Ailanthus altissima (Miller) Swingle as a cause of immunoallergic respiratory manifestations

In questo lavoro gli autori mettono in correlazione le concentrazioni aeropolliniche di Ailanthus altissima(Miller) Swingle (Simaroubaceae) rilevate nell’atmosfera della città di Cagliari (Sardegna meridionale, Italia) e del suo hinterland, con le sindromi allergiche causate, in alcuni pazienti atopici, dai pollini di questa pianta. Dalle indagini aerobiologiche è stato possibile mettere in evidenza come le più alte concentrazioni aeropolliniche di ailanto sono state riscontrate nel periodo tra aprile e giugno. Su un campione significativo di 74 pazienti, di sesso ed età diversa, ben 21 soggetti sono risultati positivi ai test allergologici

The infrared environments of masers associated with star formation

The near infrared (1-2um) and the thermal infrared (3-25um) trace many of the environments in which masers are thought to reside, including shocks, outflows, accretion disks, and the dense medium near protostars. After a number of recent surveys it has been found that there is a higher detection rate of mid-IR emission towards masers than cm radio continuum emission from UC HII regions, and that the mid-IR emission is actually more closely cospatial to the maser locations. A high percentage of water and methanol masers that are not coincident with the UC HII regions in massive star forming regions are likely to be tracing outflows and extremely young high mass stars before the onset of the UC HII region phase. After a decade of groundwork supporting the hypothesis that linarly distributed class II methanol masers may generally trace accretion disks around young massive stars, compelling evidence is mounting that these masers may generally be associated with outflows instead. Substantiation of this claim comes from recent outflow surveys and high angular resolution mid-IR imaging of the maser environments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of IAUS 242 "Astrophysical Masers and Their Environments", eds. J. Chapman & W. Baan. A version with higher resolution is available at http://www.ctio.noao.edu/~debuize

Unu idrònimu sardu

Subra a sas orìgines de su topònimu Palau sos pàrreres de sos linguistas non sun cuncordes ma tottus creen chi siat una paraula foristera. Calicunu pensat chi siat essida a pizu a sos tempos de su domìniu catalanu-ispagnolu mentres àtteros sun cumbintos chi siat unu prèstidu cadalanu ebbia e bi est finas chie creet chi si trattet de unu ligurismu. S’artìculu mustrat chi s’esàmene de sa toponimia istòrica, màssimu de sos idrònimos, nos indittat intamen chi si trattat de unu topònimu chi s’est formadu comente isviluppu derettu de una paraula latina. Paraulas crae: pàrreres; toponimia istòrica; idrònimos; isviluppu localeOn the origins of the name Palau scholars have different opinions but everyone thinks it’s a foreign word. Someone thinks it’s a thalassonim formed during the Catalan-Spanish period while others are convinced that it is a Catalan word and there are also those who believe that it is a Ligurian term. The article shows that the examination of the historical place names, and in particular of the hydronyms, indicates conversely that the name was formed as a direct local development of a Latin word. Keywords: opinions; historical place names; hydronims; local development

Primary dermal melanoma in a patient with a history of multiple malignancies: a case report with molecular characterization

Introduction: Primary dermal melanoma (PDM) is a recently described clinical entity accounting for less than 1% of all melanomas. Histologically, it is located in the dermis or subcutaneous tissue, and it shows no connections with the overlying epidermis. The differential diagnosis is principally made along with that of metastatic cutaneous melanoma. Case Report: A 72-year-old Caucasian woman with a history of multiple cancers (metachro-nous bilateral breast cancer, meningioma, clear cell renal cell carcinoma, uterine fibromatosis and intestinal adenomatous polyposis), came to our attention with a nodular lesion on her back. After removal of the lesion, the histology report indicated malignant PDM or metastatic malignant melanoma. The clinical and instrumental evaluation of the patient did not reveal any other primary tumour, suggesting the primitive nature of the lesion. The absence of an epithelial component argued for a histological diagnosis of PDM. Subsequently, the patient underwent a wide surgical excision with sentinel node biopsy, which was positive for metastatic melanoma. Finally, the mutational status was studied in the main genes that regulate proliferation, apoptosis and cellular senescence. No pathogenetic mutations in CDKN2A, BRAF, NRAS, KRAS, cKIT, TP53 and PTEN genes were observed. This suggests that alternative pathways and low-frequency alterations may be involved. Conclusions: The differential diagnosis between PDM and isolated metastatic melanoma depends on the negativity of imaging studies and clinical findings for other primary lesions. This distinction is important because 5-year survival rates in such cases are higher than in metastatic cases (80– 100 vs. 5–20%, respectively)

A multiband proximity-coupled-fed flexible microstrip antenna for wireless systems

A multiband printed microstrip antenna for wireless communications is presented. The antenna is fed by a proximity-coupled microstrip line, and it is printed on a flexible substrate. The antenna has been designed using a general-purpose 3D computeraided design software (CAD), CST Microwave Studio, and then realized. The comparison between simulated and measured results shows that the proposed antenna can be used for wireless communications for WLAN systems, covering both the WLAN S-band (2.45GHz) and C-band (5.2GHz), and the Wi-Max 3.5GHz band, with satisfactory input matching and broadside radiation pattern. Moreover, it has a compact size, is very easy to realize, and presents a discrete out-of-band rejection, without requiring the use of stop-band filters. The proposed structure can be used also as a conformal antenna, and its frequency response and radiated field are satisfactory for curvatures up to 65°