Fibrosis of Peritoneal Membrane as Target of New Therapies in Peritoneal Dialysis

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is an efficient renal replacement therapy for patients with end-stage renal disease. Even if it ensures an outcome equivalent to hemodialysis and a better quality of life, in the long-term, PD is associated with the development of peritoneal fibrosis and the consequents patient morbidity and PD technique failure. This unfavorable effect is mostly due to the bio-incompatibility of PD solution (mainly based on high glucose concentration). In the present review, we described the mechanisms and the signaling pathway that governs peritoneal fibrosis, epithelial to mesenchymal transition of mesothelial cells, and angiogenesis. Lastly, we summarize the present and future strategies for developing more biocompatible PD solutions.     

SmartK: Smart cards in operating systems at kernel level

A smart card is a tamper-resistant miniature computer that performs some basic computations on input a secret information. So far, smart cards have been widely used for securing many digital transactions (e.g., pay television, ATM machines).We focus on the implementation of operating system security services leveraging on smart cards. This very challenging feature allows one to personalize some functionalities of the operating system by simply changing a smart card. Current solutions for integrating smart card features in operating system services require at least a partial execution of some of the operating system functionalities at “user level”. Unfortunately, system functionalities built on top of components lying at both kernel and user levels may negatively affect the overall system security, due to the introduction of multiple points of failure.In this work, we present the design and implementation of SmartK: a framework that integrates features of smart cards uniquely in the Linux kernel. In order to validate our approach, we propose a host of enhancements to the Linux operating system built on top of SmartK: 1) in-kernel clients' authentication with Kerberos; 2) execution of trusted code; 3) key management in secure network filesystems.In particular, we present an experimental Linux OS distribution (SalSA), which addresses the security issues related to downloading packages and to updating an operating system through the Internet.     

Solvent vapor treatment controls surface wettability in PMMA femtosecond-laser-ablated microchannels

A solvent vapor treatment was applied to femtosecond-laser-ablated microchannels in PMMA to selectively restore the original hydrophilic wetting behavior of the pristine surface. The hydrophobic surface of the microchannels from the submicron porosity induced by ablation becomes smoother and more transparent after the treatment. This simple and low-cost method, together with suitable masking, can produce wettability patterns that may be exploited to develop passive microfluidic elements such as valves and mixers.     

Analysis of the gate current as a suitable indicator for FET degradation under nonlinear dynamic regime

Electron device degradation, although not directly accounted for, represents a key issue in microwave circuit design. This is especially true when the particular applications involved (e.g., satellite, military, consumer) do not allow or strongly discourage any kind of maintenance. As a matter of fact, in order to account for device degradation in circuit design, a suitable electron device model is needed which is able to predict the performance degradation as a function of the actual electrical regime involved in the device operation. Such a kind of model is not available in literature. In this paper, quantitative results are provided for device degradation indicators which correlate DC and RF stress experiments. These results can be considered an important step toward the definition of a nonlinear model accounting for device degradation.     

Impact of Ge-Sb-Te compound engineering on the set operation performance in phase-change memories

The phase-change memory (PCM) technology is considered as one of the most attractive non-volatile memory concepts for next generation data storage. It relies on the ability of a chalcogenide material belonging to the Ge-Sb-Te compound system to reversibly change its phase between two stable states, namely the poly-crystalline low-resistive state and the amorphous high-resistive state, allowing the storage of the logical bit. A careful study of the phase-change material properties in terms of the set operation performance, the program window and the electrical switching parameters as a function of composition is very attractive in order to enlarge the possible PCM application spectrum. Concerning the set performance, a crystallization kinetics based interpretation of the observed behavior measured on different Ge-Sb-Te compounds is provided, allowing a physics-based comprehension of the reset-to-set transition.     

Three-dimensional optical data storage through multi-photon confocal microscopy and imaging

Three dimensional optical data storage is one of the most promising tools to respond to the always growing demand for high data storage capacity. Here, we focused a femtosecond laser source by means of a confocal microscope onto different transparent recording media. The purpose of the study is to probe the capability of the system to independently address different data layers within the storage medium achieving thus three dimensional data storage. We demonstrated the possibility to write superposed independent layers of data due to either multiphoton excitation or to local optical breakdown and the performances observed in the different types of media used are compared.     

The <Emphasis Type=Italic>j</Emphasis>-index: a new bibliometric index and multivariate comparisons between other common indices

A new bibliometric index is proposed, trying to preserve the advantages of the h-index and to overcome its disadvantages. Multivariate comparisons among 18 bibliometric indices are performed by using Hasse Diagram Technique (HDT) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The comparisons were performed on some artificial data sets, three of them well known in literature. The obtained results seems to highlight some interesting properties of the new index and also reveals some relevant relationships among the considered bibliometric indices.     

Distributed damage creates flaw tolerance

A qualitative micromechanical fracture mechanics model is presented that shows how a structure that is sensitive to the presence of a single crack or hole can be rendered flaw tolerant by the presence of an interacting distribution of such flaws. The simple model was inspired by the ductile fracture experienced by the under-designed gusset plates recovered from the I-35W Bridge collapse and by the experimentally measured increase in toughness of concrete damaged by fire.     

Comparison of four test methods to measure damping properties of materials by using piezoelectric transducers

This article presents the experimental results of damping loss factor and Young’s modulus obtained for stiff and flexible materials through the use of four different methodologies: the Central Impedance Method, the Modified Oberst Method, the Seismic Response Method, and the simply supported beam method. The first three methods are based on the ASTM standard but using different experimental setting and different Frequency Response Functions. The fourth method corresponds to a non-resonant technique used in the characterization of materials at very low frequencies. In this work, the results of damping loss factor and Young’s modulus obtained through these four methods are compared, the variability of results is studied and the sensitivity of each technique when facing controlled temperature variations is verified.