Platelet Count in Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Prognostic Factor in COVID-19.

COVID-19 patients may manifest thrombocytopenia and some of these patients succumb to infection due to coagulopathy. The aim of our study was to examine platelet count values in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, comparing them to a control group consisting of non-COVID-19 patients. Moreover, we evaluated the correlation between the platelet value and the respiratory alteration parameters and the outcome (hospitalization and mortality) in COVID-19 patients.

Role of Lung Ultrasound in the Management of Patients with Suspected SARS-CoV-2 Infection in the Emergency Department.

Background: The lung ultrasound (LUS) score has been proposed as an optimal scheme for the ultrasound study of patients with suspected/confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia. The aims of our study were to evaluate the use of lung ultrasound as a diagnostic tool for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, to examine the validity of the LUS score for the diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia, and to correlate this score with hospitalization rate and 30-day mortality. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 1460 patients who were referred to the General Emergency Department of the S.

Needle Insertion Difficulty Algorithm (NIDA): A novel pilot study to predict Huber needle insertion difficulty in totally implanted devices.

Safeguarding of venous assets in cancer patients provides for positioning vascular devices. In totally implanted central venous access devices, hereinafter referred as TIVADs, it's necessary introducing Huber needle, into subcutaneous port, to use it. This procedure is not easy for all implanted devices.

Dynamics of a Vortex Lattice in an Expanding Polariton Quantum Fluid.

If a quantum fluid is driven with enough angular momentum, at equilibrium the ground state of the system is given by a lattice of quantized vortices whose density is prescribed by the quantization of circulation. We report on the first experimental study of the Feynman-Onsager relation in a nonequilibrium polariton fluid, free to expand and rotate. Upon initially imprinting a lattice of vortices in the quantum fluid, we track the vortex core positions on picosecond timescales.

Enhancement of Parametric Effects in Polariton Waveguides Induced by Dipolar Interactions.

Exciton-polaritons are hybrid light-matter excitations arising from the nonperturbative coupling of a photonic mode and an excitonic resonance. Behaving as interacting photons, they show optical third-order nonlinearities providing effects such as optical parametric oscillation or amplification. It has been suggested that polariton-polariton interactions can be greatly enhanced by inducing aligned electric dipoles in their excitonic part.

Interoperator Reliability of Lung Ultrasound during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Aim:  Lung ultrasound (LUS) is a reliable, radiation-free, and bedside imaging technique used to assess several pulmonary diseases. Although COVID-19 is diagnosed with a nasopharyngeal swab, detection of pulmonary involvement is crucial for safe patient discharge. Computed tomography (CT) is currently the gold standard.

Lung ultrasound for the early diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia: an international multicenter study.

Purpose: To analyze the application of a lung ultrasound (LUS)-based diagnostic approach to patients suspected of COVID-19, combining the LUS likelihood of COVID-19 pneumonia with patient's symptoms and clinical history.

Methods: This is an international multicenter observational study in 20 US and European hospitals. Patients suspected of COVID-19 were tested with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) swab test and had an LUS examination.

Deep deltoid ligament injury is related to rotational instability of the ankle joint: a biomechanical study.

Purpose: In the athletic population, the prevalence of isolated syndesmotic lesions is high. To detect potential instability of the ankle is crucial to define those lesions in need of surgical management. The aim was to define how the extent of tibio-fibular syndesmotic ligament injury influences the overall stability of the ankle joint in a cadaver model.

Procalcitonin and MR-Proadrenomedullin Combination with SOFA and qSOFA Scores for Sepsis Diagnosis and Prognosis: A Diagnostic Algorithm.

Purpose: The third Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3) defined sepsis as an organ dysfunction consequent to infection. A Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score at least 2 identifies sepsis. In this study, procalcitonin (PCT) and midregional pro-adrenomedullin (MR-proADM) were evaluated along with SOFA and quick SOFA (qSOFA) scores in patients with sepsis or septic shock.

On the vortex dynamics in fractal Fourier turbulence.

Incompressible, homogeneous and isotropic turbulence is studied by solving the Navier-Stokes equations on a reduced set of Fourier modes, belonging to a fractal set of dimension D . By tuning the fractal dimension parameter, we study the dynamical effects of Fourier decimation on the vortex stretching mechanism and on the statistics of the velocity and the velocity gradient tensor. In particular, we show that as we move from D = 3 to D ∼ 2.

Turbulence on a Fractal Fourier Set.

A novel investigation of the nature of intermittency in incompressible, homogeneous, and isotropic turbulence is performed by a numerical study of the Navier-Stokes equations constrained on a fractal Fourier set. The robustness of the energy transfer and of the vortex stretching mechanisms is tested by changing the fractal dimension D from the original three dimensional case to a strongly decimated system with D=2.5, where only about 3% of the Fourier modes interact.

Dupuytren's disease therapy: targeting the vicious cycle of myofibroblasts?

Introduction: Dupuytren's disease (DD) is a proliferative fibromatosis of the hand, which causes permanent flexion contracture of the digits and, ultimately, loss of function. The treatment of DD is complex and involves surgical and nonsurgical approaches, with the goal of removing the affected tissue. New biological targets are under investigation in order to develop innovative therapies.

The role of hydrodynamic processes on anchovy eggs and larvae distribution in the sicily channel (mediterranean sea): a case study for the 2004 data set.

Knowledge of the link between ocean hydrodynamics and distribution of small pelagic fish species is fundamental for the sustainable management of fishery resources. Both commercial and scientific communities are indeed seeking to provide services that could "connect the dots" among in situ and remote observations, numerical ocean modelling, and fisheries. In the Mediterranean Sea and, in particular, in the Sicily Channel the reproductive strategy of the European Anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) is strongly influenced by the oceanographic patterns, which are often visible in sea surface temperature satellite data.

Is there a role for endothelial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of lumbar disc degeneration? A hypothesis that needs to be tested.

Low back pain is a painful condition affecting most people at least once in their life. It can be the expression of lumbar disc degeneration, a condition whose progression is influenced by environmental, individual and genetic factors. The pathogenesis of this condition implies the reduction of sustenance for the tissues within the intervertebral disc (ID) due to a decreased blood flow in the local microcirculation.

The safe zone for avoiding suprascapular nerve injury in bone block procedures for shoulder instability. A cadaveric study.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to identify the safe zone in which the surgeon can place the screws for fixation of the coracoid graft during the Latarjet procedure to avoid injuries of the suprascapular nerve with the shoulder in internal and external rotation.

Methods: The dissection on twelve fresh-frozen shoulders was performed according to a standard posterior approach to the gleno-humeral joint. The suprascapular nerve and its branches for the infraspinatus muscle were identified at the spinoglenoid notch region.

Sarcopenia and its relationship with osteoarthritis: risk factor or direct consequence?

Purpose: The aim of this review is to evaluate the clinical role of sarcopenia in patients affected by osteoarthritis (OA) of major joints.

Methods: An online database research was performed, in order to retrieve all articles investigating the relationship between sarcopenia and OA. No peer-reviewed journal was excluded.

Arteriovenous malformation (AVM) of the maxilla complicated by a local pathogen infection.

Arteriovenous malformations (AVM) are usually observed on the skin, but they can also rarely affect the visceral organs and the maxillofacial area. In the maxillofacial area, these lesions can spread and they are potentially dangerous, as a biopsy or even a simple tooth extraction can lead to a catastrophic haemorrhage that may eventually cause death. There are several indications for the treatment, including age, size and type of vascular malformation.

Breakup of small aggregates driven by turbulent hydrodynamical stress.

The breakup of small solid aggregates in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence is studied theoretically and by using direct numerical simulations at high Reynolds number, Reλ =/~ 400. We show that turbulent fluctuations of the hydrodynamic stress along the aggregate trajectory play a key role in determining the aggregate mass distribution function. The differences between turbulent and laminar flows are discussed.

Spondylodiscitis: standards of current treatment.

Background: Spinal infections are an important clinical problem that often require aggressive medical therapy, and sometimes even surgery. Known risk factors are advanced age, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, immunosuppression, alcoholism, long-term steroid use, concomitant infections, poly-trauma, malignant tumor, and previous surgery or invasive procedures (discography, chemonucleolysis, and surgical procedures involving or adjacent to the intervertebral disc space). The most common level of involvement is at the lumbar spine, followed by the thoracic, cervical and sacral levels: lesions at the thoracic spine tend to lead more frequently to neurological symptoms.

Clinical significance of different effects of static and pulsed electromagnetic fields on human osteoclast cultures.

Electromagnetic fields are known to affect the bone metabolism by modifying some relevant physiologic cell parameters of cells, even though the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of both static magnetic fields (SMFs) of the same intensity of the one generated by spinal metal devices and pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) of the same intensity used for the management of nonunion on human osteoclasts cell culture. Primary osteoclast cells were isolated from primary human osteoclast precursors and were exposed to SMFs and to PEMFs.

Universal intermittent properties of particle trajectories in highly turbulent flows.

We present a collection of eight data sets from state-of-the-art experiments and numerical simulations on turbulent velocity statistics along particle trajectories obtained in different flows with Reynolds numbers in the range R{lambda}in[120:740]. Lagrangian structure functions from all data sets are found to collapse onto each other on a wide range of time lags, pointing towards the existence of a universal behavior, within present statistical convergence, and calling for a unified theoretical description. Parisi-Frisch multifractal theory, suitably extended to the dissipative scales and to the Lagrangian domain, is found to capture the intermittency of velocity statistics over the whole three decades of temporal scales investigated here.

Heavy particle concentration in turbulence at dissipative and inertial scales.

Spatial distributions of heavy particles suspended in an incompressible isotropic and homogeneous turbulent flow are investigated by means of high resolution direct numerical simulations. In the dissipative range, it is shown that particles form fractal clusters with properties independent of the Reynolds number. Clustering is there optimal when the particle response time is of the order of the Kolmogorov time scale tau(eta).

Multifractal statistics of Lagrangian velocity and acceleration in turbulence.

The statistical properties of velocity and acceleration fields along the trajectories of fluid particles transported by a fully developed turbulent flow are investigated by means of high resolution direct numerical simulations. We present results for Lagrangian velocity structure functions, the acceleration probability density function, and the acceleration variance conditioned on the instantaneous velocity. These are compared with predictions of the multifractal formalism, and its merits and limitations are discussed.

Effects of forcing in three-dimensional turbulent flows.

We present the results of a numerical investigation of three-dimensional homogeneous and isotropic turbulence, stirred by a random forcing with a power-law spectrum, E(f)(k) approximately k(3-y). Numerical simulations are performed at different resolutions up to 512(3). We show that at varying the spectrum slope y, small-scale turbulent fluctuations change from a forcing independent to a forcing dominated statistics.