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Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia associated with an increased risk of stroke and thromboembolism. Anticoagulation with Vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) or with novel oral anti-coagulants (NOACs) represents the cornerstone of the pharmacological treatment to reduce the risk of thromboembolism. This study aims to provide real-world data from a whole large European country about NOAC use in “non-valvular atrial fibrillation” (NVAF). Methods: We analysed the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) monitoring registries collecting data of a nationwide cohort of patients with “NVAF” treated with NOACs. Using logistic regression analysis, baseline characteristics and treatment discontinuation information were compared among initiators of the 4 NOACs. Results: In the reference period, the NOAC database collected data for 683,172 patients. The median age was 78 years with 19.5% aged 85 or older. Overall, the treatments were in accordance with guidelines. About 1/3 of patients switched from a prior VKA treatment; in the 72.3% of cases, these patients had a labile International Normalized Ratio (INR) at first prescription. The most prescribed NOAC was rivaroxaban, followed by apixaban, dabigatran and edoxaban. Conclusions: This study is the largest European real-world study ever published on NOACs. It includes all Italian patients treated with NOACs since 2013 accounting for about 1/3 of subjects with AF. The enrolled population consisted of very elderly patients, at high risk of ischemic adverse events. The AIFA registries are consolidated tools that guarantee the appropriateness of prescription and provide important information for the governance of National Health System by collecting real-world data. Keywords: Monitoring registries, Real world data, NOACs, AF, Appropriateness

The interfacial adsorption properties of polar/apolar inducers of cell differentiation (PAIs) were studied on a mercury electrode. This study, on a clean and reproducible charged surface, unraveled the purely physical interactions among these compounds and the surface, apart from the complexity of the biological membrane. The interfacial behavior of two classical inducers, hexamethylenebisacetamide (HMBA) and dimethylsulfoxide, was compared with that of a typical apolar aliphatic compound, 1-octanol, that has a similar hydrophobic moiety as HMBA but a much smaller dipolar moment. Both HMBA and Octanol adsorb flat in contact with the surface because of hydrophobic forces, with a very similar free energy of adsorption. However, the ratio of polar to apolar moieties in PAIs turned out to be crucial to drive the adsorption maximum toward physiological values of surface charge density, where octanol is desorbed. The electrostatic effects in the interfacial region reflected the adsorption properties: the changes in the potential drop across the interfacial region as a function of the surface charge density, in the physiological range, were opposite in PAIs as compared with apolar aliphatic compounds, as exemplified by octanol. This peculiar electrostatic effect of PAIs has far-reaching relevance for the design of inducers with an adequate therapeutic index to be used in clinical trials.

By use of extensive simulation, it is shown how a spread of the aluminium metallization over the interacthodic field oxide sensibly lowers the electric field at reverse biased p + n junctions, thus allowing use of higher drift fields. Based on the simulation results, the layout of a few test structures implementing alternative technological choices has been defined. The fabrication of these prototype detectors is presently in progress.

Valentina Discepolo1,∗, Romain Bouziat2, Jennifer Stencel3, Mine Ikizler3, Giuliana Lania4, Merlin Nanayakkara1, Alessandra Carrella1, Marialaura Cuomo1, Katia Ferrara1, Renata Auricchio1, Riccardo Troncone1, Maria Vittoria Barone1, Terence Dermody3, Luis Bruno Barreiro5, Bana Jabri2 1 Dipartimento Scienze Mediche Traslazionali, Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Napoli, Italy 2 Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA 3 Elizabeth B. Lamb Center for Pediatric Research, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA 4 Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche Traslazionali, Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Napoli, Italy 5 Department of Pediatrics, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

s / Digestive and Liver Disease 45 (2013) e263–e311 e279 in a very early stage. Deposit’s features are correlated with Marsh grading but independent from serum levels of anti-TG2 IgA.

The study enrolled 590 patients presenting with the following characteristics: age 0–14 years; diagnosis of CD based on ESPGHAN criteria. The symptoms have been divided into types: classic (chronic diarrhea, abdominal distension, weight loss, celiac crisis) and non-classic, further divided into gastrointestinal (irritable bowel syndrome, recurrent abdominal pain, growth delay, vomiting, poor appetite, constipation) and extra-gastrointestinal (puberal delay, dental enamel defects, irritability, hypertransaminasemia, anemia, headache, vertigo, aphtous stomatitis, sideropenia). Results: The study group included 221 males [average age 78±44 (SD) months] and 369 females [average age 70±43 (SD) months], with a M:F ratio of 1:1.7. Based on clinical, immunological and histological features, patients have been classified as follows: 186 cases of CD with classic symptoms (32%); 252 cases of CD with non-classic symptoms (43%); 103 cases of silent CD (17%) and 49 cases of potential CD (8%). By analyzing the percentage of different clinical forms in three periods of time (1985–1993, 1994–2002 and 2003–2013), we have obtained these results: CD with classic symptoms 76% vs 33% vs 30%; CD with non-classic symptoms 18% vs 42% vs 44%; silent CD 6% vs 13% vs 19%. Potential CD cases have had an inconstant trend (0% vs 12% vs 8%). Taking into account the biopsy-confirmed celiac patients, mild villous atrophy (Marsh 3a) came out to be the most represented lesion both in patients with classic symptoms, and in those with non-classic symptoms (43% vs 61%). Conclusions: The clinical presentation of CD in children has changed over the last thirty years, with a predilection for atypical presentations. This means that it is crucial to focus on non-classic symptoms not only in order to identify the highest number of possible CD cases, but also to prevent the long term complications of this pathology (autoimmune diseases and intestinal lymphomas) by commencing a gluten free diet as soon as possible.

An incremental analysis of nonlinear plane frames is presented. Both geometric and material nonlinearities are considered. The former are allowed for by using suitable stiffness functions and by accounting for the member end-shortening due to bowing. Material nonlinearities are accounted for by inserting infinitesimal rigid-plastic elements between elastic members. The original contribution of the paper is in three directions. Firstly, care is taken to ensure that the size of the algebraic problem to be solved at each step of the incremental analysis is small enough for most of the structures of engineering practice to be efficiently handled even by small computers. Secondly the location of the plastic sections is not fixed a priori but is detected during the analysis. Finally, some important results available in literature,1 are discussed within the framework of the present formulation