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Black diamond is an emerging material for solar applications. The femtosecond laser surface treatment of pristine transparent diamond allows the solar absorptance to be increased to values greater than 90% from semi-transparency conditions. In addition, the defects introduced by fs-laser treatment strongly increase the diamond surface electrical conductivity and a very-low activation energy is observed at room temperature. In this work, the investigation of electronic transport mechanisms of a fs-laser nanotextured diamond surface is reported. The charge transport was studied down to cryogenic temperatures, in the 30–300 K range. The samples show an activation energy of a few tens of meV in the highest temperature interval and for T < 50 K, the activation energy diminishes to a few meV. Moreover, thanks to fast cycles of measurement, we noticed that the black-diamond samples also seem to show a behavior close to ferromagnetic materials, suggesting electron spin influence over the transport properties. The mentioned properties open a new perspective in designing novel diamond-based biosensors and a deep knowledge of the charge-carrier transport in black diamond becomes fundamental.

Abstract Background Even though evidence based medicine, guidelines and algorithms still represent the pillars of the management of chronic diseases (i.e: hypertension, diabetes mellitus), a patient centred approach has been recently proposed as a successful strategy, in particular to improve drug adherence. Aim of the present review is to evaluate the unmet needs in LUTS/BPH management and the possible impact of a patient centered approach in this setting. Methods A National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) PubMed search for relevant articles published from January 2000 until December 2016 was performed by combining the following MESH terms: patients centred medicine, patient centered care, person centered care, patient centered outcomes, value based care, shared decision making, male, Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms, Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, treatment. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). All studies reporting on patient centred approach, shared decision making and evidence-based medicine were included in the review. All original article, reviews, letters, congress abstracts, and editorials comments were included in the review. Studies reporting single case reports, experimental studies on animal models and studies not in English were not included in the review. Results Overall 751 abstracts were reviewed, out of them 87 full texts were analysed resulting in 36 papers included. The evidence summarised in this systematic review confirmed how a patient centred visit may improve patient’s adherence to medication. Although a patient centred model has been rarely used in urology, management of Low Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) and Benign Prostatic Obstruction (BPO) may represent the perfect ground to experiment and improve this approach. Notwithstanding all the innovations in LUTS/BPO medical treatment, the real life picture is far from ideal. Conclusions Recent evidence shows a dramatical low drug adherence and satisfaction to medical treatment in LUTS/BPH patients. A patient centred approach may improve drug adherence and some unmet needs in this area, potentially reducing complications and costs. However further well designed studies are needed to confirm this data.

Influenza A and B viruses are responsible for respiratory infections, representing globally seasonal threats to human health. The 2 viral types often co-circulate and influenza B plays an important role in the spread of infection. A 6-year retrospective surveillance study was conducted between 2010 and 2016 in 2 large administrative regions of Italy, located in the north (Liguria) and in the south (Sicily) of the country, to describe the burden and epidemiology of both B/Victoria and B/Yamagata lineages in different healthcare settings. Influenza B viruses were detected in 5 of 6 seasonal outbreaks, exceeding influenza A during the season 2012–2013. Most of influenza B infections were found in children aged ≤ 14 y and significant differences were observed in the age-groups infected by the different lineages. B/Victoria strains prevailed in younger population than B/Yamagata, but also were more frequently found in the community setting. Conversely, B/Yamagata viruses were prevalent among hospitalized cases suggesting their potential role in the development of more severe disease. The relative proportions of viral lineages varied from year to year, resulting in different lineage-level mismatch for the B component of trivalent influenza vaccine. Our findings confirmed the need for continuous virological surveillance of seasonal epidemics and bring attention to the adoption of universal influenza immunization program in the childhood. The use of tetravalent vaccine formulations may be useful to improve the prevention and control of the influenza burden in general population.

According to WHO estimates, varicella disease is responsible of a worldwide significant burden in terms of hospitalizations, complications, and deaths, with more than 90% of cases under 12 years old. This study aims at evaluating the clinical, epidemiological, and economic burden of varicella in Ligurian children, about comorbidities, organizational variables, and vaccination coverages from 2010 to 2017, in terms of Emergency Department accesses and hospitalizations. The overall hospitalization rate was 179.76 (per 100,000 inhab.), with a gradual but significant decline since 2015, when universal varicella vaccination was introduced in Liguria (p < 0.0001). The risk of being hospitalized for complicated varicella in subjects with at least one comorbidity was significantly higher than in subjects without comorbidities (p = 0.0016). The economic analysis showed higher costs in subjects with complicated varicella who were 0–3 years old. This age group showed higher costs also considering extra-hospital costs for both outpatient procedures and pharmaceutical costs (p < 0.0001). The results confirm the relevant burden of varicella, especially in the 0–3 age group and in children with comorbidities. Thus, vaccination with the achievement of adequate vaccination coverages is confirmed to be a necessary control strategy to reduce hospitalizations and associated complications with important economic benefits.

Despite the availability of vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae, the global incidence and economic cost of pneumococcal disease (PD) among adults is still high. This retrospective cohort analysis estimated the cost of emergency department (ED) visits/hospitalizations associated with non-invasive pneumonia and invasive pneumococcal disease among individuals ≥15 years of age in the Liguria region of Italy during 2012–2018. Data from the Liguria Region Administrative Health Databases and the Ligurian Chronic Condition Data Warehouse were used, including hospital admission date, length of stay, discharge date, outpatient visits, and laboratory/imaging procedures. A ≥30-day gap between two events defined a new episode, and patients with ≥1 ED or inpatient claim for PD were identified. The total mean annual number of hospitalizations for PD was 13,450, costing ~€49 million per year. Pneumonia accounted for the majority of hospitalization costs. The median annual cost of hospitalization for all-cause pneumonia was €38,416,440 (per-capita cost: €26.78) and was €30,353,928 (per-capita cost: €20.88) for pneumococcal and unspecified pneumonia. The total number and associated costs of ED visits/hospitalizations generally increased over the study period. PD still incurs high economic costs in adults in the Liguria region of Italy.

Orthorhombic κ-Ga2O3 thin films were grown for the first time on polycrystalline diamond free-standing substrates by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy at a temperature of 650 °C. Structural, morphological, electrical, and photoelectronic properties of the obtained heterostructures were evaluated by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, current-voltage measurements, and spectral photoconductivity, respectively. Results show that a very slow cooling, performed at low pressure (100 mbar) under a controlled He flow soon after the growth process, is mandatory to improve the quality of the κ-Ga2O3 epitaxial thin film, ensuring a good adhesion to the diamond substrate, an optimal morphology, and a lower density of electrically active defects. This paves the way for the future development of novel hybrid architectures for UV and ionizing radiation detection, exploiting the unique features of gallium oxide and diamond as wide-bandgap semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ZnO thin films with a thickness of 300 nm were deposited on Si and Al2O3 substrates using an electron beam evaporation technique with the aim of testing them as low cost and low power consumption gas sensors for ozone (O3). Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy were used to characterize the film surface morphology and quantify the roughness and grain size, recognized as the primary parameters influencing the gas sensitivity due to their direct impact on the effective sensing area. The crystalline structure and elemental composition were studied through Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Gas tests were conducted at room temperature and zero-bias voltage to assess the sensitivity and response as a function of time of the films to O3 pollutant. The results indicate that the films deposited on Al2O3 exhibit promising characteristics, such as high sensitivity and a very short response time (<2 s) to the gas concentration. Additionally, it was observed that the films display pronounced degradation effects after a significant exposure to O3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rare-earth-based Ca9RE(PO4)7 (RE = Nd, Gd, Dy) materials were synthesized by solid-state reaction at T = 1200 °C. The obtained tricalcium phosphate (TCP) materials are efficient light emitters due to the presence of RE3+ ions, although these ions are present at high concentrations. Moreover, in these host structures, these ions can be used as optical probes to study their local environments. Thus, photoluminescence (PL) emission spectra of the powder samples clearly indicated, for Dy3+ and Gd3+ ions, the presence of the RE3+ ion in low-symmetry sites with some local structural disorder, and the spectra show the presence of vibrational features (in the case of Gd3+). For the Nd3+ phase, emission bands are present around 900, 1050, and 1330 nm, originating from the 4F3/2 level. In general, these RE-TCP samples are interesting luminescent materials in the visible (Dy), UV (Gd), and NIR (Nd) regions, due to weak concentration quenching even for high concentrations of the emitting ion.

The absorbers method is here applied by interposing filters of variable thickness between the X-ray source and a detector so to attenuate the radiation intensity by using the attenuation coefficient as a selective photon energy operator. The analysis of the signal provided by a polycrystalline diamond thin film detector exposed to the energy-selectively-attenuated X-ray beam was used for the reconstruction of the radiation spectrum. The 50 μm thick diamond detector achieves conditions of linear response to the dose rate of the incident radiation (linearity coefficient of 0.997 ± 0.003) for a bias voltage ≥90 V, corresponding to an electric field ≥1.8 × 104 V/cm. Once the absorbers method is applied, only the detector signal linearity to dose rate allows reconstructing the source X-ray bremsstrahlung spectrum with sufficiently high accuracy.

Herpes Zoster (HZ) and its main complication, post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), represent important public health issues because of their relevant burden among older adults. However, data on the epidemiology of HZ and PHN in Italy are very limited. A population-based study was performed by seeking for cases of HZ and PHN, occurred in the period 2013-2015, in the clinical charts of 56 General Practitioners working in 4 Italian Regions (Liguria, Puglia, Toscana and Veneto). The main objective of the study was to estimate the incidence of HZ and the proportion of PHN (at 1 and 3 mo from the onset of HZ; PHN1 and PHN3) among people aged ≥ 50 y. Overall, 598 cases of HZ were identified over 93,146 person-years of observation, thus corresponding to an overall incidence of 6.42 (IC95%: 5.93 – 6.95) HZ cases per 1,000 person-years. The incidence of HZ increased with age and was higher in female than in male. In total, 22.7%, 12.7%, and 2.4% of HZ cases suffered PHN at 1 and 3 mo and 1 y from the onset of acute episode. The proportions of these complications significantly increased with age, with the peak occurring in people aged ≥ 85 y. Four per cent of patients suffered ophthalmic zoster. The study provided an update of the epidemiological burden of HZ and PHN in Italy, confirming the relevant burden of the disease in the elderly population. The study was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health, Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CCM) in 2013.

In order to estimate the burden of influenza and to describe the genetic evolutionary pattern and antigenic variability of type B viral strains, data deriving from 3 surveillance systems active in Liguria region, Northern Italy, were described. Since the re-emergence of the Victoria lineage in 2001, the clinical-epidemiological and syndromic surveillances demonstrated the heavy burden of influenza like illness (ILI) syndrome. Focusing on type B influenza virus, it predominated or played a relevant epidemic role in the 50% of the evaluated influenza seasons. Furthermore, the virologic surveillance demonstrated the frequent co-circulation of both lineages an heterogeneous circulation of different influenza B strains, determining a partial or complete mismatch in at least 6 influenza seasons. The undemonstrated cross-reactivity between lineages and the unpredictability of predominant lineage arose the scientific debate about the opportunity to include the quadrivalent influenza vaccine among the preventive tools to improve the protection against type B viruses. The integration of different surveillance systems highly contribute to estimate the poorly evaluated burden of type B influenza virus and help to find variants to include in the vaccine formulation.