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Numerous studies have found that the COVID-19 epidemic and the measures to stop it have had a substantial impact on the mental health of the general population. Nevertheless, the majority of this research only looked at the variations in the degree of psychopathological symptoms in individuals before and after the first wave of the pandemic. In a sample of N = 380 preschoolers and their mothers assessed through the Symptom Check-List/90-R and of the Child Behavior Check-List, the present study aimed at exploring psychopathological risk in mothers and their offspring’s dysregulation levels before (T1), during (T2) and after (T3) the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. Our main results showed that mothers’ relational distress increased from T1 to T2 and then increased again from T2 to T3. Moreover, maternal aggressiveness, hostility, and anxiety scores significantly decreased from T1 to T2 but slightly increased from T2 to T3. In children, dysregulation levels increased from T1 to T2 but decreased from T2 to T3. Children of mothers with clinical scores at the SCL-90/R showed significantly higher dysregulation problems at T1, T2 and T3 than children of mothers with scores below the clinical threshold. This study adds to previous literature in that it evaluates stability or change in maternal and offspring scores not only in the pre-pandemic period and during the first wave of the pandemic, but it also considers the subsequent months, focusing on a broad range of maternal symptoms, rather than assessing depressive and anxiety symptoms as most of previous research did.

Severe neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis and acute events like stroke, spinal cord injuries, or other related pathologies have been shown to negatively impact the central and peripheral nervous systems, thus causing severe impairments to mobility. The development and utilization of exoskeletons as rehabilitation devices have shown good potential for improving patients' gait function. Ten older adults (age: 68.9 ± 9.2 yrs; height: 1.65 ± 0.08 m; mass: 71.6 ± 11.0 kg) affected by neurological diseases impacting their gait function completed a 10-session gait training protocol where they walked for 10 minutes wearing a passive exoskeleton assisting hip flexion, namely, Exoband. Results showed that participants walked a significantly longer distance in the last session of training with respect to the first session (453.1 ± 178.8 m vs 392.4 ± 135.1 m, respectively). This study indicates the potential of Exoband as an effective tool for gait rehabilitation in patients with neurological diseases. Wearable, lightweight, and low-cost devices such as the one involved in this work have the potential to improve walking distance in patients.

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Hemodynamic forces (HDFs) are the forces exchanged between the blood and the myocardium. Estimation of their magnitude and alignment could be a novel marker of cardiac dysfunction. Purpose To describe left ventricular (LV) HDFs values and distribution in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and to compare them with those of a group of healthy controls. Methods A cohort of 26 non-ischemic patients with an initial diagnosis of HFrEF was enrolled. All of them underwent basal 2D echocardiography evaluation. Off-line HDFs estimation using a dedicated software based on speckle-tracking echocardiography was conducted. HDFs were normalized for the LV volume and expressed as a percentage of the force of gravity. HDFs were assessed over the entire cardiac cycle, in systole and diastole, both in apex to base (A-B) and latero-septal (L-S) directions. The distribution of LV HDFs was evaluated by L-S over A-B HDFs ratio (L-S/A-B HDFs ratio). HDFs of HFrEF patients were compared with those of 24 healthy volunteers. Results HFrEF patients showed smaller values of A-B HDFs during the entire cardiac cycle (5,2 ± 1,24% vs 12,3 ± 3,6%; p = 0,001), in systole (7,2 ± 2% vs 16,6 ± 6,3%; p = 0,001) and diastole (3,3 ± 0,8% vs 7,1 ± 3,6%; p = 0,001). Moreover, comparing HFrEF subjects with healthy volunteers , the former had lower L-S HDFs during the entire cardiac cycle (1,6 ± 0,4% vs 2 ± 0,7%; p= 0,022) and in systole (1,6 ± 0,5% vs 2,3 ± 0,8%; p = 0,003), while in diastole they showed inappropriate high values of L-S HDFs (1,7 ± 0,6% vs 1,8 ± 0,9%; p = 0,999). Consequently, HFrEF patients had higher values of L-S/A-B ratio during the entire cardiac cycle (32 ± 6,9 vs 15 ± 7,7; p = 0,001), in systole (23,5 ± 7,4 vs 14,7± 4,2; p = 0,001), but particularly in diastole (52 ± 10,8 vs 28 ± 13,6; p = 0,001), showing an important HDFs misalignment. Conclusion When compared with healthy controls, HFrEF patients presented intraventricular fluid alterations characterized by lower HDFs magnitude and a significant HDFs misalignment, especially in diastole. Further studies are needed to confirm these initial results and to assess the effects of therapy on these new parameters. Abstract Figure. Abstract Figure.

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Sacubitril/valsartan (S/V) benefits in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) are partially related to cardiac reverse remodelling, in terms of volumes reduction and function improvement. Effects on vascular remodeling are less investigated. Purpose To evaluate cardiac and vascular remodelling in a cohort of patients with HFrEF after six months of therapy with S/V. Methods 50 patients with HFrEF eligible to start a therapy with sacubitril/valsartan were enrolled. Clinical evaluation and standard and advanced echocardiography were performed at baseline and after six months of follow up (FU). Standard left ventricular dimension and function parameters, global longitudinal strain (GLS) were calculated. Non-invasive pressure-volume curves (P-V loop) estimation was assessed with an off-line dedicated software using ST-E derived time-resolved LV volumes and brachial pressure as input. The following hemodynamic parameters were calculated based on P-V loop curves: left ventricular elastance (Ees), arterial elastance (Ea) and ventricular-arterial coupling (VAC). Results At six months F/U, a reduction of NYHA class in the vast majority of patients was detected (NYHA Class ≥ II, baseline vs F/U = 100% vs 50%; p< 0,001). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure were lower, in comparison with baseline values (119 ± 16 vs 126 ± 11 mmHg; p = 0,002 and 71 ± 8 vs 78 ± 8 mmHg; p = 0,001, respectively). At echocardiographic evaluation, left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes decreased (p< 0.001 and p< 0,001, respectively) and ejection fraction and GLS significantly improved (p< 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). Moreover, a significant reduction of Ea and a significant improvement of Ees and VAC were observed (p = 0.008, p< 0,001 and p< 0,001, respectively). Conclusion Therapy with S/V in HFrEF patients determines both cardiac and vascular remodelling reflecting the complex mechanisms behind clinical improvement. Abstract Figure.

This paper discusses the impact of self-heating (SH) on ring-oscillator (RO) reliability and its correlation to hot carrier (HC) degradation. We show that HC degradation modulation due to SH is only significant for logic PFETs at highly accelerated dc conditions. We show that these SH effects on HC are greatly reduced at moderate acceleration. By stressing the ROs at extreme conditions, we show that the SH impact on HC does not affect RO degradation.

Carbon particles are widely distributed in the atmospheric aerosol as they mainly originate from a large variety of combustion sources emitting from micrometer sized soot aggregates down to ultrafine nanosized particles. Carbon particulate affects Earth's energy balance by scattering and absorbing radiation and by modifying the amount and properties of clouds, consequently causing climate changes. Moreover, nanometric particles have harmful impact on human health, thus the control of their emission is fundamental to limit their detrimental effects. Internal combustion engines are a significant emission source of carbon particles, especially as regards road vehicles for which particle filters are required to meet the limit of number and mass particles established by environmental regulations. Soot oxidation is the process at the basis of the regeneration of the particulate filters. This work aims at getting insights into the structural evolution of soot during its oxidation through an experimental study combining thermal analysis and chemico-physical characterization. Soot was collected from a laminar premixed flame and subjected to thermogravimetric analysis to extract its kinetic parameters. The activation energy of soot sample was found to be within the range of values typically found for carbon black and soot. A programmed thermogravimetric analysis was performed and stopped at different values of mass loss in order to obtain samples, which are representative of different advancements of soot oxidation, starting from the raw unoxidized soot: at the beginning (M70, 70% mass remaining after oxidation), in the middle (M50, 50% mass remaining) and almost at the end of soot oxidation (M20, 20% mass remaining). Raman spectroscopy allowed studying the nanostructure of partially oxidized soot samples. The Raman analysis showed that the more amorphous soot fraction burns first, thereafter soot does not undergo any significant change in the aromatic layers composing its turbostratic structure. The specific surface area was evaluated through the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method for raw soot and partially oxidized soot (M70) showing a remarkable increase of the surface area after the oxidation process. This indicates that oxidation, after having preferentially removed the organic part, behaves in a non-preferential way towards the soot particle, suggesting the occurrence of internal burning of the particles.

NOx removal from emission of diesel engines by Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) requires catalysts which, in addition to high catalytic performances, must have good thermal and mechanical properties. They should operate in a wide temperature window, to cope with cold start phases as well as high temperature regeneration treatments for the upstream particulate filters. Zeolites, such as ZSM-5, are very active in a wide temperature range when exchanged with copper or iron. Unfortunately, ZSM-5 cannot be produced in bulky structured monolith reactor because of their scarce adhesion properties; therefore, they are typically applied at limited loadings as a washcoat on preformed (inert) honeycomb monoliths. In this work, a ZSM-5 (up to 60% by weight) was incorporated in a geopolymer matrix and directly formed as a structured monolith by an additive manufacturing method (Direct Ink Writing).

Current multistage CCU technologies using renewable electricity to yield fuels suffer from low energy efficiency and require large capital expenditures. To increase the efficiency of the whole process and reduce its cost, a possible innovative solution is represented by the combined capture and hydrogenation of CO2. The idea is to trap CO2 from a CO2-containing stream (e.g. combustion flue gases) using a dual functioning material (DFM) composed of a highly dispersed supported adsorbent which provides at the same time the CO2 storage function and methanation active element to produce CH4 upon reaction with renewable H2 [1-2]. This process is operated cyclically by alternating phases where the DFM is exposed to the flue gas and CO2 is selectively adsorbed, and phases where H2 is fed and the stored CO2 is hydrogenated to methane [2]. Notably, by eliminating a thermal swing process, the conversion of CO2 to SNG using DFMs constrains the energy input to only renewable sources (in the form of H2), thus allowing the CO2 capture and utilization processes to approach carbon neutrality while integrating more renewable energy into the grid [2]. In a highly innovative scheme aimed at the process intensification, the DFM represents a CO2 carrier that is continuously circulated from a sorption reactor to a methanation reactor and vice versa [3]. Dual interconnected fluidized bed technology appears perfectly suited to perform the chemical looping CO2 Capture and Methanation process since it allows the recirculation of DFM particles between two reactors and ensures their efficient and independent temperature control. Therefore, we set out to experimentally investigate the key features capable to boost the overall performance of DFMs based on Ru and alkali metal (oxides) supported on high surface area aluminas with suitable mechanical and attrition resistance to be used in interconnected fluidized bed reactors. The general scope is to produce synthetic methane via an innovative, renewable energy driven, catalytic looping process, demonstrating effectiveness and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions while also addressing economic, regulatory, environmental and (critical) raw material constraints, as well as socio-economic impact related to the proposed technological pathway.

The increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and the consequent global warming effect require the development of techniques for CO2 capture. In addition, conversion of captured CO2 into fuels such as methane (Power-to-Gas process) represents a carbon-neutral and green solution if captured CO2 is reacted with hydrogen from renewable sources producing a synthetic substitute of natural gas (SNG) which can be transported using the existing infrastructure for natural gas distribution. The hydrogenation of CO2 to give methane, the Sabatier reaction, is an exothermic equilibrium process (?H=-165 kJ/mol). Catalysts, such as Ru, Ni, Fe, Co or Rh, dispersed on oxide supports are necessary to achieve good rates and selectivity to CH4. High surface temperature can displace the thermodynamic equilibrium and promote side reactions, as RWGS. The use of materials with a high thermal conductivity of support and/or substrate can help to suitably manage the exothermal effect of the reaction increasing the catalytic performance. In this work, polymer derived SiC foams treated at different temperatures were proposed as substrate for 1%Ru/Al2O3 catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to methane. The catalysts, as foam disks with different load of the active phase, were tested in a fixed bed reactor in the temperature range 200-450°C with a CO2/H2/N2 = 1/4/5 mixture varying the total flow rate. CO2 capture capacity depends on the Ru/alumina load whereas the performance is affected by the different thermal pre-treatment of the substrate providing different thermal conductivity properties to SiC foam material.

La presente relazione riporta l'attività di caratterizzazione morfologica, chimica e funzionale di n. 2 catalizzatori commerciali per il trattamento dei gas di scarico di motori ad accensione comandata di autoveicoli alimentati a metano commissionata dalla società GreenTechs SRL con sede in Vasto (CH). I campioni di catalizzatori monolitici a nido d'ape da analizzare sono stati consegnati a cura del committente presso i laboratori dell'Istituto STEMS nel mese di Maggio 2021. L'attività di caratterizzazione mira alla verifica delle proprietà chimico-fisiche e morfologiche dei catalizzatori dopo un periodo di utilizzo per un totale di ca 3000 Km su autoveicolo Hyundai Solaris con motorizzazione 4 cilindri di 1600cc alimentata a metano che ha causato un evidente deterioramento di una faccia di uno dei due catalizzatori

Conversion of CO2 captured from point emission sources (or air) into added-value chemicals and fuels can represent a smart solution for decreasing CO2 emissions. One of these processes is based on the reaction of CO2 with hydrogen from renewable sources to produce methane that can be used as synthetic substitute of natural gas (SNG). Recent studies have investigated the development of dual functional materials (DFM) containing both a sorbent and a catalytic active component that can capture CO2 from a flue gas until saturation and subsequently convert it at the same temperature using H2 from renewable sources to produce SNG while regenerating for the next cycle.

The purification of reformate, natural gas and raw biogas represents a mandatory step before their use in downstream processes. One of the main impurities is H2S which is toxic, corrosive for engines and fuel processing devices and poisonous to catalysts even in small quantities. Adsorption is an effective technique for H2S removal because it is a simple, highly efficient and low cost process. Activated carbons (AC) are good sorbents due to their surface chemistry (often enhanced by dispersion of metal nanoparticles) and high internal surface area and porosity. ACs are generally in the form of powders or granules that limit their applicability when high pressure drops must be avoided. ACs in structured form are commercially available but their production generally requires the use of binders which, despite offering good mechanical properties, reduce the adsorption capacity due to the partial blockage of porosity. In this work, copper and magnesium oxides were dispersed onto commercial AC honeycombs (400cpsi) to increase the H2S capture capacity at room temperature in the presence of H2O and O2. The adsorption performance varied significantly depending on the nature of the metal. Addition of magnesium provided a higher capture capacity than copper for the same load level. Copper promoted an initial fast mechanism, associated to the formation of sulfates, substituted by a slower mechanism involving the formation of elemental sulfur. Magnesium activated a mechanism occurring through the dissociation of H2S into HS- and H+ promoted by the basic character of MgO. A thermal treatment up to 620°C under inert gas of spent sorbents restored the porous structure of both Cu- and Mg-modified AC monoliths due to the decomposition of sulfate species at lower temperature and the evaporation of elemental sulfur. Therefore, the sorbents can operate several capture cycles without detectable loss of capture capacity. This makes these structured metal-modified ACs very good candidates for H2S capture process at room temperature for natural and raw biogas purification

FinFET with contact over active-gate (COAG) is implemented on 12nm node technology platform to optimize the Maximum Oscillation Frequency $(F_{MAX})$ ) and the Minimum Noise Figure $(NF_{MIN}$ for devices with large fin numbers. This study shows that proposed COAG design can reduce the gate resistance of the 40-fin device by ~ 10- fold, while improving the $F_{MAX}$ by ~ 180% with comparable reliability performance to traditional FinFETs. Excellent DC and RF performances with $NF_{MIN}$ of 0.6dB at 26GHz and 3dB improvement in NF with $50\mathrm{Q}$ source impedance $(NF_{50}$ ) over the 5-26GHz frequency range makes large fin number COAG FinFET an excellent candidate for variety of 5G sub-6GHz and mmWave applications in which high $\mathrm{F}_{\mathrm{MAX}}$ and low noise are critical.

This work presents various device self-heating temperature sensing techniques and discusses their application in device reliability projection. Details of sensor design, technology choice, layout and ambient temperature impact on measurement results are discussed. The sensors produce excellent results which were confirmed through TCAD thermal simulation. Self-heating was studied by varying the number of fins per active region and proximity of sensor to heater was investigated. While most data presented here is on FinFET technology the learning and measurement techniques are applicable to planar technologies. Front-end-of-line (FEOL) reliability mechanism, hot carrier injection (HCI) was studied to show that self-heating effects can impact measurement results and recommendations are given on how to mitigate them. Self-heating is also studied for logic circuits by utilizing ring oscillators with several densities and stage counts to show that self-heating is considerably lower compared to constant voltage stress conditions conducted on discrete structures.

During metal/dielectric plasma processing for the back end of the line (BEOL), degradation of the transistor gate oxide may occur due to the plasma discharge current. This degradation can create a functional failure or lead to future reliability issues. Diodes of a specific size are incorporated into the chip to protect from plasma induced damage (PID) during the BEOL processing. In 3D integrated circuits (IC) additional processes such as through silicon via (TSV) etching and backside redistribution layer (RDL) are accounted for in deciding the diode size. Additional diode protection structure is also used for electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage during fab/assembly. In this study, a bidirectional diode is proposed to protect the transistor gate oxide from both PID and ESD during the 3D IC integration process. The combined protection diode addresses PID due to front and back side processes and ESD during chip to chip/wafer to wafer bonding process.

Introduction Thanks to the anticancer therapies, the life expectancy of the oncologic patients has noticeably increased, but several cardiac diseases can be observed in these patients as the result of the cardiotoxic effects. Purpose To investigate the impact of radiotherapy on the clinical and echocardiographic outcomes, in patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) and preserved left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) treated with transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Methods We recruited patients with severe AS and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≥50‰ treated with TAVI and who received prior radiotheraphy. Patients with LVEF Results 102 patients were included in the present analysis. They were divided in two groups: 19 (18‰) with an oncologic history treated with previous left thoracic/mediastinal radiotherapy and 83 (82‰) patients without an oncologic history. The two groups were homogeneous in terms of demographic and clinical data, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), echocardiographic data pre-TAVI. They only differed for a greater prevalence of mitral stenosis and calcifications in the oncologic patients versus the non-oncologics (respectively 36‰ vs. 12‰ p=0,016; 73‰ vs. 29‰ p=0,001). No differences in terms of in-hospital clinical outcomes were observed. The echocardiographic evaluation in both groups showed a significant decrease of the peak velocities and of the transprosthetic gradients. There was a higher incidence of at least moderate degree paraprosthetic leaks in the oncologic group vs. the non-oncologic one: 6 (31‰ total leaks, 37‰ leaks >2+) vs. 7 (8‰ total leaks, 12‰ leaks >2+); p=0.029. After 3–6 months, there was not a statistically significant improvement of ejection fraction (EF) in neither of the two groups but there was a statistically significant improvement of transmural, subepicardial and subendocardial longitudinal strain values in the non-oncologic group compared to pre-TAVI values, respectively −19±4 vs. −17±4 (p Conclusions Patients affected by severe AS treated with TAVI and who received received prior radiotheraphy, showed the absence of statistically significant improvement of multilayer strain values, at 3–6 months after TAVI. Oncologic patients also had a higher incidence of haemodynamically relevant paravalvular leaks after the intervention, compared to the non-oncologic patients.

Impact of process choices in terms of work function (WF) tuning and junction implant energy optimization for hot carrier (HCI) reliability in advanced FINFET technology is discussed here. The work focuses on understanding the nature and location of defects generated under different process conditions. Experimental observations are confirmed here with TCAD based simulations. For the first time, it is observed that maximum substrate current increases as stress progresses in contrast to traditional HCI mechanisms. To reduce HCI degradation, in addition to junction optimization, an additional knob is available in scaled FETs is the WF optimization, which can provide significant HCI reliability relief.

The endless demand for high performance and low power CMOS devices at extremely scaled cell dimensions led the semiconductor industry to migrate to FinFET structures. This evolution has brought higher integration complexity and has forced the reliability engineers to be aware of interrelation among process conditions affecting electrical degradation and failure. In this work, major integration steps which impact FEOL/MOL reliability are discussed, and guidance is provided for reliability-aware FinFET design.

H2S reactive adsorption on CuO-ZnO dispersed onto activated carbon is investigated in different gas streams, containing either O2, H2O or O2/H2O, at room temperature and in a lab-scale fixed-bed reactor. Sorbents performances are analyzed in terms of H2S adsorption capacity and adsorption rate and data are correlated with the sulphur species formed upon adsorption and in the different experimental conditions. Temperature Programmed Desorption (TPD), porosimetric and XPS analyses are performed in order to support the adsorption dynamic tests. The presence of O2 and H2O determines a remarkable increase in H2S adsorption capacity, favouring the formation of different sulphur species such as sulphides, sulphates and, above all, elemental sulphur. The analysis of the experimental data set shows the occurrence of two main H2S oxidation mechanisms with different rates: the first one quickly forms metal sulphates utilizing lattice oxygen from metal oxide clusters or superficial oxygen species; the second, slower one, requires H2O and molecular oxygen in the feed gas to catalytically form elemental sulphur chains that progressively fill-up the sorbent microporosity.

The impact of sulphur poisoning during dry reforming (DR) of methane on a Rh/γ-Al2O3 catalyst was studied by adding up to 30 ppmv of SO2 or H2S to the feed (CH4/CO2/N2 = 1/1/2) at reaction temperatures in the range 800–900 °C. As low as 1 ppmv of sulphur in the feed adversely affected the H2 and CO yield, and S-poisoning reached a saturation level for contents ≥10 ppmv, independently from the type of S-bearing compound. The impact of S addition on the RWGS reaction, occurring simultaneously to DR, was also investigated under steady state operation. Transient poisoning experiments showed a rapid drop of syn-gas production and a corresponding increase in the temperature level, suggesting that sulphur directly bonded to Rh active sites. An increase of coke formation on the catalyst was detected with respect to S-free conditions, and this effect was studied by Raman spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. Sulphur inhibition was reversible and the Rh-catalyst slowly recovered its initial activity after the removal of sulphur from the feed.

Purpose: Deformation analysis from 3D echocardiography results in a considerable amount of parameters, for which the conventional statistical approach is cumbersome. We investigate local motion and deformation patterns to determine the parameters of relevance for the study of LV myocardial deformation in the presence of LAD infarct. Methods: The study included 46 patients acquired at max. 5 days after LAD infarct (37 sequences) and at 1-year follow-up (33 sequences), and 46 controls. Patients were selected if they had a LVEF