Análisis experimental de la influencia de la velocidad de aplicación de la carga, en los ensayos estáticos, y de la magnitud de la carga máxina, en los dinámicos, en el comportamiento in vitro de los tornillos interferenciales y de un nuevo dispositivo expansor radial para la fijación ósea de injertos de LCA de la rodilla

El primer objetivo de este trabajo consite en rediseñar un nuevo sistema defijación del injerto de LCA, basado en la expansión radial, partiendo del desarrollo en el D.I.M de la ULPGC. El segundo objetivo es validar experimentalmente este dispositivo medienat ensayos, en diferentes medios, comparando los resultados con el dispositivo más utilizado en la actualidad de acción interferencial. Se llega a la conclusión de que el tornillo de expansión precisa una mayor fuerza y de un mayor número de ciclos para la extracción del implante , culminando el objetivo básico de la tesis de validar experimentalmente el dispositivo.

Descripción y evaluación del entrenamiento psicológico de una deportista de regata clase laser radial

[ES] El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar el entrenamiento psicológico realizado con una regatista para la preparación de la fase de clasificación para los Juegos Olímpicos de Londres 2012, y analizar la percepción de mejora psicológica por parte de la regatista y su valoración del entrenamiento realizado.

Study of silicon-on-insulator multiple-gate MOS structures including band-gap engineering and self heating effects

The progresses of electron devices integration have proceeded for more than 40 years following the well–known Moore’s law, which states that the transistors density on chip doubles every 24 months. This trend has been possible due to the downsizing of the MOSFET dimensions (scaling); however, new issues and new challenges are arising, and the conventional ”bulk” architecture is becoming inadequate in order to face them. In order to overcome the limitations related to conventional structures, the researchers community is preparing different solutions, that need to be assessed. Possible solutions currently under scrutiny are represented by: • devices incorporating materials with properties different from those of silicon, for the channel and the source/drain regions; • new architectures as Silicon–On–Insulator (SOI) transistors: the body thickness of Ultra-Thin-Body SOI devices is a new design parameter, and it permits to keep under control Short–Channel–Effects without adopting high doping level in the channel. Among the solutions proposed in order to overcome the difficulties related to scaling, we can highlight heterojunctions at the channel edge, obtained by adopting for the source/drain regions materials with band–gap different from that of the channel material. This solution allows to increase the injection velocity of the particles travelling from the source into the channel, and therefore increase the performance of the transistor in terms of provided drain current. The first part of this thesis work addresses the use of heterojunctions in SOI transistors: chapter 3 outlines the basics of the heterojunctions theory and the adoption of such approach in older technologies as the heterojunction–bipolar–transistors; moreover the modifications introduced in the Monte Carlo code in order to simulate conduction band discontinuities are described, and the simulations performed on unidimensional simplified structures in order to validate them as well. Chapter 4 presents the results obtained from the Monte Carlo simulations performed on double–gate SOI transistors featuring conduction band offsets between the source and drain regions and the channel. In particular, attention has been focused on the drain current and to internal quantities as inversion charge, potential energy and carrier velocities. Both graded and abrupt discontinuities have been considered. The scaling of devices dimensions and the adoption of innovative architectures have consequences on the power dissipation as well. In SOI technologies the channel is thermally insulated from the underlying substrate by a SiO2 buried–oxide layer; this SiO2 layer features a thermal conductivity that is two orders of magnitude lower than the silicon one, and it impedes the dissipation of the heat generated in the active region. Moreover, the thermal conductivity of thin semiconductor films is much lower than that of silicon bulk, due to phonon confinement and boundary scattering. All these aspects cause severe self–heating effects, that detrimentally impact the carrier mobility and therefore the saturation drive current for high–performance transistors; as a consequence, thermal device design is becoming a fundamental part of integrated circuit engineering. The second part of this thesis discusses the problem of self–heating in SOI transistors. Chapter 5 describes the causes of heat generation and dissipation in SOI devices, and it provides a brief overview on the methods that have been proposed in order to model these phenomena. In order to understand how this problem impacts the performance of different SOI architectures, three–dimensional electro–thermal simulations have been applied to the analysis of SHE in planar single and double–gate SOI transistors as well as FinFET, featuring the same isothermal electrical characteristics. In chapter 6 the same simulation approach is extensively employed to study the impact of SHE on the performance of a FinFET representative of the high–performance transistor of the 45 nm technology node. Its effects on the ON–current, the maximum temperatures reached inside the device and the thermal resistance associated to the device itself, as well as the dependence of SHE on the main geometrical parameters have been analyzed. Furthermore, the consequences on self–heating of technological solutions such as raised S/D extensions regions or reduction of fin height are explored as well. Finally, conclusions are drawn in chapter 7.

Clostridium difficile toxins facilitate bacterial colonization by modulating the fence and gate function of colonic epithelium

The contribution of Clostridium difficile toxin A and B (TcdA and TcdB) to cellular intoxication has been extensively studied, but their impact on bacterial colonization remains unclear. By setting-up two- and three-dimensional in vitro models of polarized gut epithelium, we investigated how C. difficile infection is affected by host cell polarity and whether TcdA and TcdB contribute to such events. Indeed, we observed that C. difficile adhesion and penetration of the epithelial barrier is substantially enhanced in poorly polarized or EGTA-treated cells, indicating that bacteria bind preferentially to the basolateral cell surface. In this context, we demonstrated that sub-lethal concentrations of C. difficile TcdA are able to alter cell polarity by causing redistribution of plasma membrane components between distinct surface domains. Taken together, the data suggest that toxin-mediated modulation of host cell organization may account for the capacity of this opportunistic pathogen to gain access to basolateral receptors leading to a successful colonization of the colonic mucosa.

Tradurre il fantasy per giovani lettori: "The Explorers' gate" di Chris Grabenstein

The purpose of this thesis is, on the one hand, to illustrate the peculiarities of children’s literature, fantasy fiction and their translation and, on the other hand, to propose a translation from English to Italian of some chapters of the e-book The Explorers’ Gate by American author Chris Grabenstein. The first chapters of this work offer an analysis of different critical studies on children’s literature and fantasy fiction and illustrate the characteristics of these two literary expressions. I will also discuss the different approaches to their translation in order to produce a translated text that is consistent with its literary genre and with translation theories. The third chapter is about the author and includes an interview on his idea of children’s literature and his opinions about translation. The second part of this thesis is represented by the actual translation of the e-book. Firstly, I will analyze the source text, dividing the analysis in extra-textual and intra- textual and focusing on sender, addressee, time and space, function of the text, plot, structure, narrator, style and language used by the author. I will also highlight those elements that probably would be challenging during the translation phase. Secondly, I will explain the macro-strategy that I adopted during the process of translation, which can be defined as child-oriented. In the last chapter I will highlight those passages that represented translation challenges and I will show how I tackled them.

High precision radial velocities with giano spectra

Radial velocities measured from near-infrared (NIR) spectra are a potential tool to search for extrasolar planets around cool stars. High resolution infrared spectrographs now available reach the high precision of visible instruments, with a constant improvement over time. GIANO is an infrared echelle spectrograph and it is a powerful tool to provide high resolution spectra for accurate radial velocity measurements of exo-planets and for chemical and dynamical studies of stellar or extragalactic objects. No other IR instruments have the GIANO's capability to cover the entire NIR wavelength range. In this work we develop an ensemble of IDL procedures to measure high precision radial velocities on a few GIANO spectra acquired during the commissioning run, using the telluric lines as wevelength reference. In Section 1.1 various exoplanet search methods are described. They exploit different properties of the planetary system. In Section 1.2 we describe the exoplanet population discovered trough the different methods. In Section 1.3 we explain motivations for NIR radial velocities and the challenges related the main issue that has limited the pursuit of high-precision NIR radial velocity, that is, the lack of a suitable calibration method. We briefly describe calibration methods in the visible and the solutions for IR calibration, for instance, the use of telluric lines. The latter has advantages and problems, described in detail. In this work we use telluric lines as wavelength reference. In Section 1.4 the Cross Correlation Function (CCF) method is described. This method is widely used to measure the radial velocities.In Section 1.5 we describe GIANO and its main science targets. In Chapter 2 observational data obtained with GIANO spectrograph are presented and the choice criteria are reported. In Chapter 3 we describe the detail of the analysis and examine in depth the flow chart reported in Section 3.1. In Chapter 4 we give the radial velocities measured with our IDL procedure for all available targets. We obtain an rms scatter in radial velocities of about 7 m/s. Finally, we conclude that GIANO can be used to measure radial velocities of late type stars with an accuracy close to or better than 10 m/s, using telluric lines as wevelength reference. In 2014 September GIANO is being operative at TNG for Science Verification and more observational data will allow to further refine this analysis.

Named Entity Extraction: la piattaforma Gate/Annie

In questo lavoro si introducono i concetti di base di Natural Language Processing, soffermandosi su Information Extraction e analizzandone gli ambiti applicativi, le attività principali e la differenza rispetto a Information Retrieval. Successivamente si analizza il processo di Named Entity Recognition, focalizzando l’attenzione sulle principali problematiche di annotazione di testi e sui metodi per la valutazione della qualità dell’estrazione di entità. Infine si fornisce una panoramica della piattaforma software open-source di language processing GATE/ANNIE, descrivendone l’architettura e i suoi componenti principali, con approfondimenti sugli strumenti che GATE offre per l'approccio rule-based a Named Entity Recognition.

Radial dGEMRIC in developmental dysplasia of the hip and in femoroacetabular impingement: preliminary results

To assess the pattern of cartilage damage in symptomatic cases of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) and of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) with a novel three-dimensional (3D) delayed Gadolinium enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of cartilage (dGEMRIC) technique.

On-table reconstruction of comminuted fractures of the radial head

The most widely accepted treatment for comminuted fractures of the radial head is either the excision or open reduction and internal fixation. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the value of an 'on-table' reconstruction technique in severely comminuted fractures of the radial head. In this study, two patients with a Mason type-III and four patients with a Mason type-IV radial-head fracture were treated with 'on-table' reconstruction and fixation using low-profile mini-plates. After a mean follow-up of 112 months (47-154 months), the mean elbow motion was 0-6-141 degrees extension flexion with 79 degrees of pronation and 70 degrees of supination. The mean Broberg and Morrey functional rating score was 97.0 points, the Mayo Elbow Performance Index was 99.2 points and the mean Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) Outcome Measure score was 1.94 points. One patient had symptoms of degenerative changes, with a slight joint-space narrowing. There were no radiographic signs of devitalisation at final examination. Comminuted fractures of the radial head, which would otherwise require excision, can be successfully treated with an 'on-table' reconstruction technique.

Endosonographic radial tumor thickness after neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy to predict response and survival in patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer: a prospective multicenter phase ll study by the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK 75/02)

EUS response assessment in patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (CRT) is limited by disintegration of the involved anatomic structures.

Persistent sensitivity disorders at the radial artery and saphenous vein graft harvest sites: a neglected side effect of coronary artery bypass grafting procedures

The use of radial artery conduits in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery is associated with improved long-term patency and patient survival rates as compared with saphenous vein conduits. Despite increasing popularity, relative incidence of local harvest-site complications and subjective perception of adverse long-term sequelae remain poorly described.

Reactive oxygen species mediate functional differences in human radial and internal thoracic arteries from smokers

Smoking not only increases the risk that coronary heart disease will develop but also morbidity and mortality in patients with known coronary atherosclerosis and after coronary artery bypass grafting. Excessive generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been implicated as the final common pathway for the development of endothelial dysfunction in various cardiovascular risk factors. This study assessed the influence of smoking on two different human arteries routinely used as coronary artery bypass graft conduits.

dGEMRIC and subsequent T1 mapping of the hip at 1.5 Tesla: normative data on zonal and radial distribution in asymptomatic volunteers

To characterize the zonal distribution of three-dimensional (3D) T1 mapping in the hip joint of asymptomatic adult volunteers.

Femoroacetabular cam-type impingement: diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of radiographic views compared to radial MRI

To retrospectively assess the diagnostic sensitivity of 45° Dunn view and cross-table lateral radiographs for the assessment of cam deformity by comparison with radial MRI.