June Louin-Tapp (1929–1992): Obituary.

Memorializes J. Louin-Tapp, known particularly for her profound and lasting impact on the field of psychology and law. Her pioneering efforts in legal socialization and all of her subsequent work had at its core the theme of justice. Dr. Louin-Tapp articulated ethical principles that remain standards for the conduct of research on diverse cultures and on prisoner and other dependent populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Silicon field effect transistors as dual-use sensor-heater hybrids

We demonstrate the temperature mediated applications of a previously proposed novel localized dielectric heating method on the surface of dual purpose silicon field effect transistor (FET) sensor-heaters and perform modeling and characterization of the underlying mechanisms. The FETs are first shown to operate as electrical sensors via sensitivity to changes in pH in ionic fluids. The same devices are then demonstrated as highly localized heaters via investigation of experimental heating profiles and comparison to simulation results. These results offer further insight into the heating mechanism and help determine the spatial resolution of the technique. Two important biosensor platform applications spanning different temperature ranges are then demonstrated: a localized heat-mediated DNA exchange reaction and a method for dense selective functionalization of probe molecules via the heat catalyzed complete desorption and reattachment of chemical functionalization to the transistor surfaces. Our results show that the use of silicon transistors can be extended beyond electrical switching and field-effect sensing to performing localized temperature controlled chemical reactions on the transistor itself.     

A portable class of 3‐transistor current references with low‐power sub‐0.5 V operation

This work proposes a new class of current references based on only 3 transistors that allows sub‐0.5 V operation. The circuit consists of a 2‐transistor block that generates a proportional‐to‐absolute‐temperature or a complementary‐to‐absolute‐temperature voltage and a load transistor. The idea of a 3T current reference is validated by circuit simulations for different complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor technologies and by experimental measurements on a large set of test chips fabricated with a commercial 0.18 μm complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor process. As compared to the state‐of‐art competitors, the 3T current reference exhibits competitive performance in terms of temperature coefficient (578 ppm/°C), line sensitivity (3.9%/V), and power consumption (213 nW) and presents a reduction by a factor of 2 to 3 in terms of minimum operating voltage (0.45 V) and an improvement of 1 to 2 orders of magnitude in terms of area occupation (750 μm²). In spite of the extremely reduced silicon area, the fabricated chips exhibit low‐process sensitivity (2.7%). A digital trimming solution to significantly reduce the process sensitivity is also presented and validated by simulations.     

Patient dose in digital projection radiography

In projection radiography, two types of digital imaging systems are currently available, computed radiography (CR) and direct radiography (DR): a difference between them can be stated in terms of dose and image quality. In the Radiology Emergency Department of our hospital, a flat-panel DR equipment (Siemens Axiom Aristos FX) and two CR systems (Kodak CR-850) are employed. In 2006, five standard radiographic examinations (abdomen, chest, lumbar spine, pelvis, skull) were considered: doses delivered to patients in terms of both entrance skin dose (ESD) and effective dose (E) were calculated and compared in order to study the dosimetric discrepancies between CR and DR. Assessment of image quality is undertaken by Consultant Radiologists to ensure that the quality criteria for diagnostic radiographic images of the European guidelines were met. Results showed that both ESD and E in DR are lower than that in CR; all images met the criteria in the European Guidelines for both modalities and were used for reporting by the radiologists. Since the operators are the same and the image quality is comparable in both modalities, this study shows that in the considered examinations, DR can perform better than CR from a dosimetric point of view.     

Electronic structure of single DNA molecules resolved by transverse scanning tunnelling spectroscopy

Attempts to resolve the energy-level structure of single DNA molecules by scanning tunnelling spectroscopy span over the past two decades, owing to the unique ability of this technique to probe the local density of states of objects deposited on a surface. Nevertheless, success was hindered by extreme technical difficulties in stable deposition and reproducibility. Here, by using scanning tunnelling spectroscopy at cryogenic temperature, we disclose the energy spectrum of poly(G)-poly(C) DNA molecules deposited on gold. The tunnelling current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and their derivative (dI/dV-V) curves at 78 K exhibit a clear gap and a peak structure around the gap. Limited fluctuations in the I-V curves are observed and statistically characterized. By means of ab initio density functional theory calculations, the character of the observed peaks is generally assigned to groups of orbitals originating from the different molecular components, namely the nucleobases, the backbone and the counterions.     

Cannabinoids Drugs and Oral Health—From Recreational Side-Effects to Medicinal Purposes: A Systematic Review

Background: marijuana, the common name for cannabis sativa preparations, is one of the most consumed drug all over the world, both at therapeutical and recreational levels. With the legalization of medical uses of cannabis in many countries, and even its recreational use in most of these, the prevalence of marijuana use has markedly risen over the last decade. At the same time, there is also a higher prevalence in the health concerns related to cannabis use and abuse. Thus, it is mandatory for oral healthcare operators to know and deal with the consequences and effects of cannabis use on oral cavity health. This review will briefly summarize the components of cannabis and the endocannabinoid system, as well as the cellular and molecular mechanisms of biological cannabis action in human cells and biologic activities on tissues. We will also look into oropharyngeal tissue expression of cannabinoid receptors, together with a putative association of cannabis to several oral diseases. Therefore, this review will elaborate the basic biology and physiology of cannabinoids in human oral tissues with the aim of providing a better comprehension of the effects of its use and abuse on oral health, in order to include cannabinoid usage into dental patient health records as well as good medicinal practice. Methods: the paper selection was performed by PubMed/Medline and EMBASE electronic databases, and reported according to the PRISMA guidelines. The scientific products were included for qualitative analysis. Results: the paper search screened a total of 276 papers. After the initial screening and the eligibility assessment, a total of 32 articles were considered for the qualitative analysis. Conclusions: today, cannabis consumption has been correlated to a higher risk of gingival and periodontal disease, oral infection and cancer of the oral cavity, while the physico-chemical activity has not been completely clarified. Further investigations are necessary to evaluate a therapeutic efficacy of this class of drugs for the promising treatment of several different diseases of the salivary glands and oral diseases.     

Metabolomic Approaches for Detection and Identification of Biomarkers and Altered Pathways in Bladder Cancer

Metabolomic analysis has proven to be a useful tool in biomarker discovery and the molecular classification of cancers. In order to find new biomarkers, and to better understand its pathological behavior, bladder cancer also has been studied using a metabolomics approach. In this article, we review the literature on metabolomic studies of bladder cancer, focusing on the different available samples (urine, blood, tissue samples) used to perform the studies and their relative findings. Moreover, the multi-omic approach in bladder cancer research has found novel insights into its metabolic behavior, providing excellent start-points for new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Metabolomics data analysis can lead to the discovery of a “signature pathway” associated with the progression of bladder cancer; this aspect could be potentially valuable in predictions of clinical outcomes and the introduction of new treatments. However, further studies are needed to give stronger evidence and to make these tools feasible for use in clinical practice.     

Variable frame rate control jerkiness-driven

We are introducing a real-time variable frame rate control scheme capable of optimizing both spatial and temporal video qualities. It traces the motion of incoming video frames and automatically tunes the outgoing frame rate according to the level of jerkiness acceptable by the user. The control scheme was conceived within the framework of mobile communications, which require an optimum use of both the available bandwidth and terminal resources. We have designed and implemented a video transcoding architecture which supports our frame rate control. The transcoder has been developed at the Coritel laboratories, Rome, Italy (Coritel is a research consortium managed by Ericsson Lab, Italy, and the University of Rome La Sapienza), while the visual tests were carried out at the ISCOM laboratory, Italian Communication Ministry, Rome, Italy. The proposed transcoding architecture is compatible with the constraints of real-time communications and it has been extensively tested under a wide range of conditions. We then present a subjective assessment of our solution carried out in a fully equipped professional laboratory. Within this assessment a number of non-expert viewers were asked to express their preference when watching side by side the same video, coded at a variable frame rate and at a fixed frame rate. Results show that in most cases a variable frame rate control based on a dynamic bit/frame allocation scheme might substantially improve video quality perceived by viewers.