DataMED (Italy)

The new paradigm of human-robot collaboration has led to the creation of shared work environments in which humans and robots work in close contact with each other. Consequently, the safety regulations have been updated addressing these new scenarios. The mere application of these regulations may lead to a very inefficient behavior of the robot. In order to preserve safety for the human operators and allow the robot to reach a desired configuration in a safe and efficient way, a two layers architecture for trajectory planning and scaling is proposed. The first layer calculates the nominal trajectory and continuously adapts it based on the human behavior. The second layer, which explicitly considers the safety regulations, scales the robot velocity and requests for a new trajectory if the robot speed drops. The proposed architecture is experimentally validated on a Pilz PRBT manipulator.

For the first time, die-level current crowding phenomena are analyzed at the microsecond timescale with an internal IR-Laser Deflection (IIR-LD) set-up. As a test vehicle, a 1.2 kVSiC Schottky diode ($1.6\times 1.6\mathrm{m}\mathrm{m}^{2}$ active area) with an edge termination based on a junction termination extension has been studied under 100 $\mu \mathrm{s}$-pulsed currents (ranging from 215 to 330 $\mathrm{A}/\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}^{2})$. Under such conditions, the edge termination starts a local bipolar conduction along the device active area perimeter, leading to current crowding effects. To monitor this, an area on the lateral side-wall of $200\times 10\mu \mathrm{m}^{2}$ has been scanned in steps of 20 $\mu \mathrm{m}$ through x-direction and 2 $\mu \mathrm{m}$ along y-direction, thus obtaining 2D depth-resolved measurements.

Rituximab, a chimeric anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, has been used in polyneuropathy associated with anti-myelin-associated glycoprotein (anti-MAG) antibody polyneuropathy with controversial results. Herein, two patients with anti-MAG antibody neuropathy and concurrent chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are reported, who dramatically responded to obinutuzumab, a novel glycoengineered humanized anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody. Patient 1 was an 82-year-old man with severe demyelinating sensory-motor neuropathy. He was wheelchair-bound, with loss of sensation up to the knees. He had a CLL, immunoglobulin M (IgM) lambda monoclonal gammopathy, with anti-MAG antibodies >70000 Bühlmann titer units (BTU). Patient 2 was an 84-year-old woman with demyelinating neuropathy, paresthesias and gait instability. She had CLL and IgM kappa paraprotein with anti-MAG antibodies >70000 BTU. Both patients were treated with obinutuzumab intravenously at 100mg on day +1, 900mg +2, then at 1000mg on days 8 and 15 of cycle 1 and day 1 of cycles 2-6; chlorambucil was given orally at 0.5mg/kg on days 1 and 15 of cycles 1-6. Patient 1 at cycle 6 was able to stand, gait was possible with monolateral support, hypoesthesia and strength improved. M-protein and IgM level decreased. In patient 2, already after three cycles, the monoclonal component disappeared and there was dramatic improvement of symptoms and gait normalization. At the end of therapy anti-MAG antibody titer decreased to 5462 BTU. Neurophysiology also improved. In our patients, obinutuzumab was effective as a first-line treatment of anti-MAG antibody polyneuropathy. CLL might have had a role in the response to therapy, but the associations might be considered in future trials.

We propose the use of a narrowband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) fiber source as seeder in a pulsed master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) configuration for power and energy pulse extraction scaling. The narrowband ASE master oscillator is compared with the standard configuration using a Fabry-Perot laser diode. We show the performance limitations imposed by the use of the Fabry-Perot lasers, caused by the backward high peak power pulses triggered due to stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). Free SBS operation is shown when using the narrowband ASE seeder in the same system, allowing for significant increase on the extractable power and energy.

The design of a novel therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) point-of-care-testing (POCT) biochip for immunosuppressants detection in transplanted patients is described. The chip consists of two polymeric parts, a top PMMA slide and a bottom ZEONOR® thin foil, bonded together by means of a pressure sensitive adhesive tape. The tape, with lower refractive index, is shaped in order to obtain a microfluidic multi-channel array. The optical signal, coming from an external light source and travelling along the ZEONOR® thin foil, excites the fluorescent sensing layer immobilized onto the fluidic channels. Preliminary tests with the bioassay implementation for tacrolimus detection are reported.

A new immunosensor for the determination of procalcitonin was developed. A sandwich assay format was implemented on a polymethylmetacrylate optical biochip, opportunely shaped in order to obtain several flow channels and potentially suitable for point of care testing applications. The sandwich format makes use of two new rat monoclonal antibodies. The capture antibody was covalently immobilised on the surface of the plastic chip, and the detection antibody was labelled with DY647 dye. Different combinations of capture and detection antibodies were investigated, and particular attention was devoted in order to avoid the non-specific adsorption. A limit of detection of 0.088 mg L(-1) was achieved within the working range of 0.28-50 mg L(-1) in buffer samples. The assay was also implemented in human serum, and 0.2 and 0.7-25 mg L(-1) were the attained limit of detection and working range, respectively.

A novel optical platform for point of care testing application was developed. The core of the platform is a miniaturised polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) chip through which the analysed sample flows. Thanks to the fluorescence anisotropy exhibited by any dipole emitting at a distance from a medium interface of the order of the emitted wavelength, a large fraction of the fluorescence emitted by the sensing layer immobilized onto the internal flow-channel travels along the thickness of the PMMA up to its end-face where it is collected by a plastic optical fibre connected to a spectrum analyser. The potentiality of the optical chip was investigated with a sandwich assay for the C-reactive protein, one of the markers for inflammatory diseases.