pairing in lanthanum decahydride.

The Authors report their experience with the use of GnRH analogue (Goserelin) in 35 women with abnormal uterine bleeding due to low-risk hyperplasia of the endometrium. A hysteroscopic and histopathological follow-up was performed at 2 months and 6 months after treatment. The results show a significantly effectiveness of Goserelin in treating dysfunctional uterine bleeding.

Many experimental and clinical findings indicate a disimmune pathogenesis of infertility associated with endometriosis. The most important modifications of cell-mediated immunity in endometriosis concern macrophage activity, increased both quantitatively and qualitatively. Peritoneal macrophages (PM) acquire the ability of producing lytic enzymes, that would be able to enhancing and stimulating implantation and proliferation of endometrial cells in peritoneal cavity. In these last years many experimental and clinical demonstrations have showed an immunosuppressive action of Danazol similar to corticosteroids. The Authors report their study on a comparison among Danazol 600 mg/daily for 3 months plus a local immunosuppressive treatment combined with superovulation and IPI, Danazol for 3 months plus superovulation and IPI and, as a control group, superovulation and IPI.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic and progressive inflammatory process beginning early in life with late clinical manifestation. This slow pathological trend underlines the importance to early identify high-risk patients and to treat intensively risk factors to prevent the onset and/or the progression of atherosclerotic lesions. In addition to the common Cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, new markers able to increase the risk of CV disease have been identified. Among them, high levels of Lipoprotein(a)—Lp(a)—lead to very high risk of future CV diseases; this relationship has been well demonstrated in epidemiological, mendelian randomization and genome-wide association studies as well as in meta-analyses. Recently, new aspects have been identified, such as its association with aortic stenosis. Although till recent years it has been considered an unmodifiable risk factor, specific drugs have been developed with a strong efficacy in reducing the circulating levels of Lp(a) and their capacity to reduce subsequent CV events is under testing in ongoing trials. In this paper we will review all these aspects: from the synthesis, clearance and measurement of Lp(a), through the findings that examine its association with CV diseases and aortic stenosis to the new therapeutic options that will be available in the next years.

The exact timing of puberty is fundamental in preclinical studies. In male rats, the age at sexual maturity varies considerably between 40 and 60 days of age. Here, we summarize pubertal onset evaluation of two outbred rat strains (Crl:CD(SD) and Crl:LE), relying on the balano-preputial separation test. Evaluation was carried out on animals under standard barrier conditions, from four to nine weeks of age. In the Crl:CD(SD) population, 90% of males gained puberty at week 6, and 100% in the following weeks, whereas 75% of Crl:LE reached puberty at week 6, 90% at week 7 and 100% from week 8. Remarkably, in both strains, puberty onset was gained at the average weight of 200 g, suggesting that weight range, not only age range, can be considered a biomarker of puberty onset in these two strains. On the contrary, descended testes cannot be considered an additional factor to identify full puberty onset either in Crl:CD(SD) or Crl:LE rats.

The Belle II experiment will operate at the SuperKEKB e+ e− collider, designed to reach a top luminosity of $8 \times 10^{35}$ at the $\Upsilon $ (4s) resonance. The high background environment of the accelerator poses serious challenges to the design of the detector. In particular, the Belle II collaboration is developing an ambitious upgrade program that involves the forward electromagnetic calorimeter. We will use pure CsI crystals, since they have less scintillation time but unfortunately much lower light yield. The electromagnetic calorimeter upgrade is subject to the same detector constraints as the first design; an intense research and development program on photon-detectors and front-end electronics has been initiated by the Italian collaboration. Our preliminary results show that a readout chain using avalanche photodiodes (APDs) to match the detector constraints and a dedicated front-end card for the readout meet the Belle II collaboration requirements. In this paper, we will show the experimental setup and detail the main characteristics of the read-out and power distribution system since the front-end card hosts both a low noise preamplifier and a power regulator to set the single APD bias voltage. The main HV module has been developed for this purpose to deliver a low noise power distribution to the front-end cards. All the relevant parameters of the front-end system can be set and monitored via Ethernet using the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System. Slow control and monitoring functions in Belle II are performed by a dedicated hardware. The platform has been designed as an uP-based service-oriented platform, capable to offer an integrated solution for all the needs of data acquisition, analysis, and network functions.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a relentless and fatal neurological disease characterized by the selective degeneration of motor neurons. No effective therapy is available for this disease. Several lines of evidence indicate that alteration of RNA metabolism, including microRNA (miRNA) processing, is a relevant pathogenetic factor and a possible therapeutic target for ALS. Here, we showed that the abundance of components in the miRNA processing machinery is altered in a SOD1-linked cellular model, suggesting consequent dysregulation of miRNA biogenesis. Indeed, high-throughput sequencing of the small RNA fraction showed that among the altered miRNAs, miR-129-5p was increased in different models of SOD1-linked ALS and in peripheral blood cells of sporadic ALS patients. We demonstrated that miR-129-5p upregulation causes the downregulation of one of its targets: the RNA-binding protein ELAVL4/HuD. ELAVL4/HuD is predominantly expressed in neurons, where it controls several key neuronal mRNAs. Overexpression of pre-miR-129-1 inhibited neurite outgrowth and differentiation via HuD silencing in vitro, while its inhibition with an antagomir rescued the phenotype. Remarkably, we showed that administration of an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) inhibitor of miR-129-5p to an ALS animal model, SOD1 (G93A) mice, result in a significant increase in survival and improved the neuromuscular phenotype in treated mice. These results identify miR-129-5p as a therapeutic target that is amenable to ASO modulation for the treatment of ALS patients.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of needle revision and examine factors predictive of failure. Methods: In total, 157 eyes of 131 patients that underwent needle revision augmented with either 5-fluorouracil or betamethasone for trabeculectomy failure were included in this retrospective study. Complete failure was defined as additional glaucoma surgery, ciliodestructive procedures, loss of light perception, sight-threatening complications, hypotony maculopathy, and surgical bleb revision. Success was defined as intraocular pressure ⩽ 18 (criterion A), ⩽15 (criterion B), and ⩽12 mmHg (criterion C) reached with (qualified) or without (complete) medications, and absence of any criteria of complete failure. Results: The median (interquartile range) follow-up was 25.0 (41.0) months. Complete failure rates were 19%, 26%, and 31% at 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively. For criterion A, qualified and complete success rates were, respectively, 77% and 69% at 1 year, 66% and 51% at 2 years, and 60% and 47% at 3 years. For criterion B, qualified and complete success rates were, respectively, 67% and 61% at 1 year, 48% and 42% at 2 years, and 44% and 39% at 3 years. For criterion C, qualified and complete success rates were, respectively, 43% and 41% at 1 year, 27% and 25% at 2 years, and 24% and 23% at 3 years. High baseline intraocular pressure and primary surgery were associated with higher and lower risks of complete failure, respectively. Conclusion: Needle revision is an effective and safe procedure to rescue failing trabeculectomy postponing or avoiding further glaucoma surgery. Eyes with low target intraocular pressure may have poor long-term outcomes.

Blood to skin recirculation could play a role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. To investigate this possibility we dissected the phenotype of circulating T cells in psoriasis patients, calculated the correlation the clinical parameters of the disease and performed a parallel bioinformatics analysis of gene expression data in psoriatic skin. We found that circulating CCR6+ CD4+ TEM and TEFF cells significantly correlated with systemic inflammation. Conversely, the percentage of CXCR3+ CD4+ TEM cells negatively correlated with the severity of the cutaneous disease. Importantly CLA+ CD4+ TCM cells expressing CCR6+ or CCR4+CXCR3+ negatively correlated with psoriasis severity suggesting recruitment to the skin compartment. This assumption was reinforced by gene expression data showing marked increase of CCR7 and CLA-encoding gene SELPLG expression in psoriatic skin and strong association of their expression. The data enlightens a role for CD4+ T cells trafficking between blood and skin in cutaneous and systemic manifestations of psoriasis.

In this work, we report on the development of a mathematical model for the propagation of scintillation photons from a given point of a continuous scintillating crystal to a detection surface, through an interposed light guide. The model was used to calculate the radial distribution of the scintillation photons, in order to speed up the design of the optical system. The proposed method allows to generate a random distribution of coordinates of the scintillation photons similar to that obtained with a Monte Carlo simulation but the procedure is considerably faster. The radial light distribution of the proposed model is in good agreement with the GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation. The computational time of the photon coordinate generation for our method is four order of magnitude smaller with respect to the GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation. In this work, we report on the development of a mathematical model for the propagation of scintillation photons from a given point of a continuous scintillating crystal to a detection surface, through an interposed light guide. The model was used to calculate the radial distribution of the scintillation photons, in order to speed up the design of the optical system. The proposed method allows to generate a random distribution of coordinates of the scintillation photons similar to that obtained with a Monte Carlo simulation but the procedure is considerably faster. The radial light distribution of the proposed model is in good agreement with the GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation. The computational time of the photon coordinate generation for our method is four order of magnitude smaller with respect to the GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation. © 2014 AEIT.

In this work we report on a compact electronic readout system for position-sensitive photomultipliers (PSPMT) that are characterized by a large number of channels in a very small space, typically 64 over a 2" × 2" area. The proposed system allows the reading of all individual channel from a PSPMT, that is useful to fully exploit the information that can be acquired by this kind of system. The readout is controlled by an FPGA that collects the digitalized data from all the channels and send to a remote computer the events that are inside a configurable energy range. An electronic characterization of the readout is proposed, showing very low noise level and very good efficiency up to 20 thousand events per second. The proposed readout can be used for nuclear imaging application like SPECT and PET to improve spatial and energy resolution.

This paper reports on the tests of a low-noise, multi-channel readout integrated circuit used as a readout electronic front-end for a diamond multi-pixel dosimeter. The system is developed for dose distribution measurement in radiotherapy applications. The first 10-channel prototype chip was designed and fabricated in a 0.18 um CMOS process. Every channel includes a charge integrator with a 10 pF capacitor and a double slope A/D converter. The diamond multi-pixel detector, based on CVD synthetic single crystal diamond Schottky diodes, is made by a 3 × 3 sensor matrix. The overall device has been tested under irradiation with 6 MeV radio therapeutic photon beams at the Policlinico ''Tor Vergata'' (PTV) hospital. Measurements show a 20 fA RMS leakage current from the front-end input stage and a negligible dark current from the diamond detector, a stable temporal response and a good linear behaviour as a function of both dose and dose rate. These characteristics were common to each tested channel. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl.

Many modern molecular imaging techniques, based on radiopharmaceuticals, can take advantage of sophisticated devices but are still based on the scintillation detector mechanism proposed by Anger. These devices can perform with millimeter spatial resolution and high detection efficiency, but the final performance is strongly affected by the algorithm used for the scintillation position detection. In this work, a detailed comparison of the effect on the imaging performances of three new position detection algorithms, in terms of spatial resolution, detection linearity and useful Field of View is performed on a prototype gamma detector. The detector, built by the authors, is based on a continuous LaBr3:Ce scintillation crystal coupled to an Hamamatsu MA-PMT H8500 and a single anode readout electronics. The experimental data are obtained scanning the detector surface with a Tc99m collimated source (0.4 mm φ) at 1.5 mm step. The overall imaging performances of the device are also tested by mean of a bar phantom. We conclude that the Anger-like algorithms give a 50% uFoV with a 1.30 mm ±0.05 mm spatial resolution while the proposed algorithms give a 80% uFoV and 1.10 mm ±0.06 mm spatial resolution.© 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl.