Hypoglossal canal: an osteological and morphometric study on a collection of dried skulls in an Italian population: clinical implications.

Background: The hypoglossal canal is a dual bone canal at the cranial base near the occipital condyles. The filaments of the hypoglossal nerve pass through the canal. It also transmits the meningeal branch of the ascending pharyngeal artery, the venous plexus and meningeal branches of the hypoglossal nerve.

Pacemakers, Implantable Defibrillators, and 5G Technology: What We Need to Know.

Pacemakers (PM) and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) are active implantable medical devices (AIMD) needed in case of cardiac arrhythmias. Given their potentially life-sustaining nature, the interaction between any source of electromagnetic field and these AIMDs is an ongoing concern of patients, industry, and regulators. According to the current regulatory framework, the required immunity of PM and ICD provides a reasonable unperturbed behavior in the presence of cell phones and base stations that use pre-5G technologies.

Implementing healthcare professionals' training during COVID-19: a pre and post-test design for simulation training.

Background: Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has imposed a new reality that presents several challenges for healthcare professionals. The main challenge has been the lack of proper training in relation to an unknown disease.

Objective: To investigate healthcare professionals' acquisition of knowledge of a new airway management protocol for COVID-19 through their participation in simulation training.

Clinically Differentiated Abnormalities of the Architecture and Expression of Myosin Isoforms of the Human Cremaster Muscle in Cryptorchidism and Retractile Testis.

Aim: To describe architecture and expression of myosin isoforms of the human cremaster muscle (CM) and to individuate changes in clinically differentiated abnormalities of testicular descent: cryptorchidism or undescended testis (UDT) and retractile testis (RT).

Background: The CM is a nonsomitic striated muscle differentiating from mesenchyme of the gubernaculum testis. Morphofunctional and molecular peculiarities linked to its unique embryological origin are not yet completely defined.

Immunising' physicians against availability bias in diagnostic reasoning: a randomised controlled experiment.

Background: Diagnostic errors have often been attributed to biases in physicians' reasoning. Interventions to 'immunise' physicians against bias have focused on improving reasoning processes and have largely failed.

Objective: To investigate the effect of increasing physicians' relevant knowledge on their susceptibility to availability bias.

Antibodies against specific extractable nuclear antigens (ENAs) as diagnostic and prognostic tools and inducers of a profibrotic phenotype in cultured human skin fibroblasts: are they functional?

Background: The importance of systemic sclerosis (SSc) autoantibodies for diagnosis has become recognized by their incorporation into the 2013 ACR/EULAR classification criteria. Clear prognostic and phenotypic associations with cutaneous subtype and internal organ involvement have been also described. However, little is known about the potential of autoantibodies to exert a direct pathogenic role in SSc.

Methylsulfonylmethane and mobilee prevent negative effect of IL-1β in human chondrocyte cultures via NF-κB signaling pathway.

Nutraceuticals are compounds that serve as nutrition with an easy accessibility and favourable safety profile. Recent studies showed their potential activity on osteoarthritis (OA) inflammation and cartilage metabolism. We investigated the effect of methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) and mobilee in human OA chondrocyte cultures exposed to interleukin (IL)-1β.

Inflammatory lung edema correlates with echocardiographic estimation of capillary wedge pressure in newly diagnosed septic patients.

Purpose: Lung ultrasound is an accurate and accessible tool to quantify lung edema. Furthermore, left ventricle filling pressures (LVFP) can be assessed with transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) by the E/e' ratio (E/e'). The present study aimed to assess the correlation between E/e' and lung edema quantified by a simplified lung ultrasound score (LUS) in newly admitted septic patients.

EXTRAPOLATION METHOD FOR MAXIMAL AND 24-H AVERAGE LTE TDD EXPOSURE ESTIMATION.

The Long-Term Evolution (LTE) system represents the evolution of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System technology. This technology introduces two duplex modes: Frequency Division Duplex and Time Division Duplex (TDD). Despite having experienced a limited expansion in the European countries since the debut of the LTE technology, a renewed commercial interest for LTE TDD technology has recently been shown.

Circulating levels of the angiogenesis mediators endoglin, HB-EGF, BMP-9 and FGF-2 in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock.

Purpose: Endothelial barrier dysfunction is a hallmark of sepsis, and is at least partially mediated by pathways that regulate endothelial barrier assembly during angiogenesis. Not surprisingly, increased levels of key angiogenic proteins such as VEGF-A and Angiopoietin-2 have been described in sepsis. The purpose of this study was to investigate if additional pathways that regulate endothelial barrier integrity during angiogenesis could also be involved in the host response of sepsis.

Histopathological findings in systemic sclerosis-related myopathy: fibrosis and microangiopathy with lack of cellular inflammation.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify specific histopathological features of skeletal muscle involvement in systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients.

Methods: A total of 35 out of 112 SSc-patients (32%, including 81% female and 68% diffuse scleroderma) presenting clinical, biological and electromyographic (EMG) features of muscle weakness, were included. Patients underwent vastus lateralis biopsy, assessed for individual pathologic features including fibrosis [type I collagen (Coll-I), transforming growth factor β (TGF-β)], microangiopathy [cluster of differentiation 31 (CD31), pro-angiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A), anti-angiogenic VEGF-A165b], immune/ inflammatory response [CD4, CD8, CD20, human leucocyte antigens ABC (HLA-ABC)], and membranolytic attack complex (MAC).

Cognitive Load and Self-Determination Theories Applied to E-Learning: Impact on Students' Participation and Academic Performance.

Background: Emergency clerkships expose students to a stressful environment that require multiple tasks, which may have a direct impact on cognitive load and motivation for learning. To address this challenge, Cognitive Load Theory and Self Determination Theory provided the conceptual frameworks to the development of a Moodle-based online Emergency Medicine course, inspired by real clinical cases.

Methods: Three consecutive classes (2013-2015) of sixth-year medical students (n = 304) participated in the course, during a curricular and essentially practical emergency rotation.

AN ALTERNATIVE CALIBRATION OF CR-39 DETECTORS FOR RADON DETECTION BEYOND THE SATURATION LIMIT.

Time-integrated measurements of indoor radon levels are commonly carried out using solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs), due to the numerous advantages offered by this radiation detection technique. However, the use of SSNTD also presents some problems that may affect the accuracy of the results. The effect of overlapping tracks often results in the underestimation of the detected track density, which leads to the reduction of the counting efficiency for increasing radon exposure.

Left Ventricle Tissue Doppler Imaging Predicts Disease Severity in Septic Patients Newly Admitted in an Emergency Unit.

Background: Assessment of sepsis severity is challenging. Available scoring systems require laboratory data. Therefore, a rapid tool would be useful.

Study of ageing and fading in CR-39 detectors for different storage conditions.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ageing and fading on PADC detector response, as a function of the storage time and temperature. Several groups of CR-39 detectors provided by Radosys, Ltd. were exposed at the reference radon chamber of the Istituto Nazionale di Metrologia delle Radiazioni Ionizzanti, at the ENEA centre in Casaccia.

A comparison of radon and its decay products' behaviour in indoor air.

The inhalation of short-lived radon decay products (RDP) yields the greatest contribution to the natural radiation exposure. This paper deals with a study carried out to improve the knowledge of the behaviour of RDPs, their interaction with particulates and the plateout during the time. The tests confirmed that a high aerosol particle concentration increases the probability that an ion sticks to aerosol and remains long in the air, leading to both an increase of F and a decrease of fp, as reported in the literature.

Is osteopontin involved in cutaneous fibroblast activation? Its hypothetical role in scleroderma pathogenesis.

Osteopontin (OPN) is an extracellular matrix protein implicated in bone remodeling, but it presents also pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic properties. OPN expression also occurs upon exposure of cells to classical mediators of acute inflammation such as tumor necrosis growth factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta), as well as fibrogenic cytokines such as transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta), although a detailed understanding of these regulatory pathways is still unknown. Plasma OPN levels in both limited and diffuse systemic sclerosis patients (lSSc and dSSc) were statistically higher compared to those of control subjects.

Long- and short-term indoor radon survey in the Ardea municipality, south Rome.

The indoor radon concentration was measured in 16 schools and 6 public departments in the Ardea municipality, using both active and passive detectors. The annual concentration of radon has been determined as the mean of two consecutive 6-month periods of sampling from January 2012 to January 2013. The indoor radon level measured in the monitored buildings ranged from 17 to 918 Bq·m(-3), with a mean value of 154 Bq·m(-3).

A simplified ultrasound-based edema score to assess lung injury and clinical severity in septic patients.

Background: Lung ultrasound (US) is an excellent tool to assess lung edema in a myriad of different clinical situations. We hypothesized that lung US might also be a good prognostic and management instrument in septic patients, regardless of disease severity.

Methods: This was a prospective observational cohort study at an urban academic emergency department (ED).

A method to account for track overlap in CR-39 detectors.

Solid-state nuclear track detectors are commonly used for the detection of indoor radon levels. However, despite numerous advantages, this technique still presents many unsolved problems. An important source of error is represented by the reduction in the detection efficiency due to overlapping tracks, which results in a sensible underestimation of the radon levels.

Macitentan slows down the dermal fibrotic process in systemic sclerosis: in vitro findings.

Systemic sclerosis (or scleroderma) is an autoimmune disease characterized by skin and internal organ fibrosis, caused by microvascular dysfunction. The microvascular damage seems to be a consequence of an endothelial autoimmune response, followed by activation of the inflammatory cascade and massive deposition of collagen. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) contributes to the inflammatory and fibrotic processes by increasing the concentration of pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic cytokines, and it is considered one of the most relevant mediators of vascular damage in scleroderma.

Human osteoarthritic chondrocytes exposed to extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF) and therapeutic application of musically modulated electromagnetic fields (TAMMEF) systems: a comparative study.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease, characterized by matrix degradation and changes in chondrocyte morphology and metabolism. Literature reported that electromagnetic fields (EMFs) can produce benefits in OA patients, even if EMFs mechanism of action is debated. Human osteoarthritic chondrocytes isolated from femoral heads were cultured in vitro in bidimensional (2-D) flasks and in three-dimensional (3-D) alginate beads to mimic closely cartilage environment in vivo.

Expression of RXFP1 in skin of scleroderma patients and control subjects.

Objectives: Relaxin (RLX) is involved in extracellular matrix and collagen remodelling. The therapeutic role of the circulating isoform RLX-2 as an anti-fibrotic factor in systemic sclerosis (SSc) has been investigated. Several RLX family peptide receptors (RXFPs) are recognized in humans: RLX-2 is a ligand for RXFP1/LGR7 and RXFP2/LGR8.

Search for signatures of extra dimensions in the diphoton mass spectrum at the large hadron collider.

A search for signatures of extra spatial dimensions in the diphoton invariant-mass spectrum has been performed with the CMS detector at the LHC. No excess of events above the standard model expectation is observed using a data sample collected in proton-proton collisions at √s=7 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.2 fb(-1).