Improved atrial function in bicaval versus standard orthotopic techniques in cardiac transplantation

Atrial geometry is preserved in the bicaval technique of cardiac transplantation. Using Doppler echocardiography, we investigated the impact of this technique on preservation of atrial function and found that echocardiographic indexes of atrial function are improved in bicaval cardiac transplants versus the standard orthotopic transplants.     

Feasibility of a long-term low-sodium diet in mild hypertension

The present study set out to assess the feasibility of long-term moderate dietary sodium restriction in patients with mild hypertension in general practice. After screening and a run-in phase of 6-8 weeks, a total of 77 previously undiagnosed mildly hypertensive patients were identified. Half of them were randomized to receive a few simple dietary instructions from their general practitioners in order to reduce salt usage; the others were randomized to receive no advice. The patients were followed up for 12 months with quarterly visits. A total of 56 patients (72.7%) completed the study, 26 on a low-sodium diet (LD) and 30 on their usual diet (UD). At each visit in the diet phase, patients provided 24h urine, which was analysed for volume and sodium concentration in order to assess their sodium intake. Blood pressure, heart the rate and body weight were recorded. The mean urinary sodium excretion for all diet phase visits overlapped in the two groups (177.0 +/- 32.9 vs. 169.3 +/- 49.4 mEq/24h respectively in the LD and UD groups). Nevertheless the mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures for all diet phase visits were significantly lower in the LD than in UD group (144.2 +/- 11.1/91.6 +/- 6.4 and 148.0 +/- 13.7/95.6 +/- 4.7 mmHg respectively, P less than 0.01). Our data suggest that it is not feasible at present to reduce sodium intake in mild hypertensives with simple and inexpensive dietary instructions, the only ones suitable for widespread application in general practice.     

A generalization of the Curtis–Hedlund theorem

Let A be a set and let G be a group, and equip A^G with its prodiscrete uniform structure. Let τ:A^G→A^G be a map. We prove that τ is a cellular automaton if and only if τ is uniformly continuous and G-equivariant. We also give an example showing that a continuous and G-equivariant map τ:A^G→A^G may fail to be a cellular automaton when the alphabet set A is infinite.     

Biohybrid Bovine Bone Matrix for Controlled Release of Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cell Lyosecretome: A Device for Bone Regeneration

SmartBone^® (SB) is a biohybrid bone substitute advantageously proposed as a class III medical device for bone regeneration in reconstructive surgeries (oral, maxillofacial, orthopedic, and oncology). In the present study, a new strategy to improve SB osteoinductivity was developed. SB scaffolds were loaded with lyosecretome, a freeze-dried formulation of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-secretome, containing proteins and extracellular vesicles (EVs). Lyosecretome-loaded SB scaffolds (SBlyo) were prepared using an absorption method. A burst release of proteins and EVs (38% and 50% after 30 min, respectively) was observed, and then proteins were released more slowly with respect to EVs, most likely because they more strongly adsorbed onto the SB surface. In vitro tests were conducted using adipose tissue-derived stromal vascular fraction (SVF) plated on SB or SBlyo. After 14 days, significant cell proliferation improvement was observed on SBlyo with respect to SB, where cells filled the cavities between the native trabeculae. On SB, on the other hand, the process was still present, but tissue formation was less organized at 60 days. On both scaffolds, cells differentiated into osteoblasts and were able to mineralize after 60 days. Nonetheless, SBlyo showed a higher expression of osteoblast markers and a higher quantity of newly formed trabeculae than SB alone. The quantification analysis of the newly formed mineralized tissue and the immunohistochemical studies demonstrated that SBlyo induces bone formation more effectively. This osteoinductive effect is likely due to the osteogenic factors present in the lyosecretome, such as fibronectin, alpha-2-macroglobulin, apolipoprotein A, and TGF-β.     

A project scheduling approach to production planning with feeding precedence relations

In Manufacturing-to-Order or Engineering-to-Order systems producing complex and highly customised items, each item has its own characteristics that are often tailored for a specific customer. Project scheduling approaches are suitable for production planning in such environments. However, when we consider the production of complex items, the distinct production operations are often aggregated into activities representing whole production phases. In such cases, the planning and scheduling problem works on the aggregate activities, considering that, in most cases, such activities also have to be manually executed. Moreover, simple finish-to-start precedence relations no longer correctly represent the real production process, but overlapping among activities should be allowed. In this paper, a project scheduling approach is proposed for production planning in Manufacturing-to-Order systems. The Variable Intensity formulation is used to allow the effort committed to the execution of activities to vary over time. Feeding precedences are developed to model generalised precedence relations when the execution mode of activities is not known a priori. Two mathematical formulations of these precedence relations are proposed. The formulations are applied both to randomly generated instances and to an industrial system producing machining centres and are compared in terms of computational efficiency.     

Sensitivity and devaney’s chaos in uniform spaces

We give sufficient conditions for sensitivity of continuous group actions on uniform spaces.     

Design of flexible transfer lines: A case-based reconfiguration cost assessment

Shortening product life cycles leads competing companies to continually release new products or modifying the existing ones; this is one of the major issues in production systems design. According to the changes in product features, production systems need to be properly configured or reconfigured to efficiently tackle new production requirements. A configuration approach for multi-product flexible transfer lines is presented which aims at minimizing the equipment cost. The approach is applied to a manufacturing case in the automotive sector. The robustness of the solution is tested against changes that affect the products to highlight reconfiguration costs and the penalty associated to the lack of a pro-active configuration approach.     

Obstacle Modelling Oriented to Safe Motion Planning and Control for Planar Rigid Robot Manipulators

Trajectory planning and tracking are crucial tasks in any application using robot manipulators. These tasks become particularly challenging when obstacles are present in the manipulator workspace. In this paper a n-joint planar robot manipulator is considered and it is assumed that obstacles located in its workspace can be approximated in a conservative way with circles. The goal is to represent the obstacles in the robot configuration space. The representation allows to obtain an efficient and accurate trajectory planning and tracking. A simple but effective path planning strategy is proposed in the paper. Since path planning depends on tracking accuracy, in this paper an adequate tracking accuracy is guaranteed by means of a suitably designed Second Order Sliding Mode Controller (SOSMC). The proposed approach guarantees a collision-free motion of the manipulator in its workspace in spite of the presence of obstacles, as confirmed by experimental results.