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We review the state-of-the-art in the understanding of planar NAND Flash memory reliability and discuss how the recent move to three-dimensional (3D) devices has affected this field. Particular emphasis is placed on mechanisms developing along the lifetime of the memory array, as opposed to time-zero or technological issues, and the viewpoint is focused on the understanding of the root causes. The impressive amount of published work demonstrates that Flash reliability is a complex yet well-understood field, where nonetheless tighter and tighter constraints are set by device scaling. Three-dimensional NAND have offset the traditional scaling scenario, leading to an improvement in performance and reliability while raising new issues to be dealt with, determined by the newer and more complex cell and array architectures as well as operation modes. A thorough understanding of the complex phenomena involved in the operation and reliability of NAND cells remains vital for the development of future technology nodes.

Experimental evidence from animal models and epidemiology studies has demonstrated that nutrition affects lung development and may have a lifelong impact on respiratory health. Chronic restriction of nutrients and/or oxygen during pregnancy causes structural changes in the airways and parenchyma that may result in abnormal lung function, which is tracked throughout life. Inadequate nutritional management in very premature infants hampers lung growth and may be a contributing factor in the pathogenesis of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Recent evidence seems to indicate that infant and childhood malnutrition does not determine lung function impairment even in the presence of reduced lung size due to delayed body growth. This review will focus on the effects of malnutrition occurring at critical time periods such as pregnancy, early life, and childhood, on lung growth and long-term lung function.

Through detailed experimental and modeling activities, this paper investigates the origin of the temperature dependence of the Erase operation in 3D nand flash arrays. First of all, experimental data collected down to the cryogenic regime on both charge-trap and floating-gate arrays are provided to demonstrate that the reduction in temperature makes cells harder to Erase irrespective of the nature of their storage layer. This evidence is then attributed to the weakening, with the decrease in temperature, of the gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) current exploited to set the electrostatic potential of the body of the nand strings during Erase. Modeling results for the GIDL-assisted Erase operation, finally, allow not only to support this conclusion but also to directly correlate the change with temperature of the electrostatic potential of the string body with the change with temperature of the erased threshold-voltage of the memory cells.

Left ventricular (LV) hypertrabeculation is increasingly recognized as a phenotype that may reflect physiological adaptation, particularly in athletes exposed to chronic overload, although its functional relevance remains uncertain. This study evaluated the prevalence of excessive trabeculation and its physiological correlation with LV remodeling. We conducted a single-center, cross-sectional study involving 320 Olympic-level athletes without cardiovascular disease. All underwent cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). Hypertrabeculation was defined by the Petersen criteria. Athletes meeting these criteria were classified as hypertrabeculated and compared with non-hypertrabeculated matched for age, sex, and sport category. LV morphology, function, strain parameters, and hemodynamic forces (HDFs) were analyzed. Hypertrabeculation was identified in 9% of the cohort. No significant differences were observed between groups for training exposure (p = 0.262), body surface area (p = 0.762), LV volumes (end-diastolic volume indexed p = 0.397 end-systolic volume indexed p = 0.118), ejection fraction (p = 0.101), mass (p = 0.919), sphericity index (p = 0.419), myocardial wall thickness (p = 0.394), tissue characterization (T1 mapping p = 0.366, T2 mapping p = 0.833), global longitudinal strain (GLS p = 0.898), global circumferential strain (GCS p = 0.219), or HDFs. All values were within the normal range. In our cohort, LV hypertrabeculation, evaluated by CMR, was relatively common but not associated with structural or functional abnormalities, supporting its interpretation as a benign variant in asymptomatic athletes with normal cardiac function.

In this paper, we review the phenomenology of random telegraph noise (RTN) in 3D NAND Flash arrays. The main features of such arrays resulting from their mainstream integration scheme are first discussed, pointing out the relevant role played by the polycrystalline nature of the string silicon channels on current transport. Starting from that, experimental data for RTN in 3D arrays are presented and explained via theoretical and simulation models. The attention is drawn, in particular, to the changes in the RTN dependences on the array working conditions that resulted from the transition from planar to 3D architectures. Such changes are explained by considering the impact of highly-defective grain boundaries on percolative current transport in cell channels in combination with the localized nature of the RTN traps.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, especially in the first wave of pandemic (March 2020), sedentary lifestyle and calorie intake increase in children became considerably more prevalent. The aim of the present paper was to evaluate changes in children’s weights and nutritional habits during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. In this cross-sectional observational study, for 3 years, as part of the corporate wellness program (2019–2021) in Emilia Romagna region of Italy, anthropometric data of Ferrari car company employers’ children were collected, analyzed, and compared. Moreover, at the visit of November 2020, performed after the first wave of the pandemic with the most rigorous lockdown rules in Italy, a questionnaire on nutritional and lifestyle habits was administered. We evaluated 307 children (163 M, 10.1 ± 2.3 mean aged in 2019). A significant increase in BMI percentile in 2020 (65.2) compared to 2019 (49.2) was observed; it was confirmed, albeit slightly decreased, in 2021 (64.5). About one-third of participants reported an increase in consumption of fatty condiments and more than half report an increase in consumption of junk food. Levels of physical activity were still high during the COVID-19 lockdown, while sleeping time was significantly reduced. Our findings alert us to the importance of carefully monitoring eating behaviors in young to avoid the adoption of unhealthy food habits and prevent childhood obesity, especially during the period of COVID-19 lockdown.

In this work, we investigate the implementation of a neuromorphic digit classifier based on NOR Flash memory arrays as artificial synaptic arrays and exploiting a pulse-width modulation (PWM) scheme. Its performance is compared in presence of various noise sources against what achieved when a classical pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) scheme is employed. First, by modeling the cell threshold voltage (VT) placement affected by program noise during a program-and-verify scheme based on incremental step pulse programming (ISPP), we show that the classifier truthfulness degradation due to the limited program accuracy achieved in the PWM case is considerably lower than that obtained with the PAM approach. Then, a similar analysis is carried out to investigate the classifier behavior after program in presence of cell VT instabilities due to random telegraph noise (RTN) and to temperature variations, leading again to results in favor of the PWM approach. In light of these results, the present work suggests a viable solution to overcome some of the more serious reliability issues of NOR Flash-based artificial neural networks, paving the way to the implementation of highly-reliable, noise-resilient neuromorphic systems.

This paper presents a physics-based compact model able to describe the time dynamics of the erase operation in three-dimensional NAND Flash strings exploiting gate-induced drain leakage at the selector to increase the string potential. The model accurately reproduces all the main phases of the erase operation and allows to calculate the threshold voltage transient arising from hole injection into and electron emission from the gate stack of the memory cells, accounting for the correct cylindrical geometry of the string. Thanks to its simple structure, the model is suitable for parametric analyses aiming at optimizing the string structure and the operating waveforms from the standpoint of the erase performance.

Background: Child musculoskeletal (MSK) diseases are common and, even if often benign, sometimes can lead to significant impairment in the future health of children. Italian pre-participation evaluation (PPE), performed by a sports medicine physician, allows for the screening of a wide range of children every year. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the feasibility and the acceptability of pGALS (pediatric Gait, Arms, Legs and Spine) screening, a simple pediatric MSK screening examination, when performed as part of a routine PPE. Methods: Consecutive school-aged children attending a sports medicine screening program were assessed with the addition of pGALS to the routine clinical examination. Practicability (time taken) and patient acceptability (discomfort caused) were recorded. Results: 654 children (326 male, mean age 8.9 years) were evaluated through pGALS. The average time taken was 4.26 min (range 1.9–7.3 min). Acceptability of pGALS was deemed high: time taken was “adequate” (97% of parents) and caused little or no discomfort (94% of children). Abnormal MSK findings were common. Conclusions: pGALS is a practical and acceptable tool to perform in sports medicine PPE, even if performed by a non-expert in MSK medicine. Although common, abnormal MSK findings need to be interpreted in the global clinical context and assessment.

BackgroundPostzygotic activating PIK3CA variants cause several phenotypes within the PIK3CA-related overgrowth spectrum (PROS). Variant strength, mosaicism level, specific tissue involvement and overlapping disorders are responsible for disease heterogeneity. We explored these factors in 150 novel patients and in an expanded cohort of 1007 PIK3CA-mutated patients, analysing our new data with previous literature to give a comprehensive picture.MethodsWe performed ultradeep targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) on DNA from skin biopsy, buccal swab or blood using a panel including phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin pathway genes and GNAQ, GNA11, RASA1 and TEK. Additionally, 914 patients previously reported were systematically reviewed.Results93 of our 150 patients had PIK3CA pathogenetic variants. The merged PROS cohort showed that PIK3CA variants span thorough all gene domains, some were exclusively associated with specific PROS phenotypes: weakly activating variants were associated with central nervous system (CNS) involvement, and strongly activating variants with extra-CNS phenotypes. Among the 57 with a wild-type PIK3CA allele, 11 patients with overgrowth and vascular malformations overlapping PROS had variants in GNAQ, GNA11, RASA1 or TEK.ConclusionWe confirm that (1) molecular diagnostic yield increases when multiple tissues are tested and by enriching NGS panels with genes of overlapping ‘vascular’ phenotypes; (2) strongly activating PIK3CA variants are found in affected tissue, rarely in blood: conversely, weakly activating mutations more common in blood; (3) weakly activating variants correlate with CNS involvement, strong variants are more common in cases without; (4) patients with vascular malformations overlapping those of PROS can harbour variants in genes other than PIK3CA.