Feasibility and Acceptability of a Real-Time Telerehabilitation Intervention for Children and Young Adults with Acquired Brain Injury During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Experience Report.

This study examined the feasibility and acceptability of a telerehabilitation intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of children and young adults with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). Thirteen patients and/or their families agreed to participate in the speech and neuropsychological telerehabilitation sessions. The treatment was synchronous, patient centered and aimed at improving specific abilities.

HIV, risk, and time preferences: Evidence from a general population sample in Lesotho.

Identifying individuals most at risk of HIV infection is a priority for policymakers. Apart from specific groups, however, little is known about how to identify those at high risk in the population. Research suggests that attitudes toward risk and time preferences may influence risky sexual behavior, but no studies have so far investigated the interplay between risk attitudes, time preference, and HIV infection.

Initial Diagnosis and Staging of Pancreatic Cancer Including Main Differentials.

Computed tomography (CT) remains the optimal imaging modality for both diagnosis and staging of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Especially, CT is highly accurate in assessing the relationship of the tumor to critical arterial and venous structures, since their involvement can preclude surgical resection or indicate a neoadjuvant strategy in borderline resectable or locally advanced lesions. MRI provides additional staging information in isodense tumors or regarding presence of small liver metastases not seen at CT.

CT diagnosis of closed loop bowel obstruction mechanism is not sufficient to indicate emergent surgery.

Purpose: To identify computed tomography (CT) findings associated with successful conservative treatment of closed loop small bowel obstruction (CL-SBO) due to adhesions or internal herniation.

Material And Methods: The local institutional review board approved this study while waiving informed consent. Clinical and CT data were collected retrospectively for 96 consecutive patients with a CT diagnosis of CL-SBO due to adhesions or internal herniation established by experienced radiologists who had no role in patient management.

Revised Atlanta classification for CT pancreatic and peripancreatic collections in the first month of acute pancreatitis: interobserver agreement.

Purpose: To assess interobserver agreement when using the revised Atlanta classification (RAC) to categorize pancreatic and peripancreatic collections during the first month of acute pancreatitis (AP), and to correlate type of collection to outcome.

Material And Methods: This retrospective study of 115 consecutive patients admitted for 123 AP episodes, 178 CTs performed within the first month showed peripancreatic abnormalities. Each AP episode was classified as mild, moderately severe, or severe based on the RAC.

Arundo donax L. can substitute traditional energy crops for more efficient, environmentally-friendly production of biogas: A Life Cycle Assessment approach.

Maize silage contributes to biogas production in Lombardy Region (400 anaerobic digestion plants) employing 47,000 Ha (Production Model - PM1). Reducing the area devoted to this energy crop is a goal to free soil for food production. Double cropping (PM2) and Arundo donax L.

Potential agronomic and environmental properties of thermophilic anaerobically digested municipal sewage sludge measured by an unsupervised and a supervised chemometric approach.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the most widely used method of sewage sludge treatment (SS) before its agricultural use. AD achieves the required "sterilisation" of pathogens and is able to cover the energy required by the process, reducing pre-treatment costs, thanks to the production of biogas. The SS agronomic (fertilizer properties), environmental (pollutants contents) characteristics and nuisance to people (odours and pathogens) need to be evaluated together for the safe and useful deployment of SS in agriculture.

Increased unenhanced bowel-wall attenuation: a specific sign of bowel necrosis in closed-loop small-bowel obstruction.

Objectives: To identify computed tomography (CT) findings associated with bowel necrosis in patients with surgically confirmed strangulating closed-loop small-bowel obstruction (CL-SBO) due to adhesions or internal hernia.

Methods: This retrospective study was approved by our institutional review board, and informed consent was waived. To identify CT signs of bowel necrosis, two gastrointestinal radiologists performed blinded, independent, retrospective reviews of 41 CT studies from consecutive patients who had CL-SBO due to adhesions or internal hernias and who underwent surgery within 48 h.

Acute Jejunoileal Diverticulitis: Multicenter Descriptive Study of 33 Patients.

Objective: Acute jejunoileal diverticulitis is a very rare and potentially serious disease affecting mostly elderly patients. The diagnosis is based on imaging but remains underrecognized. The purpose of this study is to describe the clinical and CT features and the outcomes of patients with acute jejunoileal diverticulitis.

[Salvage cryotherapy of prostate cancer after failed external radiotherapy and brachytherapy: Morbidity and mid-term oncological results].

Objective: To study the oncologic and functional results of salvage cryotherapy after failure of external radiotherapy and brachytherapy.

Materials And Methods: Patients treated by total salvage cryotherapy (3rd generation) in 2 centers (Groupe Hospitalier Saint-Joseph in Paris and Clinique Jule-Verne Nantes) in between January 2008 and April 2016 were included. The biochemical recurrence-free survival (BRFS) was calculated using the Phoenix criteria (PSA>nadir+2ng/mL).

Clinical Relevance of the Feces Sign in Small-Bowel Obstruction Due to Adhesions Depends on Its Location.

Objective: The objective of our study was to evaluate if the feces sign can be used to predict successful nonoperative treatment or progression to ischemia in patients with small-bowel obstruction (SBO) due to adhesions.

Materials And Methods: For this single-center retrospective observational study involving a blinded independent review by two radiologists of 237 consecutive CT examinations of 216 patients with SBO due to adhesions (age: mean, 70.9 years; median, 74 years; interquartile range, 62-84 years), the location of the transition zone (TZ), number of TZs, and presence and location of the feces sign relative to the TZ were recorded.

Feasibility of Protective Ventilation During Elective Supratentorial Neurosurgery: A Randomized, Crossover, Clinical Trial.

Background: Traditional ventilation approaches, providing high tidal volumes (Vt), produce excessive alveolar distention and lung injury. Protective ventilation, employing lower Vt and positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP), is an attractive alternative also for neuroanesthesia, when prolonged mechanical ventilation is needed. Nevertheless, protective ventilation during intracranial surgery may exert dangerous effects on intracranial pressure (ICP).

Evaluation of Relationships between Growth Rate, Tree Size, Lignocellulose Composition, and Enzymatic Saccharification in Interspecific Hybrids and Parental Taxa.

In order for a lignocellulosic bioenergy feedstock to be considered sustainable, it must possess a high rate of growth to supply biomass for conversion. Despite the desirability of a fast growth rate for industrial application, it is unclear what effect growth rate has on biomass composition or saccharification. We characterized Klason lignin, glucan, and xylan content with response to growth in interspecific F1 hybrid families (HF) and parental species and subspecies and measured the effects on enzymatic hydrolysis from hydrothermally pretreated biomass.

Giant cane (Arundo donax L.) can substitute traditional energy crops in producing energy by anaerobic digestion, reducing surface area and costs: A full-scale approach.

Arundo donax L. (Giant cane) was used in a full-scale anaerobic digester (AD) plant (power of 380kWhEE) in partial substitution for corn to produce biogas and electricity. Corn substitution was made on a biomethane potential (BMP) basis so that A.

Assessment of Bowel Wall Enhancement for the Diagnosis of Intestinal Ischemia in Patients with Small Bowel Obstruction: Value of Adding Unenhanced CT to Contrast-enhanced CT.

Purpose To determine whether adding unenhanced computed tomography (CT) to contrast material-enhanced CT improves the diagnostic performance of decreased bowel wall enhancement as a sign of ischemia complicating mechanical small bowel obstruction (SBO). Materials and Methods This retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board, which waived the requirement for informed consent. Two gastrointestinal radiologists independently performed retrospective assessments of 164 unenhanced and contrast-enhanced CT studies from 158 consecutive patients (mean age, 71.

Feasibility and Diagnostic Accuracy of Supersonic Shear-Wave Elastography for the Assessment of Liver Stiffness and Liver Fibrosis in Children: A Pilot Study of 96 Patients.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of using supersonic shear-wave elastography (SSWE) in children and normal values of liver stiffness with the use of control patients of different ages (from neonates to teenagers) and the diagnostic accuracy of supersonic shear wave elastography for assessing liver fibrosis by using the histologic scoring system as the reference method in patients with liver disease, with a special concern for early stages of fibrosis.

Materials And Methods: The institutional review board approved this prospective study. Informed consent was obtained from parents and children older than 7 years.

Mortality in Multicenter Critical Care Trials: An Analysis of Interventions With a Significant Effect.

Objectives: We aimed to identify all treatments that affect mortality in adult critically ill patients in multicenter randomized controlled trials. We also evaluated the methodological aspects of these studies, and we surveyed clinicians' opinion and usual practice for the selected interventions.

Data Sources: MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, and Embase were searched.

Arundo donax L.: a non-food crop for bioenergy and bio-compound production.

Arundo donax L., common name giant cane or giant reed, is a plant that grows spontaneously in different kinds of environments and that it is widespread in temperate and hot areas all over the world. Plant adaptability to different kinds of environment, soils and growing conditions, in combination with the high biomass production and the low input required for its cultivation, give to A.

Socioeconomic determinants of stigmatization and HIV testing in Lesotho.

HIV/AIDS stigmatizing attitudes and their consequences on preventative behaviors are among the most poorly understood aspects of the AIDS epidemic. This paper analyzes the socioeconomic determinants of discriminating attitudes toward people living with HIV and their implications on the likelihood of HIV testing. These effects are tested using the 2004 and 2009 Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in Lesotho, where HIV/AIDS is a pervasive problem.

Preoperative endogenous ouabain predicts acute kidney injury in cardiac surgery patients.

Objectives: Acute kidney injury is a frequent complication of cardiac surgery and increases morbidity and mortality. As preoperative biomarkers predicting the development of acute kidney injury are not available, we have tested the hypothesis that preoperative plasma levels of endogenous ouabain may function as this type of biomarker.

Rationale And Design: Endogenous ouabain is an adrenal stress hormone associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes.

Milrinone and mortality in adult cardiac surgery: a meta-analysis.

Objective: The authors conducted a review of randomized studies to show whether there are any increases or decreases in survival when using milrinone in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Design: A meta-analysis.

Setting: Hospitals.

Differentiation between cavernous hemangiomas and untreated malignant neoplasms of the liver with free-breathing diffusion-weighted MR imaging: comparison with T2-weighted fast spin-echo MR imaging.

Objective: To test interobserver variability of ADC measurements and compare the diagnostic performances of free-breathing diffusion-weighted (FBDW) with that of T2-weighted FSE (T2WFSE) MR imaging for differentiating between cavernous hemangiomas and untreated malignant hepatic neoplasms.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-five patients with cavernous hemangiomas and 35 with untreated hepatic malignant neoplasms had FBDW and T2WFSE MR imaging. Hepatic lesions were characterized with ADC measurement and visual evaluation.

Reducing mortality in cardiac surgery with levosimendan: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Objectives: The authors performed a meta-analysis to evaluate whether levosimendan is associated with improved survival in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Design: A meta-analysis.

Setting: Hospitals.