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The generation of stable trains of ultra-short (fs–ps), terahertz (THz)-frequency radiation pulses, with large instantaneous intensities, is an underpinning requirement for the investigation of light-matter interactions, for metrology and for ultra-high-speed communications. In solid-state electrically-pumped lasers, the primary route for generating short pulses is through passive mode-locking. However, this has not yet been achieved in the THz range, defining one of the longest standing goals over the last two decades. In fact, the realization of passive mode-locking has long been assumed to be inherently hindered by the fast recovery times associated with the intersubband gain of THz lasers. Here, we demonstrate a self-starting miniaturized short pulse THz laser, exploiting an original device architecture that includes the surface patterning of multilayer-graphene saturable absorbers distributed along the entire cavity of a double metal semiconductor 2.30–3.55 THz wire laser. Self-starting pulsed emission with 4.0-ps long pulses in a compact, all-electronic, all-passive and inexpensive configuration is demonstrated.

AIM The aim of this study was to determinate how orthognatic surgery aids to cure many skull and face abnormalities and to help re-establishing the correct occlusive relation thanks to the repositioning of the maxillo-mandibular skeleton basis. METHODS The study included 183 male patients and 338 female patients, with an average age of 23 years. The sample series was divided according to specific pathologies. All patients underwent surgical procedures and the therapeutic strategy was determined based on the anomalies presented. RESULTS 113 patients had a II class dental skeletal occlusion, 180 patients had a III class dental-skeletal occlusion and 222 patients had skull-facial abnormalities. 5 patients underwent only a genioplasty, 82 patients underwent a genioplasty associated with BSSO, 175 patients underwent a genioplasty associated with Le Fort I osteotomy and the remaining 253 patients underwent a genioplasty associated with BSSO and Le Fort I osteotomy. CONCLUSION The experience shows that genioplasty has been successfully introduced in orthognathic surgical therapeutic procedures, for dental-skeleton abnormalities and mandibular asymmetries treatment. In recent years, the evolution of computer systems has allowed an accurate assessment and programming, by means of the three-dimensional display, which are of great help in the course of diagnosis and evaluation of the displacements to be carried out, in order to obtain optimal aesthetic results.

We present results of a field trial carried on Telecom Italia EDFA-only legacy link with 0.3 dB/km average fiber attenuation. Single carrier 200G WDM DP-4QAM, DP-8QAM and DP-16QAM were successfully transmitted with system margin of 4.1 dB, 4.3 dB and 2.6 dB respectively

Aims The aim of this paper is to describe the surgical experience of 35 patients with Inverted Papilloma (IP) of paranasal sinuses and its recurrence rate after a year of follow-up. Materials A retrospective chart review was performed on patients presenting with IP of paranasal sinuses. Thirty-five patients comprised the focus of this study. For all patients was performed a pre-surgery TC, and for more 5 patients it was necessary to perform a Magnetic Resonance (MR) with gadolinium. Results Among 35 patients selected, 18 patients underwent to open surgery, 4 patients had a combined approach with endoscopy and open surgery, while 13 patients were managed only with an endoscopic approach, with a minimum of 1 year of follow-up. Our results highlighted that the global percentage of success 12 months after the treatment was 93% and it not vary according to the tipology of the approach used if a radical excision of the lesion is achieved. More in depth, among 35 cases, only 2 patients were found to have recurrences and were treated with coronal and endoscopic approach. Conclusion It is fundamental to underline that surgery must be carried on in a radical manner to treat these tend to recur. A complete removal of the lesion and bone peripheral border filing are essential to perform a correct and definitive treatment. Also, endoscopic approach can be taken into account when tumors are localized median to a sagittal plan crossing the orbit median wall and when they did not massively compromised paranasal sinus walls.

Background Salivary gland disorders include disorder of immune system, inflammatory, bacterial, viral, and neoplastic etiologies. Diagnosis is made by radiological examinations (ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography) and biopsy of salivary glands. Minimally invasive biopsy, such as Fine-needle aspiration (FNA), are commonly used in the diagnosis of salivary gland disorders. Submucosal minor salivary gland biopsy should be done if the diagnosis of Sjogren syndrome (SS) cannot be made by history and serologic testing. Fine-needle aspiration is widely applied in the preoperative diagnosis of salivary gland lesions. Distinguishing neoplastic from non-neoplastic lesions and benign from malignant tumors of the salivary glands is extremely important for medical and surgical management of salivary gland disorders. Aims The aim of this study was to provide a systematic review of the literature to analyze the role and several aspects of minimally invasive biopsy of salivary gland disorders. Methods A systematic bibliographic search of the medical literature between January 2011 and January 2016 was conducted using electronic databases of National Library of Medicine (Medline). The bibliographic search was carried out with combination of this medical subject heading terms and text words: salivary gland, biopsy, minimal invasive biopsy, histological findings and fine-needle aspiration. For the inclusion on this review, studies had to evaluate several aspect of biopsy of salivary glands. The authors to determine the eligibility on this study performed an independent review of the finding data. Results The PubMed search identified 161 items. After a first evaluation, 57 full-text articles were finally selected for further evaluation. Of these 57 articles, 38 were excluded because they did not completely meet the inclusion criteria, whereas 19 were considered eligible for this review study. Conclusions The advantages of minimally invasive biopsy of salivary glands include decreased tissue damage, no need for anesthesia, and repeated sampling when specimens are insufficient after immediate assessment at the examination site. A biopsy of salivary glands offers valuable information for planning of subsequent therapeutic management. Fine-needle aspiration is a safe diagnostic technique that has a high specificity and sensitivity for the assessment of salivary gland disorders. The sensitivity and specificity reported is high for infective, immunological and benign lesions, whereas it decreases in cases of malignant tumors for the great variety of morphological patterns found in malignant salivary gland tumors. Disclosure of Interest None declared

Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychological well-being (PWB) during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in workers of a multinational company. Methods: Employees (aged ≥ 18 years) were recruited from Latin American, North American, New Zealand and European sites of a multinational company operative during all the pandemic period. The self-reported Psychological General Well Being Index (PGWBI) was employed to assess the global PWB and the effects on 6 sub-domains: anxiety, depressed mood, positive well-being, self-control, general health and vitality. The influencing role of age, gender, geographical location, COVID-19 epidemiology, and restrictive measures adopted to control the pandemic was explored. Results: A total of 1335 workers completed the survey. The aggregate median PWB global score was in a positive range, with significantly better outcomes detected in the Mexican and Colombian Latin American sites compared to the other worldwide countries (p

Germanium quantum dots are very interesting for applications such as solar cells, photodetectors, and light emitters because their small bandgap can be tuned over a wide energy range by changing the particle size. One obstacle to applications is the presence of defects, both in the interior and at the surface of the nanoparticles. The defects function as nonradiative recombination centers or trap charge carriers, which will hinder further optical performance. Introducing hydrogen, as employed in a-Si:H solar cells, has proven to be a good method to counter such detrimental defect effects. In this work, germanium quantum dots were fabricated by an ultraclean, vacuum-based nanoparticle reactor in which hydrogen was supplied during growth. Optical spectroscopy of the a-Ge:H quantum dots, together with Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, revealed a direct bandgap and that the presence of hydrogen resulted in amorphous Ge:H quantum dots. These a-Ge:H quantum dots are a step forward toward reducing charge carrier recombination in quantum dot solar cells.

Single prolonged stress (SPS) is an experimental model that recapitulates in rodents some of the core symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although women have a two-fold greater risk to develop PTSD, most preclinical studies have been carried out in males. Furthermore, the long-term effects of behavioral alterations induced by SPS have been rarely investigated. Here, we evaluated the long-term effects of SPS on PTSD-relevant behavioral domains in rats and whether these effects were sex-dependent. To this aim, separate cohorts of male and female adult rats were subjected to SPS and, 30 days later, long-term effects were assessed. We found that SPS exposure reduced locomotor activity in both sexes in an open field task. Males only showed increased anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze and marble burying tests, enhanced acoustic startle response and impaired spatial memory retention while females were unaffected. SPS exposure did not alter auditory fear memory dynamics in males, but it did alter extinction retrieval in females. We provide the first evidence that SPS reproduces long-term emotional alterations in male, but not in female, rats which were observed 30 days following trauma exposure, thus resembling some of the hallmark symptoms of PTSD. Furthermore, our results show for the first time a long-term SPS-induced alteration of cued fear extinction in females. Our findings are relevant to future research on trauma-related disorders and may help develop sex-specific interventions to treat PTSD.