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Purpose: The aim of our study was to identify maternal characteristics of women who are responsive to the second application of vaginal dinoprostone in a cohort of patients with a low Bishop Score. Secondarily, we compared the outcome of the patients' response to a single application to that of the women's response to a double application. Materials and methods: This was a retrospective observational cohort study. Patients undergoing preinduction of labor with dinoprostone 10mg controlled-release vaginal device were included. Results: Among 216 included patients, 192 women (88.9%) achieved a cervical ripening after a single application of dinoprostone, while 24 (11.1%) required a second application. Patients notresponding to the first application of dinoprostone had a significantly higher body mass index (27.4 ± 6.7 kg/m2 vs 24.9 ± 5.2 kg/m2; p < 0.05) and a significant increase in gestational weight gain (14 ± 5.2 kg vs 11.6 ± 6.1; p < 0.005). Double application of dinoprostone resulted in spontaneousdelivery in 58.4% of cases, but it was related to poorer neonatal outcome, compared to a single application. Conclusions: Obese women, not responding to the first application of dinoprostone could respond to the second application of this vaginal prostaglandin. However, data related to the use of a double application are still very limited to recommend its use as a standardized procedurefor not responsive patients.

Introduction The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of toxoplasmosis infection during pregnancy and to describe the characteristics of the serological status, management, follow-up and treatment. Material and methods This is a population-based cohort study of women referred for suspected toxoplasmosis during pregnancy from January, 2001 to December, 2012. Suspected toxoplasmosis was defined as positive IgM antibody during pregnancy. Women with suspected toxoplasmosis during pregnancy were classified into three groups: seroconversion, suspected infection, or no infection in pregnancy. Women in the first and second group were treated according to local protocol, and amniocentesis with toxoplasmosis PCR detection and serial detailed ultrasound scans were offered. Neonates were investigated for congenital toxoplasmosis at birth and were monitored for at least one year after birth. Results During the study period, there were 738,588 deliveries in Campania. Of them 1159 (0.2%) were referred to our Institution for suspected toxoplasmosis during pregnancy: 183 (15.8%) women were classified as seroconversion, 381 (32.9%) were suspected infection, and 595 (51.3%) were not infected in pregnancy. Neonatal outcome was available for 476 pregnancies, including 479 neonates (3 twins, 473 singletons), out of the 564 pregnancies with seroconversion or suspected infection. 384 (80.2%) babies were not infected at birth and at follow-up, 67 (14.0%) had congenital toxoplasmosis, 10 (2.1%) were voluntary induced termination of pregnancy, 15 (3.1%) were spontaneous miscarriage, and 4 (0.8%) were stillbirth (of which one counted already in the infected cohort). Considering cases of congenital toxoplasmosis, the transmission rate in women with seroconversion was 32.9% (52/158), and in women with suspected infection was 4.7% (15/321). Conclusions Toxoplasmosis is uncommon in pregnancy with overall incidence of seroconversion and suspected infection in pregnancy of 0.8 per 1000 live births and incidence of congenital toxoplasmosis 0.1 per 1000 live births when applying a strict protocol of screening, follow-up, and treatment. 51.3% (595/1159) of women referred to our center for suspected infection were actually considered not infected.

Polymer based nanoparticles (NPs) are an emerging strategy in disease treatment due to the advantage to manipulate their properties by selecting polymer type and tuning the carrier assembly. For a rational design of NPs, the particle size and chemical surface properties of the nanocarriers are relevant to control NP interaction with body environment in order to give asuccessful application. For example, PEGylated NPs are able to evade MPS and allow a long circulation. Recently, cationic NPs are in the limelight as a possible nanocarrier in cancer due to their unique ability to penetrate deeply inside tumor tissue and to interact preferentially with plasma membrane of cancer cells. To this purpose, here we have developed an array of cationic NPs based on an amino-terminated poly(?-caprolactone) (PCL4.2k-NH2) mixed with polyethylenglycol-poly(?-caprolactone) (mPEG1k-PCL4k) with different charge density and surface hydrophilicity. In order to improve stability and to impart targeting properties, NPs have been decorated with a layer of low molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HA) which can encourage NPs uptake in cell overexpressing CD44 receptors.

In the present communication, we describe a route of synthesis aimed to selectively obtain PCL-PEG-?Fol copolymer with high yield and purity. It is note from literature that only ?-folate conjugates retain affinity towards the receptor. Synthesis of PCL-PEG-?Fol copolymer was optimized in terms of yield, purity and feasibility. We demonstrate that the extent of specific internalization of targeted NPs can be improved by regulating the length of the PEG chains in PCL-PEG to attain stealth properties (1000 Da) and in PCL-PEG-Fol to ameliorate Fol exposition on NP surface (1500 Da). Formulations of NPs using amphiphilic copolymers with different length of PEG blocks turned to be a good strategy to enhance exposition of Folate on the surface of NPs. In fact, the use of short-long PEG blocks length resulted in a significant receptor specific endocytosis.

Cationic nanoparticles (NPs) are at limelight in the field of cancer nanotechnology due to their unique ability to penetrate deeply inside tumor tissue. Coupling chemotherapy with photodynamic therapy (PDT) is nowadays opening intriguing horizons towards new and still underexplored multimodal therapies of cancer. So we try to delivery cationic NPs as versatile scaffolds. As active drug cargo, the lipophilic anticancer drug Docetaxel (DTX) was entrapped in the NP core whereas anionic tetrasulfonate photosensitizers, i.e. porphyrin (TPPS4) or phthalocyanine (ZnPcS4), were adsorbed on the surface. NPs are finallyecorated with hyaluronic acid (HA) to encurage NP accumulation in CD44 overexpressing cancer cells.

This work is based on the development of a simple and elegant route of synthesis for poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(??caprolactone) (PEG-PCL) diblock copolymers tailed with an azido group, useful for conjugation with opportunely modified molecules of biological interest. The purpose is to improve the targeting ability of nanoparticles (NPs) prepared by self-assembling of these copolymers. Initial tailoring of PEG is performed through a method that allows selective introduction of functional groups at only one end1. In step 1, the use of a proper catalyst fully avoids formation of bifunctional PEG, as confirmed through 1H-NMR : N3PEG-PCL is synthesized through ring opening polymerization (ROP) of CL initiated by the -OH of N3PEG. The azido group has then been used in Copper-catalyzed Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition "click" reaction. Click reactions are highly selective, do not produce by-products and require mild conditions. The reaction was successfully performed with copper wires as catalyst. An example of molecule "clicked" through this route is folic acid, one of the most extensively employed targeting moieties to enhance nanocarrier accumulation in cancer cells. Folic acid was previously modified with propargylamine through carbodiimide chemistry to introduce an alkyne group. A systematic study of the reaction through HPLC and mass spectroscopy allowed to select the optimal reaction conditions in order to minimize formation of ?-conjugate and by-products.2 Fol-PEG1500-PCL4000 was used in various percentages with PEG1000-PCL4000 or PEG2000-PCL4000 to prepare NPs by nanoprecipitation technique. The use of PEG blocks with different lengths is expected to vary the exposition of folate on NP surface. In order to track NP inside cells, both non-folate copolymers were conjugated with Rhodamine B as a fluorescent probe through the terminal hydroxyl of PCL block. Preliminary in vitro uptake studies in cells overexpressing folate receptor demonstrate a higher extent of uptake for NPs exposing folate on short PEG blocks due to receptor-mediated endocytosis. Acknowledgments The financial support of AIRC IG 2014 #15764 is gratefully acknowledged.

It was demonstrated that the extent of specific internalization of targeted NPs could be improved by regulating the length of the PEG chains in PCL-b-PEG copolymers to attain stealth properties and in PCL-b-PEG-Fol to ameliorate Fol exposition on NP surface. This study was devoted to demonstrate this hypothesis by producing NPs from PCL-b-PEG with short PEG chains (1000 kDa, to confer stealth properties) and a PCL-b-PEG-Fol with long PEG chain (1500 Da, to confer improved targeting ability).

In the attempt to develop novel concepts in the design of nanoplatforms for cancer treatment, here we propose core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) made of amphiphilic poly(?-caprolactone)-polyethyleneglycol (PCL-PEG) block copolymers exposing on the surface an anti-FTL1 peptide (aFLT1), to complement activity of the delivered cytotoxic agent, and folate moieties (Fol), to encourage NP accumulation in cancer cells via folate receptor (FR). NPs are designed to release slowly their drug cargo in the body once reaching tumor site. Diblock PCL-PEG copolymers with longer PEG to promote exposition of aFLT1 and folate on NP surface (PCL4000-PEG1000, PCL4000-PEG1500-antiFLT1 and PCL4300-PEG1500-Fol) were synthesized by a ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of ?-CL followed by coupling with the decorating unit followed by characterization via GPC, NMR and FTIR spectroscopy. NPs were prepared by nanoprecipitation technique, filtered through 0.45 ?m filters and immediately characterized for size, polydispersity and zeta potential. Cell uptake of NPs covalently tagged with rhodamine B at PCL end was evaluated in KB cells overexpressing folate receptor and HUVEC. To evaluate receptor-mediated accumulation, competition experiments on cells pre-incubated with free ligands were performed. Nanoprecipitation gave optimized NPs spanning in the size range 110-150 nm with very low polydispersity. For Fol-decorated NPs, the highly negative surface charge of NPs, more negative as the amount of folate-conjugated copolymer increased, was suggestive of the presence of folate moieties on the surface. NPs exposing aFLT1 on the surface showed surface charge and size similar to non-decorated NPs. Once formulation parameters were selected, entrapment of Docetaxel (DTX), a model poorly water-soluble drug, was attempted. Both NPs encapsulated DTX with high efficiency and were endowed of sustained release. In order to track NP inside cells, NPs were produced from PCL-PEG linked to rhodamine at hydroxyl end group of PCL. Pre-incubation with 1 mM Fol, employed to saturate FR on the cell surface, significantly inhibited the uptake of folate-decorated NPs in KB cells, suggesting that FR is involved in the specific uptake of a large fraction of targeted NPs. However, specific uptake was observed only when the incubation was carried out in the absence of serum likely due to the screening effect exerted by serum proteins. In conclusion, conjugation of folate to long PEG chains turns as a powerful strategy to attain receptor specific endocytosis. The further step consists in the full understanding of the biological behavior of folate bearing NPs and in evaluating the impact of aFLT1 decoration on DTX cytotoxicity.

Summary In order to investigate the relationships between Italian wild boar and major pig breeds, we studied the genetic variability of four wild boar populations in Italy (Arezzo, Pisa, Parma, Bergamo) using a 533-bp fragment of the mitochondrial control region. Sixty-nine wild boar samples were analysed, allowing the identification of 10 distinct haplotypes, which involve a total of 15 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Phylogenetic and network analyses were performed also considering several sequences of wild and domesticated forms available in the databases. The Bayesian phylogenetic tree and the Median-Joining network analyses show three main groups: the Italian (IT), European (EU) and Asian (AS) clades. The IT clade corresponds to the Maremma endemic wild boar population and also includes Sardinian individuals, while the EU and AS groups include wild boars as well as domestic pig breeds. Only two individuals from Pisa cluster in the IT group, whereas two haplotypes from Bergamo cluster in the AS group and all other samples cluster in the EU clade. These findings suggest that in Italy wild boar populations have a mixed origin, both EU and AS, and that an interbreeding between wild and domesticated strains has probably occurred. Eight of the 10 wild boars coming from the Migliarino-San RossoreMassaciuccoli Regional Park (Pisa) belong to H2 and H3 haplotypes, and cluster into the EU clade, suggesting that this regional park is not anymore exclusive of the endemic Maremma wild boar.

The carpal organ is a glandular complex implicated in scent communication. To investigate its ethological significance, morpho‐functional evaluations were conducted on 67 glands collected from animals of different ages and sex during the 2002 hunting season (October–December) in the Bergamo district, Northern Italy. All samples were histologically and morphometrically examined to determine gland surface and thickness, number of secretory tubules per area and outer diameter of the tubules. Comparative analyses revealed significant differences in the above parameters between sub‐adults and adults for both sexes, but no differences were found between adult males and females. However, when all specimens were pooled, males revealed more developed and functional glands than females, with the oldest males having the highest values of gland surface, gland thickness and tubule diameter. Our findings suggest that this organ plays a relevant role in social communication by producing chemical signals involved in terr...

Combustion instabilities in the aviation, aerospace and power generation industries have been a matter of concern for engineers since the 1950s, but with the increase in computer processing speed and the development of CFD it is now possible to attempt to predict frequencies and stability of a combustion system by numerical means, or by combining numerical, analytical and experimental approaches. Currently available analytical methods for the prediction of the frequency and stability of thermoacoustic oscillations make use of one-dimensional models where the frequency of oscillation is assumed to be low enough that only plane waves propagate in the burner, with higher order modes decaying quickly. While accurate and well-suited for longitudinal oscillations, these methods are unable to predict the frequency of instabilities where the unsteady heat release couples with the higher frequency transverse acoustic modes. Therefore a method is needed for applications where high frequency transverse oscillations are important. A method in which the linearised Euler equations are employed to calculate the propagation of acoustic waves is then suitable for solving this thermoacoustic problem. When a flame model that appropriately represents the frequency-dependent dynamics of the flame front is included, this method can predict the frequency of the oscillation resulting from the coupling between acoustics and combustion in an arbitrarily complex geometry. In this paper, a linearised Euler solver called INSTANT is introduced and validated against a well known theoretical model for the calculation of thermoacoustic oscillations in a one dimensional cylindrical duct with rigid walls and a radially uniform mean flow. The frequencies of oscillation and the modeshapes for this stable configuration match the theoretical ones well. An example calculation of transverse acoustic resonant mode is then presented. The ability of the code to predict the production of an entropy mode as a result of the interaction between an acoustic wave and a heat source region and its ability to predict frequencies of oscillation and modeshapes in a one dimensional configuration give confidence it can serve as a predictive tool for high frequency, transverse thermoacoustic oscillations in the more complex geometries of practical combustion systems once a suitable model for the frequency dependent flame response is included. The development of such a flame model is left for future work.

tIn this paper we propose polysaccharide hydrogels combining alginate (ALG) and hyaluronan (HA) asbiofunctional platform for dermal wound repair. Hydrogels produced by internal gelation were homo-geneous and easy to handle. Rheological evaluation of gelation kinetics of ALG/HA mixtures at differentratios allowed understanding the HA effect on ALG cross-linking process. Disk-shaped hydrogels, at differ-ent ALG/HA ratio, were characterized for morphology, homogeneity and mechanical properties. Resultssuggest that, although the presence of HA does significantly slow down gelation kinetics, the concen-tration of cross-links reached at the end of gelation is scarcely affected. The in vitro activity of ALG/HAdressings was tested on adipose derived multipotent adult stem cells (Ad-MSC) and an immortalizedkeratinocyte cell line (HaCaT). Hydrogels did not interfere with cell viability in both cells lines, but sig-nificantly promoted gap closure in a scratch assay at early (1 day) and late (5 days) stages as comparedto hydrogels made of ALG alone (p < 0.01 and 0.001 for Ad-MSC and HaCaT, respectively). In vivo woundhealing studies, conducted on a rat model of excised wound indicated that after 5 days ALG/HA hydrogelssignificantly promoted wound closure as compared to ALG ones (p < 0.001). Overall results demonstratethat the integration of HA in a physically cross-linked ALG hydrogel can be a versatile strategy to promotewound healing that can be easily translated in a clinical setting.

Maternal obesity is associated to increased fetal risk of obesity and other metabolic diseases. Human amniotic mesenchymal stem cells (hA-MSCs) have not been characterized in obese women. The aim of this study was to isolate and compare hA-MSC immunophenotypes from obese (Ob-) and normal weight control (Co-) women, to identify alterations possibly predisposing the fetus to obesity. We enrolled 16 Ob- and 7 Co-women at delivery (mean/SEM prepregnancy body mass index: 40.3/1.8 and 22.4/1.0 kg/m2, respectively), and 32 not pregnant women. hA-MSCs were phenotyped by flow cytometry; several maternal and newborn clinical and biochemical parameters were also measured. The expression of membrane antigen CD13 was higher on Ob-hA-MSCs than on Co-hA-MSCs (P = 0.005). Also, serum levels of CD13 at delivery were higher in Ob- versus Co-pregnant women and correlated with CD13 antigen expression on Ob-hA-MSCs (r2 = 0.84, P < 0.0001). Adipogenesis induction experiments revealed that Ob-hA-MSCs had a higher adipogenic potential than Co-hA-MSCs as witnessed by higher peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma and aP2 mRNA levels (P = 0.05 and P = 0.05, respectively), at postinduction day 14 associated with increased CD13 mRNA levels from baseline to day 4 postinduction (P < 0.05). Adipogenesis was similar in the two sets of hA-MSCs after CD13 silencing, whereas it was increased in Co-hA-MSCs after CD13 overexpression. CD13 expression was high also in Ob-h-MSCs from umbilical cords or visceral adipose tissue of not pregnant women. In conclusion, antigen CD13, by influencing the adipogenic potential of hA-MSCs, could be an in utero risk factor for obesity. Our data strengthen the hypothesis that high levels of serum and MSC CD13 are obesity markers.

Women with chronic kidney disease have an increased risk of developing preeclampsia and its severe complications. Currently, there are no assessments available in order to quantify such risk. The aim of the study is to establish the incidence of superimposed preeclampsia in women with chronic kidney disease according to Serum creatinine (SCr) level.Pregnant women with chronic kidney disease were retrospectively identified from January 2000 to July 2010. We defined two groups according to SCr: Group 1: SCr ≤ 125 µmol/l; Group 2: SCr125 µmol/l. Incidence of preeclampsia, early preeclampsia (delivery34 weeks), gestational age (GA) at diagnosis and delivery outcome were assessed.Ninety-three nephropatic women were considered for the analysis. Group 2 (n = 14) compared with Group 1 (n = 79) had an increased incidence of preeclampsia (78.6% vs. 25.3%; p0.0001), an increased rate of pregnancy complications as early preeclampsia (82% vs. 38%; p0.03), a lower GA at diagnosis (29 ± 2 vs. 33 ± 1 weeks; p0.04) and a lower GA at delivery (30 ± 2 weeks vs. 34 ± 1; p0.04).Women with chronic kidney disease and an increased creatinine threshold have a high risk of developing preeclampsia and delivering preterm.

Background. Despite the introduction of screening bases intrapartum prophylaxis,Streptococcus agalactiaeis still an important etiological agent of perinatal infections. The increasing rate of resistance and the differences in resistance pattern among countries suggest that a program of surveillance at the institutional level is important in determining optimal prophylaxis. In contrast, knowledge on GBS epidemiology in Italy is limited, and no data are available in the Southern region of the country. We sought to determine the occurrence of resistance to macrolides and clindamycin of GBS isolates in pregnant and nonpregnant women.Methods. Between 2005 and 2008, 1346 vaginal and 810 rectovaginal swabs were obtained from pregnant and not-pregnant women.Results. The occurrence of macrolides and clindamycin resistance was 16.5% in 2005 increasing up to 69.9% in 2008. A high percentage of isolates was resistant to tetracycline through all the study period with no statistically significant annual.Conclusions. In our cohort, an increase ofin vitroresistance of GBS to macrolides and clindamycin is clearly evident. The discordance with reports from different countries emphasize the crucial role of microbiological methods in setting possible therapeutic strategies.

lbright-Hodes syndrome, or limb reduction defects and renal dysplasia, is an unusual lethal congenital malformation that consists of mesomelia, radiohumeral fusion, and renal dysplasia. We report the successful prenatal diagnosis of the condition at 21 weeks’ gestation in a family with a negative history, which to our knowledge has not been reported previously. Sonographic findings, new and atypical features, the differential diagnosis, and counseling of the couple are reported.

Simulation is becoming an increasingly important technique for what-if analysis in the context of (real-time) decision making applications. Consequently, quick delivery of simulation outputs to end-users (or applications) is a core objective. One approach for high performance simulation consists of exploiting parallel techniques, where the simulation model is partitioned into objects (or logical processes), concurrently executing events on different CPUs and/or multiple CPU-cores. For this type of simulation systems,a further run-time improvement arose from the exploitation of event uncertainty, both in time and space, which has lead to more flexible synchronization protocols. Although this approach can provide significant performance gains, one drawback is the risk of less reliable simulation results due to potential bias induced by the mechanisms for resolving the uncertainty, which are sometimes exclusively targeted to run-time effectiveness. In this article we focus on space uncertain simulation events in optimistic parallel simulation and introduce a mechanism that, compared to previous approaches, allows trading-off execution speed vs reliability of simulation results. In other words, our target is the achievement of high performance while controlling, at the same time, the bias introduced by space uncertainty on the simulation output.

Il fibroma (indicato anche come mioma o fibromioma o leiomioma) e un tumore benigno dell’utero, che trae origine dalla cellula muscolare liscia del miometrio. L’incidenza, dal 15% al 30% della popolazione femminile, e certamente sottostimata, con picco tra i 35 e i 50 anni.

We present a case of retroperitoneal abscess due to asymptomatic duodenal perforation by foreign body. Patient has been admitted for lumbar pain and subocclusive crisis, with a medical history negative for acute symptomatology. After both clinical and radiologic evaluation, an abscess-like mass was detected in the context of right psoas muscle. Patient underwent surgical operation and a lumbar abscess has been found containing a foreign body (toothpick). There has been a transduodenal migration of the foreign body, without clinical signs of duodenal perforation.

The influence of hyaluronic acid (HA) on the self assembling properties of pluronic (PEO-PPO-PEO block copolymers) blends has been studied with the aim of engineering thermosensitive and mucoadhesive polymeric platforms for drug delivery. The gelation temperature (Tgel), viscoelastic properties and mucoadhesive force of the systems were investigated and optimised by means of rheological analyses. Pluronic micellar radius was evaluated by Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (PCS). The addition of Low Molecular Weight HA did not hamper the self assembling process of pluronics just delaying the gelation temperature of few Celsius degrees. Furthermore, HA presence led to a strong increase of the pluronics gel rheological properties. PCS results show, in formulations containing HA, aggregates with hydrodynamic diameters values much higher than those of pluronic micelles. Mucoadhesive experiments indicate the possibility of interactions between the pluronic/HA gel and mucus glycoproteins.

Cryotherapy allows the destruction of unresectable liver malignancies. The abdominal approach is uneasy for recurrent colorectal metastases located in the upper part of the liver and close to the inferior vena cava, the hepatic veins and the diaphragm. A transpleurodiaphragmatic access was employed. From 1999 to 2003, ten patients with recurrent colorectal liver metastases underwent transdiaphragmatic cryotherapy via a right thoracotomy. Median diameter was 30 mm. One to 4 cryoprobes were used, depending on the size and location of the metastasis. There were no operative deaths, and only 3 patients developed minor complications. Computerized tomography examination of the liver performed one week, three months after cryotherapy, assessed treatment completeness in all patients. At 14 months, 9 patients were alive and 6 were disease-free. Two patients had liver recurrences outside the cryolesion. A transthoracic access may represent the safest and easiest surgical approach for liver tumor cryoablation in selected patients with non resectable recurrent metastases of the upper liver.

The stromal tumor is the most common mesenchymal tumor of the gastrointestinal tract. Surgical resection is the first-line therapy for operable lesions, however for inoperable imatinib is an effective therapy. In this setting a patient has been operated after a remarkable response to imatinib, used as both neoadjuvant and adjuvant. This approach led to a disease-free condition without toxicity and complications.

In this paper the behaviour of a sigma-delta current loop in a switching power stage is examined by focusing on its current sensing characteristics. In particular the influence of the current sensing common mode gain on system behaviour has been analyzed. The system was tested by applying it to a hard disk voice coil motor. The system works well in this application as the current sensing specifications it has to comply with are less stringent than alternative solutions.

Checkpointing and Communication Library (CCL) is recently developed software in support of optimistic parallel discrete event simulation on myrinet clusters. Beyond low latency message delivery functionalities, CCL also offers non-blocking checkpointing functionalities supported by a programmable PCI DMA engine on board of myrinet cards. CCL employs resynchronization functionality between PCI DMA activities and CPU activities to maintain the consistency of checkpointed information (i.e. to prevent the CPU from updating information that still needs to be copied through DMAing). If re-synchronization is invoked before the checkpoint operation is completed, simulation activities carried out by the CPU may be forced to wait for checkpoint completion. Since data copy through the PCI DMA is slower than what achievable with the CPU, in pathological situations a re-synchronization period may last more than a whole checkpoint operation performed by the CPU, thus nullifying the potential benefit from offloading checkpointing from the CPU. This paper tackles such an issue by presenting the design and implementation of a handoff mechanism of checkpoint operations between PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) DMA (direct memory access)and CPU to enhance the effectiveness of checkpointing functionalities offered by CCL. Although a checkpoint operation is initially entrusted to the PCI DMA, whenever re-synchronization forces the simulation application to wait for its completion, the checkpoint operation is dynamically switched to the CPU, namely the fastest available device, since its timely completion has become a performance critical task for the simulation application.

In the harvest of many fruits and vegetables, it is important to cut the peduncle at a certain length, and not just to pull the fruit away, because this may damage the plant or the fruit during the harvest. In this paper, a method for the detection of the peduncle of close-to-spherical fruits and vegetables in robot harvesting is presented. An experimental set-up, consisting of a compliant three-finger hand, a 6-axis force/torque sensor and a PUMA 560 robot arm is described, and an implementation of the method is shown. >

Checkpointing overhead is a major obstacle for the effectiveness of time warp parallel discrete event simulators. Semi-asynchronous checkpointing is a solution to tackle this obstacle for time warp simulations on distributed memory systems based on Myrinet. In this solution, checkpoint operations are offloaded from the host CPU and are charged to a DMA engine on board Myrinet network cards. In this paper we report an empirical evaluation of the benefits from semi-asynchronous checkpointing for time warp simulations of a large state personal communication system (PCS) model. PCS simulation models are typically characterized by high communication locality among the logical processes hosted by the same machine, therefore the hardware on board the Myrinet cards is typically underutilized if used to support exclusively communication. We show that the execution speed of time warp simulations of a large state PCS model can be increased when semi-asynchronous checkpointing is adopted.