Search

Amid efforts to address energy consumption in modern computing systems, one promising approach takes advantage of random networks of non-linear nanoscale junctions formed by nanoparticles as substrates for neuromorphic computing. These networks exhibit emergent complexity and collective behaviors akin to biological neural networks, characterized by self-organization, redundancy, and non-linearity. Based on this foundation, a generalization of n-inputs devices has been proposed, where the associated weights depend on all the input values. This model, called receptron, has demonstrated its capability to generate Boolean functions as output, representing a significant breakthrough in unconventional computing methods. In this work, we characterize and present two actual implementations of this paradigm. One approach leverages the nanoscale properties of cluster-assembled Au films, while the other utilizes the recently introduced Stochastic Resistor Network (SRN) model. We first provide a concise overview of the electrical properties of these systems, emphasizing the insights gained from the SRN regarding the physical processes within real nanostructured gold films at a coarse-grained scale. Furthermore, we present evidence indicating the minimum complexity level required by the SRN model to achieve a stochastic dynamics adequate to effectively model a novel component for logic systems. To support our argument that these systems are preferable to conventional random search algorithms, we discuss quantitative criteria based on Information-theoretic tools. This suggests a practical means to steer the stochastic dynamics of the system in a controlled way, thus focusing its random exploration where it is most useful.

Background: International guidelines recommend universal screening for Lynch syndrome (LS) through somatic DNA mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR) testing in all colorectal cancers (CRCs). However, LS remains largely underdiagnosed. Mainstreaming LS diagnosis through oncologist-driven genetic testing could increase detection rates, thus extending the benefits of precision prevention to patients with LS and their families. We aim to evaluate the feasibility of the mainstreaming diagnostic algorithm for LS. Patients and methods: ItaLynch is an ongoing, prospective, observational, multicenter, multidisciplinary, Italian study in patients with dMMR CRC. Being descriptive in nature, it does not attempt to test any specific, a priori, hypothesis. Patients with dMMR CRC are selected by universal screening by immunohistochemistry (IHC). In MLH1-deficient patients, reflex testing for BRAFV600E and, when appropriate, for MLH1 promoter hypermethylation is carried out. For all dMMR CRC, a ‘Lynch Alert’ is added to the pathology report: positive when a patient is at high risk for LS, due to reflex testing results or to loss of non-MLH1 proteins. Conversely, a ‘Lynch Alert’ is negative when the patient is likely to be a nonhereditary case (i.e. MLH1 loss and BRAFV600E or MLH1 promoter hypermethylation). In patients with a positive ‘Lynch Alert’, after providing a brief explanation about the risks and benefits of genetic testing, the oncologist asks patients for their consent to mainstream genetic testing. Thus a blood sample is drawn for constitutional variants of the MMR genes. Carriers of a germline variant are then referred to post-test genetic counseling. Referral to clinical genetic services is also advised for patients with clinical suspect criteria.

Abstract Background Connective tissue nevi (CTN) are congenital hamartomas caused by excessive proliferation of dermis components. In children, CTN can mimic juvenile localized scleroderma (JLS), an immune mediated skin disorder that requires aggressive immunosuppression. Objectives: Aim of our study was to describe a series of pediatric patients with CTN misdiagnosed as JLS and the discerning characteristics between the two conditions. Methods Retrospective analysis of children referred to our Center during the last two decades for JLS who received a final diagnosis of CTN. Clinical, laboratory, histopathological and instrumental data (MRI and thermography) were collected and compared with those with JLS. Results Seventeen patients with mean age at onset 4.6 years entered the study. All came to our Center with a certain diagnosis of JLS (n = 15) or suspected JLS (n = 2). The indurated skin lesions were flat and resembled either circumscribed morphea or pansclerotic morphea. In 14 patients (82.4%) they were mainly localized at the lower limbs and in three (17.6%) at the upper limbs. No patient had laboratory inflammatory changes or positive autoantibodies. Skin biopsies confirmed the diagnosis of CTN: non-familial collagenoma in eleven (64.7%), mixed CTN in four (23.5%) and familial CTN in two (11.8%). Mean age at final diagnosis was 9.5 years, with a mean diagnostic delay of 4.8 years (range 1–15 years). Sixteen patients underwent musculoskeletal MRI that was normal in all except two who showed muscle perifascial enhancement. Thermography was normal in all patients. At our first evaluation, eleven patients (64.7%) were on systemic treatment (methotrexate 11, corticosteroids 7, biologics 2), three (17.6%) on topical corticosteroids and three untreated. Conclusions CTN can be misdiagnosed as JLS and therefore aggressively treated with prolonged and inappropriate immunosuppression. The absence of inflammatory appearance of the skin lesions, normal instrumental and laboratory findings and the accurate evaluation of skin biopsy are crucial to address the right diagnosis.

Abstract The rechallenge strategy is based on the concept that a subset of patients with RAS wild‐type (WT) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) could still benefit of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibition, after progression to an anti‐EGFR based‐therapy. We performed a pooled analysis of two‐phase II prospective trials to determine the role of rechallenge in third‐line mCRC patients with RAS/BRAF WT baseline circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). Individual data of 33 and 13 patients from CAVE and CRICKET trials that received as third‐line therapy cetuximab rechallenge were collected. Overall survival (OS), Progression‐free survival (PFS), Overall response rate (ORR), Stable disease (SD) >6 months were calculated. Adverse events were reported. For the whole 46 patient population, median PFS (mPFS) was 3.9 months (95% Confidence Interval, CI 3.0–4.9) with median OS (mOS) of 16.9 months (95% CI 11.7–22.1). For CRICKET patients, mPFS was 3.9 months (95% CI 1.7–6.2); mOS was 13.1 months (95% CI 7.3–18.9) with OS rates at 12, 18, and 24 months of 62%, 23%, and 0%, respectively. For CAVE patients, mPFS was 4.1 months (95% CI 3.0–5.2); mOS was 18.6 months (95% CI 11.7–25.4) with OS rates at 12, 18, 24 months of 61%, 52%, 21%, respectively. Skin rash was more frequently reported in CAVE trial (87.9% vs. 30.8%; p = 0.001), whereas a increased incidence of hematological toxicities was observed in CRICKET trial (53.8%% vs. 12.1%; p = 0.003). Third‐line cetuximab rechallenge in combination with either irinotecan or avelumab in RAS/BRAF WT ctDNA mCRC patients represents a promising therapy.

An overview is presented of the progress since 2021 in the construction and scientific programme preparation of the Divertor Tokamak Test (DTT) facility. Licensing for building construction has been granted at the end of 2021. Licensing for Cat. A radiologic source has been also granted in 2022. The construction of the toroidal field magnet system is progressing. The prototype of the 170 GHz gyrotron has been produced and it is now under test on the FALCON facility. The design of the vacuum vessel, the poloidal field coils and the civil infrastructures has been completed. The shape of the first DTT divertor has been agreed with EUROfusion to test different plasma and exhaust scenarios: single null, double null, X-divertor and negative triangularity plasmas. A detailed research plan is being elaborated with the involvement of the EUROfusion laboratories.

Abstract Nanostructured Au films fabricated by the assembling of nanoparticles produced in the gas phase have shown properties suitable for neuromorphic computing applications: they are characterized by a non-linear and non-local electrical behavior, featuring switches of the electric resistance whose activation is typically triggered by an applied voltage over a certain threshold. These systems can be considered as complex networks of metallic nanojunctions where thermal effects at the nanoscale cause the continuous rearrangement of regions with low and high electrical resistance. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the electrical properties of this nano granular system, we developed a model based on a large three dimensional regular resistor network with non-linear conduction mechanisms and stochastic updates of conductances. Remarkably, by increasing enough the number of nodes in the network, the features experimentally observed in the electrical conduction properties of nanostructured gold films are qualitatively reproduced in the dynamical behavior of the system. In the activated non-linear conduction regime, our model reproduces also the growing trend, as a function of the subsystem size, of quantities like Mutual and Integrated Information, which have been extracted from the experimental resistance series data via an information theoretic analysis. This indicates that nanostructured Au films (and our model) possess a certain degree of activated interconnection among different areas which, in principle, could be exploited for neuromorphic computing applications.

We present an exploratory study carried out with a new miniature portable emission measurement system (Mini-PEMS) specifically designed at the Technical University of Liberec (CZ) for applications on two-wheeler vehicles owing to its reduced size (45cm×30×20cm) and weight (≈15 kg). It measures the exhaust gas concentrations of hydrocarbons and carbon mono- and dioxide with a nondispersive infrared method and nitrogen mono- and dioxides and oxygen using an electrochemical cell. In addition, the instrument acquires the engine speed, manifold absolute pressure, inlet and exhaust gas temperature, geo-localization, and vehicle speed. The exhaust mass flow rate is calculated from engine and emission data. The Mini-PEMS was validated on three two-wheelers (one moped and two motorcycles) against laboratory-grade instrumentation in the Vehicle Emissions Laboratory of the European Commission in terms of measured concentrations, exhaust flow, fuel consumption, and mass emission of pollutants. The mean absolute deviations of gas concentrations were 8 % for HC, 8 % for CO, 13 % for NOx, and 2 % for CO2, while the mass emissions (which include the exhaust flow determination uncertainty) were 7 % for HC, 7 % for CO, 9 % for NOx, and 5 % for CO2. An agreement of 2 % was achieved between the fuel consumption measured in the laboratory and calculated by the Mini-PEMS. As an application, the instrument was tested on board the vehicles during on-road trips. The emissions measured on the road were consistent among repeated runs, with differences between laboratory and on-road tests much larger than those between the Mini-PEMS and laboratory. We found similar or larger HC and NOx real-driving emissions and larger CO emissions from motorcycles and smaller ones for the moped. Considering its size and weight, the Mini-PEMS proved to be an efficient tool for vehicle monitoring, research and development and could be tested for in-service monitoring applications related to carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides emissions. A tentative approach to characterize particulate mass and particle number was presented and compared to the existing filter method and nonvolatile particle number protocol.

Abstract Background Molecular mechanisms driving acquired resistance to anti-EGFR therapies in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) are complex but generally involve the activation of the downstream RAS-RAF-MEK-MAPK pathway. Nevertheless, even if inhibition of EGFR and MEK could be a strategy for overcoming anti-EGFR resistance, its use is limited by the development of MEK inhibitor (MEKi) resistance. Methods We have generated in vitro and in vivo different CRC models in order to underline the mechanisms of MEKi resistance. Results The three different in vitro MEKi resistant models, two generated by human CRC cells quadruple wild type for KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, PI3KCA genes (SW48-MR and LIM1215-MR) and one by human CRC cells harboring KRAS mutation (HCT116-MR) showed features related to the gene signature of colorectal cancer CMS4 with up-regulation of immune pathway as confirmed by microarray and western blot analysis. In particular, the MEKi phenotype was associated with the loss of epithelial features and acquisition of mesenchymal markers and morphology. The change in morphology was accompanied by up-regulation of PD-L1 expression and activation of EGFR and its downstream pathway, independently to RAS mutation status. To extend these in vitro findings, we have obtained mouse colon cancer MC38- and CT26-MEKi resistant syngeneic models (MC38-MR and CT26-MR). Combined treatment with MEKi, EGFR inhibitor (EGFRi) and PD-L1 inhibitor (PD-L1i) resulted in a marked inhibition of tumor growth in both models. Conclusions These results suggest a strategy to potentially improve the efficacy of MEK inhibition by co-treatment with EGFR and PD-L1 inhibitors via modulation of host immune responses.

Background: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD–Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. Methods and results: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012–2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P

Abstract Background To date, standardized methods for assessing the disease progression of linear scleroderma of the face (LSF) are lacking. Objectives We investigated whether Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) may represent a reliable tool for assessing linear scleroderma of the face (LSF). Methods Ten patients with LSF and five age-matched controls underwent CBCT assessment. The transverse sections at three anatomic levels of the maxillofacial bones were analyzed. Measurements of soft tissue and total thickness of both affected and unaffected side of the face were made by a standardized methodology. Six raters evaluated CBCTs twice and blindly one from the other. The intra- and inter-rater reliability was assessed by the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). Results CBCT was fast and well tolerated by the patients. The inter-rater concordance for the total thickness was excellent, mean ICC 0.75 for patients, 0.89 for controls. The mean ICC for soft tissue thickness was 0.49 for patients, 0.66 for controls. 58.3% of the measurements for patients and 91.2% of those for controls showed excellent ICC results (≥ 0.75). The intra-rater concordance resulted optimal (ICC 0.77–0.99). Conclusions CBCT is a reliable technique to assess skin and bony changes of LSF.

The range of osteoporosis treatments is increasingly large and, like any disease, the pharmacological management of patients should involve a risk/benefit evaluation to attain the greatest reduction in risk of fracture with the lowest incidence of adverse events. The aim of this review is to critically appraise the literature about the safety issues of the main pharmacological treatments of osteoporosis. This document is the result of a consensus of experts based on a systematic review of regulatory documents, randomized controlled trials, metaanalyses, pharmacovigilance surveys and case series related to possible adverse drug reactions to osteoporosis treatment with calcium and vitamin D supplements, bisphosphonates, strontium ranelate, selective estrogen receptor modulators, denosumab, and teriparatide. As expected, randomized controlled trials showed only the most common adverse events due to the samples size and the short observation time. Case series and observational studies are able to provide data about uncommon side effects, but in some cases a sure cause-effect relationship needs still to be confirmed. Consistently with methodological limitations, the newer drugs have a tolerance profile that has not been fully explored yet. Osteoporosis treatments showed an overall good tolerance profile with rare serious adverse events that, however, must be well known by the clinician who prescribes these drugs. The concern about possible adverse events should be weighed against the reduction of morbidity and mortality associated with a significant fracture risk reduction.

A parreira-brava (Cissampelos glaberrima) e a erva-palha (Blainvillea romboidea) estão no início de sua dispersão na cultura da cana-de-açúcar no Estado de São Paulo e são espécies de extrema agressividade e de difícil controle. Objetivou-se neste trabalho estudar a eficácia dos herbicidas trifloxysulfuron-sodium + ametryne, picloram + 2,4-D, 2,4-D e fluroxypyr, aplicados em pós-emergência, no controle de parreira-brava e ervapalha em canaviais. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi o de blocos casualizados, com seis tratamentos e quatro repetições. Foram feitas avaliações visuais das porcentagens de controle, aos 7, 14, 21, 29, 36, 42, 56 e 90 dias após a aplicação (DAA) dos herbicidas. Medidas das alturas das plantas de cana-de-açúcar foram feitas aos 29 e 56 DAA, e a contagem do número de afilhos foi feita aos 33 DAA. Na colheita, fez-se a contagem do número de colmos, e a produção foi calculada através da pesagem dos colmos da parcela. Diante dos resultados obtidos, pode-se concluir que o trifloxysulfuron-sodium + ametryne (1.500 g ha-1) agiu rápida e eficientemente na parte aérea das plantas adultas de parreirabrava, porém não impediu que as brotações surgissem após os 42 dias da aplicação. No entanto, o picloram + 2,4-D (a 2.040 g ha-1) e o fluroxypyr (345 g ha-1) mantiveram níveis de controle da parreira-brava superiores a 90%, até 90 DAA. O controle de erva-palha mostrouse não-satisfatório com a aplicação de trifloxysulfuron-sodium + ametryne e bastante eficaz (100%) com os demais herbicidas.Cissampelos glaberrima and Blainvillea romboidea are aggressive species and difficult to be controlled in the beginning of their dispersal in sugarcane crops in the state of Sao Paulo. The objective of this experiment was to study the efficacy of trifloxysulfuron-sodium + ametryne, picloram + 2,4-D, 2,4-D and fluroxypyr, applied in post emergence, in controlling these weed species in sugarcane crops. The experiment was arranged in a randomized block design with six treatments and four replications. Visual evaluations of the treatments were performed at 7, 14, 21, 29, 36, 42, 56, and 90 days after application (DAA) . Sugarcane plant height was measured at 29 and 56 DAA and the number of shoots counted at 33 DAA. At harvest, the number and weight of shoots were also evaluated. Although trifloxysulfuron-sodium + ametryne had a quick effect on shoots of C. glaberrima adult plants, it did not prevent their re-growth at 42 days after its application .However, picloram + 2,4-D (2,040 g ha-1) and fluroxypyr (345 g ha¹) maintained control levels of C. glaberrima above 90%, up to 90 DAA. B. romboidea control was not satisfactory with trifloxysulfuron-sodium + ametryne application, but rather effective (100%) with the other chemical treatments.

Objetivou-se avaliar a eficácia e a seletividade do herbicida flazasulfuron aplicado em pré-emergência de Panicum maximum, Brachiaria plantaginea e Digitaria horizontalis e das plantas de cana-de-açúcar, em solos argilosos com diferentes teores de água na superfície, após os primeiros cinco dias da aplicação. Foram testadas as seguintes doses de flazasulfuron isolado: 37,5; 50,0; e 75,0 g ha-1. O herbicida foi misturado, na menor dose (37,5 g ha-1), com ametrine e diuron, ambos a 1.000 g ha¹, e com acetochlor na dose de 1.536 g ha-1. Esses tratamentos foram comparados aos padrões comerciais: isoxaflutole (112,5 g ha-1), tebuthiuron (1.000 g ha-1), sulfentrazone (800 g ha-1) e diuron + hexazinone (1.500 g ha-1). Mantiveram-se as testemunhas capinada e infestada. Todos os herbicidas foram seletivos aos cultivares de cana-de-açúcar testados (RB 845257 e RB 855536). O herbicida flazasulfuron, bem como alguns padrões comerciais, proporcionou ótimos níveis de controle das plantas daninhas onde o solo se encontrava com bons teores de água nesse período. Os resultados foram insatisfatórios - sobretudo para o flazasulfuron isolado ou em misturas com ametrine, acetochlor e diuron - para o controle de P. maximum e B. plantaginea em solo com menor teor de água na superfície. Com a dose de 37,5 g ha-1 do flazasulfuron, o controle de B. plantaginea aos 90 dias após a aplicação, foi de 42,5% em função da redução do teor de água de 22% (CC) a 7,1%, na camada de 0 a 2,5 cm do solo. O controle aumentou para 97,5% quando a variação foi de 25% a 21%.The efficacy and selectivity of the herbicide flazasulfuron, applied on Panicum maximum, Brachiaria plantaginea, and Digitaria horizontalis and sugarcane plants were evaluated during pre emergence under different soil surface water content conditions after the first five days of application. The following isolated Flazasulfuron rates were tested: 37.5, 50.0 and 75.0 g ha-1. The smallest rate (37.5 g ha-1) was mixed with 1000.0 g ha-1 ametrine or diuron and with 1536.0 g ha-1 acetochlor rates. All flazasulfuron rates alone or mixed were compared with the commercial herbicides isoxaflutole (112.5 g ha-1), tebuthiuron (1000 g ha-1), sulfentrazone (800 g ha-1), and diuron + hexazinone (1500 g ha-1), plus two checks, with and without weeds. All the herbicides were selective to the tested sugarcane plant cultivars RB 845257 and RB 855536. Flazasulfuron and some commercial herbicides provided excellent weed control in moist surface soil. Unsatisfactory results for P. maximum and B. plantaginea control in dry surface soil were obtained with flazasulfuron alone or mixed with ametrine, acetochlor and diuron. Flazasulfuron herbicide with the rate of 37.5 g ha-1 to B. plantaginea controlled 42.5% when the reduction of soil water content was 22% to 7% in the 0-2.5 cm layer. The control increased to 97.5% when the variation of soil water content was 25% to 21%, ninety days after application.

Com o objetivo de estudar a influência do momento da chuva após a aplicação do herbicida glyphosate isolado e em mistura com adjuvantes na dessecação de plantas daninhas, foram instalados dois experimentos na Fazenda Experimental de Ensino e Pesquisa da Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, UNESP - campus de Jaboticabal-SP, em duas épocas: inverno de 2000 (junho - agosto) e verão de 2001 (janeiro-março). Os experimentos foram instalados no delineamento experimental de blocos ao acaso, em arranjo fatorial 4 (tratamentos herbicidas) x 5 (períodos livres de chuva simulada) + 1, com quatro repetições. Os tratamentos consistiram da combinação de glyphosate SAqC (360 g e.a. ha-1) isolado ou adicionado de uréia (50 g L-1 de calda) ou óleo vegetal (100 ml L-1 de calda) ou sulfato de amônio (100 g L-1 de calda), com cinco períodos de chuva simulada (1, 2, 4, 6 e > 48 horas após a aplicação), além de uma testemunha. A chuva foi simulada com um sistema de irrigação por aspersão, e a quantidade aplicada variou entre 18 e 19 mm. Em ambas as épocas a chuva foi prejudicial à ação do glyphosate, principalmente nos menores períodos livres de chuva após a aplicação. Os sintomas de fitointoxicação apareceram mais rapidamente no verão. A utilização de adjuvantes na calda de pulverização não beneficiou o desempenho do herbicida glyphosate no controle das plantas daninhas, no inverno. A adição de uréia (50 g L¹) é uma boa alternativa para o controle de plantas daninhas, no verão, em situações sujeitas à chuva até duas horas após a aplicação.The objective of this research was to evaluate the effects of the moment of rain on the activity of the herbicide glyphosate, applied alone and in combination with surfactants, on two growing seasons (winter and summer); at FCAV-UNESP Experimental Station, Jaboticabal-SP, Brazil,, during 2000/2001. The winter experiment was installed from June to August 2000 and the summer one from January to March 2001. The treatments were glyphosate SAqC (360 g e.a. ha-1), alone or in combination with urea (50 g L-1), vegetable oil (100 ml L-1) or ammonium sulfate (100 g L-1), and five periods of simulated rainfall (1, 2, 4, 6 or 48 hours after application) and a check treatment. The experimental design was set up in a randomized block factorial, 5 (herbicides) x 6 (moment of rain) + 1 (controls treatment), with four replications. The artificial rain was provided by a top irrigation system supplying 18-19 mm rain during one hour. The artificial rain reduced the glyphosate action, mainly in the earlier periods. The herbicide symptoms appeared sooner in the summer trial. The use of surfactants in the spray mixture did not improve the performance of glyphosate on weed control during the winter. The addition of urea (50 g L-1), is a good alternative for weed control during summer, when rainfall is expected after the application.

Com o objetivo de estudar a influência da chuva sobre o desempenho dos herbicidas sulfosate e glyphosate em diferentes formulações, foram conduzidos dois experimentos, um no inverno de 2000 e outro no verão de 2001, na Fazenda Experimental de Ensino e Pesquisa da Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Campus de Jaboticabal-SP. Os experimentos foram instalados segundo o delineamento experimental de blocos ao acaso, com quatro repetições, no arranjo fatorial de 4x5+1, ou seja, quatro tratamentos de herbicidas, cinco períodos sem chuva após a aplicação e uma testemunha, que não recebeu chuva. As formulações de glyphosate foram: SAqC (1,0 L ha-1), GrDA (0,5 kg ha-1), SAqC Transorb (0,75 L ha-1), mais o sulfosate SAqC (1,09 L ha¹). Os períodos sem chuva após a aplicação foram de 1, 2, 4, 6 e > 48 horas. Os herbicidas foram aplicados em pós-emergência das plantas daninhas, utilizando-se de um pulverizador costal, à pressão constante (mantida por ar comprimido) de 30 lbf pol-2. A chuva foi simulada com um sistema de irrigação por aspersão. A lâmina de água variou entre 18 e 19 mm. Em ambas as épocas, a chuva simulada foi prejudicial à ação dos herbicidas, principalmente quando feita nos menores intervalos após a aplicação. Os sintomas de fitointoxicação apareceram mais rapidamente no verão. A formulação Transorb, comercializada como não sendo afetada pela chuva uma hora após a aplicação, não teve o desempenho esperado, tanto no inverno quanto no verão, para períodos de até seis horas sem chuva após a aplicação. O sulfosate apresentou o melhor controle geral das plantas avaliadas, quando se simulou chuva após seis horas, em ambas as épocas. A formulação GrDA foi a mais afetada pela ação da chuva em ambas as épocas.Two field assays were carried out to evaluate the rainfall effects on sulfosate and glyphosate herbicide activity, using different formulations, under two growing seasons (winter and summer). The experiments were conducted at the FCAV/UNESP Experimental Station, Jaboticabel, Brazil, during 2000/01. The formulations were glyphosate SA (1.0 L ha-1), WG (0.5 L ha-1), Transorb (0.75 L ha-1) and sulfosate SA (1.09 L ha-1). In the field, all the trials were arranged in a randomized block experimental design, with four replications. The treatments were arranged in factorial design 5 x 4 + 1 factors, with five periods between the herbicide spraying and the rain incidence (1, 2, 4, 6 and > 48 h), plus one control treatment. The herbicide treatments were applied using a back spraying, with six nozzles DG 11002, spaced by 0.5 m, at 30 p.s.i. constant pression. Artificial rain was provided by a top irrigation system raining 18-19 mm during one hour. The artificial rain reduced glyphosate action, mainly in the shorter periods between herbicide application and the rain incidence. The herbicide symptoms appeared quicker in the summer trials. The Transorb formulation (advertised as not affected by rain one hour after spraying) had the phytointoxication symptoms reduced by the rain up to six hours after spraying, both in the summer and winter. The herbicide sulfosate promoted better control when the rain occurred six hours after spraying, in both seasons.

With the increasing research focus on light field imaging in recent years, it has become essential for researchers in this field to either benefit from access to equipped laboratories with light field acquisition devices and displays or to have access to publicly available light field imaging datasets. Some datasets are indeed available, each with a different nature. For instance, some contain real world images or sources while others are based on purely synthetic images or sources generated by computer graphic tools; others are a combination of both. Datasets for the quality assessment of light field content include pristine light field content as well as sources affected by different levels of impairments. The latter are tested subjectively by a panel of viewers and often objective metrics are also calculated. This paper presents a comprehensive comparative review of 33 publicly available datasets that span from content-only datasets to specific task based datasets and quality assessment datasets. While our aim is to review and investigate what each dataset has to offer and which tests had been considered by their proposers, we also take the opportunity to leverage the results of previous studies to identify and discuss the challenges ahead and identify the areas with potential for improvement.

Neuromorphic Vision Sensors (NVSs) are emerging sensors that acquire visual information asynchronously when changes occur in the scene. Their advantages versus synchronous capturing (frame-based video) include a low power consumption, a high dynamic range, an extremely high temporal resolution, and lower data rates. Although the acquisition strategy already results in much lower data rates than conventional video, NVS data can be further compressed. For this purpose, we recently proposed Time Aggregation-based Lossless Video Encoding for Neuromorphic Vision Sensor Data (TALVEN), consisting in the time aggregation of NVS events in the form of pixel-based event histograms, arrangement of the data in a specific format, and lossless compression inspired by video encoding. In this paper, we still leverage time aggregation but, rather than performing encoding inspired by frame-based video coding, we encode an appropriate representation of the time-aggregated data via point-cloud compression (similar to another one of our previous works, where time aggregation was not used). The proposed strategy, Time-Aggregated Lossless Encoding of Events based on Point-Cloud Compression (TALEN-PCC), outperforms the originally proposed TALVEN encoding strategy for the content in the considered dataset. The gain in terms of the compression ratio is the highest for low-event rate and low-complexity scenes, whereas the improvement is minimal for high-complexity and high-event rate scenes. According to experiments on outdoor and indoor spike event data, TALEN-PCC achieves higher compression gains for time aggregation intervals of more than 5 ms. However, the compression gains are lower when compared to state-of-the-art approaches for time aggregation intervals of less than 5 ms.

The multimedia delivery chain consists of multiple stages such as content preparation, content delivery via Over-The-Top delivery network and Internet Service Providers network. Within the multimedia service chain, each stage influences the Quality of Experience (QoE) of the end user. The objective of this work is to provide a comprehensive literature survey with future research challenges and opportunities in the field of time-varying video quality in multimedia service delivery. The contribution of this work is two fold: 1) Survey – we provide a review of state-of-the-art works for video quality models to quantify multiple artifacts into a single QoE metric, pooling strategies for global quality measurements, and Continuous Time-Varying Quality (CTVQ) models; 2) Future Challenges and Directions – we investigate ten major research challenges and future directions based on the state-of-the-art for QoE modelling, QoE-aware encoding/decoding and QoE monitoring/management of multimedia streaming in next-generation networks.

Using subjective testing, we study the effect of the network parameters, delay and packet loss ratio, on the QoE of cloud gaming. We studied three different games, selected based on genre, popularity, content complexity and pace, and tested them in a controlled network environment, using a novel emulator to create realistic lognormal delay distributions instead of relying on a static mean delay, as used previously; we also used Parsec as a good representative of the state of the art. We captured user ratings on an ordinal Absolute Category Rating scale for three quality dimensions: Video QoE, Game-Playability QoE, and Overall QoE. We show that Mean Opinion Scores (MOS) for the game with the highest levels of content complexity and pace are most severely affected by network impairments. We also show that the QoE of interactive cloud applications rely more on the game playability than the video quality of the game. Unlike earlier studies, the differences in MOS are validated using the distributions of the underlying dimensions. A Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test showed that the distributions of Video QoE and Game Playability QoE are not significantly different.

Dynamic Vision Sensors (DVS) are emerging retinomorphic visual capturing devices, with great advantages over conventional vision sensors in terms of wide dynamic range, low power consumption, and high temporal resolution. The bio-inspired approach of the DVS results in lower data rates than conventional vision sensors. Still, such data can be further compressed. Compression of DVS data is an emerging research area and a detailed performance comparison of different compression strategies for these data is still missing. This paper addresses lossless compression strategies for data output by neuromorphic visual sensors. We compare the performance of a number of strategies, including the only strategy developed specifically for such data and other more generic data compression strategies, tailored here to the case of neuromorphic data. We perform the comparison in terms of compression ratio, as well as compression and decompression speed and latency. Moreover, the compression performance analysis is performed under diverse scenarios including stationary and mobile DVS. According to the detailed experimental analysis, Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain algorithm (LZMA) achieves the best compression ratios among all the considered strategies for the case when the DVS is static. On the other hand, Spike coding achieves the best compression ratios under the scenario when spike events are produced by a sensor in motion. However, both strategies result in low compression speed and high latency which restrict the applications of these strategies in real-time scenarios. The Brotli strategy achieves the best trade-off between compression ratio, speed and latency under static as well as mobile scenarios. We also observe a significant decrease in compression and decompression performance (in terms of ratio, speed and latency) of all the strategies under mobile DVS scenarios.

Objectively assessing the perceptual quality of an ocular fundus image is essential for the reliable diagnosis of various ocular diseases. A fair amount of work has been done in this field to date. However, the generalizability of the current work is limited, as the existing quality models were developed and evaluated with data-sets built with limited subjective inputs. This paper aims at addressing this limitation with the following two contributions. First, a new fundus image quality assessment (FIQuA) data-set is presented, containing 1500 fundus images with three classes of quality: Good, Fair, and Poor. Also, for each image, subjective scores (in the range [0-10]) were collected for six quality parameters, including structural and generic properties of the fundus images. Second, a new multivariate regression based convolutional neural network (CNN) model is proposed to predict the fundus image quality. The proposed model consists of two individually trained blocks. The first block consists of four pre-trained models, trained against the subjective scores for the six quality parameters, and aims at deriving the optimized features for classification. Next, the optimized features from each of the four models are ensembled together and transferred to the second block for final classification. The proposed model achieves a strong correlation with the subjective scores, with the values 0.941, 0.954, 0.853, and 0.401 obtained for SROCC, LCC, KCC, and RMSE respectively. Its classification accuracy is 95.66% over the FIQuA data-set, and 98.96% and 88.43% respectively over the two publicly available data-sets DRIMDB and EyeQ.

Inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) are widely used to treat hypertension. Using mice harboring fluorescent cell lineage tracers, single-cell RNA-Seq, and long-term inhibition of RAS in both mice and humans, we found that deletion of renin or inhibition of the RAS leads to concentric thickening of the intrarenal arteries and arterioles. This severe disease was caused by the multiclonal expansion and transformation of renin cells from a classical endocrine phenotype to a matrix-secretory phenotype: the cells surrounded the vessel walls and induced the accumulation of adjacent smooth muscle cells and extracellular matrix, resulting in blood flow obstruction, focal ischemia, and fibrosis. Ablation of the renin cells via conditional deletion of β1 integrin prevented arteriolar hypertrophy, indicating that renin cells are responsible for vascular disease. Given these findings, prospective morphological studies in humans are necessary to determine the extent of renal vascular damage caused by the widespread use of inhibitors of the RAS.

At the time of writing this paper, light field visualization has entered the professional environments in the industry and has also become commercially available. It is not yet present on the consumer market, however, and its widespread emergence is expected in the following decade, with affordable end user devices and a vast variety of applications and contents. The successful integration of this technology into people’s everyday lives essentially depends on the visualization quality, which is achieved through excellence in terms of the key performance indicators of the display system and the content it visualizes. In this paper, the key performance indicators of light field visualization for both display and content are reviewed. Beyond providing a comprehensive review of the vital parameters of visualization quality, this paper discusses the ongoing and future relevant research efforts, demonstrates the practical uses of the technology, highlights certain dependencies between the indicators, and addresses issues of perceived quality with regard to the lack of compliance with the requirements and visual thresholds.

With the recent increased usage of video services, the focus has recently shifted from the traditional quality of service-based video delivery to quality of experience (QoE)-based video delivery. Over the past 15 years, many video quality assessment metrics have been proposed with the goal to predict the video quality as perceived by the end user. HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) has recently gained much attention and is currently used by the majority of video streaming services, such as Netflix and YouTube. HAS, using reliable transport protocols, such as TCP, does not suffer from image artifacts due to packet losses, which are common in traditional streaming technologies. Hence, the QoE models developed for other streaming technologies alone are not sufficient. Recently, many works have focused on developing QoE models targeting HAS-based applications. Also, the recently published ITU-T Recommendation series P.1203 proposes a parametric bitstream-based model for the quality assessment of progressive download and adaptive audiovisual streaming services over a reliable transport. The main contribution of this paper is to present a comprehensive overview of recent and currently undergoing works in the field of QoE modeling for HAS. The HAS QoE models, influence factors, and subjective test methodologies are discussed, as well as existing challenges and shortcomings. The survey can serve as a guideline for researchers interested in QoE modeling for HAS and also discusses possible future work.

Recent years have seen increasing growth and popularity of gaming services, both interactive and passive. While interactive gaming video streaming applications have received much attention, passive gaming video streaming, in-spite of its huge success and growth in recent years, has seen much less interest from the research community. For the continued growth of such services in the future, it is imperative that the end user gaming quality of experience (QoE) is estimated so that it can be controlled and maximized to ensure user acceptance. Previous quality assessment studies have shown not so satisfactory performance of existing No-reference (NR) video quality assessment (VQA) metrics. Also, due to the inherent nature and different requirements of gaming video streaming applications, as well as the fact that gaming videos are perceived differently from non-gaming content (as they are usually computer generated and contain artificial/synthetic content), there is a need for application-specific light-weight, no-reference gaming video quality prediction models. In this paper, we present two NR machine learning-based quality estimation models for gaming video streaming, NR-GVSQI, and NR-GVSQE, using NR features, such as bitrate, resolution, and temporal information. We evaluate their performance on different gaming video datasets and show that the proposed models outperform the current state-of-the-art no-reference metrics, while also reaching a prediction accuracy comparable to the best known full reference metric.

A 14-year-old male teen presented with unilateral episcleritis, unresponsive to topical and systemic corticosteroid therapy, without a history of ocular trauma or evidence for systemic diseases. The presence of foreign bodies in the conjunctival mucus of the hyperemic fornix has been noticed during one of the follow-up examinations. The toxicological analysis of conjunctival mucus revealed the presence of ethylene glycolmonomethyl ether and triethilene glicolebuthyl ether, used as solvents in nail polish removers and all-purpose cleaners. An unexpected etiology of chemical self-inflicted episcleritis was determined. The teen was admitted to a psychological assessment, after which a psychotherapeutic treatment was recommended. Episcleritis is characterized by the acute onset of ocular pain and redness, with a frequent recurrent and stressful course. Since it can be associated with life-threatening systemic vasculitides, a prompt, aggressive immunosuppressive therapy may be considered, both for the ocular inflammation and for the underlying systemic condition. Rarely episcleritis does not improve despite topical and systemic therapy, administered in a stepladder way. The reported teenager case needed a complex multidisciplinary approach to achieve the correct diagnosis and to avoid unnecessary treatments. In the case of recognized “nonsuicidal self-injury,” a psychological evaluation is strongly recommended, to identify and address underlying neuropsychiatric problems.

In heterogeneous networks (HetNets), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has recently been proposed for hybrid-access small-cells, promising a manifold network capacity compared to OMA. One of the major issues with the installation of a hybrid-access mechanism in small-cells is the cross-tier interference (intercell interference (ICI)) caused by the macrocell users (MUs) that are unable to establish a connection to the small-cell base station (SBS). In this paper, a joint strategy is proposed for hybrid-access small-cells using the Walsh–Hadamard transform (WHT) with NOMA and interference rejection combining (IRC) to achieve high performance gains and mitigate intercell interference (ICI), respectively. WHT is applied mathematically as an orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF) to achieve diversity in communication systems. When applied jointly with NOMA, it ensures better performance gains than the conventional NOMA. It reduces the bit error rate (BER) and enhances subsequent throughput performance of the system. IRC is used at the receiver side for managing the cross-tier interference caused by MUs that are unable to connect to the small-cell base station (SBS) for hybrid-access. The work considers both ideal and nonideal successive interference cancellation (SIC) conditions for NOMA. Mathematical modeling is provided for the proposed joint strategy for HetNets and the results validate it in terms of BER and subsequent user throughput performance, compared to the conventional NOMA approach.

Organotins are a group of chemical compounds that have a tin atom covalently bound to one or more organic groups. The best-studied organotin is tributyltin chloride, which is an environmental pollutant and an endocrine disruptor. Tributyltin chloride has been shown to bind to PPARγ/RXRα and induces adipogenesis in different mammalian cells. However, there are few studies with other organotin compounds, such as dibutyltins. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of dibutyltins diacetate, dichloride, dilaurate, and maleate on the transcriptional activity of the nuclear PPARγ and RXRα receptors, and on adipogenesis and inflammation. Analogous to tributyltin chloride, in reporter gene assay using HeLa cells, we observed that dibutyltins diacetate, dichloride, dilaurate, and maleate are partial agonists of PPARγ. Unlike tributyltin chloride, which is a full agonist of RXRα, dibutyltins dichloride and dilaurate are partial RXRα agonists. Additionally, the introduction of the C285S mutation, which disrupts tributyltin chloride binding to PPARγ, abrogated the dibutyltin agonistic activity. In 3T3-L1 preadipocytes, all dibutyltin induced adipogenesis, although the effect was less pronounced than that of rosiglitazone and tributyltin chloride. This adipogenic effect was confirmed by the expression of adipogenic markers Fabp4, Adipoq, and Glut4. Exposure of 3T3-L1 cells with dibutyltin in the presence of T0070907, a specific PPARγ antagonist, reduced fat accumulation, suggesting that adipogenic effect occurs through PPARγ. Furthermore, dibutyltins dichloride, dilaurate, and maleate inhibited the expression of proinflammatory genes in 3T3-L1 cells, such as Vcam1, Dcn, Fn1, S100a8, and Lgals9. Additionally, in RAW 264.7 macrophages, tributyltin chloride and dibutyltin dilaurate reduced LPS-stimulated TNFα expression. Our findings indicate that dibutyltins diacetate, dichloride, dilaurate, and maleate are PPARγ partial agonists and that dibutyltins dichloride and dilaurate are also partial RXRα agonists. Furthermore, dibutyltins induce adipogenesis in a PPARγ-dependent manner and repress inflammatory genes in 3T3-L1 and RAW 264.7 cells. Although dibutyltins display some partial PPARγ/RXRα agonistic effects, the translation of cell-based results assays into in vivo effects on inflammation and insulin resistance is not entirely known. Nevertheless, further studies are necessary to address their effects in different periods of life and to elucidate the actions of organostanic compounds in whole-body context.

Silicon retinas, also known as Dynamic Vision Sensors (DVS) or event-based visual sensors, have shown great advantages in terms of low power consumption, low bandwidth, wide dynamic range and very high temporal resolution. Owing to such advantages as compared to conventional vision sensors, DVS devices are gaining more and more attention in various applications such as drone surveillance, robotics, high-speed motion photography, etc. The output of such sensors is a sequence of events rather than a series of frames as for classical cameras. Estimating the data rate of the stream of events associated with such sensors is needed for the appropriate design of transmission systems involving such sensors. In this work, we propose to consider information about the scene content and sensor speed to support such estimation, and we identify suitable metrics to quantify the complexity of the scene for this purpose. According to the results of this study, the event rate shows an exponential relationship with the metric associated with the complexity of the scene and linear relationships with the speed of the sensor. Based on these results, we propose a two-parameter model for the dependency of the event rate on scene complexity and sensor speed. The model achieves a prediction accuracy of approximately 88.4% for the outdoor environment along with the overall prediction performance of approximately 84%.

Future wireless video transmission systems will consider orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) as the basic modulation technique due to its robustness and low complexity implementation in the presence of frequency-selective channels. Recently, adaptive bit loading techniques have been applied to OFDM showing good performance gains in cable transmission systems. In this paper a multilayer bit loading technique, based on the so called “ordered subcarrier selection algorithm,” is proposed and applied to a Hiperlan2-like wireless system at 5 GHz for efficient layered multimedia transmission. Different schemes realizing unequal error protection both at coding and modulation levels are compared. The strong impact of this technique in terms of video quality is evaluated for MPEG-4 video transmission.

The most recent network technologies are enabling a variety of new applications, thanks to the provision of increased bandwidth and better management of Quality of Service. Nevertheless, telemedical services involving multimedia data are still lagging behind, due to the concern of the end users, that is, clinicians and also patients, about the low quality provided. Indeed, emerging network technologies should be appropriately exploited by designing the transmission strategy focusing on quality provision for end users. Stemming from this principle, we propose here a context-aware transmission strategy for medical video transmission over WiMAX systems. Context, in terms of regions of interest (ROI) in a specific session, is taken into account for the identification of multiple regions of interest, and compression/transmission strategies are tailored to such context information. We present a methodology based on H.264 medical video compression and Flexible Macroblock Ordering (FMO) for ROI identification. Two different unequal error protection methodologies, providing higher protection to the most diagnostically relevant data, are presented.

A series of multimedia monographs concerning the main seismic events that have affected the Italian territory are in the process of being produced for the Documental Integrated Multimedia Project (DIMP) started by the Italian National Seismic Survey (NSS). The purpose of the project is to reconstruct the historical record of earthquakes and promote an earthquake public education. Producing the monographs. developed in ARC INFO and working in UNIX. involved designing a special filing and management methodology to integrate heterogeneous information (images, papers, cartographies, etc.). This paper describes the possibilities of a GIS (Geographic Information System) in the filing and management of documental information. As an example we present the first monograph on the 1883 Casamicciola earthquake. on the island of Ischia (Campania, Italy). This earthquake is particularly interesting for the following reasons: I) historical-cultural context (first destructive seismic event after the unification of Italy); 2) its features (volcanic earthquake); 3) the socioeconomic consequences caused at such an important seaside resort.